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Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

Curses' dark, romantic take on electronic music is often linked to EBM, new beat, synth-pop, and the offshoots in between - but, as the artist states, it's feelings, not genres, that motivate his music. Especially the underground and its niche sounds, brimming with collective energy, drive and passion, make for a major impetus. It's no coincidence that he's drawn to the era when man turned to the machine, as a collaborative force, and a new kind of liveliness, timelessness, emerged. In Curses' practice, this synergy translates into an enticing mix of synthesisers and voices, electronic drums and guitars. Nostalgia operates as an influence rather than a motive, though: despite its affinities with the past, his music is stridently contemporary and idiosyncratic. On the "Perfect High" EP, this approach is rendered in a resolutely dancefloor-oriented selection. It's rich in detail and constantly evolving; each time a new element appears, it's treated with such delight and care that you could imagine the track to flit off and turn it into the main theme. This doesn't happen, however, as the sense of cohesion and momentum is paramount: there's a relentless forward drive that keeps engagement tight from start to finish. The detuned, chorus-heavy leads of title track "Perfect High" and the clockwork-tinged percussion of "Weapon Of Time" jell with lustrous hooks. The ominous choirs on "Dare To Dream" and the proto rolling-and-scratching squelches of "Killer Instinct" similarly fall into place. Bravado never stands in the way of flow. Everything is kept in check by gated R-50 rhythms, and in the vocal department, Curses finds the sweet spot between his own voice and a slew of off-kilter samples. On closer "Blasted" NYC royalty Andi joins for a slab of synth-driven groove. It's shiny and sensuous, like patent leather - a perfect distillation of club music channeled through pop aesthetics, and thus a right coda for ALT028.

Discrepant presents Fantarombo, a new album by Giovanni Lami.

While his previous works often moved through memory, residue, degradation, and dialogue with existing materials, Fantarombo takes shape as an unstable, bodily gesture.

Sound is not recalled or reconstructed, but triggered, pushed, and set in motion as an active force. Lami approaches modular synthesis as a physical, hands-on practice rather than a technical exercise or display of system mastery. The modular setup becomes a responsive body: something to be nudged, listened to, and occasionally resisted.

The pieces unfold through slow accumulations, unstable feedback paths, and carefully misaligned sequences. Rather than driving toward resolution, the music lingers in states of suspension, allowing small shifts in voltage, timing, and texture to reshape the whole. Chance and duration play a central role, with structure emerging gradually from repetition and drift.

There is an unmistakably organic quality to the sound: porous, tactile, and quietly resonant. A sensitivity to space, grain, and micro-movement, where subtle changes carry as much weight as overt gestures. On Fantarombo, process takes precedence over control, and the circuitry is allowed to speak back, resulting in music that feels intimate, unstable, and quietly insistent, revealing itself slowly through sustained attention.

A music of unresolved behaviours, suspended somewhere between obsolete digital optimism, imaginary systems and malfunctioning computational folklore.

2026 Repress

Ezra Feinberg's third album Soft Power sees the composer-guitarist enlist an impressive array of fellow musicians including Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Robbie Lee and share the life affirming lead single 'Future Sand'.

Defined by its abundance of melodies, repeating figures and ecstatic improvisations, Soft Power exudes an enlightened and transformative spirit to empower the listener. Feinberg, a practising psychoanalyst and former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay (Dead Oceans / Important Records) resides in the artistic enclave of upstate New York's Hudson River valley. Initial recordings emerged in the late summer of 2020, before added synthesis with collaborator John Thayer (Arp, Sunwatchers) during early 2021. Soft Power follows previous albums 'Recumbent Speech' (2020) and 'Pentimento and Others' (2018).

Feinberg artfully transcends the listener to an enriched place, his compositions distinguished by the deep humanity that lies at their core, plugging the listener into a state of wide eyed being, open and alive. Soft Power then is Ezra's own mantra but also one of power giving - a colourful catharsis translated into music.

Feinberg's music always speaks to the listener, but Soft Power, in whispering, speaks loudest.

"Much like everyday life, I wanted to convey these very plain, simple, tranquil, nearly quotidian aspects, but each piece contains this arc in which that form expands, is broken out of, so what starts out like a painting of flowers in a seaside motel turns into a riot of color and sound, or you feel slipped into a dream that feels like it could go on forever"

Rocco Universal presents four cuts of cosmic machine funk on Cosmic Tiger.

Lovingly recorded using analogue synthesis, the floor-focused music favours feeling over control, with saturated drums, thick bass notes and slow-burning melodies loosely entwined over intuitive arrangements. Shaped patiently amid Rocco’s long-running residency at Potato Head Bali, the tracks meander through cosmic disco, proto-house, electro-funk and psychedelic chug, each finding its place beneath evolving twilight skies.

Rocco Universal is the alter-ego of Patrizio Cavaliere — DJ, producer and journalist serving the roots of music from the space in between. His cultured turntable curation alongside years in conversation with some of the scene’s architects and ambassadors inform freeform productions that have previously arrived on labels including Leng, Soul Clap and Adeen Detroit.

Originally launched as a blog, Cosmic Tiger now surfaces only occasionally through interviews and original releases, operating as a slow-moving but trusted archive of influences, conversations and dancefloor oddities.

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

Tip-on Cover, Special Varnish

Available in the following Territories: Wordwide minus Japan & Korea

NOTON is pleased to announce12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto to be released on 18 September 2026.

The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skilful and sensitive electronic detailing.
Each successive project further deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs), to their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a wholly improvised performance inside Philip Johnson's iconic Connecticut landmark, in which the pair fixed contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a document of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House.

Across these works, their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety.
12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right.
The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation - sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening.

Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honours Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.


Carsten Nicolai writes:
"A heavy breath can be heard in the recordings. Yet this work is not about remembrance but continuation, vitality, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation that shaped an artistic relationship over decades.
The twelve pieces we exchanged in November and December 2022 possess extraordinary density: sounds expanded, altered, recontextualized. Initially, every intervention felt almost inappropriate. Yet this was part of our openness and trust: adding, shifting and radically yet softly transforming.
Even in these final exchanges, plans for future projects continued to take shape, mindful of finite yet firmly believing in the power of new ideas. We chose the name Conversations, which has become a space of memory and vision, where past, present and future intertwine.
For a long time, releasing this music seemed impossible. The loss felt too sudden, and the emotional connection too profound. As time passed, it became clear that these twelve musical encounters should have life outside the archive. To honor Ryuichi's wish, these pieces are now being released as the continuation of a dialogue that extends beyond the physical."

The first single, Conversation 3, will be released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The second single, Conversation 6, will be be released on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
12 Conversations will be available worldwide on vinyl, CD and digitally. A Japanese edition will be available on Ryuichi Sakamoto's commons.

Music From Memory presents ‘Mutualkind’, by Asa Tone, the collaborative project of Melati ESP, Tristan Arp and Kaazi. Written between Indonesia, Mexico City, Berlin and New York, the record unfolds through a process of continual exchange, where distance itself becomes part of the group’s music formation.

At the centre of the album is the idea of a shared language, formed across differences in geography, experience and musical approach. One such process explores Tristan’s electronic hand percussion triggering fragments of Melati’s voice in real time, while a library of spoken words and phonemes are reshaped through chance-based rhythmic processes. Voice becomes percussion, rhythm becomes melody, and the lines between individual contributions begin to dissolve.

Some pieces, including ‘Water Talk’ and ‘Second Language’, were recorded live in a single take, while others were assembled gradually through remote exchange. During the final sessions in Indonesia, Balinese percussionist Putu Septa contributed kendang to two tracks, bringing the instrument into dialogue with modular synthesis, FM textures, electronic drums, MIDI wind instruments and Melati’s shifting vocal forms.

Sounds are slowed, stuttered and reorganised, reflecting a world shaped by illusory borders, vanishing landscapes and glitching ecosystems. Yet the album remains rooted in the act of tending to something shared: a musical field built through listening, improvisation and repeated moments of reunion.

‘Mutualkind’ seeks to blur boundaries without erasing the identities that meet across them, providing a space in which voice and instrument, self and other, separation and togetherness can briefly exist at once.

MFM086 will be released on vinyl and digitally via Music From Memory on October 22nd 2026.

Following the success of the inaugural all-Jiri Jiri edition, Batov Records returns with the second instalment of its Give Me Disco series, once again curated by label co-founder and globe-trotting selector DJ Kobayashi. Rather than revisiting familiar disco classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 digs deeper, bringing together four dancefloor discoveries from across Europe and Asia, including two previously unreleased tracks available here for the first time.

Spanning Portuguese jazz-funk, Norwegian cosmic oddities, Japanese-inspired psychedelic disco and cinematic groove, the EP reflects the breadth of Kobayashi's record bag - a carefully assembled selection of tracks that have soundtracked his DJ sets for years alongside exclusive material rescued from the vaults.

Opening the record is The Bam Jam Band's brilliantly understated "Theme", a soaring slice of jazz-infused disco from Portuguese musicians Sérgio Alves and Pedro Tenreiro. Originally released only as a now long-sold-out 7 inch on Mad About Records, the track has become one of Kobayashi's trusted secret weapons, championed by discerning selectors including Darryn Jones and Red Greg. Built around Alves' dazzling synthesiser work, "Theme" finally gets the wider audience it deserves. The EP's first exclusive arrives courtesy of D. Apal, instrumentalist and member of Norway's Flammer Dance Band. His only solo release, issued on the band's Lysketrekk Records, has become a cult favourite among adventurous record collectors. Batov now unveils the previously unreleased "60 Meter'n (Rytme)", an extended instrumental dub that strips away the vocals to let the handclaps, cavernous bassline, dub effects and wonderfully eccentric synthesisers breathe, transforming an underground favourite into an irresistible dancefloor weapon.

Side B opens with YĪN YĪN's "Tokyo Disco", taken from the band's acclaimed third album Mount Matsu on Glitterbeat Records. Long-time admirers of the Dutch quartet, Kobayashi has championed them since first hearing the breakthrough pairing of "Dis ̄ kô Dis ̄ kô" and "Dion Ysiusk" on Bongo Joe. Since then, he has hosted the band twice on Soho Radio and supported them live in London. "Tokyo Disco" perfectly captures YĪN YĪN's distinctive blend of Japanese-inspired psychedelia, Southeast Asian influences, post-punk funk and shimmering disco grooves, making it a natural fit for the Give Me Disco series.

Closing the EP is another exclusive from Jiri Jiri, whose contribution helped launch the series on Vol. 01. Ahead of their forthcoming album later this year, the duo unveil the previously unreleased "Spaghetti Western", a wonderfully off-kilter fusion of Morricone-esque cinematic atmosphere, taut funk rhythms and the soulful modern groove of SAULT. Equal parts soundtrack and dancefloor curveball, it provides a fitting finale while offering another tantalising glimpse of what's still to come. With two exclusive cuts sitting alongside two carefully chosen modern classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 is another lovingly curated snapshot of DJ Kobayashi's musical universe: borderless, groove-driven and unapologetically built for adventurous DJs, discerning collectors and open minded dancefloors alike.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Mack Loenz delivers his debut album From The Heart on Maceo Plex’s Lone Romantic imprint, expanding his razor-sharp, cinematic sound through analog synthesis and retro-futurist design.

Across its ten tracks, the album moves through a palette that is both nostalgic and forward-facing, with glistening arps, soaring pads and growling basslines shifting between physical club function and emotional extremes of melancholic yearning, romantic tenderness and futuristic intensity. ‘Follow Me’ opens with shimmering arpeggios and driving bass building to a euphoric crescendo, while ‘Switching My Flow’ pushes into heavier territory with gritty hoover synths, skittering vocals and chest-rattling subs. Elsewhere, ‘It’s Complicated’ brings a more tender, melancholic edge with rolling drums and expansive, symphonic synth work, and ‘Trust Issues’ leans into a nocturnal, romantic yet dystopian mood carried by sweeping leads and pitched vocal splicing. ‘Waiting Game’ moves into darker, industrial-leaning tension, before ‘Back To The Stars’ closes on a reflective, emotional resolve.

Shaped by a vision to push electro into a more expressive space, From The Heart carries a clear emotional core throughout. As Mack Loenz puts it, “In a time where there is a lot of darkness, this album is about bringing light, spreading positive energy, and creating moments that people can feel both on the dancefloor and within themselves.” That sentiment runs through the record, shaping a cohesive statement that balances club functionality with atmosphere, emotion and forward-facing electronic production.

The songs of Jules de Corte are condensed, folky gems with an almost effortless charm. Poised between the intimate and the universal, between lightness and darkness, they touch on religion, love, loss, and the small dramas of everyday life. Yet they resist easy translation. Packed with wordplay, de Corte’s signature alliterations, humor, and local cultural references, the songs inevitably lose something in another language. Still, when a Belgian quartet of improvisers takes them on, joined by American songwriter Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, the songs are reborn rather than merely transposed: literal fidelity gives way to interpretation, and what is lost in words is often gained in spirit.

Even without tracing every change, their overall effect is fascinating. Songs are slowed down, often doubled in length, and filled with unexpected musical intrusions. They gain fuller arrangements and are placed in an entirely new context. Replacing de Corte’s piano with guitar can create a radically different vibe, as in “Mariska.” An added solo can heighten the contrast between childlike perspective and the almost matter- of-fact brutality of “Little Anita.” In “The Stranger,” another use of contrast unsettles the everyday harmony, transforming it with a subtle, disorienting twist.

Ultimately, these performances show that interpretation is not successful simply because it is literal. With the groundwork laid by Linus, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy further liberated the songs from their original versions. Lyrics and melodies become malleable, shaped by his recognizable cadences, timbre, and personal quirks. Like his collaborators, he allows himself the freedom to bend the material to his own approach. There is no radical break between this performance and his other records. Listeners familiar with the originals may be puzzled at first; for those new to de Corte, it is a wholly different experience.

Does it really matter that the original “Little Jesus, Mighty God” is a 100-second nugget combining playful naivete with biblical fervor? In the hands of these five explorers, the song becomes an intriguing contemplation, with subtle musical shades and a recitation in which every syllable carries a maturity that offers a new perspective. Then there is “The Outsider,” which feels as genuine as any original American folk song. The musicians’ process is more than reinterpretation—it is reimagination, bringing new musical compatibility and emotional depth. Whether that depth was there from the start, waiting to be uncovered, or created in the process is beside the point. What matters is that Linus and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy have made the essence of these songs their own, paying homage yet dancing to their own tune.

Linus is the Belgian duo of guitarist and banjo player Ruben Machtelinckx and reedist and synthesiser player Thomas Jillings. Across five previous albums — Onland (2014), Linus + Skarbø / Leroux (2015), Felt Like Old language at the crossroads of folk, jazz, minimalism, chamber music and free improvisation. Their music is adventurous, shaped by a particular sensitivity to texture, timbre and the subtle interaction between musicians.

What began as a duo gradually grew into a flexible musical world, bringing Linus together with musicians such as Nils Økland, Ingar Zach, Niels Van Heertum, Øyvind Skarbø and Frederik Leroux. Yet each new constellation has remained recognisably Linus: music in which carefully considered forms leave space for intuition, interaction and the unexpected.

For their sixth album, Linus takes a new step by moving into the world of song and text. Inspired by a shared love for the late Dutch songwriter Jules De Corte, the album is a reimagining of De Corte’s unique repertoire. More than simply interpreting De Corte’s songs, they absorb and reshape them, bringing them into dialogue with their own musical language. In keeping with this open approach, they are joined by celebrated vocalist Bonnie “Prince” Billy. With albums such as 1999’s I See a Darkness appearing on several greatest album lists, Bonnie “Prince” Billy is a cult figure in the alternative folk scene, and his highly intuitive way of singing seamlessly matches the subtle interplay Linus has developed over more than a decade.

Composed over a period of twenty years, these four electroacoustic pieces by Ivo Malec reflect the richness of his sonic universe and reveal the unique power of his musical writing. His strength lies in an ability to harness emerging sounds and techniques (ranging from complex editing to early computer music and electronic synthesis) and develop them through an exploratory approach, giving rise to musical ideas of rare clarity. This sense of determination, not only in terms of the future of sounds but also of musical forms, is what makes Ivo Malec an essential composer on the contemporary music scene and a key figure in the GRM’s repertoire.
François Bonnet, Paris, 2025

UK experimental multi-instrumentalist Oli Heffernan (aka Ivan The Tolerable) returns to independent label Riot Season Records on October 23rd, 2026, with The Planets, a fierce, tension-fuelled reinterpretation of Gustav Holst’s iconic orchestral suite tailored for the modern age.
Originally composed over a century ago to capture the astrological characters of the cosmos, Holst's masterpiece receives a radical, uneasy update. Where the original composition leaned on grand symphonic sweeps, Ivan The Tolerable strips away the comfort of the orchestra, replacing it with fracturing analog synthesisers, claustrophobic tape loops, and the hypnotic, nervous pulse of modern kosmische music and avant-garde noise.
The Planets is an album forged in the specific dread of 2026—a year defined by geopolitical instability, climate weariness, and pervasive societal tension. Rather than looking up at the stars in awe, Heffernan turns the telescope back toward a fractured Earth. From the staggering, industrial-tinged dread of "Mars" to a hollow, melancholic take on "Jupiter," the album transforms familiar motifs into an immersive exploration of collective psychological fatigue.
Recorded in isolation by Heffernan, the project captures the signature solo vulnerability seen on his recent landmark releases like Psychogeography. It balances moments of deep, meditative stillness with sudden, jarring eruptions of noise, offering listeners a space to both confront and process the overwhelming static of the everyday world.

Animative is new work by composer, producer, saxophonist and synthesist Josh Johnson (SML, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Flea and The Honora Band), his third album under his own name, and his first for International Anthem/Nonesuch. The album further advances Johnson deep into a territory he has been exploring for years: live-processed electro-acoustic takes on deconstructed rhythmic jazz. The ten track album - co-produced by Johnson and Paul Bryan, featuring contributions from Meshell Ndegeocello, Macie Stewart, Marquis Hill, Ben Lumsdaine, and more - is a marvel of electro-acoustic innovation that combines compositional brilliance and technological ambition into a mesmerizing blend of skeletal soul-jazz, post-bop, electronic minimalism, and dreamy ambience.

Animative is new work by composer, producer, saxophonist and synthesist Josh Johnson (SML, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Flea and The Honora Band), his third album under his own name, and his first for International Anthem/Nonesuch. The album further advances Johnson deep into a territory he has been exploring for years: live-processed electro-acoustic takes on deconstructed rhythmic jazz. The ten track album - co-produced by Johnson and Paul Bryan, featuring contributions from Meshell Ndegeocello, Macie Stewart, Marquis Hill, Ben Lumsdaine, and more - is a marvel of electro-acoustic innovation that combines compositional brilliance and technological ambition into a mesmerizing blend of skeletal soul-jazz, post-bop, electronic minimalism, and dreamy ambience.

"After a couple of years shaping her sound in the studio, Budino lands the "Signal EP", a record that grew out of the desire to make music for her own sets. Citing the journey she aims to create in the club as a key inspiration, she certainly put in the mileage, with a booking schedule tirelessly spanning all points of the compass. Although this is her first label-released original record, it's no novice effort: ALT027 shows a confident artist, fully in control, with a distinct vision and the technical expertise to bring it to life. On opener "Stay More", a trippy trance rendition, the sturdy kick and distorted sines leave ample room for mid-bass acid lines to roam freely. In its company, a myriad of risers, gated white noises and delayed fills appear - signifiers within the artist's palette, as will become apparent. "Wireless" features similar crafty sub movement, but this time the drums are infused with conga patterns and other exotic slices of battery. Because of the zest these rhythms bring, the track can keep building for several minutes until a synthesised lead emerges. When that finally happens, the affair really takes off. On the other side, "Alpha 7" rides the call-and-response dynamics between different formant and deep-vibrating leads, its shimmering arpeggios and atmospheric pads adding colour. Closer "1031" provides an organic touch with its live guitar bass pulse and enigmatic, eerie vocals. Amidst ever-evolving micro-frills, a sturdy square lead thrusts it forward. The groove, again, is endlessly seductive. This characterizes Budino's skilled approach: it's often so hypnotic it feels unclear whether the themes materialise from the surrounding, seemingly fluid compositions - or dissolve into them. In any case, these are multi-dimensional cuts you will love getting lost in on a nearby dancefloor."

Crossing their distinctive techno practices in the spirit of mutual appreciation and experimentation, DJ Nobu invites JakoJako to Bitta. Each delivering an original track and then remixing each other's work, both artists examine where their creativity converges, and what happens when their differing qualities collide. JakoJako has forged a reputation within techno and electronica circles centred on her accomplished exploration of modular synthesis. While she comfortably embraces ambient projects, she's also firmly entrenched in the club matching a tough rhythmic sensibility with adventurous textures and subliminal emotional content. As Nobu himself describes, "Beyond standard techno functionality, I deeply respect JakoJako's approach to music making, which stems from a pure, unyielding curiosity about sound itself. Her sound aligns perfectly with Bitta's core philosophy--the coexistence of experimentation and physicality." Nobu's own 'Wax and Wane' opens up the release in a melancholic mosaic of bleeping leads and natural-sounding drum tones, patiently laid out over a dense pad and developed with the elegant but driving style he's made his own over many years. JakoJako's 'Nodus' is a more cybernetic affair--lithe layers of frequency modulation moving over the rugged kick drum thump before opening up to celestial arps and jagged flurries of percussion. For the remixes, Nobu immediately reframes 'Nodus's melodic crescendo as the core theme while steering the track towards an immersive, linear arrangement that ebbs and flows with poise. In the process, he finds his own expressive sound design language to put a unique spin on JakoJako's original sound. Meanwhile, JakoJako steers 'Wax and Wane' into a mesmerising lattice of needlepoint percussion and swooning synth strokes, creating emotive swells out of the raw ingredients of Nobu's original melodies. The end result is a record made up of four distinct pieces, all logically compatible but bringing forth different aspects of two dedicated, ceaselessly curious practitioners of contemporary techno.

Hanne Lippard and Renato Grieco's Today's Special is a suite of language works synthesising melody and diction that integrates the literary and the audible in a repertoire of songs that bask in the melody of voice and the punctuations of structured composition. Working with methods of reduction rather than opulence in both tonal composition and rhetoric, each piece pegs the poetic to the musical with compositional schematics and methods. It is important to state that there is little to none improvisation here, instead, the duo set up matrices, rules and structural links that facilitated meaningful locus of exchange between their two practices. Lippard's texts are a collection of new and previously completed works. In these, as is typical for her work, she enjoys the easy pleasure of wordplay, iterative language, and decontextualised anecdote, as in opener Portrait of a Betrayal, a piece about the loss of a phone and the way it haunted the owner who dropped it, based on a lived experience. Grieco's instrumentation works with Lippard's language art as a form of acoustic typography. "I studied graphic design and I think about how you can express typography through voice," she says. "Renato's use of the viola da gamba becomes like an underline, or a font's brushstrokes, in ways that feel typographical." In this, the classically-trained composer Grieco often finds and echoes the pitch movements of Lippard's voice, intonation mirrored and revealed, linguistic meaning doubled and shadowed by plucked, strummed or bowed strings. His main instrument is the viola da gamba, the instrument considered closest to the human voice for its tonal range and ability to mimic inflections and timbre, and here he brings it even closer to the voice, building systems by which it moves with and around Lippard. He also plays piano and Wurlitzer, and joins her in speaking on Receiver and in conversation for final track The Black Rose. "Hanne's voice is an artist's voice, embodied as the artwork itself," he says. "But where my approach is from the perspective of a composer, hers is around rhetoric and language. We worked towards each other in this sense, Hanne finding a space to welcome my voice, and me designing an acoustic space to enhance her vocal persona." In some tracks the structural connections are obvious - the matched tumbling delivery and stepped pitches of voice and piano in Aficionado sounding like two tipsy friends descending a staircase. In others, like the triptych of tracks Three Rungs Ladder, structured with rules derived from nursery rhymes, or cumulative song (akin to the 12 Days of Christmas). For the Colour 1 and Colour 2 pieces, the duo worked from palettes of colours connected to clusters of harmonies, which underlined the power of the word and its articulation. The absurd Labradorable personifies a people pleaser, A Story About Being Blue is an imagined playful monologue from the Deep Blue supercomputer - requesting in sing-song stop motion to be called Debbie, and Larry - as Grieco echoes in factual reportage. Hurtbeat unpacks and recomposes a tweeted non-apology by a Russian art collector about owning a piece of racist art, Grieco shadowing Lippard's generating a third `drop-shadow' performer from the resonances between the duo, typographic re-articulation of the source material. The Receiver includes lines from Robert Ashley's Improvement (Don Leaves Linda), Ashley existing as a spiritual parent of sorts to the practices contained on Today's Special, and here interpolated as if he is being quoted and written through within the audible world of the piece in a palimpsest of borrowed sentences. Closing track The Black Rose contains its own self-aware comedy, a lightly distorted conversation sourced from a Reddit thread about whether black roses exist, recorded as if it were an internet radio or a low budget podcast, the casual exchange stilted in the delivery of platitudes as scripted speech. Today's Special was developed in person over the course of a series of small residencies - at Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo, Rome; Fondazione Morra, Napoli; Callie's, Berlin. In these limited periods that rarely stretched beyond a week, Lippard and Grieco developed strategies for the works, keeping tightly locked to musical concepts. This, for Grieco, is about maintaining a solid, meaningful connection within the compositions, and committing to everything having a purpose for existing within the work. Each element pulls its weight; has something to say, literally and metaphorically speaking. In the same way that Lippard's work leaves nowhere for her to hide, he wants the music to exist with its own naked purpose: "It's is about exposing nudity via reduced materials," says Grieco. "This is a form of courage we want to embrace. Once we take off everything, it needs to be extremely precise to maintain a connection with the audience. We have a lot of tools to hide behind now, to protect ourselves and our identities as artists, performers, and in life more generally. It's something I don't want to do. I want extreme reduction: no hiding."

DALGA – A Selection of ’80s Pop Oddities from Turkey is the first compilation to bring together rare Turkish pop oddities from the 1980s, and the first compilation to explore how new studio technologies shaped the sound of 1980s Turkish pop and dance music. Features six tracks that were released only on rare cassette tapes.

In the aftermath of Turkey’s 1980 military coup, collective music-making gradually gave way to studio-based production, as drum machines, samplers, and synthesisers took centre stage. From the early 1980s onwards, these technologies became increasingly popular among Turkish musicians and producers. While some sought to emulate the global pop sound of the era, like Neriman’s “Sever Gibi” and Füsun Önal’s “Takma Kafana” others experimented by blending electronic elements with Arabesque, as heard in Mehmet Pekün’s “Anca Gidersin” and Zorbeyler’s “Bir Mumdur” or with Anatolian pop influences, such as the studio project Tele Tempo’s “Şu Samsunun Evleri” and “Havada Bulut”.

Let these waves carry you through the electrified tides of 1980s Turkey.

DALGA is compiled by Istanbul-based beat maker and digger extraordinaire Grup Ses.

Shape of the Unknown’ is kind of a double LP that fully embraces the idea of exploration. It is CHLOÉ’s most expansive and immersive work to date. ‘Shape of the Unknown’ is CHLOÉ’s fourth proper studio album. Its predecessor, ‘Endless Revisions’, was released in 2017. Nine years have passed. Nine years during which CHLOÉ has continued digging for music, DJing at internationally renowned clubs and festivals including Rex Club, Robert Johnson, Panorama Bar, Nuits Sonores, Glastonbury and many more, releasing EPs and remixes, while also allowing herself the time to explore entirely new creative paths.


The challenge is to capture the unknown, make it her own, endlessly reshape its textures, and ultimately preserve its mystery.


The first single ‘Drifter’, released back in June, already offered a striking glimpse of the sonic territories the album would venture into, driven by its hypnotically contoured basslines. The album's two other singles offer different windows into her world. 'Shapeshifter' captures CHLOÉ at her most hypnotic, balancing stripped-back techno and melodic house through deep rolling grooves, expansive bass chords and subtle rhythmic shifts that constantly reshape the listener's perception without ever disrupting the flow. Later, 'Repeating The Obvious' takes a more leftfield route, pairing staggered rhythms with retro-inspired harmonics and an understated indie dance pulse that feels simultaneously familiar and unpredictable.
CHLOÉ has ventured into live performance through new formats, notably alongside percussionist Vassilena Serafimova; immersed herself in film scoring with soundtracks for Paris la Blanche, Arthur Rambo, The Mountain, Blanquita, Guru and Unsubmissives; and developed compelling collaborations, from High Season, her project with Ben Shemie of Canadian band Suuns (which resulted in the album The Call), to her own organic, experimental audiovisual performances under the name Slo/Mo AV.


Throughout Shape of the Unknown, CHLOÉ blurs the boundaries between deep house, hypnotic techno, electronica and cinematic sound design with remarkable fluidity. The album unfolds as a continuous narrative rather than a sequence of tracks, moving effortlessly between beatless ambient passages, rolling analogue grooves and emotionally charged club music. Organic percussion, sweeping bass movements, melancholic harmonies and richly textured synthesisers create a body of work that constantly evolves, where no section feels static and every transition reveals another layer of depth. There is an unmistakable warmth running through the record, with grainy analogue textures and spacious production giving even its most driving moments an intimate, almost tactile quality.
The album’s title is no coincidence. It evokes a form that has yet to be named, something language itself struggles to grasp. CHLOÉ approaches it through an organic creative process. Each piece must first be performed in the studio, almost as if it were being played live. The album will be followed by a series of live performances and DJ sets, including a show at the Olympia on March 18, 2027.


She is joined by a handful of steadfast collaborators. Jazz trumpeter David Enhco appears on two tracks, ‘Undertow’ and ‘Inner Bass’. But above all, there are the voices: Ben Shemie lends his unmistakable presence to the radiant ‘More Than Just a Feeling’. Olivia Merilahti, singer, songwriter and one half of The Dø, appears on the otherworldly ‘TWYR’. Working with Olivia’s already hypnotic voice, CHLOÉ has approached it like a sculptor, enhancing its strangeness and dreamlike quality.
And finally, impossible to miss is the instantly recognizable voice of Kittin. A longtime accomplice, she lends her distinctive phrasing to CHLOÉ’s music here for the very first time. The strongest collaborations are often those that take their time, arriving only when the moment is right. Same kind, same bass, same vibe, same pride.


The result is an enigmatic, nocturnal record, drifting between introspective listening and dancefloor functionality, revealing an artist who remains far more interested in atmosphere, movement and emotional storytelling than conventional club structures. It is an album that invites us to dream more deeply and to dance again, both within ourselves and out in the open.

****COVER WITH AUGMENTED REALITY**** Argentinian producer Translate synthesises states of consciousness and perceptions into his semantics of sound, creating a distinct language of mental techno through hypnotic repetition, precision and deeply immersive atmospheres. His presence in this realm extends through his label Relativity, whose latest EP brings together tracks by Mike Parker and Oscar Mulero, while his own productions have appeared on Svreca’s Semantica Records. For his DIG release, Translate shifts into a broader spectrum, revealing a side of his production that has remained unexplored until now. DIG Curated captures this moment of a new sonic expansion between his signature hypnotic journeys and a stripped-down techno sound. Expansive opens the record with Translate’s distinct mental techno, pushed into an added psychedelic dimension. With a vast and trippy sound, the track steadily fills the space, inviting the dancers to go inward and simultaneously reach out into a collective morphic field. With Discursive, the coordinates shift, introducing a very stripped-down techno side of Translate’s production and a palette rarely heard from him before. Reduced to its essential elements, the track cuts directly through the floor with a functional groove, whilst retaining the tension embedded in his sonic DNA. On the B side, Fuse accelerates with fast-moving pads, mechanical drums and swerving loops that gradually lock the body into trance. Quirky textures spiral throughout, with robotic glitches sounding like organic beings. Coefficients closes the record by pulling the listener into rich bass and expanding loops over a cold melody that guides the final journey into a cosmic unfold. Hypnotic sci-fi vocals emerge from an interplanetary future, traversing space in search of earthly traces. The record ends suspended somewhere between the transmission and unknown, like a sonic threshold. Words by Lora Mateeva Animation/Artwork - Marcin Pospiech Master - Nihad Tule Graphist - Ferdinand Prat

With the stunning Planes In Reverse, Sascha Funke, the Berlin-born producer and DJ, and long-time member of the Kompakt family, releases his first album in almost a decade, since 2017’s Lotos Land. It’s a welcome return for one of the most eloquent and elegant producers in electronic and dance music, someone who’s always been able to say more with less, and the ten tracks here, moving effortlessly between techno, house, minimalism, disco house, and home listening tunes, are all gorgeously sculpted miniatures. With guest appearances from partner Julienne Dessagne (Fantastic Twins), with whom Funke has also worked in Saschienne, there’s something homely and family about it, too; a family of sounds, a home of tone. There’s also something consummate about Planes In Reverse, as though Sascha Funke has perfected the album format. There’s no flab here, no excess – it plays out like a perfectly designed experience, ten tracks, coming in under fifty minutes, an album where every moment matters.

It’s full of variety, but everything has the unmistakable Funke thumbprint, one that was developed during the late ‘90s / early ‘00s minimal techno and microhouse moment, but which was always open to other ideas and other sounds, too. Planes In Reverse came together quickly for Funke: “Last winter, I had two or three new tracks, which gave me a core feeling: ‘Ah, this could be the direction of something like an album.’ Sometimes it can be very easy that you wrap it up and then it becomes something coherent and solid. This happened within two or three months; it was very fast and direct.” Everything fell into place – the ten tracks revealed themselves, the album sat together as a whole, and the final piece of the puzzle was returning home again to Kompakt, who have supported Sascha Funke from the very start, releasing his first single, “Campus”, back in 1999.

Planes In Reverse opens stealthily with “What You See”, where rhythms percolate and bass prowls while gaseous textures fill the sonic spectrum. It’s also the first appearance of Fantastic Twins on the album; here, she speaks a hypnotic mantra, a prelude to the title track, where Dessagne has a pure pop moment, her voice ecstatic and vibrant. Indeed, Planes In Reverse plays out like thesis and antithesis ending in synthesis, the tracks nestling next to each other even as they shuttle between sounds, genres, perspectives. There are some beautiful moments dropped throughout Planes In Reverse – the heavenly textures that make the title track feel so cloud-bound; the glassy and orbital tones that drop from the skies through the disco house inspired “Karat”; the clamour and clatter of hyper-edited voices shuffling through “Splitter”; or the field recordings of Sascha’s son football training session that drop “Zockers” into a different place and space, slowly giving way to a beautifully paced electro-pop mantra. “In Germany,when the kids play a computer game, or when they play football, we describe it as zocken. They’re the players, they’re the Zockers.“ Funke explains.

Planes In Reverse winds down with the beautiful “Kruso”, where ticklish, loving arpeggios careen around the room, and drift-work chords shimmer and shuttle between your ears. It’s a perfect comedown to an album that feels breathes in and out at an organic pace, nothing above 130 BPM, everything sitting together just so. Indeed, that’s the feeling you take away from Planes In Reverse; it sums up the spirit of Sascha Funke productions perfectly, while also existing beautifully as its own world dreamt unto itself. It’s Sascha Funke down to the very essence. Nothing unnecessary, nothing extraneous: Pure Funke.

Other Plans is the fifth full-length album by Swedish composer, producer, and vocalist Daniella Ljungsberg, and her third release on ORTHODOX. Returning to her early training in Baroque and Renaissance music, Ljungsberg reimagines these formative influences through the electroacoustic language she has developed over the years. Across seven tracks, harpsichord, double bass, bassoon, and trombone intertwine with modular synthesis, field recordings, and digital processing, moving between intimate songwriting and minimalist composition. Swedish folk echoes, Baroque sensibilities, and meticulous sound design dissolve into a singular musical landscape shaped by memory, nostalgia, and imagination. Created in a time of uncertainty and disorientation, Other Plans carries a delicate tension between melancholy and hope, transforming the act of looking back into a means of moving forward.

feeble little horse is naturally delighted to present their third full-length LP, bitknot. The album was written, arranged, produced, and recorded by Sebastian Kinsler, Lydia Slocum, and Jake Kelley across their respective homes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A spirited investigation into the unnatural space created between human nature and a culture of convenience, a synthesis of dirt and digital, bitknot by feeble little horse creates a language wherein one can re-imbue a sanctity of interdependence away from consumptive “self-suciency” and materialism. Slocum’s meandering introspection playfully harmonizes against Kinsler’s hooks, walls of noise, a supercharged car battery’s worth of synths and samples dropped in the ocean of their guitar-driven songwriting framework.

When Khalab and Baba Sissoko first recorded together in 2015, they produced something definitive: a record where electronics and griot tradition achieved genuine synthesis rather than polite cohabitation.

Not layered genres maintaining separate identities, but two forms evolving into something singular. "Tata" took Track of the Year at the 2016 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards, found champions in Laurent Garnier, Ben UFO, Matthew Dear, Bonobo, and many others — but more significantly, it established a working method built to last.

Eleven years on, they return with Foli Bah on Hyperjazz Records. Theirs is a relationship built on trust. Khalab constructs structures that don't develop linearly but spiral inward — loops that reveal something new with each rotation, tightening until the listener stops resisting and surrenders. Sonic architectures that don't expand outward but deepen over time, layering toward saturation. Baba Sissoko inhabits these structures with instruments from Malian tradition, not as ornamentation but as load-bearing elements: the tradition becomes structure, not decoration. Electronics and griot practice stop negotiating terms and start speaking the same language.

Parlour returns with Alcyone continuing his path through fantasy-like synthesis and weighty basslines.

Transient bodies stands out through continuity and well engineered depths of electronic music.

Well situated for clubs and perhaps rather late hours - or are they the early ones?

Alcyone invites you to have a glimpse into the world where sounds leads the way.

DJ Support: Sam Don, Severino Panzetta (Horse Meat Disco), Chris Howler, Sean Johnston, Bill Brewster, For Mankind, Craig Thompson, Andy Taylor, Massimiliano Pagliara, Dean Dixon, Nathan Detroit and many more

Underground Institution Stompa Phunk Re-Launches Vinyl Label with Raw, Chi-House-Inspired Energy. After three decades of defining the UK’s underground club landscape, legendary Brighton party collective Stompa Phunk is officially moving from the dancefloor to the wax with the relaunch of Stompa Phunk Records Inc.

The Heritage: From The Warehouse: The releases will directly honour the roots of house music, a genre born in 1977 at Chicago’s legendary nightclub, The Warehouse. As that scene matured, a grittier, faster, and more experimental counterpart emerged. Defined by an uninhibited, bass-heavy style, it was a movement driven by local innovators who pushed drum machines and synthesisers to their breaking point... It wasn't just a genre; it was a collision between pure imagination and raw machines. A true "sound klash" transformed the local underground subculture into something global...

Release 1: You Had It (Edit) / Music Got (Dub): Capturing the exact spirit of rough, tape-spliced dubbed cuts. The 12-inch from SP resident Sound Klash pairs a vintage production ethos with old hardware pushed to its limits...

The Philosophy: This EP perfectly mirrors the exact philosophy that has fueled Stompa Phunk’s dancefloors since 1996: uncompromising electronic music rooted in heavy sample-delia, jackin' bodies, Acid energy, disco-dub mentality and second-hand technology. Jackinacidiscotech!

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.

Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and musician Aimée Portioli aka Grand River presents the new album Temporary, returning to the renowned Editions Mego label with her most expansive and focused LP yet.

Rooted in existential ideas of impermanence and flux, Temporary is a deeply emotive work centred on the rich interplay between resonant guitar work and innovative electronics. Written in the wake of profound personal grief and loss, the album sees Portioli infuse her music with a raw, expressive intensity anchored in this experience. Across eight strikingly melodic and affecting soundscapes, Portioli powerfully embodies a dramatic encounter with mortality.

Temporary reprises Portioli’s exceptional streak of material across acclaimed labels including Donato Dozzy and Neel’s Spazio Disponibile, Caterina Barbieri's light-years, Ghostly International, Tresor and Umor Rex. The LP represents the latest tour de force in her distinctive electronic practice. Alongside a raft of lauded releases, Portioli has devised visionary multichannel installations which dissolve the boundary between the art gallery and the performance space.

Her new album signifies a culmination of her work, imbued with the depth of Portioli’s artistry. Shaped by a paradigm shift rising from loss, the record reflects a contemplation of the human condition and the ephemeral nature of existence. Ruminating on the thoughts and experiences that have fed into the record, Portioli reveals a consequential recognition underpinning the record:

"Sometimes, when travelling in places far from home that I know I will most likely never return to, or while accompanying someone I loved towards the end of their life, I become intensely aware of the singularity of the moment, and of how precious and sad this feels at the same time. It carries a particular weight because it will never happen again in quite the same way. Through experiences like these, I have gradually come to understand the temporary nature of all things. They taught me that to live is to experience the present while already feeling the trace of its disappearance, something both painful and blissful." - Aimée Portioli, Grand River

The album is invested with a potent mood and momentum from the outset. Establishing an evocative tone with the subtle, pulsating synthesis, rustling undertow, and oceanic low end of 18 circles to heaven, Portioli gradually ascends through the incandescent modular majesty of Come to stay, and the turbulent, brooding guitar figures of The crossing of the body, the crossing of the mind. The album progresses through the rapturous electronic phasing of The little we last into the coruscating synth grandeur of Let me know when you’re pure, before a thrilling endgame.

Closing with the wavering harp runs, heavy percussive thud, and cataclysmic guitar discordance of Maybe I am dead and this is paradise, and the evanescent atmospherics and beautiful acoustic refrains of Work of ending, Portioli takes the listener through vast landscapes of sound and mercurial emotional states. Intimate and immersive in equal measure, the record traces a compelling sensory journey.

Each part of the album is part of a larger poetic sentence, with track titles forming fragments that together articulate a meditation on transience. From 18 circles to heaven and Come to stay through From the other side and Work of ending, they read like quiet statements about being human, about loving, losing, remembering and eventually fading. The record moves through these states as a continuous passage, depicting a poignant soundworld guided by temporality.

The awareness that our time is limited sharpens the value of what remains. Each encounter, each gesture, each fleeting moment becomes more vivid. Temporary lingers in the space where presence and disappearance coexist, where everything is already passing away and therefore becomes infinitely precious. Things matter because they do not last. Mortality does not diminish life; it intensifies it. In confronting these ideas, Temporary feels irrepressibly alive.

Composed, produced and mixed by Aimée Portioli
Production and mixing assistance by Luca Sammartin
Acoustic piano on Maybe I am dead and this is paradise by Andert Tysma
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Cut by Marta De Pascalis at Schnittstelle, Berlin
Artwork by Nicola Tirabasso
Layout by Riccardo Piovesan

Ruf Kutz reaches release twenty-two with something close to heart...

Mike Kee is a face from the early days - red-lit rooms of the Bodega mushroom squat parties in Sydney. This is a second release for Mike Kee on Ruf Kutz since 'Seeing Crystals' on RK2 in 2010.
Recorded in the rainforests of Bundjalung Country (northern NSW, Australia). Making good use of a Fender Rhodes and a JX-8P synthesiser.

WHITE CLOUD PLACE is a destination that doesn't exist. Glimpsed once on a street sign, filed away in the imagination and allowed to bloom into an imagined geography of warmth and weightlessness.
The music is lush dream house that elicits euphoria out of the speakers and into the body. Mike Kee has been chasing this feeling across his music and here it lands cleanly.

Flip the record and the temperature ratchets up. BANANA MOON is one for the dancers - shuffling congas push the pace while Rhodes chords and those big analog synth strings hold the whole thing aloft.

Where the A-side invites you to float, Banana Moon keeps it pitched up and jazzy.

Astro’, the new double LP by Donato Dozzy, is in many ways a culmination and intersection of life-long interests, and Tresor Records is delighted to announce that it will launch into the cosmos on November 20, 2026.
Donato Dozzy is beloved for his way of blending synthesised sounds into seamless, deep, hypnotic works, whether as a DJ or in the studio. So it might come as a surprise that at the root and source of Dozzy’s musical inspiration, we find Japanese children’s cartoons and toys.
In the late 70s into the 80s, Italian youngsters, including Dozzy, were captivated by a wave of Japanese cartoons featuring Jumbo Machinders, awe-inspiring robots on adventures beyond our solar system. Every episode came dubbed into Italian, and had its own specially written Italian theme song, each pressed onto a 7inch single. This was the launchpad for two lifelong obsessions: vinyl records and vinyl figurines, and still kept in his home today in immaculate, carefully tended collections.
In 2025, Dozzy took a sample from the first of the Japanese themes he ever owned, Astro Robot Contatto Ypsylon. Marking the first time he had directly sampled a song for his own work, later to become the track ‘Astro’, this created an impulse to begin a series of new music, sparked by the robots in his collection.
Dozzy’s meticulous respect for his collections is reflected in the precision of these tracks. Elements within each track are harmoniously organised together while ever retaining a sense of space that reflects the cosmic subject matter. Explorative tracks like ‘Raydeen’, and ‘Himika (M Song)’ exemplify this with powerful yet gentle arpeggios, while ‘Pegasu’ brings forth visions of robots assembling for a deep-space mission launch.
Much like the human characters in the cartoons who piloted the Jumbo Machinder robots, on ‘Astro’, Donato takes control of mighty machines such as the EMS Synthi AKS to create sonic journeys for us all to embark on. ‘Jumbo Crack’, written on the AKS, is a soaring beatless piece built of rising bass tones and white noise that combine to conjure taking off from earth or a long journey through space. The whole collection is rounded out with ‘Ryoma (Lò Song)’, a gigantic trance anthem that could easily be the closing credits of your favourite childhood cartoon.
With ‘Astro’, Donato Dozzy pulls together threads in his life: the warp of music and synthesisers intertwining with the weft of childhood memories. A tribute to that freedom to dream, and to the sounds that, from the turntable of his childhood, led him toward alien and technological musical territories.

2026 Repress

Iconic Argentinian DJ/producer Flug drops full EP on Mutual Rytm Raw with ‘Dew At Night’. Flug, aka Sebastian Lopez, has long been part of the fabric of underground techno with a signature sound that is deep, driving and atmospheric, ensuring that the Argentinian has crafted his own story across the globe. Following his track ‘In Control’ on Mutual Rytm’s ‘Federation Of Rytm IV’ compilation, he follows the likes of KiNK & Raredub and Deetron to make his appearance on sub-imprint, Mutual Rytm Raw, with his ‘Dew At Night’ EP featuring a rare rebuilt version of an unreleased sketch dating all the way back to 2009. ‘Dew At Night’ was unearthed while searching for another track among sessions from over a decade ago. After hearing it again, it sparked a new creative age to rebuild it from scratch, and while experimenting with synthesisers, the main arpeggio appeared. "At first it was hypnotic but harmonically repetitive; the groove and phrasing felt incredibly catchy, so I decided to push the harmony further and change some chords until I found the exact point where emotion and tension could coexist naturally.” Around that bright arp are darker, more raw percussive textures and drums that make for a great contrast and melancholic atmosphere that marries emotion with physical structure. "In my mind, the track was always conceived as a closing track - that moment when the darkness is still there, but the first light of the day starts to appear and the whole atmosphere changes.” After hearing the original, label founder SHDW suggested the Argentinian should remix and reinterpret the record to complete the full EP, and so he steps out of his comfort zone across the remaining tracks, exploring different versions of his musical universe and showcasing all sides of his sound. First up is the ‘Dub Version’, which represents his contemporary sound - the melodic and emotional essence of the original track remains but is translated into a more hypnotic and club-oriented language. The ‘Instrumental Version’ is a brings more progressive-leaning sounds with piano, sax and live percussion textures that, says the artist, allowed him to "rediscover myself as a producer by using tools and influences gathered throughout my long journey in electronic music”. Closing the package, the digital-only ‘Raw Version’ strips away the melody and gets much more primal, introducing a tunnelling groove for when the dancefloor gets dark and moody.

Elypsia Records presents A Future Tribe, the new album from Italian electronic music producers CEM3340 & 2030. Rooted in the formative language of electro and early techno, A Future Tribe channels the past through a lens very much focused on the future. Across the album, analogue warmth, machine-driven funk, synthetic textures and futuristic atmospheres come together in a sound that channels the pioneering spirit of early Detroit while remaining unmistakably connected to the present. For CEM3340 and 2030, machines are not simply tools, they are central to the creative process. Both producers have spent years immersed in the culture of electronic hardware. They've been carefully building and refining their own approach to production through an extensive collection of synthesisers, drum machines, sequencers and studio equipment. Based in Bari, southern Italy, their work reflects a deep fascination with the physicality of electronic music: oscillators, circuitry, voltage, rhythm and the unpredictable character of machines programmed and played with a human touch. That philosophy is deeply embedded in A Future Tribe. Rather than treating the early years of techno as a museum piece, CEM3340 & 2030 approach its foundational ideas as a living language - one that can be stripped back, re-translated and taken somewhere new. The influence of Detroit's first generation of electronic innovators is unmistakable. There are echoes of the futuristic electro and techno pioneered by artists including Juan Atkins and his contemporaries, where funk, science fiction, machines and the possibilities of tomorrow became part of a new musical vocabulary. It is an approach that has already earned the duo recognition within that lineage. Their previous Machines Awake EP, released through Atkins' Metroplex Records, was described as paying homage to the classic foundations of the genre while pushing them into new territory. Juan himself gave the release his sonic approval. But A Future Tribe is not an exercise in retro-futurism for its own sake. The album comes from two producers who understand the history, have the hardware to explore it and, crucially, are interested in what happens when those influences are given space to evolve. The result is electronic music that is full of funk, groove and a kind of nostalgia that is pure and intentional without being a pastiche. Together, they make music that is rooted in one simple truth: machines can't come to life without human creativity.

Nippon Psychedelic Soul 1970-1979 is Time Capsule’s continuation of the deep dive into Japan’s rich history of folk and psychedelic soul music.

Vinyl LP with 4 page insert, original artwork and photos

The kaleidoscopic psychedelia of 1970s Japan captured a fragile and fertile moment as the country sought its future in funk grooves, heavy reverb and lyrical hallucinations.

The follow-up compilation to Time Capsule’s Nippon Acid Folk, Nippon Psychedelic Soul takes myriad pathways into the tripped-out undergrowth of 1970s Japan. Finding their feet at home and looking for inspiration abroad, the musicians featured here were engaged in the communal soul-searching that followed the breakdown of the 1960s protest movements. Some made it big, others drifted into oblivion. The music they left behind shimmers with intensity.

At the core was Happy End, the first project of YMO’s Haroumi Hosono, whose distortion-heavy guitar and crisp back-beat laid the foundations for Japanese lyrics that flipped the paradigm of Japanese rock music on its head. With it came a new found sonic ambition, such as in the bold Philly-soul style arrangements of producer Yuji Ohno, whose work with occult wandered Yoshiko Sai shares some of the bittersweet grandeur of Rotary Connection or David Axelrod.

Then there was Jun Fukamachi, a pioneer of Japanese synthesis, whose debut album was a carnival of orchestral funk, euphoric horn lines and rich production, complete with soaring guitar solos, psychedelic organ and a truly cinematic finale. The first and only time Fukamachi would sing on record, ‘Omae’ rips like the ultimate end-of-nighter.

Influenced by giants of the US soul scene, maverick composer Hiroshi “Monsieur” Kamayatsu (otherwise known as ‘the Brian Wilson of Japan’) went one step further, enlisting Tower of Power to play on ‘Have You Smoked Gauloises?’ The B-side to Monsieur’s biggest-selling single, it coasts with sophisticated cool - a liquid bassline and suave keys comping under a roaring trademark ToP sax solo. No surprise it found favour once more on the Acid Jazz dance floors of ‘90s London.

Such was the spirit of experimentation that big studio productions and private press releases sat side-by-side, with the likes of Momotaro Pink and Kazushi Inamura, taking their hopes of success into their own hands with the resources available to them. More reflective but no less robust, theirs was a heavy, fat-backed drum sound, soaked in dramatic, soulful psychedelia.

If some were dreamers and others space cadets, none were further out than sci-fi writer, musician, activist and self-made scientist Tadashi Goino, who transformed his own fantasy novel Messenger from the Seventh Dimension into an operatic prog odyssey with few discernible musical reference points – a majestic and completely bonkers outlier even among company as strange and brilliant as that which is collected here.

Less a compilation of a scene, as a compilation of a sentiment, Nippon Psychedelic Soul is a wild ride from start to finish, shattering the narratives of the Japanese folk and rock tradition into a million tiny pieces.

Younger Brother Live, with Shpongle and The Orb at Troxy, London 9th May

Twisted Records is thrilled to announce the release of the long-awaited fourth album by Younger Brother: Mutually Assured Distraction.
The first full-length release by the fabled electronica project in a decade features nine sumptuous tracks that each embody the project’s intoxicating fusion of profoundly human sonorities and etheric electronic soundscapes.

The title is a subversive reframing of the Cold War doctrine “Mutually Assured Destruction,” pointing to a world currently frozen not by the geopolitical threat of a Nuclear Winter but by a Digital Summer of mindless overstimulation. Mutually Assured Distraction is a sonic salve for the pervasive numbness induced by an emotionally disconnective artificiality that seeks to pacify with counterfeit happiness; the album offers an antidote to mundane superficiality with nine musical masterpieces that convey the depth of human experience and authentic creative expression.

The progression of track titles symbolically represents the arc of this soulful journey through an evocative auditory landscape of moods, harmonies, and textures, progressing from the haunting opening “I Belong to Nowhere” to the penultimate “Home In This World” before arriving at the concluding “Endless Drift.”

The synthesised musical mastery of renegade musicians Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan is complemented by the contributions of some supremely skilful musicians, with beguiling vocals by MiraBelle Rose and Jay Marsh and the rich cello of Rena Jones. With poignant lyrics that speak to the universal human condition in a world where voices are amplified yet so many feel unheard,
Mutually Assured Distraction provides, through its fusion of electronic and real-world music- making, an example of how technology can pair harmoniously with our humanity - an energetic homecoming as the music draws us away from the unconscious scroll into an open field where we can embody our essential nature.

The album stands as both a reflection of our times and a timeless reminder that beneath the noise, a deeper presence continually exists, waiting to be felt, heard, and expressed.

In the rapidly shifting tectonic plates of the global Afrobeats scene, few arrivals have been as seismic as that of Ahmed Ololade—better known to the world as Asake. With his breakout project Mr. Money With The Vibe, the artist didn’t merely debut; he effectively recalibrated the tempo of the Nigerian pop soundscape. The EP functions as a masterclass in synthesis, pulling from the ornate, percussive history of Fuji music and grafting it onto the driving, bass-heavy architectures of contemporary Amapiano. It is a calculated, deeply rhythmic hybridization that manages to feel both nostalgic and jarringly modern.

From a critical vantage point, Mr. Money With The Vibe is defined by its brevity and density. Asake treats each track as a focused vignette, utilizing a vocal delivery that oscillates between a melodic, almost liturgical chant and the staccato urgency of a Lagos street orator. The production—characterized by sharp, frenetic percussion and deceptively simple melodic loops—creates a high-intensity atmosphere that mirrors the relentless pace of urban life. He avoids the pitfall of bloated experimentation; instead, he doubles down on a "street-pop" ethos, prioritizing accessibility without sacrificing the complex rhythmic interplay that gives the genre its distinctive texture.

Ultimately, Mr. Money With The Vibe stands as a pivotal document of the current era, capturing the transition of Afrobeats from a regional powerhouse to a dominant global force. By blending the aspirational "hustle culture" narrative with an increasingly sophisticated sonic palette, Asake established a blueprint that has since influenced a new wave of artists. The project is a testament to the idea that authenticity, when paired with relentless precision, remains the most effective currency in contemporary music.