BEC returns to Second State with another earth-shattering release containing four raw & atmospheric cuts.
The Berlin by way of Brighton producer BEC has been a member of the Second State family since her first release with the label in 2016. Since then, BEC has dropped 4 EP’s with the Berlin imprint, and regularly appears at the likes of Awakenings, Amnesia, Warehouse Project, Fabrik, Watergate & Burning Man to name a few.
Title track ‘Solitude’ opens with a sharp, rounded kick and crafty drumwork. Metallic swipes and rave stabs are injected to build tension, along with a choppy vocal and bubbling element. Punchy arrangements and rave stabs bring this track to rave territory at moments, before hauling back into the deepness of the cut. Next up is ‘Process Don’t Resist’, easing us in with a crackling bass and a solitary hi-hat, soon joined by buoyant claps and a muffled kick that submerges listeners into a different dimension. Darker, swiping elements are introduced with metallic textures, with the claps becoming more erratic as the track unfolds. An indiscernible vocal gives way to a jarring breakdown halfway through, sending shockwaves through the listener before submerging back into the hysteria.
‘Coming’ follows and initially appears as a break from the heaviness of the previous productions, before transforming into a high-octane stomper. A booming kick, bleeps and spiking vocal build the intensity as the track drives forward and hoover noise wavers menacingly. The vocal and kick bounce in unison towards the close, with a final cry towards the end. The finale is dark, mysterious and entrancing with ‘Fear Parade’. An authoritative female voice utters ‘not afraid’ under a myriad of shakers, howls and vicious synth swipes. The sample gradually takes over with the track building to crescendo, allowing shakers to come to the forefront along with eerie howls and a new, more robotic vocal that utters the initial phrase repeatedly until close in an effort to encourage listeners.
Cerca:submerge
The first release of the new label Surfaced Trax submerges into deep waters, delivering three sonically rich compositions aimed at late-night peak-times and early-morning sun rising hours.
The 'Liquid Terrain EP' was produced by Parallax Deep and remixed by Christopher Ledger. And while "Liquid" takes the listener through minimalized yet funky arrangements of precise drum programming and steady grooves, "Terrain", on the other hand, explores the in-between palettes of the electro & acid genres with plenty of rhythmic experimentation and wonky modulations.
On the remix duties, the Italian wizard Christopher Ledger works his magic on "Liquid", turning it into a highly textured, deeply atmospheric, slightly acidic breakbeat monster.
Stunning and tonally fitting collage artwork by Joagi.
AI-28 arrives as a double-12” reissue of an album titled “Lucid Dreams”. Formerly released in 1996 as a CD on the now defunct UK imprint em:t, the album now becomes available for the first time on vinyl. Produced collaboratively by Chris Allen, David Thompson (both co-founders of em:t), plus label affiliates Tom Smyth and Will Joss, the record features outlier academic and philosopher Celia Green narrating passages of her classic book “Lucid Dreams” (published in 1968), seamlessly embellished with atmospheric soundscapes throughout.
Brooding amorphously on the cusp of the unknown, the music captures the quintessentially mysterious quality of dreams and dreaming. Layer by layer, the listener is submerged deep into the subconscious stream. The record curls and unwinds with bewildering influence whilst exploring key themes of Green’s studies, with topics covering hallucinatory states, apparitions, out of body experiences, and extrasensory perception. The collaborative handling of samples and sound material comes together powerfully to create a piece that is both artistically theatrical in flavour and sumptuously immersive – a true documentary for the ears and imagination.
Platform 23 is delighted to present music from Colin Potter with It Was, a collection of tracks chosen from his 1989 cassettes Recent History Volumes 1 & 2.
After a burst of activity, mainly on his ICR label, from 1980 - 82, the tapes were the first released music in seven years and highlighted the intervening period.
While much of his earlier recordings have now been reissued by Dark Entries, Deep Distance and Sacred Summits, It Was covers the period where Potter recordings were limited while working as an engineer at his IC Studio, and pre-date his work with Nurse With Wound.
The ambience and guitar of The French Polisher leads to Diary Of A Nobody, an embodiment of Potter, sequencers and guitar against submerged, metallic percussion rising. Dense, claustrophobia follows in Solidarity At Wujeck Colliery towards the guitar refrains of Persistence.
Side two starts with Green Fields, where plucked guitars are surrounded and consumed by arpeggios. Propulsion without percussion, the layers of arps shift and redefine before the scatter of Saw with reversed synths and guitar acting as counterbalance. Nine Months, a possible centerpiece, has an autumnal atmosphere; crashing cymbals and ambulant guitar, leading to the closing Ships That Pass In The Night, a hazy drift of slowly sequenced synths & primitive voice samples.
KOOL KEITH is the most legendary trailblazer of hip hop music. With characters spanning from Dr. Octagon to Tashan Dorsett to Black Elvis to Dr. Dooom, Keith is always delivering realness, spectacles in word and sound, and creating new worlds with his many auras. SCORN is the electronic beat project of acclaimed exNapalm Death drummer Mick Harris, the Dark Lord of ambient dub. Mick Harris' prolific ventures across numerous projects include Painkiller (with John Zorn and Bill Laswell), Quoit, Lull, Monrella, and many more. SUBMERGED is the King of Underground Drum n Bass DJs, having pioneered the scene for the hard sound from Astana to Sao Paulo to Kiev to Brooklyn. He is the founder of Galactic Enterprise that is Ohm Resistance. DISTORTION is a collaborative single with some of the 100% certified dopest Kool Keith verses. He is tuned into his co-authors, dropping lines about "Power sources, Mediterranean bosses", going "52 states, European, Worldwide", discussing "more power to explore", and knowing how to "stick my hand out the speaker and reach y'all". A massive energy liftoff occurs as Keith joins his multiverse with that of the Ohm Resistance artists. Mick Harris' instantly recognizable bludgeoning beat carries the weight, as he trades off bass blast duties with the organic overdriven bassline of Submerged. A warning shot fired in advance of Scorn's album, "The Only Place", this single adds the missing element to Scorn that brings out the richness and flavor of Mick Harris behind the mixing desk. "I'm so happy to be working with a great voice - I could do more of, it adds another dynamic to Scorn." says Harris. Submerged explains his usual streak of unusual luck - "I had a bassline I had written and wanted to send to Mick Harris for Scorn. When the opportunity came to work with Kool Keith, Mick made his beat, and my riff fit exactly - so we coordinated the forces to put this record together". With Kool Keith being one of the most-named influences by many of the Ohm Resistance artists, his arrival to the label couldn't have come at a better time - a integrated circuit across 4 dimensions, connecting 3 legendary musicians around the globe. Mixed by MJ Harris in the Lad's Old Room B14; Vocals by Kool Keith Recorded at Studio G Brooklyn; Engineered by Tony Maimone, Assisted by Ross Colombo; Bass Guitar by Submerged at Blue Site I, Saaremaa; Mastered by Daniele Antezza for Dadub Mastering Studio; Artwork by Sagana Squale, Layout by MachineÖ
(en) Good things take time - ideally, including a great deal of oomph. At least when it concerns new tracks from within Monkey Maffia's inner circle. It has been four whole years since we received the momentary last piece of the 'Monkey Maffia Music Club', 12 inches full of funky nasty beasts dedicated to the best dancefloors of this world. In the meantime, a remix was released here and a track was presented there, but now we may once again enjoy a full load of Monkey Maffia. And on top of that the now 75th release of Freude am Tanzen!
Monkey Maffia is personally providing the soundtrack for this ceremonial occasion. His tracks continually supply tremendous amounts of oomph to parties as well as loads of gravity and funk. After all, as an experienced DJ he simply knows what an awesome night looks like - a straight bass drum fractured while simultaneously amplified with infinitely warm synths. On one track, bass and percussion are throwing all our worries overboard, on the next one pads and vocals are shimmering to the bet. Whatever may happen, it can be said with utmost certainty that it will never become boring on either secular flat earth.
A1 - Bad Or Good
A total brain and leg screw, that spins and spins and spins. Any DJ willing to test how much funk a dancefloor can bear up to the third decimal place, will be perfectly served with this track as proof.
A2 - Fake Heroes
Short reminder, but detailed clattering minimal with soul does still exist. At first, 'Fake Heroes' frostily shines through aerial heights; however, then submerges all the more into unforeseen depths.
B1 - MiniMi
Somehow jazzy, but was meant as house. Similarly hypnotic, equally free. Common thread is the bass drum, along which anything is possible. File under: secret weapon for truly late hours and DJs with guts.
B2 - Schörless
This is a track that sends Larry Heard on an Orient trip and thereby extends over a much longer period than its brief four-and-a-half-minute length. For all those who are still serious about 'deep' in house.
(de) Gut Ding will Weile haben - und reichlich Wumms am besten gleich noch mit dazu. Zumindest dann, wenn es sich mal wieder um neue Tracks aus dem engsten Kreis der Monkey Maffia handelt. Ganze vier Jahre ist es inzwischen her, dass uns von dort aus der vorerst letzte Teil des - Monkey Maffia Music Club' erreichte, eine 12-Inch voll funky-garstiger Biester für die besten Dancefloors dieser Welt. Zwischendurch erschien ein Remix hier und ein Track dort, doch nun gibt's endlich wieder Monkey Maffia satt. Und das nunmehr 75. Release auf Freude Am Tanzen gleich noch mit dazu!
Der Soundtrack zu diesem feierlichen Anlass kommt von Monkey Maffia höchstselbst. Stichwort Wumms: den bringen seine Tracks stets genauso mit zur Party wie massig Tiefe und Funk. Denn als routinierter DJ weiß der Mann einfach, was eine lange Nacht alles braucht - hier wird die gerade Bassdrum gebrochen, dort mit endlos warmen Synths unterfüttert. In einem Track klappern uns Bass und Percussion die Sorgen aus dem Leib, im nächsten flirren die Pads und Vocals sehnsüchtig um die Wette. Was auch immer passiert, langweilig wird's auf dieser wie jener weltlichen Erdscheibe mit Sicherheit nicht.
A1 - Bad Or Good
Totale Hirn- und Beinschraube, die dreht und dreht und dreht. Wer als DJ testen will, wieviel Funk bis auf die dritte Kommastelle genau so ein Dancefloor eigentlich aushält, ist mit diesem Track als Messgerät bestens bedient.
A2 - Fake Heroes
Kleiner Reminder, aber kleinteilig-klappernder Minimal mit Seele, das gibt's noch immer. - Fake Heroes' schimmert zunächst kalt durch die luftigen Höhen, taucht dann aber umso weiter vor in ungeahnte Tiefen.
B1 - MiniMi
Irgendwie Jazz, aber als House gedacht. Ähnlich hypnothisch, genauso frei. Als roter Faden dient die Bassdrum, entlang dieser geht aber eigentlich alles. File under: Secret Weapon für die ganz späten Stunden und DJs mit Mumm.
B2 - Schörless
Ein Track der Larry Heard auf Orient-Reise schickt und dabei viel weiter trägt als seine knapp viereinhalb Minuten Spielzeit. Für alle, die das - Deep' im House noch ernst meinen.
Steve O’Sullivan returns under his Bluetrain alias, channeling the essence of dub into groovy,
endlessly cycling patterns shaped by submerged chords and tectonic low-end pressure. The influence of Mike Ink’s monolithic Studio One era is unmistakable, where reduction becomes
propulsion and each delay-trail etches its own pulse into the haze. Limited colourec vinyl.
GAEREA ist nichts weniger als ein fantastisches Rätsel, tief verwurzelt in Extremen und leidenschaftlicher Hingabe. In weniger als einem Jahrzehnt hat das maskierte Kollektiv, das in der portugiesischen Stadt Porto gegründet wurde, unzählige dunkle Facetten des Metal getestet und präsentiert nun mit "Loss" sein fünftes Album sowie Debüt bei Century Media Records.
"Wir haben das getan, was wir immer getan haben - wir sind unserem Instinkt gefolgt", sagt der anonyme Sänger von GAEREA. "Doch etwas sagt mir, dass dieses neue Album Elemente hat, die sowohl unsere neuen als auch unsere alten Fans lieben werden - aber es ist nicht gerade genau das, was sie von uns erwarten."
"Loss" definiert GAEREA neu und verquickt Elemente aus ihrer Post-Black-Metal Vergangenheit mit eindringlichen Melodien zu raffinierten Klanglandschaften. Dabei schlüpft die Band aus dem kreativen Kokon, um sich in etwas ebenso Mitreißendes wie Unerwartetes zu verwandeln: Es gibt Klargesang. Es gibt Refrains, die so eingängig und leidenschaftlich sind wie die besten Rock- und Metal-Songs. Und doch ist es unverkennbar GAEREA.
Die maskierte und ritualisierte Bühnenpräsenz der Band ist nicht nur Teil einer Show, sondern ein integraler Bestandteil von GAEREA, der ihre musikalische Extremität auf ein philosophisches, avantgardistisches Level hebt. Ihre Uniformen bieten dabei eine gesichtslose und androgyne Leinwand, die es ihnen erlaubt, sich in vollkommen in ihre Performance zu stürzen, die nicht zuletzt durch eine gewisse Körperlichkeit in ihren Bann zieht. Trotz ihrer dunklen Präsenz versprüht die Band stets einen Hauch von Transzendenz und Positivität. Mit "Loss" verschmelzen GAEREA die Ästhetik des Extreme Metal, die Offenheit des Post-Rock und einen freigelegten, emotionalen Nerv zu einem neuen musikalischen Paradigma.
Das ist GAEREA.
"Loss" ist erhältlich als: Ltd. CD Digipak in O-Card, LP, Digital Album
Chalybeate documents a month long stay by Tokyo based producer aus in Ikaho, one of Japan's most established Onsen (hot spring) towns, during autumn 2024.
Working from field-recordings captured inside multiple ryokan baths, aus synthesized the subterranean movement of the onsen's with local details: the bubbling of source water, the hoozuki lantern plants and wind chimes placed at each inn, and the surrounding insects and birds. Rather than portraying Ikaho as a landscape, the recordings trace the town's respiration.
The material was first presented on site as an installation unfolding across eight different baths, where visitors listened while soaking in roten-buro (open air hot baths). The project drew wide attention for proposing listening as a bodily act, inseparable from heat, moisture, and duration.
Chalybeate re constructs that installation as an album. The recordings were left to sit for a year within Ikaho's air and humidity, allowing the sound itself to slowly change. The title refers to Ikaho's iron rich mineral water, known as "Golden Water," which oxidizes upon contact with air and leaves rust colored traces in its baths. Following this process, the album's sound was repeatedly re submerged and re worked, gradually absorbing a corroded texture.
Tape hiss, gentle distortion, and subtle fluctuations rise quietly, like steam.
What remains is not documentation but residue.
Mixing was handed over to Manchester based producer The Humble Bee by Craig Tattersall, known for his work with The Boats and The Remote Viewer, after aus exhausted himself traversing Ikaho's steep stone steps. The exchange mirrors the work itself: from bathtub to hot spring, from sound to something that surrounds the body.
Woodwind like tape noise and the movement of water dissolve into one another.
The music does not arrive all at once. It settles slowly, as if lowering into warm water.
Belgian producer Gratts finally drops six in-demand reinterpretations from his Be Strong Be Free imprint to vinyl while showing off the label's collaborative, open-hearted spirit. Alex Kassian sets the tone with a lush, chugging instrumental of 'Sun Circles', followed by Terry Farley & Wade Teo's classic 90s Sound Factory-style overhaul of 'Off My Feet.' 'Submerge Me' dives into raw, hypnotic percussion before the flip delivers Fennec's rolling, floor-ready re-chug of 'Better Days'. Conrad McDonnell of Idjut Boys fame adds heavyweight dub depth to 'Jour De Fete', while Southpaw closes the EP by flipping 'Euphori' into tender, emotive trip-hop.
- A1: Sunlight Zone
- A2: Clarion-Clipperton Zone
- A3: Oreison
- B1: Twilight Zone
- B2: Fracture
- B3: Abyss
- B4: Polymetallic Nodule
- B5: Hadal
- B6: Sunlight Zone (Strings Version) *
Laurel Halo returns with an album of original soundtrack music, composed for the film Midnight Zone by visual artist Julian Charrière. Following the path of a drifting Fresnel lighthouse lens as it descends through the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone — a remote abyssal plain in the Pacific Ocean, rich in rare metals and increasingly targeted for deep-sea mining — the film traces a descent into one of Earth’s last untouched ecosystems.
Charrière’s film reveals the deep not as void, but as a luminous biome teeming with fragile life: bioluminescent creatures, swirling schools of fish, and elusive predators. The suspended lens becomes an abyssal campfire, attracting species caught in the tides of uncertainty, their futures hanging in the balance.
Echoing this tension, Halo’s compositions evoke a sensory freefall, where gravity falters and light and sound flicker in uncertain rhythms. Midnight Zone is a sonic drift through the space between what we seek to extract, fail to understand, and must protect.
Halo’s score evokes the life that exists beyond our physical airbound capacity. The material features long, subtle passages of electro-acoustic ambient, drone and sound design, slowly flowing and unfolding with rich detail. The music, composed largely on a Montage 8 synthesizer and Yamaha TransAcoustic piano at the Yamaha studios in New York City, possesses an uncanny quality: that of synthetic waveforms being amplified and sung through the stringboard of the physical body of the TransAcoustic piano. Combined with stacks of violin and viol da gamba, the music on Midnight Zone possesses trace elements of a human hand in an otherwise sunken landscape. Patient, submerged, and alive. The album will be the third on Halo’s imprint, Awe.
The film is central to Charrière’s current solo exhibition Midnight Zone. The exhibition engages with underwater ecologies, exploring the complexity of water as an elemental medium affected by anthropogenic degradation. Reflecting upon its flow and materiality, profundity and politics, its mundane and sacral dimensions, the solo show acts as a kaleidoscope, inviting us to dive deep.
- A1: Another Thought (02:16)
- A2: A Little Lost (03:18)
- A3: Home Away From Home (05:12)
- A4: Lucky Cloud (02:16)
- B1: This Is How We Walk On The Moon (04:42)
- B2: Hollow Tree (02:30)
- B3: See Through Love (04:46)
- C1: Keeping Up (06:20)
- C2: In The Light Of The Miracle (06:05)
- C3: Lucky Cloud (Return) (03:00)
- C4: Just A Blip (03:42)
- D1: Me For Real (04:55)
- D2: Losing My Taste For The Night Life (04:34)
- D3: My Tiger, My Timing (05:41)
- D4: A Sudden Chill (02:45)
2026 Repress
Another Thought was the first collection of Arthur Russell’s music to be released after his death in 1992. Released in 1993 on Point Music it marked the beginning of nearly 30 years of work to let the world hear the enormous archive of unreleased recordings Arthur left behind. Be With revisits this first compilation for a new gatefold double vinyl version and a triple-fold digipak CD reissue.
Both versions of Be With’s 2021 reissue of Another Thought have been mastered by Simon Francis and the vinyl cut by Pete Norman. The original artwork has been restored and tweaked at Be With HQ for the gatefold sleeve and the triple-fold digipak, with the essential help of Janette Beckman. Each version comes with an insert reproducing the liner notes and lyrics from the original CD release.
Together with Calling Out Of Context, Soul Jazz’s World of Arthur Russell, and much of the ongoing work of Audika, Another Thought is absolutely essential for even the most casual Arthur Russell collection. In fact we’d argue it’s essential for any fan of non-obvious pop music. This is the only place where you can hear some of Arthur’s most recognisable tunes and it’s an album that absolutely deserves to be kept in press.
We’ll assume that by now you’re all at least a little familiar with the story of Arthur Russell, the farm boy from Iowa who moved to 1970s New York. Arthur Russell the genuine musical genius who died just 40 years old, leaving behind a wealth of music that dwarfed the few 12"s and LPs that were released during his short life.
Although Arthur had been working on an album for Rough Trade during his last years, with the label no-longer operating it was Point Music (Philip Glass and Michael Riesman’s label set up together with Philips) who stepped in to help Arthur’s partner Tom Lee start working out exactly what Arthur had left behind.
Tom suggested that Arthur’s friend Mikel Rouse was the right person to make the first catalogue. Working in Tom and Arthur’s apartment he had only two weeks to go through what turned out to be around 800 tapes.
As Tom explained “at the end of each day he would generally wait for me to come home and I would, to the best of my knowledge, name and identify pieces in question from that day’s work. As he worked Mikel compiled about a dozen cassettes that he thought would present the most finished sounding songs for Don/Point to use. As Don listened he would then suggest and ask me and thus we collaborated on the choices.”
Don is Don Christensen, Another Thought’s producer. With a final selection of songs from recordings made between 1982 and 1990, including sessions with some of Arthur’s regular collaborators Peter Zummo, Steven Hall, Mustafa Ahmed, Elodie Lauten, Julius Eastman, Jennifer Warnes and Joyce Bowden, it was then Don’s job to turn these into a finished album.
Another Thought is a little different from the compilations of Arthur’s music that came out since. In our conversations with Steve Knutson (who founded Audika Records and who manages Arthur’s estate together with Tom), he explained that “more than any project released by Arthur during his lifetime or posthumously by Audika, ‘Another Thought’ is the most worked over. The material was significantly edited and rearranged from the original source tapes”.
If the aim was to release a comprehensive exploration of every facet of Arthur’s music, from the most avant-garde of his avant-garde compositions through to the most disco-not-disco of his disco-not-disco tunes then the project was a spectacular failure. But as a coherent album of non-obvious pop music Another Thought is wonderful.
Starting with the sparse voice-and-cello of the title track, A Little Lost adds some guitar along with the sneaking suspicion that we’re listening to something nowhere near as simple as it first sounds. By the time we get to This Is How We Walk On The Moon - it could be the moment you notice the congas, or the percussion that’s been building behind them, or maybe it’s that blast of trumpet and trombone - we realise we’ve gone from splashing around to being completely submerged in the musical world of Arthur Russell.
From here the album heads off on its journey around the sounds of the left-field contemporary classical music of the time, re-directed towards pop ears, with minor detours through the swirling woozy disco of the half-remembered night before on In The Light Of The Miracle and My Tiger, My Timing. Whether it’s just Arthur, his cello and some bleeps on Just A Blip, or whether he has some vocal help as he does on the bounding Keeping Up, this is difficult music made so, so easy. And through it all is Arthur’s voice and cello. Sometimes drowned in distortion and sometimes clear as a bell, but always there somewhere.
A Sudden Chill finally returns us to the calmer waters we started in and this last track closes the album with a melancholy that’s not surprising given how soon after Arthur’s death the album was put together.
Whilst Another Thought holds together with the consistency of a proper album, there’s still no getting away from the fact that this was put together from audio recorded in different ways, in different places, with different people at different times. Those with keen ears will hear traces of tape hiss, the occasional blown-out note and some digital fuzz, all fingerprints of those original recordings as well as of the 1990s digital equipment that was used to piece Another Thought together.
Add to this Arthur’s obvious pleasure in making music from the sort of sounds that can make microphones, speakers and ears uncomfortable, it’s no surprise that Another Thought isn’t glossy and pristine. Don Christensen’s productions have been careful to not scrub up those original recordings so much that they lose their original vibe, understandable given that Arthur wasn’t around as a guide. We’ve applied a similarly light touch with the mastering for these Be With versions, just working to make sure they sound like they should on both the vinyl and the CD.
Despite the Discogs rumours, Another Thought was never originally released as an LP. So when it came to the sleeve for this Be With vinyl version we took the original CD artwork as a starting point to come up with something that looks like it could have been in the record racks back in 1993.
We have to thank Janette Beckman for helping us reproduce her iconic photograph of Arthur in his newspaper boat hat. One of many photographs she took of Arthur, Janette shot this in her New York studio back in 1986 for a short article in the January ’87 issue of The Face Magazine. Those with eagle-eyes will notice we’ve used an ever-so-slightly different shot from the one that appeared in The Face and then again on the original cover of Another Thought. The original has long since been lost so we’ve worked with what is left in Janette’s archives. And we also have to thank Tom Lee for giving us permission to reproduce his liner notes from the original CD booklet, together with Arthur’s lyrics.
This is the sound of Innershades... next part of the Homage to the sound of Belgian clubs in the late 80's, early 90's. Inspired by records from iconic labels and stores as R&S, Music Man, USA Import and Antler Subway. Music that didn't stop at the border but also got picked by the resident dj's of the underground clubs in Rotterdam.
- 1: Any God Of Yours (Instrumental)
- 2: Swell (Instrumental)
- 3: Arise Dear Brother (Instrumental)
- 4: Ammi Ammi (Instrumental)
- 5: Buffed Sky (Instrumental)
- 6: Sex With Nobody (Instrumental)
- 7: Eye’s Drift (Instrumental)
- 8: The Sea Liner Mk 1 (Instrumental)
- 9: Empty Vessels (Instrumental)
- 10: New Builds (Instrumental)
- 11: Dull Boys (Instrumental)
- 12: Thames Water (Instrumental)
XL Recordings is proud to mark the 10th anniversary of Archy Marshall’s (aka King Krule) A New Place 2 Drown with the release of a newly remastered instrumental edition.
Originally released on 10 December 2015, A New Place 2 Drown remains a singular entry in the Archy Marshall catalogue. Known to many for his work as King Krule, Marshall released A New Place 2 Drown under his own name, highlighting a different facet of his creative identity. An atmospheric blend of submerged beats, woozy textures, and diaristic storytelling, the project earned widespread acclaim upon release, including Pitchfork’s Best New Music.
Developed in parallel with a visual world shaped with his brother and longtime collaborator Jack Marshall, the quietly influential project stands as a multidisciplinary love letter to their home of South London, originally released alongside a Will Robson-Scott–directed short film and a book of artworks, photography, and poetry by the Marshall brothers.
The 2025 instrumental edition offers a newly illuminated perspective on the record’s sonic core, drawing fresh attention to the production craft that underpins the project. By stripping the songs back to their foundations, the release highlights the intricate textures, rhythmic detail, and atmospheric depth that have helped A New Place 2 Drown grow into a cult favourite over the past decade.
“A New Place 2 Drown evokes a septic world filled with flickering halogen bulbs, sticky synth keys, and corroded outputs. Marshall has made tremendous strides as a producer, gorgeously reproducing the gloom and loneliness of early '90s hip-hop and finding a way to integrate it into his own style.” - PITCHFORK
- A1: Ree-Vo 'Protein' (The Bug Remix)
- A2: Ree-Vo 'We Go' (Object Object Remix)
- B1: Nøise 'Automatic' (Ree-Vo Remix)
- B2: Ree-Vo 'Groove With It' (Deadverse Remix) By Dälek
Originally released as a digital double a side both lead tracks were chosen by the remixers and the results are like an electrical storm.
Newark, NJ’s Dälek (Will Brooks) drags T. Relly’s growl through the quicksand, a cacophony of whiplashed beats and visceral loops spurring our protagonist on. It’s a gaggle of Ghostface Killas trapped in a hall of mirrors; it’s next door’s MBV heard through the walls whilst submerged in a low-lit bathtub. And Wu Tang are pulling the plug out.
Kevin Martin aka The Bug continues to release teeth rattling sonic masterpieces, his most recent being November’s ‘Implosion’ on his own Pressure label. In his hands ‘Protein’ becomes a submarine bass, head n’ rig wrecker opting here for more of his hooky ‘In Blue’ style Bug mix. As Kevin said – “to my fantastical mind it sounds like Bug dirt ‘n’grind Vs Yin Yang Twins’ louche swagger and Neptunes funk”.
“In Bristol, it was hip-hop and reggae renegades meeting up with white ex-punk guitarists, alternative pop pioneers hanging out with underground roots music makers, and sound system sonic stalwarts grooving out with rave’s space cadets that laid the bedrock for such an explosion. And if you think that such an eclectic melting pot ever went away, you would be wrong. Ree-Vo is all the proof that you need” – The Big Takeover
- Side A
- Theme Of Zero (From Mega Man X)
- Intermission
- Express Ug
- Deadzone
- Scorching Desert
- Hell Plant
- Infiltration
- Side B
- Crash
- Result Of Mission
- Neo Arcadia
- X, The Legend
- Fake
- For Endless Fight
- End Title
- Area Of Zero / Main Theme Of Zero
- Cyberelf
- LP2: ‘Music From Mega Man Zero 2’
- Side A
- Title Ii
- For Endless Fight Ii
- Departure
- Instructions
- Ice Brain
- Platinum
- Gravity
- Sand Triangle
- Power Bom
- Side B
- Passionate
- Cool Hearted Fellow
- The Cloudy Stone
- Silver Wolf - Yggr-Drasill
- Supreme Ruler
- The Last - The Wish Punished
- In Mother's Light
- Awakening Will
- LP3: ‘Music From Mega Man Zero 3’
- Side A
- Title Iii
- Break Out
- Exiled One -Omegacurse Of Vile
- Prismatic
- Volcano
- Old Life Space
- Final Count Down
- For Endless Fight Iii
- Cold Smile
- LP3: ‘Music From Mega Man Zero 3’ (Cont.)
- Side B
- Trail On Powdery Snow
- Submerged Memory
- High-Speed Lift
- Hell's Gate Open
- Judgement Day
- Cannon Ball
- I, 0 Your Fellow
- Everlasting Red
- Labo - System-A-Ciel
- LP4: ‘Music From Mega Man Zero 4’
- Side A
- Title Iv
- Caravan - Hope For Freedom
- Nothing Beats
- Holy Land
- Esperanto
- Kraft
- Max Heat
- Queen Of The Hurt
- Side B
- Cage Of Tyrant
- Straight Ahead
- Crossover Station
- Cyber Space
- Falling Down
- Ciel D'aube
- Promise - Next New World
- LP5:
- Side A ‘Music From Mega Man Zx’
- Green Grass Gradation
- En-Trance Code
- Wonder Panorama
- Misty Rain
- Onslaught
- Black Burn
- Snake Eyes
- Cannon Ball
- Side B ‘Music From Mega Man Zx Advent’
- In The Wind
- Overloaded
- Path To The Truth
- Trap Phantasm
- Drifting Floe
- Whisper Of Relics
- Mirai E Tsuzuku Kaze
- Green Grass Gradation (Mega Man A Ver)
Capcom and Laced Records invite you to return to a world of Reploids and cyber-elves, betrayal and Bio-Metals...
Thoughtfully sequenced with a disc covering each of the Mega Man Zero games, and a fifth covering ZX and ZX Advent, this box set will allow fans to fully ensconce themselves in the series.
ultimatemaverickx returns as sleeve artist, producing lore-faithful, vibrantly colorful panels depicting memorable story moments and highlighting major characters in iconic poses.
The Mega Man Zero/ZX soundtracks' glorious mix of urgent acid house, ambient, face-melting metal, and even soaring pop feel downright prophetic in the modern music landscape. Transported from their '00s hardware origins to your turntable come the sounds of our present, broadcast from the past - and it rips.
On her fourth full-length album as Shedir, Sardinian sound artist Martina Betti offers a profound meditation on what it means to be human on the threshold of uncertainty.
We Are All Strangers is a series of ambient tapes-tries shaped by duality and introspection, where sound becomes a space to explore the tension between identity and ambiguity, presence and disappearance, connection and solitude. Inspired by the idea that we are all strangers, however, first and foremost to ourselves, Betti crafts seven fluid, slow-burn compositions that inhabit a sociological liminal zone—what she comments as an “inner elsewhere.”
These aren’t songs in the traditional sense, but evolving sonic environments that feel like emotional states made audible. Environmental textures, submerged electronics, and deep low-end pulses coalesce into a dreamlike architecture of sound: immersive, fragile, and quietly transformative.
Rather than offering answers or closure, the album invites us to live in radical openness—to stop trying to define everything we see and feel, and instead bathe in what remains unnamed. In this sense, We Are All Strangers is an invitation: to sit with uncertainty, to embrace the unfinished, and to find resonance even in our collective disconnection.
For listeners drawn to the introspective frequencies of Rafael Anton Irisarri, Félicia Atkinson, or Lawrence English, Betti’s music offers a similarly haunting and immersive experience—one where strangeness is not a flaw, but a starting point. In her hands, ambient music becomes a kind of reflective shelter: a place to brush against each other in the dark and begin to learn, as she puts it, “the difficult art of closeness.”
Bait revisits Trois-Quarts Taxi System's 'Plexus' for its next outing. The label's first long-player was a benchmark in meditative experimentation that now comes as a new remix package which brings together pioneers and forward-thinking voices to reinterpret the album's deep, exploratory spirit. Label head Beatrice M. opens with 'Coma' a warm nod to old-school sensibilities, while Herbalistek submerges us in the shadowy textures of 'Spectre.' Pinch delivers a moody steppers twist on 'Sonar' and Katatonic Silentio sharpens 'Plexus 3' into abrasive and physical rhythm. Together, these reworks stretch the original visions further outward into new realms.




















