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A/B Side Effect, Black & Gold, limited to 200 copies. More than 4 years after "Sculpture Of Violence," GIVER from Cologne, Germany, announce their third album "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" for September 20, 2024, on End Hits Records. In recent years, GIVER have not only refined their hardcore sound to be more brutal and atmospheric with elements of metal and post-punk, but thematically, it's clear that their new album serves as an even more drastic political manifesto. Capitalism, culture wars, the climate crisis, and their societal implications and consequences are central themes on "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation." GIVER critique the prevailing neoliberalism and its ongoing agitation for the uncompromising pursuit of happiness and satisfaction. The band explains: "What neoliberalism has established is a lonely place. Its driving force is the individualized pursuit of constant fulfillment, altering the way we interact with each other. Whatever we do to achieve satisfaction, there's always a lingering sense of something missing. Happiness and contentment are never the goal; they've been replaced by profit margins and excess. These are endless and extremely unevenly distributed. Anger arises in this vacuum. With this album, we want to remind that it's the economic conditions and inequalities that should be the target of our collective frustration. They create depression, despair, and a downward spiral. Being anti-fascists is not enough; we must also be anti-capitalists." This anger is also reflected musically in the furious 11 new tracks. Filled with powerful guitar riffs and sometimes bilingual lyrics, some of the songs also introduce a new, deep style of spoken word for GIVER, making the eventual eruptions that much more impactful. With the release of their third album, GIVER venture into fresh and melodic territory, integrating elements of post-punk, black metal, and hardcore into a sound that sits somewhere between bands like Oathbreaker, Converge, or Chelsea Wolfe. Although "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" builds on a foundation of biting, powerful metal, it also incorporates dark vocal lines that could be found on a Fontaines D.C. or IDLES record. "The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation" was produced by Lewis Johns (Rolo Tomassi, Employed To Serve, Funeral For A Friend).

Permanent Parts is the second album released by visual artist Katharina Grosse (synthesizer) and musician Stefan Schneider (synthesizer; So Sner, To Rococo Rot). Grosse and Schneider were joined at Galerie Max Hetzler on 29 April 2023, performing as part of the Spectrum without Traces exhibition, by three artists who all generally work within improvised music – Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Tintin Patrone (trombone and electronics), and Billy Roisz (noise generator, piezo and mini cymbal). Permanent Parts is an extraordinary set of recordings that inhabits multiple zones at once: within its thirty-five minutes, we can hear the interactions of non-idiomatic collective music making, and the electronic glimmers of electro-acoustics, while, at the same time, the music remains untethered to genre.

This capacity to work within liminal zones makes perfect sense when thinking about both Grosse’s and Schneider’s prior work, whether the energetic diffusions and spatial explorations of Grosse’s artistic practice, or the slippery texturology of Schneider’s recent work with electronics. Khorkhordina, Patrone and Roisz all find their own ways into this dynamic, too, and Permanent Parts feels like an equal exchange of presence and contribution; there are no hierarchies here. This might explain the music’s curious sense of development, where several elements are allowed to exist alongside each other, not in direct contact but in a mode that’s somewhere between carefree layering and unconscious juxtaposition. The musicians are listening, but not just with their ears – their skin, their bodies are hearing, too.

When talking about Permanent Parts, Schneider is careful to place it within contexts that are specific, to some degree, but which allow for difference to blossom. “Although it was recorded live, it somehow was not meant to be a documentation of a live event in the first place. The five piece line up that appears on the record had met for the first time only a few hours before the concert took place.” While it might take a leap of faith for all parties to walk together, and so willingly, into a place of such freedom, of such risk, there is clear sympathy here between the musicians, and a shared appreciation of the immediacies of the situation.

It also throws some of our preconceptions about this music out of the window. “The record does not feel like a document of a performance as the music was not pre-composed and there was no reference,” Schneider continues. “Perhaps it was not even an improvisation?” For Grosse, her musical relationship with Schneider similarly shakes free from expectation: “My sound does not exist without Stefan’s. It is neither written down nor is it improvised. It is instantaneous.” When thinking about the five-piece exploration on Permanent Parts and asked to expand on what each musician brings to the table, she continues, “We all love the thrill of an unknown encounter and we seem to have a need for building connections through the thicket of our voices.”

There’s a curious phrase on the back cover of the album, before the artists are listed: “Wir sind eine Batterie / We are a battery.” This sums up the spirit of Permanent Parts. Schneider recalls that Grosse said this phrase to the musicians at the start of the performance. Grosse explains further, “The figure of the battery referred to our placement in the space building out a small circle facing one another from where the sound could spill into the impressive volume of the gallery.” The battery as an arrangement of similar devices; but I also think of charge, and the conversion of chemical energy, and of fortification. It’s a poetic metaphor that sums up much of the febrile pleasure of the music contained on these Permanent Parts.

– Jon Dale, Melbourne

DREAMLESS VEIL make their debut with the new album, Every Limb of the Flood. The band, featuring members of INTER ARMA, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, and PSYCROPTIC manifest terrifying Blackened Extreme Metal and offer one of the year's most haunting releases. Every Limb of the Flood is a concept album. Through tracks such as "A Generation of Eyes", "Saturnism", and "Cyanide Mine" Vocalist Mike Paparo and co. task the listener to consider what it would be like for an individual to fully disappear. DREAMLESS VEIL delves into this murk through 8 tracks - dramatic swells, melodic crescendos, and abrasive blast-beat poundings make way to more introspective moments ultimately resulting in pure horror. Paparo explores the concept of corporeal disintegration with pained shrieks and disembodied bellows, resulting in one of the most unchained performances of his storied career. Lyrics for the record show, but don't tell. DREAMLESS VEIL's concept alludes to misery leading to grotesquery - The opener "Dim Golden Rave" throws the listener into an ambiguous time and place: "Grief, spiritless, collapses against the filth-ridden street". The second track, "A Generation of Eyes" follows this narrative by invoking Neil Young, quoting him to the extent of "rust never sleeps." What ensues is a grief so powerful it decomposes from within. The end result manifests in the album closer "Dreamless" - the body is now fully discarded, hinting at a possible enlightenment through a horrible, gruesome process. Sonically, Every Limb of the Flood is a caustic, corrosive journey. Critically acclaimed drummer David Haley flexes some of his most creative drum work to date, dragging the listener through wild tempo changes, breakneck speeds that come to sudden halts, while guitarist Dan Gargiulo (ARTIFICIAL BRAIN) interweaves disorienting guitar madness. Recorded by Brett Bamberger (REVOCATION) Every Limb of the Flood was mixed by Gargiulo and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice, and more.)

Mara MacDonald is a musician and performer from Melbourne, Australia. She released her debut album 'I'm just One Person' as Marara on JPEG Artefacts in January 2023. She has also self-released two EP's, has received the Signal Sound Commission grant for young artists, and is known for her chaotic, confessional live performances. Brad Rose of Foxy Digitales said of her debut: "it feels like I've uncovered some kind of hidden treasure… each word, each sound echoes into forever."

August and June will be available on streaming platforms and limited-edition cassette tape on 27/09/24. Guests include pillar of the Australian noise scene, Uboa, and prolific Portland producer, Kaho Matsui. For fans of: Claire Rousay, More Eaze, Katie Dey, Felicia Atkinson, Elaine Radigue.

The unconscious and unknown must be really nice places. In any case, if you take the second album of Menelaos Tomasides under his given name as travelogue. A trip into dreamlike territory, yet concrete enough, a journey without target yet looking forward and looking back into familiar places, „dreamhike“ both continues and departs from the style Menelaos has found earlier, in “When the Moon Comes Through”, or his more conceptual-intentional “31 Minuten” works. As the album title - which roughly translates to “dream hiking” but also hints on “walkabout” and “songlines” – suggests, we are rambling between the real and the imaginary. From the bucolic border triangle of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands to the buzzing streets of the capital of Cyprus, where Menelaos has lived for many years, the tracks are about real places, about real experiences and emotions yet interwoven with a dreamlike fabric. Something that is just not tangible, yet substantial and palpable. Something concrete that manifests in the genuine and special sound design of this records - basically all of Menelaos’ works - his really special treatment of dynamics and loudness. It is one of the very few records where the established language of music making, specifically Techno, House, Dub, and early 2000’ Electronica, the clicks, thumps and plops from an earlier age of electronic music, transmogrify into slow movements of something new. Something that is gentle and truly personal, looking inwards. There are four-to-the-floor beats, there is wobbly bass, and dubby chords, even sublimated clarion calls. There is an immense energy in these tracks, the sheer materiality of low frequencies of a massive sound system manifested in a tiny room. Yet it is without any aggression, stripped bare of sonic pressure. It is quiet music no matter how high you turn up the volume. A rare treat, that requires exceptional skills and exceptional restraint and control on the technical side of music making. Probably it is a result of Menelaos specific combination of instinctual, intuitive approach to making music, which meets a genuine love for sound in seemingly endless loops of refinement that can lead to such a result as „dreamhike“. The elegant floating balance of control and playful experimentation manifests for example in a track that continues the ongoing collaboration with seasoned Cologne improviser Achim Fink on bass trumpet. Not only in this respect, the album can be described as a product of openness. It comes from a lot of taking in the world, of travel, of places and people met, of friendship and conversation (not necessarily with words). The deep trip of “dreamhike” further manifests Menelaos as one of the truly independent voices of electronic Cologne and beyond. Somewhat alike in character and attitude probably to what late Pete Namlook has established for Frankfurt with his label Fax +49-69/450464 (though ultimately warmer and much less uncanny) Menelaos has found his very own sound and vision. Music that answers to no one but speaks to everyone. Uncompromising yet gentle to the core: kind sounds from a kind spirit, arguably the most extraordinary and valuable quality music can have these days.

Limited Gatefold LP version on 180g transparent vinyl, with 4-page lyrics booklet (777x) Tusmorke, arguably the most atavistically trollish, acid-drenched musical act ever to come out of the kingdom of Norway makes yet another eternal return, this time to take the fellow traveller on a subterranean expedition to the kingdom of the Fair Folk! Dawn of Oberon is the band's 12th album, released 12 years after their debut "Underjordisk Tusmorke" (2012). 12-12-12 - That makes this album twice as occult as 666. The band says: "This record is a testament of a tumultuous time. We had a new drummer, Kusken, and keyboard player, Herjekongen, in 2022 and immediately started working on the epic Dawn of Oberon. This behemoth had been wallowing about since the start of the millenium, never quite finding its shape and form. We thought of this as a trial by fire to galvanize the new members. During jams at rehearsals and concerts, new themes emerged, resulting in a sort of sequel in the form of Dusk of Tawblerawn part 1-5. Kusken decided to quit after just 8 months but agreed to document the time we had spent together. All the music was recorded in our rehearsal space and studio in 2022-2023. The record is a manifestation of our Peter Pan syndrome; our aesthetics and ideals remain unchanged for the last 25 years. Never grow up, just grow old. This time we go away with the fairies all together, to the far-away land of the far-out mind.

Bitter Calm is a band from Birmingham, AL. They make music that one would call “sad”, but much like the torrential rains that punctuate their lives, it’s a different kind of sad— less like a breakup at the dinner table and more like a breakup in the atmosphere. Deeply, loudly, profoundly sad.

Inspired by MJ Lenderman, Songs: Ohia, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and more, Bitter Calm's sophomore record is more about the destination than the journey— the destination being “hell” and the journey being “self-annihilation”. There is no relief to be found in the music itself save for the catharsis of accepting one’s own hopelessness. The relief comes from the fact that the songs were ever written, recorded, and performed in the first place.

On the other side of this endless descent, descent, descent... something beautiful happened. With support from violinist Meg Ford, bassist Alex Guin, and percussionist Chayse Porter— all Birmingham heavyweights in their own right— Harp eschews the uncomfortable trauma-dumping of his more whispery peers in favor of something darker, meaner, more “results oriented”. Building on the release of their debut LP, "Eternity In The Lake of Fire" is sure to solidify Bitter Calms place in Birmingham's tight-knit indie scene.

Scottish newcomers, The Owls, break cover with this double sided slice of irresistible 21st Century Ska Pop. "Two Tone Summer" is an unforgettable love letter to the iconic 2-Tone movement of the late 70's and 80's, with an underlying lament at the parallels of racism, inequality, misery and social isolation which are as prevalent today as they were during the birth of the original 2-Tone movement. The flip side, "Skandal", is an acerbic Pop gem with timeless melodies and a lyric poking fun at the transparent strategy of misinformation and half truth disseminated by TV and Media to promote division and protect the establishment status quo, no matter how corrupt, and no matter how many scandals are eventually uncovered. Surely any song that has the line "whatever happened to the sweaty Prince?" has earned its place in your record collection!

By the time Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - went into Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles to record the third album with his Elektric Band, the lineup had been solidified through constant touring the previous year. Dedicated to his father Armando, a trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, Eye of the Beholder reflected a tightening of the ensemble playing and a greater showcasing of the individual solo prowess of these consummate musicians.

With this fresh sounding five-star recording, it is clear that Corea was more open to showcasing this band’s collective muscle and individual virtuosity. The group rips, in no uncertain terms, on showcases like “Cascade, Part II,” “Trance Dance,” and the staggering “Amnesia.” There are experimental excursions into the kind of atmospheric, ambient music realms that Brian Eno pioneered on “Cascade, Part 1” and may be the most profound musical statement of the collection, on par with past Corea high points, “Beauty.”

Originally released on GRP Records in 1988, the album is a high-water mark for Corea and his Elektric Bandmates.

20th Anniversary reissue. • Available on CD, and for the first time ever, on LP. • Includes new liner notes from Sam. • Contains “Reflecting Light” and “If I Could Write”—both featured on the fan- and streaming-favorite Gilmore Girls. Since the late 1980s Sam Phillips has been a poetic voice in the alternative/pop realm. She recorded a series of acclaimed albums for Virgin Records, including the Grammy-nominated Martinis And Bikinis (expanded and reissued by Omnivore Recordings in 2012), all produced by her then-husband T Bone Burnett. At the turn of the century, Sam was invited by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was a fan of Sam’s music, to score her new television series, Gilmore Girls, on a new network, The WB. Sam’s unconventional score featuring vocal and acoustic guitar was likened to an onscreen character itself and dubbed “the La La’s” by the growing legion of Gilmore Girls fans. Around that time Sam signed a new deal with Nonesuch Records and continued to build her stellar catalog. In 2004, Phillips released A Boot And A Shoe, featuring guest artists including Burnett, Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello), Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem), legendary drummer Jim Keltner, and the Section Quartet. The album contained 13 tracks including “Reflecting Light” and “If I Could Write”—both featured prominently in the Gilmore Girls original series and, most memorably, the Netflix revival Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of A Boot And A Shoe and to commemorate the anniversary, it is being issued for the very first time on vinyl, and reissued on CD, both with new liner notes by Sam. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, now is the time to reintroduce this incredible record, and on the format fans of Sam and Gilmore Girls have been waiting for.

Build Buildings is Brooklyn, New York, based Ben Tweel. He makes music with computers, instruments and household sounds. The sounds on “Ecotone” are sourced from acoustic guitars, lap harp, ukulele, mbira, and clarinet, and played through the gestural iPad program Samplr. He has released numerous albums since 2004, most recently 2022’s “Bring in the Lampstand and Light Its Lamps” on Audiobulb Records.

New pressing in soon, note increased price. When Jerry Fuchs joined Maserati in 2004, he initiated a complete overhaul of the group: old songs were dropped, tempos were drastically sped up, and the budding psych-rock impulses of guitarists Coley Dennis and Matt Cherry were given room to grow. Beginning with the electrifying Inventions for the New Season, Maserati were a better, faster, stronger beast. That spirit shines bright on Maserati VII, their first album conceived since Fuchs' passing. Maserati has an uncanny ability to toggle time back and forth between the past, present, and future – often in the span of one song. On Maserati VII, they're grounded and driven by new drummer Mike Albanese (Cinemechanica), whose dexterity and stamina prove a perfect fit for Maserati's trademark relentless, driving rhythms and epic song lengths, anchored by bass badass, Chris "Coach" McNeal. To celebrate Maserati's 20th anniversary, we have finally made Maserati VII available again on vinyl for the first time in over five years, packaged in the original heavyweight, full-color old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with custom matte and spot gloss varnishes

Mit "The Machine in the Ghost" erreichen HAUJOBB den beeindruckenden Meilenstein des zehnten Studioalbums. Auch ihr neuestes Werk unterscheidet sich von all seinen Vorgängern. Das derzeit in Leipzig residierende Duo verweigert sich weiterhin standhaft jeder Wiederholung. "The Machine in the Ghost" unterscheidet sich bereits durch die Verwendung von Feldaufnahmen, um die Sounds für dieses Album zu erzeugen. Um die gewünschten Effekte zu erzielen, haben HAUJOBB bewusst auf eine Mischung aus Software und Hardware gesetzt - letzteres in Form von mit Alltagsgegenständen erzeugten Tönen. Diese symbolische Anspielung auf eine Zeit, in der es weniger Software und mehr analoges Drehen an den Reglern gab, ergänzt das Thema von "The Machine in the Ghost" um einen Hauch von Retro-Feeling - ohne jede nostalgische Verklärung. Das Album dreht sich um die spannungsgeladene Beziehung zwischen analog und digital, Geist und Materie. Als sich HAUJOBB im ostwestfälischen Bielefeld zunächst zu einem Trio formierten, kamen ihre Haupteinflüsse noch aus der Vancouver-Schule des Industrial - und speziell SKINNY PUPPY sowie FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY. Dies ist auf ihrem ersten Album "Homes & Gardens" (1993) noch hörbar, doch schon bald wurden HAUJOBB selbst als Aushängeschilder eines modernen elektronischen Industrial-Sounds angesehen. Auf den folgenden Alben "Freeze Frame Reality" (1995) und "Solutions for a Small Planet" (1996) entfernten sich die Deutschen zunehmend von den kanadischen Einflüssen, indem sie damit begannen, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) mit Industrial und EBM zu verschmelzen. Damit katapultierten sich die Deutschen mitten in die internationale Szene und verschafften sich sogar in den USA einen Kultstatus. Auch nachdem HAUJOBB zum Duo mutiert waren, blieben sie einflussreich und insbesondere ihr 2011 in Eigenregie veröffentlichtes Album "New World March" gilt als weitere Großtat. Mit "The Machine in the Ghost" schlagen HAUJOBB ein neues spannendes Kapitel in ihrer bemerkenswerten Karriere auf. Unmittelbar zu Beginn der nächsten industriellen und kreativen Revolution, die der rasante Aufstieg der künstlichen Intelligenz auszulösen verspricht, legen HAUJOBB ihre metaphorischen musikalischen Finger erneut direkt an den Puls der Zeit.

crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Making Conversation, her third solo release for the label. After the intimate song-like constructions of Other Meetings (BT096), Making Conversation documents a different facet of cole’s work, presenting three rigorously conceptualised commissioned pieces, each of which extend her signature approach to highly amplified small sounds into new directions.

The side-long title piece is a stereo version of an 8-channel sound installation exhibited in 2023 at the Tabakalera Art Center in Donostia / San Sebastian, Spain. The piece uses a multitude of instrumental, vocal, concrete and electronic sounds to evoke the soundscapes cole encountered during nocturnal listening session in Bali, Indonesia in 2018 and 2019. In this world of night sounds, she explains, she ‘observed the complex interplay between amphibian, lizard, bird and insect communication, domestic animals (roosters, dogs), man-made sounds (airplanes, vehicles, conversations and evening activities) and sounds that were difficult to place’. Drawing on field recordings as memory aids (but including none in the finished piece), cole’s piece uncannily reproduces the spatiality and pacing of environmental sound without attempting strictly to replicate it. We hear insect-like twittering and birdsong fragments, resonant thuds and distant roars, furtive crunches and taps, muffled breath and metallic scrapes. While at times it can be difficult to imagine the source of these sounds, at other points they are clearly instrumental or electronic in origin; in its placement and layering, though, the whole assemblage suggests the glorious, unthinking richness of a non-musical sound environment. Suggesting at once the electronic gardens of Rolf Julius and the little instrument expanses of classic AACM, the piece is a brilliant enactment of the Cagean drive to ‘imitate nature in her manner of operation’.

‘Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr… (pt. 1)’ began as cole’s contribution to an Issue Project Room commission to realise a score from Alison Knowles and Annea Lockwood’s Women's Work, a 1975 collection of text and conceptual scores by women artists and composers. cole’s piece begins from Beth Anderson’s Valid for Life, a complex arrangement of the letter R in various typefaces. Where the composer suggests a realisation on a trio of acoustic instruments (playing rolls with velvet beaters), cole translates the piece into her characteristic sound and object language as a trio of rolling sounds on ‘two large similar paper things and one 5-pin bowling ball’. Rolling from one side of the stereo field to the other, the bowling ball’s uneven movement is the heart of this immersive textural array, created with the simplest materials, which generates phantom sensations of pitch and phasing effects solely through amplified friction.

On ‘Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr… (pt. 2)’, cole makes a first foray in translating her signature approach into conventional instrumental sounds, here in the form of a transcription for MIDI percussion ensemble. The result is refreshingly puzzling, comparable perhaps only to the sparsest moments of Keiji Haino’s classic “C’est parfait…” Accompanied with extensive liner notes, photographic documentation and a download code, Making Conversation is an exciting next step in cole’s work, extending her signature concerns in new sonic and conceptual directions.

The Dolly TS series welcomes another Italian super act, Dynamic Forces! This duo from Rome is known for their characteristically uncompromising music. Their EP called ''Virus'', is an absolute no brainer for all Detroit techno lovers. The perfect blend between straight forward, hard driving dance floor slammers and touch of soulful melodic euphoria!

Beloved Spanish indie rockers Hinds are back with their utterly triumphant fourth album, VIVA HINDS. Written by the band’s co-founders, co-vocalists, co-guitarists and co-songwriters Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, it features their first-ever fully Spanish language songs, as well as first collaborations with the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten. Recorded in rural France, the album was produced by Pete Robertson (Beabadoobee), engineered by the GRAMMY-nominated Tom Roach, and mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg).

Shortly after the band made their debut ten years ago, they hit what felt like an insurmountable obstacle – they had to change their name from Deers to Hinds for legal reasons. But, as their fans began to greet them at shows by cheering “¡VIVA HINDS!”, the band soon realized that what initially felt like an ending was actually just the beginning. Fast forward to 2023, and VIVA HINDS was written by Cosials and Perrote after a series of endings. They hit a creative rut after releasing their 2020 album The Prettiest Curse, and their bassist and drummer devastatingly decided to leave the band. They also split with their management team, lost touring revenue due to lockdowns, and were without a label for the first time. But when Perrote and Cosials got together to write again it became clear that their connection, one so special that they call themselves “millionaires in friendship,” would be all they needed to get them through. VIVA HINDS – the most accomplished, sonically adventurous, honest and celebratory record of Hinds’ career – is only the beginning.

PRESS/ONLINE: “The track, though signaling a new era for Hinds, arrives rapturous and catchy, as Perrote and Cosials trade verses and riffs. ...'Coffee' is a sweeping first chapter of where the duo aims to
“‘Coffee’ is a a gorgeous punk-indie cross contamination, instantly memorable, grungy” - Wonderland


“They bring the energy of a thousand rock bands, entrancing the crowd with their searing indie riffs, the constant interlocking of guitars and smiles, and deeply charming banter” - Rolling Stone

“The Prettiest Curse is an evolution. It is striking, complex, uncompromising indie-pop. More than that, it makes a bold statement: it canonises Spanish indie-rock” – Loud and Quiet 9/10
“They’ve taken their sound and unashamedly experimented with it. They’re all the better for it” – NME 4/5

“The Spanish group’s second album displays the superior songcraft of the band, as vocalists Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials wade through love’s messy feelings with confidence and exuberance” - Pitchfork

Mariachiara Troianiello, the force behind Katatonic Silentio, continues her exploration of spatial and sound design, slicing various forms of dub while following her instincts and storytelling through each work.

Troianiello's music and live sets are known to be meditative, with each transition subliminally serving a purpose. As 'Axis Of Light' delves into five pieces for this EP, one can experience the drops and transitions connecting, gradually uncovering hidden meanings.

Written and produced by Mariachiara Troianiello
Artwork by Apolo Cacho
Layout by Takashi Makabe
Digital Master by Paul Mac
Mastered and cut by Simon at The Exchange

Hassan Abou Alam is next to step up to the unconventional Nerve Collect label with six tracks of futuristic club-ready chaos. The finely crafted EP arrives in August and comes on 12" vinyl and via all digital platforms.

Hassan Abou Alam has established himself as one of Egypt's most innovative underground musicians over the last 10+ years. His music is a meeting of disparate worlds - organic and synthetic designs, digital and analogue tools, the traditional and the futuristic, and it has come on the likes of YUKU, Rhythm Section, Banoffee Pies and Casa Voyager. His versatile sound pulls apart existing genres and reconstructs them as something entirely new.

Opener '3asabi' is a stylish sonic assault with thumping rhythms and trippy oscillations that will get any dance floor bouncing. It's fun yet functional, serious yet seductive and 'Basha' Ft. ZIAD ZAZA, Ismail Nosrat & Aly B is another kinetic fusion of hand claps and complex drum funk, Egyptian vocal gymnastics and punchy bass. 'Ghalat' has lurching drums and plunging bass driving on beneath mangled synths, odd vocalisations and percussive splatters drawn from a unique sound palette. The drilling low ends of 'Khalsana' Ft ZIAD ZAZA are offset by fluttering percussive details up top while spare but booming kicks shake every bone in your body and the bassline devastates.

There is no let up on 'Mesh Mafhoom' which is a ritualistic workout with moments of melancholic synth soul shining through the jumble of tin-pot percussion and crashing hits. Closer 'Zein' is more body-popping brilliance that channels ancient spirits into warped synths and rhythms so complex they melt the mind.
Hassan Abou Alam's blurring of the lines between the real and the imagined is second to none on this EP. It's a sub-heavy mix of the human voice, machine-made sounds and inventive rhythms that make for something new, weird and wonderful.

In an exciting development for OYE Records, the renowned Berlin record shop is set to relaunch with an anticipated debut EP from fast-rising local artist LACATY. LACATY's journey into the industry began through a serendipitous meeting with an OYE team member through Femme Bass Mafia and eventually found their own paths. As the idea of releasing a debut EP came up, it felt natural for LACATY and them to join forces. Relocating to London marked a pivotal moment in LACATY's career. Immersed in the city's vibrant energy, she was among a select group chosen for the AVA Creator Forum, where she honed her skills and creative practice. The distance from Berlin's social scene provided the mental space to fully develop her ideas, resulting in a debut EP. "I wanted to create what I play – tracks that are not only energetic and punchy but also filled with emotion," LACATY shared. "Being in London, away from the familiar Berlin vibe, allowed my sound to evolve naturally, unconfined by genre expectations." Designed to heat up any dance floor, all three tracks feel like an ode to the vibrant 90s music scene. They are woven together by a blissful euphoria, while simultaneously evoking a sense of nostalgia.

Following the phenomenal success of the original 'Modern Stalking' EP in 2007, Lovebirds triumphantly returns with the highly anticipated sequel, 'Modern Stalking Vol. 2.' Known for their uncountable releases and timeless Music like 'I Want You in My Soul' and 'In the Shadows,' Lovebirds continues to deliver high-quality music with this new EP.

DJ Support: DJ Sabo, Gordon Invisible Inc, Ground Chill Mountain, Roe Deers, Thomas Von Party, Vidis

Multi Culti serve up a full-length treat from Peruvian artist Aristidez. Cofounder of Lima-based party collective Casa Locasa and the non-profit label Behua Icara (translated as Healing Rhythms), in support of indigenous culture, Aristidez has recently relocated to Berlin. With releases on Calypso, Disque-Discos, and Kebrada, as well as remixes for Amplio Espectro, Ida Sound, Discos Aquelarre, Rotten City Files, and Playground Records, Aristidez has quietly made a name for himself with a growing catalog of low-key dance tracks that have been championed by the likes of Matias Aguayo, Andrew Weatherall (RIP), and Inigo Vontier, to name a few. With an emphasis on the hypnotic power of rhythm, Aristidez channels indigenous influences in subtle fashion, alluding to visionary experience without resorting to pastiche or obvious tropes. There are freaky tribal rhythms but no shaman samples, just expertly produced tracks than reveal an expansive set of electronic influences that range across tempos and decades, from breaky 90s rave, 80s proto-trance, cult dub, downtempo and more. It’s listenable, danceable, heady and kaleidoscopic stuff that should stand the test of time.

Lucila Justina Sarcines Reyes was born on July 19, 1936, in the Rímac district. Lima, which had just mourned the death of the emblematic composer Felipe Pinglo two months earlier, was a city on the verge of modernization that clung to its colonial and racist ways. Having been born black marked a difficult path in her life: after the father's premature death and a fire that left her and her 15 siblings homeless, she takes the streets to financially support her mother, and at 5 years old learns to sing in bars while begging for money in the port of Callao. After being admitted to a Franciscan convent and studying only until the third grade of primary school, now a teenager, she returns home, but suffers an attempt of rape by her new stepfather; she is forced to move to the central neighborhood of Barrios Altos, to live with her uncle, a guitarist from the legendary Guardia Vieja, also known as the founders of the Peruvian criollo waltz. This group of non-professional musicians, made up of bricklayers, merchants, artisans, marble workers and other employees, prolonged the oral traditions of their African slave ancestors in working-class neighborhoods of the capital. While the wealthy reject the music of their peons, which they associate with alcohol and disorder, it is the workers who listen carefully to the European waltzes and Aragonese jotas at the aristocratic halls, and later, back in their famous one-pipe alleys, transform their music under the spell of the night. It is in these sociability spaces that house numerous low-income families, where these criollos cheer up birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and other parties until dawn with the trill of their guitars and cajones. It is there that Reyes, at 16 years old, picks up the legacy of the Guardia Vieja and her life changes forever: she is often asked to sing in jaranas (criollo parties), and since her voice stands out immediately, she is encouraged to make her debut on a radio show called "El Sentir de los Barrios", whereshe performs the waltz "Abandonada" by Sixto Carrera.

WE ARE WINTER'S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch (both Ada). On "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses. Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: "We're honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside," says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas. Menuck met them in 2015 when recording Ada's final album at Montréal's Hotel2Tango _ where they reconvened to make this record. "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is an album about witnessing bleakness from a place of safety. Carrying newfound descriptive depth, thanks to the quartet's open-ended songs freeing him from writing in meter, Menuck likens his lyrics to photorealism. On opener `Rats and Roses' he sings of an unnamed city struck by an unknown cataclysm, but the details are local: specifically, his neighbors inadvertently poisoning birds when tackling a rat infestation. It's backed by blown out synths and guitars reaching a soaring crescendo. "Seeing things from a distance and not being able to intervene happens a lot on the record," Menuck explains. "If you're a feeling and thinking person, that's just part of the human condition. We watch horror unfolding from afar, unable to do anything concrete to change it." A powerless witness, able to describe but not intervene. `Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)' references Michael Jackson holding his child over a hotel balcony in 2002_the bizarre media spectacle still lodged in Menuck's psyche. This and the album's closing track also elegize white phosphorous, a technology of war designed to light up battlefields but capable of inflicting horrific burns on those it touches. Illumination and horror in one, here underpinning scenes picturesque and terrifying. "The last song `(Goodnight) White Phosphorous' is deliberately like a lullaby," says Menuck. "Written from the viewpoint of watching white phosphorous falling outside your window." Scorched and tarnished and laden with harrowing imagery, "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is also a record bathed in light: the bewilderment of hopeful spirits witnessing despair, watching a blizzard of distress unfold outside from a place of relative shelter and comfort. You could call that emotional ambivalence, maybe numbness. But those words are too passive for the weight of conflicted feeling resonating through the album. "I never know how I feel on an overcast day when the sun is still bright despite the grayness and the light is very flat. The colours become more saturated, and you see a single flower, say a morning glory, whose colour is so vibrant beneath the gray, I don't know if that's a lovely sensation or a terrible sensation. It's both," says Menuck.

This album takes you back to Colombia of the 50s and 60s. In those days, the tropical music of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts took over the country's mainland music scene by storm. One of the key figures during this period was Edmundo Arias. Together with Lucho Bermúdez and Pacho Galán, Arias is seen as one of the ‘big three’ composers of Colombian tropical music.

He was a rather introverted person who avoided being in the spotlight at all cost, leading to his work being less known than his contemporaries. With this album we hope to highlight the amazing legacy Edmundo Arias has left us. Think of big bands with sharp dressed musicians playing the finest cumbias, porros and other tropical sounds in fancy ballrooms on a hot evening in Medellin or Bogota.

Liner notes:

Edmundo Dante Arias Valencia was born in Tuluá, Valle del Cauca, on the 5th of November 1925. He came from a family of musicians. His father, Joaquín Arias Cardoza was a band leader and composer who taught his children to play music. Arias learned to play many instruments such as the guitar, bass, bandola (pear shaped string instrument related to the mandolin), tiple (12 string guitar), clarinet and saxophone. He proved to be a very talented musician and together with his father and his older brother Ricaurte he formed the ‘Trio Arias’. The family lived in different cities across Colombia depending on where they found work. When his father died unexpectedly in 1948, Edmundo and Ricaurte had to support their family working as musicians. In 1951, Arias decided to move to Medellín, in those days the heart of the Colombian music industry and the city where the most important record companies and the best musicians were based. It didn’t take long before Arias made a name for himself as a musician, composer, arranger and band leader for Colombia’s leading labels at the time; Zeida, Ondina, Silver and Sonolux. For the latter, he would eventually become the artistic director. Over the years, he wrote hundreds of songs, recorded many albums with his own orchestras or with the Orquesta Sonolux and collaborated with a countless number of musicians, often uncredited.

Together with Lucho Bermúdez and Pacho Galán, Edmundo Arias is seen as one of the ‘big three’ composers of the tropical music of Colombia. But despite the fact that Arias was renowned, very little is known about his personal life. He was a humble man who preferred to work in the background and avoided being in the spotlight at all cost. He declined interviews and kept away from public life. On some live performances of the orchestra that carried his name, Arias asked one of his musicians to pretend to be him, so that he wouldn’t have to come on stage. You might think that Arias was shy or anti-social, but this was not the case. Most people he worked with described him as a very jovial, good humoured person and enjoyed working with him.

His invisibility in public life belied how present he was behind the scenes. If he wasn’t working on his own productions, he was regularly collaborating with other musicians. Arias had his hand in the work of many of his colleagues and was a mentor for young artists. Some even say that in those days all the musicians in Medellín had worked with Arias in one way or the other. He had a strict working regime: composing, arranging and recording at night while sleeping during the day. He was also very productive. The story goes that on one occasion, he wrote arrangements for a 16 piece band in just a few minutes while the band was recording another song. His hard work and productiveness resulted in hundreds of compositions and many records that carry his name.

Edmundo Arias’ career ran over 6 decades until his death on the 29th of January 1993. Over the years, he left us a huge legacy. The songs on this record are a selection of his work during the 50s and 60s. Many see this period as the absolute highlight of his career. We picked out the songs we consider to be the most outstanding recordings from this period. The title of this compilation Guepa Je! is Colombian slang often used in cumbia to express joy or to celebrate. A free translation would result into something like ‘yeah’, ’let’s go’ or ‘groovy’. I guess this title says enough. Enjoy the music. Guepa Je!

After dipping into the archive to deliver a series of essential reissues, Bureau B continue to encourage the chaotic brilliance of Faust with an LP of brand new music curated by originator Zappi Diermaier and a band of musical friends, including fellow founder Gunther Wüsthoff. Over the years Faust has become many things, each as separate as the fingers, but as together as the hand which makes up their eponymous fist. From 1971 to 1974 the Hamburg band blazed a bold sonic trail, helping to create the distinct and delirious strand of German music we"ve come to know as Krautrock. Uncompromising, innovative and experimental, their releases in that period, and the stories accompanying their creation, are nothing short of legendary, and the fact that after a hiatus, the band returned and remained active in a variety of separate and simultaneous incarnations is entirely fitting for these musical revolutionaries. On Blickwinkel, Diermaier"s incarnation embrace synchronicity and chance in order to capture the moment in a six track snapshot of industrial churn, unsettling ambience and psychedelic motorik.

"Kal Marks have never made a record as personal as Wasteland Baby. Though Carl Shane, the band’s vocalist-guitarist, has made a career off of exploring blunt, uncomfortable truths through song, with Wasteland Baby, he steered Kal Marks toward something utterly new. Shane looked inward to stare down a fear that had long plagued him: What would it look like to have a child in a world that looks like this? “The album was driven by the fears I’m having about being a father,” says Shane. “The initial spark was this fear, and I thought that maybe if I could express it, I could overcome it.”

What started out with this simple premise slowly grew into a sprawling, borderline-concept record. It’s no surprise, then, that Kal Marks went deeper and darker than ever before when writing Wasteland Baby. Though, in order to reach that final product, it required the band—bassist-vocalist John Russell, drummer Adam Berkowitz, and guitarist-vocalist Christina Puerto, who is also Shane’s partner—to interrogate every decision they made with exacting detail. ”We were really all on the same page in that we wanted to make something really, really special and that was going to require us putting a lot of ego aside and just trying to serve the songs as best as possible.”

“In an ideal world, Kal Marks will go on forever. But it may be the end of a chapter for a while. I don’t want it to be the end, but there was an element running through the album that maybe could be the end,” says Shane. No matter what the future holds, Wasteland Baby is an emphatic reminder to brush off the things that keep you from truly living and venture into the unknown."

LA-based singer-songwriter Lily Kershaw returns with Pain & More, her new concept album that is a collection of exquisitely heartbreaking, proof-of-life ruminations about existing behind a pall of melancholia. Collectively, they feel like a lifetime of repression, suddenly liberated. Central to Lily’s narratives is the idea that others will probably relate to, or benefit from, her pain. Humbled yet highly melodic, the facetiously named Pain & More is an emotionally tactile album that confronts the many incarnations of the prolonged, persistent depression that has shrouded Lily’s life for decades. It may be her third full-length, but it’s her defining moment -- a vivid, if sometimes uncomfortable, whirl of the angst and hope.Lily released her debut album Midnight In The Garden in 2013, featuring break-out single “As It Seems.” The album scored millions of streams and critical acclaim, and in the following years she landed multiple syncs on shows like Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, Finding Carter, Ted Lasso and more. She followed it up her 2018 EP Lost Angeles and her 2021 sophomore album Arcadia, which received acclaim from Nylon, American Songwriter, Vulture, Earmilk, Refinery29, CNN and more. Along the way, Lily cut her teeth on tours alongside Radical Face, Mason Jennings, The Weepies, and Joshua Radin, to name a few, and today has amassed more than 80 million streams.

In the modern world where musical dystopia has cemented itself in common please, CTSD has stepped up to deliver a 4-track EP of proper, adult-Techno music.


After debuting on the label with his juggernaut track 'Algorithmica', the aptly named 'Vortextual' EP delivers a sonic landscape that's embellishing his status as an artist of immeasurably sonic capabilities. This time, with a full body of work to display, he is giving us a masterclass of unconventional and forward thinking sound design across all 4 tracks.

10th Anniversary edition of the debut album from the Devonshire duo who have been laying waste to
clubs from Brighton to Burnley, building up a firm following of disciples LIMITED PRESSING ON RED VINYL
INCLUDES BONUS TRACK Moriaty have already enjoyed a full page feature in Classic Rock magazine and
reviews in Uncut, Record Collector, Art Rocker, Classic Rock, The Clash, Rock Sounds, R2, Vive Le Rock
(feature) Shindig, NME

Black Vinyl Repress

COSHH IS BACK !! Very rare & Limited D.D.R. - Solo; acid techno vinyl release !! incl Thin Lizzy sample (Jailbreak)

Wildly acclaimed Grammy-winning artist Flume returns with a
new album, ‘Palaces’, on Transgressive Records.

‘Palaces’ began to take shape when Flume returned to his
native Australia after struggling to write music in Los Angeles at
the beginning of the pandemic. Settling in a coastal town in the
Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Flume quickly
found the inspiration he needed through reconnecting with the
nature around him - the rolling hills, walking around barefoot,
the green colour the sky turns before a big storm, growing and
eating his own vegetables, the smell of rain.

He and his neighbour and long-time collaborator, the visual
artist Jonathan Zawada, became fascinated by the local wildlife,
in particular the birds, collecting field recordings that ultimately
worked their way in to the album. As Flume continued to forge a
strong connection to his surroundings, the album he wanted to
make started to form, eventually adopting a title to properly
highlight the luxury and magic of the natural world.

‘Palaces’ is his most confident, mature and uncompromising
work to date, a true testament to nurturing the relationships that
make us whole and bring us peace.

The album features a host of vocalists and collaborators, its
cast list spanning new and household names from around the
world - breakout US star Caroline Polachek, British polymath
icon Damon Albarn, Spain’s Vergen Maria, France’s Oklou and
fellow Australian Kučka, who returns following her standout turn
on ‘Skin’.

Deluxe CD including two exclusive bonus tracks in 6-panel
heavyweight board digipack with tube pocket and 8-page
booklet. Matte finish on digipak board with glossy spot UV
finish.

CD digipack with poster insert.

Black 180G double vinyl in widespine jacket with full colour
centre labels and digital download card.

Northern Soul’s most loved and hardest working DJ looks back at his pioneering Rare Soul Uncovered album series that shook the scene in 1984. Compiled and researched by Dave shortly after Wigan Casino had closed its doors where he was a main-stage DJ for eight years. At the time Dave hosted a weekly Northern Soul show on Signal Radio and was the Midlands regional sales manager for Charly Records. Now, forty years on, Dave Evison is reunited with Charly to present the ultimate in Rare Soul Vinyl – 16 unreleased at the time recordings – some of which have never been heard before.

Suburban Base legend Mark XTC is back! Starting out at The Hacienda, and working in the mighty Eastern Bloc record store at the height of the rave scene, DJ XTC was on every major Rave flyer nationwide throughout the period. Going on to form Da Intalex with partner Marcus Intalex, releasing incredibly influential Drum & Bass during the earliest stages of its evolution. Mark XTC is currently a resident on Kool FM continuing to bring cutting edge music to a worldwide audience.

Collectors that have his Subbase releases Intalex Productions presents The X, and Ill Figure can now grab the next instalment! A four track EP of banging tunes celebrating the golden eras of Rave and Drum & Bass!

Genuine uncovered unreleased DATs from the period, Mark breaks down some info on these hidden gems!

'Unite' - Mark made this in the mid/ late 90s after working with vocalist Charmaine. Big distorted bass, 'Amen' drums and his trusty EMU sampler.

'To The Beginning' - Another late 90s creation, adding some P-Funk to the Amen drums with a Sub Bass filling the tune with heavy vibes.

'Oldskool Massive' - A more recently made dedication to the classic Belgium techno of early rave, with heavy 4/4, acid riffs and of course those distorted stabs and hoovers.

'Taking It Back' - Mark made this in 1998, and even then was taking you back to that classic 94 Jungle sound and loops.

Honour's debut album is a ligament stretching from Lagos to London and to New York, curling across the diaspora and brushing the darker hues of blues, hip-hop, free jazz, ambient, gospel with Christian mythology and Yoruba folklore. As cinematic as it is painterly, Alàáfíà is a meditation on themes of life, death and love that pulls inspiration from the unexpected poetic profundity of casual conversations, field recordings, literature, ephemera, or personal archives. The result is an impressionistic vision in Black and Blur that both exhausts and implicates language_substantiating a mythos proposed by Fred Moten that sublimates boundaries between everywhere and nowhere; history and the present; the individual and the universal. Alàáfíà delineates a gothic landscape cut by overdriven beats, swooping orchestral blasts, choral bursts and ear- splitting fuzz, where the fleshly and spiritual realms commune. Dedicated to Honour's late grandmother, the title track began to take form after their last embrace and remains steeped in her influence and spirit_a tape-saturated composition that starts in Lagos and ends in London's smoke-stained cityscape, the song's dream-like quality developed out of the artist's grief and PTSD coping with this loss. Beneath the stretched guitar drones and stuttering loops, their grandmother's shared faith bubbles to the surface. "When Angels Speak of Love," borrows its title from two works by Sun Ra and bell hooks, respectively. Sculpting echoes of praise music into disorienting spirals perforated with syrupy DJ Screw-inspired breaks and sharp splinters of melancholic guitar, "When Angels Speak of Love" engages a conceptual dialogue with the spirits of both late thinkers, folding them into Honour's pantheon of ancestral guides. The album's ninth track, "Giz Aard ($uckets)," is a dirge of regimented drums which anchor this somber melody as it whirls into a blizzard of heartache, uncertain if its consequence will be death or eternal joy. The album's sole lyrical offering, "Pistol Poem (Lead Belly)," begins with a darkly humorous bar, "He went thru hell and back/ came back/ 2 get the strap," that swells into a haunting allegory based on the life of Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion. A modern take on the Blues, Honour's lyrics reify the artist's status as a student of both literature and popular culture, crossbreeding the artist's clever wordplay with additional references to Richard Pryor, Robert Johnson, Kelly Rowland & Bryon Gysin. Setting core principles of hip-hop, R&B, jazz and gospel music to atemporal soundscapes and compositions, Honour crafts a record that marinates in its own knotty contradictions. The ghosts that sit on the artist's shoulders have never been more tangible than with this emotive debut.

Beloved Spanish indie rockers Hinds are back with their utterly triumphant fourth album, VIVA HINDS. Written by the band’s co-founders, co-vocalists, co-guitarists and co-songwriters Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, it features their first-ever fully Spanish language songs, as well as first collaborations with the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten. Recorded in rural France, the album was produced by Pete Robertson (Beabadoobee), engineered by the GRAMMY-nominated Tom Roach, and mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg).

Shortly after the band made their debut ten years ago, they hit what felt like an insurmountable obstacle – they had to change their name from Deers to Hinds for legal reasons. But, as their fans began to greet them at shows by cheering “¡VIVA HINDS!”, the band soon realized that what initially felt like an ending was actually just the beginning. Fast forward to 2023, and VIVA HINDS was written by Cosials and Perrote after a series of endings. They hit a creative rut after releasing their 2020 album The Prettiest Curse, and their bassist and drummer devastatingly decided to leave the band. They also split with their management team, lost touring revenue due to lockdowns, and were without a label for the first time. But when Perrote and Cosials got together to write again it became clear that their connection, one so special that they call themselves “millionaires in friendship,” would be all they needed to get them through. VIVA HINDS – the most accomplished, sonically adventurous, honest and celebratory record of Hinds’ career – is only the beginning.

PRESS/ONLINE: “The track, though signaling a new era for Hinds, arrives rapturous and catchy, as Perrote and Cosials trade verses and riffs. ...'Coffee' is a sweeping first chapter of where the duo aims to
“‘Coffee’ is a a gorgeous punk-indie cross contamination, instantly memorable, grungy” - Wonderland


“They bring the energy of a thousand rock bands, entrancing the crowd with their searing indie riffs, the constant interlocking of guitars and smiles, and deeply charming banter” - Rolling Stone

“The Prettiest Curse is an evolution. It is striking, complex, uncompromising indie-pop. More than that, it makes a bold statement: it canonises Spanish indie-rock” – Loud and Quiet 9/10
“They’ve taken their sound and unashamedly experimented with it. They’re all the better for it” – NME 4/5

“The Spanish group’s second album displays the superior songcraft of the band, as vocalists Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials wade through love’s messy feelings with confidence and exuberance” - Pitchfork

Thandii (aka Jessica Berry, Graham Godfrey) first made waves with their debut album A Beat To Make It Better in 2023. The album gained somewhat cult critical acclaim long after it’s release, with listeners luxuriating in the unusual sound collaged from offcuts of Soul, Lo-fi Hiphop & Psych. Thandii’s world comes bolstered by collaborations with esteemed artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, Inflo, SAULT, Joy Crookes, Jordan Rakei, and Little Simz. The duo’s sophomore offering comes in the form of two companion albums Dream With You & Come As You. The two albums make up a single conceptual statement celebrating dissonance, contradiction, polarity and opposition.

The pair believe that binary thinking has a lot to answer for in today’s world and is often used to divide us as a people. ‘We wanted to explore what it felt like to hold disparate notions in both hands whilst making the music. Starting with the title tracks, we explored the idea of unashamedly being your authentic self in every moment - this is admirable for those that can live their life in an uncompromising way. In contrast to that idea, we explored those moments where we perhaps wished we were more than our reality - a dreamed up, imagined self’. It’s no surprise that duality is central to what Thandii is all about with the pair co-writing, co-recording & co-producing from their seaside studio HaloHalo in Margate, Kent.

The albums each have a distinct flavour of their own. Dream With You is built on cassette-tape-driven lofi beats, art-pop melodies and soulful piano breaks. Whilst Come As You explores more experimental song-form that wouldn’t seem out of place on Tender Buttons - Broadcast or Dots And Loops - Stereolab. Jessica’s voice is the transcendent, ethereal form that shapeshifts between the realms of the two statements; dancing playfully through falsetto harmonies, confessional spoken word, detuned alter egos and haunting choirs.

Thandii (aka Jessica Berry, Graham Godfrey) first made waves with their debut album A Beat To Make It Better in 2023. The album gained somewhat cult critical acclaim long after its release, with listeners luxuriating in the unusual sound collaged from offcuts of Soul, Lo-fi Hiphop & Psych. Thandii’s world comes bolstered by collaborations with esteemed artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, Inflo, SAULT, Joy Crookes, Jordan Rakei, and Little Simz. The duo’s sophomore offering comes in the form of two companion albums Dream With You & Come As You. The two albums make up a single conceptual statement celebrating dissonance, contradiction, polarity and opposition.

The pair believe that binary thinking has a lot to answer for in today’s world and is often used to divide us as a people. ‘We wanted to explore what it felt like to hold disparate notions in both hands whilst making the music. Starting with the title tracks, we explored the idea of unashamedly being your authentic self in every moment - this is admirable for those that can live their life in an uncompromising way. In contrast to that idea, we explored those moments where we perhaps wished we were more than our reality - a dreamed up, imagined self’. It’s no surprise that duality is central to what Thandii is all about with the pair co-writing, co-recording & co-producing from their seaside studio HaloHalo in Margate, Kent.

The albums each have a distinct flavour of their own. Dream With You is built on cassette-tape-driven lofi beats, art-pop melodies and soulful piano breaks. Whilst Come As You explores more experimental song-form that wouldn’t seem out of place on Tender Buttons - Broadcast or Dots And Loops - Stereolab. Jessica’s voice is the transcendent, ethereal form that shapeshifts between the realms of the two statements; dancing playfully through falsetto harmonies, confessional spoken word, detuned alter egos and haunting choirs. Key collaborators on the albums include bass player Jonathan Harvey and pianist Steve Pringle, both members of Margate’s burgeoning Arts scene. Thandii escaped London nearly a decade ago, their sights set on creating a means for prolific expression, without the distractions that the city can bring. The albums find them in an exploratory stage, throwing paint at the canvas with joyful abandon, gifting themselves permission for uncensored expression. The LPs muse on relationships - romantic, platonic & familial - community, self-worth, self love, healing and boundaries, at times from differing perspectives. This contrast of opinion makes for rich listening throughout a vast emotional landscape