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Teen of Denial: Joe’s Story is a freshly reimagined take on Car Seat Headrest’s beloved breakout, Teens of Denial, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.
On the original album, Toledo often used the name “Joe” as a pseudonym – a sly homage to Daniel Johnston. Revisiting Teens in the run-up to its 10th birthday, he felt called to give Joe a unique backstory and began tweaking the album to tell that tale. The group returned to the studio with Teens producer Steve Fisk to update accordingly – tweaking lyrics, revising arrangements, and recording new songs in the “Denial-style,” including ‘Optimistic Son” and the anthemic ‘Joe Drives Again’. The result retains Teens’ dark edge and youthful cynicism, but allows a bit of hard-won compassion into the mix.

From Will Toledo:
Sometime last year, it was suggested to me that we do something for the ten-year anniversary of ‘Teens of Denial,’ so I started looking back on the album to see what we might do. In spite of some of its songs being a regular part of my life for the past decade, it wasn’t a record I’d thought much about as a whole since it came out. Most of the songs I’d come up with over a two-year period at the end of my college days, when I was struggling a lot with cynicism and misplaced aggression. But by the time the songs were done, I was living in Washington, Car Seat Headrest was a full band with a record label, and in spite of the turmoil of the writing process, the final album was pretty enjoyable for everyone to work on.
This time, looking back at the songs, I started to feel like there was a story being told through the album, though I’d never imagined it as being a narrative work. On ‘Hi, How Are You?’ Daniel Johnston had used the name “Joe” in the titles of a few tracks –“No More Pushing Joe Around,” “Keep Punching Joe” – as a sort of joke, a stand-in for himself. I borrowed the idea, and the name, for titling songs on ‘Denial.’ This time, I started thinking - who is Joe? And how do the songs, in the way they’re sequenced on the album, reflect what he’s going through? As I started asking this question, a story emerged with startling wholeness and clarity, like finding the foundations of an ancient city while digging in my backyard. As I kept digging, certain songs from the original album fell by the wayside, as they seemed misplaced in this new context; others asked for new lyrics, to fully give birth to the story contained in the music.
The resulting work feels more like the album ‘Teens of Denial’ was meant to be. When you’re writing from a dark space, it’s hard to have perspective on where you’re at. This time, I could pull from memories of that darkness, and use the distance and additional perspective of ten years of life to shed a fuller light on the experience. Joe is a character going through some of what I experienced, and some of his own problems. Telling his story, and not just my own impressions of life at the end of the teen years, brought a new level of compassion and wholeness to the album. It gave us the opportunity to write new material in “Denial style”, embracing a snappy and simple(ish) rock aesthetic, and in an additional blessing, we were able to team up once with Steve Fisk, a joy and inspiration to get back into the studio with after ten years. We mixed the material at his house in Tacoma, and were constantly amazed at the lack of divide between past and present, as we’d punch in vocal overdubs ten years later into the same gear, hearing my voice now running alongside a 2015 Will. For someone coming across this album or this band for the first time, this is how they’d hear the record, not as a relic of the past but as a new piece. It was immensely rewarding to experience that on our side.

For anyone familiar with ‘Teens,’ comparisons with the original will be inevitable, but I do hope that as much as possible, people can come to this album on its own terms, approaching it as a teen, hearing the music and story for the first time. I believe music is an ongoing story, and albums don’t always do justice to its dynamic, ongoing nature. What gives it life is the new ears that hear it, and the new hearts that engage with it. I’m so grateful that this is a work that people have kept coming to, and I hope that this presentation does them honor with a fresh offering to the conversation. We’ve known that “it doesn’t have to be like this”; now we can wonder - “what it if were like this?”

Wewantsounds it delighted to announce a deluxe reissue of Frank Foster's 'The Loud Minority' LP. Released on Bob Shad's Mainstream Records in 1972, it's a landmark album and one of the key political works of the 70s. Featuring an all-star cast of superb musicians including Elvin Jones, Stanley Clarke, Airto, Cecil Bridgewater and Marvin 'Hannibal' Peterson, it is also Dee Dee Bridgewater's earliest full recordings. This special edition includes a 20-page booklet featuring amazing unseen session photos recently unearthed, an introduction by Judd and Mia Apatow (Shad's grandchildren), an essay by British journalist Kevin Le Gendre and an exclusive interview of Cecil and Dee Dee Bridgewater by Paul Bowler. The album's original artwork as been recreated with original photos and the audio newly remastered from the original tapes.

When he recorded "The Loud Minority" in 1972 for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records, Frank Foster had been a solid sax player for nearly twenty years, playing with the likes of Donald Byrd, Thelonious Monk and The Count Basie Orchestra. For this special session, he gathered a stellar line up of old fellow musicians like Elvin Jones and Harold Mabern and young turks including Stanley Clarke, 'Hannibal' Marvin Peterson, Cecil and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Cecil Bridgewater remembers: "Frank, his thing was, any group that he had he wanted to give young musicians a chance." As usual for Mainstream sessions, the studio was booked for two days and the record was cut live, supervised by Bob Shad's trusted men, arranger Ernie Wilkins and engineer Carmine Rubino.

What came out of these two days is now the stuff of legend, four long funky jams fuelled by two distinct line ups playing simultaneously augmented with a powerful 6-piece brass section led by Foster. The album kicks off with the anthemic "The Loud Minority" (sampled by United Future Organization and DJ Shadow) with its long brass introduction followed by Dee Dee Bridgewater fiery poem, a politically charged statement expressing the fight for civil rights, before the whole group comes together for a funky explosion clocking at 14 minutes. "That was a period where we were really into our African consciousness" reminisces Dee Dee in the interview.

The album continues with the funky uptempo "Requiem for Dusty" while "J.P.'s Thing" adopts a slightly more spiritual feel, with a beautiful Fender Rhodes solo and Foster's soprano sax improvisation. The album ends with "E.W. Beautiful People", a long dreamy improvisation climaxing with Dee Dee Bridgewater's poignant vocals.

The Loud Minority is a key militant jazz manifesto and one of the landmark jazz funk albums of the 20th Century. The album was recorded in two days but its legacy lives on and still resonates loudly in the BLM days. Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue this major works with newly remastered audio and a deluxe 20-page booklet full of breathtaking unseen session photos and insightful texts telling the whole story of this superb album.

Listen!

Klara Lewis’ distinctive talent for disfiguring sound into forms that remain recognisably song-like reaches a new peak here. Her new album Opening is a deceptive recording with veiled melodies and clandestine bangers.

Lewis, creator of worlds, treats music as a mirror that reflects a perspective misaligned with the real image. Her music moves in unusual and often startling ways. Acoustic instruments such as ukulele and piano are subjected to processes of deconstruction and reconstruction, their original forms continually reshaped.

The tracks within Opening offer an array of disorientating tactics; damaged field recordings are suddenly sliced into ominous rhythmical patterns whilst deceptively simple tactics provide foreboding dread. Often alien on entry, the progression of a piece can land in a surprising tenderness, or the other way around. The momentum grows as a physical state but also one which is questioning, desiring, encapsulating a feeling, to explore a further way of expression and ultimately connecting: A new closeness, a new perspective.

Opening is an album in which the protagonist’s manipulation of sonic matter seems to extend beyond the music itself, resulting in a corresponding manipulation of the active listener. Sounds shift, dissolve, and re-emerge in altered forms, creating an experience that feels both intimate and disorienting. Lewis maintains a delicate balance between abstraction and emotional immediacy, drawing the listener into a world where familiar musical gestures are constantly reconfigured in surprising ways.

The works on Opening are refracted through an exploratory and transformative lens, suggesting an artist continuing to redefine the possibilities of musical language as a space where the instantaneous and the eternal come together.

Music by Klara Lewis. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin. Artwork by Klara Lewis. Design by Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void. Images from ”En Masse” by Circa, directed by Yaron Lifschitz. Dancer Holly-Rose Boyer.

Published by Mute Song. Released by Editions Mego© 2026

”Tide” commissioned for compilation album "Dissolving Strawberry" (2020), released by Irrlicht. ”Drip” and ”Feel” originally composed for the film ”Failed Emptiness” (2024) by Mika Taanila.

Partner in crime: Hampus Högberg.

Quiet, from the Latin quies, evokes a state of being still. In its verb form, quiet means to clear so that something can gradually come into focus. Kind Stranger by Amedeo Cappelletti is where quiet materializes in a more transient, even foreign, way. Each track takes a step back from noise, borne out of a slow return to music, a different pace, and a familiar place left behind for years.

Kind Stranger, released on Aurora Edition on July 24th, is about the strangeness of a return. Cappelletti's melodic scores work their way between faint noise and disquiet, and sonically muse upon the familiar. That is, when given enough time and distance, the familiar can become unrecognizable, demanding stillness to resituate oneself within it.

The album began taking shape when Cappelletti performed at Aurora Edition at Silent Green, just after he had returned to music following a three-year hiatus. In one month, he wrote forty-five minutes of new material from scratch. Then Cappelletti left Berlin after eight years and returned to the Tuscan countryside where he had grown up, back into slowness.

The album develops as an atmosphere in the truest sense. Resampled voices, found sound, and years of sound design practice converge as compositions form by overlapping texture with spatial depth. Kind Stranger cultivates a quietude that envelops the listener.

Vocal recordings made with Matthew Walsh and Sarah McInerney, collaborators Cappelletti met by chance in a Berlin ice cream shop, appear throughout the album like a current, shaped during a residency at MONOM, Berlin's spatial sound institute. Thematically, the record moves through digital addiction, fragmented attention, and the grief of work done in the darkness.

Kind Stranger is an offering to whoever finds themselves here within the quiet, in this particular quality of sound between return and lingering.

Accomplished trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator, Kamal Abdul-Alim has been actively involved in creative music for decades. He has toured Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. He has recorded with all kinds of bands, large and small, and performed in festivals all over the world. “He takes the postbop of the 50s and free-form jazz of the 60s and turns it into an even balance of fine textures. Alim, who is highly underrated, has one of the most beautiful tones and concepts of jazz. A master of improvisation, he knows the art of weaving different ideas, whether they stem from Manhattan’s lower East Side or Europe” (Hugh Wyatt, New York Daily News). “Dance” was recorded in 1983 but first released on vinyl in 1987. Rhythm section includes drummer Idris Muhammad. Original pressings are extremely rare and expensive. “Brotherhood” is a much sought after track on the jazz dance scene. There is a high demand for this title again on vinyl and pressings are limited to 1000 copies, all individually hand numbered.

High Focus Records are proud to present the latest collaboration from Verb T & Illinformed. ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ both continues and completes the trilogy that began back in 2015, with ‘The Man with the Foggy Eyes’, before broadening the horizons with last year’s release ‘The Land of the Foggy Skies’. This final chapter returns to the same conceptual landscape as its predecessors, but also sees Verb T & Illinformed returning to a more classic approach to album making. In spite of its concept, the Foggy Trilogy is something of a personal outpouring for Verb T, with the original aim being to vicariously discuss the trials and tribulations that play a part in his life, including his struggles with chronic illness and the feeling of alienation from leaving his hometown, while also reflecting on the state of the world as a whole. Their approach to making the album meant taking it back to the most natural form, where the idea for the track would be outlined, Illinformed would make the beat, Verb T would write to it and then they would tweak and adjust accordingly. The result is 19 of the most finely crafted tracks to emerge from the UK shores this year. As with the previous albums, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ finds Illinformed moving away from the more rugged sound that has shrouded the British scene over the last few months, thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Datkid and Wish Master, instead providing Verb T with an arguably more mellow backdrop. From the string and piano driven introduction on ‘Legacy’, to the blissful head-nod vibes of the closing track, ‘Blind Faith’, the union between beats and rhymes sits at the perfect level. The album also boasts one of the most impressive guestlists of the year, one that is very much a product of both players’ worlds. Thanks to Illinformed’s Bristol connection, there are features from the likes of Res One, Datkid, Leaf Dog, Smellington Piff and Chillman, as well as some locally sourced cuts from DJ Rogue. While on Verb T’s side of the fence, we have features from Rye Shabby and Moreone, along with a collaboration that reignites the same creative spark he found in his early days, as King Kashmere steps into the booth on Feeling Strange. All in all, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ does exactly what it sets out to do, by drawing the trilogy to a close while also providing insights into Verb T’s personal world and the world at large. The fact that it also happens to be one of the strongest rap albums of the year is the icing on the cake

Tomu DJ’s debut on CST Imprint shares ten atmospheric wistful ruminations on being, living, and the spiritual undercurrents that alchemize these experiences into song. Hazy memories recalled through glitchy lush lullabies, moving through whispered skittery percussive states into warm melodic vocal confessions. Playful yet exacting productions ebb and flow between pensive indietronica pop interspersed with blissful club tracks that swing from ambient, drum and bass, breaks and house for the dancers. A sanguine daydream, to be free.

Her fourth album since 2021 but first on vinyl, Tomu’s deceptively simple compositions bely complex emotions. Minimal, every element just so, nothing unnecessary. Her ability to create ideal environments for collaboration on full display.

Includes download code and riso-printed insert.

Paraiso has been doing vital work in Portugal - documenting the underground dance scene's history and pioneers in various mediums while also showcasing equally brilliant artists from newer generations. And they've been doing it for a decade now: we all know that a label dedicated to its local scene through and through is something rare and should be celebrated. This compilation 'X - 10 Years of Underground House Music from a Paradise Called Portugal' is a manifestation of that cross-generational spirit, with ten never-before-heard pieces of music by initiators and legends like The Advent alongside more recent veterans like Roundhouse Kick and Vil or younger talent like Phoebe or Van Der. Things start off with Salbany's 'Trax 10', oozing a techno elegance and irrefutable groove that wonderfully portrays the spirit of the Lisbon sound: raw yet ethereal, disarming in its simplicity while containing rave, romance and rhythmic complexities. Label founders Maria Amor & Shcuro firmly carry on the torch with 'Intracellular', gelled by dubby washes, syncopated drums, infectious rhythmic sense and layered with a melodic vocal motif. Vil's 'Cave' brings in stone-cold tight percussion offset by rich, evocative pads and technoid know-how for days. The Advent steps in with an ode to acid-minimalism, raw and slow-burning, with curious and twisted moments peppered with the skill of an expert. Van Der storms in with a piece of hybrid qualities, impeccably blending a swing onto industrial territories for a hypnotic-yet-banging hands in the air dancefloor moment. Scam Dust (the duo of Tiago and Shcuro, from adjacent generations) picks up on the industrial flavours, adds furious jacking rhythmics and live sonic experimentation that takes us to peak-quality effect and noise manipulation. 'Subvert' follows and goes deeper, as if into the depths of the ocean, with aquatic arpeggios and sparse drums that morph into an 303-driven state of mysterious oceanfloor mania - Roundhouse Kick sending us messages from the South. Violet and her 'Dream Machine' emerge with its mutant noisy motif, delay-drenched percussion and steady beat interrupted by keys, drum variations - and a u-turn to its paranoid loopy beginnings. Phoebe enters the chat and brings sonic sun rays in 'Galaxia 2000', a wide-eyed moment lead by colourful, open synthesisers with gates and filters taking us on a beautiful ride on tense, swingy drum patterns. The tenth track comes from Lisbon's rkeat and is full of closing act ear-candy with its beautifully chiseled, groovy as hell percussion, organic sonics and metallic instruments that seem to announce that the next decade is about to be just as good, if not better than this lovely 2016-2026 stint of boundary and scene-pushing.

Step into the backroom of the Bordello, the lights dim and the soundtrack adopts a different tone. L.F.T. leans against the wall. Nestled under his arm, Sonic Boom: four tracks of acid-inflected electro disruption. Love, Fist, Tears is no stranger to the more gnarled side of the machines, and that unadulterated rawness is evident from the needle drop of “Locked in My Head.” From its bent and buckled intro, the track launches a beat that punches before drawing the listener in for more. Vocoder lyrics are mangled with distortion, static soaked chords blighted by corrosive chemicals and industrial decay as the knives are drawn from the outset (and this is only the beginning). Blistered and cracked beats are doused in a pestilent haze for “Las Plagas” and a message of intent is firmly stated: there will be no let up on Sonic Boom, no reprieve. “Ningen” opens the flip. Grisly, petrol smeared beats splutter below a juddering synthline that coils and twists with serpentine menace. A probing tom is lanced before being set alight in the finale. Sinister and unsettling, “Schmutzig Personality” is as physically powerful as it is psychologically gripping. Barrages of drums rain down, barbed snares and sharpened claps, as an assault of acid is further weaponised by machined vocals. L.F.T. doing what he does with an EP that will leave bodies and speakers broken.

Deep, deep stuff on the debut album from K Wata. Long and dubwise, dark and detailed. With bass that fills and warms a space.

All noir. Cast shadows against the wall. Weight being shifted and distributed with singularly delicate poise, like a knife being balanced on the end of a finger.

There’s a silvery, loose flow state to this record that maybe reveals the way some tracks were first written to be deployed live at Sustain Release 2025. Then taken back to the lab and tightened up further into the album’s final form, with beautiful mixing work between Kenzo and Chris Botta.

With that in mind, Give U Space unfolds slowly and fluidly, giving the listener the chance to access and open up to the deepness of the sound, being led down a path. It rolls and builds momentum and groove, and ratchets tensions up toward peaks of energy "Whisper Dub" and "There Will Be Love".

The tunes feel architectural. Rooms to be in and settle into. Simultaneously stripped back and then etched with neat little details and characterful or atmospheric sound choices. The silhouette of slo mo Memphis and Houston trap is a leading influence, especially with the drums. Mixing with bits of click’n’cut sampling and psychoacoustic tricks, the penumbra of dub techno and drowsier dubstep, and SG’s soft vocals rising in the ether.

The presence and inspiration of the sound system is obvious in all of Kenzo’s work, the music can rattle when spun up louder or blended into the club. But K Wata’s uniqueness and signature comes from an often equally inward facing quality, touched by distance and longing and a sort of chiaroscuro incandescent light set up.



Written and produced by K Wata.

Mixed by K Wata and Christopher Botta at Fer Sound Studio.

Vocals on “Give You Space” and “Go” by SG.

Clarinet on “Radio Embrace” by Eugene Lai.

Mastered and cut by Mike Grinser at Manmade.

Art by S. Gong

Nu Vision is the latest project of Duke Cooper, band leader and label boss of Nation, Kode and DirtyBlends. There are three humans who make up Nu Vision, and they all have their own stories and discographies, records released on labels you might know, gigs played in Chicago or Berlin or someone’s loft, lives lived, friends made, sleep lost - fighting for theirart, standing by truths, defending voices, honoring progenitors, whilst pushing a new paradigm. Time is both fleeting and heavy for us all, but it is not without receipts.

Nu Vision is a band in the classic do-you-believe-in-alchemy sense - equal parts rhythm, damage, and deep feeling. Drenched in nostalgia and futurism, The Seed is a singularity of sound + vision; as if heavily rotated by VJ Dave Kendall on MTV’s 120 Minutes but materialized via today’s technology.

The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icons Section 25, Liaisons Dangeruses and Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with their prior successes..- this package of The Seed is no freshman effort; but rather, a masterclass in continuing sonic education, delivering a unified experience from beginning to end. A NU VISION.

The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icon band: Section 25 from the period of 1981-1984 with a more electronic-dance direction, process which culminated in the album ' From the Hip ' and remix single "Looking From A Hilltop", both released in 1984 as "Insecure Man is about being true to manhood with Robert Lane leading the charge with his vocabulary message of the current state of society.

Insecure Dub focuses on the period of 1981-1984 with an alternative electronic-dance direction process as an inspired blueprint from Nu Vision inspired from Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with his individual success.

Inspired from electrifying songs produced by Chrislo Haas (DAF) and Beate Bartel (Mania D. / Matador) reinforced by Krishna Goineau’s French and Spanish Speech-Attack-Lyrics Liaisons Dangereuses created a unique style anything other than a Berlin or Düsseldorf ‘thing’ – that was propelled to an international underground phenomenon of fame.

Nu VIsion was inspired to create a blueprint from the period of their productions of 1981-1982 with an electronic-dance direction paying homage with passionate craftsmanship utilizing what equipment was possible in the studio at the time of this recording featuring new members; Zoe Murphy & Fletch The Stranger on vocals and James Chazz on Saxaphone with a Ring Modulator.

We are delighted to welcome back one of our most cherished artists, Life Recorder, for the third instalment of his remarkable Time Moods series on Visions Recordings.

This latest release delivers four vibrant and immersive tracks, blending deep techno textures with refined grooves, another strong statement in the series.

Far from the hype, French DJ and producer Kriss, aka Life Recorder, has been steadily shaping a distinctive sonic identity over the years. Deeply influenced by the heritage of Detroit and Chicago’s house and techno scenes, his sound travels effortlessly across genres while remaining rooted in soulful depth.

Born in the French suburbs of Geneva and now based in Marseille, he began his journey in the 1990s, connecting with music through record shops, DJing, and the evolving club culture of the time.
With this third chapter of Time Moods, Life Recorder continues to craft a timeless and introspective musical narrative.

Alex and Stephane Attias

Gradient returns to Alt Dub with Random Layers, a deeply focused EP built around his exceptional control of minimal elements.

With a restrained palette of kick, bass, chords and texture, each track evolves with patience and precision, allowing subtle shifts and carefully placed layers to create a powerful sense of depth and space

Sound layers are introduced with such control that the music evolves naturally, revealing its depth over time. Nothing feels rushed and nothing is unnecessary.

Gradient’s productions have a rare ability to make minimalism feel rich and alive. Nothing is excessive; every sound has a purpose. The result is four timeless, immersive dub techno pieces that balance classic dub techno atmosphere with a distinct sense of detail and control.

The EP also features a timeless remix from Echospace Detroits CV313, One of the most respected figures in the deeper end of dub techno, he brings his unmistakable sense of space and depth to the release, making this a particularly fitting and exciting collaboration.

Elegant, restrained and deeply atmospheric, Random Layers is another strong statement from Gradient and a perfect fit for Alt Dub.

Repress!

Dan Kye is the mysteriously evoked moniker from multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocal sensation Jordan Rakei. The New Zealand-born artist - who now resides in London - presents his first long-player from Dan Kye, ‘Small Moments’, on Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section INTL. An ode to the dancefloor, the musical project was born out of Jordan’s lockdown experience, created from the comfort of his own home. Recorded with just a laptop, extra live instruments and guest musicians, ‘Small Moments’ seamlessly transcends across electronica, jazz and funk, with each genre being effortlessly fused with Jordan’s melancholy vocals. Allowing himself to push the boundaries, Jordan’s Dan Kye moniker draws on the energetic and uplifting elements of house and techno and perfectly mixes it with the sultry vocals and emotion that come with the live elements we know and love from Jordan Rakei. The record offers listeners a journey through more floor-heavy tracks such as ‘Mogeri’ and ‘Raro’ to more groove infused offerings such as ‘Rainbow Road’ (which is named after one of the maps in Mario Kart and inspired by the energy of Prince’s iconic live concert at The Aladdin in Las Vegas), whilst tracks, like ‘Sober’, take on a more lyrical and anthemic feel.

Jordan Rakei: “Rhythm Section INTL was my entry point into dancefloor orientated music, and it was Bradley who asked me whether I could head in that direction so he could play my music out in the clubs. Dan Kye has still got melodies, but the main focus is to keep it high energy.”

After meeting Bradley Zero online whilst living in Australia, Jordan eventually moved to London in 2014. The same day he landed, he went straight to a Rhythm Section party to meet Bradley, and it was here that he first got a taste for house music. He enjoyed Rhythm Section INTL’s ability to draw on both live and electronic talent; and thus, after Bradley asked him for some productions for the parties, the idea for Dan Kye was born. ‘Small Moments’ is a musical masterpiece that can be enjoyed as much on the dancefloor as it can in the comfort of your own home and is a perfect step into Jordan’s landscape and idealism of dance orientated music.

Bradley Zero - “In around 2014 the proprietor of the famous Northside Records in Melbourne handed me a self released 12” from a new, unknown artist based in Brisbane. It was Jordan Rakei - Franklin’s Room. I’d been home almost a year before I actually got round to listening to it and I remember that moment like it was yesterday. I lay down on the sofa, put the record on and was transported! The Dan Kye project is a testament to the experimental and independent ethos Jordan lives by and is a product of an artist reaching full stride but not afraid to still try something new. This ‘Small Moments’ LP was conceived in a record store, born in a club on Rye Lane and is now flying the nest, throwing caution to the wind and making a bold statement.”

12th Isle return to familiar downtempo, club-adjacent ambient and analogue house stylings with eight tracks from Japan’s sprawling metropolis. After a series of split releases and dancefloor focused EPs over the last decade, Tokyo based producer Igaxx lands on the label with their debut full length album to close out the year.

Influenced by leftfield electronic music from the 1990s such as releases on Elektrolux and Rising High, Igaxx (Shota Ikawa) works with multi-tracked hardware synthesizers manufactured throughout the 1990s and 2000s, embracing subtle variations and unexpected moments that emerge through performance. Allowing chance and unpredictability to become an integral part of the music, Ikawa’s process and sound design also speaks to the lighter side of vintage UK labels such as Irdial and Radioactive Lamb or the psychedelia-infused touch of the West Coast scene in the states. New Lights exists somewhere between the dancefloor and music for focused listening, carrying a sense of weightlessness and a quiet sense of humour, balancing immersive sonic environments and moments of sly unexpected detail and improvisation.

“To date, I have released several EPs on my own label in Japan as well as on labels across Europe. I am truly happy to finally present my work in the form of a full-length album. It has allowed me to express and unify a broader musical world than was possible within the format of an EP, and that, to me, is one of the album’s greatest meanings.”

For their next release, Phase Group invites you deep into the mind of a singular artist to offer a glimpse of their prolific body of work, zooming in on music composed specifically between 2018 and 2021.

Across 16 tracks, ‘Summa 2018-2021’ by Serbian producer Andria reveals a highly unique approach to sound design and composition, spanning the realms of futuristic IDM, ritual ambient, fourth-world techno and other elusive electronic genres.

Listening to this album in its entirety feels like entering a self-contained sonic world, where animistic and ancestral traditions are refracted through unfamiliar forms of technology. It’s an album which moves effortlessly from moments of deep and contemplative abstraction, as heard in tracks like ‘Sunlessness’, with it's atmosphere of otherworldly field recordings and ancient rites, to propulsive tracks that will guide clubs through ceremonial trance states such as ‘Floating Island’, where industrial kicks underline expressive poly-rhythms, evocative synths and snarling digital glitches.

The release is a gripping and immersive listening experience filled with spellbinding and expertly conjured sounds alongside highly effective moments of dance music that will surely find their way into the sets of the most expressive and fearless DJs. This is one for fans of Coil, Shackleton, Andy Stott and Demdike Stare.

Behind the work is Andrija Čugurović the Belgrade-based artist. A graphic designer by day (and in-house designer here at Phase Group), he dedicates his nights and time away from work and production to Belgrade’s underground electronic scene, digging deep into the worlds of Bass, Techno, Industrial, Ambient, IDM, Experimental and Computer Music.

A regular attendee at spots like Drugstore and the 20/44 boat since a young age, Andrija has honed a deep connection with the music he creates and DJs and that is evidenced in this highly original collection of music. This is his second release on Phase Group, coming after his debut EP ‘o o o o o’ in 2020, the second release on the label.

'Summa 2018-2021’ is available digitally and on high-fidelity C-90 cassette, dubbed at Tapeline UK and distributed by Rubadub.
All tracks composed and produced by Andrija Čugurović.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Artwork by Andrija Čugurović.

Following the success of Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in 2023, Cosmocities returns in 2026 with two new chapters in its acclaimed compilation series dedicated to the rich heritage and continuing evolution of Japanese electronic music.

Compiled by label owner Matt Soulie, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 4 further explores the depth, sophistication and diversity that have long made Japan's electronic underground one of the world's most inspiring musical landscapes.

Since its inception, the Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku project has celebrated the artists and sounds that have profoundly influenced the Cosmocities vision. Across four volumes, the series has journeyed through ambient soundscapes, deep house, boogie, jazz-infused electronics and forward-thinking club music. Volume 4 shifts the focus firmly towards the deeper end of the dancefloor, bringing together timeless classics, rare gems and sought-after reinterpretations from some of Japan's most respected producers.

Opening proceedings is Kaoru Inoue's remix of Soft's "Art Farmer", a rolling percussive Afro-house excursion rich in hypnotic groove and organic rhythm. XTAL's "Heavenly Overtone" follows with a beautifully cosmic house journey, combining shimmering keys and celestial atmospheres that perfectly capture the compilation's expansive spirit.

On the B-side, Slow Didi's "Follow Me (Hidaway Mix Instrumental)" delivers a deep and hypnotic groove before Tokyo Black Star's "Fantastique Voyage" channels the soulful, sophisticated energy of classic 1990s deep house. The journey continues with Manabu Nagayama and Soichi Terada's "Low Tension", presented here in a sublime instrumental remix by Satoshi Fumi and Yoshi Horino, where warm piano melodies and elegant synth work create a timeless late-night mood.

The final stretch moves into more driving territory. Hiroshi Watanabe's "The Orionids (2025 Revised)" subtly raises the tempo, blending deep house sensibilities with sleek tech-inflected textures. Kaoru Inoue's "Ground Rhythm", reworked by The Backwoods, plunges deeper into hypnotic territory with a heads-down groove designed for intimate basement spaces and low-lit dancefloors.

Closing the compilation is Bitowa and YAMADAtheGIANT's "Forest (Mixtacy Exclusive Version)", a trippy, immersive finale that leaves listeners suspended in a dreamlike state between nature, rhythm and imagination.

A carefully curated collection of deep, cosmic and forward-thinking sounds, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 4 once again showcases the enduring creativity, innovation and global influence of Japanese electronic music.

“What Robot Says L” on What Robot Says Records is a deeply immersive Dub Techno journey crafted for demanding listeners who seek atmosphere, precision, and emotional depth beyond conventional dancefloor music. Across four carefully sculpted tracks, the release moves through shifting moods and textures, balancing raw energy with subtle elegance while exploring the deeper and more hypnotic side of techno.

A1. Nicolas Barnes – Dusted Maze opens the EP with a smooth and introspective approach, combining delicate textures, refined grooves, and floating harmonic layers that capture the timeless spirit of classic Dub Techno through a modern lens.

A2. Continuing the journey with TM Shuffle, Monoder – Vihreesametti delivers a warmer and more fluid interpretation of the genre, blending rolling grooves, dub-driven chords, and sophisticated sound design into a deeply immersive experience.

On the B-side, B1. Denizo – Versus follows with dark dub pressure, stripped-back rhythmic architecture, and evolving ambient detail, creating a hypnotic late-night atmosphere filled with tension and movement.

B2. Closing the EP, The Open Circle – Shinkai dives into deeper and more mysterious territory, emphasizing submerged atmospheres, minimal rhythmic tension, and profound spatial depth that slowly unfolds with every listen.

WRSL1 – “What Robot Says L” is not designed for casual listening, but for those who appreciate Dub Techno as an evolving exploration of mood, space, and sonic detail — a refined and highly immersive statement from some of the genre’s most skilled contemporary artists.

but wait a minute.. Does anybody know What Robot Says?

Clara Mann announces new album Wishbone, set for release Oct 23rd via state51 and shares the lead single "News From Home".

Brutal, uncompromising Slam from Greece. Years of obsession, ignorance, and absolute contempt spent keeping slam locked in its lowest, most primitive caveman state. Through collapse, and complete disregard for ourselves, we persevere. The "Embryectomy" project clawed its way from a deranged slam duo into a fully armed three-body beatdown slam monstrosity through uncompromised fury alone. No trends. No mercy. No concern for acceptance. Anyone who stood in the wreckage with us knows what it took to get here. We are now signing with Unique Leader Records. What you will endure in our next release is not meant to inspire or connect. It was composed in a chaotic state of antipathy, and absolute emotional absence. This is the most brutal material we have ever created—not for everyone, not for growth, but for those who understand that misanthropy is the only constant. We thank Unique Leader Records, who pushed us beyond what we thought possible: brutality to its limit while stripping away anything human. No benevolence. No empathy. No relief. Only violence, executed with intent.

LUCIANO LAMANNA — A CARLO Blackwater Label — 2026 Distributed by Triple Vision More than ten years in the making, A CARLO is a single-sided EP by Luciano Lamanna for Blackwater Label, dedicated to Carlo Giuliani and to the memory of the events that unfolded during the G8 protests in Genoa in 2001. This record is the result of a long process, one that began more than a decade ago and has remained unfinished until now. Two tracks, both carrying the name and memory of Carlo, finally complete a circle that has been open for years. The first track, “Il Giorno del Sole”, was previously released on physical CD through Blackwater Label. The second, “Amore Infinito”, arrives more than ten years later, completing the dialogue between the two pieces and giving the project its long-awaited counterpart. Together, the tracks form a deeply emotional and personal statement: melancholic, haunting and at the same time driving and hopeful. Lamanna moves through the industrial language that has always characterised his work, while “Amore Infinito” explores a darker, more intimate territory, evoking the emotional intensity of Coil. A CARLO is not intended as a historical reconstruction or a conventional political statement. It is an act of memory.

For Blackwater Label, memory is political. For more than twelve years, Blackwater has built its identity around what we call Socialismo Sonoro: a way of understanding music and cultural production as a space for autonomy, resistance, collective consciousness and taking a position. We have never been interested in remaining neutral when the reality surrounding us contradicts the values we believe in. This record belongs entirely to that vision. Putting this record out today means continuing to pronounce the name Carlo. Keeping a memory alive. Refusing to allow silence to become the final form of history. Blackwater continues to expose itself, in its own way, through music, without claiming to speak for anyone else, but accepting the responsibility to say what it believes needs to be said. A CARLO is therefore both a tribute and a continuation: a record born from grief, transformed through sound, and ultimately directed towards memory and hope. CREDITS: Written, produced, mixed & mastered by Luciano Lamanna Released by Blackwater Label © 2026 Blackwater Label Distributed by Triple Vision N·C·V·A·F Nvmqvam Cede // Vsqve Ad Finem

JUDDER announces the second installment of its vinyl series, bringing together a diverse selection of artists united by their passion for experimental bass music. This time, the record is fully focused on a raw, soundsystem-driven aesthetic. On Side A, French producer Amor Satyr—known for effortlessly navigating between dembow, breakbeat, and techno—ventures into dubstep territory for the first time. On 'Over', he translates his signature style onto the genre’s foundations while retaining the distinctive energy that defines his sound. The record continues with a collaborative effort from Thematic and Nattah. ‘Aurora Pulse' is a cold, restrained piece of leftfield bass at 130 BPM, where a sharp, syncopated subline forms the backbone of the groove, pulsing like the heartbeat of a northern metropolis. Opening Side B, Dawn RAzor and Mani Festo deliver 'Awared', a track where techno and breakbeat converge through layered sound design and spring-loaded drum fills. As it unfolds, the composition gradually draws the listener into a hypnotic journey, dissolving familiar genre boundaries along the way. The release closes with ‘Lockjaw'—a true soundsystem slow-burner from Kahter and Mercy System. Broken tribal rhythms and a constantly evolving arrangement keep the listener suspended in a state of mounting tension, one that intensifies with every new detail introduced. Tracklist: A1 Amor Satyr — Over A2 Thematic & Nattah — Aurora Pulse B1 Dawn RAzor & Mani Festo — Awared B2 Kahter & Mercy System — Lockjaw

Für manche zu gewagt, für andere unwiderstehlich - Twin Temple haben sich zu kulturellen Provokateuren und zu einer der meistdiskutierten Crossover-Bands der Musikszene entwickelt. Entstanden in einer der dunkelsten Phasen im persönlichen Leben der Bandmitglieder, ist ,DOOMED LOVERS" ihr bisher intimstes und emotional offenstes Werk. Das Album erweitert die filmische Bandbreite ihres unverwechselbaren Sounds und bleibt dabei doch verwurzelt in den zeitlosen Traditionen des frühen Rock 'n' Roll; es gilt als das bislang ambitionierteste und am besten umgesetzte künstlerische Statement der Band. ,DOOMED LOVERS" markiert das bisher kühnste Kapitel von Twin Temple. Produziert vom GRAMMY-preisgekrönten Produzenten Shooter Jennings im legendären Studio 3 bei Sunset Sound in Hollywood, setzt das Album das Bekenntnis der Band zur klassischen analogen Aufnahme fort und erweitert gleichzeitig ihre Klangpalette durch üppige Orchesterarrangements, die von einem 37-köpfigen Orchester eingespielt wurden.

Für manche zu gewagt, für andere unwiderstehlich - Twin Temple haben sich zu kulturellen Provokateuren und zu einer der meistdiskutierten Crossover-Bands der Musikszene entwickelt. Entstanden in einer der dunkelsten Phasen im persönlichen Leben der Bandmitglieder, ist ,DOOMED LOVERS" ihr bisher intimstes und emotional offenstes Werk. Das Album erweitert die filmische Bandbreite ihres unverwechselbaren Sounds und bleibt dabei doch verwurzelt in den zeitlosen Traditionen des frühen Rock 'n' Roll; es gilt als das bislang ambitionierteste und am besten umgesetzte künstlerische Statement der Band. ,DOOMED LOVERS" markiert das bisher kühnste Kapitel von Twin Temple. Produziert vom GRAMMY-preisgekrönten Produzenten Shooter Jennings im legendären Studio 3 bei Sunset Sound in Hollywood, setzt das Album das Bekenntnis der Band zur klassischen analogen Aufnahme fort und erweitert gleichzeitig ihre Klangpalette durch üppige Orchesterarrangements, die von einem 37-köpfigen Orchester eingespielt wurden.

Tresor Records announces GODSPEED, a new EP from NVST, out on October 23, 2026. From its origins in the Motor City and through to the themes of interstellar travel, techno has always been a genre focussed on forward movement, a tradition that GODSPEED continues boththrough music and title.

The EP is a collection that brings to mind the spirit of early, non-conformist releases on Tresor, full of hypnotic synth loops, spacious FX, and breakbeats, yet with a crisp and modern sonic palette. Side A embarks with two tracks that combine a low, buzzing bassline with trippy melodies and percussion that ventures close to breaks and electro, while the B-side moves intothe fast lane with driving acid and more regimented drums. Digital bonus track "Firliner" combines both approaches across its seven-and-a-half minutes, as a buzzy bassline and spluttering beat ignite into a steady trance-induction.

The EP title arrived the way the best ones do: not so much chosen as absorbed from the aether, the word kept popping up during the creative process until it became the ideal name for this collection, given its connotation with setting out on a journey.
"You remember the nights where you've been on the floor for hours without realising how much time has passed, the conversations you can't fully recall, or how unexpectedly open you've been to everything around you. The music speaks the language of substance not as a statement, but as a way of describing perception. It's about experimenting with yourself, your body, your hearing, your emotions. About reaching a point where things that once felt permanent suddenly lose their grip, even if only for a moment. These recordings come from that place. They capture moments where movement replaces thought, memories blur into feeling, and vulnerability becomes part of the process. They're documents of a very
specific time, but also of something much more familiar: trying to lose yourself just enough to find a different version of who you are." NVST
This fast-paced forward travel is implicit in the word speed, but once this word indicated power or prosperity so that godspeed is a wish for success, forming an appropriate double meaning for this first full release of NVST on Tresor.

Phenomena begins with two artistic voices that seem to speak different languages. Barcelona-based producer R-010 (Lucas Rojo) approaches composition through rhythm, space and electronic transformation; Madrid-born vocalist and multidisciplinary artist Venerandi through texture, breath and the expressive possibilities of the human voice. By the time the album reaches its final moments, that distinction has quietly disappeared.

Rather than functioning as a meeting point between two individual practices, Phenomena gradually
becomes a third language—one that belongs to neither artist alone. Voice no longer sits above the music
but moves inside it, dissolving into layers of synthesis, percussion and guitar until performance itself
becomes another malleable sound source. Likewise, electronic production never behaves as a fixed
environment; it constantly adapts, absorbs and responds, allowing acoustic gestures and digital
manipulation to reshape one another in real time.

This continuous transformation defines the record more than any particular genre ever could. Echoes of trip hop, bass music, psychedelia and experimental electronics drift across its surface, yet they are never
presented as stylistic markers. Instead, they appear as temporary states within an ecosystem that remains
in constant motion, where dense rhythmic passages collapse into suspended atmospheres and moments
of stillness carry as much weight as those driven by pulse.

The presence of Matteo Caro (guitar and percussion), Pablo Gorostiaga (guitar) and Alessio Rodolico
(percussion) further expands this dialogue. Their contributions are not decorative additions but structural
ones, gradually dissolving the distinction between composition, improvisation and production. Instruments
emerge, mutate and disappear inside the same sonic fabric, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish
what was performed from what was transformed.

With Phenomena, Lapsus Records presents a work that feels less interested in crossing genres than in
questioning the borders between artistic identities themselves. The album never asks the listener to decide
where the human ends and the machine begins. Instead, it quietly suggests that, after enough careful
listening, the question itself may no longer matter.

Do you know what time it is? It’s Prime Time, the new EP on Punctuality from mischievous French duo Pureblast . Marking the label’s twelfth release, the record serves as a bold statement of intent from the Parisian pair and demonstrates why they’re quickly earning a reputation as one of France’s most exciting live acts.

Across the EP’s five tracks, Pureblast weave together a broad spectrum of influences while remaining deeply rooted in the duo’s singular vision. Every cut is fat, pumping, gritty and playful, ready to turn heads and hips on the dancefloor.

Side-stepping easy genre classifications, Prime Time is modern rolling prog at its most energetic. Tightly wound low-end, pummelling drums and restless basslines drive each track forward with purpose, while sa+ga’s vocals are manipulated and distorted to humanoid perfection. The result is something distinctly personal beneath the machine funk: robotic yet seductive, gritty yet playful.

Deep listeners will spot nods to tranced up breakbeats, Ray of Light-era big beat, Detroit electro and contemporary UK techno with psy-fluenced synth swirls and texture. Far from pastiche, these influences are absorbed into the Pureblast machine and transformed into something entirely their own.

Gritty, pumping, sexy and playful. It’s Pureblast, it’s Prime Time.
credits

For more than two decades, Vidmantas ?epkauskas has occupied a singular position within European underground culture. As the driving force behind Opium Club and gallery 1986 in Vilnius, founder of Ant Bangos, Alfavilnius and OLE festivals, curator, label owner, promoter, DJ and artist, he has spent much of his life creating the conditions for other people's music to be heard.
It makes sense then that he has no shortage of friends and collaborators in play. Across ten tracks, V presents shades of Italo, krautrock, post-punk, minimal synth, industrial pop and neon-noir romanticism, arriving somewhere between the dancefloor and a dream-state. The cast of collaborators both contextualize and help sharpen the vision.
First and foremost, much of the album was crafted alongside Frankfurt's Philipp Lauer, whose friendship with V grew through marathon studio sessions. Curses lends his unmistakable blend of dark romance and theatrical energy to "Is This What You Want?", Australian cosmic journeyman Dreems joins for the kaleidoscopic "Blitz Disc," Domenique Dumont brings their unmistakable emotive touch to "Avventura," while Lithuanian artists Noyus and Ruta MUR, both distinctive voices from the country's queer scene, whose vocals add another dimension to the record's emotional palette. As V puts it, "These are the people I've been vibing with."
That he finally delivers a full-length LP with such elusive qualities is more than a clue to his character. The title itself, a nod to Magritte's famous paradox and his years living in Brussels, suggests that any attempt to define V through a single image is destined to fail. At once playful and philosophical, 12:55 (Ceci n'est pas une V) questions ideas of identity and artistic value while marking the closing chapter of the musical persona that followed ?epkauskas' earlier success as Vidis. Neither retrospective nor statement of intent, it feels like a connected set of reflections spanning a lifetime of influences.

Underoath reinvents the balance between chaos and harmony with each successive release. Their compositions, conjured from creative tension, become iconoclastic anthems. Even when the band almost combusts, the crackling energy coalesces into something deeply resonant for millions.

Each time they have a chance to do something safe, Underoath challenges themselves instead, with integrity and attitude. Their pair of gold albums and three Grammy nominations stand in stark defiance of the idea of commercial compromise. The Underoath catalog weaponizes noise, aggression, and ambiance as skillfully as melody.

They're Only Chasing Safety is the fourth studio album by American melodic hardcore band Underoath. It was released on June 15, 2004, through Solid State Records. Following the release of their third studio album, The Changing of Times (2002), half of the band's members were replaced. After finalizing the line-up with vocalist Spencer Chamberlain, the band recorded They're Only Chasing Safety with producer James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, Paramore). In the heavy and punk music scene, the album is considered a watershed moment. The blend of heavy metal and hardcore influences with a strong pop/punk sensibility spawned a new branch of heavy music. The sound eventually became synonymous with the screamo scene of the mid-2000s. The record went gold in 2011.

With Dogma, Hamburg-based metalcore innovators Half Me take their sound to an even darker and more uncompromising level. Building on the success of their acclaimed debut Soma, the band delivers a relentless blend of crushing riffs, hardcore aggression, industrial textures and raw emotional intensity. Featuring the previously released singles "Weather Eye", "Built On Your Blood" and "Fear Is The New Belief", Dogma is a concise yet devastating statement that cements Half Me as one of the most exciting new forces in modern heavy music.

With Dogma, Hamburg-based metalcore innovators Half Me take their sound to an even darker and more uncompromising level. Building on the success of their acclaimed debut Soma, the band delivers a relentless blend of crushing riffs, hardcore aggression, industrial textures and raw emotional intensity. Featuring the previously released singles "Weather Eye", "Built On Your Blood" and "Fear Is The New Belief", Dogma is a concise yet devastating statement that cements Half Me as one of the most exciting new forces in modern heavy music.

This time we have The Goliards Collective delivering a message-filled rocksteady tune. “U Tres U Dos” is a strong political statement riding on a sweet yet powerful rhythm.

Melissa Weikart and her piano have proceeded through life in step, from her early classical


training to the experimental practice that defines her work today, a blending of sounds and forms that has never been so clear—and so fully realized—as on her new album, Contact. Across twelve shifting and evocative tracks that examine the connective tissue binding us to ourselves and others, the Franco-American musician’s voice and piano navigate personal and emotional terrain with clarity and nuance, forging a rich dialogue between artist and instrument, artist and self, and artist and listener.


Winner of the 2022 Nancy Jazz Pulsations emerging artist award and the instrumentalist prize at the 2023 La Défense National Jazz Competition, Weikart has released two EPs and an album as a solo artist, and one EP and an album—Surprise and Secret—with her electronic duo Beatrice Melissa. A student of jazz and ’70s folk-pop, and a keen lover of improvisation since her time at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Weikart has always conjured the confessional candor of the singer- songwriter in her music, even as she dispenses her lyrics across rich, shifting, dreamlike tableaux.


On Contact, written and arranged entirely by Weikart (aside from “New angles”), she pushes her sound further than ever before. The album is animated by a pressing need for connection, observing what brings us together and what drives us apart, and the life-saving revelations that emerge along the way. The album’s opener, “Crash,” is a dreamy telephone-hour ode, a message in a bottle, to connections new and old. On the wistful “Mesurer le vent,” Weikart conjures Debussy or Ravel, layering contrasting sounds like an Impressionist painting. The title track begins as a showcase of Weikart’s frank lyricism, a splice-reel of missed connections and wasted time, then glides into a hazy, euphoric galaxy of pleas, circling around her thesis—“I wanted to make contact”—that ushers us into “The Intersection,” a song that recalls her the beginning of her career, when it was just Weikart and her keys. “Appétit.e” is built around a sample of her down-the-hall neighbor’s drumming—another subtle, affecting gesture toward proximity and connection—while pulsating synths reminiscent of Air lend the track an unsteady atmosphere. On the Carpenters-inspired “Expectations,” Weikart muses on the relationship patterns, universal and specific, that have always been a hallmark of her songwriting.

The psychedelic “L’amour de construit” is a slow-motion fall down the rabbit hole, as Weikart
considers the way her own emotions are captured and commodified by the confining ways we think about love. The interlude—“L’amour pt. 2”—finds her near the end of that trip, shouting into the void as a last-ditch effort to rescue herself from the fall. The drums near the end of the interlude warn us that there may be no cushion for, until she is saved, again, by the power of revelation, on the confident, resilient “Not Right”—on which a show-stopping, frenetic conversation between singer and piano is gracefully interrupted by a rush of transcendent strings, lifting her back up.

On solid ground anew, “New angles,” featuring Manu Delta, creates a percussion-less groove that relies on experimental synth sounds. The 11-o’clock stunner “Catching up”—composed in a church—meets the singer in a state of ecstatic confession, bringing her to the formative memory that propels “Bicycle,” the album’s closer. Younger, more wide-eyed, she reflects on her move from Boston to Strasbourg, those early days, when Weikart had no other companion than that loyal hunk of scrap metal that took her to the shores of her own soul. She seems to suggest, on “Bicycle,” that a backward-glance is not always troublesome, not always anxiety-producing, but can be grounding: a reminder of where we come from, so that we can keep moving forward.

MASA 007 sees DJ Sodeyama at his most incisive and introspective, delivering three cuts of direct, mental techno, complemented by a powerful remix from Atomic moog. Across four tracks, the record flows with clarity and purpose, driven by sharply defined drums and acid-tinged textures, while layered with expansive ambient pads and evolving atmospheres, resulting in a sound that is both forceful and deeply immersive. Atomic moog’s reinterpretation, a signature of this modular wizard duo, built around earthy psychedelic pads, field recordings and organic synths, cements MASA 007 as a refined statement of modern techno’s cerebral intensity and emotional depth.

Wisconsin house music legends Solid Gold Playaz return with Minds Beneath Atlantis EP, a timeless deep house gem first released in 2003 on Silver Network before receiving a sought-after reissue from Still Music in 2017. Long out of print and highly coveted by collectors, copies have regularly fetched upwards of £50 on the second-hand market. Thankfully, Still Music have answered the call with a welcome repress, making this essential release available once again for DJs, collectors, and deep house enthusiasts who missed out the first time around.

Budapest based concept label Blue Sun arrives with the 3rd edition of their annual VA series, showcasing a colorful taste of the local underground music scene, with some international sidenotes.

Following up on the label’s customs, the 19-track selection is not only released digitally, but also on a limited 200-piece cassette series. Curated by the label heads, the tracks follow Blue Sun's listening-oriented concept without genre restrictions with downtempo, trip-hop, jazz, dub, balearic, ambient, experimental, and electronica as highlights, with pieces that are more difficult to classify.

As before, instead of the usual A-B markings, the two sides are divided by the label's colors: “ORANGE” contains more organic and high-energy music, while “BLUE” contains more pensive and experimental tracks. Moreover, the selection has been carefully curated so that it can be listened to as an endless loop: the end of a side always resonates with the beginning of the other, wherever the listener begins.

The list of contributing artists this year are truly various and just as impressive. From uniqe debuting local artists to internationally recognised performers, it gives a taste of how the Hungarian underground scene sounds like atm. Important to note, that the release marks another debut: the label’s new visual identity by Blue Sun’s new designer, Péter Tóth.

Blame The Mono makes a powerful debut on RAW with their latest EP, Pace Refinery. Capturing the Franco-British duo at a defining moment, this project sharpens their hybrid European identity into a focused and forward-looking statement. They remain a shining beacon of inventiveness, balancing driving club energy with refined textural detail. Spotify, Apple, etc: bfan.link/pace-refinery Mastering : Charles Accarissi released April 9, 2026

Setting a high standard for its inaugural release, new record label Sounds of The Blind Prophet announces SBP001, a powerful 12” vinyl collaboration uniting label founder Blind Prophet with worldwide Dub stalwarts Fikir Amlak and Vibronics.

The A-side, “Now Is the Time,” pairs LA-based vocalist Fikir Amlak’s commanding lyrics on community and self-reliance with a high-energy steppers riddim built by Blind Prophet and Vibronics. The flip delivers two raw dub cuts mixed direct from the board by Vibronics at his legendary Dub Cupboard Studio in Leicester, UK.

Embodying the core essence of modern Dub culture—conscious lyricism, driving percussion, and chest rattling bass—SBP001 marks an undeniable opening statement for Sounds of The Blind Prophet.

The third chapter of l’oggetto’s DANCE trilogy continues the sought-after series of instrumental DJ tools. Four new tracks, conceived as techniques to reach ecstatic states on the dancefloor through different moods, tempos, and vibes.

“Vallee,” with its infectious 12-bit groove, opens the EP with a syncopated, never-ending jazz-infused vibraphone. “Bone” takes it from there, staying midtempo and percussive while pushing funky horns into trippy, repetitive territory.

Side B turns moodier, as expected. “2600’” unfolds through digital strings of life, enabling a sense of suspension, release, and transcendence. Lastly, “Ambientale” closes the record with the ethereal, wobbly analog warmth of a downtempo drift into dawn.