Between electronic shadows and cinematic textures, this new album from QUENUM draws its influences from the likes of Massive Attack, Archive, and Burial. Started and produced in London, it reflects a change of time — both in the climate and within.
This project represents a personal and artistic turning point for QUENUM. He wanted to experiment with new ideas, not necessarily music for the club. The album was created in close collaboration with his son Zac, a talented musician who contributed both as a singer and instrumentalist on several tracks. They shared wonderful moments creating this album together.
He also worked hand in hand with his long-time friend Christophe Calpini, who played a key role in mixing and in developing the textures and atmospheres that shape the album’s sound. The result is an intimate, personal, and timeless journey, deeply rooted in the now.
Quenum elaborates: “The idea for my album was born during Covid in London, when concerts, museums, and social activities suddenly stopped. To cope, I started running daily and spending hours in the studio creating music. In our garden cabin I worked alongside my son Zac who was practicing piano, preparing for his entry into Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He listened to my tracks, and eventually contributed vocals with his ex-partner on two songs, ‘Blue Sky’ and ‘Never Like Before’. The album’s dark atmosphere reflects that period. Once it was complete, I asked my longtime friend Christophe Calpini to handle arrangements and mixing.”
A true pioneer of electronic music, QUENUM has been shaping the global techno and house scene for over two decades. One of his most celebrated tracks, “Orange Mistake”, co-produced with Luciano in 2001, became a turning point in his career. The success of this collaboration led them to launch the legendary Cadenza label, which rapidly grew into one of the most recognisable and respected imprints in the scene, known for its vital releases and unforgettable parties worldwide.
Over the years, QUENUM has continued to explore new creative paths and refine his artistic identity, constantly reinventing his sound while maintaining his unique musical signature. His insatiable curiosity and openness to new influences have kept him consistently in demand, from intimate underground venues to the world’s most respected festivals and clubs.
Cerca:tüth
Directions Out Of Town is the latest and teased as (possibly) the last LP by DIY electronic abstract pop wizard Finlay Shakespeare.
Directions Out Of Town is a fierce mix of headstrong pop bangers. Fact. There is simply no one else traversing the field that Shakespeare is exploring. It can be lonely in the desert, Simon says. Lyrically, Directions Out Of Town is dealing with loss; personally, geographically, politically, culturally - a general decay of everything.
This new record is heavily inspired by structural film where the results unravel a method where metaphor is removed from the act of sound synthesis, production and mix of the tracks. Fiercely independent and brimming with integrity this is a deeply effective journey through machines of the human experience.
The track titles are telling: 'Away', 'Get', 'Direction', 'I go for a walk', etc
This is sentiment via complex synthesis wrung through patterns of pop. One also finds ways out that only turn out to be false/untrue.
"I essentially don't know where I belong any more. This record is the precursor to that."
What is ostensibly an electro pop record reveals a multitude of layers and depth as one man and his machines wrestle with the reality of this tangled matrix. If the charts had brains this would be album of the year.
Finlay Shakespeare is an electronic musician working in the UK. His fascination for synthesized sound was born out of his parents' record collection, leading him to explore the electronic music of decades past throughout his teenage years. While starting to write and record his own tracks, he also began learning analogue electronics, which led him to design and build his own equipment. To date, he has released work on Editions Mego, Superpang, and his own GOTO Records.
Taroug is the solo project by drummer and electronic music producer Tarek Zarroug with roots in the suburbs of the Tunisian desert and having grown up in Germany. Following the release of his 2020 EP, "Perpetual," as well as a number of notable remixes for artists such as Archive, Taroug has continued to refine his musical aesthetic.
Taroug's debut album Darts & Kites, set to be released on Denovali Records, draws inspiration from the Penrose tiling and explores themes of change and transformation. Fascinated from the pattern's unending possibilities, Taroug incorporated its infinite permutations not only into the album's nine tracks, but also in the cover art design. Darts & Kites showcases a blending of genres and styles, resulting in a sonic landscape, that is both hunting and beautiful. Experimental and abstract soundscapes are enriched by oriental influences, collected field recordings, pulsating dark beats and hypnotic vocals.
The album also features the contributions of other notable artists, including Beate Wolff's cello performance on Jewels I. Benedikt Koch's saxophone adds a sense of controlled chaos with delayed and swelling notes to the track Deguech, while Timo Schieber's piano provides a crucial element of the album's title track, Darts & Kites. Niklas Genschel lends his vocals to Queen of Carthage, which also features the saz playing of Abdallah Abozekry.
Created in collaboration with architect and designer Marie Brosius, the album artwork captures different ornaments reflecting the album's content. Darts & Kites is a mosaic of sound, blending together elements of unfamiliar and familiar.
The Hamburg duo Bêtes Sauvages started out as a DJ team and discovered their calling relatively late: the synthesizer. In 2019, the pair bought two synths, more for fun, after watching a documentary about these instruments. Eventually, they began to delve deeper into the how and what of them, and suddenly they received an offer from the label Kernkrach to contribute a track to a sampler. Things were getting serious. When the track "roboti" was played at parties as far afield as Guatemala, they decided: an album was needed. The work on it turned out to be more intensive than expected. Therefore, several more sampler contributions and even years passed before their self-titled debut was finally completed. The result is a wild mix of minimal, synthpop, synthwave, and quirky DIY sound.
The continued relevance of the work of Akae Beka is forceful on the movingly topical Rastafari statement Imandment To Heart. Taken from 2021’s album Polarities and produced by Zion I Kings with Tippy I at the helm, the track presents a striking contrast: an uplifting major-key Rub A Dub rhythm, powered by renowned Jamaican drummer Kirk Bennett, sets the stage for scathing lyrics linking “chaos theory,” refugee crossings, and prophetic judgment. Vaughn Benjamin calls for a moral law “written upon the inward part” amidst global turmoil. Released on 7” vinyl for the first time by Before Zero Records, the single is backed by a B-side dub sculpted sonically by Laurent “Tippy I” Alfred at his Holy Mountain Studio in St Croix.
- A1: Rip It Up
- A2: Love Me
- A3: When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again
- A4: Long Tall Sally
- A5: First In Line
- A6: Paralyzed
- B1: So Glad You're Mine
- B2: Old Shep
- B3: Ready Teddy
- B4: Anyplace Is Paradise
- B5: How's The World Treating You
- B6: How Do You Think I Feel
Elvis, the record, was released in October 1956 and remained at US No.1 for five weeks. For Elvis, the man, an
incredible year was drawing to a close: he made his first album, saw his records become available all over Europe,
made his television debut, appeared in his first film, and celebrated his first US No.1 single. It seemed inconceivable
that things could get any better, or that the fan fever could grow even more hysterical. But with the release of this, his
second record, Elvis had proved beyond doubt that he was here to stay. And this was just the beginning...
- A1: Open Mic Freestyle
- A2: I’m Shady (Original Unreleased Demo, 1997)
- A3: Freestyle I (It’s The World Turns Verse)
- A4: Take The Whole World With Me (Outsidaz Feat. Eminem – Original Unreleased Demo, 1997)
- A5: Freestyle Ii
- A6: Bad Meets Evil Feat. Royce Da 5’9” (Original Unreleased Demo, 1996)
- A7: Freestyle Iii
- A8: Murder Murder (Original Unreleased Demo, 1997)
- B1: Freestyle Iv
- B2: Rock Bottom (Original Unreleased Demo, 1997)
- B3: Freestyle V
- B4: Cum On Everybody (Original Unreleased Demo, 1997)
- B5: Freestyle Vi
- B6: Dumpin’ Dirty Dozen (Parts Unknown Feat. Eminem, Proof & Eye-Kyu, 1996)
- B7: Freestyle Vii (Shred-Skrew Verse)
- B8: Desperados (Eminem, Proof, Bugz & Almighty Dreadnaughtz, 1996)
C.L.A.W.S. comes to Dark Entries with a new ripping LP, Splat City II. C.L.A.W.S. is the solo project of musical luminary Brian Hock, who has been a key figure in the Bay Area underground for over two decades via his involvement in projects like Bronze and The Vanishing, as well as helming the record labels Squirrels on Film and Immortal Sin. With C.L.A.W.S., Hock takes on the dancefloor, picking up cues from the Hague’s Giallo-dipped electro, the skewed minimalism of Chicago acid, and the mind-rending forays of San Francisco post-punk icons like Chrome and Tuxedomoon. Following 2019’s inaugural Splat City EP, Splat City II continues to map the psychogeography of a metropolis both alien and immediately recognizable, one where life is cheap, but so are the thrills. Previously released on Squirrels on Film in digital-only format, this expanded vinyl edition of Splat City II features two new cuts. Things kick off with “Route 505” and “One Tear,” a duo of rompers that vibe like Tom Ellard and Chip E locked in a room with a vial of liquid. Next up, Bay Area deckmaster Tyrel lends his editing chops to “Vigilant Slimy Monsters,” sculpting a moody space disco beast. Squirrels on Film co-founder Solar teams up with Hock for “Black Magic Carpet Ride III,” a cavernous downtempo banger. The slow-mo pace continues with “Wild Slugs United,” which features the no wave-esque clarinet work of Paul Costuros. Closer “Don’t Flip the Crystal Ship” pays homage to Bayview venue Bay Area 51 with melancholic strings and a quartz-solid electrofunk bassline. Splat City II comes in a sleeve with artwork by Bert Bergen, which features a vampiric cat and sci-fi cityscapes.
Malmo-based producer Martinou returns to his roots with a debut on hometown label Kontra-Musik. Since crafting his first album for Nous'Klaer Records (NL) at Inkonst's studio, Martinou has steadily built an international presence through acclaimed releases on Mule Musiq (JP) and Turbo Recordings (CA). This three-track EP is the result of a long-running dialogue with label head Ulf Eriksson--blending Detroit-inspired techno, hypnotic depths and broken lush, all produced with subtle precision and emotional weight. A homecoming of sorts, but also a new departure.
- Start
- Out Of Sight
- The Fountain
- These Are Things
- Manchester Cat
- Longsword
- Harum Scarum
- Bit 42
- One More Hand
- I Think I Found It
- Fireworks
- Morning Light
- Motorbike
- Close
The last time Noir embarked on a similar creative exorcism was for 2012's Jimmy's Show LP which selected choice cuts from 18 E.P. 's released via straight to fan subscription over as many months. The resulting album is one of his most lauded and beloved by fans, with the vinyl now selling for silly money on Discogs.
Programmes for Cools is Jimmy's Show's spiritual successor, idiosyncratic, other worldly and brimming with timeless melodies. Noir's influences seep through the track list, wrapped with a haunting, dreamlike delivery.
First single 'Out Of Sight' is a Fleetwood Mac meets Selected Ambient Works era Richard D James, four to the floor banger. Already a fan favourite, it propels Side A forward with a somewhat misplaced optimism, much like Neil Young's 'Walk On' starting On the Beach.
Side B is more esoteric, exemplified by 'Fireworks’which includes lyrics and vocals from Marie Claude Dequoy,produced with the wooze of golden era Boards of Canada. Elsewhere, influences as disparate as Stevie Wonder, on the wonky clav funk of 'The Fountain', and Ian Brown 'I think I found it' illustrate Noir's disregard for musical straightjackets (the latter may have the most unapologetic baggy, hypnotic groove since the Mondays' 'Halleluiah').
As the album swells to its conclusion, via the epic Led Zeppelin meets the Warhol clique 'Morning Light’and the heart tugging finale of 'Motorbike’(the first song released from the most recent run of E.P.'s), there is a sense of completion and finality...
‘This is the last Jim Noir album. There are no more Jim Noir albums after this one. This time I'm serious. It's been the hardest I've ever worked on anything. I think I have created my own Be Here Now...Sorry.’
Joking and hyperbole aside, the album has more of an Abbey Road feel, and needs to be experienced in one sitting. If the infamous Davyhulme prankster is to be believed and this is his final outing, then you could wish for a more fitting album. - NM
- A1: Tutti Frutti
- A2: Long Tall Sally
- A3: Slippin' And Slidin
- A4: Rip It Up
- A5: Ready Teddy
- A6: Heeby-Jeebies
- A7: She's Got It
- A8: The Girl Can't Help It
- A9: All Around The World
- A10: Send Me Some Lovin
- A11: Lucille
- A12: Keep A Knockin
- A13: Jenny, Jenny
- A14: Miss Ann
- A15: Good Golly, Miss Molly
- A16: Ooh! My Soul
- A17: True, Fine Mama
- A18: Baby Face
- A19: By The Light Of The Silvery Moon
- A20: Kansas City - Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! (Medley)
Little Richard (1932–2020) was one of rock ’n’ roll’s founding fathers, known for his explosive energy, flamboyant style, and electrifying performances. With hits like “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” “Keep A Knockin’,” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” he brought gospel fire and wild showmanship to popular music. His groundbreaking sound and charisma paved the way for generations of rock, soul, and pop artists.
- Ride It Like You Stole It
- Gotta Let 'Em Go
- Im A Radical
- Beer Bikes And Punkrock
- Shadow Boxer
10" EP + DIY Fanzine Schwedens enthusiastischste Katastrophentouristen, The Sensitives, sind zurück mit einer neuen 10" EP, Ride It Like You Stole It - fünf Songs und eine Mischung aus Punkrock, Ska, Rock'n'Roll und Folk, die einen Optimismus versprühen, den man nur bekommt, wenn man zu viele Tourneen überlebt hat. Auf jedem der Tracks sind Gastmusiker*innen zu hören, welche die Band irgendwo auf ihrem langen, chaotischen Weg getroffen haben. Diese Freund*innen aus verschiedenen Szenen und Ländern verwandeln die EP in eine laute Feier der Gemeinschaft, der Zusammenarbeit und der Magie, sich gegenseitig zu helfen, anstatt so zu tun, als hätte man alles im Griff. Die EP kommt zusammen mit einem von der Band erstellten Fanzine, welches Songtexte, Akkorde und Geschichten aus dem DIY Alltag der Band enthält. So geht es um lange Nächte, gerissenen Saiten und immer wieder um kaputte Transporter. Trotz des Chaos ist es eine unmissverständliche Liebeserklärung an das Selbermachen. Aufgenommen, gemischt und gemastert wurde die EP von der Band zusammen mit ihrem Tour-Tontechniker Mattias. Das Fanzine wurde von Johanna gestaltet, die schon seit Ewigkeiten mit The Sensitives auf Tour ist - sie verkauft Merchandise, spielt und singt auf der Bühne und im Studio, macht Fotos und Videos und tausend andere Dinge. Ihr wisst schon... DIY: Wenn etwas zu tun ist, hat es wahrscheinlich schon jemand mit Klebeband und Kaffee erledigt....
- 1: And In 02:50
- 2: Pouring Elixir 08:0
- 3: Imbrication 04:41
- 4: Skin Contact 08:21
- 5: Unwitches 09:42
- 6: Everything I Never Asked Him Ft. Nikita Gill 08:29
- 7: Incandescent Strings 0:00
- 8: Icarus And Lucifer 03:31
- 9: Matthias' Wajd 04:55
- 10: Circles 05:12
- 11: Soaring Above The Nave 06:45
- 12: And Out 01:50
FRQNCY LDN, the new project from Alex Lavery and James Ford (producer du jour and one half of Simian Mobile Disco), are releasing their debut album ‘The White Edition’ on 5 September via PRAH Recordings. Alongside the news of their debut album, the duo are sharing the first taste in ‘Matthias’ Wajd’, which they describe as “a rousing, instrumental piece from the middle of the set where the whole ensemble became balanced providing moments where Raven played violin with haunting yet uplifting melodies within the cavernous reverb of the church. Interestingly, at this moment, most of the audience who had been laying down rose to watch the performance like a gig, like an awakening.”
Initially conceived as a live project with earlier performances at churches in London and at Glastonbury, FRQNCY LDN’s music is a mix of strings, gongs, oscillators, FX, and spoken word, and the result is a musical experience unlike any other. Now that immersive magic has been captured on their debut release through Prah Recordings.
The music that FRQNCY LDN are releasing as their debut album is from an extraordinary live take from a performance at St Matthias Church in Stoke Newington last year, and thanks in no small part to the serendipitous bunch of musicians they assembled: composer and violinist Raven Bush, clarinettist Arun Ghosh, cellist Satin Beige Chousmer, and harpist Chloe Chousmer-Kerr. Alongside Lavery and Ford and assisted by engineer Animesh Ravel, they were able to capture the music to a world class level.
FRQNCY LDN has its roots in a supermoon that occurred three summers ago, after the hottest day of the year. Two of Lavery’s friends gave a sound bath that evening. “I’m not overly into astronomy or anything but the experience was nuts,” he says. “I had to find out what had just happened. What felt like forty minutes was actually two and a half hours. We were all out. It was so profound that I was hooked.”
He immediately signed up for a sound therapy course where he learned about what he calls a “brain hack” to meditation. “The thing about sound therapy is there’s a lot that’s meditation-based, and I find meditation really difficult. I’ve got a very busy brain. What was alluring about this process of sound immersion, a sound bath, whatever you want to call it, is it’s basically a hack to making your brain get into a meditative state.”
FRQNCY LDN’s early shows crystallised their ideas into a project, and Lavery brought poet Nikita Gill on board as a vocalist. “One of the first poems she gave to me, ‘Unwitches’ was in response to me explaining that I’d love this project to be perceived as something anyone could access. It’s not just for the sound meditation or the yoga, or the mushroom crowd. No one should be turned off by connotations from where the music comes from, I love music but I’d never be into that because it’s too woo-woo. Nikita said she’d had this poem for a long time but she’d never found the right home for it.”
And in an increasingly busy and fraught world, the need to tune out for an hour or so, and maybe tune in to something more profound, is only going to get bigger.
- 1: Suffer In The Dark
- 2: Hide From The Light
- 3: Too Many Scars
- 4: Four Walls
- 5: Pretty Much Dead
- 6: Death Of A Shadow
- 7: Shura
- 8: No Home Left To Find
- 9: There Was Never Light
DIESECT fearlessly navigates the turbulent realms of both internal struggles and external chaos, refusing to sugarcoat the complexities of life. From humble beginnings as Brisbane locals to their current status as national contenders, DIESECT has garnered over 2 million streams across various platforms all by themselves, showcasing their undeniable appeal to a growing audience. They've toured across the nation selling out their own shows and supporting the likes of Fit For A King (US), ERRA (US), Silent Planet (US), Currents (US), August Burns Red (US), While She Sleeps (UK), Spite (US), To The Grave and more.
Born in Casablanca, Oum is a talented songwriter and melodist, whose songs are deeply rooted in the complex rhythms that can be found in Moroccan traditional music. Over the years, she has crafted a unique signature, with songs infused with sensual themes, carried by a voice that is both powerful and warm. While she sometimes borrows from jazz, soul or trance music, Oum defies categorization. Her music is that of a singular, free and universal artist.
A dedicated artist, Oum champions freedom, the rights of women and minorities, as well as an ecological and humanist vision of the world. As a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, she makes her art a space of resistance and sharing, where spirituality and poetry rise as a life force. With Dialddar ("homemade"), Oum takes on a radical approach: composing an album without strings or wind instruments, relying solely on voice and percussion. A choice that constitutes both a technical challenge and an artistic manifesto. The percussions used are mostly handcrafted in Marrakech. Their tuning, sensitive to variations in temperature and humidity, make each recording fragile, vibrant, and unpredictable. It is precisely this organic dimension that Oum wanted to preserve: music that breathes, escapes control, and finds its true expression in the moment. With Dialddar, Oum continues her quest for a universal, rooted, and visionary music that invites a sensitive listening to the world. TER004 - CD comes with a 44 page book.
»Rosacea« sounds as strange and demented as all the previous albums by this Norwegian one-man project (on Feeding Tube and Ultra Eczema). But it sounds right. Just like he claimed in a recent interview about his untraditional approach to writing songs: »I just make stuff until it sounds right«. It sounds absolutely right in fact.
As puzzling and lunatic as he may seem, yet a sense of order emanates from the idiosyncrasies featured on this album. Ghédalia Tazartès is a cursory reference. Especially on »Carmelade«. However, the spectrum of sound and compositions on »Rosacea« manage to actually transcend the late French eccentric composer and singer.
- A1: Disc 1
- A2: Opening Title
- A3: A Nice Guy Like Me
- A4: Mcdonald's Idea (Lightbulb)
- A5: Sentencing
- A6: Photograph
- A7: Plan Of Escape
- A8: Danger (Becky)
- A9: Toys 'R' Us
- A10: Out Of Hiding
- A11: Setting Up
- A12: Baby Monitor
- A13: They Forgot About You
- A14: Marking Calendar
- A15: Bag Of Toys
- A16: Meeting Leigh
- A17: I Like Being John
- A18: Disc 2
- A19: It's A Date
- A20: Becky On Bike
- A21: There Is A Storm Coming
- A22: Naked Man
- A23: We Got A Beater
- A24: Pawn Shop
- A25 50: K
- A26: Danger
- A27: Leigh Questioned
- A28: Burning Dental Office
- A29: I Am Where I'm Supposed To Be
- A30: End Credits
- A31: Testimonials
Based on an unbelievable true story, Roofman follows Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald's restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. The film's score was composed by Grizzly Bear multi-instrumentalist Christopher Bear, with contributions from The War on Drugs' Jon Natchez. Christopher Bear is a drummer and multi- instrumentalist member of the Brooklynbased indie-rock group Grizzly Bear. He continues developing his independent career, most recently working on arranging soundtracks for the HBO series High Maintenance, and scoring the 2023 film Past Lives alongside his bandmate Daniel Rossen.
Alex Rex, the project of acclaimed musician and former Trembling Bells bandleader Alex Neilson, is set to release his fourth and final studio album, The National Trust, on March 28th. Written in the wake of the sudden death of his younger brother, Alastair, the album is a poignant reflection on loss, love, and renewal, deeply rooted in the landscape of Carbeth—a cabin community in the Scottish countryside that Alastair called home. For Neilson, the cabin became both a physical and emotional project, a symbol of restoration and reconnection.
"For the first four years after Alastair died, his cabin lay empty and exposed to the remorseless Scottish weather. It came to look like a rotten tooth in a beautiful mouth. Cladding was dropping off its veneer, the ashen baubles of dead wasps nests clung to the rafters, all his possessions were just as he'd left them but eaten by mice, moths and time. Ashtrays still carried the crushed centimetres of his old tab ends. The cabins are so joyfully animated by their host's specific personality and this one looked like a haunted house. Guilt, unrealised hopes and encroaching nature yoked together in a wandering sadness. Combined with the fact that I didn't know the right way round to hold a hammer made the project of its restoration seem hopeless.”
Neilson, however, gradually began chipping away at the task, determined to transform the cabin into something he hoped would resemble “a National Trust site occupied by a psychopath,” with a little help from some friends, including Lavinia Blackwall and Marco Rea.
“They poured love into the cabin and helped restore Alastair's original vision. The project also helped restore my relationship with Lavinia which had fractured after Trembling Bells broke up in 2017. Alongside long-term Rex lieutenant Rory Haye, we applied the same intensity of dedication that we did in renovating the cabin, into creating The National Trust.”
As with Neilson’s previous albums, the recording process was intentionally unpolished, with songs presented in the studio with no rehearsals and captured in just a few takes. This raw, immediate approach amplifies the emotional weight of the album, which Neilson describes as being at a “personal apex of sour self-reflection, mock misanthropy, and self-exposure.” Longtime collaborators Lavinia Blackwall, Marco Rea, and Rory Haye return, alongside guest musicians like Jill O’Sullivan (Jill Lorean) and Trembling Bells guitarist Mike Hastings, to bring Neilson’s vision to life. The result is a deeply personal and multifaceted work, blending acid wit with haunting introspection.
The songs on The National Trust traverse a wide emotional and thematic range. The title track opens the album with a sharp and confessional edge, exploring love, loathing, and cultural critique with Neilson’s signature wit. “Boss Morris” pays tribute to the all-female Morris dancing troupe that reinvents British folk with vibrant energy, while “Two Kinds of Song” turns self-referential humour into an avalanche of remorse, culminating in the unforgettable chorus: “I’ve got two kinds of song. Which one will it be; one where I hate myself or one where you hate me?” Elsewhere, tracks like “Psychic Rome” draw from the decadence and hysteria of ancient Rome, while “The Coward in the Tower” breaks new ground as the only song Neilson has composed on an instrument before recording.
Throughout the album, Neilson’s lyricism is as vivid as ever, transforming personal tragedy into poignant and often darkly humorous art. Yet, there is a sense of finality to this work. "Songwriting has encouraged me to see the whole world as a resource. The things people say and throw away can be chiselled and polished and plopped into a lyric. It’s the same with building the cabin- scouring the edges of society for pallets, discarded wood, ornaments for the garden. But while song writing brings to life orphaned parts of my personality, the cabin is a synthesis of all my interests – nurturing my emotional health instead of exploiting it. With that in mind, I think this will be my last album as Alex Rex.”
With The National Trust, Neilson closes a significant chapter of his career, blending masterful musicianship with deeply personal storytelling. Known for his collaborations with artists such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Shirley Collins, and Current 93, as well as his decade-long tenure leading the psych-folk outfit Trembling Bells, Neilson has long been celebrated for his eclectic and uncompromising vision. This final album serves as a fitting culmination of his journey as Alex Rex, capturing the essence of his artistry while offering a profound exploration of loss, renewal, and the enduring power of love.
- 1: Nell’s Prologue
- 2: Scales Will Fall 08:35
- 3: Dead In A Post-Truth World
- 4: Clara
- 5: End Of The Rhythm
- 6: Amser A Ddengys
- 7: Clear Pools
- 8: Land Of The Dead
‘DISCOMBOBULATED’ is the confounding and haunting new album from Hen Ogledd, the collaborative project of artists Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington.
· This album is perhaps their most complex and emotionally charged record to date, involving meditations on political tumult ,personal crisis and mental wellbeing in a world gone mad, yet also their most warmly inclusive and accessible.
· ‘DISCOMBOBULATED’ features collaborations from avant-garde legends, family members, animals and even elements.
· By turns emphatic and vulnerable, subtle and direct, joyous and furious, DISCOMBOBULATED is a strange, complex and moving a record as we have come to expect from Hen Ogledd.
· LP with four-page booklet and digital download card
- Multiphonic I
- Gurgle
- Air Hand Whistle
- Inhale Exhale
- Birds
- Multiphonic Ii
- Mouth Synthesizer
- Multiphonic Iii
- One Pitch
- Throat
- Whistle Pitch
Un-easy listening from »anti-singer« and improviser Sofia Jernberg, a celebration of the voice in its rawest, most malleable form. Jernberg was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Vietnam and Sweden, so one can only imagine these diverse languages opened up a wealth of phonetic possibilities before she entered academia to study jazz and composition. If you dive into her catalogue you’ll clock her startling range – working as a jazz soprano and as an improviser, collaborating with everyone from Stefan Schneider to Mats Gustafsson, as well as appearances on the stage and screen, most notably in Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir, and Valdimar Jóhannsson’s »Union of the North«.
On »Voice«, Jernberg provides a ground-level entry point to her work, meticulously running through a litany of unconventional techniques (non-verbal vocalisation, split tones, toneless singing, and distortion) without any effects, just pure batshit sonics designed to show off the voice’s scope as an experimental instrument. On »Mouth Synthesizer« she purses her lips to make ratcheting pops like some analog oscillator, hoarsely mimicking the sort of blustery, Merzbow-coded distortions you might get if you patched a RAT pedal into a broken guitar amp. It isn’t an act of caricature, it’s Jernberg’s way of demonstrating that expensive modular rigs aren’t an essential tool for experimental music, before throwing a side-eye to the field recording industrial complex on »Birds«, transforming her vocal chords into a nightmare aviary. But it’s Jernberg’s startling »multiphonic« experiments that hit hardest. The album opens on »Multiphonic I«, and it’s difficult to tell that you’re listening to a human voice at first – you could just as well be on Colin Stetson’s overblown sax airstreams. Jernberg creates a captivating spiral of crooked, phased tones and hoarse, guttural croaks that she develops over three movements. On »Multiphonic II«, her voice is turned into a storm of pained shrieks, and on the third and final segment, it almost resembles Arve Henriksen or Jon Hassell’s muted brass curlicues. Each track pulls a different musical muscle, whether it’s »One Pitch« with its unsettling yodel-like quivering drones or »Gurgle«, sounding like a close mic-ed recording of a small pot gently simmering.




















