For our second vinyl release, the idea was to bring together two artists from the same scene with strong and distinctive identities, and create a project where their individual worlds can coexist. Beyond featuring a solo track from each artist, we wanted them to collaborate and explore a shared territory that draws from their respective influences while pushing towards something new.
After a five-year hiatus, JKS makes a triumphant return to the iconic French label Molekul with a highly anticipated solo EP. Leading the release is the standout track, The Cult, a testament to JKSs evolution while staying true to the essence of his sound.
Built for the club, The Cult channels an undeniable sense of power through its driving rhythms and immersive energy. The tracks tribal undertones create an
almost ritualistic atmosphere, pulling dancers into its pulsating core. With expertly layered textures and a commanding structure, The Cult keeps the momentum
unrelenting from start to finish.
True to his roots, The Cult brings a distinct old-school vibe, laced with a plurality of influences that have defined his sound since the beginning. Its a journey through raw rhythm and immersive layers, a bridge between past and present, aimed squarely at making people move.
The wait is over, Return To The 37th Chamber is El Michels Affair's highly anticipated follow up to 2009's underground cult classic Enter the 37th Chamber. Churning out classic records since then for the likes of Lee Fields, The Arcs, The Shacks, and tons more, it is clear that EMA's signature sound is stronger & sharper than ever. This time, in addition to re-interpreting the Wu compositions for a live band, EMA pays homage to the production and sonic fog that makes a RZA beat so recognizable. Producer and bandleader Leon Michels recorded the album completely analog, sometimes hitting 6 generations of tape before it was ready for mixing, giving the Return to The 37th Chamber it's own hazy sound. Adding to the unique fidelity, the record is laced with psychedelic flourishes, John Carpenter' synths, heavy metal guitars, triumpha0nt horns, and traditional Chinese instruments that make up for the lack of the Wu's superlative vocals. From start to finish it's a dark trip that walks the line between RZA's timeless hip-hop aesthetic and the cinematic soul EMA has become known for. El Michels Affair tackles some classics like 4th Chamber and Wu Tang Aint Nuthin to Fuck Wit, as well as some deeper cuts like Ol Dirty Bastard's Snakes, Raekwon's Verbal Intercourse, and Shaolin Brew, Wu-Tang's contribution to the St. Ide's Hip Hop endorsement campaign from 1994. This time El Michels brings some of the Big Crown family along for the ride. Lee Fields handles vocal duties on Snakes and is joined by Shannon Wise of The Shacks for their version of Tearz, which pays as much homage to the Wendy Rene sample as it does to the Wu-Tang Clan. Lady Wray makes an appearance on the cover of Method Man's hit, All I Need, lending her vocal prowess to what gave the Wu one of their biggest hits of all time. Interspersed throughout the record are some original interludes that are like the rug that ties the room together,' giving Return To The 37th Chamber a cinematic narrative that makes it a proper El Michels Affair record and not just a collection of covers. From the music to the presentation, this album is a perfect example of what can only be achieved through diversity. The end result is as much a kaleidoscope of influences and multiculturalism as the city it was recorded in. El Michels Affair is once again, sounding out the city' that raised them, pulling elements of art and culture from across the country and around the globe to create an album truly unique in it's own right.
The intriguingly named Pigeon Steve joins Especial for an EP of trippy, psychedelic electronic dance music that goes far beyond its origin – a thirst for all forms of movement – a struggle filled with all possibility.
Since its inception, the label has sought to take inspiration from a wide range of music genres – new wave and new beat to disco-not-disco, post punk and proto-house – never looking for a trend. This belief system expressed is human; intimate and authentic, dissolving and uniting around shared truths and universal values.
Music as ecstasy, the flux of rhythm and sound, to find and be yourself; no guilt, no competition, no games. It is phenomenon – magick – that short circuits through human (emotional) response.
Relocated to South-East London, Glaswegian DJ and producer, Pigeon Steve aka Adam Low, showcases his talent. A dubby, trippy approach to DJing mirrored in his productions; the recent, well-received EPs on the esteemed Offen Music and Weirdos Inc lead here – an EP of sample heavy cuts, wrapped in echo-laden grooves, the beats dripping in psychedelic, new beat and steppers electronica.
Dialect locates us, through its cadences, inflections and intonations we journey through life. Language allows us to escape the lion in a cage. The moment we forget ourselves, we can reach joy and clarity. To live is to exist, the struggle against controls, fighting for an individual destiny.
From the co-writer of the iconic Hardcore Uproar, Suddi Raval arrives on Hello World Records with his debut EP — a five-track electronic journey that moves effortlessly between disco, electro, experimental electronics and analogue-fuelled psychedelia.
At the heart of the release is “Laser Beams and Mirror Balls”, the EP's titular track, reimagined by superstar DJ and producer Justin Robertson, who takes the neon-charged original and pushes it into new disco dimensions with his unmistakable production touch.
The journey begins with Robertson's remix before moving into the original French-vocalled version of “Laser Beams and Mirror Balls” — a hypnotic, pulsating slice of electronic disco that sets the tone for what follows.
On the flip side, “Oni Strangler” takes a darker, more hypnotic and exotic turn, drawing the listener deeper into Raval's richly textured electronic world. “Robot Computer” follows with a growling bass machine of electronic stabs, warped drones and relentless low-end energy.
Closing the EP is “Zub Sierra”, a spaced-out voyage through a dubbed-out otherworld before descending into deep, resonating electro synths — the kind of beautifully unpredictable analogue textures that only an analogue Odyssey can deliver.
Across all five tracks, Raval combines electro-flavoured rhythms with a kaleidoscope of electronic textures, forging pulsing basslines, hypnotic melodies and richly layered soundscapes. It's an EP that feels both rooted in the electronic music traditions that have influenced him and entirely of its own time.
Five tracks. One electronic journey. From laser beams and mirror balls to analogue odysseys and robot computers.
Det Gode Selskab continue their quest as they call on Berlin-based Italian artist Busso. An artist who continues to express himself through a multitude of vibes and sounds, fitting perfectly with the free-flowing DGS ethos. ‘Anna In The Jelly’ wanders between four different cuts, teasing animated deep house energy combined with stripped-back minimal flavours. A reflection of Busso’s versatile taste, he encapsulates four sure shots for your summertime record bag. A tale for the sun worshipping dreamers, soundtracking the warmer months.
Diving straight in with ‘Sexual Desire’, Busso delivers perky and playful peak-time action, with a clean-cut, feel-good energy from the word go. A vintage feel emerges through the vocals and crisp drums, working in sweet harmony. Slick hi-hats lead the way in ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ before you are confronted with a killer elasticated groove synonymous with the Italian’s sound. Beautiful chords appear at the midway point, spiralling into paradise.
The B-side kicks off with the title track, constructed in a distinct chunky manner. Squelchy mechanical tones manoeuvre around the mysterious drive of the track. Moody as it moves, it’s one for the darker nights on the road. Last but not least is ‘Red Print’, tightly packaged and incredibly detailed, with quirky obscurities flashing throughout. A steady motion perfectly sets the tone as you start to build the floor.
This record cements an exciting future for the label, as they look to continue elaborating on their catalogue, ever-evolving and expanding their width of sounds with one of the most exciting prospects currently in the German capital.
The first new material from Krash Slaughta since last autumn finds our man dropping a tuff 45 featuring two dope ATCQ remixes. And what else to call that but ATCK a.k.a. ‘A Tribe Called Krash’! First up is Scenario which gets a gritty guitar-led new beat making it sound closer to something by Gravediggaz at their noisiest (or even DMX) than the Afro-centric jazz-hope vibes of Native Tongues. Over on the flip, a co-production with, and tribute to, the now sadly departed Del the Soul Condor, takes Low End Theory’s Buggin’ Out and sticks with the jazzy vibes but swaps Buggin’s minimal double-bass dominated shenanigans for something rather more Latinate and Bonita Applebum-esque. Naturally these are as cheeky as they come so it’s a strickly limited affair. Don’t sleep…
Digital Sting returns after a bit of a hiatus with an across-the-globe collaboration featuring two of contemporary electronic music's most mysterious and prolific figures. Berlin-based, UK- born Low End Activist meets British Columbia-based, Philippines-born SeekersInternational for a seamless merger of their distinct but eclectic styles. SKRSINTL's woozy abstracted dubwise and dancehall psychedelia drips in, pooling and merging into Low End Activists minimalist and precision delivered bass bin pressure. Both artists' music spends some of its time in the hazy edges and ambience between sounds with hints of the activity,
atmosphere and noise of the larger world present in the individual sounds themselves. An aspect of this record rides like a distilled essence of a merger between vhs era soundtracks, dusty live sound system tapes and classic era grime instrumentals but avoids the trap of obvious nostalgia. What is created through collage, deconstruction and refinement is in its whole very now. Like all things SKRSINTL and Low End Activist the continuum is honored and the momentum is always pushing forward.
The records come in double sided silk screen printed DJ Jackets, with Obi Strip style stickers and hand stamped white labels printed and assembled by Digital Sting.
The artwork for this release was created in collaboration between SKRSINTL and Digital Sting.
Mastered by Alec Ness and Greg Reierson. Vinyl run of 330 copies.
We’ve always been careful not to call Balmat an ambient label, because we like having the freedom to move, to drift, to morph. But with our 11th release, we turn our ears—proudly, blissfully—to a strain of ambient at its most timeless. The appropriately titled Dreams & Whispers comes from Warsaw’s Bartosz Kruczyński, who has recorded under a number of guises, Earth Trax, as well as his own name. Over the years, he’s touched upon deep house, breakbeats, acid, techno, electro, IDM, and more; often, the throughline running through a given album is simply the refusal to remain in any one place for long—well, that, and his unusually nuanced ear for harmony and texture.
Those qualities come to the fore on Dreams & Whispers, which might be the most focused encapsulation of Kruczyński’s atmospheric sensibilities to date.. Across 14 stripped-down tracks for shimmer and pulse, Kruczyński evokes overlapping styles in ambient—warm vibraphones, taut arps, massing strings, lonesome delay chains —but always with his own twist. Fitting the album’s title, the album is loosely divided into two distinct moods: The A-side, “Dreams,” is charged with subtle movement, rhythms spreading out like rings around skipped stones, while the B-side, “Whispers,” plunges into a zone of shadows and hush. The two complementary moods flow into one another like the faces of a Moebius strip, yielding an album that’s intuitively shaped and rich in emotion.
We know there are copious amounts of PFAS in the water supply of Rotterdam, but there must be more! What else could explain the amount of talent this city provides? Foobar is yet another prime example of this phenomenon. coming of age in Burgundian Brabant and cultivated in the grimy streets of our beautiful harbour city, Foobar just has a way of looking beyond its imperfections and translating the warmer hidden sides of the city whilst still tapping into its more rugged edges in this 4 track EP, for his debut release "Shifting Phases" on WAXRDM. The title track Shifting Phases just eases you into the whole, getting you ready to face another day on the grind, that's Rotterdam baby! We work hard and we play hard, and when we play, these are the sounds we wanna play too. Proper House Music. Some serious anger management issues on Parallel Motion, hitting hard from the get go, starting off with some intimidating drums, in your face bass lines, enticing melodies & alluring vocals. All of a sudden you're 3 minutes in, and you can't even remember what got you so upset in the first place. Who said you needed to be loud to be powerful? Not us, that's for sure, and definitely not Foobar. Quiet Strength proves that point yet again, laced with the sultry vocals by ES-V, this jam just takes you even further into your own headspace, drums that keep you in motion, melodies that keep you grounded but bass lines that let you float off into the atmosphere. It's Monday again, another day at the office, cleaning apartments, trading cryptocurrencies or whatever the hell you do to make ends meet. Ahh damn, and now you remember what irritated you. Colleagues, employers, pay or the lack of it. It is a good thing you have Back on the grind to make it all sound relative, helping you forget and looking ahead at the weekend. The perfect come down track that moves forward.
With their sixth studio album, ASN reveal a project in full command of its identity. “Reverie Machine” moves confidently through the many shades of post-punk, grounding its sound in analogue textures while embracing the electronic foundations of dancefloor-oriented wave.
Founded by Libero Volpe in 2007, the project now features Lorenzo Ceccarelli on bass, Alessio Rossetti on guitars and Gianpaolo Cesarini on analogue synths. Together, they carry ASN’s original fascination with kosmische music, science fiction and distant futures into a fully realised interplay of synthesizers, guitars and bass.
Across the eight tracks that make up this outstanding album, dreamlike instrumental passages meet darker songs shaped by evocative vocals, allowing atmosphere and melody to guide the journey. Rooted in the ’80s yet driven by its own imagination, “Reverie Machine” brings these influences together with the assurance and depth of a band at its most mature.
With Shadows is the darkwave alter ego of Jordan Lieb, the acclaimed North American electronic producer also known as Black Light Smoke. Recognised for his house and techno releases on Scissor & Thread, The Hacker’s Zone and Tiga’s Turbo Recordings, Lieb explores a darker, more introspective sound under his With Shadows alias. Drawn from two digital releases on his own Ancient Spells imprint, this collection of electronic darkwave traces a journey in reverse: opening with dark Italo and EBM-inflected technopop, it gradually slows down, sinking into a shoegaze universe steeped in atmospheric melancholy. Cold synthesizers, basslines that pulse like a heartbeat and haunting vocals give way to blurred textures and dreamlike spaces, carrying the listener from the dancefloor into a more intimate inner world. On “There’s a Hole”, his instinct for rhythm meets a deeply personal voice, revealing the emotional weight beneath the electronics. With Shadows gives Lieb room to reach beyond club structures and express himself through songs, bringing his songwriting, vocals and multi-instrumental talents to the forefront and revealing a facet of his musical identity distinct from his work as Black Light Smoke.
Manoeuvres drags you in with stunning percussion that runs throughout the track, but takes you on a Spacey journey with its synthy chords and solos that land you on a far away planet. Now you have landed on Planet ‘Nonna’ the tribe welcome you with a tracky Deep House track that lifts.
Up in the second half with the addition of some shakers and high hats, keeping you locked in. Patience – Feat Margomool. This track is nothing but stunning! An amalgamation of Nonna Fabs Deep musical vibes, production, and Margomools haunting vocal that laces everything up together. Perfect combination in force. If things couldn’t get any deeper, Nonna Fab’s ‘Found The Keys’ sounds like something that’s come straight out of Detroit, you can definitely see Theo Parish getting down to this!
Matthew Antico is the American techno head behind the PS11 alias and he has a fine array of outboard gear in his studio, as anyone who has seen his socials can attest. Here they are all hooked up and work in overdrive from the off as supple rhythms meet dance floor clout in deep underground caverns. 'Stratos' has that anxious, pent-up energy that never resolves, while 'Mile High' hits harder and more insistently but with molten dub chords. 'Mid Point' is a serene and spacious sound with a broken beat and widescreen outlook and 'Mariana Trench' sinks you into the darkness you would associate with the world's deepest ocean. 'Timble Snake' cranks up the suspense with tight loops and inky bass.
It's been almost a year exactly since the debut CJP Band 12' was released, Landing just in time for a few nausent plays at We Out Here 2025.
12 months and two more well received 12's later, Most notably of course by festival founder Gilles Peterson, the band find themselves making the short trip from their New Forest homes to the Tomorrow's Warriors stage on Saturday night for their We Out Here debut.
What better way to mark the occasion and round of the (calendar) year of releases with a tasty 7' that perfectly encapsulates festival vibes wherever they might be.
Taking the foot of the gas, For one release at least, Freedom delivers two sides of blissed out summer soul. Heavy drum breaks and the funkiest basslines of course still come as standard with a sweet vocal from guitarist Geoff Lai.
On the flip those trademark CJP strings glide over a stripped back instrumental version for the aptly named String Dub.
Kraak & Smaak formed in Leiden in pursuit of a particular blend of funk, disco and electronic soul, and over two decades and seven albums, Oscar de Jong, Wim Plug and Mark Kneppers have sharpened a sound that's unmistakably their own: warm, analogue, and always twisting old soul into something new. That sound has carried them from small European clubs to Coachella and American late night TV.
Their 2025 album Velvet Seas was written between Leiden and Los Angeles, and it shows: Californian light and a touch of psychedelia sit easily alongside deep funk and a cinematic reach. The record leaned on a wide circle of guests, among them IVAR, Berenice van Leer, Izo FitzRoy, Butter Bath, The Undercover Dream Lovers, iogi, Kosta G and Kainalu.
Velvet Seas Remixed hands the album's best moments to a curated set of international producers. British disco heritage, classic French touch, Brazilian disco funk, Melbourne club music and homegrown Dutch groove all take a turn, with each producer bending a familiar song toward their own instincts while keeping the album's character intact. Longer, extended versions and alternate mixes round out the full release, letting several of these tracks land in more than one form.
2026 REPRESS
Twelve tracks of morphinous, skeletal drift-sound wonders from the combined voices, guitars and percussion of ALAN SPARHAWK, MIMI PARKER and ZAK SALLY.
Diverse and painless songs that cut simply but effectively through heart-strings and nervous systems, leaving an absorbed and beautiful corpse in their wake. Features added instrumentation of strings, piano and timpani.
The third 7" box set from We Jazz Records, including five 7" releases from 2020-2021 (WJ0711-WJ0715) and including a sheet with release info plus a We Jazz sticker. Features The Stance Brothers, Antti Lötjönen, Koma Saxo, Eric Malmberg, Otis Sandsjö and Tampo.
Two seriously high-grade legends come together to mark the 30th anniversary of the cultured Seasons Limited imprint here: Don Carlos is behind one of Balearic house music's most enduring anthems in 'Alone' and Robert Owens has been voicing the genre since the 80s with his signature smoky tones. Here they cook up 'Inspired' in three different forms - there's a deep and soulful House Mix with an electric delivery from Owens, then a chord-laced and warm Classic Mix with a throwback Chicago bassline and finally a Dub Mix that strips everything back to a more breezy late-night sound that sinks you into the groove perfectly.
Tokyo Riddim Band continue their journey striding across times and cultures, this time with their colourful keyboardist and frontwoman Mimi Kobayashi breathing new life into a song she originally penned in 1981. ‘Lazy Love’ first featured on Mimi’s highly sought after Coconuts High LP, which she recorded in LA recruiting top session players to play alongside her. It was also included in Time Capsule’s 2024 compilation of Japanese reggae - Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985.
This soulful pop tune turned deep dub cut retains the romantic charm of the original, whilst the tasteful performances of the Tokyo Riddim Band and Ras Tavaris combined with Prince Fatty’s studio magic give the song a newly found depth.
London based Tokyo Riddim Band is a unique fusion of cultures, bringing together the vibrant energy of three generations of Japanese female musicians with the eclectic sounds of London. Their dynamic performances blend reggae drums, funky bass lines, and the smooth City Pop guitar, all magically dubbed-out live on stage. This is not just music; it's a cultural phenomenon, offering a fresh and exciting take on the reggae scene.
Psyché is an eclectic project rooted in the Neapolitan music scene. Conceived in 2018, the project includes Marcello Giannini (Nu Genea Live Band, Guru, Bassolino, La Famiglia), Andrea De Fazio (Nu Genea Live Band, Parbleu, The Funkin Machine), and Paolo Petrella (Nu Genea Live Band, Fratelli Malibu). They were recently joined by Roberto Porzio (Parbleu, Fitness Forever, 24 Grana, The Funkin Machine).
"Hurriya (We Must Resist)" is a sonic bridge crossing the Mare Nostrum, connecting the shores of Naples and Tunisia.
At the heart of this fusion is the voice and soul of Tunisian musician Ziad Trabelsi, whose Arab roots intertwine with the psychedelic, Mediterranean sound of Psyché.
In this track, Afrobeat and Arabic sonorities meet to create a hypnotic journey, one where Ziad's oud weaves an evocative groove that gallops like horses in the desert.
The song carries the echo of the ancient dominations and cultural exchanges that have shaped Naples—a millennia-old crossroads of civilization—where traces of Arab and North African influences continue to resonate in its streets and, most notably, in its music.
"Hurriya"—the Arabic word for freedom—is an anthem of resistance and resilience, a dialogue between East and West that dissolves the rigid boundaries of geography and politics. It is a collective song for the freedom of all peoples, against oppression, abuse, and injustice everywhere in the world. As Psyché emphasize: "Even if life tests us severely, and we often feel like giving up in the face of injustice, we must resist. We must refuse to disappear."
The single is available digitally and physically, on January 23rd, as a 7" vinyl. The B-side of the physical release includes an exclusive, extended version of "Hurriya (We Must Resist)", available only in this format.
As Tommy Guerrero puts it, "Road to Knowhere is inspired by its and pieces of EthioJazz, Afrobeat, Highlife, Spiritual Jazz and dusty funk 45's. The album took off after its release, and listeners gravitated to the first two tracks. With millions of streams and continued praise, "El Camino Negro" and "White Sands" remain fan favourite tracks from Guerrero
Children of Zeus return with their third studio album ‘As The World Burns…’
Five years on from their highly-acclaimed sophomore album ‘Balance’, Manchester’s kings of hip hop soul, Tyler Daley and Konny Kon, bring us a brand new 16-track opus.
Sonically the duo continue their story where they left off; crafting an amalgamation of street soul, alternative r&b and boom bap hip hop, with a sprinkle of flavours taken from their original multi-genre pirate radio influences, and a dash of forward-thinking new sounds, ensuring all tracks are destined to become future classics.
The features are sparing but powerful, enlisting the talents of revered UK rapper Knucks (‘Before We Drown’), Colorado-native Young Old Soul (‘Dopamine’), MCR family K S R (‘Do You Want To Get High’, & Australian/Mauritian up & comer Anieszka (‘Water & Vibes’).
As with previous projects, this album is largely produced by the duo themselves, though there are guest productions from previous collaborators too, including Grammy Award-winner Beat Butcha, Grammy-nominated Teo, and broken beat pioneer K15, along with an assortment of new players making moves in the underground neo-soul & beats circuit.
Conceptually, this project continues on with the story to date. An eternal search for sunsets and soulfood, as a respite to the anxieties of the modern world; personally, professionally and globally. Assertive swagger is matched with brutal but sincere candidity. As ever, it encapsulates the rough with the smooth, with reflections on where they’ve been, where they’re at and where they’re headed. There’s no preaching to be found here; just an acceptance of things as they are, an embrace of the environment and people they were nurtured by, and a celebration of some of the finer things in life; slow jams, weed & rum, water & vibes. Raps for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners. All packaged together as another perfect sonic love letter to sound system culture. 50 minutes of big people music.
Since the release of their anthemic debut single ‘Still Standing’ a decade ago, to the subsequent EP ‘The Story So Far’, and their critically-lauded debut album ‘Travel Light’, the duo have received numerous accolades, including nominations for AIM Awards & Worldwide Awards both, along with tons of ‘Album of the Year’ nods care of Clash Magazine, Bandcamp, Complex, Wordplay and many more. This along with huge swathes of support from DJs, radio stations, press outlets, tastemakers, luminaries & fellow artists across the globe.
Children of Zeus have performed sessions for COLORS, Soulection (Apple Music), DJ AG, Boiler Room, BBC 6 Music and at the infamous Maida Vale studios for BBC 1Xtra as well as touring across Europe, Australia and South Africa. This is in addition to collaborating & touring with Mercury Award Winner’s Ezra Collective, including a Wembley Arena show. Other collaborations over the years have included Shy FX, Juls, Goldie, Black Milk, Kofi Stone and the late great Lenzman.
From the Broke ’n’ English / Hoodman-era, to the present day, Children of Zeus have been omnipresent in the fabric of British black music. Proud ambassadors of Manchester music, and of UK soul, it really is “Zeus to the world”.
Children of Zeus have been adorned with plenty of flowers over their career. The unbridled quality and poignance of the music and the message on display throughout this project will see the algorithmic needle move some more. It’s undoubtedly set to be a Zeus Summer. As the world burns…
Available on all digital platforms and physical formats, Friday September 4th 2026.
t 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. K S R ) - Children of Zeus03:26
t 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. K S R ) - Children of Zeus03:26
[t] 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26
[t] 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26
[g] B3 | Do You Want To Get High? (feat [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26
Naná Rizinni is a São Paulo-born drummer, producer, and composer whose work sits at the intersection of progressive electronics, jazz improvisation, and Brazilian rhythmic traditions. After relocating to London in 2020, Rizinni further expanded her distinctive sound, drawing on influences ranging from contemporary UK experimental jazz to forward-thinking electronic music. A respected collaborator and session musician in Brazil, she has performed with artists including Tiê, Johnny Hooker, Ana Cañas, and Thiago Pethit, and has appeared at major international festivals such as Lollapalooza, Rock in Rio, SXSW, and Primavera Sound.
Her new album,Epiblast, is a deeply personal and sonically adventurous statement. Written and co-produced with saxophonist and producer Mark Cake, the album explores themes of transformation, grief, new parenthood, and self-discovery through a rich blend of acoustic and electronic textures. Combining expansive sound design, intricate rhythmic interplay, modular synthesis, and Brazilian musical foundations, Epiblast draws comparisons to artists such as The Comet Is Coming, corto.alto, Mark Guiliana, and Richard Spaven while maintaining a unique voice of its own. Available on vinyl and digital formats, Epiblastshowcases Rizinni's most fully realized artistic vision to date and positions her as a compelling new voice within the global contemporary jazz and experimental music landscape.
Active Systems' debut EP, The Red EP (Split Lip Records), finds beauty in chaos and strangeness in the familiar: drawing from 90s/00s experimental grooves and stark electro (Underground Resistance, Boards of Canada, μ-ziq, Aphex Twin's Rephlex label) to create something rooted in the "dust, dirt and nostalgia" of underground electronica, Detroit techno and weirdcore. A genuine debut rather than an established alias, the four-track release moves from familiar patterns into unexpected new emotions, from the glacial hip-hop beat and starlit melancholia of "Gabbol" to the skippy rhythms of "Itsover" and the clock-shop funk of "Avoid”. This year, Active Systems has been invited to perform at Superbooth Berlin by Sequentix, played a debut show in Lost's much-hyped Club Room and closed Houghton Festival's The Warehouse stage on theopening night.
Sleep D and Mosam Howieson join forces for an EP that traverses peak-time pressure and deep hypnotic terrain.
Opening with ‘Syphon Filter’, a monstrous techno steam train that sparked the collaboration for the record, starting over five years ago. Industrial klanging to a banging beat. Simple and effective. Chugging along, ‘Inertia’ and ‘Mirror Pool’ offer respite with a psychedelic and emotive strain of techno.
Rounding out the release, Dutch producer Konduku reshapes one Mirror Pool into a stripped-back, fluid remix. Refracting the source material through his distinctive palette.
Asake’s fourth studio album, M$NEY, marks a major evolution in his career, trading the frantic energy of his early hits for a more polished, cinematic sound. The project explores the intersection of material wealth and divine favor, framing his global success as a spiritual journey. Rather than just celebrating the "soft life," Asake uses this record to reflect on the discipline and faith required to maintain his position at the top of the music world.
Sonically, the album expands his signature Fuji-fusion and Amapiano roots with help from long-time collaborator Magicsticks and international producers like DJ Snake. Tracks like "Worship" bring high-octane electronic energy, while "Badman Gangsta" featuring Tiakola offers a sleek, R&B-influenced collaboration. Throughout the project, Asake balances these high-energy moments with orchestral strings and jazz elements, creating a rich, textured listening experience that feels both global and deeply rooted in Lagos street culture.
At its heart, M$NEY is a balance of celebration and introspection. In tracks like "Forgiveness" and "Gratitude," Asake addresses the pressures of fame and the personal growth he has undergone since his debut. He remains grounded in his Yoruba heritage, blending boastful lyrics with sincere thanks for his trajectory. Ultimately, M$NEY proves that Asake is more than a hit-maker; he is a visionary artist documenting his life and legacy with newfound maturity and style.
The Comfort enters the double digits of its catalogue with the label’s most ambitious release to date by Saudi Arabian artist Noboot, titled “Call and Pulsate”.
Fluid in genre yet wholeheartedly electro in spirit, Noboot’s creative output shapeshifts across the record: from four-to-the-floor acid-tinged propulsion to time-freezing illuminations, with neon-coloured synths, body-twisting low ends and piercing drum hits mutating throughout the album, and often within the tracks themselves.
Noboot’s capacity for sonic manipulation is on full display here with the pieces moving with a captivating direction and command. Sometimes gentle, sometimes dramatic, but always carried with a particular elegance and poise. To listen to the record from start to finish is to step into Noboot’s own conceptual world, one in which the artist has the confidence to take floor-oriented dance music and elevate it both in spirit and form.
There is composure and ambition in this approach. Tracks move the listener from one emotional state to another in the span of six minutes: not merely teasing transformation, but by fully taking the listener there. To deliver on that ambition requires control and idiosyncratic intuition. If “Desolated Delay” and “Timer Set” are striking examples of Noboot’s capacity for propulsion, “Meter Tired” shows the other side of their talent: the ability to make time feel briefly suspended in a weightless flux of cybernetic psychedelia.
To achieve this once or twice would already be impressive. To sustain it across an album of this scale is rare in electronic dance music, and makes The Comfort’s tenth release a defining moment in the label’s catalogue.
HVS is truly pleased to welcome Cash Kru and Tweeleaf to the label. Two of the hardest working kids in Jungle/Hardcore IMO. With a ton of quality releases under their belts, they just had to get pressed up, because these tunes are absolutely phat!
Cash Kru runs the Asionyta label out of Belgium along with Expo, F.T.C Project & Tweeleaf. Super wicked label putting out digital releases as well as lathe cuts, disks and cassettes. She has loads of top tunes on there, and not strictly Jungle either! She also runs the Devil Dubs label putting out very very quality Jungle. I highly recommend checking both out if you want some gritty, ruthless Drum & Bass.
Tweeleaf out of Pennsylvania (funny enough the same small town the rest of my family is from) also has releases out on both labels as well as his own, Interim Records, focusing on digi singles from him, all currently being sold at “Name Your Own Price” which is insane considering every release is excellent.
These tracks were made with a combo of DAW and emulated Amiga (more info on the center label) and all four are just Heavy as hell. I've been playing them out live a ton and every track crushes the dance floor. Someone always demands the rewind on “Militant Jazz” which is funny because the buildup is so long, but by the time it drops everyone loses it!
A1. starts off the EP on a more mellow tip with a vibey Soul Pride, Think & Amen mashup from CK. The switch up into the 2nd half phased out Amen is so seamless, it's a great way to get the EP going.
A2. goes straight into the ruffness with a relentless amen tune mixed up with some mysterious/jazzy chords/vox all summed together in PT2.
B1. is a remix of a tune of mine that never came out, but CK asked for the stems and did an amazing job with it. I love her choppage on this! Super tight and snappy and hits all the right notes for a destructive tune.
B2. ends the EP with one of the nastiest tunes to come out anywhere this year if I may say so. That Lemon D amen is just crazy, and that S950 time stretch stutter is chef's kiss. But you be the judge!!
UK underground heavyweight Ploy unleashes his second release on Dekmantel with a brand new four track EP. The release sees the dynamic producer continue to push the envelope with his own flavour of driving, sexy, Ploy house. Putting every ounce of his production prowess on show while proving yet again that Ploy is a force to be reckoned with both in the studio alike. Making tracks for DJs has always been the source of inspiration for Ploy and this is no different with each offering carrying its weight and then some. Straight up, no frills house music that oozes quality by doing the simple things well.
Kicking off the record is title track 'Glizzy', an arpeggiated tech house tool built for the hours that you lose yourself on the dancefloor. From the off Ploy puts his ear for percussive dynamism on show with the understated subtleties of this opener. Thematic sampling, nuanced arrangement and odd ball melodies combine to set Glizzy apart with a gentle nod to hot dog lovers worldwide.
The EP follows suit with A2 'Global Underground'. A contemporary progressive house roller, which rips through the atmosphere with melodic blasts, unrelenting groove, and a powerful bassline.
Offering an equally effective double B-side, B1 is 'Yesterday Now Tomorrow', which sees Ploy lean on his production mastery with entangled percussion and expertly dosed sampling. The result is a swinging heavy house burner that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
Lastly on the EP is ‘SlowanDip’. A heavily swung, percussive chugger to warm up a dancefloor, paired with a bassline to test the system, this B2 closes out a stellar second showing on Dekmantel for Ploy.
The record arrives at the crest of festival season and is primed to soundtrack dancefloors around the world under the glistening Summer sun. Ploy has quickly carved out a reputation for his unmistakable, drum driven take on house music, and Glizzy only sharpens that identity further. Focused, effective and built with DJs firmly in mind, the EP captures an artist operating with total confidence, delivering four tracks that prove Ploy isn’t just part of the conversation, he’s pushing it forward.
Precious Bloom producer Dea returns on the Rush Hour Store Jams imprint with a fresh four tracker... tip!
The idea for Fairlight began shortly after Aradea Barandana purchased a Yamaha DX1 synthesizer. While exploring its presets, one sound in particular—called Fairlight sparked the initial concept for the EP. From there came the desire to create an Italo wave inspired track that would feel fresh to contemporary ears while still referencing the character of early electronic music.
Rather than following the traditional structure of dance music where drum machines and synthesizers lock into repetitive synchronized patterns the EP approaches composition more like a narrative. The music gradually unfolds, allowing melodies and harmonies to evolve so the listener is encouraged to stay with the piece from beginning to end.
Some of the harmonic ideas draw inspiration from Baroque music, particularly chromatic ascending progressions and voice-leading techniques. In contrast, other moments introduce playful bubblegum-inspired synth lines, adding lightness and color to the overall sound.
The result is a small collection of tracks that sit between nostalgia and experimentation where vintage synthesizers meet a compositional approach that values movement, surprise, and a sense of musical journey.
With Parallel Worlds, RFLX opens a new chapter for Eight of Cups Records, delivering a raw and focused statement built around tension and transformation.
“I wanted to avoid any form of release. With Parallel Worlds, tension becomes the language itself. I was drawn to this constant escalation, something that dissolves linear time and locks me into a different state of perception… where the drop never comes. And that’s exactly the point.”
“By removing resolution, I wanted to keep everything open: a space where perception expands and multiple realities can coexist. Parallel Worlds is not about choosing a direction, but about becoming aware that more than one is always there.”
A four-track immersive EP refusing the conventional payoff, Parallel Worlds unfolds as a continuous escalation, creating a suspended space where perception shifts and different realities begin to overlap.
The release features two original cuts alongside exclusive remixes by JOEY BELTRAM and AT-XYA.
Techno pioneer Joey Beltram strips the title track down to its raw essence, transforming it into a relentless dancefloor weapon driven by physical energy, hypnotic grooves and his unmistakable signature sound.
AT-XYA takes the opposite route, deconstructing and reshaping the original into an ethereal, cinematic journey for those fragile moments when night dissolves into morning and everything suddenly makes sense ;)
Completing the EP is Danxome, a deeper tribal-inspired cut reconnecting with the origin of the concept. In the Fon language, Danxomɛ means “in the belly of Dan”, the cosmic serpent and the origin of the world. Before parallel worlds, there was one.
Parallel Worlds started from a simple thought:
Every day, all versions of you exist. You just don’t see them all. You can stay the same, or you can shift.
Revisiting a classic is no easy feat, but Lello Di Franco (aka L.D.F.) breathes new life into the original elements with a fresh groove. Approved by Johnny D and Nicky P, it lands on the legendary Henry Street Music as a special 10" single-sided vinyl release!
Twenty years after forming in Tommy Brenneck’s Bushwick apartment, Menahan Street Band returns with Illusions, their fourth full-length album on Brenneck’s Diamond West Records. The band— Tommy Brenneck, Dave Guy, Nick Movshon, Leon Michels and Homer Steinweiss—have each pursued an array of projects in the years since. Brenneck has produced for Baby Rose, Rogê and Kirby, toured with The Budos Band and runs Diamond West Records and Studio. Guy plays trumpet with The Roots and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and has released his own solo album; Steinweiss has made his own solo record and, with Movshon, has worked across multiple platinum album projects; and Michels continues as El Michels Affair, runs Big Crown Records and has produced Grammy-winning and nominated albums for Clairo and Norah Jones.
Despite their many individual ventures, the group reunited with an energy Brenneck says felt like “the first time.” Recorded quickly and instinctively, Illusions blends Menahan’s signature guitar, horns and drums with arrangements by Brazilian legend Arthur Verocai, taking listeners on an instrumental travelogue that lets the mind wander. Artist Ariana Papademetropoulos contributes original artwork to the album’s otherworldly collection of music.
ORUMA is a trio formed by Ola Rzepka (drums, zither, percussion), Artur Rumiński (electric guitar) and Mat Barski (electric guitar). At its foundation is the musical dialogue previously developed by Rumiński and Barski as a guitar duo and documented on the albums “On the Margin” and “At the Junction”. Their encounter with Ola Rzepka during Kraków’s Kakofonie series opened this music to a new sense of dynamics, pulse and
collective form.
ORUMA’s music exists at the intersection of free improvisation, noise, experimental postrock and post-kraut repetition. It avoids the conventional division between soloist and accompaniment. Instead, two electric guitars and drums gradually abandon their individual roles to form a single, constantly shifting sound organism — moving from silence, open space and isolated gestures towards dense masses of sound.
The trio’s debut album consists of five pieces: “Satellites”, “Stranger”, “This Mountain Is Alive”, “A Rough Plan For Nostalgia” and “Hyperborea”. Together, they form a coherent journey: from distant signals and the first moment of contact, through friction and increasing physical intensity, to an expansive fourteen-minute finale.
Ola Rzepka
Drummer, pianist, composer and performer. She graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she studied at the Faculty of Composition, Interpretation, Education and Jazz. She was also a scholarship student at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, studying piano and percussion. She teaches piano improvisation at the Wojciech Kilar State Music School Complex in Katowice and runs her own music lessons and workshops. As a composer, she collaborates with acclaimed theatre directors in Poland, Germany and Switzerland. Her musical collaborators have included Raphael Rogiński and Antoni “Ziut” Gralak. She has performed her original music at numerous avant-garde, popular, jazz, improvised and contemporary music festivals across Poland and Europe. In Jazz Forum magazine’s 2024 Jazz Top critics’ poll, she was named among Poland’s leading drummers.
Artur Rumiński
Guitarist and member of bands including Furia, Thaw and ARRM. He also composes and improvises under his own name and performs in the experimental duo Marmur, which he co-founded with Macio Moretti. He has released several solo albums on labels including Antenna Non Grata, Gusstaff Records, Zoharum and Szara Reneta.
Mat Barski
Guitarist associated with the Kraków and Tricity music scenes. His projects include the duo Ekotonika, the Rumiński / Barski duo. He has released albums through Gusstaff Records and Antenna Non Grata. Alongside music, he works in motion design and visual postproduction. He is a member of the Kraków-based Skład Solny Association, where he coorganises concerts and exhibitions.
Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, to a mother of Indian and Congolese heritage and a father of Slovak and Belgian descent, Siân grew up between Belgium and New York before finally letting her travelling wings come to rest in Paris. What could have become a story of fragmentation instead became a source of creative strength. Singer, songwriter, composer and photographer, Siân has always turned borders into bridges.
She first honed her voice in the jazz clubs of Paris and New York, performing alongside renowned artists such as Richard Bona, Jon Batiste and Mike Stern. Yet her path has always extended far beyond the stage. For nearly a decade, she led cultural initiatives with women and children living through exile, violence and poverty across India and Southern Africa, weaving together music, photography and artistic transmission as tools for dialogue and empowerment.
The true turning point came when she discovered the kamele ngoni, the West African harp whose ethereal sound seemed to echo something long buried within her. The instrument became her musical alter ego—the invisible thread binding together her many inheritances. Guided by Malian master Abou Diarra, Siân embarked on an inward journey towards her African roots. Yet this return to her origins was never an act of retreat into identity. Instead, it gave rise to a body of work that remains profoundly open to the world, where Africa enters into conversation with jazz, folk, soul, alternative pop and the rhythms of Brazil.
Along the way, she has crossed paths with remarkable artists including Rogê, Chico César, Fatoumata Diawara, Lokua Kanza, Flavia Coelho, Thomas de Pourquery and Philippe Baden Powell. On stage and in the studio, Siân continues to shape a musical universe that refuses labels. Like artists such as Björk, Joni Mitchell and Laura Mvula, she moves forward as an explorer, guided not by genre but by intuition.
Today, Siân stands as one of the most distinctive voices of the new Francophone music scene an artist capable of uniting musical sophistication with emotional power, introspection with collective celebration, depth with an irresistible urge to dance.
Animal — The New Album
With Animal, produced by British musician Tom Excell (Nubiyan Twist, Africa Express...), Siân delivers her most intimate and assured work to date. Every song feels like a shedding of skin, a quiet metamorphosis, exploring self-acceptance, femininity, the freedom to be oneself, cultural heritage, and the reconciliation of one's own imperfections.
From Stereotype, a fearless manifesto against the expectations imposed on women, to the title track Animal, an anthem celebrating the beauty of imperfection ("I've turned my cracks into a crown"), the album gives a voice to everyone who refuses to fit into predefined boxes. In Terre, je danse sur toi, featuring Fatoumata Diawara, Siân pays tribute to Mother Earth and to the roots that unite us all. Oh! Congo, recorded with Lokua Kanza, reconciles her cultural heritage with an ancestral homeland that feels both distant and intimately familiar. En équilibre, with Flavia Coelho, embraces the exhilaration of risk and the courage to leap, while Put a Mask and I Could Kill confront hidden wounds and the invisible violences that quietly shape who we become.
In ADé, Siân addresses Adenomyosis as though speaking to an unwanted housemate. "My body is your battlefield," she sings, giving voice to an intimate shadow lodged deep within herself. This bittersweet lullaby transforms a pain so often left unspoken into an act of profound tenderness towards oneself.
The album also holds a rare treasure: Reste tel(le), an unpublished text by Pierre Barouh, the founder of the Saravah label. Never before set to music or performed, this elusive poem of free love finds new life through Siân's voice, becoming a dialogue across time between two artists united by the same devotion to freedom, métissage and openness to the world.
Driven by Tom Excell's vibrant Afro-pop pulse, the spiritual breath of the kamele ngoni, organic arrangements and deeply personal songwriting, Animal is an album of liberation. It invites us to lay down our masks, embrace our contradictions and reconnect with the free, instinctive and powerful animal that lies dormant within us all. More than a collection of songs, it is a radiant manifesto for the richness of identity, the passing on of memory, and reconciliation with oneself.
Animal is not simply the title of an album, it is a declaration of independence. An invitation to live fully, unapologetically, and without instructions.
A citizen of the world, travelling freely between continents, languages and memories, Siân Pottok delivers with Animal her most personal, and perhaps her most universal work to date: an album that reminds us that our fragilities, our roots and our differences are, beyond doubt, our greatest strength.
— Christophe Tison
'Carnaval De Luz' is the exhilarating 16th studio album from U2, 12 melodically rich new songs from one of the most celebrated & enduring bands of all time. Acknowledged as one of the best live acts in the world, U2 has sales of over 175m & won numerous awards, incl. 22 Grammys. Set for release in the year Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen Jr. will mark 50 years together in U2, 'Carnaval De Luz' includes lead tracks 'Street of Dreams', 'Silencio' and the extraordinary 'Torn (ft. Dolly Parton)'.
'Carnaval De Luz' is the exhilarating 16th studio album from U2, 12 melodically rich new songs from one of the most celebrated & enduring bands of all time. Acknowledged as one of the best live acts in the world, U2 has sales of over 175m & won numerous awards, incl. 22 Grammys. Set for release in the year Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen Jr. will mark 50 years together in U2, 'Carnaval De Luz' includes lead tracks 'Street of Dreams', 'Silencio' and the extraordinary 'Torn (ft. Dolly Parton)'.
'Carnaval De Luz' is the exhilarating 16th studio album from U2, 12 melodically rich new songs from one of the most celebrated & enduring bands of all time. Acknowledged as one of the best live acts in the world, U2 has sales of over 175m & won numerous awards, incl. 22 Grammys. Set for release in the year Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen Jr. will mark 50 years together in U2, 'Carnaval De Luz' includes lead tracks 'Street of Dreams', 'Silencio' and the extraordinary 'Torn (ft. Dolly Parton)'.
With 108, Nathan Melja shapes a world built around movement, repetition and presence.
Across four tracks, rhythms unfold with patience. The record opens with “Joe’s Muse”, a playful and deep energetic track, before “Les Planètes” expands into something wider, with the help from New York vocalist Joiah, and more suspended. At the centre, eponymous track “108” draws you into a more hypnotic, ethereal space. “Trippin’” closes the EP with a sharper physical pull, bringing the record back toward the dancefloor without breaking its internal spell.
The release is completed by “Strategic Patterns” as digital bonus, an additional exploration of sounds, repetition and subtle displacement.
108 is a record for the space between attention and abandon, precise in its construction, but always open to wonder. It also offers a faithful portrait of the broad panorama of influences that Nathan Melja incorporates into his music, a sound that can be equally appreciated on the dancefloor and through attentive listening.
With »The Future Is Futuristic«, the fifth album for Haleiwa (and third with Morr Music), Stockholm’s Mikko Singh draws from a deep well of nostalgic feeling, while making music that feels razor-sharp, on point, and full of hazy dream-pop pleasure. After 2019’s »Cloud Formations« and 2022’s »Hallway Waverider«, which imagined psychedelic post-shoegaze and mantric pop songs into being, »The Future Is Futuristic« feels like both consolidation and magnification; the noise-drenched songs feel thicker, heftier; the electronic interludes playful and kinetic; the rhythms boundless. It’s as though Singh has truly found his metier, his voice, a place from which he’s comfortable to indulge in the kind of home-recorded worldmaking that has always marked Haleiwa out as something special.
»The Future Is Futuristic« passes by in a rush of whiteout tones and scurrilous energy; the whole thing is over within half an hour, Singh ensuring his songs say exactly what they need to say – no more, no less – before bustling through into the next ecstatic pop moment, pushing the music further into the zone. While his music often has a similar, drenched quality to shoegaze, on »The Future Is Futuristic«, Singh seems to be settling in alongside other spirits – there are touches of the experimentation of both A.R. Kane and Flying Saucer Attack here; the more motoric tunes recall New Zealand’s Snapper; the glitchtronics have a City Centre Offices sensibility, while the sparkling folksiness of the melodies can recall Bristol bands like Light or AMP.
But it’s ultimately not about influence, beyond perhaps Haleiwa nestling alongside some like-minded souls in perceptive listeners’ minds. Instead, thrill to the rush of rhythms that float between jungle and punk on »Flourishing« and »96«, the latter a reference, from Singh, to moments of early revelation – »it’s about being thankful for having found punk rock and skateboarding at a young age, in 1996.« There’s also the hypnotic dream-rush of the opening »Smoke Will Rise«, the beautiful Cure-esque guitars swimming through »Sunset Street« and »Strange Notes«, the tumbling rhythms and heady, elated chord changes that grant lift-off to »Wave Chaos«… A real panoply of pleasures, in fact.
»The Future Is Futuristic« was recorded solely by Singh on four- and eight-track in his home studio, with a quick trip to Telefonstudion to record drums. Recording at home grants a certain intimacy to »The Future Is Futuristic«, even as the songs, at times, bliss their way off into the skies; there’s something both expansive and intimate about the music here, as though Singh is grappling immensities into intimacies. It also feels deeply personal for Singh, a summation of much of what he’s done over the years; as he says, simply and clearly, »The album is in my interpretation a mix between punk, electronic music, and dream pop.« The threads that connect these creative phenomena? Energy, texture, melody, tone, sensuality; pure pop pleasure.
This November, Brownswood Recordings will release Mek Do & Mend, the debut album from self-taught producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and artist Wonky Logic. Although his name may not yet be familiar to everyone, Wonky Logic (AKA Dwayne Kilvington) has spent the past two decades quietly becoming one of the UK's most respected musical collaborators. His career has moved comfortably between London's jazz, electronic and contemporary music scenes, performing and recording with artists including Nala Sinephro, Yussef Dayes, Nightmares On Wax, Shabaka Hutchings and Emma-Jean Thackray. Alongside his work as a producer and composer, he's been musical director for projects with Eddie Chacon, John Carroll Kirby and I.G Culture's LCSM, scored the feature documentary Zandra With A Zed, contributed music to A24's The Smashing Machine, and continues to lead music workshops with young people, refugees and people experiencing incarceration.
Far more than a collection of compositions, Mek Do & Mend is a deeply personal reflection on the people, places and experiences that have shaped Kilvington throughout his life. It's the story of growing up on a Leeds council estate, where music became both a creative outlet and a way of understanding the world. Making music often meant working with whatever was available: a second-hand keyboard, a makeshift studio desk or ageing equipment that simply had to last a little longer. The title itself came from a conversation with his mother, capturing the resourcefulness that defined his upbringing and continued into the making of the album itself, which was written and produced to a tight deadline around touring, family life and Kilvington's work as a musician and educator.
Built from material spanning more than fifteen years, Mek Do & Mend brings together some of Wonky Logic's earliest compositions alongside brand new pieces written during the making of the record itself. Childhood ideas sit alongside music conceived only months before recording, creating an album that draws together a lifetime of writing rather than documenting a single moment. Running throughout are voice notes from family members, teachers, friends, mentors and collaborators—not simply as interludes, but as a reminder that no creative life is ever self-made. Rather than telling his own story outright, Kilvington invites listeners to discover him through the people who've shaped him: an aunt remembering him playing in church as a child, lifelong friends recalling early experiments making beats together, fellow musicians from different stages of his career and his mother describing him in her own words. Together they reveal the invisible network of relationships, philosophies, communities and experiences behind the music. "The album exists somewhere between being a biography and an autobiography," says Dwayne. "The biography is in the voice notes and how other people see me. The autobiography is in the music."
That same philosophy extends to the musicians who appear on the record. Every contributor has played a meaningful role in Wonky Logic's life beyond the studio. Long-time collaborator Luke Wynter, Steam Down drummer Benji Appiah, partner Vanessa Rani, Jonathan Enser, Joe Bristow, Brother Portrait and Nubiya Imani all feature not simply because of their musicianship, but because they form part of the album's story.
Across its fourteen tracks, Mek Do & Mend moves effortlessly between dynamic jazz arrangements, pulsating broken rhythms, delicate, twinkling piano passages, interstellar synth textures and elegant brass lines. Album opener and first single 'Strange Attractor' begins with a shimmering introduction before unfolding into an exhilarating surge of rhythm and momentum. Named after the mathematical concept of the same name, it serves as the conceptual point of origin for the album. Written when Kilvington was just seventeen, the composition reflects the idea that even the most unpredictable lives are guided by hidden patterns that often only become visible with time. Second single 'A Thousand Hands' features the unmistakable vocal tones of Brother Portrait, whose cerebral lyricism drifts over a low-slung, constantly shifting groove as woozy synth lines ebb and flow overhead. At its heart, the track celebrates the family, friends, mentors and collaborators whose often unseen influence shapes who we become, echoing the album's belief that every achievement is, in some way, a collective one. LP focus track 'BAME (Beyond All Marginalised Expectations)' is a lush, spiralling composition, brimming with both emotion and resolve. Reclaiming an acronym long imposed on racialised communities in the UK, the piece transforms it into a statement of possibility rather than limitation: a defiant rejection of stereotypes and a refusal to let identity be defined by other people's expectations.
The album itself only exists because other people believed in it. Isabel Gracefield made the RAK sessions possible, Rick David brought the record together with his characteristically thoughtful mix, and Gilles Peterson committed to releasing it on Brownswood before hearing any of the music. Away from the stage, Kilvington works with the charity Finding Rhythms, writing and producing original records with people experiencing incarceration, while also leading workshops with Arts Train and Dovetail Orchestra.
Recorded live in a single day in Studio One at RAK, Mek Do & Mend was mixed by Rick David through an analogue Cadac console before being mastered by Stuart Hawkes at Metropolis. The aim wasn't nostalgia or audiophile perfection, but to create a record people could return to throughout their lives, discovering something new with each listen.
As Dwayne puts it: "I don't want this body of work to be reduced to a jazz record. It's more like a novel about life told through music."
Stitched together from organic percussion, field recordings, and textures gathered from across the globe, Vikmatic’s most recent TSoNYC EP, co-produced with label head Danilo Braca, plays like a love letter to New York City, penned in the language of friends and family scattered across its boroughs. Rooted primarily in house, jazz, and Balearic sounds, but pulling just as freely from the sounds of Brazil, Africa, and India, Neighbors moves to the rhythm of a city swept up in the collective pulse of its most lively season.
Playful and minimalistic, “W4 Street” is a jazzy house track that adds a scintillatingly smooth, beachy flair to a nostalgic New York energy for a combination that leaves us unsure of what is improvised and what has been rehearsed to absolute mastery.
The EP’s second track, “Flushing”, represents a dramatic departure from the airiness of the previous one. Haunting and mysterious, with a leaden kick and a capricious synth, there is no question that we are finding ourselves in an entirely different neighborhood.
Early in the track, “Sunset Park” transforms from a deep rumbling into a catchy warm-weather groove with satiny synth layers, textured rhythm, and unhurried guitar and synth solos, evoking a sense of pure ease and beach season contentment.
Sultry and dream-like, “Harlem River Drive” is the ideal send-off for Neighbors, an album firmly situated in the living memory of an iconic urban summer. Warm and bittersweet, with woodwinds comprising the heart of its instrumentation, it’s not hard to picture a sunset in Upper Manhattan.
In the realm of Swedish melodic rock from Skövde, few bands command the attention and admiration quite like NIVA. With their signature blend of soaring melodies, powerhouse vocals, and infectious hooks, the band has established themselves as a force to be reckoned. Now, with the release of their highly anticipated 7th full-length album ""Stratospheric,"" NIVA once again proves why they are considered among the elite in the genre.
From the opening chords of the title track, it's clear that ""Stratospheric"" is an album that aims for the stars and reaches new heights of sonic excellence. Led by the Swedish powerhouse vocals of frontman Tony Niva, the album is a tour de force of melodic rock anthems that resonate with passion, energy, and raw emotion.
Throughout ""Stratospheric"" NIVA demonstrates their mastery of the melodic rock genre, effortlessly blending elements of classic rock, melodic rock, and AOR to create a Nordic sound that is uniquely their own. With its larger-than-life production and infectious energy, the album is a testament to the band's evolution and growth as artists, while also paying homage to the rich legacy of melodic rock and AOR that has inspired them along the way.
For fans of NIVA and lovers of melodic rock alike, ""Stratospheric"" is a must-listen experience that promises to transport listeners to new heights of musical ecstasy. With its unforgettable hooks, powerhouse vocals, and electrifying performances, the album is a fitting tribute to the band's enduring legacy and a testament to their status as one of Sweden's most beloved rock acts. So, strap in, turn up the volume, and get ready to embark on a journey to the stars with NIVA's new upcoming release ""Stratospheric"".
- Seventh studio album by the Swedish Melodic Rock group
- Feat. members of Master Massive, Lion’s Share, Wolf, Starchaser
- Produced by Tony Niva & Jan Strandh; mixed & mastered by Thomas Plec Johansson.
For fans of: Niva, Lion’s Share, Treat, Imperium, Eclipse
Sumptuous sunset moods stretch into late-night movement on Razzle Dazzle, a jazz-leaning return from a loosely aligned global cast of serious deep house players. The sequencing feels deliberate, easing in with 'Connection' before letting grooves deepen and loosen across the set. London legend Giles Smith brings gentle swing on 'Love Pain', while the ever inventive DJ Boring nudges things toward the floor with 'Gimmie V Alwin'. Further highlights arrive in the warmth of Chicago's Alton Miller and the hypnotic pull of KZR aka the one and only Kai Alce. Musicality meets seductive groove here in what is undeniably a high class collection.
Fabio Santanna is a respected scene veteran in his native Brazil and has a wide array of styles in his arsenal, from Balearic, downtempo and chill-out to Latin, lounge and pop. He always brings a modern MPB touch to classic sounds and now lands on the superb Scruniversal. 'Negro Sentimento' opens with a low-slung swagger and claps that sound straight from a Chicago house record in the 80s. 'Funk Na Veia' is even slower and more purposeful with a sexual energy and libidinous, funky vocal.
Katsunori Ishida’s vision of true crossover music reaches its peak. Powerful grooves and striking sound define the resurrection of Zerosen’s legendary first album.
Zerosen was a group led during the 1970s by Katsunori Ishida, who would later gain recognition as a producer, composer, and arranger of numerous television and film soundtracks. With a fluid lineup and only a brief period of activity, the group disappeared almost as quickly as it emerged. The only recordings left behind were two albums originally produced as audio component test records. Yet these recordings would later gain worldwide attention as landmark examples of Japanese rare groove.
Remarkably, this debut album already presents a fully realized concept and sound. Highlights include the rolling groove and vibrant keyboard work of “Scramble”, the hard-driving beat of “Circuit”, and the mellow Caribbean-infused groove of “Majo no Sasayaki”. There is not a weak moment to be found.
Outstanding arrangements and performances generate a groove of exceptional power, while the album’s origins as an audio component test record contribute to its vivid and dynamic sonic character. Here lies crossover music in its truest sense—a timeless fusion of musicianship, groove, and sound quality.
DIVA AS TECHNOLOGY
Arca announces the details of her highly anticipated new studio album, XXXXX, arriving via XL Recordings. Five years after the twice GRAMMY-nominated KiCk i and subsequent KICK pentalogy, the Venezuelan-born musician, producer, vocalist, and visual artist returns with her first full-length album since concluding one of the most ambitious chapters in contemporary music.
If the KICK era expanded Arca's universe outward, XXXXX turns inward and fractures it apart. Across 16 tracks, the album excavates vastly different emotional landscapes to deliver a body of work that is darker, more aggressive, more experimental, and unwilling to settle into fixed form. Initially conceived as a mixtape before revealing itself as an album, XXXXX embraces contradiction as a core methodology. In the spirit of her previous mixtapes @@@@@ (2020)—released as a 62-minute single—and &&&&& (2013), XXXXX thrives on raw exploration and instinct. It arrives as a deliberate interruption of expectation.
“It seems playful, also mischievous, to interrupt that autopilot,” says Arca.
The album's striking artwork depicts Arca as a biomechanical entity, accompanied by two owls—symbols of protection and the underworld in Greek mythology. Like the music itself, the imagery inhabits a space between worlds where transformation is both terrifying and liberatory. Suspended between posthuman augmentation and raw emotion, XXXXX exposes the mainframe. It is a record born from uncertainty, contradiction, instinct, and surrender—a becoming-machine that continues Arca's lifelong project of redefining what it means to be human both in, and against, the machine.
For Arca, rebirth has never been a metaphor, but a practice. She continues to exist in multiple states simultaneously, collapsing boundaries between human and machine, high and low culture, and experimental noise and pop music. Following her first-ever painting exhibition at London’s ICA earlier this year, XXXXX arrives as the latest transmission from a continuously evolving creative process. Over the last year, Arca has remained prolific: unveiling the double-sided single "Puta" / "Sola"; remixing tracks for Addison Rae, Robyn, and Hikaru Utada; collaborating with Tokischa on “Chama”; and contributing production to Madonna’s CONFESSIONS II. She walked the runways and made appearances at major international fashion weeks, while also composing the original motion picture soundtrack for Stillz’s film, Barrio Triste.
Now, after years of transformation beneath the surface, her next musical evolution reveals itself.
Here is the debut, self-titled album from a.s.o., singer/songwriter Alia Seror-O'Neill, and producer Lewie Day. 'a.s.o.' is a thematic consolidation of the previous three singles and an impressive artistic progression. Day and Seror-O'Neill show they've mastered the format of the radio-friendly pop song and found how to subvert it completely. Across eleven songs, they have built a rich and compelling body of work.
We know where we are now, emotionally complex, trip-hop torch songs for club freaks. But the palette has broadened to encompass ethereal dream pop à la Cocteau Twins, slow- burning AOR-soul, and dubwise stylings. As a result, 'a.s.o.' is a satisfyingly coherent listen but never a musical monoculture. Variously there are nods toward Julee Cruise, Fleetwood Mac, and the uneasy listening of Portishead. It's an album that wears its influences lightly, is never weighed down by them, and always sure of its own identity.
It's anchored by Alia's unique voice. Her words speak of restraint and release, taking us from the elegiac to the euphoric. This elegantly crafted, perfect pop music sounds like it has had enough of your shit. And Day's music is the perfect foil; deep, slightly menacing, restrained, and powerful. The album has a cinematic texture, as with David Lynch; the seemingly familiar becomes uncanny and strange the closer we look. a.s.o. take our emotions for a joyride before leaving us floating in space.
'a.s.o.' is a journey; by its end, we all are changed
16 scrap-rock sketches straight from the heart to the gut…
Maybe we can keep rock’n’roll alive for one more day?
Who knows? The Joe Glass experience is a telecastered-explosion of hooks and guitar charms
One G chord away from tearing a diamond-shaped hole in the stratosphere.
Originally Released as a Hallogallo Tape January 2026
Sharp Pins Bassists Strides out under his own banner
After a stellar debut on the No Guestlist label Blay steps back into the light with an ambitious new record Wave Formations. This record finds Blay pushing further into the space where afro-centric jazz and deep house collide, weaving together synth heavy production with organic rhythms and live instrumentation.
From its opening moments its title track ‘Wave Formations’ holds you captive. From field recordings blurring into a dreamy atmosphere, taking you on a 9-minute spiritual journey across the cosmos.
Its counterpart ‘Rhythm Of Love’ is equally dreamy; A reverb-soaked vocal track with live-band-like energy shape-shifts around its steady and forward pushing rhythm before unwinding into a meandering, melancholic piano outro.
On the flipside, ‘New Teacher’ is an invitation to dance — call-and-response synth phrases on top of driving percussive polyrhythms. What starts off simple and stripped down transforms into a full-on celebration; a boisterous rush of sonic afrofuturism that tries to reach the sun.
Keeping the joyful spirit high, the record closes off with the festive and playful ‘Faith In Us’. This highlife and afro funk inspired record reimagines band members feeding off of one another, switching from recognisable motifs to energetic solos pushing each other further into the light.
Die in Austin ansässigen Lieblinge der experimentellen Indie-Rock-Szene, Font, haben ihr zweites Album über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren geschrieben. Nach ihrem Debüt ,Strange Burden" (2024) wollte die Band ihren Ansatz beim Songwriting neu ausrichten. Der Sound, der Lob von Pitchfork, Rolling Stone und anderen musikkritischen Medien erhielt, kam ihnen allmählich weniger originell vor. Viele der Songs auf diesem neuen Album entstanden aus Aufnahmen von Improvisationssessions im Studio ,Dutch Interiors" ihrer Freunde in Long Beach, Kalifornien, wo sie im Sommer 2025 drei Wochen lang komponierten. Nachdem es der Band gelungen war, aus den durch das erste Album geschaffenen Mustern auszubrechen, fanden sie die Grundzüge dessen, was schließlich zu ,American Bully XL" wurde. ,Wir ließen uns von vielen der gleichen Fragen leiten, die schon unser erstes Album geprägt hatten, zum Beispiel: Wo endet das Akustische und wo beginnt das Elektronische? Wie ist das Verhältnis zwischen Dunkelheit und Licht, Verzweiflung und Euphorie, dem Selbst und dem Anderen?" Obwohl all das für die Band von grundlegender Bedeutung ist, ist ,American Bully XL" das Ergebnis davon, dass die Band diese Fragen von der Live-Bühne ins Studio mitgenommen hat, wo sie lernten, die Musik für noch mehr Fragen zu öffnen: Was ist ein Song? Was ist Texas? Was ist ein Instrument? Was bedeutet es, ein Mann zu sein? Was ist eine Aufnahme? Wie kannst du das nur?
"The third part of "The Nightstalker" Saga emerges from the depths of dystopia, the last part of a Childhood Intelligence original tale written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich. After "The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World" (2020) and "Genetic Constitution" (2022), the final chapter "Flowers Of Agony" (2026) // Child 22 materializes through a 2x12 Lp. "Flowers Of Agony" presents yet another shade of the duo's analogue machine soul. Technoid brain dance electro from alien mysterious worlds. The album travels through various types of electro infused works, the live-arrangement dynamics and "The Nightstalker" Klangbild shines through each of the traxx, taking the listener through psychedelic cybernetic universes with strong techno force, bridging elements of the past works and taking them further into the future. Deep mind Influence intensifies the more listening time spent... This last chapter of a 3-Story Saga, is the essence, yet evolution of an analogue band, a 20 year friendship - the current zeitgeist & the partnership with Childhood Intelligence. For the future listener, we hope you might unravel the keys to this puzzle and find your own means to define and represent your true self in underground culture..."
A year on from SickElixir - the acclaimed "debut" album that saw him hailed by Pitchfork, The Guardian and The Fader as one of British electronic music's most singular voices - Blawan is back with ‘Gi Mi Keys Back / Auto Fake’. Written in a new city, in a new home studio, the single finds Blawan rediscovering a sense of freedom and leaning back into dancefloor-driven territory after the more experimental, interior world of SickElixir. In signature Blawan style, Gi Mi Keys Back’s warped production constantly wrongfoots you, with its structure refusing to sit still, mutating underneath a vocal that pulls you into a trance-like state.
Tectonic Recordings presents Tectonic Sound: Vol. 2, the second instalment of the various artists series curated by label founder Pinch. Following the first Tectonic Sound collection, released in 2025 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the label, the series continues Tectonic’s forward-facing approach; bringing together artists from their wider family and connecting dots across the underground.
Longstanding figures of the UK Bass scene such as J:Kenzo and Roska sit alongside a new gen of artists including Ehua, Manami, Cimm, Denham Audio, Henry Greenleaf and SHXCXCHCXSH. Beatrice M. also returns following the release of their acclaimed debut album Sinking earlier this year, while Jay Carder and Sir Hiss make their first outings as solo artists on the label, after both appearing as collaborators on Sinking.
Pinch says: ““As Tectonic enters its third decade, the spirit and passion behind the music hold true to its roots. I love every single track on this compilation and how it shows off the various corners of the label's sound. Each artist has delivered something truly special!”
Each artist arrives with a distinct sound and history of their own, but across these twelve original tracks there’s a shared understanding of what Tectonic represents. Different strains of the UK bass continuum come together, creating a space where sounds collide, and new forms take shape.
Pinch leads the charge with ‘Hold On!’, an upfront, high-definition 4x4 propulsion tool that pairs rolling momentum with seismic bass pulses. Manami enters with ‘Turning Point’, further solidifying her newer direction, leaning into deep, dubbed-out territory with a sound that feels both vast and exploratory, while remaining heads-down and locked in. Henry Greenleaf steps in with ‘Whist’, an ominous and otherworldly offering, reminiscent of early dubstep productions that fell somewhere between the lines of dark garage, 2-step and grime.
Elsewhere, SHXCXCHCXSH’s ‘NexxxD’ and Sir Hiss’s ‘2TUFF’ form a middle climatic point of pure chaos, with Sir Hiss serving up a raw slab of gnarled grime waveforms and cascading claps. Beatrice M. & Cimm bring things back down with ‘Pad City’, a cool, meandering cut of shuffling house, while Lorem closes the compilation with ‘Console Corners’, exploring the outer rims of sound manipulation and deconstruction before tying it all together.
Since its formation in 2005, Tectonic has been a trailblazing force in electronic music, helping to define and continually redraw the boundaries of dubstep and its surrounding sounds. The compilation arrives in the middle of a serious run for the label. Earlier this year, Tectonic released Beatrice M.’s debut album Sinking, a major moment for the label that was embraced across the electronic music community. Pinch has also continued his long-running creative relationship with legendary grime MC Trim this year, following their joint 2025 EP No Caller ID, with recent single Striker.
Across Tectonic Sound Vol. 2, those different strands of Tectonic’s history and present day meet head-on. The music moves between familiar forms and stranger territory, with rhythms and frequencies refracting across the collection. It’s a record that feels cohesive without being uniform, reflecting a label whose sound has always been defined by forward movement.
Das bahnbrechende Debütalbum ,Blue Horse" der Be Good Tanyas erscheint anlässlich des 25-jährigen Jubiläums als Vinyl-Ausgabe bei Birthday Cake Records. Das Album wurde im Jahr 2000 in Vancouver mit nahezu keinem Budget aufgenommen, und das Trio aus Frazey Ford, Trish Klein und Samantha Parton verwandelte Old-Time-, Folk- und Country-Blues-Klänge in etwas Unheimliches, Intimes und ganz Eigenes - und gelangte dank der Ausstrahlung im CBC von einer Independent-Veröffentlichung zu einem internationalen Publikum. ,Blue Horse" machte die Band in Großbritannien zu einem Phänomen: 83 Wochen in den offiziellen britischen Country-Künstler-Albumcharts (mit Platz 3 als Höchstplatzierung), ein Platz in den Top 50 der Alben des Jahres des Q Magazine, ein Auftritt auf der Acoustic Stage in Glastonbury und ein Auftritt bei ,Later_ with Jools Holland". Die Zeitung ,The Independent" lobte es als ,eines der bezauberndsten Debüts", während ,The Littlest Birds" zu einem Markenzeichen einer ganzen Generation wurde und später in der Showtime-Serie ,Weeds" zu hören war. Die Musik der Band hat seitdem ihren Weg in epochale Fernsehserien wie ,Breaking Bad", ,The L Word" und ,Hell on Wheels" gefunden. Ein Vierteljahrhundert später ist dies ein lebendiges Werk, kein Nostalgieobjekt: Die Band zieht monatlich rund 510.000 Spotify-Hörer mit über 139 Millionen Streams des Gesamtkatalogs an, und Frazey Fords gefeierte Solokarriere führt immer wieder neue Hörer dorthin zurück, wo alles begann. Gepresst von neu aufbereiteten Vinyl-Masterbändern aus dem Jahr 2026 bringt diese Single-LP-Ausgabe ,Blue Horse" zum ersten Mal seit 15 Jahren wieder auf Vinyl heraus.
Nearly three decades after first forging one of underground hip-hop's most enduring creative partnerships, Aesop Rock and Blockhead reunite for Trouble Mountain, a new full-length meditation on escape, survival, and the strange terrain of everyday life. Inspired by the nostalgic promise of Poconos resort commercials that blanketed New York airwaves during their childhoods, the album imagines a fictional getaway where the search for reinvention proves just as disorienting as the reality left behind. Arriving as Aesop Rock's 13th studio album, Trouble Mountain finds his writing as inventive as ever—transforming family history, work, memory, and the absurd mechanics of modern life into vivid, deeply human reflections. Blockhead's production is equally vital, pairing the duo's unmistakable chemistry with lean, evolving soundscapes that feel both familiar and newly exploratory.
Together, they revisit the themes that have connected their work since Labor Days: labor, alienation, and the enduring hope that there's somewhere else we'd rather be. Rather than offering an escape, Trouble Mountain asks why we're always searching for one—delivering one of the duo's most imaginative and resonant collaborations to date.
Nearly three decades after first forging one of underground hip-hop's most enduring creative partnerships, Aesop Rock and Blockhead reunite for Trouble Mountain, a new full-length meditation on escape, survival, and the strange terrain of everyday life. Inspired by the nostalgic promise of Poconos resort commercials that blanketed New York airwaves during their childhoods, the album imagines a fictional getaway where the search for reinvention proves just as disorienting as the reality left behind. Arriving as Aesop Rock's 13th studio album, Trouble Mountain finds his writing as inventive as ever—transforming family history, work, memory, and the absurd mechanics of modern life into vivid, deeply human reflections. Blockhead's production is equally vital, pairing the duo's unmistakable chemistry with lean, evolving soundscapes that feel both familiar and newly exploratory.
Together, they revisit the themes that have connected their work since Labor Days: labor, alienation, and the enduring hope that there's somewhere else we'd rather be. Rather than offering an escape, Trouble Mountain asks why we're always searching for one—delivering one of the duo's most imaginative and resonant collaborations to date.
Sean Thompson hat mehr als ein Jahrzehnt damit verbracht, sich zu einem der vielseitigsten Gitarristen in Nashville zu entwickeln. Derzeit ist er als Gitarrist für Margo Price auf Tour, und sein flinkes, lyrisches Spiel hat Bands unter der Leitung von Erin Rae sowie einer ganzen Reihe von Größen der ,Music City" geprägt. Außerdem ist er neben Rich Ruth und Spencer Cullum ein Drittel des kosmischen Trios Shrunken Elvis, dessen gefeiertes, selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum 2025 bei Western Vinyl erschien. Mit ,Inner Principles", seinem ersten rein instrumentalen Album, bündelt Thompson all diese Instinkte zu etwas, das sich wie ein echtes neues Kapitel anfühlt. Es ist ein Jazz-Fusion-Album im reichhaltigsten Sinne des Wortes: virtuos, aber schnörkellos, experimentierfreudig und stilistisch von einem Titel zum nächsten unruhig. Die acht Stücke bewegen sich mühelos zwischen ECM-artiger Weite im Geiste von John Abercrombie, rauchigem Akustik-Picking, lockeren Late-Night-Boogies und eleganten Post-Rock-Abenteuern, mit Synthesizern, die hin und wieder in Richtung Jan-Hammer-Territorium blitzen. Man könnte meinen, ein Großteil dieser Musik stamme aus dem Jahr 1978 oder 1983, und genau diese Zeitlosigkeit ist der springende Punkt. Thompson spielt ein rasantes Spiel namens ,Finde den Einfluss" und zieht dann weiter, ohne sich jemals lange genug an einem Ort niederzulassen, um wie eine Hommage zu klingen. Im Kern ist das Album ein Trio aus Thompson, Eric Slick am Schlagzeug und Alec Newman am Bass, ergänzt durch eine Handvoll bewährter Mitstreiter: Jake Davis, der produzierte, als Tontechniker fungierte, abmischte und Synthesizer beisteuerte; sein ,Shrunken Elvis"-Bandkollege Rich Ruth an der Gitarre; sowie Jo Schornikow am Keyboard. Dieses Zusammenspiel des Ensembles ist das Herzstück der Platte, und trotz aller technischen Meisterschaft ruht sich ,Inner Principles" nie auf seinem Können aus. Jeder Track strahlt echtes Gefühl aus, vom weitläufigen, treibenden ,Underwater Way" bis zum zarten ,Waltz For Mama". Thompson hat ,Inner Principles" digital in Eigenregie veröffentlicht und das Material live beim BigEars-Festival vorgestellt. Western Vinyl presst es nun zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl und verschafft damit einem der stillen, aber unverzichtbaren Musiker Nashvilles sein bisher umfassendstes Statement.
Als Captain Future am 27. September 1980 im ZDF seine deutsche TV Premiere feierte, schrieb die Serie nicht nur Science-Fiction Fernsehgeschichte - sie pragte mit Christian Bruhns visionarem Soundtrack eine ganze Generation. Synthesizer, die wie kosmische Horizonte klingen. Harmonien, die in einem Atemzug Abenteuer, Melancholie und Zukunftsoptimismus in sich tragen. Musik, die "beruhrt", fasziniert und schnell Kultstatus erreicht. Diese limitierte Vinyl Edition bringt den legendaren Score zuruck in seine ursprungliche Strahlkraft - und daruber hinaus. Von Christian Bruhn selbst neu kuratiert und veredelt, bringt das Re-Release die futuristische Eleganz in seiner pursten und zeitlosen Form zuruck. Fur Sammlerinnen und Sammler ist diese optisch und musikalisch hochkaratige Pressung ein seltenes Stuck deutscher TV und Musikgeschichte.
Tara Cunningham’s guitar glitch miniatures draw patterns in negative space on new mini-album Warm Ground. Operating predominantly within improvisational and experimental music, guitarist Tara Cunningham has developed a discrete sonic language that reveals the full textural and timbral range of her instrument.
Marking a new chapter for Cunningham that builds on her solo debut, Almost – Not Exactly, released on Non Classical in 2025, Warm Ground unfolds across seven compelling instrumental dialogues - each a conversation of rhythms and found sounds, syncopated and juxtaposed, open to encounter.
Implied by the title of first single ‘Following a Thought’, Cunningham weaves an exploratory melody into the spaces between field recordings. At once introspective and highly relational, each track ushers the listener into a world of different scales, seeking beauty and meaning in the everyday, from the discrete mechanisms of ‘Fridgelight’ to the delicately unhinged organism of ‘Flying Ant Day’.
Cunningham finds a natural home on Odda’s roster of artists sensitive to the details of their materials and surroundings, finding kinship alongside the intimate songcraft of Kirk Barley and Fohn in the gaps between composition and improvisation.
In 2026 she released a self-titled LP as The Sleeves with Jack Cooper, performing at Cafe Oto ahead of a US tour in the autumn. She continues to pursue a range of projects as collaborator and side person with Modern Nature, Sebastian Rochford, Red Snapper, Liam Noble, Laura Jurd and Caius Williams.
Spring Back, Ball Forward is the Soda Gong debut from Jung dj, nom de plume of shapeshifting multi-instrumentalist Randy Riback. Following a series of uniformly great self-releases and cassettes on the dearly missed Lillerne Tapes, this collection observes the spacious and angular dynamics of 1990s Midwestern post-rock through the lens of the bedroom electronic music producer.
Perhaps surprisingly, amp worship lies at the center of the album: a fascination with the grain, pressure, and emotional charge of amplification and gain, refracted through the strange remove of digital amp modeling. Tubes, speakers, sag, and in-the-red textures are a critical part of the album’s expressive vocabulary, imparting density and colorful saturation while lending even its most weightless passages a vital sense of physical presence. Over the course of twelve tracks, wistful ambience gives way to blunt heaviness and roiling catharsis, underpinned by a palpable sense of loss and grief.
The album’s auspicious cast of collaborators further complicates its emotional terrain. Spoken contributions from Natalia Panzer and Angelina Nonaj occupy strikingly different registers: Panzer’s diffuse and oblique, drifting in and out of the music’s contours; Nonaj’s a vivid travelogue, grounding the record in place and lived experience. Elsewhere, Soda Gong veteran Mister Water Wet joins a small constellation of guests whose playing folds naturally into Riback’s arrangements, blurring the boundaries between computer and ensemble music.
For all of its attention to texture, process, and the material qualities of sound, Spring Back, Ball Forward is first and foremost an emotionally potent work, possessed of a directness that can feel rare within experimental electronic music. Riback draws from a rich and idiosyncratic musical vernacular, arriving at something deeply felt and difficult to place: a singular statement whose pathos exceeds the sum of its references.
Mohammad Syfkhan is back with his second album for Nyahh Records. This collection of new recordings marks a hug milestone in Mohammad’s career as it’s the first album that features all original compositions. And with a full band! We had the great help of Syrian Cellist and composer Naseem Alatrash to help with the string arrangements. The resulting record is a beautiful journey into a timeless Middle Eastern and North African sound akin to the likes of Fairuz or Umm Kulthum with a fast Kurdish Dabke tempo.
I Love You Ireland is an incredibly personal album for Mohammad. The title alone, much like his debut ‘I Am Kurdish’ is as personal as it it’s political. To express such love for a place in music is saying, thank you for making me and family feel safe. Thank you for taking us in. A stand out track titled ‘Ah Yu Donia’ is Mohammad’s first real public moment of grieving for the loss of his son at the murderous hands of Isis. In this song he asks God why he was taken. Trying to figure the sense in the actions of fundamentalists. The strings sections are sad, but not morbid. Acting like a release or companion to the horrific reality of losing a child.
‘Al Huriya’ is Mohammad’s first attempt at using an Irish rhythm known as a Reel, as appose to his usual Middle Eastern rhythms. Again, this is a beautiful way for Mohammad to give thanks to all the musicians and supportive people his has met in Ireland since 2011.
WHO IS MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN
Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian Singer and Bouzouki player. He began
playing music in 1980 while he was in college studying nursing. When he got
his degree in 1983, Mohammad moved to the city of Raqqa, Syria where he
began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie
Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. The
Al-Rabie Band were a much sought-after group. Their live sets included Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs as well as Mohammad’s own original material.
Mohammad continued to play with his band while also working as a surgical
nurse until the war broke out in 2011. This unfortunately brought tragedy to
Mohammad’s family when one of his sons was killed by Isis thus threatening
the lives of the rest of his family. His family had no choice but to leave their
home and seek safety in Europe. Three of Mohammad’s sons were resettled in
Germany while Mohammad, his young daughter and wife were taken in by
Ireland. Mohammad has spoken at length of his confusion and despair with
fundamentalists and how their message is a far cry from the teachings of love
and understanding that he considers the true message of Islam.
For our fifth release, we invited Voorman and Siphonophora. Previously, we did pure split EPs, with one artist on each side, but for this one it felt more natural to have both artists share both sides of the record. There is a clear connection between their sounds, so bringing them together came naturally. The A-side is the more intense side, with repetitive elements that gradually change and build, while additional layers and distinct sounds are introduced throughout. These details slowly emerge around the sequences, adding depth and movement while keeping the sound deep and immersive. On the B-side, things get more stripped back. There is more space between the elements, with slower sequences and a calmer feel. The atmosphere and smaller details are given more room to truly shine through. Four deep and hypnotic cuts, moving from intense pressure into a deeper, more reduced sound.
Portugal-based percussionist Gabriel Ferrandini spent years honing his skills in various free jazz ensembles, where he demonstrated his absorption of the styles of pioneering rhythm liberators like Sunny Murray and Milford Graves while forging his own energetic and agile sound. During this time, Ferrandini performed with everyone from Evan Parker and Alexander von Schlippenbach to Thurston Moore and Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai. At some point, the percussionist grew restless and began taking a more compositional approach, using his drums as primary sources from which to produce spectral tones and timbres via electronic manipulation.
In Ferrandini's hands, cymbals become generative instruments with endless reverb tails and choir samples are distilled into vapor. With its subtle evocations of light and color and meticulous editing, Romance suggests an almost cinematic scale. The strings and grainy synthesizer of "Crying Game" lend an air of giallo dread to the deep sub-bass rumbles; "Afters Lisboa" processes cymbal crashes through a Leslie speaker to create a siren-like Doppler effect; "Fallen Angels," one of the few tracks to feature Ferrandini's mostly untreated percussion work, stacks layers of reverb effects of varying lengths (an old Autechre trick) to add friction and give the spatialized sounds a dissociative quality. Album highlight "Cova da Vaporwave" utilizes creative sidechaining, warbly VHS-like tones and drums amplified through a Fender Twin to gather apocalyptic momentum.
Romance is a formidable artistic statement, establishing Ferrandini as one of the most vital composers on the contemporary avant-garde music scene. He is influenced by Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, whose passionate yet dissonant chromatic approach can be detected throughout the album's seven uncanny tracks.
Symbol Of The Land marks Dialog's first beat-driven album, broadening the duo’s vision of dubwise electronic music into a long-player shaped by collaboration and global exchange.
Over the last two years, Helsinki-based producers Samuel van Dijk and Rasmus Hedlund have been refining their voice within modern dub techno, testing their material on the road and inviting kindred spirits to their studio for real-life feedback loops. During these sessions, they built the album around live mixing, repeatedly re-recording elements as they work, committing effects and modulation before pushing digital processes back out into analogue voltage.
Across the record, the smoky tones of their regular collaborator, Jamaican singer Benji, plus the original voice of dub techno Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman) fold into an open exchange of rhythm, space and sound. Their musings are housed by warm, patient grooves across a range of tempos and moods; from the blissed-out, reggae style on “Mellow Mood” to the wispy and esoteric “Constellation Of Stars”.
The album, which follows a string of well-loved releases on the duo’s own DOT Records, lands via Richard Akingbehin’s Kynant imprint, a label regularly dialling into the transcendent qualities of vocal dub techno.
Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Inner Space’ collection is a mixture of Cosmic electronic music and proto-New Age sounds. The album features a wide range of European, British and American auteur electronic artists, including Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Steven Halpern, Michael Garrison, Ose, Klaus Schønning, Bernard Xolotl and others.
Their cosmic, exploratory music sits somewhere between the worlds of personal, inner space and galactic outer space. All of the music featured here was recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, much of it released on small bespoke private-press record labels, often owned by the artists themselves.
The album also features rare tracks from a number of Library Music artists, all of whom used electronic music to explore a variety of common celestial or Gaian themes – cosmology, spirituality, science, mother earth, wellness, technology, consciousness, exploration, healing and harmony – in their work. These include pieces by Sauveur Mallia, Keith Mansfield and Sven Torstenson.
Here on this album you will find the Sun Ra’s of New Age, the Picassos of Library Music and the Burroughs of space-related electronic music. Away from contemporary music fashions, these unique and highly individual artists remained free in their music to explore new ideas of sound and technological experimentation – together with the larger concepts of time, space and matter – a freedom rarely granted, and one that we celebrate here.
Dajusch brings his distinctive sound to Backspin Records with 'Oracle', a five-track EP that showcases his instinct for powerful grooves, deep low end and carefully selected synth work, rounded out by a remix from Dutch techno veteran Sterac. Another strong addition to Regal's Backspin Records, this EP balances Dajusch's musical sensibility with his feel for high impact club music, keeping the focus firmly on club functionality.
Opening with 'Boxer', Dajusch immediately strips things down to their essential elements. A buzzing deep bassline provides the foundation while a repeated vocal hook becomes the central motif, surrounded entirely by percussion including a punchy kick, heavy toms and crisp hats. 'Narrow' introduces a saw wave synth that functions simultaneously as bassline and lead, gradually building tension through repetition and a slowly opening filter before a droning pad leads into the return of the drums. Closing the A-side, 'Reeses Piece' is built around a wide gliding Reese bass moving across di?erent notes. A heavy breakbeat, clean claps and hats provide the framework while a high-pitched vocal brings a distinct 90s rave energy, with swinging toms adding movement to an already groovy production.
On the flip side, the title track 'Oracle' shifts the focus towards melody, with Detroit-influenced synth work taking centre stage. A classy melodic motive is complemented by heavily processed vocals transformed into euphoric, drone-like elements, adding another dimension without losing the track's directness. 'Strings' closes the original material with a hefty saturated kick while string synths carry the main theme. Drums straight out of a classic drumcomputer and warm chords build into a more expansive breakdown before returning to the groove. Closing the EP, Sterac's remix of 'Narrow' takes the original saw synth motive into a more hypnotic direction, playing with its pitch and arrangement while reducing the percussion and pushing an already deeper kick further into the mix, giving the synth work more space to breathe.
With 'Oracle', Dajusch delivers a focused statement rooted in classic Techno while remaining connected to a modern sound. Another strong addition to Regal's Backspin Records, this EP balances Dajusch's musical sensibility with his feel for high impact club music', reinforcing the label's dedication to forward-thinking techno with a clear respect for where techno came from.
Das Repertoire des aus Brooklyn stammenden Komponisten, Arrangeurs und Multi-Instrumentalisten Sammy Weissberg umfasst intime Stücke für Gitarre und Holzblasinstrumente, Filmmusik für Kammerorchester und alles dazwischen. Im Mittelpunkt seiner zeitgenössischen klassischen Werke stehen liebevoll geschwungene Melodien, markante Akkordfolgen und insgesamt eine grenzenlose musikalische Fantasie. ,Music for Strings and Brass", Weissbergs neueste Veröffentlichung (und sein Debüt bei Dear Life Records), enthält zwei Werke, die den Umfang seines künstlerischen Schaffens neu definieren und Techniken einbeziehen, die er während seiner Arbeit als Arrangeur für Songwriter (The Lemon Twins, Allegra Krieger, June McDoom, Frances Chang und viele mehr) verfeinert hat. Das Album enthält sein beeindruckendes, impressionistisches Streichquartett Nr. 2 und ein Blechbläserquintett, das die ergreifende, stimmähnliche Ausdruckskraft jedes einzelnen Instruments auslotet. In beiden Fällen erweist sich Weissberg als Komponist, dessen humanistische und unmittelbare Musiksprache keinen großen dramatischen Rahmen benötigt, um tief im Herzen nachzuklingen. Inspiriert von Komponisten der Spätromantik und der Moderne spricht Weissberg eine musikalische Sprache, die manchmal so klingt, als käme sie direkt aus einer anderen Zeit. An verschiedenen Stellen greifen seine Werke die anmutigen und eingängigen Instrumentalthemen von Antonín Dvorák und Sergej Prokofjew, das atomare rhythmische Zusammenspiel von Igor Strawinsky sowie die üppigen Klangwelten von Claude Debussy und Nino Rota auf. Doch stets verwandelt er diese nostalgischen Anknüpfungspunkte in zeitgemäß klingende, zutiefst persönliche Kammermusikwerke, die man unmöglich missverstehen kann: ausgefeilt und unprätentiös, außergewöhnlich und zeitlos. Seine Werke spiegeln die grundlegendsten Instinkte und die Struktur des Alltags wider - das Gefühl, dass wir ständig von irgendwoher kommen und irgendwohin gehen, auf der Suche nach einfachen, zugrunde liegenden Mustern, die komplexen Phänomenen Sinn und Sinnzusammenhang verleihen, und voller Sehnsucht nach jenem Gefühl der Leichtigkeit, das uns über das Vertraute hinaustreibt. ,Music for Strings and Brass" ist der perfekte Einstieg in die Art und Weise, wie Sammy Weissberg das Leben in Klängen verarbeitet - ein Album, das zu den warmherzigsten und zielstrebigsten Instrumentalveröffentlichungen des Jahres zählen dürfte.
RADYO BOMBERO - ABOUT THE LABEL
Radyo Bombero is the record label founded by acclaimed filmmaker, author, DJ and record collector Fatih Akin. Born out of his personal passion for vinyl and film music, the label will initially focus on soundtracks from his films: previously unavailable works will be released on vinyl for the first time, while out-of-print titles will return as carefully produced reissues. Its inaugural release is the soundtrack to Akin's new film Geister, scheduled for release in November 2026. Further projects are already in development.
ABOUT THE RELEASE
MALAKOFF KOWALSKI - GEISTER
ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
Composed by Malakoff Kowalski, the soundtrack to Fatih Akin's Geister is the inaugural release on Radyo Bombero.
Born in the United States, raised in Hamburg and now based in Berlin, Kowalski is a composer, pianist and multi-instrumentalist whose work moves between film music, contemporary classical composition, theatre and pop. He composed the music for eleven films by Klaus Lemke, as well as for productions including Schweigend steht der Wald and Stasikomödie. His solo work has been released by MPS and Sony Classical, and he has collaborated with artists including 2raumwohnung, Igor Levit, Chilly Gonzales and Nils Frahm. His sound combines elegiac melodies with a warm, cinematic atmosphere and a subtle sense of unrest beneath the surface.
For Geister, this distinctive musical language meets Fatih Akin's vision of a deliberately anachronistic and romantic score: a tribute to Ennio Morricone's great love themes that plays a defining role in the film's tragic love story and atmosphere.
LP 1 contains Kowalski's complete original film score.
LP by JUGGLERZ opens up a second musical world, bringing together four productions by the internationally successful Jugglerz on a four-track 12-inch disc at 45 RPM: the film's title song Ya Mami, performed by Aya Samra; Mood by Cloudee, Milaa and Jugglerz; Tip by Jugglerz, Limitlezz, Maureen and Demarco; and Beirut Nights Riddim. The four tracks bring Arabic tarab and contemporary Levantine pop together with hip-hop, urban beats and dancehall rhythms.
FATIH AKIN ON RADYO BOMBERO
"Radyo Bombero is on the air. Don't miss a tune!
"
Music is - alongside cinema and literature - a fundamental source of inspiration for me. Having grown up in the 1980s, the way I listen to music has hardly changed: I buy records, listen to them carefully and then copy them onto a portable device. It used to be a Walkman, then an iPod - today it is my smartphone with my playlists.
I do not use Spotify or any other streaming services. Why that is, I do not know. In most other areas, I try to keep up with technological developments. Not with music. I like unpacking a record, cleaning it before listening, holding the sleeve in my hands and reading who worked in the studio, who wrote the music and where the record was made. These things interest me. And they lower my cortisol levels.
Music plays a major role in my films. It is not that, as a director, I want to impose my favourite music on the audience. The music must always serve the story. In Head-On, for example, it tells us something about the characters and their biographies. Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul is the musical portrait of a city. Its music tells us about the people who live there: where they come from, the cultures they brought with them and how those cultures have merged with local traditions. The Cut was conceived as a Western, and the music had to help reinforce that idea.
Geister tells a tragic love story. The music was meant to be gloriously anachronistic. And romantic. Just like the light and colours, it had to shape the atmosphere of the film. My films are often about cinema itself, and Geister is no exception. Its music is a tribute to Ennio Morricone's great love themes.
In Malakoff Kowalski, I found the perfect creative partner. He immediately understood my idea and realised it brilliantly. That made it all the more painful when I was told by the music industry that there could be no soundtrack release for Geister because soundtracks were too expensive to produce and would simply sit on the shelves.
It is not as though I am a spoiled child who absolutely has to have a lollipop. But this music is simply too good to withhold from the audience. The idea that there would be no soundtrack release felt like a great injustice.
Then several friends and collaborators advised me to release the record myself. No sooner said than done. But Radyo Bombero is not a one-off project. Geister is only the beginning.
Finally, I have the opportunity to gradually release all the soundtracks from my films that have remained unavailable. Soundtracks that were previously released but have since gone out of print will also return as reissues.
Hainbach's soundtrack to Amrum is already in development, as is a double album featuring the unforgettable German pop songs from The Golden Glove. And, finally, a vinyl soundtrack to Head-On.
Fatih Akin
As Shadow Pressings hits its 10th release the fledging vinyl-only label bring us five heavyweight basement jams, hand-picked from DJ Split’s own circle of friends and musical conspirators including one track from Split himself. Dusty machines creating stripped back grooves, strange frequencies, and raw, late-night club pressure. A little Chicago, a little Detroit, a little somewhere else entirely.
Recorded Things reaches its 50th release with a new vinyl record by label owner Oliver Rosemann.
Rosemann works with tightly reduced structures, obsessive sequences and small, continuous mutations, balancing scientific precision with physical pressure. Tension develops through layering, subtraction and detail rather than obvious gestures, giving the tracks a focused, almost architectural sense of movement.
Terence Fixmer reworks the material through his own vocabulary of dark machine funk, EBM tension and controlled industrial pressure.
For catalogue number 50, the collaboration brings together two individual artistic languages with a shared sense of restraint, intensity and structural clarity.
Rather than looking back, the release marks the milestone with a clear statement of where Recorded Things stands now.
Xhato returns to Little Endian with his second EP on the label. Fast, sparse and atmospheric techno with stripped-back arrangements and detailed sound design.
London-based French artist, composer and vocalist Vanessa Bedoret returns with her second
album, About Time, released via Scenic Route.
Across 11 tracks, About Time moves between intimate vocal-led songs, glitching electronics haunting soundscapes and moments of catharsis. Bedoret’s classical training remains at the heart of the record, underpinning an approach that brings together spectral vocals, strings, guitar and experimental electronics with a striking sense of compositional clarity.
Written through a period of significant change in Bedoret’s life, the album explores transition and our shifting perception of time - how some moments disappear almost instantly while others seem to stretch indefinitely.
About Time follows Bedoret’s 2024 debut Eyes and marks a significant step forward for an artist whose work moves fluidly between classical composition, experimental electronics and songwriting. Alongside her solo work, Bedoret has collaborated with Astrid Sonne, Blackhaine , Space Afrika and Mark William Lewis.
In celebration of John Coltrane's centennial, this 3-LP boxset includes all 3 albums recorded with Wilbur Harden in 1958 for Savoy Records: Mainstream 1958, Tanganyika Strut and Jazz Way Out. Featuring players including Tommy Flanagan, Curtis Fuller, Doug Watkins, Louis Hayes, Art Taylor and more and cut from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio the album is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at RTI and housed in Stoughton tip-on jackets and new liner notes from Syd Schwartz.
Revelling in adventurous, malleable synthesis and a strong melodic instinct, long-standing techno heavyweight Oscar Mulero brings his Trolley Route alias to Dekmantel. Across four rush-inducing cuts of studio exploration the Spanish veteran showcases a lighter side to his muse without sacrificing maximal dancefloor impact.
Oscar Mulero first debuted Trolley Route back in the early 00s through albums and EPs for Pure Plastic, Minuendo and others, offering a more playful strain of machine music to contrast with the steely output under his own name. Embracing dub textures and Detroit-coded synth leads, the recently-revived alias has become a haven for the looser styles that spill out of his studio. It just so happens these outliers are as crucial as any of Mulero's primary club smashers.
From the swampy chord sequence that dominates 'New Visual Order' to the meaty sub-bass and delay-soaked synth sweeps of 'Relativity Of The Vision', the whole EP is spilling over with madcap charm and a casual boss-level quality that can only come from a true legend letting their hair down.