Buscar:the result

2026 Repress

Georgian powerhouse Yanamaste drops long-anticipated new EP on Mutual Rytm.

In-demand DJ/producer Yanamaste is a resident at Georgia's renowned Khidi Club and a key part of Amsterdam's Vault Sessions crew. His unique sound and fresh creative approach result in raw and visceral techno, reflecting his passion for pushing boundaries and showcased perfectly via his 'Dance' EP on Vault last year. Now, he returns with an EP born out of the creative process behind his live set with a debut appearance on SHDW's Mutual Rytm, 'Evil' - a collection of heavily-requested tracks that have already made an impact after featuring in his Boiler Room and Stone Techno Festival livestream.

'Evil' kicks things off with perfectly rubbery, funky drum patterns and an urgent sense of movement that sweeps you off your feet. 'Lahante' is more percussive, with busy snares riding the rolling, forceful drums and stark synths arresting your attention. 'Dragonfly' is perfectly reduced via minimal drums intertwined with thunderous effects and ghoulish energy, while 'Modulation Detected' has a more cosmic feel as it journeys into the future with whispered spoken words and synths searching across the face of the groove. Last but not least is the irresistible broken beat goodness of 'Walking On Mars', with its swinging kicks and vast bassline spraying about the mix beneath hypnotic melodic patterns.

Two superb bonus cuts, 'Ohohoi' and 'Pwiu', are also provided for digital buyers, bringing further gems loaded with moody depths and compelling rhythms.

uper Deception dives into the uncanny beauty within the everyday, drawing inspiration from M.C. Escher’s idea of “super deception”: the art of creating the impossible without illusion. Nelson of the East translates that concept into sound: deep, tactile basslines and intricate percussion twist familiar rhythms into hypnotic new forms. Textures and samples are lifted from their origins and reimagined, creating tracks that feel both ancient and futuristic, physical and dreamlike. The result is an electronic landscape where sound folds in on itself: a timeless, shape-shifting exploration of rhythm, resonance and perception.

Nelson of the East is a Berlin-based sound artist, producer and educator. He operates at the intersection of experimental composition and club culture, shaping his craft both as a music teacher and behind the scenes as an experienced ghost producer.

Artwork & Layout by Alicia Carrera

Arriving twenty-six years after his debut Cell, Particle further sharpens the fractured electronics and muted melodic language explored on 2021’s From Stasis, presenting a crisper, more immediate set of compositions.

Cadoo, also widely known as a founding member of pioneering electronic project Gridlock, has used Dryft as a consistent outlet for his electronic work across decades, bridging early post-industrial IDM with more contemporary, restrained forms.

Long recognized for beat structures that feel precarious, rhythms that seem to strain, erode, and reassemble in real time, he approached Particle with a renewed focus on allowing these patterns to fully resolve. Melodic elements are given a more direct role, actively driving momentum rather than hovering in the margins.

Emphasizing clarity and immediacy, Particle favors tactile sound design and forward-pushing arrangements over density or abstraction. The result is a notably focused Dryft release that functions as an all-encompassing signpost for Cadoo’s electronic output to date, informed by decades of exploration while remaining resolutely forward-looking

Jess Sah Bi is well-known as half of the legendary duo Jess Sah Bi & Peter One who brought homegrown Country-Americana to the West African masses with their smash debut Our Garden Needs Its Flowers in the mid-1980s. Touring stadiums and reaching listeners worldwide, their music has racked up millions of spins on YouTube and remains imprinted in the hearts of Ivorians of a certain age. ATFA reissued their album in 2018, garnering critical acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and Rolling Stone and reaching a new generation of listeners outside Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire). Sometime in the early 90s, Die Sahbi - or Jesse, as he known to friends-became gravely ill with an unknown ailment and almost died. He visited various doctors and all kinds of religious healers and nothing helped. One day he went down to an Evangelical Christian revival in his neighborhood. They prayed over him and he was delivered. He says, "Their prayers helped chase out whatever demons and unhealthy spirits were inside me. After that my illness went away. When I went to the United States a few months later on an exchange program I wanted to make music to thank God because I was saved." He recorded an album of music praising God in order to honor a promise he made to himself at the depths of his desperation in the hospital. The album Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas Jesus Christ Does Not Let Us Down came out in 1991 and sold around 3000 cassettes in Ivory Coast. The master tape was lost along the way so the recording has never been on digital platforms until now. Jesse didn't have much time to record while visiting South Carolina, hence the relatively short album, 6 songs including two reprises for filler. A local pastor connected him with a studio and some American musicians (Robert Fortner and Gary Davis) to help. They added acoustic guitar, percussion and keyboard accompaniment to Jesse's soaring French and Gouro vocals, harmonica and finger-picked acoustic. The resulting recording is deeply soothing and contemplative music that perfectly compliments the songs already embraced by millions. But he had to find the rest of the studio expenses-$600 total-which he secured drawing cartoons for UNICEF. Jesse is Ivory Coast's first political cartoonist, a vocation for which he was widely celebrated at the time. It also made him a few enemies which lead to him leaving the country permanently a few years later. Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas is Jess Sah Bi's first and only gospel album. Fortunately, fans responded with enthusiasm: widespread radio airplay and concerts followed, along with a growing solo profile in the country. The first big gospel artists in Ivory Coast were the duo Mathieu et Constance, who emerged in 1989. There was a bigger gospel music movement in English-speaking counties like Ghana and Nigeria (Christians make up roughly 40% of the population in Ivory Coast, slightly less than Muslims). Jesse didn't have any intention of working in Christian music but he realized, "You don't make music to make money-you want to send a message." In the years since Jesus-Christ's release, gospel music in Ivory Coast has grown to become a key part of music culture in the country. Spiritual music appears in community actives across the public and private spectrum from religious gatherings and parties to television broadcasts and music festivals. And, as it has evolved and indigenized locally, gospel music has picked up elements of traditional Ivorian music, reggae and soul. The album ultimately precipitated the demise of the duo, who were soon separated geographically as Peter One relocated to Nashville. He went on to become a nurse and release a successful solo album on Verve following the ATFA collaboration. Nowadays Jesse lives in the Bay Area and continues to record and perform music wherever and whenever he has the chance. He is publishing a new book of humorous cartoons in 2025 and his most recent album Never Give Up came out in 2020

Work of Art is not merely a sophomore album; it is a victory lap run with the precision of a master artist. Following the stratospheric global ascent of his debut, Mr. Money with the Vibe, Asake faced the kind of pressure that usually demands a pivot. Instead, he treated that intensity like clay, sculpting a project that feels at once more expansive in scale and more intimate in spirit. Released in 2023, the album serves as a definitive statement on Asake’s sonic identity, deepening his signature fusion of Amapiano, Fuji-inspired percussion, and Afrobeats while moving with a newfound sense of deliberate poise.

If his debut was a high-octane sprint to introduce his sound to the world, Work of Art is a confident stroll through his own creative museum. Anchored once again by the masterful production of Magicsticks, the album serves as the perfect architectural space for Asake’s erratic, infectious flows. The record feels richly textured—brimming with pulsating log drums, soulful samples, and the specific, ecstatic chaos of Lagos nightlife. Asake successfully bridges the gap between traditional Yoruba heritage and the deep, percussive basslines of South African Amapiano, resulting in a sound that feels simultaneously ancestral and futuristic.

The project thrives on a unique duality: it is introspective, yet undeniably club-ready. Tracks like "Amapiano," featuring Olamide, provide the anthemic energy his fans crave, while cuts like "Basquiat" showcase a lyrical swagger that frames his life as high art set to a relentless four-on-the-floor beat. By leaning into his "Mr. Money" persona with added vulnerability and a clearer focus on the craftsmanship of his vocal delivery, Asake avoids the dreaded sophomore slump entirely. He proves that he isn't just making pop songs; he is curating a moment. Ultimately, Work of Art captures the feeling of an artist standing at the peak of his powers, looking out at the landscape he has helped reshape, and confirming that, indeed, he belongs there. It is not about reinventing the wheel—it’s about proving that the wheel he built is a masterpiece.

MP06 introduces DHAEUR to the Moving Pressure catalogue. The Berlin-based producer carves his sonic worlds through a strong sense of rhythmic architecture and a deep understanding of dancefloor dynamics. Here, he channels club-driven sensibilities into a mature and conscious 4 tracker.

The concept behind the EP reflects the principles of the label - namely, the pressure of sound and its resulting movement. Minimalism meets maximum technical intention, where swollen basslines and tightly coiled rhythmic progressions open up in signature DHAEUR style. The groove carries a distinct elasticity, punctuated by vocal inserts that add a subtly funky, almost soulful essence to the flow. Every element sits with purpose: dynamic yet
stripped back, intricately offset in ways that keep the body locked and the mind wondering. While the A-side leans into this physical immediacy - driving, playful, and sharply articulated - the B-side slips further into the tunnel. Atmospheres thicken and the palette turns eerier, stretching its essential rhythmic backbone into darker territories. Spatial details begin to seep through the structures, pulling the listener deeper while maintaining that firm gravitational pull toward the dancefloor.

Together, the two sides reveal different shades of DHAEUR's language. The result is a beautifully balanced narration between propulsion and immersion, where groove-led functionality meets a more shadowy, atmospheric depth.

Elations Recordings presents "Terra Ignota", the long-awaited new full length album from elusive Melbourne-based fusion ensemble Krakatau. "Terra Ignota" marks a return and an epochal shift for the group, a deep exploration of possible sonic spaces and a portent of things to come.

In the years since 2016's cosmic jazz funk-prog-spiritual 12" "Tharsis Montes/Apogean Tide" Krakatau have worked on refining their craft as instrumentalists and writers, expanding further into the world of jazz and fusing influences from world folk musics, contemporary jazz and the European post-minimalist music of the 1980s and early 90s. "Terra Ignota", literally translated as "Unknown Land", takes its name from the cartographer's notation for uncharted territory, the blank spaces on maps where knowledge gives way to imagination and speculation, gesturing towards the group's studio explorations and search for new sonic worlds in the years spent developing the record.

The results are a diverse yet unified combination of sounds and influences across five tracks that see Krakatau drawing closer to the independent underground "world" jazz scene of the 1980s than anything contemporary. The album opens with the digi-minimalism and fourth world atmospherics of title track "Terra ignota", a percussion heavy latin fusion sound in "Birds of Passage", and melancholic ambient saxophone and synthesiser duo "In Memory". Three-part epic "Cosmetic Surgery" journeys through a long, complex post-minimalist arrangement into latin fusion and contemporary jazz, followed by the contemplative ECM-styled acoustic quartet closer "Trial in Absentia".

The album features significant contributions from saxophonist Rob Vincs, former Victorian College of the Arts head of Jazz and Improvisation and a collaborator with Australian musician Brian Brown; layered percussion and wordless vocals from Brazilian percussionist and esteemed songwriter Alcides Neto; and a guest performance from trumpet player Reuben Lewis on the title track.

"Tapping into a shared affinity for early trance – as in short for transcendental – Function and Nastia Reigel come together on Dekmantel with ‘Devocion’. Bridging the past and the future, this partnership draws deeply on brooding, melancholic early-90s sounds and supercharges it with the immensity of modern techno.

The project began when Nastia Reigel shared a series of discoveries with David ‘Function’ Sumner – records rooted in the rave-leaning edge of the era, spanning labels like R&S, FAX and EXperimental. He responded that this was precisely the music he had been absorbing while coming up in the thick of New York’s club and rave scenes and beginning his journey into DJing. The excited exchange of deep digs around this niche of dance music history naturally led to a conversation about collaborating on music in this vein, and Devocion is the result.

Familiar genre touchstones are everywhere, from the plaintive bleeps and understated breakbeat roll of 'Eternity' through the sad-eyed arpeggios strafing on the edges of 'Reverence' and on to 'Flowstate's blue-hued acid lines and 'Orion's sky-scraping gated pads. But Reigel and Sumner deploy these strongly coded elements with poise, feeding into a richly rendered production that feels anything but old-school. The emotive streak is wielded with care, spelling out the mood without losing the steely, shadowy sensibility that tracks through their respective catalogues.

In a perfect demonstration of honouring the past while embracing the present, Devocion EP lands as a distinctive artistic statement on its own terms."

The collaborative project of Lawrence English and Werner Dafeldecker has consistently been concerned with processes of transformation. This is all the more true for »Fathom Tides,« the duo’s second album for Hallow Ground following up on »Tropic of Capricorn« from 2023. Using field recordings collected from diverse coastal environments made by English and later treated extensively by Dafeldecker, the two sound artists explore cyclical changes in nature across these seven pieces. Through its abstracted soundscapes, »Fathom Tides« poses concrete questions: What impact do we have on the world we inhabit?

»Tropic of Capricorn« was based on material English had recorded around Australia to highlight the country’s colonial past. On »Fathom Tides,« water and tides provided a conceptual framework for the duo’s remote working process—notions of states of action and tidal dynamics becoming guiding principles in their work with the source material. English and Dafeldecker were led by the question how the morphing of solid forms into more liquid states might be captured and used as compositional guides for their respective preparations treatments and the addition of electronics to the source material.

While eroding coastlines, river systems, and glacial transformation served as inspiration, the seven pieces resulted out of the two sound artists paying close attention to seemingly minute details through which immediate and distant histories peek through often in the most unexpected and rewarding ways. Hence, »Fathom Tides« does not provide a macro view on the catastrophic changes humans have facilitated on Earth. It is its own sound world guided by both the pace of its subjects and a recognition that time is fluid—a reminder that our clocks are not those of the world around us.

The creative bond between Atjazz and Fred Everything is a story decades in the making. It began in 1998 at The Bomb in Nottingham during a DiY label night—a label through which they both released music. That first encounter sparked a lasting friendship and a steady exchange of ideas that would continue for many years. While they collaborated regularly and remixed each other’s work, it wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that they committed to making a full-length album.

The project took shape during an 8-day stay at Martin’s (Atjazz) home in the Midlands of England, where they set themselves the challenge of writing one track per day. Their shared musical language allowed ideas to move quickly, with some tracks forming in under an hour. Over the next three years, the material was carefully developed alongside their respective album projects: Atjazz’s Starbase 17, Fred Everything’s JUNO Nominated Love, Care, Kindness & Hope, and All Is Well’s A Break In Time.

A final session in Montreal in 2024, coinciding with Fred’s 50th birthday, brought the album into focus. From there, the duo invited a select group of world-class collaborators, including Jorge Bezerra (The Joe Zawinul Syndicate / St Germain), Octavio N. Santos (SiR, Lupe Fiasco), Clyde Beats, Ernesto & The Basement Gospel, and Dominique Fils-Aimé.

The result is a personal, well-constructed record that draws on the spirit of 90s deep house while applying three decades of experience to a deeply rooted, forward-thinking sound. It is a sonic testament that honours their mutual love of synthesizers, beat making, and sound design.

It is a project that took 8 days to start, 3 years to finish, and 30 years to perfect.

Parris returns to his and Call Super’s can you feel the sun imprint with Drippin’. A four-track love letter to the amber-lit glow of communal field maneuvers in the dusk on his most house-focused and personal release yet.

Continuing the themes explored on 2024’s Passionfruit EP, Parris embarks further down his unparalleled sound path on Drippin’. His latest solo outing draws inspiration from vivid memories of yesteryear, particularly experiences at Watching Trees Festival and various trips to Amsterdam, and subsequently constructed with friends in mind to play out. The resulting four tracks encompasses some of his most intimate material to date.

The title track bursts with measured fervour and a raptor-like throb, percussive configurations in tight pistons which induce rave friction hysterics across the dancefloor melee. Got Me Feelin’ dramatically switches tact, a sentimental roller entangled in swooning pads and R’n’B vocals while swigging lovingly from the ecky spring. True Vargo stomps further with acute hedonism, a sun-descending swooner that flows effortlessly in melodic serenity. Closer Crooning In The Trees leans most wayward, an evolving scene architected by Parris’ uncanny samples and disassociated groove that purrs with wide-eyed wonder. Another stand-out release from one of UK club’s most unique voices.

Canadian-born Alexander 'Skip' Spence was the co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. In the same year he released his only solo album: Oar.

The album was recorded after Spence had spent six months in a mental institution following a delusion-driven attempt to attack his Moby Grape band mates with a fire axe, after having ingested LSD. As the urban myth goes, on the day of his release he drove a motorcycle - dressed in only his pyjamas - directly to Nashville to record his only solo album. Fact is that he recorded this album in seven days, playing all the instruments himself, and that the end result is now considered to be a classic psychedelic folk album. After this album Spence largely withdrew from the music industry.

Original copies of Oar fetch quite the sum nowadays, so Music On Vinyl teamed up with Columbia/Sony to make this psychedelic folk gem available for everybody to enjoy.

Oar is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on transparent vinyl.

SXB Deep Tales Part 2
Smallville is happy to welcome Axel Fischer aka El Kazed to the family, proudly presenting his very own SXB Deep Tales, hitting the stores worldwide in May 2026 as Part 1 & 2.
El Kazed is a DJ & producer from Strasbourg, France. Together with a group of like-minded friends, he is running Ordinaire Records– a vinyl imprint fully dedicated to House music. The collective is throwing parties and a festival, building an underground house community in the heart of the Alsace Region. Next to releases on his own imprint, El Kazed also appeared on Chez Damiers' „House Of Chez“ label, contributing a track to catalogue number 01, as well as releasing on Brawther's Interweaved label.
On SXB Deep Tales, he delivers 8 amazing tracks, stretched onto two 12“ parts, containing all the quintessentials of house music, driving cuts next to deepest shades, solo work as well as collaborations with friends- the result is magical.
Full cover artwork from Stefan Marx – don't miss Part 1 of the series.

Water Sign is the debut EP from producer and instrumentalist John Silas: a five-track suite that moves fluidly between peak-time dance and inward reflection. Deeply aligned with the open-eared ethos of NYC’s Love Injection Records, the release channels house and jazz into an emotive personal chronicle shaped by movement, memory, and community.

At its thematic center is “Boundaries,” a dynamically arranged dance-floor meditation that begins with piano, 4/4 kick and restless hi-hats before blooming into radiant synth work reminiscent of classic disco auteur Patrick Adams. Midway, the track shifts—electric piano, whistles and percussion reframing the groove into what Silas calls “hues of vulnerability.” The result mirrors the arc of love, release and renewal.“Cyber Dreams” leans into lush escapism, buoyed by surging keys and impassioned flute from Domenica Fossati, while a remix from Detroit mainstay Patrice Scott (Sistrum Records) adds unmistakable Motor City weight. “Foster Child” nods to Silas’ hero, the late Paul Johnson with exuberant Chicago spirit, and “Nasty” delivers a concise workout featuring Marquinn Mason’s robust saxophone.

Water Sign reflects Silas’s trajectory—from a childhood steeped in Soul Train, coming of age with hip hop, to MPC craftsmanship, his Detroit musical family and present-day Brooklyn—into a deeply personal record equally suited to discerning DJs and deep listeners.

Not all 'All Stars' style releases live up to their name, but this multi-artist extravaganza from Demuir's Purveyor Underground Ltd label most certainly does. The Canadian artist has snapped up tracks from some genuinely impressive deep house talents, with predictably fine results. For proof, check the deliciously dreamy, hazy and rolling opener from Atlanta star Byron The Aquarius, the jazzy bass, locked-in beats and lightly psychedelic layered aural textures of Fred P's 'Sunny Rain Drops (Cosmic House Edit)' and the softened DJ Sneak-style sample-rich peak-time bump of Demuir's own 'Alone In Chicago'. Elsewhere, M Squared reaches for elongated electric piano chords, eyes-closed samples and jazzy house grooves on 'Dance', before Justine Joe delivers an exquisite exercise in jazz-house jauntiness ('AFaOA (As Far As Our Attitude)').

"It transported me back to 1979. Me as a 17 year old post-punk kid at Futurama Festival in Leeds watching PiL, Killing Joke, The Fall and Cabaret Volatire." Lubomir Jovenovic - Leeds Jazz Festival Curator.

Born out of a chaotic Saturday night in Hastings. A raucous double bill between Leeds Jazz troupe and Kent post punks resulting in feedback, mosh pits and a breakneck rendition of The Stooges TV Eye. A plan was hatched right there to record an album together.

"Really f**king happening. I dig this big time." Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges)

Convergence is an ambient album formed through a series of morning rituals during rehabilitation following a severe medical event and an extended hospital stay. After weeks immersed in the constant alarms, beeps, and environmental signals of medical equipment, the act of listening itself became recalibrated. The music was performed and assembled using glass marimba, flute, and analog synthesizers, with each instrument treated as a source of resonance and gradually dissected through spectral analysis—allowing melody to emerge from fragments through repetition, attention, and daily practice, where synthesis functions not as traditional composition but as an exchange of signals.


Working slowly and intuitively, Stardust Multiplier approaches sound as a communicative medium between humans, the natural environment, and non-ordinary states of perception. Motifs evolve through repetition and subtle variation, informed by ceremonial music, mythic structures, and speculative communication frameworks associated with non-human intelligence—not as narrative devices, but as metaphors for attuned listening and pattern recognition.

Rather than moving toward resolution, Convergence documents moments of alignment—instances where intention, system, and environment briefly synchronize. The result is a restrained, deeply focused record, less concerned with atmosphere than attention, where synthesis functions as both a grounding practice and a method of inquiry.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Dalbergia Retusa, an extensive double LP selection of the solo guitar music of Hans Reichel, compiled by Oren Ambarchi. Last heard on Black Truffle as one quarter of the joyously anarchic Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett, Hans Reichel (1949-2011) is one of the great figures of experimental guitar music. Though perhaps lesser known than peers like Derek Bailey, Fred Frith and Keith Rowe, Reichel’s rethinking of the instrument was in some ways the most radical of all. Early on, he dispensed with existing guitars to build a series of his own that explored the use of additional strings and fretboards, moveable pickups, extra bridges, special capos, and other innovations documented in the extensive booklet accompanying this release.

Reichel was a long-term resident of Wuppertal, the small Western Germany city that became an unlikely centre of European free jazz in the late 1960s, also home to Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. His solo debut Wichlinghauser Blues was an early entry into the FMP discography and began a relationship with the label that stretched into the 1990s; all the solo performances heard here were first released on FMP. As Reichel says in the charming archival interview with Markus Müller included here, he was ‘always a cuckoo’s egg at FMP’, a label that began as an outlet for roaring European free jazz. What strikes the listener right from the opening selection on Dalbergia Retusa—‘Return of the Knödler show’, from 1987’s The Dawn of Dachsman—is the extraordinary beauty of Reichel’s music, at once alien in the shimmering sonorities and unconventional pitch relationships made possible by his invented instruments, and deeply lyrical, even romantic in its harmonic content. Growing up in West Germany in the 1960s, Reichel’s formative influences were mainly British and American rock bands, a background that shines through in many of the pieces included here: ‘An old friend passes by’ is haunted by the ghost of Hendrix’s rhythm guitar, and the wild closer ‘Heimkehr der Holzböcke’, taken from a rare 1975 7” and the only piece to use overdubbing, layers errant hammer-on and slide tones over a Canned Heat boogie chug.

Reichel was an important source for the development of Oren Ambarchi’s own extended approach to the electric guitar. Appropriately enough, his selection opens with the very first piece by Reichel he ever heard, on a flexidisc included with a 1989 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Though Reichel collaborated with others extensively in many settings and also performed on violin and his other major contribution to instrument invention, the daxophone, his music for solo guitar remains at the core of his oeuvre. Focusing exclusively on solo pieces recorded between 1973 and 1988, the 23 pieces on Dalbergia Retusa showcase the range and consistency of Reichel’s work, allowing the listener to see how his performances developed hand-in-hand with his instrumental inventions. On a piece from his very first LP, played on an 11-string instrument (partly strung with piano strings and using a schnapps glass a slide), we hear his intensive exploration of fret-hammering to create zither-like, chiming tone, which Reichel would hone further in later years with a double fretboard guitar specifically designed to be hammered rather than fretted and picked. On a piece from 1979’s Death of the Rare Bird Ymir, Reichel uses two steel-string acoustic guitars at once, with beautiful results: ‘some even say too beautiful’, he jokes in the interview included here. Many of the pieces from the 1980s make use of varieties of the ‘pick behind the bridge guitar’, instruments of uncanny harmonic richness primarily designed to be played on the ‘wrong’ side of the bridge. At times the unexpected behaviour of attacks, resonance, and decay can almost seem electronic, conjuring up the technology-assisted work of Henry Kaiser or even Fennesz, but realised solely through Reichel’s unorthodox techniques on his invented instruments. Extensively illustrated with photos and Reichel’s own plans and drawings of his instruments, Dalbergia Retusa is an essential introduction to the unique world of Hans Reichel. Rarely has music been at once so strange and so beautiful.

With »News from Planet Zombie«, The Notwist return to view after years of exploration and experiment with an album rich in both melancholy and positivity, sketched across a suite of thrilling, fiercely committed pop songs. It’s an album reflecting a chaotic world, but responding with warmth and generosity, to achieve creative and spiritual consolidation. Recorded in their home base of Munich, it reconnects with the security of the local to explore the troubles of the global: a guiding impulse writ large across this album’s eleven songs. It’s also the first studio album since 1995’s »12« that the entire band recorded together in the studio in its expanded live formation.

A new album by The Notwist is always a curious endeavour; their musical language is as consistent and resilient as the contexts for creativity are unpredictable and ever shifting. For »News from Planet Zombie«, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck embraced the plural possibilities of writing together, bringing songs to the collective and then arranging, rehearsing and recording that material live, in the studio.

The result is an album that’s energised, fully in ›the now‹, with spectacular moments where you can hear the magic bubbling up in the dynamic between the Achers, Beck, and fellow members Theresa Loibl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth, and Andi Haberl. If »Teeth« begins »News from Planet Zombie« quietly and reflectively, by »X-Ray« everyone’s supercharged, blasting out future anthems with the collective energy cranked up high. The chiming keys of »Propeller« skim the instrumental’s surface like stones across burbling water; »The Turning« clangs its way into one of the album’s most heartwarming melodies.

»News from Planet Zombie« was recorded over one week at Import Export, a non-profit space for arts and music. You can tell, too; there are some pleasingly rough edges here, as though The Notwist’s striving for hazy perfection means they’re also confident enough to let the songs breathe and mutate between our ears. That openness to chance also takes in guest turns from friends both local and international, reflective of a cosmopolitan Munich: Enid Valu joins in on vocals, while Haruka Yoshizawa guests on taishōgoto and harmonium, Tianping Christoph Xiao on clarinet, and Mathias Götz on trombone.

The Notwist aren’t best known for cover versions, but »News from Planet Zombie« features two: a gorgeous version of Neil Young’s »Red Sun« (from 2000’s »Silver & Gold«), which the group originally developed for a theatre play directed by Jette Steckel, and a take on Athens, Georgia folk-pop gang Lovers’ »How the Story Ends«. They slot into the album’s narrative perfectly, nestling in like old friends, revealing The Notwist as poetic interpreters. Played well, the cover version is both acknowledgement of fellow travellers and act of generosity, and The Notwist nail both aspects here.

And that narrative, the way the album plays out? »News from Planet Zombie« acknowledges the distress of our current geopolitical impasse, while reminding us there are collective ways forward. Fed through the figure of the zombie, Markus Acher explores our anxieties: »In the title and some lyrics I reference B- and horror-movies, which is a reference to the crazy world at the moment, which seems to be like a really bad and unrealistic B-movie.« But there’s a reminder here not to lose the thread entirely, that these things, too, will pass.

»The river here in Munich I often go to has been there forever and will be there long after us,« Acher reflects, pinpointing an important source of succour for him, »always the same but always changing. Very calming, but also always reminding me that like this river time only flows into one direction and you can’t go back. Every moment is very precious.«

Artwork by Marie Vermont

The Notwist:
Markus Acher: vocals, guitar
Micha Acher: bass, sousaphone, euphonium, trumpet
Cico Beck: electronics, keyboards, guitar, recorder, percussion
Theresa Loibl: bassclarinet, clarinet, piano, harmonium, organ
Max Punktezahl: guitar
Karl Ivar Refseth: marimbaphone, vibraphone, glockenspiel, congas, percussion
Andi Haberl: drums, dulcimer
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Enid Valu: vocals on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
Haruka Yoshizawa: taishōgoto on 6, harmonium on 9, 10, 11
Tianping Christoph Xiao: clarinet on 4, 10, 11
Mathias Götz: trombone on 4, 10, 11

Commissar Lag - Absolution EP (Earwiggle)

The 38th Earwiggle release comes from one of our favourites, and a debutant on the label, Serbian studio supremo Commissar Lag. The "Absolution EP" finds Lag delivering his playful vision of techno, dipping into the past while also pointing us to the future, all framed through an exquisite production gleam. Dense, rolling rhythms reminiscent of early '00s Stockholm techno, combined with a catchy repeating vocal sequence (one of Lag's trademark techniques) and rising sirens, result in the monster opening title track "Absolution". "Aim Without Mercy" is another club destroyer - jabbing keys, broken jagged beats, and a series of rising pressure points making it another winner. "The Blessed" meanwhile, shifts the mood from mental to majestic, with interchanging leads and reverb-drenched climaxes marking the big-room peak of the record. Rounding things off is Irish wunderkind Dylan Fogarty, who reimagines "Aim Without Mercy" through a deep and psychedelic lens, layering textural collages over surging, jacking
909s.