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In Thin Air, forms a musical companion piece to Robert and Jackie's book The Book of Birds - a book that is a love letter to the splendours and mysteries of birdlife, and a clarion call to halt the loss of birds from land, sea and sky. The music was created within the contemplative green oak roundhouse of Ty Sanctaidd (Sacred House) in the grounds of Ty Trefacwn in South West Wales, and recorded at Castle Sound Studio in Pencaitland, East Lothian. As with our other albums In Thin Airhas been recorded and produced by Andy Bell of Hudson Records. Throughout The Book of Birds there runs a gentle mantra - " Nest, Egg, Beak, Song, Feather, Flight, Migration -- these are the Seven Wonders that together conjure the miracle of Bird ". Intrigued by this concept, the seven musicians have created an intricate new album that has an overarching narrative, capturing the remarkable world of birds from birth to flight.

Love as Art, Love under the Patriarchy, Love as a political and radical act - in short 'The Fatal Flaw' examines Love from a deeper and philosophical perspective. Even the songs that aren't about Love, also are. They are about the absence of love, and what happens in those spaces, so they are songs about the necessity of love, and the consequences of its absences.

Super limited (1000 Global) Silver Die-Cut vinyl first pressing, shrinkwrapped with hand stamped 'cafe' napkin obscuring the cover. Please preorder asap.

On Cafe Paradiso, Mykki Blanco is completely reborn, trading the persona - driven theatrics of his previous releases for something more interior and exacting. The record draws from the diverse, banal and yet idiosyncratic contexts of the artist's life in transit.

"Chameleonic" is one way to describe the artist known as Mykki Blanco, who has played many roles through his storied career: a rapper, a poet, a magazine editor, an advocate. Perhaps "fearless" better describes him; with high profile collaborations from the likes of Charli XCX, Teyana Taylor, Basement Jaxx, Blood Orange, Big Freedia, Kelsey Lu, Michael Stipe, Arca and Anhoni, Mykki has been recognised as a pioneer of queer-centric hip-hop who resonates across musicians of many genres and generations.

This album is Mykki at their most direct - a coherent statement with collaborator FaltyDL and a massively listenable album for fans of LCD Soundsystem and New York Punk, packaged in striking 'Napkin covered' deluxe vinyl for a super-exclusive first run

So-Cal's Movements remain on a steady upward trajectory, their fourth album Happier Now builds on the tension-and-release sound they've perfected on their previous releases Once again produced by Grammy- winner Will Yip , Happier Now holds fast to Movements' dissonant grooves, while incorporating melodic flourishes in the mix as heard in "Dissolve Me" and the moody "Back in My Ways." With over 600M total global streams, Movements to remain faithful to the distinct sound their fans love. Available on CD and transparent violet vinyl editions.

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

A beautifully observed baroque masterpiece, part dream pop, part futuristic psych-folk with ambient synths and Josephine Foster’s plaintive guitar. Godmother is a slowly unfolding song cycle that marries a myriad of previous musical escapades with electronic experiments. Exploring new horizons on this record, it sees Foster at her most expressive and hypnotic. Now back home in the mountains of Colorado, Josephine’s 20-year journey to this new nirvana becomes enthralled further with a symphony of synths that sound like they are played in some neighbouring netherworld, through cotton gauze. It’s music that’s devotional, spiritual, a fitting soundtrack for any journey within or without, a means to experience places and vibrations beyond the boundary of time and space. Discussing the record, Josephine explains “You may notice me travelling a bit further sonically from our precious earth, aspiring to rise into broader astral perspective, to contemplate the light and origins of it all, as I do believe there is a grand source that is the sum of it all, us all. Performing all the parts on this recording, you may sense me focussing gestures of my singing into the instrumentation, which is a very great relief indeed, as the voice has such grand dreams to be set free.” “With her haunted, theatrical delivery, Foster cuts an arresting figure.” Pitchfork // “Out of time yet timeless” The Wire

Ecology Division is a new compilation from Bastard Jazz that brings together a network of producers and musicians working across jazz, soul, electronic, and beat-driven styles. Featuring artists from Brooklyn, Chicago, Montreal, London, Lisbon, Melbourne, and Ludhiana, the release highlights a core group of collaborators and peers connected to the label’s extended orbit. The project is presented with cohesive visual direction inspired by vintage field guides and naturalist illustration, with each track paired to a distinct animal. This framing positions Ecology Division as a curated snapshot of an active, evolving creative community rather than a traditional compilation.

The release features contributions from Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), Sholto & David Bardon, Danny Scott Lane, Rachel Kitchlew & DOUGH, Lapgan, Korovo, Birocratic, Kartik, Nick Marks, and Pimenta Caseira. Collectively, these artists have released music on respected independent labels including Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, Mr. Bongo, Melting Pot Music, WRWTFWW Records, and Moon Glyph, among others—underscoring the compilation’s reach across established global scenes.

Rasco are Eden Atiya on guitar and vocals, Gaya Wajsman on bass and vocals, and Itay Hamudi on drums. Named after Charlie Megira’s “At the Rasco”, the trio draw on the melodic language of sixties surf, garage rock and pop, alongside the heavier textures of shoegaze and psychedelia. Influenced by artists including The Cramps, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and April March, their music is defined by electric guitar lines, close vocal harmonies and direct, melodic songwriting. The contrast between urban life and the natural world remains central to their work, reflected in songs that move between raw rhythmic energy and more intimate, atmospheric arrangements. Following their debut album Dmaot, Rasco’s forthcoming second album develops this sound through a broader dynamic range, more spacious production and a more focused approach to songwriting, while retaining the warmth and immediacy at the core of the band.

DINTE present a cassette-only issue of an NTS radio broadcast from back in early 2019; a cross-continental trip through instrumental surf, short-run garage rock, and space-age psych oddities from across the globe, incl. groups from the US, UK, Peru, Angola, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, India & Singapore among others.

Mara TK, a golden voiced, Maori-Scottish world-wandering citizen of Aotearoa (New Zealand) announces his debut solo album 'Bad Meditation', released 7th May on Extra Soul Perception. Stepping out on his own, Mara TK is the former frontman of the acclaimed Kiwi future soul trio Electric Wire Hustle. Written and produced by Mara himself, 'Bad Meditation' is his 13 track opus, a deeply personal account of heritage, love, loss and healing.

An alumnus of Red Music Academy in Toronto, Mara TK's work beyond Electric Wire Hustle has seen him collaborate with critically lauded names including Om'Mas Keith of Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Detroit producer and J Dilla collaborator Waajeed, and Steve Spacek.

Extra Soul Perception is a collaboration and community music platform that started life between the UK, Kenya and Uganda but is now continuing to grow and connect independent musicians worldwide. Now with Mara TK added to the roster, Extra Soul Perception has released music by Lex Amor, K15, Maxwell Owin, Lynda Dawn, Hibotep, Karun, Labdi, Faizal Mostrixx and more.

*Nb: The solo version of 'Met At The River' is a digital exclusive only.

Across two song cycles separated by nearly four decades – Richard Wagner’s »Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme« (the »Wesendonck Lieder«) and Johannes Brahms’ late »Vier ernste Gesänge« (»Four Serious Songs«) – Wagner’s songs, written under the spell of his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck and already pointing towards »Tristan und Isolde«, and Brahms’ final composition, which gives the album its name and was shaped by grief, illness, and meditations on biblical texts, circle the same existential questions.

Desire and mortality, ecstasy and resignation appear less as opposites than as mirrored states. The voices of Wesendonck’s poetry seem to answer the solemn reflections of Ecclesiastes and Corinthians, revealing an unexpected dialogue across time.

Without seeking historical authenticity or revisionist spectacle, »Serious Songs« listens for what still resonates beneath these works: the suspended moment where love, loss, and transcendence become indistinguishable. The harp assumes the role of the piano as the foundation, pulse, and emotional compass. The vocal line, liberated from classical convention, inhabits a contemporary expressive space without severing its bond to the original scores. It is Romantic music viewed through the acoustics of the present. The project emerged from a moment of professional disillusionment familiar to many classically trained musicians. This led to a confrontation with some of classical music’s traditional flaws that became an invitation to reimagine it.

Sissi Rada approaches the spinal properties of the Romantic Lieder, fragile enough to transform and resilient enough to survive. Intimate, lucid, and quietly radical.

2026 Repress

Kerri Chandler begins a brand-new chapter with the launch of his self-titled label, Kerri Chandler, and its debut release; the Downtown EP Pt. 1.

The release includes four tracks reconnecting with the spirit of Kerri’s iconic Downtown Records era while offering something fresh for the next generation of listeners. 3 of the tracks come straight from that timeless catalogue and firm favourites among Kerri’s community, now beautifully presented on vinyl once again.

Part 1 also features one brand-new, exclusive track, giving fans something truly special: a glimpse of Kerri’s sound, and an invitation to join him on a journey through his remarkable catalogue. This release marks the start of an ongoing celebration of Kerri’s music, his evolution, and the sound that continues to inspire house music lovers around the world. Every detail, from the sleek new sleeve design to the thoughtful presentation, reflects Kerri’s care and respect for his music and the people who’ve supported it. It marks the beginning of something bigger; it’s a series of reworks, reissues, and rediscoveries that will guide listeners through the depth of Kerri’s catalogue and his lifelong love for house music. For long-time followers and new listeners alike, Downtown EP Pt. 1 captures everything Kerri Chandler represents, soulful, honest, and made with nothing but heart.

Limitierte hellgrüne Vinyl-Version! Death-Metal-Sensation mit dem ehemaligen NIHILIST-/ENTOMBED-Mitglied Nicke Andersson am Schlagzeug und an der Gitarre. Die Mitglieder von Death Breath spielen bzw. spielten in Metal-Bands wie Runemagick, Deathwitch, Nihilist, Entombed, Ruthless Mausoleum und Grinderbitch.

Carín León bricht mit „MUDA“ neue Wege – eine kühne, vielschichtige klangliche Entdeckungsreise, die sein Universum genreübergreifend erweitert und dabei stets in seiner unverwechselbaren DNA verwurzelt bleibt. Der aus Hermosillo stammende Künstler verwandelt Herzschmerz und Erlösung in Hymnen, während er sich neu erfindet und damit Jahre der Entwicklung sowie den Abschluss eines prägenden kreativen Kapitels markiert. Carín León steht an der Spitze einer neuen Welle des regionalen mexikanischen Musikstils und verbindet Tradition mit emotionaler Offenheit. Das 14 Titel umfassende Album „MUDA“ spiegelt ständigen Wandel wider, erkundet verschiedene Genres und beinhaltet Kollaborationen mit Rawayana und Juanes, wodurch er seine Wurzeln als furchtloses, genreübergreifendes Statement weiterentwickelt.

LOVE, das neue – und möglicherweise letzte – Album von Dexys Midnight Runners, ist eine leuchtende Sammlung zutiefst persönlicher Geschichten aus Kevin Rowlands Leben: über Familie, Liebe und die Schicksalsschläge des Daseins. Songs aus drei Jahrzehnten treffen auf brandneues Material – von der irischen Einwanderer-Kindheit über einen Brief an seine Enkelkinder bis zur Zeit mit einem sterbenden Elternteil. Liebeslieder im weitesten Sinne, jenseits gängiger Pop-Romantik: keine Wird-sie-wird-sie-nicht-Romanze, sondern etwas Tieferes, das die volle Bandbreite menschlicher Beziehungen und Emotionen abbildet.
„Ich dachte plötzlich: Das sind alles Liebeslieder – nur eben verschiedener Art", sagt Kevin Rowland über die Entstehung des Konzepts. „Da wusste ich: Es muss LOVE heißen." Ein Liebesleben in Songform, erzählt von jemandem, der mit seiner wunderbaren Autobiografie Bless Me Father bereits gezeigt hat, wie offen er über sein Leben sprechen kann.
LOVE ist zugleich das erste Album unter dem vollen Namen Dexys Midnight Runners seit Don't Stand Me Down (1985). Produziert von David Holmes – langjähriger Fan und Wegbegleiter der Band –, mit Songwriting-Unterstützung der langjährigen Weggefährten Sean Read, Mike Timothy und Jim Paterson sowie Streichern von Brian Irving.

Das britische Experimental-Rock-Kollektiv Abrasive Trees bündelt die eindringliche Kraft von Experimental-Rock, Post-Rock und düsterer Psychedelia zu einem fesselnden und emotionsgeladenen Klangerlebnis.
Unter der Leitung von Matthew Rochford (Silver Moth, Rothko) verwebt die Band hypnotische Stimmungen, gewaltige Crescendos, filmische Klangtexturen und überwältigende Dynamik zu Songs, die sich mit Verlust, Verwandlung und spirituellem Erwachen auseinandersetzen. Ihr Debütalbum „Light Remaining“ ist ein zutiefst bewegendes Werk, das zerbrechliche Schönheit mit überwältigender Intensität in Einklang bringt und so eine Reise schafft, die noch lange nach dem letzten Ton nachhallt.

Für Fans von: Swans, Slint, Crippled Black Phoenix, Gutter Twins

Die australischen Rockband Airbourne war noch nie dafür bekannt, klein zu denken. Auf ihrem
sechsten Studioalbum, der nach der Band selbst benannt ist, hat sie sich allerdings noch mal selbst übertroffen. Airbourne – ein Name, der zum Synonym für bombastischen, biergetränkten, gefährlichen und sexy Rock’n’Roll geworden ist. „Dieses Album vereint alles, wofür wir stehen, in einem einzigen Werk“, erklärt Ryan den Titel. „Es ist das beste Album, das wir überhaupt machen konnten.“

Zusammen mit dem starken Produktionsteam aus Brian Howes (der 2013 "Black Dog Barking" produziert hat) und dem Toningenieur Mike Fraser (der an „Breakin’ Outta Hell“ von 2016 und „No Guts. No Glory.“ von 2010 mitgearbeitet hat), machte sich die Band im Music Farm Studio im „Dschungel“ außerhalb von Byron Bay an die Arbeit. Der Komplex verfügt über das originale Neve-Mischpult aus den Alberts Studios, auf dem Bands wie AC/DC, Rose Tattoo und The Angels ihre wegweisenden frühen Alben aufgenommen haben.

Das Ganze präsentiert sich in einem sorgfältig gestalteten Paket, gemischt von Zakk Cervini (BMTH, Architects), das die Leidenschaft, das Feuer und die schweißgetränkte Gefahr einer Band auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer Kräfte einfängt, komplett mit Schlagzeug, das wie Kanonen knallt, und Gitarren, die wie Kreissägen schneiden.

„Alive After Death“ und „Send Me To Rock’N’Roll Heaven“ sind eine Hommage an die verstorbenen Idole der Band; letzterer Titel bezieht sich auf Lemmy, Doc Neeson von The Angels, John Bonham, Bon Scott, Little Richard und weitere. Joel schrieb den Text zum mitreißenden „Alive After Death“ eines Abends im Tourbus, als er darüber nachdachte, wie die Musik dieser Legenden sie unsterblich macht. An anderer Stelle gibt es Geschichten von unterwegs („Bogota“), Songs über Trotz und Nicht-Aufgeben („Last Man Standing“, „Hell’s Got No Vacancy“, „Gutsy“) und noch mehr Sex („Sky High“). Jetzt müssen Airbourne nur noch auf die Bühne zurückkehren, in der Gewissheit, dass sie ihr bestes Album aller Zeiten mitbringen.

raum…musik welcomes Jaffa Surfa back for its 121st release with ‘Tribal Diesel EP’, a four-tracker moving through progressive techno, industrial-tinged minimal, house and broken beat. Rather than treating these as fixed genres, Surfa reshapes them into something uncanny and unmistakably tribal, while keeping the groove firmly at the centre.

That approach is clearest on the A-side. “Diggers Diesel” has a ritual pull and, as the EP’s title suggests, finds Jaffa Surfa at his most tribal. Processed drums and splintered voices gradually lock into a hook while murky synths shift beneath them. “Lidl Sin” takes a leaner, slightly industrial but definitely understated route. Its reduced arrangement leaves enough room for each detail to register, with drums, synth stabs and sequenced lines appearing to exist in a state of constant mutation. On the b-side, “NGLZ” is the EP’s most direct house cut, driven by heavy low end, syncopated rhythms and flashes of phased samples. Breakbeat accents and old-school vocal fragments nod towards US house, though the track’s restless movement keeps it from settling into anything conventional. “Upstarz Galeri” closes on a wider screen, carrying traces of krautrock and decades-old sci-fi and cyberpunk soundtracks without ever feeling nostalgic. Airy and expansive, it pairs breakbeats and growling basslines with densely layered samples, giving its machine funk an unexpectedly emotional charge.

'Tribal Diesel EP' never overstates the contrast between its parts. Jaffa Surfa holds everything together through texture, rhythm and an almost cybernetic atmosphere. It is clearly built for the club, but carries enough personality and ambiguity to reward closer listening.

For 13 years of porn, fun and games, Berlin-based event series and label Pornceptual presents a nine-track VA on double vinyl, bringing together artists from across the international queer scene. Each contribution leaves a distinct and uncompromising fingerprint in the grooves. This marks the third release in the PRNCPTL VA series. This is music made for the dancefloor, for the dolls, for the lovers, for the freaks and the queens.

Kid Drama presents 'Machines and Other Things', his first full-length album for Metalheadz and a project shaped by instinct from a producer three decades deep into his craft.

Initially conceived through the lens of the classic Headz sound, the album only found its true identity once Kid Drama stopped looking backwards and allowed his own Autonomic influences to take hold. Slowing the tempo and focusing on groove rather than function, he built a body of work unconcerned with club trends, instead prioritising atmosphere, texture and progression.

Written sequentially rather than assembled from a large pool of tracks, 'Machines and Other Things' captures a distinct moment in time. Across the album, layers of tape saturation, analogue processing, noise and environmental detail sit alongside melancholic melodies and intricate rhythms, creating a sound that feels tactile and deeply immersive.

Also featuring collaborations with Goldie, dBridge, Loxy and LaMeduza, 'Machines and Other Things' finds Kid Drama drawing on the past without being defined by it, delivering a body of work that feels unmistakably his own.

Shoal corrals three original solo productions into ISOTOOP’s fourth record, each demonstrating refinement of the artist’s sound and technique, finished by a fitting retelling of ‘Interlocking’ by Antony Linell.

It begins with helical hypnotism; ‘Strange Blue Knots’ drives directly forward on muscular bass, but pointillistic synthwork creates an aural illusion of a spiral aperture tightening; the landscape remains broad, but focus is drawn down to the loci of motion. All containment is blown away by the incomparable force of ‘Roxellana’. Here, the forward motion is not illusory but the irrefutable command of hurricane tailwinds. Thunder heralds full-band waves of unbridled sound, and though the rudder is surrendered to the billowing storm, no part of the weapon is directionless chaos.

Shoal’s tale concludes with ‘Interlocking’, a step back from the monstrous energy of the preceding track (anything and all would be); attention is built again on guile and quiet magnetism, commonly felt attributes throughout the artist’s repertoire. This concept of restraint as force receives a sharpening by Antony Linell, whose sonic influence is present throughout the record, like fossilised footprints. In the calm, sheltered lee of the mountain, the slope behind the wave’s punching crest, Linell’s calmer, stripped-back version feels like a fireside retelling of a myth; still full of the magnitude of the original events, the space surrounding the action is foregrounded. 

Every tale may be reduced to the same core elements: the hand; the knife it holds; vivid silence presaging the moment of action. Fitting that the tale of three parts is summarised by a fourth, wider perspective.

After making waves in the underground with their first release, psychedelic techno explorations from Winkles, A Sky Full Of Numbers head to the shoreline with a five tracker of misty electronica from Japan’s The Rituals, the new collaboration between Tasoko and DOLTZ. Across acclaimed releases on Explore, Bitta, and Delsin, the duo have separately explored deep techno, ambient, acid house and IDM, showcasing innovative sound design and spacious, understated grooves. For AFSON, the duo apply their unique point of view at a lower tempo, pulling away from the peak time to deliver a shadowy journey through dewy electronics.
Opening transmission 503M feels like tuning into a damaged frequency somewhere beyond the cloud line. Misty lead synths slither through blown circuitry while buzzing sequences and short-circuiting percussion crackle against purring bass pressure below.
There’s an eerie electricity in the atmosphere, as if the track’s been exposed to too much heat and left glowing softly in the dark. From the opening bars, The Rituals instantly establish their ability to make techno feel both mechanical and hallucinatory.
Ugan sees the duo descend deeper into the haze. Reverb-drenched synth motifs hover like distant lights through thick fog while a propulsive dub bassline locks into loose electro-funk rhythms beneath. There are echoes of hauntological electronics and early IDM experiments here, but The Rituals avoid nostalgia entirely, steering the track instead towards something crepuscular and alive.
Stepping out of the shadows, Broken Frog Lamp pushes forward on a rolling rhythmic framework as melodies slowly force their way through layers of sea mist and static interference. Atmospheric without losing momentum, the track balances submerged emotional weight with hypnotic forward motion.
The mood softens but never dissipates on Salty Air, a damp and dewy excursion into dubbed-out psychedelia. Rainfall ambience, skittering stone percussion and swelling pads fold around sliding sub bass and filtered stabs, while jazzy cymbals and syncopated hats gently pull the track forward, as the condensation clings to the hardware.
Closing cut “Night, Castle, Reflection” drifts into darker territories, where redlining drums and pulsing low-end pressure throb beneath thick layers of saturated texture. Woozy synth work smears against tightly controlled rhythms, creating an immersive and slightly uneasy atmosphere that closes the EP at its most introspective point.
Taken as a whole, the EP transports you into the midnight hour, when the comforting embrace of stillness can easily nudge you towards hallucination, dissolving the boundaries between dream state and dancefloor hypnosis.

Italian-Iranian DJ/producer Sciahri lays down a deeply hypnotic seven- track EP on return to Mutual Rytm. Heading up the agenda-setting Sublunar label, which is one of Mutual Rytm boss SHDW's personal favourites, Sciahri has been deep in the scene for more than a decade ever since he turned heads with a debut on Ilian Tape in 2014. Well respected for his carefully balanced love of the classic sound with new school influences, always delivering cuts with a refined and personal touch, highlighted and showcased via his widely-loved ‘Pareidolia’ release series. Returning on the label following his appearance on the ‘Federation of Rytm IV’ compilation, he lands with a freshly evolved EP that kicks off with the much hyped ID, ‘Moonwake’. That cut is built on robust, rumbling drums and layered up with flashy synths that bring stark futurism to the dance floor. ‘Liminal’ follows a similar linear path with musical drums and synths that twist and twitch, firing your synapses while your body is locked to the rhythm, before ‘Night Sentinel’ transports you to a more eerie world of anxiousness and tension - the synths are spooky, and the sonar pulses keep you on edge as immersive drums race nonstop. ‘Unmoved’ lands heavy, the bulky kick drums coming on like a storm with howling synth winds adding to the all-consuming atmosphere. ‘Too Much Time’ closes out with a wall-rattling groove and subtle synth motifs that creep in the shadows. As always with the label, digital cuts ‘Silent Frontier’ - which gets dancers on their toes with a backlit synth glow - and ‘Louisiana’ - which brings a more psychedelic energy and hard, hammering groove, rounding out a stylish, meticulously produced offering.

LP includes double-sided print insert. Thorn Wych makes instruments from tree branches; bowed strings, flutes and percussion that she runs through a chain of loopers, pitch bending glitches and delay pedals. Strange songs sung in tongues, mashed up chewed and spat out. As the adder weaves her way through the dirt and mycelium hum, we play in the mud and converse with insects. 'Aesthesis' is Thorn Wych's debut LP that she recorded and mixed herself at home, often performing long improvised pieces, then later editing them down, cutting and pasting and overlaying other instruments. This album takes inspiration from such works as 'The Secret Book of John', the 1940 film 'The Thief of Bagdad', and Lata Mangeshkar's 'Meera Bhajans'. She dedicates her work to the Divine Mother Asherah, Holy Spirit, Guardian of the Tree of Life.

"Northern Electronics presents ’The Vanity Project’, the new LP by Vanity Productions.
Like a fractured reflection, images appear distorted and incomplete. A series of fragments revealing influences, methods, and decisions where life and work remain inseparable. Moving through the residual noise of contemporary media space, Christian Stadsgaard draws from social media remnants, dark web transmissions, and untreated human sound.
These elements are processed through noise electronics and tape manipulation, collapsing source and signal. ’The Vanity Project’ is constructed as a dense, uneven surface. A collage of found sound, environmental interference, and emotional residue. The result carries Vanity Productions’ characteristic melancholy, Nordic restraint, and accumulated debt, forming a quiet but insistent tale of romance and reflection from the source.”
Album credits:
All music recorded by Christian Stadsgaard in Copenhagen, Denmark 2025
Mixed by Christian Stadsgaard and Malthe Fischer
Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at EnissLab, Rome
Photos by Christian Stadsgaard
Collage by Anthony Linell
Sound contributions by Shredded Nerve, Jackson-Pratt, Ashley C, Hannes Norrvide, Malthe Fischer, Daniel Svanberg Bøtcher, Vagn Olsson, Yuri Umemoto, Lise Westzynthius, Qiuyao Ning, Peter Peter, Government Alpha and Merzbow – A big thank you to everyone involved.
“The Vanity Project” was kindly supported by KODA kultur, Copenhagen.

Acid Pauli returns to the curious world of Gwar Is Not The Answer (originally released 2006 on Smaul) with a carefully remastered re-release that includes two new remixes from Jonathan Kaspar and Acid Pauli. The title track unfolds at an unhurried pace, weaving loose acid traces through warm percussion and off-centre melodic fragments that seem to appear and dissolve before settling into place. It drifts forward with a quiet sense of momentum, balancing eccentric textures with a groove that remains firmly grounded throughout. With his new remix Jonathan Kaspar takes the original into leaner territory, sharpening its contours and drawing out its tension while preserving the peculiar character at its core. His remix stretches the track into a more focused club framework where rolling low-end pressure meets finely tuned rhythmic movement, allowing small details to carry unexpected weight. On the flip Acid Pauli revisits the track from a different angle. The remix opens up the source material into a spacious and fluid arrangement where shimmering tones circle around a deep pulse and subtle harmonic shifts gradually reveal themselves over time. Together the three versions explore different dimensions of the same musical language, moving between psychedelic house, understated dancefloor functionality and the kind of idiosyncratic storytelling that has long defined Acid Pauli's work.

The 1993 split point between pop punk and emo is no better illustrated than by
Garden Variety’s self-titled debut. While Billy and Bivouac flirted with the mainstream, this Long Island trio proposed at the post-hardcore prom. Muscular octave guitar chug with a side of late night zine work at the local diner. Backbeat heartbreak, hold the FX. Thank Charles Maggio for your favorite record next time you see him at the Paramus mall.

The 1993 split point between pop punk and emo is no better illustrated than by
Garden Variety’s self-titled debut. While Billy and Bivouac flirted with the mainstream, this Long Island trio proposed at the post-hardcore prom. Muscular octave guitar chug with a side of late night zine work at the local diner. Backbeat heartbreak, hold the FX. Thank Charles Maggio for your favorite record next time you see him at the Paramus mall.

The most beautiful thing we’ve ever released?

It is virtually impossible to describe with mere words how emotionally powerful this work of art is. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen...

A blissed-out 80-minute epic, Hatchback's Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon is his magnum opus, a sprawling masterwork that encompasses ambient, new age and environmental music to wondrous effect. Moving, hypnotic and deeply meditative, it's FFO Mike Brooks, Deuter, Klaus Weiss, Innovative Communication, Harmonia, Cluster, Ashra's New Age of Earth, Stomu Yamashta, Haruka Nakamura, Yoshimura, Hosono, the works.

A record truly deserving of the deluxe Be With treatment, the vinyl was specially cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the original stunning artwork has been pleasingly expanded. Now, an eye-catching holographic-foil layer moon is set against the original tones, wrapped up in a sumptuous double-gatefold jacket.

Soaked in Californian consciousness and limited to a run of just 500 copies for the world, this release is a treasured balm like no other for these troubled times.

Hatchback is the atmospheric, melodious ambient alias of California-based artist Samuel Milton Grawe. Sam creates music that sings of the Cosmos, full of deep resonant tones, glistening arpeggios, lush pads and harmonic motifs.

"When I first was getting into the creative side of music making in my teens, I was heavily influenced by concept albums like Quadrophenia and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, as well as epic pieces that took up an entire side of a record: Pink Floyd’s Echoes, Yes’ Close To The Edge, Klaus Schulze’s Nowhere Now Here, Miles Davis' Shhh/Peaceful and He Loved Him Madly. In the extreme, these ideas coalesced in double albums where each side of each record is occupied by a single title - Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans and Tangerine Dream’s Zeit being primary examples. When I returned to making music after moving back to Northern California in 2020, the first piece I recorded landed around the 20-minute mark, and the idea of creating three other long pieces to realize a full album felt like a natural - if indulgent - goal. From there, each new piece followed sequentially. Four songs. My fourth album." - Sam Grawe

Phaser For The Ocean Chorus For The Moon is a pure expression, informed by a lifetime of deep listening unbound by algorithms or AI. These are songs for the sunrise and the sunset - and every colour in between.

2026 Repress

Rhythm by Nature is back with Somefink Old, Somefink New, a three-tracker from seasoned producer Grant Dell that bridges past and present: sketches first laid down in the mid-2000s rediscovered and reworked alongside a brand-new cut, forming a dialogue between memory and renewal.

The EP opens with Feel Me?, a deep tech construction driven by a heavy low-end, its groove unfolding patiently while flashes of disco glimmer through the framework. On Light of Day, Dell shifts into full deep house territory — spacey pads and floating strings suspended across open structures until acidic stabs break through, twisting the track into brighter, playful directions. Closing with Death Disco in Dub, Dell channels the hallmarks of his Tribalation project: dub-infused atmospherics, light percussion and echo-drenched fragments circling around a hypnotic core, equally suited to open or dissolve a night.

With Somefink Old, Somefink New, Rhythm by Nature traces the arc of an artist deeply embedded in the underground, reuniting past forms with present gestures in a release that reaffirms the label’s consistency in quality and commitment to timeless club music.

2026 Repress

Desert planet house from inner spaces - the mountain people‘s premiere full EP outside their own imprint. Featuring sand shattering subbasses alongside vintage stabs, wobbling chords and otherworldly chanting. Something you will not dig up easily from your discogs collection and which will further enchant the children of the light.
Play or face the Gom Jabbar.

"The electroclash genre sure has been having a bit of a renaissance moment. During its first coming an odd 25 years ago the French act Sweetlight was a favorite over here. Originally active between 2002 and 2010, they quickly positioned themselves within a refined strand of the global underground scene: inspired by 90s acid house club culture, they rose to prominence by releasing a sparse selection of original tracks and a multitude of remixes that were both dancefloor-effective and immediately recognizable. After the EPs stopped coming, the project seemed to have faded. But their tracks never left our bag: they combined minimalism with ambiguous elegance and retained a distinct, timeless quality, easily transcending the turn-of-the-century style they were most closely associated with. We are delighted, in what we consider nothing less than a full-circle moment, to release "Selected Recordings: 2004 - 2006" and shed light on an underrated yet, in our eyes, absolutely essential project. ALT022 is an anthology release featuring four extensive, remastered cuts. Abusator, arguably the act's hallmark track and a crossover hit, kicks off the EP. It is joined by Mecaniques Remontees, which opened the milestone Suck My Deck mix by Ivan Smagghe, and Too Shy, both initially part of the same EP back in 2004. Noir Comme Le Beat, an unreleased curiosity from the same era, closes the record. You will find dark, endless, ever-modulating arpeggiator basses, Detroit-via-Paris chord progressions, and spartan drums. The work is, in the artists' own words, low-profile, detail-oriented, and built for late hours. It's an ideal compilation or - depending on the case - introduction, especially now that new work is rumored to be finally on its way."

You have to imagine that American ambient obsessive zake never actually steps away from his machines, let alone turns them off. He is one of the most prolific artists in any genre, and his Past Inside The Present label is where it all gets served up. Next up is a lovingly assembled picture disc with fitting artwork that represents the sounds inside: sorrowful but charming drones, long-held chords that pass at glacial speed like clouds on a windless day. There is just one piece per side, and both are signature meditations and mindfulness exercises that leave you feeling completely at peace with the world, no matter what was going on before you hit play.

“Ruins are the style of our future cities, future cities are themselves ruins.” - Izosaki Arata

A note from Lawrence English: Nostalgia is not an ideology, though in this moment, we could be mistaken for thinking it might be just that. Over the past years, the idea of nostalgia has been filtered through various political and technological lenses and has become a tool used for forgetting, rather than remembering. Instead of embracing histories’ complexities and inconsistencies, this version of nostalgia seeks only singular recollection. This contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia has become a methodology at best, and a weapon at worst, used to erode the past and project forward a collapsed and unimaginably sanitised version of things, places, and ways of being from former times. It’s this projection that sees it playing a mounting role in a social pathology associated with reducing the imagined possibilities of future.

The Rest Is My Ghost is a record that interrogates the manifestations of this reductive futuring and celebrates those that have tried (and failed), and those who continue to push back against decayed and revisionist positions. It’s a record that considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures.

In recent times, I’ve proposed a term for this weaponised use of nostalgia, something I have called Acid Nostalgia. I offer it as a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times. It is, in part, a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail.

Acid Nostalgia describes an increasingly common political projection of nostalgia that exists without any subjective connection to the memory surrounding and contained within it. Like acid poured onto a surface, this use of nostalgia seeks to erodes and smooth out the complexity and texture of lived connection and longing, which has until recently guided contemplations of nostalgia. Acid Nostalgia instead erases the texture of histories and de-contours the past, and in doing so dematerialises the horizon of possibility, which by its very nature marks the beginning point for any (and all) imaginable futures. Acid Nostalgia is a dreamless screen, where uncertainty, restlessness and aspiration are subjected to corrosion, breaking down and neutralising the wellspring of futures which are birthed from within the ambiguously charged, complex and at times chaotic atmospheres of the present.

The Rest Is My Ghost is not however some universal reading of these things and happenings. Rather it draws its breath from a very personal pathway carved through my own fraught experiences of nostalgia and framed through a disparate collage of chance encounters, situations, places and provocations. It takes oblique notes from civic and architectural references such as Japan’s Metabolist movement, Hong Kong’s ‘one line sky’ and Los Angeles’s vanished Sodium Vapour lights. It interpolates texts – factual and fictional – by authors such as Franco Berardi, Kate Crawford, JG Ballard, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mark Fisher and Alexei Yurchak who have each so wonderfully sought to rupture the familiarity of now, and push us towards other ways of imaging ourselves, our surroundings and our very ways of being in this world.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Adam Curtis in helping launch what has become this edition. It was his provocation, in a conversation we shared about an overwhelming and profound sense of uncertainty around being able to predict the immediate future and how to respond to that, which sparked the earliest inklings of this edition.

The Rest Is My Ghost is ultimately a record about the promise of constructions and connections to come, material, social and political. It's a record that accepts the fragility of failure as a source of ultimate potential, and a position from which the deepest freedom of imagination might be sought and summoned forth to conjure even the most unimaginable, (but) possible futures.

»Ampersand Curve« initiates a brilliant new phase of work by North Manchester’s most elusive artist, best known as Michael J. Blood. His string of ruffkut club bangers, as well as jams with Rat Heart & Samizdat over the past seven years, have made his records a true cult property, and now find him signed to one of the UK’s most foundational techno imprints – more of which later this year.

But under the Sees aegis, he swims in very different waters, following his instincts to use the studio-as-instrument to produce his most impressive, deep-minded work, made from – and for – the heart. Where MJB was all about off-the-cuff club jams cooked for immediacy, his new stylistic switch reveals myriad worlds of influence swirling under the hood, where interrelated spheres of spiritual jazz, dub, ambient, and concrète more clearly light up his rich inner world.

As the story goes, MJB was burgled a few years back and lost most of his studio just as the project was hitting its stride. It prompted a personal review of his practice, re-learning new kit, allowing him to bend the rules. Adopting a sort of first-thought, best-thought approach to composition, the new methodology fuelled a renewed imagination in flux, or what he identifies as Sees: a personalised way of conveying complex emotions. That undoing of musical and mental conditioning opens the walls of his music to vast new horizons. Opener »Ithaca« fathoms sonorous midnight jazz with 10 mins of a plangent, searching sax solo in HD widescreen, like some alternate version to the Blade Runner Love Theme, while a resonant vocoder soliloquy, »Unseem«, reaches into space harmonised between Alvin Lucier and Ron Trent, and »Sheer« chases the devil out of labyrinthine dub dimensions.

The floating dream architecture of »Caprices« caps the LP’s underlying narrative and painterly qualities with a romantic conclusion of blushing pads and shivered, metallic echoes of the subtropical that suggest a coming-to-terms with worries, refreshed and good to go again.

Noch bevor Brian Eno dies tat, schuf Mort Garson zurückhaltende Musik. Garson, der an der Juilliard School ausgebildet wurde und in der Nachkriegszeit als Session-Musiker tätig war, komponierte Lounge-Hits, schrieb die Musik zur Mondlandung von 1969 und schuf opulente Arrangements für Doris Day sowie die sehnsuchtsvollen ,Countrypolitan"-Streicherbegleitungen für Glen Campbells ,By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Mitte der 1970er Jahre fegte eine Naturgewalt über die kontinentalen Vereinigten Staaten hinweg, die alle Schichten unabhängig von Rasse und Klasse durchdrang und sich in unseren Köpfen, unseren Häusern und unserer Kultur festsetzte. Es war weder ,Der Exorzist", noch ,Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" oder gar Schlaghosen, sondern ein Buch mit dem Titel ,Das geheime Leben der Pflanzen". Das Werk des Okkultisten/ ehemaligen OSS-Agenten Peter Tompkins und des ehemaligen CIA-Agenten und begeisterten Wünschelrutengängers Christopher Bird schoss an die Spitze der Bestsellerlisten und breitete sich wie Kudzu über das Land aus, bis es zu einem Phänomen wurde. Scheinbar über Nacht blühte das Geschäft mit Zimmerpflanzen in voller Pracht auf, und photosynthetische Eukaryoten aller Gattungen hingen an den Wänden, thronten über Bücherregalen und sonnten sich auf sonnigen Fensterbänken. Die wissenschaftlichen Ansätze hinter ,Secret Life" waren fadenscheinig: Pflanzen können unsere Gebete hören, sie sind Lügendetektoren, sie sind telepathisch, in der Lage, Naturkatastrophen vorherzusagen und Signale aus entfernten Galaxien zu empfangen. Doch das hielt Millionen Menschen nicht davon ab, ihre neuen Pflanzen zu kaufen und zu pflegen. Die vielleicht verrückteste Behauptung des Buches war, dass Pflanzen auch Musik mögen. Und ganz gleich, ob Sie eine Schlangenpflanze, einen Spargelfarn, eine Friedenslilie oder was auch immer bei ,Mother Earth" auf der Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles erwarben (oder eine Simmons- Matratze bei Sears kauften) - Sie nahmen auch ,Plantasia" mit nach Hause, ein Album, das speziell für sie aufgenommen wurde. Mit dem Untertitel ,Warm Earth Music für Pflanzen _ und die Menschen , die sie lieben" war es voller idyllischer, charmanter, kiff-freundlicher und entschieden unwissenschaftlicher Melodien, die auf einem neumodischen Gerät namens Moog eingespielt wurden. Das Album erlangte Jahrzehnte nach seiner Veröffentlichung eine enorme Kult-Anhängerschaft. Die Neuauflage von Sacred Bones aus dem Jahr 2019 trug dazu bei, ,Plantasia" einem breiteren weltweiten Publikum bekannt zu machen, und bescherte Garsons ungewöhnlichem Meisterwerk ein bemerkenswertes zweites Leben. Was einst ein seltsames Relikt der Pflanzenbegeisterung der 1970er Jahre war, ist zu einem geliebten Evergreen geworden, der von einer neuen Generation von Hörern wiederentdeckt und neu geschätzt wird und weit über seinen ursprünglichen Moment hinaus gedeiht, wobei er sich von einer obskuren Kuriosität zu einem geliebten Kultklassiker und einem Meilenstein des Streaming-Zeitalters entwickelt hat. Nun, 50 Jahre nach seiner ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung, markiert ,Plantasia" von Mother Earth einen bedeutenden Jubiläumszeitpunkt. Ein halbes Jahrhundert später hallt es weiterhin nach - eine bleibende Erinnerung an Mort Garsons Fähigkeit, das Synthetische seltsam lebendig und das Skurrile auf merkwürdige Weise tiefgründig wirken zu lassen.