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'A few months after recording Us, Lancaster recorded Mother Africa along with Clint Jackson III, a trumpeter, partner of Khan Jamal or Noah Howard on other recordings.
On march 8th, 1974, Lancaster and Jackson headed up a group composed of Jean-François Catoire (electric and double bass), Keno Speller (percussion) and Jonathan Dickinson (drums). Together, they create an immediate impression. From the first seconds of We The Blessed, they develop a free jazz which rapidly abandons any virulence under the effect of blues and soul based interventions.
When Gilson’s composition Mother Africa begins, listeners are transported into the studio, listening to the musicians setting up: chatting and joking… Then comes the melody: a dozen or so notes of a repeated theme which is accelerated and deformed according to their whims… The jazz played by the association Byard Lancaster / Clint Jackson III is rare: creative AND recreational. We the blessed, is apt listening to this again today!'

Collecting Orders For 2026 Repress

It's reissue time for one of the most in demand records from the Trelik catalogue, featuring Baby Ford and Thomas Melchior under their Sunpeople alias. The flip side's opening track 'Check Your Buddah' is probably the best known of the four tracks here, with its spacious echoes, mantra-like voices and heads down beats, but there's plenty to be said for the other three. 'Lovers Eyes' is an equally dubby techno affair, but pinned down by sturdy, infectious beats, 'Sungods Wedding' is blessed with churning, warm bass action and just a smidge of cowbell and 'Make It Right' is properly hypnotic 3am gear that's a dream to mix and draws in the listener with its imperceptible builds and three note bleep magic. Worship the Sun!

Naive Melodies is a bold and visionary tribute to the music of Talking Heads, reinterpreted through the lens of Black musical innovation. Curated by Drew McFadden — the creative mind behind BBE’s acclaimed Modern Love (David Bowie tribute album) — this new collection dives deep into the Afro-diasporic rhythms and experimental soul roots that helped shape Talking Heads’ unmistakable New Wave sound. Inspired by artists like Fela Kuti, Parliament, and Al Green — whose influences loomed large in the band’s rhythmic DNA — Naive Melodies shines a light on the Black music traditions that underpinned their artistry. Far from a conventional tribute, Naive Melodies reframes the band’s catalog through the voices and visions of a new generation of genre-defying artists. These interpretations illuminate the foundational grooves and sonic textures that fueled Talking Heads’ rhythm-forward aesthetic, bringing them full circle with authenticity. “With Naive Melodies, I wanted to spotlight the deep and often overlooked influence of Black music on the sound of Talking Heads, drawing from the rhythmic foundations of Afro-diasporic traditions, soul, gospel, Latin, and spiritual jazz. This project is a chance to reimagine Talking Heads’ legacy through the lens of the very innovations that helped shape it, bringing those influences to the forefront through the voices of today’s most forward-thinking artists.” — Drew McFadden The album features a globally minded lineup, including Liv.e, Bilal, Rogê, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Aja Monet, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Theo Croker, Kenny Dope, Rosie Lowe, Pachyman, W.I.T.C.H., and more — spanning Afrobeat, jazz, soul, funk, gospel, dub, electronica, orchestral, and Latin styles. It reflects not only the boundary-pushing ethos of Talking Heads, but also the influence of Black music as a cultural force that helped shape it. This is not just a tribute album — it’s a recontextualization. A cultural conversation. A rhythmic reawakening.

Longtime friend of the label Eraserhead returns after over a decade away from producing music due to his surreal MS Paint work as 'Jim'll Paint It' becoming an unexpected cultural phenomenon. With his debut full-length, 'Violence', Eraserhead presents a truly eclectic electronic LP featuring collaborations with established producers such as Om Unit, Enduser, and Brain Rays, as well as the vocal talents of Nadia Rose, Beans (of Antipop Consortium), and Cadence Weapon. An album held together by theme and tone rather than style or tempo, 'Violence' is the culmination of a bitter wave of inspiration, initially conceived in the wake of a personal tragedy that quickly grew into a broader polemic about the state of the world.

Originally linking up with Love Love in its breakcore netlabel infancy with his refined, breaks-heavy breakcore/gabba, Eraserhead's flair for tight, intricate productions was evident in his finely tuned tracks of controlled chaos. This time around, his work is a darker, more expansive evolution of his sound, with the scale upsized and the stylistic scope massively broadened, remaining unfaithful to any single genre, but with firm nods to Breakcore, Grime, Drum & Bass, Techno, Rave, Dubstep, and Footwork, all chewed up with a hard industrial edge and cinematically framed by a backdrop of apocalyptic synths.

Opening with the cold tech-noir of 'Shining Brainless Beacon' to set the tone, the album quickly locks in with the blistering spoken-word headrush of 'Hurricane With Teeth' alongside rapper Beans, before Om Unit lends his expertise on the sharp groove and clinical bass blasts of 'Operation Hardtack'. The album shifts and morphs constantly throughout the runtime, moving from the raw and urgent acid techno of 'Crowd Control' to the crunching military march of the Gore Tech collaboration 'No More Worlds' and the tribal sci-fi footwork of the Brain Rays collaboration 'Night Visions'. 'Monolith' provides a final burst of catharsis, channelling Underworld by way of Nine Inch Nails, complete with writhing screams from Amée Chanter of sludge-punk-noise-rock duo Human Leather, before the heart of the album is laid bare with the painfully bleak closing dirge of 'Animal'. In its final moments, 'Violence' leaves the listener suspended between devastation and awe - an unflinching portrait of an uncaring world.

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.

As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes.

The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process.

Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever.

The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before.


‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms.

Tigercub are a UK alternative rock trio known for their dark, cinematic sound that blends heavy riffs with melodic depth. Fusing elements of grunge, alt-rock, and post-punk, the band delivers emotionally charged songwriting and powerful live performances. Praised for their balance of aggression and atmosphere, Tigercub have toured with acts like Royal Blood, Chevelle, and Highly Suspect, cementing their reputation as one of the most dynamic bands in modern rock.

Xylitol, aka producer and DJ Catherine Backhouse, shifts up the refinement and musical breadth for her second album Blumenfantasie, the follow-up to her Planet Mu debut Anemones.
With Blumenfantasie, Xylitol wanted “to make space and for the music to float and propel at once”, finding routes through the pointillistic figures, cascading synths and the meditative stillness of kosmische musik and bolder breakbeat programming. She reaches this delicate balance through careful subtraction, hoping “to convey a sense of intimacy and sadness but without sentimentality” which she manages with a feel and sound that's raw and intuitive.

Blumenfantasie rolls through detailed jungle workouts that flutter and bleep, through beatless ambience, taking a rare dip below 160 bpm for the elegiac Mirjana, the album’s most explicit nod to Krautrock with a drum break chopped up from Amon Duul II’s anthemic ‘Archangel’s Thunderbird’, through to Halo, a bare bones grime rhythm that calls to mind the missing link between industrial pioneers Nurse With Wound and Wiley's Eskibeat.

Catherine cast her net to draw in experimental audiovisual duo Sculpture and Reading based post-rock band The Leaf Library as collaborators, pulling the former’s whirling eddies of musique concrète into a slice of sublime aquatic jungle, and the latter’s radiophonic folksong into a dark and disorientating breakbeat workout equally indebted to Source Direct as to Broadcast.
Blumenfantasie moves with a confident, self-effacing fluidity which has been informed by DJ Bunnyhausen’s more regular DJ gigs. She speculates ‘if this album feels more cohesive than its predecessor it's likely because I've been DJing a lot more, with Worthing Techno Militia, with central and eastern european electronica collective Slav to the Rhythm, as well as being part of Italo Disco crew Flex. Moving between these zones seemed to open up hidden pathways between the disparate musical trajectories they represent.'
While Anemones contrasted the rough and the delicate, its successor is an album built for the head, hips and heart, with painterly sounds and a sense of intimacy that encourages deep listening while keeping its eyes on the strobelight and its feet on the dancefloor.

Longtime friend of the label Eraserhead returns after over a decade away from producing music due to his surreal MS Paint work as 'Jim'll Paint It' becoming an unexpected cultural phenomenon. With his debut full-length, 'Violence', Eraserhead presents a truly eclectic electronic LP featuring collaborations with established producers such as Om Unit, Enduser, and Brain Rays, as well as the vocal talents of Nadia Rose, Beans (of Antipop Consortium), and Cadence Weapon. An album held together by theme and tone rather than style or tempo, 'Violence' is the culmination of a bitter wave of inspiration, initially conceived in the wake of a personal tragedy that quickly grew into a broader polemic about the state of the world.

Originally linking up with Love Love in its breakcore netlabel infancy with his refined, breaks-heavy breakcore/gabba, Eraserhead's flair for tight, intricate productions was evident in his finely tuned tracks of controlled chaos. This time around, his work is a darker, more expansive evolution of his sound, with the scale upsized and the stylistic scope massively broadened, remaining unfaithful to any single genre, but with firm nods to Breakcore, Grime, Drum & Bass, Techno, Rave, Dubstep, and Footwork, all chewed up with a hard industrial edge and cinematically framed by a backdrop of apocalyptic synths.

Opening with the cold tech-noir of 'Shining Brainless Beacon' to set the tone, the album quickly locks in with the blistering spoken-word headrush of 'Hurricane With Teeth' alongside rapper Beans, before Om Unit lends his expertise on the sharp groove and clinical bass blasts of 'Operation Hardtack'. The album shifts and morphs constantly throughout the runtime, moving from the raw and urgent acid techno of 'Crowd Control' to the crunching military march of the Gore Tech collaboration 'No More Worlds' and the tribal sci-fi footwork of the Brain Rays collaboration 'Night Visions'. 'Monolith' provides a final burst of catharsis, channelling Underworld by way of Nine Inch Nails, complete with writhing screams from Amée Chanter of sludge-punk-noise-rock duo Human Leather, before the heart of the album is laid bare with the painfully bleak closing dirge of 'Animal'. In its final moments, 'Violence' leaves the listener suspended between devastation and awe - an unflinching portrait of an uncaring world.

From his roots in House, Alex Finkin is a renowned producer and creative director. Working in his Paris studio he has developed numerous projects, notably his own (Roseaux), as well as commissions for radio and television. Meanwhile, with 30 years of production and DJing under his belt, Rocco Rodamaal belongs to the elite circle of House innovators who continue to influence the scene. He's played alongside some of the best in the industry showcasing his versatility and deep understanding of the genre, and remixed artists including Marshall Jefferson, Kerri Chandler, Louie Vega & Moodymann, Todd Terry, Barbara Tucker and Robert Owens to name just a few. Alex Finkin befriended Rocco Rodamaal, who he met via the soulful Parisian club Djoon, where Alex was resident from 2006 to 2014. They have since collaborated on a number of projects together, including "In Da Hood" released on COD3 QR in 2023. Kenny Dope's "O'Gutta" remixes are a series of house and club-focused reworks characterized by raw, gritty and often stripped-back percussion, which he now brings to "In Da Hood".

Ross McMillan, known professionally as Carlos Nilmmns, is a Scottish electronic music producer, DJ and composer originally from Glasgow. Over the years he has collaborated with a range of notable artists, including Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning figures, including Kenny Dope, Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson and Davina Bussey, plus respected artists like Niko Marks, Rolando, Laurent Garnier, Santiago Salazar, Hardrock Striker, Karl The Voice, Zadig, Ben Sims, Andrés (who worked with Jay Dilla and Moodymann), and YouANDme. His music has been released on Planet E, Trax, Cocoon, Ornaments, Circus, Virgin, Skylax/Universal Music France and more. His style draws from house, techno and jazz influences, often combining analogue and digital production methods. A returning regular and COD3 QR favourite, he's back with another stunner in "Latin Quarter".

K' Alexi Shelby is a prominent figure in electronic music and with a career spanning decades, he's established a significant influence on House and Techno. Throughout his career he's worked with many well-known artists and remixed tracks that are now key pieces. The cultivation of his massive musical catalogue has overflowed into albums and the three labels he heads. It's also led to legendary collaborations with artists such as The Pet Shop Boys, Robert Owens, Kenny Dixon, Roy Davis Jr., Maurice Joshua, Terry Hunter, Joe Smooth, Steve Silke Hurley, Tyree Cooper, Ron Trent, Glenn Underground, Larry Heard, DJ Pierre, Carl Craig, Felix da Housecat, Marshall Jefferson, Will Smith and countless others. Already respected around the world as a true underground House legend, he delivered "Flame" in 2025 for COD3 QR. Now he's back with "When I", another deep and sexy cut.

Benny Rodrigues a.k.a. ROD unveiled his new moniker, The Lost Souldancer when he dropped "No More Voices" for COD3 QR last year. In his own words, Benny says: "The Lost Souldancer is about coping with the loss of what once was. Finding comfort in the invisible rather than what can be seen. Disconnect to connect in order to be loved rather than liked." He continues this ethos with the delicate and melodic closing track "Life and Death".

In his 1954 book The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley theorized that every person lives and experiences life on their own island universe. We can try to explain our experience to others using language, symbols, and art, but we'll never be sure that we're feeling something precisely the same as anyone else. This line of thinking has become a source of inspiration for many prolific artists. Now, Cincinnati-based producer Jason Grimez is inviting us to hear what it sounds like on an island of his own creation. The Island of Dr. Bionic is the third installment in Dr. Bionic's Terrestrial Radio series. Due out 5/2/2025 on Chiefdom Records, it's a collection of instrumental fusion for fans of hip-hop, jazz, funk, and beyond. Grimez is the producer, mixer, and mastermind behind Dr. Bionic. He's a Cincinnati-based creator with a deep understanding of 90s hip-hop and DJ culture, and he draws inspiration from music of all kinds. Grimez' ever-growing catalog is best described as organic groove. He calls on a rotating cast of veteran musicians to join him at his home studio to write, record, and try out new ideas. Long-time listeners will find some familiar names in the liner notes, for good reason. 'Life Span' (track 14) features a head-bobbing beat from Marvin Hawkins. Nick Brown is responsible for the dreamy Rhodes performance on 'Shell Of The Soul' (track 11). If Charlie Suit's unforgettable sax performance on 'The Path Of Stars' (track 16) is stuck in your head for more than 3 days, please consult Dr. Bionic. Once the recording sessions are complete, the real production work begins. "We get together and record a ton of stuff, and then I'll go back and cut it and mix it together," Grimez explained. "It all finds a home over time."

PET NEEDS return with their fourth studio album ‘ELBOWS OUT! THIS IS CAPITALISM’ to be released on Xtra Mile Recordings on 27th March 2026. Recorded by George Perks (Enter Shikari, You Me At Six, Mogwai, Skindred) it follows the release of their Top 20 album ‘Intermittent Fast Living’ in February 2024. The album charts the exploits of the band buying a second-hand punk rock career at auction and trying (and failing) to make it work.

Over the course of the genre-spanning 12 tracks, the story unfolds with a mix of frenetic punk rock defiance; reflective melodic introspective and beat heavy party anthems as well as guest appearance by CJ Ramone, legendary auctioneer Eric Olson and friends The Whops and Jess Guise who help the story develop. The album is a satirical look at the pitfalls of trying to make it as a DIY punk band, delivered by a band at their most creative and bold as they continue on their own ascension of success.

PET NEEDS are a punk fuelled melodic rock fourpiece from Colchester who have toured the world since they signed with Xtra Mile in 2020. Their past three albums have helped catapult the band to the rising stars they are today. They regularly headline tours in UK, Europe and in America as well as huge support tours with Laura Jane Grace, Art Brut, Frank Turner, Flogging Molly, Skinny Lister, Bouncing Souls, NOFX, The Hives. The Lottery Winners, Spike & The Gimmie Gimmies and The Levellers. In the lead up to the album release the band will tour the UK’s regional towns giving fans exclusive listens to some of the new songs. And throughout week of release will perform instores and outstores to push for a high chart position.

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present MIDYRASI’S KULT’s highly anticipated debut album, Italian Dark Sound, on CD and vinyl LP formats. MIDRYASI'S KULT are revolutionary and uncompromised. Featuring veterans from such Italian doom stalwarts as Doomsword, Midryasi, Agarthi, and Fiurach, their unique blend of elements from the NWOBHM, doom metal, and early black metal – all fused in their distinctive national dark-sound tradition, which includes such cult legends as Black Hole and Death SS – results in an obscure, hypnotic, and exciting formula. In March 2025, after just one week on Bandcamp, MIDYRASI’S KULT were intercepted by Caligari Records, who released on cassette their debut demo, Mountain Devil. Featuring three songs in a concise 15 minutes, this demo reaped international acclaim for its originality and attitude. But that was but a foretaste of darker delights to come. Witness the first full-length of MIDRYASI’S KULT, Italian Dark Sound.

Truly titled, Italian Dark Sound is an intoxicating spelunk into catacombs both idiosyncratic and indefinable. Totaling 32 time-/mind-expanding minutes, the eight primary tracks here – the outro is titled “The Lost Son of Sylvester Anfang,” which should offer an obvious clue to the black-metal-minded out there – each offer something different from the next, and yet all add up into a shadowy experience that’s both rocking and atmospheric. In fact, if one were to single out an aspect between the demo and album, it’s that MIDYRASI’S KULT exude more energy on this full-length without sacrificing any of their occult aura. But, just like that demo, Italian Dark Sound features supremely pro production – gritty, earthy, and yet kaleidoscopic in texture – under the guidance of Gabry "The Way" Strada, head of RDF Studio and who’s now collaborating on the upcoming Doomsword new album. In the vein of an open artistic project, all the artwork is made by vocalist / bassist Geilt himself, and up to 11 musicians have been involved in these recordings

After that album, in addition to an intense schedule of headlining shows, she was invited to support prestigious artists such as experimental folk paladins Heilung and the historic gothic rock band The Cult on their extensive tours across Europe and the United Kingdom. It was during her performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as part of the tour with Heilung and Eivor, that the album "Live in London" (2024) was recorded -- a testament to her overwhelming performative power, a cathartic ritual capable of transcending genres and styles.

Blending folk metal, dark ambient, pagan ritual, psychedelia and operatic elements, and entirely composed, performed and sung by Lili Refrain, "Nagalite" combines in its title two words: "Naga," from Sanskrit, meaning "serpent," bearer of ancient knowledge; and "Lite," from the Greek lithos, "stone," something that endures beyond space and time, embodying earth, world and family. From this fusion emerges a symbolic being -- a stone- serpent -- the living body of metamorphosis, emblem of an imaginary transformation through four serpentine alchemical states, the four tracks that make up the suite. It is a sonic reflection on an era marked by war and horror, in which the artist traces a possibility of resilience and new life.

After that album, in addition to an intense schedule of headlining shows, she was invited to support prestigious artists such as experimental folk paladins Heilung and the historic gothic rock band The Cult on their extensive tours across Europe and the United Kingdom. It was during her performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as part of the tour with Heilung and Eivor, that the album "Live in London" (2024) was recorded -- a testament to her overwhelming performative power, a cathartic ritual capable of transcending genres and styles.

Blending folk metal, dark ambient, pagan ritual, psychedelia and operatic elements, and entirely composed, performed and sung by Lili Refrain, "Nagalite" combines in its title two words: "Naga," from Sanskrit, meaning "serpent," bearer of ancient knowledge; and "Lite," from the Greek lithos, "stone," something that endures beyond space and time, embodying earth, world and family. From this fusion emerges a symbolic being -- a stone- serpent -- the living body of metamorphosis, emblem of an imaginary transformation through four serpentine alchemical states, the four tracks that make up the suite. It is a sonic reflection on an era marked by war and horror, in which the artist traces a possibility of resilience and new life.

Undun is the story of a man, Redford Stevens, dying in reverse, rewinding from the moment he became a statistic and hitting the points in his life where he's at his most self-aware. That he's a criminal who got caught up in the familiar street-hustle trappings that the modern media's documented countless times is a pivotal detail-- it's hit at an angle that seems to emphasize the futile inevitability of it all. His life could be any number of misdirected narratives that ends with a toe tag, and what details listeners learn about him are hazy, buried under archetypal turns of fate and decisive struggles. That this protagonist is a fictionalized composite of a handful of real people, filtered through a matter-of-fact narrative that splits character ambivalence with journalistic impartiality, only makes his lack of direction and the failure of any real closure stand out even more. "Lotta niggas go to prison," Dice Raw states on "Tip the Scale", "how many come out Malcolm X?"

So the Roots' latest album isn't a sprawling, rise-and-fall crime story, not a condemnation or a veneration of a man living outside the law, not a bullet-riddled grand guignol heavy on explicit details of soldiers getting cut down. It's a character study of a man whose existential crisis ends only with his death-- a death gone largely unspecified, the glamor and tragedy washed over with a doomed resignation. That's a hard thing to pull off, even for a band as given to deep-thinking concepts as the Roots are. And when your main lyrical catalyst is Black Thought-- a man more given to allusions than direct statements-- it's likely that it'll take a while for the full scope of Undun to really sink in.

If and when it does, it might strike listeners as a bit skeletal: omit the mood-setting instrumental bookends, including a brief, four-part orchestral suite that builds off Sufjan Stevens' "Redford (For Yia-Yia and Pappou)", and you've got maybe a half hour's worth of material. By ?uestlove's accounts, writing Redford's story introduced the headaches and challenges that come with scriptwriting into their songwriting, and what's left on Undun is the end result of frequent revisions and rewrites that attempt to reconcile character, theme, and continuity. If it comes at the expense of nuance, it's not always obvious: There's an easy-to-trace narrative line from Redford's acceptance of his fate ("Sleep") to his acknowledgement of how close it's approaching ("Make My"), back through declarations of aggravated toughness ("One Time"), and celebratory fatalism ("Kool On"), along ups and downs that juxtapose motivation ("Stomp") and helplessness ("Lighthouse"). When the vocal portion of the album ends with two of the bleakest sets of verses in the Roots discography, peaking with the estrangement of "I Remember" and the desperation of "Tip the Scale", Undun reveals itself as a story where a man's actual death isn't quite as tragic as the circumstances that pushed him to it.

Solo 500 delivers another irresistible donut that takes the form of this 2-sided celebration of afro-latin & jazz-funk classics. GSC dusts off 2 deep catalog selections here — & part of the appeal is that neither side is a played-out sample cliché. This one is for heads who already burned through the obvious joints.

Side A digs into Manu Dibango beyond the endlessly flipped “Soul Makossa” universe. “The Panther”, from the 1973 album “Africadelic”, isn’t one of his commonly sampled tracks — & that’s exactly why it hits so hard. Low-slung Afro-funk, stalking bass & suspense-building horns that feel like a break record even if they haven’t been rinsed by every golden-era producer. Selectors who chase texture over recognition will understand the power here immediately. It’s the kind of cut hip-hop heads love not because they’ve heard it before — but because they haven’t.

Side B moves into Latin jazz-funk royalty. Ray Barretto is one of the most sampled percussionists of all time, but “Together” (from the 1969 album of the same name) sits slightly off the obvious break-beat path. Instead of a clean, isolated drum loop, you get rolling congas, warm keys & a communal groove that’s been DJ-tested far more than it’s been sampled. This is the type of Barretto cut that crate-diggers pull when they want rhythm to breathe — bridging jazz floors, disco-leaning sets & hip-hop selectors who think like musicians, not beat miners.

As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.

FUMU christens the promising new label Return To Zero (RTZ) with »Funeral Rites on Planet Saturn«, the surrendering sophomore album from Nigerian artist, self-described »negro-producer«, hedonist, and iconoclast LINTD. With production collaboration from Porter Brook and features from Samrai (Swing Ting), Porter Brook, Sam Scott Francis (GOMID), Rizmi, and Imani Jendai.

LINTD’s work emerges as a call and response between the tender, dynamic sounds of Black music across history and the surreal reality of contemporary, vulnerable Black life – a haunting dialogue. These themes are catalysed in the Black Impossible LP Trilogy, reclaiming Black utopia through sound technologies via »Smooch Soundsystem Live at The White Hotel« for Second Born (Kop-Z, Porter Brook), and »DOGTOOTH. And Other Such Tales of the Macabre« on The White Hotel’s HEAD II outlet.

While earlier works engaged with the mania, joy, and paranoia of this impossible experience, »Funeral Rites on Planet Saturn« arrives at a soulful conclusion, allowing grief to tell a truer story. In the vein of Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, and Octavia Butler, LINTD introduces the speculative planet Saturn as a site where impossible Black being across the world can come and rest: a site for liberation and emancipation.

»This one is an act of care towards myself, and hopefully others like me. I have proven everything I want to prove this year; this one is my elixir from all the lonely grief, a place of rest.«

BONGO FURY wird 50! Die klassische Zusammenarbeit zwischen Frank Zappa und Captain Beefheart
im Mai 1975 führte zu einer Flut neuer Kompositionen, einer Tournee und schließlich zu einem Album.
Bongo Fury besteht hauptsächlich aus Live-Aufnahmen aus dem Armadillo Headquarters in Austin, Texas,
sowie einigen Studioaufnahmen aus dem The Record Plant in Los Angeles. Das Album ist eine denkwürdige
Ergänzung des Zappa-Katalogs und das letzte, auf dem der Bandname „Mothers“ zu hören ist, bevor dieser
1976 aufgegeben wurde.