Поиск:the spirals

OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are both bands whose music is wholly unique and whose creators" influence would be impossible to overstate. YoshimiO, OOIOO"s founder and bandleader, has been a guiding force in uncompromising art across the continuum of rock and improvised music for four decades, from her work in UFO or Die to The Boredoms to SAICOBAB and beyond. OOIOO serves as a core outlet for melding freeform experimentalism with hypnotic rock pulses, defying boundaries with her acrobatic voice, electronics, trumpet and gamelan. Lightning Bolt"s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson have remained unparalleled in their ability to transmute frenetic whirls of percussion, gargantuan fuzz and dizzying melody into monolithic vistas. THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a split that captures the parallels in ethos between these two ensembles, their sense of gleeful abandon and freight train momentum, in inspiring detail.

OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are both bands whose music is wholly unique and whose creators" influence would be impossible to overstate. YoshimiO, OOIOO"s founder and bandleader, has been a guiding force in uncompromising art across the continuum of rock and improvised music for four decades, from her work in UFO or Die to The Boredoms to SAICOBAB and beyond. OOIOO serves as a core outlet for melding freeform experimentalism with hypnotic rock pulses, defying boundaries with her acrobatic voice, electronics, trumpet and gamelan. Lightning Bolt"s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson have remained unparalleled in their ability to transmute frenetic whirls of percussion, gargantuan fuzz and dizzying melody into monolithic vistas. THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a split that captures the parallels in ethos between these two ensembles, their sense of gleeful abandon and freight train momentum, in inspiring detail.

"Spirals" goes back to the roots of jazz, funk, and disco and brings elements of these music streams into house music. In the appearance of swing, jazz was originally a dance music genre, which later developed in many directions. Various other genres were born from it. Even electronic music streams like house belong to those genres.

Bearing this in mind, "Spirals" connects different points in the history of these genres. Bringing this fusion to life, the MIMIKOTO project works with electronic elements (analogue synths, drum computers, electronic modulations) as well as acoustic instruments (saxophones, keys, trumpet, bass, drums and percussions).

The MIMIKOTO project was founded in 2019 by Fabio Kumori as a collective of musicians related to jazz, funk, soul and electronic music, after a certain period of composing and playing as duo, trio and quartet. One of the central goals of the MIMIKOTO project is to include people from different backgrounds - to be inclusive regarding the music and the musicians themselves.

May the sound of "Spirals" be a social room in which everyone is invited to participate, and may this idea be spread everywhere where it will be played.

**LTD 500 ONLY COPIES ON CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL**


Time to turn on and turn it up, theres a brand new Carlton Melton in the offing… its been a good couple of years since the West Coast space/sike travellers have dropped new music.


‘Phantomize beyond the window, into the portal, the panes of eternal returns, wooden spirals, roots into the realms of everything and nothing, the reason beings’


With Anthony Taibi fully ensconsed in the metaphorical Melton Dome, this four piece is ready to soar, go deeper and wider into the sike psyche than on previous recordings, now fully recording live with drums, bass, guitars and keys...recorded at 3D Light in Freshwater, CA by Anthony Tiabi in 2025, and mastered by the inimitable John Mcbain in 2026.


We have a single LP of 40+ minutes spanning 4 tracks, that have textures, and waves and patterns to lull you into some fever dream of motorik psych! Touchstones like Träd, Gräs Och Stenar / Kandodo / Guru Guru / Eno & Fripp / Birds of Maya / Parson Sound come into view.


There are moments of gentle ambience bordered by speaker shredding guitar soloing, whole passages of Krautrock inspired jams that have form and focus.. you blink and your live flashes before you, the record ends, you want more..


There are moments of gentle ambience bordered by speaker shredding guitar soloing, whole passages of Krautrock inspired jams that have form and focus.. you blink and your live flashes before you, the record ends, you want more.. Carlton Melton masterfully blend hypnotic, long-form psychedelic jams with drone and Krautrock influences.


Band:

Rich Millman
Andy Duvall
Clint Golden
Anthony Taibi


Announced to celebrate summers solstice.. released on the Autumn equinox.. with a full UK tour to boot..


Come fly / fry with us…

At the heart of ‘Diese Fragile Praesenz’ lies a melancholic yet propulsive drone, constructed from a field recording and drenched in white noise. Around this softly glowing orb Kelovolt constructs a vast, shifting, sombre soundscape. Lush, magisterial pads, starry-eyed synth work, cold washes of tape hiss and static melt in and out of the mise-en-scène. Crumbling walls of bass and distortion collapse in slow motion even as rich, brasslike harmonies elevate the listening mind. Long keening synth notes emerge from the fog, intertwining with falling tubular figures, a journey through a wormhole of sound both monumental and fragile.
The accompanying reinterpretations approach this deeply rich source material with discerning reverence. Voltmar's version deepens the grain of the original, with sharper percussion and washes of static that blow through the mix like little gales of dust. Anthony Linell's PM and AM remixes delve into a darker emotional core, placing at the centre a low, shadowy synth pulse around which mists of tape hiss and distortion swirl. Black Merlin steers the track down the path of eerie psychedelia, echoing clicks and dubwise space around a groove often found in the deeper chasms of contemporary techno.
Elsewhere, Die Wilde Jagd stretches the original into a mesmeric landscape of drones, occasional distant percussion and heavy fog, punctuated by fleeting moments of melodic clarity and beautifully resonant bell tones. CV313's pair of reworks complete the collection by exploring two complementary dimensions of the original through his signature dub approach. The Gravitational Pull mix feels the most true to the title track, amplifying its starry-eyed, celestial qualities, with a softer, hazier version built around a deep bass groove, while the Dimensional Dub descends into vast caverns of echo, resonance and alien texture - strong dub-techno sensibilities loom large in this mix.
Endlessly contemplative, endlessly exploratory, minimood027 is a trip to its own sonic galaxy that spirals inexorably outward, carrying the mind to ever wider astral planes. But at the core is that ever-pulsing drone, the black abyss that draws consciousness powerlessly back into the great nothingness.

Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.

This journey officially debuts with a Various Artists EP that perfectly embodies our sonic research, transcending musical genres and form to focus on pure feeling and connect to a timeless energy.

Opening the EP is Dismal with Holocryptic Woods, a 'psychedelic jungle' progressing vortex that challenges perception. Following is Little Sea with Jaguaro, a journey that evokes the golden-age aesthetic of progressive trance, balancing hypnotic structures and organic references to nature.

On the B side, Rambal Cochet presents Unreal Engine, a dark ritual at 135 BPM where Memphis rap meets acid spirals and neon atmospheres. Closing the VA, Electrodynamique delivers Ezo, an immersive electro trance dedication to the magic festivals’ nights feelings, rounding out the mosaic of identities of this project.

Surrender to the flow.

Winding through cavernous and dark meanders, amid gurgling water, rustling sounds, low and deep pulsations, incisive and impactful sound masses, floating waves, crystalline drips, sudden rays of light, electronic spirals, and unexpected openings onto almost soothing soundscapes and quiet environmental stasis, Rod Modell paints musical textures that are apparently abstract and contemplative, but in reality charged with pathos and drama, taking advantage of a spectacular, enveloping and surprising sound quality, in which every nuance and every small detail makes the listening experience even more intense and engaging. A new exciting masterpiece by Maestro Rod Modell.

Already in its title, Plume Girl’s debut thoroughly lets things go and takes them in – all at once. “In the End We Begin” is the first solo full-length from Sowmya Somanath, a Hindustani classical singer/composer and half of alt-pop duo Felt Out. Plume Girl’s music takes inspiration from the semi-regular musical form of the rāga (translated as ‘tinting’), invoking mood and atmosphere, each rāga thought to have its own distinct nature and personality, brought to life through improvisation. String swells and Somanath’s searching vocalisations envelop every track’s own blissful chamber. Exploring imagined binaries along the way — eastern vs. western, traditional vs. experimental, acoustic vs. electronic, Sowmya sees music as a curious dialogue between divine Self and an invisible reality. Beneath the illusion of a chromatic world, there remains a blissful oneness.

Plume Girl’s songs sit between ambient Hindustani music and emotionally-encumbered pop. In front of backdrops comprising sundrenched drones or glitches, sketched out beats, and criss-crossing glissandi or flutes, Somanath both murmurs intimately and spirals upwards into soaring choruses. The lyrics ponder innermost thoughts, never more literally than on the blissful emo folk closing track: ‘In my heart I know / what’s in my heart / I know what’s in my…’

“When I began writing this music, I was fresh off of an experience that completely twisted my reality,” explains Somanath. It was the end of a years-long relationship, and the blossoming of a long-buried love hidden in plain sight: “a best friend of a decade, my musical partner, someone who had always seen me completely…At once, I felt grief and loss. At once, excitement and love.”

Debut album from Irrflug, the Berlin-based project of Mark Kanak.
Irrflug is a changing artist group rather than a fixed band. In Silver it's comprising Ian King, BoBo (Christiane Hebold) and Ella Sturmvogel and some others. 2 tracks feature Blixa Bargeld's voice.
Silver extends Sähkö vocabulary into new directions. ”rhythmic studies of corroded atmospheres” says Mark Kanak

Vibe Ride is the sixth release of Adam Rudolph's Hu Vibrational project and marks his 60th release as a leader or co-leader. Comes with insert and download code.

“With every record, the goal is to explore new creative territory,” explains Rudolph. Vibe Ride continues a deeper exploration of a trance-like groove and a conceptual framework known as Sonic Mandala. This album marks the most complete realization of that idea, partly due to the group's experience touring beforehand. That time on the road helped to refine ideas and strengthen musical chemistry. The recording process unfolded organically—likely due to the long-standing collaboration within ensembles like Go: Organic Orchestra and Moving Pictures, where the musicians have developed a deep familiarity with the shared musical language.

Sonic Mandala refers to a musical approach distinct from traditional linear structures of theme and development. Found in cultures across the globe, it may represent one of the oldest forms of musical expression—predating written history by tens of thousands of years. Today, it is most vividly preserved in the music of the Ituri Forest peoples (Aka, Baka, Ba Benzele, Mbuti), whose sound traditions revolve in cyclical, orbit-like patterns. Vibe Ride seeks to bring that ancient sense of circularity into a contemporary—and perhaps even futuristic—context.

The ensemble of Vibe Ride—Alexis Marcelo, Jerome Harris, Harris Eisenstadt, Neel Murgai, Tim Kieper, and Tripp Dudley—brings exceptional creativity and skill to the project. While grounded in the sonic languages of today, their performance channels an ancient vibrational lineage, connecting with ancestral sound makers who were attuned to the rhythms of the sun, moon, stars, and seasons. Human beings have always been deeply responsive to natural cycles.

Like a mandala, where the circle reveals itself as a spiral—always returning, but never to the exact same point—the Sonic Mandala musical experience spirals through motion. Refined signal patterns emerge through overtone-rich instrumentation. The groove becomes a threshold, shifting the listener from passive observation into active, even transcendent, participation. With open ears and an open mind, the sound spirals inward—toward a primal center—and outward into the cosmos. When this elevated state is shared among participants, it creates what mystics describe as resonance.

Vibe Ride thrives on the distinctive sonic voices of its players, interwoven with care and nuance into the compositions. Hu Vibrational merges elements of world music, electronica, and improvised jazz into something both funky and spiritual, intense and soothing.

Using signature techniques of organic orchestration, layered arrangement, and electronic processing, the compositions are sculpted from percussion, electronics, and ethereal textures. Rhythmic foundations drawn from diverse traditions serve not as endpoints, but as building blocks. As the saying goes, “Orchestration is the key.” In shaping the sound, the aim was to discover fresh ways of balancing structure and sonic color. As Don Cherry once said: “The swing is in the sound.”

The audiophile LP was carefully recorded, mixed, and mastered by James Dellatacoma—longtime engineer for both Bill Laswell and Rudolph—at Laswell’s Orange Studio.

“This crew artfully blends together to create a seamless tapestry of rhythm… the end results are mesmerizing. Hu Vibrational is all about communing with the groove spirits and creating worlds where earthy rhythms and other-worldly sounds are one.”
— Dan Bilawsky, All Music Guide

“You can be sure that when Adam Rudolph and an ensemble of breathtaking drummers get together mystical and wonderful things will happen.”
— Raul da Gama,

“A stunning effort, enjoyable and grows with repeated listening.”
— Stefan Wood, Freejazzcollective

Groove charmer Route 8 spirals through the techyverse on his full Gestalt Records debut, unleashing a trident of dancefloor destruction, neatly wrapped with a stripped back Gearmaster remix on the B2.

Josh Burke is a guitarist/keyboardist/programmer from Chicago, USA, who specialises in a music that could, perhaps, best be described as an amalgamation of drone, kosmische and ambient, all with a distinctly euphoric flavour, as though these sounds were channelled rather than thoroughly composed.

He has over 30 solo releases to his name as well as splits with Jeffrey Astin (of Xiphiidae), Spirals and Body Morph, and also - like most of his peers - operates under several additional aliases - Ocean Diamond, Futuresport, The Masque, Silk Fountain, 56K, Sky Limousine and Nehal Shah - as well as ensemble and collaborative projects including Bermuda Link, Cartoon Drips, White Prism, Practical Applications Of The Chaossphere, Starfox, Camp Crystal Lake and Holographic Communications Of The Third Sky.

(Umwelt & Sonae Remix)

For the very rst time Blintmusik welcomes two artists to remix tracks from the label’s back catalogue. Keeping the tradition of two tracks per release - on the A side we meet the french grandmaster of Electro, Umwelt. His remix of ‘Chauncey Street‘ is a pure dark whirlwind with bitter-sweet synth-strings oating over a set of forward pushing drums
and a drilling bassline. On the ipside is Sonae, best known for her immersive albums on labels like Monika Enterprise.

Her Remix of ‘92 Avenue‘ opens the gates to a distorted synth-utopia. In a total deconstruction, the Cologne based artist turns the original club banger into a nightmarish noise staccato which spirals down your spine before dropping into a heavyweight kickdrum-inferno. Truly unsettling club music at its best.

Battlefield sees No Ice Cream Sound knock on the door of the real foundations of Roots Reggae and Dancehall culture with a heavyweight, riddim-focused multi-vocalist release.

The release perfectly balances a bold and fresh contemporary sound while retaining the spirit; energy and rawness of the classic riddims we all know and love. Battlefield creates a sturdy platform for the carefully curated selection of vocalists to showcase their respective styles and patterns.

At the heart of the release is a unique vocal link-up that reflects the ever-growing globalisation of the Reggae Sound-system culture. Each of the men behind the microphones invites us to embark on a journey; connecting the dots on the map that represent the places they call home. We start in The South West of England and track across country to Southend-on-Sea; from here we make the mission all the way down to Madrid before taking a bearing on the North Star to guide us over hills and valleys to Scotland.

Where the riddim creates a constant, the vocals provide variety. Made by design the track allows them a spacious environment for the individual styles and messages to come across with precision and clarity.

Hailing from different backgrounds; accents of different origins, insights and perspectives drawn from their own stories all come together over one sound. This could be seen as an analogy of the ethos and motivation behind Reggae music itself. Reggae music as a genre tells the same story, Reggae artists tell their version of the story. Via this timeless format we are always building on the teachings of yesteryear while simultaneously learning something new. The gift that will forever more continue to give!

'Museum Of No Art is the pseudonym of the artist and musician Mona Steinwidder. The pieces on the album A Serpent Called Emit document a two-year engagement with the clarinet and other woodwind instruments. In the search for simplicity, one encounters complexity. But the Museum discovers connections between the poles and lets them circle around each other. Impurities have found their place in it and hard cuts are intended to underline the volatility of the moment, to highlight and admire imperfection.'

2026 Repress
Moving Pressure marks its fifth release, and the first one to stretch across a double vinyl with full sleeve artwork. It isn't framed as an album, yet its sequencing carries a narrative weight that lingers between immediacy and introspection.
MP05 welcomes on board Australian producer Connor Wall, whose work fuses tightly wound rhythm and immersive atmosphere, balancing precision with a sense of openness. His sound is rooted in the physical pull of the dancefloor, yet drawn toward zones of suspension and elusion. And Moving Pressure 05 captures that duality very clearly. Momentum sets the tone from the outset - taut drum programming, metallic accents, and structures that build energy in decisive bursts. There's a sense of propulsion that feels engineered for peak hours, exuding a tightening grip on the floor. Gradually, tension loosens up, stretching patterns into spirals, layering vaporous pads and resonant low-end that opens a more interior space.
Together, the two arcs trace Wall's range with clarity: body and mind, force and dissolve. Rather than presenting opposites, they reveal different angles of the same language. An exploration of density, atmosphere, and the subtle thresholds between the two.

Whodamanny expands the Biloba catalog with a new double‑single: two cuts that echo the energy of Onda Biloba while opening a fresh chapter. Italo disco meets Spanish tones and Latin rhythm in a crisp, memorable blend.

“Vamos” delivers mid‑tempo late‑80s private‑press heat; “Energia” fires upward with a classic driving bassline in pure Cerrone spirit.

The release also includes two alternate, differently titled versions — “Chocolate Dub”, a dubbed‑out excursion built on delay‑feedback spirals, wild send‑return abuse, and live mute‑solo action on the mixer, and “1,2,3,4!”, a more percussive, stripped‑down take

A-Side: Spiralen - DJ Koze
It is said that DJ Koze creates musical universes - yet what many don't realize is this: the universe itself was created 13.8 billion years ago by DJ Koze, before he condescended to become physical matter. He was the force of gravity that held everything together - and today, as for over 35 years, he continues to surprise again and again, scattering his stardust across the night sky.
It's simply unbelievable.

"In your eyes, spirals are turning
They pull me deeper than any mind can reach
The world goes soft around its edges
And everything drifts into no man's land"
B-Side: "Wo's Patric?!?" - DJ Koze
The title says it all - fortunately, Patric is always there. So beautiful that he exists.

Ital Tek's new album 'Mind Abandon' takes a different direction from his recent run of releases, embracing a more human touch in contrast to the dense, world-building drone of his previous albums and film work. This time, he set out to compose away from the computer as much as possible _ working more instinctively and allowing himself to get lost in the music. Alan found the most natural starting point was his own voice, processing vocals into shifting pads and textures. His guitar sits at the centre of much of the record, joined by live, hand-played percussion and effects, often captured in quick, spontaneous performances. The result is an album of spacious, contrasting dynamics, with textures pressing against each other and rhythmic elements fighting to surface from glutinous, layered sound. "It feels like a very introspective record for me," Alan says. "Losing my sense of identity/self as part of the process - the increasing effort to calm my mind and embrace humanity/imperfection in the music. This path made sense as a jumping off point for a lot of the music to be vocal or guitar experiments - singing in ideas and then processing to become less identifiable." The album feels carved and three-dimensional, weaving industrial and shoegaze influences with the darker edges of post-rock. Subtly embedded in its architecture are traces of dubstep dynamics _ a sound that remains part of Alan's DNA. Opening track "The Ice Is Thin" is driven almost entirely by live guitar and keyboard, awash in reverb. On "A Hidden Path," everything apart from the drums stems from processed vocals and guitar, with a fleeting appearance from his daughter's toy ukulele. It unfolds like the beginning of a journey _ vast and cinematic _ nodding to the widescreen tension of Ennio Morricone before building into a towering wall of noise. "Killswitch" disorients with pounding kick drums crafted from twanging acoustic guitar, pushing through layers of static-charged chords. "Undertow" spirals outward on looping guitar figures set against a pulsing Rhodes. "Misted," built around a rare four-to-the-floor beat, uses guitar as a driving rhythmic device, opening with a bassline that wouldn't feel out of place on a The Cure record. "Imagined Landscape" introduces icy keyboard textures that foreshadow the dark closer, "The Pull," where an arpeggiated bassline reminiscent of DAF underpins unnerving, internalised sound design that feels as though it's scratching from within. Mind Abandon closes on a heavy, stalking note _ fresh sounds drawn from the body and the heart.

Welcoming prolific and essential Mexican artist Andy Martin to Animalia, with his mesmerising, mind-bending musical interpretation of the Nahual, a common & integral figure of the belief systems of ancient Indigenous peoples of the Americas, which embodies the spiritual connection between humans & animals. In some traditional stories, this connection is so strong that they are said to transform into one of them. Tierra de Nahuales refers to a region of ancient America inhabited by these mythological beings, which in this EP become part of the Animalia universe, shaped by psychedelic broken rhythms, tribal sounds, and dub influences. A release that feels both deeply personal to Andy's musical & cultural identity as well as the label's own - a telling ode to the abilities of the depth & outer worldly sense to his music - a world-building, shapeshifting & one of a kind artist who feels truly at home in the Animalia family.

Tony Njoku returns with All Our Knives Are Always Sharp, a sonically expansive and emotionally charged second album that brings together a remarkable cast of black British voices. Featuring powerful collaborations with Tricky, GAIKA, Ghostpoet, Coby Sey, James Massiah Space Afrika and Labi Junior, the record serves as a landmark moment for Njoku, a culmination of both the singular musical style and nuanced, socially-engaged storytelling he’s been crafting throughout his career.

Rooted in themes of spiritual preparedness, cultural resistance and emotional clarity, the album unfolds through Njoku’s signature blend of electronic abstraction, falsetto-led songwriting and cinematic composition. It’s a work that cuts deep. Philosophical, political and personal, each guest brings a vital new layer to the conversation.





“ALL OUR KNIVES….” will be the first release on Tony’s new imprint ‘Studio Njoku’, which Tony says will serve as a space to facilitate his collaborations with his wider creative community. In addition the album will be pressed on heavyweight 180g vinyl limited-edition, with 300 copies worldwide. It will be the first run of physical production for Studio Njoku

The album opens with the ominous guitar-driven Hollow Sky, accompanied by its haunting music video's verdant vistas. The song, with Iceglass ghostly vocals, shimmers with that sounds like an Omnichord flittering like sonic firefly lights and brooding bass. This perfectly scores the less traveled wanderings through the dark wooden path of Dante's perdition, leading to the titular well that graces the album cover. The Crater opens with an unsettling riff and bass, with low, repetitive frequencies on the synth create a sense of unease. Here, Iceglass recounts a fatalistic requiem for the king of romance that is cataclysmic and leaves a scar upon the earth. With Fall Industrial Wall, once again, Iceglass channels a silky and Nico-like emotive deadpan; against a dirgelike melody backed by minimal synth, bass, and drum. Almost medieval and plaintive, with its folk droning horns, deep and shallow in their resonance. This song is anachronistic, setting the scene of ruins centuries-old with crumbling edifices strewn about like memories lost in time. With the poetic lyrics of The Chamber do we find the eponymous abyss. Here, dualities are laid bare; besides love, there is heartbreak, and without this sorrow, what meaning would there be to love if one knows not what it is to lose? This song encapsulates the idea that love is heartbreak, and love lost is reaching the deepest chamber of the heart. This is carried through a sombre horn, minimalist drum machine, and deliberate bassline overlaid with Iceglass german and english lyrics. The Well is led in with a softly distorted bassline overlaid with eerie banshee howls give way to Iceglass otherworld vocal refrain, echoing through time as if emanating from a hole in the ground, and encircling that hole is a garden of woe and despair. The sinfully seductive song The Moor features a captivating SAX SOLO courtesy of Perseas; a welcome shift in tone, juxtaposed well with the intensity of Iceglass tenebrous vocal purr. This hitherto unexplored foray into dark sensuality takes the song into sordid mid 80s territory, bringing to mind a dusky drive along a serpentine road, with equally haunting instrumentations straddling time with icy fire. Broken Characters is an acoustic folk interlude featuring Selofan's Dimitris Pavlidis on guitar. Here we find a more gentle approach with its earnest and romantic lyrics. The song's melodic hook is a soft caress along with the forlorn horn elements highlighting Iceglass at her most Nico-sounding vocal yet, singing the sorrowful truth that most artists are indeed broken characters. Chimerical opens with dirgelike synth organs. The chill of winter has befallen the lamentations sung by Iceglass carried by haunting chord progressions and minimal percussion, plaintively beseeching the song's subject to remain elusive, idealistic, and a dreamer. After an album highlighting more Jill than Jack, our male protagonist finally makes his ascent in the sonorous and breathtaking Dark Hill, a masterful march of sweeping synth horns, and trepidatious drum machine with William Maybelline's bellowing voice cracking like thunder, rattling the atmosphere like his heart against his ribs. Spirals swirls in a cautionary knell of cathedral-esque droning synth dirge, with Icarian lyrics shining like a sombre ray of hope; like the sun's rays creeping into the darkest of places. The song, minimalist in its tight percussion, echoes with the solace of Larissa Iceglass vocal litany; invoking elements of the supernatural, almost like a Casio preset sequenced to the beating of an angel's wings.

Anton Toorell’s second solo album, Solos II, deepens and intensifies the six-string language introduced on his 2022 debut, Solos. Rather than widening his scope, the Swedish guitarist, composer and producer sharpens his focus, homing in on the physical and sonic relationship between player, instrument and tuning. The result is three extended pieces of cascading tonality that feel disciplined yet light, their conceptual frameworks always secondary to the luminous sounds Toorell draws from two guitars.
Throughout Solos II, Toorell explores both the guitar’s potential for silvery, sometimes clashing textures and his own physical engagement with the instrument. Across ‘Volta’, ‘Cripta’ and ‘Scala’, he plays two guitars simultaneously: one fretted with the left hand using hammer-ons and pull-offs, while the right hand activates mostly open strings on a guitar resting in his lap. Despite the inherent complexity of this approach, the music never feels busy or demonstrative. Technique remains a quiet servant to Toorell’s compositional instincts and improvisational sensitivity.

The album leaves space for unplanned resonances and happy accidents, yet its structures are clear, resilient and finely balanced. The seventeen-minute ‘Volta’ unfolds as a shimmering continuum, its repeated figures gently reshaped through minute inflections, creating a sensation of constant motion. ‘Cripta’ spirals inward, cycling hypnotically in a way that recalls both Terry Riley’s iterative minimalism and the hallucinatory guitar loops of early Seefeel.
With the closing ‘Scala’, the recording environment comes fully into view. Captured in a 16th-century wine cellar at Palazzo Stabile in Piemonte, Italy, the room functions as a guiding presence and an implicit third instrument. Toorell tuned the guitars in response to the cellar’s reverberant character, seeking configurations that would open up the space itself.

Hailed as one of the US's most exciting and provocative new bands, Prostitute's bracing debut Attempted Martyr finally sees its official worldwide release on Mute.?

Emerging out of Dearborn, Michigan, this five-piece deal in pure chaos and catharsis - fiery live shows, razor-sharp intensity, and a sound that's as incendiary as it is brutally tight. Their name reflects their fixation on identity, desperation, and survival under late capitalism.

Attempted Martyr was written in the midst of global and personal turmoil, capturing the zeitgeist of a world unraveling. A loose concept record, it chronicles the rise and fall of a doomed zealot whose pursuit of holy vengeance spirals into a psychotic orgy of violence, greed, and lust. It's dense, turbulent, and charged with blaring Middle Eastern, African and East Asian influences - all scorched into shape by producer Chris Koltay (The Armed, Mdou Moctar).

With mounting online buzz, critical acclaim and a run of sold-out bootleg editions, Prostitute's debut continues to gain momentum - now available on red viny

B. Chamber (Stratum A), by B. Close, is the first full length solo release by Los Angeles-based multi-disciplinary artist Brian Close. The first of two volumes assembled from some thirteen hours of music produced by Close while residing in Connecticut from 2021-2025, B. Chamber (Stratum A) offers a vivid, fractal afterimage of a prolific, specific time and space in the artist’s oeuvre.

After leaving New York City early in the pandemic to a farmhouse in the countryside with dedicated spaces for multiple sound stations, Close developed an intensive daily practice of melding with the machines. The vast, pastoral backdrop of rural CT provided inspiration and contrast for his ongoing investigations into dynamic, poly-rhythmic electronic music. The sounds on B. Chamber (Stratum A) range from the machine-modeling of acoustic instruments and natural environments to the utterly unhuman, spinning on the axis between crystalline, pointillist precision and shifty blown-cone distortion. Close’s atypical interpretations of rhythm, noise and other undefined musics land in a hybrid zone of their own.

Throughout B. Chamber (Stratum A), Close’s productions are in perpetual motion. Foxtrot’s shifting hi-hats and disembodied voices rise like cicadas propelled by glitching machines and tangled rhythms, Many Drive draws momentum from dubby stabs and twinkling atmospherics. Character Community’s nimble, drifting snares and erratic static are uplifted by swelling synths, and Mpan’s modular mining forgoes drums but is no less propulsive for it. Acre Voices’ seasick pads and deft drum patterns tap an energizing nerve, and closer 5D Bow’s ambush of pummeling machine gun fire spirals into the tryptamine palace and emerges completely rinsed and refreshed.

Equally powerful in the club as in the outdoors, in the headphones eyes closed or on the move, B. Chamber (Stratum A) grants an immersive temporary trip on B. Close’s unique wavelength, with Stratum B to complete the picture in the summer of 2026.

RIYL - Mark Fell, muay thai, Vladislav Delay, gaming, Errorsmith, modular synthesizer.

+++++

Brian Close (b. 1979, NYC) uses the cold logic of mathematics to trigger states of total sensory displacement. Close co-founded multiple AV studios to explore the "hypnotic"—a ritualistic practice of motional-graphism and improvisational sound. His work is a study in synesthesia and the architecture of trance, using geometric precision to dissolve the sense of time. It is a digital-visceral experience built on heavy logic, designed for large-scale immersion and timelessness.

Close is one half of Georgia who have released records on Palto Flats, Firecracker Recordings, Meakusma, Youth, OOH-Sounds and EM Records, and have a long-running residency on NTS.

B. Chamber was written, produced and mixed by Brian Close.
Mastered by Rashad Becker.
Artwork by Brian Close.

2026 Repress

Whether in the studio or the club, Daphni has always been a pursuit where Dan Snaith lets the music find its own path. With Cherry this is more evident than ever, this sense of the tracks as objects with life and desires outside of Snaith’s control has now become a driving force in their creation. "There isn't anything obvious that unifies it or makes it hang together" Snaith says, "I think it was good that it was made without worrying about any of that. I just made it."
Recorded over a prolonged period, Snaith let the music go where it wanted to go. It wasn’t until he put everything he’d been tinkering with together that he realised what he had. "It's weird that when the tracks were put in what felt like the right order it took on a new coherence" he says, "where it pings quickly from one idea to the next and, at least for me, hangs together in way that feels unified. Maybe because it's hard to avoid the musical fingerprints I leave on the music I make, whether I want to or not."
The component parts have this same sense of independence, the essence of Daphni always present over music that is more free-wheeling than it’s ever been, almost escaping Snaith's grasp as it tumbles and spirals. "As is often the case when you're working quickly and intuitively, new pieces of equipment played a part" he says.
New gear and ways of working meant Snaith was able to sit at the centre of the music but let things get away from him a bit more as equipment began to make its own decisions before reeling it back in to suit his purposes, or as he puts it "getting the snake to eat its own tail".

We the cyber ants
survivors of the post human era
by smashing dystopic hegemonies
together in colonies we cooperate
through a chemical communication strategy.
Crossing underground labyrinths
as clever roots
in symbiotic relationships we live and
in freaky spirals we dance 'til down.
Catching electricity with feelers
we destroy the buildings of
the enemies of love.
We're a neglected community
an unconquered moltitude of
Yessensis
Longicornis
Solenopsis and Subterranean
Martialis Eureka
Colobopsis Explodens and more.
Souls inside exoskeletons
we don't need your past
'cause we are your future.

YES! We are a "BIG BAND"!!
A 20th anniversary original album featuring new members has been released on a two-disc vinyl set.

Formed in 2005 at the invitation of pianist Makoto Ozone, whose work transcends genres and continues to thrive on a global scale, the 15-member big band
"No Name Horses" has grown into a one-of-a-kind big band, thanks to its sophisticated ensemble built on longstanding relationships of trust, the diverse
original compositions of Ozone and the other members, and its boundless creativity and playfulness. The band has performed both in Japan and overseas.

In 2024, the band changed its name from "Makoto Ozone featuring No Name Horse" to "Makoto Ozone No Name Horse," and began activities under a new
lineup with the addition of three new members: Hidetaro Matsui, Yu Riku, and Shinpei Ogawa. This is the first album since the new lineup was released in
November 2024.

Returning to the classic big band sound, this album was created with each member contributing a new song, based on the concept of a superb swing and resonance.

Makoto Ozone "No Name Horses"
Makoto Ozone (p, org) Eric Miyashiro (tp, flh, picc trp) Akira Okumura (tp, flh) Shutaro Matsui (tp, flh) Yoshiaki Okazaki (tp, flh) Eijiro Nakagawa (tb)
Marshall Gilkes (tb) Junko Yamashiro (b-tb) Masanori Okazaki (as, ss, cl) Atsushi Ikeda (as) Toshio Miki (ts) Yu Riku (ts, fl) Yoshihiro Iwamochi (bs, cl)
Shinpei Ogawa (b) Shinnosuke Takahashi (ds)

In these shaky times we find ourselves in, A Relaxed Blur invites us to take deep breath in and switch to positive vibes. Dive into a world of serene soundscapes, where deep space reverbs and expansive echoes float freely, creating a sense of calm disorientation. Drawing from a blend of dub, psychill, and psychedelic electronic textures, this album guides you through atmospheric journeys that range from smooth, laid-back grooves to vast, hypnotic sound waves. Each track drifts between the tranquil and the transcendental, blurring the line between relaxation and introspection.

Four years on from their landmark Grassroots, visionary half-time heavyweights The Untouchables return with their third album, Lost Knowledge. The duo of Kate McGill and Ajit 'Nitrox' Steyns have carved out a space in modern D&B all their own, building on a legacy that reaches back to the late 00s to keep pushing into unexplored terrain with an assured and deadly line in rhythmic intrigue and atmospheric immersion.

Lost Knowledge launches into action instantly with the high-pressure drum science and dubby splashes of 'Drunken Bells', capturing the loopy techno propulsion and rolling intensity that drives so much of the output on Samurai Music. Where The Untouchables excel is in finding variety and nuance in their relatively forbidding, pared down sound. The heads-down groove of 'Mafia Town' owes as much to dembow and dancehall as D&B, while 'Lost Knowledge' spirals out into psychoactive flurries of synth strafes and organic percussion slathered in tight-locked delay trails. There's no light relief from strident hooks or riffs, just a pure, unshakeable commitment to the power of the beat and deeply designed layers of sound shaping out the space around.

'Busy Bones' makes space for carefully deployed hints of pad tone while the snares snap out of the mix with a sharp set of teeth. 'Four Eared Demon' baits the gabber crowd with its rapid-fire 4/4 hats atop seasick creaks across the midrange, keeping subtlety and patience in the lower frequencies to maintain the signature elegance readily associated with The Untouchables. 'Phase Correlation' teases an artfully unhinged ripple of synth that stands out amongst the murky murmurs filling out the middle distance, but it's still exercised with brutal precision.

Nothing happens by accident or feels out of place - McGill and Steyns are in total control, and they demonstrate incredible range and inventive approaches within their focused style. The accent of the grooves shifts, and individual sounds carry all kinds of artefacts, yet everything gets folded into the exacting Untouchables sound with a liberal dubwise sensibility. Brimming with inspiration and immaculately produced, on Lost Knowledge their one-of-a-kind sound is stronger than ever.

SHADOWY FIGMENTS OF UNRELENTING SONIC SEEKINGS
The magic lantern music of Razen spirals into ever more fanatic territory with the addition of turntablist Guilhem All from Brest. Vietnamese flute, oscillator, chopped-up vinyls and a range of
uncomfortable techniques bring about a series of sandblown, rock-encrusted desert mirages.
MORE INFO SOON
credits
releases October 15, 2025

Recorded by Mathieu Grillo, with assistant engineer Gaia Lufrano
Recorded at Echo Chamber in Volta, Molenbeek on March 4,5 & 6, 2025
Mixed by Mathieu Grillo, with assistant engineer Gaia Lufrano
Mastered by Frédéric Alstadt

Artwork: Aurora/ ChromaGrid drawing by Wilfried Pulinckx

Brecht Ameel: oscillator & harmonium
Kim Delcour: sáo trúc, fijfer, chalumeau, santur
Guilhem All: turntables

Thank you: Arne and Mich at Volta & AB

Valerie is not just a name. She is a bridge connecting two boundless realms: music and the cosmos. She is like a vibration of an otherworldly frequency, transmitting to humanity the elusive revelations of the Universe. Through Valerie, music ceases to be mere sound - it becomes the breath of galaxies, the pulse of distant stars, the whisper of infinity. In her presence, time loses its linearity, and space fills with mystery. Valerie is the moment when notes flare like supernovae, and melodies unfold like spirals of the Milky Way. She is living proof that music is the language of the Universe, and the human soul will always strive to be part of it.

With the Scratch EP, Scottish techno powerhouse Gary Beck delivers four razor-sharp cuts that bring raw energy and dancefloor pressure to FJAAK's label CROWD. Known for his unmistakable grooves and stripped-down power, Beck presents a no-frills EP that bridges classic techno aesthetics with forward momentum. Opening with the single 'French System', the EP kicks off in full throttle. It's a propulsive roller built around tough drums, catchy synths, a female vocal leading the way and Beck's signature percussive tension. Title track 'Scratch' follows with a twitchy, angular rhythm that spirals around a fragmented vocal motif and bold machine-funk energy with tense breaks leading to ecstatic drops. On the record's flip side, 'How Do You Feel' keeps the level high, fusing jacking rhythms with a funky vocal and a Beck's heavy signature kicks. Finally, 'Eclipse' closes the EP pushing the energy into darker territories with relentless drive, its distorted pulse and industrial edge. This release marks a fierce debut on CROWD for Gary Beck - four no-nonsense weapons crafted for peak-time moments and the rawer corners of the club. A heavy-hitting addition to the label's catalog and a must-have for techno selectors with a taste for precision and punch.

Next up on Mesh is Throwing Snow’s ‘Jackals’, a five-track EP drawing on echoes of UK subcultures.
Written in Ireland late last year with the London 2010s in mind, ‘Jackals’ is Throwing Snow’s love letter to his time spent there, tapping into a detailed web of sounds and styles through a personal lens, but skillfully produced to resonate with many. Locating memories in a transient city that is constantly reconfiguring itself, each track is an attempt at honouring fragments of recent, but seemingly distant, musical history. Taking us from DMZ at Brixton Mass to FWD at Plastic People, or Future Garage Fridays in Soho (IYKYK) to early days of NTS, the EP captures some of the fleeting moments that continue to play a significant part in the city’s sonic patchwork.

Production-wise, all the tracks share the same sounds twisted in different directions. The hats are vocoded with noise and random LFOs, and much like the chaos of London, every bounce has a unique pattern.

Opening track ‘Jackals’ walks the line between dub and UK bass, quickly overtaken by a wonky synth lead that spirals eternally upwards. ‘Ohnein’ jumps in with a massive pad swirling above a half-time step. In Throwing Snow’s own words, ‘I had to check with Martyn whether I'd ripped him off, turns out I hadn't, but it's a heavy head nod crossed with Un Vingt from my first 12"’. ‘A Cloud Mountain’ - a nod to the timeless James Holden remix of Nathan Fake’s ‘The Sky Was Pink’, leans into a maximalist progression of deep chords and fractured synths. ‘Forged’ steps into a weightier space with sparse drums driven forward by a deep cut of bass and twitchy echoes. Rounding things off, ‘Path Dependency’ speeds things up with touches of DnB in the drums, distant echoes in the forefront and the occasional sub wobble holding things together.

Shhh. The command to be quiet is not just part of the title of one of the two sprawling compositions on this pioneering album. It's also an apt metaphor for the relaxed hypnotism and spaced-out atmosphere that define In a Silent Way, a record that pushes the boundaries of studio possibilities, artist-producer relationships, and rock-jazz chasms. Recognized as Miles Davis' first full-on fusion effort and part of his "electric" era, the 1969 landmark claims a Who's Who line-up that sends the music into an ethereal stratosphere.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, this unsurpassed 180g LP edition lifts the veil on the cutting-edge assembly process that created the pair of lengthy suites. Helmed by three electric instruments, the bevelled compositions melt away all preconceived notions of "jazz," ˜rock," and "ambience," following a loose theory Davis dubbed "New Directions."

Few albums are so delicately textured. And on Mobile Fidelity's meticulous reissue, such sulcate elements pour over ink-black backgrounds on a canyon-wide soundstage. In particular, Tony Williams' inventive percussive touch – he causes the cymbals to shimmer as a pieces of silver tend to do when exposed to sunlight – is broadcast with lifelike three-dimensional qualities, the panoramic view extending to Davis' nocturnal trumpet, Wayne Shorter's ribbon-unfurling saxophone, Dave Holland's extrapolative bass, and the mosaic of keys.

If the record's only accomplishment is its introduction of guitarist John McLaughlin to the world, it alone would be enough. Yet In a Silent Way continues to bedazzle, puzzle, and inspire for myriad reasons – not the least of which is the seemingly telepathic communicative methods employed by the group's members. The line-up is great on paper, but, if it's even possible, the octet sounds even better in practice, with the instruments and tonalities conjoining in avant-garde communion like hyper-sensitive tentacles exploring the stippled landscapes of an undiscovered planet.

Diverting from expectation, tubular grooves twist, turn, and spin, sometimes piling atop of each other, always shying away from structure and melody. Ellipsoidal solos provide hesitant guidance, ranging from Chick Corea's Fender Rhodes phrases to Davis' decorative spirals. And as colour is the primary unit of currency on Davis' Sketches of Spain, laid-back episodes, geometric spaces, and quiet sensuality reign here, with the set's maverick reputation attained via musings on solitude rather than explosions of noise.


Controversial for the period, the heavily edited production of In a Silent Way blew open the once-locked doors on what producer's could attempt – and how artists could assist them. Knitted together as one would construct a cross-hatched quilt, songs contain grafts of repeat passages that provide unifying structure and experimental continuity. What a statement.

Honour's debut album is a ligament stretching from Lagos to London and to New York, curling across the diaspora and brushing the darker hues of blues, hip-hop, free jazz, ambient, gospel with Christian mythology and Yoruba folklore. As cinematic as it is painterly, Alàáfíà is a meditation on themes of life, death and love that pulls inspiration from the unexpected poetic profundity of casual conversations, field recordings, literature, ephemera, or personal archives. The result is an impressionistic vision in Black and Blur that both exhausts and implicates language_substantiating a mythos proposed by Fred Moten that sublimates boundaries between everywhere and nowhere; history and the present; the individual and the universal. Alàáfíà delineates a gothic landscape cut by overdriven beats, swooping orchestral blasts, choral bursts and ear- splitting fuzz, where the fleshly and spiritual realms commune. Dedicated to Honour's late grandmother, the title track began to take form after their last embrace and remains steeped in her influence and spirit_a tape-saturated composition that starts in Lagos and ends in London's smoke-stained cityscape, the song's dream-like quality developed out of the artist's grief and PTSD coping with this loss. Beneath the stretched guitar drones and stuttering loops, their grandmother's shared faith bubbles to the surface. "When Angels Speak of Love," borrows its title from two works by Sun Ra and bell hooks, respectively. Sculpting echoes of praise music into disorienting spirals perforated with syrupy DJ Screw-inspired breaks and sharp splinters of melancholic guitar, "When Angels Speak of Love" engages a conceptual dialogue with the spirits of both late thinkers, folding them into Honour's pantheon of ancestral guides. The album's ninth track, "Giz Aard ($uckets)," is a dirge of regimented drums which anchor this somber melody as it whirls into a blizzard of heartache, uncertain if its consequence will be death or eternal joy. The album's sole lyrical offering, "Pistol Poem (Lead Belly)," begins with a darkly humorous bar, "He went thru hell and back/ came back/ 2 get the strap," that swells into a haunting allegory based on the life of Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion. A modern take on the Blues, Honour's lyrics reify the artist's status as a student of both literature and popular culture, crossbreeding the artist's clever wordplay with additional references to Richard Pryor, Robert Johnson, Kelly Rowland & Bryon Gysin. Setting core principles of hip-hop, R&B, jazz and gospel music to atemporal soundscapes and compositions, Honour crafts a record that marinates in its own knotty contradictions. The ghosts that sit on the artist's shoulders have never been more tangible than with this emotive debut.

Gastr del Sol"s second album returns at last to the vinyl format - its first physical manifestation in well over a decade. Once again, a drop of the needle may ignite any number of queries, summed simply in one: What IS this music? Such is the potent energy of Crookt, Crackt, or Fly, retaining its otherworldly qualities some 32 years and countless musical movements since. Crookt, Crackt, or Fly expands upon The Serpentine Similar"s minimalist stance in unexpected ways, imposing further austerity in the soundscape but for an unpredictable expansive quantity periodically overflowing, waves of blood sluicing through the elevator doors. This is partially due to a change within the group dynamic: the departure of bassist Ken "Bundy" Brown and the arrival of a new partner for guitarist and singer David Grubbs - guitarist and sound fuckerer Jim O"Rourke. O"Rourke"s initial work with Gastr involved editing and recomposing recordings of the Grubbs-Brown-&-sometimes-John-McEntire lineup, producing an utterly outré collage of cut-ups and other types of tape processing. This became the "20 Songs Less" single, after which he was invited to play with the group. It was a time of flux; Brown recalls playing a Gastr show at the Metro around this time featuring himself, John McEntire, Grubbs and O"Rourke - and one of the pieces played was a Tortoise song! Throughout these shifts, Gastr del Sol"s music was never less than fully considered and composed, even in moments redolent with the suggestion of the random and the non-sequitur. Grubbs and O"Rourke made no attempt to replicate Serpentine"s arrangement of thick, scaly drones and hypnotic song-visions in their own partnership, finding Crookt, Crackt,"s sound instead in spiny, gamelan-like interactions between their (mostly acoustic) guitars, played precisely in and out of formation with bright, fleet-fingered abandon. O"Rourke"s fondness for field recordings and his capacity for tape manipulation intersected with Grubbs" sensibilities, edifying his evolving song style: written with increased sharpness and sly surreal humor, sung closer to silence. Halfway into "Work from Smoke", the sudden collapse of the sound-walls around us signals Crookt, Crackt"s major departure. From the thicket of guitars, a swell of drones and free-jazz squeals, made up of bass clarinet, vibraphone and organ, pulls the listener into an entirely other acoustic space. "Every Five Miles" derails in similarly tactile fashion: a guitar duet boils up thunderously, then fragments and spirals apart. As a free electric guitar part crops up, improbably holding the center, the acoustic space around it continues to disintegrate in ambient stereo. A wedding of folk music idioms to classical, improvised and modern compositional modes (including Gastr"s own formative post-punk mode), Crookt, Crackt, or Fly is a song-based reality steadily giving way to its alternative alchemies playing out within.

'it’s his loosest, dreamiest dispatch yet, an enveloping and atmospheric collection that constantly comes together and breaks apart.'

Maxo releases his new album Mars Is Electric. Earlier this week, Maxo released a third haunting video, directed by Vincent Haycock, from the visual world of ‘Mars’ for the title track. Maxo previewed the album with the release of singles “Human?” and “Donahoo’s Chicken” this spring, which arrived with equally raw, inventive, and unnerving music videos.

Mars Is Electric is Maxo’s first official release since he dropped two critically acclaimed albums in 2023 with Even God Has A Sense of Humor and Debbie’s Son. His fifth full-length album finds the Southern Californian artist self-aware and mature. Having lived the last decade of his musical life intentionally creating specific bodies of work rooted in imagery, observation, and capturing moments, Maxo spent this previous year freely creating without a specific plan, relieved from all obligations and restrictions.

“This is the first time that I really didn’t care, I didn’t approach things so seriously,” the artist shrugs off, meaning that without expectations or specific goals, his creativity flourished. This opening finds the artist having conversations he’s been avoiding, having lived silently in the pain of those topics for the past few years. Exploring uncomfortable themes about personal life, relationships, and family fractures, life before and after the loss of innocence, and an abundance of existential spirals.

The exploration was not only thematic but also musical in nature. During the creation process, Maxo was immersed in a wide array of music from past to present - France Joli, $amaad, Steve Spacek, Cherelle, DJ Quik, Lisha G - influences that seeped their way into these songs. The album opens in a loose, dreamlike state—experimental and searching, mirroring the emotional fog of someone looking for something real to hold onto. But as it progresses, so does Maxo’s energy as he fiercely rides and weaves on songs with a contagious confidence, producing some of his most kinetic and lyrically impressive music to date.

As the work and vision coalesced into a body of work, Maxo found that he was unlocking a creative language with his collaborators that felt wholly new - a new understanding of why and how he was making art for this world. What emerged from this year-long process was a new musical journey and a future where Maxo refuses to be another bad example of what could be, refusing to mind the blueprint set down. Maxo is the sole voice on the album featuring production by lastnamedavid, Quelle Chris, Baird, Groove, and more.

Listen to Mars Is Electric above, see full album details below, and stay tuned for more from Maxo very soon.