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Terreno Baldio is hailed as one of the leading progressive rock bands from the seventies in Brazil, from its surrealistic album art to its equally interesting music, translates the feeling of wasteland to an alternative world of beauty and complexity, achieving worldwide popularity over several essential albums lists. The homonymous work Terreno Baldio, released in 1976, was an active part of a whole scenario of youth suffering from strong political repression, representing in the song Grite (Scream) the desire of all Brazilian society that yearned to express its voice with freedom, being an impressive moment of collective catharsis in their live performances. Originating in Sao Paulo in the early 1970s, it released its debut album in 1976, recorded on 4 channels. Formed by Mozart Mello on guitars, Roberto Lazzarini on keys, Joao Ascençao on bass, Jô on drums and Joao Kurk (Fusa) on vocals and percussion. The band Terreno Baldio was born in 1974, when they got together in a group with the purpose of making progressive rock. Roberto Lazzarini was already playing with Joao Kurk and Joaquim in the Ilanders group, a dance band; Mozart Mello and Joao Ascensao joined there, having met on the recordings of Pete Dunaway's album. Everyone knew and liked King Crimson, Gentle Giant and Yes, wanting to make a more worked sound as a group, thus creating Terreno Baldio.

After the well-earned Adarra prize awarded by San Sebastián city council in 2021, the name of Amaia Zubiria is back on people's lips, one of the most outstandingly beautiful voices in the history of folk and Basque music in general. In fact, thanks to the albums recorded with Haizea and with Txomin Artola and many other collaborations, she has been a constant presence in a long, fruitful career spanning over 40 years. However, despite this popularity, much of her extensive body of work is unknown or remains almost forgotten, apart from four or five records and her most popular songs. This is a shame, because her forgotten back catalogue contains many of Amaia's most moving songs. Among them, as a taster and an invitation to get into her music, we encourage you to listen to the enchanting "Itxasoan laino dago", recorded together with Pascal Gaigne in 1985. A track featuring the electronic sounds created with great care by Pascal and adorned by Michel Doneda's saxophone and guided with a magical sophistication by the talented sound engineer from Hendaye, Jean Phocas. It is an impossibly beautiful melt of avant garde and traditional music.

The Body has been an iconic force in heavy music for over 2 de- cades with a long history of collaborations. Recent collaborators include BUMMER, Full of Hell, Thou, Uniform. Lee Buford from The Body is also in Manslaughter 777 and Sightless Pit. BIG| BRAVE have a singular voice in heavy music, honed over 5 albums The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band. The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes, and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk. Their debut collaborative album Leaving None But Small Birds distills the two ensembles" pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love, and odes to vengeance. Typical to The Body"s creative process, Leaving None But Small Birds was composed almost entirely in the studio at Machine With Magnets with engineer/producer Seth Manchester. The Body and BIG|BRAVE aimed to challenge themselves to craft a fully realized and cohesive work that strayed outside the boundaries of the music they make individually. The Body"s Lee Buford set up the initial challenge: collaborating to make an album that evoked the country and folk roots of The Band. BIG|BRAVE"s Robin Wattie compiled lyrics and melodic lines from across Appalachian, Canadian, and English hymns and folk songs. Select phrases were then reworked and precisely arranged to center the experiences of marginalized characters, victims of hardship, and those yearning for love within each story. The despair and empowerment of these traditional tunes draw remarkable parallels with each group"s focus on championing people often cast aside in history. The Body and BIG|BRAVE, following a folk tradition, make each song their own through shifts in perspective and a synthesis of passages from kindred tales. BIG|BRAVE"s roots as a minimalist folk band and The Body"s love of old-time, country blues, and folk music enable the quintet to strike a formidable balance between sorrowful lamentation and uplifting resolve to weighty effect. Leaving None But Small Birds thatches together two monumental innovative forces that render the emotionally profound with lucid, devastating vitality

This mega-rare 1969 album pays tribute to the Bronx and Brooklyn neighborhoods where young Latinos had invented the boogaloo a few years earlier. This record highlights the quality of Peruvian boogaloo and the talent of musicians such as pianist Otto de Rojas and percussionist Coco Lagos. First time reissue. In the mid-sixties, when young Latino musicians in New York fused Afro-Cuban rhythms with rock, soul and jazz, they had no idea that their boogaloo bang bang would reverberate just as strong and loud in a distant South American country. From 1955, La Sonora Macedo, took Cuban music to every corner of Peru, backed the leading musicians of the Peruvian tropical universe, such as Ñiko Estrada, Joe di Roma, the double bass player Pepe Hernández, and the trumpet players Tito Chicoma and Charlie Palomares. All diehard fans of Cuban music, always alert to any new artist arriving from the island. In the early sixties, light rock, doo-wop, ballads, Italian songs and bossa nova paraded across Lima's stages, making performances by Cuban bands, previously so frequent, a thing of the past. Moreover, the unanimous success of the Beatles from 1964 onwards, gave the impression that music from the English-speaking world would dominate the rest of the decade. But this was not the case. In large part because of Manuel Guerrero's good relations with U.S Latino labels, such as Alegre Records, which released the initial recordings by Johnny Pacheco and Charlie Palmieri, allowing listeners in Lima to follow the development of the salsa movement almost from the beginning. MAG was undoubtedly the best representative of these new sounds. In 1969, the LP "Acabo con Lima, huyo pa' Nueva York" was released on this label, a project which brought together three figures from Lima's show business world: Manuel Antonio Guerrero, owner and founder of MAG, who wasn't shy of joining in on the chorus and percussion during recordings, Pablo Villanueva "Melcochita", a multifaceted artist from a talented musical family from the popular district of La Victoria, was responsible for the vocals and percussion on the album. And the third Lima show business figure in this project was the musician, singer and comedian Alberto Montroy Laostervened, who gained fame in the sixties while still in his twenties for his imitation of Cantinflas, the Mexican actor. Alberto bore a devilish resemblance to Cantinflas, not only in his gestures but also physically. Under the name of Pepe Moreno "Karamanduka" he also went on to record songs abroad such as "El boogaloo de Cantinflitas". "Acabo con Lima, huyo pa' Nueva York" was immediately re-released in other countries, highlighting the quality of Peruvian boogaloo and talent of musicians such as pianist Otto de Rojas and percussionist Coco Lagos, who feature prominently on the album. Songs such as 'Vuela mi descarga', 'Peruvian boogaloo' and 'Peruvian guajira', pay tribute to the Bronx and Brooklyn, neighborhoods where young Latinos had invented the boogaloo a few years earlier.

For Thee Sacred Souls, the first time is often the charm. The band’s first club dates led to a record deal with the revered Daptone label; their first singles racked up more than ten million streams in a year and garnered attention from Billboard, Rolling Stone, and KCRW; and their first fans included the likes of Gary Clark Jr., The Black Pumas, Princess Nokia, and Timbaland. Now, the breakout San Diego trio is ready to deliver yet another landmark first with the release of their self-titled debut on Daptone Records.

“Every step of the way has just been so organic,” says drummer Alex Garcia. “Things just seem to happen naturally when the three of us get together.”

Indeed, there’s something inevitable about the sound of Thee Sacred Souls, as if Garcia and his bandmates—bassist Sal Samano and singer Josh Lane—have been playing together for a lifetime already. Produced by Bosco Mann (aka Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth), Thee Sacred Souls is a warm and textured record, mixing the easygoing grace of sweet ’60s soul with the grit and groove of early ’70s R&B, and the performances are utterly intoxicating, with Lane’s weightless vocals anchored by the rhythm section’s deep pocket and infectious chemistry.

Hints of Chicano, Philly, Chicago, Memphis, and even Panama soul turn up here, and while it’s tempting to toss around labels like “retro” with a deliberately analog collection like this, there’s also something distinctly modern about the band that defies easy categorization, a rawness and a sincerity that transcends time and place.

Die Pioniere des French House, Alan Braxe und DJ Falcon, alias Alain und Stèphane Quême, veröffentlichen ihre erste gemeinsame EP als Braxe + Falcon auf Smugglers Way, dem neuen, auf Dance & Electronic fokussierten Imprint von Domino.

Alain und Stéphane Quême, oder Alan Braxe und DJ Falcon, sind die unbestrittenen Architekten des French Touch - der gefühlvollen House-Musik, die aus geloopten Samples mit einem unnachahmlichen gallischen Flair gezaubert wird und Mitte der 90er Jahre in Paris entstand. Im Jahr 2022 werden diese beiden Originale ihre erste Zusammenarbeit als Braxe & Falcon in Form der Step By Step EP präsentieren, die auf Smugglers Way erscheint. Braxe ist bekannt für einige der wichtigsten und kultigsten House- und Popmusik-Platten der späten 90er und frühen 2000er Jahre, darunter "Music Sounds Better With You" (The Upper Cuts) als Stardust mit Thomas Bangalter von Daft Punk und offizielle Remixe für Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Kelis, Kylie Minogue und mehr. Bangalter arbeitete in den frühen Tagen auch mit DJ Falcon zusammen und veröffentlichte als Duo Together die French Touch-Hymne "So Much Love To Give". Neben wichtigen Remixen für Phoenix, Cassius und Justice hat Falcon zuletzt "Contact", den explosiven Abschlusstrack von Daft Punks Megalith "Random Access Memories" aus dem Jahr 2013, mitproduziert, geschrieben und mitgespielt.

Atomnation marks its 100th release with Peter, Barbara, Beth & Friends, the stunning debut album from Blomfelt & Narby. The immersive nine-track record arrives on August 26th and is a widescreen listen that fuses acoustic and electronic sounds with loose field recordings and tightly programmed drums.

Finnish-born Henrik Blomfelt grew up in Gaspar Narby's homeland of Switzerland, but the pair met on the dance floor of a pool club in Peckham while studying in London. Gaspar’s indie pop solo project was rewarded with a broad sweep of tastemaker tips from new music and electronica media alike, while Henrik had co-founded Resolution, an audio-visual collective and event series. The two eventually moved in together, but it's only a couple of years later, when Gaspar visited Henrik’s homeland of Finland, that they began making music together. They wrote half of the tracks that appear on the LP there, using an old piano, a cassette recorder found on location and their laptops. The second half was finished back in London.

Polifonic Records is the melodic balance between antagonistic vibrations, spirits and energies that inhabit the land of Puglia since the dawn of time.

An harmonic exploration into colorful, vibrant sunrise atmospheres and emotional, introspective sunset sensations. One Body. Many Souls.

PF004 // The fourth vinyl of Polifonic Records label brings together artists from different cultures and ethnicities to create a seamless blend of sounds with diverse influences. Encompassing genres like house, Balearic beat, and acid, harmonized through ambient arrangements and 4-tothe-floor rhythm patterns to chill and groove to, this record is a material embodiment of the multicultural and polyhedric approach that Polifonic adopts throughout the multiple extensions of our projects.

The first track “Generations of Sunsets” by Lipelis joining with Andy Butler from Hercules and Love Affairs, vividly illustrates the extent of their sonic palette: a journey that runs through a Balearic groove - also with the use of guitar - and expands the mind to exotic places keeping the body moving with its acid touch.

Italian 90’s riviera house meets percussions and ethnic grooves in the born new track from the Milano duo Eternal Love. “Kuasi Riviera” reflects perfectly the nature of Polifonic between clubby atmospheres and connection with the wild world.

Then comes the darker side with Yu Su, who switches it up with new diversions in tempo and rhythm throughout “Oil” with a blend of deep basslines and obscure soundscapes contributing to this journey through space and time.

Benedek’s “Desperado” doesn’t shy away from deep diving right back to the 90s Italian house overlapping bold soundscapes through the lens of a contemporary producer. Distinctive,
immersive, and dauntless.

Bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick (Portico Quartet) launches new collaborative project with saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands)

Vega Trails is a new project from double-bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick, a founder member of Portico Quartet, who has also performed with the likes of Nick Mulvey and Jono McCleary and features saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands, Sunda Arc) in a richly powerful duo bringing together two powerfully charismatic musicians. The project which takes its name from Carl Sagan's science fiction novel 'Contact' (a book about signals of new life detected from the Vega system) andwas born out of a desire to bring the elements of bass and melody to the foreground in their rawest form and Fitzpatrick explains that he deliberatelychose the stripped back approach.

"There is so much in just one musician's sound; the emotional, the intellectual, the vulnerability and power of their character. But often these delicate nuances can be submerged in the quest for a group sound. In Vega Trails I wanted to grant the musicians space to breathe and be heard and for the listener to witness the intimacy and depth of a conversation between two voices, bass and melody. I was also interested in how the limitations would guide both the composition and performance and to push us both to places close to the limits of what we could play, and it is in this place where I believe the character of a musician blossoms and comes forward".

Tremors in the Static was composed during Lockdown as Fitzpatrick immersed himself in music that had space and sparseness such as Swedish fiddle music and Indian Classical music. Jan Johansson's legendary 'Jazz på Svenska' (jazz versions of Swedish folk songs) was another influence, as was a collection of ancient lullabies by Spanish soprano singer Montserrat Figueras. Through exploring the harmonic and textural possibilities on the bass, Fitzpatrick would cycle riffs and motifs whilst singing melodies, and he began to create the music debuted here. However, it was only after listening to Charlie Haden's album of duets, 'Closeness', that the project would come into focus as a duo, and Fitzpatrick immediately knew that the second musician had to be Jordan Smart.

"I saw Jordan play at two Gondwana Records events – in Berlin and Tokyo. Both times I was mesmerised by the intensity and conviction of his playing. His commitment to the cause of transcending himself and the listener made a lasting impression on me. When I began writing this record, I knew I needed a strong player who had equal conviction in their playing as me, but also someone who understood the importance of melody"

It was an inspired idea as Smart brought an openness and positivity which allowed the music to be both experimental and bold. Smart's ability to play tenor and soprano saxophone with equal command, as well as bass clarinet and Ney flute, allowed them to open up the pallet of sound and pull the melodies into varying emotional landscapes.The final piece of the puzzle was the performance space. Fitzpatrick knew that he wanted the two players to react off of a third element. The music was written for an ambient space which interacted with the notes: decaying and disintegrating them into silence. They found the perfect space in a church in Fitzpatrick's local neighbourhood of Stamford Hill.

"The recording space is the canvas on which the sound interacts and flows, it is the frame in which notes can live, breathe and die and is as important as the other elements. A resonant recording space, like a church, allows this stripped back sound to resonate, echo and linger, enough to create images and landscapes in which stories can play out".

This then is Vega Trails, a project that brings together two open-mined and communicative musicians for the first time, to tell beautiful winding stories together and to create something soulful and new.Something bigger than both of them and something that leaves us all richer for hearing it. Enjoy!

A previously unreleased project of Henning Christiansen, monumental in scope, traversing years, countries and now, formats. The Henning Christiansen Archive is proud to finally present one of the crown jewels of the archive, the masterpiece ‘Penthesilea’ as a 2LP and 5CD set. Both limited to 300 copies. Pentheseila is one of the most ambitious works in the entire Henning Christiansen oeuvre. A large-scale work from the mid eighties based on the play of the same name by Heinrich von Kleist (1808). Both Henning and his widow, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, were enthusiastic about Kleist’s text, both making works around the themes within this portent text. Henning Christiansen first developed a work around this text for the Rosenfest festival performed in Berlin in 1984. Rosenfest was curated by René Block and featured a variety of composers presenting works in response to Kleist’s work including Robert Ashley, “Blue” Gene Tyranny etc. Henning formulated a composition utilising tape, field recordings, voice, soprano, and violoncello alongside the home made instruments of Werner Durand. The live presentation was then expanded upon and first performed two years later at Teatro Olímpico, Rome on the 8th November 1986 as directed by Carlo Quartucci. The two releases presented here include a 2 x vinyl LP of the Rosenfest recordings in 1984 and a 5CD set sharing the four and a half hour backing track prepared for the Teatro Olímpico performance in Rome in 1986. Together these two releases make up a substantial overview of one of the most significant works in the entire Christiansen canon. THE REALITY IS A GHOST IN MY MIND (LP1) is a work that unfolds patiently with a mix of field recordings; wind, bird song and the sound of snow being crushed underfoot all unite in a foreboding atmosphere. IN PENTHESILEAS HÖHLE (LP2) features electronic treatments to the original field recordings found on THE REALITY IS A GHOST IN MY MIND, a representation of psychological reorientation perhaps? A deep ground tone (or ROOT as Henning calls it) leads the listener through a variety of realistic and unrealistic environments. As Henning says in his essay reprinted on the back sleeve: “Then comes a section where the field recordings of the sea, the storm, birds, cars and other things, are built together so that the realism of these sounds become unreal. For example the cars drive into the sea and the birds are singing within the storm. When you hear footsteps in the show, it’s Kleist sneaking past Deutsche Schauspielhaus. When you hear a deep, human sleeping noise, it’s Achilles sleeping. When you hear hammering it’s the weapon smith working. When you hear a stone being thrown it means the unanswered question: “Who threw the first stone?” These recordings lead to the finale where Carla Tatò’s haunted vocals into her singing mournfully along with Jan Tilman Schade’s violoncello and tuba, then a chainsaw appears. Presented in a deluxe di-cut sleeve with writings by Ursula Reuter Christiansen and Henning Christiansen and adorned with an artwork, Penthesilea by Ursula Reuter Christiansen, 1983.

Following the release of the first two parts of
CAN’s live series, Mute and Spoon Records
reissue a ‘Monster Movie’ on blue vinyl.

With the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Captain
Beefheart and The Velvet Underground ringing in
their ears, Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt left
behind their careers in academia to form the
influential group in the late 60s.

Together with Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and
American singer Malcolm Mooney, they recorded
their debut album, ‘Monster Movie’, in a castle
near Cologne in 1968.

The record was then remastered in 2004 from the
original master tape for a CD release. It was
overseen by Holger, Irmin and Jono Podmore to
refine it to how it was always intended to be heard.

“‘Monster Movie’ is an amazing debut” - Pitchfork

“‘Monster Movie’ sounds like nothing else released
in 1969 - and still acts as a template for the future” - Sound Affects

“Had Can’s debut album, ‘Monster Movie’, been
their only one, it would have assured their place in
the history of German music and of rock as a
whole” - Shindig Magazine


Includes digital download code.

The LP version is limited to 1000 copies, pressed on blue vinyl, in a high grade spot-varnished gatefold sleeve.

700 Bliss is the forward-thinking duo of DJ Haram and Moor Mother. Their first full length for Hyperdub is an album of noise rap that ties together the raw edges of club music and hip hop with punk energy, jazz, house-party catharsis, percussion-heavy analogue sound design, and cheeky skits, ranging from experimental rap tracks with rolling hi hats and lyrical bravado, to poetry set to noise and sound collage.

Moor Mother and DJ Haram started collaborating in 2014 and eventually formed 700 Bliss, a blistering live act in Philly's DIY scene, releasing their 2018 debut, Spa 700 on Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni Records. Since that time, both artists have grown global followings. Moor Mother is a prolific solo artist and collaborator, writer, and member of Black Quantum Futurism while Haram has been curating and creating radio shows, DJing, and producing (including an EP for Hyperdub in 2019).

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a smart, danceable revelation, a chiseled soundscape of dive bombing bass, piercing bleeps, crunchy distortion, and wavering synth lines. Welcoming in a variety of voices from their extended, cross-genre scene, 700 Bliss also bring along a cast of collaborators, including vocalists Orion Sun, Lawfandah, Ase Manual, and Ali Logout (from the band Special Interest), plus Palestinian producer Muqata'a, and writer M Téllez who delivers a surreal sci fi monologue over a pounding kick drum on ‘More Victories’.

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a deeply layered rewriting of hip hop and electronic music that gives more with each listen. You won't hear another rap album like it in 2022.

Rhythm Section INTL are back with another release from SAUL, ‘Mutualism’ drops on August 19th 2022. Jack Stephenson-Oliver (keys player of fellow Rhythm Section signee, Vels Trio) and producer Barney Whittaker, aka Footshooter.

Their newest project is a feel good, summer-ready soundtrack, bursting with uplifting synths and groove- heavy broken beats. When the two of them get together, their jam sessions result in a fusion of alternative future jazz. Collaboration is a key element to the creative output of SAUL, shining a light over individual talents such as Allysha Joy, Natty Wylah, Lex Amor and James Mollison.

The Gamelatron is many things; one could call it a sculpture, a multimodal installation, an instrument, a robot, a feat of engineering, a vision—and it is all of these things. More importantly, though, it is a concept sustained by Aaron Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17, whose Gamelatrons are “sound producing kinetic sculptures” designed to create an immersive, visceral experience for the listener. Not a small feat, and yet the ambitions of Zemi17 are absolutely realized in this long-standing project, culminating now in his third release for The Bunker NY: Gamelatron Bidadari.

The Gamelatron Bidadari is not just a name—it is one of seventy-plus musical sculptures that Zemi17 has conceptualized, designed, and fabricated. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to think of this release as simply a series of arrangements composed in a finite period of time. Rather, it’s a window into a project and a process that is much larger than any single album can encapsulate. Gamelatron Bidardi is the culmination of more than a decade of work, and is central to Zemi17’s evolution, not only as a musician but as an artist.

Having studied gamelan for many years in Indonesian villages and at the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta, Kuffner is a musician, an artist, technologist, and craftsman. The gongs in his sculptures are co-created with master Indonesian artisans. Each Gamelatron composition is site-responsive, meaning its sounds are composed for the acoustics and intentions of the space it inhabits, whether it’s an art gallery, a wooded landscape, or the inner temple of Burning Man. The Gamelatron does not stand alone: it is in constant co-creation with its physical environment, and in dialogue with gamelan’s long-standing history.

Originally exhibited at the Smithsonian Renwick as part of a show entitled, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, the Gamelatron Bidadari produces sounds that are delicate yet strong, and deeply hypnotic. Textured chiming creates intricate polyrhythmic patterns that are both complex and simple, or in a word, elegant. On Gamelan Bidadari, Zemi17 refrains from adhering to the strict musical structures; his approach to composition is free flowing.

He says, “I want to evoke what the music tells me it has to offer. It is like following water to its conclusion (or non-conclusion).” The arrangements on this album, written by Zemi17 and performed by the robotic arms of the Gamelatron, leaves the listener feeling enchanted, nourished and enriched.

A sense of the mystical comes through in the tonal quality of the instrument, and is conceptually felt in the sculpture’s name: the Bidadari, which loosely translates to “forest nymph.” The music conjures up natural wonder, and the four sculptures that make up the Gamelatron Bidadari, in fact, resemble trees. They are four independent yet connected entities, each with a large gong situated at their structural base—the sonic “roots” of the sculpture—while smaller gongs branch off of a golden, trunk-like spine. The Gamelatron Bidadari is as physically stunning as it is mesmerizing to the ear. A kind of divinity is invoked through its sound, or a sacred cohesion between past and present, tradition and new form. Meant to be viscerally experienced, the sounds of the Gamelatron call for sublime togetherness. Gamelatron Bidadari is not just an album but the crystallization of Kuffner’s work; it is a condensed yet spacious glimpse into the sonic power of Zemi17’s Gamelatrons, which have already been heard and experienced live by over a million people.

zake & Wayne Robert Thomas come together to serve up a thoughtful and healing deep dive into "what it means to continue living life in the face of loss and uncertainty." Their album is one of great depth emotional and full of subtle struggles that we can all relate to. 'To Those Who Dwelt in a Land of Deep Darkness' was first put out as a 10" lathe but now gets pressed dup properly to 12" vinyl with three extra tracks taken from the original recording sessions. They say the best art comes out of adversity and that is certainly true here.

Limited to: 300 copies.

Lera Lynn blurs the boundaries between genres, carving out a sound inspired by art-pop, indie-folk and the outer edges of American roots music. She’s a singer. She’s a songwriter. She’s a road warrior. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and producer. She’s a mother.

Texas born, Nashville resident Lera Lynn is just as comfortable creating an album entirely by herself, as she is collaborating with her heroes. In 2018, she worked with T Bone Burnett and Rosanne Cash on tracks that were not only picked up by the TV show True Detective, but Lynn was cast as a recurring character who performs in a dive bar frequented by the main characters.

However, nothing could have prepared Lynn for the lessons learned during motherhood. She welcomed her first son during the early months of the pandemic and began writing down her insights, chronicling this newfound experience of shifting priorities, strange endings, and new beginnings. Inside, she was battling postpartum depression. Outside, a bigger picture began taking shape: a feeling of interconnectedness, of cyclic renewal, of the knowledge that every beginning is an end and every end is a beginning. Those realizations coalesced into Something More Than Love, a record filled with synthesizers, lush soundscapes, the pop-noire punch of Lynn's voice, and the most dynamic melodies of her career.

Inspired by the cyclical patterns that shape our place in the world, Something More Than Love was co-produced and largely performed by Lynn and her partner, Todd Lombardo (Kacey Musgraves/Donovan Woods/Kathleen Edwards). They'd met years earlier, not long after Lynn relocated to Nashville from her college town (and musical launchpad) of Athens, Georgia. "My first time ever co-writing a song was in Nashville with Todd," she says of the ACM-nominated multi-instrumentalist. The two became fast friends and, eventually, partners; their creative chemistry giving way to romance and a growing family. That partnership reached a new milestone in 2021, with the newfound parents sharpening their creative instincts and expanding their palette for Lynn's sixth album.

"A lot of people were making records during the pandemic," Lynn notes, "and all they had was time. But it was the opposite experience for us. We created this whole record while still in the fog of early parenthood, and we didn't have the luxury of waiting for lightning to strike. We had to be focused and intentional."

Striking a balance between intimate self-reflection and universal insight, Something More Than Love poses big questions over even bigger-sounding music, with tempos and layered arrangements that find Lynn at her most dynamic. Illusion opens the album with spacey synthesizers before snapping into a taut, 1980s-influenced groove, combing reverb and rhythm into a song that swoons one minute and struts the next. I'm Your Kamikaze — a deconstructed burst of indie garage-rock, heavy on melody and percussive pulse — unfolds like a salute to self-sacrifice, with Lynn dedicating her own existence to ensuring her child's flourishing. What Is This Body? finds her reassessing her ideas of physical identity and womanhood, while the album's gorgeous title track makes room for slow-burn strings and a meteoric chorus.

Together, those songs turn Lera Lynn's experience with absolute surrender — surrendering oneself to the trials and triumphs of motherhood — into a universal record about the experiences that bind us together. This isn't just Lynn's story. It's the story of a life cycle that repeats itself over and over, every termination point becoming a starting line, every death matched by a rebirth, every edge giving way to the circular slope of the ouroboros.

For the first time, 25 years of Steps hits come together on one package to celebrate the band’s incredible success. Including all their career highlights plus two brand-new tracks recorded exclusively for this release.

Long before Lina Seybold became a geologist, the singer and guitarist was already writing songs and making a name for herself far beyond the city limits of Munich with her Steve Albini-trained (and produced) quartet candelilla, before the band dispersed into new projects. During her studies, she met Moritz Gamperl and the two realised that what they learned in rock research could also play a role in rock music. Thus, the material history of the planet became both a source of existential reflections for the two and the impetus for a highly accomplished and often graceful sound, which has been expressed in the band pirx together with drummer Sascha Saygin since 2019: Technically sovereign, obstinate songs that - with Seybold now on bass and vocals - create subtle dramaturgies, cinematic aesthetics, far-reaching arcs of tension.

With Lamina, the trio now presents an excellent debut album, recorded by Martin M. Hermann, which shoots out of the earth with explosive force as hot lava, only to flow into the valley in glowing beauty the next moment, changing the earth's surface, telling of elemental forces - until it finally evaporates the water in the sea and lays a comatose fog over all existence. Or in other words: pirx make creation music, in all directions of time!

Belgian composer Otto Lindholm presents his new LP titled FortyTwo, releasing in early June on Totalism with support from Phantom Limb. Consisting of two complementary entities of equal duration (21 minutes), the album really is one. Together, the two longform pieces are like two sides of one coin, like the two motions of a rocking chair; forwards and backwards. The first piece titled “Reg” explores the simplicity of the stroke with veiled, beautiful melodies, while the second called “The Donkey Theory”, built on an octatonic scale, delves into deeper, more atmospheric zones.

FortyTwo is intentional in its duration, as Lindholm tries to question our relationship with time itself. Extending and expanding the natural sounds of the double bass and expertly arranging and layering them, he is able to toy with time, refocusing the experience on the act of listening itself. The results are rich tapestries of voluptuous tones, deeply felt emotions and elongated melodic motifs which are completely enveloping, almost overwhelming. As the Brussels-based composer and double bassist's focus shifts from instrumental performance to composition, he delves deeper into the world of drone music influenced by contemporary classical composition.

Otto Lindholm is a composer and double-bassist based in Brussels. He has released music on Icarus Records, Gizeh Records, Houndstooth, Aurora Borealis Recordings, Bedouin Records, Midira Records, 7k!, Takuroku and other labels. His new LP, FortyTwo, is due to be released in 2022 on Totalism with the support of Phantom Limb. He is a keen collaborator, working alongside many artists such as Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow, Aidan Baker, string quintet BOW, Jean D.L., P.Maze, and others.

Anna Tivel's ‘Outsiders’ is a meditation on otherness, a deep dive into the myriad forces that keep us from connecting in real ways, and a celebration of the ones that draw us together. From space exploration to schizophrenia, power imbalance to potent honesty in an old van, these songs are meant as a small prayer of recognition for loneliness and love, and all the ways we try and fail and try again to see each other clearly and let ourselves be seen. "Tivel's characters are common but unforgettable, and her prose paints their worlds in colors that are vivid but always in balance ... Her images linger, and become populated with the energy of the real." - Ann Powers, NPR 2019's album 'The Question' named Paste's Number 1 “Essential Folk Albums from 2019” ahead of Big Thief and Bedouine.

‘Learning To Dissolve’ is the punctuation on a journey that began with 2017’s ‘Sounds of Loss’. From the inception, ORTHODOX were nothing short of a standout, blending together riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Slipknot record coupled with Easterling’s blunt, Jonathan Davis-esque howls. But, like their sonic brethren in Knocked Loose or Vein.FM, while the influence of the 90’s/00’s is there, ORTHODOX doesn’t merely pay homage to their influences, it exceeds them. ‘From the beginning, we went in our own direction regardless of what anybody thought,’ states Adam. ‘We didn’t grow up listening to hardcore. We grew up on bands like Linkin Park and System of a Down.’ With ‘Learning to Dissolve’, those influences have refined themselves into a sound that is urgent and unforgettable from the album’s opening track, ‘Feel It Linger’ to the personal and aural meltdown of closer, ‘Voice in The Choir’. ORTHODOX ‘Learning To Dissolve’ is available as: Ltd. CD Digipak, 180g black LP+CD, Digital Album.

The debut album from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and featuring the U.S. single tracks, “New England” and “Here Come The Martian Martians” This version of The Modern Lovers included drummer David Robinson (The Cars) and Greg “Curly” Keranen on bass (The Rubinoos) Co-Produced by Beserkley Records founder Matthew King Kauffman and Glen Kolotkin (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin) Available CD & LP. Jonathan Richman formed The Modern Lovers in 1970 in Boston with Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Ernie Brooks and David Robinson (The Cars). The band recorded a series of demos, first with John Cale (The Velvet Underground) and later with producer Kim Fowley. Both sets of demos were eventually released, but not until the original group had disbanded. In 1975 Jonathan relocated to California and secured a recording deal with Beserkley Records. By 1976 he had pulled together a new version of The Modern Lovers. This group included the holdover David Robinson from the original band and added, Leroy Radcliffe and Greg 'Curly’ Keranen (The Rubinoos). The self-titled release delivered on Richman’s desire for more acoustic and harmony-based material. Unfortunately, nearly on top of the bands’ debut album release, the earlier demo material drawn mostly from the Cale demo sessions was issued, and Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers was overshadowed by “Pablo Picasso,” “Roadrunner,” and their—now classic—“debut.” Shortly after the release of their actual self-titled debut, Robinson departed to join The Cars. Needing a new drummer, the band found D. Sharpe (later of the Carla Bley Band) and this new line-up recorded Rock ’n’ Roll With The Modern Lovers which was released in 1977 and achieved some chart success in Europe with “Egyptian Reggae” making it to #5 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Greil Marcus called it “the purist Rock and Roll album I’ve heard this year.” However, another in the series of personnel changes, Keranen left the group. Modern Lovers ‘Live’ followed in 1977 with new bassist Asa Brebner. While the U.S. might not have caught on to the magic of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, the U.K. certainly did. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, ‘Live’ features Jonathan and The Modern Lovers performing classics from their first two releases to an enthusiastic crowd. The set included the recent Top 5 U.K. single “Egyptian Reggae,” as well as tracks from The Modern Lovers’ previously releases plus an eight-minute version of “Ice Cream Man.” 1979’s Back In Your Life marked the end of any original versions of The Modern Lovers and closed the Beserkley era with Jonathan stepping back from music for a few years after its release.

Nothing goes quite like you plan it, and the same could be said for oso oso’s fourth full-length, sore thumb. The album is an unexpected and unintentional return-to-form; a capsule of early 2021 when oso’s Jade Lilitri (he/him; vocals/guitar/bass/drums) and his late cousin Tavish Maloney (he/him) holed themselves up at producer Billy Mannino’s (Bigger Better Sun) Two Worlds Recordings. For a solid month, the three of them practically lived at the studio, crafting this entire album together in between nerf gun fights and psychedelic trips. The idea was to spend that month writing and demoing, then take a month off to decide where and who to work with to bring it to life––but everything happens for a reason. Less than a month later, when Tavish suddenly passed away, Jade knew immediately that he was not going to be touching these songs. Almost nothing has changed since; aside from a brilliant mix by Mike Sappone, sore thumb was nearly complete the day the two cousins left the studio. Every quirk, and every conceptual song born out of a month spent stoned with your cousin recording whatever came to mind; sore thumb exists as a living memorial for Maloney. It's a celebration of life and chaos and art, a glimpse into a moment that will never happen again. One month in Long Island, preserved for eternity.

Kalevala’s classic third album “Abraham’s Blue Refrain”, came out with the band’s revamped, more international name “Kalevala Orchestra”. The album was recorded in the spring of 1977 and produced by Tommi Liuhala together with the band, with lyrics by Jim Pembroke of Wigwam, who also plays the piano in the title track. The overall sweeping tone of this progressive and monumental record is dark and sombre with a spiritual weight to it. The songs themes and lyrics, sung in English which is rare for a Finnish band of the day, are on a grand scale imbued with deep sentiment and sacred intention. According to Lido, the album’s title track: “… actually describes my relationship to spirituality, and the song “Silver Fish” is also a self-portrait: “I’m a Pisces in the horoscope and I made this song to describe myself.” “Marketbox Street” and “Highland Temple” are Prog rock bangers that illuminate slightly different corners of the world taking the listener through far off valleys of feeling and meaning. With roaring hammond organ and crunching guitars that heap on the fuzz and then take flight into intricate but highly emotional solos from one beat to the next and back, Kalevala Orchestra mean business. “Abraham’s Blue Refrain” won’t let the keen listener down for one second and is altogether much more soul-searching and grandiose than their more obviously rocking “Boogie Jungle” album and remains an underrated cult favourite for that reason. Heavyweight Class-A Prog from Finland, sung in English with lyrics by one of the genre’s originators, Jim Pembrooke, with beautifully soaring guitar and piano, “Abraham’s Blue Refrain” is an unmissable thrill. On a par with bands like Camel, Bo Hansson and countrymates Haikara and Elonkorjuu, Kalevala’s music is an overdose of sentiment and spiritual emotion hammered out through epic Prog for those who know or soon will.

Runhild Gammelsæter and Lasse Marhaug are two Norwegian musicians/sound artists. Both started in the early 1990s music underground and have worked in many constellations with a wide range of collaborators.

Despite knowing each other for a long time, Gammelsæter and Marhaug’s first collaborative work was the “Quantum Entanglement” LP in 2014. The album ignited a collective spark that both wanted to pursue further. Still, other commitments got in the way, and the project lay dormant until Stephen O’Malley, and Greg Anderson invited them to open for Sunn O))) for a special gig in the St. James Church of Culture in Oslo in the autumn of 2019. The two gathered for a long series of rehearsals, and after the successful performance, it was clear that it was time to start working on new compositions and recordings. That process initiated in late 2019 and continued to early 2021, encompassing before and after the world went through the lockdown. The result of this long development to be heard accumulated upon their new album “Higgs Boson” on Ideologic Organ Music.

Throughout the profound process of creating “Higgs Boson”, Gammelsæter and Marhaug drew inspiration from various subjects and artists. For Marhaug, it was concepts informed by the structuralist experimental cinema of Japanese directors Takashi Ito and Toshio Matsumoto, futurist worlds of French comic book artists Philippe Druillet and Jean Moebius Giraud, landscape photography of Fay Godwin, Kåre Kivijärvi, and Tamiko Nishimura, amongst others.

It became a metaphysical juxtaposition involving Gammelsaeter’s research and lyrical ideas based on several seemingly unrelated principles. A process of association inspired by “the Glass Bead Game” by Herman Hesse. The discovery of the Higgs Boson as a confirmation of the physical universe. The work of Ernst Schrödinger on the uncertainty principle. The four forces of physics. The Force. Helplessness under armed forces - as the war sailors in World War II. The influence of magic as expressed in tarot.

Gammelsæter experiments with a boundary involving the thresholds amongst various states of focus and legibility by forensic experimentation with techniques such as exclusive expression of consonants, syllabic repetition, retrograde text vocalisations and multi-lingual layering. Her vocal inspirational sources include Sidsel Endresen, Diamanda Galas, Natacha Atlas, the choral works of Rachmaninov, and the bands Carcass and Grave.

Two worlds coming together, making the music special. Mixing hard facts with science fiction helps create a kaleidoscopic cross point between the complex realities of the past and a possible future.

“Quantum Entanglement” featured two long-form pieces centred around a prepared piano and layered voice, while “Higgs Boson” developed a much more elaborate and ambitious compositional work. Across eight parts, the two artists brought a broad palette of instrumentation and sound. Electronic and acoustic, objects and field recordings, and pipe organ define the structures of which the centre is Gammelsæter’s magnificent voice. She has become known for her legendary voice, with her vast and unique range of inflective techniques and affective colour through her 30 years creating music. In the mix, Lasse approached the instrumental elements like landscapes, then Runhild’s vocals as characters that inhabit those worlds. Often, Gammelsæter multiple characters fused with the landscape. Make them occupy space, sometimes blend into it, sometimes dominate it. Constructing and setting visual guidelines helps set focus and open possibilities.

As an album, “Higgs Boson” is direct and focused, drawing on song structures. Within these tracks are vast strata of sound, an immersive multi-dimensional depth of music. Creating a feeling of depth while working with a flat two-channel stereo format - and how dimensions of texture and distortion can help develop the illusion of a space. The album structure is a story-like arc, a malleable subjective path, set as the album traverses oblique and suggestive areas, opening the concepts for the listener to unpack as they like.

– exclusive consultation with Gammelsæter & Marhaug, edited by Stephen O’Malley, June 2022

Properly transcendent deep-dream jazz fantasy from prolific trumpet virtuoso Arve Henriksen (Supersilent) and Norwegian pianist Kjetil Husebø, together shaping an album that’s much, much more than the not so inconsiderable sum of its parts. Like a fever-dream comedown, it takes us from insanely rich sounding 4th world topographies to fizzing, electric ambience and fluttering prepared piano, perfectly soundtracking the humid un-reality we’re living through. read on / listen

Jdotbalance is a Chicanx producer from Texas currently based in Chicago. They run the GUD4U newsletter, party and mix series and have been featured for mixes on DAISYCHAIN, BIZAAR BAZAAR, PAPI JUICE, JEROME, RUMORS, and NEW WORLD DYSORDER. Here they are with a backboard smashing vinyl debut dunk full of a futuristic mix of sexy, raucous club and fast techno propulsions that showcases just how varied the energy palette of North American club music is.

“Let’s” opens up the A side with a fast techno kick and panned static flickers. Wonky pings wander left and right. This track is a true traveler…start to finish this will have the dancefloor wishing this condensed fantasy epic, inexhaustibly traversing moods and instruments, would swallow up the club and continue the stomping ride down down down the devil’s gut. A2 has a different boom but the same amount of bump. Claps dance around the 2s and 4s, showing you how to move to Jdot’s vision of gyrating, high-energy club music. A vocal sample swells like a siren. The kick moves in triplets. The peak is psycho. The track comes down just in time to pick its energy back up with big bass melodies that take it to a sonar underwater close.

Flip to the B side. “Wilin’” brings the club kicks and undulating melody that floats on top together in rhythm. Interesting rhythmic changes make you rethink your body. One can hear shimmers of the UK wobbling in to snuggle up with the ever-evolving contemporary US club landscape. “Whippit” closes out the whole shabang with a spinning, up-tempo jaunt that packs a dense punch, all bringing home the point that Jdotbalance is not messing around. CAUTION! HIGHLY FLAMMABLE TRACKS!

• Alive ‘N’ Kickin (Origin Unknown Remix)
In 1994, Andy C & Ant Miles as Origin Unknown revisited the fourth release by Red One on the newly founded Liftin Spirit Records, the sister label to Ram Records. Haunting intro pad stab lines fade away to the monumental massive impact Amen break drop that tore up dance floors worldwide. Once again featuring Val Kilmer’s vocal sample from the movie ‘The Doors’, this remix took the original to a whole new level.

• Rugged and Raw (Splash Remix)
Another cherished remix from the early years of Liftin Spirit, this time by ‘Splash’, creator of the anthemic ‘Babylon’. Time-stretched vocals lead up to another renowned Amen drop in similar ‘Babylon’ style unique to Splash. Another dance floor destroyer further cementing Liftin Spirit into recognition and respect now in parity with its sister label, Ram Records.

• Losing U (Mix 3)
A previously unreleased version found amongst the Ram & Liftin Spirit DAT tape masters. The original had only been available on a white label promo on RAM and highly sought after ever since. A special version for collectors that encapsulates the sound of 1992 Hardcore.

• Live Together
In 1992, Ant Miles had started his first label ‘Etheric Records’ which later morphed into Liftin Spirit a year later. ‘Live Together’ was originally the flip-side to ‘Its U’ that was the only release on the Etheric Records prototype. Hardcore beats and stabs pound away under the vocal “why can’t we live together”.

Come for the leopard, stay for the stone cold jams. Yet another thrilling, funky-prog jazzy-rock fusion beauty from Ian Carr’s Nucleus. Originally released on Vertigo in 1975, Alleycat was never re-pressed so those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has stayed relevant. To steal a line from a recent review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

Alleycat was the last Nucleus album recorded for the Vertigo label. Released in 1975, it was again meticulously produced by Jon Hiseman and is every bit as sinuous as anything else the group had recorded. As far as riff-laden accidental cop-funk goes, there’s so much energy coursing through the music that at times it sounds like a live recording. It’s pretty unbeatable.

Uptempo opener “Phaideaux Corner” is a funk-flavoured opus with a groove that simply swaggers. This trademark Roger Sutton piece benefits from Trevor Tomkins’s percussive expertise and some excellent sax and keyboard soloing. Check out Geoff Castle on squelchy, stabbing Moog duties. Ian Carr’s elegantly laidback title track is a lengthy suite of magisterial themes. Typically complex, it still gets you hooked and is just riddled with the funk. Carr builds up his initially “straight” trumpet solo with later use of echo to mesmeric effect. And there’s some excellent wah-wah guitar shredding by Ken Shaw too. Nice.

The second side opens with the killer “Splat” and finds Nucleus really ripping it up. A fat, funky bass guitar riff introduces us to the track and stays with us until the end. The often mangled bass groove is pushed along by rattling drums and percussion, dropping out for some restful moments of spacey calm, and along the way picking up some lengthy keyboard noodling by Castle. So so good.

The cool “You Can’t Be Sure” is a gentle jam with Shaw on 12-string acoustic guitar, together with Carr’s muted trumpet and some marvellous fretless work from Sutton for extra colour. The album closes with Bob Bertles’ galloping “Nosegay”, written perhaps as a response to some of the faster Mahavishnu Orchestra pieces. It’s an example of well crafted jazz-rock that doesn’t compromise any of its jazziness, yet it still very definitely rocks.

This Be With re-issue of Alleycat has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The cool AF cover - that leopard was just a cat before he heard Nucleus, you know - has been restored as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Arpanet needs no introduction for those who know. Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP is a reissue of the 2 tracks released by 30D Records from the Detroit artist back in 2018 (cat# 30D-006), now presented together in a special limited edition single sided 12" vinyl. The EP includes the original tracks Supernova Remnant and Main Sequence Star, being the only two tracks produced by Arpanet since 2006. Presented with a new artwork, designed by Arpanet himself, and this time on 30D Records sub label ExoPlanets, Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP becomes an instant collectors must have, especially after the quick sell out that followed the 2018 release and the numerous reissue requests received since then.

Round three of Rebirth’s bonus EP series that follows on from the massively popular Ciao Italia. Generazioni Underground compilation. Digging deep to reissue some of the most treasured Italian dream house tracks out there, volume three goes one step further unearthing two unreleased treasures.

Highly sought-after cuts, EP Tre brings together two certified gems on the A side in the form of the piano laden, Paolino & Gianni Bini - Love (Classic Mix) and Sasha’s blissful ‘Key To Heaven’. On the flip side, two previously unreleased tracks via Paramour & Adrian Morrison – Transmutation and Open Spaces - The Far Side Of The Mood, finally get their time in the limelight.

Yellow Vinyl

How do you follow Volume One? With even more epic goodness, on glorious yellow vinyl, thats how! We open with a Liquid remix of Cru-l-t’s I Can’t Forget. Liquid has an amazing rave sound that has lasted 30 plus years & probably will last another 30 years to come. The Knitebreed manager, Paul Bradley, then gets remixed by a name long associated with KF & KFA, Dj Deluxe. The breaks come hard & fast in traditional Deluxe style, & he doesn’t let up! Then we have a coming together that can only be described as genius. TNO remixes Ant To Be‘s Just Anthem. TNO takes one of Ants “lightest” tracks & makes it his own with his distinct sound of darker hardcore. Wrapping up Vol. 2 is someone who really sits in the early rave style camp, Sub Fundation, with his remix of TNO’s Who Are U, taking a darker 93 style track & making it all things rave.

Are you still here? Or are you still there? Berlin-based/Italian warehouse-rave warrior, Younger Than Me, and Italo-American romantic goth-wave prince, Curses are THERE. They're there where it's at!

It was the bond of bold friendship that brought these guys together - and of course a shared history of subgenre juxtaposition and meshing. Both grew up on Punk, Rap, and of course the early days of Techno. »Still There« is their first EP together and thus of course their first for Live At Robert Johnson. It's a venture into the euphoric, psychedelic power of early Trance and Breaks mixed with the attitude and energy of EBM and Electro.

Starting with the moody slow beats of the title tune »Still There«, Y2C takes you on a journey to a faraway chill-out room in some dark yet warm and cozy cellar. Or is this place to be found in synth heaven? It could well be if you listen to those dreamy melodies. Melodies as beguiling as the song of the Sirens that seduced good old Ulysses.

Y2C pick up on that dreamy vibe but throw in that slight and subtle Trance-factor, taking up speed with »Romantic Squat«, dragging you into their very own romantic squat.

Next up is »Love Your Enemy« - oh yes, shouldn't we all? Icey claps with lots of reverb and a bass line draw you onto the dry ice flooded aluminum floor and there's no way back - especially when that strange break with that crazy sound makes you stop for a second and think, why did I stop dancing? Get back on the floor y'all!

The last track »Lullapaluza« is indeed some kind of a lollapalooza ride, a very special ride. And no, it does not lull you to sleep because the beat created by Y2C here is a demanding one, a special which gets you going all over its eight and a half minutes. It's sheer bliss, you gotta believe it.

This is not a one-off novelty EP, it's a kinetic collaboration. Y2C is a force of nature, a force of RAVE/WAVE energy, with many more to come, a force to reckon with.

UK label Dawn State continue their hot streak this summer with further eclectic moods for the dance floor and beyond. On the tools for the fifth outing on the label is KIDWHO, a blossoming talent who through the last years whilst enduring the pandemic found light by burying himself in his studio experiencing new creative flows. The “Warez House” EP varies in tastes, similar to the highs and lows of the times that just passed us by.

Diving into the deep end is the title track, “Warez House”, loopy and hypnotic, swaying between shades of low end leaned house and techno. Off kilter synths and pads maneuver their way around the driving force of the track. “It came together layer by layer, eventually turning into a dense (and at times, unruly!) groove. A final touch
of atmospherics from an old Roland ROMpler and the track was done - bar a generous helping hand in mixdown from Joel Kane (who also turned out a heads-down dub version which might make an appearance!).”

Leaning in a more hazy direction is the blissful cruiser, “Leploop Lagoon”, a deep and emotive vibe crafted especially for the early mornings. A sophisticated deep house energy from the talented producer. “‘Leploop Lagoon’ is the oldest track on the EP, a cleaned-up version of a rough jam I made around four years back. It takes its name from the Leploop, a quirky semi-modular analogue groovebox of sorts, hand-built in Italy. A very unique and unpredictable machine, it’s on bass duties here as well as providing some percussion sounds via the MPC sampler.”

On the flip side lies “Spectral Pattern”, and it packs a certain punch. The rolling arrangement converses in harmony with icy hi-hats that flash in and out teasing the energy, all of the elements having space to breathe and work their magic.“‘Spectral Pattern’ came together quickly one very productive weekend in the studio last year. It developed from the bass sequence, which comes from a Yamaha TG-33, an unassuming 80s digital synth known for its glassy mix of ROM samples and FM tones - very New Age sounding, or 90s computer game soundtracks. But when you strip it back to basics, it punches hard in the low-end.”

Slipping on to the B side is a five minute transcendental trip, offering yet another series of textures to this otherworldly EP. The final track “At Least We Hav Music” is an ethereal soundscape waiting to be explored, wandering amongst ambient realms throughout. “The label was keen to include an ambient track on the release, and I wanted to record something specially for them. At first I had in mind something droning and melancholic, but after a few experiments with cassette
loops and reverb pedals this was the one that stood out. It was recorded during one of the lockdowns, and I guess I needed to create something that sounded more hopeful than brooding. I messaged DS boss Tom Haus with a rough version, and we went on to have a grumble about the gloomy state of things, locked-down in our respective cities and missing friends, family, activities… At some point I wrote ‘at least we have music’ - and almost as soon as I had sent it I knew I had found the track’s title. I’m very lucky to have had my home studio as a refuge through the long months of lockdown, and I’m honoured to have the chance share some of my output from this period on this record.”
KIDWHO fitting the Dawn State ethos to a tee here as they set up shop for what looks to be another fantastic release. “Each of these tracks came about in quite different ways. Like many creative people, I had moments of struggle during the pandemic, where the lack of variety and day-to-day stimulation lead to periods of writer’s block, and so I used those times to focus on smaller, more manageable projects such as making synth patches, recording sounds and and throwing together short loops in my samplers for later use. A number of
these short loops eventually laid the foundations for title track ‘Warez House’. Big thanks to Dawn State, Joel Kane, El Choop and everyone else who has helped make this happen.” -

KIDWHO

Distilling Sounds From The Now 70 Years Old Archive Of The Darmstadt Summer Courses For New Music, The Berlin Based Electronic Artist Hanno Leichtmann Presents A Stunning New Album Which Is Remix, Collage And Homage At The Same Time. Mastered And Cut By Rashad Becker At D&m.

On His Latest Work "nouvelle Aventure", Berlin's Hanno Leichtmann (who Besides His Solo Works Also Plays With Jan Jelinek And Andrew Pekler In Groupshow And Recently Released His 2nd Album With Valerio Tricoli On Entr'acte) Presentshis Very Individual Approach To The Task Of Remixing And Reworking The Imd Archive. As In His Previous Installations (e.g. "skin, Wood, Traps" For Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Celebrating The 100th Birthday Of The Drumset), The Electronic Artist Distills His Sound Material Exclusively From A Thematically Fixed Archive, In This Case: Concert Recordings, Lectures And Discussions Fromthe Now 70 Years Old Archive Of The Famous Darmstadt Summer Courses For New Music (stockhausen, Nono, Ligeti, Xenakis Et.al.). Originally A 6-channel Installation As Part Of "historage" At Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, The Composition Is Here Presented As A 46 Minutes Stereo Mix. Leichtmann Sent Thesubjectively-chosen Sounds Through His Unique Machinery Of Voltage-controlled (micro-) Loopers, Re-recorded Them And Then In A Last Step Pieced Them Together In His Studio, Primarily Applying The Traditional Parameters Of Early Electronic (tape) Music (amplitude, Pitch / Speed, Playback Direction, Series / Cuts, But Most Of All: Repetition. The Result Is A Stunning Albumwhich Is Remix, Collage And Homage At The Same Time - And A Highly Psychedelic Affair, As Mirrored By The Amazing Artwork By Caro Mikalef (cabina).

Sleepers Poets Scientists is an Umbrella for female composers and music producers. Vol. 2 compiles 8 Georgian composers: Anushka Chkheidze, Natalie Beridze, sTia, Tamo Nasidze, Tamta Gqarliani, ELY ANN, Nasi Chavchavadze and Nina Simonishvili, all of whom are CES graduates of Music Production course led by Natalie Beridze, one of the most successful Georgian producers on the scene of Georgian electronic music.

The retro cover is a nod to the famous group shot from the 1927 Solvay conference, which brought together physicists like Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Marie Curie, and others. With this in mind, the name Sleepers, Poets, Scientists rings like a call to action for today's brightest minds, to wake up and save our chaotic, troubled world.

Seventh Circle Of Litness is a dizzying collection of rave inspired dance tracks that have no earthly business sitting together on a record. What started as a deep dive into old school rave ended up being the inspiration for a hellish cacophony of styles and themes.

Two heavyweights of the Detroit underground come together on this kicking new EP from Puzzlebox. K-1 aka Keith Tucker brings his famously repetitive sounds and rugged electro-funk to 'On My Computer', which bumps irresistibly as smeared sci-fi chords set your sights on the future. Add in robotic vocals and supple bass and you have an instant classic. It's then to the Eastside of the Motor City for DJ Maaco's 'The People' which is just as funky but in totally different ways; his laid-back groove is embellished with lush synth sequences and late-night cool that is topped off by a more seductive male vocal. Two very different but equally brilliant tunes.

Super db is a 4-piece band from London, whose sound is a distinctive mix of Pop, Disco, Funk, Rock and Jazz. The band's name plays on the positive, upbeat nature of their music, as well as encompassing the initials of each band member.

The lineup is composed of twin brothers J-M Sutcliffe (guitars & vocals) and J-P Sutcliffe (drums, vocals, keys & percussion), joined by Lorenzo Bassignani (bass) and Matt Dibble (keys, vocals, sax & clarinet). All four members are recognized as some of the UK's top musicians, most of them multi-instrumentalists offering more than one musical contribution to their band recordings, including rotating lead vocalists.

Following on from two very well-received singles in 2020, "Kool Funk" and "Open Line to Me", which were heavily supported by the BBC and taste making media around UK and Europe; Super db released another single "Wait For Me" on 7th May 2021 working for the first time with an array of successful independent labels including Legere Recordings (GSA), Go Entertainment (Benelux), and P-Vine Records (Japan). The anticipated full album "Ecoute Ca" will follow this summer with its global release in July.

In May 2021, Super db sadly announced the untimely and sudden death of their much loved founding member, Matt Dibble. In Matt's honour, the remaining band members continue to be dedicated to sharing and promoting the music they made together and vitally shall maintain the positive vibes and lust for life that Matt always brought to the project and life in general. "Ecoute Ca" represents everything that 4 piece loved to create as a unit and its release is now as significant as ever.

."Ecoute Ca" as a record, pays homage to 70s and 80s West-coast 'Yacht-rock' music, along with a joyful synthesis of the band's varied song-writing approaches.

The sound encompasses funky bass lines, riffing guitars, smooth sax, and a unique blend of vocal harmonies offering a delicious combination of the familiar and fresh all rolled into one. "Ecoute Ca" is a collection of songs that will provide a feel good, joyful soundtrack to the most needed summer vibes the world has ever wanted for!