T. Jacques presents ‘Rowhill Trax’: - four cuts of straight-up house music, drawing on the raw sound of the ’90s and early ’00s. Heavy low-end, swinging rhythms and resonating chords run throughout, keeping things stripped back and firmly focused on the dancefloor.
Opening with ‘Worked Up (House Mix)’, a high-energy groove of filtered chords and analogue drum programming, followed by ‘Rub Down’, built around slamming, hard-hitting drums and a low-slung bassline.
Over on the B-side, ‘Under Cover’ settles into a heavy swing with big drums, low sub and classic house chords, while ‘Do It Right (Deeper)’ closes things out with a deeper sound, warm chords and swinging drums.
Interweaved yields the first volume of a new series curated by Brawther and one that underlines its credentials as an outlet for fresh new underground talent. Three producers here - Frederik Anthony, Mahar, and ICTV - were finalists in the 2023 "Minimal" Producer Challenge judged by Cassy, Losoul and Daniel Paul. Anthony opens with 'Interiddim', a lithe broken beat here through with warm chords. Mahar's 'Relaxed' is a silky and minimal dub tech cut and Omar Fayyad's 'A Mutual Thing' offers trippy late-night charm. Finally, ICTV's 'Oracle Night' is also deep and dubby but a little more menacing.
In 2023, Kraków-based composer Martyna Basta and Los Angeles-based sound artist claire rousay were invited to Poland by Unsound for a short residency, where they spent a few days trading ideas and concepts, and brainstorming their first collaboration. Initially motivated to create lengthy, expansive pieces together, they also ended up experimenting with shorter vignettes, and ‘hotel room’ expresses these two extremes, featuring three long-form tracks and three brief, euphoric songs. “It wasn’t something we specifically planned,” explains Basta. “It just unfolded that way.” The most important stage of the process, however, was the period that followed the residency, when rousay and Basta began working on their sketches in isolation, trading drafts and sculpting the sounds independently before rousay handled the final mixdown. In the comfort of their own bedrooms, they were better able to reflect their individual creative routines, organically reaching a junction where their music felt truly unified. Even while they were in Poland, the duo joked that it might have been easier if they’d been holed up in separate rooms emailing each other.
Both artists have had an energetic few years: after steadily building a reputation for her diaristic and candid concrète experiments, rousay signed to Thrill Jockey in 2023, releasing the acclaimed ‘sentiment’, ‘a little death’ and the more eaze collaboration ‘no floor’; Basta, meanwhile, followed up 2023’s hallucinatory ‘Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering’ and her debut for Belgium’s Stroom imprint, ‘Diaries Beneath Fragile Glass’ with a studio album on !K7’s 7K sublabel: ‘Winged in Collapse’. The title of their collaboration reflects rousay and Basta’s hectic touring schedules in the wake of these releases, the constant feeling of displacement and the emotions that emerge when the environment is in flux. “I know we aren’t the only musicians traveling and creating work at the same time,” says rousay, “but being able to speak about that experience and all the things that come with it was comforting.” And the music itself, assembled from hypnagogic field recordings, spectral voices, electronics and filtered instrumental improvisations, sounds bewitchingly unmoored, not tied to a specific location but hovering around the uncanny space in-between.
Scratchy ASMR sounds introduce us to the opening track ‘zoom’, initially obscuring the duo’s elegiac harmonies. They are careful to let the various elements evolve at their own pace, with the fictile guitar drones melting into the foreground while Basta’s dissociated whispers and rousay’s illusory synths pick out the subtlest subliminal shades. It all builds to the piece’s dramatic third act, when layered chords ring out like organ blasts, enveloping the negative space. The shorter, more anxiety-provoking ‘denim’ is remarkably divergent, a dismantled folk memory pieced together from skeletal piano notes, vaporous choral echoes, haunting string plucks and pulsating feedback. Where the music aligns is in the mood itself, capturing a feeling that’s neither completely abstract nor fully referential. Not ambient exactly, ‘hotel room’ is a suite of soundscapes that gesture towards structure while repeatedly folding in on themselves.
On ‘Lost and Found’, wordless Autotuned ad-libs spiral around delicate guitar plucks and washing waves, coalescing into a faded Polaroid of opiated Americana, and on ‘Where Are You Now’, operatic squeals and corroded orchestral scrapes are juxtaposed with nauseous low-end tones. Evaporating until only industrial whirrs and music box chimes remain, the latter encapsulates the entire album’s chilling liminality, smudging saturated voices with casual electro-acoustic interjections before it erupts abruptly, transforming into a dense, pitch-skewed hymn. ‘hotel room’ plays like a surreal travelogue, teasing listeners with airy familiarities as it humidifies dry, awkward spaces. More a labyrinth of catacombs than a single, fixed chamber, it’s Escher-like – cryptic and seductive – and decked out with personal asides and intimate details that reward the most patient, curious listeners.
Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. And somewhere out there in the Pitch black beyond all darkness lies Peace & Purpose. The horizon you never quite crest until the inevitable end. Breathe deep — this fearful moment is the most alive you’re ever gonna feel. For the last decade, Crack Cloud’s vision has grown ever more expansive, more cinematic. Last go around, they dropped from The Heavens and then performed with their bare backs to an endless darkening desert. Now they’ve crammed all that life into some metallic and strange object called Peace & Purpose. All the terror of living. All the helplessness. All the raw human will. All glued and screwed and locked into this impossible tactile shape of dungeon dub; sour milk vox; Avant-protest music. Music arm wrestling itself to the ground. Far afield of beauty. The discordant symphony of factory farming and grim timber of the meat processing plant. The grinding din of the cogs. And yet, never giving up in spite of all good sense. Even in death, we are a coterie of survivors. Look now: There’s Terry Fox on his one-legged Marathon of Hope across The Great White North while cancer spreads through his lungs. A self-annihilating drive to feel alive. Rage against the dying of the light, they say. Well, how ‘bout it then!??! Peace & Purpose is not in any way some art project meditation on Punk Rock. It is Punk Rock. Terrifying, inspiring, vital, invigorating and most importantly, utterly unexpected. Every goddamn stupid day is a sublime slice of fresh hell. That’s the point. Gotta go through it. Wishing you Peace & Purpose — if only in that last big breath.
Backing it up can mean so many things. According to the urban dictionary, it means to carry on drinking the next day in spite of a rather large one the night before. According to Apple, it means to take your I-phone and attach it to an I-pad or Apple Mac - and copy the information to the cloud. Or the device. But in music.....what we mean is basically this....."Damn......that was a big hit......how the hell are they going to emulate that success on the next one."And it's hard for so many reasons. Was it luck Timing That one in a million sample With all the pressure, soon the artist can start second guessing themselves........and that's when backing it up becomes a real problem.But not for our boy PURPLE DISCO MACHINE. If BODY FUNK, his last outing on CLUB SWEAT, wasn't one of THE biggest songs of last year, from Ibiza to Miami and back again.....played by every single DJ under the sun, from BLACK MADONNA to JAMIE JONES to your mama......then I'm not sitting at my lap top writing this shpeel....which I'm very sure I am. AND I'm going to back myself (see what I did there) - and say that DISHED (MALE STRIPPER) is the best way to back up a hit ever. With another hit. Doesn't sound the same....doesn't worry about what the last one did...just does what it does.....which to be honest - is GO OFF!!!! It builds and builds and builds and......In the same way that BODY FUNK masterly made the sum of 2 disco songs bigger than their parts had ever been, this time PDM takes some Italo Disco from MAN TO MAN MEET MAN PARRISH's MALE STRIPPER and mashes it with the aptly named ELLIS D's DISHAPELLA to create a 12/10. Back it up PDM - you are a legend!!!!
Ricardo Villalobos runs wild on Mohammad Reza Mortazavi’s Persian tombak hand drum actions, expanding a 4 min kernel of inspiration into 24 minutes of mesmerising polyrhythmic traction. From an original ‘Swamp’’ piece that practically recalls Ricardo’s style of slinky minimal techno sorcery to begin with, the Chilean-German maverick derives a more driving tract of rough hewn rhythmic grit bound to hypnotise ‘floors for the duration. Accentuating the undulating bass and dialling up the volume whilst retaining the frictional grind of the original, Villalobos gets right inside the groove with typically obsessive tekkerz, plucking out additional string
motifs and tempering the flow with signature, taut but sinuous, loosey goosey flex that cross-pollinates cultures and gets right under the skin of the thing.
Ricardo Villalobos (b. 1970, Chile) is a pioneering figure in minimal techno, celebrated for his hypnotic and groovy approach to rhythm. Raised in Germany after his family fled Pinochet’s regime, Villalobos was drawn early to percussion - he began playing congas and bongos at eleven, developing a tactile relationship to rhythm that would later inform his distinctive production style. Immersed in both Latin American folk traditions and the emerging house and techno scenes of late-80s Europe, he began DJing and producing in the early 1990s, quickly achieving cult status within global club culture. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (b. 1979, Iran) is a virtuoso percussionist known for his groundbreaking work with the tombak and daf, traditional Persian drums that he has radically redefined through new playing techniques. Mortazavi began playing the tombak at the age of six. By nine, he had already outpaced his teacher and won Iran’s national tombak competition - a distinction he would earn six more times. By his early twenties, he was widely regarded as one of the foremost players of the instruments. Since then, his music has continued to evolve, embracing new forms beyond tradition.
The “Late Loop” LP by Andy Stott is released on Modern Love and marks the producer’s return after a five-year break from the studio. The album brings Alison Skidmore, Stott’s long-time vocal partner, and for the first time Elaine Howley to the forefront; their voices are used partly as full vocal performances and partly as fragmented, pitch-shifted loops, forming the emotional center of the record. Stott largely avoided established production tricks: no basslines, no reverb, just a delay as the sole effect, giving the arrangements an unusual clarity and fragility.
“Late Loop” sits somewhere between downbeat, electronica, and leftfield, and emerged from an experimental process that ranged from drone passages and brass-like concrète moments to song-oriented structures. Rhythm often emerges indirectly here: a drum machine was played back into the room, re-recorded, and pitched down; a pump organ was recorded with a microphone placed on the floor; valves and an aging mixing console audibly contribute to the atmosphere. Lyrically, themes of separation predominate; the voices were layered multiple times, then pared back until only the essentials remained. Mastering was handled by Rashad Becker, and the cover photo is by Myriam Boulos. With “Late Loop,” Modern Love presents an austere, meticulously crafted album whose details gradually reveal themselves with repeated listening.
The Beatles played two shows at the Montréal Forum on September 8th 1964, a matinee at 4pm and an evening performance at 8pm and at 6pm they held a press conference for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from the Forum’s stage. A local newspaper had reported that somebody was going to kill Ringo, so instead of staying the night in Montréal, they flew out straight after the evening show and arrived at Key West at 3.30am where hundreds of fans were awaiting them. After a day off in Miami, the group performed at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida the following night.
We have done the best we possibly could with these admittedly lo-fi yet important historical recordings. The source is AM radio and there is considerable distortion on the vocals. The broadcast was faded out halfway through A Hard Day's Night so the last two songs of the show, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Long Tall Sally were not transmitted.
Designed for her 5 Hour extended sets and refined on dancefloors worldwide, "Can't Stop Loving You" - out today on slash - captures KI/KI's signature nostalgia-meets-future sound. Self-written and produced, it's an emotive trance burner built for peak time joy, unity and release, a sound that has defined her rise across global rave culture.
"Can't Stop Loving You" has become the closing moment in KI/KI's 2025 sets. From her Radio One Essential Mix, her two 5 Hours at the Woolstore, Melbourne - the only artist to ever do two back-to-back - to her AMF headline set to 40,000 fans at the Johan Cruijff ArenA! "Can't Stop Loving You" has been the emotional closer all year long.
On the track KI/KI says:
I wrote this track during the biggest heartbreak of my life. Back then I was working on music for my liveshow, and needed a track to close the show with. Can't stop loving you was the result.
Every note, every sound, every vocal helped me through how I was feeling and listening back now reminds me that eventually things will be okay again. The song evolves from an emotional track to an optimistic 172bpm banger and this perfectly describes my process - and maybe the story of almost every heartbreak?
This record is living proof to me that music can be healing. I hope it does the same for you
In just a few years, KI/KI has become one of the most exciting and influential voices in electronic music. She's sold out 20,000-capacity shows and graced the cover of DJ Mag. In 2026, she'll headline London, Dublin, Belfast, Paris, LA and NYC - all selling out in minutes.
With new music coming and her fanbase surging, "Can't Stop Loving You" now closes both her sets and her year - the emotional full stop on 2025 before an even bigger 2026.
US outfit Garth only left behind a small trail of records, but this obscure 1980 7" still carries the peculiar charm of disco's stranger back rooms. Recorded between New York and Los Angeles across the late 70s, 'Special Part Of My Life' opens in warm, soulful territory through Henrietta Pam Garth's soft vocal glide, before J. Albert Garth gradually enters the frame and pushes the track somewhere more feverish and floor-facing. There's a lovely looseness to it all: the groove is slightly frayed at the edges in that very particular pre-digital way. On the flip, 'The Groove' heads somewhere far murkier, featuring wiggling synth effects and huge hovering atmospherics drifting over the top of the beat that gives the whole thing this faintly eerie quality which, honestly, makes it all the better.
If one thing is for sure, you can always count on FXHE to serve up the jams and surprise you in the process. Enter this new 12" from Bill Beaver aka William Beaver who has been serving up house jams under various guises since the late 80s. This one, 'Crusin Outer Drive', is, in the words of the label, "a back yard Boogie slash Hustle Summer Jam for those who live in the inner city and Beyond" and it comes with a 70s-style keyboard solo from Javonntte Garrett as well as signature off-grid drums, lo-fi charm and a raw analogue aesthetic. Vocals add the charm as the synths get passed through various filters, decay and change shape with a mind of their own and the chords never quit. Elsewhere, we get an instrumental version of the A-side and two takes on 'Down To The Sac', one a sultry, looped up affair from Jefferson, the other from Brett Fullerton, stripping it down to tribal drums and then building it right back up again via some super pimped synths. It's pure Detroit heat.
Danou P Serves Up Deep, Funky Heat with his 'In The Brine EP' on Definitive Recordings.
Rotterdam-based producer and DJ Danou P delivers a standout four-tracker with 'In The Brine EP,' released on Definitive Recordings. Known for his warm, soulful and funk-infused take on house music, Danou channels raw rhythm and musical flair into a collection that feels both classic and freshly personal.
Opening track 'The Flex' sets the tone with stomping deep house drums, playful chord stabs, and clever vocal sample play that gives it a raw, jacking feel. It's got attitude and groove in equal measure. 'On My Own' keeps things rolling with a classic deep house bassline, gradually introducing a soulful vocal loop that blossoms with the arrival of shimmering synth layers. Danou brings emotion without ever losing grip of the dancefloor.
Next comes 'Spirit', flipping the rhythm into broken beat territory. Another catchy vocal sample rides alongside vibey, jazzy stabs, offering a breezy, uplifting moment that's both heady and driving. It's the kind of track that sneaks into your set and ends up stealing the show. Rounding out the release is 'Bronstige Bakvissen', a deep and moody closer built on a heavy, rolling groove and rich classic house chords. It's stripped back but full of warmth, closing the EP with a nod to soulful late-night sessions.
Best known for his work alongside Jamie 3:26, and with releases on Glitterbox, Tru Thoughts, and Soulfuric Trax, Danou P is steadily building a solo catalogue that's as musical as it is danceable. His 'InThe Brine EP' is a bold step forward, out on Definitive on July 25th 2025.
Zonate welcomes Sancra for its seventh release. Hailing from Italy, Sancra's sound strikes a fine balance between dark, driving energy and groove for the dancefloor, coupled with the emotional elements that regularly feature in his work.
The A-side delivers two peak-time cuts that put this on full display. Beyond The Skies takes a darker tone, blending Sancra's unique neo-trance and techno style. The Truth Behind The Mystery leans further into euphoric territory, built around a catchy, emotive melody.
Flipping to the B-side, The Road For Heaven reveals Sancra's versatility - a breaksy electro cut layered with a growling vocal. B2 closes things out with a dystopian ambient track, as eerie as it is hypnotising.
Back after its first release, Life Enigma returns for a second chapter: a dark and warped dispatch from the void.
This time, the London-based artist of many aliases Zuul takes the reins, exploring moodier territory at the low end of the frequency. The result is three slow-burning, horror-flecked cuts that sit somewhere between electro and new wave, each driven by a sinister vocal. The release is rounded off by a more dancefloor-oriented remix from C.ru.z on the B2.
On the A-side, My Mind Is Mean is a driving, sub-heavy opener with menacing synths that do the title justice. It's Hell In There, It's Horror shifts into something more melodic and upbeat, with eerie textures and an ominous undercurrent.
And when we thought things couldn’t get any meaner, Ask Me sinks into haunted, mid-tempo bass hypnosis on the flipside, while C.ru.z’s remix leans further into its darker side with an even nastier groove.
Night falls, the lights dim, and the Extrasensorial Catalog presents its third chapter—an eclectic VA built for late hour mind-bending moments on the dancefloor.
On the A side, we open with Dani Labb and his explosive contribution "Rin Raje", a raw, hypnotic roller designed to twist minds and bodies alike. Saturated grooves, razor-sharp percussion and just the right amount of darkness make this an undeniable peak-time must.
A2 features the Italian craftsman Niki IL B with "Monte Moggio", a mystical excursion into deep, textured terrain. This track feels like wandering through fog-covered hills at dawn—delicate, groovy, and haunting in the best possible way.
Flip to the B side, and Ludovic wastes no time with "Vitesse, Argent, Sexe (5am Mix)", a late-night anthem soaked in tension and sweat. Pulsating basslines and seductive rhythms carry you into a euphoric state where the rules no longer apply.
Closing things off is Kebab Traume with "Mindlock", a cerebral journey that merges dreamy pads, off-kilter drumwork and warped melodies—like stepping into a lucid dream you never want to wake up from. An ideal closer for those deep after-hours rituals.
After years in the digital space, ECOUL SND finally steps onto vinyl. Next Link System EP is ECOUL SND’s first 12” and the first solo record by founder Nicolas Barnes — a long-awaited step for the label and a focused statement of its sound.
Four tracks of minimal deep and deep tech, built around low frequencies, restrained grooves and spacious delays. The music moves patiently, leaving room for each element to settle and connect. The artwork follows the same sense of space and distance: cliff, water, and a narrow passage between them.
"Next Link System" sets the tone, "Not A Bad Place" opens things up, "Get My Soul" moves deeper into the dark, and "It Was" leaves a lingering trace after the final track.
A year or two back, original Nottingham deep house don Gavin Belton (famed for being part of Smokescreen and Drop Music-adjacent duo The Littlemen) returned to the UK after living in New Zealand. One thing led to another and soon he was back in the studio alongside former creative partner Steve Lee for the first time in 15 years. Featuring heady spoken word vocals from Hector Moralez, the result is 'House For Change', a lightly electrofunk-fired slab of classic East Midlands deep house. Raising funds for homeless charity Help The Framework, this surprise EP also includes 2004 classic 'Tell Me' (a free party deep house classic) and two fresh reworks: a TB-303-bass-driven revision of 'House For Change' by their old pals Inland Knights, and a squelchy, spacey take on 'Tell Me' by Lee under his solo alias, Positive Divide.
Inner Balance kicks off a new series of split EPs under the rubric ‘Dialogues’, featuring two adept
producers from Italy and the UK. On the A, Emanuele Barilli brings summery house grooves on
‘Roots’ and ‘Unknown Na’, drawing on the tried and tested deep house templates of Charles
Webster and catapulting them into today’s dancefloor. Transverse Recordings founder Scott
Andrews takes care of the flip with classy jazzy house in the vein of vintage Larry Heard on
‘Willerminstral’, before the refined, loopy minimal house of ‘Renegade’ closes things out. It’s yet
another well-rounded EP in the superlative Inner Balance catalogue, ready to lift dancers to a higher
plane.
Night Luv is a new label founded by Italy's Simplr that wants to bring people together, whether times are good, bad or sad. Drop the needle on this inaugural 7" though and the times will surely be rad: it's a tweaked, chopped, screwed and filtered take on a stone cold soul classic with a smoky vocal fragment and deployed teasingly through the mix. The drums are rough and raw, the synths swirl, and the whole thing has an excitable energy. The K Lost Acid dub, meanwhile, is a little more club-ready with some chunky low-end drum funk.
If there is one thing that WAX RDM loves to do, it is split, they love splitting bills, middle splits, banana splits and most of all a good old split EP, and they made sure to deliver on their first one. Not only is he responsible for saving the Netherlands from becoming an aquatic civilisation, the land creature known as Deltaplan also claimed the whole A side for his boombastic electrofied vinyl only rendition of Sexual Seduction, which could get any dance floor drenched in dripping sweat. The Hague city's APK Boys have split the split in 2 on side B. If Flipper was a fun loving dolphin who always dreamt of moving to The Hague City, this is what he would sound like, hard hitting, just a tad frustrated and ready to snap at any moment. Yes Yes finishes of the split with a sure-shot Electro heater which will take your mind into a dreamlike state, thinking of ways to make Flippers dreams come true. And if you think things couldn't get any better, APK provided us with a 3rd digital only track for good measure. Stay dry and keep swimming.
Weight meets wriggle on DJ Life's five-tracker for Haŵs, and oh boy is it hefty. Gritty basslines get right under the skin, swinging drums sit deep in the pocket, and skippy FX keep things light on their feet. A murky, moody streak runs through the record, with an electric tension giving even the loosest grooves a touch of menace. Fat low end and a restless edge, with enough bite to leave a mark. Serious tackle with a wicked sense of swing, primed for the dancefloor. Use at your own peril, you’ve been warned!
Focus On Egoless returns with a powerful new Various Artists release, bringing together Dutch talents Sosef and Kai Stein with three artists from the Canary Islands: Daniel Rodríguez, Funke, and Moray.
A diverse collection of club focused cuts, this release moves across different shades of energy, from hypnotic, groove driven tracks made to set the tone at the beginning of the night, to powerful and intense weapons designed to take things deep into the dancefloor.
Balancing raw energy with more subtle, rolling warm up grooves, each track brings its own character while staying rooted in the distinctive sound and spirit of Focus On Egoless.
Sean and Bohm’s Swedish–Dutch collaboration EP is a tribute to their shared love for the raw grooves of Chicago and Detroit house, with a subtle New York twist woven throughout. Across four carefully crafted tracks, the duo moves between shadowy, deep synth-driven atmospheres and brighter, more uplifting cuts built around classic organ sounds. Each track reflects a true joint effort, blending their styles into a cohesive yet varied release that nods to tradition while keeping things fresh on the dancefloor.
This second EP from Alex Jungle comes with the standard amount of chaos and confusion, what with it being titled Chapter Three. But once again, Alex drops four demented breakbeat tracks, flexing his muscles with both the old skool and the classic jungle styles, yet keeping his eyes on progression and innovation. The only thing better than having this Chapter Three EP would be having Chapter Two as well.
Alex Jungle returns to Kniteforce after a small break, with some BIG breaks. Chapter Two (there is no Chapter One...yet) sees Alex drop four incredible breakbeat tracks, leaning into the happy vibe but always tough and technical and with a style unique to himself..the only thing better than this Chapter Two Ep would be...Chapter Three....
Renovat Records opens its vinyl catalogue with a four-track built around deep rolling rhythms, low-end pressure and deep, warm energy.
Side A brings together Remus and Drianu. Remus sets the tone with a rolling and percussive cut that moves with a deep, steady groove, while Drianu follows with a more hypnotic approach, driven by heavy sub pressure and a stripped-back, locked-in rhythm.
Side B shifts the mood through Lumieux and Vid. Lumieux brings a sharper and more kinetic edge, while Vid closes the record by slowing things down into a deeper, more spacious and dynamic trip.
Four distinct perspectives on minimal and microhouse, connected by groove, restraint and a clear focus on the dancefloor.
Electric Mud is the fifth studio album by Muddy Waters, with members of Rotary Connection serving as his backing band. Released in 1968, it imagines Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters recorded it in an attempt to appeal to a rock audience. The album peaked at number 127 on Billboard 200 album chart. It was controversial for its fusion of electric blues with psychedelic elements.
Polished and forward-looking even 40-odd years on from its initial release, Bourbon Suite captures Japanese female keyboard trio Cosmos at a time when fusion leaned into pop accessibility without losing technical finesse. Built around layered keys and crisp studio musicianship, the album moves with a sleek, late-night feel. 'Midnight Shuffle' stands out for reworking earlier material into a smoother, instrumental-led groove, while 'Cosmic Cosmos' drifts into more spacey territory and is driven by elastic bass and shimmering synth lines. There's a clarity to the arrangements that keeps things light on their feet and means this remains a refined example of early 80s crossover fusion.
WeRdaHouse’ opens the project, laying down snaking subs, skippy drums, bubbling arpeggio lines and gritty stab sequences all dynamically evolving throughout. ‘Don’t U Kno’ follows next and reduces things down to swaying dub chords, jazzy keys, low slung drums and choppy bass stabs.
‘Gluten Morgen’ opens the flip side, a loop-led groove fuelled by organic percussion, squelchy 303 licks, frenzied, delayed keys and mind-bending spoken word chants. Title track ‘Def Murky’ then concludes the EP,
diving deep into oscillating synth tones, modulating percussion, crisp drums and a warped, afterhours
aesthetic.
Mexico's Rubinskee mixes up slapping house and techno on some of Europe's finest labels and has done so since 2011. His latest is an understated outing that veers into deep, melodic realms where warm textures meet precise machine-driven grooves, and it is inspired by solitary weekends in Sao Paulo. Opener 'Half Meal' rolls effortlessly, while 'Sigueme' brings a playful Brazilian swing and 'Too Many Days' adds a touch of melancholy. Don Alex Albert's hypnotic remix deepens the drive for the club while 'So Tight' is soulful low-end pressure, and the live version of 'Us Less' closes things with an intimate, organic feel.
SFR Records is proud to present Julio J - Rhythm Vault III
J delivers his third instalment for the Rhythm Vault series. Four more deep zone club tools for any discerning DJ who’s in the mood for all things house tax related.
It's the solo debut that confirmed Q-Tip could flourish well beyond the formidable confines of A Tribe Called Quest: Amplified. The signs had been there for years, of course, though this was the first time his instinct for jazz-inflected grooves and immaculately sculpted production stood entirely on its own, embracing a more radio-facing disposition and preserving the musicality that had long distinguished his work. 'Breathe And Stop' and the irrepressible 'Vivrant Thing' became the obvious calling cards, then 'Higher' and the Busta Rhymes-assisted 'N.T.' show just how effortlessly Q-Tip could reconcile crossover appeal with genuine artistic finesse.
"This album is created over the past years with my brother Alfred. This period has been spiritually transformative for me. it reflects the playfulness and authenticity that comes out of releasing deep traumas and healing wounds. this music comes from a deep place of joy and connection with my brother and with the essense of being a child. being filter free and in contact with the most uncomplicated and loving parts of ourselves, still emphasizing magic and mystery, like childhood does without asking for permission or confirmation.
It took me a while to actually see the music as an interconnected piece. i have been taking in and out material, re mixing, removing, rearranging, re producing and regretting all along the way. but suddenly when we mastered this selection on a cassette tape recorder, the meaning started to reveal itself and drawing threads back in time.
Bivabippalukka is playfulness, intuition, transition and myths. the page of cups. the ideas rising, the energy flowing, flowers, stars and jumping creatures on the verge of dimensions. fortune telling, magic cards, secret caves and things that disappear right in front of you.
many talented guests playing with me and my visions on the album.
Bossa nova is the most comforting genre for me. and we need comfort in these times. we need comfort to heal and feel joy to be able to keep dreaming and manifesting - and transmuting the world.
I am not gonna play this music live in the form it appears. i will still continue playing spiritual ambient music. this work is something else. it is pocket of joy, a cup with a fish. it is a step on the journey, like everything else. "
FWM Entertainment returns with the second installment of the HYMNS series, bringing together an all-star cast of artists and collaborators united by one thing: groove. Blending house, gospel, soul, jazz, Afro-Latin rhythms, and Chicago-inspired jack, HYMNS Vol. 2 features exclusive remixes, previously unreleased gems, and fresh collaborations from Stefan Ringer, Marquinn Mason, DJ Kemit, Moe BPM, Lavahi, Lionbabe, The Pheels, and more. From dancefloor heaters to soulful slow-burners, every track adds a different shade to the collection.
More than a compilation, HYMNS Vol. 2 is a snapshot of the expanding FWM universe —where rhythm, soul, and thoughtful production exist in equal measure. Built for selectors, dancers, and deep listeners alike, this release moves effortlessly between peak-time energy and introspective moments. This is what FWM sounds like. Own What Moves You.
Anyone lucky enough to have lived through the 90s will know that Coco Steel & Lovebomb were a key acid house duo who dropped early tunes on Warp and penned a number of underground anthems including 'Feel It'. Now they are back with new tunes on Coco's Disappear label and the remit, stylise, is wide. This EP opens with gentle breaks and dubby undercurrents on 'El Acido,' which has already become a favourite after its digital release. DJ Rocca remixes with a blissed-out energy and 'Our Thing' (named after Coco's new party in Hastings) then taps into a more expressive sound world with new age pads, affirmation vocals and dusty broken beats plus lashings of bass. A dub version of the same tune, named Dub Thing, closes down with aplomb.
“Twenty-five years into their existence, The Album Leaf are an old comfy sweater. It might not be the most fashionable thing in your collection but it always feels good when you put it on. Jimmy LaValle’s synth textures are warm, nostalgic and steeped in Boards of Canada / Ulrich Schnauss-style soundscapes that are relaxing, otherworldly and melodic” – Brooklyn Vegan
The Album Leaf shares his new ambient LP, Rotations. The record is a mediative experiment into atmospheric sound. Creator Jimmy LaValle explains, “This collection of music is a true reflection of my creative process—rooted in sound exploration, experimentation, and spontaneous response. Each track captures a moment of creative discovery, free from the pressure of achieving a polished result. Throughout my career, I’ve often placed significant weight on what an album should be. With this release, I’ve let go of those expectations to share a body of work that feels genuine and authentic.
The Album Leaf began as the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, who came up in the San Diego music scene playing in hardcore bands and the instrumental rock band Tristeza. He had inked a deal to release his next solo album through the indie label Tigerstyle Records, so he put the modest advance towards a self-recording starter setup, building out the sound with occasional studio access. The music that emerged — vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals guided by lines of Guitar and Rhodes — not only set the path for The Album Leaf over the next two decades of acclaimed releases (for Sub Pop, City Slang, and others), it became a touchstone for the next generation's wave of melodic and meditative electro-organic music.
* Edition of 500 colored vinyl (transparent purple)
* Artwork developed in collaboration with Paris-based visual artist Caroline Ventura
* Including download code
i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is the highly anticipated new album by Sirens Of Lesbos, led by sisters Jasmina and Nabyla Serag. The dynamic release is a vibrant showcase of the group's expansive musical range, blending R’n’B/Soul, Afrobeats, electronic music, and lo-fi indie pop into a rich, genre-defying experience. With its eclectic sound and captivating melodies, the album solidifies Sirens Of Lesbos as a standout force in modern music.
Featuring on the album are the singles “Room 333” feat. Kendrick-Lamar-collaborator Zacari, a futuristic R’n’B song with progressive club beats; the epic “Call Me Back” (feat. Drake-co-signed rapper SadBoi and the Kabusa Oriental Choir); and dub-infused reggae song “Let It Hurt”, plus new song “My Moon”, which draws inspiration from artists like Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, and Jai Paul. Sirens Of Lesbos have earned widespread acclaim from outlets like CLASH, COLORS, Dork, Tsugi and Earmilk, with BBC 1Xtra’s CassKidd calling the collective “magical.”
As Black women living in the diaspora, Jasmina and Nabyla navigate the intersection of their parents’ collectivist North-East African culture and the Western emphasis on individuality. Questions of identity have always been central to their journey. While society often demands clear-cut definitions, the sisters have come to embrace their multifaceted identities: “We have always been many things.”
Both artists are deeply rooted in the technical and philosophical dimensions of sound. Jasmina recently completed her Sound Arts degree, and Nabyla is now finishing hers. Their academic pursuits have included creating abstract sound installations in exhibition spaces. However, their focus for the foreseeable future is on elevating the Sirens Of Lesbos project, writing and producing standout indie pop tracks, performing live, and delivering unforgettable experiences for their audiences.
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The vinyl version of i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is published by Präsens Editionen, a Switzerland-based publishing house and music label. Founded in 2011 in the process of launching zweikommasieben Magazin, Präsens Editionen has since released music on vinyl, cassette, CD, and digital formats—alongside magazines, books, and other printed matter. Recent audio releases include works by Martina Lussi, spalarnia, Magda Drozd, Anom Vitruv, Belia Winnewisser, and Red On, among others.
Chris Scott, Stuart Baker and Julian Bowron ran their own night in Bishop Auchland, a small town in County Durham, back in the mid-90s, then started producing under the same name. They dropped just three EPs, with this being the last one in 1994, but the one that proved the most enduring. The newly launched LA RIOT label reissues it, and it sounds as good as ever: 'Post Chaise' is a timbales-laced jam with driving tech house drums and plenty of crowd noise adding to the wild vibes. 'The Bishops Groove' is deep, steamy and tribal in its nature and 'This Groove' then gets more expressive with vocal yelps and surging synths that come on like a rush. The Sunday Fantasy mix is the EP highlight - a more cosmic and soft-edged but still propulsive deep house groove.
Chontane returns to Mutual Rytm with a more raw and aggressive sound than before across six powerful new tracks on his latest EP, 'Permanent'.
Berlin-based Ukrainian DJ/producer Chontane has had a busy twelve months. Capped off by recently launching his own new TANE label, the exciting talent has been working hard to reinvent and refresh his sound in the studio. Mastering new techniques to push things to the next level, this EP and return to SHDW & Obscure Shape's Mutual Rytm proves he has succeeded and then some. Where previous works on the likes of ARTS and Rekids were full and more melodic, here he has restricted himself and gone for a more visceral sound. Developed and built in all new ways with an innovative approach to sound design and arrangement, the tracks on the package showcase a more serious and harder-hitting side to his sound as he unveils his impactful 'Permanent' EP.
Opener 'Graze' has a monstrous feel to it, with ghoulish synth loops and industrial textures all coming on strong and heavy. As it bangs along, incendiary hi-hats and lithe pads all bring extra weight and detail. 'Cumaru' is a highpaced techno workout with a frenzy of synths and percussion, all making for dense layers of heavily textured sound. 'Schima' brings some big techno bounce in the drums and more hurried, rusty synth loops that lock you into the darkness. Showing yet another side, 'Lauan' is a little more paired back with pounding tribal grooves and bright synths, bringing relentless yet funk-fuelled intensity. 'Vevis' is the most melodic of the lot - a heavy track but with subtle optimism in the rising background synths that will surely get hands in the air.
Last of all is digital bonus 'Makore', a cauldron of intensity with scraping hits and relentless drums, vastly oversized hi-hats and slamming bass. This high-impact, beautifully brutal yet groove-heavy techno takes Chontane's sound into new realms, and delivers an impressive return on a label continuing to push the genre forward.
Peach Discs celebrates peak western-hemisphere summer with the perfectly-timed-and-titled "Soft Serve Summer" EP from I. JORDAN. We were delighted when they sent us these tunes, which represent a brighter, housier and more personal side to their sound than many have seen before. Inspired by their recent tour of Australia, the EP (named after the title track that got the ball rolling on the other side of the planet) bottles a loose, sun-kissed feeling across all five tracks that's keen to be unleashed at festivals, beaches and dancefloors worldwide.
Opener "Your Love" boots things off in style, sitting somewhere between Power House and French Touch as layers of oscillating synths, percolating drums and vocal chops take turns in the spotlight – but when all's said and done it's the bassline that gets the flowers, duh.
Things turn a little more introspective on "Little Tinker", as the titular bells sprinkled throughout summon up something…else? Whatever you think that is, the muscular bassline once again keeps us grounded, as washes of dreamy synths lap at the shore and everything is in its right place, before the urgent organ stabs and diva moans of "Soft Serve Summer" pull us straight back to the middle of the floor.
Skinned' ( released digitally in 2020) - the debut album from Danish composer, producer and singer ML Buch.
Comes with lyrics printed the inner sleeve.
After releasing her debut EP Fleshy in 2017 - Skinned that takes her expansive guitar work and catchy melodies to another territory.
With her unique experimental pop and vocals that seem to slide into your ears as fluorescent liquid, ML Buch portrays the reality of intimacy in a digital era. Working primarily with synthetic midi sounds, the general love of songwriting and guitar music is ever present.
As if in search for something real, ML Buch takes the listener on the other side of the skin. Led by tender love songs like I’m A Girl You Can Hold IRL and Can’t Get Over You With You we journey through her throat and into her intestines, discovering a fascinating realm of shiny mucus and bile in flesh and yellowish colors. Panoramic images were captured by a small pill camera travelling through the body of ML Buch and act as extensions of the architecture of the music. This literal way of internalizing modern technology is symbolic of Skinned where eclectic instrumental compositions share the space with strong hooks and ML Buch’s spherical voice.
credits
All songs composed, arranged and produced by ML Buch
All lyrics by ML Buch
‘Touching Screens’, ‘O’ and ‘I Feel Like Giving You Things’ co-written by Oliver Nehammer
Bass on Can You Hear My Heart Leave, Touching Screens and Mw by Johan Polder
Drums on Touching Screens and Mw by Kristof Gasior
Viola on Stone Bridge by Astrid Sonne
Midi drums and keys on Touching Screens by Oliver Nehammer
Mix by ML Buch, Oliver Nehammer & Jacob Brøndlund
Mastered by ET Mastering
Cover photo by David Stjernholm
Artwork by Aske Zidore and ML Buch
Following the release of SUN, Crackazat’s stellar fourth album, we’re proud to present a limited repress of Evergreen — his debut album on Freerange Records, originally released in 2021. Long sought after by collectors and currently fetching up to £250 on Discogs, the LP is finally available once again — and at a far more reasonable price.
Nearly a decade on from his last release, Andy Hart returns with three tracks for Axis of People’s fourth outing. Inspired by the friends who kept him close to the music through his time away, Life à l’Orange is a nod to the records that brought them together in the first place.
Hemisphere picks up where things left off; dubbed-out, driving, warm. Signal Flow and Serenity Now move into lusher, more uplifting territory, rich with the harmony and texture that define the sound. Fantastic Man closes things out with a remix of Serenity Now that takes the original somewhere looser and more hypnotic.
credits
EVPHORIA is not just a record. It’s a trigger.
140 BPM of tension, ascent and release — engineered to push the dancefloor into collective hypnosis.
Balancing power house propulsion, techno pulse and large-scale emotional lift, the track transforms a strangely familiar sensation into something raw, direct and uncompromising. No nostalgia — only forward motion. A rise that refuses to come down.
The original version unfolds as a sustained euphoric surge: driving percussion, insistent hooks and controlled repetition built for peak-time unity.
The edit version distills that energy into a tighter DJ weapon — immediate, sharp, floor-focused.
On the B-side, Inflammable Noise appears in its instrumental form — pure club mechanics, no vocals, no distraction. A stripped version that amplifies tension and turns the track into a true dancefloor weapon. Already tested in demanding environments, it notably detonated a peak-time moment when Chloé Caillet played it at Berghain — a point where the room tipped over.
EVPHORIA moves freely across scenes — from house floors pushing tempo to techno basements and high-intensity dance spaces — built for DJs chasing the rupture point.
Pressed in a strict limited edition.
Vinyl only — no digital release.
Created under the EVPHORIA imprint by Hardrock Striker — dancefloor architect and driving force behind the Skylax universe — this release stands as a physical, autonomous club statement.
Sleeve artwork by H5 (Daft Punk, Air, Étienne de Crécy, Logorama, Kanye West / Adidas), reinforcing EVPHORIA as both a sonic and visual manifesto.
EVPHORIA doesn’t ask permission.
EVPHORIA triggers.
A record for the moment the room tips over.
Strong international support from Richie Hawtin, Arnaud Rebotini (Black Strobe), Kristian Beyer (Âme / Innervisions), Dax J, Ilario Alicante, Chris Fortier, Michel Gaubert, DJ Mag, KEXP Seattle, Byte FM, Tsugi, Waveform Transmitter and many more.
Outstanding reactions included: "This is just perfect... one of the best things I've heard in recent weeks. Supported!" (Club Furies), "Great release! Adding to Waveform Recommended." (Ste Knight), "Excellent work here! Will play on my show." (Fly Radio 104 FM), "Great – will play." (Radio Reverb), "Energetic and ethereal club energy." (CJSW Canada)
Words by Costanza Acernese
MOVING PRESSURE 04 / Obscur
With its fourth release, Moving Pressure welcomes its first external artist: young Slovenian producer Obscur. With a signature sound that is driving and subtly psychedelic, his debut on the label doesn't stray from the core tenets of its sonic ethos. Obscur delivers minimalism with purpose-dynamic, intentional, and wholly physical.
'F135' opens the A-side with a sinister tilt-rubbery squeaks stretch and coil around a flickering, synthetic voice. It's tactile and strange, without losing movement. 'Soul Eater' follows with a slow-burn crescendo, nestling psychedelic inflections into a warm low-end. On the flip, 'Stockholm Syndrome' pares things back. Dry, stripped rhythms carry an atmospheric tension-it's austere yet playful, leaving space for darker hues to linger without fully settling. A precise, heads-down statement. 'Blasphemy' follows with a tighter percussive grip and Feral-esque, panning modulations. Highs slice through a foundation of finely textured grooves-functional at its core, but laced with enough detail to give the track a sharper, more intricate edge. The digital bonus, 'Diamond City', stretches the sonic palette even further. Not through layers, but through tone: steel blues and deep violets bounce off metallic bleeps with cinematic restraint, closing the EP on a reflective note.
A snapshot of UK tech house in its formative years, OLC002 finds Rob Pearson laying down the blueprint for a sound he’d continue to refine through Evasive Records. Released on Online Collective—the label arm of South London’s Online Studios—this EP captures a raw, forward-facing moment in underground dance music.
The title track Slipstream leads with intent: tight tech drums ride alongside a chopped breakbeat groove, underpinned by weighty sub bass and warped melodic textures. A fluid lead synth drives the track forward, locking into a hypnotic, evolving flow built for the dancefloor.
Vortex channels early Detroit techno through a South London lens—crisp edits, filtered drum machine rhythms, and a hypnotic vocal loop combine for a stripped, late-night roller with serious intent.
On Metaphor, Pearson taps into the spirit of early bleep and warehouse house, fusing it with late ‘90s tech house sensibilities—raw, swung, and deeply functional.
The Metaphor (Bonus Beats) rounds things off as a pure DJ tool, primed for layering and extended blends.
A sharp, authentic document of a pivotal era, Slipstream EP showcases Pearson’s early command of groove, texture, and dancefloor dynamics.
Goldmin founder Romain Lanteaume aka EinKa meets Terrence Dixon for a 2nd record which is nothing but a logical suite to the one released last year.
This one is probably less deliberately "dark" but to us The Edge was not dark at all, like what we tend to call melancholy isn't obviously a negative feeling. We believe there's no real duality between things and states.. There's an incredible amount of degress in between.. It's always a bit more complex and deeper than the first impression!
Jhobei has been on a constant ascent in the last couple of years, and he's worked with some of the most credible labels in the game in that time, from Fuse to Picnic to Semi Delicious. Now he steps up to Burnski's Pilot with four absolute nuggets. 'Pulse Reflex' is amped right up and ready to go - tightly circling synths, buoyant beats, garage shuffle and slick fills that all demand you bust out some moves. 'Believe' dials things back into a more heady, deeper dub tech vibe and 'Cannei Getcha (To Feel)' brings crispy electronic synths and pensive pads to a future groove before 'Synthetic Symphony' closes with buffed neon pads and smooth progressive chords that ride clean, meticulous drums.
Now over two decades into its story, DJ Mes' Guesthouse Records imprint continues to serve up floor-friendly heat - fun, groove-driven, party-starting house tracks from a mix of newcomers and label stalwarts. There's much to enjoy on the label's latest vinyl outing, a ninth instalment in the ongoing Super Squirrel Tracks series of compilation style EPs. Dafunkeetomato kicks things off with the swirling, filter-rich disco-house heaviness of 'Can You Dig It', before Frivolous Jackson does a terrific job in beefing up and cutting up disco loops on the DJ Sneak-esque 'Work It Out'. DJ Mes opens side B with the low-slung, P-funk-goes-house excitement of 'Felter', while Wolfgang Gartner goes deep, warped and sub-heavy excellence of 'Dubplate', which boasts more than a nod or two to late noughties fidget house.
Mit On The Road Again – Best Of präsentiert Canned Heat eine Sammlung der bekanntesten Aufnahmen einer Band, die den Bluesrock der späten 60er- und 70er-Jahre entscheidend geprägt hat. Der unverwechselbare Sound der US-amerikanischen Kultband verbindet klassischen DeltaBlues mit kraftvollem Rock, boogiegeladenen Rhythmen und dem lässigen Geist endloser Highways. Rauer Gesang, markante Gitarrenläufe und der typische Shuffle-Groove machen diese Zusammenstellung zu einer Reise durch die wichtigsten Momente der Bandgeschichte.
Die Musik klingt dabei gleichzeitig erdig, frei und zeitlos – mal entspannt und bluesig, mal voller Energie und treibender Dynamik.
Diese Best-Of-Vinyl zeigt, warum Canned Heat bis heute als eine der prägendsten Bluesrock-Bands gilt. Perfekt für Fans klassischer Rockmusik, authentischer Blues-Sounds und legendärer Festival-Atmosphäre im Stil von Woodstock.
Fresh from fine outings on Legofunk Records and Scruniversal Records, Frank Virgilio pops up on historycal Hollywood Records with a quartet of warm and seductive workouts. He kicks things off via the sun down beauty and latin mood of "Is This The Spirit Of The Party ?", before joining the dots between beatdown, disco 80' and dancefloor on the bubbly and hypnotic "That's The Groove!" The other side is dedicated to a double version of a classic killer dancefloor of 80' " DJ's Talk" by the american singer Vivien Reed . Frank Virgilio and L.D.F. aka Lello Di Franco give 2 different ways to read the track . A slightly bolder than the original (but no less deep) mixture of drifting melodies, head-nodding house beats, groovy bass, select vocal snippets and enveloping chords.
Joves, the alias of Joseph Tagliabue, arrives on space•lab with Escape — a beautifully constructed four-track journey through deep techno, minimalism and acid.
Escape (Into The Forest Mix) sets the tone with brooding atmospheres, hypnotic rhythms and intricate textures, unfolding into a deeply immersive opener. Morphosis strips things back into leaner territory — a rolling minimal groove built around subtle movement, tension and alien electronics.
On the flip, Escape (Acid Space Mix) pushes forward with driving energy, fusing resonant acid lines with propulsive drums and clinical sound design for a powerful late-night workout. Closing track Aurora Lunare brings the EP to an emotional finish, combining melodic flourishes and euphoric harmonics.
40 years after Dave curated the 'Garage Sound of Deepest New York' series featuring the cream of the crop of American US Garage, the series ran for 4 instalments. Dave re-ignites the torch to bear once more and champion the sound more locally, the leafy area of Crouch End, London, to be precise. This four tracker is a testament to the knowledge and expertise Dave Lee has with this particular soulful sound & genre. First up is 'Everybody Needs Somebody' with its powerhouse gospel vocal performance from Rance backed up with swathing chords, piano & organ work by Matt Cooper and Dave's swinging heavy drums. 'Every Second Every Minute Every Hour' is next from Dave Under, his new Hillman Avenger alias, who takes things in a more jazz funk direction, with masterful piano & brass work and scorching synth solo as the cherry on top. 'Our Love' is an updated rework of a vintage Republic Records track featuring the dynamic vocals of AJ Lewis. Bouncy house drums backbone the syncopated chord stabs before a gear change around the halfway mark signals a big heads down, hands up moment. Before the famous clock tower of Crouch End strikes 12, we have time for one more cut by the name of 'No Excuses' featuring the legend that is Lifford, who does what he does best, soulful yet mighty vocals. This is a peak time, feel-good slab of the Garage house that would have maybe made it onto one of Dave's original comps back in the day.
Inweys is the new project from Scottish musicians Conal Blake (Feedback Moves, Domestic Exile, Infant Tree) and Murray Collier (Dip Friso, Grim Lusk, Real Landscape). Their debut self-titled 12’ was recorded in the summer of 2024 at La Chunky Studios in Glasgow.
They asked Fielding Hope of Counterflows Festival to write a short summary of the record:
“Inweys debut release arrives as four pieces of broken body music. Lurking, barely human fragments brought into the present. Using a short drum-machine improvisation as core material, the pieces are formed from a processes of mining and re-mining for small details, with each fragment zoomed in on and turned into new pieces. There’s a transformation taking place, but one that doesn’t obscure the materiality of the recording tapes as sticky, corrosive matter. On skewed and stretched fabric they enact their palimpsestic play, sketching and altering the grid with itchy technologies. What their edits and improvisations don’t say they let space say the rest, with vacuum aerated frames for bass to diffuse and beats to wriggle. More King Tubby than Cage, more Mantronix than Reich: minimalism with molten tips.
Both Conal and Murray’s past work has embraced malleable and iterative technologies; music whose feeliness figures itself out in space in a messy precomposed/improvised dialectic. This is the sort of thing most “new music” experimentalists (or anyone who spends most of their time obsessively manipulating tapes in expensive studios) often can’t achieve; a liveness, birthed from learning in situated play. Like the lore of Phuture’s Acid Trax, a poverty of material is at the heart of this, rendering the work with an abortive conviction: a corpse waking to consciousness becomes amphibious. Instead of the composer we have a relation, two people navigating the awkward spooling between the two reels of tape. Inweys is scots for “inwards”, and in their working process this is what they do. But the result is circular motion. Until the tape runs out, all in ways move out.”
Back on Celestial Echo Records with a true modern soul classic — Jan Jones “Independent Woman”, finally given the treatment it deserves.
A record that’s been circulating in DJ sets and collector circles for years, often via bootlegged pressings as the originals are incredibly rare, this is the first fully licensed reissue, presented properly and with both sides intact - something the bootleggers didn’t do.
A-side Part 1 delivers the track in its purest form — tight, uplifting, and driven by that unmistakable modern soul groove. On the flip, Part 2 stretches things out into a longer, more open version, letting the arrangement breathe and giving the dancefloor the 6 minutes it deserves.
Musically, it sits right in that sweet spot for us — rich vocals, warm keys, and a rhythm section that just grooves. It’s one of the ultimate modern soul tracks.
Licensed officially, as always. Celestial Echo is here to put proper soul records back into circulation — respectfully cut, properly pressed, and ready to play.
Forbidden Teachings is honoured to welcome back Italian artist Nigh/T\mare for the release of his first full-length album on the label. Across ten carefully crafted pieces, “Through” channels the artist’s singular sound, one that resonates through the bones and awakens what lies dormant within. Through pain and despair, through love and hope, the album becomes a passage through impermanence itself, revealing the fragile veil that both binds and defines us. Can the soul ever truly break free, or are we destined to remain shaped by these shifting forces? “Through”offers no answers, only a mirror for those willing to look.
Dieses Jazzensemble ist durch und durch skandinavisch. Schlagzeuger Emil Brandqvist stammt aus Schweden, Pianist Tuomas Turunen aus Finnland und Bassist Max Thornberg ist ebenfalls Schwede. Seit etwa drei Jahren bilden sie das Emil Brandqvist Trio – mit großem Tatendrang und großem Erfolg. »Falling Crystals« heißt ihr drittes Album.
Auch ihre Musik ist typisch skandinavisch: geprägt von unaufgeregten, meditativen Klängen und nordischer Melancholie.
Und obwohl man von einem Trio, das nach seinem Schlagzeuger benannt ist, eigentlich das genaue Gegenteil erwartet, zeigt Emil Brandqvist auf »Falling Crystals« ein weiteres Mal, wie gut musikalische Zurückhaltung klingt. Das hat er bereits mit seinen beiden Vorgängeralben »Breathe Out« (2013) und »Seascapes« (2015) bewiesen, für das der Schlagzeuger unlängst für den Echo Jazz 2016 in der Kategorie »Instrumentalist/in des Jahres international Drums/Percussion« nominiert wurde.
Neben all der Leichtigkeit und Stille des neuen Albums, darf aber nicht vergessen werden, dass es sich dabei auch um herausragende, starke Kompositionen handelt, in dessen Zentrum das Klavier steht.
Beim Emil Brandqvist Trio treffen technische Finesse und punktgenaues Zusammenspiel auf bildhafte, berührende und vor allem eingängige Melodien. »Falling Crystals« bleibt also lange im Gedächtnis – wie der letzte Skandinavienurlaub.
Rezensionen
»Emil Brandqvist scheint ein ausgeglichener Mensch zu sein, der mal ausgelassen und fröhlich daherkommt, aber auch seine nachdenklichen, leiseren Seiten hat. Jedenfalls versteht sich der Schlagzeuger darauf, mit seinem Trio heiter, schwungvoll, aber auch bedächtig aufzuspielen. In „Through The Forest“ hüpfen die Töne von ihm, dem Pianisten Tuomas Turunen und dem Kontrabassisten Max Thornberg so fröhlich, als hätten sie sich durch Hits von ABBA zu einem Tänzchen inspirieren lassen. Mit „Shine“ hingegen bringen sie eine kleine Melodie zum Strahlen, und die Ballade „Longing“ gewinnt durch ausdrucksstarke, stellenweise an Frank Sinatras Intonation erinnernde Klaviermelodien und ein klares Fundament von Bass und Schlagzeug Ausdruck. Zu dritt oder im Quartett mit dem Perkussionisten Martin Brandqvist verzichten sie auf virtuose Hochgeschwindkeitspassagen – ihre Stärken sind einerseits das gelassene Ineinandergreifen von Piano und Begleitung und andererseits die Fähigkeit, kurze und einprägsame Melodien abwechslungsreich auszugestalten. Mal greifen sie dabei auf minimalistische Variationstechniken zurück, mal setzen sie Brüche, gliedern in Abschnitte, setzen einzelne Segmente hintereinander. Im Eröffnungsstück „While We Are Here“ und dem abschließenden Epilog „The Oak Trees“ und „Early Spring“ unterstützt sie das Sjöströmska String Quartet mit flächigen Klängen und aufgefächerten Akkorden, während das Trio in „The Sea Begins To Freeze“ eher auf die Tradition der Minimal Music zurückgreift. Die im Titel angesprochenen Kristalle fallen nicht nur, sie funkeln auch.« (RONDO, Werner Stiefele, 12.03.2016)
»Die wahre Schönheit zeigt sich hier nicht an der Oberfläche. Brandqvist, Turunen und Thornberg sind wahre Meister darin, elaboriert-komplexe klangliche Architekturen mit einer fein gezeichneten Gradlinigkeit zu entwerfen…Wunderschöne freigeistliche und anrührende Musik.« (JazzPodium)
»Waren schon die beiden vorherigen CDs (s.u.) wertvolle Kostbarkeiten in Sachen Piano-Jazz, so kann das Album Falling Crystals noch mal einen draufsetzen. Ein dermaßen relaxtes, zeitloses und Musikliebhaber aller Couleurs ansprechendes Album hat man selten gesehen.« (sound&image.de)
»Falls Ihnen der Name bekannt vorkommt: Vom schwedischen Emil Brandqvist Trio haben wir schon mehrfach geschwärmt, das wunderbare ›Seascapes‹ Ende 2015 gar zu einem Album des Jahres gekürt. Nun folgt mit ›Falling Crystals‹ der nächste große Wurf. Wieder gelingt es den drei Musikern, ganz simple Ideen zu Stücken von zerbrechlicher Schönheit und anmut zu formen. Mal klingt das Trio fast wie Popmusik, mal erweitert es sein Klangspektrum durch ein Streichquartett. Dann scheint die berühmte nordische Melancholie noch etwas stärker durch die beührenden Melodien.« (Stern, 31.03.2016)
»Dem Schlagzeuger Emil Brandqvist gelingt mit seinem Jazz-Trio nun bereits zum dritten Mal ein gar nicht mal so einfaches Kunststück: hinreißend schöne, cineastisch ausgreifende Melodien zu schreiben.« (dpa + Focus)
»Typisch romantische Brandqvist-Art: Eine eingängige Popmelodie wird von schwebenden Streichern unterstützt, fern von darüber gezogenem Pathos.« (Jazz thing)
»Die klangmalerischen Landschaftsbilder des Trios …entwickeln einen hypnotischen Sog.« (Hörzu + Gong)
»Erstklassiger Piano-Jazz.« (In Music)
»Eine stilvoll und -sicher arrangierte Kreuzung aus Pop-Jazz und eingängiger Kammermusik.« (Nordische Musik.de)
»Dieses Trio besticht durch herrliche Melodien, welche tief ins Herz gelangen. Sounds welche man so schnell nicht vergisst. Es scheint als würden die Musiker ein Gemälde von unsagbarere Schönheit malen. Dieses Album sticht aus der Masse deutlich heraus.« (Jazzdrummerworld.de)
»Um es vorweg zu nehmen, mit Falling Crystals liefert das Emil Brandqvist Trio sein Meisterstück ab. Bereits in den letzten Jahren hat sich der Göteborger Schlagzeuger Emil Brandqvist auf vordere Ränge des europäischen Jazz gespielt, sein Trio steht für unaufgeregte, bildhafte und berührende Melodien und Sounds, die lebhaft in Erinnerung bleiben.« (Medien-Info.com)
Konzert-Reviews
Poesie- und Literaturfestival Bad Homburg – Lesung mit Max Moor:
»Unterbrochen werden seine Sequenzen vom Emil Brandqvist Trio, einer virtuosen großartigen finnisch-schwedischen Band, die mit magischen und häufig melancholischen Klängen, mit Jazz ganz eigener Prägung, den Inhalt der Geschichte aufgreift, intensiviert und weiterführt. ..« (Taunus Zeitung)
»Mit ihren besonderen Klangreisen hinterließen sie ein andächtiges und zugleich euphorisches Publikum, das die einzelnen Songs lautstark beklatschte…Einfach exzellent…mit seiner raffiniert gewürzten Lyrik des Nordens. Dieser teils magische Jazz bleibt in Erinnerung.« (shz.de)
»Klassisches Maß und große Kraft.« (HNA)
»In die Musik des Emil-Brandqvist-Trios kann man sich wunderbar versenken und sich darin verlieren…« (Haller Tagesblatt)
Mr Bongo are thrilled to have one of the leading lights in contemporary soul joining the label. Melbourne-based vocalist, musician, and songwriter Ella Thompson is an artist whose name is being championed by some of the best in the business. She’s been building a reputation as one to watch, with two standout releases on Hopestreet Recordings, Domino EP in 2023 and Ripple On The Wing LP in 2024, alongside a heavy touring schedule and a stacked list of support slots and collaborations.
For this new 7” single, Ella collaborates with a selection of artists at the forefront of Naarm/Melbourne’s soulful DIY community. Featuring members of Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo, Liam McGorry from Temporary Blessings (College Of Knowledge) joins Ella as co-writer and co-producer, with go-to Melbourne engineer Henry Jenkins also producing and recording the track.
Bridging the worlds of classic and contemporary soul, Ella’s songwriting is drenched in emotion and personal experience. With a timeless feel that is hard to tie to any particular period, she has crafted a sound that instantly hits deep. It’s warm, tasteful and distinctly Ella. That talent has also seen her tour with Mark Ronson, and support other contemporary greats like Jalen Ngonda, Lee Fields, and Thee Sacred Souls.
‘Promise To Keep’ is the first taste of Ella’s new material on this 7” single. An irrepressible upbeat groover that echoes mid-to-late-sixties vocal groups. That influence though never overpowers Ella’s own unique creative voice or distinct sense of self. She draws from it, but the colour is all her own. The song tells a story of being carried by the current that keeps us moving, giving us courage. A commitment to oneself that speaks to action shaped by vision, and the pull of following what feels correct even when the distance is far.
The flip side finds Ella in a different mood. ‘Change Of Heart’ is a heavy sweet-soul ballad. Rich in drama, Ella’s falsetto vocals build to a stunning climax in the final section, with triumphant horns that signal the release of letting go. The lyrics reflect on temporality and impermanence, and the way moments can be missed or arrive with synchronicity. It’s that bittersweet paradox of triumph and sadness, where everything contains its opposite: absence and presence, innocence and experience. The song is underpinned by a brooding production quality and atmospheric, beat-heavy flavour that Surprise Chef and cinematic soul fans will relish.
Mixed by Wayne Gordon (Daptone, Womack Sisters), ‘Promise to Keep’ and ‘Change of Heart’ are a glimpse of things to come from Ella. Keep an eye open for more new music incoming from this phenomenal artist at the top of her game.
Sweet Breeze Sound's first 12" is inspired by DC's long-running DIY party Extended Play. Local legend and veteran Marc Meistro knows the room he's building for here and opens with a wildly inventive flip of an Earth, Wind & Fire classic, full of hefty Daniel Meinecke's Rhodes and organ solos. 'Be More Bruk' takes a tougher route through Baltimore club energy and the flip cut 'Roll Em Up' leans into early-80s NYC spirit for a proper outdoor-jam feel. 'Julien, Sammy, et Jojo' closes things out with an 80s-inspired African disco flip of an obscure Central African cut. Playful and fun.
Turn On The Sunlight is the long-running project of Texas-born, Maui-based musician and producer Jesse Peterson.
Originally formed in New York in the late 2000s, Turn On The Sunlight has evolved into a fluid, location-spanning practice rooted in collaboration, intuition and process. Now based on Maui, Peterson’s work draws together a wide network of musicians and environments, with recordings taking shape across Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, San Miguel de Allende and Haʻikū.
Loosely situated within a framework of organic, ambient-leaning jazz, 'Iseo' unfolds as a series of open, exploratory pieces, with electronics sitting subtly beneath acoustic and environmental elements. Built from layered instrumentation including synthesizers, guitar, zither, flutes, voice and field recordings, Peterson moves between grounded, tactile detail and more expansive, immersive states. A sense of warmth and permeability runs throughout: organic percussion, environmental textures and drifting rhythmic elements lend the record a gently saturated humidity, reflecting Peterson’s base in Hawaii, where the presence of nature is felt as much as it is heard.
Underlying the project is a way of working rooted in gathering, listening and tending. Instruments, ensemble sessions, field recordings and everyday environments are approached with attentiveness, shaped through collecting, refining and allowing things to settle. Relationships, landscape and lived experience shape the sound, giving 'Iseo' a tactile, almost hand-made quality.
Rather than fixed arrangements, the album feels as if it has been organically and lovingly assembled through a process of listening and response, each element finding its place within a wider, evolving whole. This approach reaches a natural centre point in the 15-minute piece 'Medianoche En La Calle Aurora', which unfolds patiently, bending through shifting environments as motifs and textures emerge and dissolve with quiet continuity.
Peterson’s role as both instigator and facilitator is central to the project. Bringing together a diverse group of collaborators including Carlos Niño, Mia Doi Todd, Laraaji, Ko Ishikawa, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli and Miles Spilsbury, he creates space for individual voices to emerge within a shared language. The result is a music defined by openness and generosity.
'Iseo' takes its title from Peterson’s son’s middle name, a word that can be understood to mean ‘one-world life’. The piece itself takes the form of a gentle lullaby, its melody loosely shaped around the syllables of his name and sung to Peterson’s son by Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, a close collaborator whose presence across the record reflects a long-standing relationship that extends beyond the music itself.
Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.
Derek Kamm is the American producer behind the Kidislive project and brings more than two decades of experience.
The Long Island-raised DJ and producer has previously received support from the likes of Richie Hawtin, Marco Carola and Carl Craig, while releasing on Visionquest, but now hones his craft, combining influences from micro house, minimal and experimental. Fresh off a third outing on 8 Head Records, he is back on his own new label to explore more compelling grooves.
Opener 'Down To The Penny' has a lively carnival feel, with an excitable mix of shimmering synths and subtle guitar riffs bursting through the mix. Sweeping filters ramp up the scale as more delicate melodies hang in the air, helping to hypnotise the dance floor. There is plenty of sunshine in the rich, multilayered instrumental 'Never Stop Reaching', which builds through rousing chords and florid flute lines. Vocals arrive with an empowering message that will bring real rapture. The fantastic 'Dipper Fox' is a rugged rhythm with chunky bass and a muscular feel that's softened by wispy, swirling synths and soaring choral vocals. Last but not least, 'Shorty Circuitry' is a study in emotional soundscaping - a warm, effervescing brew with strings and breathy vocals, long-tailed chords and a sense of joy all swarming around a subtle bass guitar that moves things onward and upwards.
New 4-track Ep From Austin, Texas Analogue Hardware Enthusiast Bill Converse. Immersed In The Early Days Of The 90s Midwest Rave Scene, Bill Began Djing At A Young Age In Lansing, Michigan. Luminaries Such As Claude Young, Traxx, And Derrick May Were Key Early Influences. Techno, Noise, Ambient And Tape Processing Are All Part Of His Uncanny Sound Palette. His Debut Album 'meditations/industry' Was Released On Cassette In 2013 And Edited For A Vinyl Release On Dark Entries In 2016 Followed By Two 12' Singles 'warehouse Invocation' And '7 Of 9' The Same Year. In 2017 Converse Released His Second Album 'the Shape Of Things To Come' Followed By The Double Ep 'salt Of Mars'.
'hulled' Is A 25 Minute Journey Spread Across 4 Tracks Of Glacial Abandon. All Tracks Were Recorded Directly To Tape With No Overdubs, Made At Converse's Home Studio. Bill Says These Tracks Represent 'ocean Waves In Stormy Conditions, Dark Grey Blue Water, Or More Generally Speaking Something Ominous And Beautiful.' The Songs On This Album Reveal A Sublime Influence From Detroit Techno, Idm, And Acid. Built Around Vintage Synthesizer Lines And Gritty Drum Machine Percussion, The Tracks Ebb And Flow Like The Effect Of Sun Shimmering On Water, Woozy, Gauzy And Ephemeral. All Songs Were Mastered For Vinyl By George Horn At Fantasy Studios In Berkeley.
Each Ep Is Housed In A Die-cute Jacket Designed By Eloise Leigh With Peachy Pink Patterns Landing On An Alien Water Planet And Seeing Mysterious Playing Forms Under The Turquoise Water. Each Copy Includes A Postcard Featuring Photo Of Bill With Notes.
Mermaids is many things at once: The debut single by Fila Brazillia (named after the mishearing of a Brazilian mastiff breed mentioned on the radio), the second release on Pork Recordings, a deep house master piece, the brainchild of the summer of love, a pen friend to A Man Called Adam’s Barefoot in the Head and most of all pure balearic bliss. Originally released in 1991 and subsequently featured on Old Codes, New Chaos, which according to Frank Tope at Mixmag, is "the Best Dance LP ever made”, it marked the beginning of a long and illustrious partnership for Hull natives Steve Cobby and David (Man) McSherry.
Mermaids still sounds as good and as addictive on any kind of beach or natural environment as it supposedly did on Boris Dlugosch’s Front dance floor or any other basement suffused with strobe lights at the time (or any hedonistic place for that matter). Having been already part of the latter’s and Klaus Stockhausen’s Mastermix Front Compilation, it has now been dusted off and remastered for an individual performance. Added for the first first time though is the original demo version that makes use of a different yet not less enchanting bass line.
Also included is Fila’s 1994 trippy, dare we say progressive, UK house blueprint Slacker. A seismic shift from the traditional tropes of house, it set an example for what should rock the dance music boat just a few years later. Delivered in a previously unreleased extended version for your utmost enjoyment.
Artwork note: The sleeve photograph is a proto-selfie taken by Steve in 1983 (the year the two first met). Man still has those braces.
In certain circles, this is a record that would easily be called „eternal“. Back in 1996, when it was originally released, it sounded like nothing else - and still does. The sixth record of Frankfurt’s soon to be imperial Playhouse label and Losoul’s first outing on the label, it hot-wired many things at once: house and techno, US roots and European fruits, grittiness and wittiness, high tech funk, the expansion pf playtimes and the concept of minimalism in dance music. Elegance met effectiveness.
A composition that hooked you and also caused a stir elsewhere. Daniel Bell licensed it to his Elevate label and commissioned a very young Theo Parrish to remix it, Michel De Hey did the same with his EC Records and treatments by Gerd among others.
Here you finally get both of those carefully restored, remastered and reissued next to the originals. Amply placed on a double 12“, it also features the previously unreleased D1. Stemming from the same time and era as Open Door it rings and feels like a compact lost brother. Addictive as on the very first day and here to stay.
Teddy Swims returns with his most personal album to date, UGLY, out January 22, 2027, featuring singles “Mr. Know It All” and “Perfect Man.”
Following the global success of I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Swims turns the mirror inward. Written across a transformative year and a half, UGLY finds him confronting the parts of himself that are harder to face - unraveling old patterns, questioning long-held beliefs, and reckoning with the stories we tell ourselves about who we’re supposed to be.
At its core, UGLY reframes what it means to heal. Growth isn’t about making the struggle beautiful or finding an easy way through it. It’s about facing what’s uncomfortable, giving yourself grace while having accountability, and unlearning the things that keep you from moving forward. UGLY is Teddy at his most vulnerable and self-aware - finding strength not in perfection, but in finally embracing the parts of himself he once tried to hide.
Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The vinyl sounds like it means business.
The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster serves the synth work well, keeping the melodic lines clear and the low end present without overcrowding the mix. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl pressing confirms it.
Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows, and Mes doesn’t waste any time. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, and then the Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. It’s a lot, but Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You don’t resist it. You just follow.
The B-side belongs to the most requested track in the label’s catalog, and it’s easy to understand why. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and then opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a particular gift for this, the ability to make a moment feel like it could last forever without ever losing tension. Ramirez’s own keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. Dunster captures the whole thing with care.
It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Nothing complicated about it, and that’s the point.
Play it loud.
Track A1 written and produced by Maziar Namvar and Joshua Collins. Remixed by Bryan Zentz.
Track A2 written and produced by Jason Sutton.
Track B1 written and produced by Cesar Ramirez. Remixed by Mike Huckaby.
Track B2 written and produced by Gabriel Palomo & Geto Mark.
Mastered by Lawrie Dunster at Curve Pusher, UK.
Copyright Control
2026 Fresh Meat Records
Shorter Version
Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster keeps the melodic lines clear and the low end present. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl confirms it. Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, then Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You just follow. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a gift for making a moment feel like it could last forever without losing tension. Ramirez’s keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Play it loud.
Madonna announced today her eagerly anticipated new album Confessions ll is set for release on July 3rd via Warner Records.
The new album is the continuation of the iconic counterpart Confessions on a Dance Floor. Ahead of the lead single, Madonna unveils the first taste of music with a trancelike visual teaser. Watch HERE. Fans can pre-order the album + the ultimate curation of expansive vinyl and CDs
Madonna sums up her new record best by quoting the first few lines of her song, One Step Away, “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Madonna adds “When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto”:
We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we've been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect
—with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It's about pushing your limits and
connecting to a community of like-minded people.
Sound, light, and vibration Reshape our perceptions Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.
Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.
VINYL - 1LP CRYSTAL CLEAR : 12 songs
" 12 songs. taking in the band's biggest global hits across a decade : 5 UK Top 10 Hits / 9 UK Top 40 hits / 2 US Billboard # 1 singles
" All versions are single versions where relevant
" From their first single 'Jonny Come Home' (1985) up to 'The Flame' (1996)
" New artwork, new liner notes, fully remastered
d A4. Funny How Love Is 3:29 rerecorded version
h B2. Don't Look Back 3:47 7" remix
[d] A4. Funny How Love Is 3:29 [rerecorded version]
[h] B2. Don't Look Back 3:47 [7" remix]
[d] A4. Funny How Love Is 3:29 [rerecorded version]
Pleasant Systems 014 brings together David Böning and Phillip Kluge for Moonbathed and Sunkissed, a four-track EP rooted in rough-edged ’90s deep house and early protohouse aesthetics. Split across two sides, the record moves through dusty drum machines, stripped-back grooves, raw basslines, and understated club energy. Drawing inspiration from classic US house music without slipping into nostalgia, both producers deliver tracks built for smoke-filled rooms, early morning floors and selectors who like things deep, direct and slightly worn around the edges.
First Word Records proudly present ‘One 4 Detroit’; the third single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred), complete with a remix by 14KT.
This 7" vinyl release follows on from last Summer's MF DOOM cover 'Arrow Root', which received strong support from the likes of Japan's DJ Koco and Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff, and their recent cover of ‘Change’ which was originally by Shadez of Brooklyn, most notably appearing on DJ Premier's 1997 mix album 'New York Reality Check 101.
One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.
Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.
Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite Primo beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.
kidkanevil explains that “after we made a bunch of piano joints it felt like time for a switch up, I had these raw drums looped and Manfred started playing this simple synth line on the Prophet - it kind of happened in an instant. This one was really a case of capture a moment and let it be. It had this cold, industrial bounce to it that really felt ‘Detroit’ somehow, so it became something of a tribute to that sound. Obviously there’s a rich musical history there that’s beyond anything we could encapsulate, but I hope the respect comes across. From Berlin to the D with love!
We felt pretty strongly that if we’re gonna nod to Detroit, we needed a remix from someone who reps there directly. I’ve been a fan of 14KT since the early 2000s beat scene, and as he’d previously released music on First Word, it made perfect sense to approach him. We asked and did he oblige!! I’m very comfortable saying we got schooled! He really blessed us with an amazing remix that brought a life and soul to what was originally a pretty stark beat, we’re super honoured to have this as our first ever remix.
‘U3P1’ (named after a synth preset so we didn’t forget!) is on the flip - this also came about pretty fast. I was thinking Ummah-era Tribe with the drums, and Manfred once again put down this super nice riff and it grew from there. It kinda felt like it needed some trumpet and it's always nice to highlight some of the amazing musicianship lurking beyond the club systems here in Berlin, so we called up Berlin based trumpeter and composer Paolo de Jesus, who blessed us with a beautiful performance and arrangement. And that was that; we hope you enjoy!”
‘One 4 Detroit / U3P1’ is released on limited 7" vinyl & digital platforms, June 12th 2026.
Chami and DHAEUR step up for the first release on DIG Curated, the sub label of Dust in Grooves (DIG), a pioneering force in the world of vinyl techno, born in Berlin. This passion project, launched by Olivia Mendez and Chami, spotlights emerging artists who embody the essence of the imprint's signature style--sophisticated, timeless, and groovy. With each release, a new talent is endorsed by a seasoned digger from the scene, aiming to push forward undiscovered sounds and empower the community.
After years of refining his palette as a dedicated DJ and acoustics master, the Italian-born, Berlin-based DHAEUR
has developed his distinct creative vision rooted in sound quality and stylistic research. At the time of crossing
paths with Chami, DHAEUR had already produced a handful of immersive tracks, exploring unknown territories
while keeping things minimalistic, giving DJs the freedom to construct their preferred sonic environments. Four of these tracks are pressed on DIG Curated 001, marking the beginning of a chapter for the sub-label that brings forth the future sound of techno.
The opening track of the release SUBJECT ZERO is a cinematic, mental, elegant journey, playing with the
perception of built up anticipation. This boundless, loopy soundscape is designed to induce inner quests on the
dancefloor and is a grand point of departure to unknown adventures ahead. This interlude of primordial grooves sets the scene for a voyage through a not-so-distant world where dystopian visions and technology merge with hypnotic synths. Evoking human emotions and desires is the hot and groovy track MIN(E)D, with vocals that could be from a female replicant building her own sonic web3 through the soundsystem of a steamy dancefloor.
On the B side, things quickly gain power and intensity, with STEPS racing through pounding beats, enigmatic
pads, and unpredictable claps, only tamed by DHAEUR's impeccable acoustic design. The EP closes with the cryptic, mechanical sounds of HEX 1904d1, deconstructing old patterns and programming a new form of evolved consciousness--inspired by precision and a reverence for organic movements.
Samosa Records swings back into action for the summer months with Afrikano Vol. 1 - a scintillating four tracker EP from Various Artists which you will fall in love with on the first listen.
On the A-side, the always impressive Vagabundo Club Social kick things off with the enigmatically titled ‘Mr. Mista’ - a hypnotic, (almost calypso inspired) rhythmic explosion of Mibra guitar, whirling organ, horns and a wicked high end laser sweep. This is a pure chugger, folks. At a deceptive 120bpm it will have you dancing til dusk.
A2 brings us ‘Sweet Dance’ where C. Da Afro met De Gama: after a brief shuffle beat start (liberally peppered with rhythm guitar and organ stabs), the unusual duo make sure it’s all about the beat and horn breakdowns. Pre-drinks in Lagos, people watching and waiting for the night to start is the order of the day here. Cut this in half and it has ‘summer’ stamped right through it. Gloriously sweet.
On the B-Side, Atchoum & Grincheux take centre stage with ‘Demokoussé’. Les Inferno applies the special retouch here, and straight away we’re treated to a gloriously produced trip through breakbeat inspired beats, deep, throaty horns and an outrageously soaring sax. Oh you want more? Well try the addition of the gorgeous spiritual vocals that put the bow nicely on this African sizzler.
Finishing the EP on B.2 is Lego Edit and the aptly titled ‘Afromaniaco’. A pulsating, horn inspired shaker, this track grabs you right by the beat bone from the off and won’t let go. Lego Edit’s trademark deft touches and attention to detail is all on display here - sweet sounding African vocals weave in and out of the almost melancholy horn stabs and washboard beats. A soundtrack for one of those incredible sunsets, ‘Afromaniaco’ is the missing piece of this diverse jigsaw.
With Afrikano Vol. 1, Samosa Records has found the perfect accompaniment to what is hopefully a long, hot summer. So Samosa, so brilliant.
Three musicians, three worlds: raga, jazz, and their own imagination. East, West, and the fusion in between. Rhythm, melody, and harmony. Past, present, and future.With 3, Ragini Trio experiences a rebirth - after years of deep exploration into long-form ragas, South Indian Carnatic traditions, konnakkol, and Western jazz.Thirteen years after their debut, this album stands as an homage to both worlds. By refusing to play things "as they should be played," Ragini Trio finds the in-between space - that magnetic tension where jazz and Indian classical music meet and transform each other.
Inspired by the traditional Indian trio of tabla, flute, and tanpura, Ragini offers its mirrored jazz response: drums, saxophone, and double bass. The result unites jazz, which seeks freedom within structure, with raga, which seeks structure within freedom. Far from purism or imitation, Ragini Trio crafts a living dialogue between rhythm, melody, and tone colour.
And it's a statement. Bursting with energy, depth, and self-irony, 3 is a vibrant antidote to the algorithmic recycle-music of today and tomorrow - born from the chemistry of three exceptional artists: saxophonist Nathan Daems, drummer Lander Gyselinck, and double bassist Marco Bardoscia.
Our third EP lands on Rupture. Four tracks, four sessions - a case of following the feelings and catching the vibes as quickly as possible!
The EP opens with Late Night Runner. Atmospheric but with a tuff amen, it’s named after Ed, who’s notoriously on time, who was late to the session ;) Open Water was the most recent track we made. We wanted something a little deeper, a long intro, spaced out kind of vibe. The title track Force 32 is a direct nod to Phantom Force, gully horseman energy throughout! Closing things out is One Shot, which has been on dub for over a year - a rowdy jungle rinse out.
This is not a Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein record; it’s a Play Time record. That’s a subtle but important distinction, for a couple reasons. One, the sound of Magic Object—a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog—doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects. And two, it was only while making Magic Object, their debut album, that Play Time realized they were a band at all.
Let’s back up. The roots of the trio date to 2020-21, when Will and then Booker moved to the Hudson Valley, where Ben was already living. The three got into the habit of playing together at Ben’s house, and they soon realized that their hang sessions felt fundamentally different from making music in some falling-down studio in Bushwick. Where those experiences were rushed and cramped, a new sense of time and space now suggested itself. Where once they rat-raced the music, now they relaxed into it.
Early gigs yielded similar revelations. A booking at Tubby’s, the beloved Kingston venue, evolved into a kind of residency. Tubby’s is a small space, fitting around 100 people, with a bar in the front room and a stage in the back. Play Time decided that they didn’t want to play on the stage; they wanted to play in front, among the people in the bar. Rather than hogging the spotlight and overpowering the other voices in the room, they blended with the energy of their surroundings and emerged as a sort of minimalist-jazz-krautrock bar band.
Gradually, they discovered a newfound “elasticity”—Ben’s word—that reshaped the music from inside. “It’s this communal thing,” he says. “It’s vibes. And it’s embedded in the community up here, which feels really vital and nourishing.” They were jamming, but it wasn’t just a free-for-all; they found themselves listening to each other in new ways. “Ben and Booker joke that they’re always playing in different time signatures,” Will says. “We’re all going forward with our own ideas, but we’re open to each others’ as well, and they’re all sort of dancing together.”
“We all have our painterly solo projects,” Will says—where, Booker adds, “we do a lot of studio arranging and thinking and composition that takes shape over a period of time.” Play Time, on the other hand, is all about being in the moment. That spontaneity was key to the process of recording the album. They booked two days in their friend Joey’s studio, a converted wooden barn. “It’s just a live room,” Booker says. “There’s no separation or anything. So we’re all in the space together and it’s got this beautiful, woody sound, and that’s very much the sound of the record.” For two days, they just jammed, for seven or eight hours each day. When it was over, they went through, edited down the portions they liked, and added very judicious overdubs designed to enhance the original recordings without fundamentally altering them, staying true to the spirit of the sessions.
The result is something like a snapshot and a mission statement all rolled into one. “You’re hearing us discover the voice of the band in real time,” Ben says. “We finished those sessions and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s what our band sounds like now.’”
Now, with Magic Object, the rest of us get to find out too.
—
Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.
“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.
Madonna announced today her eagerly anticipated new album Confessions ll is set for release on July 3rd via Warner Records.
The new album is the continuation of the iconic counterpart Confessions on a Dance Floor. Ahead of the lead single, Madonna unveils the first taste of music with a trancelike visual teaser. Watch HERE. Fans can pre-order the album + the ultimate curation of expansive vinyl and CDs
Madonna sums up her new record best by quoting the first few lines of her song, One Step Away, “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Madonna adds “When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto”:
We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we've been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect
—with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It's about pushing your limits and
connecting to a community of like-minded people.
Sound, light, and vibration Reshape our perceptions Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.
Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.
Mit Künstlern wie Bellaire, Tour-Maubourg, Folamour, Kings Of Tomorrow, The Mighty Bop, Motor City Drum Ensemble, St Germain, Kazam und DJ Deep entfaltet sich auf "Jazz House Vibes - The Finest Selection Of..." ein facettenreicher Sound zwischen soulful Deep House, warmen Jazzharmonien und eleganten, organischen Arrangements. Ob sanfte Piano-Melodien, feine Bläserstrukturen oder pulsierende Beats - Jazz House Vibes vereint Klassiker und moderne Produktionen zu einem stimmigen Gesamtbild voller Atmosphäre und musikalischer Tiefe. Eine hochwertige Vinyl-Compilation für alle, die House nicht nur als Clubmusik, sondern als stilvolles, emotionales und zeitloses Klanguniversum erleben wollen. Rediscover the perfect balance between jazz and house, captured on a brand-new vinyl release that is as elegant as it is timeless ! INCLUDING : Bellaire - Tour-Maubourg - Folamour - Kings Of Tomorrow The Mighty Bop - Motor City Drum Ensemble - St Germain Kazam - DJ Deep...
Moscow's newly emerging Noots makes debuts with an EP that dissolves genre boundaries. Ambient washes, deep house grooves, jungle echoes and experimental textures coexist in a fluid internal architecture. Field recordings, from the daily hum of Moscow's Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad metro to a friend's impromptu garage session, weave seamlessly into the music to ground his often abstract compositions in the real world. There is beauty in the green synths of 'Sudden Shift' and a blurry psychedelic edge to the ambient pads of 'Flowing Harmony' while a standout Nookie remix takes things into silky d&b territory.
Daybreakers head to Chicago for this one, bringing back How Bad I Want Ya from Soul Element, aka Stacy Kidd, alongside Peven Everett. This record is a true representation of the city — Stacy’s deep approach to house music and Peven’s unmistakable voice up front. It carries that raw, direct energy that defines a lot of their best work.
How Bad I Want Ya has been around for a while now, one of those records that stayed in bags and never really disappeared. It’s a proper slice of deep house with a vocal that stays in your head.
The original keeps things direct and deep. No excess, just a track that does what it needs to do on the floor.
On the B side, Glenn Underground steps in with the Peak True Time Mix, stretching things out and adds some percussion and an infectious bassline. It’s a proper GU remix — longer and patient, while keeping that Chicago swing intact.
Belgian label De:tuned once again dives into the innovative world of Luke Vibert, reviving his legendary Plug moniker with 'Variety Magic', the first new Plug album in nearly 15 years.
For this release, Vibert unearthed and hand-picked a collection of previously unreleased jungle and drum & bass gems, sourced straight from his original mid-90s DAT archive. The result is an 11-track ride through the raw energy and playful experimentation that made his early Plug work so distinctive, all infused with Vibert's unmistakable funk and mischievous flair.
Variety Magic is vibrant, bold, and delightfully off-kilter. A colourful homage to an iconic era, crafted for both deep listeners and the dancefloor. Stay tuned!
Visualised by the Variety Magi. Stencil Art by Pablo Fiasco and rewired by Openmind. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops.
Belgian label De:tuned once again dives into the innovative world of Luke Vibert, reviving his legendary Plug moniker with 'Variety Magic', the first new Plug album in nearly 15 years.
For this release, Vibert unearthed and hand-picked a collection of previously unreleased jungle and drum & bass gems, sourced straight from his original mid-90s DAT archive. The result is an 11-track ride through the raw energy and playful experimentation that made his early Plug work so distinctive, all infused with Vibert's unmistakable funk and mischievous flair.
Variety Magic is vibrant, bold, and delightfully off-kilter. A colourful homage to an iconic era, crafted for both deep listeners and the dancefloor. Stay tuned!
Visualised by the Variety Magi. Stencil Art by Pablo Fiasco and rewired by Openmind. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops.
Queensbridge duo Mobb Deep were already untouchable by the time Hell On Earth arrived, but this was the record where Havoc and Prodigy stopped sounding hungry and started sounding completely numb to everything around them. The production is brutally spare. Tiny piano fragments repeat for minutes at a time while drums hit with the force of metal doors slamming shut somewhere down the corridor. 'G.O.D. Pt. III' still feels poisonous nearly 30 years later, Prodigy rapping with such flat menace it barely even registers as performance anymore. 'Drop A Gem On 'Em' turns a diss track into psychological warfare, and then 'Nighttime Vultures', alongside Raekwon, moves through the album's nocturnal haze with exhausted precision. Even now, the whole thing feels airless in a way few rap records manage.
DJ support from Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys), Eric Duncan, Justin Strauss, Severino (Horse Meat Disco), and PBR Streetgang.
High-energy disco, Balearic, and synth-funk weapons backed by an elite DJ vanguard. This release delivers dancefloor-tested versatility, moving seamlessly from sun-drenched daytime grooves to late-night afterparty anthems. Motor Mouth Drum Ensemble present their Highballs At The Beach Club EP on Creative Use. Kicking things off on the A side is “Singapore Ray” A cheeky mid-tempo Asian disco-pop stepper, a neck dancer’s dream! Over on the flip “Night-Mine” a Dramatic low & slow balearo-funk to launch your ships to. Rounding off the EP “Fool You For Real” which is a Icy digital synth funk built to halt your after-party waffle.
Sleeparchive and Oliver Rosemann present a collaborative EP built as a shared system rather than a dialogue.
It is procedural: reduction, iteration, feedback.
Elements are introduced to be tested against the system. Changes occur slowly, often at the edge of perception, creating tension through persistence. This record documents convergence. A temporary alignment of processes, tools and timing.
The Sunken EP is cut for long-form playback, where variation becomes noticeable through duration to put you into a hypnotic state.
Originally released by Time Capsule in 2021 and long out of print, Stories From Another Time 1982-1988 returns in an upgraded edition following years of demand and rising collector prices on the secondhand market. Widely regarded as a modern cult classic, Mário Rui Silva’s visionary recordings blend acoustic folk, cinematic soul, spiritual jazz and saudade-filled Lusophone rhythm into a deeply timeless and universal work that transcends genre and geography.
This new edition features half-speed mastering cut at Metropolis alongside an expanded 4-page insert with a tribute essay and unseen photographs following Silva’s passing in 2024.
The roots of Angolan popular music explored in the meticulous guitar studies of Mário Rui Silva. For fans of Naná Vasconcelos, John Hassell’s Fourth World ambient, Eduardo Mateo’s psychedelic folk and Cameroonian electronic music visionary Francis Bebey.
Whether on mesmerising acoustic ballads or hypnotic groove-led tracks, the music of Angolan guitarist, researcher and intellectual Mário Rui Silva has a beguiling, melancholy quality, woven into the dynamics of his deft guitar playing.Rhythmically complex yet supremely effortless, the music collected here stems from three albums Mário released in Luanda in the 1980s that reflect his diverse range of influences, from traditional Angolan and West African rhythms to European jazz and classical instrumentation. It is united by a sense of low-key beauty, whether on the chugging opener ‘Kazum-zum-zum’, the jazz-funk keys of ‘Lembrança Dum Velho’, or the twinkling, late-night poly-rhythms of ‘Kizomba Kya Kisanji’.
Born in Luanda, Angola in 1953, Mário dedicated his life to Angolan popular music. His fifty-year career has seen him live between Angola and Europe, rub shoulders with Cameroonian musicians Francis Bebey and Ewanjé, record the seminal album Angola ’72 with fellow Angolan musician Bonga, and draw influence from Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell.
It was the teaching of Angolan legend and Ngola Ritmos co-founder Liceu Vieira Dias that Mário gained a technical, political and spiritual understanding of Angolan musical culture. In the hands of Liceu, the traditional Angolan semba and kazukuta rhythms of the 1940s and ‘50s helped create an emancipatory sense of national pride and collective agency that awakened its listeners to the racism and tyranny of colonial rule, underpinning the country’s push for independence in the process.
What might sound like the intonations of Brazilian influence are what Mário attributes to the “African rhythms taken by the slaves which gave rise to other musical cultures” around the globe. Instead, this music emerged from a collective instinct to assert a cosmopolitan Angolan identity free from the patronising falsehoods of Lusotropicalism.
“There was a need within me to contribute in doing new things,” Mário describes. “In the sense of solidifying the music of Angola that was the result of the meeting of two cultures, and wanting to value the Angolan part whenever possible.”A selection from Mário’s three 1980s albums, Sung’Ali (1982), Tunapenda Afrika (1985) and Koizas dum Outru Tempu (1988) have been compiled here as a 2xLP release by Time Capsule’s Sam Jacob and Kay Suzuki. Together, they provide a snapshot of one man’s journey to the core of his nation’s music, charged with the search for a culture uprooted by colonialism
Irish label Il Corpo returns for its third outing with a hard to pigeon hole 10” from 710 Exit. 2 tracks that sit on the electro end of things but with a generous nod to the sound of Detroit, early UK breakbeat, soul and the deeper realms of electronic music. Close To The Sun feels like more than just a cosmic position. A solid 808 foundation and loose percussion sit beneath a bed of synth lines and soaring pads that are guaranteed to stir the soul. The signal for nostalgia is strong but there are plenty more twists and turns to keep the listener engaged. Warped guitar and soul samples make Strat an infectious workout brimming with experimentation and originality. Effected chords take on an almost vocal quality which talks over the casual, understated funk on offer here. Ever changing tones draw you in and make it hard to distinguish between guitar, synth or human. A unique E.P. which will find its way into the sets of varying selectors at this summer’s gatherings.
Alt Dub boss Federsen once again joins forces with cv313 and Echospace Detroit to deliver a second instalment in their ‘Altering Dimension’ series, once again merging hazy textural sonics with delicate dub leaning aesthetics.
Detroit’s dub techno lineage continues to evolve as cv313, Stephen Hitchell of Echospace, teams up with Federsen for Altering Dimensions Part Two, another collaborative EP set to land on Federsen’s Alt Dub imprint.
A defining figure in the genre, cv313 has long shaped its language through seminal works like Seconds to Forever and the Dimensional Space LP, fusing enveloping atmospheres with tactile rhythmic structures. Alongside him here,
Federsen whose music can also be found on Echospace Detroit as well as Grayscale, Synchrophone, Lempuyang and Avant Roots, has carved out a distinct voice rooted in precision and analogue-rich depth. Altering Dimensions Part Two again captures the intersection of these two perspectives, linking Detroit’s enduring sonic heritage with a refined, forward-facing approach to dub techno.
‘First Dimension’ opens the release, laying down heavy doses of sub bass, bubbling percussion and ever evolving, murky dub echoes amidst a crisp, stripped-down rhythm section.
‘Second Dimension’ follows and leans into vacillating atmospherics, a swaying bottom end groove and hypnotic, subtle evolution that’s synonymous with the cv313 sound.
‘Third Dimension’ kicks off the b-side next, further embracing this introspective and immersive style as textural elements shift and mutate atop intricately modulating percussive hits, bubbling synth tones and weighty low-end percussion.
‘Fourth Dimension’ then concludes the release, reducing things down to bare bones of hypntic dub, embracing a beatless construction the composition relies on spatial depth, nuanced delays and an underlying tension that decays
Following the release of Chris Liebing's 'Evolver' album this spring, German duo FJAAK rework 'Higher Things' which appeared on the full-length, releasing via CLR on 29th May 2026. Long established as a formidable force within Techno, FJAAK are known for crafting high-impact, floor-focused tracks, often via their self-titled imprint, with the Berlin artists now joining a star-studded cast on Chris Liebing's latest full-length, including photographer and film director Anton Corbijn on photography, and collaborations with Charlotte de Witte, Luke Slater, The Advent, Speedy J, Terence Fixmer, Pascal Gabriel, and
Daniel Miller.
Their remix reshapes 'Higher Things' around a rattling dub techno framework, where molten chords soften the weight of mechanical kicks while resonant stabs and swelling textures steadily intensify. The result is a hypnotic yet forceful reimagining, balancing atmospheric depth with anthemic, warehouse-ready pressure.
The original version of Chris Liebing's 'Higher Things' appears on his debut solo LP, 'Evolver', released 27th March 2026 on CLR. Marking a distillation of over three decades at Techno's core, the album pairs introspective depth with immediate, floor-driven impact, bringing together contributions from the likes of Luke Slater, Charlotte de Witte, Speedy J and The Advent, while ultimately remaining rooted in Liebing's singular vision, channeling the raw, industrial energy of classic club spaces into a refined, forward-facing long player.
Following in the steps of last year's mysterious "Beyond the Garage" 12 inch, L.I.E.S. throws another curveball with a 30 track continuous LP from veteran West Coast producers, Vinny+Charlie. Each side running 20 minutes, this can best be described as a smoked out, haze filled afterparty beat tape on wax. Obscure samples, dusty sp-12 crushed beats, head nodding loops, sweet low rider soul..chopped, sped up, slowed down and ready to wreck your system. Limited edition white label housed in a lp jacket with custom art by LA artist SOB STORY. 300 copies worldwide.
Berlin-based producer and DJ Benjamin Fröhlich returns to his own Pleasure Principle imprint with the long-awaited vinyl edition of The Muv It EP -
Rooted in dusty, dubby house music and inspired by the open spaces and raw energy of a recent desert trip, the EP channels warmth and groove in equal measure. The title track Muv It sits at the heart of the release - a driving, hypnotic floor-burner that showcases Fröhlich's instinctive feel for rhythm and texture.
Alongside it, Get Up raises the energy further, bringing a higher-octane dancefloor urgency to the EP's middle section. Its dub counterpart Get Dub then strips things back - a spacious, reverb-drenched variation that lets the groove breathe and reveals the track's deeper, more meditative side.
The vinyl edition comes with an exclusive bonus track: Gruv It - a stripped-down, atmospheric rework of Muv It that trades hands up moments against a hypnotic rolling vibe.
Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
Sink your mind into this trip of free floating compositions and loopy fragments, all the way from Copenhagen. Physical copy comes with silk-screen printed cover via Adagio for Things, recycled vinyl via Ramona Records and individual labels via Beatbude Distribution.
Composed and recorded by Kristoffer Kjærskov (EOM), mastered by Maximilian Schweizer (SMS), screen-printed by Wilfred Wagner (AfT).
Kercha’s debut album ‘Open The Door’ arrives this April via DNO Records. The Black Sea artist’s mystical, disorienting style has set the tone for the label since he dropped the inaugural release six years ago. Now, across 16 tracks — including collabs with Mystic State, Congi, NST, Khromi and Finnoh — his smoky sampledelic dubstep is tighter, heavier, and more curious than ever, with a new sense of danger and bubbling rage that feels fit for our chaotic times.
Themes of movement and change course through the LP. On the opening gambit ‘A Path Into The Unknown’, twinkling arpeggios emerge from the gloom like stars lighting the way. Tracks like the eponymous ‘Open The Door’ and ‘Mind Extraction’ deliver that classic Kercha sound, where left-field samples dart in at right angles. ‘Dangerous Road’ weaves between the call and response action of grotty stabs and devilish subs. ‘Take A Break’, featuring Mystic State, goes on the attack with searing acid. ‘Can’t Wait For Today’, though lethargic in its pace, sees San Francisco-based rapper Finnoh deliver stream-of-consciousness bars that skewer our present and nudge us to revolution.
Work took place over the course of several years, during which Kercha relocated with his family from Russia to Georgia, where he now resides in the capital, Tbilisi. “Sometimes I wrote music while travelling on a bus, sometimes late at night while my family was asleep, sometimes just sitting on the grass in a park, and of course in my home studio as well,” he says. “By the time the album was finished, it included music from different periods, and it may vary in sound and concept.”
Any major upheaval in life will result in moments of hardship, but also hope. Both can be found throughout ‘Open The Door’. There’s times when the darkness threatens to envelope everything: during the cold, crackling ‘Disclosed’ and the eerie, dystopian ‘Infection Of Lies’; on ‘Trigger Activation’, with its grunting lows and broken glass hook, and ‘Ballistics’, where a wall of sub-bass is pierced by shrapnel stabs.
The balancing light comes on ‘4 AM’, featuring Nottingham duo Congi, when clashing swords and cinematic strings, meet a soft Rhodes piano — the juxtaposition between heavy low-end and floaty keys and vox reflecting those moments of transcendence often found in the early hours. From the injection of garage energy on ‘Bubs’, with Edinburgh’s Khromi. And on with ‘My Feeling’, featuring South Russian vocalist NST, which closes the album on a deep but expansive note, bookending the experience with more starlight synth tones.
“It’s a reflection of my life journey and the changes connected with emigration and overcoming various difficulties,” explains Kercha. “This period means a lot to me, which is why the album includes tracks from the time of preparing to leave up to adapting to a new country.”
Still, he wants listeners to be able to derive their own understanding. “I think the essence lies in the ability to contemplate, not in any predetermined meaning,” he says. “I can only say one thing: thank you for appreciating what I do and for your support. I hope it inspires you to make the same firm decisions to change for the better as it did for me.”
Out via 4 x 12” vinyl, ‘Open The Door’ is a captivating artistic statement, showcasing the journey of an artist with a truly original signature sound — a rarity that should be treasured and celebrated.
Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.
Baby T is a space away from her work as B.Traits in which Brianna Price can lean more into the junglist, drum ‘n’ bass and hardcore sounds which she loves so dearly. With BSHEE02, the second drop on Price’s own Banshee label, Baby T delivers a darkside masterclass of an EP. This record is a quartet of system blowers which doesn’t let up for a single second from start to finish.
Opener ‘Times Up’ is urgent from the off - the initial strains of this joint find sirens wailing in the monitors over a twitchy kick/drum/hats combo. From here on it’s distilled raver perfection, the drums taking us on a wild Wipeout-style ride as the subbiest of bass skulks at the bottom of the mix. Imagine a more technoid take on the classic breakbeat freerides of Skanna and you’re not far off the ‘Times Up’ sound.
A remix of ‘Times Up’ from man like Aloka leans with devilish glee into the murky underworld that lurks beneath Baby T’s original. Aloka’s version is extremely eerie in a manner which makes you think of the darkest corners of a DMZ party. When things really kick into gear, driven by an irresistible kick dembow, the effect is hypnotic - think the dubwise junglism of the UVB-76 cohort.
BSHEE02’s B-side kicks off with ‘Coercive Control’. This is a cut which delivers on its title in spades, putting the listener in a trance with an interplay of low-slung bass, whirligig synth tones and more of those perfectly executed broken beats. The acid starts to kick in around the minute mark, and it turns out to herald a total earworm of a lead melody.
There’s plenty of dimly-lit malevolence to BHSEE02 closer ‘Dense Dickwood’s grinding atmospherics and gurgling bass throbs. However, Baby T opting for a half-time drum break here gives the cut a vibe not dissimilar to the weightiest jams of classic Massive Attack - that is, until an absolutely remorseless switch-up occurs halfway through, delivering volley after volley of intense drum hits.
Cromby delivers a four-track EP built for the dancefloor, each cut hitting a different shade of club energy. On the A-side, Love on Tenderhooks kicks things off with a high-octane bassline, euphoric builds, driving organ and haunting vocal hook. It's followed by All Night, a deeper, darker roller driven by sub bass, dubby textures and a relentless groove. Flip it over and On Target takes a more trippy turn, riding a warm, bumping bassline with swirling, psychedelic vocals drifting across the mix. Closing things out is The Beat, a percussion-led groover that locks into a hypnotic rhythm and keeps the floor moving.
Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
Winding Road Records are proud to present the “Last Disco on Earth EP” from the ever-elusive group of “Mar De Novo” which is M & N, Paraiso and Yse Saint Laur’ant. First up on this EP is the title track ‘Last Disco on Earth’ is a monster slab of modern disco. Fat grooves, cheeky melodies and cool glitchy production. Uplifting, positive and energetic - guaranteed to put a smile on the dancefloor. Next up is ‘Over There’ is a twisted slice of bass-heavy undulating house, punctuated by crazy interludes and samples that fly in from nowhere. Starting things off on the B side is ‘Uncanny Valley’ is a sun-kissed downtempo groover, with dreamy strings and wonderful chilled musicality. Following on from that is ‘Reflection’ exudes space, peace, and calm. Guitars and piano intertwine alongside haunting vocals. Soundtrack bliss. Summer vibes. Finally rounding off the EP is ‘Find Love’ rounds off the package with a dreamy balearic sunset vibe.
An introspective journey led to the recovery of five tracks that form Unearthed Forms: The new 12” EP by Gent1e $oul & Finally Julius on Fast Castle. Focused on rhythm, texture, and low-end pressure, the record is built around contrasts between organic movement, sharp percussive design, and fluid, broken rhythmic sections.
The A-side opens with Pantanal, a slow-building, humid groove driven by deep sub pressure and layered percussion. Obsidian Arrows introduces a tighter, more direct energy, a modern fast-paced dub stepper with future-facing sound design. Spore Inscription shifts into more evolving patterns, where rhythmic elements gradually reorganise and reconfigure over time.
On the B-side, Where liquid forgets to flow breaks away from steady structure, moving into unstable, shifting rhythm work and loose timing. The closing track Bloom Archive brings things back into a warmer, more open space, with smoother textures and a slower, more continuous flow that feels reflective rather than resolved.
Across five tracks, the EP moves between dub-weighted bass systems, broken beat influence, and techno-focused arrangement — keeping a strong focus on physical low-end and detailed percussion throughout.
Ready for a hot summer? It will get hot when listening to the new Mat Chiavaroli EP called "Ammaro"!
Mat has a long time connection with Quintessentials and released his first ever album "No stranger to madness" back in 2017. His new sound is more driving and club friendly, ranging form the mediterrainina inspired "Ammaro" the the UK garage styled "Need" to the classic deep house tune "We can figure it out". To top if off, Quintessentials buddie Ralph Session adds a NY influenced remix to heat things up even more! And yes, artwork provided by Mat's son Divo, a real family affair!
Full Dose welcome DJ Firehouse to the fold with a four-track suite that drifts deep into fogged-out space. Rooted in the lineage of late-2000s innovators, this is a record that leans into atmosphere as much as it does low-end pressure.
“Hamilton Hill” sets the tone with metallic percussion and submerged chords, locking into a hypnotic groove that feels equal parts system music and head music. “Gardening” follows with a blurred palette, combining rippling textures, tape hiss and a hypnotic vocal loop to pull you further inward. On “Starpol 666”, Firehouse eases off the pressure with a more abstract, interlude-like piece, where drifting mid-range pads and liquid movement hint at a more experimental edge. Closing track “Cross Fader” stretches things out into a dubbed, slow-burning finale. Breathy ambient layers give way to dembow-leaning drums, with thunderous hits and long-tailed echoes building a quiet but undeniable tension.
Give me some crystal meth, put it in a line and snort it - there you go."
Ella Fitzgerald meets Gangsta Rap and the Beach Boys encounter their despotic father. AMERICAN PSYCHE by Raymond Pettibon & Oliver Augst is an ABC of Jazz standards and nostalgia on speed, "that the world will never forget."
Tasty Recordings return with another set of straight up, party starting firepower. Five delectable edits cooked up in the kitchen of a handpicked selection of producers, that know a thing or two about splicing the spice into your life.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES! 2 x 12" Black Vinyl w/ Gold Foil Embossed Cover, shrink wrapped.
‘Elevation’ is album eleven from High Focus Records founder and 1/4 of The Four Owls Fliptrix.
The latest instalment in a formidable run sees the lyricist further his vision of the world in the hope of elevating the collective mind and spirit of both artist and listener across 19-tracks.
Having worked with Forest DLG in some capacity across all of his records over the past fifteen years, from mixing and mastering, but also collaborating on multiple tracks as rapper / producer, it is surprising that it took so long for the pair to come together on a full-length collaborative project.
‘Elevation’ is that record.
Fliptrix reached out to Forest with a view to creating something completely different from his previous boom bap heavy outing ‘Dragonfly’, he is always looking to advance his craft and take things higher, and after Forest responded with a pack of 70+ instrumentals the direction of travel became crystal clear. The result is an album designed to lift the listener into a higher state of consciousness and trigger conversations about the state of the world, in the hope of enacting positive change during tumultuous times.
Fliptrix’s vision and Forest DLG’s style feel perfectly aligned. The album is truly collaborative; Forest going away and creating the artwork inspired by Fliptrix’s otherworldly experiences with the Shipibo tribe in the rainforests of Peru; from the single covers, to the album cover and merchandise as Fliptrix focussed on writing.
Having worked with all the greats in the UK hip hop scene, Fliptrix actively sought out new energies on ‘Elevation’, especially when it comes to the album features. Jungle forefather General Levy on lead single ‘ENERGY! ENERGY! ENERGY!’ Grime legend Frisco on ‘Visionaries’, Ayah Marar on ‘Transform’, Da Flyy Hooligan, Kamakaze, Coops, and a 19-strong HF posse cut in the shape of ‘Dangerous’ make this album a must-listen for anyone looking to elevate.
The Trip To Vega is about deep outer space odyssey that occurs in the process of traveling from Earth through the Cosmos to another "favorable" star system 25.3 light-years away.
The time is year 2097, Sept 23rd.
To this day, Earthlings have managed to dodge some of nature's more dangerous extremities, massive volcanic eruptions, Earthquakes, solar burst that knocked out the Planet's entire electrical grid for 3 years, numerous plagues of disease, food and fresh water shortages, domestic and International Wars and many other life-changing operas, but for this event, what remains is a realization that has no remedy. The cause: Earth's physicality has changed. It is no longer favorable for living things.
It is the constant shifting of the planet's internal tectonic plates which has unfortunately produced an unexpected and impassable dilemma.
Because of the collisions, deep within the planet's core, the planet is now producing an extraordinary amount of sound that includes a specific harmonic frequency that erodes the natural senses of all life on Earth.
It is intensifying. It is intolerable and it is unlivable.
Yet, some humans prefer to stay, to "ride it out" like the Titanic captain going down with his ship. Some, in total disbelief as some have concluded it is the second coming of Jesus Christ. But for most, the decision is clear. Tolive another day, leaving is the only rational choice.
At an increasing rate, scientific research data shows that humans and most animals, excluding the Jellyfish will eventually lose the usage of hearing and are to greatly suffer from an array of other neurological and psychological effects. The sense of touch and taste, sleep depreciation, severe nerve damage, constant hallucinations. Everyone will lose many of their cognitive abilities within an estimated 12 months from now.
On this day and every 7 days afterwards until all registered passengers have departed, the first of a fleet of large number of massive size spacecraft carrying approximately 1 million humans per vessel will permanently leave Earth to begin the long and adventurous trek across outer space to a new home: Vega.
This is not a precautionary tale as there is nothing to learn. Instead, a decision has been made and a Trip To Vega is the consequence.
Balancing glitch-pop and contemporary piano, the Belgian pianist explores the edges of her voice, language and twisted electronica
The Belgian pianist and producer maya dhondt releases a new album titled 'wow, x', marking her debut solo album under her own name. Navigating between bedroom glitch-pop and contemporary piano, she presents sounds of alienating beauty.
The album ‘wow, x’ will be released on September 13 on vinyl and all digital platforms via VIERNULVIER Records.
“I find beauty in the uncomfortable and disorienting" - maya dhont
The first single, 'desire,' is a mutated synth-pop track that gets under the skin. The song centralizes longing for something you don't know (yet). Perhaps it's the smell of damp earth, which can be both pleasant and unsettling? The single is now available on all streaming platforms and comes with a schizophrenic video by Sakis Brönnimann.
The first release show is scheduled for Saturday, October 5, at De Koer, Ghent.
More shows will be announced soon.
A postmodern cramp, that's how one could describe the music of pianist and producer maya dhondt. Her music is an intuitive and a never ending exploration that has the potential to be and become a multitude of things at once.
On her first solo album under her own name, 'wow, x,' she presents 10 varied tracks in which she creates equally idiosyncratic sound worlds. She takes the liberty to endlessly experiment with vocals, piano, and a mix of distorted lo-fi electronic sounds with an open mind. The result is sometimes synthetic and weird, sometimes compellingly beautiful, and always captivating, drawing you into its underlying melody. These intelligently crafted productions are connected by a penchant for alienating beauty: like a warm, but damp cave where it’s pleasant to linger just a little longer. Her original sound moves within a sonic spectrum reminiscent of contemporary artists such as Lolina, Astrid Sonne, claire rousay, aya or Carla Dal Forno.
"What I create never stands alone, it can be many things at once"
If the world were a sculpture garden, maya dhondt eagerly picks from it to draw inspiration from both visual and literary passages as well as personal experiences. Her highly personal bedroom productions are grounded firmly in the world due to philosophical references and politically charged messages. And the world she lives in is being questioned on 'wow, x', as the title refers to "What Or Why?". This is evident in the single 'desire': "What is the thing that matters / to exist / or to know you’re existing?" What does one choose in life: to live in the moment or to live to remember that moment?
In the lyrics on 'wow, x', maya dhondt plays - at times childishly - with language and its boundaries. On 'tip toe tip,' banal wordplay leads to an unexpected confession, and the seemingly simple phrases in 'untitled' conceal hidden life lessons. dhondt's world of words is multilayered and multilingual: Dutch ('kleine cijfers, groot verlies'), English ('desire'), and French ('untitled') are at her disposal. And on the fierce track that is 'minimalinvasiv,' not only she turns to hardstyle, but also to German - a language dear to her due to her Swiss heritage.
BBC and Parliamentary Jazz Awards winner Tony Kofi 's ANOTHER KIND OF SOUL traces the explosive music of Cannonball Adderley from his first session as leader in 1955 through his work with Miles Davis to the soul-jazz of the 1960's. Recorded live at Luton's Bear Club in 2019, it also features Andy Davies on trumpet, pianist Alex Webb, bassist Andrew Cleyndert and Alfonso Vitale on drums. This is the distilled version of two very special nights, immortalised by Paul Riley's recordings. The album is available in limited edition 180 gm vinyl the medium of Adderley's erato best replicate the ambience of this remarkable live recording, and in digital format. The album is not called A Portrait of Cannonball as there is already one bearing that name by the great man himself. It is however, without a doubt,
Another Kind of Soul by Tony Kofi.
Kofi has performed with the World Saxophone Quartet, Clifford Jarvis, Courtney Pine, Donald Byrd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Eddie Henderson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Ornette Coleman. The Guardian has described his improvisational skill as having "an arrestingly raw power".
Spaceships on the Blade is the 2022 solo album from San Francisco legend, entrepreneur and rapper, Larry June. The 20-track album features the singles, “Private Valet,” & “In My Pockets,” and sees production from a wide range of producers such as, The Alchemist, Jake One, DJ Khalil, Cardo, DJ.Fresh, Chuck Inglish, Turbo & more. Enlisting the help from fellow rap luminaries such as 2 Chainz, Babyface Ray, Curren$y and more, Spaceships on the Blade shows that Uncle Larry always has an eye on expanding and diversifying income steams and will continue to do numbers for a long time. Good Job, Larry. 2xLP, Black Vinyl, Widespine Jacket, Printed Sleeves.
After some hiatus, Texas' pioneering Uni.Form records label owner, Jake Childs, returns with "Then & Now": a compilation of tracks spanning 20 years of visionary musical production.
Forever exploring the boundaries of house and techno, "Then & Now" showcases Jake's pursuit for unity whilst playing soundtrack to a personal narrative.
Baby T is a space away from her work as B.Traits in which Brianna Price can lean more into the junglist, drum ‘n’ bass and hardcore sounds which she loves so dearly. With BSHEE02, the second drop on Price’s own Banshee label, Baby T delivers a darkside masterclass of an EP. This record is a quartet of system blowers which doesn’t let up for a single second from start to finish.
Opener ‘Times Up’ is urgent from the off - the initial strains of this joint find sirens wailing in the monitors over a twitchy kick/drum/hats combo. From here on it’s distilled raver perfection, the drums taking us on a wild Wipeout-style ride as the subbiest of bass skulks at the bottom of the mix. Imagine a more technoid take on the classic breakbeat freerides of Skanna and you’re not far off the ‘Times Up’ sound.
A remix of ‘Times Up’ from man like Aloka leans with devilish glee into the murky underworld that lurks beneath Baby T’s original. Aloka’s version is extremely eerie in a manner which makes you think of the darkest corners of a DMZ party. When things really kick into gear, driven by an irresistible kick dembow, the effect is hypnotic - think the dubwise junglism of the UVB-76 cohort.
BSHEE02’s B-side kicks off with ‘Coercive Control’. This is a cut which delivers on its title in spades, putting the listener in a trance with an interplay of low-slung bass, whirligig synth tones and more of those perfectly executed broken beats. The acid starts to kick in around the minute mark, and it turns out to herald a total earworm of a lead melody.
There’s plenty of dimly-lit malevolence to BHSEE02 closer ‘Dense Dickwood’s grinding atmospherics and gurgling bass throbs. However, Baby T opting for a half-time drum break here gives the cut a vibe not dissimilar to the weightiest jams of classic Massive Attack - that is, until an absolutely remorseless switch-up occurs halfway through, delivering volley after volley of intense drum hits.
VA – Paradisi Artificiali brings together four distinct sound compositions, each resisting the urge to resemble the others but united by the way they manipulate perception.
Polygonia crafts shifting rhythmic paths where the groove warps and regenerates in real time, maintaining an organic tension that keeps the body in motion without ever truly settling into place.
Feral operates through subtraction, slowing time and excavating sound’s spatial depth. Its tracks don’t progress so much as they envelop, drawing the listener inward into a layered, introspective space.
Agonis introduces a more unstable, sensory thread, weaving transitions and accumulations that build in stages. Frequencies become tangible matter, and the progression unfolds without ever erupting entirely.
Crossing Avenue weaves these directions together without hardening them, infusing the record with a more rooted, almost ancestral rhythmic element that surfaces in the structure of the patterns and the choice of timbre.
The result isn’t a neat synthesis, but a coexistence. The tracks unfold along a shared line without ever converging, articulating a dynamic balance between tension and release. It’s an album that works through gradual alterations, through subtle slippages in perception, as in “Les Paradis Artificiels”. The point isn’t escape, but intensification. The sound burrows deep, reshaping how things are experienced, until a denser, more ambiguous, more alive reality emerges.
Hot on the heels of their debut LP Scimitar return with a lightning fast follow up simply entitled Scimitarium II.
Formed in 2024 by veterans of Copenhagen’s underground music scene including members of Slaegt, Gam, and Shaam Laerin, Scimitar released their debut LP in February 2025 to wide acclaim. Arriving as a fully formed force of nature with an album far beyond the reach and scope of bands significantly deeper in their discographies. It should come as no surprise that their follow up drinks even deeper from the same well of riches as their first effort. Somehow, this time around, there is more light in the dark, although the glimmers and rays only serve to amplify the heaviness of the utter pitch blackness.
Opening itself up in a wrenching moment of becoming, Scimitatium II begins like an infernal piece of machinery, a vast, complex engine of sound slowly but steadily finding its inexorable pace until vocalist Shaam A’s voice breaks upon its nascent rhythms like glass. Once velocity is reached there is seemingly no stopping this breathless journey as its angular guitar lines narrowly wend themselves through cavernous tunnels leaving echoing tendrils in their wake, all while the frantic rhythm section threatens to shake the whole damn thing to pieces.
The flaming Scimitar is born of smoke and ash, and mystic flame burning itself brightly for ritual rebirth; a self immolating operation capable of incredible creation and terrible destruction.
Smoove puts the spotlight firmly on the larger-than-life vocals of Rufus Thomas, peeling things back to reveal hard-hitting breakbeat drums from the very first bar, anchored by a relentless, pounding bassline. Punchy brass stabs and rolling keys collide with dirty funk guitar riffs, all stretched out into an extended rework built for maximum floor impact.
A.2 Bouncy Lady 5.06
A classic jazz-funk break from 1975 gets a fresh twist as Smoove reworks the structure into a groovy, extended build-up. Vocal chants and handclaps take the lead, while the original sax solo is stripped away and replaced by a raw bass-and-guitar workout. The focus shifts squarely to the rhythm section, letting the drums ride all the way to the finish—ending with the studio engineer’s off-mic murmur on the tape: “beautiful.”
B1. – For The Love Of You 6.57
The Isley Brothers classic gets a loving reworking, with the groove locked in tight and the keyboards pushed front and centre letting the drums and bass drive home the groove. Those iconic falsetto vocals are spine-tingling, from start to finish.
B.2– I’m Trying 4.48
Lush, soulful strings and a deep-groove piano line glide over this drum-driven reinterpretation, opening up the raw, emotive vocal breakdowns of Carla Thomas and Pervis Staples. Originally scored by Isaac Hayes, this rework digs deep into the multitracks, uncovering previously unheard moments and giving them room to breathe.
