Mutual Rytm's Versus sub-label returns with a dark, absorbing new EP from contemporary techno innovators Kameliia and BLANKA. Kameliia and BLANKA both previously appeared on Federation of Rytm IV and now step forward with their long-awaited debut EPs. It is another standout for Mutual Rytm's Versus series, which has already made an impact with two previous EPs from Regent and Chontane and Klint and Hemka. This third release subtly evolves the sound into more hypnotic and atmospheric worlds that bring fresh perspectives to the series. Bulgarian-born, Norway-based Kameliia’s music is rooted in cinematic, melancholic and hypnotic sounds. She translates deep emotions into immersive sonic landscapes inspired by nature, particularly the moon, the sky and their atmospheric qualities. Along with Berlin-based Spaniard BLANKA, she has released on labels such as SK_Eleven, while BLANKA also co-founded Room Trax and draws heavily on the human voice, which she considers one of the most personal and intimate instruments. She uses it to create an emotional, direct connection with the dance floor, with a clean, minimal, timeless style rich in emotion. Kameliia opens up with the weighty kicks and eerie atmospheres of 'Bird In A Cage' before 'Red Sky' layers taut kicks and icy synths into a hypnotic forward charge full of depth and darkness, then 'Lightness' has an unsettling and paranoid lead hanging in the air next to vocal fragments and haunting pads. BLANKA’s offering begins with tightly wound kicks and bass on the dubby 'Say It With Me'; 'Self Pleasure' is an immersive and rubbery rhythm with cosmic synth work, and 'Rabbit Habits' brings funky synth lines that radiate a sense of subtle light and hope amidst the darkness of the groove. Two digital bonus cuts from each artist follow: Kameliia's unsettling, dystopian soundscape 'No Longer A Desire' and the backlit suspense of 'Vivere', and BLANKA's gritty, loopy 'Dream VST' and the deep-space odyssey that is 'Gone For Good'.
Cosmic Voodoo is an immersive musical experience that combines the best of cosmic disco with the pulsating energy of contemporary electronica. Through alternating synthesizers and acoustic instruments, this project presents an irresistible arsenal of sounds.
This is the third volume of four that will create a unique graphic work created by the famous Aldo Drudi.
Written and produced by Daniele Baldelli, undisputed master of cosmic-disco, and Mattia “Matta” Dallara, sound explorer and producer of Cosmic Temple, this EP is a journey that evokes dreamy and nostalgic atmospheres, perfectly in line with disco roots.
The tracks unfold between enveloping grooves, spacey synthesizers and rhythms that pay homage to the 1980s, generating a sound that is both classic and innovative. An electronic tribal ritual, a dancing spell that can transport the listener to a parallel universe full of psychedelic sounds and magnetic beats.
Ideal for those who like to lose themselves in the depths of sound and be guided by vibrations that oscillate between past and future.
Following on from the highly anticipated Rebirth 20 anniversary project, Rebirth return with the first of two limited-edition bonus 12"s, digging deeper into the label’s catalogue with four killer remixes and previously overlooked gems.
Kicking things off with Leon Feat. Corrina Joseph – I Follow You (Darryl Baalki Remix), a soulful and deeply grooving house cut with Corrina Joseph’s beautiful vocals riding over a warm, hypnotic groove. Darryl Baalki adds his signature touch, making this one a serious late-night house weapon.
Next up is Gianluca Pegoiani Feat. Ann Saunderson – Numero 5 (Rough Ride) (Nick Holder Trackheadz Remix). Nick Holder’s Trackheadz take the original into deeper territory, delivering a classy, rolling slice of deep house with that unmistakable Detroit/Chicago-inspired feel.
On the flip we have Mata Jones & Mikey V – Funky (Elado Remix), bringing a more energetic and playful edge to proceedings with a seriously infectious groove, chunky drums and plenty of dancefloor funk.
Finishing off the EP is Psycho Radio Vs LC Anderson – Bad Reputation (Red Axes Remix). Red Axes work their magic on this one, twisting it into a dark, psychedelic indie-dance workout packed with attitude and hypnotic momentum.
Another essential selection from Rebirth as they continue celebrating 20 years of the label with some seriously choice cuts.
Pablo Sánchez´s new solo album “Archipiélago” is out now. The new long player, a follow-up to his “Nocturnal” album as Basic Need will be released on Sisternoise Records and is a 42 minute voyage sailing through uncharted waters.
Every archipelago is a constellation of islands, distinct yet bound by invisible tides. Archipiélago, the latest work from Pablo Sánchez, follows this same geography of sound and memory. Its islands are not of sand and rock, but of places which inspired the artist throughout his life; Buenos Aires, Caracas, Puerto Rico, New York, Madrid, Berlin, and Barcelona. Each city has left a trace, a shoreline carved into Sánchez’s musical journey and left a distinctive musical mark.
The ten songs gathered here are like sovereign entities, each with its own character, its own rhythm, its own language. Together they form a single territory, a map drawn by musical experience, longing, and imagination. They are ports of call, but also fragments of a larger voyage, where tradition and experimentation, nostalgia and discovery, coexist to create a common territory. Along the way guest magicians Animal Feelings and Salomeya add their vocal sparks to the voyage.
Archipiélago is not a destination but a map of crossings, a territory of sound where the journey itself becomes home.
After a long wait, Metroplane is finally bringing their original 2019 club anthem ‘Be Where I Am’ to vinyl for the first time. Featuring Daniel Wilson's powerful vocal performance, the track slowly but surely made it into everyone’s set thanks to its timeless delivery and production.
On the B-Side US electronic pioneer Morgan Geist brings his signature touch to the original. Best known for his for pioneer work as half of Metro Area, Geist is also the man behind Storm Queen and the UK Number 1 ‘Look Right Through'.
Decoder arrives on Toca with "Vaanavil", his first solo outing on the label. This EP carries a more refined, emotionally driven approach from previous works while maintaining a simple, clear motif throughout the 4 tracks. Vaanavil translates to "Rainbow" in Tamil, which is reflected deeply throughout the release: colorful, explosive, and melodic moments that capture the spectrum of light, and just in time for the upcoming summer months :D
House of Groove presents Marc Cotterell’s “Connection”*, now pressed on a limited edition marbled vinyl. Known for his signature garage and soulful sound and for his work through Plastik People, Marc delivers a record built for the dancefloor, with six cuts selected from the full project. Side A A1. Connection With You (Plastik Vocal Mix) A2. Connection (Plastik Vocal Mix) A3. Smooth Groover (Yambow & Cotterell Mix) Side B B1. Connection With You (Roméo Louisa Remix) B2. Connection With You (Baka G Remix) B3. Quicksand (ZAV Club Piano Mix) From the warm groove of **Smooth Groover** with Yambow to Roméo Louisa’s peak time interpretation, Baka G’s remix and ZAV’s piano driven club mix, the record moves between garage, soulful house and pure club energy while keeping Marc Cotterell’s identity at its core. Pressed on a striking clear and white marbled vinyl with black splatter, each copy has its own unique visual character. Mastered by Benoit Daudin at Perception Mastering. Marc Cotterell, Connection Limited Edition Vinyl House of Groove
Bruce Ivery returns to Stilove4music, and we couldn't be happier to welcome him back. A true master of his craft, Bruce has delivered some of the label's most celebrated releases, each one leaving a lasting mark on dancefloors around the world.
Born and raised in Chicago and a key member of the legendary Chuck Brothers collective. Bruce's reputation as both a producer and editor speaks for itself. His latest work, a release on Ryan Elliott's Faith Beat, is further proof of his talent. This new drop is no exception—it will have you questioning your own sanity.
It's disco time once again, and it's Bruce Ivery time on Stilove4music. We're beyond excited to share these tracks, designed to create mayhem on discerning dancefloors.
Bill Beau was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but was raised in the western provinces, finishing high school in Edmonton, Alberta. It was while in high school that the "righteous rays" via radio struck Beau in the form of Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons at the height of the Boogie Woogie rage. It was while in high school that Bill got his first gig. He played piano and worked with Wilf Harper, a guitarist of local renown. Beau played on weekends and during the week worked as a clothing salesman, stock clerk, refinery worker, service station attendant and freight checker. He travelled all across Canada, and finally landed in Los Angeles, California.
In 1958 his love of music compelled him to direct all of his energy toward the perfection of his musical talent, so he decided to settle permanently in Los Angeles. Beau first worked there as a vibraphonist, gigging with such stars as Ben Webster, Rex Stewart, Pete Fountain, and Stuff Smith. Once, when his regular organist failed to show up for a date, Beau ended up on the Hammond. Beau then formed his own group, and the trio got a standing date at the Blue Port Lounge. The other two members of the trio are Jo Stafford on guitar, Lorenzo Green on drums, plus the pretty and petite vocalist with the group, Chi Chi.
"Live at the Blueport Lounge" by the Bill Beau Trio is mod-soul-jazz at its very best! A stunning treasure rarely to be found - unless it's on Mo-Jazz!
Y-3, the pioneering sports-fashion collaboration between adidas and Yohji Yamamoto, has for three decades dwelled calmly within the ''tensions of existence''. In conceiving the brand's long-awaited return to runway format at Paris Fashion Week, these codes laid the groundwork leading up to the Spring/Summer 2025 season. Whilst the focus for runway is traditionally placed on garments, models, styling, environment, and the pageantry in between, it was crucial that music play an integral role in the conversation. Three seasons later, sound has informed creative direction from the very earliest phases of ideation. Commissioning all-original compositions has become a natural part of this ideology. The return to runway has invited the opportunity to define a new sonic palette for the brand, and beyond that, to usher in a new era of sound for Y-3 that echoes across music & culture. Following this ethos, and with a mandate to support obscure talent, Montreal duo Solitary Dancer have emerged as the first collaborators in shaping the intimate brand architecture of noise & feeling. With a body of work now spanning over a trilogy of seasons, the genre-defying Y-3000 imprint provides an outlet to disseminate & recontexualize the original compositions beyond the traditional runway. The label embodies Y-3's enduring commitment to explore innovation within opposing cultural forces. The works, originally released on Y-3000 as a series of white labels, are now being featured as a 6x 12'' vinyl compilation. Designed by Trevor Jackson and limited to just 99 examples, the recordings will also be made available both digitally and on streaming services for the very first time.
Houston’s premier street griot is stepping into his most profound chapter yet with his highly anticipated upcoming album, O.Y.N. Throughout a decorated career that spans over 1.2 billion global streams and a fiercely loyal fanbase, Maxo Kream—born Emekwane Ogugua Biosah, Jr.—has established himself as one of rap’s most authentic, uncompromising storytellers. From the raw trenches of Alief to the critically acclaimed triumphs of Punken, Brandon Banks, Weight of the World, and his triumphant 2024 independent pivot Personification, Maxo has long been celebrated by Pitchfork, NPR, and Complex for his cinematic, hyper-detailed world-building. Now, O.Y.N. finds the Houston icon turning his gaze inward, pairing his signature Texas grit with an expansive, global perspective that redefines his artistic boundaries.
If his previous work was about Maxo taking full creative control as an independent force, O.Y.N. is about him uncovering who he is at his core. Following the passing of his father, Maxo found himself searching deeper for his family origins, leading to a pivotal moment of artistic and personal rebirth. For the first time in his life, Maxo traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, anchoring his new music in a profound celebration of his Nigerian heritage. The emotional centerpiece of this journey is the JPEGMAFIA-produced single “Time Out,” an introspective track that moves away from the frantic energy of his past releases to offer a stripped-back look at love, loss, and legacy. Featuring a heavy, resonant drum presence on the outro, the song’s accompanying music video was filmed on location in Lagos, capturing Maxo navigating his ancestral roots in real-time.
While O.Y.N. reaches new emotional depths, it doesn't sacrifice the hard-hitting, volatile street persona that made Maxo a star. The album expertly balances soul-baring vulnerability with cutting-edge hip-hop experimentation, showcasing elite chemistry with some of the genre's most forward-thinking visionaries. Look no further than “Fake Jeezy,” a collaborative explosion featuring Denzel Curry and masterminded by JPEGMAFIA. The track is a masterclass in industrial chaos, combining sharp lyricism and early-2000s trap imagery with cold, surreal visual aesthetics. This duality highlights Maxo's unique positioning in the culture as a trusted street general who can effortlessly trade bars with rap's avant-garde elite.
From his early days flipping Kendrick Lamar's “Rigamortis” to sharing marquee tracks with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, and Tyler, The Creator on hits like “Big Persona,” “Cracc Era,” and “Cracc At 15,” Maxo Kream has always been a rapper's rapper. O.Y.N. represents the ultimate synthesis of this incredible journey. It is an album born from the soil of Alief but elevated by the spirit of Lagos—a raw, beautiful, and heavy-hitting testament to an artist who has survived his past, honored his losses, and fully embraced his destiny.
Second Storey launches new record label High Canopy - with Ladakh EP, 20 years since the artist's first vinyl release. Storey's working template has always been to take on the observations of his inner and outer world experiences, folding them into his expertise as a highly skilled drummer, knack for dream-scape sound design and love of rave and soundsystem culture. High Canopy promises to be an environment that platforms full artistic freedom and homes the mechanised, cerebral dancefloor workouts of Second Storey's studio life alongside his deeper, more experimental terrain. The EP's first stop is 'Blue Eye' named after the spring source of the Bistrice river in Albania. Crystal-clear sound design that echoes the flow of this natural water and sits alongside softly distorted low end. Contrasting 'Urban Hermit' was written in Berlin, during a bout of cabin fever and is a heavy case of gnarled up, spat out, paranoid machine funk. 'Post Columbia' - recorded after an eye opening trip to Bogota- then shifts the tone for the B side into more heady melodic territory with luminous, floating synths evolving throughout the track. ' ABC Conjecture' builds an intense atmosphere as it crawls and morphs across growling, distorted bass with a creeping shuffle of layered elements building overhead. Title track 'Ladakh' completes the EP, inspired by the remote town in the Indian Himalayas on the border of Tibet, AKA snow leopard country. It takes on a special and expansive ambient quality of this deeply precious and spiritual mountain land.
Neil McDonald's love of the outdoors is a constant feature in his music, hence his Lord Of The Isles moniker, a direct reference to the Highlands and islands of his native Scotland.
His vivid, effervescent and blissfully cinematic sound paints a soundtrack to unmade films, building imaginary worlds inspired by his childhood passion for science fiction. It is therefore no coincidence that the closing track 'Subtle Thoughts' samples the inimitable voice of Carl Sagan and is also the name of his forthcoming album on Lapsus Records.
Subtle Thoughts' is an album of sumptuous melancholic electronica that, like all his previous works, avoids being pigeonholed. In it we find ambient and IDM, but also breaks and down-tempo 4x4 beats with deep ruminations, and even passages akin to new age and Balearic. In Neil's own words, the real concept behind 'Subtle
Thoughts' is "The spaces in between. Listening to the quiet voices. Freedom of expression and being open. It also contains my hopes and fears for the future of our world, but mainly hope and love".
Subtle Thoughts' will be released on 8 December with two advance singles: 'Open Mode' accompanying the album launch on 7 October; followed by 'Return to Yourself' on 4 November.
Len Lewis arrives on Amsterdam’s Dzungla, digging into the tech house veteran’s vault for a mix of archival material and previously unreleased cuts. Four tracks spanning from 2003 to 2021, showcasing his trademark dark, driving sound, with three tracks being released for the first time.
The A-side reissues the original “Paradise People”, the highly sought-after 2002 cut and enduring spaced out favourite. On the A2 comes the previously unreleased “Paradise People (2003 Dub)”, a more dubbed-out version produced in 2003 but never released before.
The B-side opens with “Bare Back”, an eerie high-energy groover, while the B2, titled “A1”, takes things into wonkier, more stripped-back territory. Two contrasting cuts that work across the dance floor, from peak-time sets to the opening hours.
Every now and then, there are tracks that stand the test of time. Tracks that are more than just another DJ-tool. Tracks to remember. When „Fom Within“ was released 13 years ago. the track found its way into almost every DJ-Case that summer, and to this day, people playit out at special moments. When Gregor Tresher started to mix Celeda´s „Music Is the Answer“ Acapella over it, inofficial remixes popped up everywhere. We decided to actually never release that version, as we believe some things should be in the DJ´s hands, as there´s nothing quite magic as if a DJ-Mix creates something new. We are happy to give to you an official repress of one of the strongest tracks from our label´s history. Play it out and let it work it´s magic.
Jensen Interceptor debuts on Mesh with Primal Transmissions, an EP of five new genre mutations out Friday 25th September.
Moving through a spectrum of tempos - from smoked out slow burn to tightly wound club pressure - Jensen has a tweak for every BPM. Returning to a more raw, instinctive sound, but never losing sight of his flair for dense rhythmic compositions, the EP explores a moment of reconnection, and a shedding of inherited expectations.
‘False Oracles’ opens with a euphoric downtempo drift, setting the tone with microscopic rhythmic detailing and chugging percussion. ‘Fail to Call’ leads with a grimey bassline and frantic hammerdrill drums that gradually desync into chopped up fragments. ‘What Would Susan Do’ is a double dose of chaos, landing somewhere between dancehall, psytrance, and DnB, but firmly rooted on a planet of its own. ‘Tone Impress’ leans heavier into the industrial, chopping vocals over rolling hits at 160BPM. Rounding things off, ‘Emerald Web’ breaks the rhythms down to their rawest forms for one final workout.
Through a process of rupture and renewal, Primal Transmissions arrives as a sharp dispatch of club mechanics from one of the scene’s most inventive operators.
Dan had called Sad Piano House a cousin to his previous Daphni track 'Cloudy', the Kelbin remix of which had become a much beloved fan favourite. So it was only a matter of time before Kelbin, real name Favaretto, got to work on his version of Sad Piano House - a beautiful reworking marrying the heart tugging melody of the original with Kelbin's trademark razor sharp production.
Adam Ten and Yamagucci team up on Rekids with ‘Keep Workin’’. Label head Radio Slave steps up with a remix.
Frequent collaborators Adam Ten & Yamagucci drop 'Keep Workin’' on Rekids, with a remix from label boss Radio Slave. The single is an irresistible club tool with immeasurable bass weight. Bold, rubbery drums and grinding low-end combine in bouncy fashion while a vocal fragment loops up top to create perfect dance floor tension. Brighter chords eventually rise through the mix, providing emotional release that will get hands in the air and take things to the next level.
On the remix, Radio Slave strips the original ‘Keep Workin’’ back to dusty, shuffling drums with jazzy flourishes. The track has a live, lived-in feel, complete with vulnerable piano keys that haunt the spaces above its weighty groove and transfix any crowd with eerie beauty.
Adam Ten is a long-time House innovator, Maccabi House co-founder and Upon You Records and Higher Ground artist, with over twenty Top 10 Beatport releases and millions of streams to his name. He blends the grit of Techno with escapist melodies in versatile, curious sets and productions that have earned him bookings worldwide. Yamagucci has made an equal impact on the world stage through his field recordings and organic percussion, adding a unique twist to his tracks on labels like Disco Halal, as well as Diynamic and Crosstown Rebels, labels that Adam Ten and Yamagucci have also collaborated on together.
Deluxe LP features 140g virgin vinyl; heavy-duty board jacket, artwork by Art Rosenbaum + DL. RIYL: Bob Dylan, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Ry Cooder, Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley, The Youngbloods & Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Jake Xerxes Fussell’s 4th album finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings. One of the most striking and strangely moving moments on Jake Xerxes Fussell’s gorgeous Good and Green Again an album, his fourth and most recent, replete with such dazzling moments arrives at its very end, with the brief words to the final song “Washington.” “General Washington/Noblest of men/His house, his horse, his cherry tree, and him,” Fussell sings, after a hushed introductory passage in which his trademark percussively fingerpicked Telecaster converses lacily with James Elkington’s parlor piano. That’s the entire lyrical content of the song, which proceeds to float away on orchestral clouds of French horn, trumpet, and strings, until it simply stops, suddenly evaporating, vanishing with no fade or trace, no resolution to its sorrowful minor-key chord progression, just silence and stillness and stark presidential absence. It feels like the end of a film, or the cold departure of a ghost, and is unlike anything else Jake has recorded. In all his work Jake humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing here he plays more acoustic than ever before pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects. On Good and Green Again, Jake not only ventures beyond his established mastery of songcatching and songmaking into songwriting, but likewise navigates fresh sonic and compositional landscapes, going green with lusher, more atmospheric and ambitious arrangements. The result is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. It’s also his most deliberately premeditated album, representing his fruitful return to a producer partnership after two self-produced projects, What in the Natural World (2017) and Out of Sight (2019) (William Tyler produced his friend’s self-titled 2015 debut.) This time James Elkington produced and played a panoply of instruments, bringing to Jake’s arcane song choices his own peerless sense of harmony and orchestration, balance and dramatic tension. The pair enlisted a group of formidable players including regular bandmembers Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and veteran collaborator and avowed Fussell fan Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals. Album opener “Love Farewell” (featuring some beautiful singing by Bonnie “Prince” Billy), an elliptical tale of the folly of war, set to the world’s most heartbreaking goodbye march for a lover left behind. “Carriebelle” and “Breast of Glass” each similarly concerns, in its own way, romantic love and leavings. All three songs highlight Jacobson’s diaphanous, understated brass parts, tying them together in a true lover’s knot. “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down,” with its distant keening strings and capacious sense of space, observes and mourns the loss of work and community in the wake of elemental disaster. Nine-minute tour de force “The Golden Willow Tree,” the sole explicitly narrative song herein, is a hypnotic, minimalist rendering of a tragic maritime ballad about scuttling an enemy ship in exchange for wealth and glory and a captain’s inevitable betrayal. “Fussell is creating his own legacy within the long lineage of traditional folk musicians and storytellers that have come before him.” The New York Times // “So elegant … It’s relaxing in the way that pondering a Zen koan is relaxing, and sweet in the way that the wounded, honey-voiced blues of Mississippi John Hurt are sweet.” Pitchfork // “Music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.”
You'd be hard pressed to name a song with the driving, emotional intensity and raw energy of the Hamilton Movement's anthemic ode to heartbreak, "She's Gone." Issued as the B-Side of the band's 1976 single "We're Gonna Party," and distributed in and around Indianapolis, there is no evidence the song garnered significant attention upon release—yet over the past fifty years it has amased a cult of devotees across the globe. But while interest in the group's music remains strong, little information has surfaced about the Hamilton Movement's history, and until now, there have been no official reissues of their work. This collection presents the band's discography, alongside previously unreleased music discovered on tape; it is the Indianapolis soul album that should-have-been.
The keys to the Hamilton Movement's mystery can be found in central Indiana, where promoter Dick Melvin has lived the past few decades, in a rural suburb of Indianapolis, amidst forests and cornfields. Melvin served as the group's manager throughout their entire existence, but his involvement extended far beyond typical managerial duties. He co-wrote and co-arranged the band's music; he produced and released their recordings on his Look Out label. Dick is also the band's archivist. His home is filled with boxes of demo sessions, live tapes, contracts, posters, and promotional photos documenting his work with the Hamilton Movement. He entrusted his archive to Now-Again's care and they've assembled this album under his watch. Dick's story, and the story of his band, are presented in an extensive, oversized booklet with Dick's rarely-seen photos and ephemera and words by Now-Again's Egon and Naptown historian Kylie Long.
Music from Tokyo / New York serves as the 2024 sequel to his previous release, Music for Joshua Tree. This conceptual album is divided into Side A (Tokyo) and Side B (New York), utilizing field recordings captured in each location. The ceramic images featured on LP jacket is the work of Namiko Ishikawa (NamipotNYC).
On this record, he incorporates Ambient, Downtempo, Trip-hop, and Dub—bringing to life the specific sounds currently resonating in his mind and his original roots.
Since the pandemic, he has been traveling and capturing "environmental sounds" through field recordings, which served as the primary inspiration for this record. Side A features tracks inspired by the atmosphere of Tokyo, including recordings from streets, parks near his home in Japan. Side B explores New York, incorporating the sounds of Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as the chirping of insects recorded in the New York mountains.
While the album remains centered on analog synthesizers and vinyl samples, he has introduced analog drum machines and glitch noise to craft the groove. Unlike his previous work, this release brings prominent bass lines and added more Dub elements to the forefront. His primary focus for this project was expressing a sense of "space" and "air" through the meticulous use of reverb and delay.
Throughout the album, he invites the listener to imagine the unique "local atmosphere" he experienced during his travels.
After fifteen years of shaping dancefloors around the world, Mele is set to release his long-awaited debut album Alive On Arrival via Defected Records Far from an introduction, the album marks the arrival of an artist operating with complete creative clarity, bringing together the sounds, collaborators and influences that have defined his journey into one cohesive body of work.
"Alive On Arrival draws inspiration from what feels like my entire life as a producer, a DJ and a music fan, bringing together everything I love about house, hip- hop, UK music, soulful R&B and wider global sounds. The name comes from Wu-Tang Clan's C.R.E.A.M., which felt fitting to where I'm at in my musical journey. It's been 15 years as Mele, but I'm still alive and feel like I've got so much more to give. I've finally arrived at this point with my debut album. The album was made in, and heavily influenced by, London, Miami and Liverpool - three places that are close to my heart. Sonically, it's inspired by some of the best: Jungle, The Neptunes, Gorillaz and Masters At Work." - Mele aka Krissy Peers Set for release on 25 September, Alive On Arrival is Mele's most expansive project to date. Across fourteen tracks, he draws together house, hip-hop, soul and R&B into a record that reflects a lifetime spent moving between genres rather than being limited by them. Created between London, Miami and his hometown of Liverpool, the album captures the energy and musical history of three cities that have shaped both his sound and perspective. At the heart of Alive On Arrival is collaboration. Rather than simply assembling a list of featured artists, Mele has curated a cast of voices whose individual perspectives deepen the emotional and cultural narrative of the album. Long-time collaborators sit alongside new creative partnerships, each contributing to a record built on shared musical language and mutual respect.
Luv*Jam presents Dan*Eds ~ a mini album for those ever so discerning DJs that are out there…
Rare native silver has been found across the hard to reach mountainous regions of North Wales’ Snowdonia.
As the peaks get rougher and more difficult to traverse we bring you a secret selection of unique live sound experiments from Bersham’s finest Dan*Eds. Plus L*J invites Cologne’s Dynomodyse as his DJ Longsleeve alter ego for a ‘Workpant E17 Vestinipppp’ mix and Flyypost dusts down her Evening Leader accusations of illegal fly posting to deliver some bananas DJ weapons of interest. The penultimate peak of 14 peaks!
Mysticisms’ explores the previously unknown Dub House, Digidub and electronic Street Soul of Manchester émigré Andrew Fitzgerald aka Atone on a 6 track EP, shape shifting from dark basements to summer fields, the music is wide-screen dreams, mixing psychedelic temperaments with ecstatic memories.
Dub Dats is a compendium of a life around or making music, beats, dubs; menageries of sound that encompass a love of reggae mixed with the influences of youth. Growing up in Thatcher’s then declining Manchester housing estates, Fitzgerald found escape first as a young roadie, just aged 15, sorting ‘cigarettes and alcohol’ for visiting bands. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of The Buzzcocks, Ian Dury and The Slits, was a great way to learn the ropes, while avoiding becoming another juvenile delinquent.
A love of Bowie, Kraftwerk, Motown, film scores and the emerging electronic and industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle led to a first studio, featuring the unique and faithful DR-55 Dr. Rhythm, soon followed by Sequential Circuits Pro One, Juno 60, Roland 303 (x 2), Roland 808 and Space Echo.
Working on music solidly, a release finally appearing on Robs Records, before losing all the equipment in a robbery. Manchester was shifting, gangs and “Gunchester” meant it was time to move on and when ‘an out’ appeared, Fitzgerald was landing in Sydney and settling into a new life.
Hooking up with Ali Omar, who he’d met while doing a stint in Brixton, London; the two worked solidly on music, gigging continuously, hanging with the likes Severed Heads and living a good life of that post acid-house party era. The loss of Ali to cancer, still young, hit hard and period “quite liked the madness” ensued. Rehab and starting again, Atone has been gaining some interest.
With 2 EPs of early works recently released on Tonal Oceans, Dub Dats looks deeper, with the dubbed house grooves of title cut, Dats and, the intriguingly named, Somewhere In France With Eric Random. Complimented by the electronic dub of Keep On, the soulful, slow breaks torch song, I Be There, the sample heavy Sound Of Soul and closing, trippy Unlike You, this is a multi-genre producer of considerable capability and talents.
Finally getting his due, Dub Dats perfectly fits the Dubplate Series, broadening its soundscape, while also standing out as its own, sonic release.
“When the flesh gets cut off the soul, it’s not the end.”
More than forty years after hardCORPS emerged from a Brixton basement, ‘Metal & Flesh’ returns in a new expanded edition on double vinyl and CD, newly remastered with the full involvement of surviving members Rob Doran and Clive Pierce. Born from the collision of punk, analogue synthesisers, sequencers, disco, reggae and experimental studio techniques, hardCORPS created electronic music that was as physical and emotional as it was mechanical. The arrival of French vocalist Regine Fetet gave the group its defining identity, placing her raw, uncompromising voice against the dense machinery of Hugh Ashton, Clive Pierce and Rob Doran. Working mainly with a Roland System 100, several Roland MC4 sequencers and later an additional MC500 and Atari ST 1040 computers, etc. pp., hardCORPS always transformed limitations, accidents, distortion and human imperfection into part of the music itself. Although rooted in the early 1980s, ‘Metal & Flesh’ refuses easy nostalgia, retaining the tension, space and character that made hardCORPS unlike their contemporaries. Yet, shall we eventually mention Kraftwerk, maybe let’s quote Ian Shirley from Record Collector magazine: „’Je Suis Passée‘ was not only a love letter to Kraftwerk but penned with such verve, passion and precision that Ralf and Florian probably would have accepted a blind date at a Düsseldorf cocktail bar (…).“ And as Martin Rushent famously said in 1990: “Hard Corps were ignored in their time. Perhaps it is the burden of the adventurous and the innovative to be ignored in their time, which is sad. Don’t ignore them now.”
This new edition has been carefully remastered to preserve that character and dynamics rather than simply making the recordings louder or more ‘modern’, while the artwork has likewise been developed to reflect the band’s original identity. Metal & Flesh’ is not merely an artefact of the 1980s, but a rare and fiercely individual document of four people discovering what happens when human instinct and machines collide.
Remastered by Martin Bowes. Graphic design by hard CORPS and Steve Lippert.
Gatefold sleeve gloss lamination, printed inner sleeves with lyrics, two double-sided hand-numbered.
Space Ghost returns with Back From Reality, his first solo album since 2022. Blending ambient, downtempo and house, the LP explores themes of escapism, introspection and the search for moments of calm in an increasingly overwhelming world. Out October 9th, 2026 via Space Ghost’s own Peace World Records.
Drawing influence from late '90s and early 2000s ambient and electronic music, the record channels the nostalgic atmosphere of PS2-era video game soundtracks, console startup screens, and save menus. “I used to play games like Spyro, Crash, Ape Escape, Gran Turismo. It's fun for me to reimagine songs that could have lived in games from that era. ” The project reveals Space Ghost's interest in writing music for video games, with tracks such as "System Reset" reimagining an alternate PS2 startup screen or “VGM” visualizing a stage selection screen for an imaginary game.
Visually, the project emulates the minimalist design trends of album artwork from the same era: sparse industrial landscapes paired with minimal type. Space Ghost took the cover photo himself while driving around the quiet, empty Oakland ports at night. Tracks like “Sugar Cube” and “Back From Reality” mimic these late night environments and create a downtempo zone for listeners to get lost in. “One of my favorite things to do after writing songs, is to drive around Oakland listening to them. It's almost like the final test for the songs, to see if their emotion holds up.
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Written over the course of five years, Back From Reality reflects Space Ghost’s experience of balancing everyday life with the desire to be creative. “This album is me coming home from my day job and returning back to the place where I feel the joy and freedom in making my music. If I could, I would work on my music full time, but for now it's part time and often a form of escapism. ” Beneath its calming surface, the LP quietly wrestles with larger questions. Against the backdrop of global conflict, environmental decline, and economic uncertainty, the album searches for small moments of optimism through creativity and introspection. Back From Reality holds a moment of space away from these overwhelming times, allowing listeners to pause and recharge.
Back From Reality releases on Peace World Records October 9th, 2026
One year after the release of his debut album Harap-Alb, Articulat returns with Harap-Alb: The Reworks – a companion record that continues the story rather than simply revisiting it.
Based on the original album Harap-Alb by Articulat. Reimagined by friends and fellow travelers.
Just as Harap-Alb leaves home, travels through unfamiliar lands, and meets companions who each shape his story, the music has now found new fellow travelers. Eight artists, each with their own signature, reinterpret one track from the original album, transforming it into something entirely their own while preserving the album’s essence.
The result is a richly varied collection that moves between dreamy synth landscapes, nostalgic strings, hypnotic excursions, broken rhythms, and straight-up dancefloor bangers. Every remix reflects the personality of its creator, turning the album into a conversation between artists connected by a shared appreciation for the original work.
If the first Harap-Alb was a personal retelling of a timeless story, The Reworks is proof that stories continue to evolve once they are shared.
Xistence Records reaches its eighth release with what may be its most important record so far, bringing together four artists whose music carries the spirit and evolution of Detroit techno. With selections reaching back three decades alongside new material, the EP connects different eras of tracks that exemplify the raw soul, machinery and futuristic thinking at the style's core. Sean Deason opens with 'Time Warp', originally appearing on his Matrix label in 1996 and finally receiving its first vinyl release. Thirty years later, its dramatic entrance and surging rhythm have aged perfectly. Energy is matched by genuine depth and soul, with its futuristic energy at the heart of it all. Label owner Arbilla follows with 'Electric Storm', harnessing the power of a great techno groove creates a blend of infections elements working in harmony. The second side reaches back to 1998 for a previously unreleased DX-9 production. A pounding Chicago warehouse beat meets the mechanical precision of Detroit, while a heavily over-arching acid line fuses the marriage these two deep-rooted cities. Legendary producer, Orlando Voorn closes proceedings under his Basic Bastard alias with 'Alone Together'. Perhaps the sickest groove of the EP. opens up a spacious atmosphere that gives the track an almost celestial quality. Inspired by Detroit techno’s evolution and its key figures, Xistence continues to show why it has become one of the rare trusted homes for proper techno.”
A limited 45, lifting two of the most transportive moments from Manifest, the fifth studio album from BALTHVS, and pressing them together on a standalone 7". "Eternal Flow" closes Side A of the LP, a slow-building groove that became the lead single of the album campaign. "Pale Blue Dot" opens Side B, a meditation on smallness and the cosmos that stretches out over nearly five minutes.
BALTHVS is the Colombian trio of guitarist and producer Balthazar Aguirre, bassist Johanna Mercuriana, and drummer Santiago Lizcano. Over five years the band has amassed more than 140 million streams, performed in over 26 countries, earned a Libera Awards nomination, and appeared at Electric Forest, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands, Lollapalooza, Jam Cruise, and SXSW Sydney. Manifest, out 10/9/2026, marks their most adventurous work to date, reaching past psychedelic rock into drum and bass, Ethio-jazz, and trip hop.
This 7" is a collector's companion to that album, not a reissue of it. Both sides are drawn from the LP sequence and paired here as a standalone 45 for the shops and the heads who chase the format. Limited to 300 copies worldwide. The band supports the release with a US fall tour running October 8 through 25.
Gi Gi describes his process as “dubwise sampledelia.” It begins with fragments and ends somewhere else entirely, destabilizing its source material until it stops pointing backward. A borrowed sound, looped and bent, eventually forgets where it came from; it stops referencing anything but itself.
This liquid sensibility shaped his earlier work, music that hovered between drift and propulsion, suggesting the dance floor without fully stepping onto it. Presence was implied, edges stayed soft. The center was always there, but diffused like mist on a screen.
With In Lieu, that center comes into focus. Half written in Texas, half in Australia, the shift isn’t simply geographic, but internal. The record moves with a coiled, anticipatory energy; the drums arrive with more force and the bass organizes the room instead of melting into it. It's dense with the feeling of more bodies in the frame. Textures still smear and refract, but they move around a clearer axis.
Where past records circled their core, these inhabit it, pulling closer to the body. “Some Of” and “Arque” lean into low-end pressure without abandoning his instinct for drift. "Pink Dirt" circles around mechanical drums and dizzying vocal chops, head-down and visceral. Elsewhere, voices gain newfound contour, materializing in “Downswept” with intimate musings and nearly forming a lead vocal on the title track before dissolving again.
In Lieu moves with a newfound confidence, compressing inward, sounding closer to the source of its own pulse.
Plus Plus Traxx is here and we open things up with the label’s main guy, Louie Fresco, and his bass-heavy track "###" (Pound-Pound-Pound).
A track that feels like it was made by a mad A.I. on shrooms inside a lab on a remote alien spaceship. Breaks weaving through glitchy sounds and creepy leads make this tune a certified secret weapon for those DJs who truly dare to break the mold and play outside the trendy shit.
Next up, we got a banger of a collab between CHKLTE and San Dee, who met inside the 16bit realm and cooked up a trippy minimal late night heater that feels like you're creeping through the Doom and Duke Nukem corridors, a tune that will definitely be making the after-hours rounds around the world.
Coming up on the B-side, we got none other than Harry Wills under his Brazen alias, doing what Harry does: dope basslines, intricate drum work, unique creativity, and overall trippy madness. 135 bpms of brazen dopeness.
And if you want more fuel in your engine, here comes Gojnea76, who turns the track "Passive Aggressive" on its head and literally kicks the “passive” out of the equation, delivering a bomb of a remix that will definitely be traveling in many great DJs’ record bags for years to come.
This is Freaky Friends Vol.1
Twelve years have passed since TWINS NATALIA’s debut album, “Destiny Room”, but Dave, Marc and Steve have never really stopped working on new ideas and projects, including the release of a mini-album from Marc’s solo project SHIBUYA STATION. This featured their first collaboration with Greek artist KRIISTAL ANN (also known from PARADOX OBSCUR), who provided the vocals for the track “Madness”. This led to Anna being invited by TWINS NATALIA to perform lead vocals on their cover version of KNOW’s “Knights of Pleasure”. The results were so pleasing that, from then on, Anna was persistently ’pestered’ to work on a TWINS NATALIA EP, which slowly morphed into a complete album entitled “I Died On Mars”. The album is a journey through electronic soundscapes and pure, dark ’80s minimal synth-pop, full of melancholia, haunting melodies, elaborate synth sound design and sequencing, ranging from neat to gnarly, and, of course, KRIISTAL ANN’s charismatic voice icing the cake.
“I Died On Mars” presents us with further surprises: TWINS NATALIA version of “The Dagger In Me” by ’80s Greek post-punk legends THE HANDS OF CAIN, as well as “A Different Hum” by PARADOX OBSCUR, a song that surely needs no further introduction. Anna has not shied away from specially re-recording the vocals for this version, while both versions have been given some distinctly Twins Natalia-specific additions and treatments. Furthermore, Anna has contributed her own composition “Find Me I A Fantasy”, so you’re in for a treat or two, for sure.
Mastering by Nikolas Haldoupis at SoundCave Studios Athens.
Graphic design by Steve Lippert with some original photography by Kriistal Ann.
Father Hervé and son Louis return as FRONTMASCHINE with “Rühren”, their most accomplished and refined work to date. United by a shared passion for the rawest and most uncompromising forms of EBM, the duo continues to explore the essence of body music while pushing their sound to a new level of maturity.
On “Rühren”, cold, almost chilling polyphonic synthesizer melodies intertwine with their classic relentless drum programming that sits somewhere between the militant precision of DAF and the mechanical drive of the “Commando days” of Front 242. Every track is built around pure functionality: no unnecessary ornamentation, no concessions—just stripped-down, commanding rhythms designed to move bodies.
This is an exceptionally DJ-friendly record. Each cut is crafted for maximum impact on the dancefloor, making “Rühren” an essential tool and a true secret weapon for any DJ devoted to uncompromising body music. Martial, hypnotic and brutally effective, FRONTMASCHINE once again prove that the most direct approach is often the most powerful.
Agents Of Time return to Afterlife with two heartrending audio expeditions.
Italian act Agents Of Time have established a sterling reputation over the years. Their mesmerising approach to club music blends emotive melodies and transcendent rhythms, with dance floor-centred beats.
The Mirage EP begins with its title cut; enveloping the listener is a swathe of atmospheric synth and pad work from the off. Oscillating frequencies complement the sultry rhythms while a life-affirming riff forms the stirring centrepiece. On the flip ‘Northern Lights’ is a sensitive, emotive composition which gradually increases its emotional impact as it builds and evolves.
Underpinned by spoken folktales stretching from Indonesia to Poland, a new collaborative EP from Warszawa/Berlin-based Jerzy Mączyński and London-based Flora Yin-Wong arrives via Accidental Meetings. Demons rising from the wind, unknown beings lurking in the forest — the record conjures a landscape built from heady layers of saxophone and the tormented strings of zither, harp and kemence.
Recorded across two intense studio sessions, the EP also features idiosyncratic contributions from London-based guest vocalists and musicians Aga Ujma and Laila Sakini.
Flora Yin-Wong is a London-born experimental sound artist and writer of Chinese and Malaysian heritage, known for weaving field recordings and traditional instruments. Her album Holy Palm (Modern Love) and book Liturgy (PAN) cemented her as a singular voice in experimental music today.
Jerzy Mączyński is a Polish saxophonist, producer and composer whose jazz training feeds into genre-melting work spanning kosmische, prog, industrial techno and minimalism. One of his collaborations being a record of free jazz and rhythmic cubism with Chicago's Hieroglyphic Being.
Uyama Hiroto, one of the most important artists behind Nujabes works, released his debut album 'a son of the sun' on 2LP after 12 years.
Uyama Hiroto provided "Letter From Yokosuka" for Nujabes "metaphorical music" released in 2003 and was featured on the title track of "modal soul" released in 2005.
A son of the sun" was released in 2008 and continues to fascinate many listeners to this day.
While there have been countless performances, recordings and releases of Glass's works, this is the first time that an entire album is devoted to new studio recordings of his original film scores. Over the past decades Philip Glass has become a household name in contemporary music thanks to his prolific activity and output across many music genres, including operas, concertos, symphonies and music for theatre. He has also systematically sought out collaborations with musicians and artists from all over the world. Due to his highly idiosyncratic and distinctive style, the American composer has been considered one of the frontrunners of minimalism in music, even though he himself regards his work rather as music with repetitive structures, in a continual search to integrate harmony, melody and rhythm into a single musical expression. In 2025 he received the World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the art of film music.
It’s been 10 years since ‘Love Over Will’. In that time I have been experimenting with music outside of the purely electronic, working with musicians, other tuning systems and the role of sound in healthcare, amongst other things.
Is With Us is a return to what I love most about electronic music: the combination of sound design, rhythm and emotion. It doesn’t fall into any specific category but is rather a reflection on those elements I find interesting within the context of beats-led music.
Where ‘Love Over Will’ was slightly brooding, ‘Is With Us’ strikes a more positive note, something which wasn’t a conscious decision. It is just a moment in time.
“Stankface” finds Funkmaster Ozone deep in his natural habitat: a raw, playful P-Funk workout driven by a heavy bass groove, punchy drums, elastic synth lines and his unmistakable talkbox. Packed with swagger, humor and irresistible head-nodding energy, the track connects classic Parliament-Funkadelic and Zapp influences with polished modern-funk production.
“Bust A Move” takes Funkmaster Ozone straight back to the golden era of Electro-Funk, combining hard-hitting 808 drum-machine rhythms, funky synth bass, futuristic textures and infectious vocoder vocals. Robotic, playful and built for the dancefloor, the track channels classic old-school electro and boogie energy through Ozone’s unmistakable modern production style.
HIKARIGASASHIKOMU translates as ‘Light Shines In’, a Japanese phrase conveying a sense of hope in a difficult place. Opening new creative possibilities for Foodman, this astonishing album is an introspective yet hyperactive body of work, representing the clarity and light found after a period of self-exploration. While this is a deeply personal record, it also captures the now-universal sound of a brain stretched between 500 open tabs, multitasking into oblivion in a world in which attention deficit is a global media environment, not merely a privatized psychological malaise. Focusing more on the use of voice, the album incorporates Foodman’s own looped vocals, singing elements of Japanese children’s songs and playground rhymes, and his everyday thoughts. Despite its charm and innocence, this soundworld leaps around manically, fractures and dissolves. Foodman’s voice repeats, disassembles, speeds up and down and is bounced around deliriously, as sound elements call and respond around him. Structurally and vocally, influences are drawn from footwork, ghetto house, and baile funk, all of which are maximally abstracted into bursts of spiralling psychedelic effects.
For Token's next release, Singular Anomalies takes the reins for a release full of textural work and dissonance. These four tracks showcase the broad spectrum of sound design that encompass the Italian artist's unique style compiled as 'Allure', an unflinchingly bold addition to the label's discography.
Two stripped back downtempo jams from Bristol based producer Jamie Paton up next for SR008. Jamie’s distinctive dubbed out productions have been a firm favourite over the years since discovering his music on Emotional Especial, Hoga Nord, Multi Culti and Club Blanco. He’s a prolific remixer who’s worked with Goat, Plus Instruments, Minami Deutsch, Dâdalus & Bikarus, Blancmange, Johnny Aux, Khidja, Gatos Negros, Food Pyramind, and many more. This release is a perfect fit for Space Ritual and delves into
the darker side of his sound.
Off World is a slow & low spooked out dancefloor trip that meanders through layers of dark, eerie, rattling percussive echos and deep creeping bass. Contrasting atmospheres build throughout entering into a spacious call and response interplay. Fell Swoop's heavyweight bass and haunted sonics take you deep into uncanny space. The raw and swampy bass groove powers through sharp and ominous textures that circle around it.
Pressed to 10” with hand printed artwork on a black reverse board sleeve. Limited to 150 copies.
Boulderhead arrives on Haŵs with ‘Sunshine’ — four cuts that blur the line between club functionality and sonic experimentation. Twisting delays, playful FX work and endlessly shifting textures give the record a voice that's unmistakably his, pushing familiar forms into stranger territory without ever losing sight of the dancefloor.
The title track ‘Sunshine’ opens proceedings with a heads-down trip anchored by a cheeky, tongue-in-cheek vocal hook, swung grooves, and hypnotic momentum. Jorg Kuning steps up on remix duties, gently reshaping the original at every turn. His hardware-led approach keeps the groove in constant motion, each subtle shift revealing another layer without ever breaking the spell. Flip the record and ‘Moonshine’ strips things back into classic Boulderhead territory, while ‘Practice’ closes the EP on a deeper note, pairing lush synth work with beautifully detailed percussion for one final slow burn.
Never too serious, always full of character. The kind of record that keeps giving something new back with every listen.
Is this the greatest US Deep House track of all time? It's certainly a contender and arguably one of Kerri Chandler's finest productions.
A true Deep House classic, "You're In My System" has stood the test of time for more than 25 years, remaining a fixture in sets from the biggest DJs around the world. Now, Kerri Chandler brings this iconic release back to his own label in a deluxe edition featuring both beloved originals and previously unreleased vinyl versions.
Opening the A-side is a brand-new version featuring Mic Murphy, the legendary vocalist and songwriter behind The System, who co-wrote the original "You're In My System." It is followed by Kerri's timeless original mix featuring Troy Denari a staple for many in House music for over 25 years, a record that perfectly encapsulates the soul of house and Kerri’s distinctive sound.
The B-side opens with the previously vinyl-unreleased "623 Deluxe Vocal" featuring Mic Murphy. Driven by Kerri's signature soulful keys, rolling bassline, and expressive synth work, it offers a fresh perspective on a much-loved classic. Completing the package is the stripped-back Instrumental, delivering all the groove and energy of the original without the vocals.
Whether you're a longtime fan or discovering Kerri Chandler for the first time, this is an essential release for DJs, collectors, and House music lovers alike. A record that should never leave your bag!
“Capsule” is the debut album from Modis, the new solo project of Argentinian producer Rafael Caivano (a.k.a. Frikstailers, a.k.a. Klik & Frik). The album will be released on Latinambient, the newly launched label curated by Populous. In this LP, Modis draws inspiration from some of the great unconventional classics of electronic music, from Mort Garson (Mother Earth’s Plantasia) to Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin’s most emotional work. Each song in Capsule opens a dialogue
Berlin-based edit specialist Voodoocuts knows exactly how to tease out the best bits of any of the source tunes he works with. He's been doing it for years now on labels like Juice on Wax and Uluru, and now heads to Ritmo for his latest 7" bomb. 'Riddim Freak' gets this one going with a reggaeton rework of a Missy Elliott classic. It's an inspired pairing that has elastic bass and trampoline-like kicks with rave horns, fat-assed brass band energy and plenty of that original Missy attitude. 'Work This' takes another of the rap queens' most welcome jams and flips and reverses it into an early electro and hip-hop blend with old school drums and many magnificent samples all bringing it to life in full colour.
Riva Starr teams up with Australian duo Close Counters for a sun-soaked debut on Heist.
What do you get when you put an Italian house legend in the studio with 2 of the most talented artists from Melbourne? Have a listen to the newest release on Heist and you’ll find out. On their ‘Push your luck’ EP, Riva Starr, Close Counters and UK soul singer Andre Espeut bring a heavy dose of jazz & soul and most of all, upbeat dancefloor energy. Whether it’s the deep soulful vibe of the title track or the house meets jazz-funk energy of ‘Gearbox’, this EP brings together everything we love about house music.
‘Push your luck’ comes right in the middle of Close Counters’ world tour, just after Riva Starr’s album ‘Keep me on the dancefloor’ and is the follow up to their recent collab ‘Jinga’ on Riva Starr’s own Snatch Records. We all know Riva Starr from his 2013 Fatboy Slim collab ‘Eat sleep rave repeat’, his work with Groove Armada, and more recently his collab with Prunk on his PIV records debut album. Close Counters have already worked with Heist mainstays Fouk and had their breakthrough moment with their 2023 album ‘Soulacousta II’, which got wide support ranging from Gilles Peterson to Jyoto and Folamour.
Their ‘Push your luck’ EP kicks off with the title track featuring the silky vocals of Andre Espeut. When we first heard this song, we immediately got transported to the soulful sound of the mid 2000s led by Recloose’s unique track ‘Dust’ with Fat Freddy’s Drop singer Joe Dukie. It’s moody, stripped back, and bouncy at the same time. The lush chords, disco bassline, and vocal harmonies all make for a track that goes beyond genres and trends. This is a future classic.
‘Gearbox’ is a disco-tinged piano jam full of live elements, rolling congas and disco bleeps, where the musicality of the Close Counters boys comes in at full speed. This song takes its inspiration from the Brazilian jazz-funk of legends Marcos Valle and Azymuth, with a clear sense of modern-day dancefloors and a love for electronic noise. Also; 10/10 for creatively naming the track after the glitchy electronic sound that freaks & funks throughout the track.
On the flip, ‘Dizzy’ sees the trio go more into disco-house territory, again teaming up with Andre Espeut for a track that blends catchy vocal loops with a tight groove and lush chords. The EP finishes with a club dub of ‘Push your luck’ for those in favor of more groove and less vocals.
We’ve had Riva Starr and the Close Counters boys on our radar for a while, and they landed on Heist with the perfect combination of musicality and dancefloor power. We hope you like this release as much as we do!
Melbourne producer Jordan Brando releases his new Fixation EP today via DJ Tennis’ Life and Death. The four-track project marks Brando’s debut on the label and arrives as he continues to establish himself as one of Australia’s top new club exports.
Fixation is built around raw, bass-driven grooves, moving between the shuffling percussion and hypnotic vocal hook of the title track, the tougher techno edge of “Vibration,” and the classic house influence running through “The Bassline.” “After Dub” eases the pace without losing that foundation, closing the EP on a warm, melodic note.
The release extends a growing connection between Life and Death and the current wave of Australian producers making an impact worldwide. It follows recent projects from Brando’s Not Without Friends collaborators Luke Alessi and William Kiss, who both joined the label at the end of 2025. Together, the three have built momentum around a shared strain of forward-thinking club music and recently reunited in New York City for a Raw Cuts event this summer.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Brando has developed a reputation for the breadth of his productions and DJ sets, with his original music and remixes appearing across dance charts around the world. While his solo work has earned support from international tastemakers such as Pete Tong (via his BBC Radio 1 show), he’s performed with Kiss and Alessi at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Beyond the Valley, London’s Night Tales and Rippon Lea Estate.
After a run of performances spanning Australia, New Zealand and Europe—including Lost Village, Beyond the Valley, Night Tales and Melbourne’s Collingwood Town Hall—Fixation finds Brando entering his next chapter with one of electronic music’s most respected labels, further cementing his place among a generation of Australian artists reshaping the international club landscape.
When the first JIM album Love Makes Magic was released in 2023, it was the end product of an experiment that had begun during the strange days of the pandemic. Cooped up in his studio, James Baron started fiddling about with an as-yet unnamed new album idea. It became Vicious Charm’s first LP release. Labelled variously as Balearic, folktronica, blue-eyed soul and Laurel Canyon, Love Makes Magic was perhaps all and none of those things: a record rooted less in Californian mythology than in Baron’s own musical world, somewhere between Sherwood, Nottingham, classic songwriting, electronic soul and the no-nonsense good times that have long run through his work under his other monikers (principally the anagrammatic Ron Basejam and, of course, Crazy P) One thing was indisputable, it connected with people... and still does.
The album was a minor hit, appearing in many a Best of 2023 chart and voted Album of the Year in Bill Brewster’s Furtive 50. A tour and a few memorable festival appearances – his 2024 We Out Here Festival being one of those wonderfully timed ‘moments’ - perfectly captured the horizontal vibes on the album, while injecting some live energy into its delivery. While there was a follow-up remix album for Love Makes Magic, JIM was already preparing a sophomore LP: “I wrote the majority of The Curious Case Of Existence in a couple of months at the beginning of 2024, then it was just a case of making the record over the next couple of years in between everything else.”
San Francisco’s 21 st century take on disco has long tended towards the cosmic and
psychedelic, a reflection of the Bay Area’s long association with trippy, mind-altering music.
Over the years, Leng Records has periodically dived into these fertile waters, delivering
inspired slabs of cosmic-minded and dub-flecked excellence from 40 Thieves and, more
recently, Marshall Watson and Cole Odin.
It’s to Watson, a long-serving producer and sound designer whose work has previously
appeared on labels including Sprechen, Shades of Sound, Seven Villas, Italians Do It Better, Highpoint Lowlife and NuNorthern Soul, that Leng has turned this time around. It marks his first solo appearance on the imprint and lands two years on from his inspired Odin collaboration, Voyager. ‘Little Monster’ is Watson at his most potent, club-focused best. Built around rock-solid
disco drums and a deliciously dubby, low-slung bassline, the track slowly builds via waves of intergalactic electronics, spaced-out and echoing vocal samples, audible nods to cosmic rock and bursts of starry synth melodies. Thickening and increasing in effects-laden intoxication as it progresses, ‘Little Monster’ not only lives up to its name but also cements Watson’s growing reputation as one of 21st century cosmic disco’s most distinctive talents.
Fittingly, the accompanying remix comes from Leng regulars and fellow San Francisco
residents 40 Thieves. Delivering a genuinely epic, near nine-minute excursion, the veteran
collective drag Watson’s inspired original mix further towards Daniele Baldelli style dub
disco-meets-Afro-cosmic territory. Expect bolder, funkier bass, echoing synth motifs, eyes-
closed electric guitar solos, echoing synth snippets and wild, sustained organ chords. It’s
cosmic disco in dub… and the perfect accompaniment to Watson’s future cosmic disco
classic.
Papooz & Friends ! is a collaborative album where French duo Papooz gather a constellation of kindred artists, including Molly Lewis, Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience / Whitest Boy Alive), Arto Lindsay, Oracle Sisters, Sacha Got (La Femme), Zé Ibarra and Hugo Hamlet, to create original songs born from true artistic encounters.
Blending elegant indie pop, modern folk and sun-soaked experimentation, the project unfolds as a collective musical journey celebrating friendship and creative dialogue.
»Memorial« grew out of Nate Wooley’s work alongside Annea Lockwood recording the Columbia River, and in particular from a visit to Kettle Falls in northern Washington, once one of the river’s great salmon fishing and meeting grounds and a place of enormous importance to the Sinixt and other Indigenous peoples of the Upper Columbia. The falls disappeared from view following the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1940, submerged beneath what is now Lake Roosevelt, yet beneath the still surface of the reservoir, a fast current continues to move across the buried cliffs. That tension between what remains and what can only be recovered through memory runs throughout »Memorial«.
In the essay accompanying the record, Wooley returns repeatedly to the idea of translation: the attempt to carry an experience from one form into another, from river to recording, memory to sound, landscape to music. He moves between Lockwood’s sound maps, John Ashbery’s rain falling on canal machinery, Ravel’s attempts to make water move through a piano, Christian Wolff’s »Stones«, and the Sinixt First Salmon Ceremony, where rocks struck together recall the sound of salmon once moving through the river in their thousands. These translations cannot restore what has been lost; however, they allow us to revisit what remains beneath in another form.
»Memorial« exists as an uncertainty, concerned with the distance between a place and its recording, between an event and what survives of it, and with the way listening itself becomes entangled with memory. Kettle Falls remains submerged, the river constrained and radically altered, but the water continues to move over the old rock beneath the reservoir. »Memorial« tries to listen for that persisting memory.
Amazzonia is the new album by Alex Puddu and the second volume following the erotic series
I Desideri Di Sadie (Piaceri Tropicali), where the inspiration took us to an imaginary journey in Southeast Asia. With this new album “Amazonia,” Alex Puddu takes us on a trip to Central America, the Caribbean islands, and South America, exploring a new groove of Latin-funk, reggae, and seductive sleazy disco . Here, Sadie’s adventures unfold, from the jungle to the cities and onto the enchanting tropical beaches. Another journey through temptations, on the islands, discovering the beauty of Alex Puddu’s “Erotic World.”
"Amazzonia" was written, arranged, produced, and recorded by Alex Puddu, who plays all the instruments on the album himself. He was assisted by two of the best bassists on the Italian nu-disco and Balearic scene: Domenico Andria—who has played with Pellegrino/Zodyaco and worked closely with Alex Puddu on several releases—and Daniele Labbate, who has performed as a session bassist for artists including Nu Genea and Mystic Jungle.
Other featuring musicians on the album are:
Imelda : Lead and backing vocals
Adrian Wilding: Vocal on Gimme Dub
Hendrik Jørgensen: Trumpet
Jesper Løvdal: Saxophone
TECHNO Records introduces Robert Johnstone, a Scottish producer whose music has travelled further than his name. Rooted in the physical drive and electronic vocabulary of the 1990s, the record feels like a contemporary extension of that classic language: functional, inventive and full of rhythmic accents, small traps and details that register fully at club volume.
Across both sides, TECH044 moves naturally between driving techno and more sensual house territory, combining direct club utility with playfulness and surprise. The record brings desire and sensuality back into a club context, entering into a dialogue with the history of the underground as a space of bodily and sexual freedom.
Robert Johnstone has spent years working outside public view, building a substantial catalogue while keeping his public profile sparse. The record speaks to DJs and collectors drawn to classic electronic forms shaped by an individual hand.
I love the shared experience of music more than almost anything, but the longer I exist in the industry, the harder it is to stay emotionally connected to an album once it’s reduced to numbers and statistics. So I wanted to release this in a way that feels more human—and affordable, especially in wartime. Your support helps create more music, not ads for ICE. Someday the machine will get it, but for now I just want this to feel like an experience again.
Reconcile at the Tile Works, Recorded Live, was captured inside Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. A place built by artist Henry Chapman Mercer, who spent the early 1900s shaping tiles by hand, one at a time. No shortcuts. Just craft, fire, and time. That spirit is all over this record. Some of these songs I haven’t played in years because of how they made me feel and what they conjured in me.
Reconcile at the Tile Works, Recorded Live, won’t be on streaming services. Because art and music deserve more. If you want to hear it, go where music still lives:
Support artists directly. Support the shops that keep the culture alive.
Intersecting sharpness and passion. An innovative work born from the collision of two rare and extraordinary talents.
On one side was Hiroshi Suzuki, a trombonist in such demand that people said, “If you want to record a good work, secure his schedule.” On the other hand was Masahiko Togashi, a drummer who rose to prominence at a young age and dominated the jazz world, from modern jazz to free jazz. The collision of these two personalities and talents created a new current in the Japanese jazz scene. From "Castle Cats," which moves between jazz rock and free jazz, to "Suzu No Uta," where Yuji Ohno’s piano spins a beautiful melody amid the sound of bells falling like rain, and "Passion," where each musician cuts in with sharp intensity, the entire work is filled with creativity and passion. Recorded in 1969, this is said to be the first work in Japan in which new jazz and free jazz were recorded and released as an album. From this turning point, Japanese jazz began to move in a major way.
We are finally ready to unveil one of the most exciting projects we have worked on in our label's history: a new release by legendary disco project Hudson People, best remembered for their essential classic "Trip to Your Mind" - which just received its anniversary issue on our label!
Now it's time for "Hold On" - a brand-new single featuring several mixes based on an original recording from the late 1980s, with the completely unheard yet incredibly soulful voice of singer Rickey Owens, whom composer and producer Reginald Hudson worked with at the time.
When we first got in touch with Reg Hudson several years ago, we were originally interested in releasing his "Shake It - Make It Loose" album, which he recorded with John Davis (later known as one of the real voices behind Milli Vanilli). While talking about John Davis (RIP) and other great GI singers such as Karl Keaton, Reginald Hudson immediately mentioned Rickey Owens as one of the best singers he had ever worked with.
Of course, we had never heard of him, as none of his music had ever been released. But when Hudson showed us some old demos and sent us the original DAT recordings, we were immediately hooked.
"Hold On" was recorded in or around 1988 with a simple drum machine and keyboard accompaniment - essentially a demo intended to be recorded properly in a better studio. But the vocal performance was simply stunning, complete with beautifully recorded ad-libs. Owens had a truly remarkable, clear voice with an incredible amount of soul. Luckily, Hudson had his old DAT tapes digitized several years ago, so the acapella recordings survived in excellent shape.
We immediately reached out to several producers to create reworks of the track. The 12" EP compiles some of the most club-friendly of these new mixes - but there is more to come…
First up is Thomas Redfern, a senior producer, professional studio musician and keyboardist from London, UK. His version is a catchy, funky yet deep House track that could easily become a favourite on dancefloors around the globe. Redfern also blessed us with a dub mix that takes things even deeper.
But it gets even catchier on side B of the vinyl. Tom Quick sped up the tempo, added filters and delivered a rework that could make fans of Chromeo, Daft Punk, Stardust and any late-'90s French House afficionado go completely nuts. Yes, we mean it! With a fresh twist on the original, the track has a massive club appeal that we hope both DJs and dancers will dig.
The vinyl single is completed by a mix from German legend DJ Friction, whose version is based on synth layers from the Tom Quick mix. Friction added new drums and bass, giving the track the distinctive modern electro boogie funk vibe he is known for. His mix brings to mind classics such as Shannon's "Let the Music Play" and works of Freestyle's Tony Butler.
The vinyl 12" with 4 mixes is released on The Outer Edge's brand-new sublabel, 1st Floor Records, which focuses on more dancefloor-oriented material. More mixes are available digitally and should not be missed.
PR Feedback:
„Killer“ – Gilles Peterson
„Disco, deep house and boogie all in there! Superb!“ – Groove City Radio
„Dope!!“ – DJ Craze
„The boogie mixes are so good!“ – Selvagem
„Awesome and Huge Package“ - Leon El Ray
„Wow, Trip to Your Mind is so good and this is a real grower“ - Ibiza Sonica
„Really liking the Balearic & Redfern Mix, thanks!“ – Mystic Bill
„Both Thomas Redfern mixes are ace!“ – Deeper Shades of House
The music on ‘Remanens’ is the result of a commission by Art Cinema OFF off and B.A.A.D.M to score the short silent film ‘Positano’ made by french actor and filmmaker Pierre Clémenti in 1969. The film itself is an ever-shifting series of glimpses, without much context, of a family vacation to the island Positano. The short cuts are similar to a dream or obscured, residual memories where chronology has fallen apart.
The score was reworked into album format on ‘Remanens’, the title being the Swedish word for remanence. The word has several meanings, most commonly residual magnetism left behind in a material. It is consequently used when referring to residue on magnetic tape, as well as data remanence, which is the residual digital data that remains even after attempts have been made to erase a hard drive. The music was reworked with remnant traces of memory in mind, of the film, but also of how glimpses of memories from another life, when the future was undecided, can make a person feel – and how it can unveil one’s own traces of what the future felt like.
Linus Hillborg (b. 1989) is a Swedish composer, musician and multidisciplinary artist based in Stockholm. His diverse creative practice spans experimental music across both electronic and acoustic realms, as well as compositions for film, theatre, and interactive installations. In 2021 he released his acclaimed solo-debut 'Magelungsverket' through Moloton, derived from the installation 'Orphan Works' which he built with an obsolete computer game engine. In 2023 he released 'Four Works' through Kali Malone and Maria W Horn’s label XKatedral, which featured a series of instrumental works by himself and Theodor Kentros.
Workers Playtime is the fourth album by Billy Bragg, originally released in September 1988. This long overdue vinyl reissue comes in a gatefold sleeve and was remastered by John Webber at Air Studios using high-resolution transfers made from master tapes in Billy's archives. There will also be a limited edition run of coloured vinyl albums.
Helmed by legendary producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Fairport Convention et al) and his former Riff Raff bandmate Wiggy, Workers Playtime saw Bragg deliver his most tender and empathetic collection. The band featured the legendary Danny Thompson on double bass, BJ Cole on pedal steel, Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello & The Attractions) on bass and Micky Waller on drums. Licking his wounds after another victory for Margaret Thatcher at the ’87 general election, he wrote ‘Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards’, one of his most enduring songs, while the stunning a capella ‘Tender Comrade’ confronts the ugly prejudice of the moral majority. Melancholy and disillusionment are part and parcel of Bragg’s songwriting, but always with a healthy dash of optimism.
Colorful, powerful and elegant. A watershed masterpiece that embraces before then and after that by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, the master of the era.
Since turning professional in 1960, Kiyoshi Sugimoto has been active in many sessions and recordings. From the latter half of the 1960s, he joined groups such as Hideo Shiraki, Akira Ishikawa, and Terumasa Hino, gaining attention and solidifying his position with leader works such as “Country Dream” and “Babylonia Wind.” This work was recorded with Akira Ishikawa, Hiromasa Suzuki, Takao Uematsu and others right after studying in America for about a year. Starting with the groovy and luscious “Our Time” and “Marmalade Sky”, the dubious keyboards of “Jones Street”, and the melancholic and beautiful “Quiet Pulse”, it can be said to be a gap between jazz rock and fusion. There are attractive songs. This work represents Sugimoto’s work in the mid-1970s.
Faitiche presents the debut solo album by cellist, sound artist, and composer Topu Lyo: “quiet scenes from tokyo” brings together sixteen miniatures for solo cello and tape echo that oscillate between abstracts drones and rhythmic pizzicato sketches – all recorded at Topu’s Tokyo apartment. The constant traffic noise from a nearby highway has become an accompanying soundtrack for his compositions and can be heard on the recordings. Topu’s playing is marked by a distinctive idiom oriented more towards abstract electronic studio effects than classical technique.
The artist spoke to Jan Jelinek about his work:
JJ: A solo cello album may seem like an odd fit for a label that has to date released only music that is electronic in the broadest sense. But I think “quiet scenes from tokyo” complements the Faitiche repertoire exceptionally well. Its sixteen miniatures showcase the cello in all its complexity: the bowed passages sometimes recall a tape feedback drone; the pizzicato playing conjures up the percussion recordings of Moondog; and the abstract textures might be mistaken for the product of a granular sampler rather than rapid finger work on the cello. I’m constantly surprised by just how rich and varied this album is – without ever losing the charm of its sketch-like quality. Could you say a few words about the making of your album – first of all, from a rather technical perspective: what production tools did you use, and why?
TL: My production tools were very sparse. Just a solo cello and my Roland 301 Space Echo, which I only used at the end, running everything through it during mixing, tape only. After years of working with electronics, pedals, and synthesizers, moving to Tokyo pushed me toward minimizing my setup. But my aesthetics shifted too, toward simplicity. I wanted to strip everything back to just the acoustic cello and see how far I could push it — replicating some of my favorite electronic effects through extended technique: slow portamento, LFOs, filters, detune, noise. I’d also been listening to a cassette of ocean sounds for years. When I moved to Tokyo I was horrified to find myself living directly across from a freeway. Eventually the freeway started sounding almost identical to the ocean — and that ended up playing a prominent part in the recording.
JJ: That’s super interesting: mimicking electronic production as a compositional idea for the cello! You say the sound of the freeway is crucial to the album: I, too, tend to interpret steady traffic noise as a positive soundscape – do we hear the freeway on the album? I can also hear other field recordings, for example on “a street car with announcements”. Can you say a bit about how these field recordings influence your playing?
TL: Yes, you can hear the freeway on the album! The freeway is most prominent in “old trees in lonely spring”, “yuyake koyake”, and “the moon” (you can clearly hear individual cars). When I first began recording I had my balcony door shut tightly, but after a while I began leaning into the highway sound and slowly opening the door little by little to control the amount of noise. “streetcar with announcements” was a moment I was recording and a car passed by making announcements in the background. I loved how it sounded! Same thing with “yuyake koyake”, and later I realized that every day at 5pm the same song plays to mark sunset, telling children it’s time to go home. Having this bedrock of sound puts less pressure on me to put music on top or to play more notes.
JJ: It’s astonishing how much this differs from what I’d imagined: I’d been picturing peaceful landscape recordings, but had never thought of a freeway. Which goes to show how open to interpretation traffic noises are. So the room by the freeway had a major influence on the album – how are you going to perform it live?
TL: The contrast between the freeway and the beautiful landscape in my head couldn’t have been starker. I too was imagining a beautiful landscape in which to create the album, but somehow it still worked out. I've been going back and forth a lot on live shows and I think the most honest way is to have it the most stripped down. I was thinking of using traffic samples etc., but I think the duet really comes from the background sounds from every unique venue/environment. So as it stands, I’ll just be doing acoustic solo cello.
The 2018 album Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale is the adaptation by Roger Waters (co-founder of Pink Floyd) on the 1918 same-titled theatrical work. Waters recorded this version with members of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.
The original theatre work is one “to be read, played, and danced” by three actors (the soldier, the devil, and a narrator) and dancers, accompanied by a septet of instruments. The libretto relates the parable of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited economic gain. The music is scored for a septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet or trumpet), trombone, and percussion. The libretto is adapted by Roger Waters from the translation by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black, based on the original text by Charles-Ferdinand Ramus.
The Soldier's Tale is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on green vinyl and comes in a gatefold sleeve with linen laminate finish. The vinyl package includes a 4-page booklet with lyrics and pictures.
Twenty-five years after its original release, Markus Guentner's debut album In Moll returns in a special anniversary reissue on Black Knoll Editions, reaffirming its place as one of the defining ambient recordings of the early 21st century.
Released in 2001 during the formative years of Kompakt's influential Pop Ambient series, In Moll emerged from a period of rapid transformation in electronic music. New technologies, expanding digital networks, and shifting creative possibilities allowed artists to imagine entirely new sonic worlds. Amid this fertile landscape, Guentner's music stood apart. Combining delicate melodic fragments, slow-moving harmonies, and a remarkable sense of spatial depth, In Moll introduced a distinct artistic voice whose impact can still be felt a quarter-century later.
The album arrived shortly after Guentner's contributions to the inaugural Pop Ambient compilation, including the now-beloved "Regensburg 1," named after his Bavarian hometown. Those early recordings immediately captured the attention of Kompakt founders Michael Mayer and Wolfgang Voigt. Recalling his first encounter with the music, Mayer describes listening to a demo CDR with Voigt while wandering through Cologne late into the night, replaying the tracks for hours. "We knew that we had found something outrageously beautiful and we wanted the whole world to listen."
Across its running time, In Moll unfolds like a series of dreamlike landscapes, inviting the listener into a world that feels both familiar and strangely other. Bells, hisses, distant textures, and slow-moving bass tones drift through vast expanses of atmosphere while luminous synthesizer washes seem to blur the horizon in a fine digital mist. The album's transportive qualities are matched by a remarkable sense of compositional discipline. Every gesture feels deliberate, every texture carefully placed. Balancing warmth and melancholy with restraint, Guentner created a body of work that rewards both close listening and complete surrender.
Reflecting on the album twenty-five years later, Wolfgang Voigt describes Guentner as "one of the first, but also one of the most important ambient artists" associated with Kompakt, calling his music "an integral, timeless part of the long history of pop ambient." Music critic and former Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Mark Richardson, who reviewed In Moll upon its original release, similarly noted that the album "marked the arrival of an important new voice," and today regards it as "one of the finest ambient releases of the decade."
The album's influence continues to extend far beyond its original audience. For many listeners, In Moll served as an entry point into a new understanding of what ambient music could be. Black Knoll boss Rafael Anton Irisarri first encountered the album shortly after its release in 2001. "It immediately opened a door to a world of music I didn't know existed," he recalls. "At a time when I was still discovering my own creative voice, Markus showed me entirely new possibilities for what electronic music could communicate." Simply put, "The Sight Below would not have existed without In Moll paving the way."
Far from a historical curiosity, In Moll continues to feel strikingly contemporary. What once sounded futuristic now feels timeless, its patient pacing, attention to detail, and sense of wonder remaining entirely intact. The album's enduring power lies not only in its influence, but in the curiosity it continues to inspire, inviting listeners to step inside its world and lose themselves within it.
To mark its twenty-fifth anniversary, Black Knoll Editions presents the most complete edition of In Moll to date. Newly remastered in full analog by Rafael Anton Irisarri, this expanded release pairs the original album with a newly reworked interpretation by Markus Guentner himself, revisiting the material through the lens of twenty-five years of artistic development. The anniversary edition also features a new visual presentation designed by Guentner, offering a visual counterpart to the album's continued evolution. Together, these recordings and visuals celebrate both the enduring legacy of In Moll and its ability to reveal new dimensions twenty-five years later.
This 25th Anniversary Edition on Black Knoll Editions celebrates a recording whose quiet impact has only grown with time, preserving a work that remains as evocative, singular, and essential today as it was in 2001.
Twenty-five years after its original release, Markus Guentner's debut album In Moll returns in a special anniversary reissue on Black Knoll Editions, reaffirming its place as one of the defining ambient recordings of the early 21st century.
Released in 2001 during the formative years of Kompakt's influential Pop Ambient series, In Moll emerged from a period of rapid transformation in electronic music. New technologies, expanding digital networks, and shifting creative possibilities allowed artists to imagine entirely new sonic worlds. Amid this fertile landscape, Guentner's music stood apart. Combining delicate melodic fragments, slow-moving harmonies, and a remarkable sense of spatial depth, In Moll introduced a distinct artistic voice whose impact can still be felt a quarter-century later.
The album arrived shortly after Guentner's contributions to the inaugural Pop Ambient compilation, including the now-beloved "Regensburg 1," named after his Bavarian hometown. Those early recordings immediately captured the attention of Kompakt founders Michael Mayer and Wolfgang Voigt. Recalling his first encounter with the music, Mayer describes listening to a demo CDR with Voigt while wandering through Cologne late into the night, replaying the tracks for hours. "We knew that we had found something outrageously beautiful and we wanted the whole world to listen."
Across its running time, In Moll unfolds like a series of dreamlike landscapes, inviting the listener into a world that feels both familiar and strangely other. Bells, hisses, distant textures, and slow-moving bass tones drift through vast expanses of atmosphere while luminous synthesizer washes seem to blur the horizon in a fine digital mist. The album's transportive qualities are matched by a remarkable sense of compositional discipline. Every gesture feels deliberate, every texture carefully placed. Balancing warmth and melancholy with restraint, Guentner created a body of work that rewards both close listening and complete surrender.
Reflecting on the album twenty-five years later, Wolfgang Voigt describes Guentner as "one of the first, but also one of the most important ambient artists" associated with Kompakt, calling his music "an integral, timeless part of the long history of pop ambient." Music critic and former Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Mark Richardson, who reviewed In Moll upon its original release, similarly noted that the album "marked the arrival of an important new voice," and today regards it as "one of the finest ambient releases of the decade."
The album's influence continues to extend far beyond its original audience. For many listeners, In Moll served as an entry point into a new understanding of what ambient music could be. Black Knoll boss Rafael Anton Irisarri first encountered the album shortly after its release in 2001. "It immediately opened a door to a world of music I didn't know existed," he recalls. "At a time when I was still discovering my own creative voice, Markus showed me entirely new possibilities for what electronic music could communicate." Simply put, "The Sight Below would not have existed without In Moll paving the way."
Far from a historical curiosity, In Moll continues to feel strikingly contemporary. What once sounded futuristic now feels timeless, its patient pacing, attention to detail, and sense of wonder remaining entirely intact. The album's enduring power lies not only in its influence, but in the curiosity it continues to inspire, inviting listeners to step inside its world and lose themselves within it.
To mark its twenty-fifth anniversary, Black Knoll Editions presents the most complete edition of In Moll to date. Newly remastered in full analog by Rafael Anton Irisarri, this expanded release pairs the original album with a newly reworked interpretation by Markus Guentner himself, revisiting the material through the lens of twenty-five years of artistic development. The anniversary edition also features a new visual presentation designed by Guentner, offering a visual counterpart to the album's continued evolution. Together, these recordings and visuals celebrate both the enduring legacy of In Moll and its ability to reveal new dimensions twenty-five years later.
This 25th Anniversary Edition on Black Knoll Editions celebrates a recording whose quiet impact has only grown with time, preserving a work that remains as evocative, singular, and essential today as it was in 2001.
Ramjac Corporation, aka Paul Chivers, emerged from the UK's late-'80s rave underground, performing live at parties like Sunrise, Energy, Back to the Future, Fun-da-Mental and Synergy. Building tracks with an Atari computer and an E-MU 12-bit sampler, turning severe technical limitations into raw, elastic club music, 88-92: It is What it Was gathers music born in bedrooms then tested in front of crowds at warehouse raves, while the culture was still inventing itself without boundaries, completelyfree.
Ramjac was the original artist on Irdial Discs, following label founder Akin Fernandez's Aqua Regia, and introduced Lee Purkis' In Sync and Neuropolitique to the label, shaping the singular catalogue of that extraordinary imprint alongside Luke Slater's Morganistic, Thee J Johanz and Anthony Manning.
That legacy is now revisited by Musique Pour La Danse, with the release of a limited edition vinyl and digital edition featuring extended liner notes by Nick Halkes of XL Recordings, Positiva and Kicks Like A Mule fame, who witnessed the early Ramjac period first-hand. The release is illustrated by Grant Fulton, who created the visual identity for The Shamen's Synergy events and Orbital albums.
This album presents music written exclusively between 1988-92 and forms the foundation of Ramjac Corporation's ongoing live performances. Restored from the original floppy discs, the recordings preserve the uniquerelationship between early digital technology, sampling culture and live improvisation that defines the Ramjac approach.
Mixed for release for the first time by Trevor Lancaster-Smith, whose 90s engineering work encompassed Leftfield, Faithless and Roni Size, the album brings these compositions into sharp focus while preserving the character of the original instruments and performances. Not just a historical document, 88-92: It is What it Was is a living body of work: music created then, realised now, and continuing to surprise and evolve.
21 Bum Salute is the fifth album from Sydney experimental psych-noise-pop duo Party Dozen. The work of Kirsty Tickle (saxophone, vocals) and Jonathan Boulet (drums, loops, production), 21 Bum Salute finds the critically-acclaimed, semi-improvised duo feeling liberated - from their peers, their worries, and what the nell they're supposed to sound like now.
Emerging in 2017 from the warehouses of the Sydney experimental noise-rock scene, Party Dozen arrive at the release of their fifth album, 21 Bum Salute, in peak form. Over the course of four, increasingly perverse albums of psych-tinged rock peppered with pop noise and bursts of doom in equal measure, they've transformed from gleeful noise-makers producing DIY albums from a tiny room in Marrickville, NSW, to globe-hopping, critically-adored favourites - producing DIY albums from a tiny room in Marrickville.
As well as tours with Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tropical F*ckstorm, Algiers and more, Party Dozen had Nick Cave appear on 2022 single Macca The Mutt', collabed with New York rapper billy woods, performed an incendiary live set on KEXP, signed international deals, firstly with Temporary Residence LTD (Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky,
Along the way Party Dozen self-released their first two albums, The Living Man (2017) and Pray For Party Dozen (2020), struck a chord internationally with album The Real Work (2022), which sent them on tours of Europe, North America, Japan, China and New Zealand, while fourth LP, Crime in Australia (2024), an ode to Aussie noir that leaned beyond rock into moodier moments, repeated it.
Party Dozen recorded, mixed and mastered 21 Bum Salute completely themselves, over a three month span. Inspired by spooky "old recordings" as well as the primal impulses of acts like ESG and Bikini Kill, 21 Bum Salute - named after a peculiar, larrikin ritual in Australia's arid Northern Territory - condenses consecutive years of jam sessions, loops and improvisations into just over half an hour's worth of fizzing, strutting, striking sonics from the fringes.
21 Bum Salute is the fifth album from Sydney experimental psych-noise-pop duo Party Dozen. The work of Kirsty Tickle (saxophone, vocals) and Jonathan Boulet (drums, loops, production), 21 Bum Salute finds the critically-acclaimed, semi-improvised duo feeling liberated - from their peers, their worries, and what the nell they're supposed to sound like now.
Emerging in 2017 from the warehouses of the Sydney experimental noise-rock scene, Party Dozen arrive at the release of their fifth album, 21 Bum Salute, in peak form. Over the course of four, increasingly perverse albums of psych-tinged rock peppered with pop noise and bursts of doom in equal measure, they've transformed from gleeful noise-makers producing DIY albums from a tiny room in Marrickville, NSW, to globe-hopping, critically-adored favourites - producing DIY albums from a tiny room in Marrickville.
As well as tours with Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tropical F*ckstorm, Algiers and more, Party Dozen had Nick Cave appear on 2022 single Macca The Mutt', collabed with New York rapper billy woods, performed an incendiary live set on KEXP, signed international deals, firstly with Temporary Residence LTD (Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky,
Along the way Party Dozen self-released their first two albums, The Living Man (2017) and Pray For Party Dozen (2020), struck a chord internationally with album The Real Work (2022), which sent them on tours of Europe, North America, Japan, China and New Zealand, while fourth LP, Crime in Australia (2024), an ode to Aussie noir that leaned beyond rock into moodier moments, repeated it.
Party Dozen recorded, mixed and mastered 21 Bum Salute completely themselves, over a three month span. Inspired by spooky "old recordings" as well as the primal impulses of acts like ESG and Bikini Kill, 21 Bum Salute - named after a peculiar, larrikin ritual in Australia's arid Northern Territory - condenses consecutive years of jam sessions, loops and improvisations into just over half an hour's worth of fizzing, strutting, striking sonics from the fringes.
Long before streaming services, podcasts, or even the compact disc, there was Tellus—a radically ambitious publication that imagined recorded sound as an exhibition space. Founded in 1983 in downtown New York, Tellus transformed the humble audio cassette into a magazine, commissioning and publishing new works by musicians, composers, visual artists, poets, writers, choreographers, and performers who were reshaping the boundaries of contemporary art. Each issue invited listeners into a world where no wave, industrial music, spoken word, Fluxus performance, electroacoustic composition, downtown pop, conceptual art, and avant-garde experimentation could coexist on equal footing. More than forty years later, Earth Libraries proudly presents TELLUS: The Audio Cassette Magazine Anthology Vol. 1, the first comprehensive anthology devoted to the groundbreaking publication. The story of Tellus begins, fittingly, at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street. There, in 1983, visual artist Joseph Nechvatal, curator Claudia Gould, and composer Carol Parkinson conceived an entirely new kind of publication. Portable cassette players were transforming how people experienced music, and the trio saw an opportunity to use the cassette itself as a curatorial medium—one capable of circulating work that traditional record labels, galleries, and magazines simply couldn't accommodate. Early recordings by Sonic Youth and Liquid Liquid sit alongside works by James Tenney, George Brecht, Takehisa Kosugi, Carol Parkinson, Y Pants, Live Skull, Shelley Hirsch, Lenny Pickett, Paul Dresher, Gregory Whitehead, and dozens of other artists whose work helped define one of the most fertile creative communities of the era. For Earth Libraries, restoring Tellus represents a continuation of the label's commitment to preserving overlooked musical histories. Working from the original cassette masters, every recording on TELLUS: The Audio Cassette Magazine Anthology Vol. 1 has been carefully restored and newly mast
A torrent of brilliance released from the fingertips. The art of the piano trio by a giant of arrangement.
In 1968, Norio Maeda, the genius arranger once described as being able to “write different scores with his right and left hands at the same time,” welcomed his close musical allies Takeshi Inomata and Tatsuro Takimoto and took on the piano head-on in his first piano trio work as a pianist. This album brings together the refined melodies of the new mainstream style that led the jazz scene at the time, experimental elements using prepared piano, and even a strikingly inventive recording approach in which as many as seven microphones were placed inside the piano. With the outstanding structural power of a composer and arranger and the sharp instincts of a performer woven together at a high level, this is an important work that deserves to be engraved in the history of Japanese jazz.
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Amir ElSaffar has achieved international renown for his work combining the Maqam of Iraq and the Arab world with jazz. With Ashwaaq, he displays a new facet of his work with a composition for string quartet, santur, and vocalist Khaled AlHafez, a master of the musical tradition of Aleppo, Syria. This dialogue between AlHafez’s warm voice and interpretive style that blends rigor and grace and string quartet explores the microtonal resonances of the maqam and the possibilities of a polyphony rooted in Arab traditions.
The texts come from Turjuman Al-Ashwaaq (Translator of Desires) a collection of mystical and ecstatic love poems written by the revered 12th century Sufi mystic, Ibn Arabi, and explore the universal power of love, the inner quest, and the search for unity in the diversity of the world.
Ashwaaq is a captivating moment of celebration, where poetic and musical heritages intersect beyond cultural and disciplinary boundaries.
MARGOT is a violinist, composer and producer defined by a deeply emotional orchestral language shaped by classical training and a highly personal approach to string writing. She has collaborated with artists including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and St. Vincent. Trained from the age of four in North Florida, she moved to New York at nineteen, where her musical world expanded through collaborations and exposure to new scenes, alongside the discovery of artists such as Radiohead, Sigur Rós and Björk via their string arrangements. In 2020, she met pianist and composer Juan Villacrez in Colombia, leading to the creation of the instrumental album The Apartment on Third Street (over 13 million streams) and a long-term creative collaboration.
Her new album The Villain presents a major new artistic statement: a cinematic, immersive instrumental work unfolding across ten movements, shaped by profound personal loss and recorded live in Colombia with a minimum of takes and no overproduction. The physical edition of the record is designed by NYC-based artist Bráulio Amado (known for his work with André 3000, Harry Styles, Frank Ocean and Róisín Murphy), reinforcing the album’s position as a complete visual and sonic object. MARGOT’s writing, violin playing and emotional depth resonate throughout, particularly through arrangements in which she layers her own performances, creating a sound world that is at once intimate, restless and constantly evolving.
"The Word II" became known worldwide after Mac DeMarco referenced it in "Chamber of Reflection" and HUNCHO JACK, the unit formed by Travis Scott and Quavo, sampled it in "How U Feel." This reissue on color vinyl presents one of Shigeo Sekito’s representative works, including that track. It is one of the world’s most listened-to Electone works, attracting attention from a wide range of listeners across hip-hop, Balearic, dream pop, and beyond.
Three late works by Éliane Radigue, composed in intimate dialogue with singular instrumental voices Charles Curtis and Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, reveal the extraordinary technical control and sensitivity required to realize Radigue’s radically reduced sonic language. Presented here for the first time on LP, these works stand as a landmark document of the composer’s late acoustic practice, where microscopic shifts in tone, texture, and resonance become the music itself.
Éliane Radigue (composer)
Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon)
Charles Curtis (cello)
Forty years of cassette releases, pressed for the first time on vinyl
First of two instalments exploring the previously unreleased sonic archives of one of Poland’s most enigmatic
living artists - with its first volume focused on his deep listening practice and spiritual reverie (recorded 1990–2013)
The last time Andrzej Dudek-Dürer took a banknote bearing the face of the Polish anarchist Jarosław Dąbrowski from his pocket to trade it for a pair of shoes was in 1969. He bought them for 120zł - the equivalent of 100€ today - and never replaced them since then. Only rebuilt them, year after year, drawing a needle and thread through the leather each time it split, closing one wound before the next one opened. It became a ritual of precision, stitching a record of another year into their soles.
That same year, in Wrocław, he arrived at a conclusion that would recalibrate everything that followed. Convinced he was the reincarnation of Albrecht Dürer, he adopted the surname Dudek-Dürer, stopped cutting his hair and began wearing the same garments every day. It was the first ritual of many, though he wouldn't have called it that yet. Look closely enough, over the decades, and it is always the same gesture, returning in different material: hair growing in a single unbroken strand, a needle drawing thread through leather, sitar strings pulled taut across a neck he built with his own hands and magnetic tape spooling forward inside the cassette boxes stacked against his walls.
None of this began in a vacuum. Dudek-Dürer emerged from the Wrocław neo-avant-garde, in a Polish art world where an exhibition could be cancelled overnight by the stroke of a censor's pen. In 1973, his exhibition Auto-crucifixion was shut down by the state, and for a time he found himself blocked from exhibiting his own art at all - the one force in his life that ever came close to cutting the thread.
He seemed to experience it differently. In 1974, after long, patient research into sitar craftsmanship, he built his first prototype with his brother, a knowledgeable luthier. In 1978, in a smoked-out jazz club, he took his first steps into sound recording with the unreleased album Jazz From Underground with his first band. By 1979, recognition started to travel further than he could.
Turning toward Far-Eastern philosophy, meditation and the idea of reincarnation was another language of freedom for him. It was a way of claiming an inner territory the state could not reach, a border it could not close. Mail Art served a parallel function, reaching further out: in a country that restricted travel and expression, sending and receiving art through the postal system became an act of quiet rebellion.
The body, in his understanding, is only an envelope readied for constant transformation. From this came Metaphysical Telepathy: during the years he could not leave Poland, he treated that confinement as a rehearsal room, sending his mind out ahead on the same thread his body would later follow. Living Sculpture grew from the same root with performances of stillness beside static art objects, until the boundary between the object and the man beside it simply dissolved. Camera Meditation extended the same instinct into photography: a shutter click flattening three dimensions into two so that a single instant could be held forever. Inspired by the pioneers of self-portrait photography like Robert Cornelius, he used it to document time itself, and kept explaining to me: "You know. This is not about vanity. This is about observing time passing.”
The isolation did not end suddenly. It ended the way his own philosophy had already predicted it would, from the inside first. Mail Art quietly solved the problem politics couldn't. Correspondence built during years of confinement slowly worked its way through doors the state itself had kept locked. Contacts made through folded paper and stamps became invitations. Ultimately, invitations became passports.
In 1983 he made his first trip outside Poland, to Germany, in search of the audio technology he couldn’t get his hands on before. In 1985, he was invited by the Indian embassy in Poland to give a sitar concert on an instrument he had spent a decade patiently stringing together - half sitar, half tanpura, built from patience and determination. After the collapse of the People's Republic of Poland, the travels kept unspooling: South Korea, then Mexico, then Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and the United States - each stop leaving behind its own small knot of tape, tied off and carried home.
In the decades since, recognition arrived at the same unhurried pace: he conducted workshops at UC Berkeley, served as vice-president for artistic affairs of the Union of Polish Art Photographers and the Union of Polish Visual Artists between 2010 and 2014 and received the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis. His visual work gradually entered collections including the National Museums of Warsaw, the Stedelijk Museum, Tate Modern, MoMA and the Venice Biennale. His musical practice, by contrast, never found that kind of room - left to circulate quietly, sharing his cassette tapes directly, waiting for someone willing to follow it further.
It took months before I could find a way to reach Andrzej Dudek-Dürer - his presence online is very close to nonexistent. Surprisingly, LinkedIn turned out to be the only door still open, a faintly absurd irony given everything else about him. I packed the strict minimum for a three-day trip and an empty notebook and made my way to Wrocław. His headquarters sits in the neighbourhood of Grabyszyn: a two-storey pre-war house that has belonged to his family for generations. The man who opened the door was long-haired, long-bearded, in his trademark leather shoes and patched jeans. We sat in his living room, in front of a computer where decades of recordings sat organised in cryptically named files, surrounded by books and objects that had arrived one layer at a time, leaving room for only two chairs in the middle. His shoes sat by the door, rebuilt so many times they had become their own quiet sculpture. Cassette tapes filled boxes against the walls, almost unlabelled, each one a spool of thread holding decades of sound that had never once been asked for, until now.
I listened for hours: meditating in front of strangers on the porch of a Seoul temple until the tourists stopped taking photos and simply waited with him; a stand-off with border guards at the US–Mexico crossing over an instrument they couldn't identify and didn't trust; a session with the Stockhausen family that he still, decades later, describes like it happened last week. All of it interrupted, occasionally, by the smell of soup boiling and fresh bread warming on the ceramic stove. After two days, it felt like being handed the end of a very long thread and asked, gently, to keep following it. I left with a USB drive holding his full discography, signed with his unmistakable signature.
Astral Meditations From A Living Statue is a length of that thread, drawn out from the boxes stacked against his walls - recordings gathered from different rooms, different countries, different decades. This first record breathes slowly: incense-thick, meditative, built for stillness. A cutting-edge séance in outer space where machines learn how to dream.
It begins with the neo-classical improvisations of Andrzej, space-delayed, recorded at Klub Muzyki i Literatury in Wrocław in 2002. 'When..So' opens the curtains with a deep-rooted meditation accompanied by slow-decaying piano figures illuminated by a candle-lit spirit gathering.
Los Angeles, 1990: a dormant villa, a grand piano, the voice of Bonnie Barnett. 'Exception' is captured in a single room, in a single afternoon - voice and keys circling each other, neither one leading, until the silence between the notes starts to feel like the instrument.
'The Meta...' and 'Tired Of...', recorded at Studio Morandi in Ponte Nossa, Italy, in 1992, settle into a sitar drone built entirely from patience - overtones stacking and beating against each other, strung by a man who never once set foot in India. 'Mastery Of...' follows, recorded the same year at Studio Suski in Łomianki, pushing that same hum further still, until pitch dissolves into a spectral reverie. 'Transcendental Sound', from 2000, closes the first record in a slow bath of celestial frequency - better heard beside the shores of the Odra river.
More than fifty years after deciding that a life could become an artwork, Andrzej Dudek-Dürer continues to inhabit that decision. His shoes keep wearing thin against the earth's crust. His hair keeps growing, one strand at a time. His cassette tapes keep spooling in the dark of their boxes.
Now the thread finds its last shape: a single unbroken groove, spiralling inward from the outer edge to the label at the centre. Never cut - the way nothing else in his life ever was. Drop the needle and it will find that groove and follow it, the same way a needle once followed leather, once followed a border it couldn't cross, once followed string into an instrument that didn't exist until he built it. This record is the other end of a thread that has been travelling for fifty years. For the length of both sides, it rests here, in your hands. This is a timeless proof that the Lord of the New Age was never lost."
The chart-topping, multi-Platinum and Ivor Novello-winning Passenger returns with a new album ‘Wild Love’. Passenger - real name Mike Rosenberg - was inspired by recently (and unexpectedly) becoming a husband and father. ‘Wild Love’ captures the whirlwind of emotions as their relationship developed - the excitement, the upheaval, the trepidation and the joy. Passenger says, “Going from a working relationship to a romantic one is scary. The older you get, the more of the spikier sides of love you’ve seen. Things go sour for all sorts of reasons and with someone so close, the stakes are so much higher. ‘Wild Love’ is the title track because it sums up the theme of the album. Do you give in to your doubts and do nothing, or do you face your fears and go for it? I wrote the song as I was realising that the choice was obvious.” While the ‘Wild Love’ album charts the couple’s personal experiences - taking the plunge, cherished early memories together, the realisation that this new love could be one that lasts - the single ‘It Was Gonna Be You’ is an outlier from a previous chapter in his life, a story of discovering that relationships can rapidly unravel. It is set to a classic Passenger sound of bright, buoyant melody coloured with flourishes of piano and Americana-tinged guitar twangs. The uplifting, energised atmosphere of the ‘Wild Love’ album opens with its most direct moment, the infectious ode-to-change of the live favourite ‘Boomerang’. The title track and centrepiece ‘Wild Love’ will also be familiar from shows, a delicate piano-based country song which taps into the elation and fear that came as the couple’s relationship took shape. There are sonic surprises too, such as the way in which the frisky ‘Caution To The Wind’ draws on both ‘70s Elton John and the insistent keys of Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s ‘The Way It Is’, or the ‘80s synth embellishments on ‘Lightning Strikes’. A rare cover is also included with his take on Taylor Swift’s ‘Willow’, the song that soundtracked the couple’s blossoming love.
The chart-topping, multi-Platinum and Ivor Novello-winning Passenger returns with a new album ‘Wild Love’. Passenger - real name Mike Rosenberg - was inspired by recently (and unexpectedly) becoming a husband and father. ‘Wild Love’ captures the whirlwind of emotions as their relationship developed - the excitement, the upheaval, the trepidation and the joy. Passenger says, “Going from a working relationship to a romantic one is scary. The older you get, the more of the spikier sides of love you’ve seen. Things go sour for all sorts of reasons and with someone so close, the stakes are so much higher. ‘Wild Love’ is the title track because it sums up the theme of the album. Do you give in to your doubts and do nothing, or do you face your fears and go for it? I wrote the song as I was realising that the choice was obvious.” While the ‘Wild Love’ album charts the couple’s personal experiences - taking the plunge, cherished early memories together, the realisation that this new love could be one that lasts - the single ‘It Was Gonna Be You’ is an outlier from a previous chapter in his life, a story of discovering that relationships can rapidly unravel. It is set to a classic Passenger sound of bright, buoyant melody coloured with flourishes of piano and Americana-tinged guitar twangs. The uplifting, energised atmosphere of the ‘Wild Love’ album opens with its most direct moment, the infectious ode-to-change of the live favourite ‘Boomerang’. The title track and centrepiece ‘Wild Love’ will also be familiar from shows, a delicate piano-based country song which taps into the elation and fear that came as the couple’s relationship took shape. There are sonic surprises too, such as the way in which the frisky ‘Caution To The Wind’ draws on both ‘70s Elton John and the insistent keys of Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s ‘The Way It Is’, or the ‘80s synth embellishments on ‘Lightning Strikes’. A rare cover is also included with his take on Taylor Swift’s ‘Willow’, the song that soundtracked the couple’s blossoming love.
With the stunning Planes In Reverse, Sascha Funke, the Berlin-born producer and DJ, and long-time member of the Kompakt family, releases his first album in almost a decade, since 2017’s Lotos Land. It’s a welcome return for one of the most eloquent and elegant producers in electronic and dance music, someone who’s always been able to say more with less, and the ten tracks here, moving effortlessly between techno, house, minimalism, disco house, and home listening tunes, are all gorgeously sculpted miniatures. With guest appearances from partner Julienne Dessagne (Fantastic Twins), with whom Funke has also worked in Saschienne, there’s something homely and family about it, too; a family of sounds, a home of tone. There’s also something consummate about Planes In Reverse, as though Sascha Funke has perfected the album format. There’s no flab here, no excess – it plays out like a perfectly designed experience, ten tracks, coming in under fifty minutes, an album where every moment matters.
It’s full of variety, but everything has the unmistakable Funke thumbprint, one that was developed during the late ‘90s / early ‘00s minimal techno and microhouse moment, but which was always open to other ideas and other sounds, too. Planes In Reverse came together quickly for Funke: “Last winter, I had two or three new tracks, which gave me a core feeling: ‘Ah, this could be the direction of something like an album.’ Sometimes it can be very easy that you wrap it up and then it becomes something coherent and solid. This happened within two or three months; it was very fast and direct.” Everything fell into place – the ten tracks revealed themselves, the album sat together as a whole, and the final piece of the puzzle was returning home again to Kompakt, who have supported Sascha Funke from the very start, releasing his first single, “Campus”, back in 1999.
Planes In Reverse opens stealthily with “What You See”, where rhythms percolate and bass prowls while gaseous textures fill the sonic spectrum. It’s also the first appearance of Fantastic Twins on the album; here, she speaks a hypnotic mantra, a prelude to the title track, where Dessagne has a pure pop moment, her voice ecstatic and vibrant. Indeed, Planes In Reverse plays out like thesis and antithesis ending in synthesis, the tracks nestling next to each other even as they shuttle between sounds, genres, perspectives. There are some beautiful moments dropped throughout Planes In Reverse – the heavenly textures that make the title track feel so cloud-bound; the glassy and orbital tones that drop from the skies through the disco house inspired “Karat”; the clamour and clatter of hyper-edited voices shuffling through “Splitter”; or the field recordings of Sascha’s son football training session that drop “Zockers” into a different place and space, slowly giving way to a beautifully paced electro-pop mantra. “In Germany,when the kids play a computer game, or when they play football, we describe it as zocken. They’re the players, they’re the Zockers.“ Funke explains.
Planes In Reverse winds down with the beautiful “Kruso”, where ticklish, loving arpeggios careen around the room, and drift-work chords shimmer and shuttle between your ears. It’s a perfect comedown to an album that feels breathes in and out at an organic pace, nothing above 130 BPM, everything sitting together just so. Indeed, that’s the feeling you take away from Planes In Reverse; it sums up the spirit of Sascha Funke productions perfectly, while also existing beautifully as its own world dreamt unto itself. It’s Sascha Funke down to the very essence. Nothing unnecessary, nothing extraneous: Pure Funke.
A soaring new chapter unfolds from the forthcoming Elements Of Life album with the release of “Soar,” an uplifting and deeply moving collaboration featuring the incomparable Lisa Fischer. Written by Josh Milan and Louie Vega and produced by 2SoulFusion—Louie Vega and Josh Milan—the song is a powerful testament to resilience, transformation, and the limitless possibilities that emerge when spirit, soul, and music unite.
Built upon a rich tapestry of live musicianship, “Soar” embodies the signature sound that has made Elements Of Life a beloved musical movement around the world. At its core is Lisa Fischer’s breathtaking vocal performance, delivering a message of hope, elevation, and self-discovery with the emotional depth and conviction that have made her one of the most revered voices of her generation.
At the heart of “Soar” is a message of encouragement, resilience, and unconditional support. Through its uplifting lyrics and soaring melody, the song speaks to anyone navigating life's uncertainties while striving to become their fullest self. Lines such as “Clouds hang low, but the sky's still wide” acknowledge the challenges we all face, while the recurring refrain, “I just want you to soar,” serves as a powerful affirmation of faith in another person's journey. Equally moving is the song's central sentiment, “The more you do for you, the better I feel,” expressing a selfless form of love that celebrates growth, healing, and personal fulfillment. Universal in its message yet deeply personal in its spirit, “Soar” reminds us that one of the greatest gifts we can offer is the encouragement to rise, evolve, and embrace our own potential.
The production blends organic instrumentation with sophisticated arrangements, creating a timeless soundscape that feels both expansive and intimate. Multi Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian McBride anchors the composition with his masterful upright bass work, while Josh Milan's lush keyboards, piano, organ, clavinet, and atmospheric textures provide the song's harmonic foundation. Live drums from Tony Cintron and vibrant percussion from Luisito Quintero infuse the track with an irresistible pulse, while Ivan Renta's expressive soprano saxophone solo adds another layer of emotional richness, and a tasteful guitar groove by Sherrod Barnes.
The song's message is elevated further through a powerful vocal ensemble featuring background vocals from Lisa Fischer, Dawn Tallman, Ramona Dunlap, and Lea Lorien, creating moments of communion and uplift that echo the song's central theme of hope, growth, and believing in the possibilities that lie ahead. For Louie Vega and Josh Milan, “Soar” represents another defining moment in their longstanding creative partnership. Through Elements Of Life, they have continually blurred the boundaries between house music, soul, jazz, Latin rhythms, gospel, and global influences, creating music that resonates as deeply on the dance floor as it does in the heart. “Soar” continues that tradition, offering listeners a song that inspires movement, reflection, and renewal.
Recorded at Honeycomb Studios in Pennsylvania and Manhattan Center Studios in New York City, and mixed at Daddy's Workshop in New Jersey, the production benefits from the expertise of recording engineers Yas Inoue & Josh Milan, with final mastering by the Maestro of mastering Herb “Pump” Powers for PM Mastering.
As anticipation builds for the forthcoming Elements Of Life album slated for February 2027, “Soar” offers a powerful glimpse into the project's next evolution— a celebration of musical excellence, spiritual connection, and the enduring power of song to lift us higher.
Wewantsounds is proud to present the first official release of a legendary 1977 concert capturing Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Leon Thomas in their only documented performance together. Recorded live on March 5, 1977, at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the performance featured the three musicians playing an immersive hypnotic set, joined for part of the evening by the rest of Oregon. Long circulating among a few Don Cherry fans, the full concert is now available as a deluxe, remastered 2-LP gatefold set featuring Moki Cherry artwork and new liner notes by Jason Weiss—licensed by the Don Cherry Estate and producer James Quinlan.
Don Cherry’s huge influence has steadily grown over the years, as fans and new generations of listeners continue to uncover the vast breadth of his global musical vision. Sunrise captures Cherry during a particularly fertile late-1970s period, when the American jazz trumpeter blended global and Eastern spiritual concepts into his "Organic Music" philosophy, drawing deeply from Eastern and African traditions. Moving fluidly between trumpet, the West African doussn'gouni (a traditional hunter's harp from Mali), bamboo flutes, percussion, and vocals, Cherry creates a deeply resonant world music soundscape.
Recorded live on March 5, 1977, at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the show took place just a month after Don Cherry participated in the recording of Collin Walcott's ECM album Grazing Dreams. With Walcott playing alongside Cherry and vocalist Leon Thomas, bringing his unmistakable yodel-style vocal approach—and joined for part of the night by the rest of Oregon (Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless and Glen Moore)—the performance stands as a stunning, hypnotic forerunner to the formation of CODONA. The newly remastered audio is so vivid and intimate that it feels as though you are sitting directly in the room with the musicians.
The release also serves as a vibrant homage to Don and Moki Cherry’s creative partnership, featuring a reproduction of Moki’s striking 1975 Mandala tapestry on the front cover.
The concert was produced by James Quinlan, a central pillar of the U.S. Jazz and World Music scene who worked as a sound engineer for Carla Bley, booked Fela Kuti’s major U.S. tour in the 1980s, and went on to direct the Creative Music Studio and found Miami’s Rhythm Foundation. In the album's liner notes, Quinlan reflects in conversation with writer Jason Weiss on the surprise magic of that night:
"Don brought Leon Thomas with him... as a guest, unannounced. It was not part of the advertisement or contract... I don't know of any other time that they recorded or performed together. So, that was completely unique... The audience had no idea what was coming... It was a sound that was just mesmerizing, almost like a mantra."
Licensed by the Don Cherry Estate and James Quinlan, Sunrise is available as a deluxe 2-LP gatefold set featuring new liner notes by Jason Weiss—an essential document in the rich, ever-evolving Don Cherry musical journey.
Immersive, roots-infused dub-reggae power from Jamaica meets heavyweight instrumentation from Denmark on a landmark collaborative album out now via Recall Reality.
Rooted in the rich traditions of classic Jamaican sound yet pulsing with a hypnotic, contemporary organic weight, Signs of the Time brings together the evocative vocal artistry of rising roots talent Azizzi Romeo and the master craftsmanship of Denmark's formidable instrumental 11 piece band Guiding Star Orchestra. Built for sound systems and vinyl purists alike, featuring lush tape saturation, spring reverbs, and spacious dub mixes.
Released on Recall Reality, the album is a masterclass in modern roots reggae and deep dub dynamics. Rather than relying on rigid digital presets, Signs of the Time champions warm analogue textures, sprawling horn arrangements, and rolling basslines that echo the golden age of Studio One, Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee and Channel One while carving out an entirely fresh, meditative space for the listener.
Azizzi Romeo carries forward a legendary musical lineage as the son of the late roots icon Max Romeo, bringing a captivating blend of spiritual urgency, conscious lyricism, and soulful conviction to the microphone. His delivery cuts straight through the mix, offering profound reflections on modern society, unity, and resilience in a changing world.
Backing him are the Guiding Star Orchestra, renowned for their authentic analog production ethos, deep-crate sensibilities, and musicianship that treats the mixing board as an instrument in its own right. The result is a seamless symbiotic project where every bubbling organ skank, hypnotic drum drop, and reverberating tape delay serves the song's core message.
To bring the record home, producer CHLLNGR spent a week in the spring working alongside UK dub maestro in his London studio - Prince Fatty, who mixed the entire album. Fatty invited legendary drummer Winston "Horseman” Williams into the sessions, and Horseman percussion added the final glue to the record.
Track highlights:
"Signs of the Time": Azizzi is joined by his late father, the legendary Max Romeo, on a prophetic warning of what awaits the world if we don't soon unite in peace and love.
"Thanks and Praises": An anthem of gratitude for everything life brings, and of rising up even when others want to see us fail.
"Jah Jah Disciples": A meditation on following Jah, and the strength that faith gives in the midst of adversity.
Signs of the Time is available now on Vinyl LP and Digital streaming platforms via Recall Reality.
*Originally pressed in 2021 - this is a brand new master and cut.**
In partnership with Analogue Foundation, Oshu Records is proud to present the exclusive vinyl repress of "Laroyê" in a thick cardboard tip-on gatefold jacket on 2x 180g vinyl.
Acclaimed Hungarian, Berlin-based producer, composer and pianist Àbáse (AKA Szabolcs Bognár) returns, sharing a special, 5 anniversary remaster of his breakthrough project 'Laroyê'. Releasing on Friday 1 May via Bridge The Gap & Oshu Records, this sensitive exploration of Afro-Brazilian culture originally began as an audio diary, documenting Szabolcs’ travels and collaborations in Brazil through a collection of voice memos, fragmented beats, sketches and field recordings. As his journey progressed, and his collaborations and research deepened, the music project started to take on its own life:
"Laroyê evolved through weeks and months of research and collaborations into the album that it is now. That means that all the sessions were done in different apartments, small studios, often with borrowed equipment, which all adds to the character, but makes the creation of a coherent sound a challenge. Benjamin Tierney, Erik Breuer and Analogue Foundation did an incredible job with the mixes and with this new remaster. I truly believe that we are able to hear the tracks in a new light, with even more depth and clarity."
Coming from the West African Yoruban language, Àbáse stands for "collaboration" – a key element of the music perfectly encapsulated on 'Laroyê'. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Àbáse spent five months working with diverse artists, from young talents to veterans of the Brazilian scene including Letieres Leite, Luciane Dom, Dofono d'Omolu, Afrojazz and more. The album explores the rich heritage of afro-brasilian culture through samba, MPB and Candomblé, mixing these with broken beat, hip hop and afrobeat, creating a contemporary homage to the classic Brazilian sound. Szabolcs shares:
"Despite already leading and managing musical projects that are close to my hearth, I always felt that one day I would like to start a solo project, where I could take full responsibility for the artistic direction and the music would reflect a truly personal vision. In 2017, I decided to take five months to fulfil a childhood dream and travel to Brazil to expand my creative horizon and expose myself to new influences."
An album standout is the bass-heavy, afro-brazilian ‘Agangatolú, which Àbáse describes as "best exemplifying the story and concept of Laroye as a collaborative effort - a research project exploring the rich heritage of Afro Brazilian culture through my own lens." The track features singers and percussion players Jadson Xabla and Gabriel Santana - two artists based out of one of the oldest terreiros (houses of worship) in Bahia, whilst drummer Jorge Dubman is an integral part of one of the most famous afrobeat bands from Salvador IFA. The contributions of one of Szabolcsoldest collaborators - Hungarian flautist Fanni Zahar - also made the track a full-circle moment.
On a quest for cosmic grooves of unity, Àbáses music pulls from an eclectic blend of global reference points, including modal jazz, Hungarian folk, West African, Brazilian, hiphop and underground electronic music. His work has drawn widespread critical acclaim from the likes of MOJO, Songlines, Soulection and The Guardian, and been supported by key tastemakers including Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova and BAMBII. As a keyboard player, Szabolcs has also collaborated with the likes of Wayne Snow, Dele Sosimi, Patti Smith, Emmanuel Wilkins, Gulty Simpson and Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange.
'Laroyê' (2026 Remaster) will release on Friday 1st May via Bridge The Gap & Oshu Records.
Power Ballads and The Wash is the sophomore album from London-based multi instrumentalist James Howard, due for release on 6th November 2026 via boutique
label Faith & Industry. James is known as founder of critically acclaimed 2010’s band Blue House and collaborator with luminaries such as Rozi Plain, Dana Gavanski, Kate Bollinger and Alabaster Deplume.
For Power Ballads and The Wash James has worked with producer Mike Lindsay, co-founder of folktronica group Tunng. Power Ballads and The Wash follows James's debut solo album Peek-A-Boo, released to great acclaim in April 2023.
All eight songs of Power Ballads and The Wash began life as intimate live takes of
guitar or piano and voice, recorded at Howard’s studio in Deptford, south London.
Steeped in the energy of the local environment, each session was preceded by a visit to the Thames to ask for its muddy blessing, with the DLR rumbling by. The sessions at Lindsay’s Margate studio built a widescreen world around Howard’s original performances, from the restless Eventide vocal treatments on Seven Seconds to the Hollywood string samples of The Moon In The Movies and the Moog bass that quietly anchors the record throughout. Howard also praises violinist Magdalena MacClean's (Caroline) contributions.
Beneath this gentle absurdity, though, lies something quietly powerful. Howard’s
song-writing explores the notion that, despite our ever-shortening attention spans,
there is still the possibility of quiet reflection and the discovery therein of revelations hidden in plain sight. The world of these lucid dream-esque reveries is unmistakably London. The record began with a wing-and-a-prayer visit to the Thames, and ends there too: the wash from the Thames Clipper / nearly breaks through your shoe / like some feelings sometimes do.
A quiet intensity permeates Chantal Michelle’s music, like a veiled flame. Even at its most spare and delicate, an undulating tension unsettles the ear through wavering microtonal interference and uncanny spatial juxtaposition. She takes seriously the mandate of the composer to foster new relationships between various types of sounds, bringing together disparate field recordings, instrumental stems, and the sounds of circuitry in unheard configurations. Resolution is elusive, in its place a sense of oblong cyclicality and prickly uncertainty. When the veil is pulled back, we find more depth, more complexity, and more mystery.
Unit of Heart, Michelle’s second album of 2026, presents two interrelated pieces that highlight diverging compositional modes. Here she brings in two key collaborators: Patrick Shiroishi, who contributes flutes and saxophones throughout, and poet Funto Omojola, whose words and voice bookend the title composition. Both compositions unfold gradually, but where the album’s a-side “Sudden Oceans” presents a minimal tonal palette focused entirely on the subtle grain of wind instruments, “Unit of Heart” proceeds linearly, moving through passages of synthesizer, environmental recordings, and full-cheeked wails of saxophone. Both encourage a state of focused listening as the scope of the music deepens and widens.
“Sudden Oceans” allows the listener to hover in rippling currents of air, breath overlapping breath in a shimmering patchwork. All flutes and saxophones on the piece are played by Shiroishi, which are molded by Michelle into a pattern that resembles the flow of tidal waters, surging and receding moment to moment as the tonal density increases. Expansive and recursive, it reflects both the restorative awe and eerie disquiet of encountering the sublime. The first and last sounds we hear are the gentle rush of unmediated breath as Shiroishi connects and disconnects from his flute.
Michelle’s skill at presenting the familiar as preternatural comes to the fore on “Unit of Heart, ” one of her most ambitious works. Omojola’s voice begins with a melody that could be a lullaby, but as it’s bounced around the stereo field it takes on a haunted quality. Their poem, reprinted on the LP’s inner sleeve, hints at a similar type of transformation: “I mean this is where our mouth turns saliva into spears only a throat can recognize. ” Pads of downy synthesizer billow and are subsumed by a discordant ringing. The climactic section features atonal electronics and field recordings, first of water and then the evening call of insects, processed in such a way to transform them into pulsating bursts of noise. What we think we know about the world, what is elemental, can change with even the slightest adjustment of the lens.
Although nearly two decades after its release the legendary album Eksel by D'Arcangelo has achieved cult status, it is worth remembering that it all started in the early 90s in Rome. The twin brothers Fabrizio and Marco D'Arcangelo sculpted this electronic IDM treasure with a minimalist arsenal of hardware and analog synthesizers, achieving a raw though sophisticated sound that immediately caught the attention of Aphex Twin & Grant Wilson Claridge, Rephlex record label heads themselves.
While in 1993 and 1994 a large part of the European scene was carried away by the faster, more commercial rhythms of hardcore or eurodance, the D'Arcangelo brothers preferred to look toward the mental landscapes and abstract textures coming out of Detroit and Warp Records. By fusing the machine-like coldness of electro with melancholic melodies and complex rhythm structures, the Italian duo became one of the undisputed pioneers of braindance music in Mediterranean Europe.
Looking back, Eksel—released on Rephlex in 2007—stood as a challenge to the listening habits of its time. Positioned between mental experimentation and dancefloor functionality, the album moves effortlessly between hypnotic club contexts and intimate, detail-rich home listening. Now twenty years later, its legacy continues to resonate among collectors and lovers of analog sound. Eksel stands as proof that electronic innovation extended far beyond the major hubs of London or Berlin, strengthening the dialogue between British IDM and the Italian school, and establishing D'Arcangelo as architects of a distinctive sound.
Marco D'Arcangelo looks back on the album's origins with characteristic wit: "Eksel was conceived to celebrate our 40th Birthday. At Rephlex, they thought we should include a Roman attribute, just to remind people of our so-called 'ancestry'—which isn't really anything, but being born in Rome did sound cool. The XL in Roman numerals is 40, spelled 'Eksel'. And funnily enough, this year we are turning 60 (oh my god!), and 60 in Roman numerals is LX, spelled 'Leks'."
For this release, the partnership brings together a range of elements into a cohesive and refined sonic language. D'Arcangelo seamlessly blend leftfield electronica, avant-garde techno, and glitch, shaping a forward-thinking sound. Vintage synthesizers intertwine with crisp programmed percussion, while melodic structures interact with classic 808 rhythms. This deluxe reissue also exclusively includes RFLX1902 and Electronic Lounge, two tracks from the same era never before pressed on vinyl. The result is a warm and reflective body of work, deeply rooted in electro's legacy, yet unmistakably oriented toward the future.
Coming from deep within the city that brought us Master P’s legendary No Limit Dynasty and Lil Boosie comes an artist who uniquely encapsulates the crossing point between lowslung Hip Hop and forward thinking, emotive electronic music. 22-year-old New Orlean’s based Suicideyear AKA James Prudhomme brings his own Southern Gothic perspective to the table with new album ‘Color The Weather,’ set for release on July 6th via LuckyMe. Although not his debut album per se - 2015’s ‘Japan’ on OneOhTrix Point Never's Software label was a collection of previously released beats – ‘Color The Weather’ represents the first time Suicideyear has specifically sought to create a complete body of work, further developing different textures and sounds that were hinted on last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Hate Songs’ EP. Within these tracks lie the ghosts of Prudhomme’s past - a difficult childhood truncated in his teens by his family home burning down. When he left Baton Rouge for his new home in New Orleans he found himself further entrenched in the Southern Rap scene whilst he soaked up the avant-garde electronic music he found online. Balancing his tender instrumentation alongside some of the tightest drum programming in the game - these tracks twist and turn - new elements are built and destroyed constantly encompassing a huge emotional range. On the records’ two vocal features he expounds on this innovative and ambitious duality – Domino Records own Georgia filling the track with longing and hope whilst Prudhomme deconstructs the track around her. The Casey MQ featured ‘Said and Done’ goes further - the last third of the track slowing to a codeine induced haze paying a nod to the Chopped and Screwed sound of James youth. “Color The Weather is about the ability to build or form security after trauma/betrayal & building personal coping mechanisms to get through said traumas. Doing what it takes to control your life when powers are working against it. The total resilience of the human spirit.” James Prudhomme
In a world that buckles and cracks under our calamitous weight, something at once old and beautiful, bitter and malign, stirs just a shade below what can be seen. It had dreamt of the end of things, and tasted there sweet emptiness, but now a new hominid stench has disturbed its slumber.
So keenly it ponders, un-lidding an eye, and within each potent coil desires fester, many and urgent. And so it untangles, and organises, and lurches upwards like a whale; bloated, rotten and desperate to breathe.
Emily and Joe have caught glimpses of that which lurks beneath. As each has struggled to make sense of what they have seen, they have been dragged inexorably into a frightening new reality; a shadow world of lurid horrors, where nothing is as it ought to be. Yet they have witnessed great beauty too, a joy stark and profound, and an addiction is growing.
iO Pan is about a love for that special era in the UK dance music scene that from the late 1980s onwards mixed funk, soul, hip-hop, electro, reggae, dub and Jamaican sound system culture together with the freshest dance music coming out of Chicago, Detroit, Belgium and Italy. A unique melting pot that would lead to some of the most original and groundbreaking musical movements the world has ever seen in Bleep, Breakbeat, Hardcore, Jungle and Dub Step.
iO Pan is an artist, musician and DJ who has presented live art at the Barbican Centre, the Open Data Institute, the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths University.
As a musician, iO Pan has supported the Arctic Monkeys and worked with the Human League, and with the track ‘Forever’, reached number 5 in the Mixmag Ibiza chart.
As a DJ iO Pan was a resident for legendary Sheffield clubs Gatecrasher, The Leadmill and Plug throughout the 90s.
iO Pan now presents the full-length album When The Lid Opens on Sound Records whose roster includes KiF Productions, Benyayer, Yarni and Lara Jones.
Limen brings together two artists whose musical paths converge around a shared sensitivity to listening, resonance, and the evocative power of sound.
Recorded at Ritmo e Blu Studio during a five-day residency between spring and summer 2025, the album emerged from a series of spontaneous encounters free from predetermined structures. The pieces preserve their original form, retaining the immediacy and temporal flow of the dialogues as they first unfolded.
Subsequent interventions were conceived not as revisions, but as an exploration of the open spaces already present within the recordings—deepening what remained unspoken and extending resonances without altering the music's natural evolution.
The title, derived from the Latin word for “threshold,” reflects the nature of the project itself: a place of passage between improvisation and composition, silence and vibration, memory and imagination. Limen inhabits a suspended territory where listening becomes an experience of openness, presence, and transformation.
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Lino Capra Vaccina
Lino Capra Vaccina is one of the most distinctive voices in Italian experimental music. A percussionist, composer, and pioneer of minimalist and meditative sound practices, he first emerged in the early 1970s as a founding member of the influential group Aktuala, whose visionary fusion of ancient traditions, improvisation, and contemporary research anticipated what would later become known as world music.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Vaccina has cultivated a unique artistic language centred on vibration, resonance, and the transformative power of sound. His landmark 1978 album Antico Adagio remains a touchstone of European minimalism, while his collaborations have included figures such as Franco Battiato, Juri Camisasca, Markus Stockhausen, Keith Tippett, Paolo Tofani, and many others.
Whether working with percussion, piano, electronics, or voice, Vaccina's music seeks a state of suspension and contemplation. His compositions unfold as immersive sonic environments whereancient echoes and contemporary sensibilities meet, inviting listeners into an experience that is at once intimate, spiritual, and timeless.
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Luca Formentini
Luca Formentini is an Italian composer, sound artist, and improviser whose work unfolds at the intersection of experimentation, atmosphere, and deep listening. Active since the late 1990s, he has developed a highly personal language in which guitar, voice, field recordings, and electroacoustic processes become tools for exploring memory, perception, and the expressive potential of sound itself.
His music resists easy categorization, moving freely between ambient, contemporary composition, improvisation, and sound art. Throughout his career he has released numerous solo works and collaborated with a wide range of internationally acclaimed musicians, including Holger Czukay, Robert Rich, Markus Stockhausen, Steve Jansen, Theo Travis and Steve Lawson.His recordings have appeared on labels across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States.
Rooted in a practice of attentive listening and sonic exploration, Formentini creates evocative musical landscapes that invite reflection rather than certainty, opening spaces where silence, texture, and resonance become as meaningful as melody itself.
Swiss saxophonist Gilles Torrent may have been initially smitten by the sounds of US jazz giants like Coltrane, Shepp and Sanders, but as he’s developed and matured he’s cast his creative net much wider. After teaching himself the sax at 21 he spent the next 11 years studying the concepts and innovations of Coltrane before moving on to take the next logical step - exploring and soaking up the many styles music from around the world, and incorporating them into his Coltranesque vision of jazz.
Atestament to that workis the opening theme,‘La Longue Traversée Du Désert’whereTorrent directs an impressive ensemble of musicians – known collectively as World Jazz Sound - on a global trip from the plains of Africa to the pastures of England and even the mountains of his homeland Switzerland. Tracks like ‘Osso Varourn Ta Sidhera’, which pairs Beuna Vista-style Cuban rhythms with Grappelli-esque violin, or the transcendental calm of ‘Fridhia Mou’, complete with dainty harp and sultry Indian female vocal part, see the ensemble immersing themselves in the traditions and atmospheres of a panorama of different cultures, joining the dots between them all and gathering them up into one cohesive whole.
From the ancient and traditional – their effortlessly swung take on ‘Scarborough Fair’ for example – to the inspired but unconventional use of yodelling on ‘Chant des Alpes’, eventually giving way to a sensational modalworkout, this is an album full of widescreen freshness, surprises and, above all, the joy of discovery and experimentation. Originally released onCD in 2010, the sheer overwhelming beauty of the music withinhas compelled us at Jazzman to deliver these sanctified sounds onaudiophile standard 180g vinyl, for all to enjoy.
2x180g LPs featuring 8 tracks in total, housed in a single sleeve + download code.
Celestial Echo Records presents Nathaniel Best – Set Your House In Order, an incredible gospel soul LP from 1986, finally back in circulation.
Originally released on Spirit Records of Nevada, the album is very much of its time in the best way — gospel music with drum machines, warm synths and basslines that push it right into modern soul and boogie territory. Nathaniel Best’s voice carries the whole record with real conviction, joined by group vocals and arrangements that give the album that rich, uplifting 80s gospel soul sound.
For us, the standouts are clear. “Call Him” is the boogie dancer — bright, driving and full of movement, the kind of gospel cut that sits perfectly in a modern soul or boogie set. The title track, “Set Your House In Order”, is something else entirely: a beautiful downtempo soul glider, deep and heartfelt, with that slow-burning quality that makes the whole LP feel so special.
Those two tracks tell the story, but the magic runs through the whole record. Scattered across the album are these amazing slower gospel soul moments, balanced with enough groove and lift to keep it moving. It’s not just a one-tracker, it’s a proper LP with feeling, range and a sound that collectors have been chasing for years.
Best’s musical story runs deep. He grew up around gospel, recorded from a young age, played piano in church, sang with the Love Center Choir under Bishop Walter Hawkins, and later worked with names including The O’Jays and The Fairfield Four.
Original copies have always been hard to come by, and the album has built a serious reputation with gospel, soul and boogie collectors over the years.
Celestial Echo Records presents Nathaniel Best – Set Your House In Order, an incredible gospel soul LP from 1986, finally back in circulation.
Originally released on Spirit Records of Nevada, the album is very much of its time in the best way — gospel music with drum machines, warm synths and basslines that push it right into modern soul and boogie territory. Nathaniel Best’s voice carries the whole record with real conviction, joined by group vocals and arrangements that give the album that rich, uplifting 80s gospel soul sound.
For us, the standouts are clear. “Call Him” is the boogie dancer — bright, driving and full of movement, the kind of gospel cut that sits perfectly in a modern soul or boogie set. The title track, “Set Your House In Order”, is something else entirely: a beautiful downtempo soul glider, deep and heartfelt, with that slow-burning quality that makes the whole LP feel so special.
Those two tracks tell the story, but the magic runs through the whole record. Scattered across the album are these amazing slower gospel soul moments, balanced with enough groove and lift to keep it moving. It’s not just a one-tracker, it’s a proper LP with feeling, range and a sound that collectors have been chasing for years.
Best’s musical story runs deep. He grew up around gospel, recorded from a young age, played piano in church, sang with the Love Center Choir under Bishop Walter Hawkins, and later worked with names including The O’Jays and The Fairfield Four.
Original copies have always been hard to come by, and the album has built a serious reputation with gospel, soul and boogie collectors over the years.
DJ Support: Vladimir Ivkovic, Calm, LefTo, Dawn Again, Dream Chimney, Alexis Le-Tan, Afterlife, Sofa Elsewhere, Kreggo, Froid Dub, Johan Blende, Sean Johnston, Fabio De Luca, Dr. Rob, Leo Mas, Mark Broadbent, Patch, Stefano Tucci, DJ Nova
Three years after dropping Rapido Super studio on Hell Yeah, Caramel 3000 has slowed things down even further for his new eight-track LP, Super Tempra. This playful work gets stranger but even more inviting than ever with his signature OB-6 synth and the Eurorack modular, oodles of springy reverb, delayed balafon and scattered spoken-words. Caramel 3000 splits his time between the muddy waters of the Barene, south of the Venice Lagoon, and the dim light of a studio in Anderlecht. When not cruising in his sun-bleached wooden boat, he cherishes in the little light that reaches him at his shelter in Anderlecht. Renata and Piero, the couple on the artwork, once passed through that studio. This irregular sonic fusion of this EP came out of that visit. It's a fantastical collage that dissolves the boundaries between devotion and daydream with syrupy choir voices and fragments of Nancy Fraser lectures drifting in and out like the plot of a half- remembered hallucination. Quotes from legendary Italian singer Ornella Vanoni, children’s percussion and mystic melodies are looped and modulated into slow-burning psych - outs.
After the ancient sci-fi dub of the opener, 'Corsa Nudi' pairs the occult with the primitive, 'Arena Deriva' melts to watery droplets and glacial waves, and 'Acqua Tofana' is polyrhythmic tribalism from another dimension. 'Lente Virtus' marries melodic innocence to trippy humid density and 'Soft-shell Crab' is a woozy kaleidoscope with the happy accidents left in. 'Cacciatore di Frodo' is a haunting apparition from the deep and 'Vittoria Foresta' suspends you between the earthly and the otherworldly. Super Tempra is half the speed but twice the depth and full of wonder.
DJ Support: Kenny Larkin, Francois Kevorkian, Laurent Garnier, Ben UFO, Joseph Capriati, Fra Soler, Carista, Slam, Uncertain, DJ Bone, Christian Smith, Anthony Pappa, Radio Slave, Alienata, Marco Faraone, Christian Varela, James Zabiela, Anika Kunst, Carlos Valdes, Ame, Pushmann and Chris Fortier
Vince Watson Announces ‘The Force’, to launch his forthcoming 30 year compilation VW30 Introspection II.
As the build up to Vince Watson's huge forthcoming VW30 Introspection II compilation begins, the Scottish born Amsterdam based Artist releases a new track, a huge track 'The Force' as the exclusive.
Building on his Detroit inspired heritage and mixed with his energy infused Dancefloor material, 'The Force' is a monster.
With hints and shades of E-dancer with its big baselines, this track is sure to rip up some dancefloors.
Backing this up on the vinyl only, is Bon Voyage and Towards The Light, 2 tracks originally from the Via LP and featuring on vinyl for the first time.
Over the last 30 years, Vince Watson has produced some of the standout tracks of underground house and techno culture, from ‘Eminesence’ to ‘Aurelon’ to 'Mystical Rhythm’ and the new summer hit ‘The Awakening’ and has worked with some of the most renowned artists and labels to ever grace the scene.
To celebrate this incredible milestone and respect this legacy, Vince Watson is announcing a new compilation album showcasing new versions of some of the classics from his catalogue over the last 3 decades.
Minutiae is the first full-length release form Stockholm’s Ināra Quartet, made up of brothers Kasper (guitar, banjo, mandolin) and Mauritz Agnas (bass, cello), Johan Graden (piano, harmonium, synths) and Mischa Grind (percussion). Drawing on wide performance and composition experience in free improvisation, jazz, and composed new music, the quartet have carved out a unique niche where radical approaches to rhythmic organisation and group interaction are wedded to immediately accessible, folkish melodic and harmonic material. Unfolding briskly across eight pop-song length tracks, Minutiae places these folk fragments under a microscope, expanding them into intricate patterns of group interplay by turns austere and lushly psychedelic.
The quartet’s layering of independent rhythms, pulses, and tempi suggests a range of precedents, from Ligeti’s ticking clock textures to the pulse music of John McGuire, the repeating asynchronous cycles of The Necks, and the intricate irregular crosshatching of Banda music. Rhythm, harmony and melody shade into one another within each of the instrumental layers that overlap to form the music’s rippling surface. At points guitar, bass, percussion, and keyboards can seem each to occupy their own world, each player moving independently according to their own internal tactus, but attention to the details of group interplay reveals carefully planned collective movement. On ‘Klapparen’, strummed acoustic guitar chords and clinking percussion accelerate and decelerate in unison, washed over by floating synth lines. At other points, the quartet as a whole suddenly shift direction like a This Heat tape edit. Check the opener ‘Box Pieces’, where a brief percussion tag cues an unexpected cut from frenetic layering of percussive attacks undergirded by slow moving synth and bass foundations to a rumbling, locked-in dirge.
The eight pieces span a range of tones, from plaintive abstraction to surging minimalism. Touches of whimsy relieve any threat of over-seriousness: witness the wacky electric guitar glissandi that open ‘Tilting’ or the lovely, almost Pascal Comelade-esque fairground wobbles that begin the wayward journey of ‘Cadence: not even,’ before it stumbles into a totally different zone of spacious Paul Bley balladry sprinkled with banjo plucks. Recorded across two days at Stockholm’s Atlantis studios, Minutiae’s minutiae truly sparkle thanks to the careful mixing work of Ghosted drummer extraordinaire Andreas Werliin. A wonderfully approachable document of the richness of the next generation of contemporary creative musicians from Sweden, Ināra Quartet’s debut also looks back to 70s touchstones like Archimedes Badkar in its joyful embrace of musical collectivity.
Lower the drawbridge, raise the gates. Texas-based composer Graham Reynolds (A Scanner Darkly, Before Midnight, Hit Man) returns to the world of The Portcullis with a brand-new LP of music. This deluxe edition brings together the original album and The Portcullis Expansion Pack across two LPs, housed in a die-cut slipcase.
Following the original album’s release in May 2026, the Expansion Pack ventures deeper into a medieval world of knights and merchants, almoners and thieves. Percussive medieval textures, fretted guitars, brass fanfares, atmospheric strings and piano reshape dungeon synth into something vividly Reynolds’ own: an imagined soundtrack steeped in folklore, fantasy and adventure.
What began as an investigation into Reynolds’ family lineage, tracing his name back to Launceston Castle, has grown into a world extending beyond the record.
Released via Fire Records as part of the Weird Walk Record Cult, the deluxe edition arrives alongside an expanded dice game and a special Portcullis porter created with Skipton Brewing Company.
“One of the most unique and addictive albums of 2026 so far” - Loud and Quiet
“Of all the RPG-infused dungeon synth, medieval ambient records released this year, Graham Reynolds’ will be the finest.” - Loud And Quiet
“Ominous, stark environment that rumbles with sounds evocative of the natural world, in both its beauty and despair” - The New York Times
“A work of great scope, subtlety, and powerful suggestion. (…) Prepare yourself for an immersive experience, full of color and personality.” - Time Out
Rekombinant is the solo project of Rome based composer and sound artist Alfonso Montagnese. Blending electroacoustic composition, analogue electronics, magnetic tape and sound design, his work explores the physical qualities of sound, embracing imperfection, transformation and degradation as expressive compositional tools.
Borrowing its title from the physical principle of parity symmetry, the album is less interested in scientific theory than in the possibility that an identity may endure even after profound change. Sound is treated as matter, it is stretched, reflected, saturated, compressed and displaced, yet never entirely separated from its origin.
Magnetic tape is the medium through which this question unfolds. Magnetic tape does not preserve sound faithfully, it reshapes the sound. It compresses, saturates, colours and gradually erodes it, producing not a copy but another state of the same material. Every recording becomes both document and transformation.
Most of the instruments used throughout the album were selected from more recent generations of electronic equipment compared to previous works. Their character is not defined by nostalgia, but by their functional and sonic qualities: instruments chosen for how they behave under pressure.
The album consists of fourteen compositions, each one approaching sound as a material in continuous state of alteration and was conceived within what feels like a new Middle Ages, one that is still unfolding. An era marked by increasing fragmentation, uncertainty and the erosion of shared cultural references. The music does not illustrate this condition; it absorbs and inhabits it.
Throughout these fourteen pieces, sound continuously changes its appearance without abandoning its identity. What remains after every inversion, every saturation and every layer of magnetic degradation is not certainty, but persistence.
Parity Symmetry is Conserved is ultimately an exploration of that persistence: the fragile possibility that memory, identity and human experience may continue to exist, even after passing through irreversible transformation.
Skepta returns with his highly-anticipated new album, The Fork and Knife. A record rooted in the sounds, energy and culture of contemporary Britain, while looking firmly beyond its borders. Shaped by decades spent immersed in sound systems, clubs and rave spaces, The Fork and Knife moves freely between grime, garage, house, jungle and electronic music. At its centre is Skepta as a rapper, writer and producer - reflecting his position at the centre of rap and his instinct to continually push the sound forward. Identity runs through the heart of the album. Skepta explores what it means to be British, the son of Nigerian immigrants, and to exist between cultures. Rather than viewing diaspora through a lens of struggle, The Fork and Knife embraces it as a source of strength, a superpower that has informed Skepta’s resilience, work ethic and creative instinct. The visual world of The Fork and Knife draws on 1980s Nigerian-British imagery, football culture and documentary realism, connecting the history of the Windrush generation with the energy and reality of modern London.
The eye of the storm: welcome to Tornado Wallace's debut album! The accumulation of about four years of work, with tracks written in Berlin and Melbourne, 'Lonely Planet' is nothing like you may have expected from the Australian expat. No stranger to fans and followers of ESP Institute, Beats in Space and Music From Memory's sister Label Second Circle, Tornado Wallace's strain of releases so far merged functionality with a musical playfulness that led him to find himself as one of the producer's behind José Padilla's International Feel album. Here, he leaves the needs of the dance floor behind in order to create a magical mystery tour de trance into his and our inner jungle. How about some references New Age sounds meet new wave melodies, Grace Jones runs into the Dire Straits at Compass Point, while a Korg Mini Pops and a Roland CR78 make amends for Sly & Robbie's absence, Michael Mann pictures Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', Robert Rauschenberg tries his luck at naturalism and an imagined Wally Badarou echoes through all of it. Sandwiched between the title track and the yearning beauty of the album's final point 'Healing Feeling', you get all of that as well as collaborations with and contributions of NO ZU, David Hischfelder and the voice of Sui Zhen on 'Today', who would easily make Anna Domino take her proverbial hat off. Tornado Wallace created an album that supersedes the requirements and expectations of a debut. Like a lost Island Records or a never released Made to Measure album, 'Lonely Planet' soundtracks notions and ideas that recall the nostalgic future in the past as much as it looks ahead.
This 1981 album marks the debut of the most revered and iconic figure in Peruvian chicha: Chacalón. His music combines fuzz- and wah-wah-drenched distorted electric guitars with tropical percussion and even elements of huayno. This passion for electric guitars also fueled his admiration for the British band Cream -- and, of course, Eric Clapton -- which ultimately inspired the name of his band: La Nueva Crema.
His songs speak to the working classes who migrated from rural areas to the major cities in search of better employment opportunities and portray the hardships they faced. The lyrics tell stories of heartbreak, drunken nights amid everyday struggles, and marginalization -- common experiences in the poorer communities of Peru. Chacalón became a cult figure among the most disadvantaged sectors of Peruvian society, a devotion that remains strong years after his death. The album is essential listening for anyone interested in psychedelic cumbia and the roots of Peruvian chicha. This reissue preserves the album's original artwork as it appeared on Discos Horóscopo and includes liner notes by genre expert Víctor Zela (La cumbia de mis viejos).
On November 6th, Asthmatic Kitty Records will release Worst Christmas Ever!, a single-LP collection that distills Sufjan Stevens’ expansive holiday catalog—drawn from the box sets Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold—into one definitive collection. The album pairs fifteen favorites, selected from more than one hundred Christmas recordings, with the newly released original song "On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)," Sufjan's first new Christmas song in nearly fifteen years.
Available on LP, CD, and cassette, Worst Christmas Ever! is the perfect introduction for new listeners and an essential addition for longtime Sufjan Christmas devotees.
"Part of what makes Sufjan Stevens' contributions to the Christmas canon so enduring and remarkable is that they're almost overpoweringly effort-intensive. He views the holidays as a labor of love—worthy of creativity and care, hard work and an ocean of ideas."
— NPR
"9 EPs and 100 recordings later, Stevens has undoubtedly accepted his reputation as a Bing Crosby for the thirtysomething NPR listener."
— Consequence of Sound
On November 6th, Asthmatic Kitty Records will release Worst Christmas Ever!, a single-LP collection that distills Sufjan Stevens’ expansive holiday catalog—drawn from the box sets Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold—into one definitive collection. The album pairs fifteen favorites, selected from more than one hundred Christmas recordings, with the newly released original song "On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)," Sufjan's first new Christmas song in nearly fifteen years.
Available on LP, CD, and cassette, Worst Christmas Ever! is the perfect introduction for new listeners and an essential addition for longtime Sufjan Christmas devotees.
"Part of what makes Sufjan Stevens' contributions to the Christmas canon so enduring and remarkable is that they're almost overpoweringly effort-intensive. He views the holidays as a labor of love—worthy of creativity and care, hard work and an ocean of ideas."
— NPR
"9 EPs and 100 recordings later, Stevens has undoubtedly accepted his reputation as a Bing Crosby for the thirtysomething NPR listener."
— Consequence of Sound
Welcome to a new series of various artist EP’s titled ‘Sistema Sprezzatura’
We are always working hard in the background on the art of making difficult actions, complex skills, or highly curated choices appear completely natural, unforced, and spontaneous… do we pull it off we aren’t sure.. hopefully you can be the judges.
On this first EP the A- side features a new project ‘Sprezzatura' Hailing from Little Italy, Norton Street in Sydney (just a short Vespa ride from the Sicilian Coastline). Sprezzatura serves up Italo disco originals, edits and deep, carefully curated party sets built for long nights and discerning dance floors. The name is Italian, the postcode isn’t. The sound lands somewhere between sleek synths, driving basslines and just the right amount of drama. Expect strong espresso, stronger basslines and the firm belief that Sicily is less a place than a state of mind.’
And on the B -side Boxcar and the Space Jockeys return after their last well received release on Sosilly Edits with some tasteful psych rock reworks.
»Breathing Soil« is the third full-length album by Swiss musician and performance artist Elischa Heller. As a member of groups such as Film 2, Beurre, or 222Rn as well as in his live practice as a solo artist and his performances, notions of physical and temporal presence have always informed his multi-genre approach. These two side-long compositions centre around drone music and are both intended as an invitation to listen deeply as they are a product of deep listening itself. Drawing on Heller’s live practice, which aims to create shared social experiences, this music mediates between matter and metaphysics.
»If we recognise that we and the world around us are nothing but vibrations and oscillations, drone music can get in touch with a profound aspect of our ways of being,« says Heller. »It enables us to get in tune with our surroundings and each other.« Hence, resonance serves as the guiding principle of his work. As Heller explains, the title »Breathing Soil« can be read in two ways: As a description of how one breathes in the soil and gets in touch with the Earth through the sound, or that it is the soil itself that resonance, with sound serving as the connective tissue between different forms of being.
»Breathing Soil« relies on radical forms of reduction that treat sound as raw form—as vibrations and oscillations whose subtle acceleration and deceleration can have wide-reaching consequences. Meant to be played on speakers, the subtle shifts in dynamics, timbre, and volume of these two pieces are supposed to resonate with the rooms in which they are played. This music aims to make the things sing.
Early DJ Support: Massimiliano Pagliara, Paranoid London, Logan Fisher, Terry Farley, James Holroyd, Rocky (X Press 2), Francois K, Marcel Vogel, Sean Johnston, Austin Ato, Ron Basejam, Richard Rogers, Oliver Dollar, Crazy P and many more
Creating an international name for itself over the past decade as a sample pack label, Samples From Mars made its inevitable venture into the music world originally as a home for founder Teddy Stuart’s work. Long before making samples, Stuart garnered credits working as a grammy-nominated recording engineer in the hip hop world, and DJing / producing with Justin Strauss as A/JUS/TED, for labels such as DFA, Domino Records and Southern Fried Records. Now the label is set to release a variety of genres - house, disco, techno, ambient, all with a vintage tinge and a focus on high quality, analog production.
Enter Salt Queen. Visual artist and musician Magali van Caloen together with Samples From Mars founder, Teddy Stuart. Based in New York, the duo combine hardware dance aesthetics with dry, salty takes on familiar club moments into music that sits somewhere between funny, raw and unpredictable.
Salt Queen’s debut ‘ARE U OK’ is an acid-laced, deadpan spoken word track with an opening line that snaps any room to attention. A disorienting club encounter unfolds over Italo-inflected 808s and a relentless 303 bassline. There are no chords and no melodies - just a skeletal groove and an intimate voice circling the dancefloor. Drifting between concern and provocation, the vocal runs through cliché club conversations before destabilizing completely into a siren-laden crash out. The ‘Freak Nasty Club Mix’ ditches the plot and lets the hardware breathe, with a thick SH-101 bassline anchoring the first half before a sudden switch into an unrelenting acid pattern that refuses to settle. Two versions of the same wild night out.
With the “Extrasensory” EP, Slices Of Life welcomes one of the most versatile producers in the UK minimal house scene. Since 2003, Tom Ellis has been creating funk- and jazz-inspired house and techno, distinguished by his keen sense of organic rhythm. His extensive discography spans labels such as Logistic/Telegraph, Minibar, Wisdomteeth, KANN, Banoffee Pies, Onysia, among many others. Beyond his solo work, he is also the mastermind behind the electronic jazz ensemble Soulstatejazz.
The four tracks on “Extrasensory" distill this wealth of musical experience into diversely textured minimal house productions. Precisely placed drums and percussion, and rolling grooves form the foundation - clearly shaped by Ellis’s background as a drummer, percussionist, and bass player.
All the tracks share a warm, organic atmosphere, oscillating between lightness and relentless drive. The title track, "Extrasensory", blends almost pop-like melodies with shimmering vocals. "Bring Forth" takes us into deeper, dubby, and driving territories, while "Be The Moment" reveals a playful and melancholic side. Finally, "Vividly" immerses us in a dense, dreamy, yet pulsating sonic world.
Amidst their illustrious presence in dance music, Âme have been - and seen - a tumultuous evolution in all that surrounds. Genres have splintered and sharpened, melodies reinvented.
Yet, Frank and Kristian continue to stay true to their own meticulously individual art form. The pair muse on all that's been in latest album, "Love Is The Dance", where they reflect on a multitude of sounds that have shadowed their career for 20 years and counting - presenting a collection of tracks that flicker between different worlds and feelings, whilst harmoniously paying tribute to icons such as Underground Resistance and Compass Point Studios.
Between slower gems such as "Water Be My Crown" and "Of Courage", where buttery chords melt into sleek solitude, comes catchy pop-leaning numbers like "Shadow Of Love" and "Pha Na Pha" that carve their own vibrancy; having already painted endless dance floors with endless memories following individual releases. Cemented with club-focused cuts "Asa" and "Love Is The Dance", the album also moves towards familiar Âme territory; and still, threaded through its DNA is the art of collaboration. A substantial essence to Âme's work throughout the years, the duo level-up, as they invite a curated list of friends and artists, including RY X, Henrik Schwarz, Curses and Busiswa. The result forms a curious, all-expansive record that sees Âme creating avenues bolder, stronger - and even more musically diverse.
Amidst their illustrious presence in dance music, Âme have been - and seen - a tumultuous evolution in all that surrounds. Genres have splintered and sharpened, melodies reinvented.
Yet, Frank and Kristian continue to stay true to their own meticulously individual art form. The pair muse on all that's been in latest album, "Love Is The Dance", where they reflect on a multitude of sounds that have shadowed their career for 20 years and counting - presenting a collection of tracks that flicker between different worlds and feelings, whilst harmoniously paying tribute to icons such as Underground Resistance and Compass Point Studios.
Between slower gems such as "Water Be My Crown" and "Of Courage", where buttery chords melt into sleek solitude, comes catchy pop-leaning numbers like "Shadow Of Love" and "Pha Na Pha" that carve their own vibrancy; having already painted endless dance floors with endless memories following individual releases. Cemented with club-focused cuts "Asa" and "Love Is The Dance", the album also moves towards familiar Âme territory; and still, threaded through its DNA is the art of collaboration. A substantial essence to Âme's work throughout the years, the duo level-up, as they invite a curated list of friends and artists, including RY X, Henrik Schwarz, Curses and Busiswa. The result forms a curious, all-expansive record that sees Âme creating avenues bolder, stronger - and even more musically diverse.
Talking with the Taxman About Poetry is the third album by Billy Bragg, originally released in September 1986.
This long overdue vinyl reissue comes in a gatefold sleeve and was remastered by John Webber at Air Studios using high-resolution transfers made from master tapes in Billy's archives. There will also be a limited edition run of coloured vinyl albums.
For Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, Bragg embraced a more fully realised band sound with the help of special guests Kirsty MacColl and Johnny Marr and production courtesy of John Porter (Roxy Music, The Smiths) and Kenny Jones. ‘Taxman…’ was his first top ten album and gave the world some of his most enduring songs in ‘Greetings To The New Brunette’ (his first top 40 hit), live favourite “Levi Stubbs’ Tears” about a victim of domestic abuse taking comfort in the music of the Four Tops, and classic workers’ anthem “There Is Power in a Union”.
Tiger Stripes continues the ‘A Tiger Never Loses Its Stripes’ EP series on Rekids, with part two arriving 30th October 2026. The EP follows part one, released earlier this month, and previews his upcoming sophomore album, his first in two decades, due out later this year.
First up, Tiger Stripes’ 'Strike' is a raw, heavy, swinging warehouse cut with stark lasers and a moody vocal refrain that will lock the floor into a steady march. 'ID' flips the script with funkier bass riffs and dub effects hanging above a lighter, funkier groove, but still locked into irresistible loops. There is a playful touch to 'Nothing To Do', too, where dusty drums, darker synths and prying bass motifs all shuffle and swing with confidence. The soulful 'Free As A Bird' closes with a delightfully dubby skip, lush chords, and expert sound design that brings immeasurable character alongside a well-worked vocal.
Founder of the Strange Idols label, Tiger Stripes has spent over two decades forging his own path with standout releases on Hot Creations, Kaoz Theory, Kwench Records, and more. After stepping back to focus on his indie-rock project Little Lies, he made a full return in 2024 and quickly recaptured the form that’s made him an international favourite.
Radio Slave’s Rekids was founded in 2006 and has since spawned successful offshoots with the Techno-focused Rekids Special Projects in 2017 and its newest sublabel, REK’D, in 2024. With Matt Edwards as the sole A&R, Rekids has been crucial in developing early artist careers and has become a haven for established acts in House and adjacent genres, recently featuring Harry Romero, Tal Fussman, DJ Minx, The Hacker, and many more.
Active since 2007, Toronto's Raz Fresco has built one of the most respected catalogs in underground hip-hop as both a rapper and producer. From his acclaimed Magneto Was Right series to collaborations with legendary producers including DJ Muggs (Soul Assassins), Pete Rock, Cookin Soul, Nicholas Craven, Futurewave, and many others, Raz has consistently delivered uncompromising, self-contained bodies of work that have earned him a devoted global following.
Described by Raz himself as "the album that defines everything Raz Fresco has worked towards," WHY EQUALS SELF stands as his most personal and fully realized statement to date. Blending razor-sharp lyricism with rich, self-produced soundscapes, the album reflects nearly two decades of artistic growth while reaffirming his place as one of the underground's most prolific and enduring voices.
Statik Selektah links with Nina Sky for a limited 7" release, bringing together two names deeply rooted in the city’s hip-hop and club history.
Boston-born producer and DJ Statik Selektah has spent the last two decades building one of the most consistent catalogs in underground and independent hip-hop, working with artists including Nas, Joey Bada$$, Bun B, Action Bronson and countless others. Nina Sky — twin sisters Nicole and Natalie Albino — broke through in the early 2000s with their global hit “Move Ya Body,” becoming a defining voice in New York’s crossover between hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and club music.
The full vocal version appears on the A-side, backed with the instrumental on the flip.
Pressed in a strictly limited edition of 100 copies, this one is made for collectors, DJs and anyone looking to add a proper modern 45 to the crates.
One of the few artists who has seen the Cécille story unfold from the very beginning is Joey Daniel.
From our side, Joey has always been someone we wanted to work with and have on the label. So we’re really happy that the time has finally come. We have huge respect for him - not only as an artist, but just as much as a person - which makes finally welcoming him to the Cécille family even better.
We’ve been working closely together on this EP for quite some time, taking our time to get it exactly where we wanted it to be, and we’re sure we’ve ended up with a seriously massive club EP.
The Need I Say More EP brings together three proper club records - pure groove, built for the dancefloor and connecting Joey’s signature sound with what Cécille has always been about.
We don’t know much about Ariane Bonzini. Her age, perhaps. Her first name, certainly – but it’s confusing, as you’d expect. The rest, he keeps to himself, tucked away somewhere between Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and the Landes in the off-season.
What we do know is that at 16 he left everything behind to try his hand at rap. That six years later he left everything behind, again, without really saying why. That he taught himself sound engineering as one might learn a dead language.
And then came Magenta. In 2025, for three months, Bonzini set himself a challenge bordering on the absurd: to produce one track a day, write it, record it, mix it, master it, film himself doing it, and post it on social media. Without planning, without taking a step back, working until 3 am behind the screen. His monthly listeners went from 35 to 100,000.
For ‘Mec Normal’, something changed. Bonzini headed to the Rue Boyer studio – a space steeped in analogue charm, where some of the synths had once belonged to Christophe – and surrounded himself with a team for the first time: Crayon on production, Renaud Letang on mixing.
Chilly Gonzales spotted him, and from their meeting came ‘Gonzini’.
Thirteen tracks suspended between gentle melancholy and a willing detachment. Soaring synths. Recurring, obsessive ‘you’s’. A voice that whispers where others would shout.
Ariane Bonzini is unlike anything we’ve heard before. That is undoubtedly what makes her so unforgettable.
From deep in the hard funk pocket, the Winston Brothers return to Colemine after four years with a second helping of sounds rooted in horn-heavy, 70s-style soul cinema, taking cues from the soundtrack work of Issac Hayes, Willie Hutch, Roy Ayers, and JJ Johnson. Helmed by multi-instrumentalist/producer Sebastian Nagel and longtime collaborator Lucas Kochbeck on drums, Sweets serves as a timely reminder of how Hamburg, Germany’s music scene helps shape and influence today’s soul sound.
Ultimately, bringing musicians like Kimo Eiserbeck (sax and flute) and Hans Stephan (trumpet), alongside some additional drum contributions by Max Whitefield (née Weissenfeldt), demonstrates the close-knit nature of these musicians. From influential bands like Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band to Angels of Libra and the Mighty Mocambos, Hamburg’s deep groove scene has sired its share of worthy soul and funk acolytes.
These musicians have shared stages and studios over the years, with various
configurations finding their way in the aforementioned bands. “We started as a school project… we were just kids,” Sebastian recalls. “It’s a family thing, and we really know each other well.” Sweets is more than just another addition to this scene’s collective musical canon; it is a vibrant dispatch from funk’s leading edge.
From deep in the hard funk pocket, the Winston Brothers return to Colemine after four years with a second helping of sounds rooted in horn-heavy, 70s-style soul cinema, taking cues from the soundtrack work of Issac Hayes, Willie Hutch, Roy Ayers, and JJ Johnson. Helmed by multi-instrumentalist/producer Sebastian Nagel and longtime collaborator Lucas Kochbeck on drums, Sweets serves as a timely reminder of how Hamburg, Germany’s music scene helps shape and influence today’s soul sound.
Ultimately, bringing musicians like Kimo Eiserbeck (sax and flute) and Hans Stephan (trumpet), alongside some additional drum contributions by Max Whitefield (née Weissenfeldt), demonstrates the close-knit nature of these musicians. From influential bands like Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band to Angels of Libra and the Mighty Mocambos, Hamburg’s deep groove scene has sired its share of worthy soul and funk acolytes.
These musicians have shared stages and studios over the years, with various
configurations finding their way in the aforementioned bands. “We started as a school project… we were just kids,” Sebastian recalls. “It’s a family thing, and we really know each other well.” Sweets is more than just another addition to this scene’s collective musical canon; it is a vibrant dispatch from funk’s leading edge.
Sucata Tapes and Annihaya proudly present Delia, the hypnotic new album by Munda (Selu Herraiz), following up on foundational explorations of ritual and territorial memory.
Recorded in September 2021 during a residency at Konvent—an old convent set within an abandoned industrial colony in Cal Rosal, deep in the lower Catalan Pyrenees—Delia is forged from the physical ghosts of a former textile factory. Within high ceilings, terracotta floors, and walls vibrating with low frequencies, Herraiz captured the remnants of another time: shards of glass, rusted iron, corrugated plastics, and the sonic echoes of a place where hundreds of women once worked the looms.
Using a dynamic microphone placed before the speaker of a battered Yamaha Electone organ with broken keys, Herraiz transformed these industrial ruins, raw materials, and acoustic traces into an immersive electroacoustic journey. Blending primitive textures, analog synthesis, and the deep resonance of territorial history, Delia stands as a profound meditation on memory, space, and alchemic listening.
An acclaimed international cast of forward-looking artists – Jan Jelinek, KMRU, Lia Kohl, J. Albert, Laurie Torres, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Giuseppe Lelasi, Jung DJ and Smoke Point – remixes/remodels tracks from Arp’s transfixing late 2025 album Drifts for Barcelona-imprint Modern Obscure Music (Actress/ Sakamoto, Merzbow). Reflecting Arp’s stylistically-omnivorous approach, each remixer on Echo–Variations represents a unique corner of the music landscape, from the jazzy ambient glitch of storied German producer Jan Jelinek to the overdrivendrone landscapes of Kenyan ambient auteur KMRU to Smoke Point’s no frills club-tool to the haunted ambience of cellist Lia Kohl’s gorgeous electro-acoustic work. One can hear elements of hauntology, post-rock, minimal techno, glitch, spiritual jazz at play. Arp adds a few alternate mixes and two new tracks for good measure, ambient techno floater “Chlorophyll (1998 Mix)” and perhaps the most surprising of all, the dub techno heater “MMXXVI (Dub Mix).” Heart all together, its classic sounding heart RIYL Touch, Millie Plateaux: Creative,meditative, brain cleansing, thought provoking hauntological futurism.
Hiromasa Suzuki, the hidden force behind Hiroshi Suzuki’s ""Romance"" and Jiro Inagaki’s ""Breeze,"" gathered a superb lineup of musicians and perfected the crossover sound on this masterpiece.
Hiromasa Suzuki was a composer, arranger, and keyboardist who played an active role not only in jazz, but also across the wider Japanese music world, including kayoukyoku, film, television, and commercials. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, he was deeply involved in works by Terumasa Hino, Akira Ishikawa, Jiro Inagaki, and others during their most cutting-edge periods, fully demonstrating his remarkable skill. His innovation, always one step ahead of the times, reached a kind of culmination in this work, recorded in 1976. Featuring young Shuichi “Ponta” Murakami, Akira Okazawa, and Masayoshi Takanaka, this is a masterpiece of pre-fusion and crossover.
A hot slice of Latin dance music — produced by the legendary Masters at Work, the house icons and masters of that Nuyorican sound, “Little” Louie Vega and Kenny “Dope” González — from Los Amigos Invisibles, the Venezuelan band who have spent decades perfecting the art of getting away with everything.
Packed with raunchy songs (of course) that fuse every American genre under the sun — from salsa to acid jazz to disco to funk — this record tore up dance floors twenty years ago.
The second CBS/Sony album by internationally acclaimed Japanese keyboardist Himiko Kikuchi, "SEVILLA BREEZE," originally released in 1988, is finally available on vinyl for the first time.
Inspired by Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen" and traditional Spanish music, this masterful Latin jazz/fusion album showcases Kikuchi's dazzling keyboard work soaring freely over a powerful rhythm section and a razor-sharp horn section. Highlights include the breathtaking high-speed Cuban-Latin jazz workout "Toreador"; interpretations of "Gypsy Song (from Carmen)" and "Seguidilla (from Carmen)" from Bizet's "Carmen"; the Latin-funk fusion gems "Sevilla Breeze" and "Primavela," featuring Naoki Watanabe (bass), Tsuguo Okamoto (drums), and Yoshinori Nami (percussion); and the mellow, laid-back tracks "Blue Gibraltar" and "Siesta."
A haunting, cinematic journey into a village that exists beyond time and place, Requiem For A Village is Steven Wilson’s most intimate and imaginative work yet. Blending dark folk, rock and electronica, the album unfolds as a continuous 54-minute “film for the ears,” populated by strange archetypes and eerie folklore. The album is narrated by David Tennant and written with Andy Partridge (XTC).
A haunting, cinematic journey into a village that exists beyond time and place, Requiem For A Village is Steven Wilson’s most intimate and imaginative work yet. Blending dark folk, rock and electronica, the album unfolds as a continuous 54-minute “film for the ears,” populated by strange archetypes and eerie folklore. The album is narrated by David Tennant and written with Andy Partridge (XTC).
TAR049 Krist - Tar 49 - TH Tar Hallow You've been exploring. You found the works of a conceptual, self-referential recording. A piece that fits directly into time; micro grooves who loop within a zero-time window. Time passes, but no real-world time has elapsed yet. All is made out of flashing, green or white lights. A1 - Krist - Abstract Life A2 - Krist - The White Light B1 - Krist - Outro B2 - Krist - Polaris B3 - Krist - The Green Light
Following her previous appearances on Blueprint, Manchester-based techno artist Kerrie returns to the label with her latest release, "Pressure Signal". The four-track EP sees Kerrie deliver another focused collection of raw, uncompromising techno, continuing her distinct approach to dark, gritty, metallic and industrial sounds.
Kerrie is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans live performance, production, DJing and running her own label, Dark Machine Funk. Having honed her craft for almost 20 years, Kerrie has developed a sound deeply rooted in UK, Detroit and European techno, with her sets and productions characterised by tough moods, high energy and a strong sense of groove.
Kerrie first made her debut on Blueprint in 2022 with her"Raw Regimen" EP, before returning to the label with further releases in 2024 and 2025 and joining the Blueprint crew at showcases around the globe.
For 3+ years Razor-N-Tape has held their quarterly A Joyful Noise event in the Sound Room at Public Records. Conceived as a hearkening back to an early 2000s era of NYC nightlife, it is a club night that includes both DJs and live music. Led by JKriv as musical director and bassist, the live band is a collective of luminary NYC talent including singer Brandon Markell Holmes, guitarist Peter Matson, flutist/singer Domenica and percussionist Olatunji Ojore (Underground System), trumpeter Carter Yasutake (Midnight Magic), keyboardist Jason Lindner (Donny McCaslin/David Bowie's Blackstar), drummer Jim Orso (Hot Chip/Holy Ghost!) and saxophonist Stuart Bogie (Antibalas/Arcade Fire). Merging club sensibilities with jazz, funk and afrobeat pedigree, the A Joyful Noise repertoire includes live-interpreted renditions of J’s music and remixes, features by Razor-N-Tape artists, and original works. This album is a document of this special event, capturing all the live energy, moments of dazzling ensemble interplay, and features by artists Adi Oasis, Toribio and Cor.Ece.
Pedro Goya's Double Deuce, PGM008, four tracks running from deep house warmth to tech-housey driven. across the record the focus stays on groove and function over ornament, giving DJs four distinct tools that still hang together as one coherent twelve inch. Built to work from the first hour through to the peak
Really very exciting to introduce this new project by Dadada & Eden Burns.
Together they offer their first collaborative outing with „Your Gonna Lose Vol 1“ that contains fabulous (dance)music
mixxed up w/ some fun, social studies.
Great release. Three moods: tight original, tougher remix, softer terrace cut. Bartolomeo returns with Lourene on vocals. Narcotico EP, three takes on one hook. Original mix, tight low end, sparse percussion, vocal doing the work. Cesar Merveille remix, tougher, more tech house, hats sharpened, bassline rolling. Cali Lanauze Terrace Mix, softer pads, looser pulse, built for outdoor sets.
Available in the following Territories: Wordwide minus Japan & Korea
NOTON is pleased to announce12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto to be released on 18 September 2026.
The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skilful and sensitive electronic detailing.
Each successive project further deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs), to their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a wholly improvised performance inside Philip Johnson's iconic Connecticut landmark, in which the pair fixed contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a document of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House.
Across these works, their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety.
12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right.
The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation - sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening.
Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honours Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.
Carsten Nicolai writes:
"A heavy breath can be heard in the recordings. Yet this work is not about remembrance but continuation, vitality, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation that shaped an artistic relationship over decades.
The twelve pieces we exchanged in November and December 2022 possess extraordinary density: sounds expanded, altered, recontextualized. Initially, every intervention felt almost inappropriate. Yet this was part of our openness and trust: adding, shifting and radically yet softly transforming.
Even in these final exchanges, plans for future projects continued to take shape, mindful of finite yet firmly believing in the power of new ideas. We chose the name Conversations, which has become a space of memory and vision, where past, present and future intertwine.
For a long time, releasing this music seemed impossible. The loss felt too sudden, and the emotional connection too profound. As time passed, it became clear that these twelve musical encounters should have life outside the archive. To honor Ryuichi's wish, these pieces are now being released as the continuation of a dialogue that extends beyond the physical."
The first single, Conversation 3, will be released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The second single, Conversation 6, will be be released on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
12 Conversations will be available worldwide on vinyl, CD and digitally. A Japanese edition will be available on Ryuichi Sakamoto's commons.
The Sound Of Slip ’n’ Slide, Vol. 2 continues the new series from the legendary Slip ’n’ Slide catalogue, bringing together another selection of timeless house and deep house cuts from some of the genre’s most influential artists.
Featuring standout productions and remixes from Masters At Work, Blaze, Kings Of Tomorrow, Booker T and Cassio Ware, the release showcases the soulful, groove-led sound that has made Slip ’n’ Slide a cornerstone of underground house music.
Including classics such as Funky People, Open Your Mind and Breathe, this second volume brings together a selection of proven dancefloor records in one DJ-friendly vinyl package.
With warm grooves, uplifting vocals and timeless club arrangements throughout, these tracks continue to resonate with both long-time house collectors and DJs looking for reliable dancefloor material.
As the second edition in The Sound Of Slip ’n’ Slide series, this release builds on the success of the collection, bringing more essential catalogue favourites back to fresh black 12" vinyl.
A strong catalogue addition for stores supporting classic house, deep house and soulful underground sounds.
A DJ, producer and significant figure in contemporary electronic music, Marcel Dettmann steps forward to contribute to Running Back’s ongoing Mastermix series. Whereas previous editions of Mastermix have taken an ear to the sound of lapsed, legendary clubs such as Wild Pitch and Front, Dettmann’s curation deftly captures the man himself in ongoing perpetual motion, raiding the vault for his own precision-tooled edits, long-employed on dancefloors to devastating effect. Alongside a continuous mix, this release arrives as a 3LP gatefold, and as a limited edition cassette.
Closely associated with Berlin’s techno landscape, Dettmann was born and raised in the former GDR, then later immersed in the bleary-eyed counter cultural landscape of post-unification Berlin. Initially oriented by post-punk, industrial and new-wave music, Dettmann has been DJing since 1993, always expanding and perfecting his repertoire. He later began working behind the counter at the city’s tastemaking rave boutique Hard Wax, and a decade after he first dropped a needle, became (and remains) resident at notable local nightspot Berghain/Panorama Bar, where his instincts have helped sculpt the signature sound of both main dancefloors.
Of course, you’re probably not asking, “Who is Marcel Dettmann?” More importantly, you might want to know; just what treats has he gifted us here? The trip begins with a simple pitch-shift skywards, transforming Identified Patient’s creeping ‘The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania’ into a peak-time freakout, before an alternate take on Toctronic’s ‘Bis uns das Licht vertreibt’ emerges from the vaults for the first time. Dating from 1995, and one of Dettmann’s all-time favourites, Cristian Vogel’s ‘Untitled’ clambers back into the box with respectable cuts, while John Bender’s ‘Victims of A Victimless Crime’ kicks off the flip sporting a new arrangement, transporting us back to the foundations of a confident, stripped-back sound.
A few subtle edits to Clark’s perilously funky ‘Dirty Pixie’ takes us to Dettmann’s remix of Junior Boys. Produced in 2010, it transposes the Canadian duo’s sophisticated pop with our curator in his minimal prime, and has since become an irresistible prize for high-minded diggers. The same can be said for Experimental Products’ explosive proto-electro anthem ‘Who Is Kip Jones?’, empowered from pricey Discogs purgatory with just the slightest of tweaks. It’s deservedly sandwiched between the guiding influences of Chicago and Detroit in the form of Mutant Beat Dance’s raw ‘The Human Factor’ and a shimmering new version of previous solo production ‘Water’, featuring close friend and Ostgut Ton ally, Ryan Elliot.
The second half of the Mastermix seamlessly connects the mechanical past and digital present of EBM and industrial in the dance, with Dettmann’s instincts as a guiding hand. Severed Heads’ iconic ‘We Have Come To Bless This House’ emerges with mere nips and tucks, while Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Shame’ is significantly reimagined as a highwire act of rhythm and tension, setting up a sensual second take on a 2017 remix of ‘Limbo’ from Swiss synth heroes, Yello.
Core musical memories are shaken and stirred with a context-shifting take on Frank Duval’s emotional classic ‘Ogon’, while Ian North’s ‘Sex Lust You’ and Ford Proco’s notable Coil collaboration ‘Expansion Naranja’ effectively throb with only minor adjustments, respectfully imagined as “shadow versions”. Meanwhile, a simple breakbeat lifts Albert Kuningas’s ‘Astraalprojektio’ in the direction of wide-eyed dancefloors, while a fresh take on K-Alexi Shelby’s ‘Season of The Real’ inexplicably emerges somehow even funkier than before.
The conclusion of the compilation leads back to Das Tier from the prolific experimentalist Conrad Schnitzler, whose swirling synths and hypnotic vocals are duly tightened by Dettmann, but only as he puts it, “in conversation with the original.” Concluding three discs and thirty years of commitment to the dancefloor, this Mastermix not only offers us the opportunity to eavesdrop on this endless exchange, but to gain some sought-after material for our own record collections.
PANORAMA Records heads to South Africa for its next release, shining a light on one of the country's great unsung talents, Mpharanyana. Born Jacob Radebe, Mpharanyana was one of the defining voices of South African soul, disco and funk during the 1970s, recording with both The Cannibals and The Peddlers while helping shape a uniquely South African take on dance music. Working alongside future legends including Ray Phiri, his records fused soul, disco, mbaqanga and funk into something entirely his own.
On the A-side, "Get Down" by Mpharanyana And The Cannibals delivers exactly what the title promises. An irresistible blend of modern soul, boogie and disco, it's the kind of record that feels like sunshine from the first bar.
The flip features "Disco" by Mpharanyana And The Peddlers, a super-funky slice of South African Afro-disco that wont leave the record bad.
Despite Mpharanyana's cult status among collectors, "Get Down" has never previously been officially reissued, while the B side was introduced by Kalita Records, both sides remain incredibly rare.
Driven by tight musicianship, infectious hooks and a groove that refuses to quit, this is a genuine dancefloor record for the heads.
Together these two sides tell the story of an artist whose music deserves to be heard far beyond collector circles. As always, PANORAMA Records continues its mission of uncovering rare and essential music from around the world, bringing overlooked gems back into circulation for DJs, collectors and anyone who loves records with real soul.
Portugal's Dextro returns for second EP of stylish deep techno on Mutual Rytm with ‘Planets And Stars’. Dextro’s tunes have long been a staple of Mutual Rytm label head SHDW's sets, with the esteemed veteran previously landing on the label with his ‘Covil Dos Abutres’ EP last year. His return with ‘Planets And Stars’ features a selection of his most requested IDs from recent times, with the Portuguese DJ/producers featuring as a longstanding favourite within the European underground since the 90s through his stripped-back, economical sound that is rooted in masterful design and intuitive grooves. He is a true studio craftsman, whether going deep or more destructive, and that range is on show here as he makes a splash for his sophomore outing. SHDW notes, “‘Planets And Stars’ feels like his most refined and focused work to date. It also further strengthens our relationship, rooted in a shared vision and values around music and how it should be presented.” The EP kicks off with the heavyweight ‘1000 Places’, a track that will rattle walls as eerie synth whispers and sonar blips snake through the mix. ‘Industria Acéfala’ is just as hypnotic with a deep blend of rolling bass and rooted kicks, while unsettling tension comes in the one-note synth loops and scratchy texture. ‘Planets and Stars’ provides an intergalactic trip with cosmic dust, conscious spoken words and an infinite horizon that has you gazing off into the distance. The all-consuming ‘Perpendicular’ is shadowy with impish motifs darting about the mix as watery droplets fall into cavernous kicks. ‘Winter Letter’ is the final 12”cut and is perfectly deep, linear techno with gorgeous ambient details that turn your thoughts inwards. Three digital bonuses expand the trip: ‘Torresmos com Pão’ is unsettling and sparse, ‘Historia da Vida’ ramps up the tension with oversized hi-hats and rising synth turbulence and finally ‘Ghost Particles’ has shimmering bell sounds evoking a spooky moon-lit church in the dead of night.
fka boursin returns to Scissor & Thread with From Space Between, following his 2025 debut for the label, Listless Intertext. The Bristol producer continues to explore the more spacious edges of house music, drawing together dub, ambient detail and a loose rhythmic sensibility that has become increasingly characteristic of his work. From Space Between unfolds patiently with sounds appearing at the edges and gradually moving into focus. On the B-side Frank & Tony return with another Housebeat Dub, picking up the thread of their Listless Intertext rework. Francis Harris and Anthony Collins draw the original further into their own language of deep house, giving the rhythm more room and letting the dub elements stretch across the arrangement.
"A half-successful attempt at working with fewer elements in pursuit of a more minimalist approach," says Henry Murray aka fka boursin, "trying to find restraint and sit with gaps in the stereo image where previously I would have reflexively filled them with melodic content. Recorded whilst living alone in another country for a month, the track was borne out of meditations on living in and between unfamiliar places, seasons, languages, currencies, relationships, medications, economics, intentions, sanities, and spaces."
Following his acclaimed ARTIFACTUAL RHYTHM album, Alexander Flood returns to ARCo. with an outstanding remix package, assembling a cast of renowned producers whose names will be instantly familiar to discerning listeners. Each remixer brings their own unmistakable touch, resulting in a rich and diverse body of work that honours the original music while showcasing the individuality of every artist involved.
Contributing to this superb release are Alexander Flood himself, ARCo.'s very own Peacey, the unmistakable sounds of Close Counters, Atjazz, and Fred Everything. Also joining the remix roster are Oliver Knight, Crowd Control & Karl Swisher, and the ever-inventive jazz scientist Kaidi Tatham, each offering a distinctive interpretation that makes this an essential companion to the original album.
Superkill Records' debut release introduces Seoul-based producer Baeyoon, whose four-track EP opens with "Doxa," already played out by Derrick May during one of his recent tours in Japan. Baeyoon's sound layers melancholic, romantic pads over heavy kicks and basslines, stacking intricate arpeggios and irregular drum work into a retro-futurist take on Detroit techno. That tension between soft and machine-driven is the EP's throughline — uplifting, colourful and true to its lineage.
In August 2022, Australia-based, French born fourth-world music legend Ariel Kalma was invited to participate in BBC Radio 3"s Late Junction series of special collaborations. The program pairs artists that have not previously collaborated to create new music together. Kalma was quick to suggest working together with two musicians whom he has never met - the International Anthem recording artists Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, whose critically-acclaimed duo debut Recordings from the Âland Islands had been released just a few months earlier. Kalma sent an invitation to Chiu and Honer, which was received with great enthusiasm. Chiu had been a fan of Kalma"s work for a long time, even citing him as a major influence on his approach to electronic music composition. After meeting their goal of 20 minutes worth of music for the program (which was four pieces total), the three musicians were satisfied in what they would present, and sent along their work to the producers of Late Junction; but simultaneously they felt like there was much more to be said, more work to be done. There were several pieces that they had nearly completed that weren"t sent for inclusion in the radio program, and there were many ideas for refining those that had. The three musicians collectively agreed that they would continue work together and try to push the music further. The Closest Thing to Silence is the result of their efforts to take the collaboration further.
Macedonia's own Stojche is Fuse's next guest for the club's freshly made imprint. The long standing DJ and producer has been known to keep Detroit's playfully hybrid style as the focus of his work and 'Metaphor' is the case in point. His four tracks bounce through a nostalgic balance of techno, house, and more with a modern crisp. A refreshing take on club music, Stojche keeps techno's sometimes nonchalant attitude at arms length with a charismatic record that hits its mark with every measure.
The record's first track 'Counterpunch' features heavily lined percussion but still brews up a storm far and wide with resonant dub stabs and open hi hats. The drum machine boasts a full spectrum, rolling through a light show of melodic flashes, perfect for a room compressing soundsystem. The maximalist, vintage detail that Stojche brings to his compositions blurs the lines between classic genres in a time of hasty hybridization, which gives it a sort of authenticity that can't be taken for granted. 'Chordal Tribe', on the other hand, raises the general euphoria of the EP. Luring in the listener with bright pads and full-on drums, Stochje's work is reliable main slot material that adds color to any mix while providing a persuasive low end. Shimmering hi hats give it an ethereal quality making it an appropriate interlude for almost any context. Moving on to the B side, the producer sharpens up his rhythm and emphasizes the hardgroove influence in 'Signal Drive'. Softening the pace of his drums with free use of melodic chord stabs, Stojche opens up his dance floor for a crowd bonding record once again, complete with filter transitions and pummeling toms. As the final contribution, his title track 'Metaphor' begins with a more obscure opening to conclude his EP for Fuse. Leaning more to a techno cut, the record remains flamboyant as ever with open hats and rides shuffling through his arrangement. A muted main synth becomes apparent to focus the energy of the track while allowing for liveset-like drum flickering to take shape beneath, claiming the immortality of old club records with the technical precision of a seasoned modern producer.
Berlin’s Ayū returns to the label with a collection of trance-inflected fluorescent club tracks, where blissed intent meets direct club functionality.
With previous releases on Harmony Records and Kalahari Oyster Cult, Aju has steadily carved out a place within Europe’s contemporary trance underground, with remix support from the likes of Spray, D. Tiffany, Maara and Jeku.
A concise display of Aju’s range, the EP moves from rolling, chord-rich club workouts to vocal-led peak-time moments, unified by fluid grooves and an instinct for melodic tension.
Equal parts function and feeling, Aju’s latest refines an already distinctive club language.
The return of Batty Bass is well and truly underway with a brand-new four-track EP from Hannah Holland. Bringing together Holland with long-time collaborators Kurtis Lincoln and Joy Joseph, the EP delivers four killer dancefloor workouts.
'Action Satisfaction' comes in heavy, driven by a seriously mean, ceaseless bassline and Kurtis Lincoln’s unmistakable vocal, with Joy Joseph’s percussion adding another layer of physicality to the track. Lincoln is an artist, writer and performer whose work moves between fine art, rave culture and performance, bringing a distinctive theatrical edge to his vocal work.
Joy Joseph is a drummer, DJ and live percussionist with a long history spanning East London’s New Wave scene through to collaborations with artists including Mr Hudson, Amy Winehouse and Jessie Ware.
'Mitzubishi' takes things somewhere darker. A sinister, heads-down number built for late-night pressure and packed dancefloors.
The remixes bring two fresh perspectives to the EP’s originals. DJ Spilt, known for his raw take on classic Chicago house, brings down the tempo with a sleazy, low-slung groove that swaps peak-time pressure for after-hours swagger. Meanwhile, Wigs turns Mitzubishi into an even more techno-tinged, heads-down affair designed to lock the crowd in and keep them there.
Det Gode Selskab continue their quest as they call on Berlin-based Italian artist Busso. An artist who continues to express himself through a multitude of vibes and sounds, fitting perfectly with the free-flowing DGS ethos. ‘Anna In The Jelly’ wanders between four different cuts, teasing animated deep house energy combined with stripped-back minimal flavours. A reflection of Busso’s versatile taste, he encapsulates four sure shots for your summertime record bag. A tale for the sun worshipping dreamers, soundtracking the warmer months.
Diving straight in with ‘Sexual Desire’, Busso delivers perky and playful peak-time action, with a clean-cut, feel-good energy from the word go. A vintage feel emerges through the vocals and crisp drums, working in sweet harmony. Slick hi-hats lead the way in ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ before you are confronted with a killer elasticated groove synonymous with the Italian’s sound. Beautiful chords appear at the midway point, spiralling into paradise.
The B-side kicks off with the title track, constructed in a distinct chunky manner. Squelchy mechanical tones manoeuvre around the mysterious drive of the track. Moody as it moves, it’s one for the darker nights on the road. Last but not least is ‘Red Print’, tightly packaged and incredibly detailed, with quirky obscurities flashing throughout. A steady motion perfectly sets the tone as you start to build the floor.
This record cements an exciting future for the label, as they look to continue elaborating on their catalogue, ever-evolving and expanding their width of sounds with one of the most exciting prospects currently in the German capital.
Ralf Hildenbeutel is an award-winning producer and film composer. His style is shaped by his eclectic background as of his classical education in piano and composition and his obsession for electronic music since the late '80s.
In the 1990s he collaborated with Sven Väth on Väth's major albums, released a countless number of club classics and founded his electronic live-project Earth Nation. He has been touring across Europe and playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, London's Brixton Academy, Tribal Gathering Universe and others.
In that time he also produced various remixes for artists such as Anne Clark, Robert Palmer, Enigma and Yello and was awarded with the "Viva Comet" as Best Producer from Germany's music TV channel VIVA. His film music for the movie "Hommage á Noir" received the golden medal at the New York Festivals in 1996.
At the end of the '90s and first years of the 2000s it was the time for new directions and Hildenbeutel started focusing on artist-related productions and songwriting. He founded the production company Schallbau with Stevie B-Zet and A.C. Boutsen. They produced and co-wrote for artists such as Laith Al-Deen, Andreas Bourani, Yvonne Catterfeld, and Simon Collins (son of Phil Collins). That time they archived several top-ten entries and gold or platinum records.
In 2010 Hildenbeutel moved away from pop productions and focused on film music. He worked on feature movies such as "Vincent will meer" ("Deutscher Filmpreis", 2012 – German Film Academy Award) and international productions such as the Italian mini-series "Maltese".
His film music for the short movie "Momentum" (by Boris Seewald) received various awards such as "Cinedans" and a nomination for best music at the Newport International Filmfestival in the UK in 2014. In 2017 he won the "Goldene Reiter" at the esteemed Filmfest Dresden for his score for the movie "Eine Villa mit Pinien".
Hildenbeutel currently works on several international and German productions. He also collaborated with Chris Liebing on Liebing's latest solo album "Burn Slow", which has been released worldwide on Mute Records.
We know there are copious amounts of PFAS in the water supply of Rotterdam, but there must be more! What else could explain the amount of talent this city provides? Foobar is yet another prime example of this phenomenon. coming of age in Burgundian Brabant and cultivated in the grimy streets of our beautiful harbour city, Foobar just has a way of looking beyond its imperfections and translating the warmer hidden sides of the city whilst still tapping into its more rugged edges in this 4 track EP, for his debut release "Shifting Phases" on WAXRDM. The title track Shifting Phases just eases you into the whole, getting you ready to face another day on the grind, that's Rotterdam baby! We work hard and we play hard, and when we play, these are the sounds we wanna play too. Proper House Music. Some serious anger management issues on Parallel Motion, hitting hard from the get go, starting off with some intimidating drums, in your face bass lines, enticing melodies & alluring vocals. All of a sudden you're 3 minutes in, and you can't even remember what got you so upset in the first place. Who said you needed to be loud to be powerful? Not us, that's for sure, and definitely not Foobar. Quiet Strength proves that point yet again, laced with the sultry vocals by ES-V, this jam just takes you even further into your own headspace, drums that keep you in motion, melodies that keep you grounded but bass lines that let you float off into the atmosphere. It's Monday again, another day at the office, cleaning apartments, trading cryptocurrencies or whatever the hell you do to make ends meet. Ahh damn, and now you remember what irritated you. Colleagues, employers, pay or the lack of it. It is a good thing you have Back on the grind to make it all sound relative, helping you forget and looking ahead at the weekend. The perfect come down track that moves forward.
With Shadows is the darkwave alter ego of Jordan Lieb, the acclaimed North American electronic producer also known as Black Light Smoke. Recognised for his house and techno releases on Scissor & Thread, The Hacker’s Zone and Tiga’s Turbo Recordings, Lieb explores a darker, more introspective sound under his With Shadows alias. Drawn from two digital releases on his own Ancient Spells imprint, this collection of electronic darkwave traces a journey in reverse: opening with dark Italo and EBM-inflected technopop, it gradually slows down, sinking into a shoegaze universe steeped in atmospheric melancholy. Cold synthesizers, basslines that pulse like a heartbeat and haunting vocals give way to blurred textures and dreamlike spaces, carrying the listener from the dancefloor into a more intimate inner world. On “There’s a Hole”, his instinct for rhythm meets a deeply personal voice, revealing the emotional weight beneath the electronics. With Shadows gives Lieb room to reach beyond club structures and express himself through songs, bringing his songwriting, vocals and multi-instrumental talents to the forefront and revealing a facet of his musical identity distinct from his work as Black Light Smoke.
"Collect Records 05 welcomes one of the most respected names in contemporary American deep house. On The Realest EP, DJ Aakmael delivers four beautifully crafted tracks that embody the timeless essence of the genre, blending deep, soulful grooves with rich jazz influences, warm analogue textures and unmistakable swing. Rooted in the traditions of Detroit and New York while carrying his own unmistakable signature, Aakmael effortlessly balances dancefloor functionality with musical depth. Pressed in Portugal by Grama Pressing, mastered by Mike Grinser at Manmade Mastering in Berlin, and distributed worldwide by Clone Distribution, COLL05 continues Collect Records' commitment to timeless underground music, bringing together artists whose work transcends trends and speaks directly to dedicated listeners and dancefloors alike."
Burnski's Instinct label hits release number 40, having very much helped to define this latest era of minimal, tech and garage mutations. Mattik is in charge for this one and he has become a northern heavyweight in this world. 'Original Badboy (It's Ecstasy)' is a title alone that tells you what to expect - naughty, playfully sleazy garage sounds with old school motifs and a killer descending bassline. 'We Tell Dem' brings an acid squelch and screwy synths that are decidedly futuristic. Mattik & Tuff Trax's 'Get No Sleep' tightens the low end bump and drops in some neon chords and choppy garage-house drums, while Cronnik's 'Feelin' (Mattik's Got The Feelin' mix) blends bumpin' drum work with spraying synths and wobbly bass. Fantastic fun.
This new series is an atemporal series: Spicy Electro. Sexy vibes. Ecstatic sounds.
PORNOTRONIX brings together Dark Vektor, X-Truder, DJ Overdose and Calagad 13, turning this concept into music through machine funk, raw grooves and contemporary Electro. Four distinctive artists, four different approaches and one shared language where attitude, rhythm and underground spirit converge into a timeless Electro experience.
Mack Loenz delivers his debut album From The Heart on Maceo Plex’s Lone Romantic imprint, expanding his razor-sharp, cinematic sound through analog synthesis and retro-futurist design.
Across its ten tracks, the album moves through a palette that is both nostalgic and forward-facing, with glistening arps, soaring pads and growling basslines shifting between physical club function and emotional extremes of melancholic yearning, romantic tenderness and futuristic intensity. ‘Follow Me’ opens with shimmering arpeggios and driving bass building to a euphoric crescendo, while ‘Switching My Flow’ pushes into heavier territory with gritty hoover synths, skittering vocals and chest-rattling subs. Elsewhere, ‘It’s Complicated’ brings a more tender, melancholic edge with rolling drums and expansive, symphonic synth work, and ‘Trust Issues’ leans into a nocturnal, romantic yet dystopian mood carried by sweeping leads and pitched vocal splicing. ‘Waiting Game’ moves into darker, industrial-leaning tension, before ‘Back To The Stars’ closes on a reflective, emotional resolve.
Shaped by a vision to push electro into a more expressive space, From The Heart carries a clear emotional core throughout. As Mack Loenz puts it, “In a time where there is a lot of darkness, this album is about bringing light, spreading positive energy, and creating moments that people can feel both on the dancefloor and within themselves.” That sentiment runs through the record, shaping a cohesive statement that balances club functionality with atmosphere, emotion and forward-facing electronic production.
Naná Rizinni is a São Paulo-born drummer, producer, and composer whose work sits at the intersection of progressive electronics, jazz improvisation, and Brazilian rhythmic traditions. After relocating to London in 2020, Rizinni further expanded her distinctive sound, drawing on influences ranging from contemporary UK experimental jazz to forward-thinking electronic music. A respected collaborator and session musician in Brazil, she has performed with artists including Tiê, Johnny Hooker, Ana Cañas, and Thiago Pethit, and has appeared at major international festivals such as Lollapalooza, Rock in Rio, SXSW, and Primavera Sound.
Her new album,Epiblast, is a deeply personal and sonically adventurous statement. Written and co-produced with saxophonist and producer Mark Cake, the album explores themes of transformation, grief, new parenthood, and self-discovery through a rich blend of acoustic and electronic textures. Combining expansive sound design, intricate rhythmic interplay, modular synthesis, and Brazilian musical foundations, Epiblast draws comparisons to artists such as The Comet Is Coming, corto.alto, Mark Guiliana, and Richard Spaven while maintaining a unique voice of its own. Available on vinyl and digital formats, Epiblastshowcases Rizinni's most fully realized artistic vision to date and positions her as a compelling new voice within the global contemporary jazz and experimental music landscape.
Intriguing Siberian B-Boy roots informed Anton LTF's first solo album last year and its mix of funk, hip-hop and early turntablism influences really worked. He's back now with a tidy two-tracker on Soul Service Sabrosura that leans into Latin funk. It's raw, direct and charged up tackle for once again getting under the skin of b-boys and girls thanks to the killer breaks. 'Garra' is lit up with shuffling percussive keys and rhythms and big brass horns, while 'Aroma Sunset' is more pared back and loose. There's a celebratory vibe that's smoother and more languorous, with sunny flutes leading the way and irresistible Latin charm in the ways the keys dance.
Matthew Antico is the American techno head behind the PS11 alias and he has a fine array of outboard gear in his studio, as anyone who has seen his socials can attest. Here they are all hooked up and work in overdrive from the off as supple rhythms meet dance floor clout in deep underground caverns. 'Stratos' has that anxious, pent-up energy that never resolves, while 'Mile High' hits harder and more insistently but with molten dub chords. 'Mid Point' is a serene and spacious sound with a broken beat and widescreen outlook and 'Mariana Trench' sinks you into the darkness you would associate with the world's deepest ocean. 'Timble Snake' cranks up the suspense with tight loops and inky bass.
NEXT WORLD SOUND SERIES vol. 5 continues the line of experimental compilations featuring one side of an artist exploring their individual take on the ambient genre. Pressed in clear green vinyl.
Knox Chandler is an American musician, producer, arranger, and visual artist whose career spans over four decades. He has worked with The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cyndi Lauper, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, and Dave Gahan, among others. After a decade in Berlin, where he developed his layered guitar technique called Soundribbons, he returned to the U.S. and settled on the Connecticut shoreline.
ANNA HOMLER, is a vocal, visual and performance artist based in Los Angeles. She has performed and exhibited her work in venues around the world. With a sensibility that is both ancient and postmodern, Homler sings in an improvised melodic language. Her work explores alternative means of communication and the poetics of ordinary things.
Anna is accompanied by: Jeff Schwartz, a very active Los Angeles-based improvised and experimental double bassist. He leads the Present Quartet, Intangible, and the Soapbox; performs with a variety of ensembles and orchestras; and has written books on music for SUNY Press and Routledge.
David Javelosa a composer, producer, recording artist and technologist based in Mar Vista California. Performing on modular, electronic instruments, he has created soundtracks for many of the major game platforms, and most recently has been performing with Microwave Buddha, a retrospective of his synth pop work in the 1980's.
In 2001, Shin’ichi Ogawa of Sugar Plant was working for the SAL Disc record label and came up with the idea of doing an E2-E4 tribute album with his friends. This album would come off the back of a Neil Young tribute album which might have seemed odd but these two artists, Neil Young and Ashra (Manuel Göttsching), would be played regularly as equals at after-parties that Shini’ichi would throw at his house. Longtime friend and collaborator, Taro Yoda, noted that the eclecticism of these after-parties were influenced by the variety of parties they were attending at the time, from the legendary Japanese open-air rave party Life Force to Cream at Amnesia in Ibiza. Taro was obsessed with European trance and left-field downtempo while the two members of Sugar Plant were into ’70s soul—especially Marvin Gaye and William DeVaughn and at the same time, they were listening to Phish and the Grateful Dead too. All three of them were of course inspired by the DJ’ing and selections of Larry Levan.
A- Side – Sugar Plant – “Just Be There” – Production began in my home studio. Since I was frequently attending a house party called “Life Force” (with DJ Nick the Record as the resident DJ) at the time, I thought deep house would be the perfect style for a Sugar Plant cover.
I looped a two-chord electric piano track and applied filters using plugins and outboard gear to create a “sound I could listen to forever.” I recorded the bass on guitar and converted it to an analog synth (Doepfer MS-404).
From there, I layered synths improvisationally, listening to the track over and over again to make fine adjustments. I think I worked on it for days, mostly late at night.
I recorded the guitar at the very end of the track. After playing it a few times ad lib without any set plan, I suddenly had the idea to add vocals during the bridge, so I set up a mic in my hallway and recorded them.
I think this track is packed with the emotions I felt when listening to “E2-E4” back then, as well as the vibe I experienced at that party. – Shin’ichi Ogawa
HVS is truly pleased to welcome Cash Kru and Tweeleaf to the label. Two of the hardest working kids in Jungle/Hardcore IMO. With a ton of quality releases under their belts, they just had to get pressed up, because these tunes are absolutely phat!
Cash Kru runs the Asionyta label out of Belgium along with Expo, F.T.C Project & Tweeleaf. Super wicked label putting out digital releases as well as lathe cuts, disks and cassettes. She has loads of top tunes on there, and not strictly Jungle either! She also runs the Devil Dubs label putting out very very quality Jungle. I highly recommend checking both out if you want some gritty, ruthless Drum & Bass.
Tweeleaf out of Pennsylvania (funny enough the same small town the rest of my family is from) also has releases out on both labels as well as his own, Interim Records, focusing on digi singles from him, all currently being sold at “Name Your Own Price” which is insane considering every release is excellent.
These tracks were made with a combo of DAW and emulated Amiga (more info on the center label) and all four are just Heavy as hell. I've been playing them out live a ton and every track crushes the dance floor. Someone always demands the rewind on “Militant Jazz” which is funny because the buildup is so long, but by the time it drops everyone loses it!
A1. starts off the EP on a more mellow tip with a vibey Soul Pride, Think & Amen mashup from CK. The switch up into the 2nd half phased out Amen is so seamless, it's a great way to get the EP going.
A2. goes straight into the ruffness with a relentless amen tune mixed up with some mysterious/jazzy chords/vox all summed together in PT2.
B1. is a remix of a tune of mine that never came out, but CK asked for the stems and did an amazing job with it. I love her choppage on this! Super tight and snappy and hits all the right notes for a destructive tune.
B2. ends the EP with one of the nastiest tunes to come out anywhere this year if I may say so. That Lemon D amen is just crazy, and that S950 time stretch stutter is chef's kiss. But you be the judge!!
Sycophant is the first offering of recorded music from the polymathic Tāmaki artist Hun Lynch.
Recorded almost entirely at her house on a bedroom setup, Hun wrote, played and produced
almost every element on the album (with the exception of one drum track contribution from the
master Cory Champion). Sycophant guides us through lucid cinematic scenes saturated in
hypnotic choral vocals, driving guitar loops and synth-work akin to musique concrète.
Sycophant is a meditation on rediscovering one’s spirituality after both being rejected by and
rejecting organised religion. The processing of these experiences becomes a lamentation of
Christianity’s participation in the colonial rupture across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, from which the
album was born. Grappling with co-existing states of love, guilt, fear, lust, grief and hope.
Pulsing between feelings of grandiosity and insignificance, between the atavistic, animal
experience of being alive and the existential, cerebral confusion of playing a part in the current
world. At the same time, Sycophant is an expression of love and devotion to Hannah’s family
and friends and everyone she knows and doesn’t know.
Created with awhi and guidance of Noa records and Navakatoa Tekela-Pule’s unending support and friendship.
Planet Trip Records presents Sydney underground heroes Hugh B & Setwun’s first album, 2020’s Yeah Definitely, and its long-awaited follow-up, 2026’s Nah Maybe, as a deluxe vinyl LP package. Underpinned by the low-end heft of dub and soundsystem culture, their albums draw deeply from an expansive array of sensibilities: tones, textures and patterns shaped by post-punk and ambient music dovetail with abstract, sampledelic hip-hop drum loops. Meanwhile, Setwun’s mysterious neo-soul/modern R&B vocals glide on the beat. Punctuated by dialogue snippets, these songs feel like exploring the multiverse with an interdimensional boombox.
Yeah Definitely began as a batch of instrumentals. Having previously worked with an MPC, drum machines, instruments and Logic Audio, Hugh used a borrowed PC and Renoise, a tracker DAW associated with 21st-century jungle/drum & bass production. Afterwards, he sent them over to Setwun, who sketched vocals on top with ease.
If Yeah Definitely came together quickly, Nah Maybe was a longer process. Still inspired, Hugh B knocked out a second folder of beats with neon-lit city-pop references, slow-jam grooves, and elegant guitar figures. This time, however, something wasn’t clicking for Setwun. The only cure here would be the passage of time.
Over the next six years, Hugh and Setwun continued to collaborate while pursuing solo projects. Hugh released jungle, ambient house, dub and post-punk records through Planet Trip Records, Not Not Fun, and his OTIS Records label, while performing live, DJ, and leading the Modern Pop Ensemble. Similarly, Setwun, also a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ, released a series of records that explore jazz, soul, house, and broken-beat electronica, forming a loose constellation for Mandarin Dreams and Extra Soul Perception. Alongside these efforts, he played shows and began performing with his backing band, The Soulstranauts.
Early in 2026, something clicked, and Setwun drafted vocals for the second batch of beats over an evening. Not long after, he invited Hugh to mix Nah Maybe, every bit as special as Yeah Definitely. By waiting for the right moment and putting themselves outside of their comfort zone, Hugh B and Setwun have bottled lightning twice. We’re very pleased to be able to share Yeah Definitely and Nah Maybe with you.
In recent years, Teaspoon Ndelu’s work has found a new audience through reissues from labels such as Mr Bongo and Sofrito Super Singles. Mr Bongo’s 2021 reissue of Teaspoon & The Waves brought his 1977 jazz-funk classic back into circulation, while Sofrito’s Soweto Disco featured two tracks from the album, Oh Yeh Soweto and a re-edit of Friday Night, introducing Ndelu’s music to a new generation of listeners and selectors.
Originally released in 1981, Ke Kopa Madulo is a beautiful slice of South African funk from the late Teaspoon Ndelu, sitting somewhere between township soul, funk and gospel. At its heart is Ndelu’s unmistakable voice and this hypnotic electric piano, carried by a deeply infectious groove.
Long sought-after by collectors, the original has become increasingly difficult to find. We’re very happy to bring Ke Kopa Madulo back to vinyl for the first time in nearly five decades with this officially licensed reissue, giving this remarkable piece of South African musical history a new life.
For the dancers, the selectors and the listeners — Ke Kopa Madulo is back.
Mastered by Simbad
Executive producer : Fred “Spider” Jacquier
Graphic Design by Graeme Arendse
Notes : Marc Linge
Celebrating dubwise origins, Mole Audio delivers two fresh remixes of their very first release: Andy Martin ft. Gavsborg's Plato & Caves.
Gavsborg is a towering figure in Jamaica's dancehall scene. So when Andy found an acapella, he set to work on a renegade edit. Subsequently approved and embraced by Gavborg himself, Andy's interpretation provided the launch point for Mole Audio - and is re-envisioned twice more here.
Paired with the original A-side, the B-side remix comes courtesy of south London’s legendary Dub War. Benny ill & Bill Robin are progenitors of the original London Dubstep sound, and their Dub War releases on Tempa are highly prized among collectors.. Pairing hypnotic beats with spacious textures, an insistent analog bass line weaves its way through an infectiously dystopian atmosphere.
Taking a minimalistic house-driven approach, Andy's all-new Mad Magnetism Version brings Gavsborg's original vocal to a prime time environment. Sizzling high hats and diving bass drops combine to keep the dancefloor in motion before insistent dub chords further elevate the urgent atmosphere.
Combined with the original and Nit Yardman's remix, the resulting package once again showcases Mole Audio's unique approach to modern dub aesthetics.
This November, Brownswood Recordings will release Mek Do & Mend, the debut album from self-taught producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and artist Wonky Logic. Although his name may not yet be familiar to everyone, Wonky Logic (AKA Dwayne Kilvington) has spent the past two decades quietly becoming one of the UK's most respected musical collaborators. His career has moved comfortably between London's jazz, electronic and contemporary music scenes, performing and recording with artists including Nala Sinephro, Yussef Dayes, Nightmares On Wax, Shabaka Hutchings and Emma-Jean Thackray. Alongside his work as a producer and composer, he's been musical director for projects with Eddie Chacon, John Carroll Kirby and I.G Culture's LCSM, scored the feature documentary Zandra With A Zed, contributed music to A24's The Smashing Machine, and continues to lead music workshops with young people, refugees and people experiencing incarceration.
Far more than a collection of compositions, Mek Do & Mend is a deeply personal reflection on the people, places and experiences that have shaped Kilvington throughout his life. It's the story of growing up on a Leeds council estate, where music became both a creative outlet and a way of understanding the world. Making music often meant working with whatever was available: a second-hand keyboard, a makeshift studio desk or ageing equipment that simply had to last a little longer. The title itself came from a conversation with his mother, capturing the resourcefulness that defined his upbringing and continued into the making of the album itself, which was written and produced to a tight deadline around touring, family life and Kilvington's work as a musician and educator.
Built from material spanning more than fifteen years, Mek Do & Mend brings together some of Wonky Logic's earliest compositions alongside brand new pieces written during the making of the record itself. Childhood ideas sit alongside music conceived only months before recording, creating an album that draws together a lifetime of writing rather than documenting a single moment. Running throughout are voice notes from family members, teachers, friends, mentors and collaborators—not simply as interludes, but as a reminder that no creative life is ever self-made. Rather than telling his own story outright, Kilvington invites listeners to discover him through the people who've shaped him: an aunt remembering him playing in church as a child, lifelong friends recalling early experiments making beats together, fellow musicians from different stages of his career and his mother describing him in her own words. Together they reveal the invisible network of relationships, philosophies, communities and experiences behind the music. "The album exists somewhere between being a biography and an autobiography," says Dwayne. "The biography is in the voice notes and how other people see me. The autobiography is in the music."
That same philosophy extends to the musicians who appear on the record. Every contributor has played a meaningful role in Wonky Logic's life beyond the studio. Long-time collaborator Luke Wynter, Steam Down drummer Benji Appiah, partner Vanessa Rani, Jonathan Enser, Joe Bristow, Brother Portrait and Nubiya Imani all feature not simply because of their musicianship, but because they form part of the album's story.
Across its fourteen tracks, Mek Do & Mend moves effortlessly between dynamic jazz arrangements, pulsating broken rhythms, delicate, twinkling piano passages, interstellar synth textures and elegant brass lines. Album opener and first single 'Strange Attractor' begins with a shimmering introduction before unfolding into an exhilarating surge of rhythm and momentum. Named after the mathematical concept of the same name, it serves as the conceptual point of origin for the album. Written when Kilvington was just seventeen, the composition reflects the idea that even the most unpredictable lives are guided by hidden patterns that often only become visible with time. Second single 'A Thousand Hands' features the unmistakable vocal tones of Brother Portrait, whose cerebral lyricism drifts over a low-slung, constantly shifting groove as woozy synth lines ebb and flow overhead. At its heart, the track celebrates the family, friends, mentors and collaborators whose often unseen influence shapes who we become, echoing the album's belief that every achievement is, in some way, a collective one. LP focus track 'BAME (Beyond All Marginalised Expectations)' is a lush, spiralling composition, brimming with both emotion and resolve. Reclaiming an acronym long imposed on racialised communities in the UK, the piece transforms it into a statement of possibility rather than limitation: a defiant rejection of stereotypes and a refusal to let identity be defined by other people's expectations.
The album itself only exists because other people believed in it. Isabel Gracefield made the RAK sessions possible, Rick David brought the record together with his characteristically thoughtful mix, and Gilles Peterson committed to releasing it on Brownswood before hearing any of the music. Away from the stage, Kilvington works with the charity Finding Rhythms, writing and producing original records with people experiencing incarceration, while also leading workshops with Arts Train and Dovetail Orchestra.
Recorded live in a single day in Studio One at RAK, Mek Do & Mend was mixed by Rick David through an analogue Cadac console before being mastered by Stuart Hawkes at Metropolis. The aim wasn't nostalgia or audiophile perfection, but to create a record people could return to throughout their lives, discovering something new with each listen.
As Dwayne puts it: "I don't want this body of work to be reduced to a jazz record. It's more like a novel about life told through music."
Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, to a mother of Indian and Congolese heritage and a father of Slovak and Belgian descent, Siân grew up between Belgium and New York before finally letting her travelling wings come to rest in Paris. What could have become a story of fragmentation instead became a source of creative strength. Singer, songwriter, composer and photographer, Siân has always turned borders into bridges.
She first honed her voice in the jazz clubs of Paris and New York, performing alongside renowned artists such as Richard Bona, Jon Batiste and Mike Stern. Yet her path has always extended far beyond the stage. For nearly a decade, she led cultural initiatives with women and children living through exile, violence and poverty across India and Southern Africa, weaving together music, photography and artistic transmission as tools for dialogue and empowerment.
The true turning point came when she discovered the kamele ngoni, the West African harp whose ethereal sound seemed to echo something long buried within her. The instrument became her musical alter ego—the invisible thread binding together her many inheritances. Guided by Malian master Abou Diarra, Siân embarked on an inward journey towards her African roots. Yet this return to her origins was never an act of retreat into identity. Instead, it gave rise to a body of work that remains profoundly open to the world, where Africa enters into conversation with jazz, folk, soul, alternative pop and the rhythms of Brazil.
Along the way, she has crossed paths with remarkable artists including Rogê, Chico César, Fatoumata Diawara, Lokua Kanza, Flavia Coelho, Thomas de Pourquery and Philippe Baden Powell. On stage and in the studio, Siân continues to shape a musical universe that refuses labels. Like artists such as Björk, Joni Mitchell and Laura Mvula, she moves forward as an explorer, guided not by genre but by intuition.
Today, Siân stands as one of the most distinctive voices of the new Francophone music scene an artist capable of uniting musical sophistication with emotional power, introspection with collective celebration, depth with an irresistible urge to dance.
Animal — The New Album
With Animal, produced by British musician Tom Excell (Nubiyan Twist, Africa Express...), Siân delivers her most intimate and assured work to date. Every song feels like a shedding of skin, a quiet metamorphosis, exploring self-acceptance, femininity, the freedom to be oneself, cultural heritage, and the reconciliation of one's own imperfections.
From Stereotype, a fearless manifesto against the expectations imposed on women, to the title track Animal, an anthem celebrating the beauty of imperfection ("I've turned my cracks into a crown"), the album gives a voice to everyone who refuses to fit into predefined boxes. In Terre, je danse sur toi, featuring Fatoumata Diawara, Siân pays tribute to Mother Earth and to the roots that unite us all. Oh! Congo, recorded with Lokua Kanza, reconciles her cultural heritage with an ancestral homeland that feels both distant and intimately familiar. En équilibre, with Flavia Coelho, embraces the exhilaration of risk and the courage to leap, while Put a Mask and I Could Kill confront hidden wounds and the invisible violences that quietly shape who we become.
In ADé, Siân addresses Adenomyosis as though speaking to an unwanted housemate. "My body is your battlefield," she sings, giving voice to an intimate shadow lodged deep within herself. This bittersweet lullaby transforms a pain so often left unspoken into an act of profound tenderness towards oneself.
The album also holds a rare treasure: Reste tel(le), an unpublished text by Pierre Barouh, the founder of the Saravah label. Never before set to music or performed, this elusive poem of free love finds new life through Siân's voice, becoming a dialogue across time between two artists united by the same devotion to freedom, métissage and openness to the world.
Driven by Tom Excell's vibrant Afro-pop pulse, the spiritual breath of the kamele ngoni, organic arrangements and deeply personal songwriting, Animal is an album of liberation. It invites us to lay down our masks, embrace our contradictions and reconnect with the free, instinctive and powerful animal that lies dormant within us all. More than a collection of songs, it is a radiant manifesto for the richness of identity, the passing on of memory, and reconciliation with oneself.
Animal is not simply the title of an album, it is a declaration of independence. An invitation to live fully, unapologetically, and without instructions.
A citizen of the world, travelling freely between continents, languages and memories, Siân Pottok delivers with Animal her most personal, and perhaps her most universal work to date: an album that reminds us that our fragilities, our roots and our differences are, beyond doubt, our greatest strength.
— Christophe Tison
