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The hotly anticipated follow-up to 2007"s Horizons, Deep Blue raised the bar in every conceivable way. While maintaining the band"s uncompromising metallic-hardcore style at its core, it pushed into exciting new realms, drawing from a wider scope of influence, incorporating everything from anthemic pop-punk to bloodcurdling death metal. With improved musical abilities and a thoroughly inspired approach to songwriting, Parkway Drive has tied the music and lyrics together into one all-encompassing concept. "It"s basically about the search for truth in a world that seems to be devoid of that," says vocalist and lyricist Winston McCall, explaining the narrative running through Deep Blue. "The story is told through the eyes of a man who wakes up and realizes that his life is a lie and nothing he believes in is real. So he tries to find the truth within himself and his journey takes him to the bottom of the ocean and back again."

Focus Track: Bear Hill Album Description: Raekwon’s The Emperor’s New Clothes is a sharp return to form, showcasing the Wu-Tang veteran’s lyrical precision and timeless street wisdom. The album is powerful with equal parts - high-quality bars and carefully sculpted production. Raekwon recruits a stacked lineup of guests, including Nas, Griselda, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, and Ghostface Killah, injecting the project with gritty energy and legacy chemistry. Marsha Ambrosius and Stacy Barthe provide smooth, soulful hooks, adding emotional layers to the hard-edged verses. Production comes courtesy of Nottz, Swizz Beatz J.U.S.T.I.C.E League and more. The LP is a reminder of Raekwon’s enduring power as a lyricist and curator. A veteran artist showing that mastery doesn’t need excess. The Emperor’s New Clothes is regal, streetwise, and sharply tailored for those who value craft.

Freak Show is the second album by the popular Australian band Silverchair, which charted in different lists all over the world (US, UK, Australia, Canada and many more). After their debut Frogstomp they were fusing more elements together in their music. Freak Show contains a lot of strong hooks and the song writing skills increased. This post-grunge album is more versatile in comparison to their earlier work and it marks the beginning of the definitive band sound.

Silverchair were an Australian rock band formed in 1992, who have sold over 9 million albums worldwide. Their sounds evolved during the years from the grunge and alternative rock to pop and art rock. In 2011 they announced their “indefinite hibernation” and it is still unknown if they ever going to return on stage.

Freak Show is available as a limited edition of 5000 individually numbered copies on flaming (red & yellow swirled) vinyl.

After a ten-year absence that left a palpable void in the hearts of millennial emo kids, MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK are finally back-and yes, it"s everything we hoped for. The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World feels like coming home: a dizzying, emotionally articulate blast of guitar-laced pop-punk that reminds us why this band meant so much in the first place. It"s a sonic time machine, sure, but it never gets stuck in the past. Instead, it builds on it-older, a little bruised, but somehow more alive. Justin Pierre"s voice still wobbles gloriously between a scream and a sigh, only now it carries the weight of experience, not just anxiety. Rather than reinventing themselves, MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK double down on what they"ve always done best: big hooks, bigger feelings, and that perfect tightrope walk between chaos and control. Tracks like "Particle Physics" (with Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy) and "Your Days Are Numbered" (featuring Mat Kerekes of Citizen) channel the kind of clarity that only comes after surviving your own worst years. In a world drowning in lazy nostalgia, The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is a rare and welcome return that feels less like a reunion and more like a long-overdue continuation.

After a ten-year absence that left a palpable void in the hearts of millennial emo kids, MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK are finally back-and yes, it"s everything we hoped for. The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World feels like coming home: a dizzying, emotionally articulate blast of guitar-laced pop-punk that reminds us why this band meant so much in the first place. It"s a sonic time machine, sure, but it never gets stuck in the past. Instead, it builds on it-older, a little bruised, but somehow more alive. Justin Pierre"s voice still wobbles gloriously between a scream and a sigh, only now it carries the weight of experience, not just anxiety. Rather than reinventing themselves, MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK double down on what they"ve always done best: big hooks, bigger feelings, and that perfect tightrope walk between chaos and control. Tracks like "Particle Physics" (with Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy) and "Your Days Are Numbered" (featuring Mat Kerekes of Citizen) channel the kind of clarity that only comes after surviving your own worst years. In a world drowning in lazy nostalgia, The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is a rare and welcome return that feels less like a reunion and more like a long-overdue continuation.

The highly anticipated collaboration from Shawn Lee and Kelly Finnigan ishere. The A-side on this 45, Say It Again, features Kelly on vocals and piano. It's asmooth, soulful tune, pulling references from Bobby Caldwell and FM radio. Shawn says of the track "there has always been a mutual admiration societybetween myself & Kelly. Over the years I've had the pleasure of playing onboth the Monophonics & Kelly's solo records in the studio and live onstage. This is the first I've had Kelly on something that I've put together. Good thingscome to those who wait_and here it is!"The instrumental B, Harpsichord Rock, comes straight out of some sort oflost 1970's Italian movie. Entirely written and recorded by Lee, it's a hypnoticjam with a groove. The mood: funk.

With »Roto«, Derek Piotr revisits the aqueous terrain first explored in his 2016 album »Drono«, where the paradox of water’s stillness and perpetual motion was refracted into looping voices and glitching textures. Conceived as a »spiritual successor« and recorded in 2019, the album has lain dormant for six years before surfacing on Discreet Archive. That stretch of silence seems to have deepened its charge – the sound feels unearthed rather than made, like a whirlpool biding its time in obscurity until now.

Unlike »Drono«’s mosaic of shorter pieces, »Roto« unfurls as two expansive half-hour tracks, allowing Piotr to probe repetition with greater intensity. Vowels accumulate until they shimmer with alien sentience, drones grow dense and psychoacoustic, and the smallest digital artifacts flicker like neural sparks. The result is a work that denies familiarity; recurrence here only breeds strangeness, unspooling into a procession of hidden pulses and altered voices that resist prediction, drawing the listener deeper into a submerged, otherworldly space.

Derek Piotr is a folklorist, researcher and performer whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers practices including fieldwork, vocal performance, preservation and autoethnography; and is primarily concerned with tenderness, fragility, beauty and brutality. He has collaborated with artists including Scott Solter, Nathan Salsburg and Thomas Brinkmann across various disciplines.

He is lead archivist and creative director of the Fieldwork Archive.

Often touted as a "masterpiece of jazz-funk live albums," The Wooden Glass's 1972 live recording proves it's more than just hype. Featuring vibraphonist Billy Wooten who previously played with Grant Green, this record was recorded at Indianapolis' The 19th Hole club and captures the essence of fusion driven by soulful 60s influences. Wooten's gentle melodies contrast with the gritty, distorted sound of Harold Cardwell's powerful drumming and Emmanuel Riggins' Hammond organ while the energetic performance from the band, including guitarist William Roach, creates a tapestry of intensity and dreamlike vibes. It's raw, electrifying, high-energy jazz.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is the first collaborative album from poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos Niño. The album was recorded live underneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024. The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for Williams and Niño, who have been friends since the late 1990s.

Spanish roots singer Marcus I is well known among the reggae community for his masterpieces ‘2000 Years Showcase’ and ‘Jesus Was Black’ or more recent works with producer aDUBta on F-Spot Records and Hornin’s Sounds. Backed by the heavyweight sound of The 18th Parallel, Marcus I delivers a heartfelt anthem for every selector and music devotee who treasures the magic of black wax. A tune dedicated to all vinyl lovers and record collectors worldwide, ‘Wax Box’ is a celebration of the sound system culture. Reggae has been shaped by sound operators and selectors collecting the best and most obscure 45rpm records and revealing the full potential of a tune with heavy bass and crisp trebbles to their audience.

Raff Todesco, one of the founders of Italo Disco, presents his new vinyl produc'on: "Midnight Girl"
and "Heaven," sung by the duo George Aaron and Anita Campagnolo. This marks a magical return
with new sounds and musical structures from the ar'st who made the legendary '80s famous
worldwide.
"Midnight Girl" is a 1985 track by Noe Willer, which was very famous in France. The song was
originally 'tled "Toi, femme publique" before being translated into English as "Midnight Girl" and
arranged in an Italo Disco style by the group Ven Uto. Thus, "Midnight Girl" is an "archaeological"
track that has been appropriately re-envisioned in a modern key by Raff Todesco, George Aaron &
Anita Campagnolo.
On the vinyl's B-side, you'll find a new version of "Heaven," a 2007 track, with modern sounds and
re-sung by George and Anita

Joan Shelley folgt ihrem von der Kritik gefeierten Album ,The Spur" aus dem Jahr 2022 mit ,Real Warmth". Ihr siebtes Album, das in Toronto mit dem Produzenten Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station) aufgenommen wurde, enthält 13 Titel mit zahlreichen Gästen aus der fruchtbaren Musikszene der Stadt (Tamara Lindenman, Doug Paisley). Shelley tourte bereits mit Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin, Wilco und anderen um die Welt. Sie spielte im Lincoln Center, beim Newport Folk Festival, war auf den Covern des Acoustic Guitar Magazine und des Fretboard Journal zu sehen und war zu Gast bei WTF with Marc Maron und Fresh Air.

This new album you hold in your hands, Sleep Circle, is this newly recorded, abridged version of Sleep informed by those concert experiences and focusing on the movements within the composition that are more in the foreground. This way Sleep Circle becomes a hallucinatory 90-minute trip into the hypnagogic state. For Max, the approach offered new insights into his epic composition: “Some of these compositions, such as Dream 11, Moth-like Stars or Non-Eternal, are so rich in their poetic core that I wanted the music to be experienced in a more traditional way. I first wrote a structure for a concert performance. The new version we’ve recorded now is based on these performances, which also means that it has a slightly different architecture. It's like Sleep distilled.”

Leila Gamal’s ‘Abaleeh Abalingi’

At the height of Pan-Arabism, when the United Arab Republic fused Egypt and Syria in a fleeting but bold experiment, a new wave of popular music was emerging—vibrant, infectious, and universally danceable. Among its lesser-known stars was actress Leila Gamal, whose voice—delicate yet rich with longing—embodied the golden era of Egyptian cinema. Born in Alexandria to Syrian roots, Gamal’s vocals were a magnetic blend of sweetness and passion, with a timeless allure that echoed the silver-screen sweethearts of her time.

Abaleeh Abalingi pulses with the hypnotic drive of funky organ riffs, reminiscent of the blind visionary Ammar El Sheriyi, creating a sound both cinematic and undeniably catchy. The delicate lyrics by Khairi Fouad place the track firmly in the lineage of the Middle East’s most iconic pop divas, from Angham to Nawal El-Zoughbi who he subsequently wrote for. This reissue, lovingly remastered, brings this long-lost gem back to life, where it belongs—spinning on turntables, teasing dance floors, and transporting listeners to Egypt in the late sixties.


Adel Osman’s “Oriental Eyes”

Oriental Eyes captures the essence of the 60s Egyptian Franco-Arab movement, blending Western (often jazz) influences with Arabic melodies to mesh mystique with sensuality. Osman’s commanding yet delicate vocals deliver the bilingual lyrics with captivating sincerity, his voice effortlessly gliding over the swells of the arrangement. The trumpet, possibly connecting him to Zaki Osman of Salah Ragab’s legendary Cairo Jazz Band, adds a layer of flair, enriching the track’s Tarantino-esque eclecticism. Now remastered, ‘Oriental Eyes’ is not only a nostalgic gem but a timeless reminder of the boundary-defying spirit that defined the 1960s musical landscape.

Given the ongoing war efforts against Israel, this record wasn’t pressed by Sono Cairo till much later in 1975 once Egypt had recaptured the Sinai and restored national pride. Sono Cairo (Sawt el-Qahira) was the first Arab-owned and by far the largest record label in the Middle East, amassing an unmatched catalogue of music. With exclusive rights over much of Umm Kulthum’s works, Sono Cairo played a crucial role in disseminating the sounds of Arab Nationalism and projecting Egypt’s soft power across the region.

Muhammad Al-Najjar
London, April 2025

credits
Audio restoration and vinyl mastering: Colin Young
Lacquer cut: Timmion cutting lab
Sleeve and label artwork: Grotezk Studio
Under License of Sono Cairo

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of its original release, Robyn returns with a special edition 2-LP vinyl reissue of her iconic 2005 self-titled album. Widely regarded as a pivotal moment in modern pop, this anniversary edition is pressed on a coke bottle-clear vinyl using the artwork from the Record Store Day release in 2005 which was limited to 2k. A must-have for longtime fans and collectors alike, it pays tribute to an album that helped shape the future of pop music.

Aer making everyone dance with "I'm Gonna Dance," Muzic Family Vs. Stylóo is ready to ignite the
dancefloors again with "Sweat," an adrenaline-fueled track that unites the tradi!on of Italo Disco with a
modern pop-dance sound.
At the helm of "Sweat" is Roberto Tura, one of the most influen!al producers in the Italian and
interna!onal dance scene. A key figure of 80s Italo Disco, Tura( has shaped !meless hits for ar!sts like Den
Harrow, Joe Yellow, Albert One, and Stylóo themselves, helping to define the sound of an era that s!ll
makes fans' hearts beat faster all over the world. With "Sweat," Tura( once again proves his ability to
merge the magic of those years with a modern, powerful sound, capable of winning over new genera!ons of
listeners and ge(ng everyone dancing.
By his side is Silvio Melloni, a top-level musician and arranger, who is now part of the historic band Ma"a
Bazar. Melloni brings his experience and musical sophis!ca!on to the project, cura!ng arrangements rich in
detail and nuance, where every element is calibrated to maximize the emo!onal and rhythmic impact of the
track. His ar!s!c sensi!vity perfectly matches Tura('s energy, crea!ng a winning combina!on of technique,
passion, and crea!vity.
The release of "Sweat" doesn't stop at the original version: two exclusive remixes are included to enrich the
project, promising to make the track explode on the most demanding dancefloors.
 Italoconnec"on Remix – The duo formed by Fred Ventura and Paolo Gozze( (aka Italoconnec!on)
transforms "Sweat" with their characteris!c touch: sonic elegance, pulsa!ng energy, and a refined
sound that blends dance-pop rhythms with the vibrant nostalgia of Italo Disco. It's an interpreta!on
that leaves no room for rest and pushes you to listen and move.
 A.P. Mono Remix – A.P. Mono infuses an 80s-flavored electro-disco soul: funk syncopa!on,
enveloping synths, and an irresis!ble groove. His reinterpreta!on turns the track into a true
energe!c vortex, perfect for making anyone who dances to it sweat.

Percussive P (who has previously released on the label with FR037 & our remix on THCFR001) is a top quality producer who I wish had more music/releases out there. I used to play a tune of his called "Gunsmith" a lot in sets, as well as a lot of his collabs with Kid Lib which I was a big fan of. I'd previously collaborated with him on a tune for Dublinquents a few years ago and I was quite keen on doing a new collaboration with him for Meeting Of The Minds, so he sent me some tracks he had started, I picked my favourite to work on and that led to "Impatience".

Fluid Haunts is a solid producer who I was familiar with, but it wasn't until his music was drilled into my head by Dwarde who was playing a few select tunes from him in every single b2b set we had together, that I started to really appreciate his skills. Dwarde would play "Not Your Ordinary Love Song" without fail, in any given moment and time, and it would always get a great reaction from the crowd, so I had to get in touch to see if he'd be up for working with me & thankfully he was! We ended up making "Pineapple Soup" together & I can't remember why it's called that, I think he named the tune ????

Hobzee is one half of Silent Dust (him & Zyon Base) & I used to chat regularly with him and trade music with him on AOL Instant Messenger (showing my age here!) a long while back. He got back in touch with me about wanting to work on music together and he had an early version of "Sunspots" done. It was very promising sounding so I was quite keen to get involved with him on it and I'm grateful that I was able to get him on Future Retro London after many many years of IM chats!

Usually, I limit my collaborations on Meeting Of The Minds to producers that are fairly established and already somewhat known to other people, but for those who don't know who Eff is, she is a potentially familiar face to anyone who has attended a Future Retro London event, as she has been on the door for every single one. One day after a Distant Planet event in Bristol, she mentioned to me that she had an idea for a track inspired by a PFM tune and she already had the title in mind for it, which is "Wavebreak". I was curious about how this would sound in reality, so we met up to work on the tune & she said it was pretty much like how she had envisioned it & I liked how it sounded, so I thought it would be worth putting out on a future Meeting Of The Minds release, which ended up being this one.

Big up to all the artists involved on this edition of Meeting Of The Minds, it's quite a long and arduous task putting together each one, which is why there was such a gap between Vol. 9 & 10 and Vol. 11 & 12. I plan on getting the series back into something more regularly occurring, so hopefully I can actually stick to that plan!

Indie exclusive Peak Edition on Orange & Black Swirl Vinyl, in a gatefold cover + poster.



It's spring of 2023 in the North Carolina Piedmont, and songwriter and singer M.C. Taylor - leader of the band Hiss Golden Messenger - is feeling alive. Joyful. Eternal, he might say. For the Grammy-nominated musician, whose albums have traced an internal path through adulthood, fatherhood, spirituality, and depression for well over a decade, this is something new. "The tunes on Jump for Joy were composed in free moments throughout 2022, a year during which Hiss was on the road more or less constantly," explains Taylor. "And perhaps because the post-pandemic energy out in the world felt so chaotic and uncertain, I found myself thinking a lot about the role that music has played in my life and how exactly I ended up in the rarefied position of leading a band and crew all over the globe through dingy graffiti-scrawled green rooms, venerated music halls, dust-blown roadside motels.

Sometimes playing in front of 5,000; sometimes 200. Sleeping sitting up. Laughing until my stomach hurts. Not being able to fall asleep at 3 a.m. in some anonymous bed because my mind is spinning with anxiety or depression or adrenaline, or because my ears are still ringing. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, then robbing Paul to pay Peter back. Over and over again. It's an outlaw life but one, I'm coming to realize, that makes me happy." The songs that make up Jump for Joy - the sharpest and most autobiographical that Taylor has written under the Hiss name - read as a sort of epistolary, postcards between the present-day songwriter and his alias Michael Crow, a teenaged dreamer very much like Taylor himself, who trips his way through the 14 tunes that make up the record. In this way, Jump for Joy is a meditation on a life lived with art, and the ways that our hopes and dreams and decisions bump up against_ and, with a little bit of luck, occasionally merge with real life. "Creating this character became the way that I could explore these vulnerable, tender moments that were so decisive in my life, even if I didn't know it at the time," explains Taylor.

Produced by Taylor and engineered by longtime Hiss compatriot Scott Hirsch over two weeks in the late fall of 2022 at the fabled Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo, TX, just a short walk from the Mexican border, Jump for Joy dances with joyful, spontaneous energy that feels like a fresh chapter in the Hiss Golden Messenger oeuvre. Taylor is accompanied throughout the album by his crack live band: guitarist Chris Boerner, bassist Alex Bingham, keyboardist Sam Fribush, and drummer Nick Falk, a collection of musicians that have helped make Hiss Golden Messenger's live performances legendary affairs

*Limited to 500 copies.*

For the first time ever, this incredible 1974 recording by Joe Truss and composer Michael Kamen (who would go on to score Hollywood blockbusters like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and Robin Hood) is getting the proper release it always deserved.

Nearly all original copies were destroyed by the pressing plant after being pressed at the wrong speed. A second run of just around 50 copies was quietly made — and then it vanished into obscurity. Until now.

Psychedelia collides with deep grooves in an explosion of creative madness.
One of the rarest records to come out of the Caribbean, finally reissued for the world to hear.

The B-side? An unreleased funk track, salvaged from a reel containing the soundtrack of a never-released film — a forgotten gem brought back to life.

To mark the occasion and do this release justice, Lava On Wax is proud to present this as a 7” with a full picture sleeve, featuring beautiful artwork by Hamraz Bayan.

Prepare to be blown away by this psychedelic funk trip — full of raw drum breaks and brain-melting synths.

Special thanks to Guts for the support, Joe Truss for believing in the project and granting the license, and to Hamraz Bayan for blessing the cover with her unique art.

The highly anticipated collaboration from Shawn Lee and Kelly Finnigan ishere. The A-side on this 45, Say It Again, features Kelly on vocals and piano. It's asmooth, soulful tune, pulling references from Bobby Caldwell and FM radio. Shawn says of the track "there has always been a mutual admiration societybetween myself & Kelly. Over the years I've had the pleasure of playing onboth the Monophonics & Kelly's solo records in the studio and live onstage. This is the first I've had Kelly on something that I've put together. Good thingscome to those who wait_and here it is!"The instrumental B, Harpsichord Rock, comes straight out of some sort oflost 1970's Italian movie. Entirely written and recorded by Lee, it's a hypnoticjam with a groove. The mood: funk.

Welshman Earl Jeffers, who you may know as Cheesus, has lined up a couple of gems for the Melange label in the early part of this year. This addition to the archives is disco-inspired trip aimed squarely at the floor. 'Jump' kicks off with hulking great kicks, raw chords and twanging guitars that are full of life and soul. 'Intergalactic Jam' is another no-nonsense cut, this time with more low-slung drums, wet hand claps and withering sci-fi synths all providing a foundation for big chord vamps and even bigger vocals.

Ten City is universally known as one of the foundational House Music artists who helped to preach the gospel of House from Chicago out to the world during the genre’s formative years in the late 80’s. Remarkably Ten City is still recording and performing, with the voice and face of Ten City Byron Stingily delivering classic songs like “That’s The Way Love Is,” “Devotion” and “Right Back To You” to adoring fans from multiple generations around the world.

Throughout his career, Byron has always had a keen sense of where House Music is going both on a musical and cultural level, and the role Ten City could play to stay at the forefront. He saw that now in the year 2025 the time was right to collaborate with a new generation producer who could “walk the walk” in terms of knowing how to utilize to the fullest the multiple emerging production techniques making House Music dancefloors jump. At the same time, whomever he worked with to create a new Ten City album had to be so well versed and respectful of the group’s legacy that they would not stray too far from what the original songs and albums were all about.

He found his man in another Chicago native DJ Emmaculate, who is well known among house music fans as one of the most talented writer / producer / DJs in the genre.

For the new album on Nervous Records, appropriately entitled “The Next Generation,” Byron and Emmaculate have expanded the Ten City sound both musically and in terms of vocal contributors. While “Voice Of House Music” Byron Stingily still delivers slam-dunk hits with his inimitable style, the album also includes supreme vocal contributions from Mon’Aerie, Uneq’ka, DRAMA D. Lylez, and a rap delivery from OVEOUS.

This Double Pack vinyl consisting of 8 songs with a custom jacket is a priceless and must-have addition to anyone and everyone who is a fan of the house music genre.

When NYC-based experimental dance punks Guerilla Toss, active since 2011, were in Vermont recording their new full-length album You're Weird Now, frontwoman Kassie Carlson would prepare what she called 'punk lunch': a communal meal made by raiding the studio fridge for whatever was left and assembling a sandwich from the most random ingredients imaginable. Regularly joining punk lunch were two legends from their own corners of the weird music world: Stephen Malkmus (Pavement, The Jicks) and Trey Anastasio, Phish guitarist and owner of The Barn; the recording studio where Guerilla Toss were making You're Weird Now, with Malkmus in the producer's seat. Engineer Bryce Goggin, who has worked with Malkmus since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and Ben Collette, Phish's longtime engineer at The Barn, were also part of the crew. While the idea of the guy from Phish and the guy from Pavement sitting around with Guerilla Toss, congenially assembling sandwiches from random foodstuffs dug up from the depths of a studio fridge, might seem absurd, it also makes total sense. Because really, if there's any band that serves as the natural bridge between slacker punks who saw Pavement way before you did, wild-eyed wooks who've seen Phish more times than you ever will, and even the eccentrics in '90s drip following former GT tourmates Primus-it's Guerilla Toss. A band so imaginative and unapologetically themselves, they're basically the real-life manifestation of a utopian, post-snob world where all musical ideas are worthy of expression and everyone is welcome. You're Weird Now powers this message. Guerilla Toss' fifth album and second for Sub Pop is a hugely creative and joyful statement about the joy of creativity. With You're Weird Now Guerilla Toss reclaim the word "weird" for everyone brave enough to let their freak flag fly and stay true to their artistic vision no matter what-a way riskier act than it's ever given credit for, and one that requires a certain amount of serene self-confidence that it takes time and effort to cultivate and sustain. And they do so with the enthusiastic support of their musical predecessors: a standout moment arrives with "Red Flag to Angry Bull," which builds to a campfire sing-along-worthy outro featuring Malkmus and Carlson duetting over a chatty, classically Phish-y (there's really no better word for it) solo from Anastasio. The band hopes the message of You're Weird Now will resonate not only with music heads but anyone who struggles with feeling weird in a world where it will always be hard to be different. At the end of the day, it's all about the spirit of punk lunch: there's room for everyone because music is for everyone. "Everyone loves and appreciates music," says Carlson. "If you don't like music, you're kind of an asshole." That's not weird-that's just true.

Limited first pressing on silver vinyl. Flying Horseman returns with their first new album in five years. Experience their renewed but signature sound with a fresh line-up.



Flying Horseman is back! After a five year hiatus and with a new line-up, the band is ready to once again captivate headphone junkies and live audiences alike with Anaesthesia, their seventh album. It's an urgent and passionate work of intelligent rock'n roll, hazy psychedelia and cosmic folk. Anaesthesia is brooding, angry and dark but at the same time full of life, wonder and sophistication. It's an invigorating, fascinating, electric brew.



Flying Horseman is still centered around the intensely personal song writing, singing and guitar playing of Bert Dockx. The band's line-up has changed,with Louis Evrard (Pruillip, Ottla, Grid Ravage) and Maximilian Dobbertin (Calicos, Frankie Fame) replacing drummer Alfredo Bravo and bassist Mattias Cré. Bravo and Cré were long-standing members, beloved by fans and fellow musicians alike, and they have played an important part in establishing Flying Horseman's musical identity. Today Evrard and Dobbertin are adding a fresh and personal twist to the idiosyncratic sound of Flying Horseman: their groove, their intuition and sensibility, their soul.



Then there's Loesje and Martha Maieu, who have been part of the group for almost as long as its frontman has, and who offer essential ingredients to bring about Flying Horseman's signature flavour, their haunting vocals and atmospheric electronics contrasting beautifully with Dockx' more earthy vocal delivery and his restless, fiery plucking of the guitar strings.



The whole record is fiery, alternately smouldering and violently burning. These are musical sounds capable of setting the listener's heart and mind ablaze. Anaesthesia is very consciously, a political record born out of Dockx and his friends' bafflement at the state of the world, the new rise of fascism, the onslaught of injustice, barbarism and stupidity which we, inhabitants of planet earth, are witnessing day in day out.



How to guard one's sanity in such a crazy world? How to maintain one's dignity? How to feel useful and joyful when surrounded by confusion and hate? These are the questions Flying Horseman is struggling with, as are so many of us today. But there is joy and purpose in the asking; in the struggling; in staying critical of dominant systems of oppression; in thinking or saying: "I don't agree, this is not how it's supposed to be"; in coming together and connecting, sharing, mourning and dreaming. Joy and purpose; questions and confusion; burning hearts and tarnished dreams: it's allhere, in the transportive sound world of Flying Horseman.



Anaesthesia was recorded in Antwerp by Joris Caluwaerts (keyboardist of the inimitable avant-jazz group .STUFF) and mixed by Yves De Mey (one of Belgium's most prominent & avant-garde electronic wizards), two experienced collaborators who know a thing or two about capturing sound and transforming it into a rewarding listening experience. With their help, Flying Horseman has crafted a tight collection of eight art-rock tunes with a clear identity, a rich sound, an original vision and a joyful purpose in the face of encroaching sinister forces.

Drawing power from dark hypnotics, BEC lands on Intrepid Skin with the dizzying Dawn of a New Dimension EP.

As a beloved DJ and owner of the EMBARGO imprint, BEC's aesthetic has been honed over years spent immersed in sound. A meticulous producer who has worked with industry giants such as Roland and Novation, her tracks carry a delicate equilibrium of sonic qualities built on high pressure drums and weighty basslines.

Title track opener sets the tone without hesitation, diving straight into bouncy hard techno drums that never let go whilst frantic alarms and trippy vocal cuts swirl above. 'In Motion' leans further into the harmonic aspects of BEC's sound, driven by an immersive melody over sparse percussion. Fragments of electro linger within 'No Longer My Amore', a melancholic spin through emotive vocals and vast sonic layering. Closing track 'Who Said Rich Means Money' takes us back to the warehouse with a storm of heavy drums and ricocheting glitches.

Brandishing expertly layered sonic tapestries, BEC explores a range of emotional resonances, each geared towards tapping into the most intense dancefloor moments.

Transparent green vinyl. After an uncomfortably long five-year hiatus-likely spent arguing about time signatures, chord progressions, and who forgot to bring snacks to rehearsals-Glutton is finally back. The beloved (by at least a few people) trio is ready to unleash their questionable wisdom upon an unsuspecting world with their upcoming album: "Skiva heter Vishnu!" On their latest outing, Glutton boldly ditches vocals (likely realizing that nobody was really listening to their lyrics anyway) and commits fully to an instrumental format. This time around, it's only guitar, bass, and drums-because who needs keyboards or vocalists when you have enough distortion pedals and élan? Guitarist Eirik Orevik Aadland (Spurv), bassist Ola Mile Bruland (Actionfredag, Jordsjo), and drummer Jonas Eide Hollund (Mt. Mélodie) clearly didn't bother to consider commercial viability while crafting this sonic oddity, delivering tracks like "Hallux Valgus," "Orkensur," and "Rematusenogennatt" with absurd seriousness and delightfully misplaced confidence. Expect a reckless fusion of punk attitude, jazz complexity, and prog rock pretentiousness, presented with complete sincerity and zero self-awareness (well, almost zero). Each track is carefully constructed to give the illusion of a band deeply serious about their art, while simultaneously admitting that they may have no idea what they're doing. Whether you're a sophisticated music connoisseur with an ear for complexity, or just someone who enjoys pretending to appreciate weird music, Glutton's latest record promises to be precisely the type of organized hotchpotch you didn't realize your life was lacking. "Skiva heter Vishnu!" - because of course it does.

*Long overdue reissue of the first album by The Hanging Stars to coincide with their tour support slot with Edwyn Collins – initial 300 copies come with 12 x 12 print*

“In late-Sixties California, the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers combined traditional country music with hippy rock to great success. The influence lingered and whatever cultural relevance it has this is a delightful, transporting listen” – The Times 4/5

London-based psych-folk outfit The Hanging Stars re-release their much-loved debut album Over the Silvery Lake on Crimson Crow. Blending folk pastoralism with swampy 60s Americana, they sound like the missing link between the California desert sun and the grey skies of London Town. The album was recorded between LA, Nashville and Walthamstow, with each of these vastly different places leaving an indelible mark on the songs.

Now signed to the Loose Records label and fronted by London-based songwriter, singer and guitarist Richard Olson (The See See, Eighteenth Day of May), The Hanging Stars are essentially a loose collective of people who weave together a blissed-out psychedelic tapestry. The rest of the core band is made up of Sam Ferman on bass and Paulie Cobra on drums, Horse on pedal steel and Patrick Ralla on banjo, guitar. They jam rather than write and hang out rather than rehearse, harnessing a kind of tipsy euphoria resplendent with luscious arrangements and glorious vocal harmonies.

During 2015, prior to this album’s original release the band released two critically acclaimed singles via The Great Pop Supplement (both of which also appear on the album). “Golden Vanity” was premiered by The Line of Best Fit who said; “you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd just unearthed a rare deep cut from the late 60s/early 70s boom of psychedelia infused Americana” and “The House on The Hill” was described by The Guardian as; "a hazy, desert-dream of a song, nicely sharpened with steely-eyed guitars, Mersey-laced harmonies and just a whiff of the Gun Club”.

There are a number of allusions to nature and the weather on the album, borne in part out of the contrasting surroundings in which it was produced. The band’s fascination with Americana led them to record some of the material Stateside, laying down some of the parts at Battle Tapes Studios in Nashville (Lambchop, Paperhead), as well as at Vision Quest Studios in Los Angeles with Rob Campanella. His work with The Quarter After, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beachwood Sparks The Tyde, and GospelbeacH was a perfect match to capture their sound and they even had San Franciscan legend Chrystof Certik step in on lead guitar for a couple of tracks.

Following the LA recordings, a trip to the Californian desert provided the core notion of what they wanted to produce - a shard of light that they clung on to whilst recording the rest of the album in the significantly more rain-soaked atmosphere of Walthamstow, London, under the watchful eye of Brian O'Shaughnessy at Bark Studios (The Clientele, Comet Gain). As the band explained at the time: “Ultimately we hope you can hear both the sand and the rain in this record.”

The Hanging Stars place themselves firmly as part of a long folk tradition encompassing European and North American influences – as a continuation rather than a pastiche of these styles. This is the sound of a band really coming in to their own, fully formed and in no doubt of their vision. With Over the Silvery Lake they succeeded in producing a record, which has the country, blues and folk traditions at its heart.

Black Truffle is thrilled to present the first ever solo Donso n’goni recording from octogenarian Swedish multi-instrumentalist Christer Bothén. Active in the Swedish jazz and improvisation scene since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet, Bothén travelled to Mali in 1971, eventually making his way to the Wassoulou region in the country’s south where he encountered the Donso n’goni, the sacred harp of the hunter caste of Wassoulou society. Though playing the instrument has traditionally been restricted to those who belong to the hunters’ brotherhood, Bothén found an enthusiastic teacher in Brouema Dobia, who, after many months of intensive one-on-one lessons, gave Bothén his blessing to play the instrument both traditionally and in his own style. Returning to Sweden, he would go on to pass on what he had learned to Don Cherry and play the Donso n’goni in a wide variety of inventive settings, including the driving Afro-jazz-fusion of his Trancedance (reissued as BT118).

The seven pieces of Christer Bothén Donso n’goni offer up a stunning showcase of Bothén’s work on this remarkable instrument, heard entirely unaccompanied, except for the final piece where he is joined on a second Donso n’goni by his student and collaborator, the virtuoso bassist Kansan/Torbjorn Zetterberg, and Marianne N’Lemvo Linden on the metal Karanjang scraper. Recorded in three sessions in Stockholm between 2019 and 2023 in richly detailed high fidelity, the instrument’s buzzing, sonorous bass strings make an immediate, overwhelming sonic impression. Hyper-focused on hypnotically repeating pentatonic patterns, the seven pieces are at once relentlessly single-minded and endlessly rich in subtle variations. The concentrated listening environment turns small details, such as the deployment of the instrument’s segesege rattle on two of the pieces, into major events. Six of the seven pieces are traditional, with Bothén contributing the remaining ‘La Baraka’, but the line between tradition and the individual talent is imaginary here: as Bothén explained in a recent interview with The Wire’s Clive Bell, ‘I play traditional and untraditional, and I play the music forward and backward’. While the traditional Wassoulou pieces provide the rhythmic and harmonic elements, Bothén’s individuality as a performer is alive in every moment, felt acutely in boundless variations of attack, improvisational flourishes, and unexpected accelerations and decelerations. Captured entirely live and bristling with spontaneity, this music is undeniably the product of almost half a decade of Bothén’s devotion to the Donso n’goni and its traditional music.

Accompanied by detailed new liner notes by Bothén and stunning colour photos from his time in Mali, Christer Bothén Donso n’goni is a stunning document of a remarkable instrument, played with an almost spiritual intensity by one of contemporary music’s great explorers.

Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."

Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."

Angel Bat Dawid's International Anthem debut The Oracle introduced her multifaceted voice to the world. The response to its modest, initial cassette/digital release in January of 2019 was immediate, and immense. Within a month of its announcement, Dawid was being featured on magazine covers and receiving offers from international festivals; and her subsequent activity marked the beginning of an epic run of creative output (including 2020's LIVE double LP, the same year's EP Transition East, 2021's Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology, and the sprawling opus Requiem for Jazz, released in 2023) that continues through the present.

The collection of compositions on The Oracle present a deep blend of powerful and emotive songs alongside heavy and free improvisation. In true DIY fashion, Dawid recorded and mixed the album using only her cell phone.

"Angel's fieldnote approach affirms that the everyday remains a legitimate site of creative production," says South Africa based percussionist, collaborator, and IARC labelmate Asher Gamedze in his liner notes for the album's IA11 Edition. Gamedze - the only other musician to appear on The Oracle besides Dawid, who constructed most of the album's tracks by layering, overdubbing, and arranging lo-fi symphonies of her own voice, wind instruments, percussions, and keyboards - waxes extensively about Dawid's significance in his notes, calling her "a living exemplar and extension of the spacious sonic horizons opened by the likes of the AACM and their refusal of any limitations on their creative vision and the destruction of the demarcation between composer and improviser."
"...a masterpiece, rich with dense improvisation and Afrocentric themes." - Suraya Mohamed, NPR

Star Feminine Band, hardest working women in Beninese show business, are releasing their third album on Born Bad, who went all out for their first. Some get malaria at the sight of that sticky world label : rest assured, the world is all they deserve after nine years of hard work. These eight young women, from a village that even Beninese can't quite place, started out in hard mode.

They had to convince themselves that it was worth a shot, but also their family, their village and an entire continent.

André Balaguemon, composer, manager and lyricist, does a lot, while remaining in the background. He put the group together, included his three daughters, houses everyone with his wife Edwige who also manages dances and costumes. He gave them a musical training, and created the framework for them to continue school while rehearsing hard. From local heroes to UNICEF ambassadors, the group has made it. The very existence of this new album is a testament to the perseverance of Grâce, Anne, Urrice, Bénie, Angélique, Sandrine, Julienne and Ashley. The personnel of this family affair has changed a bit : two new women have joined the group, which conquered bigger stages (Glastonbury in the summer, the X-mas BBC special).



This new album brings simple joys : watching them grow from Benin's first girl band to a band in its own right. And never forgetting why they took to the stage in the first place. Star Feminine Band makes straightforward music, taking no detours to express what's missing in the country. When Grâce advocates for kids getting a chance to get to school it's because there's nothing else more important to say that day. Teachers, don’t leave the kids alone, after all.



As they said on their first album, « music is our job », let them be that : musicians having a lot of fun on this album. It wanders through the vast territory of the countless West African styles. They even make a quick foray into reggae to talk about marriage (with a little rap thrown in), and interweave their voices in multiple languages (Waama, Ditamari, Bariba, Fon, Yoruba). And boy do they have hits. To each is own, but “L'enfant c'est un don de Dieu » (Child is god’s gift) is a mighty steamroller, methodically smoothing out the ground for dancing together to its final chorus, singing « debout-les-en-fants / get up, kids ! » along.



Smoother than the first two albums, supported by fine arrangements, ambitious keyboard parts and more complex vocal harmonies without losing any of their spontaneity, this third opus quietly adds to Benin's musical heritage. As they make clear in « Jusqu'au bout du monde », clever little number that we can already hear swelling up on stage: « oui, c’est Star Feminine Band qui a gagné - o / Star Feminine Band won».

Matt Watts (1987–2024) was born in Philadelphia, in the USA. He recorded his first songs along the banks of the Missouri River in Montana when he was 15, touring the north-western states extensively as a young troubadour. He arrived in Belgium at the tender age of 19 and grew into a full-fledged singer-songwriter that combines a profound respect for the folk tradition with contemporary influences.

His solo album, Songs from a Window, was released in 2014 by Starman Records and received glowing praise in the press.

Matt Watts played dozens upon dozens of shows in the Benelux, often together with Stef Kamil Carlens and Nicolas Rombouts. While his predecessor Songs from a Window was a true solo album, How Different It Was When You Were There includes personal stories by Watts that have been subtly seasoned with wonderful musicians such as Nathalie Delcroix, Bjorn Eriksson, Geert Hellings (Stanton, Guido Belcanto), Maarten Moesen (Guido Belcanto), and bassist and this album’s producer, Nicolas Rombouts (formerly with Dez Mona, Stef Kamil Carlens, The Colorist, Guido Belcanto, and many others).

One of the highlights of this album, which truly showcases Matt Watts’ awakening, is “Many a Friend Too Kind”: a fabulous duet with Stef Kamil Carlens. Watts also performed in Zita Swoon Group’s production, The Ballad of Erol Klof. Sadly, Matt Watts passed away in June 2024.

MORE QUOTES

“Watts, who washed up in Belgium, sings his personal, poetic lyrics in a high, whispering voice that immediately brings Nick Drake to mind.” 4/5 **** (De Standaard)

‘This is an album full of sincere sentiment and stimulating, evocative stories in fine songs that have been beautifully coloured by Watts and his band, and on which he brings the narrative aspect to the fore more than ever.’ (daMusic)

‘Sensitive songwriter, exceptional storyteller... Introverted, dark, more country, less Nick Drake.’ (OOR)

‘This is real, raw, authentic. Well done, Matt, very well done.’ (Keys And Chords)

‘And no matter how young Matt Watts may be, the singer/musician writes timeless songs reminiscent of those by David Blue and John Martyn...’ (Rootstime)

‘Matt knows how to strike that chord in the same way as Cohen, which immediately moves you. From the beginning to the end of this record.’ (Gigview)

‘A singer-songwriter who believes in simplicity (not a note too many), but grabs you by the scruff of the neck from the start and confronts you with the painful beauty of romance.’ (Luminous Dash)

‘Let's be honest here: Belgium has simply become too small for an album like “How Different It Was When You Were There”. Song material of this calibre deserves a much, much wider audience!’ 4.5***** (ctrl.alt.country)

Brooklyn-based artists Leslie Graves and Toby Goodshank have joined creative forces on their album Between Worlds (BB*ISLAND), Toby Goodshank (The Moldy Peaches, The Pizza Underground) of the OG New York Antifolk scene, is known for his precise and acrobatic vocals over nuanced acoustic guitar in songs that have been described as "a zesty thumb of the nose at domesticated bullshit." (Myles Manley) Leslie Graves (GOLD, Endless Arrows) is a performing songwriter and recording artist who takes folk subgenres into evocative and intriguing directions, including "sounding like something you could hear Donna Hayward dancing to at the Bang Bang Bar." (Ronan Conroy, "Hidden In the Days" album review) Her voice has been described as "darkwave-meets-folk" with comparisons to Lana Del Rey, Cat Powers, Mazzy Star and Julee Cruise. Acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies make up the core of their music. a slightly psychedelic, at times dream pop-like folkrock. It just draws from a variety of folk and rock. You might hear hints of Sybil Baer, Judee Sill, REM, Linda Perhacs, and Jessica Pratt, but the intersection of Toby and Leslie is truly a place of its own, warm and enchanting, or perhaps a glimmer from the spaces in between worlds. Many instrumental threads are interwoven throughout with the invaluable skills of Jake Nicoll (The Burning Hell) who lovingly engineered and embellished the recordings. Ariel Sharrat of The Burning Hell assisted him and is also featured on saxophone or bass or on some songs here. Speaking to their process, Leslie writes, "Toby is great at composing song structures quickly. It was fun to feel into the emotion of the chords and write from there. The process was like chiseling away at a stone to reveal the sculpture underneath. I like when songs come like that - when it feels that they are teaching us as they are revealed."

Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer embraces the search for quiet miracles on first full-length LP Translations.

In 2023, Realf Heygate - who makes music as Flaer - released his debut mini-album Preludes, composed on his mother’s piano and his childhood cello.Returning to ODDA for his debut full-length album, Heygate is now looking in another direction. A record that embraces transition and movement, Translations is in many ways more internal, less rooted to a single place and reflective of the process of laying new foundations in Cornwall.

Like Preludes, Translations is coloured with found sounds and field recordings, from the starlings which can be heard singing through the open window of his studio, to the brittle recordings of his mother, who was a linguist, learning Spanish on a set of language tapes. In both cases, Heygate embraced the translations and memories inherent to the sounds.

“When I digitised my mother’s tapes, they warped and stuttered in a very similar way to the starling’s song,” he explains. “They had this uncanny rhythm and pulse that I couldn’t quite decode, but was saying something." These decayed transmissions hint at loss, resisting clarity in favour of the ineffable.

Translations is also a record of ambiguities and in-betweens, suggested by the double meaning of the album’s opening track ‘Entre’. At once intricate and expansive, threaded with birdsong and acoustic guitar motifs, this and ‘Starling Descends’ (a reference to Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’) act as a bridge away from the pastoral themes of Preludes towards a more assertive sound. At times intimate in its textured instrumentation and at others more overtly grand in orchestration, reflecting awider palette of influences.

“Flaer began in many ways when I picked up my mother’s instruments, seeking a form of reconnection. Where words evaded me, they became the tools through which I found a language for grief – and above all, for love.”

Recorded between 2023 and 2025 – what Heygate calls “A gradual process of sowing and harvesting ideas rather than a single intense creative period” - each track follows a rhythm similar to the small maquettes and sculptures he has been working on in his visual practice, whereby structures and melodies form intuitively in moments that are as rare as they are fleeting.

“It's that feeling of searching that I really enjoy,” Heygate continues. “I never know what the destination of the composition is going to be, and I never really find what it is."

Translations is released on limited edition off-white vinyl LP (500 copies worldwide) with one of five signed and numbered handmade risograph prints. It's also available as standard black vinyl LP and digitally.