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DJ Himitsu is a Tokyo-born, London-based producer and DJ, known for his understated approach and deep knowledge of Japanese vinyl and book culture. Following a debut EP of acid house on Australian imprint Lunatic Music in 2023, 'Exotic Animals' marks a new waypoint in Himitsu's artistic evolution.

On this debut full length, driving 303 basslines and kickdrums are traded in for obscure recordings and convoluted samples, which spiral and fuse to form shuffling, heady new compositions. Like shattered pottery reassembled into top-heavy sculptures with golden glue, 'Exotic Animals' shapes and juxtaposes opposing forms and fragments, with lolloping aplomb.

When not producing, DJ Himistu runs Caravan - a vintage Japanese record, ceramics and bookshop in London. It's with the same warmth, care and curiosity that he arranges his findings in the plunderous grotto of 'Exotic Animals'. In this way, stepping inside this work is like entering a remote trading post of instruments, memoirs and other sonic curios - as Himitsu stands patiently at the counter.

Recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Giovanni Venosta, Discrepant.

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to make available two legendary underground albums by Slutet on vinyl and digital formats.
Slutet originated in Uppsala well over a decade ago, first emerging as a loose idea around 2010. The original cluster of strangely like minded individuals - Dingir, Ryttersson, J.P., Sviatopolk, were equally set on starting a cult as they were a band, the former emerging as a loose collective known as The End Commune, while the latter eventually began rehearsing together as Slutet on September 1, 2013.
From this constellation three notorious demo tapes sprung which were self-released in very limited numbers, and only available by trading bodily fluids, blood, and/or hair for the cassettes. “A very loose guess but we made probably around 20-30 hand-drawn/custom demo tapes of the first three releases. We got blood and hair from many places, actually the very first offering was from INDONESIA. Slovakia, Germany, USA, Argentina, Norway, Canada, Finland followed.... if my memory serves..... hazy years indeed”
J.P. left early 2015. Later that year, after trying the band as a bass-drum-vocals outfit for a while, Fjalar joined on guitar. This is the classic constellation. Dingir, Ryttersson, Fjalar, Sviatopolk. The same troupe playing to this very day.
Following on from the compilation Slutet began work on their next offering entitled Jihad. While the departure of J.P. left them temporarily without a guitarist, a chance meeting with Fjalar at a rave ushered in a new era for the band. “I met the drummer and the bass player at a psytrance rave in the forest. I didn’t have any band and I wanted to play music and I saw this fucking weirdo with long dreads and a Hellhammer shirt and I just went up to talk to him”.
After Fjalar joined the rather chaotic fray, songwriting duties were spread out more broadly and Jihad was rehearsed and recorded in a haze. First released as a cassette by Manifest Of Hate Creations, and later on vinyl in an edition of 100 by Goatowarex the release quickly sold out and became as legendary, and as incredibly difficult to obtain as the previous releases. “It has got some psychedelic improvs, some very unorthodox and quite genius vocal work, some electronic undertones, some noisy ambience, a message of existentialism; all this wrapped up in some sloppy but very authentic and intense black metal-ish music.”
“After the vinyl compilation was out (early 2015) we felt probably a bit directionless, and, having parted ways with a befriended and talented guitar player, we felt maybe a bit morally weakened to continue. First, for a year almost, we toiled on without the 6-strings and rehearsed quite lengthy material for a proposed upcoming LP. However, that material never surfaced. Then we got a new guitar player (Fjalar) and created and recorded this mess”.
It is with great pride that we make these albums available to a general audience and in a wider pressing without need for bloodshed.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

'Like the sharpshooting carnival contestant who knows that the winning practice isn’t to aim for the red star itself, but rather to shoot out a perimeter around the star and thus remove it, Old Saw have historically dealt with forms by tracing their boundaries rather than going for the target outright. If the first three records hinted at but never touched song-shaped forms, The Wringing Cloth makes at least glancing contact while retaining the layered haze and drawl that threads their sound together.
'Contrary to the often-used ambient tag, Old Saw shows up here in a markedly active and sculpted form — manipulating, unwinding, and pivoting with a strange and warped precision. What has always been uncanny about this music is that it arrives in a state at once familiar and obscured, like a memory weighed down with sensory information but no identifying details to place it.
'The Wringing Cloth walks off further into that geographical dream without time or language until it’s just a speck of light.'

"Disco Chimi" by Dominican-raised Cuban artist Charles is the second release on Coco Maria's newly found Club Coco label. Comes with 4 paged insert with liner notes and art.

Charlie Chimi — the alter ego of Charles Garmendia — is a globe-trotting, kaleidoscopic creator best known for La China de la Gasolina. A percussionist for legendary Zamrock band WITCH, L’Eclair, and other international acts, Charlie moves fluidly between roles as a live performer, studio musician, and visual artist.

Like the iconic Dominican street burger it’s named after, the Charlie Chimi project is a spicy mélange of Afro-Cuban rhythms, funk-driven basslines, and playful, inventive wordplay — touching on everyday rituals like making lunch, as well as the trickier themes of illusion, hustle, and deception in the animal (and human) world.

Charlie has assembled an international crew of “Chimis” to help him run the numbers, delivering a dizzying, theatrical live show that feels like peeking into the hazy back room of a bodega: old men slamming dominoes, bachata blasting, and a cosmic sandwich opening a wormhole to somewhere far stranger.

San Francisco style driving techno tinged with dark dubs and disco from two of the town’s most explosive producers.

Brick & Zero Idea represent the same city, blazing their own paths in San Francisco’s heady techno scene. Both manage their own labels / parties, Brick with Perfect Dark and Vitamin1000 a la Zero Idea respectively, but are no strangers in the studio together.

First up, two full-bodied techno timebombs from the duo: a mega sub’n’dubchord special alert on A1’s “West End” paired with a more refined, smoother, slippier companion on the A2 “No Room For Error”. Combined-strengths banger collabs for different moments and moods of a night.

Sticking with the theme, we see contrasting solo tracks on the flip side as well. Brick’s “Sigil” spotlights the producer’s laser focus for darker, hypnotic, full force synths in impeccable arrangement, while “Xhale” ends this release on an upliftingly funky bassline disco tip showcasing Zero Idea’s ease at blending techno sensibilities with French House techniques.

Somewhere close to Manchester’s ever changing city centre, as the sun fades and peeks through the newest glass facade, you’ll find Shaking Hand. One part in shadow, the other basking in prisms of light as they sketch out their own sonic landscapes in the dusty redbrick mill they call home. One that is just about clinging on from the encroaching developments that surround them.

Against this back-drop where buildings are constantly torn down & built back again, the three piece craft away. Pulling from early post-rock, and 90s US alternative rock, crafting their own brand of Northwest-emo. Assembling something new, yet nostalgic. Looking ahead towards the transforming horizon. Shaking Hand’s music is built on tension and release – quiets that stretch, louds that overwhelm. Repetition that feels both hypnotic and destabilising.

The band’s musical DNA runs through experimental guitar outfits like Women, Slint, Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Ulrika Spacek, balanced with the melodic sensibility of Big Thief and the dynamic intimacy of Yo La Tengo. Their compositions push against structure: sudden jolts of tempo, polyrhythms that almost fall apart, and riffs that unravel into something fragile or ecstatic. Yet, as Ellis notes, there’s an underlying warmth too: “Like walking through an empty city late at night but catching flickers of life in the buildings you pass.”

Early ideas like ‘Night Owl’ and ‘Sundance’ grew out of George’s lockdown “bedroom years,” where new tunings (open E, drop D, and stranger Pavement-inspired set-ups) opened up uncharted textures. Later, in grim rehearsal rooms, the murky epic ‘Cable Ties’ and the hypnotic ‘Mantras’ absorbed the gloom and grit of the band’s surroundings.

The album was recorded with producer David Pye (Wild Beasts, Teenage Fanclub) at Nave Studios in Leeds, housed in a converted church. “The live room was huge and perfect for capturing our sound,” says George. Determined to bottle their onstage energy, the band tracked the foundations live, layering vocals and guitars later. Soviet-era microphones, odd mic placements, and even phone-recorded demos fed into the mix. “You’ve got to watch out for David though,” Freddie laughs. “He made me play four tambourines in one hand, really hurt, man.”

Lyrically, the record drifts between abstraction and lived moments. George’s words often spill out instinctively, words falling into place before their meaning becomes clear. “A lot of the lyrics look like they’re buried in abstraction,” he says, “but when I look back I can see what they were about — whether that’s an emotional response at the time or just an observation of what was happening around me”. There’s contrast at the heart of it all – optimism vs. doubt, the lightness of youth vs. the monotony of work, a city in constant redevelopment vs. the people drifting through it.

The album artwork is taken from unused plans for the 1970s redevelopment of Los Angeles by architect Ray Kappe, entitled ‘People Movers’. Hypothetical buildings for real people, it feels a complement to the band’s own constructions. One thing’s for sure, Shaking Hand’s debut is built to last.

Jede Band, die was drauf hat, hat ein Mitglied, das mal in einem Plattenladen gearbeitet hat. Bei METZ, dem mutigen Noise-Rock-Trio, das zwischen 2012 und 2024 fünf Alben bei Sub Pop rausgebracht hat, war das Sänger und Gitarrist Alex Edkins. Während seines Studiums verkaufte Edkins in seinem Heimatort Indie-Rock- und Hardcore-Platten und wurde zu einem begeisterten Schüler des Rock ,n` Roll, von den psychedelischen 1960er Jahren bis zu den DIY-1990er Jahren und darüber hinaus. Hoopla, das eingängige, melodische zweite Album aus Edkins' Soloprojekt Weird Nightmare, mischt und kombiniert diese Einflüsse auf unterhaltsame und mitreißende Weise und zeigt seine ausgefeilte musikalische Intelligenz. ,Hoopla" sprüht vor Hooks und Ohrwürmern und ist genau die Kassette, die nie aus dem Autoradio genommen wird, sondern immer wieder gespielt wird und den Sommer begleitet. ,Hoopla" ist neu und nostalgisch zugleich und wird deine Ohren erfreuen. Das selbst produzierte und ausgesprochen lo-fi Debütalbum von Weird Nightmare wurde während der Pandemie zu Hause aufgenommen und 2022 von Sub Pop veröffentlicht. Weird Nightmare zeigte Edkins' Indie-Rock-Sensibilität mit einer Vorliebe für unverkennbare Hooks und mitreißende Refrains zum Mitsingen. Auf dem neuen Studioalbum Hoopla, das gemeinsam mit Jim Eno von Spoon produziert und in Seth Manchesters Machines with Magnets aufgenommen wurde, erweitert Edkins die Dimensionen von Weird Nightmare noch weiter. Neue musikalische Texturen wie Klavier, Glocken und Kastagnetten verschmelzen mit Edkins' geradlinigem Songwriting und verleihen diesen Stücken einen glänzenden Schimmer. Es ist, als würde ein beliebter Indie-Regisseur mit seinem ersten Studiofilm einen Schritt nach vorne machen. Wenn das Debütalbum Weird Nightmare ein Underground-Publikumsliebling war, ähnlich wie Richard Linklaters Slacker, dann ist Hoopla Edkins' Dazed and Confused. ,Hoopla" glänzt mit sonnigem Gitarrenpop und wurde mit genau der richtigen Menge an Fuzz und Crunch produziert. Die unmittelbare, schnörkellose Aufnahme versetzt dich direkt ins Studio mit Edkins und seiner Rhythmusgruppe: Loel Campbell am Schlagzeug und Bassist Roddy Kuester. Das ist Power-Pop der Extraklasse; diese scharfen Adrenalinstöße könnten sich nahtlos in einen Radio-Rock-Block zwischen The Replacements und Elvis Costello & the Attractions einfügen. Oder passen genauso gut zu Sharp Pins, Ratboys und Alvvays. Im Kern ist dieses Album ein optimistischer, leuchtender Lichtblick in unserer seltsamen Zeit. Mit Weird Nightmare möchte Edkins euch wissen lassen, dass er die Welt immer noch liebt, und er lädt die Hörer von Hoopla ein, dasselbe zu empfinden. Nutzt diese Chance, um einen Funken der Magie des Pop in unserer verbrauchten alten Welt zu ergreifen. Ihr habt es verdient.

The vinyl version of this release compiles the tracks from their two earliest EPs originally released by Ankst whilst the 22 track CD features further unreleased & unheard bonus tracks from this early era.

Super Furry Animals also recently announced additional festival dates to follow their sold out Supacabra Tour dates including stops in Llangollen, Bristol, York, Glasgow and London (their first since late 2016. See full 2026 dates below.

Holding the world record for the longest ever EP title the first EP -Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod (In Space), was released in 1995, followed in the same year by Moog Droog, with both EPs making up the eight-song track listing of the vinyl version of Precreation Percolation.

Later that year, with a record deal on the table and future classics such as God! Show Me Magic and Hangin’ With Howard Marks already making up the SFA’s set list, the band’s path following “two years of chaos” (including a legendary 1993 debut ‘gig’ at Bangor University’s Banana Lounge, lasting all of five minutes due to technical and chemical misadventure) was set. In the album’s liner notes, singer, Gruff Rhys writes: “It would have been the best gig ever, had we not daisy chained so many synthesizers together, that it resulted in a terminal systems failure.”

By summer they’d joined Oasis, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain in the Creation Records family, leading to a huge London signing party that saw members of the band famously thrown out of.

The term of intriguing genre experimentation, spanning long-form electro, blissed out instrumentals and expansive prog-influenced rock, heard across much of Precreation Percolation was subsequently refined and channeled into their thrilling, 1996 debut album, Fuzzy Logic and their untamed live performances.


While consciously and frequently referring to the unheard, untold and unforeseen as a naturally nostalgia-resistant band, Super Furry Animals look ahead to reconvening with fans to celebrate their shared history as the Supercabra Tour gets underway.




(the vinyl comes with a copy of the CD in a slim card wallet)

Hekt's debut album Forever is released 1st May 2026 on Numbers, with the first single "Someday" featuring Valeria Litvakov out now.

Made with his friends Henriette Motzfeldt & Catharina Stoltenberg (solo and together as Smerz), Copenhagen-based composer/producer Fine Glindvad (who records as Fine), and Valeria Litvakov, Forever is built around juxtaposition: pop and bass brushing shoulders with dopamine fueled EDM. The record is a funhouse of mirrors where polystyrene arpeggios skitter underneath uplifting chords.

As Hekt describes the record: "Forever is desire and digital synthesis, car rides and lingering perfume. It’s missing someone who was never really there, holding on to something you didn’t want in the first place. The songs you hear when you’re falling in love on the dancefloor, and the songs you hear when you open your eyes and realize it’s just you alone with the DJ, the last one to leave. Songs to make out and break up to. A party so good you get depressed it can’t last forever."

Forever is a continuation of Hekt's work exploring the emotional core of pop music. "Someday" is the soundtrack to a hundred imagined futures with strangers in the club, as pristine arps and heartswelling chords skitter under Valeria Litvakov's ruminations, both lovestruck and terrified. Smerz add a level of fantastic to the slanted otherworldly pop of "Up in the Air, So" and "Forever." On both tracks, the melodies are squishy and impressionistic, the sound of all those memories we make in dance floors, taxis home, and in the blurry morning sunshine as we adjust to reality.

And while guest vocalists abound on Forever, Hekt also takes a turn at the mic himself. On "Without You" he shakes up a perfectly mixed cocktail of melancholy and beauty. And on "Promise" his voice is turned into another melodic accent against the fragile IDM sound design. Elsewhere he turns up the aggro. Dueting with Catharina Stoltenberg on Boys Noize's secret weapon, "Anytime Anywhere," the two trade bars across a compressed field of static and feedback while little hints of sub and wiry synths circle the edge of the stereo.

Hekt's music has always attempted to redefine what club music can and might be. This reimagining of the very basic building blocks of the dance floor is felt across Forever where he leans into the emotions of 2010s EDM. "What I loved about hardstyle and jumpstyle was the emotional intensity that kind of music can bring if you’re in the right setting. And I think that is what has stuck with me from EDM too. Emotional intensity," he explains. "It’s just been the soundtrack to some of the most fun moments in my life." On "But I Can't Really Show You," he compresses the EDM-era into 3-minutes. Vocal catharsis, dubstep womp, and soaring chords make it sound like the entirety of Tomorrowland being processed through MAX/MSP. This Skrillex-meets-Calvin Harris colossus is designed to destroy every sub woofer as it pulls on every last heart string.

And then there are the straight-up club stompers. "Baby" is UK club music reimagined with the steely lines of Danish modernism - think DJ Q going b2b with Errorsmith. It has a bassline made out of flubber with a vocal chopped beyond recognition as it bounces across chromatic synth lines. Even when he strips things down on the slinky garage-esque "Big Things," there are still unexpected twists and turns. The melody sounds like an Ibiza House compilation played in reverse, alongside drums that swing in and out of psilocybin bleeps and bloops. On other tracks like "Dream" and "You Won't Believe," the tropes of dance musics past, present, and future are dissolved in baths of synthesis and polished sound design.

Forever is a record where club music and Scandinavian EDM seamlessly mixes into avant-garde pop. Hekt has crafted singular and unclassifiable love songs alongside effortless bangers, making an ode to those eternal dance floor moments where time stops and you start hoping for something big.

Vom Zauber menschlicher Begegnung
Viele kennen seine Musik aus dem Netflix-Blockbuster „Stranger Things“. Doch auch außerhalb von Streaming, Fernsehen und Werbung hat der Neoklassik-Star Peter Sandberg seine musikalischen Spuren hinterlassen und eine große Fangemeinde gefunden: Mit mehr als 500 Millionen Streams gehört der Pianist, Komponist und Elektrotüftler aus Uppsala zu den erfolgreichsten Musikern seines Genres. In seiner Heimatstadt entstand auch seines neues, als Debüt bei Warner erschienenes Konzeptalbum The Temporary Coexistence of Humans, eine Auseinandersetzung mit den verschiedenen Wirkungsweisen menschlicher Begegnung, ihrer Flüchtigkeit und Zufälligkeit, aber auch mit den mal beglückenden, mal verunsichernden emotionalen Folgen, die sie in uns auslösen kann.

Inox Traxx joins Somov, drifting between deep melancholy and moments of peak-time reflection with her signature sound. Label head Ignez closes the release with a reinterpretation of Circle.

Schatterau’s third album, »Wir gingen durch leere Stunden« (We went through empty hours), sees the German duo blossoms with beauty and sophistication through a broad creative language.

This opus, presented in the form of vivid auditory tableaux vivants, explores the topography of memory as a landscape in constant motion – full of loops, feedbacks, and mirage-like distortions. Sounds climbing like vines over old walls, concealing details only to reveal new ones. Some pieces feel like fragments of a dream whose origin has vanished, others like displaced echoes of a day long gone.

Memories create paths that only become visible in retrospect – detours that somehow always lead back to oneself. Each track draws the listener into a different recollection, as if opening an old door. Inside, time behaves strangely: it jumps, stretches, and repeats.

»Wir gingen durch leere Stunden« ultimately presents Schatterau at their most experimental, complex and measured extremes, channelling ambiguous human emotional resonance ranging from melancholy to pure ecstasy.

CrackedanklesRecords are proud to present Polypores “Wrigglers” - the latest emergence from Stephen James Buckley’s strange and overgrown brainforest, an artist who has seen recent albums crack the national top 40 charts.From the opening bars of lead single ‘Memespawn’, it is clear that this incendiary release is going to defy all precedent Polypores releases. Kicking off with a heady mix of woozy, slewed melody lines and a relentless Motorik beat, it soon breaks down into a gritty instrumental redux and a frenetic syncopated woodwind jazzathon before bursting out again into spine-tingling melody that resembles some deformed cousin of synth-pop. It’s beautifully melodic, whilst still maintaining Buckley’s trademark sense of the chaotic and the downright wonky. Endlessly listenable electronic music that breathes and moves like a physical organism, and always refuses to stand still. A restless misfit of an artist who inhabits the fringes of whatever scenes he inhabits, Buckley maintains a certain crackling unease throughout the whole thing, but it results in jubilant outbursts and freewheeling joy, tethered only by the mechanical constraints of the machines it’s wrought from, like some broken robots have cobbled together an orchestra and they’re writing a soundtrack for a film they haven’t seen.

Mit gerade mal 17 Jahren releaste Joey Bada$$ sein erstes Mixtape "1999" welches den Sound der goldenen Hiphop-Ära der 90er Jahre adaptierte, so authentisch und selbstverständlich als sei er mit dabei gewesen.
Die Kritiker überschlugen sich in ihren begeisterten Rezensionen und es folgten Features mit Asap Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller & Action Bronson. Der junge Brooklynite ist schon längst mehr als nur ein Geheimtipp. Die ersten audiovisuellen Kostproben gab es in den vergangenen Monaten in Form von "Big Dusty" und "Christ Conscious". Am 20. Januar erscheint nun sein Debütalbum, das den Titel "B4.DA.A$$" trägt.

Boogiemonsters were an American hip hop group composed of Bronx‑born rapper Mondo McCann, Alaskan native Vex Da Vortex (Sean Pollard), and Jamaican‑born brothers Myntric (Sean Myers) and Yodared (Ivor “Al” Myers). The members met while attending Virginia State University, quickly connected, and began recording demos and performing at campus events. Their early momentum led them to win first place at Howard University’s Hip‑Hop Convention.

Pendulum/EMI record label signed the four MCs and released their debut album Riders Of The Storm: The Underwater Album in 1994. The first single, “Recognized Thresholds of Negative Stress,” introduced their thoughtful, alternative approach to hip hop. It was followed by “Honeydips in Gotham,” a smooth tribute to the fly sistas of the city, and “Strange,” built around a slick Cameo sample. Another standout track, “Salt Water Taffy (Slo Jam),” is noted as one of the earliest non‑Roots session appearances by future producer Scott Storch.

Riders Of the Storm: The Underwater Album delivers a focused blend of rugged beats, sharp lyricism, and atmospheric production that stands apart in the 90s hip hop landscape. Its mix of conscious themes and deep grooves makes it essential for fans of underground hip hop. The album’s mellow, funky, alternative sound sits comfortably alongside groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, giving it a timeless place in the era’s most creative and forward‑thinking releases.

„A Love for Strangers“ ist eine völlige Neuerfindung für Nick Murphy. Sein erstes Album als Chet Faker
seit vier Jahren erweitert seinen etablierten Sound in aufregende neue Richtungen. Mit mondbeschienenen
Saxophonen, die an legendäre Acts wie Prefab Sprout und The Blue Nile erinnern, sowie dem üppigen,
Breakbeat-lastigen Pop von David Grays Klassiker „White Ladder“. In diesen zwölf Songs sinniert Murphy
über Liebeskummer und Unsicherheit im großen Maßstab – er stellt Fragen darüber, wie wir miteinander
umgehen, untersucht, wie wir dabei scheitern, und vermittelt das notwendige Gefühl der Hoffnung, wenn
es darum geht, unsere Beziehungen zur Welt um uns herum zu reparieren.

For two decades, Gun Outfit has been a band defined less by genre than by continuity, patience, and a commitment to making music that reflects their lived experience.
Formed in Olympia, Washington in 2006 but long since rooted in Los Angeles, the group has evolved from a raw duo into a quietly formidable five-piece, their sound growing from scrappy post-punk beginnings into something spacious yet intimate, and always underpinned by an experimental edge.
On Process & Reality, Gun Outfit return with their most ambitious and immersive work to-date, a sprawling 80-minute double album shaped by time, environment, and philosophy. Recorded over the course of a single month in the late summer of 2020, on an 80-acre ranch in Pine Flat, California, while a massive forest fire burned less than ten miles away, the seeds of these songs were stark and strange.
Its title, Process & Reality, draws from the central work of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, whose philosophy places intuition, experience, creativity, and relationality at the center of existence.
The band’s current lineup reflects both longevity and openness. Sharp and Keith remain the band’s primary architects, joined by longtime drummer Daniel Swire, multi-instrumentalist Henry Barnes, and bassist Kayla Cohen. Additional collaborators include Chris Cohen, Warren Lee, and Danny Sasaki all of whom add further depth, leaving subtle fingerprints across the album.
Musically, the album expands the band’s palette without abandoning its core sensibility. Dulcimer, autoharp, sitar, melodica, keyboards, homemade electronics, and a wide range of acoustic and electric textures appear throughout. The sound is mellow yet expansive, songs move between fragility and hefty atmospheric passages.
Influences surface obliquely rather than overtly. Elements of reggae and dub inform the production’s spatial sensibility. Echoes of long-form European jam bands coexist with sharp post-punk. British folk traditions, American country, and classic West Coast songwriting drift in and out of focus; the band is never afraid to lead or follow.

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

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

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

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

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

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