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Chris Menist pares his sound right back for A book of imaginary beings, his fourth Awkward Corners outing with a project of electronic and abstracted global grooves. Experimenting with simple melodies and uncluttered arrangements, as well as taking inspiration from the Borges' short stories alluded to in the title, the project took shape in the early part of 2025, in the shorter days and dark evenings of January.

The initial challenge was to knock a basic track into shape each evening after work, then refine it later. There's a melancholy in the air in late winter, compounded by the creeping threat of national and geopolitical instability. Ulla, Natural Information Society, Jabu, Torso and Dawuna formed some of the background soundtrack as each tune took shape.

The track titles came after sitting with the sounds for a while, giving shape to images of people, creatures and their stories for a book that is yet to be written.

Two former friends sets the tone for the album perfectly as a minimal electronic piece with a slowly simmering synth bassline underpinning the groove whilst the trademark Awkward sound of the Shahi Baaja enters drenched in effects. It's the first demonstration of Chris' unique ability to create a world from apparently very little.

Dance of the silver beetles is completely unique in that we can hear chopped up Illimba samples seemingly playing backwards and forewords sometimes alone, sometimes together in duet with Chris' conga rhythms. Add to that a more conventional Illimba melody and added shaker percussion and you have one of A book of imaginary beings most curious chapters.

Anxious shadow puppets is closer to the Awkward Corners sound from previous albums as electronic pulses move around the arrangement with the urgency that the track title suggests. Chris' percussive roots move to the fore with the congas that tie down the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band's sound. Here, the bassline is more playful and works together with one of Chris' many African Illimbas.

Fans of Chris' adventures on his Roland 808 will dig A leopard with no spots, although the minimal mood continues to flow through on this track. The lolloping, but hard-hitting rhythm track provides the grounding for strange and twisting feedback-sounding tones to work the soundscape.

Abandoned boy (left in charge of the family business) is Awkward Corners at his atmospheric best. Drift off to the sublime sounds of Chris exploring the Shahi Baaja, whilst a soft, repetitive synth line and abstracted pads give the listener that feeling of meditation and peace.

Flamingo with bandaged neck is A book of imaginary beings' perfect coda and is exclusively Shahi Baaja draped in reverbs and delays. It feels like the resolution and the closing of a book that – as of yet – remains unwritten.

Awkward Corners is Chris Menist, a musician, DJ and writer. It started life as a small project in Islamabad, where Chris was living at the time. Initial recordings were made with local musicians in Pakistan and then subsequently in Thailand. This culminated in the Sweet Decay LP that came out on Finders Keepers' Disposable Music in 2014, and in turn led to a limited tape release on Boomkat/Reel Torque of original compositions and re-edits of Thai 45s the same year. Chris released – Dislocation Songs – his second LP proper with Shapes of Rhythm in May 2020, collaborating on many of the tracks with award-winning performer Sarathy Korwar. The LP was picked up by many radio stations including NTS, Resonance FM, BBC 6 Music, Balamii and many more. It made Tom Ravenscroft's LPs of 2020. Amateur Dramatics, Chris' second LP arrived just a year later in 2021 and was a more ambitious project featuring more jazz-focussed compositions and featuring Tamar Osborn and Kitty Whitelaw. Shortly after that came another pivot with the heavier, dancefloor-friendly EP Somebody Somewhere. Somebody Somewhere is Dancing in a Field brought the House (yes House!) vibes, whilst Hector Plimmer turned in a remix of No Words in the same club mood.

As one of NTS Radio's longest-standing presenters, Chris continues to hold down the Paradise Bangkok show. Playing drums and percussion since he was a kid, Chris is the percussionist for The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band as well as co-founding the record label of the same name. Chris has curated compilations for labels such as Finders Keepers, Soundway and Dust-To-Digital. He has been featured on the Boiler Room, Vinyl Factory Collections, played at the Four Tet curated Nuits Sonores festival, and has put together an edition of Volumes which featured unreleased Awkward Corners compositions.






[d] 04: All the Goodbyes (You Tried to Defer) [Original]





[j] 10: Abandoned Boy (Left in Charge of the Family Business) [Original]

ROADS VOL.3 is the third installment of Thylacine's iconic ROADS series, recorded in the heart of the stunning landscapes of Namibia, in his caravan studio. A true sonic journey, this album immerses the listener in a unique universe, where every note tells a story of landscape, emotion, and authentic experience.



Since the breakthrough success of Transsiberian, Thylacine has continued to push boundaries, venturing into new territories in search of stories to tell and challenges to take on. Much like mountaineers carving fresh paths across glaciers, he is constantly exploring new creative horizons. With millions of streams to his name and standout tracks like Anatolia, Piany Pianino, and Satie I, his momentum shows no sign of slowing.
Breaking away from the familiar, his upcoming album Roads Vol.3 draws on the raw beauty of his recent journey through Namibia, offering listeners a collection of previously unreleased tracks. Guided by his instinct for musical nomadism, Thylacine treats each project as a true adventure in its own right. Roads Vol.3 will be released on October 31.

ROADS VOL.3 is the third installment of Thylacine's iconic ROADS series, recorded in the heart of the stunning landscapes of Namibia, in his caravan studio. A true sonic journey, this album immerses the listener in a unique universe, where every note tells a story of landscape, emotion, and authentic experience.



Since the breakthrough success of Transsiberian, Thylacine has continued to push boundaries, venturing into new territories in search of stories to tell and challenges to take on. Much like mountaineers carving fresh paths across glaciers, he is constantly exploring new creative horizons. With millions of streams to his name and standout tracks like Anatolia, Piany Pianino, and Satie I, his momentum shows no sign of slowing.
Breaking away from the familiar, his upcoming album Roads Vol.3 draws on the raw beauty of his recent journey through Namibia, offering listeners a collection of previously unreleased tracks. Guided by his instinct for musical nomadism, Thylacine treats each project as a true adventure in its own right. Roads Vol.3 will be released on October 31.

Congratulations! 55th anniversary of debut

The third album "Single Man", released on April 21, 1976, was an album with many controversies from the production stage.
It was discontinued less than a year after its release, and then a movement to re-release "Single Man" arose, and it finally re-released in 1980, so it has
a twisted story.

The album features a variety of performances due to the transition period from the folk period to the electric arrangement period, and above all, many
masterpieces that can be said to be representative of the entire RC period, such as "Slow Ballad". The driving force just before the rapid climb to
"KING OF ROCK" after 1980 is already boiling in this album.

In addition to the latest remastered sound source from the original master tape of the album, this deluxe edition includes single songs from that time,
versions not included on the album, and a studio live sound source from tvk's "Young Impulse" at the time of the album's release.
It is a deluxe edition packed with the overflowing talent of RC Succession at that time.

The booklet includes for the first time all 17 images from the original jacket illustration, "Pictures for the Test of Painting Apperception of Infants and Children."

・Remastered by zAk
・Disc 1: Half-speed cutting / Disc 2: Normal cutting by Miles Showell at ABBEY ROAD
・180g heavyweight clear vinyl
・Booklet (17 images of "Pictures for the Test of Painting Apperception of Infants and Children" (illustrations by Minamioji Hajime), commentary, lyrics)
・Liner notes: Imai Tomoko, Sakai Hiroki

Unknown Waveforms is the forthcoming album from Belgian trio KAU, set for release on October 10, 2025. Marking an evolution since their 2023 release The Cycle Repeats, this new record captures a more personal, immediate, and unfiltered version of the band's sound. In an increasingly digital world, KAU takes a different route, with an album rooted in human connection, live energy, and creative spontaneity. Here, the trio reflect their take on instrumental music, drawing heavily fromjazz, hip hop, and electronic influences.

At the heart of Unknown Waveforms lies the starting point of three musicians in a room, writing and composing music on the spot. For KAU, this idea mirrors their working method: long jam sessions, free-flowing experimentation, and shared moments of inspiration. Songs often take shape slowly, unfolding over hours or days, but always built collaboratively as a trio.

The album's title reflects the mystery behind how music comes together, but is also both literal and symbolic. Unknown waveforms are the sounds that arise when machines and people interact in unpredictable ways. Whether you're an experienced musician or just starting out, the creative process often feels elusive and hard to fully understand. But there are also certain moments: creative sparks that can't be planned or programmed. It ends up being more than notes, gear, or structure, it's about the process, the tension and energy that builds when people connect and create in the same room.

The title track, Unknown Waveforms, captures that exact process. It opens with a quote from synth pioneer Wendy Carlos: "I'm just trying to show you how we get some of these sounds", inviting listeners directly into the creative space. The track focuses less on a polished outcome and more on the moment before a song is "finished": it's a portrait of experimentation, feeling, and raw expression.

This commitment to honesty permeates the entire album. KAU kept overdubs to a minimum, avoided excessive editing, and prioritized spontaneous choices over calculated ones. In a time when the future of live, improvised music feels uncertain, they double down on the physical, the real, and the immediate. The album resists the pristine polish of modern production, favoring the warmth and imperfection of analog synthesis. The band embraces the character of their instruments, particularly vintage gear, where subtle flaws add beauty, depth, and personality.

One standout track, cr_eye, is driven by the Moog Subphatty-a key instrument in the band's toolkit for its analog warmth and powerful sub-bass. The track centers around the conversation between bass and drums, allowing the keyboards to recede and create space. It draws emotional threads from earlier KAU tracks like Kampala and Kautokeino, bridging past and present with a shared atmosphere and rhythmic interplay.

Another highlight, Stratford, finds inspiration in London's transport system and the UK jazz scene that has long influenced KAU. A field recording snippet of the London Underground kicks off the track, connecting it to the rhythm of everyday commutes. Built around a hypnotic sequencer line from the Roland JX-3P, the track evokes the motion of a metro journey. Artists like Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, and Alfa Mist, giants of the scenethat the band has admired for years, resonate subtly throughout.

Above all, Unknown Waveforms is a statement of intent from KAU: a celebration of imperfection, creative honesty and an insight in the process.

Ostinato as resistance: Rafael Anton Irisarri’s landmark work reimagined. Marking the tenth anniversary of the American composer’s critically acclaimed album 'A Fragile Geography', this new edition arrives renewed, both sonically and visually.

First released in 2015 (Room40) during a period of personal upheaval and creative reinvention, it endures as a testament to resilience, transformation, and the connection we hold with the places that shape us.

Written in the aftermath of a devastating theft, A Fragile Geography was born out of loss. Just days before a cross-country move to New York, Irisarri’s entire Seattle-based studio was wiped out. Instruments. Recordings. Archives. Gone without a trace. He arrived on the East Coast to an empty room and the daunting task of starting over.

“This album wasn’t just a record; it was a lifeline,” Irisarri reflects. “It became a way to process the emotional chaos that followed: uprooting, instability, and ultimately, the slow, intuitive rebuilding of a life.”

Composed and recorded in the rural woods of the Hudson Valley, the album took shape in seclusion, surrounded by nature, and through a process guided by improvisation. Embracing limitations, Irisarri wove textural layers of field recordings with half-remembered melodies from his Seattle years, piecing them together like fragments of memory. Tracks like “Displacement,” “Hiatus,” and “Persistence” juxtaposed haunting stillness with restless momentum, mapping an inner terrain of grief, catharsis, and rebirth.

Among its defining sounds is “Empire Systems,” a monumental centerpiece built around a simple four-chord progression, organ textures, and guitar drones. Gradually, the track expands into layers of immersive loops and thick, enveloping distortion that wash over the listener like a rolling wave. Often cited as the album’s most majestic passage, it captures Irisarri at his most sonically ambitious. With a harmonically saturated structure crafted from restraint and repetition, it remains one of his most recognizable compositions: an exercise in the art of maximal minimalism.

From the outset, “Reprisal” received praise from BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs, who championed the track on her radio show. Her support played a key role in introducing Irisarri’s work to wider audiences and solidifying his place within the lineage of electronic, drone, and experimental sound artists. A slow-burning elegy, the piece emerges from a haze of distortion and sub-bass, with dense, unrelenting drones carrying a sense of mounting tension. Just as it seems to collapse under its own weight, flickers of guitar emerge like distant light through fog. It’s a meditation on dissonance, resolve, and the elusive possibility of release.

The closing track, “Secretly Wishing for Rain,” is steeped in saudade: a longing for Seattle’s dour grey skies, lush green landscapes, and desaturated sunsets. Through it, Irisarri mourns a vanished chapter of life bound to the city, a time documented in scattered mementos and cherished collections, now permanently gone. A reflection on what could never be recovered: an era lost to time. Julia Kent’s looped cello motifs added a melancholic warmth to the track, marking the first collaboration between the two artists and sparking a musical dialogue that would keep growing in the years that followed.

More than a career highlight, A Fragile Geography has laid the foundation for Black Knoll studio, which Irisarri rebuilt from the ground up. The studio has since grown into a creative hub for countless projects, with Irisarri engineering records for iconic music figures like Terry Riley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, William Basinski, MONO, Devendra Banhart, Grouper, Emeralds, Steve Hauschildt, Julianna Barwick, and many others. Carried by its lasting influence, the album has quietly captured the ear of a younger generation, its sound and emotional arc finding new listeners in unexpected corners.

The album’s new visual language was reimagined in collaboration with Mexico City–based designer Daniel Castrejón. Irisarri captured ghostly images at Gaztelugatxeko Doniene, a historic coastal site in Bermeo, Euskal Herria. Castrejón then treated the photographs with distressed textures and spectral overlays. The final artwork channels the rugged, elemental forces that shaped both the music and Irisarri’s aesthetic, renewing his ties to ancestral ground inspired by the Basque homeland of his bloodline.

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with exceptional attention to detail, this anniversary edition uncovers every nuance in the sound design, enhancing clarity and presence. With each listen, new elements emerge, inviting discovery and reconnection.

“I don’t experience this album as a document of grief anymore,” says Irisarri. “I hear adaptation and I'm reminded that when everything falls apart, something meaningful, maybe even beautiful, can emerge.”

Ostinato as resistance: Rafael Anton Irisarri’s landmark work reimagined. Marking the tenth anniversary of the American composer’s critically acclaimed album 'A Fragile Geography', this new edition arrives renewed, both sonically and visually.

First released in 2015 (Room40) during a period of personal upheaval and creative reinvention, it endures as a testament to resilience, transformation, and the connection we hold with the places that shape us.

Written in the aftermath of a devastating theft, A Fragile Geography was born out of loss. Just days before a cross-country move to New York, Irisarri’s entire Seattle-based studio was wiped out. Instruments. Recordings. Archives. Gone without a trace. He arrived on the East Coast to an empty room and the daunting task of starting over.

“This album wasn’t just a record; it was a lifeline,” Irisarri reflects. “It became a way to process the emotional chaos that followed: uprooting, instability, and ultimately, the slow, intuitive rebuilding of a life.”

Composed and recorded in the rural woods of the Hudson Valley, the album took shape in seclusion, surrounded by nature, and through a process guided by improvisation. Embracing limitations, Irisarri wove textural layers of field recordings with half-remembered melodies from his Seattle years, piecing them together like fragments of memory. Tracks like “Displacement,” “Hiatus,” and “Persistence” juxtaposed haunting stillness with restless momentum, mapping an inner terrain of grief, catharsis, and rebirth.

Among its defining sounds is “Empire Systems,” a monumental centerpiece built around a simple four-chord progression, organ textures, and guitar drones. Gradually, the track expands into layers of immersive loops and thick, enveloping distortion that wash over the listener like a rolling wave. Often cited as the album’s most majestic passage, it captures Irisarri at his most sonically ambitious. With a harmonically saturated structure crafted from restraint and repetition, it remains one of his most recognizable compositions: an exercise in the art of maximal minimalism.

From the outset, “Reprisal” received praise from BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs, who championed the track on her radio show. Her support played a key role in introducing Irisarri’s work to wider audiences and solidifying his place within the lineage of electronic, drone, and experimental sound artists. A slow-burning elegy, the piece emerges from a haze of distortion and sub-bass, with dense, unrelenting drones carrying a sense of mounting tension. Just as it seems to collapse under its own weight, flickers of guitar emerge like distant light through fog. It’s a meditation on dissonance, resolve, and the elusive possibility of release.

The closing track, “Secretly Wishing for Rain,” is steeped in saudade: a longing for Seattle’s dour grey skies, lush green landscapes, and desaturated sunsets. Through it, Irisarri mourns a vanished chapter of life bound to the city, a time documented in scattered mementos and cherished collections, now permanently gone. A reflection on what could never be recovered: an era lost to time. Julia Kent’s looped cello motifs added a melancholic warmth to the track, marking the first collaboration between the two artists and sparking a musical dialogue that would keep growing in the years that followed.

More than a career highlight, A Fragile Geography has laid the foundation for Black Knoll studio, which Irisarri rebuilt from the ground up. The studio has since grown into a creative hub for countless projects, with Irisarri engineering records for iconic music figures like Terry Riley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, William Basinski, MONO, Devendra Banhart, Grouper, Emeralds, Steve Hauschildt, Julianna Barwick, and many others. Carried by its lasting influence, the album has quietly captured the ear of a younger generation, its sound and emotional arc finding new listeners in unexpected corners.

The album’s new visual language was reimagined in collaboration with Mexico City–based designer Daniel Castrejón. Irisarri captured ghostly images at Gaztelugatxeko Doniene, a historic coastal site in Bermeo, Euskal Herria. Castrejón then treated the photographs with distressed textures and spectral overlays. The final artwork channels the rugged, elemental forces that shaped both the music and Irisarri’s aesthetic, renewing his ties to ancestral ground inspired by the Basque homeland of his bloodline.

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with exceptional attention to detail, this anniversary edition uncovers every nuance in the sound design, enhancing clarity and presence. With each listen, new elements emerge, inviting discovery and reconnection.

“I don’t experience this album as a document of grief anymore,” says Irisarri. “I hear adaptation and I'm reminded that when everything falls apart, something meaningful, maybe even beautiful, can emerge.”

Off The Record (faitiche 39), the new album by French collagist Roméo Poirier, is an amusing romp through the discarded history of recording studios. It contains fourteen miniatures based on accidental recordings of studio talk, revealing things that were never meant for the public: we hear instructions from studio staff, scraps of talk between musicians, or just microphones being adjusted, as well as false notes, false starts: everyone stops. Start again: 1, 2, 3, 4!

Poirier’s approach recalls Accumulation, an artform practiced by Arman, Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri that involved piling up everyday items into assemblages. The objects themselves often remained unaltered, the artistic gesture consisting in the careful curating of a distinctive selection. Poirier’s audio collages explore similar terrain. The fourteen pieces on Off the Record combine more than a thousand found sounds from studio archives into complex miniatures. The audio content of these outtakes is twisted, stretched, cut, reassembled, slowed down and accelerated. Voices cut into a microgroove, from a very old recording, intertwine with digital voices gleaned from YouTube. All of them in dialogue, engaging the listener with the impression of being part of a new music group.

Poirier uses the mundane routine of setting up before the actual recording gets underway to tell a universal story about working in a recording studio. And he manages something few achieve, transforming specialist knowledge into a narrative whose beauty goes far beyond its immediate subject. It speaks to everyone, because the story is told in a musical language that is open and accessible, evoking magical images reminiscent of Oz – a world consisting less of events than of camp hallucinations, captured in grainy black-and-white photographs. En passant, Poirier shows us how the notion of material accumulation can produce great art.

Written and produced by Roméo Poirier, mastered by Stephan Mathieu, photos by Roméo Poirier, graphic design by Tim Tetzner.

For our fourth release, we welcome Basel-based producer Ben Kaczor. ‘To Baby Bones’ showcases the tracks produced as part of Ben’s first live set presented at Above Below Festival in 2024.

Written as a homage to a loved one, the title track of the EP is a gentle soundscape traveling through memories and subtle body shivers, far away yet never out of heart’s reach. ‘Bridge’, as if hung high above, suffuses the air with a thick emotional haze, lifting slowly as a walk along a fragile structure ends. Wistfully transforming present into past, ‘This Blue Light’ melds with the orange glow of the sun and dissolves into a white cloud. Driving and fizzy ‘Punchbag’ brings all the dreamers down to earth. Immersing them straight into the buzzing front left, it buoyantly concludes an ode to the melody of life and the joy of a loving heart — To Baby Bones.

Jennifer Touch release her next LP 'Aging at Airports' on Fabrika Records. The idea for the record title came before the music even existed as Touch was spending an increasing amount of time in airports while touring. In her own words: "It felt like I waste a large part of my life waiting for the next show to come, to entertain and perform my music and build timeless moments with others. This waiting, the slowly ticking time at the gate, was in complete contrast to what I want to do as an artist: to be in flux, to create things that will last forever. The airport, as a busy hub, was like a symbol of this ambivalence. And a reminder: every second, whether waiting or on the move, I have to accept that I am fading, that my creative power, my face, and my body are fading. As a (performing) artist, everything feels like a strange contrast. While you want to stay true to yourself and speak authentically from the soul, you are also expected to appear forever young, and powerful. Artists are often wanted to distract people, but creating this art forces me to confront my own transience. I feel the struggle to fit into this powerful artificial framework that the world has set and the desire to break free from it."

GOODWIN, das Soloprojekt des The Slow Show-Sängers Rob Goodwin, hat das Debütalbum 'PEEKABOO' angekündigt, das am 19. September 2025 über PIAS Recordings veröffentlicht wird. An Goodwins Seite ist dabei Lambert, der mysteriöse, maskierte Pianist und Komponist, der u.a. für seine Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern wie Nils Frahm und Ólafur Arnalds bekannt ist.

'PEEKABOO' geht über die cineastische Wucht seiner Band hinaus und liefert etwas Intimeres und Ungeschliffeneres. Eine Sammlung zutiefst persönlicher Songs, die in stillen Momenten entstanden sind und in Berlin-Neukölln mit Lambert geformt wurden. Als Produzent bringt Lambert seine Handschrift - sowohl spielerisch als auch tiefgründig - in 'PEEKABOO' ein. Er verwebt eindringliche Pianos und Arrangements mit Goodwins intimem Storytelling und lässt jeden Song in seinem eigenen ruhigen Raum atmen. Gemeinsam geht es auch auf 'PEEKABOO' Tour im Herbst.

Getragen von Goodwins unverwechselbarem Bariton - einer Stimme, die sowohl zärtlich als auch donnernd und voller Sehnsucht ist - entfalten sich die zehn Songs wie eine Reihe stiller Bekenntnisse. Inspiriert von den stimmungsvollen Atmosphären von Leonard Cohen und Nick Drake, behandeln die Lieder das Gewicht von Liebe, Verlust und stiller Tapferkeit. Romantische, traumhafte Geschichten für Menschen, die verstehen, dass manchmal die kleinsten Momente die größte Bedeutung haben. “These songs are fragments of myself. Sharing them feels exhilarating and terrifying, as vulnerability often does.”

GOODWIN, das Soloprojekt des The Slow Show-Sängers Rob Goodwin, hat das Debütalbum 'PEEKABOO' angekündigt, das am 19. September 2025 über PIAS Recordings veröffentlicht wird. An Goodwins Seite ist dabei Lambert, der mysteriöse, maskierte Pianist und Komponist, der u.a. für seine Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern wie Nils Frahm und Ólafur Arnalds bekannt ist.

'PEEKABOO' geht über die cineastische Wucht seiner Band hinaus und liefert etwas Intimeres und Ungeschliffeneres. Eine Sammlung zutiefst persönlicher Songs, die in stillen Momenten entstanden sind und in Berlin-Neukölln mit Lambert geformt wurden. Als Produzent bringt Lambert seine Handschrift - sowohl spielerisch als auch tiefgründig - in 'PEEKABOO' ein. Er verwebt eindringliche Pianos und Arrangements mit Goodwins intimem Storytelling und lässt jeden Song in seinem eigenen ruhigen Raum atmen. Gemeinsam geht es auch auf 'PEEKABOO' Tour im Herbst.

Getragen von Goodwins unverwechselbarem Bariton - einer Stimme, die sowohl zärtlich als auch donnernd und voller Sehnsucht ist - entfalten sich die zehn Songs wie eine Reihe stiller Bekenntnisse. Inspiriert von den stimmungsvollen Atmosphären von Leonard Cohen und Nick Drake, behandeln die Lieder das Gewicht von Liebe, Verlust und stiller Tapferkeit. Romantische, traumhafte Geschichten für Menschen, die verstehen, dass manchmal die kleinsten Momente die größte Bedeutung haben. “These songs are fragments of myself. Sharing them feels exhilarating and terrifying, as vulnerability often does.”

180g, turquoise vinyl. Perhaps the hardest thing about Soul music is convincing. If the place and the experiences don't somehow shine through and meet us, we risk missing out on what's on offer completely. "But first_ are you experienced?" as Jimi Hendrix asked. That's precisely why Soul music is difficult in Sweden. There are few who can portray their experiences in music in a way as convincing as in the Black US Soul tradition. This however seems almost provocatively easy for Bror Gunnar Jansson to do. On the album People, it's as if he pours both lyrics and melodies that have grown slowly in life and that come naturally if you grow up on the right soil. And on almost every song, it only takes a few bars for Bror Gunnar Jansson & The Escapism to show who their musical relatives are. Although Gunnar seems to move freely in musical landscapes ruled by the greats of seventies soul from Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin, as well as in some of the fringes of blues and jazz territory, both he and drummer and producer Christopher Cantillo explain that the album has took a long time brewing. And that what may appear obvious and simple has sprung out of a friendship that spans more than half of their lives.

Originally out as a free Net-7inch on Jahtari in 2008 to pay respects at the shrine of arcade machine fighting games, these undying hiphop-infused martial arts Dubs by disrupt are finally reaching their intended destination: white blood-splattered 7inch vinyl (attention: not actual blood!).

"Samurai Showdown" (which eventually became Solo Banton's classic "Kung Fu Master", from his Music Addict EP in 2010) is taking place at sunrise, of course, when two master swordsmen are matching blades in a battle to the death. Can the wave-cutting technique of the Jahtari-school prevail?

The B-side is the meditation after the battle, mentally re-creating the epic struggle move by move and in slow motion...
So draw your Katana and prepare for beats as sharp as a battle sword, deadly moves of Ninja swiftness and basslines coming straight from the six paths of hell.

JayWood - the nom de plume of Jeremy Haywood-Smith - is embracing new pastures having moved his music-making from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Montreal, and his new album Leo Negro chimes with a different tone as it looks to reconnect the self and grapple with one's identity. Marking a moment of meaningful change where controlled chaos takes the lead, it philosophises on what it truly means to be an experimentalist building a multi-faceted world where genre is infinite through sounds braver, more playful, and truthful than he's dared deliver before. Despite its astute sampling with layers of twists and turns, Leo Negro doesn't showboat but roars in the presence of vulnerability as it considers one's absolutes as a way of navigating the identity crisis. "Always looking for attention, I admit it, I can't help it, I'm a Leo," he reasons between vintage hip-hop scrubs on `Pistachios,' recalling a childhood need to be the centre of attention then stepping out of the spotlight as a grown-up. "Leos are confident and sure about themselves, but this record isn't that; so really, when translated, the title inspires `black confidence.' It's an uncomfortable, weird, and surreal term which bends the truth and embodies everything within." Experimenting in both life and music, Leo Negro and its first cut, `Big Tings' (feat. California, art-pop duo Tune-Yards) couldn't be further from 2023's Grow On EP and the previous year's slick LP Slingshot. Moving with flow akin to D'Angelo with Toro Y Moi textures, its twinkling intro of whirling synth and playful approach circles back to Jeremy's adolescence when he'd reverse, slow down, and speed up his favourite songs through the media player on his computer. Encouraged by his musical squad Will Grierson, Arthur Antony, Brett Ticzon, and enlisting his stylist and thrifter friends to capture the Leo Negro aesthetic, JayWood's big `in' for 2025 is collaboration, with the tight-knit crew of likeminded musical colleagues captured in session photo grins beaming from his Instagram grid. Nominated for Canada's coveted Polaris Music Prize, it'd be easy to be the cowardly lion; to rinse and repeat what's worked up to this point. But for JayWood, leaning into his natural `what if?' curiosity to make up his own rules as he goes along ("I never really knew what they were to begin with") and venture into honesty's unsafe space to seek comfort, confidence and make even greater connections, really is the only option. After all, he can't help it; he's a Leo.

Recorded as part of the same daydreaming puzzle as Unwishing Well, Still Clouds at Noon brings out the slowcore/sadcore elements that drift through The Reds, Pinks & Purples' melancholy catalog. Donaldson names '90s hometown San Francisco acts such as American Music Club and the more obscure Timco as pivotal to his guitar playing and development as a songwriter, both of which shine bright here. The slower tempo ballads on Still Clouds_ often culminate in heavy fuzz drenched codas and showcase the more abstract poetic side of Donaldson's lyricism. There's an inherent pop-sensibility always at work though, with ear-worm melodies appearing over intoxicating circular riffs. Formerly a Bandcamp only digital release, this white vinyl version is remastered and adds two unreleased tracks, one featuring Mark Monnone from Australian pop-legends The Lucksmiths on bass. Strictly limited edition of 500 ww.

Barcelona-based record label Hot Plates, founded by Nico and Dom of Suicide After 7, is thrilled to present its debut release: a four-track EP distributed by Runas. The record is a dynamic journey through analog textures and genre-blurring rhythms, unified by a shared spirit and sonic identity. Crafted with vintage gear like the TR-808, Juno-106, FM synths, and Prophet, the EP showcases a range of moods and energies:

“Blanked” sets the tone with crisp pads, a subtle Chicago house rhythm, and a blend of futuristic and retro synths. It carries an ominous yet invigorating feel—an understated dancefloor burner that slowly creeps in.

“Fish Fry” pushes into darker territory, with an edgy, slightly menacing EBM vibe. Anchored by a gritty FM bass and splashes of sharp percussion, it rolls forward with underground intensity and eerie momentum.

“Orion” shifts the tone into something romantic and nostalgic, channeling classic Italo influences. Soft pads and a hypnotic, pulsing synth create a dreamy, forwardmoving energy that feels both futuristic and wistful.

“Sole Seller” closes the EP with a disco-inspired banger—playful, stripped-back, and built to move. Sparse vocals float above the groove, giving it just the right hint of attitude while keeping it firmly locked in dance territory.

Each track opens a different window into the Hot Plates universe. Together, they form a cohesive, well-rounded EP—diverse in style, but united by that
unmistakable Suicide After 7 essence

The quietest voices can be the most durable.

American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.

Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release.

Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.

‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’

Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.

As a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band’s past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band’s original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana’s borders. It is a sign of the album’s magnitude in sound, and of the band’s boldness in breaking away from home comforts.

American Football also joked that LP3’s genre was ‘post-house’, because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on ‘I Can’t Feel You’, a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.

The album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album’s catchiest moment, ‘Uncomfortably Numb’, and Elizabeth Powell, of the Québécoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.

LP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. ‘I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,’ says Mike. ‘The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.’ As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on ‘I Can’t Feel You”: I’m fluent in subtlety.

‘Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,’ says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes – Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s mbv – as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.

‘I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,’ says Nate. ‘And no matter where you go, or what you do they’re always there.’ He is talking of Steve Reich – an early and ongoing influence on American Football – but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation

Dokkerman & The Turkeying Fellaz, the Hungarian apostles of heavy funk return with this crisp 7” featuring two deep cuts. On this one they show us their more mature and mellow side fusing Oriental, African and psychedelic characteristics with their signature all-in dirty funk sound.

’Hat’ on side A is a mellow jam of the kind we all love: hypnotic guitar and organ playing over a slow burning groove and a beat you start nodding your head to in the second the needle hits the groove. Ont he flip, ’Kilenc’ is an uptempo number composed and performed in the same vein - the perfect choice for any bold funk set played for an open minded crowd.

Limited to 300 copies.

Naarm/Melbourne-based rock powerhouse Shepparton Airplane are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of their fourth album, Forecast, set for release on August 8th via Wing Sing Records.

The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2020 LP, Sharks, Forecast marks a compelling evolution for the band, leaning into a more song-oriented approach while still retaining the raw energy their live shows are celebrated for. While previous albums embraced extended jams, Forecast showcases a collection of more traditionally structured songs, with only one instrumental track, the epic slow-burner "Thursday, Simply."

Forecast was written during the endless Melbourne lockdowns, however the music maintains a surprisingly hopeful and, at times, pop-influenced direction.

Lyrically, Forecast delves into the darker facets of the human experience - isolation and introspection - exploring everyday interactions in tracks like "Saw You Coming," "Scribbles and Noises," and "Someone To Blame." These sit alongside apocalyptic observations in songs such as "Forecast," "Septic Dream," and "Hell No," as well as fictional narratives like the tale of a disenfranchised battler in "Angry" and the tragic seafaring love story in "Heaven Will Take Us In." Adding a touch of levity is "Stereo Youth," described by the band as possibly their most feel-good tune to Date.

Forecast promises to impress fans of outsider guitar-driven sounds and followers of the band members' other projects. Ultimately, the album reaffirms that raw, honest, loud rock'n'roll is alive and well in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.