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Die BRIT Rising Star Gewinnerin 2022 Holly hat sich in kürzester Zeit als eine der ehrlichsten Stimmen
ihrer Generation etabliert. Nach nur zwei EPs, einer Ivor-Novello-Nominierung für „Haunted House“ und
ihrem von Kritikern gefeierten Debütalbum „Paint My Bedroom Black“ (Platz 3 der Charts, 2023), meldet
sie sich mit einem neuen Album „Cruel World“ zurück und widmet sich den stillen Turbulenzen des jungen
Erwachsenenalters.
Inspiriert von romantischer, platonischer und weiblicher Liebe thematisiert Holly Solidarität, Selbstfindung
und das Aufbrechen erlernter Konkurrenz zwischen Frauen – geprägt von einem Aufwachsen unter starken
weiblichen Vorbildern

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.

Chris Acker’s latest collection of songs, Famous Lunch, is in his words, a “growing pains album.” When writing the record, the New Orleans' based folk musician found himself hunting for a voice that wasn’t just an imitation of the one he’d been using on the last 30 songs he’d made. “At the same time, I worked hard to find a certain voice for myself over the previous 3 records and I didn’t want to abandon that.”

While the album finds him continuing to transcribe life’s fleeting and provocative banalities with refreshing grace, the songs on Famous Lunch are intentionally more absurd, stylizing his lyricism as both poetic and disarming simultaneously— commencing with “Sh*t Surprise”—an earworm with a vernacular that stays true to its title. Inspired by George Saunders and Sasha Pearl (and wanting to make a song that sounds like Eagles saying the word “sh*t” over and over), “Sh*t Surprise” is the most Chris Acker song possible, in that its earnestness arrives in spades and comes varnished with a one-of-a-kind, spectacular gnarliness. “We’d match our breath in the upstairs room and we’d hold together ‘til I smelled like you,” Acker sings, before nose-diving into that unforgettable chorus about stepping in a smelly, disgusting pile of sh*t.

More than anything else, Famous Lunch finds Chris Acker at his most sentimental and grateful, as he sings about Bunn coffee machines, gas pumps smelling like “the underside of a fingernail” in August, “10-inching” bread, stealing country club lawn-mower motors, father-son fables, impatient buffet lines, and a broom that “hasn’t been used since the last time I used it.” Acker’s eye for detail remains, and his lexicon includes phrasings that spin out like a hypnotic wash cycle. Seeing the world through his eyes, language remains something worth falling into—growing pains and all.

Salix is a bold new departure for modular synthesist Loula Yorke, seen here using an antique reed organ to explore the ancient roots of willow trees in magic, myth and medicine, as well as inviting another musician into her recording studio for the first time, clarinettist Charlotte Jolly.

The EP forms a sonic archive of a singular instrument: an antique free reed organ left behind by a previous encumbent of Asylum Studios, (the artists' co-operative in Suffolk where Yorke's Truxalis labelmate and life collaborator, Seiche, has a studio space). The organ is in poor condition and fascinatingly, painfully detuned. Yorke's recordings bring out its host of unusual quirks exacerbated by age and neglect: the powerful rhythmic creaking of the wooden treadles; the bone-shaking resonance emanating from its body at specific pitches; unexpected exclamations of harmonic collision from within the carcass redolent of a human voice; the piercing, shrieking whistles of broken reeds, and the powerful timbres unlocked via Yorke's experiments with various combinations of stops.

The three tracks that form Salix are inspired by a local weeping willow tree, a constant companion photographed over the course of a year. Boughs caught in a gyre. A maiden in mourning. Branches that gesture in the wrong direction. A tree turned upside down. A hand-woven willow basket, an old technology to gather and store. The journey of a lovelorn bard through the underworld, a bundle of willow under one arm for protection.

For the opening track, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Yorke recorded herself playing a simple unaccompanied improvisation on the organ, the only ornamentation being the processed sounds of the keys being struck and returning to their positions.

For Bundle of Styx, a spell of protection is cast and then broken. Yorke invited virtuoso clarinettist Charlotte Jolly into the studio to test combining the breathy textures of both brass and natural reeds, the instruments uniting and obsuring each other in turn during this one-take improvisation. The organ's unpredictable sharpened tunings take centre stage here, with Jolly using them as a point of departure to conjure a set of peerless harmonic improvisations live in the moment. Throughout the improvisation, Yorke, a self-taught musician, unpracticed on the organ, supports and challenges, freely admitting that she's not always sure what effect her decisions to move up and down the keyboard or pull out certain stops will have. Jolly's genius lies in her ability to meet and build on every uncertain pitch thrown her way, saying of the experience, "I love that Loula isn't classically trained, I can't predict at all what she's about to do."

For the final track, With the Red Dawn, Yorke has come up with another unique combination of textures, this time bringing her own specialism in modular synthesis to the fore. A ten-minute reed organ drone characterised with ever-shifting bass swells and overtones is layered with tuned sines, often shudderingly wave-folded, that ebb and flow both in intensity and harmonic colour according to the duty cycles of eight interrelated LFOs. These recordings are collaged with Yorke's singing voice and a langorous, ascending sequence across two octaves on Jolly's clarinet, all arranged to form a cohesive whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Smatterings of untuned percussion and a fragment of a conversation between the duo left in the final mix cements Yorke's unprecious DIY aesthetic into the release.

At its heart, Salix is like watching the wind in the willows; hundreds of thousands of identical tiny leaves moving in confluence on its branches; at once one thing and many things; moment-to-moment our perception makes out different individuals parts within this expanse of texture, before sinking back into the whole.

1 Umbrella represents a watershed moment for modern Bay Area hip-hop, effectively serving as the region’s "Avengers" assembly designed to consolidate the Northern California sound. For years, the local scene has been bisected by the distinct "mob music" bounce of Oakland and the melodic, trauma-drenched "pain music" of San Francisco; this collective is the first major commercial force to deliberately fuse these competing energies into a single, dominant infrastructure. The roster is a calculated cross-Bay alliance that balances opposing sonic weights: Lil Bean and Lil Yee anchor the group with the emotive, auto-tune-heavy melodies that define the current SF landscape, while Zaybang cuts through that introspection with his signature high-octane aggression.

Balancing the scales are ALLBLACK and 22nd Jim, who inject the classic East Bay attitude—ALLBLACK delivering the motivational, sports-heavy "player" lineage of the region, contrasted against Jim’s nonchalant, rhythmic flow. Backed by the powerhouse infrastructure of EMPIRE and united under tracks like "Baller Blockin" and the unification anthem "The Blueprint," the group is attempting to solve the fragmentation that has historically plagued the Bay’s independent market. By synchronizing their movement with the arrival of Super Bowl LX, 1 Umbrella is positioning itself not merely as a rap group, but as the official cultural ambassadors for the region, betting that a unified front can finally command the national spotlight that often eludes the West Coast’s independent giants.

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.

Embrace The Abandon is the new project by THE MON, the solo vision of Urlo, vocalist, bassist, and founding member of the Italian heavy-psych veterans Ufomammut.
Structured in two complementary chapters - Songs of Abandon (November 7th, 2025) and Songs of Embrace (March 6th, 2026) - the project tells a journey of duality: loss and surrender on one side, acceptance and rebirth on the other.
“
Songs Of Embrace” is the second chapter of “Embrace The Abandon”, expanding its emotional landscape rather than closing it.
Where the first part explored abandonment and loss, “Songs Of Embrace” focuses on presence, proximity, and the physical act of staying.
It is the answering breath, the inner voice.

The album avoids resolution and comfort, embracing slowness, repetition, and bodily tension.
It is not just music, it is a stream of consciousness, an inner search, a way of inhabiting what weighs without letting go.
While “Songs Of Abandon” is a collection of songs, nine tracks written in nine days, Songs Of Embrace is a continuous musical flow.
It is a movement that changes, grows, erupts, slows down, settles, and rises again.

It feels like the sea: calm and still one moment, then moved by a simple breath of wind, suddenly breaking into a storm.
“Songs Of Embrace” was conceived more like a ritual, a work of classical music, a suite.

Different parts unfolding one into the next, each a continuation of the previous one, finding meaning only as a whole.
The pieces are deeply interconnected, like embraces: some bring comfort, others carry pain.
These are compositions meant to be listened to in one continuous breath, allowing yourself to be held, rocked, and sometimes pushed away, just like in an embrace.

There’s an alternate reality where everyone makes a living wage and the cleanest buses you’ve ever seen arrive every other minute. Where the most intense songs are about confessing your love to a crush at the apple orchard, and where gentle feelings and chaotic energy are inseparable best friends. This is the timeline where Cootie Catcher is right at home. This Toronto based four-piece exudes both vulnerability and unbridled excitement, creating a sound that hypercharges the open-hearted tenderness of twee pop with spiraling synths and giddy electronics. New album Something We All Got is the clearest and most vibrant reading of Cootie Catcher’s vision yet, with songs of sweetness, nervousness, and expectancy that beam out unguarded.
After releasing music made primarily in basement recording environments, Something We All Got is the band’s first flirtation with studio recording. The edges are still sharp, however, with some parts assembled from time-honored lo-fi methods and fun, personally-sourced samples seeping into the production. The sound is explosive and upbeat, with euphoric guitars, bubbly synth lines, speedy drums both played and programmed, and all other manner of sound constantly colliding. Cootie Catcher has three songwriters, Sophia Chavez, Anita Fowl, and Nolan Jakupovski, all of whom have distinctive voices but still manage to overlap in their writing on shared concerns like navigating the lines of romantic and platonic relationships, their city’s social scenes, and struggles in both the microcosmic experience of playing in a band and the zoomed-out challenges of living through late-stage capitalism.
Joy still touches every surface of Something We All Got. “Quarter Note Rock” bounces around the room in a fit of jangling guitar chords, scratched samples, and interplay between breakbeat loops and somersaulting live drums. It’s a blast of positivity even with lyrics about how disappointing it can be to meet your heroes. A smiling electro pop instrumental supports lyrics about having to step painfully away from an almost realized love on “Gingham Dress,” a song that subverts themes of domesticity as a backdrop for the dashed wilt of hopeless devotion.
Cootie Catcher rolls down hills and jumps through flaming hoops throughout Something We All Got without ever dumbing down the visceral emotions that drive these songs. There’s a palpable tension between the band’s exhilarating sonics and the raw, often uneasy sentiments expressed, but it’s an integral part of what makes them unique. Rather than hide behind the kind of calculated vagueness that plagues so much of the indie rock landscape in the time of cursed algorithms, Cootie Catcher runs full-speed toward every confusion and excitement, fearlessly direct and embracing the reality they’re in.

Talulah’s Tape is the debut offering from magnetic Midwest-jangle collective Good Flying Birds. Across a patchwork mixtape of stripped-down home recordings that span the independent-guitar spectrum, the band delivers colorful, intricate pop songs perched between the immediacy of DIY punk and the intimate sweetness of twee. Breakbeats, memes, and noise glue everything together, making the album feel as chronically online as it is timeless.

Originally released on cassette in January 2025 by Midwest-punk legend Martin Meyers’s Rotten Apple label, the tape sold more than 300 copies in under a month and quickly became an out-of-print and coveted item. Meyers called it “certified catnip for popheads.” Now, with a refined track list and a fresh master from Greg Obis, Talulah’s Tape returns on LP and CD via Carpark and Smoking Room in October 2025.

While production and approach vary, a through-line of sensitive self-contemplation rests on bright, scrappy guitars and hyperactive melodic bass. Opener “Down on Me” rides a buoyant bass line while jangling guitars frame reflections on overcoming trauma: “I see you in the mirror every time I cry / I hear your voice every time I try.” Next, the guitars trade twinkling counter-melodies on “I Care for You,” pairing sugary, lovestruck lyrics with effervescent strums: “You catch me when I fall / You build me up so tall.”

The rosy grin occasionally twists into a wicked smirk. “Dynamic” warns, “You used to paint the face, but now you’re just the clown,” while “Glass” asks, “Is it lonely at the top when everyone follows the trend, and you hold the pen?” Both tracks brim with sparkling guitar interplay. By the closing, nearly five-minute “Last Straw,” Good Flying Birds stand far beyond conventional indie-pop or 4-track punk, unveiling a roller-coaster of unpredictable changes, vocal harmonies, and instrumental cross-talk.

Altogether, Talulah’s Tape is a pastel-yellow, candy-coated shell filled with thoughtful juxtapositions and melodic experiments. Standing on the same ground as idiosyncratic songwriters like Connie Converse and Daniel Johnston, Good Flying Birds find sweetness in sadness, tear stains on a colorful flower-print couch. Simultaneously, it’s packed with the scratchy guitars and vibrant rhythms of Scottish guitar groups like The Pastels, Orange Juice, and Josef K. It’s a tremendous opening statement from a band just getting started.

Welcome to the world of Edward Blankman, a retired dentist who wrote elegant, minimalist jazz in obscurity circa 1970. At least that’s the story.

In truth, Edward Blankman’s Cape Cod Cottage is the 2021 concept album from Echo Park composer Brendan Eder.

A tender, wistful follow up to 2020’s To Mix With Time, the Cape Cod Cottage sound evokes the spirit of Erik Satie, Miles Davis with Gil Evans, and Stevie Wonder, balanced with the accessibility of 1960s lounge-exotica. Eder’s characteristic arrangements are crafted to reflect the past, without losing the innovative quality of his modern ear.

Eder created Blankman’s story to channel his own grief, with bittersweet tenderness. Read the liner notes, and you’ll be transported to the quiet shores of Cape Cod, where a lonely retiree mourns his late wife, Natalie, with walks in nature and evenings at his Wurlitzer.

The story is brought to life with a meticulously crafted package sporting classic liner notes, faux 1970s photographs documenting Edward with the musicians (taken during the actual session), a make-believe jazz label, and a commissioned oil painting of Edward’s cottage. Eder spent over a year rendering the compositions and charts according to his vision.

Eder brought together a dream line up with a ton of chemistry for the project; drummer Christian Euman (Jacob Collier), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, Leon Bridges), and bassist Alex Boneham (Billy Childs), who all studied together at the Hancock Institute of Jazz. Rounding out the group is flutist Sarah Robinson, a recurring player in Eder’s ensemble, and Edward Blankman (Brendan) on the Wurlitzer.

The cast was booked for a single date with coveted engineer Michael Harris (Kamasi Washington, Angel Olsen, Fleet Foxes) at famed Electro-Vox Recording Studios. To create realism for Edward’s story, the charts were purposefully withheld from the musicians until they arrived at the studio. The result is an authentic and natural performance delivered by players at the top of their game, captured on pristine vintage equipment including the legendary Neve-8028 console.

Specs: Wrapped in shrink, DL code, insert with liner notes

"Music in DNA" is an album recorded in the early 1980s in New York City by Yasuhito Ohno, a young Japanese man breaking free from the constraints of his homeland. The album is a naive burst of outsider DIY enthusiasm, inspired by the multiple avant-garde movements of the era, in music, painting and performance, as well as the native energy of 80s NYC. Ohno channeled his youthful “edge” and zeal into open-minded lo-fi musical explorations using a mere two machines: the then-new technological glories of a four-track cassette recorder and that polyphonic synthesizer masterpiece, the Roland Juno-60; on several pieces he vocalizes. These seven tracks have a zestful, innocent, anything-goes charm, free from preciousness and self-consciousness: a raw and youthful human spirit at play in a new world. Ohno was also inspired by the humanistic promise of the general technological developments of the day, including DNA research, personal computing, and early computer graphics, an example of which can be found on the cover. Ohno later returned to Japan, becoming a renowned composer/producer. In an era of jaded cynicism, "Music in DNA" is a welcome taste of big-hearted innocence, a revival of a raw self. Available on CD/LP/Digital, with E/J liner notes.

Spectral, nostalgic, highly evocative, sometimes-desolate reflections — alone on the piano, and together with saxophonist and flautist Finn Peters — soaked in Satie, Ravel, and Mompou. Expressive and enchanting, but mournfully distracted, with a tentative, exploratory wonderment which reminds you of Paul Klee’s well-worn idea of a drawing as a line taking a walk. Easy to recommend to those of you who recently enjoyed Mashu Hayasaka’s Etudes LP, on All Night Flight. This is lovely stuff from Jesse, in an unexpected departure from his work with Elmore Judd, the Gorillaz, Nyege Nyege Tapes…

,Stürmische und kathartische Dark-Pop-Perlen", schrieb Gorilla vs Bear über Jessica Weiss' frühe Soloarbeiten. Die Sängerin und Songwriterin von Fear of Men bringt dieselbe lyrische Präzision und emotionale Intensität in ihr Soloprojekt New German Cinema ein. Es hat fünf Jahre gedauert, zwischen London und LA, aufgebaut aus nächtlichen Dateien, langen Stillephasen und der stillen Beharrlichkeit zweier Menschen, die versuchen, etwas Schönes von entgegengesetzten Enden der Welt aus zu vollenden. Produziert mit Alex DeGroot (Zola Jesus, Cate Le Bon), wirkt es sowohl forensisch als auch hingebungsvoll, das Produkt von jemandem, der die Katharsis nicht überstürzt. Pain Will Polish Me präsentiert sich sowohl einsam als auch verbindend, als wäre es aus Fernübertragungen zwischen zwei Traumzuständen entstanden. Weiss nennt es eine Meditation über Pop und den europäischen Arthouse-Autoren Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Es verfolgt, wie Intimität und Kontrolle ineinander übergehen, bis es unmöglich ist zu sagen, wo das eine endet. Die Songs handeln von den Teilen von dir selbst, die sich in der Liebe auflösen, und von den kleinen Gewalttaten, die damit einhergehen, wenn man bekannt ist. Sie bewegen sich durch klaustrophobische Beziehungen, Obsession, Hingabe, Zyklen des Leidens, die sich allmählich wie Hingabe anfühlen. Die Sprache ist Pop, aber das Gefühl ist etwas Fremderes, Kälteres, Innerlicheres. Die Songs bewegen sich im Schatten. Es ist ein Album darüber, sich selbst zu verlieren, um zu sehen, was übrig bleibt. Ein Dokument der Liebe als Besessenheit, Wiederholung, Überleben. Eine Meditation über die Liebe als Spiegel und Untergang, in Fragmenten gestaltet und dann zu einem Ganzen zusammengefügt.

As Selofan's fifth studio album, Vitrioli, from 2018, is a testament to the tragedy of life. The Greek duo, Joanna Pavlidou and Dimitris Pavlidis, who recorded the album in the Fabrika Records home studio, continue on in their poetic, but heartbreaking, music set to a dance beat. Between languages (Greek, English, German, and Spanish), Selofan feels on the brink of mania with Vitroli. However, the madness is controlled, the songs are restrained hysterics that culminate into the alchemic perfection of the band's specific moody sound.
From synthpop to synthpunk elements, the twelve-track LP leads listeners through dark corridors and into haunted, empty beds. There is a resignation to a doomed destiny with Vitroli—a trait that connects all Selofan releases—as a bitter pain and loneliness that cannot, or will not, subside.

The album begins with "Give Me a Reason" whose lyrics feel universal in this day and age: Give me a reason, to get out of bed / I could just watch the ceiling instead. Its heartbreak is profound as bells and voice pads echo under Joanna's voice. The adjacent music video for the song was directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, and the band describes the video as "depicting the fragile nature, conflicts, emotional demands, and vulnerability of each person in a relationship."
"Billie Was a Vampire" is a story about an undead creature who works at a nightclub followed by the urgency of "Black Box." Brass sounds moan against the fast beat and suggest a frenzied need to escape.

"I'm Addicted" became the second single for the LP. I am addicted, you are mine, Joanna demands of the lover. The music video, also directed by Dimitris Chaz Lee, depicts a clean, white photoshoot primed for the most beautiful creatures of the Athenian wave scene. Alex Macharias, from the legendary Greek band In Trance 95, acts as the photographer for the session, as the models pose and flail under the bright bulbs. The director states: "Addiction is a mental state, something inside all of us. It altered our perception and created a parallel world of avant-garde beings and flashy lights making us part of this everlasting bond."

The track shows SUEP at their best - glistening synth pop with Marr-esque jangle, sweet but emotionally incisive. Singer Georgie Stott - also known for being the keyboardist of the recently ended Porridge Radio - is at peak performance, marrying catchy melodies with off-kilter storytelling.
Receiving acclaim across BBC 6 Music and the indie press for their ‘car boot sale’ pop music, SUEP rummage through the jumble bin of music history, selecting and reassembling its best parts into something playful, strange and deeply artful. The band are affiliates of the Gob Nation collective - including The Tubs, Sniffany & The Nits, Ex-Void, and others., described by the Guardian as uniting around “a leftfield sensibility, lacerating wit and snotty attitude.”

With a slightly darker edge than their delightful EP Shop or last year’s groovy The Rain, Highway II tells the story of hope slamming into disappointment - a Valentine’s date gone wrong. Tears, cigarette breaks, running makeup and snotty sleeves paint a picture of painful emotional dislocation. It comes with an incredible, multilayered dance-routine music video from frequent collaborator, artist Jess Power.

Singer Georgie Stott says: “The lyrics for this poured out of me on Valentine’s Day when me and my partner went out on a date in the Limehouse area, over the river from where we lived in Rotherhithe. I got drunk too quickly, he got grumpy, and tears started streaming down my face because I just wanted to have a nice romantic time. We made up in the Canary Wharf Wetherspoons at the end of the night, but I went to have a cigarette before, to get out all my sobs and wrote all the lyrics on my phone in one go. Then at a practice studio we quickly wrote it around some chords I made up in the room.”
Forever is a confident debut, a masterpiece of modern indie songcraft. Across the album SUEP dip into country, synthpop, garage rock, post punk, and pub rock, but always retain their signature penchant for melodic hooks, snappy structures and straight-to-the-heart lyrics. Artfully unpretentious, the album was recorded by friend Matt Green, best known for his work with The Tubs, and mixed by Mike O’Malley of the band caroline.

Led by Georgie Stott and Joshua Harvey, SUEP have become fixtures of south-east London’s underground through a series of shared living spaces, improvised studios and DIY venues. Now with George Nicholls (The Tubs, Joanna Gruesome, GN Band), William Deacon (PC World), and Louis Forster (The Goon Sax, Expiry) completing the line up, their debut is finally on its way.
Forever is a glimpse into one of the best bands on the scene, not fitting into any trend, but also never fading into obscurantism - SUEP are a band that wear a joie de vivre loosely but fashionably. Now is their time to shine.

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

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

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

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.

Double LP in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve with silver detail. We mark a decade since we first released COIL's landmark album 'Backwards', with a special 10 year anniversary vinyl reissue. After the ground-breaking release of 1990's "Love's Secret Domain" album, Coil were not dormant; the main project was "Backwards", which was started in 1992, updated considerably between 1993 and 1995, and transferred in 1996 to New Orleans, where it was finished in the magic of the Nothing studios of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). The album saw the fruition of Jhonn Balance's recent vocal coaching, producing haunting, passionate vocals, while reaching new heights. 23 years after its initiation, these tracks have been beautifully preserved by Danny Hyde and are finally available in highest quality audio. Differing substantially from the later, remixed incarnation, "The New Backwards" (2008), "Backwards" contains the original versions of Coil's much-loved tracks; 'A Cold Cell' and 'Fire Of The Mind', which have appeared on various compilations over the years, and are now presented as originally intended. his album is the essential bridge between "LSD" and the later "Musick To Play In The Dark" series. It is an essential conduit, to understand the journey that was taken. It was to be released... it should have been released... but because of issues with grey men it wasn't. It is now, so enjoy. (Danny Hyde).

When you notice the cheerful mystery playing with the synths, the edges of this small world start to look slightly distorted. In any era, someone is always creating mysterious music on their own. (7FO)

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Music in DNA is an album recorded in the early 1980s in New York City by Yasuhito Ohno, a young Japanese man breaking free from the constraints of his homeland. The album is a naive burst of outsider DIY enthusiasm, inspired by the multiple avant-garde movements of the era, in music, painting and performance, as well as the native energy of 80s NYC. Ohno channeled his youthful "edge" and zeal into open-minded lo-fi musical explorations using a mere two machines: the then-new technological glories of a four-track cassette recorder and that polyphonic synthesizer masterpiece, the Roland Juno-60; on several pieces he vocalizes. These seven tracks have a zestful, innocent, anything-goes charm, free from preciousness and self-consciousness: a raw and youthful human spirit at play in a new world. Ohno was also inspired by the humanistic promise of the general technological developments of the day, including DNA research, personal computing, and early computer graphics, an example of which can be found on the cover. Ohno later returned to Japan, becoming a renowned composer/producer. In an era of jaded cynicism, Music in DNA is a welcome taste of big-hearted innocence, a revival of a raw self. Available on CD/LP/Digital, with E/J liner notes.

Razor, a thrash metal legend! The most valuable Canadian export since the Toronto Maple Leafs. When Dave Carlo and his band took to the stage at the legendary Headbangers Open Air Festival a few years ago, the crowds went completely wild. This enthusiastic reaction suggests that Razor may have more fans today than they did in their heyday in the mid-1980s. So the re-release of “Shotgun Justice” on vinyl comes just at the right time. The album comprises 14 tracks and features immortal classics such as “United by Hatred,” “Stabbed in the Back,” and “Brass Knuckles.” Shotgun Justice was originally released in 1990 on CD only on Dave Carlos' own label, Fist Fight Records (distributed in North America by Fringe Records). It was the first Razor album with Bob Reid on vocals (who had replaced Stace McLaren, aka Sheepdog).

WILDFIRE is the long-awaited new studio album from Loreen, set for release on 27th March. Marking her first full studio album in nearly a decade, WILDFIRE is a powerful and intimate body of work that explores emotion, perception and inner transformation, a record that allows the full emotional spectrum to exist, from vulnerability and pain to freedom, love and truth.

The album features the global phenomenon “Tattoo”, alongside fan-favourite “Is It Love” and the transcendent new single “Feels Like Heaven”, co-written with Sia. Together, the tracks reflect Loreen’s unique ability to fuse raw emotional honesty with cinematic pop, creating music that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Loreen is the only female artist to have won the Eurovision Song Contest twice and has amassed over 9 billion streams worldwide. “Tattoo” topped radio airplay and singles charts in five countries, further cementing her status as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in modern pop.

With WILDFIRE, Loreen returns with an album that is fearless, expansive and profoundly human

Lush in strings and pedal steel, the nine-track 'How I Became A Wave' album features contributions from some of Ireland's most accomplished musicians, headed up by Pat Carey, and featuring string and piano arrangements by Cormac McCarthy (RT Concert Orchestra). 'How I Became A Wave' will be available as a limited edition 12" gatefold vinyl that brings together music and visual art, featuring cover artwork based on the original oil painting 'Towards Pabaigh' by Scottish artist Ellis O'Connor, design by West Cork creative Megan Clancy, insert image by Cork- based artist Leslie Allen Spillane, and handwritten liner notes and lyrics from Pat Carey, who steers How I Became A Wave as a collaborative, multidisciplinary project. Pat Carey says: "At the heart of How I Became A Wave is a sense of collaboration - of connection between artists. Inviting artists of different disciplines into the creative process has been key to the journey. Understanding how other people see, hear and feel my work has been enlightening, affirming and vital, making sure that what we have created is a living body of work that I hope will continue to be expressed in changing ways."

Singer, songwriter, and producer Absolutely will release her highly anticipated sophomore album Paracosm on February 20, 2026, via Epic Records. A kaleidoscopic mix of pop, electronica, jazz, and R&B, the album features previously released singles “Goodbye Glitter,” “I Just Don’t Know You Yet,” and “No Audience,” each offering a window into the record’s emotional and sonic scope. From the viral, piano-pounding transformative catharsis of “I Just Don’t Know You Yet” — which sparked standing ovations on tour and millions of TikTok views last summer — to the cinematic introspection of recent single “No Audience,” praised by Rolling Stone as “an invitation to create purely for yourself,” Paracosm cements Absolutely as one of the most compelling new voices of her generation and 2026’s de facto artist to watch.

Music For Parents is a low-frequency, vibroacoustically informed album developed through research into sound, rest, and nervous system regulation. Composed between 2019 and 2020, the record explores slow-moving bass structures and reduced harmonic density, inviting a form of listening that is felt as much as heard.

The work emerged from a personal process, shaped by a desire to support rest and release through sound. Music For Parents takes its title reflecting on the dynamics of parent–child relationships - formative environments that shape emotional, sensory, and relational orientation, often without clear language or shared understanding.

While effective on standard playback systems, the album can also be paired with vibroacoustic devices such as bass transducers or wearable low-frequency systems for enhanced somatic engagement.

Artist, painter, curator Leo Vincent, is fired up off the back of supporting Soulwax, on their recent Paris and Netherlands shows. Proudly presenting two debut songs “Hello it’s me again” and “Loving isn’t easy”, co-produced with the brothers, David & Stephen Dewaele, of Soulwax/2manydjs.

Seven years ago, Leo Vincent bluffed his way into a video editing job at DEEWEE. Despite being told to not touch or ruin their gear, he later resurfaced with demos that sounded like he had anyway.

"Don’t know much about history”
"Don’t know much about biographies"

But we do know that by the time Leo Vincent arrives in your town, he will probably have destroyed two more Tascam 8-tracks.

Brussels-based, failed goalkeeper-turned-painter-turned-cameraman-turned-musician Leo, doesn’t seem to be afraid to leave his faders in the red zone for an unorthodox period of time while repairing the pitch knob. Some say it’s disco for night janitors. Some say it’s glam-rock for ravers. Others haven’t found the time to listen yet because they have real jobs.

But to fully grasp Leo Vincent's essence, imagine yourself sitting in the home cinema of the late Marc Bolan while watching a documentary on Scatman John, directed by Jacques Tati and scored by Ween, using only the instruments of Cabaret Voltaire.

Russell Paine (Super Disco Edits).

These four tracks simply blew me away when I heard them. Its raw disco funk cosmic energy that you just can't replicate. Sometimes when you get a long disco track that's eight or ten minutes long, mundane thoughts and loss of interest can start to kick in once the dums and bongo's have faded.

This isn't the case with Magique. You just keep joining the rocket ride to the stars.

From the social message disco funk of "Inch By Inch" which is still relevant to today's social problems. "Dancin" and "Disco Nights" epitomise why we love disco.

And finally "Disco Cowboy" has a sound that harks back to those Plainfield NJ P-Funk roots. I think if any of the Dj pioneers from the 1970's stumbled across these they would have been etched in Disco Folklore!

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

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.

Alice Kemp is a British artist working with noise, performance, fetish objects, installation and many other forms of media. Throughout her work, she articulates a broken and illogical syntax of the subconscious through trance states, dreams, and disturbances. She has performed extensively, occasionally as an associate to the Schimpfluch-Gruppe of Swiss extreme aktionists.

It is a rarified violence that the Kemp invokes on her 9 Dreams In Erotic Mourning. Something disfigured. Something fucked. Something left behind. The subject matter of her investigations are deliberately inscrutable as she grotesquely amplifies a moment of terror, or fear, of sadness through pockets of piano melodies broken by psychoacoustic noise, razor-cut silence, ghastly vocalizations, crushed acts of physical aggression, and buckets of high-pressure suspense. Cryptic and oblique by design Kemp's work reads perhaps as a seance gone awry, certainly as private ritual made public, and as a transfiguration of literary body horror turned into a sonic nightmare that runs parallel to the works of Rudolf Eb.Er, Puce Mary, Sewer Election, and Luc Ferrari.

9 Dreams In Erotic Mourning was originally published as part of the instantly out of print boxset, On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency.

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

Repress on black vinyl. Goldfoil embossed cover. Alright! 2023, Black Rainbows are back with 12 fresh, brand new tunes! The new album sounds huge, with of a great deal of attention paid to the guitars in the recording, and it seems that the band has finally found the perfect balance and tone for their heavy super stoner sound! This album gives you not only incredible heavy rock-stoner gems, but also: one space acoustic song, one super psychedelic suite and one melodic trippy ballad that adds a perfect mixture of what is sure to be the best album released by the band so far! "Superskull" has been recorded by Fabio Sforza (the same producer of the last two recordings), in May 2022, and after much work and effort by the band in mixing and mastering, the album will see the light of day one year later. The incredible artwork has been delivered by the brazilian artist Pedro Correa.

Limited to 300 copies. Yellow Vinyl. Approaching Doom is the third album by Monsternaut, a darker and heavier representation of the band's established devotion to groovy riffs and to the point compositions. The songs took shape over several years, during which the arrival of a new drummer opened the door to more adventurous rhythms and riff ideas, pushing the band into new territory while staying true to their roots. Sonically, the album leans toward the grit and weight of early 90s metal rather than polished modern production, giving it a raw and immediate edge. Its lyrics and atmosphere follow a naturally darker direction as well, adding an extra layer of tension beneath the grooves. Recorded entirely the old fashioned way, straight to analog tape with no digital editing, it captures the band playing as they are, relying on performance, chemistry, and feel rather than correction. The result is a record that hits harder, feels more focused, and marks a confident new chapter in Monsternaut's evolution.

Die internationale Rocksensation The Hives, die beste Liveband der Welt und immer noch eure neue Lieblingsband, hat wieder einmal, schneller als erwartet, ein neues Werk geschaffen, wie man es noch nie gehört hat und wahrscheinlich auch nie wieder hören wird. Ihr siebtes Album 'The Hives Forever Forever The Hives' erscheint am 29. August auf dem ehrwürdigen Label Play It Again Sam. Ein neues Album voller Energie, Freude, Wut und Leben! Jeder einzelne Song eine Single, jede einzelne Single ein Hit, jeder Hit ein Volltreffer mitten ins Gesicht. Diese neue Meisterwerk entstand unter der Leitung des langjährigen Kollaborateurs Pelle Gunnerfeldt in Stockholm. Mike D von den legendären Beastie Boys ist als Gast vertreten und auch Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) stand mit Rat und Tat zur Seite.

The Hives, bestehend aus Howlin’ Pelle, Chris Dangerous, The Johan And Only, Nicholaus Arson und Vigilante Carlstroem, haben sich in über dreißig Jahren in die Annalen der Rockgeschichte eingeschrieben. Dank ihrer Erfolge füllten sie große Stadien und teilten die Bühne mit so monumentalen Acts wie AC/DC und den Rolling Stones. Die BBC bezeichnete sie als „Naturgewalt“, und der Rolling Stone kürte ihr Album 'Veni Vidi Vicious' zu einem der 100 besten Alben des Jahrzehnts. Mit Millionen verkaufter Alben, Platin-Auszeichnungen und zahlreichen Preisen - Grammys, MTV Awards, NME Awards - gelten sie als Titanen der Musikwelt. Oder wie Joe Strummer es gesagt hat: The Hives haben den Rock ’n’ Roll gerettet!

Demetrio Castellucci and Massimo Pupillo present the music of Sleep Technique, a performance by Dewey Dell inspired by the Chauvet cave and its ancient cave paintings.
The music comes to life anew on record, an immersion into the depths of sonic particles, moist electroacoustic rhythms, the repeated forms of speleothems, and the electric bass that scrapes the walls, shaping them into concave or convex surfaces. A voice that moves incredibly slowly, yet is in constant motion, like the millennia-old, unceasing erosion of water.
The album’s journey follows the geography of the cave in reverse, moving from its deepest chamber back to the entrance.

Demetrio Castellucci is a composer and sound designer who has been involved in theater productions, choreography, and film since 2004. Around the same time, he began performing as a DJ, favoring an omnitemporal approach geared toward dance that transcends musical genres. Since 2006, he has been a member of the dance company Dewey Dell, and since 2007, he has been active as Black Fanfare, a maximalist electroacoustic project. He has collaborated on performances by Andreco and Enrico Ticconi/Ginevra Panzetti, as well as on films by Ahmed Ben Nessib, Beatrice Pucci, and Ilaria di Carlo. After living in London and Berlin, he settled in Vilnius, where in 2018 he founded Unarcheology, a digital platform that publishes music and radio programs. He is also active as Airport Gad, an ambient project which, together with Unarcheology, launched its own “Airline Company”: concerts in a flight simulator built from cardboard, where the pilots are also the musicians.

Massimo Pupillo is best known as a founding member of the band Zu, with whom he has released 18 albums and performed over 2,000 live shows worldwide. He has maintained a highly open and multidisciplinary approach that has led him to work with some of the most acclaimed figures in the contemporary art world: South African photographer Roger Ballen, actors Malcolm McDowell and Marton Csokas, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi of Societas Raffaello Sanzio, American choreographer Meg Stuart, poet Anne Waldman, and Italian poet Gabriele Tinti, among others. He has collaborated live and in the studio with avant-garde musicians and composers such as Alvin Curran, piano duo Katia & Marielle Labèque, and classical virtuosos like Viktoria Mullova and Giovanni Sollima. He has also worked with some of the most influential names in the international rock scene, including Mike Patton, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth), Guy Picciotto & Joe Lally (Fugazi), Buzz Osborne (Melvins), and Damo Suzuki (CAN).

In the field of improvised music, he has collaborated with Peter Brötzmann, Toshinori Kondo, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, and Tony Buck, among others. Within the experimental music scene, his collaborations include Oren Ambarchi, David Tibet (Current 93), Thighpaulsandra (Coil), Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O))), Abul Mogard, Mick Harris (Scorn), Gordon Sharp (This Mortal Coil), FM Einheit (Einstürzende Neubauten), and many more. In cinema, he composed the score for Kirill Serebrennikov’s film LIMONOV, presented at Festival de Cannes in 2024.