quête:the take

Alex Voorhies, known to dance floor connoisseurs as lil_art_hoe, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Louisiana, where they operate the boutique imprint Techno Money Records. lil_art_hoe’s signature sound is raw and unedited, with an array of grooves and melodies endlessly swirling to create truly unique tracks full of big ideas, but completely lacking in regard for normalcy.
For this Studio Barnhus debut, lil_art_hoe delivered two prime examples of their sonic practice, with elements constantly expanding and contracting, resulting in some of the most captivating yet straight-forward club music heard at Studio Barnhus HQ in recent times. A side standard living comes with a special dub mix prepared by the artist themself, while OG rave daddy and long time Studio Barnhus hero Truncate was called in to deliver a high octane techno take on flipside recall.
“standard living and recall were tracks spawned in the springtime when I was yearning for balance and reminiscing on moments that got me to the present. I was exploring a lot of live funk recordings for recall, while standard living was an emulation of going back in the work force and reestablishing a 9-to-5 schedule as a chef”, says lil_art_hoe in a rare communique straight from the swamps of south Louisiana.

TX2, AKA Evan Thomas, prides himself on injecting authentic stories and experiences from his own life into his lyrics. As someone who is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community himself, he admits he hasn't always fit in. His songs document that experience, but really - his stories are about all of us, penned for anyone who has ever felt alone. Per usual - the singer is willing to cause a little chaos with his new track, if that's what it takes to draw attention to important societal issues. With his tracks, he's making his voice heard loud and clear. "10 years ago I started TX2, and when the project first started I was the joke of my hometown. I was bullied by my entire hometown, and told by family that I would never make it. Years later I am still the joke, but now a punching bag for the entire internet. I've practiced what I've preached and consistently talked about mental health awareness, safety, and LGBT rights just to be made fun of and seen as `one of the most hated artists'. This world is filled with vultures, and I'm sure everyone can relate." Six track debut EP available as CD & LP

Blazing with raw energy and searing guitar riffs, the second album from Blues Creation—the legendary rock band led by guitarist Kazuo Takeda—is a cornerstone of Japan’s hard rock legacy. Drawing heavy inspiration from the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, this record delivers a powerful, riff-driven sound that helped shape the dawn of Japanese hard rock. What sets it apart is its hypnotic blend of British-style heavy rock with vocals sung in English tinged with a distinctly Japanese flavor—creating a one-of-a-kind psychedelic atmosphere that continues to mesmerize rock enthusiasts across the globe.

Ubek returns. The mysterious Polish duo digs out a new collection of degraded echoes, salvaged from authority. Galvanised as if lost to the shock of formal experiments.

Ubek III revises the present and takes us back to other versions of actuality.

UBEK (SUC29) UB + -ek, with UB being an initialism of Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (literally "Security Office”).

Played out a couple of times by the KM crew, and eagerly anticipated by the community, &ME's remix of UNKLE's already classic tune „Only You" is available now. The original track taken from UNKLE's 2019 album The Road: Part II / Lost Highway features regular UNKLE collaborators including West London's Miink on vocals and celebrated composer and arranger Wil Malone on strings, famed for his work on Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy and The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Here we once again witness &ME feeling through the source material just to do what he does best: adopting the emotive essence of a track and moulding it into a reduced and unpretentious, yet highly compelling club-weapon of anthemic magnitude. This one will be all over the place, that's a given.

Originally released in October 1985, ‘Once Upon a Time’ is the era-defining #1 album from Simple Minds, containing classic hit singles ‘Alive and Kicking’ and ‘Sanctify Yourself’.

To celebrate 40 years, the album is now available as a ruby red vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, which includes ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ on the tracklist for the first time ever. The gatefold spread features Anton Corbijn’s famous photo of the band taken at Live Aid in 1985.

The next instalment in the classic DJ-Kicks series is a selection of rapturous house, blissed-out breaks, and transcendent rave from the high priestess of the motherbeat herself, Chicago"s Eris Drew. DJ, producer, musician, long-time resident at Chicago"s Smartbar, and co-creator of the T4T LUV NRG party and label, Eris Drew has been DJing since the early 90s, and has since taken her ecstatic house and high-energy, uncompromising mixing style to clubs, raves, and festivals worldwide. Eris" DJ-Kicks mix is 79 minutes of, as she puts it "the funky, emotional, ecstatic house-and-breaks backbone that defines my sound", and includes tracks, remixes, and exclusives by Moby, Calisto, DJ Garth, Onionz, DJ Who, Kair, Hoof, and Toka Project, as well as from Eris herself and partner Octo Octa. The result of countless hours of digging, her selection delves into the rattling breaks, rave stabs, and haunting strings of classic and lost "90s hybrid house-and-breaks jams, and matches them with more recent digs, the mix moving back and forth between emotive, bittersweet, and evocative, to raw, tough, and twisted with consummate ease.

2025 Repress

We're glad to share another vinyl relic by adept veteran Feral. 'Woodland' takes us on a trip through his immaculate craftsmanship and inimitable sound, lacing contemporary minimalist deep dub techno with tribal psychedelia.

Feral consistently carries a thread of spirituality throughout his work. Embodying the sound of deep techno through his passion for audio engineering, hardware experimentation and fascination for percussive instruments, as well as an affinity for the shamanic becomes apparent when we swirl in tribal timbres and rhythms.

Finding comfort in the solitude of his studio; the sounds of Feral unearth the path of his multidimensional world, transporting the listener to a haunting, yet grounding refuge within.

The record will be pressed in two color alternatives and come sheathed inside our custom cut hansaboard sleeves, printed in full color with an oil painting by Gabriella Holmstrom.

47 marks TEN YEARS with its 47th and final release, closing the catalogue at 47047.

Launched as an event series by Tommy Four Seven in Berlin’s intimate Arena Club in 2014, the 47 parties paved the way to the label we’ve come to know today, inspiring and encouraging a host of interdisciplinary artists along the way. The imprint opened in 2015 with a V/A, and now, ten years later, 47 comes full circle with the release of its last-ever record and compilation.

As always, the various artist collection reflects the imprint’s long-running ethos of championing underground and upcoming talent. Titled ‘Ten Years’, the record features label debuts from Jin Synth, Casual Treatment, SAMA, Yrsen, and contributions from familiar faces like Pause, Rommek and AgainstMe, to name a few.

Across the 20-track V/A, each artist delivers precise and sonically rich productions, spanning several palettes. You’ll find a dreamy soundscape punctuated by blips and bleeps from Amotik. Claustrophobic atmospheres and winding rhythms by Innersha. Liquid melodies and maximalist basslines from Ana Rs. Moonlit synths and icy motifs by VSK. Club-driven 4/4 techno with a metallic sheen from ASEC. An emotive take on ambient and techno from Linn Elisabet. A spiralling trip with IDM touches from Nørbak, and more.

‘Ten Years’ mirrors the adventurous attitude of 47, celebrating the artists and sounds who’ve helped to build the label’s solid reputation, leaving an indelible signature on electronic music for years to come.

In the two years since Parallel Minds’ Juno-Award-winning 5th release Homesick by label co-founder Ciel, we have taken our time reassessing our next moves as the larger dance music scene experienced a paradigm shift. What does it mean to release music made by underground artists from lesser-known scenes like Toronto at a time when bookers and A&Rs are taking fewer risks than ever before? How do we truly celebrate the musical diversity of electronic music when the bottom line threatens to reduce any and all forms of risk-taking?

You just do it, of course.

In truth, few artists have come to represent the music scene in the Big Smoke more than Phèdre, and having seen the duo’s progression from indie weirdo-pop to live hardware act to breakbeat wunderkind in the last decade has been nothing short of amazing. It’s really artists like these that inspired us to start the label in 2018, and we are super elated to usher in PM006 with their long-awaited album, Liquid Constancy.

On its face, Liquid Constancy is a breakbeat record. There are housier joints, to more bassy Baltimore club bangers, to breakneck footwork and jungle steeped in sunshine. All of them share a distinctly syncopated, dubwise rhythm that grounds the album’s tracks. With some having been developed as early as seven years ago, these tracks had their genesis in Phèdre’s mostly improvised live hardware sets from some of Toronto’s most notorious warehouse raves. Primarily powered by two Korg Electribe ESX-1s and the semi-modular Moog Mother-32, the jams found new life in the studio when the duo began recording them as tracks, which demanded a mindfulness of their permanence that Daniel Lee and apè Aliermo at first found intimidating.

Over time, the pair developed a synergistic workflow that pulls from Daniel’s background in drums and apè’s keen ear for texture and movement. They sourced samples featuring voices of BIPOC and feminist icons, drew from their shared love of sci-fi and kung fu movies, and from their Filipino, Chinese, German, and Surinamese backgrounds. Samples were manipulated via techniques like lowering bit rates and adjusting speed to maximize usage due to the Electribe’s limited sample time, which was a subtle way of injecting their interests into their music without being too on the nose. Growing up in the melting pot of the GTA, going to raves as teens, bumping post-punk, industrial, electro, hip-hop and 90s R&B — these experiences all had an undeniable influence on Liquid Constancy. As kids of immigrant parents, equally informed by both their adopted and native cultures, Phèdre makes music informed by sampling and defined by cultural hybridity. In times like these, what is more feel-good than believing in music as a universal language that brings our different backgrounds together?

One of London’s underground dance music hero’s, founder of The Utopia Project and Love Fever Discotheque, Alex Bradley presents a fresh moniker, Dreamphaze, for People & Place’s 004. The ‘Glow EP’ is a four-track dive into the London-based artist’s psychedelic take on blissful house & techno, moving between trance-tinged dreamscapes and playful grooves to soundtrack the halcyon days of a summer gone by.

Mit »Live at the S. E.R. P.E. N.T. Festival« bringt Slash die Liebe zum Blues und seine eigenen musikalischen Wurzeln zurück in den Vordergrund. Dieses Livealbum fängt den elektrisierenden Auftritt vom 17. Juli 2024 im Mission Ballroom in Colorado ein.

Auf Tour im Rahmen des S. E.R. P.E. N.T. Festivals liefert Slash gemeinsam mit seinem Ensemble »Slash's Blues Ball« ein einzigartiges Set, das den Legenden des Rock und Blues Tribut zollt. Es enthält Blues-Klassiker und Rock-Standards wie »Parchman Farm Blues« (Bukka White), »Killing Floor« (Howlin' Wolf), »Oh Well« (Fleetwood Mac), »Papa Was a Rolling Stone« (The Undisputed Truth), »Stone Free« (Jimi Hendrix) oder »The Pusher« (Hoyt Axton).

• Ein elektrisierendes Livealbum mit Slash in Topform

• Mit 15 legendären Blues-Klassikern wie »Parchman Farm Blues« (Bukka White), »Oh Well« (Fleetwood Mac), »Papa Was a Rolling Stone« (The Undisputed Truth), »Stone Free« (Jimi Hendrix) uvm.

• Mit dem legendären »Slash's Blues Ball« Ensemble

• Hochwertiges Packaging mit aufwendig gestaltetem Artwork und exklusiven Fotos

The perfect accompaniment to that deep fall feeling, Frank Maston's beloved 2025 single finally gets its long overdue vinyl release! As our friends New Commute articulated beautifully, "Foreign Affairs" drifts through London fog and Paris shimmer, its avant-lounge glow wrapping each melody in a wistful ache. On B-side "Liaison," ghostly strings and a solitary piano paint a deserted twilight shoreline, Pacôme Henry's distinct 16mm cinematography hovering nearby." We've pressed just 500 of these gorgeous records so, be quick, Maston always flies.

Originally written for a film Maston was scoring in 2024, he decided to keep it aside for himself. And, well, us all. The song has a vibe Maston has previously flirted with; he wanted to dive in...all the way: "The arrangement is huge, definitely the biggest I've written, and it merited live musicians playing together. Also another experiment, to do it with all live musicians playing my arrangements. I wanted to make something that you'd want to put on when you bring a date back to your place. It's on the edge of sappy but that's sort of the point. I decided to give myself an unlimited budget - just spend whatever was necessary to get the right musicians and record it the best way possible."

It's this dedication to sonic perfection which Maston is rightly lauded for. We couldn't not put this on a cute wee 7" when we heard it.

The A side, "Foreign Affairs", is a brilliant, Bacharach-esque romp with a bit of that unapologetically romantic Morricone angle. Says Frank: "I was trying to synthesize that sort of jazzy/sexy/classy/romantic mature sound, where the edginess is in these surprising chord changes and subtle arrangement cues."

A wonderful complement, the flipside "Liaison", evokes Martin Denny, but Eden's Island was in Frank's head, too. He wanted to take a deep dive into that exotica sound - a genre he'd referenced a bit but never fully committed to - so the piece is lavished with those big sighing strings and a pretty lush arrangement. Happily, it all sounds super rich. Also, "Umiliani is always a reference for this sort of thing (Il Corpo etc.), That almost mechanical arrangement of things moving together and a simple melody over it (something I nicked from Ennio)".

The two songs were recorded in Paris and London in the summer of 2024. Aside from the rhythm section and piano, there's vibraphone, a full string section, trombones and alto and concert flutes. "Liaison" boasts strings, vibraphone, a female choir and tenor sax. Maston played piano and acoustic guitar but that's it (as opposed to playing basically everything on Tulips). His friend Oscar Sholto Robertson played drums and percussion whilst Maston mainstay Elie Ghersinu (formerly of L'Eclair) played bass.

The theme for a lot of Maston's titles is that they have two meanings. So "Foreign Affairs" is both a reference to him living abroad and the idea of constant cultural diplomacy and then there's this sexy/cheeky interpretation of foreign affairs in a literal way - "an affair abroad, ooh la la!". The artwork for this 7" single has Roman campaign flags, referencing the foreign affairs in sort of a sassy way. There's a violence implied. But then if you look from a bit of a distance it looks like a bouquet of flowers. So Frank thought it went with the spirit of the title. Also, he's used a lot of roman motifs now so he kept that theme going, even with the terracotta cover.

This is a vitally important project for our Frank. He explains why, here: "For whatever reason, these songs really resonated with me. I feel like they are either the end of a stylistic era for me or the beginning of a new one. They're sonically the culmination of what I'd been working towards and trying to get better at since I started. If I heard this when I was making Tulips I would have said "YES! *This* is what I want to be doing!". So that's the essence of it. It's a statement and the intended reaction is "This is really good, but why now?". Like the edge to it is the context of someone making this sort of thing in 2025, which I think is a huge strength. The real heads will get it. My music always has like a 2-3 year latency until people really catch onto it, and these ones will have a nice payoff I think."

We couldn't put it better ourselves. So we haven't.

As trans-Atlantic alchemists pulling from a shared dialectic that somehow encompassed both postmodern deconstructionist tendencies and a delightfully subversive sense of poptimism, it’s easy to see how David Cunningham and Peter Gordon immediately hit it off upon initially meeting each other back in the late-1970s at the height of their youthful transgressions. Having initially worked together on the second Flying Lizards’ LP fourth wall, with its ingenious fusion of dismantled rhythms and rearranged melodies juxtaposed against the slyly sultry singing of Snatch’s Patti Palladin— with Gordon adding a few sprinkles of mischievous sax in the mix— it’s no wonder the collaboration would lead to further musical adventures.

Which leads us directly to the genesis of The Yellow Box. Embarking on a collaborative exercise in the structural repurposing of music as untethered puzzle pieces in need of rearrangement with no predetermined outcomes, the duo gave birth to a project that would see them move through both time and recording studios across Europe, taking nearly two years from 1981-1983 to complete. Enlisting the great Anton Fier on drums from The Feelies/Lounge Lizards nexus and John Greaves on bass from Henry Cow/Soft Heap lore to round out their dueling creative counterparts, the album would be something of a lost treasure until its eventual release on Cunningham’s Piano imprint in 1996.

Cinematic in scope, and filled with drifting drones, beautiful counter-melodies, eery minimalism, Kraftwerkian synthesizers, looped voices, skronky interludes, and other shifting undercurrents of sound, it was an album that utilized both a diverse array of expressive languages, as well as early sampling techniques and prepared instruments, well before most people were thinking in such expansive, integrated terms at the dawn of the 80’s. But such is life at the vanguard of new music. And one of the reasons that it likely sat on the shelf for so long before finally being released well over a decade later. Like a sparser, less groove-oriented version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, or a more radical take on the experimental work of Can’s Holger Czukay, The Yellow Box stands at the crossroads of time and technology, fusing multiple strands of musical thought and compositional techniques into a disjointed whole that somehow still comes off as a conceptually complete record.

Now, here it is again, over 40 years later, with perhaps even more historical resonance than it had before, remade and remodeled just waiting to be rediscovered again.

2005...it"s 20 years since already? We can still feel the sensuous tickle of the wind at our back during that marvelous time. It was, as the Scorps promised, a wind of change, and we were drawn to a number of like-minded birds floating in that breeze! Today, we salute Six Organs of Admittance; their School of the Flower was just the record we"d never dreamed of when we asked them if they wanted to do one with us. Turned out their pronoun of choice was "him." "He" was Ben Chasny and we"ve been happy collaborating with him ever since. Coming on the heels of records like Dark Noontide and Compathia, School of the Flower found Six Organs riding high. Having achieved much in his traditional home-recorded kingdom, he too was looking for something different. What our Ben recalls: "It was the first time Six Organs was in a studio, so that"s cool. I wanted to play with Chris Corsano to expand on some of the rhythms in my playing, to kind of suggest some different forms for the way the folk-psych/folk music were being played at the time. The title track was inspired by John Cale and Terry Riley"s Church of Anthrax - I remember we had a big tape loop stretched around the whole studio to form the basis of that. I was taking a lot of cold medicine that week - not the coolest drugs to be on, but, you know..." School of the Flower was indeed a whole new thing - containing enduring fan favorites like "All You"ve Left," "Words for Two," Ben"s revelatory take on Gary Higgins" "Thicker Than a Smokey" (pointing the way for our reissue of Red Hash later that year) and a deep vibe of spiritual folk-jazz throughout. And best of all? It was just the beginning of twenty years of sending the inspiration of Six Organs of Admittance out into the world! But today, we"re happy to send you back to School of the Flower. There"s nothing like it.

ANORAX goes for the jugular - offering 2 in-demand gems from the legendary USA All-Platinum label - with its’ latest #eatsleepcollect 7” release.

The a side is a real coup, the first ever worldwide issue on single of the much loved Just Having Your Love by veteran Soul trio The Moments. JHYL is up there with the acts much loved Nine Times and I’ve Got The Need as a creator of dancefloor frenzy but being an album only track has restricted its DJ plays.

Now, for the first time in 50 years, it is available on 7” single so the simmering demand can finally be satisfied. The track fuses timeless Soul harmonies with exuberant magically produced New Jersey Disco and as well as being a Modern Soul connoisseurs favourite has long been a Northern Soul floor filler. The flip was also released on All Platinum’s Turbo imprint and was produced and written by The Moments. The Rimshots were the house band at All Platinum’s recording studio in Engelwood and had close links with The Moments who they toured with as support. Do What You Feel saw them take centre stage in 1975 as the adrenalin up chanted jam became a funk anthem. Five decades on it is still a timeless gem at jazz funk venues.

Lukah’s unprecedented trajectory shatters new heights with A Lost Language Found, his most thoughtful, sonically-diverse record yet. With the multiplatinum OG Statik Selektah on production duties, Lukah’s by now iconic, razor-sharp pen-game goes toe-to-toe with some of the best. Trading verses with Houston innovator Bun B, Memphis legend 8 Ball, and the larger than life Killer Mike, all parties involved operate at the peak of their skill. The first of what will be multiple collaborations with heavyweight hip-hop producers, this new LP establishes what we already knew in our hearts: Lukah is here to take over.

The stage set to deliver this latest opus is intensely personal: in the heart of his community, Lukah holds court with his trusted fellows at his great grandmother’s house in French Fort, Memphis, a historically black neighborhood long rec-ognized as a stately, proud vision of Black suburbia in a city still healing from deep racial trauma. Recently laid to rest in Elmwood Cemetery, the pain and strength of mourning her influence is present in the deep lyrics of A Lost Lan-guage Found, where Lukah traces not just his own legacy, but that of the linguistically rich and diverse dialects of his people. The cover image depicts the game room of the house, a place that once hosted civil rights leaders and revolu-tionaries, now a monument both to a history of leadership and to its future. For the first time, Lukah himself appears on the album art to mark this significant occasion, flanked by his partners, the symbolic source of knowledge in his hand. Listening to Lukah spit has always been a privilege and a revelation. His artistic power lies in uncovering secrets thru torrents of lucid, poetic rhymes. The listener is invited to share in this bountiful feast. Witness the real god expansion.

The album is available as a limited edition vinyl release of 500 copies in gatefold jacket.

The long-awaited analog release of “ODDTAXI” by Skirt and PUNPEE, the opening theme of the TV anime "ODDTAXI" is finally here!

■Skirt
Skirt is a self-described “unhealthy pop” band known for its refreshingly light yet slightly shadowed songwriting and band ensemble, earning widespread
acclaim across professions, genders, and age groups.
The project began in 2006 as the solo multi-track recording endeavor of Wataru Sawabe. In 2010, he launched his own label, Kaczka Sound, and released
his first album ""S-O-S,"" marking the true beginning of Skirt’s full-fledged musical journey.
In April 2021, Skirt collaborated with PUNPEE on the opening theme "ODDTAXI" for the anime "ODDTAXI". Drawing from his extensive knowledge of
comedy, Sawabe served as a judge for the finals of the UNDER 25 OWARAI CHAMPIONSHIP—a comedy competition for performers under 25—in
September 2023, and also wrote the event’s official theme song, "Kitai to Yokan"
In addition, he has contributed music to numerous animated works, films, and TV dramas. His exceptional songwriting skills have led him to write songs
for a range of artists including Takashi Fujii, Kaede (Negicco), Toko Miura, and adieu (Moka Kamishiraishi).
As a versatile multi-instrumentalist, Sawabe has also participated in live performances and recordings with artists he deeply admires, such as Spitz,
Makoto Kawamoto, and Moonriders. Skirt continues to attract attention as both a band and the project of a wonderfully talented, genre-defying
singer-songwriter.

■PUNPEE
Active as both a rapper and producer, PUNPEE has released acclaimed albums such as "MODERN TIMES" and "The Sofakingdom"" His diverse body
of work includes contributions to a Red Bull TV commercial, the opening theme for the TBS show "Wednesday's Downtown" a remix of Hikaru Utada’s
"Hikari -Ray of Hope MIX-" and the track "Time Machine ni Notte / Kazoku no Fukei" for the Sotetsu–Tokyu through line commemorative short film.
But of course, what truly matters—is what comes next. P

When Straight Ahead hit the shelves in 1974, it marked another bold chapter for Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express. The band—Steve Ferrone on drums, Barry Dean on bass, Jack Mills on guitar, and Lennox Langton on congas— was firing on all cylinders, pushing jazz fusion into fresh, uncharted territory.

Critics took notice, with Billboard praising the album as “excellent in development and inventiveness, ” and it found its way onto multiple charts at once.

The journey begins with “Beginning Again, ” a lively opener built on Langton’s congas and Ferrone’s muscular groove. Auger’s electric piano sparkles here, immediately setting the album’s adventurous tone. Then comes their take on Wes Montgomery’s “Bumpin’ On Sunset. ” Darker in mood and drenched in atmosphere, Auger stretches out into improvisation while still honoring Montgomery’s spirit. The interpretation struck such a chord that, years later, Wes’s widow wrote to Auger to tell him it was her husband’s favorite version of his much-loved tune.

The title track, “Straight Ahead, ” shifts gears into funk, showcasing the group’s ability to slide effortlessly between genres. “Change” pushes further, blending rock’s raw energy with jazz’s improvisational freedom, driven by Auger’s command of the Hammond organ. To close, “You’ll Stay in My Heart” brings the tempo down with a tender, soulful ballad—an intimate ending to an album full of bold explorations.

At the time, reviewers hailed the record as a gem. One called it “a minor masterpiece of incredibly engaging and melodic keyboard-centric jazz-rock fusion. ” Another singled out “Bumpin’ On Sunset” as “the best reason to own this recording.”

Half a century later, Straight Ahead still resonates. It captures that fertile moment in the 1970s when jazz, rock, and funk were colliding, and artists like Auger were busy redrawing the map. To this day, it stands as proof of Auger’s fearless curiosity and his knack for breaking boundaries—music that looked forward then, and still feels ahead of its time now.

Soft Centre is the new album by Iko Chérie, the solo project of French-born, London-based multiinstrumentalist Marie Merlet. She blends dub-inflected textures, pop tinged vocals, reverbdrenched guitars, Casio drones, and warm experimental noises - creating her own intimate, fragile sound. Self-produced and largely performed by Merlet, the album grew from an introspective process, with many sketches recorded in transit between tours. The result is a deeply personal work, balancing light and dark in a Lynchian dream-pop haze. Songs such as We Smoke That Peace Pipe and Bilbao shimmer between vulnerability and resilience, while the single Ghosted Ghosters of the Holy G captures the immediacy of a one-take dub bass. Some pieces retain the quality of improvised snapshots (Intelligent Women, Half a Metaphor) while others reveal her meticulous production process and songwriting craft (Tears in the Sea, Luciférine). Merlet defines Soft Centre as alive in radical tenderness, unguarded, open, and vivid. Influenced by Clarice Lispector"s prose, Diane di Prima"s poetry and Rachel Carson"s environmentalist writing, as well as Marie"s fascination with a vintage Roland Space Echo, the album is an invitation to connection that she describes as "... hopefully a meditation into healing." A versatile musician trained in classical piano, jazz, and electroacoustic composition, Merlet has long moved between different worlds of sound. She has worked with Laetitia Sadier in Monade, performs with Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Malphino, Yama Warashi, and several other groups. She recently appeared as guest singer on the latest Stereolab album. Her debut solo LP, Dreaming On (Elefant Records, 2015), revealed her singular melodic instincts; with Soft Centre she ventures further inward, shaping her own distinctive voice in experimental pop.

Asa Moto hail from Ghent, Belgium — a city where concrete collides with cathedrals. Their music obeys the same law: rhythm wired into noise, melody bent out of shape. No genres. No safe zones.

They’ve taken this across Europe and beyond: festivals like Dour, Best Kept Secret, and Boiler Room Bangkok; clubs that shape the underground including Panorama Bar, Opium, Lux, XOYO. Sacred halls turned into dancefloors, basements stretched to capacity. Wherever they land, Asa Moto rewire the room.

Resident Advisor and the BBC were listening from the start. Altın Gün brought Asa Moto in to produce the critically acclaimed Yol (2021) — the band’s first collaboration with outsiders. Remixes for Polo & Pan, Chloé Thévenin and others spread the same edge further out — each a glimpse of their method, a vision in motion.

All signals run through Studio Martino in Ghent — their own control room for recordings, remixes, transmissions. The records surface on DEEWEE, the label founded by Stephen and David Dewaele of Soulwax/2manydjs — the only one reckless enough to carry them. The next, DEEWEE082 — Music For Disk Jockeys Pt. 1, continues the line — four tracks as proof that Asa Moto refuse limits, because the world refused them first.

Los Angeles-based artist Sam Wilkes is known for his genre-defying solo work and collaborations in the experimental and jazz community. His debut release for Psychic Hotline, 104.3 is part of the label's ongoing Singles Series. Stepping away from his bass guitar, Wilkes explores new territory on a borrowed Fender Stratocaster, lent to him by longtime friend Brian Robert Jones (Paramore, Vampire Weekend). On the very night he brought the guitar home, Wilkes recorded a live, loop-based version of Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" in a single take, later layering in bass and background vocals. The whole thing started as an experiment; more about exploring an instrument than making a record. A few weeks later on his last night with the Strat, Wilkes recorded what would become the A-Side: his reimagining of Fleetwood Mac's "I Know I'm Not Wrong." "I just wanted to document what was happening without any other intention. Half of my time on bass is spent trying to make it sound not like a bass, so actually getting to play a different instrument felt incredibly liberating," says Wilkes. Both arrangements are intuitive and spontaneous. Captured without pretense, the result is a pair of understated songs, perfect for a summer drive. This release is the latest installment in our long-running Psychic Hotline Singles Series, which has featured standout tracks from artists like Kieran Hebden, Sam Gendel, Blake Mills, Flock of Dimes, Anjimile, and Bartees Strange. With each new entry, the series continues to showcase boundary-pushing work from across our extended creative family.

At last, after fifty years, the first ever vinyl album by British 60s band The
Montanas!Despite having "turntable hits" such as 'Ciao Baby', 'You've Got To
Be Loved' and 'Let's Get A Little Sentimental', they never had a UK hit
'You've Got To Be Loved', a Tony Hatch & Jackie Trent song, made the US Top 100, but
no album followed.
Includes the US-only 45s 'Heaven Help You' and 'I'm Gonna Change'.
Digitally remastered and released on 180 gram vinyl / 300 gsm board.
Also available on BGO Records: BGOCD1438 The Complete Studio Sessions.
Other vinyl releases available on BGO Records: BGOLP2005 Bang (The James Gang);
(The Searchers) BGOLP2007 A and B Sides 1963-67, BGOLP2009 Meet The Searchers,
BGOLP2010 Sugar & Spice, BGOLP2011 It's The Searchers, BGOLP2012 Sounds Like
Searchers, BGOLP2013 Take Me For What I'm Worth; and BGOLP2015 In Town (Rockin
Berries).

Sanguis is the alias of Berlin-based producer Ludwig Wandinger, a fixture in the city's experimental scene.
On his debut album Wounding dark ambient textures and solo piano improvisations let the listener's attention slip in and out of focus creating a liminal state of dreaming, feeling and drifting through inner worlds and thoughts.
Wandinger tries to capture fleeting moments - all tracks are unedited first takes, some recorded only with his phone in various places, from a friend's flat in Neukölln to his family home in rural Bavaria. Background noises become a part of the music and create a tangible sense of place, urging the listener to keep an ear out for one's own surroundings.
Though firmly rooted in the ambient genre, the album is not just about finding comfort. It's an acknowledgement of the ambiguity of our world where menace and beauty coexist, a dichotomy most apparent in nature itself - a constant source of inspiration for Wandinger.
Wounding is about walking alone on damp foliage at night and being handed a blanket by a loved one at the earliest daylight.

A rising figure of the free scene, L'Art Cène releases his debut album on Jarring Effects after two intense years in the underground tekno circuit, marked by the release of around fifteen vinyl records and tracks reaching over 200K streams. With Dun & Sark, he steps away from the dancefloor to explore a more introspective form of techno, infused with oriental sounds. Born from a live performance in Tunisia in 2023, the album draws from traditional Arabic music and takes inspiration from Acid Arab as much as from Nils Frahm or Gesaffelstein. The project reaches a new dimension with the contribution of Oud player Atef Younsi, who brings an organic warmth and a dialogue between the electronic and the ancestral.Dun & Sark: a techno that travels, feels, and dares.

Originally only available DTC. Durand Jones & The Indications share a new version of the sweet soul anthem Cruisin' To The Park with a Mexican twist from Y La Bamba. The song is a bside of ‘Too Many Tears’ taken from their second album American Love Call, heavily inspired by Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield, and The Impressions..

SoftSun was formed in 2023 by guitarist Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen (PIA ISA). On their second album they are joined by Robert Garson on drums. The band is experimenting with sounds and are difficult to place in a specific genre. They have a style of their own with contrasts of softness and distortion, beauty and noise and emotional peaks and valleys. The music is patient, heavy and dreamy, with haunting vocals and beautiful guitars drenched in distortion and reverb over patient and thought out drums. The songs are flowing slowly and take inspiration from both the Californian desert landscapes to the Norwegian oceans where the two founding members come from. On this second record SoftSun has developed their sound further and sound both moody, experimental, beautiful, and raw.

Aqua Blue vinyl, limited to 350 copies. SoftSun was formed in 2023 by guitarist Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen (PIA ISA). On their second album they are joined by Robert Garson on drums. The band is experimenting with sounds and are difficult to place in a specific genre. They have a style of their own with contrasts of softness and distortion, beauty and noise and emotional peaks and valleys. The music is patient, heavy and dreamy, with haunting vocals and beautiful guitars drenched in distortion and reverb over patient and thought out drums. The songs are flowing slowly and take inspiration from both the Californian desert landscapes to the Norwegian oceans where the two founding members come from. On this second record SoftSun has developed their sound further and sound both moody, experimental, beautiful, and raw.

Sometimes there are discoveries that hit like thunderbolts! Matt Pascale & The Stomps are undoubtedly one of them-and a major one at that. Everything here is simply perfect. Musically, the backbone of this album remains blues, but rock, funk, soul, and even hip-hop are never far off. The compositions flow like a string of potential hits. It only takes listening to this album once or twice for certain melodies to lodge themselves firmly in your brain. As for the performance, it"s downright incredible. Matt Pascale has a raspy voice with a "more Italian you couldn"t get" vibe, his guitar playing is a sheer marvel of precision and feel, and The Stomps are a rhythmic and groovy powerhouse capable of waking the dead. Un-be-lie-va-ble!

"Amir ElSaffar (b. 1977, USA) is a composer, trumpeter, vocalist, santur player, and modular synthesizer artist whose innovative compositions blend elements of jazz, classical, and traditional Arabic music. His newly established label, Maqām Records, released its first album earlier this year, Maqam Al-Iraq, by legendary vocalist, Hamid Al-Saadi and is now following up with an album of ElSaffar’s work, New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal. Recorded live in Berlin in 2023, the album captures the ineffable magic of ElSaffar’s first encounter with Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, a star on the European jazz scene, alongside his NYC-based collaborators: acclaimed drummer and bandleader, Tomas Fujiwara, and saxophonist Ole Mathisen, who is also a featured member of ElSaffar’s Two Rivers and Rivers of Sound orchestra. The quartet merges Arabic maqām with jazz harmony and features microtonal and prepared piano. In addition to the concert itself, the album features alternate takes that were recorded at Pierre Boulez Saal the next day without an audience.

RIYL: Classic artists: Miles Davis - “Sketches of Spain,” “Kind of Blue,” John Coltrane - “A Love Supreme,” “Ballads,” Don Cherry - “Relativity Suite,” Ahmed Abdul Malik - “Jazz Sahara,” “East Meets West,” Cecil Taylor, John Hassel, Hossam Ramzy, Ziad Rahbani.
Contemporary artists: Vijay Iyer, Ibrahim Maalouf, Ambrose Akinmusire, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Dhafer Youssef"

Volpe is the finely tuned trio led by Ghent-based pianist Heleen Andriessen. Drummer Stijn Demuynck and bassist Kobe Boon support Andriessen's lyrical melodies with an infectious groove. The carefully crafted compositions alternate between energetic and melancholic, allowing the listener to feel immersed in a warm bath while transporting them to an uncanny world.

'elders' (Dutch for "elsewhere"), doesn't refer to a physical place but to a refuge in Heleen's mind-a sanctuary where she searches for beauty on gray, rainy November days. A simple detail taken from everyday life can serve as a gateway to this hopeful, imaginative world. Musically, this translates to repetitive patterns that gradually evolve or suddenly burst open. Subtle dissonance is welcome here, with the band lovingly embracing the slight disruption it offers. Heleen's playful runs and Stijn Demuynck's grooves balance the melancholic undertones. Seemingly simple melodies tell stories and offer familiarity to listening ears.

keywords: piano trio, contemporary jazz, keith jarrett, modal jazz, minimalist

Sarathy Korwar, genre-breaking drummer, producer and composer, announces the release of his seventh album "There Is Beauty, There Already" out on Otherland. Celebrating the melodic power of the drum ensemble, the album follows his 2022 Indofuturist manifesto "KALAK" with a deeply immersive longform suite of percussion-led compositions.

There’s a freedom in knowing we are all doomed, a sense of liberation from society’s morals and the considerations of commerce. That’s the territory trod by Sorrow on its lone album, 1992’s Hatred and Disgust. This album doesn’t bring you down, it takes you down. Down-tuned guitars, slowed- down tempos. Lyrics with a deservedly dim view of mankind. And fat as f*** riffs that will annihilate you. Finally released in the U.S. on vinyl and with the full support of the band, Hatred and Disgust comes in a blue smoke pressing limited to 1000 copies, complete with a lyric insert. If you like your doom metal with a side of thrash and death metal, this lost classic (remastered for vinyl by Mike Milchner) will satisfy like few others. Fans of Slayer, Obituary, My Dying Bride…take note.

Limitierte Auflage von 1000 Deluxe-Doppel-LPs mit 11 unveröffentlichten Titeln und Versionen auf "Glacial Blue" Vinyl. "Life in Slow Motion" stieg sowohl in Großbritannien als auch in Irland direkt auf Platz 1 ein und wurde zu einem kommerziellen Erfolg und erhielt begeisterte Kritiken. Aber noch wichtiger war, dass Gray damit wieder Freude am Musikmachen fand - am Schaffen von etwas Bleibendem. Jetzt, zwei Jahrzehnte später, wird "Life in Slow Motion" mit seiner ersten Veröffentlichung auf Vinyl gefeiert, zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum des Albums. Die Neuauflage wird in drei Editionen erhältlich sein: als Standard-Schwarzvinyl, als Farbvinyl und als Deluxe-Farbdoppelvinyl mit unveröffentlichten Demos und zwei bisher unbekannten Tracks aus den Original-Sessions. Diese Neuauflage von "Life in Slow Motion" bietet die Gelegenheit, ein wegweisendes Album wiederzuentdecken - nicht nur ein Produkt seiner Zeit, sondern ein Werk, das noch immer tief nachhallt. Weitläufig, nachdenklich und voller stiller Überzeugung.

Magnetism markiert das Zusammentreffen zweier einzigartiger Künstler der experimentellen Musik. Es vereint Drew McDowalls Wurzeln in der industriellen Avantgarde von Coil und Psychic TV mit Kali Malones Fundament in zeitgenössischer Orgelkomposition, reiner Intonation und elektroakustischer Musik und verbindet zwei Generationen in einer sich tief ergänzenden Partnerschaft. Auf Magnetism manifestieren sich Malones ergreifende Melodien in McDowalls charakteristischer Klangfarben-Synthese und bilden eine einheitliche Stimme, die mit Klarheit und Vitalität mitschwingt. Obwohl das Projekt innerhalb weniger Tage aufgenommen wurde, entstand es aus einer jahrzehntelangen Freundschaft, geprägt von fortwährenden Gesprächen über Musik und das Leben und von Jahren, in denen sie sich gegenseitig in ihrer künstlerischen Praxis und persönlichen Entwicklung begleitet und unterstützt haben. "Wir vertrauen einander, unseren jeweiligen Fachgebieten und unseren einzigartigen Stärken", sagen sie über den Aufnahmeprozess. Es war eine Erfahrung voller Intuition und Zuversicht, die sie ihrer Freundschaft zuschreiben. Das Album entstand spontan in McDowalls Studio in Brooklyn, wo die Grundlage der Musik fast augenblicklich entstand. Die beiden beschlossen, ihren Improvisationen gewisse Grenzen zu setzen: Sie programmierten maßgeschneiderte Stimmungen auf einem monophonen modularen Synth-Patch und nahmen die Performance-Takes ohne Overdubs auf. "Diese Musik zu spielen fühlte sich an wie Singen, da ich meiner inneren Stimme frei folgte", sagt Kali. Das Erreichen dieser Melodien war wiederum etwas, das sich instinktiv anfühlte, wie das Aufdecken einer längst vergessenen Erinnerung. Sie fährt fort: "Ich hatte viele dieser Melodien so lange in mir behalten." McDowalls Syntheseansatz verwendet Karplus-Strong-Synthese, Delay und Verzerrung, die er mit einem intuitiven Touch formt und Malones Motive elegant verwandelt. "Die Musik ist überraschend zugänglich, obwohl einige der Klangfarben extrem sind", sagt Drew, "sie ist nicht bedrohlich oder gar undurchsichtig. Wir spielen vielleicht sogar mit Pop-Elementen." Nachdem sie die Aufnahmen ein Jahr lang unberührt gelassen hatten, kehrten sie zurück und fanden die Musik verwandelt vor: "Es fühlte sich an, als hätte sie eine unheimliche, mystische Qualität angenommen." Angetrieben von der Anziehungskraft der Wiederholung, Resonanz und Sättigung pulsiert Magnetism als lebendige Musik, die die Sinne fesselt und noch lange nach dem Verhallten der letzten Töne im Gedächtnis nachhallt.

L’Osmose returns with their second full-length album First Dog, expanding on their unique blend of groove-driven psychedelia, jazz fusion, and experimental pop with a more vocal-forward production. First Dog features lush arrangements, hypnotic rhythms, and collaborations such as Swiss rapper Rico TK, bridging soulful melodies with bold rhythmic energy. A deep yet accessible record, it stands at the crossroads of jazz, psych-soul, and contemporary fusion. Perfect for fans of Khruangbin, BADBADNOTGOOD, and The Mariás.

Debut full length of old school DEATH METAL on a timeless warpath strewn with familiar and unknown terrors beyond.

Timelessly in the vein of Bolt Thrower, Nihilist, Entombed and Dismember where death takes bearing on the facade of life.

LIMITED to 666 COPIES WORLDWIDE

Das Jimi Hendrix Bold As Love Boxset bieten ein erstklassiges Sammlererlebnis in einem 5LP + Blu-ray-Paket. Jedes Set enthält 27 bisher unveröffentlichte Aufnahmen aus dem Jahr 1967, darunter Demos und alternative Takes sowie Fernseh- und Radioauftritte. Diese Deluxe-Edition enthält die Stereo- und Mono-Mischungen des Albums Axis: Bold As Love, die alle von Bernie Grundman anhand der originalen Masterbänder neu gemastert wurden. Sowohl die Stereo- als auch die Mono-Mischungen sind in hochauflösendem 24-Bit/96-kHz-Audio enthalten, ebenso wie eine neu erstellte, immersive Dolby Atmos-Mischung von Eddie Kramer und Chandler Harrod. Ein 36-seitiges Booklet mit seltenen Fotos, detaillierten Liner Notes und Track-für-Track-Einblicken rundet das Angebot ab. Diese Veröffentlichung ist ideal für Hendrix-Fans und Vinyl-Liebhaber, die nach einer definitiven Archivausgabe eines der kultigsten Alben von Hendrix suchen.

A hiatus is nothing but the reconsideration of fundamental values and interests.

Simple Times is back with “A Thin Line Between Dreams & Nightmares” EP, an emotional deep dive into the world of Progressive Trance, House & Electro. Aiming to follow the principles of stereo and raw, uncompressed music, this EP offers a fresh take on vintage music and the early culture of raves, dancing, and dance music.

The word "amateur" originates from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover" or "admirer". This Latin term is derived from "amare," which means "to love". The French adopted "amateur" from Latin, and the English then borrowed it from French, initially retaining the sense of someone who loves or is devoted to something. Over time, the English usage of "amateur" also developed a meaning related to a lack of professional skill or experience. How did a word derived from love become a slur? Is love really so defenseless? They say love conquers all, but in reality isn’t love quite ridiculous? It has no intention, no motive, no agenda. How could it possibly prevail? It can’t be bought or sold, or so they say.Its mere existence can't be proven or even measured. What an impossible thing. Trying and failing, time and time again, no wonder cynicism always seems to win. I see “amateurism” as a delighted, even foolish, protest. Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that? I just want to have fun. I want to want. I want to love. And keep doing it, forever. I want to have fun, even when it’s tiring and sometimes even heaven is boring as hell. I want to be bad. I want to do my own thing. “I vant to be alone”. I want to be someone so dedicated to their passion that it starts to seem like there’s something wrong with them. All the way. We can take it all the way, and never get it back. ” - Molly Nilsson Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. All The Way takes the theme for a run into the eternal sunset. It’s a manifesto for living fully. “Take it all the way, and never get it back” - it’s the process that’s the important point. The journey not the destination. Big Life, follows on like a part 2: An ode not only to Molly Nilsson’s career of endless gigs, endless connections with people, it’s a massive ode for following your dreams, doing it yourself. Closer The Bitter End is a powerful anthem for friendship, another definition of love infused in Nilsson’s work, A beautifully poignant ode to comradeship til the end, it seems to be the songwriter approaching aging, approaching life’s inevitability with the same vigour and earnestness, the same love of life she enjoyed at the onset of her career. There are moments on Amateur shrouded in reverb, slightly out of focus, forcing the listener to step deeper into the Mollyverse.. Nilsson’s open-armed beseeching to the world permeates every beat, every chord. These are songs exploding with life: the chunky, aggressive bassline on the punker Get A Life can’t hide its massive, catchy chorus. The sweeping Swedish Nightmare might be a tongue-in-cheek self-reference, but at its heart it’s a song about the duality of living life large, what is a dream, what is a nightmare? Molly Nilsson says you can’t have one without the other, and why would you want to? Here’s to making mistakes.

In May, fans were treated to the first new music from Trentemøller since 2022. A new single, "A Different Light," showcased a stunning blend of prismatic space rock and folk. For anyone wondering if it foreshadowed the release of a full-length, Dreamweaver will drop in September, on Friday the 13th.
Featuring 10 tracks that traverse Trentemøller's many musical strengths, Dreamweaver also represents an obvious artistic leap, treading new ground while retaining the overall plot. Tracks featuring vocals come courtesy of of Iceland's Disa, who has been in Trentemøller's fold since the Memoria tour.
Dreamweaver's nylon string-led opening track, and first single from the album, "A Different Light," contains many of Trentemøller's trademarks: exploring dichotomies, musical shadowplay, Nordic frigidity, and warm waves. It opens the door for the steady, hypnotic "Nightfall," with its tetherless vocal, wistful guitars, and early morning desert chill. The third track in the opening trifecta, "Dreamweavers" finds its footing with a percussive soft trot, which starts after what feels like a shortwave radio scan in search of the right chords, eventually dialing in a weightless voice. Ostensibly keeping a ruminative pace with the previous two tracks, the song and, by extension, album soon opens up as the rest of the elements drop into place with a grand, luxurious burst.
Dreamweaver is about to enter its next phase. With the hatch blown off of the portal, the noisy "I Give My Tears," driven by its glissed and fuzzy bass line, pours into the void. It's followed by its sibling, the most chaotic track on Dreamweaver, "Behind My Eyes." Arriving as a piece of noise rock pandemonium, "Behind My Eyes," can't be contained in its plush vault. A whip-crack snare and convulsing guitars smash against each other in the song's verse chamber. The tension builds, as the particles collide, pushing past the point of critical mass, kicking off the chain reaction which is the chorus. At times it harkens back to the proto-gaze tracks that gave birth to dream pop, at others it newly defines what that is. There's no time to contemplate it, though, as the song disintegrates in a microphonic feedback instant.
A respite follows with the somnambulistic pair of "Hollow" and "Empty Beaches." Then, a moment of intensity returns as the soaring textures and tribal drum bursts of "In A Storm" take control, before being taken out with the ambient slo-core of "Winter's Ghost" and "Closure." This diptych wraps up an album which certainly feels on-script for Trentemøller, but is also much more psychedelic than previous offerings.
Dreamweaver will be released on Trentemøller's own In My Room label. It is an exceedingly immersive experience, bound to release any dormant hallucinations you may be harboring.

funcionário delights in the freedom of creating freeform music for the first time in his career. On “horizonte”, he loosens the reins, his sound follows a wavy, organic structure rather than a rigid, formal one. If it feels freer and more colourful, that’s because it truly is.

Eight years ago, when we first encountered his work, he was composing soundtracks for imaginary video games and crafting sonic landscapes that felt like destinations for sci-fi anime characters. With “Cavalcante” (2022), he broke away from that past. It marked a turning point, he was ready to explore a “fourth world” in both sound and concept. The feedback was overwhelming.

Three years later, “horizonte” marks another evolution. He sends us music regularly, but this album stood out immediately. It felt right: more synth-driven, more open to improvisation. As he put it: “It’s like using oil pastels for the first time and discovering new possibilities. In a way, I’ve found new ways of creating using the same colours.”

Listening to horizonte is like waking up from a dream. Again and again. The opening track, “nascer”, suggests a new dawn, but it’s in “pássaros” that the vision fully takes flight: less processed, more raw, yet still detailed and expansive.

Finding new ways with the same colours has been his quiet mission all along. What’s new here aren't the tools, but the feeling. The movement. The invitation to travel with him. You can hear - and feel - his sense of wonder. Every sound radiates joy. Every moment sparks a new thought. The music moves quickly, but breathes slowly.

Tracks like “renascer” and “o caminho do regresso” echo the spirit of late-70s/early-80s Vangelis, in deep reverence. And just as you approach the end, “fantasma” arrives - a stunning closer, reminiscent of Eno’s “An Ending”. By then, it’s clear: the “fourth world” is behind him. funcionário has moved on. To where? We’re about to discover.

Downwards present Alexander Tucker in metamorphosis from psych folk to techgnostic bard, aided by notable guests – Justin K Broadrick, Regis, Phew, Karl D’Silva, JJOWDY, and Elvin Brandhi – in a quest for disordered convention and new thrills. One up to Tucker’s outings for Alter and The Tapeworm, and spiritual successor to his »Nonexistant« trio on Downwards, »Clear Vortex Chamber« is an enigmatic take on the brownfield edgelands where the eldritch intersects electronic heck. Decades of work spread between hardcore punk, psych rock, folk, and drone — including work with Stephen O’Malley (Ginnungap) and Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club, ESP Kinetic) — feed forward into this album’s unsteady machine rhythms and cranky junkyard atonalities, where Tucker panel-beats aspects of his previous sound with a newfound industrial thrust and cyber-punky lust that suits him dead well.

A crafty example of how to mutate without losing sight of yourself, the album’s eight parts feel like a cyborg patching itself into modernity. On opener »Udug« Tucker’s signature falsetto peals from a A Scanner Darkly-style scramble suit of stereo-strobing electronics, setting a melodramatic, neo-gothic tension that riddles the album thru the knotted, fractured industrial dancehall bullishness of »Mallets« with Yeah You’s feral gob Elvin Brandhi, via a pair of standout »Fedbck« parts with Tucker’s personal idol, Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, and the rest), featuring the Brum deity’s claw-handed riffs and howl on the first, and smeared with Karl D’Silva’s brass in its noctilucent second part.

Regis also proves a staunch foil for the album’s most robust, club-ready cut »Zona«, hammered out from buzzing metallic drums and monotone bass drones, and pitting his severed vox against Tucker’s own androgynous harmonies to recall aspects of The Ephemeron Loop via British Murder Boys, whilst scene legend, Can and Ryuichi Sakamoto spar Phew (aka Aunt Sally) ideally tempers the flow in a relatively soothing »Sansu«, sharing more cyber-romantic, recombinant sentiments with the channelling of Robert Wyatt gone Funk Bruxaria on »Folded«.

There is a new artist from Japan followed by the name Kakeru who is giving his Shaw Cuts debut with ãRaw CourageÒ, telling the story of an emperor besieged by an army who then entrusts his child to the Black Dragon Clan heading off to a dangerous journey.
An attempt to usurp the Ming Emperor's throne by the sinister martial artist simply known as ãold monster" and his armies results in most of the palace being massacred. ãQuagmireÒ and its vibrant percussive pattern carried by a heavy broken kick and a driving bassline help the emperorÕs infant son to escape and put in care of the Black Dragon Clan.
En route they are attacked by government forces but rescued by two knights. They prove to be a valuable addition to the party in subsequent encounters with their pursuers. ãMirror ForestÒ and its laid-back atmosphere, mysterious vocal snatches and shining pads carried by an expressive drum pattern help the travellers parrying every sneaky attack on their journey.
Trying to head to the White Dragon Clan in order to seek for help, the squad has to masquerade and take several battles, always protecting the baby in tow. The razor-sharp percussions, corrosive bass and thrashing kick of ãSwayingÒ tremendously supports the warriors in each fight.
Finally they make it to the temple of the White Dragons where they show their Black Dragon seal as a sign of solidarity. But all of a sudden the mood changes. ãBroken BubblesÒ and its menacing atmosphere built up by a monstrous sub bass, reduced but impactful drums and subtle synth elements underline the potential threat. Did they walk into a trap? Is there enough energy left for one big fight? Raw courage is vital now.

oDYSea is back for its second release with the much-awaited debut EP of Penelope, featuring four compelling club tracks brimming with power and grace.

Opener ‘Unexpected Dreams’ surges with muscular basslines and acid liquidity, while ‘Usual Suspects’ adds crashing breaks into the mix.

On the B-side, ‘Strange World’ steps into outer space with a broken beat, alien foghorn motif and big synth riffs, before the electro-house groove of ‘Flow’ sends us home with a funky bang. A hypnotic blend of techno pulse and delicate breaks, ready to take you on a full dance floor immersion.

Peter Ivanyi is Ghost Warrior, and it's an apt name for a producer who operates in the shadows between several drum & bass sub styles. His sophisticated sound designs and impeccable rhythms have taken him to the likes of 31 Records, re:st and The Collection Artaud but here he lands on regular home Well Street. 'Black Box' pairs deft drum programming with jazzy cymbals and blasts of textured bass, and 'REM' is then backlit with a celestial synth glow. A Josi Devil remix brings some low-end hustle and bustle and 'Dream Transmission' is a minimal stepper with an eerie deep space edge and absorbing sense of late-night tension.

Let the Good Times Roll (Terlinde Music Shop, St. Paul, MN, 1956)
I Got a New Girl (Informal Recording, Hibbing, MN, 1959)
Jesus Christ (Informal Recording, Minneapolis, MN, 1960)
K.C. Moan (Informal Recording, Madison, WI, 1960)
Remember Me (Informal Recording, East Orange, NJ, 1961)
Railroading On the Great Divide (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1961)
Man of Constant Sorrow ('Bob Dylan' Rehearsal, NYC, 1961)
He Was a Friend of Mine ('Bob Dylan' Outtake, NYC, 1961)
Ramblin' Round ('Bob Dylan' Outtake, NYC, 1961)
Story: East Orange, New Jersey (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Po' Lazarus (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Dink's Song (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
I Was Young When I Left Home (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Cocaine (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Talkin' New York (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1962)
Corrina, Corrina (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1962)
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle ('Freewheelin'' Outtake, NYC, 1962)
Rocks and Gravel ('Freewheelin'' Outtake, NYC, 1962)
Let Me Die in My Footsteps (The Finjan, Montreal, 1962)
Tomorrow Is a Long Time (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1962)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (The Gaslight Cafe, NYC, 1962)
The Cuckoo (The Gaslight Cafe, NYC, 1962)
The Ballad of the Gliding Swan (BBC-TV, London, 1962)
John Brown ('Broadside Ballads' Album Version, NYC, 1963)
Dusty Old Fairgrounds (Town Hall, NYC, 1963)
House of the Rising Sun (Informal Recording, NYC, 1963)
Seven Curses ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
Masters of War ('Freewheelin'' Alternate Take, NYC, 1963)
Girl from the North Country ('Freewheelin'' Alternate Take, NYC, 1963)
Liverpool Gal (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1963)
Boots of Spanish Leather ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
Moonshiner ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Party, Los Angeles, 1963)
The Times They Are A-changin' (Informal Recording, Los Angeles, 1963)
Who Killed Davey Moore? (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Lay Down Your Weary Tune (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Blowin' in the Wind (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
North Country Blues (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Talkin' World War III Blues (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Only a Pawn in Their Game (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
When the Ship Comes In (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)

„I Can’t Let Go“ ist die erste Zusammenstellung der Aufnahmen der Brooklyn-Sängerin Evie Sands aus den 60er Jahren, die alle 15 Titel ihrer ersten 8 Singles auf der Vinylversion enthält. Die CD-Ausgabe umfasst weitere 11 Titel, darunter ihre kompletten 45er-Singles aus den Jahren 1963 bis 1970. · Sands, die bereits als Kind zu singen begann und schon in jungen Jahren im Studio arbeitete, verfügte über eine kraftvolle und faszinierende Stimme, die ihr Alter Lügen strafte und auf klassischen 45er-Singles zu hören war, die von Soul- und Rock-Sammlern sowie Liebhabern von Girlgroups und Femme-Pop gleichermaßen geschätzt wurden. · Nach ersten Veröffentlichungen bei ABC und Gold tat sich Sands 1965 mit dem Songwriting-, Arrangement- und Produktionsteam Chip Taylor und Al Gorgoni zusammen, um eine Reihe exzellenter und oft erstaunlicher Platten bei den Labels Blue Cat, Cameo und A&M aufzunehmen, die in ihrem vielbewunderten ersten LP gipfelten. Dabei nahm sie die Originalversionen (und definitiven Versionen) von „Take Me For A Little While“, „I Can't Let Go“, dem Northern-Soul-Floor-Filler „Picture Me Gone“ und dem majestätischen „Angel Of The Morning“ auf und sah ungläubig zu, wie sie alle zu Hits für andere Künstler wurden. Nachdem sie 1969 mit „Any Way That You Want Me“ endlich einen eigenen großen Hit gelandet hatte, folgte nach einer kurzen Auszeit Anfang der 70er Jahre ein gut aufgenommenes Comeback-Album, „Estate Of Mind“, und zwei US-Top-50-Hitsingles. Durch die kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung ihrer Produktions- und Songwriting-Fähigkeiten standen bald die Größen der Popmusik Schlange, um mit ihr zusammenzuarbeiten und ihre Songs aufzunehmen: Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Karen Carpenter, Dionne Warwick und später auch Missy Elliot coverten Sands' Kompositionen, und Elvis hätte es beinahe auch getan... · „I Can’t Let Go“ wurde von Jai Rathbone in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Evie Sands zusammengestellt, die ihre Gedanken und Erkenntnisse über diesen frühen Abschnitt ihrer Karriere teilt. Mit zahlreichen Illustrationen versehen, ist dieses Buch ein Muss für jeden Fan. · Bewundern Sie erneut (oder zum ersten Mal) die Vielseitigkeit eines der bestgehüteten Geheimnisse der 60er Jahre: die volle, emotionale und wahrhaft unverwechselbare Stimme von Evie Sands.

"The Bad Seeds and Zakary Thaks were mid ‘60s Texas garage rock bands formed in the wake of the British Invasion, influenced by The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds and others, becoming top local live attractions at a time when the 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks were leading the way into psychedelia. In late 1966 Rod Prince on guitar and Roy Cox on bass from Bad Seeds joined up with David Fore from Zakary Thaks on drums to create a new band out of San Antonio featuring two lead guitarists. Todd Potter filled out the quartet on second guitar and they chose the name Bubble Puppy, taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was an early advocate of LSD, appropriately. In 1969 Bubble Puppy scored a top 20 hit single with “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” which led to their LP “A Gathering Of Promises”. International Artists, the legendary Texas label that previously had unleashed mind expanding classics by the Elevators, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn and others was a perfect fit. After the LP and additional 45s didn’t repeat the success of “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” the band hooked up with Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as their new manager and moved to Los Angeles. A new band name was in order, Nick St. Nicholas chose Demian, title of the 1919 novel by Herman Hesse. His books were popular with the counterculture at the time and had provided Steppenwolf with their new name after they changed it from the Sparrow and hit it big. Demian recorded the LP live in the studio at the Record Plant in one midnight to six session. They had their arrangements fully realized, allowing them to combine live show energy and economy with to-the-point delivery suitable for repeated listening. No doubt they were aiming for pop hit success, using proto hard rock skills in a radio friendly way without compromising the heavy guitar moves. The vocals have echoes of the earlier Bubble Puppy style in spots but are more melodic with vibrant harmonies reminiscent of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, James Gang… at times flashing on Steve Stills/Richie Furay westcoast without being too sweet about it. It works terrifically when the radio friendly voices top off killer hard guitar ensemble action. Early hard rock that is too bluesy flashy can get tiresome with repeat listening, especially if overdosing on guitar solos with the band relegated to the background… Demian keep it interesting with inventive song structures allowing all four players to integrate constantly into an ever changing but focused whole. This LP is a grower, despite the basic two guitars, bass and drums lineup and no frills production you reach a lot of different places during the ride. Demian is deadly hard rock, a perfectly organized vibe straddling live energy and crafted itinerary, amongst the first obscure major label killers that commanded premium $$ with collectors even way back in the late ‘70s. It gets you there every time, even half a century later!"

Limited to 250 copies. Death comes to us all. Emmerhoff & The Melancholy Babies do not shy away from this irrefutable fact. The band, celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2026, may now rightly consider themselves distinguished "elder statesmen" of rock. With such perspectives also comes the recognition of the transience of life. There are now more funerals than weddings lingering on the horizon, and the ranks of both the idols of our youth and contemporaries on the music scene are beginning to thin. "The Dying of The Light", its title taken from Dylan Thomas' iconic poem, contemplates and embraces the twilight of life, but also, in the spirit of the poem, fighting spirit and stubborn resistance to the inevitable. Death will come, but until then we will create music and celebrate life. October 2025 will see the release of the band's seventh studio album, recorded at Duper and Solslottet Studios in Bergen, produced by Iver Sandoy and Jorgen Træen.. The music reflects the sombre thematic while also being vital and vigorous. The range is wide, from delicate contemplation to powerful outbursts, strictly composed in one moment and loosely improvised in the next.

"It's a Beautiful Day" brings together 12 outstanding songs recorded between 1971 and 1976, reminiscent of sunshine pop, psych folk and soft rock with Peruvian touches, taken from extremely hard to find records, some of them reissued here on vinyl for the first time. A mindblowing look at a really stunning musical moment in Peru. Unusual instruments and exceptional vocal play also feature in the ten original songs and two cover versions, all performed by Lima-based groups. MAG has been, since its foundation in 1953, an essential label in the music scene of Peru, allowing the development of the careers of both tropical artists and musicians of other genres. At the head was Don Manuel Antonio Guerrero, its founder, whose name comes from the acronym of the label itself (M.A.G.). In 2021 MAG was acquired by the Spanish company Distrolux SL, owner of the Munster and Vampisoul record labels, after years of previous collaborations in which some of the most emblematic titles in the catalog were already reissued for the international market: Nils Jazz Ensemble, Sonora Casino, Traffic Sound, Al Valdez, Pax... Following our recent release "14 MAGníficos Bailables", comprising some of the best tropical music on MAG, this new compilation brings together 12 songs recorded between 1971 and 1976, reminiscent of sunshine pop, folk psych and soft rock but with Peruvian touches. The lyrics range from youthful reflections, environmental awareness, paradigm changes to all shades of love that the youth of the day experienced. Unusual instruments and exceptional vocal play also feature in the ten original songs and two cover versions, all performed by Lima-based groups.

Holy Sons is the largely solo project of Emil Amos (Grails, Om, Lilacs & Champagne). Puritan Themes is his 17th album and his 4th for Thrill Jockey Records and a tentpole album in his wide-ranging output, including myriad private press LPs, collections of oddities, and conceptual series". Puritan Themes" relaxed vibes are influenced by the laid-back west coast rock sound of mid-period Fleetwood Mac, blended with a dose of psych distortion and imbued with the breeziness and ease of yacht rock. Puritan Themes is a record that knowingly, barely fits into the modern world. When mixing the record in Chicago, everyday Amos skated through Douglass Park listening to podcasts about the inner workings of The Band, listened to 70"s AM radio while washing dishes and went to sleep at night to early Bee Gees interviews. The earliest concept of the record was based around the track "Chain Gang" which was an imaginary take on if Cat Stevens had smoked a ton of salvia and taken a much darker route within that world of dense, story-telling/message-based songwriting. The track "Raw & Disfigured" borrows its name from the last Thrill Jockey Holy Sons record, in a referential move that"s stolen from the way Led Zeppelin separated the track "Houses of the Holy" from the record of the same name (once again harkening back to 70"s lore).

Long-time NuNorthern Soul contributor, B.J. Smith is a man in demand, dividing his time between solo work, playing guitar in Crazy P man James Baron’s popular JIM outfit, collaborating in a variety of well-regarded projects (Smith & Mudd, Bison and White Elephant amongst them) and composing for TV. Due to this impressive list of musical commitments, solo releases have been few and far between of late, with Smith’s most recent NuNorthern Soul release, a stripped back version of his Big Sur single, dropping late 2023.

It's been ever longer since he delivered a volume in his popular and ongoing Dedications To The Greats series, where the singer-songwriter and composer successfully turns his hand to other people’s songs. Since debuting the series on NuNorthern Soul in 2013 via revelatory and inspired covers of tracks by Mos Def and the Pharcyde, Smith has covered cuts by Outkast, Prefab Sprout and Soul II Soul.

On volume four, Smith’s first volume in the series for five years, he delivers a “cover of a cover” – a revolutionary and imaginative interpretation of Billy Swan’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, itself a version of a song first made famous by Elvis Presley. It was their mutual love of Swan’s version that brought Smith together with the release’s most prominent guest artist, Joe Harvey-Whyte, whose lilting, bittersweet and deeply emotive pedal steel performances can be heard across the EP.

Smith provides three contrasting takes. The EP is led by the ‘Mother Earth’ version, a slowly unfurling epic in which waves of effects-laden pedal steel and sun-splashed picking acoustic guitars usher in Smith’s eyes-closed vocalisations, settling into a groove reminiscent of his collaborative work with long-time friend and collaborator Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy that showcases Harvey-Whyte centre stage to joyful effect. As the 14-minute epic progresses, we’re treated to long, languid electric guitar solos, percussion-laden slow-motion builds and hazy, stretched-out organ solos. It’s a breathlessly brilliant concoction that’s a million miles away from either Swan or Presley’s versions.

In contrast, the similarly epic ‘Earth Heart’ version – available in full vocal and instrumental takes – pushes the song front and centre. Following an extended build up, where Tamar Osborn’s gorgeous and fluid flute motifs rub shoulders with languid guitar solos and Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel, Smith takes to the mic, delivering an emotive performance of the song’s heartfelt lyrics over a hushed, slow-motion groove. The track builds in waves as it progresses, with Smith layering up instrumentation as it rolls towards a fine conclusion.

Completing a superb package is the ‘Root Heart Version’, a Balearic-meets-Americana take built around shuffling drums, toasty bass guitar, extended pedal steel instrumentation, flashes of flute and Smith’s sun-bright acoustic guitar. Loved-up and more than a little saucer-eyed, it’s a bona-fide sunset delight.

A samba funk essential. This debut album from Jorge Ben's iconic backing band blends Brazilian rhythms, soulful vocals, and American funk energy into one unforgettable groove. Includes the hit single 'Coqueiro Verde' along with standout tracks like 'Meu País,' 'Aleluia, Aleluia,' and 'O Canto da Ema.' A timeless gem for fans of Brazilian soul, vintage funk, or global grooves. Trio Mocotó is best known for being the powerhouse backing band behind Brazilian legend Jorge Ben during the height of his creative explosion in the early 1970s. But their contribution to music goes far beyond the supporting role-they were instrumental in shaping what would become known as samba funk, a vibrant fusion of traditional Brazilian rhythms with the groove and energy of American soul and funk music. Formed in Sao Paulo's iconic Jogral nightclub, Trio Mocotó-featuring Fritz Escovao, Joaozinho Parahyba, and Nereu Gargalo-began their musical journey as resident musicians, providing live accompaniment for a rotating cast of performers. It was here that Jorge Ben first encountered their raw talent and unmistakable chemistry, ultimately inviting them to join his band. The collaboration would go on to define an era. In 1971, Trio Mocotó stepped into the spotlight with their debut solo album, "Muita Zorra! (...Sao Coisas Que Glorificam a Sensibilidade Atual)." The record made an immediate impact, climbing the charts with the infectious single 'Coqueiro Verde' and marking the start of a prolific period in the group's career. "Muita Zorra!" is a dazzling blend of styles-mixing the baroque funk and melodic sophistication of artists like Marcos Valle with the soulful spirit of Jorge Ben. Layered with elements of American funk, the album delivers a dynamic, rhythm-driven sound that still feels fresh today. The trio's vocal harmonies are front and center, weaving through each track with warmth and richness, creating a captivating sonic tapestry that energizes every beat. This album isn't just a snapshot of a musical moment-it's a cornerstone of Brazilian soul. A must-listen for fans of global grooves, vintage funk, and timeless Brazilian music, "Muita Zorra!" is once again available and ready to take its well-deserved place in your collection. First time official reissue.

The most inspiring bands are the ones that can create a world around themselves that is about far more than just the music. The artwork, lyrics, sounds and ethos all merge together perfectly to create its own universe, a secret club. The Lovely Eggs are one such band. And against all the odds, 2025 sees them celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band! Stubbornly and heroically independent, The Lovely Eggs have forged their own path and have achieved mainstream success without ever compromising their DIY ethics. Released on their own label Egg Records, with eye watering artwork by Casey Raymond and hand packed in a black plastic bin bag on neon toxic slime green vinyl, this is yet another collectible release from a band who care as much about the art and ideas in their records as they do about the sound. "We had all these spare songs after we released our last album Eggsistentialism and we didn't really know what to do with them," explained Holly. "They just didn't seem to fit in with the vibe of Eggsistentialism but we'd recorded them and wanted to get them out there." "They're kind of a sketchbook of songs," added David. "They're not polished or laboured over but we thought it would be interesting to release them. It's why we called the record Bin Juice. These were songs we had thrown away. But hopefully people like going through bins collecting trash."

Repress 2025

The King of K-Pop Returns!

To those unfamiliar, G-Dragon is regarded by many as the Godfather of K-Pop. Rising to fame in the mid-00’s with his group, Big Bang, that later went on to become one of the world’s biggest selling boy groups. He quickly stood out with his unique and intricate songwriting as the leader of the group. A talented songwriter and trendsetter within the youth culture and fashion space, G-Dragon has received a bevy of awards, nominations for his music and fashion sense from the World Music Awards, to Hypebeast’s 100 list, to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, it’s apparent that G-Dragon has cemented his place in cultural relevance.

After serving his mandatory South Korean military service and a brief hiatus from music, the global superstar, G-Dragon has returned! He announced that he signed with indie-powerhouse, EMPIRE, and released his first comeback single on October 31, 2024 with POWER to immediate global fanfare and buzz, with the music video garnering over 44 MILLION views in a month and over 115 MILLION global streams. He soon followed that up with an electrifying performance at the 2024 MAMA Awards show in Osaka coupled with the release of his new single, Home Sweet Home which has garnered 100 MILLION global streams since release.

2025 will see the release of his first full length album since 2017 entitled Übermensch along with global tour dates. The album is expected to make a huge impact globally and further cement his place in music history!

Friend Of A Phantom is the third studio album by the Danish progressive metal band Vola, released under Mascot Label Group. This highly anticipated album showcases Vola's signature blend of intricate rhythms, soaring melodies, and thought-provoking lyrics.

With tracks like "Straight Lines" and "These Black Claws," Friend Of A Phantom takes listeners on a musical journey that seamlessly combines heavy riffs with electronic elements, creating a dynamic sound that is both captivating and innovative.

Vola's musicianship shines through in every song, from the complex drum patterns to the mesmerizing guitar solos. The band's ability to craft intricate arrangements while maintaining a strong sense of melody sets them apart in the progressive metal scene.

The production quality of Friend Of A Phantom is top-notch, allowing each instrument to shine through while still blending together to create a cohesive and immersive listening experience. The album's rich textures and layers reveal new details with each listen, making it a rewarding choice for fans of progressive music.

Overall, Friend Of A Phantom is a must-have for any music lover looking for an album that pushes boundaries and challenges traditional genre conventions. Vola's unique sound and innovative approach make this album a standout release in their discography.

Autodidactic musicologist and sample collagist U turned his archival eye on the melting pot of ‘80s post-punk with his debut ‘Life Isn’t A Fountain?’ EP for Lex. He follows up with an experimental exploration of regional identity with ARCHENFIELD, a deeply personal collection of ambient music and found sound that examines the relationship between geographical space and aural histories.

To construct this record U mined a wealth of recorded material relevant to the area. With a nod to traditional music, he takes samples from these records and creates beautifully atmospheric sound pieces that are often mixed with painstakingly researched snippets to create a stirring reflection on local history and broader themes of how we interact, or even fail to interact, with English folklore today.

Pressed on 180g vinyl, the album comes with a 24-page visual companion that expands on its themes and folk stories through imagery and narrative, echoing the album’s soundscape. : The Caretaker, Oneohtrix Point Never, JG Bie1berkopf, Maxime Denuc, Leon Vynehall

Lénok’s 'Langue of Tongue' is a descent. An unhinged pinballing down a realm of incomprehension and lunacy, a darkly psychedelic ego-death-spiral into a world of pure, deranged disquiet. It is, and this cannot be emphasised enough, a truly fucked up place. It comes complete with clearly marked borders delineated by its opening and closing tracks '(Entrance' and 'Exit)’. The message is clear: this is less album than zone.

There's no comfort to be found here. It’s like the inner monologue of some insectile, cyborgian abomination, something unfeeling and hostile, something that could only thrive in a mirror world that perverts light and sullies warmth. It's a netherworld: tracks jut out and stab like cold, craggy wastelandscapes, tangled meshworks of alienic transmissions bleed out into deformed knots of gurgling white noise, lacerations of sound roil and heave and claw as if imprisoned within oppressive waveforms.

‘Tongue’ is marked by a kind of wackiness, a demented slapstick that renders its darkness all the more sinister. Voices wail and taunt like schizophrenic spirits trapped between torment and cackling ecstasy. Tracks giggle and skitter as if populated by grinning, snaggletoothed shadows.

‘Langue of Tongue’ is recommended for the curious and advanced listener. This is music for whatever the opposite of escapism is — it’s REAL twisted. But sometimes morbid fascination takes hold. Sometimes you lift the rock, because you can’t help it, and you observe the squirming mess of life it plays host to. What you experience may not be pleasant, but you might just struggle to tear yourself away.

[b] 2Forgive and Forget (Pull Down the Night) [2025 Remaster]








[k] 2Happy Dog (For Caggie) [2025 Remaster]

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.

"Seishin" is a focused, four-track EP from Japan-born, Berlin-based producer Shingo Suwa on Acid Camp. The title translates to "spirit," and the record treats that idea as both a feeling and a relay: an original transmission from a time of quarantined isolation followed by responses from trusted collaborators. Clay Wilson contributes two versions: one a deep, tensile workout and the other a companion take sparked by the legacy of Jasen Loveland (1980-2021). Jasen Loveland also worked on a remix of his own in 2021. "Seishin" is not only about losing yourself-it is also about the resonance of spirit and memory, passed across friends, to find yourself again.

Die in Chicago geborene Musikerin keiyaA ist bekannt für ihren eigenen Sound-Mix zwischen R&B, Jazz, Elektronik und Soul. Schon ihr Debüt "Forever, Ya Girl" (2020) wurde international gefeiert, von Pitchfork als "Best New Music" ausgezeichnet und in Bestenlisten von The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR und The Guardian geführt. Künstler:innen wie Solange, Jay-Z oder Moses Sumney lobten ihre Arbeit. Ihr neues Album "hooke"s law" entstand über fünf Jahre hinweg - in einer Zeit, in der keiyaA zwischen künstlerischem Aufbruch und persönlicher Krise oszillierte. Es ist ein Werk radikaler Selbstbefragung, das Intimität, politische Wut und künstlerische Experimentierfreude verbindet. Klanglich finden sich schillernde Synths mit Videospiel-Anklängen, kaleidoskopische Jazz-Arrangements und fragile R&B-Momente. Emotional pendelt das Album zwischen Zartheit und Widerstand, zwischen der Suche nach innerem Frieden und der Konfrontation mit einer Welt, die queere Schwarze Frauen unsichtbar macht und zugleich überwacht. Songs wie "stupid prizes" oder "get close 2 me" erzählen vom Spannungsfeld zwischen Überleben und Selbstbehauptung, während "think about it what u think" unvermittelt von Sinnlichkeit in politische Anklage kippt. Wie auch in ihrem experimentellen Theaterstück milk thot entwirft keiyaA auf "hooke"s law" Räume, in denen Identität nicht fixiert, sondern ständig neu zusammengesetzt wird. James Baldwin schrieb, die Aufgabe von Künstler:innen sei es, die verborgenen Wahrheiten einer Gesellschaft ans Licht zu bringen. Genau das gelingt keiyaA hier: Sie verwandelt Schmerz in Klang und schenkt uns das Mutigste, was Kunst geben kann - die Freiheit, Widersprüche auszuhalten.

e 5Lay On Your Side (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]










[p] 7Don't Mess With Doctor Dream (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]
[q] 8Revolution (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]
[r] 9Nothing in Common (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]





[e] 5Lay On Your Side (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]










[p] 7Don't Mess With Doctor Dream (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]
[q] 8Revolution (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]
[r] 9Nothing in Common (7" Version) [2025 Remaster]

Stepback Records is proud to announce the highly anticipated release of Jacksonville's new 12" vinyl, Oracle Memory EP.

Jacksonville is an electronic artist whose work spans multiple genres, creating music that’s designed for clubs and dance floors. With previous releases on labels such as Atmospheric Exsistence and Chez Damiers Balance Alliance imprint Jacksonvilles roots run deep.

With Oracle Memory EP, Jacksonville takes listeners on a journey of low end perfection, blending elements of house, electro and bass music genres.

Produced by Chris Lyth (Jacksonville), Oracle Memory EP was crafted with vinyl in mind with an analog warmth throughout each track. Likewise master and cut comes courtesy of Optimum in Bristol for the absolute best sound quality possible.

Kyoko Koizumi, aka Kyon Kyon or Kyon², was one of the most popular and best selling pop idols through the 80s & 90s and on this album, thanks to the vision of Haruo Chikada as a producer, an unlikely combination of her vocals with the burgeoning sonics of house music takes place to great effect. What must have seemed like a cultural anomaly to contemporary audiences, particularly so early into the canon of house music (this record saw the light of day in 1989), we can now retrospectively recognise that not only does this album succeed as a snapshot of the musical zeitgeist of the time - it also predicted the unification of house & dance music with commercial pop sensibilities that has remained in the culture in the decades since. However, what is happening sonically on this record goes beyond anything disposable or vapid that might come to mind when one thinks of Pop forays into house music - we are served up menacing acid lines, hip-house rhythms and even some digi-dub excursions

Recorded live during the 4th anniversary of Sagome at Cafe Oto, London - 20th January 2024 ( January Jenilek + Ottomani Parker Live)
Recorded in one straight take - no over dubbing.

It runs through the minds of men and women of a certain age, complexion, and place who grew up during the era of segregation and who defied their parents, the law, and all genteel propriety and custom by answering one bluesman's invitation to cross the color line and join him getting lowdown and dirty as he serenaded a generation from the bandstand, on jukeboxes, and through the radio.

To them, the slurred guttural sound of a wise man singing "Hush, Hush," putting down the "Big Boss Man" or advising the listener to "Take Out Some Insurance" before they behold the "Bright Lights, Big City" was a siren's call they had no choice but to answer. Even if they tried, they couldn't resist the steady, dirty rhythm punctuated by the twanging sting of an electric guitar note and the sweet wail of a harmonica. And when they leaned in close, they could even hear the barely perceptible sound of a woman's voice whispering forgotten lyrics into an ear.

Ain't nobody can do Jimmy Reed like Jimmy Reed could. But this drive down Jimmy Reed Highway with fellow Mississippian Kent "Omar" Dykes at the wheel with Jimmie Vaughan (older brother of the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan) riding shotgun and folks like, Kim Wilson, Miss Lou Ann Barton, James Cotton, Delbert McClinton, and Gary Clark, Jr., joining the duo, comes mighty close. As Omar guns the engine and peels rubber on the two- lane blacktop lined with no- good women, empty whiskey bottles, too many cigarette butts and bad intentions, he leaves John Law trailing behind eating his dust. Hop in for a ride and turn up the volume. The electric bluesman who shaped the minds and moves of a musical generation is alive and well. (by Joe Nick Patoski)

Take Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron’s iconic track “The Bottle”, add a sublime vocal performance from UK soul legend Omar, and put it in the hands of house music pioneers Masters At Work—and you get a version that’s both timeless and urgent, filled with joy, fire, and social consciousness, and built for the dancefloor. Driven by Masters At Work’s signature attention to detail, and elevated by the calibre of the musicians and vocalists involved, this reimagining of “The Bottle” evolved into something truly epic. In fact, the final mix turned out too long to fit on Brian Jackson’s upcoming 3LP album, Now More Than Ever—but everyone agreed: fans had to hear it in its full glory.

So here it is, released exactly as intended on this twin 12" vinyl and digital EP. Also included are exclusive versions of: “Winter in America” featuring sonorous vocals from Rich Medina “New York City”, reimagined as a deeply soulful, downtempo groove featuring Cindy Mizelle, Dawn Tallman, and Ramona Dunlap This EP is a love letter to the role of music in Black Liberation, reconnecting the powerful legacy of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron with the voices and vision of 2025. A powerful taste of what’s to come on Now More Than Ever—but also a vital standalone statement, delivered by legends at the top of their game

2025 Record Store Day title - now available for general sale. A nice blend of afro, jazz, rare groove funk and reggae, for your listening and dancing pleasure. Featuring Vin Gordon, Abdul-Teejay, AJ Franklin, Barry Issac, Ashanti Selah, and many more.

Toni Wobble is looking back on over 20 years of roots in punk, free parties and political movements. From anti-nuclear activism to the Gaggeldub performances, Toni's dug deep into the Dub universe: from Dubstation to Rootsbase to Subardo. By 2012, Toni became a respected operator of Leipzig's Plug Dub Soundsystem. Soon after, he didn't hesitate to create the very own solar- powered Sunplugged sound. Toni's live dub sets hit with all depth and energy of low bass sound culture, shaking the foundations with refreshing freakuency adventures. After a guest spot on our 18th release, helping RUZ dubbing out a deep b-side, it's time to unleash the full Wobble fury on 45Seven!

Out In Da Streetz was born in a lockdown, when urban life got stall, opening space for experiments. Inspired by Juke and Footwork at nights such as Bassmæssage, Toni ventured into Jungle production - the genre him love from way back. The result is an opus of subs, breaks, skanks and dubs. Expect 30 Hertz bass, wobbly midranges, halftime snares and Jungle edits sharp like razor. Don't miss the Ini cameo and hand-made skank work straight from the lab. The result ain't just a track, it's a state of inner and outer emergency, a deep dive into groove, texture and creative chaos.

Irie Cruise rolls up like a cloud of green smoke riding through the streets with a sick ride in a surreal vibe. Rootsy rhythms meet subtle Jungle twists inbetween the twinkles of Dub and the flickers of breakbeats. When the hook drops, the impulse fires up, the lowrider bounces through the turns of skanks, throwing dub delays and gliding deep into the night. By the final tone, you didn't just take a ride, you're actually a bit closer to the sun.

Toni Wobble is giving the full hundred. Dub ain't just a genre, it's a portal to infinite spaces of sound. It's a culture, a process and an attitude, all about echo, bass and space. But it's also about experimentation, consciousness and transformation. Each delay loop is reshaping reality, tearing it down and rebuilding it from the ground up. D.U.B. equals to deep universal beats, the universal frequency... Deep, wide and open. Tune in and dub out!

Tensal is the solo project of Héctor Sandoval, also known as half of Exium and Komatssu. Since its creation in 2014,
Tensal has become the channel for his most personal vision of Techno, blending diverse rhythms and textures with a
powerful and distinctive identity. Alongside his own imprint Tensal Ltd, he has released on some of the scene’s most influential labels, including Mord, Modularz, Perc Trax, Blueprint, Arcing Seas, PoleGroup, Float, Kynant, KR3, A.R.T.S,
Warm Up and Soma, where he delivered his first LP in 2018.

He has remixed artists such as Slam, Electric Indigo, Anthony Linell, Mike Parker, Shed, Pangaea and Shifted, while his
tracks are championed by leading DJs like Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Ellen Allien, Laurent Garnier and DVS1. His DJ sets, built largely from his own productions, have taken him to more than 60 countries
worldwide, with performances at iconic clubs and festivals including Berghain, Tresor, Awakenings and Fabrik.

Beyond Tensal, Sandoval explores different frontiers of electronic music: with Juan Rico (Reeko) he formed Komando Terrorismo Sonico (K.T.S.), releasing the album Insurrección in 2021; in 2022 he launched Syndromania on Oaks
Records, a vinyl-only project fusing Techno with Trance, EBM, Electro and Acid. In 2023 he joined BPitch Control,
releasing several EPs and performing at the label’s We Are Not Alone events, while in late 2024 he debuted on Blueprint
Records with Highland Landscapes, a collaboration with Vince Watson (Amorphic), followed by a joint EP on Mord in
2025.

Ritual Dance - is a sound journey, where futurism and the obsolete merge into a new world. Arash & Quasar (truth and star) - is a duo of electronic producers, friends, DJs, rare record collectors and artists, Pavel Grachev and Vitaly Zhul'kov. Their approach for music making compiles elements of various cultures and eras, resulting in fresh and trippy sonic labyrinths. The title track puts the listener in a state of trance and wild fields, where shaman dance moves take over the existense. Powerful percussion, rich synth textures and traditional instruments are mixed in one. 'Acid Krishna' extends the trip, adding acid basslines and meditative flavour. A true morning anthem of a proper rave trip. 'Lokum' is exploring the deepness of the East through melodies, that sweeten up your adventure away from the daily reality. The flip side starts with 'Opium', where slow beats suck you in the abyss more and more. 'Truth & Star' - is an energy exchange ceremony, where Arash & Quasar become rhythm wizards and dictate how you move and feel, just like snakes dance to the magic flute... The Truth refers to the inner awakening and The Star is the symbol of the external shine. 'Desert' is the final chapter of the trip, evolving into eternity, just like a caravan dissolves in the endless desert, hot air and the blue night... Besides studio work, Arash & Quasar share videos of their own trips and adventures via Youtube-chanel, called DIG LOTO. Together with their best friend, the portative Vestax Handy Trax vinyl player, they search for rare records in remote destinations.

Crate digger and music enthusiast James Endeacott compiles ‘Unlock Your Mind With Morning Glory’ for Two-Piers Records – A glorious heady mix of the weird and wonderful eclectic music from his radio show ‘Morning Glory’

“One weekday afternoon towards the end of 2017 I sat in The Lyric pub on Great Windmill Street, Soho with my dear friend Raf. I’d just finished another of my weekly Soho Radio shows and was starting to think about the next one. Raf had been on as a guest playing some of his favourite tunes of the day. We had a few drinks, told a few stories and started to plot and scheme. It was always a dream of mine to have a daily radio show. Radio had always informed and excited me from my early teens listening to John Peel under the blanket when I should’ve been either sleeping or revising right up to the present-day musical excursions of NTS, WFMU and numerous internet based stations.

We decided to speak to Adrian and Dan who ran Soho Radio to see if they’d be up for us doing a daily morning show. To our surprise they were into the idea and within 5 minutes Adrain came up with the name Morning Glory. We all liked it. We were all excited. It was all systems go. In December 2017 Raf and myself started a daily 2 hour show. We did the show together, got guests in and the musical policy was whatever we felt like that day. After several months Raf found the mornings too much. Off he went into the distance occasionally coming back with a smile, and a bag of new music. I carried on alone and then suddenly in March 2020 the world stopped, and we went into lockdown.

We set up in my house in Catford, Southeast London and carried on. The show became 3 hours a day and I started to invite friends, record labels, record shops, bands etc.. to supply me with hour long mixes that I played every day. The show took off during this time. My musical tastes expanded as I spent all day long searching for new sounds from around the globe. People started to send me more and more music. I became obsessed with the show. The audience started to take to social media and ask for certain tracks or artists to be played. I got listeners to make me mixes to play on the show and I did several phone interviews with musicians while playing some of their favourite tunes.

I was grateful that Soho Radio left me to my own devices. They never told me what to do or what to play – they trusted ma and I trusted my instincts.

The music on this compilation is not a ‘best of’ it’s just how I felt when I compiled it at the start of 2025. Apart from a couple of tracks they are all things I’ve come across since the show started in December 2017. If I did a list of tracks now I’m sure it would be completely different. Surely that’s the point. We never stick in one place. We are always moving and searching. Always trying to unlock our minds. Put it on. Take your time and let it take you somewhere” James Endeacott 2025

As a label, we are specialists in musical diversity. With our newest installment of the annual System 108 compilation we present you two parts of hand picked creative output by our friends, residents and dearest guests. Curated by the artist Ira Bespalova, the concept of both parts is simple and deep: the good, the calm, the kind is part 1 and all anti-heroes, filthy electro-armored jams is part 2. All together - another twist of the planet, another beat of our big heart, that became shelter and home home for a whole new tribe. It pumps, it creates, unites and warms up, kicks it real hard, no matter how tough it is. Part 1 is densely populated by our new kids on the block! Isktrit, TURBOSH, BORIS REDWALL, DJ Yesyes, Dominique Mara have been releasing singles, EP's and album during 2023 and became an integral part of the collective. Here you will also find good old friends Maksimovna, Lipelis, Kito Jempere. Very special Siberian inspired trippy workout by RLGN and Sasha Kustov, Luchshiy Drug. And a super special guest appearance starring Magnus Opus and mo?se?. The running order is curated as a narrative, as an album that takes you on a journey. But separately, it all works as singles, DJ tracks and tools. Welcome to Nine Years Of Love!

LIMITED 500 ONLY (WORLDWIDE) FIRST PRESS ON CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL WITH GREEN SMOKE SWIRLS. HOUSED IN GLOSS FINISHED FULL COLOUR SLEEVE WITH POLYLINED INNER BAG. NON-RETURNABLE.
Japanese psych rockers Hibushibire return with album number four ‘Flashback Stonehenge’ and a UK/European tour to coincide.
‘Flashback Stonehenge’ is the bands first studio album as a four piece, with live guest Kohei Katsuma now joining as a full time member on percussion/congas (an absolute must see live) alongside Changchang (Guitar/Vocal), Tetsuji Toyoda (Bass/Vocal) and Aoi Hama (Drums/Vocals).
Like the band's previous three albums, this one continues with the three shorter songs on side one, and one epic long song filling out side two mantra that has served them so well thus far.
Opening track ‘Snow Sniffing Matador’ is already a firm live favourite, with it’s heavy riffage and 70’s rock swagger. Things then cool down with a more laid back ‘In Heaven’, featuring Aoi Hama’s dreamlike vocal whispers, and a fuzzed out take on traditional English folk song ‘The Cuckoo’ with Changchang & Aoi trading verses.
Flip it over, and you have the epic title track, which sees the band take a slightly different approach recalling the likes of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Faust, CAN, Eno etc over its extraordinary 22 minutes.
The band return for their fourth UK tour in October, and also play their first mainland European dates to coincide.

2024 Reissue

“Tubby did three original dub albums, ‘Dub From The Roots’. ‘The Roots of Dub’ and the third is ‘Brass Rockers’ with Tommy McCook ‘pon the flying cymbals. Where he mixed it with the horn going in and out in a dub way and one named ‘Shalom Dub’ you can call Tubby’s too because he mixed the versions as they were off forty fives’’
Bunny ‘Striker‘ Lee

King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ ( more of which later...) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.

Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the U.S.A... When he had qualified Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm & Blues at local weddings and birthday parties. His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a home made mixing console and his impressive collection of Jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.

Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studio’s one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith....

“Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake through we were talking and forgot to put in the voice. It was two track recording in those days. Ruddy said ‘No Man! Make it stay! and so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy’s that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we’re going to play ‘Part Two’. They never called it ‘Version’..and then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said ‘Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke.It mash up Spanish Town! The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now ‘cause when the man put on the ‘Part Two’ everyone start singing this song. It played about twenty times. I said you try Tubbs!’...Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he’s going to play ‘Part Two’ but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.’’
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Strikers rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. Lovingly restored and with a few extra gems added to the CD Editions. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.

OOOOH! by Alex Bad Baby Lukashevsky with Cocoa Corner (2025)

Celebrated veteran of Toronto’s music scene, known for his boundary-pushing approach to folk and avant-garde music, twists rock music into strange and brilliant new shapes with the help of young jazz players, U.S. Girls, and his own immensely talented son.



OOOOH! is hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Made in the spirit of unity,
humanity, and poetry — disobediently renouncing the glory of personal triumph for the
generosity of an honest experiment. On the last track of the album you’ll hear “Or do you only ever never want to make a single enemy? / That’s not freedom or humility / It’s nothing, honestly.” Oooh, that's a bad baby!

A celebrated Toronto songwriter and performer, Alex Lukashevsky has always been disobedient. Which simply means, nothing is off the table when he’s looking for his
poetic voice; when trying to find the realest I of the teller. As he sings on the lead track “that musician that’s dead” The musician is radical/ it’s the world that’s demented/ listening with their eyes, the music looks dented/ they’re over-represented.
OOOOH! was recorded in January 2024 at Sound Department in Toronto, engineered by Patrick Lefler (ROY), mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Matt Smith. All the songs were tracked live off the floor in two days, with one extra day for recording vocals, to keep the recording fully alive and breathing. As leader of Deep Dark United, as a solo performer, and a sideman in Brodie Wests’ Eucalyptus and Luka Kuplowsky’s Ryokan Band, Alex has been an outsized influence on the Toronto music scene that spawned acts like Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett. (Pallett, who has toured with Lukashevsky, went so far as to record an entire album’s worth of Alex’s songs, backed
by a full orchestra.)

Lukashevsky has approached each of his albums and projects as something completely new, using only the musical boundaries he creates with each song. Even when he
has recorded songs with nothing but his voice and his own acoustic guitar accompaniment, the results are never “stripped down” or “back to basics,”
Gong! How do you get to heaven / have fun! have fun!
It’s cool to approach music as a game of “spot the influence”; Burt Bacharach-meets-Black Flag; Lana Del Rey-meets-LCD Soundsystem etc. Glorified mash-ups are promising because of their conversational nature. But they can turn us into hyperboreans; blowing cold air beyond ourselves while doing what we can to remain warm. To devise a game or a narrative is to have a winner and a loser, but we all know that just as you win/ so you lose. And does anything really change? Alex Lukashevsky and Cocoa Corner are more at ease drawing blind contours or playing an old game like consequences. They let things add up without knowing particularly how. Cognition is recognition.

Lukashevsky, in addition to writing all the songs, plays guitar and sings on OOOOH!, doing both in ways that are soulful and spikey at the same time. Joining him on guitar and vocals is his oldest child, Charlie Lukashevsky, who, at 23, is already a talented performer and songwriter in his own right. Cocoa Corner also includes Aidan McConnell, an in-demand drummer and composer, Jack Johnston, a jazz bassist and Barry Harris acolyte, and percussionist Evan Cartwright (The Weather Station, U.S. Girls, Cola, Tasseomancy), who plays steel pan and marching drum.

Working with his son and with other younger musicians is central to the album’s
unpredictable aesthetic. It reinvigorated the sound in unexpected ways. Lukashevsky says, “I had to reconsider my own instincts. I had to deal with being 99 years old.”
In addition to these performers, the album includes a tasty contribution from Meg
Remy, the visionary musician and producer who is the leader of the critically acclaimed
project U.S. Girls. Remy duets with Lukashevsky on the imagistic and sprawling album
closer “things keep happening.”
About that album title: OOOOH! is taken straight from “that musician that’s dead” an
arch and unhinged comment on the exertion required to navigate a lifetime of music making.
Lukashevsky’s delivery of that one emotive word is a kind of cultural posture, but also a
hundred percent primitive expression. The impact is never less than visceral. His vocal
delivery ranges through rich baritone blues to keening falsettos to a kind of sprechstimme that periodically steps out from the music to grab the listener’s shirt. He
doesn’t sound too nice, but he is sincere. When life gives you lemons lament.
For OOOOH! his first official full-length album since 2012’s Too Late Blues, (a collection of knotty-yet-effervescent tunes built upon the enchantingly serpentine harmonies of Lukashevsky and his vocal collaborators, Felicity Williams (Bahamas, Bernice) and Daniela Gesundheit (Snowblink, HYDRA)), Alex has once again broken apart and rebuilt his own approach to music. Or rather (because that sounds too over-determined), he
has allowed his music to build itself into strange new shapes that only fleetingly and
coincidentally, but happily, resemble anything that might be called rock and roll. There is some editorializing within the song’s lyrics— Lukashevsky even cheekily contributes to the “spot the influence” game with the line “Muddy Waters, Rite of Spring!” a funny preemptive strike against anyone already reaching for some variation of avant-blues to describe what the song is up to here. In fact there are many names checked on this record (literally and in spirit); they are the lily pads that trace the path of this expression! Palestrina, Peter Pears and Benjamin Brittain, Andrés Segovia, Stravinsky, Lotte Lenya, Alice Coltrane, Skip James, Chuck Berry, D’Gary, Betty Carter, Mukhtiyar Ali, Chuck D, Yoko Ono, Hailu Mergia, David Bowie, Jane Siberry. rhythm is a skeleton mansion / haunted by melody / feckless prodigy / the world is under a spell / cast by some demon angel / Practice day and night / Try as hard as hell / no one can sing that well Musicians are often worried by the way in which they are prepared to fail rather
than how they would like to succeed; it’s such a deep concern that it tempers their creativity and shackles their process. Current cultural proclivities, tend to comfort a certain kind of artistic failure and abnegate another kind. How many testimonials, full of heartfelt care and investment, have you heard for Taylor Swift, and yet a craftsman like Chris Weisman is often dismissed easily as though he’s doing something anti-social. what’s throwing itself in my ears and my eyes / arrogant devil ad hominem christ.
The music you will hear on this recording veers off in multiple directions at once,
and features a rock and roll spirit with a divergent heart. This is no sclerotic clomp of the Average Rock Song, but in fact a flood of humanity in all its darkness and moodiness and unpredictability. If most performers make songs that are like sports cars or pickup trucks to drive around, Lukashevsky has built something more akin to a rowboat in a tree: it’s weird and beautiful.