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On Oath's latest, the imprint keeps the jazz-fuelled atmospheres going with 'Seven Dogs', an EP that serves up an astonishing excursion through deeply hypnotic melodies and idiosyncratic grooves, courtesy of an iconic link-up between Rteph88 aka Robin Taylor-Firth and Steve Cobby.

Taylor-Firth and Cobby are musicians whose careers are so richly storied, broad-ranging, and impactful that it's difficult to summarise their output and impact in so few words. Both Taylor-Firth and Cobby firmly established themselves in the 90s, being involved in some of the era's most prominent and celebrated groups and for releasing some truly era-defining records. As such, their discographies reach far and wide, from house and techno cuts through to downtempo, drum'n'bass and leftfield, there is little that is left uncovered, and this spirit remains with them both as they continue to explore the outer parameters of their sounds.

Taylor-Firth, a songwriter, arranger, and producer, is perhaps best known for his long association with Warp Records and its sublabel Nucleus, and for his work as a member of Nightmares on Wax, where his signature keyboard playing style became a staple of the group's legendary sound. Alongside this, he has hundreds of songwriting and arranging credits on a dizzying array of records, and was a member of house music group Anon and Pio Bo alongside Richard Barratt - to name but a few selected highlights of his extraordinary career. Cobby's career is distinguished by his multitude of releases under a variety of aliases, along with his helming of a number of imprints, including Pork Recordings and his most recent label Déclassé. Experimenting with a wide variety of genres and sounds, perhaps his best-known work was with the duo Fila Brazillia alongside Dave McSherry, who released a plethora of immersive and innovative records in the 90s and beyond.

'Seven Dogs' represents a shared passion, vision, and musicality, two languages borne of similar spaces but reaching through time, space, and existence in creating a richly veiled musical experience that draws from lifetimes spent within the nucleus of music's soul. The EP speaks of the present as such as the past and indeed future, hinting with motifs that feel right at home within sun-kissed skies and within the walls of the chill out rooms. 'Early Doors', the EP's opener, displays the core fundamentals of the unfolding experience, namely the intrinsic relationship between keys and drums and how they express tone and mood. The piano gently caresses, ethereally floating with space to grow, as the drums lightly swing into life, providing an engrossing and rhythmically diverse groove that nods as much as it dives. The title track lands next and leads with a more driving feel. Sonically, the track leads with an oozing bass sequence that worms through the mid range before retreating under an array of compelling piano chords. The drums once again provide a strong backbone, allowing the melodic elements up top to fully express themselves - in a myriad of ways, murmuring and clamouring all at once.

'Visiting Hobo' brings the groove down a few notches. Slightly sombre in its delivery, the piano and bass interchange above a sparse yet hard-hitting groove, with as much emphasis placed on the emptiness as on the melodically full sections. The piano has a certain tonality here, with the notes containing a large amount of textural reverb that helps the track feel alive, almost growing out of the speakers. Wrapping things up is 'Titled', which begins with the keys and an array of whimsical features. The drums allow themselves time to grow into being, but when they do, they simmer within an enriching melange. It's a fitting end to a record that abounds with sonic consideration, environmental and emotive feeling, where two technicians bring their best and serve up four tracks of such sublimeness and thoughtfulness. One to drift deep within, on those hot summer days….

In a blizzard of crushed breaks and dissonant tones, Shelley Parker lands on Sneaker Social Club with her third album, Screed. Taking a forensic approach to noise sculpture and harmonic interference, the UK-based artist maintains a fringe perspective on the legacy of hardcore-derived dance music, extrapolating the renegade spirit of the earliest innovators into unexplored zones where sound art and sound systems collide.

Parker's path through the underground has been informed by her art school background, equally at home in the parallel world of galleries, installations and institutions as she is in the club. This dualistic dimension to her practice charges her music with an outsider spirit that manifests across 10 striking new productions on Screed. Focusing on the sound over an umbrella concept, it's an album that rejects comfortable, functional formulae in favour of original expression.

There are plenty of forthright structures for DJs and dancers to lock onto, from the militaristic techno thrust and tightly clipped breakbeat loop of 'Relentless' to the splayed boom bap guiding the giddy string sequences of 'Stargazer Lily'. The insistent pulse of 'April' meanwhile offers only the faintest of paths to navigate dense thickets of jerky, swinging static and metallic clamour. 'Georgian Wire' closes the record out on dissembled drum licks with a brittle patina - a scooped out closer with the skeletal remains of a rave dialect that's second nature to someone with as much skin in the game as Parker.

In amongst those tracks lies a wide-ranging tapestry of rhythmic, textural and emotional approaches, from head-knocking beatdowns to billowing clouds of dub techno, angular stabs and industrial smudges. On Screed, Parker proves herself to be peerless and purposeful in her quest to find new forms within the well-worn canon of hardcore and rave.

Life In Patterns welcomes Uncertain for his first appearance on the label with “Defeat”, a five-track EP bringing together five warehouse-focused techno tracks, moving between darker industrial tones and the classic rave influences that have long been part of his sound. “Defeat” will release on vinyl and digital formats on 16 October 2026. Across the EP, Uncertain explores a broad range of peak-time energy. “Anxiety” and “Dismiss” take a darker route, built around tense atmospheres, heavy percussion, and industrial textures, while the remaining tracks introduce classic rave chords and a more open, melodic character. Despite the differences in tone, the five tracks share the same directness and focus, designed with the dance floor firmly in mind. Uncertain, formerly known as Boriqua Tribez, has been active in electronic music since 1989. Over the past two decades, he has released and remixed more than 50 tracks for labels including KMS, Recycled Loops, and Ingoma, before starting a new chapter under the Uncertain name in 2018. Since then, his more frantic approach to techno has found a home on labels such as Rekids, Symbolism, Beard Man, H-Productions, WRKTRX, ANAOH, Illegal Alien, Mind Medizin, Intec, and Uncage. Alongside his productions, Uncertain is an experienced DJ known for fast, precise three-deck sets, with international performances and support from artists including Ben Sims, Radio Slave, Truncate, Mark Broom, Carl Cox, Blasha & Allatt, Chris Liebing, Richie Hawtin, Luke Slater, DJ Rush, DJ Bone, and others. With “Defeat”, Uncertain makes his Life In Patterns debut with a focused collection of five techno tracks — from dark industrial pressure to classic rave energy, all built for the warehouse.

"Things are looking better than ever for GENERATION STEEL! The quintet from Wetzlar/Germany, has reinvented itself on all fronts and is set to take the music world by storm with its upcoming third studio album, Steelmachine.

With the addition of guitar wizard and songwriter Thilo Herrmann - who made his debut in 1985 on the FAITHFUL BREATH classic “Skol” and has written heavy metal history throughout his career with RISK (including “Ratman”), RUNNING WILD (including “Black Hand Inn”, “Masquerade”), and GRAVE DIGGER (including “Ballads of a Hangman”) - bandleader and guitarist Jack the Riffer now has a living legend by his side.

There has also been a change behind the mic: from now on, Swedish vocalist Mike Stark - who currently sings for the Argentinian band FEANOR and the Swedish group STORMBURNER - is setting the tone. His powerful, high-pitched yet dynamic voice gives the new tracks an absolute seal of quality.
GENERATION STEEL stands for authentic, traditional, '80s-influenced heavy metal, combining the styles of ACCEPT and JUDAS PRIEST.

The ten neck-breaking tracks on the band's third full-length album were produced by Piet Sielck (IRON SAVIOR), who has previously refined classics by GAMMA RAY, GRAVE DIGGER, HEADHUNTER, STORMWARRIOR and BLIND GUARDIAN.
The cover artwork, designed by Gyula Havancsak (who has also created artworks for POWERWOLF, ACCEPT and BLIND GUARDIAN, among others), is equally eye-catching.

Anyone who loves honest, traditional German metal will quickly embrace “Steelmachine”, because the quintet not only takes us back to the '80s, but also shows just how timeless true metal is. Ten home runs, including the four singles “Steelmachine”, “Witches Cross”, “Wings of Fire” and “Fields of Pain”.
Stay Metal – Stay Steel!"

Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

To kick off our 5th year party celebrations the label begins its new set of releases starting with the joined forces of Regal86 and IMOGEN. The artists contribute two tracks each to the four track vinyl alongside remixes of each other's work, meeting at sonic crossroads.

The EP journeys through rave nostalgia filled with warmth and hope for the future, recollecting some favourite memories of the dance floor.

The A side is fast, driving with a sense of longing for the Halcyon Days and the offline times of partying when things felt easier. The release opens with ‘One Night In 1992’, IMOGEN’s nostalgic ode to an earlier rave era, built around a vocal recollection of her mother’s experiences on the dancefloor in the 90’s. Raw, hazy and deeply personal, it sets the tone for a record rooted in memory while remaining firmly in the present. Regal86 follows with ‘Rush’, bringing a different energy to the record. Driven by rolling rhythms, playful movement and a strong sense of groove.

The B side takes a more optimistic turn looking into the future with dubby aquatic pads and euphoric breakdowns, carrying a feeling of forward motion. There is a lightness to the tracks, a sense of joy running beneath NC Station and keeping the momentum locked whilst turning inwards on the final track, IMOGEN’s ‘Midnight At Bret’ rounds out a release that moves naturally between nostalgia, propulsion and the shared language of the dance floor.

As the next release launches, IMOGEN takes wigs on tour for a five year special run of shows starting on release at Tresor for a two club take over following with further cities: London, Milan, Dublin and more.

"Firebreather formed in Gothenburg in 2016, rooted in crushing, sludge-doused doom from the very beginning. Never wavering from that commitment across all three of their incendiary full-length releases, the trio has pursued weight with purpose, not as spectacle, nor as an exercise in excess, but as the only language broad enough to hold the emotional reach and sonic heft of their sound. The music arrives in a way that writes itself with no distance between the words and the sound; they rise from the same cursed ground, and that honesty has become the band's defining force. Firebreather is a band that never postures or asks to be admired for their heaviness- and to see them live is to experience exactly why. Their weight takes on another life entirely. The band's towering tone and consuming grit don't fill a room so much as alter it. Volume presses against the body before the first lyric lands and riffs arrive like shifting earth. The drums don't drive the songs forward; they anchor them while the line between sound and physical force begins to disappear. Years spent crossing Europe and North America have only sharpened that purpose, and a decade on with a fourth album on the way via the notorious Heavy Psych Sounds Records, Firebreather remains exactly where it belongs. Head down. Volume up."

Gold Nugget Vinyl, limited to 400 copies. "Firebreather formed in Gothenburg in 2016, rooted in crushing, sludge-doused doom from the very beginning. Never wavering from that commitment across all three of their incendiary full-length releases, the trio has pursued weight with purpose, not as spectacle, nor as an exercise in excess, but as the only language broad enough to hold the emotional reach and sonic heft of their sound. The music arrives in a way that writes itself with no distance between the words and the sound; they rise from the same cursed ground, and that honesty has become the band's defining force. Firebreather is a band that never postures or asks to be admired for their heaviness- and to see them live is to experience exactly why. Their weight takes on another life entirely. The band's towering tone and consuming grit don't fill a room so much as alter it. Volume presses against the body before the first lyric lands and riffs arrive like shifting earth. The drums don't drive the songs forward; they anchor them while the line between sound and physical force begins to disappear. Years spent crossing Europe and North America have only sharpened that purpose, and a decade on with a fourth album on the way via the notorious Heavy Psych Sounds Records, Firebreather remains exactly where it belongs. Head down. Volume up."

Theory Therapy presents “Smoker’s Choice,” the second release and first full-length from Alien D, the project of New York producer Daniel Creahan. Following last year’s “For the Early Hours of a World in Bloom” EP, the record takes on a decidedly more spacious, inward bent, with softened rhythms and arrangements given more room to breathe, folding electronics and acoustic composition into a shifting, ethereal wash.

Featuring a range of collaborations across the record, including guest vocals from his wife Ellen, Creahan’s electronics serve as a base for a series of dubwise interpolations of his collaborators’ work, from washed-out zither and bowed banjo to scorching saxophone leads.

There’s a particular pleasure in the obfuscation here, each instrument buffed into a mass of sound. A sub-bass tone might linger beneath the surface before receding into the haze; a groove can feel steady one moment and subtly shift the next. Repetition becomes less about locking into a pattern than watching it slowly change, like the same view seen through moving water.

“Smoker’s Choice” finds its depth in these small shifts, with dub rhythms, soft-edged electronics and acoustic inflections reaching something dreamlike but tactile, where atmosphere and groove are never quite separate. The record feels like a snapshot of several forces moving in slow motion – a landscape of drifting forms and blurred boundaries, where nothing feels entirely fixed.

Verdad Y Error (2026) resides in the tension between the thrashing of external noise and beating centred internal calm. Gibrana Cervantes is known for her work across experimental music and contemporary performance, a practice with focussed intensity and surging physicality, often pushing the limits of endurance, presence, and embodiment. A central axis of her performance practice is her ongoing collaboration with acclaimed choreographer Florentina Holzinger, including composing the music for SEA WORLD (2026), Florentina Holzinger’s critically acclaimed installation for the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Alongside this, she is a core member of the experimental ensemble Amor Muere (Mabe Fratti, Concepción Huerta, and Camille Mandoki). Cervantes maintains an active recording practice that directly informs her live output including her collaboration Memoria (2025), with Colombian Drone Mafia (Nyksan) for Ambie-Tón (Tratratrax),

Verdad y Error is a record of her artistic approach which expands her body and the violin’s horizon of possibility to near breaking point. Cervantes uses a register closely associated with Metal, yet buried deep in the alchemy of these pieces are motifs which hark back to her classical background. Across these pieces the violin is used as an instrument with a fragmented and shifting voice — blurred, repeated, and reshaped through distortion. “Many of these pieces come from images, memories, and sensations that have stayed with me for years. I'm interested in the blurring of what actually happened and what time transforms.” The recordings are built with layers of violin tones which oscillate between recognisable, processed, stretched and shifted, and lay embedded in a frequency stratum of volatile static and noise. “The violin on this album doesn't appear as a clean instrument. I process it, repeat it, distort it, and multiply it until it begins to feel more like memory than melody. Something blurry, shifting, difficult to grasp.” The origins of the album were born at a time when Cervantes was seeking inner calm amidst a relentless external noise, questioning the validity or possibility of memory and its radically changing perception in relation to experience. Subsequent reflection on this contemplative moment allowed her to develop a relational music which moves through memory, erosion, repetition, and emotional ambiguity. Creating a space that feels both intimate and unstable, mercurial with the patina of lived imperfection.

Akin to the unreliable narrator and linguistic instability, each piece functions as an emotional landscape suspended between clarity and confusion. An album which balances melody, brutality, fragility and noise
throughout its sprawling recordings and artwork, which operates as an analogue to the music. The visual world of the album developed in collaboration with Mauro Ventura was compiled across various media with a mix of handwritten texts, burned typography, metallic textures, and fragile physical materials. “I wanted the record to feel tactile and imperfect — something emotionally direct but physically worn.” says Cervantes. More than offering explanations, verdad y error exists as a conversation between memory and disappearance, noise and stillness, truth and error.

BAUGRUPPE90 return to their MONTAGE imprint with a four-track release built around different shades of peak-time functionality, moving between emotional warehouse pressure, stripped-back bounce and rolling club mechanics. A1 “Crowd Can’t Sit Down” sets the tone with an emotional big-room charge: a warehouse stomper driven by scale, tension and a sense of release without losing its physical weight. “The Bell” follows with a cleaner, more direct approach, pairing old-school energy with a bouncy, forward-pushing groove and a distinct FM-driven sound that gives the track its sharp, instantly recognizable character. On the flip, “Gummy Cluster” moves into more unconventional territory. Built around inventive sound design, shifting textures and an unusual rhythmic vocabulary, the track functions as a club tool while maintaining a character of its own. Closing track “Roller” is exactly what its title suggests: a locked-in, propulsive groove designed to keep moving without unnecessary detours. Across four tracks, BAUGRUPPE90 balance personality with utility, keeping MONTAGE firmly focused on music made for the floor.

Seven years after 2019’s ‘The Dusk Loom’, Petrels returns with a pair of new albums, Infangthief and Outfangthief. The first of these releases, Infangthief, was originally written and recorded in 2022, before being reworked in light of a subsequent album, Outfangthief, due to be released later this year.

The two albums act as companion pieces, mirrors revealing facets of the other, overlapping in sound and subject matter. Though Outfangthief may have been written after Infangthief, it is no mere follow-up, with it's own creation causing a re-visiting and re-working of the earlier album, which in turn informed the writing of its twin.

Taking their titles from Old English legal terms ("thief seized without" and "thief seized within”), the central thread running through both albums is the illusion of assumed human authority - that which is given and that which is taken by force. With Western society seemingly hellbent on willingly embracing a brutally destructive economic model (even in its death throes), these albums attempt - in their own small way - to undertake the essential task of imagining alternative ways of being.

Petrels is the solo project of musician and artist, Oliver Barrett. Since releasing his debut, Haeligewielle, in 2011 (#9 in A Closer Listen's Best Albums of the Decade), Petrels has toured across Europe and shared a stage with the likes of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Tim Hecker, FIRE!, Nate Young (Wolf Eyes), Trouble Books, Demdike Stare, Nadja, and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster). Working from his home in Somerset, UK, Barrett has released numerous albums through his Floating Limb imprint, as well as mixing and/or mastering hundreds of releases for the likes of Keiji Haino, Loren Connors & Alan Licht, Judith Hamann, Incapacitants, Mette Rasmussen & Sofia Jernberg, Yasunao Tone and more

“Petrels sidesteps the chilliness found in much of the music of his peers, replacing it instead with an almost spiritual ecstasy, his ravishing synths and almost choral vocal treatments calling out in cosmic, wide eyed wonder at the universe.” – Paul Margree, Louder Than War

"Broken Home"tells the story of an escape that doesn"t really lead anywhere. The song depicts leaving a dysfunctional home hoping to find something better,only to end up in a worldthat feels just as chaotic and empty. The journey takes on a surreal tone, filled with striking, symbolic images: glittering but hollow figures, cheap messiahs, plastic saints-signs of a society that builds superficial, interchangeable idols. Surrounded by a hyperconnected crowd, there"s still a deep sense of isolation running through everything. The city itself feels saturated with excess, addiction, and illusion, where even moments of "cleanliness" or redemption seem fake, as if something as simple as rain could wash everything away. At its core, the song explores alienation and disillusionment, suggesting that escaping your past doesn"t mean much if the world you run into is just as broken.

Bali-based producer/DJ STAY GOLDEN makes his debut on All Day I Dream with Silent Covenant, a seven-track album exploring unseen connections, out now.

Silent Covenant traces a near 40-minute path through hypnotic indie-dance textures, melodic techno tones, and deep house grooves. The title track opens with funky drive and a quick-tongued topline before ‘Fragments of a Dream’ pushes into darker territory. From there, ‘RITUAL PAUSE’ and ‘Stay With Me’ return to organic rhythms and deep vocals, balancing cohesion and contrast across the project.

“A seven-track journey through emotions and the invisible connections that shape our lives. Each track is another step in the same journey. The strongest connections are often the ones that never need to be spoken. They live in shared moments and the memories we carry with us. Silent Covenant is my way of translating those invisible bonds into music.” – STAY GOLDEN

Collaborations with Alexey Union, Broken Hill, Kinky Sound, ÜNAM, ANTICALM, and David LeSal broaden the project's sound throughout its second half. ‘Synth Lines’ adds a deeper edge, while ‘In Your Heart’ turns toward airy melodies. Closing with ‘Everything Sacred,’ Silent Covenant brings its themes of memory, connection, and shared experience full circle.

DJ Support: Glenn Underground, Leo Mas, Sean Johnston / ALFOS, Massimiliano Pagliara / Panorama Bar, Al Mackenzie / Field of Dreams, Shane Johnson / Fish Go Deep, Flash Atkins / Paper Recordings, Pete Gooding, Mark Broadbent, Max Essa and plenty more.

2026 has been a particularly busy year for Visions of Light, the Balearic/ambient/dub trio founded by Freebooter Records’ Simon Sheldon alongside Muzka and Dan Dub Lounge. Following the Dedications EP – their warmly received collection of Balearic dub reinterpretations of White Isle-friendly club classics – the trio return with ‘Mycelium Bloom’, the follow-up to their 2025 debut LP The Mandela Vortex. Mycelium Bloom sees Visions of Light expand their signature sound, blending downtempo dub grooves and sunbaked Balearic soundscapes with hallucinatory electronics and psychedelic touches. Layered guitars, deep bass, immersive textures and dreamlike melodies run throughout an album designed for both sunset listening and deeper late-night excursions.

Opener Split The Scene sets the tone with acidic electronics circling languid beats, heavy bass and spacious pads, while All The Best Thing taps into the spirit of early ’90s chill-out rooms, adding desert blues influences to its hazy, enveloping atmosphere. Holding Jupiter pushes further into psychedelic territory, built around low-tempo rhythmic drift, effects-laden guitars and expansive chords. Elsewhere, the trio reconnect with their rootsier dub foundations. B Town delivers a warm, summery skank, while Radiant Flux shifts towards Balearic dub dancefloor territory. Perfect You, featuring words written and performed by Richard Dormer alongside flute from Luis Vilca, is a gorgeous sunset-ready highlight, while Let Go closes in on pure Balearic bliss through gentle melodies and slow-burning atmosphere.

Nicolas Balmer reveals the heavy silence of his soul.
Facing his own mirror.
The soundscape unfolds.

Fire sets the tone.
Kindling of the abyss, driven to go on and on.
Passion in his language contains suffering.
A silver lining, found in delicately layered noise.

A myriad of intertwined sounds paint the melodies of a life.
Holding the memories of those who danced with his shadows and light.

Nicolas releases his album “Leben” on Zürich based Subject To Restrictions Discs. While moving between New Wave, Kraut and Electronics, his intuition for ambient oozes from each composition, fast-paced or slow. As Nicolas Balmer lays bare his most intimate sources of inspiration with Leben. He holds nothing back.

The album is shaped by a sense of optimistic melancholy: restless and contradictory, yet full of hope. The music is not about arriving, but about the journey: loss and finding oneself; despair, love, guilt and forgiveness. This is an album that does not seek to explain life, but rather embraces it in all its contradictions.

Nicolas Balmer is a Zurich-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and synthesizer enthusiast who has been exploring contemporary music for over fifteen years. Working across music, theatre and interdisciplinary projects, he moves between genres and forms. His work includes the electronic project Nico Sun, the experimental duo Gūsū with Xueyan Chen, the collaborative project Konstant with Angelo Repetto and Kenel/Sonne. He also composes and produces music for theatre and performance, as well as working in mixing and production. Across his projects, Balmer is driven by raw textures, emotional authenticity and a search for an independent musical language.

The third chapter of The Third Room's curator-led series is shaped by Verraco, one of the key voices behind a new generation of artists reshaping contemporary club music. Through his productions, DJ sets and his work with TraTraTrax, he has helped define a sound where hybrid forms, rhythmic experimentation and cross-cultural influences are pushing the genre into new territory. Structured across two distinct sides, the release draws a clear connection between past and present. The A-side leans into a deeper, more classic space, while the B-side moves towards a more forward-facing, hybrid sound. It opens with Libration (Stone Version) by Substance & Vainqueur, a revisiting of their landmark 2007 release, a track that helped define the language of Dub Techno as it is understood today. Reduced, deep and spatially precise, it established a blueprint for how rhythm, delay and tone could function together. It's presence here acts less as a nod to the past and more as a reminder of a foundation that continues to shape the genre. Skee Mask's Clear Sky 909 continues this thread, softening the edges without losing depth. Warm, enveloping textures and fluid movement give the track a sense of openness, balancing clarity with emotional weight. The B-side shifts perspective. On Untitled (Teamgeist Mix), Verraco, joined by Tils, delivers the record's defining moment - a dense, intricately designed piece built on a driving low-end and evolving rhythmic patterns. Elements from Techno, Bass and Leftfield House converge into a detailed, forward-moving structure that actively bridges cultural contexts. It results in a form of dance music shaped by technical precision, but drive.n by a clear sense of intent, marking a distinct expression of Verraco's current sound. Untitled by 1morning introduces a rolling, tribal-infused groove with a strong sense of depth, while PatumPa by Regal86 closes the record with a bright, loop-driven energy that leans into pure motion. Across both sides, the release moves between reference and progression. Rather than separating old and new, Verraco connects them - tracing a line from foundational Dub Techno to a more fluid, contemporary club language. Copyright 2026 The Third Room A1 Written and Produced by Peter Kuschnereit & Rene Loewe | A2 Written and Produced by Bryan Mueller | B1 Written and Produced by JP Lopez & Jakob Ferdinand Tils and mixed by Lurka | B2 Written and Produced by 1morning | B3 Written and Produced by Regal86 Mastered by Andreas Kauffelt (Schnittstelle Berlin) Artwork by Charlotte Ernst Design by Daniel Bornmann (STUEDIO.XYZ) Distribution by Clone Pressing by Matter Of Fact

To close out the year, Life In Patterns presents Spektrum II, the second installment in the compilation series curated by Ferdinger. This 16-track VA, scheduled to release in early December 2024, comes as a double vinyl with four digital bonus tracks and download codes.

Spektrum II ventures into the depths of dynamic techno, combining driving beats with intricate, groove-rich patterns. The compilation seamlessly shifts from deep, dubby tones to bright, euphoric moments, embodying the labels signature sound. Its a bold exploration of diverse sonic textures, blending harmonic and dissonant elements for an immersive listening experience.

Step into the backroom of the Bordello, the lights dim and the soundtrack adopts a different tone. L.F.T. leans against the wall. Nestled under his arm, Sonic Boom: four tracks of acid-inflected electro disruption. Love, Fist, Tears is no stranger to the more gnarled side of the machines, and that unadulterated rawness is evident from the needle drop of “Locked in My Head.” From its bent and buckled intro, the track launches a beat that punches before drawing the listener in for more. Vocoder lyrics are mangled with distortion, static soaked chords blighted by corrosive chemicals and industrial decay as the knives are drawn from the outset (and this is only the beginning). Blistered and cracked beats are doused in a pestilent haze for “Las Plagas” and a message of intent is firmly stated: there will be no let up on Sonic Boom, no reprieve. “Ningen” opens the flip. Grisly, petrol smeared beats splutter below a juddering synthline that coils and twists with serpentine menace. A probing tom is lanced before being set alight in the finale. Sinister and unsettling, “Schmutzig Personality” is as physically powerful as it is psychologically gripping. Barrages of drums rain down, barbed snares and sharpened claps, as an assault of acid is further weaponised by machined vocals. L.F.T. doing what he does with an EP that will leave bodies and speakers broken.

Det Gode Selskab continue their quest as they call on Berlin-based Italian artist Busso. An artist who continues to express himself through a multitude of vibes and sounds, fitting perfectly with the free-flowing DGS ethos. ‘Anna In The Jelly’ wanders between four different cuts, teasing animated deep house energy combined with stripped-back minimal flavours. A reflection of Busso’s versatile taste, he encapsulates four sure shots for your summertime record bag. A tale for the sun worshipping dreamers, soundtracking the warmer months.

Diving straight in with ‘Sexual Desire’, Busso delivers perky and playful peak-time action, with a clean-cut, feel-good energy from the word go. A vintage feel emerges through the vocals and crisp drums, working in sweet harmony. Slick hi-hats lead the way in ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ before you are confronted with a killer elasticated groove synonymous with the Italian’s sound. Beautiful chords appear at the midway point, spiralling into paradise.
The B-side kicks off with the title track, constructed in a distinct chunky manner. Squelchy mechanical tones manoeuvre around the mysterious drive of the track. Moody as it moves, it’s one for the darker nights on the road. Last but not least is ‘Red Print’, tightly packaged and incredibly detailed, with quirky obscurities flashing throughout. A steady motion perfectly sets the tone as you start to build the floor.
This record cements an exciting future for the label, as they look to continue elaborating on their catalogue, ever-evolving and expanding their width of sounds with one of the most exciting prospects currently in the German capital.

From the co-writer of the iconic Hardcore Uproar, Suddi Raval arrives on Hello World Records with his debut EP — a five-track electronic journey that moves effortlessly between disco, electro, experimental electronics and analogue-fuelled psychedelia.

At the heart of the release is “Laser Beams and Mirror Balls”, the EP's titular track, reimagined by superstar DJ and producer Justin Robertson, who takes the neon-charged original and pushes it into new disco dimensions with his unmistakable production touch.

The journey begins with Robertson's remix before moving into the original French-vocalled version of “Laser Beams and Mirror Balls” — a hypnotic, pulsating slice of electronic disco that sets the tone for what follows.
On the flip side, “Oni Strangler” takes a darker, more hypnotic and exotic turn, drawing the listener deeper into Raval's richly textured electronic world. “Robot Computer” follows with a growling bass machine of electronic stabs, warped drones and relentless low-end energy.

Closing the EP is “Zub Sierra”, a spaced-out voyage through a dubbed-out otherworld before descending into deep, resonating electro synths — the kind of beautifully unpredictable analogue textures that only an analogue Odyssey can deliver.

Across all five tracks, Raval combines electro-flavoured rhythms with a kaleidoscope of electronic textures, forging pulsing basslines, hypnotic melodies and richly layered soundscapes. It's an EP that feels both rooted in the electronic music traditions that have influenced him and entirely of its own time.
Five tracks. One electronic journey. From laser beams and mirror balls to analogue odysseys and robot computers.

Welcome to the new electro world of Suddi Raval.

Two seriously high-grade legends come together to mark the 30th anniversary of the cultured Seasons Limited imprint here: Don Carlos is behind one of Balearic house music's most enduring anthems in 'Alone' and Robert Owens has been voicing the genre since the 80s with his signature smoky tones. Here they cook up 'Inspired' in three different forms - there's a deep and soulful House Mix with an electric delivery from Owens, then a chord-laced and warm Classic Mix with a throwback Chicago bassline and finally a Dub Mix that strips everything back to a more breezy late-night sound that sinks you into the groove perfectly.

Planet Trip Records presents Sydney underground heroes Hugh B & Setwun’s first album, 2020’s Yeah Definitely, and its long-awaited follow-up, 2026’s Nah Maybe, as a deluxe vinyl LP package. Underpinned by the low-end heft of dub and soundsystem culture, their albums draw deeply from an expansive array of sensibilities: tones, textures and patterns shaped by post-punk and ambient music dovetail with abstract, sampledelic hip-hop drum loops. Meanwhile, Setwun’s mysterious neo-soul/modern R&B vocals glide on the beat. Punctuated by dialogue snippets, these songs feel like exploring the multiverse with an interdimensional boombox.

Yeah Definitely began as a batch of instrumentals. Having previously worked with an MPC, drum machines, instruments and Logic Audio, Hugh used a borrowed PC and Renoise, a tracker DAW associated with 21st-century jungle/drum & bass production. Afterwards, he sent them over to Setwun, who sketched vocals on top with ease.

If Yeah Definitely came together quickly, Nah Maybe was a longer process. Still inspired, Hugh B knocked out a second folder of beats with neon-lit city-pop references, slow-jam grooves, and elegant guitar figures. This time, however, something wasn’t clicking for Setwun. The only cure here would be the passage of time.

Over the next six years, Hugh and Setwun continued to collaborate while pursuing solo projects. Hugh released jungle, ambient house, dub and post-punk records through Planet Trip Records, Not Not Fun, and his OTIS Records label, while performing live, DJ, and leading the Modern Pop Ensemble. Similarly, Setwun, also a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ, released a series of records that explore jazz, soul, house, and broken-beat electronica, forming a loose constellation for Mandarin Dreams and Extra Soul Perception. Alongside these efforts, he played shows and began performing with his backing band, The Soulstranauts.

Early in 2026, something clicked, and Setwun drafted vocals for the second batch of beats over an evening. Not long after, he invited Hugh to mix Nah Maybe, every bit as special as Yeah Definitely. By waiting for the right moment and putting themselves outside of their comfort zone, Hugh B and Setwun have bottled lightning twice. We’re very pleased to be able to share Yeah Definitely and Nah Maybe with you.

Doubt Records puts out a release from one of its own: Berlin-based modular live act O/Y whose debut album "Variations" set the tone for a sound moving between micro house, dub techno and downtempo. "Perpetuity Wing" continues that trajectory, threading dubbed-out chords and acid textures through three tracks built for deep, late rooms.

“My Love” is one of its key tracks on “Summer End”, the current album by French singer & songwriter Al Sunny. Now that summer really has ended, Al Sunny asked a few producers and DJs from all over France to deliver their interpretation “My Love”. Featuring a wonderful organic take by Ludovic Llorca aka Art of Tones this EP is available digitally and as limited four track 12inch vinyl edition including the Art of Tones, Hugo LX and Jared mixes.

Art of Tones

Art of Tones is the house and disco project of acclaimed French producer Ludovic Llorca. Launched in 2006, the alias quickly earned international recognition through its distinctive combination of soulful musicianship, powerful grooves and dancefloor energy. His catalogue includes releases on respected labels such as 20/20 Vision, Local Talk, Glitterbox, GAMM and Toy Tonics, establishing him as a highly regarded producer and remixer within the global house scene.

Hugo LX

Hugo LX is a Paris-based DJ and producer whose musical universe moves effortlessly between deep and soulful house, downtempo beats, jazz, hip-hop and ambient influences. Known for his refined production style and wide-ranging musical knowledge, he has released music on respected labels including NDATL, MCDE, Balance and People of Earth, alongside projects on his own Doma Music imprint. Both behind the decks and in the studio, his work is defined by warmth, subtlety and a deeply personal approach to electronic music.

Jared

Jared is a French DJ, producer and event curator based in Bordeaux, with a strong connection to house music and club culture. Over the years, he has performed at a wide range of events and international stages, including Tomorrowland, developing a reputation for energetic and carefully constructed DJ sets. His musical approach combines a deep understanding of the dancefloor with warm grooves, contemporary production and an enduring passion for house music.

No Home is the new album by Lane Hartley, releasing October 23rd 2026 on Royal Oakie Records. Produced in collaboration with David Hartley of The War On Drugs & Adam McDaniel (Animal Collective, Angel Olsen, Geologist), the album was recorded at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville and features contributions from North Carolina’s tight knit music community–including Mary Lattimore, Seth Kaufman of Floating Action & Dream Sitch, David Hartley, Jack Victor Johnson, and more.

After recording his debut album Naming Horses, Lane left Los Angeles and returned home to the Carolinas, eventually landing in Asheville. It wasn’t too long until the songs started flowing and Lane found himself reaching out to Adam McDaniel at Drop of Sun Studios–a vaunted space that’s been at the heart of indie-rock the past few years, bringing to life recent albums from MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Fust, and more. McDaniel introduced Lane to David Hartley, and what originally started with discussions to record one song quickly turned into a plan to track a whole album live with a six piece band. Once in the studio, co-producer McDaniel encouraged the group to lean on intuition–“All of the players on this record really brought it to life in such a cosmic way. They instilled so much childlike wonder and fun into the making of the album. It inspired me to keep going” says Lane.


Lyrically the album is a collection of vignettes about people who’ve become alienated from their deepest desires of connection, belonging, intimacy, and autonomy–inspired both by Lane’s own life and the lives of people he’s loved. The unique character of the album emerged when Lane made the decision to pair the dark lyrical content with bright & lush arrangements, inspired by Gene Clark’s No Other, Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, and Amen Dunes’ Love. In Lane’s words, “The content of the songs got way darker, and my reaction was to make the songs catchier, and to lean harder into the music that influenced me. I wanted each song to feel like a room in a haunted house, with a beautiful garden growing outside”.

Album opener “I Am Not Ashamed” was inspired by the anti-memoir of actress Barbara Peyton, a 1950’s Hollywood starlet who met an untimely end; “It’s about knowing that whatever you’ve done to survive, you still deserve love” says Lane. “Mother” pairs lyrics about ancestral trauma with the sunshine-pop influence of Colin Blunstone, featuring backing vocals from Lane’s sister Barrett Hartley. “It's about coming to terms with the fact that the people meant to protect us are dealing with their own trauma…”

Meanwhile, “All Of This Is Yours” and “Tone Poem” form the spiritual center of the album, an attempt to transmute anger & pain to bittersweet acceptance in the wake of a breakup. “I feel like on the surface this is essentially a breakup album, a lot of these songs are about mourning the end of a relationship and reflecting on what went down. I was falling in love and getting my heart broken, then waking up and driving across the country and doing it all over again.” “Love Is Not A Song” was inspired by Margo Guryan’s Love Songs, pairing bright piano with playful lyrics about an old man who’s been beaten down by life but still believes his greatest love is yet to come. Last but not least, title track “No Home” sums up the album’s key theme of alienation, “It all goes back to this feeling of wanting to belong to someone or somewhere, wanting to belong in your own body.”

Music From Memory presents ‘Mutualkind’, by Asa Tone, the collaborative project of Melati ESP, Tristan Arp and Kaazi. Written between Indonesia, Mexico City, Berlin and New York, the record unfolds through a process of continual exchange, where distance itself becomes part of the group’s music formation.

At the centre of the album is the idea of a shared language, formed across differences in geography, experience and musical approach. One such process explores Tristan’s electronic hand percussion triggering fragments of Melati’s voice in real time, while a library of spoken words and phonemes are reshaped through chance-based rhythmic processes. Voice becomes percussion, rhythm becomes melody, and the lines between individual contributions begin to dissolve.

Some pieces, including ‘Water Talk’ and ‘Second Language’, were recorded live in a single take, while others were assembled gradually through remote exchange. During the final sessions in Indonesia, Balinese percussionist Putu Septa contributed kendang to two tracks, bringing the instrument into dialogue with modular synthesis, FM textures, electronic drums, MIDI wind instruments and Melati’s shifting vocal forms.

Sounds are slowed, stuttered and reorganised, reflecting a world shaped by illusory borders, vanishing landscapes and glitching ecosystems. Yet the album remains rooted in the act of tending to something shared: a musical field built through listening, improvisation and repeated moments of reunion.

‘Mutualkind’ seeks to blur boundaries without erasing the identities that meet across them, providing a space in which voice and instrument, self and other, separation and togetherness can briefly exist at once.

MFM086 will be released on vinyl and digitally via Music From Memory on October 22nd 2026.

With his last three records all landing within a calendar year (2024-25), enigmatic Swedish producer Civilistjävel! (aka Tomas Bodén) is on a hot streak of releases, his singular vision increasingly ambitious and expansive. There are few artists working at this level so consistently right now, reinventing, revising and continually developing their language. Following on from 2025’s radically re-worked ‘Versions’ (of Mayssa Jallad’s ‘Marjaa…’), Bodén returns to break further fresh ground with his new album, ‘Älvgång’. Featuring contributions from Soccer Committee, Carrier and guest (aka Jabu’s Jasmine Butt), ‘Älvgång’ foregrounds a more brittle and insistent rhythm-based sound, whilst comprising his most broad-ranging collection of material to date.


‘Älvgång’ grew out of a series of sketches made from late ‘24 and throughout the whole of ‘25 at Stockholm’s renowned EMS Studios, which gave Boden free rein to its extensive collection of vintage analogue equipment and rare modular synthesizers such as the Serge and Buchla systems. As a loose framework of tracks began to take shape, so did a reflection of sorts, on family and foundations, underpinned or influenced by sounds that drifted into Tomas consciousness around this time - ancient Swedish pastoral music, Georgian lithurgical chants, gongs, chimes. An idea settled into place, a dedication to his Grandfather, as the earlier release Fyra Platser (tr. ‘Four Places’) was to his Grandmother. Älvgång is grounded with the sense of time and place of an old family photograph, with the tracks over each side bearing one of two names that are more or less the same location - Strinne was the old name for a this loose collection of villages. These days it is more commonly known as Bjärtrå. Metaphorically speaking, the river runs through both.


Civilistjävel! conjures so many adjectives and descriptors, ‘glacial’ and ‘ambient’ frequently among them - but while not altogether untrue, such terms belie the tension and drama so often present in Tomas’ music. Listening to ‘Älvgång’ is not a passive experience. The eight tracks here feel like a patchwork of memories that bathe in the same ethereal, otherworldly glow of Tarkovsky’s polaroids’.


The machine pulses that dominate this landscape are reigned in and tempered by a human hand; lithe, untethered coils, breathing in and out. ‘Strinne Ett’ sets out with purpose, sensing awe and wonder through the murk, but as the final tone unfurls like a question mark, another chapter begins, unfolding/building like a Tarjei Vesaas novel. These lyrical, abstract miniatures combine to reveal a wider context, fragile humanity standing alone against nature.


Guest appearances on Civilistjävel! records have become a regular occurrence (including recent collaborations with Mayssa Jallad, Laila Sakini, Cucina Povera, Thomas Bush, Eldon + Withdrawn), but are used sparingly and with increasing precision. On ‘Strinne Tre’ Mariska Baars’ (Soccer Committee) voice feels like a balm, a clearing. But as her simple, three-word incantation drifts further into fog, the meaning changes, and her words seem to curdle. Carrier’s beats widen the parameters on ‘Strinne Fyra’, a skittering promise that builds tension then refuses to release it; all false starts, Photek gongs, and trinkling modulars. Jabu’s Jasmine Butt pulls all the threads together for the final track, Thomas Tallis’ ghost walking over offset machine impulses, that work against their own symmetry.


Side two begins inquisitively, scanning bleached, alien surroundings, its sparse pads recalling Aphex Twin’s ‘Selected Ambient works Vol 2’. 'Bjärtrå Två’ picks up the baton from ' Strinne Fyra’ with a ruptured Simmons SDS200 analogue drum synth set free from its shackles, the rhythm eventually slotting into the spaces that were hiding in plain sight. What follows seems like an epiphany; ‘Bjärtrå Tre’ is achingly beautiful, a euphoric, winding ascent that leads to devotional plainsong. ‘Bjärtrå Fyra‘s final unheralded shift feels both tragic and haunting.

Light Touches Records is devoted to shed new lights on hot rarities, unknown grooves as well as forgotten classics.

As the attention to the older volume is rising, Light Touches camp pushes things further with four uncompromising tunes.
On A side, “Do It This Way” is an intense lost disco roller with oniric string machine and thundering bass, while “It’s True” goes deeper with a relentless Philly groove with psychedelic tones. On the flipside, “Jus’ta Funky Jam” opens things up with some killer groovy arrangement, and “Dance With You” closes the release with a dreamy, mellow jazzfunk tune.

All tracks have been carefully edited without overdubs, in order to bring the spirit of classic disco manipulators to today’s dancefloors!

12” limited to 300 copies (no digital).

KKYV10 is a four-track EP by Bulgarian producer Loopdeville, currently based in Spain. The release explores a flexible space between minimal, breakbeat and house, shaped by groove-led structures, textured sampling and a slightly twisted, off-centre energy. Built to move through different moments — daytime light, peak pressure, late fade. The EP opens with "The Bizz", a track built around jazzy elements, vocal cuts and a jackin low-end. Its warm, rolling groove sets a natural tone for the record, balancing playfulness with reflections. "Shmuck Norris" follows with a heavier, more direct approach. Driven by raw drums and a rolling bassline, the track leans into a big-beat aesthetic while maintaining a stripped structure. On "Rashford", the EP shifts into a breakbeat framework. The track carries a deeper, more introspective mood, with subtle background movement adding acid tension beneath it’s surface. The closing track, "Septimo", draws from UK-influenced minimal with garage elements. Focused on sub frequencies it is designed for systems that favour depth and clarity in low parts. Together, the four tracks form a cohesive yet varied release, reflecting Loopdeville’s recognisable sense of tension and detail while staying totally aligned with Kooky’s sonic direction.

“Negative Music / The Poorest! If they still know silence at all, then only as holes in the continuum of noise…” — Günther Anders, 1965

Editions Mego presents GETGETGET, a new release by Thomas Brinkmann which serves as an inquiry into silence, code, and the limits of perception.

The title GETGETGET references the trilogy of ‘Get’ lp’s made by Rehberg under his PITA moniker; Get Out, Get In and Get On. The music is based on material by Rehberg and Brinkmann morphing these two identities into a third colour, a disappearing color.

Emerging from a live performance at the label’s 30th anniversary in Berlin, the work unfolds as both sonic artifact and conceptual system: a study in what remains when sound is reduced, extracted, and reconstituted.

Taking inspiration from Günther Anders’ notion of “negative music”—composition through absence—Brinkmann’s approach aligns with Heinrich Böll’s idea of “collected silence”: silence not as void, but as a material framed against the constant pressure of noise. In GETGETGET, pauses are not gaps but structural elements, cut from a continuum and reinserted as signals.

The two side long tracks weave a dark abstract and ‘twisted’ presence where the ghosts of the machines and their operators fuse into a fantastical whole. One can hear traces of both Brinkmann and Rehberg logic which seems to fuse in a hallucinatory manner.

Brinkmann’s work reflects a broader condition: the translation of material processes into informational ones. As images detach from bodies and code separates from matter, sound too loses its fixed resonance. What remains is circulation—of signals, of data, of meaning—within systems that increasingly define perception itself.

GETGETGET is an album where absence is equal to presence, a metaphor with suggestive tones of the influence Rehberg had and continues to have in the world of the radical experimental electronic avant garde. The “zero” is not empty; it is what makes everything else work.

Phoenix-based DJ and producer Paul West lands on eudemonia with a stellar 5-track EP, seamlessly picking up right where his impressive debut Blue Sun on Rocky Hill left off.

The record delivers a wonderful blend of breakbeats, house, electro, and Detroit techno, keeping the energy raw, warm, and deeply atmospheric throughout. The A-side builds intensity towards its third track, the spacey title track "Nebulae". Flipping over to the B-side, the journey comes to a close with the playful, melodic tones of „Stardust".

FIRST TIME ON VINYL! “Instalação Do Samba”, originally released in 2004, has become one of the defining albums in the history of Schema Records. With producer Stefano “S-Tone Inc.” Tirone, Toco created an album that embraced the essence of samba and bossa nova while allowing them to breathe naturally within a contemporary musical landscape, blending Jazz, soul, understated electronics and sophisticated arrangements. Released only on CD at the time, “Instalação Do Samba” is finally given the analogue home it always deserved. This first-ever vinyl edition also includes “Qui C’Est Celui-Là”, previously included in the French CD edition. Over the years, Toco has become the most streamed artist in the entire Schema catalogue, introducing his music to audiences beyond the traditional boundaries of Brazilian jazz and contemporary bossa nova. His songs continue to resonate with listeners around the world, proving that authenticity never goes out of style.

Bristol innovator Addison Groove has long been reshaping footwork and bass music, but now steps into an entirely new world as Astel. Shards is an album in which he explores ambient frontiers with a sense of space, emotion and hints of nostalgia on Biofield Records, a new label from Darwin designed for deeper listening. There is a weightlessness to the music, with 'Cosmic Affinity' casting you adrift in the deep unknown with smeared pads and gentle flutters of hope way off in the distance. 'Starlight Shards' is all shifting tones and feathery lines, while 'Astral Radiance' has a sandy texture as well as long, sweeping synth arcs. It's an escapist world that provides plenty of prompts for your own endlessly deep reflection.

2026 Repress

Dial Records boss makes a welcome return to Smallville in March of 2024 with a fresh four-tracker EP ‘Gravity Hill’. Peter Kersten, better known to most as Lawrence, has been at the forefront of underground house and techno for decades now. His Dial imprint, co-founded alongside Carsten Jost, has grown to become a north star for many seeking out raw, emotive and understated electronic music and Lawrence’s own productions follow a similar path, finding a home on many beloved labels beyond Dial such as Kompakt, Mule Musiq, Ghostly
International, Giegling, Pampa and of course Smallville, that he co-founded together with Stella Plazonja and Julius Steinhoff in 2005.
Title-track ‘Gravity Hill’ opens the project and perfectly sets the tone with Lawrence’s distinct atmospheric haze of keys, chords and pads billowing atop swaying bass tones and crisp drums. ‘Beaver’ follows next and edges into dubbed out realms with expansive stab delays, rounded subs, modulating percussive flutters and a robust rhythmic drive.
‘The Swamp’ then leads the B-side, diving into a deeper territory via airy Rhodes melodies and subtly unfurling pads, intertwined with organic percussion and a jazz tinged bass line. ‘Stargazer’ then concludes the package and shifts back to a more straight, dance floor- oriented feel via a twitchy acid bass, circling resonant synth licks, hypnotic textures and a swinging drum groove.
Smallville 62 artwork by Stefan Marx as always and it's the first 12“ Smallville cover in full colour ever after 61 black/white releases.

2026 Repress!

A year after the release of Adriatique’s debut LP, ‘Nude’, Afterlife presents a seven-track remix package to breathe new life into the originals.

The album found Adriatique, the duo of Adrian Shala and Adrian Schweizer, explore a more downtempo, contemplative sound than they were known for. Its profound musicality makes rich source material for a set of dancefloor interpretations, which Tale Of Us have curated together with Adriatique for the label’s 30th release.

First is Tale Of Us and Mathame’s version of ‘Mystery’, where they extend the blissful tones and Jono McCleery’s vocals into a euphoric dancefloor cut. Next Solomun brings some electro flair to the vocoder-led title track, before Kobosil toughens up ‘Tachykardia’ with a warehouse-ready kick drum and twists the serene voice of Delhia De France. Rampa is another new name for Afterlife Recordings; he gives ‘Nude’ a slick, techy overhaul to complete the vinyl release in fine style.

The digital release contains an Agents Of Time epic in their remix of ‘Buchla’s Dreaming’, Johannes Brecht’s shimmering take on ‘Ray Reincarnation’ and a chopped-up remix of Mystery by Isoleé. A diverse, tastefully-executed remix EP which does justice to the quality of Adriatique’s album.

DJ Support: Kerri Chandler, Chris Stussy, Archie Hamilton, Fabe, Groovesh, Vlad Caia, Andrey P Ush Krav, Thor, Masimillano Pagliara, Dubtil, Reboot, East End Dubs, IULY.B, Josh Wink

Now repressed on Limited Edition green vinyl.

Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory welcomes Amsterdam’s Chris Stussy onto its roster with the ‘A Glimmer Of Hope’ EP.

Amsterdam based producer and DJ Chris Stussy has become one of the most eminent figures in the contemporary house scene of the Netherlands and across the globe over the past five years, racking up releases on the likes of Eastenderz, Moscow, PIV, Contstant Sound and most recently his own Up The Stuss imprint. Here though he delivers his new four-tracker for Kaoz Theory.

Leading the release is ‘Central Frenzy’, laid out across six and a half minutes with skippy percussion, a snaking bass groove, intricate synth sequences and sweeping vocal chants. ‘Riva De Biasio’ follows and tips the focus over to airy atmospherics a jazz-tinged bass groove and squelchy acid licks atop swinging drums.

‘Deviant Shadow’ opens the flip-side and merges an amalgamation of expansive dub chords and bouncy sub bass tones with a robust 4/4 rhythm. Lastly to round things out is title-cut ‘A Glimmer Of Hope’, wrapping up the release on a deeper tip courtesy of ethereal pad swells, metallic synth licks and shuffled drums.

The legendary Charlemagne Palestine returns to Black Truffle with KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA, capturing a 2025 performance in London alongside two close collaborators of recent years, multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan and guitarist Oren Ambarchi. While perhaps still best known for the ecstatic piano clouds of his ‘strumming music’ performances, Palestine’s life-long search for what he calls the ‘golden sound’ has taken in an enormous variety of methods of sound production. Now stretching back an incredible six decades, his exploration of continuous sound forms has led him to mega-instruments from the carillon bells of the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church to the synthesizer armada of the Moog Sound Lab, with stops along the way at many of Europe’s grandest church organs. Just as important, though, has been Palestine’s practice as a singer, beginning with his childhood experience of sacred Jewish music and growing through his studies of Indian and Javanese musical traditions in the 1970s.

KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA reimagines a key work showcasing Palestine’s voice, the haunting ‘magic song’ Karenina for falsetto singing and harmonium, recorded in Paris in March 1997 to honour the spirit of Palestine’s recently departed black labrador. In this trio version, which Palestine describes as the ‘karaoke’ version, O’Sullivan controls three cassette machines playing the original recording, their slow drift out of phase creating complex patterns of delays and ricochets as the recorded voice chants the syllables of Karenina’s name and other trance words. Beginning with a held organ tone that gradually expands to fill out the frequency spectrum, the piece soon grows into a dense psychedelic mass, as Palestine’s electric organs and the echoing pre-recorded voices are joined by Ambarchi’s swirling Leslie guitar tones and O’Sullivan’s viola, synthesizer and additional vocals. Atop it all sits Palestine’s live voice, in an extraordinary performance of keening, shamanic intensity, sometimes delivered in melodic unison with his keyboard playing.

Though clearly a work of Palestine’s design that sits squarely within his oeuvre, Ambarchi and O’Sullivan are far from simple accompanists on KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA. As the elements of the teeming, emotionally charged stew writhe and twist, different elements come momentarily to the surface, O’Sullivan’s spaced-out viola taking the lead in moments that recall Kosugi’s Catch Wave, Ambarchi’s gliding chords and signature stuttering tones enriching the details of many of the quieter episodes. Throughout all its transformations, the music is buoyed up by a sacred aura, as Palestine intones his hypnotic prayer for the soul of his departed pet. Arriving emblazoned with a striking labrador painting by O’Sullivan on the cover, KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA is an essential slice of modern ritual music.

Source Code Memory is a deep and hypnotc house journey built around rhythm, memory and reconnecton. With this new EP, Marcus Raute explores the point where body, mind and dancefoor energy meet, shaping four tracks that move between spiritual refecton, raw groove and soulful release.

Opening track “Reconnect” features legendary Detroit visionary Abu Qadim Haqq, whose spoken words bring a symbolic and cosmic dimension to the record. Hypnotc percussion, warm organ textures and jazzy piano lines create a deep house atmosphere where storytelling and rhythm become one.

“Body Code” moves into a more direct dancefoor space, driven by stripped-back drums, rolling grooves and old-school house energy. On the B-side, “Inner Transmission” brings a warmer and more emotonal tone, with rich chords, vocal cuts and live Rhodes and organ improvisatons inspired by the depth of 90s deep house.

Closing the EP, Giomini reworks “Inner Transmission” into a powerful, tmeless house remix, keeping the soulful spirit of the original while pushing it further into club territory.