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.
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.
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.
We are in-between again: FELT founder Fergus Jones surfaces on his own label for the first time with this dreamy, dubby pair of introspective tracks featuring the hazy, elegiac vocals of Thomas Bush, back on FELT after 2023's split cassette with Princess Diana of Wales. The results of a three-day studio bender in Copenhagen, Bush's entrancing vocals gesture towards the unchangeable past and unknowable future, creating a vital, pumping circulatory system of sound, further supported by the saxophone of Italian-Danish artist Francesca Buratelli and the (vinyl debut) of New York's Yumi with a notable interjection on "Untitled (Mix 1)”.
Written, produced and mixed by Fergus Jones & Thomas Bush
Saxophone on Untitled (Mix 1) by Francesca Burattelli
Additional vocals on Untitled (Mix 1) by Yumiko Mannarelli
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
12 Inch Lovers - Celebrating 15 Years of Vinyl Culture!
Belgian vinyl-only event concept 12 Inch Lovers celebrates its 15th anniversary with two new additions to its established sampler series. Now entering its seventh year, the series reflects the music and atmosphere of the events, combining dancefloor favourites with carefully selected discoveries.
Samplers 13 & 14 bring together sought-after classics, hard-to-find gems and selected tracks and versions making their vinyl debut. Each volume features nine full-length tracks across two 12-inch records, making both releases essential additions for DJs and collectors alike.
Sampler 13 includes Sorry I Am Late by Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Marea (We've Lost Dancing) by Fred again.. & The Blessed Madonna, and Lifetimes by Slam feat. Tyrone Palmer. Further highlights include Tocadisco's Morumbi and the Martijn ten Velden Remix of Guitarra G.
Sampler 14 features Dreams by Deep Dish feat. Stevie Nicks, All That Matters by Kölsch feat. Troels Abrahamsen, and the NiCe7 Remix of It's Yours by Jon Cutler feat. E-Man. Belgian favourites Decoy & Roy with Inner Life and The Mackenzie with Higher In The Sky add to the selection.
Rooted in 15 years of vinyl-only events, these two compilations capture the distinctive sound of 12 Inch Lovers, offering lasting appeal for long-time fans, record collectors and DJs looking tobring proven classics back to the dancefloor.
Nothing But (Future) Classix, Straight From Vinyl!
Sampler 14 opens with Jon Cutler feat. E-Man - It's Yours (NiCe7 Remix). This remix pairs the recognisable vocal with a punchy house groove. A fresh take on a familiar classic that sets the tone straight away. Next comes Sterac Electronics - Destination Reached, with Steve Rachmad
showcasing his feel for electronic funk. Tight rhythms and an infectious groove make this a record with lasting appeal.
Side B features Swen Weber - Maya (Rerub), a powerful club track whose build and driving rhythm keep the dancefloor moving. Deep Dish feat. Stevie Nicks - Dreams then delivers a familiar moment. Stevie Nicks' distinctive voice and Deep Dish's warm, immersive house sound
give this well-known song a character all of its own.
Side C brings Kölsch feat. Troels Abrahamsen - All That Matters, a melodic track in which the vocaland gradual build complement each other beautifully. The kind of record that feels equally at home deep into a club night or under the first rays of sunshine at a festival. Next is Chew Fu feat. Steve Clisby - Purple Rain (Mousse T.'s Home A Lone Mix). Mousse T. gives this interpretation of the Prince classic a warm, soulful house groove, leaving plenty of room for Steve Clisby's voice to shine.
On side D, Jürgen Paape - We Love takes over. Playful, melodic and full of character, it adds a different flavour to the selection. Decoy & Roy - Inner Life follows with a generous dose of nostalgia and a sound that perfectly reflects a love for Belgian club classics. Closing the sampler is The Mackenzie - Higher In The Sky, whose dreamy melodies and uplifting energy provide a fitting finale.
Nine tracks across two 12-inch records, each in its full-length version. Much-loved classics, inspired remixes and lesser-known gems, brought together withthe same love for music that has driven 12 Inch Lovers' events for 15 years.
Rubbermaidxxx is a recent music performance project by the Irish artist Anna McCarthy, rather than simply the title of one autonomous artwork. Rubbermaidxxx is a character or unstable identity, an emancipatory underdog with a heart for daredevilry. The project sits naturally within McCarthy’s larger practice, which moves between drawing, assemblage, happenings and collective actions.
Clad in a black balaclava and fetish climbing wear, she abseils from buildings before entering the stage. For the first performance in New York City, she was invited by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio to perform at his club Francis Kite Club in Alphabet City, NYC and since has continued to make a name for herself hanging off façades, singing, dancing and mopping the floor together with her performance collaborators Miss Philip a.k.a. Philip Errico and Michael Tapper at Pianos NYC, Kottbusser Tor and Genezarethkirche Berlin or the Villa Stuck Museum in Munich.
The album was produced in Munich and New York in 2025 in collaboration with her brother Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand) and Anton Kaun (Rumpeln). What started as a quick improv turned into a high-energy 4-hour session of the siblings playing manic ball with beats, bass, guitars and vocals resulting in what laid the basis to this album. In the weeks following, Anna McCarthy, who is known for her cut-up production style, reminiscent of albums such as White Noise or Flying Lotus, continued to develop the vocals, performance and music by mixing in an amalgam of field recordings with her narrative spoken word, including sounds of protests, dollar stores or ice-cream trucks, as well as collaborating with the noise artist Rumpeln for the last two tracks of the album.
McCarthy is also known as the lyricist and singer of What Are People For? (debut 2022 on Alien Transistor) with its dystopic dance music candy-cane shows and equally humorously critical tongue-in-cheek bangers such as Bring back the Dirt, Drones or Partytime. Anna McCarthy's spoken word, social urgency and enthusiasm to experiment across mediums is comparable to other contemporaries such as Moor Mother, Miho Hatori, Gonjasufi, Tricky, or Cibo Matto.
The name itself is telling. Rubbermaidxxx evokes elasticity, artificiality, domestic labour and the commercial world of cleaning and garbage. It suggests a body capable of stretching, absorbing filth and cleaning up after society – only to revolt against the role it has been assigned.
Rubbermaidxxx is a master of deception, juggling fact and fiction as a reflection of our times – a diamond thief, a protester, or even responsible for the Louvre heist? This album invites the listener and viewer in, playfully dismantling hierarchies and power structures as she goes through a hopeful amalgam of dance, protest & love songs.
Across the cosmic boundaries via spiritual exploration and in the void between shimmer and shadow you will find the astral soundscapes of Birds Of Pandaemonium...
Emerging from Brooklyn's late-night music ecosystem, 'Hazy James' Armstrong and Tim Wagner met nearly 20 years ago through the city's DJ and club scene. Each with different but complementary musical backgrounds which included a mix of folk, guitar, DJing, synths, drum machines, country rock, disco, jazz, and rhythm-heavy club music (being just a few!), the duo began various musical endeavours together & "exploring the darkness while pursuing light" which eventually lead to the birth of Birds Of Pandaemonium.
It was only a matter of time that the stars aligned (via an introduction from Shane Watson of Causeway) to bring the Birds onto the musical radar at Sprechen which led to the release of 3 renowned E.Ps and ultimately, their debut album, Eudaemonia. Obscure covers including Idris Muhammed's Loft classic 'Could Heaven Ever Be Like This', the rave defining Born Slippy by Underworld and the post punk/new wave 'On Islands' by New Musik sit alongside original songs shaped by fresh reflections on life, grief, and love with elements of dream pop, shoe-gaze & gothic pop to give wistful and pulse-driven listening experience that is hazy, romantic, and deliberately genre-blurring.
A truly unique listening experience that delivers broad strokes of sunsetting psychedelia and bleary-eyed optimistic, astral dream-pop across all 8 tracks.
Is it balearic? Not really, it's pretty much a genre all on its own (answers on a postcard).
Yore Records proudly welcomes back DJ Alone Again from NYC for a second journey into timeless House aesthetics.
Across four cuts, DJ Alone Again moves effortlessly between raw, uplifting New York energy and deeper late-night moods. From classic swinging drums, dusty stabs and peak-time pressure to warm chords and smoother hypnotic grooves, this EP captures different shades of the unmistakable 90s house spirit.
Stripped-back, soulful and driven by pure dancefloor functionality, these tracks feel both familiar and refreshingly honest — a tribute to the golden era without sounding trapped in the past. A sincere nod to classic underground House Music and another statement by yours truly YORE RECORDS.
Wisconsin house music legends Solid Gold Playaz return with Minds Beneath Atlantis EP, a timeless deep house gem first released in 2003 on Silver Network before receiving a sought-after reissue from Still Music in 2017. Long out of print and highly coveted by collectors, copies have regularly fetched upwards of £50 on the second-hand market. Thankfully, Still Music have answered the call with a welcome repress, making this essential release available once again for DJs, collectors, and deep house enthusiasts who missed out the first time around.
Like a spiral, constantly moving both downward and upward.
Speaking of cycles, we find ourselves back where it all began.
In a time when authenticity and craftsmanship have become something truly powerful. We reach the starting point once again, but in another dimension - different, distinctive, yet our own.
Pryma welcomes Montei back to take charge of the label’s seventh release.
Year 3673. The frequencies have taken hold. What began as scattered transmissions from the underground has become an infection. Across the dead zones, abandoned receivers flicker back to life. Forbidden rhythms bleed through the static. Citizens once numb to the Global Order's neural grip are beginning to move again. But something else has awakened with them. Deep beneath the ruins, an unknown signal has begun answering SHIFT's transmissions. Its origin is untraceable. Its frequency predates the network. Those exposed report visions, lost time and an uncontrollable urge to follow the sound. The Global Order calls it contamination. SHIFT calls it evolution. A new generation has been born into the resistance; raised on distorted circuitry, machine funk and frequencies never meant for human ears. The signal is spreading. Do not adjust your receiver.
In the realm of Swedish melodic rock from Skövde, few bands command the attention and admiration quite like NIVA. With their signature blend of soaring melodies, powerhouse vocals, and infectious hooks, the band has established themselves as a force to be reckoned. Now, with the release of their highly anticipated 7th full-length album ""Stratospheric,"" NIVA once again proves why they are considered among the elite in the genre.
From the opening chords of the title track, it's clear that ""Stratospheric"" is an album that aims for the stars and reaches new heights of sonic excellence. Led by the Swedish powerhouse vocals of frontman Tony Niva, the album is a tour de force of melodic rock anthems that resonate with passion, energy, and raw emotion.
Throughout ""Stratospheric"" NIVA demonstrates their mastery of the melodic rock genre, effortlessly blending elements of classic rock, melodic rock, and AOR to create a Nordic sound that is uniquely their own. With its larger-than-life production and infectious energy, the album is a testament to the band's evolution and growth as artists, while also paying homage to the rich legacy of melodic rock and AOR that has inspired them along the way.
For fans of NIVA and lovers of melodic rock alike, ""Stratospheric"" is a must-listen experience that promises to transport listeners to new heights of musical ecstasy. With its unforgettable hooks, powerhouse vocals, and electrifying performances, the album is a fitting tribute to the band's enduring legacy and a testament to their status as one of Sweden's most beloved rock acts. So, strap in, turn up the volume, and get ready to embark on a journey to the stars with NIVA's new upcoming release ""Stratospheric"".
- Seventh studio album by the Swedish Melodic Rock group
- Feat. members of Master Massive, Lion’s Share, Wolf, Starchaser
- Produced by Tony Niva & Jan Strandh; mixed & mastered by Thomas Plec Johansson.
For fans of: Niva, Lion’s Share, Treat, Imperium, Eclipse
California’s beloved Brainstory returns with a new EP celebrating the end of an era. Shoebox Days is an homage to the time spent and the recordings made at their now defunct Long Beach studio, aptly named Shoebox. As the name suggests, the space was tiny and stuffed with gear. While charming, it was riddled with constraints. But, as has been proven time and time again, great art often comes from difficult circumstances, and this new 7 song EP is further proof. The first track, “The Watchers,” opens with an earworm horn melody that immediately pulls you in. The crunchy drums and G Funk bass tones put a bop on it, lush orchestration weaves in and out and sets a mellow vibe. “Blend,” one of only two vocal tracks on the EP, is a California sunshine soaked love song walking the lines of psych rock ballad and B side soul. ”Twin Kitchen” leans you right back into your seat, with Eric Hagstrom’s in-the-pocket drumming carrying the tune.
“Home Alone” is singer Kevin Martin’s ever so relatable tribute to time by himself, time by today’s standards as “disconnected,” but in reality, much more connected… The fellas let some of the jazz background take front stage on “Lone Traveler,” starting out with an air tight groove, and letting loose over it as the track progresses. “Gravity Hill” named after the famed California oddity begins the ending of the EP as Brainstory takes it deep and brings us with them. “Necessary Loss” serves as the closer to this gorgeous journey.
California’s beloved Brainstory returns with a new EP celebrating the end of an era. Shoebox Days is an homage to the time spent and the recordings made at their now defunct Long Beach studio, aptly named Shoebox. As the name suggests, the space was tiny and stuffed with gear. While charming, it was riddled with constraints. But, as has been proven time and time again, great art often comes from difficult circumstances, and this new 7 song EP is further proof. The first track, “The Watchers,” opens with an earworm horn melody that immediately pulls you in.
The crunchy drums and G Funk bass tones put a bop on it, lush orchestration weaves in and out and sets a mellow vibe. “Blend,” one of only two vocal tracks on the EP, is a California sunshine soaked love song walking the lines of psych rock ballad and B side soul. ”Twin Kitchen” leans you right back into your seat, with Eric Hagstrom’s in-the-pocket drumming carrying the tune. “Home Alone” is singer Kevin Martin’s ever so relatable tribute to time by himself, time by today’s standards as “disconnected,” but in reality, much more connected… The fellas let some of the jazz background take front stage on “Lone Traveler,” starting out with an air tight groove, and letting loose over it as the track progresses. “Gravity Hill” named after the famed California oddity begins the ending of the EP as Brainstory takes it deep and brings us with them. “Necessary Loss” serves as the closer to this gorgeous journey.
This album presents 22 live-in-the-studio BBC recordings from 1963–1965 that have never been released before. It includes all the hits and misses from that period, along with three tracks that were never recorded for EMI: Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, Jagger and Richards’ So Much In Love, and the band’s own composition Falling In Love Again—previously undocumented. For fans of The Swinging Blue Jeans, this long-awaited release is a must-have.
Sleeve notes by Peter Checksfield.
“Interpretation”
The act of explaining, reframing, or otherwise showing your own understanding of something. This captured me. We can all look at the same thing but what we see, hear or experience may differ. This word ended up being the title of my new album. I want to share my interpretation of music with listeners and take them on a musical journey. Through my music, I hope to bring about many interpretations. Your interpretation.
With great joy and pride we announce that The Night Service Commute second album Interpretation is a fact. The release is set for November 13th. You can expect cinematic vibes driven by breakbeats, bass, rhodes, violin, poetry, trumpet and field recordings. This turned out fantastic, and gave the album the groove, feel and vibe I was looking for. During the making, It was so great to learn how to capture the sound and get it to sit well in the mix.
The cover was made by my dear friend Saša Ostoja. His illustrations resonate greatly with me and put a smile on my face. The setting of the cover artwork is urban with hints of forest. Behind the windows, you can see the characters playing music and doing studio stuff. It has loads of hidden jokes and details. I can look at it again and again and discover new things every time.
Land of Talk is still here. That wasn’t always a guarantee. Over the multi-faceted twenty year history of their project, Lizzie Powell has drifted from and back to music, always interrogating their role as an artist. In the time since 2023’s Performances, they found themselves utterly worn down by the vicissitudes of the music industry and wracked with worry around their aging parents. Yet the music didn’t stop: Powell heard songs in traffic and in birds chirping, in their downstairs neighbor’s daily prayers and in the babble of children on the street. Melodies slowly cohered over time. “Life can become so unbearable, and music is where I go to metabolize it,” they explain. “I know the music was the only thing that was going to help me.” Soon Powell reemerged with the sixth Land of Talk album, LASTS.
LASTS is full of double meanings — both resilience and finality, acting as a noun and a verb. Though LASTS is haunted by crises including climate collapse, political upheaval, and genocide, the mangitude of global turmoil led Powell towards smaller, humane depictions of suffering and grief. As both their parents became ill, Powell reflected on the last time a person might walk, might talk to a loved one. Yet watching their parents near the other side of life’s arc also made Powell consider all they had survived across their own decades on this earth, their new songs channeling both gratitude and rage. LASTS became a phrase, honoring Land of Talk’s circuitous route and all Powell’s reckoned with through the years. “I think of this record as a love letter to life,” they say.
The end result is an album both lean and winding, allowing Powell’s words and melodies to take centerstage, uncrowded in visceral, shot-no-chaser arrangements. LASTS jumps right in with “Broken Tongue,” a wiry track built on thrumming electric guitar and ghostly synths as Powell rails against the lack of justice for victims of abuse. The trio’s interplay is readily evident in “Saffron” and “4:44,” two earworm songs that also allow themselves to unspool into extended instrumental codas. Early in the record, there are seething tracks like “Dogs” — “Just your basic instinct / Even dogs know better,” Powell growls in the chorus, before the song quiets into a plaintive plea of “Leave us alone now” — and later there are more vulnerable, wandering moments. In “Projections” and “Cedars,” Powell ventures deep into their head, inviting their co-conspirators and listeners alike to follow the songs wherever they meander.
Das bahnbrechende Debütalbum ,Blue Horse" der Be Good Tanyas erscheint anlässlich des 25-jährigen Jubiläums als Vinyl-Ausgabe bei Birthday Cake Records. Das Album wurde im Jahr 2000 in Vancouver mit nahezu keinem Budget aufgenommen, und das Trio aus Frazey Ford, Trish Klein und Samantha Parton verwandelte Old-Time-, Folk- und Country-Blues-Klänge in etwas Unheimliches, Intimes und ganz Eigenes - und gelangte dank der Ausstrahlung im CBC von einer Independent-Veröffentlichung zu einem internationalen Publikum. ,Blue Horse" machte die Band in Großbritannien zu einem Phänomen: 83 Wochen in den offiziellen britischen Country-Künstler-Albumcharts (mit Platz 3 als Höchstplatzierung), ein Platz in den Top 50 der Alben des Jahres des Q Magazine, ein Auftritt auf der Acoustic Stage in Glastonbury und ein Auftritt bei ,Later_ with Jools Holland". Die Zeitung ,The Independent" lobte es als ,eines der bezauberndsten Debüts", während ,The Littlest Birds" zu einem Markenzeichen einer ganzen Generation wurde und später in der Showtime-Serie ,Weeds" zu hören war. Die Musik der Band hat seitdem ihren Weg in epochale Fernsehserien wie ,Breaking Bad", ,The L Word" und ,Hell on Wheels" gefunden. Ein Vierteljahrhundert später ist dies ein lebendiges Werk, kein Nostalgieobjekt: Die Band zieht monatlich rund 510.000 Spotify-Hörer mit über 139 Millionen Streams des Gesamtkatalogs an, und Frazey Fords gefeierte Solokarriere führt immer wieder neue Hörer dorthin zurück, wo alles begann. Gepresst von neu aufbereiteten Vinyl-Masterbändern aus dem Jahr 2026 bringt diese Single-LP-Ausgabe ,Blue Horse" zum ersten Mal seit 15 Jahren wieder auf Vinyl heraus.
Mohammad Syfkhan is back with his second album for Nyahh Records. This collection of new recordings marks a hug milestone in Mohammad’s career as it’s the first album that features all original compositions. And with a full band! We had the great help of Syrian Cellist and composer Naseem Alatrash to help with the string arrangements. The resulting record is a beautiful journey into a timeless Middle Eastern and North African sound akin to the likes of Fairuz or Umm Kulthum with a fast Kurdish Dabke tempo.
I Love You Ireland is an incredibly personal album for Mohammad. The title alone, much like his debut ‘I Am Kurdish’ is as personal as it it’s political. To express such love for a place in music is saying, thank you for making me and family feel safe. Thank you for taking us in. A stand out track titled ‘Ah Yu Donia’ is Mohammad’s first real public moment of grieving for the loss of his son at the murderous hands of Isis. In this song he asks God why he was taken. Trying to figure the sense in the actions of fundamentalists. The strings sections are sad, but not morbid. Acting like a release or companion to the horrific reality of losing a child.
‘Al Huriya’ is Mohammad’s first attempt at using an Irish rhythm known as a Reel, as appose to his usual Middle Eastern rhythms. Again, this is a beautiful way for Mohammad to give thanks to all the musicians and supportive people his has met in Ireland since 2011.
WHO IS MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN
Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian Singer and Bouzouki player. He began
playing music in 1980 while he was in college studying nursing. When he got
his degree in 1983, Mohammad moved to the city of Raqqa, Syria where he
began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie
Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. The
Al-Rabie Band were a much sought-after group. Their live sets included Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs as well as Mohammad’s own original material.
Mohammad continued to play with his band while also working as a surgical
nurse until the war broke out in 2011. This unfortunately brought tragedy to
Mohammad’s family when one of his sons was killed by Isis thus threatening
the lives of the rest of his family. His family had no choice but to leave their
home and seek safety in Europe. Three of Mohammad’s sons were resettled in
Germany while Mohammad, his young daughter and wife were taken in by
Ireland. Mohammad has spoken at length of his confusion and despair with
fundamentalists and how their message is a far cry from the teachings of love
and understanding that he considers the true message of Islam.
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
Neuauflage der essentiellen "Beat Konducta"-Reihe, hier Vol. 5-6: "Dil Cosby & Dil Withers Suite" (Steady Metals Edition) - Madlib zollt J Dilla Tribut! Auf "Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: Dil Cosby & Dil Withers Suite" (ursprünglich 2008 als zwei separate LPs veröffentlicht) würdigt Madlib seinen verstorbenen Freund und musikalischen Weggefährten J Dilla - unterstützt durch Features von J. Rocc. 42 soulige, atmosphärische Instrumentals bilden den Abschiedsgruß an Jay Dee. Nachdem sie lange vergriffen waren, erscheinen beide Teile von Madlibs legendärer Instrumental-Reihe nun erstmals gemeinsam als farbige Doppel-LP auf metallisch schimmerndem silbernen und goldenen Vinyl, verpackt in einem aufklappbaren Gatefold-Cover.
Nearly a decade after the acclaimed 2017 release of Hometown, Victor, the mind behind Module One is back with his highly anticipated follow-up album, dropping early November.
Now settled in Berlin, Victor's sound deeply reflects his integration into the city's vibrant cultural cosmos. Moving beyond earlier blueprints, his music has matured into a nuanced, fully developed aesthetic based on the personal reflections, artistic environment of the city, and live performances played and heard. Adding an intimate, personal dimension to the project, Soela and D'Loive lend their delicate vocal touch, weaving seamless melodic textures into Victor's refined production.
The upcoming Album HOMETOWN II stands as both a personal milestone and a captivating new chapter for Module One. Vinyl Tastes Better…
Celestial Echo Records brings back Sweet Mixture’s “House Of Fun And Love”, a killer slice of crossover soul from 1973.
Produced by Ron Rice and originally coming out of Chicago’s Bazar label he ran, “House Of Fun And Love” sits right in that sweet spot between modern soul and boogie before the lines were fully drawn. It has that glide you want from a great crossover record: warm vocals, a rolling groove, tight drums and enough lift to move from a soul room into a dancefloor set without forcing it.
There’s a nice full circle moment with this one too. “House Of Fun And Love” was one of the earliest releases on Discs of Fun and Love, the label run by miche and Frederika. It sold out quickly the first time around and years on, it feels like the perfect record to bring into the Celestial Echo catalogue, another holy grail for 2026.
On the B-side is “I Love You”, a sweet ballad that is smooth, heartfelt and beautifully understated. A beautiful slow number that’s common on a lot of these early soul records.
A rare soul grail made available again, respectfully cut, properly pressed, and ready to play.
Inhale. Exhale. Remember to breathe. In that rhythm lies the pulse of being - the ancient echo of stars from which we are made. Breathing is the bridge between the inner cosmos and the outer void. When you breathe, you testify to existence itself: "I am." The Moonrover - a child of reason - abandoned on the cold, dead Moon. It does not feel time, know fear, or comprehend solitude. But a human, in its place, would understand: Silence is not emptiness. It is a mirror. And in that mirror arises the question: "If I am alone, and silence is infinite - who hears my breath?" The answer lies in the breath. Each inhale is resistance against entropy. Each exhale is an act of remembrance. To breathe is to remember that you are not just part of the Universe - you are its awakened part. And just as the Moonrover crawls across grey lunar plains, driven by an unknown purpose, so do you move through life, led by an inner light, until you realize: breath is not just life. It is a prayer sent into silence. And if you can hear it - you are alive.
The wait is over, Return To The 37th Chamber is El Michels Affair's highly anticipated follow up to 2009's underground cult classic Enter the 37th Chamber. Churning out classic records since then for the likes of Lee Fields, The Arcs, The Shacks, and tons more, it is clear that EMA's signature sound is stronger & sharper than ever. This time, in addition to re-interpreting the Wu compositions for a live band, EMA pays homage to the production and sonic fog that makes a RZA beat so recognizable. Producer and bandleader Leon Michels recorded the album completely analog, sometimes hitting 6 generations of tape before it was ready for mixing, giving the Return to The 37th Chamber it's own hazy sound. Adding to the unique fidelity, the record is laced with psychedelic flourishes, John Carpenter' synths, heavy metal guitars, triumpha0nt horns, and traditional Chinese instruments that make up for the lack of the Wu's superlative vocals. From start to finish it's a dark trip that walks the line between RZA's timeless hip-hop aesthetic and the cinematic soul EMA has become known for. El Michels Affair tackles some classics like 4th Chamber and Wu Tang Aint Nuthin to Fuck Wit, as well as some deeper cuts like Ol Dirty Bastard's Snakes, Raekwon's Verbal Intercourse, and Shaolin Brew, Wu-Tang's contribution to the St. Ide's Hip Hop endorsement campaign from 1994. This time El Michels brings some of the Big Crown family along for the ride. Lee Fields handles vocal duties on Snakes and is joined by Shannon Wise of The Shacks for their version of Tearz, which pays as much homage to the Wendy Rene sample as it does to the Wu-Tang Clan. Lady Wray makes an appearance on the cover of Method Man's hit, All I Need, lending her vocal prowess to what gave the Wu one of their biggest hits of all time. Interspersed throughout the record are some original interludes that are like the rug that ties the room together,' giving Return To The 37th Chamber a cinematic narrative that makes it a proper El Michels Affair record and not just a collection of covers. From the music to the presentation, this album is a perfect example of what can only be achieved through diversity. The end result is as much a kaleidoscope of influences and multiculturalism as the city it was recorded in. El Michels Affair is once again, sounding out the city' that raised them, pulling elements of art and culture from across the country and around the globe to create an album truly unique in it's own right.
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.
Half a century after its original release, legendary Lebanese musician and singer Marcel Khalife—renowned oud player and global icon of both music and activism—returns with a new recording. On this album, he reinterprets four of the five tracks from his debut, Promises of the Storm. A bold defiance of time and history.
Why revisit the same album, 50 years later? The reasons are many, but one stands above the rest: history itself seems to be repeating. The narrative unfolds once more in the same dire circumstances as half a century ago, as if time has folded in on itself, returning everything to its starting point. The urgency, the necessity—it all remains, pressing and inescapable. We must begin again.
In 1976, a young Marcel Khalife found himself exiled in Paris, fleeing the Lebanese Civil War and his family’s Christian village, where his progressive, left-wing ideas had placed him under a kind of house arrest. He was one of the few to openly and unwaveringly champion the Palestinian cause. The situation quickly became untenable, especially since, just a month before the war began in March 1975, Khalife—fresh out of the conservatory—had given his first public concert to great acclaim. Then, everything collapsed. What does one do when trapped at home? Read books, play the oud, and turn those readings into songs. In his family’s de facto prison, Khalife began setting the poetry of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to music. These songs, born of confinement, he carried with him into exile, driving to Paris where a producer offered him the chance to record an album. Naturally, the tracks were the ones he had been improvising at home from Darwish’s poems. The album’s title, Promises of the Storm, echoed the war that was just beginning. Khalife recalls that the album became a hit after a concert at the Fête de l’Huma, where 500 copies were sold in a single day. “Everything started there, and it never stopped,” he remembers. He would meet Mahmoud Darwish shortly after, at a dinner organized by mutual friends. From that moment, a deep friendship blossomed between the two men.
With Darwish’s words and Khalife’s music, the songs of Promises of the Storm are imbued with a powerful evocative force—melancholy, tenderness, and poetic resistance in the face of violence. The album catapulted Khalife to international stardom, leading to endless tours and recordings, yet he never abandoned his commitments.
Now, 50 years later, Promises of the Storm returns in a fresh recording, because history is repeating itself. After the Israeli bombings in Lebanon at the end of 2024, Khalife, who was on tour, found himself stranded in Paris. He remembered a recurring request from his son, musician Bachar Mar-Khalife, who had often urged him to re-record his now-classic debut album. One morning, oud in hand, Marcel knocked on his son’s door and said, “Shall we? I’m ready to record.”
These new versions are stripped down, raw, and intimate—just the solitary strings of the oud. Khalife sings as never before, his voice no longer marked by the fragility of youth but imbued with something deeper, freer, unshackled. It soars high yet resonates low, always clear, as if to escape sadness, to evoke love and violence, desire and exile. In just four songs, Khalife encapsulates a lifetime, and a philosophy of life. Rita tells of a love of Darwish’s, with the haunting line (translated from Arabic): “Between Rita’s eyes and mine, a rifle.” Oummi invokes the figure of the mother as a metaphor for the lost land. Promises of the Storm is a meditation on revolution, the hope for change, the melancholy of defeat, and the power of thought. Passport captures, through poetry, the feeling of being stateless—a citizen of everywhere and nowhere.
Time has only strengthened these texts and this music. History never repeats itself without a valid, indispensable reason for the present. That reason is fully contained in Marcel Khalife’s new interpretations, which have never sounded so clear, so right, so essential.
Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and musician Aimée Portioli aka Grand River presents the new album Temporary, returning to the renowned Editions Mego label with her most expansive and focused LP yet.
Rooted in existential ideas of impermanence and flux, Temporary is a deeply emotive work centred on the rich interplay between resonant guitar work and innovative electronics. Written in the wake of profound personal grief and loss, the album sees Portioli infuse her music with a raw, expressive intensity anchored in this experience. Across eight strikingly melodic and affecting soundscapes, Portioli powerfully embodies a dramatic encounter with mortality.
Temporary reprises Portioli’s exceptional streak of material across acclaimed labels including Donato Dozzy and Neel’s Spazio Disponibile, Caterina Barbieri's light-years, Ghostly International, Tresor and Umor Rex. The LP represents the latest tour de force in her distinctive electronic practice. Alongside a raft of lauded releases, Portioli has devised visionary multichannel installations which dissolve the boundary between the art gallery and the performance space.
Her new album signifies a culmination of her work, imbued with the depth of Portioli’s artistry. Shaped by a paradigm shift rising from loss, the record reflects a contemplation of the human condition and the ephemeral nature of existence. Ruminating on the thoughts and experiences that have fed into the record, Portioli reveals a consequential recognition underpinning the record:
"Sometimes, when travelling in places far from home that I know I will most likely never return to, or while accompanying someone I loved towards the end of their life, I become intensely aware of the singularity of the moment, and of how precious and sad this feels at the same time. It carries a particular weight because it will never happen again in quite the same way. Through experiences like these, I have gradually come to understand the temporary nature of all things. They taught me that to live is to experience the present while already feeling the trace of its disappearance, something both painful and blissful." - Aimée Portioli, Grand River
The album is invested with a potent mood and momentum from the outset. Establishing an evocative tone with the subtle, pulsating synthesis, rustling undertow, and oceanic low end of 18 circles to heaven, Portioli gradually ascends through the incandescent modular majesty of Come to stay, and the turbulent, brooding guitar figures of The crossing of the body, the crossing of the mind. The album progresses through the rapturous electronic phasing of The little we last into the coruscating synth grandeur of Let me know when you’re pure, before a thrilling endgame.
Closing with the wavering harp runs, heavy percussive thud, and cataclysmic guitar discordance of Maybe I am dead and this is paradise, and the evanescent atmospherics and beautiful acoustic refrains of Work of ending, Portioli takes the listener through vast landscapes of sound and mercurial emotional states. Intimate and immersive in equal measure, the record traces a compelling sensory journey.
Each part of the album is part of a larger poetic sentence, with track titles forming fragments that together articulate a meditation on transience. From 18 circles to heaven and Come to stay through From the other side and Work of ending, they read like quiet statements about being human, about loving, losing, remembering and eventually fading. The record moves through these states as a continuous passage, depicting a poignant soundworld guided by temporality.
The awareness that our time is limited sharpens the value of what remains. Each encounter, each gesture, each fleeting moment becomes more vivid. Temporary lingers in the space where presence and disappearance coexist, where everything is already passing away and therefore becomes infinitely precious. Things matter because they do not last. Mortality does not diminish life; it intensifies it. In confronting these ideas, Temporary feels irrepressibly alive.
Composed, produced and mixed by Aimée Portioli
Production and mixing assistance by Luca Sammartin
Acoustic piano on Maybe I am dead and this is paradise by Andert Tysma
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Cut by Marta De Pascalis at Schnittstelle, Berlin
Artwork by Nicola Tirabasso
Layout by Riccardo Piovesan
Fourteen years have passed since Woollen Kits released two albums in a single year (Woollen Kits and Four Girls, both 2012), but Melbourne/Naarm’s beloved Kits are back to remind us what we’ve been missing all this time.
Weather the Storm still draws from the same deck of cards, but opens the door to some more classically renowned influences like The Velvet Underground, Television Personalities, Beat Happening ,Marine Girls, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, et al.
Across ten tracks it’s clear just how well they can write a hook, a verse, a chorus, a song; bringing together themes of everyday life, love and sincerity with aphorisms, stories and the classic sound we know and love.
Woollen Kits’ approach is almost as minimal and primitive as it was back in 2007, when singer/guitarist Tom Hardisty first sent a few channels into the red on an old Tascam tape machine. Simple chords, strong melodies, witty lyrics and a clear message. It’s a hell of a combination when it’s done well, and one they would only refine from there.
Tom (Hardisty) recruited a second Tom (Ridgewell, drums) and a Leon (Applebee, guitar) to help guide his new Cramps/Half Japanese- worship bedroom project into a real-life band, playing their first gig on NYE ’08 before launching into 2009 to record their first canon release, the Teenage Love 7”.
Yes, much time has passed since the band’s last record, Four Girls, came out in late 2012, but in the interim members have released plenty of other music across numerous projects, including Constant Mongrel, Nun, Canine Apathy, The UV Race, TB Ridge as The Director, Calamari Girls & more.
Green Tee Latte & Cappucchino Variant. Shall we add a little milk? Black Screen Records and Toge Productions have once again teamed for the vinyl repress of Andrew Jeremy's soothing, relaxing and jazzy lo-fi soundtrack to the coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator Coffee Talk on limited edition vinyl. For the first time, the soundtrack will be available on Green Tea Latte & Cappuccino Ink Spot double vinyl and comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with stunning original artwork by Natto (@vulpetrope) and liner notes by the Coffee Talk developer team. "Jazzy chords, hip-hop beats, vinyl crackles, a chilled mind and heart, and a prayer, that's all you need to make music for Coffee Talk. It's soothing, relaxing, and most importantly, keeping the warmth of your heart." - Andrew Jeremy, Game Producer / Music Composer
Balaise was the original title of Vers le Nord’s debut album. In French slang, balaise means something in between badass and flamboyant. The word keeps popping up throughout the record, like a teenager’s graffiti scrawled on a bus shelter after a few drinks. Balaise robots. Balaise ghosts lurking in the shadows. Balaise is the barfly who fantasies about becoming a street vigilante. In many ways, Matthieu Pellerin's new solo project is entirely contained within that word: a gigantic piece one man against the world cobbled together, a monument shaped by hand using layers of synthesizers sounding like cathedral organs cast in concrete.
Stitching this type of freak together took time. Five years, or what sounds like forever in an age obsessed with career trajectories and content strategies. But for Matthieu Pellerin, it was never about career plans or taking the easy road. Or he would have dug up the rotting corpse of Oi Boys, his now-defunct band, whose brief existence and explosive popularity once united sullen skinheads, gothic street punks, and old school punks alike. Or he would have fully embraced the Metz scene, now that the Great International Triple Alliance of the East (Noir Boy George, The Dreams, The Feeling Of Love...) and rising solo acts like Tune Zitoune, Josy Bazar, Fantôme Josepha, and Tony Gerrano have somehow transformed this sprawling open-air heroin camp into an unlikely capital of cool. But Vers le Nord doesn't point East, and it is as a lone rider that Matthieu Pellerin can fully reveal his songwriting scope.
With Le Seul Élément, his first solo project, the Lorraine native had already shown a rare gift for crafting worlds. Picture vast sonic masses stretching like industrial zones, noise-filled fog pierced by pale neon lights and landscapes caught somewhere between the gnarliest dive bar and a doomsday bunker. And slipping through the soul-crushing slowness and fractured blackened atmospheres, one could perceive a throwback to his years plotting in black metal-tinged Loth and Bishop.
Vers le Nord populates those landscapes that once were rough sketches. Damaged characters reign supreme, with a plethora of exquisite mutts brought to life, rather than outcasts committed to the cause. Where Nuits Blanches —his new supergroup featuring members of Rixe, Lion's Law, Headbussa and La Femme— pulls no punches with raw confessions, Pellerin switches gear for tales of robot apocalypses, vagrants and fam-seeking school shooters, delivered with William Sheller-esque rhymes and striking images. Yet even within fiction, he manages to create something deeply intimate, almost defining, showing very little effort: he is a natural. All in all, à l’aise (at ease). Songs resonate deeply with the listener, perhaps because of Pellerin’s odd way or always addressing someone without ever really naming them, a floating, obsessive and inescapable “you” calling us out.
Despite all of the darkness, Vers le Nord stirs deep emotions. There is something of Type O Negative or Anna von Hausswolff in its constant collision of the ludicrous and the epic gothic, its bleak romanticism that never tells a sordid tale. While the vocals remain rooted in a distinctly French punk lineage—think No Class, La Souris Déglinguée and OG Bérurier Noir—the reactor core is hidden somewhere else. Oneohtrix Point Never feels like a closer relative with his ultra-emotional music made of cold synths and disembodied anthems, swallowing and regurgitating forty years of icy, contemplative new wave across ten songs. It comes as no surprise that Lila Ehjä and Aimable, two rising specialists in lowering the temperature below seasonal norms, appear on “Enterrez-moi bordel” (“Bury Me, for fuck's sake”), a grandiose, spectral and magnificently arrogant finale. And in the end, Vers le Nord starts where the original idea was hiding all along: somewhere amid the ruins, definitely balaise and yet somehow, completely à l'aise.
Andreas Tilliander released »Ljud« in 2001 as the first full-length album under his real name. The year before, the Swedish producer’s »Cliphop« album under his Mokira moniker had established him in the world of adventurous electronic music and the clicks’n’cuts scene. »Ljud« was just as minimalistic, warm, and playful as its predecessor while also notably inspired by house music. It is a timeless record based on happy accidents, playful loops, and lively spontaneity. For its 25th anniversary, Keplar presents a vinyl reissue with adjusted artwork by graphic designer Marc Hohmann and updated mastering by the artist himself.
Tilliander laid the foundation for his two first albums when he got rid of most of his music gear in 1998 after meeting Joel Brindefalk, who was already releasing music on the legendary Börft label. Brindefalk was using a computer as his main instrument and introduced Tilliander to the audio editing suite Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. »What he did with that software is what made me sell most of the hardware except my Nord Modular and a Korg MS-20.« The former synthesizer played an integral role while Tilliander made the tracks for »Ljud,« working primarily in the modular studio environment Jeskola Buzz.
»Ljud« came together in an intuitive process. »It’s still how I work 25 years later: I first make loops, create bits and pieces, and build up my own sound library as a foundation,« Tilliander explains. The Nord Modular and Buzz, which allowed him to swap samples and produce new sounds out of pre-existing ones, provided him with material for loops that formed the basis of the ten tracks. »I would start with a few elements, add more into the mix, then take them out again—arranging the pieces in real time while recording.« The casualness and vivacity of this improvisational approach becomes tangible throughout »Ljud.«
»Ljud« was released on Achim Szepanski’s Mille Plateaux, which had published the seminal »Clicks+Cuts« compilation in 2000. »I was part of that scene and I liked the digital aesthetic of the label,« says Tilliander »Coming from a very analogue setup, working with computer music and this kind of minimalism was very inspiring.« When preparing »Ljud« for the Keplar reissue, he ran the music through an analogue outboard and noticed he was still happy with the way it sounded. »It brought back fond memories. I hope the same is true for people who heard it back then, and that everyone who discovers it now will enjoy it, too!«
The long-awaited vinyl re-issue of ‘Sunday At Devil Dirt’ from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.
Sunday At Devil Dirt is the second full-length collaboration between the former Belle & Sebastian member (Campbell) and Lanegan, the Screaming Trees frontman and part-time QOTSA vocalist.
Recorded between studios in the Catskills and Isobel's native Glasgow, Sunday At Devil Dirt is an album of dust bitten ballads and troubled wanderings, easily the equal of its predecessor. Again, Campbell and Lanegan complement each other beautifully, like silk on cracked leather. While continuing to mine the same rich seam of Alt-Country, Folk and Blues of their debut, the new record also embraces a dusty southern gothic, while a sultry, jazzy feel is evident on a number of tracks. As with their debut, the album has been written, produced and arranged by Isobel Campbell, with Lanegan providing lead vocal duties.
Acid Pauli's new album "Mystic Meltdown" is hypnotic mystery, textural mastery, all hurtling through your system at peak velocity, unrelenting yet full of mischief and spirit.
The first full-length Acid Pauli album since 2020's MOD, here the artist, Martin Gretschmann, who you might also remember from Console and The Notwist, reaches out to collaborators, unearths new sounds through travel and then brings it all together with one long, sweeping breath - an album to take in as a whole, to ride its compulsive energy to the end and then back to the start, over and over again.
While the album's been brewing for some time, "It took months and months to find the coherency and the story that this album is telling," Gretschmann recalls, "Arranging the pacing, feeling how the tracks come together into one album", it reads as effortless. It draws from Gretschmann's various musical languages, from the techno, house and ambient of Acid Pauli, even reaching back to the electronica of Console, but it places them in new contexts, at new speeds and in rich, giddy contrasts. Mystic Meltdown feels like endless pleasure, unflagging energy.
It's also an album rich with multiplicity. There are many voices that visit us at the Mystic Meltdown, from Hani Mojtahedy's Kurdish vocal on "Goman (Remix)", through to Lhasa de Sela's "Con Toda Palabra" in Spanish. A sample of Kingdom Molongi's voices opens the title track and returns on "Mystic Feedback" - this feels like a particularly profound connection, given the inspiration that Gretschmann has gleaned from the musical community surrounding the Nyege Nyege Tapes label and organisation over the years. He's also appeared at one of their festivals, by all accounts a revelatory experience.
Sometimes Gretschmann reaches back yet further. "Yes, Caroline" hints at an abstract relationship with the Beach Boys' pop masterpiece, Pet Sounds. Yet the way he draws these various influences into his own music always displays more than a touch of transmutation. Releasing the album on his own label All Is Acid which has recently been undertaking a reissue program of some of Acid Pauli's earlier works, "Mystic Meltdown" feels like a complete expression for Gretschmann; from beginning to end, from creation to reflection. "Building up, going into different spheres and emotions," Gretschmann concludes. "Working through some darker shades, trying to find light. Pouring in to get through."
Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, is back with Disco Reggae Vol. 7, continuing a series that goes back more than 20 years, to the success of The Dynamics’ acclaimed album Version Excursions.
Born in Jamaica, reggae has always shared deep roots with Soul, Funk, R&B and Pop. Over the decades, Jamaican musicians have mastered the art of reinterpreting iconic songs through their own unique musical language. With the Disco Reggae series, Stix Records celebrates this rich tradition, bringing together fresh reggae interpretations of timeless classics from across the musical spectrum.
For this seventh volume, Charles Maurice has once again carefully curated a selection packed with gems, featuring reinterpretations of tracks by Hall & Oates, Gloria Estefan, Crystal Waters, Patrice Rushen, Cameo, Joe Smooth, and many more.
Behind the controls, the usual crew of friends is back: Taggy Matcher, Mystic Jungle, Soul Sugar aka Booker Gee, and Mato. This time, they are joined by Dub Shepherds and Slowly from Japan, who each bring their own flavour to the collection with two killer covers.
The result is another feel-good journey through Disco, Funk and Reggae, made for dancing under the stars, cruising with the windows down, or simply vibing with friends.
Disco Reggae Vol. 7 is another chapter in Stix Records’ ongoing celebration of the timeless connection between Jamaican music, classic songs and the dancefloor.
Following the release of Electric Rescue's new album, "Different Horizons", Laurent Garnier's COD3 QR returns to its signature various artists format for a new vinyl-only release featuring six new tracks, by WheelUP, Rapson & Kathy Brown, Mirko Loko, Costello, Jules Wells, Rod20 and James Warburton.
WheelUP is West London producer and DJ Danny Wheeler who's released music on CoOperation Records, Jamz Supernova’s Future Bounce and his long-time home Tru Thoughts. After appearing on COD3 QR in July with a track alongside Blu James, he now teams up with regular collaborator, music producer, DJ and keys player, Rapson, alongside acclaimed US vocalist Kathy Brown for the intensely soulful "Music".
Mirko Loko is a prominent Swiss talent, known for his work as resident DJ at Couleur 3 and Loft Electroclub, artistic director of Polaris festival and releases on Planet E, Border Community, Cocoon and Visionquest returns once again to COD3 QR with the Detroit-influenced "Silent Failure".
French electronic DJ and music producer, Costello returns for his sixth track on COD3 QR, having also released on Solomun's Diynamic, Chloé's Lumière Noire and most recently Maceo Plex's Ellum Audio. His bright Techno groover, "Cocotte" closes the A-side.
Another COD3 QR regular, Jules Wells opens the B-side. Influenced by the Motor City, Jules has released on labels like Electrofunk, Submerge, Twilight 76, KMS, Planet E, Brique Rouge and Logos. Here, he takes the EP into atmospheric territory with "The Rooster".
Benny Rodrigues has previously delivered tracks for COD3 QR as The Lost Souldancer. But now he reprises his Rod20 alias with "Stars Of Bethlehem". Rod20 is the dedicated hardware-only techno project he began in 2020, which prior to its standalone vinyl imprint, launched with a self-released compilation, followed by a dual-part album on Jeff Mills' legendary Axis Records.
To close the EP is the experimental ambient work of "You Are Carried On Waves Of Endless Love" by James Warburton. James is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has appeared on TV and film including Netflix’s "Squid Games", HBO’s "Succession", the title music for Channel 4’s "Manhunt" and the original score for Endemolshine/Banijay’s hit TV series "Murdertown" and NBC Universal’s "Faceless" podcast.
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
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