Поиск:t quest

High Focus Records are excited to share a new full length offering from prolific Brighton based producer Mr Slipz, this time with a fresh label signing, Australian rapper Nelson Dialect. A landmark release and signing for High Focus with Nelson being the first international signing on the label. UK listeners might have first heard Nelson collaborating with Verbz & Mr Slipz on the song ‘Hope’ from their acclaimed LP ‘Radio Waves’ released on High Focus in 2020. Nelson has a cult following in his own right in Australia, and previously released music on the legendary U.S label Fat Beats to great acclaim. Now teaming up with one of the most exciting and respected UK producers, Nelson & Mr Slipz deliver ‘Ever Since’. A statement piece by two artists with well over a decade spent on their craft which sounds as urgent and refreshing as if it were their first time releasing music. The album’s title is a reference to the endless quest for a timeless sound, reflecting the creative partnerships which spark from a seemingly forever existing thread of music. The two artists crossed paths whilst Nelson was on tour in Brighton, and a chance introduction to Slipz made this album a reality. As fate would have it, due to a cancellation of plans and changing of schedules during Nelson’s tour, the pair ended up in the studio for 8 days straight together which is when the bulk of the album was created. They each saw this as a cosmic alignment and thus played into the albums astrological artwork themes and overarching concept. Striving to capture the lightning in a bottle moment, what resulted musically on this album was an inspired surge of energy and intense creative output that is felt across the entire LP. Equal parts personal and lyrically dextrous, Nelson explores a multitude of concepts over the hard hitting drums and jazzy samples producer Mr Slipz is renowned for through his previous work with artists including Verbz, Kofi Stone, Vitamin G & Datkid among many more. The album features a slew of impressive guest verses including label mates Vitamin G & Verbz on the emphatic ‘Oxford Scholars’. Two legends Jehst & Confucius MC combine on ‘Smooth Ride’. Bronx pioneer & D.I.T.C legend A.G delivers a show stopping verse on ‘Trembling the Marrow’. There are hypnotic singing performances by Indira May on ‘First Date’ & ‘Open Book’ as well as Hiatus Kaiyote back up vocalist Jace XL on the soul stirring anthem “Figure Out What’s Right”. U.S rappers SickInTheHead & Cazeaux O.S.L.O round out the impressive guest list on the album with their inspired verses. Listeners caught their first glimpse of the duo with their debut single ‘Only Just Begun’. A whirlwind 3 verse tune showcasing the relentless wordplay and imagery Nelson is regarded for over a moody, hard hitting Slipz production. With a buzz already around what Nelson Dialect & Mr Slipz are brewing, the duo have just released their second single ‘Oxford Scholars’ featuring label mates Vitamin G & Verbz

RAMZi's 'hyphea', the new album by Montreal based artist Phoebé Guillemot. It is her latest sonic quest containing 10 new tracks, of which some are versions of the score she made for a documentary about mushrooms called 'Fun Fungi' (directed by Frederic Lavoie).

Recorded between November 2021 and May 2022, writing 'hyphea' started off somewhat as an attempt to escape boredom and frustrations imposed by the severe restrictions during the pandemic. For Phoebé it was a way to reconnect with RAMZi who's spirit brought her back to mystical feelings and gave hope for future magical adventures after having felt disconnected for a while.

RAMZi is a wild spirit from the forest and refers to a parallel autonomous world that keeps evolving. In her own words: “The music remains as a doorway to that world. It has never been about me, I always see that entity bigger than myself. The process of writing 'hyphea' was rather intuitive. I don’t think about styles of music before producing tracks. Those are more like an adventure in itself, each one set in a different ecosystem.”

Artwork by Marinka Grondel.

Moments is a music company organizing remarkable events, releasing groundbreaking productions, and daring to push innovations in underground dance music. The number seven symbolizes a quest for knowledge, and the seventh edition of Moments represents another step towards new horizons. Come Closer is a relatively new project on the global music scene. However, its mature artistic expression demonstrates the highest level of skills. The two- track material consists of over thirteen minutes of sounds that transcends genre divisions. Come Closer's music does not hesitate to include ethnic elements, funk, and even rock influences in the electronic dance structure. Both in its harmonious and production statements, Come Closer leaves nothing indisputable.

Eight years after Cuthead's "Give'n'Take", it's Sneaker's turn to put together four of his favorite tracks for Uncanny Valley's compilation series. The artwork is once again by Planetluke com aka Luca Lozano. "This record is a vista of my world where music inhabits the air between people. As an exchange of genius, emotions, gestures - even conventions, rituals, and love. Dedicated to L.B. BaD, whose music I inhaled and whose records inspired me on my quest for deepness. You will be missed!" (Sneaker) Besides L.B. BaD's wonderful "Late In The Evening (Music's Seeping Thru)" you'll get three absolute bangers on top. The Optimistic Misanthropes are Mystic Bill, VeXaTioN and Sneaker himself. One of the most influential Chicago House DJs, true to the underground for over three decades now, and once part of the Trax Records roster... Mystic Bill. VeXaTioN already got to know him back in the days but is currently hailing from Mexico City. His track was born in Los Angeles and remixed by Sneaker in Berlin. Also, Left Unknown's "Maedchen" got the jacking Midas touch from Sneaker, a touch you've come to recognize. Behind the one-off project is Saxonian Gnista aka DJ Detox and somebody who wants to remain incognito. Jacob Korn however is well-known since the early days of Uncanny Valley and is above all Sneaker's best buddy at TailOut Studio, Dresden.

Nuron makes a spectacular return on De:tuned with a compilation of hidden treasures! Nurmad Jusat aka Nuron / Fugue, one of the originators of the UK emotive techno sound, went on a quest for archived material and unearthed a handful of DAT tapes with previously unreleased music from the early to mid 90s. The tracks offer a deeply melodic and unique masterclass. Nuron combines a pulsing four-on-the-floor signature beat of the traditional techno sound with his characteristic rhythm and harmony elements. Classic Likemind-esque material that comes with an exclusive Stasis remix of 'Contrapoint'. Essential purchase!

Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. Al White created all the graphic work. Stay tuned!

Chloé Robinson & DJ ADHD still aren’t short on fuel. In fact, they seem to only be boosted further by their own supply. With such a weighty momentum driving forward their newly established identities, only one big question sits adjacent in the saddle: what’s next? It seems that Chloé and Alex already have the answer for today’s daily summon, and for the next Pretty Weird release, it’s a 4-track techno record reiterating the trusted adage of less being more. With an emphasis on space and silence placed intuitively, the first single from the ‘Steamin’ EP finally gets its much anticipated drop - including a killer remix from close friend Four Tet stamped on in classic, inimitable style.

‘Steamin’ is all serrated kicks, 909 drums and tenacious vocals that yell without inhibition, invoking the looseness of a party spiralling unphased into its collective apex.. ‘Redbull’ scales up on the pyrotechnics and rowdy behaviour, taking the sensation of several shots of caffeine and packaging it into a mean, raucous pick-me-up.

For ‘Pax’, Chloé and Alex continue on the stripped back disorder with white-hot conviction through rhythm and textures that find their power through no-frills, unpretentious simplicity. Kieran Hebden steps up for the remix, nodding back in appreciation to the past through the nestling of a sharply redefined ‘Pulse X’ sample alongside his addictive, punchy production all too suited to those can’t-go-home-just-yet stints.

Early support from artists including Four Tet, Peggy Gou, Jamie XX, Floating Points, Ben UFO, Caribou, Skrillex, Mary Anne Hobbs, Bradley Zero, Bonobo, Saoirse, Zenker Brothers, TSHA, HAAi, I. Jordan, Logic1000 and Pearson Sound.

Metamorphose is the ninth vinyl of ART21, is a work by Seteve Parker where he presents us with dark, hypnotic sounds, focused on the dance floor. Mature techno elaborate design of loops and a modulation of sounds in progression of surrounding layers that transport us to a reflection of basic vital questions, Metamorphose is a nod to that look at the stage of maturity towards our interior, and analyze the continuous changes of our lives. from children to understand ourselves and become aware of our human situation.

To give a broader perspective when dealing with this topic, ART21 has counted on the vision of 5 other artists, such as HD Substance, Antony Doria, Animatek, Soundbrio in its vinyl version and Lectomeda with a bonus track in its version. digital.

Hypnotic techno for restless minds

«All movement, whatever its cause, is creative.»

-Edgar Allan Poe

Mastering – Eternal Midnight mastering Studio

Video – Dietriangle

Cover Art & Design – JL

The Havoc guys have been on an enforced hibernation through the winter due to a lurgy that had been affecting the planet. They have remained in the cave throughout this time huddling up to keep warm and exploring what had become their home away from home for months on end. One night, whilst lighting a fire, trying to find motivation for the next release (basket weaving had lost its appeal) they spotted a glint across the way – On further inspection, it was a small bottle and had a label of sorts – It looked to be medicine or smelling salts – Liquid Gold. Curious creatures they are they all took a long good sniff of this elixir. And just like that, they rummaged around the records stacked in the corner put some more coal in the old computer and began their work.

Soon the A-Side of the new EP was born. Most certainly a step up in the BPM from the previous A-Side off EP1. A1 kicks off with a Germanic Proto Throb Job, that's sure to cause errr...Havoc on the dance floor. Whilst A2 is a Bassline Driven, Reconstructed Austrian Euro Pop Monster. One for late-night Discos.

After a while they had stopped sweating, hearts had stopped beating quite so quick. Whilst the creative juices were flowing a few more records were dug out and a log put on the fire and a cup of fungus juice imbibed. B2 came rattling out the speakers in no time at all in all its chugging glory, the vocals take in a nod to god after the devil has done his dirty work.

At this point, the sun was starting to peek through the mouth of the cave and a new day was upon them. One last record had been found, earlier, that was decided would work at this time, actually after consideration, any damn time... B2 Is like a familiar Balearic Back rub with pop-infused French vocals and beats for days...So now EP2 is complete. Back out into the world our intrepid or is it tepid threesome went... Let's only hope their wives haven't left them after all this time locked away.


DJ Support:

Jim (HMD)
Bill Brewster
Kelvin Andrews
Eric Duncan
Al Mackenzie
James Holroyd (Begin)
Pete Herbert
Phil Mison
Nick The Record
Justin Robertson
Coyote
Mind Fair
Steve KIW
Craig Christian
Dr Rob
Dave Jarvis
Max Essa
Andy Simms (Soft Rocks)
Howler
Jaye Ward
Nancy Noise
Andy Taylor (WATS)
Graeme Fisher
Severino (HMD)

Ever get the feeling you’re being manipulated? Ever get the feeling you’re manipulating things? Somewhere between these two questions exists this seismic slab of dark post-disco drama from Leipzig duo New Hook: ‘Manipulation’.

The original version of ‘Manipulation’ has recently been released on Underground Pacific album ‘The Only Good Wave Is A New One’. But there’s more to story… Now redeveloped and reworked, ‘Manipulation’ has been manipulated into this epic club missile on Riotvan. Electrified and strident in its swagger, this new version maintains the duo’s sultry, provocative vocal but carries much more dancefloor weight. Every bit as sharp and to the point as the name New Hook suggests, it’s also been blessed with an equally forthright twist from dark disco don Curses who brings a little added funk to the bassline, manipulating the already manipulated ‘Manipulation’ with his own unique flare.

Now it’s time for your turn to manipulate it in the mix…

We're here with the 14th vinyl release in our catalogue. And those of you who've been following us since day one can probably tell that it's something both new and quite familiar. How so? Well, because this particular record features a brilliant track released on CD ten years ago (!), as part of our "Mystical Deep Vol. 2" compilation, but the "new" part here is the two completely fresh remixes by two amazing artists. So let's get to the names, shall we? As for the track in question, we're talking about "Leagues Deep" - a forward-thinking half-stepper by two heavyweights known as Loxy & Resound. The track has been making waves for quite a while, and has finally reached the light of day on vinyl. As mentioned before, it is accompanied by two remixes. One is by an up-and-coming talent going by the name of AM94, who turns the original version into a dual narrative, so to speak: the first half is a proper action-packed syncopated roller, the second half - a more modern, deep sub-laden half-tempo interpretation of it. The other remix is brought to you by no one else than Resound himself, who's transformed the original piece into a breakneck-paced drum-focused killer. But do watch out for the bassline too - it takes absolutely no prisoners. You've been warned.

Repress
Rising Dutch talent Deniro (aka Reynier Hooft van Huijsduijnen) returns to with a
double EP of original works. The Tape Records member previously appeared on the label as part of the concept albums.

'Mendoza' is an 8-track quest into the spheres of polarity and tension. Anxious distortions jitter in controlled spaces, angular melodies disfigure warm tones and frenetic cross rhythms flutter through minimalist forms. Contrasting messages are weaved together with precision to facilitate a dialogue where dancefloor function and cerebral stimulation interact.

Deniro navigates his way round vintage gear with a meticulous accuracy, held together by an intuitive ear for timbre, an ingrained passion for Detroit soul, and a firm understanding of sonic balance.

"Deniro is able to transmit emotion in his music like no other. His soft spoken live cuts are sparse and trippy and you can always feel that it's Reynier behind them' - Nina Kraviz

Limited

Side A. Red Clay, Jazz Guitar version sampled all time classic by A Tribe Called Quest.

SIde B. Peaceful Sundown sample by Jay DIlla ,De La Soul
Jay Dilla Used these samples a few times for a few solo projects..

VINYL ONLY NO REPRESS!

300x hand-numbered by Dj Honesty

Incoming, a massive EP from Anderson.

After his recent easter eggs EP, this four tracker is a blend of trance, breaks, drum & bass and experimental electronica.

Starting off the A side with the ‘Jelly Bean (Virus Outbreak Mix)’, this monster of tune will rattle your subs (and brain) with his crunchy kicks and trancey sequencing. This track will blast you off into oblivion eventually bringing you right into A2, ‘Level Quest’, a trancey chugging progressive tune building energy from the moment the first kick ignites.

After a much needed break, the B1 puts you in an immediate trancestate lasting just a few minutes and before you know it you will be blasted into drum and bass land with ‘Tasteful Nudes’ closing out the EP.

See you on the other side..

Pink Marbled
Limited 50 copy press

‘.dev’ was yet another collaborative piece from Agoria, aka Sebastien Devaud. As well as Blasé and STS, who returned after featuring on ‘Drift’, Devaud worked with Domino’s Ela Minus, flamenco innovator Niño De Elche, and the unique hip hop delivery of Rome Fortune across the LP, with additional collaborators including Sacha Rudy and Oscar winner (The Sound of Metal), Nicolas Becker.



Sonically, the LP saw Agoria presenting a kaleidoscopic haze of cinematic and evolving electronica that touched on house, techno, electro, hip hop, and beyond but beneath the aesthetics, ‘.dev’ was the work of an artist asking himself questions in order to create worlds out of his answers.



Beyond looking to question the very systems of the traditional album format, his holistic approach to AI and NFT’s within the thematic world of his work were laid out front and centre through the visual and conceptual identity surrounding the album.

“Dance dance otherwise we are lost” is a raw and insightful EP with 5 non-conformist tracks ranging from the hard hitting yet poetic peak time 141bpm Trans TanzTheater to Orbits of Happiness 135bpm an unstoppable rhythmic force carrying the weight of a thousand lives. Woven by an orchestra of synths and their unescapable gravitational force, pulling you in – ever developing, ever growing.

Next up is Incessant Maze 139bpm a projection of the mind itself. A mechanism of transcendence and transformation. A raw and ready psychedelic techno assault to shake your mind out of your body and back into again.

Following the three originals are two very special remixes from Filmmaker and Polanski that bend time and space: a blissfully dark slow tempo remix of “Orbits of Happiness” by London’s experimental techno Producer/DJ/Promoter all-in-all powerhouse Polanski. At 120bpm, the “Is this happiness?” remix has had its question answered already by the sensational feedback received so far: A sultry timeless cut. There’s no way to escape. Not that you would want to, anyway.

Finishing it off, undoubtedly one of the standout artists in 2019 rising star Colombian producer Faunes Efes’ Filmmaker project has released a slew of incredible albums and EP’s this year already. Here he delivers “The Quandary” a wild and psychedelic cut of Incessant Maze merging hypnotic vocals with an ever driving percussive power that is already getting some special support in Europe and South America 130bpm.

With „Time Machine EP“ Next Door launches a new motto vinyl record.

Dark, driving, Acid!

On the first track on “Eloi-side” you will find a completely astounded inhabitant of a far future world, who has no answers to the questions of a time-traveler. The second track takes place during a rapid trip - plunging into two worlds.

On the “Morlock-side” machines are working monotonically with the inhabitants in dark caves below the earth’s surface in a far future. Track two is a serious call for a wild dance in a driving ¾ beat.
Have you ever heard anything like it?

The Computer Controlled Minds deliver four remarkable tracks on vinyl. You must experience this!


Mit der Time Machine EP bringt Next Door eine weitere Mottoplatte an den Start.

Dunkel, treibend, Acid !

Auf der Eloi Seite findet Ihr im ersten Track eine völlig verblüffte Bewohnerin einer fernen Zukunft, die auf die Fragen des Zeitreisenden keinerlei Antworten hat. Der zweite Track spielt sich während der rasanten Reise beim Eintauchen zwischen den Welten ab.

Auf der Morlock Seite hingegen arbeiten im ersten Track die Maschinen monoton, in einer fernen Zukunft, unterhalb der Erdoberfläche in dunkeln Höhlen mit ihren Bewohnern. Track zwei dieser Seite ist ein eindringlicher Aufruf zum wilden Tanz im treibenden ¾ Takt!

Habt Ihr so etwas schon mal gehört?

The Computer Controlled Minds bringen hier vier vollkommen krasse Tracks auf Vinyl, das solltet Ihr euch unbedingt geben!

Encounters with the ineffable.
The dormant roused.
Openness, observation, questioning, humility, sincerity.
Re-imagining the known, that which is untapped, all that was concealed.
Pathways to wholeness unearthed.
Meeting of truest self.
Temporal versus infinite.

The fallout.

Sudden disintegration, falling away, continuity shattered.
Facade ruptured, persona released, identity laid bare, history withdrawn.

Appearance of no-thing-ness.

Pregnant with possibilities, birth out of chaos, mystery unfolds.
Healing through anguish, renewal through trauma.
Newborn imaginings.

Accept the summons.

Chapters of lucidity, adventures in clarity.
Alignment in harmony.
All encompassing.
Reorientation emerges, subsequent renewal, transcendent insights, enlightened revelations.
Surrender reached, acceptance embraced, liberation appears.

Transmutation.

Solemn symbols of gratitude.
New found depth of meaning, of understanding, of moving, of seeing.
Beyond mental illusion, unifying as nature, expression of stillness.
Vision of the undivided, transmission of wisdom.

Flowering into being.

- Kas ॐ

It’s 2020, the year Pop Ambient turns twenty-one years old, a spritely young adult waltzing out of its teenage joys and tears. Pop Ambient has always stood for a certain classicism and elegance, a kind of beatless music that’s diaphanous and hazy, gossamer and glittering. It’s a music that’s no less inviting for its slow pace and becalmed nature, with a different kind of tension bubbling under the surface. For twenty-one years, KOMPAKT co-founder Wolfgang Voigt has curated a series of peerless compilations that repeatedly find refreshing answers to a simple question – What happens when the dancefloor is empty, and everyone’s home to drift away?

As with many other Pop Ambient compilations, Pop Ambient 2021 offers a welcome platform to contributions from both old friends and new faces. It opens with the gorgeous, slo-mo drift of “Of A Vessel”, from new Kompakt signings Blank Gloss. Sending their music out into the world from their home in Sacramento, this duo makes music that’s featherlight and luscious, the muted chime of a guitar over here, the steady hum of a halatial drone over there; everything in its right place, and nothing overdone. The poise is all. Neozaïre (Tobias Sawitzki aka Noorden) and Seventh World (Juho Hietala aka Blamstrain) are our other two new voices, the latter closing (the CD version of) Pop Ambient 2021 with a long, lambent dreamsong, Neozaïre offering us two gaseous, morphing driftworks, “Vor den Toren Europas” and “In Verschwenderischer Fülle” (CD only), etched across with bell-like arpeggios.

Pop Ambient has always felt like a field for play for the KOMPAKT cognoscenti, and 2021 is no different, with Joachim Spieth collaborating with Pepo Galán on the sidereal visions of “Libration”, while Leandro Fresco teams up with Thore Pfeiffer on the lovely “Abejorro”. Pfeiffer also contributes two lovely solo miniatures of abstract longing. Yui Onodera calls in again, long distance, for their fourth Pop Ambient running, with the refracted, glinting lightscapes of “Cromo 5” and “Monochrome”, while there are also star turns from Max Würden, both solo and in Reich & Würden (with Luis Reichard), and Morgen Wurde, who drops by with the ‘ethereal drama’ of “Mittsommer”.

Pop Ambient gets the balance right: visions and soundscapes, long-distance communications and intimate asides, sweetness and light, drama and dreaming, all wrapped up in floral abstractions – a most beautiful distraction.

Wir schreiben das Jahr 2020, das Jahr, in dem Pop Ambient einundzwanzig Jahre alt wird – das entspricht etwa einem lebenshungrigen jungen Erwachsenen, der gerade aus den letzten Teenager-Freuden und Leiden herausgewachsen ist. Pop Ambient steht seit jeher für eine gewisse Klassik und Eleganz, beatfreie Musik, die, transparent und leicht verschwommen, zart und glitzernd leuchtet. Musik, die trotz ihrer Langsamkeit und ihrer sanften Natur unter Spannung steht, weil hier immer etwas unter der scheinbar ruhigen Oberfläche brodelt.

Einundzwanzig Jahre lang hat KOMPAKT-Mitbegründer Wolfgang Voigt diese einzigartige Compilation-Reihe kuratiert, die immer wieder neue Antworten auf eine einfache Frage findet: Wie füllt man die Leere nach dem Club?

Wie viele andere Pop Ambient-Compilations bietet auch Pop Ambient 2021 eine Plattform für die musikalischen Beiträge von alten Freunden und einigen neuen Gesichtern. Es beginnt mit dem wunderbaren Slo-Mo-Drift von "Of A Vessel" von Blank Gloss, einem neuen Kompakt Signing. Das Duo stammt aus Sacramento in Kalifornien und sendet von dort seine überaus leichte und sinnliche Musik in die Welt hinaus – ein zartes Zupfen an einer Gitarresaite hier, das gleichmäßige Dröhnen eines prunkvollen Soundscapes hier; alles ist hier am richtigen Platz und passiert ohne übertriebene Betonung. Gelassenheit ist alles. Neozaïre und Seventh World sind zwei weitere Neuzugänge. Hinter Seventh World steckt der finnische Produzent Juho Hietala aka Blamstrain, der (die CD Version von) Pop Ambient 2021 mit einem epischen, flackernden Traum names “Light The Waves Before Dawn“ beschließt, während Neozaïre, ein Seitenprojekt von Tobias Sawitzki aka Noorden, zwei gasförmige, sich immer wieder morphende und abdriftende Tracks abliefert: "In Verschwenderischer Fülle" (CD only) mit seinen glockenartigen Arpeggios und “Vor Den Toren Europas“.

Pop Ambient fühlte sich immer schon an wie ein Experimentierfeld für eingefleischte KOMPAKT-Künstler, und auch 2021 ist das nicht anders: zum Beispiel Joachim Spieth’s Kooperation mit Pepo Galán ("Libration") oder Leandro Fresco, der mit Thore Pfeiffer das liebevolle "Abejorro" produzierte. Pfeiffer steuert mit “Grape“ und “Center“ zwei weitere Solo-Miniaturen voller abstrakter Sehnsucht bei. Der japanische Klangkünstler Yui Onodera meldet sich mit den gebrochen-glitzernden Lichtlandschaften von "Cromo 5" und "Monochrome" bereits zum vierten Mal auf Pop Ambient zu Wort, während Max Würden sowohl solo, als auch als Teil von Reich & Würden (mit Luis Reichard) ebenso wie Morgen Wurde schon zu den Stars dieser Compilation gehört.

2025 Repress

On his fourth album proper, Now Here No Where, Danish producer Kölsch (aka Rune Reilly Kölsch) is charting new terrain. Fans of his ‘years trilogy’ – 1977, 1983 and 1989, released on Kompakt over the past decade – were privy to a kind of sonic diary, an autobiography, tracking the artist’s early years through three albums of superior, meticulously rendered techno. Calling in collaborators where needed – most notably, the strings of Gregor Schwellenbach – there was still something deeply personal going down, not quite hermetic, but internally focused; the albums proved not only Kölsch’s mastery of his chosen form, but also his capacity to make techno personal, individual, and to trace histories of the self through music. But on Now Here No Where, Kölsch finds his feet firmly planted in the present. Reflecting on his new album, he notes, “It is fascinating to write about memories and feelings that have had years to manifest and develop, but how would I approach current emotions?” It’s a good question: our past coheres through the narratives we build around memories, but the moment we’re in, the newness of the now-ness, is harder to navigate; this story is as yet untold. For Kölsch, this makes Nowhere Now Here “an album about life in the year 2020. A time defined by confusion, misinformation and environmental challenges. It is an emotional interpretation of personal and mental challenges, observations and personal growth.” Kölsch does this with music that effortlessly balances emotional heft with the dancefloor’s brimming desires. It’s a space that Kölsch has navigated for a while now – one of techno’s breakthrough acts, an in-demand DJ across the globe and a prolific and restlessly creative producer, he’s also Kompakt’s biggest-selling act – but Now Here No Where ratchets up the lushness, making for a delirious drift across twelve tracks that are at once perfectly poised and deeply trippy. “Great Escape” is an elegant swoon, an opener that pivots on a sigh and a prayer; then “Shoulder Of Giants” bustles into view, subliminal clatter and an aching violin line giving way to a riff that glows with fluorescence and iridescence. “Remind You” combines an odd ECM jazziness with notes from a twenty-first century torch song; “Sleeper Must Awaken” mines huge buzzing synths and lets them float, in and out of sync, with reduced, ticking beats; “Traumfabrik” (dream factory – there’s a giveaway) is oddly lush, the tones malleable and plastic, morphing across a glitching undertow. There are sad, emotional washes of strings throughout the penultimate “While Waiting For Something To Care About”, while “Romtech User Manual”’s patterns twist and shape in the light. Throughout, Kölsch never keeps his eye off the dancefloor, and you can tell this is his still his home. “The amount of energy and joy I experience every time I perform, has a profound effect on me. It has inspired me so much of late and has become an integral part of my musicality.” “The way we join in expressing our hope for the future every weekend has given me so much,” Kölsch concludes. The club as a temporary autonomous zone, as a space both of freedom and of politics; somehow, that’s all here, Now Here No Where. “Most of all, it is an album about hope.”

Auf seinem vierten Album “Now Here No Where” betritt der dänische Produzent Kölsch (alias Rune Reilly Kölsch) neues Terrain. Seine Trilogie mit den Jahreszahlen 1977, 1983 und 1989, die in den letzten zehn Jahren bei Kompakt erschienen war, hatte seine Fans durch eine Art akustisches Tagebuch, eine Autobiografie geführt, die die frühen Jahre des Künstlers über die Länge von drei großartig produzierten Techno-Alben nachgezeichnet hatte. Wo es nötig war, wurden Kollaborateure hinzugezogen - allen voran für die Streicher, arrangiert von Gregor Schwellenbach -, dennoch zeichnete die Musik immer auch etwas zutiefst Persönliches aus, etwas nicht Hermetisches, auf eine bestimmte Art immer auch nach Innen fokussiert. Die Alben bewiesen nicht nur, wie sehr Kölsch die von ihm gewählte äußere Form beherrscht, sondern auch seine Fähigkeit, Techno zu etwas Persönlichem und Individuellem zu machen und der eigene Geschichte durch Musik näher zu kommen.

Auf “Now Here No Where” steht Kölsch nun mit beiden Beinen fest auf dem Boden der Gegenwart. Mit Blick auf sein neues Album stellt er fest: "Es ist faszinierend, über Erinnerungen und Gefühle zu schreiben, die Zeit hatten, sich zu manifestieren und zu entwickeln, aber wie nähere ich mich meinen aktuellen Emotionen?”. Eine gute Frage: Unsere Vergangenheit wird im Innersten zusammengehalten durch Geschichten, die aus Erinnerungen entstehen, aber der Moment, in dem wir uns befinden, die Neuheit des Neuen, ist schwieriger zu beschreiben; die Geschichte ist noch nicht erzählt. Für Kölsch ist “No Here Now Where” daher "ein Album über das Leben im Jahr 2020. Eine Zeit, die von Verwirrung, Desinformation und ökologischen Herausforderungen geprägt ist. Es geht dabei um die emotionale Interpretation von persönlichen und mentalen Herausforderungen, von Beobachtungen und der eigenen, individuellen Weiterentwicklung".

Kölsch tut dies mit Musik, die mühelos kleine Gefühlsausbrüche mit den großen Sehnsüchten der Tanzfläche in Einklang bringt. Es ist dieser Zwischenraum, in dem sich Kölsch schon seit einiger Zeit bewegt, als weltweit gefragter und gefeierter Live Act, DJ und so unermüdlicher wie kreativer Produzent (nicht umsonst ist Kölsch der “biggest-selling-artist” bei Kompakt), doch “Now Here No Where” treibt all das noch weiter auf die Spitze: ein enormer Sog entsteht, der uns über zwölf Tracks hinweg gefangen hält wie ein perfekt ausbalancierter Trip. Der Opener "Great Escape" ist pure Eleganz, ein Track, der irgendwo zwischen Seufzer und Gebet hin und her schwankt; dann drängt "Shoulder Of Giants" ins Blickfeld, ein unterschwelliges Geklapper, eine wehende Geige, schließlich ein schillernder Riff, der in der Dunkelheit zu leuchten und zu glühen scheint.

"Remind You" kombiniert seltsamen ECM-Jazz mit einem sentimentalen Liebeslied des 21. Jahrhunderts; "Sleeper Must Awaken" schürft im Bergwerk riesiger Synthesizer, mal im Takt, mal aus dem Takt ticken die minimalen Beats; "Traumfabrik" ist ungewöhnlich “lush”, die einzelnen Töne, geschmeidig und modelliert, zerfließen in einem glitzernden Abgrund. Das vorletzte Stück "While Waiting For Something To Care About" wird von traurigen, emotionalen Strings untermalt, während sich die Strukturen von "Romtech User Manual" im Licht drehen und immer wieder neu formieren. Die ganze Zeit über behält Kölsch die Tanzfläche im Auge, und man merkt ihm an, dass sie immer noch sein Zuhause ist: "Die Menge an Energie und Freude, die ich bei jedem Auftritt erlebe, hat eine tiefe Wirkung auf mich. Sie hat mich gerade in letzter Zeit stark inspiriert und ist zu einem integralen Bestandteil meiner Musik geworden.”

"Die Art und Weise, wie wir an jedem Wochenende gemeinsam unsere Hoffnung auf eine bessere Zukunft zum Ausdruck bringen, hat mir viel gegeben", so Kölsch abschließend. Die Vision des Clubs als eine temporäre autonome Zone, als ein Raum von großer Freiheit aber auch von politischen Ideen, das ist irgendwie alles hier drin, Now Here No Where. "Es ist vor allem ein Album über Hoffnung."

Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.

Now a revered composer, musician, and arranger, Caiphus left apartheid South Africa in the 60s for self-imposed exile in Southern California together with his wife, Letta Mbulu. Settling in Los Angeles he started working with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba and other exiled and semi-exiled South african artists, as well as, of course, his wife Letta.

Caiphus also found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. His facility with both jazz and African forms served him well. His LA stay also the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, the fruits of which can be tasted in Caiphus’s African compositions for the scores to Roots and Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple.

Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.

The Afro-Cuban grooves of “Mamase” open the record. Continuing where Listen To The Wind left off, this is another horn-heavy call-and-response ode to a positive life. Life as an invitation to party, to take part, to “get involved”. But only if you’re willing to let in the transcendent power of music. “There’s gonna be a Mardi Gras, there’s gonna be a carnival; there’s gonna be a jamboree, there’s gonna be a bacchanal”. Who can resist that? Vibrations everywhere.

It’s followed by the joy of “Aida”. Gleeful, dayglow keys and synths *just* on the right side of mid-80s sleaze are accompanied by a killer bassline, slick, skipping drums and proud horns. Infectious funk.

The tempo is taken down a few notches for the powerful “Nomalanga” and the lamentations of a heartbroken man who must leave his wife Nomalanga and their children to join the fight against apartheid. It’s an emotional song, no question, but it doesn’t bring you down. The uplifting music and optimistic vocal delivery from Caiphus and his backing singers in the second half offer hope.

Breezy drums and contemplative keys act as a backdrop for the stunning backing vocal harmonies in the intro of “Moshanyana”. This gives way to stuttering beats, a bassline to die for and Caiphus giving it his all, over guitars, marimba and synth strings. Another slo-mo winner.

Side two opens with “Dial Your Number”, an uptempo English-language boogie-funk workout, complete with mid-song cutaway to a random telephone call. Whether or not this propels the song into “key track” status, we’ll let you decide.

What’s not up for debate is the brilliance of “Matswale”. This was a hit in South Africa in the mid-80s and you can still hear why. It might just be our favourite Caiphus hit. Wow. This is some damn fine breezy, beautiful, emotional pop. The restrained playing, the guitar licks and the gentle keys are out of this world. The beats? Thundering, direct and slick. The singing? It’ll give you goosebumps. As for the sentiment? This is Caiphus singing to his in-laws about their daughter’s adultery, begging them to intervene and help him save his marriage. Not your typical pop single story-telling!

The ferocious “Ndi-Kulindile” closes the set with a nod to the coming sound of the States. The hard-edged, electro-influenced drum patterns and bouncing, elastic bassline are something of a departure from the album’s predominant sound, yet one wonderful constant, Caiphus’s exceptional delivery and his sparring with his backing vocalists, is satisfyingly present and warmly deployed.

With Simon Francis handling the mastering of this Be With edition, you know it sounds as fantastic as ever. The stunning sleeve has been restored, with its painting of a dream-like cosmic vista, as a lone figure takes in a scene that’s part distant planet, part urban sprawl. One listen and you’ll be transported.


Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend and Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow, his second solo LP, is perfect. A ten out-of ten album if ever we heard one. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.

Originally released in 1984, Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow is not just a musical masterpiece, it is also the soundtrack to the life of many South Africans - both then and now. Fusing the US-heavy sounds of boogie, disco and funk with Afrobeat and traditional African elements, it’s truly a spectacular listen. Jabu Nkosi handles keyboards on the album, with synths by Caiphus and Craig Harris. Sipho Gumede is on bass and Condry Ziqubu is on guitars.

One listen and you’ll be transported.

Straight out the gate, Nas dropped a classic. Since the release of the seminal ‘Illmatic’ album in 1994, critics and fans have been wondering if Nas peaked too early and if anything in his subsequent catalogue could be held up against this masterpiece. To be fair, it’s hard to follow up something this flawless, a project that allied his most insightful, pitch-perfect heartfelt rhymes with the work of the best hip-hop producers on the east coast.

DJ Premier, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and Large Professor all take their turns on the album, along with the unsung L.E.S., but it’s Pete Rock in his prime who provides the stunning backdrop for the cinematic ‘The World is Yours’. It’s a perfect nugget of a single, weaving in the brashness of Scarface, the repetition of a snatch of T La Rock’s early Def Jam gem ‘It’s Yours’ and piano courtesy of Ahmad Jamal’s ‘I Love Music’ from his own timeless ‘The Awakening’ album (1970).

Presented for the first time on 7”, the vocals of the album version and the instrumental on the flip provide the perfect opportunity to enjoy and compare the work of two masters at the top of their game. Pete Rock’s seamless weaving of disparate samples into a compelling whole, the then little-known Nas’ statement of intent. With a maturity beyond his tender years, Nas put himself straight at the top of the pile, this Queensbridge chronicle hinting at the ambition and greatness he harboured within himself.

What’s The Secret Word Tonight has been the question of Summer 2019. As a four tracker, the EP has already gained vast support from Sven Vath who is set to include the Arian 911 Remix on Cocoons legendary compilation series, The Sound Of The 20th Season.This collection featuring Joe Metzenmacher, Arian 911, DJ Schwa and Filburt marks a fine return back from hiatus for the Heideton family.

The Music for this release was a process of literal Catharsis, a purging of a build up of negative thoughts and emotions, but the music is also designed to be confrontational. The intent is to challenge mediocrity, to ask questions about the whole notion of techno as merely a form of debauched escapism. The music also asks questions about destructiveness and apathy. The aim is for something with meaning, as opposed to transience. Our demons are your contentments'

Catharsis is the result of the meeting and collaboration between veteran techno producer 'Heretic' and dark ambient producer 'Emission'.

The project is a quest to explore and purge negative thoughts via music. a modern ascetic experience in the pursuit of inner peace.

Total submission

Total immersion

Destroy the inner voices...

Palto Flats & WRWTFWW Records are ecstatic to announce the highly-anticipated reissue of Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's sought after and timeless ambient / minimal album "Through The Looking Glass", originally released in 1983 by RCA Japan.

Considered a Holy Grail of Japanese music by many, "Through The Looking Glass" is Midori Takada's first solo endeavor, a captivating four-song suite capturing her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language and exploring contemplative ambient sounds with an admirably precise use of marimba. The result is alternatively ethereal and vibrant, always precise and mesmerizing, and makes for an atmospheric masterpiece and an unparalleled sonic and spiritual experience.

The fully licensed reissue is available as a single 33rpm LP and a limited 45rpm DLP, both cut directly from the original studio reels (AAA), at Emil Berliner (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon) for the 45rpm DLP, and at the equally famous Frankfurter SST Studio for the LP. It is also available in CD format for the first time. All versions come with extensive liner notes.

strong 7 vinyl bundle including artists Donk Boys, Toolman, Abnormal Boys, Tony Matt, Franceso Grant, Dj Emerson, Martin Woerner and more.

Disconcerting, questing brilliance from Rabih Beaini: two sick, nervy techno killers (including an Ethio homage), stalking the corrosive perimeters of noise; and deep, long excerpts from his engrossing soundtrack to Dreyer's Vampyr, with contributions from the Upperground crew, and Sun Ra in its marrow, alternately driving and motorik, off-the-wall, lost in space.

A guitar stands alone in Wedding, that metropolitan biotope in the western center of Berlin, caught in constant transformation between idyll and abyss. It lets its gaze wander, unsettled, almost shy, until it encounters a trumpet, with which it begins a cautious, then ever more intimate pas de deux.
Welcome to the second studio album by the Berlin-based band Conic Rose.
The album title Wedding is no coincidence. The story of Conic Rose is closely intertwined with the Berlin neighborhood that gives the record its name. The band's studio is located here, and both studio albums were created in the immediate vicinity of the small river Panke. This place settles over the music like a warming patina. The album feels as though the musicians and the neighborhood have invited one another to get to know each other. Not least because Wedding also means marriage. These marriages between a band and an urban landscape, a fading past and an emerging future, fear and hope - unfold in every single song on Wedding.
For their second album, Conic Rose repositioned themselves completely. Not in terms of personnel, but in the question of how to move forward. Conic Rose still sound like Conic Rose; their distinctive blend of cinematic jazz, ambient textures and guitar-led contemporary music remains untouched. And yet Wedding is, in many ways, the conceptual counterpart to their debut album Heller Tag. Where the debut documented movement within an urban setting, Wedding describes a state of being. Behind every piece seems to hover a large question mark.The group opens up its palette, allowing more influences, becoming at once more subtle, more profound, more filigree. It is less about definition than about the spaces in between. The most immediately striking difference from the previous album is the strong presence of the guitar. In Bertram Burkert's playing, many voices seem to converge. His yearning openness forms an equal counterpoint to Döben's trumpet and flugelhorn. Blurred and layered sounds occasionally make the ground seem to slip away beneath one's feet, while Döben's gliding lines create both closeness and distance. Together, the band express in a deeply subtle way a sense of life that corresponds precisely to our time. Something lurks in the background, omnipresent yet still unnameable. Conic Rose need no words to convey this feeling of uncertainty with remarkable eloquence. Perhaps this has something to do with Wedding being a place of confrontational introspection, but Conic Rose confront the escape from escape itself. With the recording and release of Wedding, this process is far from complete. The seed only begins to grow in the listener's ear. With every listen and the echo it leaves behind in memory, the studio bud continues to bloom. The album is merely the point of departure. What ultimately matters is what it sets in motion within those who encounter it.

SIMPLETON, the third album from multi-platinum indie-rock singer/songwriter YOT CLUB, dismantles the utopian view of the American suburbs, treating finely manicured life as a mirage. Across its 13 tracks, the LP wrestles with how curated feeds and predictable routines can blur, and even erase, empathy and responsibility, creating a world where difficult questions and harsh realities are easy to ignore. In 2019, Ryan Kaiser started Y ot Club in his college dorm, crafting a lo-fi, classically cool indie rock sound grounded under a dreamlike haze. Two years later, his breakthrough single “YKWIM?” quickly reached viral status on TikTok (today, it’s been streamed more than 1 billion times) and has since taken him around the world at festivals like T reefort, Kilby Block Party and Pitchfork Paris

The recordings on Volume II were captured in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 18, 2020. Guided as much by human instinct as by musical intention, the ensemble moved through the evening with a shared sensitivity…listening, responding, and trusting the moment as it unfolded. Though Morten McCoy admits to having felt quite ill that evening, nothing in the music suggests restraint. Instead, what remains is a vivid, playful exchange, where McCoy and Johannes Wamberg carry both Part I and Part II as a flowing conversation, speaking through sound rather than words.

Part I begins abruptly, almost throwing the listener back in time to the exact moment the improvisation was born. Jonathan Bremer steps to the forefront, providing a solid, melodic bassline as Kristoffer and Eliel, perfectly in sync, lay down a steady foundation for whichever voice chooses to rise above the rhythm.

This is also one of the few I Am An Instrument recordings to feature two guitarists. Johannes Wamberg leads the way, shaping the harmonic direction, while Steven Jess Borth II adds subtle rhythmic textures through muted palm work, deepening the groove without ever stepping into the foreground.

Part II unfolds with Morten McCoy on his Moog One, delivering a beautiful, expansive solo. Using a carefully chosen patch, the sound pulses through the rhythm, moving with the groove rather than above it, riding the beat like a wave through the ocean.
Shaped by trust, presence, and collective improvisation, Volume II captures a group deeply attuned to one another, allowing intuition and momentum to guide the unfolding form.
——
Volume III was recorded in Copenhagen on March 5, 2020. Little did anyone know that only days later, the world would be placed on pause for years. Captured just before that moment of global stillness, this session carries a heightened sense of presence, a final gathering before silence reshaped everything. Recorded in a space more commonly associated with a club atmosphere, the music draws on a different kind of energy and immediacy. With Eliel Lazo unable to attend, the group invited Victor Dybbroe of Girls In Airports to join on percussion, subtly reshaping the ensemble while preserving its core spirit. Part I opens with Steven Jess Borth II calling out on tenor saxophone, answered by Morten McCoy on Wurlitzer electric piano. The piece gradually unfolds into a meditative groove, patient and expansive, carrying the listener through an eight-minute journey of layered rhythm and restraint.

Part II begins with Jonathan Bremer on stand up bass, slowly joined by the rest of the ensemble as each voice enters with intention. Midway through, an unexpected vocal melody from Borth emerges, drenched in reverb and delay, later reappearing as a melodic line on the tenor saxophone.

Part III is led by Morten McCoy on Wurlitzer electric piano. His signature melodic language sets the direction, guiding the ensemble while leaving ample space for the music to breathe and evolve through collective improvisation. Reprise returns to the closing moments of Part II, its title reflecting its origin. The familiar groove reappears, transformed into a distinctly Jamaican-influenced rhythm, over which Borth delivers a final tenor saxophone solo, bringing the conversation to rest.

Any questions about any of these products feel free to get in touch and we'll help you out!

[a] a1. Part I [Vol.2]
[b] a2. Part II [Vol.2]
[c] a3. Part I [Vol.3]
[d] b1. Part II [Vol.3]
[e] b2. Part III [Vol.3]
[f] b3. Reprise [Vol.3]

When you name your band Prince Daddy & The Hyena, you sort of accept that chaos isn’t a chapter in your story – it’s the entire ethos. Since forming out of Albany, NY’s DIY scene, Prince Daddy & The Hyena have built a career out of reaching their breaking point and continuing forward anyway. Their first LP, produced by Joe Reinhart, captured a very young band figuring things out in real time; their massive conceptual undertaking Cosmic Thrill Seekers followed and pushed their ambition (and patience) to new extremes. Not long after, a serious van accident nearly took their lives, directly informing the intensity of their self-titled record.

Over the last decade, the band has lost close friends and collaborators, endured relationship struggles, and faced countless moments that would have ended most bands without question. But those experiences never slowed Prince Daddy & The Hyena down. On their upcoming fourth album, Hotwire Trip Switch, they recalibrate and reconnect with their roots while sounding more focused and self-aware than ever. Reuniting with Joe Reinhart for the first time in nearly a decade, the album pulls from the punchy lineage of Green Day, the hook-driven quirk of Weezer, the snarky urgency of Joyce Manor and Jeff Rosenstock – all through the distinctly bratty lens of songwriter and vocalist Kory Gregory.

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Chess Records wurde 1950 von den polnischen Einwanderern Leonard und Phil Chess gegründet und entstand im Süden Chicagos, aber der Einfluss ist weltweit und über Generationen der Popmusik hinweg spürbar
– von Acts der British Invasion wie den Beatles, den Rolling Stones und Eric Clapton, die Chess-Künstler
als ihre Vorbilder nannten, bis hin zu den heutigen Stars wie Beyoncé, Jack White, Questlove und Bruce
Springsteen.
Am 17.04.2026 erscheinen die Alben von Chuck Berry ”St. Louis To Liverpool” und Etta James ”Tell
Mama” im Rahmen des 75.ten Bestehen von Chess Records

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Chess Records wurde 1950 von den polnischen Einwanderern Leonard und Phil Chess gegründet und entstand im Süden Chicagos, aber der Einfluss ist weltweit und über Generationen der Popmusik hinweg spürbar
– von Acts der British Invasion wie den Beatles, den Rolling Stones und Eric Clapton, die Chess-Künstler
als ihre Vorbilder nannten, bis hin zu den heutigen Stars wie Beyoncé, Jack White, Questlove und Bruce
Springsteen.
Am 17.04.2026 erscheinen die Alben von Chuck Berry ”St. Louis To Liverpool” und Etta James ”Tell
Mama” im Rahmen des 75.ten Bestehen von Chess Records

Concert at Prades-le-Lez marks the origins of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. In 1974, François Tusques and his companions (Michel Marre, Jo Maka, Adolf Winkler and Guem), in the spirit of Don Cherry or Chris McGregor, playfully dismantle all borders and all styles of creative music.

On this second volume, the Intercommunal builds unprecedented soundscapes around a song of revolt, a dance tune, or a burst of dissonance. The journey is unforgettable, no question about it. On repeat listening, it even becomes… lunar!

“The music that we make is primarily meant to be listened to live,” warned a leaflet from the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. This is precisely why the (restored!) reissue of the two volumes of Concert at Prades-le-Lez, recorded on January 25 and 26, 1974 by François Tusques and his comrades, is such an important event.

In 1971, after recording a series of albums that would leave a lasting mark on French jazz (Free Jazz, of course, with Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and Charles Saudrais, but also Le Nouveau Jazz with Barney Wilen, or the solo Piano Dazibao), François Tusques founded the Intercommunal—a grouping whose very name called for the fraternization of the various communities making up the country: Our music will help, we hope, to resolve the contradictions that exist between workers be longing to different communities, by breaking down various forms of national chauvinism, and more particularly the chauvinism of certain French people toward the cultures of Third World countries… Long live the friendship between the peoples of the whole world!

Among the great records made by the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, the two volumes of Concert at Prades-le-Lez come first, before L’Inter Communal, Vol. 4, Le Musichien, and Après la marée noire (four titles already reissued by Souffle Continu). François Tusques and his companions (Michel Marre and Jo Maka on saxophones, Adolf Winkler on trombone, and Guem on percussion) performed on January 25 and 26, 1974 at the Moulin de Prades-le-Lez, a few kilometers from Montpellier. It was thus in the southern region of Occitanie that the first echoes of this musical vision of a borderless brotherhood were recorded.

“We’re not among the Colonels,” the Intercommunal reassures us right away, performing a stride piano tune carried by African winds that the audience cannot resist for long. The energy is already striking and it never lets up throughout these two recordings, from start to finish: jazz, blues, traditional music, minimalism, even funk… The musicians of the Intercommunal have heard a lot of great music and now delight in reinventing it by mixing it all together.

“We want the song form to take its place as a weapon in the struggle against capitalist exploitation and all those who oppress us morally and materially,” declared an Intercommunal leaflet, quoting Jean-Baptiste Clément, author of the lyrics to “Le Temps des cerises.” The struggle was therefore serious—but it did not prevent François Tusques and his group from waging it in a festive spirit: each piece on Concert at Prades-le- Lez sends out a call for love and fraternity. Fifty years later, the message remains as relevant as ever—and once again, it is François Tusques who makes it heard.

»Vents d’aether« is the first collaborative album by sound artist Jérôme Bouve and composer-performer Delphine Dora. The six pieces are based on live improvisations on organ and harmonium. They were recorded in different churches on the Cotentin peninsula in France’s Normandy region and later enriched with additional field recordings by SA~RA. This adds an extra layer to compositions which were created both in and out of the moment and which quite literally resonate with the histories of the instruments and the buildings that were so integral to their emergence. »Vents d’aether« is to be understood as a dialogue between sound and space that takes place across time and place.

Bouve carried the idea of working with the organs and harmoniums that can be found in the churches and chapels in the Val de Saire in the Northeast of Cotentin around with him for years. When he got to know Dora, he found the perfect musical partner with whom to finally make a record »about the wind, the wood, the stones of the Val de Saire.« In September 2024, the duo embarked on a short but fruitful journey during which they stopped by at several different churches. They recorded hours-long improvised sessions dedicated to »capturing the moment, letting space and time shape gestures and sound, seizing fleeting epiphanies in their greatest simplicity,« as Dora notes in the album’s linernotes.

She took the lead behind the instruments, however Bouve assisted her on drawbars for the last two pieces on »Vents d’aether,« thus adding an even more unusual touch to the recordings. They formed the basis for an album that Dora calls »the testimony of a sensory quest, a collection of memories suspended in time.« Indeed, starting with the epic 20-minute-long titular piece up until the ringing of church bells near the end of the closing piece »Montfarville V,« this overwhelming yet intimate record blurs the boundaries between different times and spaces altogether.

Several years after the release of ‘Metamorphosis’ (with Sid Hille), Multicast Dynamics (Samuel van Dijk) reemerges on Astral Industries with ‘Circles’ - an enchanting two-part work venturing into deep unconscious realms. Sonic landscapes unfold in a sequence of hidden spaces and intimate revelations, featuring detailed sound design and rich thematic content.

Circle One initiates the process, opening gently with glassy drones and the patter of distant voices. A faint light shimmers through swirling pools of liquid memories and melting forms. The atmosphere builds, and everything is engulfed in the act of transfiguration. 

Passing through the threshold, Circle Two traverses further into cavernous territories. Boundless drifting soon becomes a gravitational pull toward something deeper. Submitted to the powerful undercurrent, incoming primordial pulsations signal a quest that reaches its fated culmination. 

Perhaps the revelation of something long-lost, entering the Circle eludes to that which on the surface remains hidden, yet its rediscovery inevitable.

BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of self-empowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Café – to name just a few. In 2023, BCUC were honoured with the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award, an accolade usually reserved for more established artists, in recognition of their fearless work and transcendent live performances.

THE ROAD IS NEVER EASY

The Road Is Never Easy is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro-psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle. The album contains 10 brand new songs – a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro-psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today. Songs like Amakhandela (Breaking All the Chains) connect history to daily life: "How is this precious metal inflicting so much pain in us," sing BCUC, "this government has been telling us we are free, but we don't benefit from being free." The album also talks about all the hopes and dreams that remain: "I have too many wishes and dreams in my head," BCUC sing in Um duma khanda, "I think I am losing my mind". The album ends with the soothing Matla a rona ke Bophelo, "our strength is life", praising the spirits and thanking the elders for protection. The Road Is Never Easy is about the harsh reality of life in Soweto, where "people always carry heavy loads". BCUC are street poets trying to deal with that burden: sometimes revolutionary, sometimes soothing, but always hopeful and compassionate. "When you are from Soweto you can't retreat nor surrender." (Sebenzela)

RECORDING

The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg. BCUC have created their own distinctive way of writing, or rather, finding and creating their songs. The recording process is like an improvised live performance. They bring their ideas into a zone where the music, the rhythm and the spirits take over until the song starts to form. In this Afro-psychedelic zone BCUC create their unique poetry that feeds on the dreams still dreamt, the hopes, the fears and the temptations lingering everywhere. BCUC's songs need to breathe and time to build. The right take was the one when the song took over, and just like their live performances, no one knew beforehand where the song would take them. During the recording, BCUC just let it all flow out: inner turmoil, cries of rebellion, but also resilience and a search for healing, love, unity and compassion. You don't have to be from Soweto to feel the deep meaning and impact of this music. In these times of so much hate and division, BCUC are like a campfire for people to gather around.

PRODUCTION & ARTWORK

"BCUC have a unique magic," says Outhere's Jay Rutledge, who produced the album. "It blew our minds. It's like punk and pure gospel at the same time. Their music can make you dance and it can make you cry, all at the same time. And when the song is over, you feel you're not alone in this world anymore. We felt compelled to do this." The album cover is based on a matchbox design, matches being a common household item in South Africa even today. "These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars," explain BCUC. Little messages, addresses, or phone numbers used to be scribbled on the back of these boxes; each one a reminder of the strength, resilience, and resistance that once drove the struggle for freedom in Soweto. BCUC keep this flame burning. The Road Is Never Easy is a heavy spiritual road trip, a deep dive into the subconscious of Soweto and a quest for truth, justice and sanity in this crazy world. BCUC tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, guided by the spirit world of their ancestors. Rather than reinforcing stereotypes of poverty, BCUC's portrayal of Africa is one rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs. "We bring fun and Afro-psychedelic fire from the hood," says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.

José González has delivered a new album, Against the Dying of the Light, a companion and further meditation on the themes of his critically acclaimed album, Local Valley. Where Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, this new record widens its gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all its flaws, at a moment when, technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another.

While José has always embraced technological advancement, he questions the assumption that every new possibility must be pursued to its maximum potential, especially when progress comes at the expense of human flourishing, attention, and empathy.

Keeping in the tradition of folk music as protest, José’s new single — sharing its title with the forthcoming album — urges listeners to resist systems that dehumanize and divide: “Disconnect from every algorithm, every perverse incentive that drags you down. Let’s rebel against the replicators, against the dying of the light. Kill the codes that feed the hate, keep the codes that make you thrive, celebrate the **king fact that we’re alive.”

Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with its own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self - imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish - Argentine roots and frames its humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

José González is one of the most quietly influential artists of our generation. The Swedish - Argentine artist has built a singular musical world from hypnotic, minimal guitar work and his unmistakably gentle voice — a sound that has become deeply personal to millions of listeners worldwide. With billions of streams across platforms and hundreds of thousands of physical records sold, González’s songs often act as emotional landmarks. Ask almost anyone, and they can name at least one of his tracks tied to a defining moment in their lives.

* Edition of 500 colored vinyl (transparent purple)
* Artwork developed in collaboration with Paris-based visual artist Caroline Ventura
* Including download code

i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is the highly anticipated new album by Sirens Of Lesbos, led by sisters Jasmina and Nabyla Serag. The dynamic release is a vibrant showcase of the group's expansive musical range, blending R’n’B/Soul, Afrobeats, electronic music, and lo-fi indie pop into a rich, genre-defying experience. With its eclectic sound and captivating melodies, the album solidifies Sirens Of Lesbos as a standout force in modern music.

Featuring on the album are the singles “Room 333” feat. Kendrick-Lamar-collaborator Zacari, a futuristic R’n’B song with progressive club beats; the epic “Call Me Back” (feat. Drake-co-signed rapper SadBoi and the Kabusa Oriental Choir); and dub-infused reggae song “Let It Hurt”, plus new song “My Moon”, which draws inspiration from artists like Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, and Jai Paul. Sirens Of Lesbos have earned widespread acclaim from outlets like CLASH, COLORS, Dork, Tsugi and Earmilk, with BBC 1Xtra’s CassKidd calling the collective “magical.”

As Black women living in the diaspora, Jasmina and Nabyla navigate the intersection of their parents’ collectivist North-East African culture and the Western emphasis on individuality. Questions of identity have always been central to their journey. While society often demands clear-cut definitions, the sisters have come to embrace their multifaceted identities: “We have always been many things.”

Both artists are deeply rooted in the technical and philosophical dimensions of sound. Jasmina recently completed her Sound Arts degree, and Nabyla is now finishing hers. Their academic pursuits have included creating abstract sound installations in exhibition spaces. However, their focus for the foreseeable future is on elevating the Sirens Of Lesbos project, writing and producing standout indie pop tracks, performing live, and delivering unforgettable experiences for their audiences.

—

The vinyl version of i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is published by Präsens Editionen, a Switzerland-based publishing house and music label. Founded in 2011 in the process of launching zweikommasieben Magazin, Präsens Editionen has since released music on vinyl, cassette, CD, and digital formats—alongside magazines, books, and other printed matter. Recent audio releases include works by Martina Lussi, spalarnia, Magda Drozd, Anom Vitruv, Belia Winnewisser, and Red On, among others.

Bristol experimental band SUGAR HORSE are delighted to announce that their third album, Not A Sound In Heaven, will be released on 10th April 2026 via Fat Dracula Records.

To celebrate the news, the band are sharing the bruising lead single ‘Secret Speech’, available to stream on all good digital service providers from 12th February 2026.

Also announced today are a run of April 2026 UK album headline tour dates and an appearance at StrangeForms Festival 2026, with tickets on sale now (see below for full listings).

“We are fortunate enough to live in what is generally known as ‘The West’,” says front man Ash Tubb of the lyrical themes behind the new track. “I say fortunate with gritted teeth, because I know—as I’m sure the reader knows—that living in the West isn’t always rosy. The vast majority of people struggle everyday to feed, clothe and house themselves. Let alone receive adequate healthcare, schooling and workers’ rights.”

“We are, however, where all the world’s wealth is hoarded. We are at the centre of Empire. The people outside of this empire—those of the Global South—have had their resources extracted and their populations exploited by our own governments, with very little given back in return. This won’t go on forever. It will inevitably end, as all great empires do.”

“We in The West have a choice to make in the meantime; either help create a new, fairer world, or let the greed of our ruling classes become the undoing of all of us.”

The first glimpse of new material from the quartet, ‘Secret Speech’ starts as Not A Sound In Heaven means to go on—a politically-charged wrecking ball of a song that smashes its way through the often unbelievable chaos and brutality of the 21st century with vitriolic malice.

How do you capture the machinations of the geo-political industrial war machine—and all the horrors that go with it—in the studio, without seeming trite or crass? That’s the question that Sugar Horse have posed themselves on their forthcoming third album Not A Sound In Heaven, and they must surely be one of the only bands in existence capable of delivering on just that premise with both musical substance and cutting philosophical insight.

“Ever since I was born I can remember visions of war, famine, and death being beamed directly into my living room via the magic of television,” says Tubb of the record. “These visions were accompanied by newsreader narratives designed to either humanise or dehumanise the people involved. We humanise our government’s allies and dehumanise their enemies. This is taken as common sense, or even wisdom to some degree. People watch the news and accept it as fact, simple and true.”

“As a person gets older they move in one of three different directions with this acceptance of reality; They embrace what they’re being told, they fall into a kind of trust free nihilism or they learn that there are deeper narratives at play.”

“Not A Sound In Heaven is an aged acceptance of the latter. An acceptance of sitting at the centre of a global empire of both military and economic dimensions. An acceptance that the stories we’re told as a nation, or what’s generally in the zeitgeist, isn’t necessarily reality itself.”

“How does a person cope with the weight—and, frankly, the guilt—of a society that perpetuates such distinct inequalities? A society that thinks a bit of killing abroad is fine, as long as it improves the lives of people at home. You can see why so many choose to embrace it. Hell, nihilism seems pretty sensible. Once a person decides upon pursuing a degree of truth however, things get a bit depressing. Beyond depressing...maddening.”

“This album explores this kind of breezy, frivolous subject matter in a manner that will no doubt be uplifting to the listener and massively financially rewarding for the artist.”

The new album follows on from their standalone AA single ‘What’s Your ETA? Let’s Have A Tear Up’/‘Would You Like Me To Be The Cat?’ which was released late last year as a surprise double drop.

2026 Repress

Jing reveals her third 6dimensions release, here we get an insight into Jing probing and questioning the definitions of realities, transporting the listener through a series of thoughts, images, and sensations, often experienced when the mind surrenders to a dreamlike state.

Jing present’s 'Psychiatric Population’ a four track EP containing Jing's sound illusions, that challenge all forms of genre definitions, Jing further explicate's her work as a true creative .

With Alouette!, Les Louanges attempts to make sense of his human condition and Québécois identity by bringing guitars and Joual (the French language dialect spoken in Québec) to the forefront while still fuelling his signature grooves. More rock-oriented than his previous albums, this third effort is luminous yet rich in sounds, emotion and political commentary. It unfolds through a journey that will lead Loulou to encounter universal experiences such as illness, death, and true love.

The album is also the result of an artistic quest that began during a period of self-reflection, when Vincent Roberge (aka Les Louanges or Loulou) seized the opportunity to take a break after his last extended tour. Alongside the existential questions typical of someone approaching their thirties came a rediscovery of the classics—from Leonard Cohen and Prince to Richard Desjardins and the nursery rhyme that gives the album its name–, followed by total exploration. In addition to playing most of the instruments himself, the singer-songwriter revived obscure Quebec records through sampling and got to experiment with actual sound recording. Roberge co-produced Alouette! with his long-time collaborator Félix Petit (because why change a winning formula).

Four years after the success of his sophomore album Crash, Les Louanges returns more confident than ever, thanks to a renewed cultural and emotional baggage that allows him to reflect on the past to better engage with the present, while also enjoying it to the fullest. All of this, without overlooking the future, which he foresees with hope despite the collective challenges that await us.

‘Bad Wiring’ by Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage, originally released in 2019 and long ago sold out, is re-released in UK/Europe on Blang Records. Recorded in Nashville by Roger Moutenot (Lou Reed, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinny) the album blends raw lo-fi garage-punk with acoustic interludes. His trademark literate lyrics, moving between the poignant and the hilarious, shift from personal anxieties to existential dread (often in the same song eg, ‘My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry'), record stores ('LPs') and under-appreciated artists ('Exactly What Nobody Wanted'). The album was greeted with widespread acclaim in 2019 with many reviewers declaring it his best yet. Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage play End Of The Road in September with a UK/Europe tour planned to follow.
Press For Bad Wiring In 2019:
" The “and about our relationship” refrain of ‘My Girlfriend Doesn’t Worry’ will have you replaying the album instantly." grade A- Robert Christgau, Consumer Guide (top albums of the year 2019).
" terrific wordplay." ******* Rob Hughes, Uncut
"Thick with the evergreen anti-folkie's charm." **** Mojo
"Electrifying, again." **** Q Magazine.
"one of the most consistently enjoyable records Lewis has made in his 18-year career." ********- HotPress
"possibly his best studio album yet." **** The Skinny.
"Jeff Lewis sits comfortably with Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen as an exemplary songwriter. Reed always strived for street cool and Cohen’s words were imbued with mysticism and his love of women. Lewis has the courage to open up his heart and lay out all the horrible neurosis, paranoia, and despair that we all fall prey to. Reed the cool, Cohen the mystic and Lewis the honest. A better triumvirate you couldn’t hope for.” Louder Than War.
"There’s a strong suggestion that this is the best album his written to date and after listening to just a handful of songs you’d be hard-pushed to disagree – you’ll also be left wondering why in the hell Lewis is not better known than he is, this album is filled with unforgettable songs that set his songwriting apart from anything else you’re likely to hear today." Folk Radio UK.

Silicon Scally and Fleck E.S.C. need no introduction at this stage. Both artists are veterans not just of Sheffield's Central Processing Unit label but of modern electro as a whole, with the pair having decades of skin in the game at this point. Their new release, a four-track EP entitledSlipwhere Silicon Scally handles the first half and Fleck E.S.C. the second, carries itself with the adventurous confidence of a record made by masters of their craft.

Slipopener 'Phased Array' is exactly the kind of top quality machine-funk tackle you'd expect from this meeting of minds. The beat programming is deliciously tactile from the off, hissing and clanking like machinery in an old Detroit factory. The feel of 'Phased Array' is altered, though, when the chords come in, a series of alternating floating sounds which give the track an altogether eerier feel. When all of this is coupled with the otherworldly synth blurts that periodically force their way to the front of the track, the overall effect is a piece of real depth assembled by an expert practitioner.

'Phased Array' is followed up by 'Stax', another brilliantly propulsive number. Here we find the drum beat - one which is a little reminiscent of that Kraftwerk tune about the numbers, no less - once more offset by some decidedly more shadowy synth work, all while arpeggiated keyboard licks work against an intricate web of basslines, chords and unidentifiable flying synth tones.

Fleck E.S.C. opens theSlipB-side with 'Good Ride', a number where the nudge-wink title is borne out by a track built around looped snippets of sighing vocals. That said, with a bassline that sounds like a blurting old landline telephone, a ghoulish synth lead and all manner of motion-sick breakdowns, the 'ride' in question could just as well be aWipeout-style whizz through hyperspace as anything more suggestive. 'Good Ride' also sets itself apart from the other joints here by showing off a swaying halftime breakdown.

'Intox Remedy',Slip's closer, wraps the EP in a manner which continues some of the trends of the record's earlier tracks - richly tuneful chords, precision-engineered broken beat drum programming and a wide palette of delightfully unusual synth tones are all present and correct. However, there is also something about the chords here which pares back the eeriness of previous joints for a bit more of a wide-eyed, stargazing feel, and as such 'Intox Remedy' sees the record out by placing the listener firmly back in the cosmos.

Tough enough for the dancefloor and intricate enough for home listening, theSlipEP is a fabulous collaboration from two of the most respected voices in the electro game.

Between flesh and silicon. “Under My Skin” (2026) is the first album by IADI, released by Neo Life. A record like few
others, highly conceptual, cover art included. Its essence lies in the folds of the increasingly ambiguous relationship
between man and machine, where the former designs the latter and, perhaps without fully realizing it, is gradually
destined to adapt and be reprogrammed by it. Each track of “Under My Skin” is, in fact, a sort of interface, connector, or
any other imaginative point of contact between two creative phases, amid emotional impulses and binary calculations.
The sonic architecture oscillates between analog warmth and algorithmic coldness, constructing landscapes in which
pulsating synthesizers and mechanical rhythms seem to question each other. There's no linear narrative, but rather a
progressive immersion in a zone of near-friction, where the comfort of technology coexists with more than a faint
musical uneasiness, like a background noise that never ceases to remind you who's truly in charge. In “Under My Skin”,
the machine is neither an enemy nor a simple instrument: it's a real presence, intimate, even tactile, amplifying desires,
fears, and dreams of dawns beyond the digital realm. Intelligent dance music. Less noise, more sensations. Electronic,
but profoundly human.
The final result, then, is a music project that speaks to the present, yet sounds like an X-ray of the future, capturing that
fragile moment when humanity and technology stop observing each other from afar and begin to merge, track after
track. It's no coincidence that IADI's album opens with “Impulse”, an immediate expression of an electrical impulse, for
both humans and machines, which is also the language of the nervous system, as fast as it is vital—pure energy and
rhythm, a track as intense as it is irregular. And after this introduction, it's the turn of the equally erratic “Axon”, whose
title describes the neuron that transmits the signal over distance, telling the listener to sit back and relax for a new
journey through the notes toward the more melodic “Cortex”. The cerebral cortex, the ultimate seat of thought and
memory, becomes the source from which the musical flow of the first part of the work is drawn.
Then, suddenly, an automatic, or instinctive, response to the constant succession of impulses: “Reflex”, or zerotemperature techno, with a fragmented pace, featuring vocal samples, breaks, and restarts. In the producer's
imagination, the subsequent, and conversely placid, “Neuron” represents the emotional core of the second part of the
work, providing a kind of respite from the seething vibrations. While the neuron is the basic unit of the nervous system,
the synapse is the functional connection point between one neuron and another effector cell, essential for the
transmission of nerve impulses and communication in the nervous system, enabling functions such as learning and
movement. Likewise, a track like “Synapse” once again illuminates the path traced by IADI. The more experimental and
streamlined “Static” instead suggests true ordered chaos. “Dreamstate” is the conclusion suspended in the void, relating
to that dreamlike state between waking and sleeping, where consciousness fades toward infinity and visions begin. Pure
fading into the subconscious. Eternal return to where it all began. Dancing is a form of consciousness. Every beat is a
question. IADI, however, holds all the answers you need.

A conjuration between our favourite dreamweaver Spencer Clark and Italian psychic traveller Mondo Riviera, Lorenzo's Oil present an oracle of aural travelogues between seen and unseen worlds on 'Paperopolis'.
Two likeminded individuals on their distinct but complementary quest for the netherworld, Clark and Riviera's meeting of the minds projects sonic artefacts assembled from lucid dreaming keyboard pads, narcotic late night TV rhythms, spiralling sequences and mangled voices.
The 10+ minutes 'Neo-Paperopolis Jump Suite' makes these intentions quite clear right from the start, veering from no frills keyboard runs to a mid tempo bounce and on towards the house of mirrors synth stabs and driving rarefied percussion that close the suite and open the pathway to such "places" as 'Central Jungle, Paperopolis' and "visions" as 'The Neverending Skylines of Taipei'. Ride on.  

REPRESS ON SILVER VINYL . COMES WITH 24”x24” POSTER + DOWNLOAD CARD + GATEFOLD JACKET.


On The Beths’ album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun -- to hear, to play -- in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) -- and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am -- toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.

Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”

The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.

Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been.

Kēpa is built whole, even if life has broken a few bones along the way.

Back when he was a pro skater, he gave everything to the board. Today, he gives that same intensity to the stage, delivering hypnotic cine-concerts where motion, sound, and image blur into one. The only falls left now are the ringing final chords of his guitar — not just an instrument, but an extension of his body.

Fingerpicking is his native tongue. So much so that Kēpa no longer sings — he lets the strings speak. Percussive, alive, essential. This music isn’t about performance, it’s about living: a personal quest, a way to reach others by first going inward. Moving against the current without fighting the wind. Finding breath, essence, and remembering we’re all drifting on a spinning planet, surrounded by forces bigger than us.

It’s easier to look away. Easier to follow noise, fear, or false prophets. Harder — and braver — to truly connect.

Released in late 2025, Hotline Service opened the door, offering a wide-open, spiritual escape. With SOUL WASH SERVICES— produced by Timber Timbre — Kēpa goes further. Warmer, deeper, more focused. The album feels like sunlight on asphalt, a long drive with the windows down, time slowing just enough to let something real surface.

A kindred spirit to Hermanos Gutiérrez, Kēpa plays the role of a modern, pagan preacher — guiding us through a dusty, golden road movie that unfolds entirely inside the listener. His music doesn’t shout; it cleans.

Kēpa does it all: writes, plays, films, edits, mixes. Music becomes image, image becomes music. Nothing is separate, on record or on stage. There’s no excess, no showboating — just an open invitation to slow down, go deeper, aim higher.

Tracks like Solarium and Paradisiac reach the peaks with minimal gear: five strings, a few picks, and total control of touch and space. Listening to Kēpa feels like checking in with yourself — a quiet inner trip shaped by sounds from every corner of the world. Blues, not to feel them, but to leave them behind.

After years devoted to picking, his playing has become something sacred.

And if you let it, it carries you with it.

Joff Bush and the Bluey Music team proudly present the brand-new Bluey album. Featuring 17 brand-new recordings including ‘Sleepytime’, ‘Flat Pack’, ‘Seesaw’, and the new ‘Bluey Theme Tune (Orchestral Version)’.

“This was our most ambitious album to date - so we wanted something extra special - something we’ve wanted to make for a long time."..."Hearing the music from episodes like ‘Sleepytime’ and ‘The Sign’ in all its orchestral splendour meant tissues needed to be on hand throughout the mixing process.”


“Fittingly, the theme of this album is ‘growing up’. Much of this music, like the episodes they derive from, explore what it means when kids start to discover their independence and venture out on their own. Whether that’s learning to sleep in their own bed or taking a spaceship to Mars. I hope you enjoy ‘Up Here’, as the opportunity I had to make this album is thanks to YOU!"

Yeun Elez opens a breach: that of a forgotten threshold, a gateway to Hell concealed beneath the peat and legends of the Breton marshes, from which Hoel Moce borrows the name for this project.

Born from Celtic tales passed down in hushed tones, it summons wandering souls, suspended spirits, and those who have already reached the end of their journey. Having escaped from Techno Thriller, Hoel founded Yeun Elez in 2022, as an autonomous and haunting sonic territory.

Surrounded by talented collaborators (Maria: NaturaMorta, Lou Savary de Reymour), he weaves a ritualistic and visceral music, traversed by dreamlike landscapes, misty battlefields, and a fantastical medieval Brittany.

Between pagan symbolism and spectral visions, the project explores the murky depths of the human condition. Thus, birth, love, decline, death: the themes emerge as archaic truths. Betrayal and revenge exist alongside devotion and the quest for an ideal that transcends us.

Mixed by Luc Bersier (Reymour) and then mastered by Tioma Tchoulanov (UVB76, Nze Nze), this album by Yeun Elez doesn't reconstruct the past: it invents it to better haunt it.

Music like a rite of passage, both rooted and timeless, like an inner journey, dark and necessary, to a place where myths refuse to die.

"Static Shock out here still pushing the finest in international punk and hardcore. This time with a smoking debut from Oslo’s Draümar. Their influences are from the same city block with groundwork laid by groups like So Much Hate and Svart Framtid. Unfortunately, the songs are blasting away at the same monumental enemies albeit with different faces. The never-ending nuclear question, societal unease, genocide, and a steadfast approach to not turn away from the constant horror of today’s world make up the tapestry of this 12”.
The intro and outro track nod and update John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 setting the stage for a flurry of cold, desperate Norwegian punk - instantly identifiable and as potent as ever. Indeed, they’ve scraped the blood, sweat and victory off the floors of Blitz and distilled it into a Molotov aimed directly at a world in constant crisis. These are chords and context against a rising fascist world where screaming is not limp response but also tactic, celebration and affirmation. Aside from the fury contained in the original tracks you get a bonus treat in the dual vocal attack on the Bannlyst song ‘Herrene’ which features original Bannlyst vocalist, Finn Erik Tangen - instantly identifiable and still just as pissed."

Special Friend have become the masters of weaving elegant and sophisticated pop musical webs while staying true to their low-fi indiepop roots. The French/American duo (Guillaume on guitar and vocals, Erica on drums and vocals) manage to create a sound like no other band. When they play live, audiences marvel at the huge, intricate structures the band construct, while falling in love with the crystal-clear vocal melodies that are threaded in between the shards of guitar and the rattle of the drums. How can a duo achieve so much? UK audiences will be able to ponder this question in March: Special Friend are coming over from France to do a substantial tour of the UK. These shows are highly recommended!
The new album is more diverse that the last, with the high-tempo indiepop of first single ‘Breakfast’, the majestic, Yo La Tengo-like dreampop of ‘Clipping’ and the country-ish, gentle, homesick melancholy of ‘Isolation’. Final track ‘OOO’ is a bold piece of Krautrock-inspired experimentation; ‘Mold’ is a beautiful slice of slowcore and opener ‘Paint A Picture’ is modern pop at its catchiest and most direct.

‘Clipping’, the album title, refers to the discipline of pruning growth back, removing dead wood to create a perfectly shaped tree with abundant blossoms: an accurate description of the album, and of the songs that hang from its elegant branches. The album artwork is by Erica: Special Friend are in control of every aspect of this elegant artefact.
‘Clipping’ was recorded in 2025 at Studio Claudio by Alexis Fugain and Margaux Bouchaudon. Set in an isolated rural environment conducive to immersion, the band had seven days in the studio—significantly more than for previous records—allowing for greater care in the recording process, particularly for vocals and arrangements. Several tracks feature synthesizers and organs, acoustic guitar, and even an electric bass on “Sanctuary,” a first for Special Friend. Overall, the record benefits from a more developed and detailed production while preserving the band’s direct approach and spontaneity.

The album was mixed by Syd Kemp, who has worked with artists such as Thurston Moore, Ulrika Spacek, Caroline, Crack Cloud, and Vanishing Twin.
Special Friend’s previous album on Skep Wax, ‘Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In’ was an underground hit, with a significant amount of airplay in the UK and in the US.
‘Clipping’ is a co-release with Howlin Banana Records and Hidden Bay Records (both in France). Skep Wax is proud to present the album in the UK and in North America.

José González has delivered a new album, Against the Dying of the Light, a companion and further meditation on the themes of his critically acclaimed album, Local Valley. Where Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, this new record widens its gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all its flaws, at a moment when, technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another.

While José has always embraced technological advancement, he questions the assumption that every new possibility must be pursued to its maximum potential, especially when progress comes at the expense of human flourishing, attention, and empathy.

Keeping in the tradition of folk music as protest, José’s new single — sharing its title with the forthcoming album — urges listeners to resist systems that dehumanize and divide: “Disconnect from every algorithm, every perverse incentive that drags you down. Let’s rebel against the replicators, against the dying of the light. Kill the codes that feed the hate, keep the codes that make you thrive, celebrate the **king fact that we’re alive.”

Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with its own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self - imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish - Argentine roots and frames its humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

José González is one of the most quietly influential artists of our generation. The Swedish - Argentine artist has built a singular musical world from hypnotic, minimal guitar work and his unmistakably gentle voice — a sound that has become deeply personal to millions of listeners worldwide. With billions of streams across platforms and hundreds of thousands of physical records sold, González’s songs often act as emotional landmarks. Ask almost anyone, and they can name at least one of his tracks tied to a defining moment in their lives.

One of the most innovative and ambitious albums ever made, Genioh Yamashirogumi’s Ecophony Rinne is a sonic masterpiece featuring over 200 musicians that expanded the limits of what music and sound could do.

Before Akira there was Ecophony Rinne. Originally released in 1986, Ecophony Rinne is a four-part symphony of “ecological music” by Geinoh Yamashirogumi that married ancient tradition with technological innovation, and changed the way we listen to music in the process.

Half-speed mastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, Time Capsule’s high-tech analogue reissue is the first to reproduce composer Ōhashi’s ground-breaking “Hypersonic Effect” theory on vinyl, cutting frequencies beyond the realm of human hearing into wax to capture the full spectrum emotional impact of this extraordinary work.

Founded by genius polymath Tsutomu Ōhashi aka Shoji Yamashiro, Geinoh Yamashirogumi is a shapeshifting collective of over a hundred members from across disciplines. Rejecting professional musicianship, Ōhashi cultivated an ethos where neuroscientists, psychologists, doctors, journalists, engineers and students could critique society through artistic expression and pursue their research in ethnomusicological performances that spanned global traditions, Eastern spirituality and Western classical form.

Ecophony Rinne represents the pinnacle of this vision - an expansive orchestral suite made with over 200 musicians that channeled Ōhashi’s thinking about mankind’s relationship with nature, and fundamental questions of life, death and rebirth.

Here pipe organ synths made from sampled Tibetan horns sit alongside field recordings from Central African forests, Buddhist mantras circle dummy head microphones, Javanese Jegog percussion ensembles pulse like verdant ecosystems, and the acoustics of temples, caves and landscapes are conveyed in the mix. Weaving together culture, nature and technology, it is a record that vibrates with the polyphony of life on Earth.

But Ecophony Rinne was not only musically innovative. Noticing the difference between vinyl and CD versions of the album where digital reproduction limited the sound, Ōhashi developed a theory of “Hypersonic Effect”, determining that ultra-high frequencies above 20khz can impact human perception even if they are inaudible. At once a physical and a psychological experience, to listen to Ecophony Rinne is to feel music differently.

The rest is history. After its release, Ōhashi was approached by director Katsuhiro Ōtomo to produce the soundtrack for Akira, the work for which Geinoh Yamashirogumi is best known. Emerging from the shadows at last, Ecophony Rinne was its transcendental blueprint, reissued in its most complete hypersonic form on vinyl for the first time.

Rather than describe nature, Ecophony Rinne embodied it. Rather than reflect culture, Ecophony Rinne defined it. Rather than explore technology, Ecophony Rinne changed it. As a work of art, it is more relevant than ever. You won’t have heard anything like it.

On his second album for Bruk, hoyah חיה continues to take an unflinching look at his Jewish identity while confronted with the heinous actions of the Israeli state. Echoing the name of his Refuge Worldwide radio show, he examines the shared histories of the Jewish diaspora across the Middle East and North Africa — from Morocco to Uzbekistan and everywhere in between. Can I Get A Chayah? is an honest attempt to explore what Judaism could become at a time when the culture faces an existential crisis.

The sonic approach hoyah חיה takes on Can I Get A Chayah? is central to the album's theme, as hard-gated processing on every sound creates a disorienting effect aiming for a kind of 'functional transcendentalism'. From the opening strains of preceding single '808s n Trance Gates' the jagged stop-start intensity of the samples sets a head-spinning tone for the album. The source material comes from across the aforementioned Jewish diaspora, challenging the nationalist idea of the single Jewish state.

Balancing beauty and aggression, hoyah חיה also reaches to a strong cast of collaborators to round out his cultural explorations. Principle among these is the late David German, the US-born guitarist and songwriter behind Silver Jews, whose repeated, bewildered mantras on 'Shalom Aleichem' embody hoyah חיה's own struggles with faith in the face of current horrors. Internationally celebrated Turkish-descent German musician Derya Yıldırım graces 'Talmuds' with her haunting vocal — a tribute to ancient Jewish mysticism that gets passed through the album's unrelenting sonic framework. On 'The Lock' Muha tackles African transcendentalism, while Rael pulls no punches with the questions he poses on the barbed 'This Song Has A Different Title But It Can't Be Published Here Because Of "Reasons"'.

With further prayer recitals on 'Lekha Dodi' and 'The Nose' and videos examining the psychedelic nature of reading the talmud and repetitive prayer movement shuckling, hoyah חיה has taken his research deep into the spirituality of his heritage at a time of crisis for Jewish identity. Naturally, Can I Get A Chayah? is not an easy listening experience, but neither is it a bleak one. There is beauty, mystery, complexity and nuance woven within the stark approach — an intentional, considered statement on a culture much deeper and wider than the barbaric acts of an unrepresentative group of twisted ethno-nationalists.

Mats Gustafsson met Jan St. Werner in Berlin when they both performed with Peter Brötzmann and a group of prolific improvisers. Mats and Jan share a passion for performing not just inside rooms but also with them, activating space and shaping sound via divertion. Mats introduces Johan Berthling who adds complex bass structures to the nervous jitter of Mats’ saxophone & pedals and Werner's digital machinery.

The trio instantly agrees on sound as a physical material which can bend and move anywhere within seconds. With this material they establish musical forms which they immediately dissect and reassemble again. It’s a nervous ride, a hyperactive conversation keen on detail and open to argument. Although IFANAME’s sound is instantly graspable it is also hard to pin down. Nothing seems stable yet it lasts, holds like some kind of catchy glue and disssapears as quickly as it came to life. IFANAME is question and concern. It is music as much as it is movement. It is attention, care, curiosity and disaster. Wherever IFANAME came from there is much more waiting ready to burst and reshape in front and inside of our ears.

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Chess Records wurde 1950 von den polnischen Einwanderern Leonard und Phil Chess gegründet und entstand im Süden Chicagos, aber der Einfluss ist weltweit und über Generationen der Popmusik hinweg spürbar
– von Acts der British Invasion wie den Beatles, den Rolling Stones und Eric Clapton, die Chess-Künstler
als ihre Vorbilder nannten, bis hin zu den heutigen Stars wie Beyoncé, Jack White, Questlove und Bruce
Springsteen.
Im Jahr 2025 feiert Chess Records sein 75-jähriges Jubiläum. Anlässlich dieses historischen Meilensteins
wird Chess im Oktober dieses Jahres eine umfassende Jubiläumsreihe mit einer kuratierten Auswahl audiophiler Vinyl-Neuauflagen starten, beginnend mit Muddy Waters’ „The Best of Muddy Waters“ und Howlin’
Wolfs „Moanin’ in the Moonlight“.
Die fortlaufende monatliche Serie wird Veröffentlichungen von legendären Künstlern aus dem renommierten
Chess-Kader präsentieren, darunter Chuck Berrys „Berry Is on Top“, Etta James’ „At Last“, Little Walters
„The Best of Little Walter“ und Sonny Boy Williamson IIs „The Real Folk Blues“.

Wie Amerika selbst ist auch die Geschichte von Chess Records eine Geschichte von Chancen in neuen Ländern, in denen Grenzen zwischen Hautfarbe und Kultur überwunden wurden, um Rhythm and Blues-Musik
zu schaffen, die Zuhörer auf der ganzen Welt beeinflusste. Das beeindruckende Künstleraufgebot von Chess
– und seine Gründer – haben den Blues von Volksmusik zu populärem Sound weiterentwickelt und verändert.
Chess Records wurde 1950 von den polnischen Einwanderern Leonard und Phil Chess gegründet und entstand im Süden Chicagos, aber der Einfluss ist weltweit und über Generationen der Popmusik hinweg spürbar
– von Acts der British Invasion wie den Beatles, den Rolling Stones und Eric Clapton, die Chess-Künstler
als ihre Vorbilder nannten, bis hin zu den heutigen Stars wie Beyoncé, Jack White, Questlove und Bruce
Springsteen.
Im Jahr 2025 feiert Chess Records sein 75-jähriges Jubiläum. Anlässlich dieses historischen Meilensteins
wird Chess im Oktober dieses Jahres eine umfassende Jubiläumsreihe mit einer kuratierten Auswahl audiophiler Vinyl-Neuauflagen starten, beginnend mit Muddy Waters’ „The Best of Muddy Waters“ und Howlin’
Wolfs „Moanin’ in the Moonlight“.
Die fortlaufende monatliche Serie wird Veröffentlichungen von legendären Künstlern aus dem renommierten
Chess-Kader präsentieren, darunter Chuck Berrys „Berry Is on Top“, Etta James’ „At Last“, Little Walters
„The Best of Little Walter“ und Sonny Boy Williamson IIs „The Real Folk Blues“.

E The Artist presents Six, his debut album for Nyahh Records; an incendiary opus of blown-out electronics and daring sonic abstractions, inspired by the seven seals, that posits E as a daring force within the Irish underground.

Garnering a fierce reputation both in Ireland and abroad despite minimal recorded output, the artist known as E instead boasts his infamy on the live circuit. The Nigerian-born, Dublin-based musician impressed over the years with a slew of memorable performances inspired by AfroPunkism, recontextualising contemporary black club genres into their loudest and most intense iterations. Following a brief side quest to Vienna early in 2025, E returned to Dublin relieved by the tangibility in familiarity of his surroundings. This inspired a period of personal reflection on self, mortality and religion in his cramped studio; from these sessions emerged his most substantial body of work to date in Six.
Inspired by the opening of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation, Six acts as a radical departure for E. Opener IDTYEK signals this change, a freak folk oddity that ill-prepares you for the road ahead. From MANTRAS’ obtuse techno through to RISE’s power electronics, E fulfils a listening experience intent on submission rather than interpretation. Dynamic contrasts temper the parameters of its sonic catharsis, a crescendo of geometric flow that challenges convention.

Six also extends the artist’s circle of collaborators. Ruby Eastwood and Mel Keane lend BRIDGE their poetry and creative instability respectively, frequent live collaborator Julia Louise Knifefist douses BLACKOUT with his signature guttural cries while KRAF’s obscured lyrics gives LINT a wayward edge. Bulgarian Umbrella offers the record its most substantial contribution on DROGO, a twenty minute meditation on life and death which forms the core inspiration for the album as a whole.
Six exists as a world obsessed with rationalising finality, a disorienting space between certainty and myth that stands as E The Artist’s most ambitious and strangely beautiful work to date.

Brendan Eder follows up minimalist 70s-jazz concept with new ambient-classical album, THERAPY. Brendan Eder is a Los Angeles composer and drummer best-known for his eponymous genre-bending ensemble of woodwinds, drumset, and bass; as well as his film scoring work, most notably on four short films for director Ari Aster. On March 3, 2023 Eder released his third album, THERAPY, a collection of meditative woodwind arrangements recorded primarily at Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia, California.

The quest for THERAPY came during a period of deep spiritual curiosity. Eder was avidly watching testimonies of near death experience survivors (NDEs), pouring over books of Theosophical artwork and philosophy, and
processing experiences of grief, uncertainty and spirituality.

Eder wanted to explore the threshold between the spiritual and physical dimensions, and create music that could evoke its shape and texture — a theme further illustrated in the original album artwork and single covers by Adam Rabinowitz. Eder felt he must be on to something when, on a whim, he looked up the tempo of a piece he was calling “137 Riddle.” Turned out to be “the most important number in the world” in theoretical physics, as well as a provocative number in Jewish mysticism.

Since 2020, Eder's cover of Aphex Twin's “#20 (Lichen)” has garnered over two million streams. Appropriately, THERAPY delivers two new Aphex Twin arrangements alongside eight original pieces.

Maintaining his track record of recording the best musicians Eder can find, THERAPY features special guests Nailah Hunter (harp), Henry Solomon (saxophone), and Ethan Haman on The Newberry Memorial Organ at Yale University.

Creaked out of an eck with two heads and no brain - just fracking around. Juli Zimmer and Sayizan Stange are Blowjobs Are Real Jobs, crawling right under your skin. Armed with guitar, MS-20 and a trashy drum machine, they bark about dogs, ostriches, stolen bodies, heads buried in sand, plastic spoons in freezer pops, and the big question of where the hell this whole loving-living thing is going anyway. The songs build up expectations like a delicious drink, which then, oops, gets taken away and never delivered. That’s how it is sometimes, you little puffball!

End of 2025, Blowjobs Are RealJobs dropped their first DIY tape, Bloody Situation Menstruation Masturbation. Their notorious sets, somewhere between performance art and riot gig, pop up almost monthly: gallery openings, summer garden chaos, or grimy St. Pauli basement bars. Now the duo’s first 7-inch vinyl brings 5 songs at 45 rpm with a fold-out cover, limited to 200 copies.

If you could go back in time ten years, what would you want to tell yourself? This was a question Khruangbin posed to themselves when approaching the ten-year anniversary of their debut album, the once cult classic, now genre-defining work The Universe Smiles Upon You. “If we could go back and tell ourselves how much was going to happen to us after that record, what would we want to
celebrate?” asked Laura Lee, bassist, vocalist, and founding member of the band. Instead, they thought: “Let’s do it again.”
The Universe Smiles Upon You ii was recorded on January 4-6, 2025, in the same family barn of guitarist Mark Speer, across the
same dates where TUSUY was first conceived ten years earlier. Though the conditions were the same–dirt floor, brutally cold,
minimal sound isolation, all takes live–the songs aren’t. They’re re-approached, some changed more than others, harnessing the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of TUSUY while discovering what would be unique this time around, in this stage of the band’s life.
The result moves like ripples on the water across ten hypnotizing tracks, the barn creating a sense of spaciousness, serenity and creative freedom, nearby wildlife (listen out for the birds on “August Twelve ii”), rattles and creaks of the barn and all. It’s a tapestry of small movements in nuanced arrangements, slowly revealing the new life, stories and character of someone you’ve met again for the first time in ten years.

Shoreline’s new album Is This The Low Point Or The Moment After? is built around an unanswerable question: when you hit rock bottom, can you tell where things begin to turn? Meant to be heard front to back, the record starts in a subdued, reflective place, grows progressively heavier, and ultimately lands on a more hopeful note. Drawing from the current wave of emo and hardcore while reflecting the collision of Germany’s alternative scenes, the album shows a band with a clear musical vision focused on big melodies, heavy riffs, and an honest DIY punk foundation.

Period Music is a research process involving Susanna Gonzo, Merma Suelo, Tuce Alba, Elizabeth
Gallon Droste, Agnese Menguzzato, and Farah Hazim. The six artists aim to attune to the different
temporalities experienced through our bodies, drawing from multiple meanings of period – from the
menstrual cycle to musical repetitions and astronomical revolutions.

r'tu
A central meaning of the Sanskrit word for ritual, r'tu, is menstruation, the original ritual. The root of
r'tu is in arithmetic and rhythm/.

Period Music has been staying with essential matters on how we listen to time and rhythms in our
bodies and in the world. Questioning the tempo of everyday life in an accelerated system like that of
modern society, the group has opened up co-creation spaces to listen to embodied memories.
Through dialogue, improvisation and jam sessions, the six artists attuned to e ach other’s processes,
composing music, word scores and drawings – ultimately sounding together.

This work embodies other notions of community through archetypes, embracing the impermanence
that reveals the countless rhythms of life. Period Music speaks of friendship and connection, and
invites you to take on a journey of interconnectedness between our rhythms and the broader social
structures influencing our lives.

The project emerges from conversations that began in Berlin in the fall of 2023, including a one-week
residency at Atelier Josepha in Ahrenshoop by the Baltic Sea in April 2024. The first physical iteration
of this project will consist of a book and a vinyl. The album features looping improvisational compositions encoded with messages about multiple temporalities. The accompanying book gathers poetic memories, letters, photographs, symbols, and drawings that emerged during the process

A.Wild plots the course.

Goes Without Saying.

4 intricate signals for late-night movement. Remix from Eversines.

Club Blanco steps into a more finely wired zone with CBR004, a tightly detailed transmission from young Bristol producer A.Wild – a record that reveals itself slowly, layer by layer, like a signal sharpening in real time.

Still anchored with a raw, restless pull, A.Wild works with a more intricate palette here: interlocking rhythms, delicate textural shifts, and micro-melodic flickers that shimmer beneath weighty, rolling low end. These are tracks that breathe, evolve, and reward close listening just as much as late-night movement.

If previous releases moved through the static in broad strokes, CBR004 traces its own circuitry — precise, hypnotic, and quietly complex – mapping new routes through the Club Blanco continuum.

There's one thing that everyone readily agrees on: Live concerts are the icing on the cake for musicians and fans alike. Every show is a very special experience and sometimes even creates an almost magical performance. Such moments are beyond explanation, you just have to be there to believe it or, in a best-case scenario, have them recorded for posterity – as American metal act Prong have done with their latest live album. Which is exactly what guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor and bandmates Christopher Dean (bass) and Tyler Joseph (drums) have achieved on ‘Live And Uncleansed’: Recorded over seven nights in July and August 2025, they are now ready to present eleven powerful live songs (plus three live bonus tracks), all pure and unadulterated, authentic and honest, which is the reason why the result is so incredibly captivating.

Michel Houellebecq is, of course, well-known for his novels, translated into more than 40 languages, and his Goncourt Prize (The Map and the Territory, 2010), but perhaps less so for his debut album, released exactly a quarter of a century ago on Tricatel label. One can sense the influence of Serge Gainsbourg's L'Homme à la Tête de Chou, a disillusioned Procol Harum and a world-weary Burt Bacharach hovering over Houellebecq's poems in Présence Humaine, a now cult classic album orchestrated by Bertrand Burgalat and the musicians of Eiffel. Twelve thousand copies sold and a few concerts later, the writer decided (or so we thought) to bid farewell to the stage, only to generate more media attention though his literary success. Frédéric Lo is, of course, known as an exceptional lyricist, composer, arranger, and producer, author of a sublime fourth solo album (L'Outrebleu, released last March) and a master of collaborative work, notably with Bill Pritchard, Peter Doherty and Daniel Darc. Initially, Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Lo met for the tribute album that the latter was planning for the tenth anniversary of Daniel Darc's death, but their recording of "Psalm XXIII" was, to their great disappointment, rejected by the label and therefore did not appear on the final version of Cœur Sacré (2023). Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining, and the two men decided to take their collaboration a step further. Lo decided to set the writer's words to music, in his studio in Pantin. Raw, stripped-down music draped in electronica, adorned with piano and antediluvian drum machines, often minimalist, sometimes repetitive, provides the perfect backdrop for twelve tracks that question and reflect on humanity's past and future (if indeed there is one). Reflections on the human condition, 21st-century style, a work of speculative fiction conceived by two eternally modern "young lads," Souvenez-Vous de l'Homme (Remember Man) is an album that might occasionally evoke The Stranglers' La Folie, and, given the title, that's probably no coincidence. But above all, it's a hypnotic and melancholic album, uncompromising and captivating. Most importantly, it's an album like no other.

Leave it to Joe Claussell to tap into our current collective artificial intelligence anxiety and render the racket divine. Alan Parson’s 1977 I Robot—the LP from which these two new edits were culled—was a harbinger for all the technological sheen and humanistic distress that was to come. Drawing from heady science fiction and even headier musicality and studio sophistication, ’The Voice’ evoked Jeremy Bentham-like omniscient surveillance, while the original ‘I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You’ explores the ambivalent rift in perspective between the two poles of flesh and metal. For Claussell, the dichotomy leaves more unanswered questions and artistic possibilities, for the truth is always tangled and ripe for potential. Our bodies are propelled by the same electrons which accumulate in capacitors; our hearts, as Milford Graves was so enthralled, likewise transmit the same electric impulses which not only sustain our bodies but soundtrack our eternal, internal rhythm. These edits, with their strings, synthesizers and distortion-ravaged guitars, are protracted to dynamic sublimity, and seem aware of this seemingly opposing dynamic. Claussell, himself a lifelong proponent and interrogator of man’s relationship with mechanized rhythm and sound, leaves our earthly toil and unease behind for something greater, something yet unnamed, shared between us all at our finest. It's almost a feeling you can touch in the air…

8-page lyric / drawing booklet, glossy poster, download card (inc. mp3s), white inner paper bags, sticker on cover.

After 7 strange years of relative silence, and 13 years of being a band, Dog Chocolate have returned with ‘So Inspired, So Done In’. Their fourth album is their most focused, cohesive and song-y yet. They still sound like a bin full of wasps, but now the bin has double-cream or a Viennetta or something at the bottom. While many of the 16 songs on here barely make it past the 3-minute mark, each one is bursting with all the textures and colours of an office cupboard: full of old sweets, fluorescent markers, and multiple ways to fix paper together.

Thematically, a lot of ground is covered, with songs tackling subject matter as diverse as overheard conversations, healing fungal toenails, the Rogerian concept of the Actualising Tendency, bronze age living conditions, dreaming songs into being and human-plant relations. Work (and anti-work) is a recurring theme, as is artistic inspiration and burnout. Dog Chocolate revel in the mundane and incidental, to explore bigger, existential questions. Recorded and mixed by POZI’s Toby Burroughs and mastered by Sofia Lopes, ‘So Inspired, So Done In’ charts a long and confusing period in the band’s collective life, marked by major life changes, losses and shifts, colouring the band’s trademark frantic, daft and anxious energy with a contemplative glaze. Dog Chocolate continue to investigate their internal and external landscapes with playful curiosity, frustration, silliness and empathy.

Pre/history of the band: In the early 2000’s Andrew (vocals), Rob (guitar, vocals) and Matthew (guitar, vocals) played together as teenagers in South-East London-based maximalist, costumed surrealist punk band Yeborobo. They met drummer Jonathan playing with his instrument-swapping masked band Limn at art space Utrophia in Deptford. Later, when both bands had split, Dog Chocolate formed with a shared desire to make a band that was simpler than their theatrical past: small amps and light guitars, no more than 2 drums at any one time, a keyboard no longer than a ruler and a shared ethos… “it’s about giving a shit, but at the same time not giving a shit, but not ‘whatever’, not giving up never!”. The band floated the term “pencilcase punk” to describe their jumbled, colourful, dense and instant music.

Dog Chocolate built on this early scrappiness, bedding into their sound over several albums. Their first “Or” (2014) was a split with Ravioli Me Away, soon followed by “Snack Fans” (2016) and “Moody Balloon Baby” (2018). Along the way they played gigs with bands as wide ranging as Deerhoof, No Age, Dry Cleaning, Palm, Daniel Wakeford, Shopping and Pozi.

With a tendency to converse with each other both lyrically and musically cultivated over many years, the members of Dog Chocolate bounce off each other, respectfully disagree, try to make each other laugh and share some of their most vulnerable feelings with each other. ‘So Inspired, So Done In’ is their own unique offering during these unsteady times: a language of friendship translated into songs.

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.

“From Birmingham and centred around the extraordinary songwriting talent of James and Patrick Roberts – initially as The Sea Urchins and since 1993 as Delta – they’ve only just got round to releasing their debut album, Slippin’ Out. It is a work of some beauty”. 9/10 NME ALBUM OF THE MONTH, 2000

“It’s classicist for sure, shot through with the influence of The Beatles, Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. In James’ downright beautiful closing ballad ‘I Want You’ one can also discern the school of ambitious English balladry that peaked in about 1968: The Casuals, Love Affair, Barry Ryan. The impression of accomplished old-schoolery is only furthered by the dizzying string arrangements penned by Louis Clark Jnr, son and namesake of the one-time orchestral chief of Electric Light Orchestra” – Mojo lead review, 2000


Having ended the 90s with the spirited ‘Laughing Mostly’ compilation of singles and demos (Guardian Album Of The Week) Delta finally released their debut studio album of twelve songs in the summer of 2000 on the Dishy Recordings label. Accepting that this might be their sole studio album the band threw everything at these recordings allowing it to exist in its own sphere, unbothered by their contemporary generation and disregarding the idea of even releasing a single.

Recorded at DEP International there was a notable difference to the scruffier, looser charm of their 1990s recordings, a tighter focus developed by having the experienced Lenny Franchi mixing the LP with them. Lenny had been working with a number of Island artists including My Bloody Valentine and Tricky so knew his way around a desk. There was also the question of budget (a few months passed between recording and mixing whilst funds were raised) so every day counted. Ultimately though you can hear the joy in the recordings, even amongst the melancholy and angst. As James recently recalled in an interview in Shindig! Magazine: “It was such a big deal for us. It’s one of my fondest memories doing that record. Everyone was happy. If there’s anything that I’d stand by, I think it would be that”

Louis Clark Jr joined the band towards the end of the ‘90s and brought a classically-trained element to the recordings particularly with his string arrangements. For ‘Cuckoo’, ‘I Want You’ and the prophetic ‘We Come Back’ Louis brought in eight players from the Birmingham Conservatoire; the baroque style is partly why the record often receives comparisons to Love’s ‘Forever Changes’.

On release ‘Slippin’ Out’ was a big favourite with writers at the NME, Mojo and The Guardian again and before long the band were signed to Mercury/Universal for their second studio album ‘Hard Light’, a far more expensive and expansive love affair. It was a temporary palatial home where things quietly fell apart again, but that’s another chapter.

“If long-term memory is nothing more than selective editing and only pop’s most weighty visceral works are built to last then it’s quite possible that in 50 years the Britpop era will be best recollected for the two bands it ostracised. Earlier this year we met Shack and thought their story of mercurial brilliance indicated the biggest music biz oversight of the 90s. We were wrong because we hadn’t met Delta yet. This is richer and more engrossing than anything by Shack” 

Hidden away amidst the bustle of Rio de Janeiro’s Catete neighbourhood is a small alleyway behind a cast iron gate. At its end is Bairro Saavedra, the courtyard surrounded by Neo-colonial houses where Brazilian guitar virtuoso Fabiano do Nascimento spent much of his childhood. Built in 1928, this secluded neighbourhood with its wooden shutters, tiled floors and tranquil benches, provides the inspiration for the title of Do Nascimento’s new album VILA, a collaborative project with a sixteen piece orchestra led by trombonist and arranger Vittor Santos.

Recorded between Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles, VILA is grand, tender, warm, playful and nostalgic. On this stunningly ambitious work, the delicate compositions led by Nascimento's guitar, which sits central in the mix, are surrounded by Santos’ breathtaking orchestral arrangements which swirl in all directions: complimenting, questioning, responding; in constant conversation.

Like the eclecticism of the architecture Do Nascimento grew up surrounded by, his music straddles many worlds at once. He is known as a Brazilian acoustic guitar master and as such has collaborated with Arthur Verocai, Airto Moreira and Itibere Zwarg. But equally at home in Los Angeles's jazz and experimental music scenes, Do Nascimento is also known for his work with artists like Sam Gendel and Carlos Nino.

Vittor Santos is an arranger and Trombonist who has worked extensively with many of the greats of Brazilian music, including João Donato, Marcos Valle, Toninho Horta, and Elza Soares.

=====================================
Credits:

Fabiano do Nascimento – 6, 7 and soprano guitars.
All orchestral arrangements and production by Vitor Santos.
Recorded at Electro-Sound studio, Los Angeles and Estúdio Fibra, Rio de Janeiro
Engineered by Jason Hiller and Garbiel Lucchini
Mastered by Mike Bozzi

Oboe – Francisco Gonçalves
Contrabaixo – Rodrigo Villa
Drums – Márcio Bahia
Violino - Ricardo Amado
Violino – Thiago Teixeira
Violin – Daniel Albuquerque
Violin – Márcio Sanches
Viola – Ivan Zandonade
Viola – Dhyan Toffolo
Cello - Hugo Pilger
Cello – Janaína Salles
Double Bass – Rômulo Gomes
Clarinet – José Batista
French Horn – Philip Doyle
Trombones - Vittor Santos
Violin – Daniel Guedes