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White vinyl. Signed Print Edition. When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran Pelle Jacobsson, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan's home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of "Reichpop" to the sugary howl of "Japanese Alice" to the hallucinogenic R&B of "A Woman's Wisdom," the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. "I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me," he says. "There's definitely a different kind of `self' in the picture this time around. There's no real love lost, it's much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have_your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new."

Australian indie and garage-rock firebrand, GIMMY unveils her new EP Labour of Love — a raw, emotionally charged collection that fuses gritty indie rock, post-punk bite and tender poetic expression, all powered by Gemma Owens’ unmistakable vibrato and fiercely honest songwriting.

Where her 2024 debut Things Look Different Now was a slow-burn, two-to-three–year voyage of change and introspection, Labour of Love hits with an entirely new force: intuitive, immediate and deeply connected to Owens’ emotional world. Written over six months and captured in an intense 4–5 day studio burst with producer Sam Joseph (King Gizzard), the EP moves with the urgency of something that needed to be felt and heard, right away.

Across seven compelling tracks, GIMMY dives into social anxiety, grief, falling in love and the chaotic beauty of everyday life, with each song arriving “on its own terms” — born from late-night home writing sessions, snippets of inspiration while travelling and moments of full-band electricity. Sonically, Labour of Love nods to Soft Play, Nick Cave, Fontaines D.C., The Preatures and The Smiths, yet remains unmistakably GIMMY: expressive, gritty, vulnerable, cheeky and alive in every moment.

Ultimately, the EP is an unfiltered snapshot of emotional truth, celebrating life’s highs, lows and everything in between, and showcasing GIMMY at her most dynamic, powerful and compelling to date.

Australian indie and garage-rock firebrand, GIMMY unveils her new EP Labour of Love — a raw, emotionally charged collection that fuses gritty indie rock, post-punk bite and tender poetic expression, all powered by Gemma Owens’ unmistakable vibrato and fiercely honest songwriting.

Where her 2024 debut Things Look Different Now was a slow-burn, two-to-three–year voyage of change and introspection, Labour of Love hits with an entirely new force: intuitive, immediate and deeply connected to Owens’ emotional world. Written over six months and captured in an intense 4–5 day studio burst with producer Sam Joseph (King Gizzard), the EP moves with the urgency of something that needed to be felt and heard, right away.

Across seven compelling tracks, GIMMY dives into social anxiety, grief, falling in love and the chaotic beauty of everyday life, with each song arriving “on its own terms” — born from late-night home writing sessions, snippets of inspiration while travelling and moments of full-band electricity. Sonically, Labour of Love nods to Soft Play, Nick Cave, Fontaines D.C., The Preatures and The Smiths, yet remains unmistakably GIMMY: expressive, gritty, vulnerable, cheeky and alive in every moment.

Ultimately, the EP is an unfiltered snapshot of emotional truth, celebrating life’s highs, lows and everything in between, and showcasing GIMMY at her most dynamic, powerful and compelling to date.

Squarepusher bricht wieder alle Regeln!

Tom Jenkinson, alias Squarepusher, präsentiert Kammerkonzert – ein Feuerwerk aus messerscharfen, rasend schnellen Riffs, teuflischen Orchesterklängen und rasanten Wendungen, das Progressive, Ambient, elektronische und experimentelle Musik vereint.

Der einzigartige Hardcore-Rave-/IDM-Produzent, experimentelle Musiker und Schöpfer futuristischer Fusion-Formen blickt auf ein 30-jähriges Schaffen mit einer Vielzahl herausragender Alben zurück. Von dem furiosen Breakbeat-Acid und dem brachialen Live-Bass-Angriff auf "Feed Me Weird Things" (1996) über das selbsterklärende "Music For Robots" (2014) bis hin zum virtuosen Live-Showcase "Solo Electric Bass 1" (2009) und dem entrückten Concrète-Jazz von "Ultravisitor" (2004) – nur wenige zeitgenössische Musiker haben ein so breites Spektrum an Musik so souverän abgedeckt. Doch trotz dieser Bandbreite zeichnet sich sein 30-jähriges Schaffen vor allem durch zwei Dinge aus: Unberechenbarkeit und Regelbruch. Da sein neues Album "Kammerkonzert" auf Warp im Grunde ein Kammerkonzert ist, bei dem er alle Parts selbst spielt, kann man getrost sagen, dass er seit seinem kristallklaren Drum-&-Bass-Debüt für das Label im Jahr 1996, der EP "Port Rhombus", einen langen Weg zurückgelegt hat.

Mit "Kammerkonzert" beginnt für Squarepusher nach 21 Alben eine neue Ära als Komponist.

Geoglyph is the new duo project by Alohn and Khey Mysterio, a convergence of two deeply singular practices into a single subterranean signal. Their debut album arrives as the eighth reference on Organic Signs, not as a collection of tracks but as a carved artifact: six inscriptions pressed into vinyl, mapping a sonic territory where time, rhythm and texture are no longer linear, but layered like geological memory.

Through Geoglyph, Alohn and Khey Mysterio convey a message from below, or beyond. A pulse engraved from forgotten times in the basement of reality, reactivated by abyssal basses, vibrating layers and fractured textures. Exhumed from the subterranean strata where psychedelic dub, mineral techno and fractal dubstep fuse into raw energy, their music becomes a point of contact: every beat, every silence, every oscillation acting as a coordinate toward another perception. What unfolds is not simply sound design, but an invocation, rhythms as sigils, timbre as gnosis, signals that seem to arrive already charged with intention.

Across the album, Alohn’s guitar notes fall like cascades through the mix, dissolving at times into controlled feedback and crystallizing into melodic fragments that hover between tension and release. These organic gestures are interwoven with Khey Mysterio’s dense low-end architectures and rhythmic frameworks, creating a constantly shifting terrain: from weightless transmissions and ritualistic voices to moments of overwhelming propulsion where the music suddenly breaks open with tectonic force. The record moves fluidly between meditative suspension and explosive motion, never settling into a single state for long.

A strong undercurrent of what has come to be known as “druidstep” runs through the album, a term coined within the 95 Open Tabs universe to describe a form of dubstep untethered from genre convention, rooted instead in bass as ritual, in groove as invocation. Here it meets dub-techno pulse, psychedelic echoes and high-velocity 4×4 pressure, drawing subtle influence from underground bass cultures without ever becoming referential. The result is a body of work that feels both ancient and forward-leaning, cyclical rather than linear: a living geoglyph that reveals different meanings depending on how (and where) it is read.

As the final movement accelerates into its closing phase, the album releases its energy outward, with frequencies stretched toward their limits, leaving behind the trace of a completed ceremony. In this sense, Geoglyph’s debut stands as a defining moment within the Organic Signs continuum: a record that unfolds rather than explains, offering an experience to be entered, absorbed, and carried. With this release, the label continues to explore new sonic spaces, evolving and expanding while giving deeper meaning to its own essence. A message from beneath the surface, waiting for those willing to tune in.

Más de este género

Delsin is pleased to announce an extensive compilation series combing through the catalogue of landmark Dutch techno label Djax-Up-Beats. The series, curated by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald, launches with a look at the label's legacy in the development of acid music through the 90s. In total, this first entry in the Djax-Up-Beats 1990-2005 series comprises 20 tracks, presented as a main triple-vinyl album plus two additional 12" EPs. The compilation also features all-new illustrations from Alan Oldham, the Detroit-rooted visual artist who gave Djax-Up-Beats a distinctive visual identity from very early on, and design by Lost Communication. Each volume of the series also features liner notes from music journalist Oli Warwick. Crucially, every track featured on the series has been carefully mastered by Johanz Westerman, bringing the best out of tracks that often had very little post-production treatment before they were originally pressed to wax. Volume 1 - The Acid Trip focuses on an area the label is best known for - acid house and techno. After the pioneering breakthroughs Chicago-based producers made with the Roland TB-303 in the late 1980s, acid music creation was starting to become more widespread when Djax-Up started in late 1990. The rebellious, rave-ready sound was an instant draw for label founder Miss Djax, and so her label ended up reflecting the development of acid as it spread from the Chicago roots across the world. Volume 1 - The Acid Trip looks at the diverse approaches to acid taken by artists on Djax-Up. Tracks on the compilation include an early outing from Ludovic 'St Germain' Navarre and Bjorn Torske's Ismistik alias, as well as Dutch pioneers such as Edge Of Motion, Spasms, Random XS and Acid Junkies, and Chicago heavyweights Mike Dearborn and Gene Hunt. With five more, equally extensive, volumes to come in this series, Djax-Up-Beats 1990-2005 is a thorough exploration of a true totem of techno culture - a renegade label that operated on its own terms and carried surprises and slammers in equal measure.

Originally released in 2012, Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh Away captures a defining early chapter in Freddie Gibbs’ rise, pairing his unfiltered street narratives with Statik Selektah’s raw, boom-bap-driven production. Stripped of excess and heavy on realism, the project reflects an era where Gibbs’ sharp lyricism and moral tension took center stage.

The original seven-track lineup features a strong cast of underground heavyweights including Slaine, Daz Dillinger, Reks, PUSH! Montana, Termanology, Fred The Godson, Trae Tha Truth, Smoke DZA, and Chace Infinite—anchoring the album firmly in the early 2010s hip-hop underground.

This limited edition vinyl reissue expands the original release with three bonus tracks: “Carry On” featuring Joey Bada$$, “Serve Or Get Served” (available on vinyl for the first time ever), and “Crushin’ Feelings.” Featuring brand new artwork by Alejandro Torrecilla and mastered for vinyl by Davide "Bassi Maestro" Bassi, this edition stands as an essential archival release for fans of Freddie Gibbs, Statik Selektah, and uncompromising hip-hop.

The new album by L.Y.R., their third commercial release, begins with the idea that the furthest points of light - stars - can only be seen in the dark. It’s a kind of contradiction that finds musical expression in these new tracks, the band always navigating towards sightings of hopefulness and constancy in an increasingly bewildering and storm-battered world.

The term dark sky reservation has its origins in environmentalism, and several tracks on the album deal with the messed-up weather of our contemporary planet, both meteorological and psychological, from descriptions of an earth deluged by thunderstorms to the soggy back-gardens of suburbia, a climate crisis brought on by rampant urbanism. In that context, dark sky reservations are those regions of the landscape where light pollution is discouraged and even outlawed, to allow scientists and casual stargazers to peer into the cosmos and see the glory of the constellations, patterns of light that have entranced and mystified us for hundreds of thousands of years.

It’s from those designated zones that human beings get a sense of their place in the universe, and experience the wonder of the here and now against a context of eternity and infinity. An alternative to the hectic craziness of everyday life, so often virtual and synthetic, the dark sky reservation is a place of refuge and dreaming, and like L.Y.R.’s music, such spaces are earmarked for contemplation and thoughtfulness.

L.Y.R. is author and current British poet laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist & producer Patrick Pearson.

Step into the second chapter of the The Jazz Sinners saga dedicated to cool, groovy and sinful
Jazz. The Jazz In You goes deeper with richer grooves, glamorous moods, pure analog soul.
A cinemac journey through jazz’s most seducve decades, pressed and presented with
uncompromising audiophile standards. This is jazz that moves, seduces, and stays. Every cut is pure
jazz alchemy. Rare, prisne vintage first pressings and top-er sources only. No shortcuts, no
compromises. Mastered organically for a full 360° sound spectrum, where every nuance and every
breath feels as if the players were right there in the room. The mood is cinemac, midnight cool. Jazz with a;tude inspiring shadowed alleys, smoky clubs, late-night elegance.
Music that speaks equally to jazz lovers, lounge selectors, DJs, and serious collectors.
At the heart of the journey, instantly recognizable landmarks light the way:
Gloria Lynne’s “The Jazz In You”, Benny Golson’s “Tippin’ On Thru”,
Nina Simone’s “Central Park Blues”, Diane Maxwell’s “Love Charms”,
Sabu Marnez’s “Enchantment”, and Zoot Sims’ “Recado Bossa Nova – Pt.1”.
Timeless names, meless grooves, each cut is chosen for its power to move and to suggest feeling
and emoons. Behind the selecon stand true masters of mood, with over thirty years of digging,
taste, and style shaping every decision.
On this double vinyl, the experience is treated with the respect it deserves. Pressed under expert
supervision, housed in a premium 100% Italian-made cover on luxurious 350g cardstock, with polylined inner sleeves designed for long-term preservaon. Built for collectors. Made to last
generaons and here is the promise: Triumphant. Timeless. Deeply grooving.
Soulful vocals, hard-swinging combos, cinemac big bands, Afro-Lan heat, late-night Blues. Every
track is a winner. The Jazz In You is feeling. It’s a;tude. It’s moon and emoons.
Now, sit back, close your eyes and get ready to find something captured, once again, that escapes
explanaon … The Jazz Sinners’ way!

Entropy 4/4 rare music. Very Dancefloor hardstyle Hardcore. Excellent ! Perly !!

Um Jesus geht es auf KOMPASS, dem neuen Album von Prinzen-Frontmann Sebastian Krumbiegel, mal wieder nicht. Dafür etwa um Elon Musks Steuererklärung, den kleinen Prinzen, dass 2+2= 5 ist, warum man trotz allem keine Angst haben und lieber von einer besseren Welt träumen sollte, und es geht um Musik. Um mehr Musik. Knapp 70 Auftritte spielte Sebastian Krumbiegel in den letzten 12 Monaten, knapp 70 Songs schrieb er in der gleichen Zeit. Er testete die Lieder auf Herz und Nieren, arrangierte um, verwarf, erschuf. Das Ergebnis: Sein neues Album KOMPASS. Wie man sieht, liebt es Sebastian Krumbiegel, Songs zu schreiben und live zu spielen. Und er liebt es, vor, während und nach den Auftritten sein Publikum nicht nur zu unterhalten, sondern sich auch mit seinem Publikum zu unterhalten. Und nach und nach kristallisierte sich in seinen Gesprächen heraus, dass eben jenes Publikum in unseren schweren Zeiten nach positiven Liedern verlangte. KOMPASS enthält 14 Songs, in denen das Glas grundsätzlich halbvoll, das Gras grundsätzlich grün und das Licht am Ende des Tunnels grundsätzlich nicht von einer entgegenkommenden Lokomotive ist. Krumbiegel selber hatte, wie er sagt, keinen Bock auf traurige Lieder. Wer jetzt allerdings denkt, der Künstler würde in seichte Gefilde abdriften, irrt: Krumbiegel gelingt, wie wenigen sonst, der Spagat zwischen Unterhaltung und Reflexion, zwischen Kritik und Optimismus. Sebastian Krumbiegel ist einer, der glaubt. Er glaubt an die Kraft der Kunst, an die Möglichkeit der Veränderung zum Besseren, und seine Songs handeln genau von diesem Glauben. Er erinnert daran, den Traum von einer anderen, harmonischeren Welt nicht zu vergessen. Und das gelingt ihm ohne Kitsch. Dafür mit Humor, viel Humor. Auch musikalisch ist KOMPASS ein optimistisches Album, ein optimistisches Album, aber ohne Augenwischerei.

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

Working with 32 writers, vocalists, musicians, and producers across the U.S., the U.K., and Brazil, the album carries an intimate feel that resonates with vinyl buyers who value authenticity, context, and artistry. Blending roots- influenced Americana and soulful pop, the album delivers a warm, organic sound designed for full-album listening. With songs focused on relationships, friendships, and everyday life, Behind the Scenes offers a cohesive yet varied listening experience that encourages repeat spins and long-term shelf appeal. Performing, writing, and recording since the age of 16, lead singer Liz Lenten relaunched Auburn in 2012 and has since released four albums recorded in Nashville with Grammy-nominated producer Thomm Jutz, earning critical acclaim, an extensive international airplay. Liz tours regularly with Auburn Acoustic; hosts the podcast Behind the Scenes of an Indie Artist and was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2022 for Services to Music.

The definition of the word 'fado' is technically 'fate', though the Portuguese meaning bound up with this term is more complex. The music itself can be fairly closely compared with that of Greek rebetika - also the American blues or the original working-class tango music of Argentina and Uruguay - and similarly takes it's common subject matter from the various cruel realities of the world. Though perhaps what distinguishes fado in character is it's often poised acceptance of the pains of life rather than protestation or resistance - as writer Paul Vernon says "It speaks with a quiet dignity born of the realisation that any mortal desire or plan is at risk of destruction by powers beyond individual control"

Death Is Not The End compile here a spine-tingling collection of fado recordings, taken from records issued in the mid 1910s through to the 1930s. The fado's Lisbon and Coimbra variants are presented here by some of the music's earliest recorded stars - spanning a time period leading up to the emergence of the fado's all-conquering star, Amália Rodrigues.

I Made It All Up For You is the new record by Hugo Race Fatalists, their 6th studio album, set for release March 20, 2026 thru Gusstaff Records / Helixed on LP/CD and digital.
"In his 40-year career, Hugo Race has lived a thousand lives and played the role of songwriter, producer, musician, performer, head of a record label (Helixed). His music went from folk to lounge, from "trance industrial blues" to psychedelia, from world music to electronics. Starting from post-punk Melbourne in the 1980s, he took fascinating paths that led him from Africa to Turkey, from Berlin to Romagna…"
Hugo Race returns after highly successful collaborative albums with Michelangelo Russo (100 Years), The Church frontman Steve Kilbey (Speed of the Stars) and Gianni Maraccolo (The Vigil, winner of the prestigious Premio Ciampi) with I Made It All Up For You, an epic album with his Italian band Fatalists - existential songwriting framed by the band's signature fusion of roots music, electronica, Italian soundtracks and desert rock.
"I wanted to create something melodic and beautiful in defiance of our current reality. The songs started as bare acoustic sketches written in a remote mountain cabin in Italy where I had two weeks off during a solo tour. The weather turned into a raging blizzard, the days a struggle to keep the wood fire lit and the smoke out of the house. I wrote about twelve songs, threw them all away, started again with an unplugged electric guitar in front of that
damp fire, searching for the album's theme. When the smoke cleared, I was at the crossroads of a long term relationship unraveling under a blazing antipodean sun.
Fatalists recorded the basic tracks at the floating studio on the Puccini lake an hour out of Florence - Giovanni Ferrario (Scisma, PJ Harvey) on guitars and synth, Francesco Giampaoli (Brutture Moderne) on bass and Diego Sapignoli (Sacri Cuori) on percussion.
Violinist Massimiliano Gallo met me in Sicily for a short tour to learn the new songs, adding layers of his Calabrian magic to the mix. Jennifer Charles (singer of New York band Elysian Fields) and I had been talking for a long time about making new music and this was the occasion when we made it happen. Jennifer's distinctive voice graces this
album on the songs I Collide and Broken Love, the lyrics of which were written by author and designer Alannah Hill. My longtime road brother Michelangelo Russo also dusts the tracks with his otherworldly electric harmonica on Against The World, Born To Fly and Open Field. A lot of joy and pain and reflection went into the making of this album and I hope that comes across; this is about the darkness yes, but also the light. Everything changes and every ending is a new beginning but it's how we experience transformation that really matters. I hope you love this album. I made it all up for you."
Hugo Race, Naples, 2025

LUKE COMBS ist einzigartig - eine seltene Kombination aus Nahbarkeit und außergewöhnlicher Kunstfertigkeit. Bodenständig, authentisch und mühelos echt, ist er ein Künstler, der einem vom ersten Moment an vertraut erscheint, dessen Stimme, Vision und Erfolge jedoch unverkennbar einzigartig sind.

Mit nur 35 Jahren hat Combs bereits die Rekordbücher neu geschrieben: 20 aufeinanderfolgende Nr. 1-Singles, der erste Country-Künstler, der mehrere Nächte im Wembley-Stadion headlined - alle drei Termine sind ausverkauft und aufeinanderfolgend- der erste Country-Künstler, der sowohl beim Bonnaroo als auch beim Lollapalooza headlined, und der erste, der zwei Songs mit über einer Milliarde Streams auf Spotify und vier RIAA-Diamond-zertifizierte Singles vorweisen kann. Selbst inmitten solcher Meilensteine behält Combs sein seltenes Talent, Vertrautes neu erscheinen zu lassen - mit Songs, die mit überraschender Klarheit und emotionaler Ehrlichkeit überzeugen.

The Way I Am, das am 20. März via Sony Nashville erscheint, ist eine Sammlung von 22 Songs, die alles zeigt, was Combs so unverwechselbar macht: von seiner rauen, resonanten Stimme und seiner meisterhaften Erzählkunst bis hin zu Songs, die herzliche Verletzlichkeit mit hymnischer Energie verbinden. Das Album taucht tiefer denn je in das Leben hinter den Kulissen ein und erkundet die Herausforderungen der Vaterschaft und die Balance zwischen Familie und Karriere, Selbstvertrauen, die stillen Kämpfe um die psychische Gesundheit und die Klarheit, die entsteht, wenn man sich daran erinnert, was wirklich wichtig ist. "The Way I Am" zeigt Luke Combs als ein Generationstalent auf dem Höhepunkt seines Schaffens und als eine globale musikalische Kraft, wie sie nur einmal im Leben vorkommt.

I Made It All Up For You is the new record by Hugo Race Fatalists, their 6th studio album, set for release March 20, 2026 thru Gusstaff Records / Helixed on LP/CD and digital.
"In his 40-year career, Hugo Race has lived a thousand lives and played the role of songwriter, producer, musician, performer, head of a record label (Helixed). His music went from folk to lounge, from "trance industrial blues" to psychedelia, from world music to electronics. Starting from post-punk Melbourne in the 1980s, he took fascinating paths that led him from Africa to Turkey, from Berlin to Romagna…"
Hugo Race returns after highly successful collaborative albums with Michelangelo Russo (100 Years), The Church frontman Steve Kilbey (Speed of the Stars) and Gianni Maraccolo (The Vigil, winner of the prestigious Premio Ciampi) with I Made It All Up For You, an epic album with his Italian band Fatalists - existential songwriting framed by the band's signature fusion of roots music, electronica, Italian soundtracks and desert rock.
"I wanted to create something melodic and beautiful in defiance of our current reality. The songs started as bare acoustic sketches written in a remote mountain cabin in Italy where I had two weeks off during a solo tour. The weather turned into a raging blizzard, the days a struggle to keep the wood fire lit and the smoke out of the house. I wrote about twelve songs, threw them all away, started again with an unplugged electric guitar in front of that
damp fire, searching for the album's theme. When the smoke cleared, I was at the crossroads of a long term relationship unraveling under a blazing antipodean sun.
Fatalists recorded the basic tracks at the floating studio on the Puccini lake an hour out of Florence - Giovanni Ferrario (Scisma, PJ Harvey) on guitars and synth, Francesco Giampaoli (Brutture Moderne) on bass and Diego Sapignoli (Sacri Cuori) on percussion.
Violinist Massimiliano Gallo met me in Sicily for a short tour to learn the new songs, adding layers of his Calabrian magic to the mix. Jennifer Charles (singer of New York band Elysian Fields) and I had been talking for a long time about making new music and this was the occasion when we made it happen. Jennifer's distinctive voice graces this
album on the songs I Collide and Broken Love, the lyrics of which were written by author and designer Alannah Hill. My longtime road brother Michelangelo Russo also dusts the tracks with his otherworldly electric harmonica on Against The World, Born To Fly and Open Field. A lot of joy and pain and reflection went into the making of this album and I hope that comes across; this is about the darkness yes, but also the light. Everything changes and every ending is a new beginning but it's how we experience transformation that really matters. I hope you love this album. I made it all up for you."
Hugo Race, Naples, 2025

'Trying Times' is a record about being in love whilst battling the limits of the self against a backdrop of global uncertainty. James Blake explores the tension between intimacy and isolation, the pressure to curate and perform even as everything, inside and out, feels fragile and precarious. Themes of reflection, both literally and metaphorically, run through the record’s visual presentation, as Blake holds a mirror to the contradictions of modern connection - how we see ourselves, how we’re seen by others, and what gets lost in between. It’s about the disorienting loop of joy and dread: feeling safe in love, yet knowing the bubble could burst at any moment; struggling to stay present while global anxiety and private doubt pull you in different directions. A meditation on love, identity, and fragility in an age where the world feels balanced on a knife edge

13 Track Album is James' seventh studio album and first fully independent release Album features British rapper Dave, and singer-songwriter Monica Martin Marketing plan will support long term growth, audience building and connecting with super fans Strong Content Plan including Single / Focus Track Performance Videos Alternative album versions TBC inducing deluxe, piano version and more

Es war DIE Nachricht des Jahres. Nach dem sich der Graf vor neun Jahren von Bühne und Öffentlichkeit
verabschiedet hatte, kündigte er - einer der erfolgreichsten Musikkünstler der letzten Dekaden - im Februar
2025 sein Comeback an. Aus zunächst sechs geplanten Comeback-Konzerten wurden aufgrund der hohen
Nachfrage in kürzester Zeit 17 Termine.
Mit dem neuen Album “LIEBE GLAUBE MONSTER“ knüpft UNHEILIG dort an, wo sie 2016 aufgehört haben. Die insgesamt 16 neuen Songs des Konzeptalbums spiegeln die ehrlichen Gedanken, Erlebnisse
und Emotionen des Grafen, die er in den ausnahmslos von ihm selbst geschriebenen Texten verarbeitet. Die
Schlagworte des Albumtitels ziehen sich als Leitmotive durch das berührende Gesamtwerk und spannen die
Bögen zwischen den verschiedenen Dimensionen, die UNHEILIG auszeichnen. Auf dem Album geht es um
Liebe, Freundschaft, Hoffnung, Zuversicht und auch um die Monster, denen wir uns alle im Leben stellen
müssen.

Ascendent Dutch duo LUSU shoot skywards with a stunning solo Drumcode release ‘Move 2 the Groove’. ‘Move 2 the Groove’ is supreme. The title track picks up from where they left off with ‘DIZZY’ (with HI-LO) in terms of dancefloor impact. Marked by a hypnotic rap line, elite drum programming and a thrashing mosh pit energy, this is a percussive beast that thrills with each listen. ‘Afterlife’ shows their range, a stunning cut marked by old skool chords and celestial end-of-night energy. Bravo!

Limited Green LP is for Indies only. all LPs include a DL card. Island Family is the fifth album from Isle-of-Eigg dwelling electro-acoustic psych-pop wonder Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch. A strange, unpredictable, sardonic and yet deeply personal record inspired by all from Fever Ray to The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev and Beck, Island Family is Pictish Trail's contrarian view of arcadia; a search for the euphoric in the bucolic, bound up in sometimes conflicting ideas and feelings around nature and environment, sincerity and artifice, escapism and belonging. It's an album about how no man can remain an island, however hard he might try. Released by Fire Records, with support from Johnny's own label Lost Map, and produced by long-term collaborator Rob Jones (The Voluntary Butler Scheme, The Gene Dudley Group), 'Island Family' opens with its title track, a song of death, ghosts and the ties that bind, fusing abrasive electronic beats with a tongue-in-cheek fireside folk refrain and the haunted ice cream van melody of a digitally reincarnated traditional Scottish jig. A purgative surrender to nature's whim driven by a clattering machine drumbeat rolled in a puddle of filthy dirty fuzz, 'Natural Successor' is five-and-a-half-minutes of cathartic churning bass. 'In The Land of The Dead' is an eight-bit glitch-core reflection on island party excesses spasming into existential dread and regret, suitably accompanied by a funereal mariachi band. It's followed by the epic 'It Came Back', the understated verses and arms-aloft falsetto chorus of which are accompanied by a tense, foreboding bass-driven electro hip hop instrumental with (spoiler) a brain-shattering industrial-metal meltdown. 'Melody Something' is the album's purest moment, a cautiously uplifting solar-powered-ballad about losing track of time in the cycle of the seasons, and the gap between memory and reality. Shapeshifting closer 'Remote Control' is a channel hopping cabin-fever-dream flipping from warped boyband ballad to deep-fried fuzz pop. "One of my favourite artists" Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music

reActive Lab proudly unveils its first vinyl release, marking a defining moment for the label's evolution. reActive Lab Collective 001 brings together four of the label's core members - Chrivu, Dragne, Flavius, and Pattern Tusk - to craft a 12" that perfectly captures the collective's sonic DNA: deep groove, subtle minimalism, and timeless house energy. The record opens with Chrivu - "Cell Division", a vibrant house piece driven by a confident bassline and crisp percussive motion. Built with clarity and flow, it sets the tone for a journey anchored in groove and precision. Dragne - "Get Funk" follows with playful rhythm and low-end warmth - an irresistible combination of swing, bounce, and character designed for the dancefloor. On the flip side, Flavius - "The Interview" introduces a more introspective dimension - stripped-down yet immersive, balancing atmosphere with emotion through delicate textures and steady rhythm.

Closing the release, Pattern Tusk - "We Went On" blends soulful depth with minimal intricacy, offering a smooth, driving finale that resonates with both feeling and functionality. reActive Lab Collective 001 stands as more than a debut - it's a declaration of artistic identity. A 100% in-house release from reActive Lab, crafted with authenticity and intent. A promising first step in what's clearly a long-term commitment to sound, craft, and community. Short Description: reActive Lab makes its vinyl debut with reActive Lab Collective 001, a powerful VA featuring Chrivu, Dragne, Flavius & Pattern Tusk. Four deep and groovy house cuts blending energy, warmth, and minimal precision - a pure statement of the label's identity.

Das zweite Album des Palace-Records-Gründers Andrei Nikolsky ist stark von Soundtrack- und Library-Musik der Vergangenheit beeinflusst, darunter auch von einem seiner Helden, John Cameron (Kes, KPM, Bruton), der auf dem Album mit dem Song "Swing Time" zu hören ist. Die Platte bietet eine Mischung aus ungewöhnlicher Elektronik, modalem Jazz und experimentellem Disco. Weitere Mitwirkende sind Mitglieder seiner Band The Kanpai Quartet (Charlie Searle, Euan McGinty, Dan Kabakov) sowie die Schlagzeuger Filippo Galli, Mike Bandoni (aka Funkshone) und Felix Weldon (Johnny Dankworth, Ian Shaw, Jean Toussaint, The La's).

- "Verdammt nochmal, Mann, was für ein Jazz!" - Sarah Evans (BBC6-Produzentin)
- "Ein wunderschönes Album! Perfekt für meine One Jazz-Show." - Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s)
- "Schöne Soundsammlung." - Rory More (Les Hommes)
- "Die neuen Tracks klingen super! Ich mag die Anspielungen auf Disco und die verschiedenen musikalischen Richtungen." - Paul Osborne (Project Gemini)

Becoming Forest is the fifth full-length record by Amuleto. It comes from an encounter between the group’s core duo, Francesco Dillon and Riccardo Wanke, and multi-instrumentalist performer and composer Stefano Pilia (Mike Watt, Rokia Traoré, 3/4HadBeenElminated, Massimo Volume, Afterhours, Zaire).

This meeting — developed from long-term parallel collaborations and converging musical paths — produced a set of tracks that combine acoustic and traditional instruments (cello, guitar, harmonium, voice) with electronics, natural sounds and unconventional sound manipulations.

Drawing on literature, travels, drawings, poetry and little-known traditions from around the world, the tracks of Becoming Forest sit in a subtle equilibrium between contemporary composition, folk themes and electronic music.

This is a journey through memories of the past and echoes of the future — intimate and aggressive; music that combines minimal textures with distorted progressions, with delicate vocal lines inhabiting post-digital, noisy environments — a reminder that individual voices form part of a larger, living forest.

Following Léve Léve Vol. 1, this second volume continues a long-term exploration of the popular music of Sao Tomé and Príncipe, with a clear focus on rhythm, movement and dancefloor energy. Curated by Tom B., Léve Léve Vol. 2 brings together emblematic recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, carefully restored and remastered, designed as much for close listening as for DJ use.

First-ever official reissue - 180g black vinyl edition

In the late 1960s, a distinctive musical movement began to flourish in Italy—while also gaining momentum abroad, particularly in France and the United Kingdom. Known as library music (or sonorization), this genre consisted of genuine music libraries created specifically to accompany audiovisual productions such as television programs, commercials, documentaries, and films.

Produced under conditions of complete artistic freedom, these recordings often defy clear categorization, as they are not tied to any single musical genre. This creative independence allowed composers—frequently working in total anonymity—to experiment boldly, crafting avant-garde and forward-thinking sounds that, in many cases, anticipated musical trends that would only become widespread years later.

Oronzo De Filippiis known not only for his contributions to library music, but also for being part of the projectThe Braen's MachinealongsideAlessandro Alessandroni, one of the most significant figures in this field.

Meccanizzazione is a fully instrumental album—as is typical of the genre—literally dominated by the distinctive sound of the harpsichord. The record essentially alternates between two main compositional approaches: on one hand, more accessible and "friendly" tracks with a refined jazz-lounge and bossa nova flavor; on the other, darker and more hypnotic pieces, whose repetitive structures vividly evoke the rhythms and mechanical pulse of the industrial world.

Very limited numbers, orders will need to be confirmed.

For his new album, Irreparable Parables, Andrew Wasylyk felt a strong desire to write a set of songs featuring an element hitherto rare in his work: the human voice. Equally strong was the conviction that he did not want to sing them himself.

The Scottish multi-instrumentalist and composer set about assembling a group of guest singers, sending out the songs to wherever they were in the world. The vocals were recorded remotely and then, like migrating birds, winged their way back to Scotland. The result is an album of great beauty which, perhaps preeminently in Wasylyk’s work, expresses the vulnerability and resilience of the human spirit.

Six singers appear on the record, represented by six songbirds illustrated on the sleeve by Clay Pipe Music’s Frances Castle. The cuckoo is a nod to Belle and Sebastian’s 2004 single ‘I’m A Cuckoo’, that band’s Stuart Murdoch being the first voice you hear on the new album. When the vocal for ‘Private Symphony #2’ arrived, says Wasylyk, “it was everything that I was looking for and more. But this is Stuart Murdoch. Of course he’s going to make something incredibly beautiful and thoughtful.”

The song lyrics were, for the most part, written by the singers. The music is Wasylyk’s creation. He navigates a sound world that lies somewhere beyond the borders of classical and jazz, ambient and abstract. It is difficult to describe, but easy to understand, which is to say to feel. That is the way Wasylyk’s work is experienced: as a feeling. It takes you back to childhood, perhaps, to feelings of comfort and safety, or to memories of walks at sunrise and sunset, or to the way a shadow falls on a particular field in a particular place at a particular time in your life. This is consoling music. That is why, though pretty, it is not merely pretty. These are songs to shore up the soul.

Wasylyk writes in a room, in his native Dundee, full of “half broken” instruments. He picks these up, plays a little, seeking an idea, a feeling, a door that lies ajar. The musical palette of Irreparable Parables includes brass and woodwind, a six-piece string section, guitar, bass, drums, vibraphone, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, tape loops, synthesisers and percussion. The strings were arranged by the cellist Pete Harvey, a long-term collaborator.

Among the other guest vocalists are Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals, Saya Ueno from Japan’s Tenniscoats and Peter Brewis from Field Music. Wasylyk himself takes the lead vocal on the title track, though a throat infection and touch of pitch-shifting have altered his singing in a way that even he, having fallen out of love with his own voice, finds acceptable.

The heart of the record can, arguably, be found in two tracks, ‘Love Is A Life That Lasts Forever’ and ‘Spectators In The Absence of God’, sung respectively by Molly Linen and Kathryn Joseph. The former, bright with trumpets, was inspired by the writing of Derek Jarman. “I was feeling deeply upset about the world and wanted to try and write some- thing that was obviously hopeful,” Wasylyk says.

‘Spectators …’ offers an emotional counterpoint. It is an “apocalyptic hymn” that seems to grapple with watching human suffering from afar, too distant to be at physical risk, but experiencing the psychological wounding, and feelings of helplessness, even complicity, that come with constant awareness of other people’s pain. “Kathryn’s a pal, I love her dearly, and she’s a brilliant artist who really feels what she writes,” Wasylyk says. “The cracked tenderness of her voice is spellbinding.”

The album closes with an instrumental piece, ‘Soul Enters The Ocean Sun Climbs Out Of The Sea’, all piano and strings, that offers a sense of resolution and ascension. A good moment, too, for Wasylyk to reflect upon the artistic companionship that he enjoyed while making this record – the songbirds that answered his call: “These humans are incredible at what they do. I’m deeply grateful and feel so lucky. It blows my mind.”

Just when you thought Kevin Richard Martin's music couldn’t go any slower, lower or deeper, Sub Zero emerges. A slow-motion excavation of drug-tech, dub, dreamy noise and frozen ambience, the album gradually mutates into hypnotic pulsations and melodic melancholia. It is arguably Martin’s most striking release to date under his given name.


Originally released digitally on Bandcamp only in the depths of winter 2022, amid the final year of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine, this desolate epic went on to become KRM's best-selling digital album on the platform. With persistent demand for a vinyl pressing and a full DSP release from fans, Martin thought the time was right for Sub Zero to finally surface in its full glory: remastered and paired with fresh new artwork.


Unnervingly, the album is as beautiful as it is solemn, as glacial as it is relentless, and as subtle as it is terrifying. A trip into a sonic abyss, with a tour of a philosophical void, it’s to my ears, KRM’s most seductive work yet, and also his most emotionally resonant. Martin expertly balances tear-jerking motifs with heavier than hell rhythmic weight. With its melodic fog, eternal drones and eerie atmospherics, the peripheral throb of distant kick drums, the heartbeat punctuation of cavernous subs and the snowstorm blizzard of fuzz absolutely envelopes the mind, whilst crushing the soul.


In terms of lineage, Sub Zero might recall a more paranoid Porter Ricks, a dystopian GAS, or a brutally dubbed-out Pan Sonic. Most fitting, however, is its kinship with the deepest dub terrain Martin previously explored on In Blue, The Bug’s acclaimed 2020 collaboration with Dis Fig for Hyperdub, where he obsessively probed subaqueous pulses and low-end modulations.


Sub Zero is possibly the most minimal, desolate, and deviant dub record yet released on Martin’s PRESSURE label. It marks the point at which dub disappears into its own effects trails. Dub music capturing frozen moments in time. Dub as an addictive painkiller, that sounds both sacred and ocean deep.

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.

This is Jah Wobble"s first post punk LP in recent years following travel and dub records. The brash guitar driven tracks reflect his continuing preoccupation with the declining state of the nation. Driven by his experience working each week at a music based community project in Merton, with Jon Klein, it is reminiscent of Mark Stewart. Angry in an empathetic, constructive way it resolved with the beautiful instrumental "Brockwell Lido". Like much of his work these days, much of the lyrical content comes while traversing London"s transport system. Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he left the band after two albums. Following his departure from PiL, he developed a solo career. In 2012, he reunited with fellow PiL guitarist Keith Levene for Metal Box in Dub and the album Yin & Yang. Since 2013, he has been one of the featured pundits on Sunday morning"s The Virtual Jukebox segment of BBC Radio 5 Live"s Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo. His autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer, was published in 2009. Jon Klein Is an English guitarist and producer, best known for being a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees for seven years, from 1987 until 1994. He also founded Specimen and The Batcave nightclub. Klein has worked for other artists including Talvin Singh and Sinéad O"Connor. More recently he has worked as a co-producer and guitarist with Jah Wobble.

“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” 

"Nearly two decades after their 2007 debut and a 2010–2022 hiatus, Austin, TX’s Voxtrot return with Dreamers in Exile, a new LP that turns an underdog story into a true second act.

The band who quietly became cult heroes in the streaming era deliver a record that carries the electric rush longtime fans remember while speaking directly to the new era of youth who discovered them through playlists and word of mouth.

Musically, Dreamers in Exile folds Voxtrot’s classic DNA—C86 sparkle, Sarah Records romanticism, the pulse of The Velvet Underground, the elegance of Felt—into a sharper, more confident sound.

Guitars chime and sprint, rhythms push forward, and Ramesh Srivastava’s literate, heart-forward lyrics trace the distance between youth and maturity, exile and home, regret and renewal. Mixed by Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, James Blake), it reads as both reintroduction and redemption.

For a band born of the 2000s blog wave alongside Vampire Weekend, The National, and Grizzly Bear, Dreamers in Exile is less nostalgia than proof of life. It’s the sound of a beloved group returning on their own terms and finding their songs resonating more widely than ever."

Alex Rex, the project of acclaimed musician and former Trembling Bells bandleader Alex Neilson, is set to release his fourth and final studio album, The National Trust, on March 28th. Written in the wake of the sudden death of his younger brother, Alastair, the album is a poignant reflection on loss, love, and renewal, deeply rooted in the landscape of Carbeth—a cabin community in the Scottish countryside that Alastair called home. For Neilson, the cabin became both a physical and emotional project, a symbol of restoration and reconnection.

"For the first four years after Alastair died, his cabin lay empty and exposed to the remorseless Scottish weather. It came to look like a rotten tooth in a beautiful mouth. Cladding was dropping off its veneer, the ashen baubles of dead wasps nests clung to the rafters, all his possessions were just as he'd left them but eaten by mice, moths and time. Ashtrays still carried the crushed centimetres of his old tab ends. The cabins are so joyfully animated by their host's specific personality and this one looked like a haunted house. Guilt, unrealised hopes and encroaching nature yoked together in a wandering sadness. Combined with the fact that I didn't know the right way round to hold a hammer made the project of its restoration seem hopeless.”

Neilson, however, gradually began chipping away at the task, determined to transform the cabin into something he hoped would resemble “a National Trust site occupied by a psychopath,” with a little help from some friends, including Lavinia Blackwall and Marco Rea.

“They poured love into the cabin and helped restore Alastair's original vision. The project also helped restore my relationship with Lavinia which had fractured after Trembling Bells broke up in 2017. Alongside long-term Rex lieutenant Rory Haye, we applied the same intensity of dedication that we did in renovating the cabin, into creating The National Trust.”

As with Neilson’s previous albums, the recording process was intentionally unpolished, with songs presented in the studio with no rehearsals and captured in just a few takes. This raw, immediate approach amplifies the emotional weight of the album, which Neilson describes as being at a “personal apex of sour self-reflection, mock misanthropy, and self-exposure.” Longtime collaborators Lavinia Blackwall, Marco Rea, and Rory Haye return, alongside guest musicians like Jill O’Sullivan (Jill Lorean) and Trembling Bells guitarist Mike Hastings, to bring Neilson’s vision to life. The result is a deeply personal and multifaceted work, blending acid wit with haunting introspection.

The songs on The National Trust traverse a wide emotional and thematic range. The title track opens the album with a sharp and confessional edge, exploring love, loathing, and cultural critique with Neilson’s signature wit. “Boss Morris” pays tribute to the all-female Morris dancing troupe that reinvents British folk with vibrant energy, while “Two Kinds of Song” turns self-referential humour into an avalanche of remorse, culminating in the unforgettable chorus: “I’ve got two kinds of song. Which one will it be; one where I hate myself or one where you hate me?” Elsewhere, tracks like “Psychic Rome” draw from the decadence and hysteria of ancient Rome, while “The Coward in the Tower” breaks new ground as the only song Neilson has composed on an instrument before recording.

Throughout the album, Neilson’s lyricism is as vivid as ever, transforming personal tragedy into poignant and often darkly humorous art. Yet, there is a sense of finality to this work. "Songwriting has encouraged me to see the whole world as a resource. The things people say and throw away can be chiselled and polished and plopped into a lyric. It’s the same with building the cabin- scouring the edges of society for pallets, discarded wood, ornaments for the garden. But while song writing brings to life orphaned parts of my personality, the cabin is a synthesis of all my interests – nurturing my emotional health instead of exploiting it. With that in mind, I think this will be my last album as Alex Rex.”

With The National Trust, Neilson closes a significant chapter of his career, blending masterful musicianship with deeply personal storytelling. Known for his collaborations with artists such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Shirley Collins, and Current 93, as well as his decade-long tenure leading the psych-folk outfit Trembling Bells, Neilson has long been celebrated for his eclectic and uncompromising vision. This final album serves as a fitting culmination of his journey as Alex Rex, capturing the essence of his artistry while offering a profound exploration of loss, renewal, and the enduring power of love.

Political thriller Je Suis Karl, produced by German director Christian Schwochow, has a strong Czech connection. The soundtrack has been created by Czech musician and composer Tomáš Dvořák, a.k.a. Floex, who joined forces with British composer and pianist Tom Hodge. The soundtrack for Je Suis Karl will be released on September 16, 2021.
"In this project, Tom and I built on music that we wrote together three years ago for the album A Portrait Of John Doe. While this was the first feature film for me, Tom has extensive experience with composing music for movies and series," commented Dvořák.
Co-produced by the Czech company Negativ and filmed in part in the Czech Republic, the movie features characters played by Czech actresses Anna Fialová and Elizaveta Maximová. The picture makes use of the story of a young German girl, Maxi, and her family to draw attention to rising extremism among right-wing nationalists. Je Suis Karl was premiered during this year's Berlinale film festival in the Berlinale Special section.
At the director's initiative, music for Je Suis Karl was composed based on the script before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Christian Schwochow asked for a demo, but when Tom and I set to work in Prague, we came up with a huge amount of inspired stuff within a short time, and the music became the foundation of the soundtrack. Because of the pandemic, the music itself was created on a long-distance basis. It was a game of ping pong of sorts," Dvořák added.
The soundtrack for Je Suis Karl features a unique timbre, far from the traditional symphonic sound. Instead, the sonic design relies on a fusion of dark, discordant, dirty sounds that present the symphony orchestra in a novel fashion.
Floex and Hodge created a database of loops, sounds, soundscapes, and sonic experiments with no specific compositional context. In composing music for individual scenes, they used this musical database, remixed themes and versions of compositions, and worked with vintage equipment, such as the Yamaha MT4X cassette player. Considering the large quantity of music recorded, the album contains 14 compositions from the movie itself, plus bonus tracks that did not make it into the film.
Tomáš Dvořák, a.k.a. Floex, is a Czech clarinetist, composer, producer, and multimedia artist, the recipient of multiple Anděl Music Awards. His discography includes two long-play records, Pocustone and Zorya, soundtracks for the games Samorost 2, Machinarium, Samorost 3, Pilgrims, and Papetura, remix albums, and extended-play records. In 2018, he joined forces with Tom Hodge to release the album A Portrait Of John Doe.
British composer, pianist, and clarinetist Tom Hodge challenges the boundaries of contemporary experimental music. He composes music for film, series, documentaries, advertising, and ballet. His most recent projects include the soundtrack for Je Suis Karl and music for the movie The Mauritanian filmed by director Kevin Macdonald. He has released several solo albums, including Piano Interrupted and Second Moon of Winter, and has pursued a long-term collaborative partnership with musician Max Cooper.

Danish bassist and composer Jesper Thorn has become one of Scandinavia s most distinctive musical voices, known for blending introspective storytelling with the understated lyricism of Nordic jazz. His award award-winning albums Boy and Dragor earned international praise for their emotional honesty and cinematic depth, establishing a sound world where fragility, melancholy, and quiet beauty intertwine. A deeply personal meditation on the search for calm, connection, and meaning in a world that often feels overwhelming, the album continues his exploration of sound as refuge, a place to pause, reflect, and breathe. Joined by long long-term collaborators Marc Méan (piano), Andreas Bernitt (violin), Cecilie Strange (saxophone), and Maj Berit Guassora (trumpet), Thorn reunites with producer Mette Damm and engineer August Wanngren to craft an atmosphere both intimate and expansive. Where 2023" s Dragor confronted the ghosts of Thorn s past, STILLE (meaning quiet " or silent " in Danish) looks outward - and inward - toward reflection. For me, music has always been a refuge, Thorn writes. It s a place where I can reflect and immerse myself - both as a listener and, maybe even more, as a composer. Each composition functions as a kind of musical still image : fragments of emotion captured in time, responding to both the chaos and fragile beauty of the modern world. From the flickering calm of Fragmentarium , to the urgent, primal fear of Run (written as wildfires swept through California) to the tender domestic peace of Stilleben , these pieces balance melancholy and hope in equal measure. Thorn s writing continues to thrive on collaboration and trust. Such is Fate emerged from a discarded melodic fragment, reimagined through the expressive playing of Bernitt on violin. Recover and Rebuild form a quiet hymn to resilience, with Guassora and Strange lending understated, breath breath-like power to the ensemble. The closing track, Shimmering (for MM) MM), is dedicated to pianist Marc Méan, a constant presence in Thorn s projects since 2014 and, as Thorn puts it, the touch and sound I hear in my head when I compose ". I wanted to create a space that feels like silence, peace and quiet in a noisy world that often moves faster than it feels possible to keep up with. says Thorn.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock is ready to reintroduce herself. After conquering the pop world with one of the biggest groups on the planet and stepping out as a solo artist, she has reached a new clarity: no more compromises, no more limits.

With the introduction of her debut album ‘My Ego Told Me To’, Leigh-Anne isn’t reinventing herself, she’s restoring the woman she always was. Bold, unapologetic and free, this album is the purest expression of her artistry to date and musically reflects every facet of Leigh-Anne Pinnock - unfiltered, independent and finally on her own terms. “Everything that has been in my heart, everything I’ve wanted to do, I’m doing now. It feels like freedom. It feels right.”

Leigh-Anne Pinnock is ready to reintroduce herself. After conquering the pop world with one of the biggest groups on the planet and stepping out as a solo artist, she has reached a new clarity: no more compromises, no more limits.

With the introduction of her debut album ‘My Ego Told Me To’, Leigh-Anne isn’t reinventing herself, she’s restoring the woman she always was. Bold, unapologetic and free, this album is the purest expression of her artistry to date and musically reflects every facet of Leigh-Anne Pinnock - unfiltered, independent and finally on her own terms. “Everything that has been in my heart, everything I’ve wanted to do, I’m doing now. It feels like freedom. It feels right.”