Search:steve string

Zwischen 1988 und 2010 komponierte Steve Reich drei Streichquartette – Different Trains, Triple Quartet
und WTC 9/11. Die Deutsche Grammophon legt diese Werktrilogie nun erstmals auf einem Album vor,
in endgültigen Neuaufnahmen des Mivos Quartetts. Vom Chicago Reader als „eines der kühnsten und
wildesten New-Music-Ensembles Amerikas“ gefeiert, entwickelten die Mivos-Spieler ihre Interpretationen
der drei Quartette – inspiriert von der Musik der Sprache, den Echos von Bartók und den Ereignissen
eines von Terror geprägten Tages - in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Komponisten Steve Reich. Reich
selbst unterstützte das Projekt von Anfang bis Ende, beantwortete die Fragen der Gruppe zu musikalischen
Nuancen, beriet zum Stil und lobte das fertige Album, das jetzt sowohl digital als auch auf CD und Vinyl
erhältlich ist.

Belgium-based Composer Christina Vantzou's Fourth Full-length For Kranky Ventures Further Into The Uniquely Elusive And Evocative Mode Of Ambient Classical Minimalism Which Has Become Her Signature: A Fragile Synthesis Of Contemplative Drift, Heady Silences, And Muted Dissonance. In Regards To The New Album She Speaks Of Focusing Particular Attention On The Effects Of The Recordings On The Body, And Of 'directing Sound Perception Into An Inner Space.'
No. 4 Took Shape Across Roughly Two Years, Incorporating A Diverse Array Of Musical And Conceptual Collaborators, Including Fellow Kranky Artists Steve Hauschildt And John Also Bennett (of Forma) As Well As Angel Deradoorian (ex-dirty Projectors), Clarice Jensen, Beatrijs De Klerck, And Members Of Belgium's Echo Collective. During The Creation Process Vantzou Wanted To 'blur Lines Of Hierarchy,' And Thus Allowed All Ensemble Members And Technical Assistants To Add Or Delete Elements. Despite Such A Spectrum Of Input The Eleven Tracks Feel Distinctly Cohesive, Weaving Elegant Textures And Resonant Open Spaces Within A Twilit Landscape Of Eclectic Instrumentation: Piano, Harp, Vibraphone, Voice, Strings, Marimba, Synthesizers, Gong, And Bells.
Vantzou Describes The Recording Process As One Of Prepared Spontaneity: That Is, 'having Plenty Of Ideas Ready To Explore Going Into The Session, But With Enough Time To Depart From Those Ideas And See What Happens.' This Mindset Of Premeditated Exploration Informs The Album's Emotive Textural Intuition, With Hushed Drones And Delicate Gestures Eliding In The Periphery Of The Mix. She Cites Sleep And 'the Loosening Of Time' As Two Formative Practices In Her Private And Professional Life, Which Manifests In The Quietly Hallucinatory Properties Of Vantzou's Music. No. 4 Feels Both Endless And Ephemeral, Immersive And Immaterial. It's A Music Of Horizon Lines And Half-light, Mapped With Feeling And Foresight.
Recorded In New York City And Brussels. Mixed In Berlin.
A Portion Of This Work Was Funded By A Generous Grant From The Flemish Community In Belgium.

,Manifold of Partially Actualized Realities" ist das neue Album bei Kou Records von Randall Dunn - Produzent, Komponist und einer der markantesten Gestalter von Low-End- und räumlichen Klängen in der zeitgenössischen Musik, bekannt für seine Arbeit mit Sunn O))), Oneohtrix Point Never, David Torn und unzähligen anderen aus den Bereichen Heavy-, Experimental- und Avantgarde-Musik. Das Album ist eine Meditation über zerbrochene Realitäten, Zeit und Sterblichkeit - ein Spiegel, der sich auf sich selbst zurückfaltet und darüber, wie zukünftige Ereignisse die Vergangenheit beeinflussen. Sein tragender Geist ist Philip K. Dicks ,Pink Light Experience" von 1974, in der der Autor berichtete, eine Übertragung von einer gewaltigen, außerirdischen Intelligenz empfangen zu haben: informationsreich, uralt und überwältigend. Dunn nähert sich dem sowohl als Konzept als auch als kompositorische Logik - Musik, die in Schichten auftaucht, zusammenbricht, sich neu formiert und sich einer Auflösung verweigert.? In vier Stücken setzt Dunn ein ganzes Arsenal an Vintage-Synthesizern ein - Korg MonoPoly, Korg MS-20, PPG Wave, CS-80, Juno-60, Waldorf Strings, Fizmo - neben einer außergewöhnlichen Ensemblebesetzung. Spoken-Word-Beiträge von Jim Jarmusch (basierend auf PKDs Prosa) und Laima Leyton (basierend auf Robert Graves' ,Time") verankern zwei der vier Stücke in Sprache, ohne sie zu erklären. Das Album bewegt sich von orchestraler Kammermusik über elektroakustische Abstraktion hin zu einem abschließenden Stück - ,Ayn" -, das sich zu ekstatischem Jazz entfaltet, mit Cyro Baptista, Briggan Krauss, Henry Fraser, Charmaine Lee und Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. Wahre elektroakustische Komposition im vollsten Sinne: spektral, körperlich und weit offen. Produziert und gemischt von Randall Dunn bei Circular Ruin, April 2026. Aufgenommen und gemastert von Ben Greenberg. Dolby-Atmos-Mischungen von Ben Greenberg. Lackschnitt von Paul Gold bei Salt Mastering. Cover- und Rückseitengestaltung von Steve Rude.

NOW Music proudly presents the next release in the ‘ERA’ series with NOW That's What I Call An Era - Ballroom Blitz: 1967-1976 celebrating the colourful world of glam rock, pop and unforgettable chart hits that defined the early-to-mid 1970s, with a selection of pop gems from the late 1960s. Pressed across three stunning coloured vinyl LPs – red, white and gold – showcasing the era’s biggest stars, instantly recognisable anthems, novelty favourites and enduring singalongs from one of the most distinctive periods in UK pop history.

Victoryland is the Brooklyn-based project of musician Julian McCamman and Dan Howard.. Their 2026 album, My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It, is a triumphant, despondent, and ultimately fun experimental pop-rock album. A year on, the record receives the deluxe treatment from new label home Dead Oceans. My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It (Deluxe) arrives December


11th 2026, on exclusive crystal clear vinyl, complete with new song “The Ugliest Girl On The Beach” and a new music video for album standout “I got god.” The sound of the album, recorded between Julian’s Bed-Stuy basement and Dan’s Williamsburg studio, is that of a bright and beaming collaboration. Blending lo-fi and hi-fi production, the songs have the glossiness of a radio-friendly hit mixed with the distortion and rough edges of a home demo. Every song keeps at least one element of the initial recording, while building around the loops and half-songs Julian scraped together. The lyrics on the record span from humorous self-aware popisms (“‘you and I’ will soon be, used to be ‘us’”) to crushing realities of bitterness (“i’ll never forgive you, that’s how I keep you close”) and abstract imagery (“mothers wave from doorways, in ostinato”), all delivered with such an immediacy and fervor that in the middle of singing along, you wonder if this guy slept much last night. Much to their surprise, My Heart’s release ushered Victoryland into a whirlwind of a year. Pitchfork praised the album’s “bright, madcap approach reminiscent of the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Some Loud Thunder.” Stereogum named it their Album of the Week and proclaimed it “a surprisingly cohesive scrapbook of sounds from seemingly every corner of the indie pop umbrella.” The album also received support from Steve Lamacq at BBC 6 Music and Sian Eleri at Radio 1. After a string of sold-out shows in NYC, Victoryland later joined LCD Soundsystem on their North American tour and performed at Pitchfork London, Pitchfork Paris, among other festivals across Europe

2026 Repress

Jack Stevens aka Sully has become somewhat of a cult figure in the jungle world with his output being in high demand. His work is unmistakable. It’s always true to it’s origins while simultaneously adding new takes and juxtapositions in palette and composition. A true artist that excels in his field.

Stevens returns to Astrophonica with Swandive, a body of work presented in dual energies - dark & light, body & mind, Yin & Yang. In Werk you’re put to the test physically as es- ki-like percussion stabs grab the attention and demand a response. A staple in Fracture’s DJ sets for the last year or so.

Poison demonstrates a side to Stevens’ production that is harder, meaner, cruder and all together more brutal than he is known for. The result is an infectious mix of venomous bass and corrupted drum breaks fit to kill any dance.

The title track Swandive begins to counterbalance the fierce energy and bring some harmony opening with calming strings and trademark icy melodies before elevating to an intense state of amen divinity that twists and turns in a story like fashion.

Memories completes the balance with euphoric bass stabs and emotional strings culminat- ing in a searing and conclusive anime-like solo. Some of Stevens’ most daring work. The cycle is complete.

180g 2027 Repress They Say: “Descriptive scores for scenes of visual impact”.

We say: Arguably the single greatest album in KPM history. An ensemble piece of staggeringly heavy works from none other than Brian Bennett, John Scott, Steve Gray, Jim Lawless and Johnny Pearson.

For our immense pleasure, Visual Impact includes the insanely ace “Nuplex” by Brian Bennett, a nagging, sweeping, punchy funk piece that exists in a world of its own. If you don’t know, get to know - the record’s worth getting for this track alone. The same goes for the beautifully paced, string-drenched, horn-fed LP opener “Canaveral Scape”, courtesy of John Scott. Truly sublime. Other highlights on the A-side include Bennett’s easy, bass-heavy jazz groover “Sequence Of Events” and the spare, building, undercover funk of Steve Gray’s aptly-named “Low Profile”.

The B-side is straight-up fantastic. The percussive, vibey exotica of Jim Lawless’s “Keeping Pace” is followed by five tracks of slick, weighty funk breaks from Johnny Pearson. Check the pure groove of “Jaguar” with its head-nod drum break intro, the creeping piano-strings combo and… er… giant neck-snapping breaks of “Giant’s Causeway”, the speaker-smashing progressive bass groove of “Fugitive”, the tense "Rock Climb" and the sheer heft of "Heavy Load". Library largeness. If that isn’t enough, John Scott’s incessant “Flight Of The Phoenix” ends the session, brilliantly pilfered by M.O.P. for their much-loved “We Run New York”.

Originally released in 1976 but wonderfully timeless, Visual Impact is a rare example of a library record that’s genuinely great listen from start to finish. Just too good…

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Visual Impact comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

And don’t worry! Those KPM stickers aren’t stuck directly on the sleeves!

Steve Moore reprises his beloved Lovelock guise by presenting his unique riff on the library breaks genre. Business And Pleasure contains grimy groove and sleazy, funk-laden lounge music.

This vinyl release is hyper-limited, with just 500 pressed for the world.

The LP is ushered in by the spacey synth-funk of the sleazy, woozy title track. This is that serious slo-mo cosmic-balearic head-nod shit. Laidback bass, heavy funk with dreamy synth and electric guitars. An outstanding opener. Up next, the dynamic, swaggering "Last Call" is a sophisticated, elegant stroll - sweeping, mellow strings, a smooth bassline and gorgeous percussion with urgent keys and swelling synths.

"Slinky Strut" is another spaced-out, sleazy funk groove with jazz rock by way of a heavy, heavy guitar riff, mellotron and bass breakdowns which build to brass crescendos. Gigantic. "First Class" closes out the side, and, like classic Hawkshaw / Bennett noir, it's got that mysterious and murky stretched out sleuth / detective soul with a great bassline and percussive elements, with swelling strings, ace synths and smooth Rhodes piano melodies entering the mix halfway through. Dramatic guitars and groovy percussion add extra intrigue. It's 7 minutes of funk!

Side B opens with the stretched-out psychedelic funk and jazz groove of "Stank 49". It takes its sweet time to unfurl, creating enormous - almost sensual - anticipation for the ensuing beauty but, as it does, we're left beguiled and straight-up hypnotised. Heaven-sent synth flourishes and a laidback bassline over smooth drums cement its simple, vivacious grace. "Dangerous Man" is that creeping crime funk we all love; heavy bass and fuzzy guitar riffs, mellow strings and sumptuous piano/synths. It's irresistible, it's ominous and it's pretty gargantuan. It's basically like an El-P hip-hop instrumental. We need to get some rappers over this stuff, stat!

"Stinkbug" is a dazzling and funky groove-fuelled jazz-rock workout with fizzing synth riffs joined by full percussion and drum breaks, building with strings to a strong swagger. Vigour! To close out this remarkable set, the breezy "Win Or Lose" is laidback soul-inflected funk, utilising urgent, skipping drums and galloping basslines. Just stunning.

This collection was written and recorded in Spring and Summer of ’24. Everything was tracked at Steve's home studio in Albany, NY except the drums and percussion, which were recorded by Jeff Gretz at his space in NYC. The whole collection is basically a rhythm section feature, so Steve's Rickenbacker 4003 and Fender Jazz Bass play very prominently. The bass guitar serves as lead instrument in a lot of these tracks. Also, lots of Rhodes and stringers (Solina, Logan etc) and guitar (Strat and Les Paul). He even dusted off my sax for this one, which he doesn’t do as often as he’d like!

This type of groove-oriented library music has been a steady part of Steve's diet since the late 90’s. In heavy rotation while writing this collection were the following classics: “Time Signals” by Klaus Weiss, “Tilsley Orchestral No. 10” by Reg Tilsley, and “Heavy Truckin’” by Simon Haseley. “Voyage” by Brian Bennett was also a big one.

Lovelock started as a dedicated Italo-disco project, but over the years Steve expanded it to include anything directly informed by the commercial/pop side of the music of his childhood (70s/80s). Writing and recording this album was, like a lot of Steve's music these days, basically a test to see whether or not he could do it.

The song titles, like the music, are meant to be evocative yet vague. But there is a bit of a travel theme. Steve imagined this record being the soundtrack to a sleazy salesman’s business trip. The kind of guy who, when asked if he’s traveling for business or pleasure, responds “both.” Beyond the traveling salesman comparison, the title directly relates to the creation of this album. This was something he wanted to do just for his own enjoyment. Yet, like our sleazy salesman, he still found a way to get paid.

The album’s cover was designed by Chris Stevenson, with no little direction from Steve. He knew that he wanted to go with something photography-based for this cover so, in true DIY/cheapskate spirit, Steve started by looking through his own photos. He found the cover image on his phone, taken through an almost empty bottle of beer, and it clicked. The whole album has a very boozy vibe (especially with titles like “Last Call”) so this shot seemed appropriate. We, hic, agree.

Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Trip-hop royalty Morcheeba make a blistering return with a stunning 11th studio album Escape The Chaos.

“This whole record is a process of trying to reconnect with what really matters. whether it’s what in your heart or with the world, putting your feet on grass and feeling the earth beneath you” says Ross Godfrey.

“For me, ‘We Live and Die’ is about my duration in the band and the music world and life in general,” Skye says of the lead single. “The lines become blurred after all this time. In a way, it’s a homage to the thirty years of being in Morcheeba which is 60% of my existence.”

Formed in London in 1995 the legendary band have extensively toured the globe, sold over 10 million albums worldwide and left their mark as one of the most influential acts of recent times. Releasing their acclaimed debut album Who Can You Trust? in 1996, the band have gone on to release a string of successful studio albums, including 1998’s platinum selling Big Calm, produced an album for Talking Heads’ David Byrne and produced soundtracks for Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh.

In their 30th year Morcheeba are as relevant as ever and are set to mark the celebration in style.

When you’re running a label, a demo occasionally comes across your desk that makes you reconsider everything you thought your label was all about. For Balmat, such was the case with this stunning album from Stephen Vitiello, Brendan Canty, and Hahn Rowe. It sounds like nothing we’ve released so far—and that very otherness opened up a whole new world of possibilities for us.

Fans of ambient, experimental electronic music, and sound art will be familiar with Vitiello, a New York native, long based in Virginia, who has collaborated with a cross-generational list of greats: Taylor Deupree, Steve Roden, Lawrence English, Tetsu Inoue, Nam June Paik, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pauline Oliveros, and many more. On labels like 12k, Room40, and Sub Rosa, he has explored a wide range of minimalism, microsound, lowercase, ambient, improv, and other styles. But this album is something different. It may begin in ambient-adjacent territory, but it quickly veers off, and it just keeps zigzagging, taking on elements of krautrock, post-punk, dub, and the groove-heavy interplay of groups like Natural Information Society and 75 Dollar Bill.

This stylistic turn is thanks in large part to Vitiello’s choice of collaborators. “We’re coming from three different schools,” Vitiello says: “sound art, art rock, and punk rock.”

Active since the early 1980s, Rowe—a violinist, guitarist, and producer/engineer—has played with, or manned the boards for, a frankly jaw-dropping list of musicians: Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott-Heron, the Last Poets, Roy Ayers, John Zorn, Glenn Branca, Swans, Live Skull, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Anohni, R.E.M., Yoko Ono, and many more. But he might be most closely associated with Hugo Largo, a one-of-a-kind New York quartet—two basses, vocals, and Rowe’s violin—that in the late 1980s helped lay the groundwork for what would eventually become known as post-rock.

Canty, of course, is the legendary drummer of Fugazi, the visionary DC post-hardcore group, as well as Rites of Spring before them, and, currently, the Messthetics, a Dischord-signed instrumental trio with guitarist Anthony Pirog and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally.

Vitiello’s trio first collaborated on First, a 17-minute piece released on the Longform Editions label in 2023. Second picks up where the freeform drift of First left off, channeling the trio’s exploratory energies into more intentionally structured tracks and—in a real first for Balmat—some almost shockingly muscular grooves. “Sometimes my projects are more conceptually driven,” Vitiello says, “but I think this was more musically geared. I just wanted to open up the references and bring in an incredible drummer, bring in some melodies, and I’m sort of the center.” But his collaborators, he stresses, are “vastly creative in making anything I might suggest better.”

Like its predecessor, Second took shape in phases, shifting between improvisation and collage. Vitiello laid down the skeleton of the music at home, sketching out initial ideas on Rhodes keyboard and acoustic and electric guitar; he then fed the parts through samplers and his modular system, recording 10- or 20-minute jams. Once he had edited them into more structured forms, he hit the studio with Canty, who added not just drums but also bass and piano; finally, Vitiello took the results of those sessions to Rowe, who played violin, viola, electric bass, and 12-string acoustic and bowed electric guitar, and assisted in some of the final structuring and mixdown.

A few more surprises along the way: Reanimator’s Don Godwin, the studio engineer where Vitiello recorded with Canty, contributed what he calls “resonant dustpan”; and none other than Animal Collective’s Geologist, who just happened to be in the studio that day, sits in on hurdy gurdy on “Mrphgtrs1,” the album’s gorgeous, stunningly atmospheric drone closer. “I love these chance encounters,” Vitiello says. “Somebody I admire, a group I admire—that was an unexpected gift.”

An unexpected gift is a great way of describing Second as a whole: three veteran musicians venturing outside their usual zones and finding a new collaborative language together. The results can’t be neatly slotted into any given genre; they belong not to any given category, but to the spirit of conversation itself.

50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Heavyweight Vinyl 45 RPM Cut / Original glued prints on Thick Cardboard 700 gram / 2 Separated parts hand-glued / Glossy lamination / PVC outer / 30x30 cm insert with interview to Steve Kuhn by Tony Higgins printed on 250 gram Favini Lanilla Yellow / 20 Pages 21 x 30 cm "Real Book" with transcripts of the songs in the "Real Book" style, handwritten by The Maestro Carlo Spanò with main theme, chords and lyrics printed on 120 gram Shiro Eco paper, 100 gram Favini Crush Alghe. Carlo also edited an introduction with technical analysis of the session, which solves some of the little mysteries around this music gem.

Personnel:
Steve Kuhn - Vocals, Piano
Airto Moreira - Percussions
Billy Cobham - Drums
Ron Carter - Bass
Gary McFarland - Arranged by


Notes:
The album features the group playing Gary McFarland arrangements of Kuhn's compositions, accompanied by a string section on several tracks, with Kuhn delivering stream of consciousness lyrics in an unplanned and largely improvised fashion in the studio. However, that wasn't the only surprising aspect to the session. Airto Moreira's appearance was more by chance than design, he having just popped by the studio, again, unplanned. The 'Steve Kuhn' album is all the stronger for these extemporaneous and serendipitous elements and showcases a band at the top of their game; tight and funky yet relaxed and flowing like molten gold, with stabs and washes of keyboard from Kuhn. Splashes of free playing enter the session, but the band never stray too far from a melodic and harmonious centre of gravity. Kuhn's deft keyboard skills provide melodic embroidery to the impressive rhythmic textures and tonal colours of Carter, Cobham and Moreira. As if the music wasn't enough, the album is given extra significance by the fact that, within a few months of the recording, McFarland would die after being mysteriously poisoned by methadone in a New York bar. In a sense, it is a valedictory album from McFarland, channeled by Kuhn and the band.

It's among the hardest of Kuhn's albums to find so this reissue is most welcome. Luxuriate in the glow of Kuhn's Fender Rhodes and the pliant funky bass of Ron Carter; immerse yourself in the percussive interplay of Moreira and Cobham, a pairing that has rarely sounded so good. This is such an exquisite album; you will lose yourself in its delicate power and find yourself coming back to it again and again.

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!

Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. Mystica Tribe is the musical alias of Tokyo-based dub/techno producer Taka (Takafumi) Noda. He collaborated with Vienna's own Vegetable Orchestra on 2020's "Transplants (Mystica Tribe Version)". After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.

So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, vibraphone, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, melodica, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.

Liner notes by Steve Barker

RIYL: Sufjan Stevens, Pearls Before Swine, Richard Dawson, Incredible String Band, Scott Walker. When Dominic Harris started work on the follow up to 2017’s “Rural Tonic”, he had a different kind of landscape in mind than the bucolic inspiration he’d mined for that album and its predecessor (2013’s “Woodland Casual”). Instead it was nostalgia for winters of a youth (mis)spent in 90’s Berlin.

With a lucky find of a Hohner Guitaret, (a 1960s electric thumb piano), Harris began writing lyrics around its sparse and austere accompaniment. And after reconnecting with an old friend from Edinburgh, Ricky White, now living in the USA, the plan became clearer: a winter-journey to the rural Mid-West to write and record an LP. Convening in White’s new hometown of Bloomington IN, Harris would work each morning in the county library, the pair then venturing out on long, aimless drives down country roads before returning to put their ideas and conversation into music. With songs written over two weeks, Harris and White headed to a small studio space in a derelict strip mall in Indianapolis, to capture the album in as minimalistic a form as was fitting to the wintry feel of much of the music; glimmers of pedal steel and recorder shining out amid the dual acoustic guitars and piano arrangements. After the pandemic cut its swathe through all plans, the recording sessions decamped to Scotland.

By then Harris’s longtime collaborator Robert McFall had written string arrangements for each song, effortlessly capturing the spirit of the original vision whilst elevating each song towards the universal. Still there were the frosty hedgerows and abandoned factories of the rural Rust Belt. But also now the sandstone architecture and cobwebs of Edinburgh, and the cold grey of the Firth of Forth. Diminuet, the cover artwork showing a catheter transformed into a flower, captures that fragile moment where the world seems forever frozen in time, even as the Spring prepares to transform us all once again

Parsley Sounds was the glorious debut album for Mo Wax by Parsley Sound. The album was one of the iconic label’s final releases before it closed in 2003 and locating a clean copy has been extremely tricky of late, unless you're flush enough to drop 150 notes on it. Mercifully, the Be With reissue, put together with invaluable assistance from the group, should remedy this situation. It's a lo-fi, bass-heavy, blunted beat treat, warped with heat haze and dreamy soft-psych and has been criminally under-heard for far too long.

As with most cult-like records, Parsley Sounds has many influential fans, far and wide. From Four Tet and Caribou to NTS's modern day breakfast hero Flo Dill, its reputation has only grown in stature. At the time, the notoriously hard-to-please Pitchfork garlanded it with a scarcely achievable 8.8 whilst, just recently, the Numero Group's Rob Sevier described it as a "visionary bit of proto-Salvia Palth (or Steve Lacy)" via a Ghostly International missive.

Parsley Sound comprised super-talented duo Preston Mead and Dan Sargassa. They released an early single (the perfect "Twilight Mushrooms", featured here) on Warp Records as Slum, before signing to Mo Wax. Hidden behind a wall of sound - fuzzy layers of beats, bleeps and symphonic synths - they were convinced they made mainstream pop music. And, in many respects, Parsley Sounds really is a beautiful pop album. It overflows with memorable, gorgeous melodies and inspired songcraft. As the contemporaneous Pitchfork review correctly had it: "Parsley Sounds is one of those rare records that manage to sound modest while frequently pushing the sonic envelope."

Killer opener "Ease Yourself And Glide" is a thing of aching, soft-psych, wonky beat-beauty. A melodic masterpiece, part Crosby, Stills & Nash, part proto-Koushik, it presents a melancholy falsetto, surging bass and blunted lead guitar. As it climaxes, gorgeous strings are ushered in to see us out. Sublime. "Twilight Mushrooms" is up next and it's an acid-drenched, strung-out acoustic-led campfire wonder. Amid layers of tape-hiss and beautiful, sun-dappled strings, its understated vocal track provides a haze of wistful innocence.

The breezy "Spring's Near" is a krautrock-inspired chiming instrumental of heavenly excellence, its warm, skipping, motorik groove and dreamy synths completely infectious. Another total highlight, the technicolour "Yo Yo" initially presents itself as a more abstract, bleepy offering but as it organically swells into ever more beautiful places, with the addition of a choppy insistent drum loop, flute bursts, horns and sweeping strings, it puts one in mind of early Manitoba and Four Tet releases. Shimmering, blissed-out greatness.

The celestial harmonies and glistening harps of the wonderfully beatless, serenely sullen "Ocean House" are very much in conversation with late-60s meditative psych whilst, closing out Side A, the jaw-dropping, lushly experimental effort "Find The Heat" comes on like Arthur Russell meets Brian Wilson. Yep, *that* good.

Side B opens with the warped, bleepy "Stevie", a brief but beautifully wonky, soulful and intricate instrumental. The more upfront vocals that propel the fuzzy "Platonic Rate" have a refreshing swagger to them, the heavy bass and neck-snapping in-the-red beats too much for any system to deal with whilst the guitars and strings have a sweeping, cinematic feel which just beguiles. The slow, urbane soul of "Candlemice" will stop you in your tracks, no matter what you're doing. It carries a delicate sadness, as does much of the album in that classic "down lifting" style we so love here at Be With.

The fuzzing, buzzing "Templechurchmansions" is a searing, soulful dubwise detonation. Heavily stoned with slow-burning jazzy snatches and a tense, moody atmosphere, it's a Tricky-adjacent gem. The album rounds out brilliantly with the ominous instrumental "Neon Breeze" before giving way to the propulsive, almost incongruous punk-funk / disco-dub of secret "untitled" track "Caution", a scratchy, smacked-out groove-fuelled workout with a female vocal dripping with 'tude. Just sensational.

Under the watchful eye - and attentive ears! - of Parsley Sound themselves, the audio for Parsley Sounds has been carefully mastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland.

Preston and Dan always thought the colours on the first vinyl pressing looked a bit "washed out" vis-a-vis the original artwork which was way more vibrant. We feel we've got it popping back to the original intention with the restoration work here at Be With HQ. So with the audio and artwork now approaching completeness after 20 years, this long overdue re-issue could be considered its definitive vinyl release.

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album TRANSIT TRIBE can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!

Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.

So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.

2024 Repress

After appearing on the label's recent 'Federation of Rytm II' release alongside some of the industry's most iconic artists, Steve Redhead is back on Mutual Rytm, taking over the label from SHDW & Obscure Shape with a 6-track solo EP delivering driving, furious and old-school influenced techno.

The eleventh installment of Mutual Rytm opens with the rolling grooves and choppy vocals of 'Blokhut', which flows smoothly into the highly effective drums and strings of 'Sea Choy', while 'Bruusk' closes the first side of the vinyl with a hypnotic, well-crafted 90s influenced techno anthem. On the flip side, the title track 'Eastbook Isle' is all about its rolling bassline, retro/electro influences and a mesmerizing melody, while on the B2 'Planet Phatt' closes the record perfectly with a classic old-school sounding cut, made to be the last track of the set or those early morning moments. Last but not least is the digital bonus track 'Monster Madness' and as the name implies it is the hardest of the bunch, with aggressive late night grooves wrapped in deep, repetitive and
evocative chords.

Undoubtedly one of his best works to date, the Belgian producer keeps up the good work with his second appearance on the label in the form of his Eastbook Isle EP.

Chromium Dioxide brought Leitstrahl’s sound to world. The three man group of Stoff, Paul Raal and Boogaloo Steve return alongside Alberto Melloni with Azimuth. Bordello A Parigi’s own Furór Exotica are drafted in to help with the Dee D. Jackson inspired “Automaton Lover”. Disco infused and bombastic, this powerful piece employs bold synthlines and breathy vocals to devastating effect. The title work follows. An addictive melody is cut by a crisp beat in this bright and inviting instrumental.

Thick basslines and a mirrorball groove introduce “Spectral Fantasy”. Featuring the smoky lyrics of Vongold, a tale of unexpected encounters and possibilities unfurl amidst warbling analogue strings. Slung back basslines and a low throb are central in “Light Years”, a smooth longue affair to finish this diverse 12”.

Mr. K takes on two different disco moods in the latest in his long-running series of edits on 45.

Danny Krivit’s edit of Tony Orlando’s “Don’t Let Go” was released in Japan in 2012 and immediately became a sought-after, impossible to find rarity. Orlando’s version of “Don’t Let Go” was released at the height of the disco era, but the song itself was already a well-worn pop standard, having been covered by numerous artists before the pop singer tried his hand at it, switching things up with a percolating disco groove. “I never expected to rave about a Tony Orlando record,” wrote Vince Aletti in his Record World column in June of 1978, “but this one’s really terrific… My pick for a summer refresher.” The Jimmy Simpson mix on the original 12-inch follows the vocals with a long instrumental section that teases the various elements provided by the Muscle Shoals band (guitar, vibes, strings, and above all a sinuous synth) back in over the relentless bass and drums. Danny’s edit, which he’s trimmed down for its debut on 7-inch, works with this instrumental break and more than lives up to Aletti’s description as an addictive warm weather jam.

From the moody instrumental sound of “Don’t Let Go” we move to the bright uptempo vocal track "I Fall In Love Everyday." In spite of the relative obscurity of this fabulous but lesser-known cut, it comes with a sparkling pedigree. “I Fall In Love Everyday” was written by Jay Graydon (whose credits also include “Turn Your Love Around” for George Benson and “Breakin’ Away” for Al Jarreau), produced by Motown ace Mickey Stevenson (who wrote “Dancing In the Street”) and arranged by David Foster, who was just making the transition from session keyboardist to the superstar songwriter/arranger he’d become. The backing track was first used for singer/TV personality Jaye P. Morgan’s version of the song a year earlier, but you certainly can’t blame the team for reusing the music when the band included studio heavyweights like Harvey Mason, Lee Ritenour, Ray Parker Jr., and Kenny Loggins. Danny’s creative edit fashions a clean, DJ-friendly instrumental intro where none existed on the original, and gives new life to a track that’s sure to bring some sunshine to dancefloors.

As always, these unique selections from Mr. K’s personal stash are cut on a loud, club-ready 7-inch pressing.

Percussionist Jamie Muir was a member of King Crimson during the recording of Larks' Tongues In Aspic, in 1973. Staying less than a year with Robert Fripp, the Scot had already cut his teeth with another master guitarist, Derek Bailey, as part of the Music Improvisation Company, along with Evan Parker, Hugh Davies and Christine Jeffrey, whose eponymous 1970 album was one of the first releases on ECM. Muir and Bailey recorded Dart Drug eleven years later, in 1981.There's no shortage of great percussionists in the brief history of free improvised music but on the strength of Dart Drug alone Jamie Muir deserves a place at High Table. Unlike for example Han Bennink and John Stevens, though, you can't hear echoes of any particular jazz drummer in Muir's playing, even if he has expressed appreciation for Milford Graves (who himself sounded like nobody else who'd come before him).What on earth did Muir's kit consist of Some instruments are clearly identifiable (bells, gongs, chimes, woodblocks); others could be... well, anything. Old suitcases thwacked with rolled up newspapers Tin cans and hubcaps inside a washing machine Who cares It sounds terrific - but if you're the kind of person who faints at the sound of nails scraping a blackboard, you might want to nip out and put the kettle on towards the end of the title track.Dart Drug is consistently thrilling, and often very amusing - but it's certainly not easy listening. In music we talk about playing with other musicians, whereas in sport you play against another opponent (or with your team against another team). Why not play against in music, too That's precisely what happens very often in improvised music, and Bailey was particularly good at it. How can a humble acoustic guitar hope to compete with a Muir in full flight Sometimes Bailey's content to sit on those open strings, teasing out yet another exquisite Webernian constellation of ringing harmonics and wait for the dust to settle in Muir's junkyard, but elsewhere he sets off into uncharted territory himself.'The way to discover the undiscovered in performing terms is to immediately reject all situations as you identify them (the cloud of unknowing) - which is to give music a future.' Bailey evidently concurred with this spoken statement by Muir, including it in his book Improvisation.Derek Bailey is no longer with us, of course, and Muir gave up performing music back in 1989. All the more reason for seeking out this magnificent, wild album.

Dublin-born, thirty years an immigrant. That's the spine of henryohenry's debut, Apocrypha, not as a concept but as a condition. He's spent three decades in the United States working in the trades, absorbing the country's mythologies and building what he calls "an idiosyncratic American language" out of them, something closer to Whitman's vision than what he found. He is, by his own account, "formally and informally not a musician" — all but two of the songs were written on a $6 charity-shop guitar with a repaired headstock and strings that distorted unpredictably. It doesn't appear on the record. Produced by filmmaker Rick Alverson, the album is anchored by guitarist Eamon O'Leary and his son Ned Steves, recording together for the first time, without rehearsal. Erik Hall mixed and contributed overdubs; Emilie Rex of Lean Year lends harmonies to three songs; poet Callie Garnett appears on another. Album standout "There" captures something harder to name: how powerful feelings drive you to the page, and how the thing you make can outlast the feelings that made it. "It feels like a triumph over something," he says, "even if you're a bit embarrassed by some of the sentiment."


Apocrypha arrives as a debut but carries the patience of a life lived in full. For fans of John Cale, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen.

Following the “immaculate and eternal soul” (The Guardian) of The Indications’ 2019 album, American Love Call, Private Space unlocks the door to a wider range of sounds, boldly launching the band into a world of synthy modern soul and disco beats dotted with strings. Anchored by the high-low harmonies of Aaron Frazer (drums/vocals) and Durand Jones (vocals), and rounded out by Blake Rhein (guitar), Steve Okonski (keys), and Mike Montgomery (bass), The Indications are true masters at melding revival sounds with a modern attitude. The ten tracks across Private Space provide for both an escapist fantasy and a much-needed recentering after a tumultuous 2020.In conjunction with today’s announcement, they share Private Space’s lead single/video “Witchoo.” Reflective of the track’s vibrant, playful energy, the Weird Life-directed video features the five band members and close friends, transitioning from a live performance 
to an electric backstage soirée.“At the end of the day, I just want people to close their eyes and forget where they are. Just the way a Stevie Wonder album does for me,” says Jones. Developed after being apart for much of the year, Private Space is creatively explosive and delights in upending expectations. Throughout, The Indications highlight a collective resiliency – as well as the power of a good song to be a light in the darkness. From an Indiana basement (where the band recorded their 2016 self-titled debut LP as college students), The Indications have catapulted into the soul limelight and an international stage. Following their sophomore album American Love Call
 — a dreamy but pensive record of big string arrangements and sweet soul stylings — The Indications became revered by vintage music fans, the lowrider community and late-night television.

In 2023 we began our hugely successful 80s 12” series on CD – a year-by-year journey through the greatest 12” singles from the decade, and in 2024 we presented a selection of tracks from 1980-1982 as the first volume in our collectible vinyl boxset series, followed by Volume Two celebrating 1983-1984 in 2025.

This year, Now Music is proud to announce the third instalment in this essential collection, NOW Presents…12" 80s: Volume Three: 1985-1986, as a stunning 5-LP boxset. A limited edition and numbered set with each of the 5-LPs pressed on a different colour vinyl – red, yellow, blue, hot pink and lime green – to be released on July 17th, 2026, and for many of these tracks this marks the first time back on vinyl since their original 12” release!

Opening with one of the decade’s most powerful rock anthems, Queen’s ‘One Vision’ appears in its Extended Version, ahead of Eurythmics’ euphoric ‘There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)’ in the Special Dance Mix and Dead Or Alive’s irresistible ‘You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)’. Side A closes with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the epic ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome (An Alternative To Reality)’. Flip the LP over for more iconic 12” versions from 1985, beginning with Tears For Fears and the UK Extended Version of ‘Shout’, alongside Go West’s ‘We Close Our Eyes (The Total Overhang Mix)’, the massive soundtrack hit ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ from Simple Minds and Arcadia’s sophisticated ‘Election Day (Consensus Mix)’.

LP2 opens with four defining tracks that perfectly capture the electronic and cinematic sound of the mid-80s. Paul Hardcastle’s groundbreaking hit ‘19 (The Destruction Mix)’ leads into two instrumental classics: Harold Faltermeyer’s ‘Axel F’ and Jan Hammer’s ‘Miami Vice Theme’, both featured in their Extended Versions, before Propaganda’s peerless ‘Duel (Bitter-Sweet)’ closes the side. Side B showcases some of the era’s biggest dancefloor favourites, from Mel & Kim’s ‘Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)’ and Gwen Guthrie’s enduring club anthem ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent’, to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Who’s Zoomin’ Who?’ in its Dance Mix and the soul-pop brilliance of Loose Ends’ ‘Hangin’ On A String (Extended Dance Mix)’.

LP3 brings together some of the decade’s most beloved pop and rock crossover hits. Side A opens with the powerhouse pairing of Philip Bailey and Phil Collins on ‘Easy Lover (Extended Dance Remix)’, followed by Bonnie Tyler’s dramatic ‘Holding Out For A Hero (Club Mix)’ and Pat Benatar’s classic ‘Love Is A Battlefield (Extended Version)’. Stephen Duffy’s infectious ‘Kiss Me (Mixe Plural)’ precedes The Human League’s U.S. #1 ‘Human (Extended Version)’. Over on Side B, Duran Duran lead with the ‘Extended Mix’ of ‘Notorious’ before a run of timeless dance-pop including Sly Fox’s ‘Let’s Go All The Way’, Jellybean’s ‘Sidewalk Talk’ and Maria Vidal’s ‘Body Rock’, culminating with Ashford & Simpson’s club classic ear-worm ‘Solid (Special Club Mix)’.

LP4 opens with huge examples of sophisticated synth-pop and dance-floor innovation from 1986. Pet Shop Boys’ era-defining ‘West End Girls (Dance Mix)’ is joined by New Order’s influential ‘Bizarre Love Triangle (Extended Dance Mix)’. Up next, Red Box’s pure-pop of ‘For America (Bazooka Mix)’ and Nick Kamen’s breakthrough hit ‘Each Time You Break My Heart (Extended Version)’. The reverse side celebrates some of the biggest floor-fillers of 1986 – all in their 12” Versions, beginning with The Communards with Sarah Jane Morris and their unforgettable #1 version of ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, alongside Bronski Beat’s ‘Hit That Perfect Beat’, Bananarama’s global smash ‘Venus’ and Five Star’s ‘Can’t Wait Another Minute’ in its ‘M&M New York Remix’ form.

The final LP opens with a side packed with some of the most enduring dance-pop and of the era. Whitney Houston’s ‘How Will I Know (Dance Remix)’ is followed by Steve Winwood’s uplifting ‘Remix’ of his massive hit ‘Higher Love’, the celebrated ‘Shep Pettibone Remix’ of Level 42’s ‘Lessons In Love’ and Bryan Ferry’s elegant and atmospheric ‘Slave To Love (12" Remix)’, whilst over on the final side some of the years’ most distinctive and innovative sounds are showcased: Big Audio Dynamite’s genre-blending ‘E=MC2 (12 Inch Remix)’ and Furniture’s cult classic ‘Brilliant Mind (12" Mix)’ feature alongside Talk Talk’s majestic ‘Extended Mix’ of ‘Life’s What You Make It’, and to close this superb collection, the full ‘Extended Version’ of Spandau Ballet’s powerful ‘Through The Barricades’ provides a fitting finale, bringing together 42 essential 12” versions from 1985 and 1986 across five superb LPs.

In a world currently defined by unrest, uncertainty, and cultural fracture, acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Isaiah Collier returns with Joy, a 5-track EP that reframes one of humanity’s most nuanced emotions both as a devotional grounding and political act.

Collier’s deeply personal compositions present joy as an act that isn’t rooted in escapism or abstraction, but rather, as something hard-won rooted in lived experience, shaped by transformation, and sustained through connection. Throughout the album’s five compositions, Collier positions joy as a guiding light during challenging times, an expression of challenging yourself to utilize your gifts, an affirmation of love and discovery, and as an affirmative source of reassurance.

“We are in a paradoxical time, where so much is being revealed to us,” Collier shares. “Everything feels political from every scope… our collective hearts feel the heaviness in the air. Yet I say to you all—don’t despair. For right now, the most political thing we can do is share joy.”

That ethos is made clear in the opening title track and lead single “Joy.” A pulsing rhythmic motif anchors the melody with a sense of both searching and certainty. Collier conceived the piece around 3 years ago reflecting on a time where many people in his life were experiencing loss of family and friends and experiencing profound life transitions. “Everything just felt like it was falling apart with no aim in sight,” he reflects. “Yet, there is a light at the end of it all.”

As he played the chords with a sense of urgency, he could feel the vibration of yellow in the piece. That initial triplet motif serves as the guiding light on the piano and the only word Collier could hear was Joy. In addition to Collier at the helm singing and playing piano and tenor sax on the track, it features an expansive 11-piece ensemble with a full horn and string section allowing Collier’s propensity for composition and arrangement to shine with an eclectic sonic palette.

“Landscape of Dreams” finds Collier serendipitously leaning into utilizing his gifts as a multi-instrumentalist. While he had a sketch of the piece going into the studio, a traffic delay caused musicians to be late arriving at the studio. Never one to waste time in the studio environment, Collier stepped into new creative territory and took up the challenge of executing playing all instruments himself as an act of trust and experimentation. “I’ve never done this before, and so it was a leap of faith for me,” he asserts. “I always dream of doing stuff like this, and being part of the small percentage of people who can do it like Prince, Steve Lacy, Frank Zappa, and Stevie Wonder. The end result finds Collier immersed in a hypnotic soundscape playing layered flutes, drums, Metatron, Wurlitzer, and auxiliary percussion.

Another layer of joy is revealed in “Where I’m Loved” that serves as a love letter and leaning into the process of stepping into the willingness to explore life and love with a partner. On the intimate meditation of vulnerability and connection, Collier's vocal prowess is on full display, exerting effortless falsetto reminiscent of D’Angelo over soulful Wurlitzer and guitar as he crosses over into more R&B-inspired realms. “I believe everyone deserves this feeling or to honor the memories of it. Furthermore, I believe you should also go where you’re celebrated and not tolerated.”

“When the Dust Settles” captures the electricity of live collaboration and Collier further steps out of being confined to any specific genre. He had just gotten a microKORG keyboard from co-producer Sonny Daze and was exploring the vast array of sounds on the instrument. Collier plays synth bass on the microKORG joined by the electrifying improvisation of Cole Runge on guitar and the combustible rhythm of his brother Jeremiah Collier on drums with additional post-production work from Sonny Daze.

The album’s final track “God’s By Your Side” reflects on perseverance and artistic legacy, directly inspired from the passing of D’Angelo, whose life’s work was a huge part of Collier’s childhood growing up in the late 90s and early 00s. With gospel flavor and direct influence both from D’Angelo’s vocal and instrumental arrangements, the track speaks to resilience and persistence in the face of obstacles—an affirmation of source and reassurance. “And what’s better than having God by your side, right?” asserts Collier.

Joy is a through-and-through expression of the arc of joy in its truest form. Joy transcends fleeting happiness and is conscious gratitude shaped by taking chances, leaning into your gifts, fostering community, and lived experiences.

“Joy is partially happiness,” Collier explains. “But to me it means happily being grateful for family, friends, lovers, teachers, and good times. These are the things that anchor us.”

The release of Joy comes off the heels of significant momentum for Collier, whose work continues to garner accolades and resonate across cultural spheres. He was featured on the cover of DownBeat’s April 2025 issue, where he was named “The Next Sax Giant,” and profiled on NPR’s Jazz Night in America for his ambitious 13-movement interdisciplinary suite The Story of 400 Years, that traces 400 years of Black American History. He released two full-length albums in 2024 with The World Is on Fire highlighted in The New York Times’ Fall Arts Preview and The Almighty named among the publication’s Best Jazz Albums of the year.

Beyond performance and recoding, Collier’s influence is recognized in broader cultural and intellectual spaces as he was the recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2025 Up and Coming Artist of the Year Award, the 2024 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz, and was named a Steve Jobs Archive Fellow joining an elite cohort of the next generation of artistic visionaries through a yearlong program.

In addition to the release of Joy, Collier is touring his “Collier Plays Coltrane” program throughout 2026 in honor of John Coltrane’s centennial. Rather than presenting Coltrane’s expansive catalog as repertory, Collier approaches this music as something living, reshaping it in real-time with a sense of space and improvisational dialog reflecting both reverence to the past and present times.

A document of singular rarity. Issued by United Dairies in 2026 in a hand-made, heavy-gauge black vinyl edition limited to 300 copies, 1984 - A Happening recovers the second ever public performance of Nurse With Wound, captured on tape in 1984 and held in Steven Stapleton's archive across the four decades since.The history is nearly mythological. Across the years 1984 to 1986, NWW operated briefly and reluctantly as a live band, performing on stage exactly eight times, of which five were public. Stapleton has called these events "shambolic, chaotic and uneven affairs, sometimes as boring for the performers as the non-plussed audiences but at other times reaching an amazing intensity". The first of them, an Amsterdam show on the 8th of December 1984 at the NL Centrum, has surfaced over the decades in fragmentary form; the second has remained, until now, almost entirely unheard. It belongs to a moment when Stapleton, working alongside collaborators including David Tibet, Andrew McKenzie of The Hafler Trio, and a rotating cast of percussionists and string players, was carrying NWW briefly out of the studio and into a series of confrontations with audiences who often had no idea what they were watching.The recording itself is described, accurately, as raw but beautifully captured. The performance moves through the territory NWW had been mapping across Homotopy to Marie and Nature Unveiled: long passages of pre-recorded tape collage assembled by Stapleton and McKenzie, ridden over by live electronics, voice, percussion, and the surreal theatrical instinct that has run through every gesture the project has ever made. There is a sense of a collective groping its way through unstable material in real time, an ear turned simultaneously to dada and to musique concrète, to the British post-punk underground and to the krautrock heritage that has always shadowed Stapleton's work. The chaotic edges are intact. So is the intensity Stapleton has spoken of.

Warehouse Find!

Time to welcome Soul 223 to the label with his debut Delusions EP entitled Fear Of Stopping. Something of a complete legend in our eyes and ears, Steve Pickton has been releasing top drawer tuneage for over two decades both as Stasis on influential labels such as B12 and Peacefrog and more recently as Soul 223 on equally well regarded imprints like Delsin, Soul Jazz and Neroli. Always one to shy away from any limelight or self promotion it's true to say that this underrated British producer remains something of an anomaly, staying true to his underground roots where faceless, shadowy and obscure reigns supreme over the latest over-exposed cover star. This ethos naturally carries through into his music where you will always find both expansive beauty and unrefined rawness in equal measures ensuring his tracks always sound fresh rather than over produced or contrived.

Fear Of Stopping opens the EP with a low-slung disco groove providing the backbone for intermittent pad washes and reversing stabs. The focus here is firmly on the drums and simple conga riff with thankfully very little else to deter you from this sublime slice of abstract dance music.

Next up we have a remix from another ridiculously talented producer who chooses quality over quantity, having only ever had one release under his own name, albeit for one of the most respected labels in the world; Rush Hour. Maxi Mill came to our attention having released one of the tracks of 2011 namely To The Next. On this, his first ever solo remix he brings a brilliant bump to the EP with a raw, warehousey and bass-heavy workout. Just the right amount of strings and pads keep the deep vibe intact but the filtering bass and jacking drums definitely take this one to the floor.

Flipping over we have Walberswick in it's Hoist Covert Mix incarnation. Almost thirteen minutes of spaced out, deep Detroit house music awaits you, ready to lure you in and cocoon you with it's warm and hypnotizing machine funk. Lovely to hear the old Stasis influence working it's way into this one sounding both decidedly old-school and completely futuristic and otherworldly as only the best tracks ever do.

Closing the EP we have Birdbrook Rain dropping the BPM's for a beautifully sparse track that brings with it an almost desolate and disconnected feeling, echoing synths providing a naive melody while a dusty pad shifts simply beneath. A little slice of magic concluding a fresh and interesting EP, we hope you agree.

Erstpressung des Soundtracks zum Netflix-Originalfilm mit Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman und Jay Lycurgo. Die Originalmusik wurde von Ben Salisbury und Geoff Barrow komponiert und enthält außerdem ,Don't Leave Too Soon" von Little Simz (die auch in dem Film mitspielt), den sie exklusiv für die Figur Shy geschrieben hat. Der Soundtrack enthält auch Beiträge des renommierten Elektro-Produzenten und DJs Slipmatt. Ben Salisbury und Geoff Barrow haben unter anderem die Soundtracks und Filmmusik für Annihilation, Ex-Machina, Civil War, Black Mirror und Devs geschrieben und produziert.

In 2019, La Volte released Les Furtifs, the latest novel by science fiction writer Alain Damasio. At that time, to mark the publication, Damasio invited the band Palo Alto to join him on stage in response to an invitation from the literary festival Oh les beaux jours !, held at La Criée – Théâtre national de Marseille. What was initially intended as a one-off performance led to a multi-date tour across France. The show performed at La Maroquinerie was filmed and recorded in multitrack and will be release on the 12th of June 2026 on Hublotone (HUBLO006CD).

At the same time, to join this release, Palo Alto invited eight artists to remix the pieces composed for the show: Ptôse, Pacific 231, Judith Juillerat, Herb Duncan, Norscq, Thierry Zaboitzeff, Lefdup & Lefdup, and Electronicat.

Bringing together the best of the French underground music scene, these tracks echo avant-garde artists such as Coil and Tuxedomoon, blending electronic music with string instruments, instrumental compositions with acid club influences. They will be available on vinyl in a gatefold sleeve featuring artwork by Kiki Picasso (ex-Bazooka). Inside the gatefold, an exclusive text by Alain Damasio introduces the project.

Palo Alto is a French band formed in Paris in the late 1980s. They have recorded a dozen albums and developed several projects featuring guest musicians such as Scanner, Simon Fisher Turner, Ramuntcho Matta, J. G. Thirlwell / Foetus, Richard Pinhas and the New York trumpeter Rhys Chatham. They contributed to a tribute album to John Balance / Coil and asked a dozen artists to reinterpret "Half-Mute", Tuxedomoon’s debut album, featuring the original members of the American band (Steven Brown, Blaine L. Reininger and Peter Principle). In 2018, they were selected by the Californian band The Residents to take part in a cover album released on Cherry Red Records. Their latest album, dedicated to the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, was released on the Belgian label Sub Rosa in 2020.

a A1 - The Stealthy Ones remix By Ptôse
[c] A2 - Une Grâce [remix By Pacific 231]
[e] A3 - Menace Prophylaxie Niveau 6 [remix By Judith Juillerat]
[g] A4 - La Ville Est À Nous ! [remix By Herb Duncan]
[i] A5 - Lueur Ultramarine [remix By Norscq]
[k] B1 - Une Clameur De Sabbat [remix By Thierry Zaboitzeff]
[m] B2 - Un Cri [remix By Lefdup & Lefdup]
[remix By Electronicat]

[a] A1 - The Stealthy Ones [remix By Ptôse]
[c] A2 - Une Grâce [remix By Pacific 231]
[e] A3 - Menace Prophylaxie Niveau 6 [remix By Judith Juillerat]
[g] A4 - La Ville Est À Nous ! [remix By Herb Duncan]
[i] A5 - Lueur Ultramarine [remix By Norscq]
[k] B1 - Une Clameur De Sabbat [remix By Thierry Zaboitzeff]
[m] B2 - Un Cri [remix By Lefdup & Lefdup]
[remix By Electronicat]

Maybe it was inevitable that Vilhelm Bromander and Fredrik Rasten would find each other. A symbiotic musical alliance of suggestive combinatory magic that stretches back to the interstitial two day space that separates their dates of birth and manifests here as the movement between ‘perfect’ or ‘just’ intonation and the ragged, psychoactive energy of the slippages from and towards that togetherness that render otherwise simple patterns or generally understood repetitions as wildly other and alive.

Astral Twins shares ‘twin’ works by each composer. The patiently unfolding real time retuning of Fredrik Rasten’s guitars on the a-side’s Sojourns and Vilhelm Bromander’s quickened steps and spry looping melodies on the flip’s Partially Dancing.

Both artists have history of going deep into the aesthetic and acoustic impact of intonation (how you think about what is ‘in tune’). Where their first LP (...for some reason that escapes us, 2019, Differ Records) shared a gorgeous set of sustained tone colour fields, this time they lean more explicitly into the folk music traditions of Scandinavia and further afield, whilst echoing the zoned minimalist atmosphere of Arthur Russell’s classic Instrumentals.

Recorded up close and in real time at Fylkingen’s soon-to-be-abandoned temporary location in Stockholm’s southern suburb of Bredäng, Astral Twins sings with the possibility that one plus one can equal more than two.

Fredrik Rasten:
 Sojourns explores the live retuning of guitar and double bass in a sequence of just intonation harmonies. A guitar ostinato runs throughout the piece where the retuning becomes an integral part of the composition. The slow pace reveals every detail in the transition from one harmonic arpeggio to another — how interfering waves emerge and disappear as the tonal interactions settle in electric clarity. The double bass shadows the guitar's process and comments with occasional pizzicato tones and register jumps, at times providing a low foundation for the sound and sometimes soaring together with the guitar. This is music that is deeply listening; experimental and at the same time humbly inviting many kinds of being with sound.

Vilhelm Bromander: 
As the title suggests, this song has a partially dancing character. The title also has a double meaning with reference to the partials and harmonics that dance together. The basic idea was to write music in just intonation that instead of being drone-based is reminiscent of a lightly dancing folk music, where the joyous feeling of just being in the music — “musicking" — is allowed to lead the way.

The double bass plays repeated overtone double stops in an open harmonic progression with subtle modulations that is inspired in equal parts by Steve Lacy's persistent repetition of phrases as east-asian khaen music. The guitars and mandolin have a freer role, with plucked retuned strings that enhance the bass's modulations and provide forward movement. The music invites to both melodic and spectral listening, suddenly halting so that other focal points can reveal themselves. For example, a chord sequence suddenly transitions to a more spectral part where Fredrik is playing a bowed guitar with a chain, several plucking guitars, voices, and pitch pipes. I wanted to make something ‘orchestral’ with just two people and no overdubs: a dance of overtones and open resonant strings, where we seamlessly take turns standing in the foreground.

Nonesuch Records releases Let X=X, by Laurie Anderson with Sexmob. This triple-LP/double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob – Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss on brass, Kenny Wollesen on percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. Its cover and interior packaging feature paintings by Anderson. The album features 23 songs, including many favourites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements – plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, ‘Junior Dad’. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer (details below).

The New York Times said Anderson and Sexmob’s concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) ‘wasn’t a historical recreation of past recordings; Sexmob’s sound is a beefier one than on Anderson’s albums. With musicians who can double on electric guitar and bass clarinet, its members offered a rich range of textural variation throughout the evening.’

Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates... It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life.’

Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records, the critically lauded Life on a String, in 2001. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002); Homeland (2010); the soundtrack to her acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015); and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; the album includes Anderson’s beloved, surprise hit, song, ‘O Superman’, which also is featured on Let X=X. Her recent Nonesuch release was 2024’s Amelia, about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight.

Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date. Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date.

Laurie Anderson was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson. That same year, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

180g Vinyl

The album features the group playing Gary McFarland arrangements of Kuhn's compositions, accompanied by a string section on several tracks, with Kuhn delivering stream of consciousness lyrics in an unplanned and largely improvised fashion in the studio. However, that wasn't the only surprising aspect to the session. Airto Moreira's appearance was more by chance than design, he having just popped by the studio, again, unplanned. The 'Steve Kuhn' album is all the stronger for these extemporaneous and serendipitous elements and showcases a band at the top of their game; tight and funky yet relaxed and flowing like molten gold, with stabs and washes of keyboard from Kuhn. Splashes of free playing enter the session, but the band never stray too far from a melodic and harmonious centre of gravity. Kuhn's deft keyboard skills provide melodic embroidery to the impressive rhythmic textures and tonal colours of Carter, Cobham and Moreira. As if the music wasn't enough, the album is given extra significance by the fact that, within a few months of the recording, McFarland would die after being mysteriously poisoned by methadone in a New York bar. In a sense, it is a valedictory album from McFarland, channeled by Kuhn and the band. It's among the hardest of Kuhn's albums to find so this reissue is most welcome. Luxuriate in the glow of Kuhn's Fender Rhodes and the pliant funky bass of Ron Carter; immerse yourself in the percussive interplay of Moreira and Cobham, a pairing that has rarely sounded so good. This is such an exquisite album; you will lose yourself in its delicate power and find yourself coming back to it again and again. "It's a beautiful picture, and it helped me to comprehend things, life a bit, you know. And as I'm thinking about it, I hope it does that for whoever listens to it too." - Thundercat, Musician Details: Heavyweight Vinyl 45 RPM Cut / Original glued prints on Thick Cardboard 700 gram / 2 Separated parts hand-glued / Glossy lamination / PVC outer / 30x60 cm insert printed on 300 gram DNS paper with interview to Steve Kuhn by Tony Higgins.

Belgian artist, label boss and DJ, End-jy, glances back at one of his most revered releases to date, the 2003 ‘Red Alert’ EP, originally released on Lupp Records it marked a defining moment, earning widespread support from scene-shaping artists including Carl Cox, Tiësto, Marco Bailey, Dave Clarke and Mark Broom. Long regarded as a personal milestone, the track now returns in renewed form on the artist’s own label as MV08. This forthcoming EP revisits the original with fresh perspective, featuring a powerful remix from Pig&Dan alongside a newly reworked version by Dimitri Andreas and the artist himself, bridging the track’s enduring legacy with a contemporary evolution.

Pig&Dan take the reins first, extracting fragments of the original version of ‘Red Alert’ and reshaping them into a dub tinged, deep techno cut fuelled by circling synth stabs, robust percussion, tension building atmospherics and a driving bottom end. Following on is ‘Red Alert’ (Dimitri Andreas & End-jy 2026 Remix), the pair lay down a deeper, more hypnotic and minimalist interpretation courtesy of crisp, stripped-down drums and oscillating resonant synth flutters underpinned by the original’s dark, dubby aesthetic.

The original version of ‘Red Alert’ opens the flip side, capturing the essence of the underground at the turn of the millennium, the track fuses, gritty stabs with organic percussive elements, hypnotic siren like synths and a subtly evolving feel throughout.

‘Flexibeat’ then concludes the release, a composition that veers into the realms of early Detroit techno and electro via an amalgamation of twitchy synth pops, cinematic strings, saturated 808 drums and murky bass tones.

Already Supported by Jamie Jones, Calao, Amé, Marco Faraone, Timo Maas, Nick Varon, Steve Parry, Just Her, Dax J, Perc, Massimiliano Pagliara, Alex Neri.

Kommt in einer auf 2.500 Exemplare limitierten und nummerierten, farbigen Edition auf rotem 180g-Vinyl -inklusive dem Bonustrack 'Don't hold your breath' und eingefasst ein einer Deluxe-Hülle mit Leder-Laminat-Oberfläche sowie plus Lyric-Insert!

Mit ihrem einzigartigen Stil, der vom Klang der Hammond-Orgel, markanten Gitarrenriffs, Improvisation und treibender Rhythmusarbeit geprägt ist, zählen Deep Purple zu den ersten und einflussreichsten Vertretern des Hard Rock und Heavy Metal. In ihrer bislang 45-jährigen Bandgeschichte schrieben sie zahllose Hits wie "Highway Star", "Child In Time" und "Smoke On The Water". Nun erscheint die Wiederveröffentlichung des Deep Purple-Klassikers "Purpendicular" aus dem Jahr 1996. Die damalige Bandbesetzung bestand aus Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover und Steve Morse. Inklusive der Hits "Vavoom: Ted The Mechanic", "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" und zwei zusätzlicher Bonus Tracks. Ein Muss für alle Deep Purple-Fans!

‘Moonlight Concessions’ goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaimed ‘Sun Racket’ from 2020, a heady set filled with tough and tender tales spiked with surreal imagery. Produced by Kristin Hersh at Steve Rizzo's Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ is a collection of snippets from everyday life writ large - think Raymond Carver Short Cuts, overheard conversations, recounted happenings and telling one-liners, all sewed together to illustrate the times as they slowly mature, fully peppered with original Muses’ vim and vigour. ‘Drugstore Drastic’ is a kerbside soliloquy caught en route to a more alluring rendezvous. Built on a brisk acoustic strum with a guitar sub-melody underpinning proceedings, it’s an unfolding tale of social awareness from a blurred sub-conscious. ‘Summer Of Love’ began as a bet with a guy for a dollar that revolved around the idea that the seasons don’t change us. The album opener, it’s a haunting baroque overture, bowed and brooding. ‘Libretto’s strings offset the acoustic ambience, the hot and cold of longing at the very heart of it, a thematic driver filed with warmth in a safe haven lubricated by tequila. Written in the differing South Coast environs of The Gulf Of Mexico and Southern California, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ pulls from the star clusters that light both, generating optimism and hope in varying degrees. Hersh explains, “In New Orleans the stars look greenish-blue, as it’s below sea level and swamp-lit. But on Moonlight Beach, they glow icy white. All these songs were written in these two glowy places, which helped our sonic technique find itself.”

**2010 Grammy Award Winner: Best Traditional Folk Album **

‘Marvelous…exuberant’ - Rolling Stone

Nonesuch Records releases a fifteenth anniversary edition of Carolina Chocolate Drop’s 2010 Grammy Award-winning album Genuine Negro Jig, featuring founding band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson. The reissue includes the original album and nine bonus tracks: seven previously unreleased tracks plus a 2025 remaster of ‘City of Refuge’ and a 2025 mix of ‘Memphis Shakedown’. This release marks the album’s first time on vinyl since its original pressing in 2010.

Genuine Negro Jig was released on February 16, 2010, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Folk chart and the top of the Bluegrass chart. It won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. Produced by Joe Henry, it was the first of three releases on Nonesuch followed by The Carolina Chocolate Drops/ Luminescent Orchestrii EP (2011) and the Grammy nominated album Leaving Eden (2012), produced by Buddy Miller. Widely acclaimed as one of 2010’s best, Genuine Negro Jig appeared in year-end lists of NPR, Paste, and more, and was featured in Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Country-Soul Albums in 2024.

“Genuine Negro Jig remains fresh fifteen years later not only because of the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ influence on American popular culture but also because it’s an excellent record in itself,” says Dr. Dwandalyn Reece and Dr. Steven Lewis of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in the album’s liner notes.

Carolina Chocolate Drops formed after band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC in 2005. All three trained in the Piedmont banjo and fiddle musical tradition under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, who was one of the last musicians of his era and his community to carry on the southern Black string band tradition. While old-time Southern string music is often associated with Caucasian musicians from Appalachia, Giddens pointed out in an NPR interview that “it seems that two things get left out of the history books. One, that there was string band music in the Piedmont, period. And that Black folk was such a huge part of string tradition.” Carolina Chocolate Drops sought to not only correct this misunderstanding but also to keep the centuries-old string music tradition alive and developing.

The members of Carolina Chocolate Drops, who came from diverse musical backgrounds, shared singing duties and swapped instruments throughout their sets. The band recently reunited for a single show at Rhiannon Giddens’ Biscuits and Banjos festival in Durham, North Carolina in April 2025. In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Black Banjo Gathering, the documentary Don’t Get Trouble In Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story by Filmmaker John Whitehead was released on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube Free4all streaming platforms.

The combination of Todd Terry and Hard Times is synonymous in the world of House Music. The legendary DJ/Producer, a true pioneer of the genre, was among the first US artists to play at the intimate, vibrant gatherings in the North of the UK in the early ‘90s. Forever linked by "A Night In The Life," the live mix released in 1995 that set a new benchmark for mix-tapes, it is a collaboration that has continually blossomed, forging a bond that remains strong over 30 years later.

1995 also saw Todd Terry make his first impact on the label with the seminal club smash "Bounce To The Beat." Following his chart breakthrough with 'Can You Party’ in ‘88, the legendary 'The Unreleased Project’ series, which spawned club hits such as “Jumpin’”, and just a few months ahead of topping the charts with his remix of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’, label boss Steve Raine seized the perfect moment to bring his friend on
board at Hard Times Records with the signing of Bounce To The Beat. "I can still remember pressing play, hearing those beats for the very first time and thinking we had big track on our hands" says Raine. "It was our second release on the label, but it would be the track that firmly placed us at the forefront of the scene, both here in the UK and globally."

Hard Times & Todd Terry now revive 'Bounce To The Beat' with a 2024 reimagining, featuring two of house music’s most exciting young stars, delivering two powerful remixes that promise to dominate dancefloors this summer and beyond.

Dutch producer and Up The Stuss label head, Chris Stussy, takes the track on a '90s- inspired journey, blending progressive strings, high-energy bassline and original vocal, for an exhilarating ride. "I remember discovering Todd’s productions back in the days when I started to dig for that 90’s sound. He’s one of the artists that inspired me massively. He has proven that he owns the art of making timeless music as his productions are still being played till this day all across the globe. To be remixing ‘Bounce To The Beat’ is something special for me personally and I tried to give it a 90’s touch with a modern twist." says Chris.

London’s own Dan Shake offers a fresh twist with a 2Step-inspired remix, featuring an Armand-esque bassline that pulsates and evolves, building to an epic crescendo that is set to ignite mass hysteria on the dancefloor.

"Bounce To The Beat was actually one of the first records I bought when I started collecting house music. So to come back 15 years later and remix this iconic track for the legendary label Hard Times was both surreal and very, very fun," shares Dan.

Two exemplary reworks of Todd Terry presents Sound Design’s 'Bounce To The Beat'. For Vinyl and Digital release on Hard Times alongside the Original and ‘Tee’s Freeze Mix.’

Following 2018's acclaimed collaboration with Simon Fisher Turner, "Care", Swedish sound artist Klara Lewis returns with "Ingrid", her third solo release for Editions Mego.

"Ingrid" is a departure from Lewis's previous solo outings, drifting from the eerie rhythmic variations of "Too" and "Ett" and moving assuredly into long-form experimentation. The piece retains those records' pulsing core and builds on a single cello loop that is steadily enveloped by a surge of distortion. It's almost like a voice or chant, shifting pointedly from a whisper into a scream before singing peacefully into the light.

At times, "Ingrid" reminds of William Basinski's looping melancholy or Steve Reich's controlled and innovative phase experiments, while at others, it recalls the chaotic Scandinavian physicality of black metal. Yet the entire composition is anchored in Klara Lewis's distinct emotional world. By dissolving familiar and beautiful strings in baths of noise, Lewis allows something violent but tender to grow in its place. In a society struck through by cynicism, "Ingrid" is a cathartic listening experience and a beacon of hope.

Legendary Hiroaki Sugawara in the form of Sergio Maria Saguaro presents Rain Guitar.

Step into paradise alone to deeply savor an exotic experience.

“I first learned about this album thanks to GOKA, who built the sound system for my record shop, CELLAR RECORDS. Around 2019, it was praised by some connoisseurs, but it’s different from the so-called “popular ambient” sound that was in vogue at the time. This work is a Japanese obscure pop album created in 2002 by Hiroaki Sugawara, who goes by the name “Sergio Maria Saguaro,” mixing all types of exotic moods and completed in a secluded space. In particular, A-2 “Window with a Dog” and B-5 “Washing Machine” are truly a sonic paradise. When you put this record on your shelf, be sure to place it next to Tatsuhiko Asano’s excellent soundtrack “Following in the Footsteps of Doshin,” which was happily reissued in 2022, or Steve Hiett’s “Down On The Road By The Beach.”” -浜公氣 (Cellar Records)

“This sophisticated sound file paints natural landscapes, depicting rich and abundant scenes while floating through them, creating a world that is as beautiful as a kaleidoscope, appearing in the soundscape in a way that is always gentle, natural, and organic. It makes extensive use of four types of stringed instruments, modulators, flutes, and ethnic instruments, possessing a refined sense of elegant ambiance.” -Walearic / Gokaine Sound Research Institute

Rich Brown bought his first six-string bass in 1999, "Everyone made fun of me" he recalls with a characteristically warm smile - since then he"s established a reputation as first-call player for the leaders of an impressive variety of adventurous projects, from Steve Coleman to Rudresh Mahanthappa to James "Blood" Ulmer. Over the past two years, whenever time allows, he"s been paying regular visits to the studio of his friend, the guitarist and producer Elmer Ferrer. Away from the pressures of the commercial industry, Rich seized the opportunity to explore and expand the vocabulary of his instrument. "NYAEBA" took shape: written and performed entirely on the bass guitar, it"s the story of an imagined griot who journeys around the world and returns to relate his tales in song.