Search:val

Poem by Alea Coble (February 2026) - Written for Andrew Weathers, Chattonooga Recording Project

Listen to my story and everything will come out true. - Bessie Smith

35° 02' 44.27" N -85° 18' 34.85" W:

Howl. Hammer strikes firing pin. Its echo ricochets over river bend. The woodpecker’s syncopated pop-pop-pop clink and thwap in time with cops practicing prayer at the firing range.

Quick. Sketch a few constellations onto a postcard: empty shotgun shells, these pre-forgotten fossils snaking rusted railroad spikes, like snagged rosary, fallen poplar petals draped over cerulean glass ashtray scattered along glittering fractures, ignored like a treaty. Train tracks reverberate necrophilic boomerang-hunger for mountain air without that coal dust. Eat. Eat. Everything is real estate. Even the air is for sale. Buy it cheap while I.C.E. carves through the valley along the Trail of Tears in unmarked SUVs, traffic stops.

Howl. Callback to estranged entanglements oscillating over holler and highway. Meet on the porch. Haint-blue ceiling. Some ghosts can’t get through anyway. They got tied up on the Walnut Street Bridge by a mob of white spit. Howl. The South should scare you.

But the woodpecker is still nesting, hungry, typing uncannied punctuation marks into black oak: a deed. Home? Takes a side-eyed knowing to call by name. The moon sickles in a sweating glass of iced tea.

Speculation cycle: symmetry as ancient as sour-dank betrayal of the tongue, bitter bones binding blood and lead, alchemical forgetting like I found a hairbrush in the yard while planting wild irises, like someone is charging $10 for an old glass Coke bottle, like semicolons itching restless under new sod from no-one-knows-where. Howl. Sing back. History is soil-in-stereo.

How will this line end? Like riverbank? Like atlatl arching hope smash-through a stained glass window? Words fall out of the sky, and 30 American flags snap at attention on the bridge. Howl. A shift in the wind gallops through the streets tossing her head back, laughing.

Tennessee River, who once kissed Pangea, how she softens at the knuckle-suck of it all, that secret-sweet stowed in the feathers of sandhill cranes lifting up on warm summer breeze: slow-shooting stars bending toward unbothered brevitas.

Howl. The red wolf knows her truest kin is always her shadow’s shadow.

Ondrǣdan is the second aesthetic proposal by Sediments’ owners Pajaro Dune. This work is the result of a deep artistic experimentation and a thorough compositional refinement. Some of these materials have been distlilling in the studio for almost a decade of sound engineering and constant debate to make the experience much more profound.

From old English language, ondrǣdan it is a direct reference to our most primordial fears. Both an emotional yearning and a postapocalyptic kubriesque tale, the five works of this record capture five shades of rhythm and mood, where ambient, dub and downtempo meet in immersive narrative experiences. All them crowned with the luxurious sculptural artwork by Blanco Anyò who forces us look beyond the visceral to intuit the transcendent.

Pajaro Dune is the product that combines the creative minds of Jaime Romero aka Estrato Aurora and David Ortolà aka Syoqh aka d_o_ppelgaenger. More than half a life producing together from València, their multifaceted approach crystallizes in renowned works for Alpenglühen, Grabaciones Perpendiculares, The Monkey Bar, Eleve Music and now their own label.

|| We
become more from what is left,
deliver else than just the now,
build sound stories for the then. ||

2026 Repress

In honor of the November full moon.
Supported by
Deepbass, Svreca, Antonio de Angelis, Arnaud le Texier, Exium, Kwartz, Takaaki Itoh, The Noisemaker, Unam Zetineb, Valentin , Oscar Mulero, Eric Cloutier, Acronym, Ben Buitendijk, Dimi Angelis, Juho Kahilainen, Etapp Kyle, Jonas Kopp, Nima Khak, Rasmus Hedlund, Reggy van Oers, Periskop, Antonio Vazquez, BLNDR, Elle, Jana Sleep, Luigi Tozzi, Modvs, Ntogn and more.

Colorize presents Higher Note, the highly anticipated new album from Sound Quelle, a defining sound in modern melodic electronic music.
Across the album, Sound Quelle showcases his signature blend of beautiful harmonies, atmospheric melodies and driving basslines, crafting a richly detailed body of work that balances emotional depth with dancefloor energy. Building on a campaign already supported strongly by SiriusXM Chill, Vintage Culture, Diplo and Nora En Pure, Valery Lebedev continues to affirm his place as a leading voice in melodic electronic music. With over 50 million streams across DSPs, releases on Armada Music, Black Hole Recordings and Enhanced Music, and long-standing support from Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz and Paul van Dyk, Higher Note stands as a refined and deeply musical statement from an artist at the height of his creative powers.

Manonmars’ 3rd album sees him at his most amorphous and psychedelic, at points sharper and laser focused, and at others more blurred and impressionistic than his previous records. Many of the core players remain the same, all of the production is once again handled by O$VMV$M (the duo of Neek and Amos Childs of Jabu) while Paulina Korobkiewicz (also of Young Echo) makes a return handling both the album’s cover artwork and contributing a series of diaristic field recordings and voice notes.

‘The project references movies, cartoons, fictional characters and video games, among other things. The album title is open to interpretation but all of these elements are forms of visual entertainment which have their own unique ability to transcend things like language barriers and cultural divides. The visual element is key because those details bridge the gap on a communicative level.’ - Manonmars

The album blends abstract, blurred braggadocio with more immediate personal details such as on ‘Volcanic Shield’ a posse cut of sorts featuring Bristol improv luminary Dali de Saint Paul and Franco Franco (½ of cyborg rap duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco) - where Mars recalls;

‘Memories of brighter days, happy meal hit the spot
Mum was spinning vinyl playing Super Ape or Pressure Drop
I would spend the weekend with the Turkish mandem on the block
single parent household, mum was studying or on the job
money came and went always was an on and off
made it back from school time to see what’s on the box’


The beat fades away to leave one of Korobkiewicz’s recordings of Mars’ mum talking about her life in London in the 80s, spending her money on reggae records as an ambient chord fades in like an echo of a jungle intro – stretching out as a link between generations of UK music.

The production by and large is brighter and more kinetic than earlier Manonmars records – with O$VMV$M drawing on everything from modern underground rap and drill through to jazz and acid ambient passages.

London is also a central character here, bustling and constantly shifting, either when bleeding in through field recordings, or as an ever-present backdrop in the lyrics;

‘I’m a fusion of Tippa Irie and Topper Harley
Hit the target like the black Atari
I dropped a tab now shit’s A Scanner Darkly
Got the munchies, Imma yam a sarnie
Pour the Wray and Ting like man at Carni
Exit Peckham Rye and turn left, walk past Hannah Barry
Get your (w)raps up like its January’

‘I've always considered London my home, despite spending some time in the South West of England too. My mum had been living in London for 25 years (...) That was a pretty big deal in some ways because it removed us from multicultural society during the period which overlapped with my teenage years. (...) I never got used to how quiet it was in the countryside (...) Bristol was the closest city to where we lived and it was through travelling there and making connections that I became involved in making music and playing gigs.’ - Manonmars

Mars’ practice as a painter (under his given name Jack Martyn Richardson) and photographer also loom heavy over the album, he cites Paul Verhoeven, Abdul Mati Klariwein and H.R Giger as influences – as well as Miles Davis, Drakeo the Ruler and DJ Rashad.

As with much of Richardson’s work the raps at times feel blurred to a point of almost inscrutability, creating a distance between the audience and himself. A process that ties into his visual work and the way he experiences the world as mainly abstract colour without his glasses. He explores this further in an ongoing visual collaboration with Korobkiewicz, ‘Fun and Games’ which serves as a visual archive of one of London's largest and oldest travelling fairgrounds.

‘I was diagnosed with very severe short-sightedness at the age of seven. I remember my early formative years as visually blurred. Some of my photography reflects this experience of partial vision and uncertainty, referencing memory and perception rather than fixed representation.’

Manonmars’ first public outing as a rapper was at a Young Echo radio event, broadcast shambolically from a practice room just off Jamaica street, Bristol in 2011, as much as things have moved on both stylistically and in terms of focus - strong links back to the city remain a key foundation throughout the collaborations and guest appearances.

‘I have no problem with being an outsider looking in. One of the things I enjoy about London is the anonymity (...) it's easy to be a stranger here when so much is happening. I feel like thats more valuable than people may realise.’

“La Conga Vieja” channels the spirit of the Nickodemus, Quantic and Tempo’s evergreen hit “Mi Swing Es Tropical” - a driving 4/4 groove built on Afro-Latin percussion, salsa piano, and punchy horn lines. What started as an improvised moment at a Puerto Rico show playing a borrowed, decades-old conga became the foundation for this uptempo dancefloor cut. Featuring vocals from Puerto Rican poet Flaco Navaja and trumpet from Carlos Sarduy, the track blends classic Latin rhythms with modern club sensibility. Perfect for DJs moving between tropical, house, and global sets. Includes a bonus beat, radio edit, and instrumental.

This release pairs 'In the Heights' standout Flaco Navaja with Grammy Award–winning trumpeter Carlos Sarduy (Chucho Valdés), delivering a globally rooted, crossover-ready sound. The track comes from internationally respected producer/DJ Nickodemus, whose catalog spans five albums and 11 Turntables on the Hudson compilations, backed by strong digital metrics (52k+ followers, 704k+ monthly listeners, 300M+ streams), including “Mi Swing Es Tropical” (63M+) and multiple other high-performing tracks. The release also features Italian percussionist Gabriele Poso, whose catalog has surpassed 10M+ streams. Nickodemus tours globally to consistent demand, with strong listenership across the USA, France, Spain, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Canada, and Australia. Supported by press in Billboard, Rolling Stone, Complex, The FADER, and Paste, plus global radio (BBC 6, FIP, RFI, KCRW, KEXP).



c 03: La Conga Vieja (Radio Edit) feat. Flaco Navaja & Carlos Sarduy
[d] 04: La Conga Vieja (Rado Edit Instrumental) [feat. Flaco Navaja & Carlos Sarduy]



[c] 03: La Conga Vieja (Radio Edit) [feat. Flaco Navaja & Carlos Sarduy]
[d] 04: La Conga Vieja (Rado Edit Instrumental) [feat. Flaco Navaja & Carlos Sarduy]

Opéra de Nuit emerge from their long slumber to grace Dark Entries with the frostiest of reissues. Formed in 1982 in Valréas in the southeast of France, Opéra de Nuit only released 3 records throughout their career: EPs in 1984 and 1986, with a full LP following in 1988. But devotees of dark music will need no introduction to this band, who are almost definitional of the coldwave genre, and whose rabid cult following has each record readily trading for three-digit prices. Opéra de Nuit’s sound is pure hellish heaven: frigid synths, jangly guitars, and sorrow-laden vox. Check out the pummelling desperation of “Annabella,” the uber-brooding vibes of “Boris Transylvania Camp,” or the elegant anthem “Karen Lloyd” (and don’t forget to watch the video!). This reissue collects their entire newly remastered discography - thirteen lucky tracks. This reissue marks the first time that their work will be reissued on vinyl and digital, and is presented in gatefold jacket with lyrics and photos. Whether you’re new to the genre or a veteran of the coldest waves, Opéra de Nuit brings the essential sound of immortal despair.

When everything around is racing blindly toward ruin, change direction and spin as fast as you can until you defy gravity and rise above the ground into blissful madness. "K-drone", the debut album by three renegades—Jakub Šimanský, Michal Vaľko, and Ján Podracký—is like a hallucinatory Calvary with five stations. Each station is a time-loop capsule, a tiny utopia sneering at the phantom progress of the world outside.

The opening track, "Speedrone", is pure vertigo; for seven long minutes, there's nothing to hold onto. Šimanský’s banjo cuts through the air, Vaľko’s hurdy-gurdy sounds like someone scraping a rusted sheet of metal with a handful of nails, and Podracký’s bass recorder hums like a slowly intensifying migraine. "Sine" is like a train journey through a barren wasteland, where the images outside the window constantly repeat like a bad trip. "Pro DJ" starts like a gig in a bar at the end of the line—a gig that never actually goes anywhere. It’s as if all three are locked in a spasm, their repeated motifs turning into haunting earworms. "Alien Radigue" shifts into a strange idyll in a clearing in the middle of the forest, where an unknown bird species trills in the background. The end and definitive dissolution come in "Slush", where everything suddenly slows down. Šimanský plucks a simple guitar melody, Podracký’s harmonica drifts from side to side like a boat gently rocking by the shore, and Vaľko’s hurdy-gurdy drones like a drunken mosquito buzzing around.

"K-drone" sounds like an acid anti-western movie recorded in a tucked-away burrow, like smoke-soaked folk and experimental campfire songs echoing through a deep forest. It evokes Third Ear Band's "Alchemy", it screeches and repeats like some of Henry Flynt's experiments, and you could easily imagine hearing it drifting from one of the windows on the cover of Hala Strana's eponymous album.

Jakub Šimanský is the bard of Czechoslovak guitar primitivism, an earthy folk sommelier whose fingerpicking you may also know from the duo Šimanský Niesner. Michal Vaľko, aka Line Gate, needs no introduction to fans. He has released three albums on mappa, and his hurdy-gurdy meditations hold an important place in the drone and minimalist music scene. "Den", "Apex", and "Trap" have become essential listening. Ján Podracký is a self-taught composer and musician whom you might know from various participatory music projects, such as an orchestra where all the players play diatonic harmonicas. Besides harmonicas, he has long explored a wide range of flutes. In short, a pied piper who will guide you through other worlds.

Limited purple vinyl. KICKIN VALENTINA return with a sensational new full-length album, "Anthems From The Underground", set for worldwide release in August 2026. The highly-anticipated record will be released via Mighty Music and delivers a crushing, no-compromise statement of modern underground hard rock. Formed in 2013, Kickin Valentina quickly built momentum in the U.S. and internationally, first signing with Atlanta indie label Highway 9 Records before moving to Mighty Music in 2015. Since then, the band has released a steady run of acclaimed records including "Super Atomic", "Imaginary Creatures", "Revenge of Rock", "Star Spangled Fist Fight", and "Raw Trax, B-Sides and Bootlegs", as well as the EP "Chaos in Copenhagen", earning a strong reputation for raw, high-energy rock'n'roll rooted in a take-it-or-leave-it attitude.

Heights Of Fire” by Capleton is being released as an LP via Diggers Factory and presents a brand-new album produced by Evidence Music. The release once again puts Capleton’s distinctive voice front and centre, while also speaking to collectors who value a high-quality pressing.

Musically, “Heights Of Fire” blends classic reggae foundations with modern production elements; weighty bass foundations, precise drums, and organic arrangements carry the messages. Guest appearances by Damian Marley and Stephen Marley, along with collaborations with Derrick Sound, Little Lion Sound, Eesah, Mista Savona, Mixing Finga, and L’Entourloop, provide sonic variety and international influences. Lyrically, the tracks revolve around spirituality, resistance, and personal reflection, which Capleton delivers with emphatic rhetoric.

Key characteristics of the LP include its distinct production signature and the collaboration with established reggae heavyweights, which give the album both depth and a contemporary freshness. The arrangements move between dense roots passages and airy choruses, making the record resonate with both traditional listeners and a younger audience. The release on Diggers Factory also underscores the clear collector focus of the physical rollout.

American experimental composer Stephen O’Malley releases Avaeken, two sides of immense, immersive, self-annihilating music via Dais Records.

The record preserves site-specific work: O’Malley installed Avaeken as part of Wish You Were Here, the exhibition by renowned American artist Banks Violette, underscoring the tension between presence and absence, life and loss.

O’Malley and Violette have developed a distinct language of sound, space, and sculpture over the past two decades, reverberating through the walls of world-class institutions from The Guggenheim and Centre Pompidou to prominent galleries such as Maureen Paley in London, Gladstone Gallery in NYC, and Antwerp’s TICK TACK, the brutalist space where Wish You Were Here unfolded in early 2026.

Emerging now as an LP, Avaeken presents power and phenomena: low-frequency vibrations, deep oscillations, and phase cancellations that translate as innately effective in any environment. Violette’s visual expression — the impossibility of locating yourself within the loss of a friend and the broader decay of culture — now fills the LP sleeve and feels inextricable from O’Malley’s sound, both still without resolution.

“Natural harmonic tone coloured by the valves of the amplification is the one desired characteristic,” reads the initial notes.

“At first I asked, why would I write for another guitar player?” he says. “I realized how amazing it is to be a listener on the other side of the music; together we were able to try all these precisions with intonation, harmonics, specific microtonal ideas.”

The quartet performed Avaeken several times before O’Malley joined them for a recording session at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, a 13th-century former hospital with modern acoustics in Ghent.

Im Vorfeld des Pelagic Fest 2026 feiert das Label den Meilenstein uder 300. Veröffentlichung mit ,The Dungeon Tapes" - einer Zusammenstellung neuen und ubveröffentlichem Materials verschiedener Pelagic-Künstler, darunter The Ocean, Psychonaut, Lost In Kyiv, Pothamus, Gösta Berling's Saga, Telepathy, Spook The Horses, Arms and Sleepers, Johan G Winther, Thot, Barrens und The Answer Lies In The Black Void. Der Eröffnungstrack von Pelagic United and Friends verkörpert den Geist der Zusammenarbeit: Das Projekt vereint Mitglieder von Spotlights, Rosetta, Failure, Shy Low und Hiroe, die gemeinsam eine Version von My Bloody Valentines ,Soon" aufgenommen haben. Dieser Klassiker erfährt hier eine bemerkenswert direkte, düstere und emotional rohe Interpretation, bei der die Shoegaze-Ästhetik in weite Klangräume und ätherische Klänge in brutale Wucht verwandelt werden. Und danach gibt's noch 12 weitere, düstere Post Metal, Postrock, Post-Hardcore-Goodies! CD oder Doppel-Vinyl (schwarz oder farbig) mit Etching auf Seite D. Gatefold Sleeve mit Glanzlack-Coverart.

Im Vorfeld des Pelagic Fest 2026 feiert das Label den Meilenstein uder 300. Veröffentlichung mit ,The Dungeon Tapes" - einer Zusammenstellung neuen und ubveröffentlichem Materials verschiedener Pelagic-Künstler, darunter The Ocean, Psychonaut, Lost In Kyiv, Pothamus, Gösta Berling's Saga, Telepathy, Spook The Horses, Arms and Sleepers, Johan G Winther, Thot, Barrens und The Answer Lies In The Black Void. Der Eröffnungstrack von Pelagic United and Friends verkörpert den Geist der Zusammenarbeit: Das Projekt vereint Mitglieder von Spotlights, Rosetta, Failure, Shy Low und Hiroe, die gemeinsam eine Version von My Bloody Valentines ,Soon" aufgenommen haben. Dieser Klassiker erfährt hier eine bemerkenswert direkte, düstere und emotional rohe Interpretation, bei der die Shoegaze-Ästhetik in weite Klangräume und ätherische Klänge in brutale Wucht verwandelt werden. Und danach gibt's noch 12 weitere, düstere Post Metal, Postrock, Post-Hardcore-Goodies! CD oder Doppel-Vinyl (schwarz oder farbig) mit Etching auf Seite D. Gatefold Sleeve mit Glanzlack-Coverart.

Ein authentischer Geschichtenerzähler der heutigen Indie-Rock-Szene ist der in Tampa geborene und in New Orleans lebende Singer/Songwriter Thomas Dollbaum, und ,Birds of Paradise" ist sein bisher kraftvollstes und dynamischstes Werk. Nach seinen von Kritikern hochgelobten Alben "Wellswood" (Big Legal Mess, 2022) und "Drive All Night EP" (Dear Life Records, 2025) ist "Birds of Paradise" ein Abschiedsbrief an verlorene Liebste und sein früheres Ich. In diesen Songs sucht Dollbaum nach Akzeptanz an vergänglichen Zwischenorten: in den Kiefernwäldern Floridas, auf Nebenstraßen, die zur 1-95 führen, wo Vögel über das Wasser fliegen. Und obwohl die Geister seiner Alt-Country-Vorgänger Townes und Molina definitiv präsent sind, tritt Dollbaum auf Birds of Paradise aus ihrem Schatten heraus - er winkt der Vergangenheit zu und klingt dabei umso mehr wie er selbst. Dieser Moment - dieses Album - ist längst überfällig. Die Aufnahmen zu Dollbaums beiden vorherigen Veröffentlichungen hatten aufgrund von Umständen, die außerhalb seiner Kontrolle lagen, viel zu lange gedauert, was ihn frustriert zurückließ. Nachdem er acht Jahre lang von zu Hause weg war, war der Ort, den er verlassen hatte, nicht mehr der Ort, an den er sich erinnerte, und die Unveränderlichkeit der Natur fühlte sich wie eine Konstante an, über die er schreiben wollte. Mit einem Gefühl der Unmittelbarkeit schrieb er ,Birds of Paradise" in drei Monaten. Er rief die Musiker an, denen er am meisten vertraute und die er am meisten bewunderte - Nick Corson, Josh Halper und Jake Lenderman - und bat sie, sich mit ihm bei Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, mit dem Produzenten/Toningenieur Clay Jones zu treffen. Sie lernten das Album in vier Tagen ein und nahmen es auf, wobei sie einen Blitz in einer Flasche einfingen, eine klangliche Offenbarung, auf die Dollbaums Songwriting schon immer gewartet hatte. Mit der Hilfe von Lenderman, Halper, Corson und Jones ist ,Birds of Paradise" Dollbaums hart erkämpfter Durchbruch. Lebendig und nachhallend wie Gedichte und Kurzgeschichten, die man nicht vergessen kann: Kojoten heulen, Vögel fliegen nach Süden, Kinder jagen Kaninchen durch das Zuckerrohr und Zigaretten kosten vier Dollar pro Packung. Birds of Paradise erinnert uns daran, woher wir kommen - an die Dinge in uns, die wir vergessen haben - wir brauchten nur Dollbaum, um uns das zu zeigen. So blickt man ohne Angst oder Scham zurück. So sieht Authentizität aus.

What is Buck? Buck is a state of mind, a way of life, a demeanor that gets you through the good times and the bad. If you ask Brainstory, It is also the energy that permeates their debut album. Kevin, Tony, and Eric are a trio of brothers bounded by blood, fate, and a small town with nothing to do. Their story begins in the long lost lands of the San Bernardino Valley, in the twilight zone known as Rialto, California: An arid wasteland of boredom and empty lots. Through punk rock and skateboarding they found temporary liberation from the local monotony. However, it wouldn't be long before a hunger for more led them to explore musical realms beyond that of the hardcore punk they admired. After stints at music school and steady disappointment trying to navigate their local jazz scene they moved to Los Angeles and Brainstory was born. Through a introduction from Chicano Batman's bassist, Brainstory caught the ears of Big Crown head honchos Danny Akalepse and Leon Michels. Shortly thereafter they were on their way to Queens, to record at The Legendary Diamond Mine with Michels at the helm. An instant chemistry yielded 10 songs in 10 days and now Brainstory has gifted the world with one hell of an introduction to all things Buck. Highlights include the sublime slow burner, "Dead End" which was the A-side to their first 45 on Big Crown that sold out in a matter of days. With Kevin's sublime falsetto floating atop Tony and Eric's unflappable and unmistakable backbeat, this tune has become a favorite with the ballad heads, the low-riders, and the slowie collectors. "Breathe" showcases another side of their sound taking a page out of the Shuggie Otis playbook and flipping the script with some stoned out west coast swag. Kev and Tony's father, Big Tone, an accomplished performer himself, steps in on "Peter Pan" to sing lead vocals over a chorus of friends and family. Bassist extraordinaire, Tony, takes over lead vocal duties on "Sorry", a smoked out, G Funk groove that is just waiting to be sampled. These guys have come a long way from their self released EPs and opening tours with Chicano Batman. Their musical growth is undeniable, and taking their California sunshine vibes and mixing them with Michels' NYC aesthetic has proven to be an amazing combination. It's a debut record that pulls influences from so many genres seamlessly it's hard to nail down. Call it Funk, call it Rock, call it Soul, but over here at Big Crown HQ, we've decided to call it BUCK.

2 Of Clubs may have enjoyed only a brief recording career, but Linda Parrish and Patti Valentine left behind a remarkable body of work. This 10-inch vinyl mini-album gathers their complete recordings for the first time, including every Fraternity Records release and two previously unissued tracks discovered in the label’s tape archive.
The duo became local favourites in Cincinnati during the mid-1960s after meeting while performing at the popular Guys & Dolls nightclub, accompanied by the Driving Winds, led by Linda’s husband Carl Edmondson. Discovering how well their voices blended, they joined forces as 2 Of Clubs and soon caught the attention of Fraternity Records founder Harry Carlson, who signed them to the label with Edmondson acting as producer and manager.

René ter Horst (DJ Zki) and Gaston Steenkist (Dobre), credited here as René et Gaston, are a DJ and music production duo from Haarlem, Netherlands. Their stage names include Chocolate Puma, Klatsch!, Jark Prongo, The Good Men, and Riva.

Their most notable productions are "Give It Up" (1993) credited to The Good Men, "I Wanna Be U" (2001) credited to Chocolate Puma, and "Who Do You Love Now?" (2001) credited to Riva, and featuring Dannii Minogue.

Vallée de L'Armes became a massive international club hit in 1993. Throughout the years, multiple remixes were released. The best remixes are now bundled on this exclusive 12".
Andre Zimmer reworks Vallée De L’Armes into a modern dance floor weapon. and receives support by Danny Howard,, Green Velvet, Peggy Gou and many more.

Andrew Dum created a swerve-inducing Afrohouse remix as well. The new rendition preserves the emotional depth that made the original resonate through the years, while giving it a fresh contemporary edge.

The 2026 Marco Lys remix transforms the original’s iconic melodic hook into a high-energy House production tailored for contemporary sets. The remix replaces the 90s-era breakbeat elements with a driving, tech-influenced rhythmic foundation, ensuring the emotional resonance of the original melody remains functional for peak-time modern dancefloors.

Vallée de l’Armes remains an essential house tune. This exclusive 12" features all the extended mixes and is available as a limited edition on orange vinyl.

Taylor Hollingsworth aus Birmingham, Alabama, hat sich schon immer einer einfachen Einstufung widersetzt. Als er gebeten wurde, seine Musik zu beschreiben, tat er sich schwer - ein bisschen Folk, ein Hauch von Blues, eine Prise Rock 'n' Roll, aber nicht wirklich in eine einzige Schublade zu stecken. Schließlich prägte er den Begriff ,Folk n' Roll", um seinen Sound zu beschreiben. Jetzt bekennt er sich stolz zu diesem Sound mit seinem neuesten Album, das treffend den Titel ,Folk n' Roll" trägt. Fans von JJ Cale, Mississippi John Hurt, Chuck Berry, Richard Thompson, Jonathan Richman und John Prine werden große Freude an Hollingsworths Mischung aus zeitlosen Einflüssen haben. In den frühen 2000er Jahren tourte Hollingsworth ausgiebig mit seiner punkigen Rockband (stell dir eine Mischung aus Ramones, Chuck Berry und ZZ Top vor) und arbeitete als Session-Musiker, der auf Tour mit verschiedenen Künstlern Gitarre spielte (vor allem mit Conor Oberst und der Mystic Valley Band). Doch nach der Geburt seiner Tochter legte er eine Tourpause ein, um sich ganz seiner Familie zu widmen und sein Handwerk als Vollzeit-Musiker vor Ort in Birmingham, Alabama, zu verfeinern. In dieser Zeit perfektionierte er seine fesselnde Ein-Mann-Show, die er nun ,Folk n' Roll" nennt. Seine Auftritte sind ein unvergessliches Erlebnis - fingergepickte E-Gitarre, ein mit Mikrofonen ausgestattetes Fußstampfer-Pedal, das den rhythmischen Rückgrat bildet, und gelegentlich ein Looper-Pedal, um Gitarrensoli einzuflechten, während er seine charakteristischen erzählerischen Texte vorträgt - Texte, die von zahlreichen Künstlern gecovert wurden, vor allem von Conor Oberst und Phoebe Bridgers bei Better Oblivion Community Center. ,Folk `N Roll" ist sein zweites Album für das beliebte Indie-Label Dial Back Sound, nach dem von Kritikern gefeierten und geliebten ,Yahola" aus dem Jahr 2025.

Bruno Silva returns under his Ondness moniker for his most personal album yet.

Recorded as an homage, a reference map, and a temporal slippage back to a transformative period of Bruno Silva's life, I Can Only Put So Much Into a Song conjures the threshold between his shoegaze-leaning teen years and a young adulthood defined by profound sonic landmarks: Iran’s The Moon Boys (whose cover serves as a key influence), The Microphones’ It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water, Fennesz’s Endless Summer, and the communal, tape- hiss maelstrom of the New Weird America underground—all underscored by a persistent Black Metal tension.

Taking its title from a lyric in Farrah Abraham’s masterpiece My Teenage Dream Ended, this new humble offering from Ondness drifts into the memory of song as half-remembered recollections, as if beamed from a recurring "now" of unfulfilled possibilities.

The West Coast's contribution to hardcore punk is undeniable. That tradition of aggression, passion, and scrappy melodicism continues with The Barbarians Of California, an engaging new manifestation of iconoclastic spirit and true bombast. Born from the shared passion of Aaron Bruno (AWOLNATION) and his longtime engineer Eric Stenman - who cut his teeth in the same Sacramento community that eventually launched diverse and disparate acts like Deftones, Far, Will Haven, Team Sleep, Hella, Dance Gavin Dance, Death Grips, and Trash Talk - the spirit of the underground and the personal catharsis delivered through metallic hardcore never left either of them. So, when Aaron learned that Eric crafted a batch of throwback bangers combining impassioned angst with modern sensibilities, he wanted in immediately. The Barbarians of California was born.

In 2024, the band released their debut album, And Now I'm Just Gnashing My Teeth, and celebrated with a high-energy show at the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles, cementing their place in the hardcore scene's next chapter. Since then, they've continued to build momentum with headline shows across LA, a summer 2025 arena tour with Deftones and other festival appearances that brought their explosive live presence to a wider audience. Dropping two new singles in 2025 including a collaboration with Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die/Many Eyes), The Barbarians Of California are gearing up in 2026 for the release of their sophomore album, MEGATONS. With their second full length, The Barbarians of California are unleashing fresh chaos straight from the sun-soaked, teeth-gnashing heart of the Golden State. Blending raw hardcore energy, razor-sharp riffs, and that signature mix of ferocity and tongue-in-cheek humor, these new songs hit like a caffeine-fueled fever dream.

With her new album Trespasser, Grace Potter introduces a beautifully unruly cast of characters who step into forbidden spaces with absolute abandon. As the spiritual sequel to 2023’s Mother Road, the four-time Grammy nominee’s seventh studio LP continues the kaleidoscopic storyline shaped by her many road trips from her Topanga Canyon home to her part-time residence in her native Vermont (a journey she’s made eight times in the last five years, usually on her own). But while Mother Road was born from a desperate need for solace in the midst of emotional freefall, Trespasser reveals an artist firmly anchored in her singular vision.

The latest chapter in a career marked by endless transformation and elite recognition—including sharing stages with rock & roll icons like the Rolling Stones & Robert Plant and earning praise from legends like Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt—Trespasser ultimately lights the way toward a more unbound and expansive means of moving through the world. Produced by her husband and frequent collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Slash) and recorded in a cross-country journey beginning at her home in Topanga with Benmont Tench, continuing in Nashville with Mother Road session players (members of Cage the Elephant, Kings of Leon, and Train), and completed in Vermont with members of her longtime live band, the album echoes its origins with a wayward sound that spans from stripped-bare soul to cosmic country to hellraising rock & roll—all while orbiting Potter’s force- of-nature voice and lavishly imagined storytelling. “We’ve always been taught that the trespassers are the bad guys, but to me it’s not about reckless rebellion,” says Potter. “It’s about exploring, physically and mentally and emotionally, and being willing to step outside the narratives we’ve accepted. Because in my experience, the places we’re told not to go are exactly the ones that show us who we really are.”

With her new album Trespasser, Grace Potter introduces a beautifully unruly cast of characters who step into forbidden spaces with absolute abandon. As the spiritual sequel to 2023’s Mother Road, the four-time Grammy nominee’s seventh studio LP continues the kaleidoscopic storyline shaped by her many road trips from her Topanga Canyon home to her part-time residence in her native Vermont (a journey she’s made eight times in the last five years, usually on her own).

But while Mother Road was born from a desperate need for solace in the midst of emotional freefall, Trespasser reveals an artist firmly anchored in her singular vision. The latest chapter in a career marked by endless transformation and elite recognition—including sharing stages with rock & roll icons like the Rolling Stones & Robert Plant and earning praise from legends like Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt—Trespasser ultimately lights the way toward a more unbound and expansive means of moving through the world. Produced by her husband and frequent collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Slash) and recorded in a cross-country journey beginning at her home in Topanga with Benmont Tench, continuing in Nashville with Mother Road session players (members of Cage the Elephant, Kings of Leon, and Train), and completed in Vermont with members of her longtime live band, the album echoes its origins with a wayward sound that spans from stripped-bare soul to cosmic country to hellraising rock & roll—all while orbiting Potter’s force- of-nature voice and lavishly imagined storytelling. “We’ve always been taught that the trespassers are the bad guys, but to me it’s not about reckless rebellion,” says Potter. “It’s about exploring, physically and mentally and emotionally, and being willing to step outside the narratives we’ve accepted. Because in my experience, the places we’re told not to go are exactly the ones that show us who we really are.”

Completes the vinyl collection of Los Mockers, alongside the reissue of their original 1966 LP, this two handful of tracks, previously unreleased or out of print, traces the journey of five teenagers who, clinging to rock & roll, became legends. Blending the raw energy of 1960s rock & roll with rhythm & blues roots and later-day musical maturity, Los Mockers left a lasting mark on the Río de la Plata scene f rom their explosive beginnings to their 21st-century comeback. REWIND brings together rare recordings spanning nearly sixty years: from mid-1960s demos and singles to reunion sessions recorded between 2006 and 2012, i ncluding deleted material and an unreleased live track. Side A captures the band's early fire, opening with a 1965 demo of "I Just Want to Make Love to You," recorded under their original name, Los Encadenados, at Radio Ariel in Montevideo. It also includes their first original singles, "I Wanna Go" and "My Baby," plus the unreleased "Girl You Won't Succeed" and a fast, distinctly Uruguayan take on "Paint It Black." Side B focuses on the reunion era recordings made in Valencia, Spain, where the band revisited their legacy with renewed strength and craftsmanship. Tracks like " Need Some Time," "40 Years Ago," and "The Chain" show a seasoned group still driven by authentic rock & roll spirit, while "25 Watts" pays tribute to filmmaker Juan Pablo Rebella. The album closes with a powerful 2012 live version of "Tell Me Something New."

A deluxe double LP reissue of a rare 1997 indie cult classic, expanded with bonus material and featuring the formative recordings of musicians who would later create The Essex Green and The Sixth Great Lake. Originally released in 1997, Jeffersonville is a hidden gem of late-'90s American indie rock, blending heartfelt songwriting, melodic guitars, and the raw charm of the DIY underground. Formed in Burlington, Vermont, Guppyboy served as an early creative home for musicians who would later go on to form The Sixth Great Lake and The Essex Green, making this album an important chapter in the story of American independent music. This deluxe double LP edition presents Jeffersonville in its most complete form to date, featuring previously unreleased and non-album tracks not included on the original release. Expanding on the original album while preserving its intimate, homespun spirit, this definitive edition shines a new light on a long-overlooked cult favorite. With its blend of indie rock, power pop, and timeless melodic songwriting, Jeffersonville offers strong appeal to fans of the Elephant 6 universe and the wider American indie underground, while providing lasting catalogue value for retailers and collectors alike.

One original mix, never before released on vinyl, alongside three brand new remixes from Claptrap Allstars.

Francisco D’Argento may not have been a pioneer of the Italo Disco movement that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but his sun-soaked, refined approach captured the spirit of the era with unmistakable charm.

While D’Argento received critical attention from local press and music journals, his work unfortunately never connected with a wider audience. In later years, his output gradually slowed, and his early recordings slipped into obscurity.

With the support of the D’Argento estate, this forgotten gem has been lovingly restored and remastered from the original ½-inch tape, bringing new life to an overlooked piece of Italian electronic music history.

This release presents the original version, an uptempo, high nrg direct italo cut featuring D’Argento’s own vocals, alongside the voice of his second wife, actress and model Eleanora D’Argento.

Donald Dust delivers a powerful and thumping rework for the A2 the “Squish Mix”, a stretched-out, dubbed-out interpretation built for those late-night, hot and heavy dancefloors.

Dr Valentine takes things into the cosmos with the “Nello Spazio Mix”, slowing the tempo and drifting into hypnotic space.

Closing out the EP, Vanity Project presents a darker Robotalo Remix, stripping away the original’s outer layer and revealing a shadowy, dark-disco driven version.

Buon ascolto!

At the Moers Festival 2018, OXBOW got together with Peter Brötzmann to deliver a memorable performance, bringing out the best of two legends in their very own genres while playing old and new Oxbow songs together. Oxbow, formed in 1988 in San Francisco, plays a blend of noise rock, avant garde jazz, musique concrè te and blues, creating intimate soundscapes, with overtones of paranoia, revulsion and exaltation. They released a couple of cult albums, eg. on. Neurot, Hydra Head. Peter Brötzmann , active since the 60s with his distinct saxophone sound, is one of the key musicians in European Free Jazz. ,I think we have at least one thing in common: a certain kind of energy, which we could share and where we will meet." Peter Brötzmann *** Peter Brötzmann -saxophone / Eugene S. Robinson - vocals / Niko Wenner - guitars, piano / Dan Adams - bass guitar / Greg Davis - drums

Eero Koivistoinen's debut album reissued in July Eero Koivistoinen is a wide-ranging composer and a talented musician – one of the all-time greats of the Finnish jazz. In 1965 Koivistoinen founded a trio that played avant-garde and fusion jazz together with Pekka Sarmanto and Edward Vesala. In 1967–68 he was a member of Blues Section – a group that is regarded as the first progressive rock band in Finland. Valtakunta (“Kingdom”) was originally released in 1968 and is Eero Koivistoinen’s first jazz LP. The songs of the album are based on the lyrics written by Finnish poets Pentti Saarikoski, Tuomas Anhava, Hannu Mäkelä and Jarkko Laine. The vocalists are Eero Raittinen, Seija Simola, Vesa-Matti Loiri and Koivistoinen himself. He also plays the tenor saxophone, piano and vibraphone, and is joined by a vast selection of legendary Finnish musicians, including Seppo "Baron" Paakkunainen, Pekka Sarmanto, Ronnie Österberg, Hasse Walli, Juhani Aaltonen, Antero Jakoila, Kaj Backlund, Esa Pethman, and Reino Laine among many others. All compositions are by Koivistoinen. The album reflects well the forthcoming compositional repertoire of Koivistoinen with its wide style spectrum. Valtakunta was reissued on vinyl in 2016 via Svart and the pressing quickly found a new home on the turntables of record collectors worldwide. After ten years, it's time to bring back this quintessential piece of Finnish psychedelia, avant-garde, free jazz, and progressive rock on wax and CD again.

Original Jazz Classics celebrates Miles Davis’ centennial with the release of Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. Originally released on Prestige in 1957 and one of four albums recorded during sessions at Van Gelder studios, Cookin’ features Davis alongside John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones. This new edition of the album is released on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.

This is terrific.
Brimming with saudade, an atmospheric, engrossing, organic blend of the gorgeous folk music of northern Ecuador’s indigenous communities, and tentative, crafted, soulful electronica.
‘Mala Fama is a Kichwa sound-artist from Ibarra, Ecuador, inhabiting — and creating — multiple worlds at once, while being rooted in Indigenous pride and power. Jichushka is a Kichwa word meaning lonely, or abandoned. Here, grief is re-cast as a pathway to liberation.
‘The album was recorded between 2016-2022. Home studio sessions facilitated close collaboration with a network of artists drawn from Andean musical lineages such as marimba, vallenato, and cumbia — including Afro-Ecuadorian group Duo Anjoa, vocalist Catalina Ortiz from coastal Esmeraldas, Ibarra-based multi-instrumentalist Luis Lema, and Quixosis. The album builds on peaceful ambient compositions as much as heavy sequencing, inviting melancholic remembrances of times and spaces that no longer exist.’
Warmly recommended. Like nothing else. Check it out!

'Devotional music and its devotees all do a bit of "buying in"; that while one's on the ground reality may appear anything but celestial, through this music, one can reach ecstatic space, ecstatic peace. However, devotional music is not solely concerned with a skyward glance - what does it look like to raise up the rust, look upon fractured branches, gaze at the density of a low fog across a field? Instead of us looking up at the land, what if the land was looking back at us? Old Saw brings together a brigade of New England silt sifters to raise up the land not as excavators, but as preparators. Tending and caring for the simple mess that our world discards. Throughout Country Tropics four pieces, the crew stretches and bends chords to their resting place before setting forth towards a new one. Fiddle drone, wistful tape loops of pedal steel, pipe organ hums, and clattering bells call us to scenes of observation, a water tower, a mechanical bull rental agency, a back porch, a taxidermy shop, a local church choir, a garden with singing vines, voltage hum of the electric fence on Pulp mill bridge road.
'The funny thing about devotion is the absence of sight, of source. We place trust in the guide or guides to bring us to a place of seeing, feeling, and hearing. The music on Country Tropics calls out to those in search of such places, but also doesn't demand we conjure some fantastical, celestial vision of understanding. Rather, Old Saw points our gaze downward towards the terrafirma unconsidered, and guides our hands into the dirt.'

2026 Repress
Efficient Space honours the memory of producer and MC Ali Omar with Hashish Hits, a posthumous selection from the dub rebel’s self-released discography.

One of ten children in working-class Liverpool, Omar drew deep influence from his father's Arabic heritage—a thread central to his identity and sample origins. After art school and a spell clubbing during Manchester's halcyon days, he relocated to Sydney, where he cofounded the blunted downbeat duo Atone with fellow British expatriate Andy Fitzgerald. As an MC, he infiltrated the city’s house, dub, jungle, and bass circuits, becoming a regular fixture at the Bentley Bar, where he commanded the mic with his versatile, rumbling baritone and charisma.

Freakishly talented in the studio, Omar was a pioneer of the Akai sampler and Atari, deftly recording live sessions straight to DAT. Drawing on industry insights from his sister, Merseybeat firebrand Beryl Marsden—who supported The Beatles on their final UK tour and was signed to Decca and Columbia—the non-conformist sought to build a self-sufficient business model. Between 1998 and 2004, he independently issued four albums on CD through his Hashish Studios imprint, hustling copies directly to local record stores and live shows for instant returns, even hand-sewing screen-printed hessian sleeves for his final release.

Uncompromising in his principles and refusing to suffer fools or charlatans, Omar relished the opportunity to collaborate with those who embodied the same spirit. Hashish Hits offers a snapshot of his inner sanctum—Fitzgerald on the opening track's billowing smoke stacks, the serpentine vocals of Gina Mitchell and the magic hands of mixer Louis Mitchell on 'On Release,' and Wicked Beat Sound System’s Kye on 'Poor Man Beggar Man Thief'. Meanwhile, 'Suicide Bomber' smoulders with the tension of a lost Muslimgauze relic, as the instructional 'Roll Up' and 'The Last Straw' spiral deeper into Omar’s signature production vortex— where space stretches in slow motion and walls reverberate with ricocheting delay.

A true icon of Sydney’s underground scene, the larger-than-life Omar passed away on 23 June 2009 after a valiant battle with cancer. He is remembered for his assertive spirit, larrikin humour, wild anarchic personality, and enduring mantra: “Love and live your life”.1

BBE Music’s celebrated J Jazz compilation series reaches its fifth and final volume in early 2026, culminating in a track list that maintains the exceptionally high standard first set with volume one back in 2018. This final volume features a selection of tracks that is as diverse as it is deep, reflecting the rich and varied Japanese jazz scene that spanned from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, a golden era of innovation and creativity. J Jazz volume 5 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig ever deeper into their respective record collections to reveal tracks that encompass myriad styles including white hot jazz funk fusion from Toshiyuki Honda (Eastern Legacy) and Mikio Masuda (Sonic Barrier), super rare ethnic jazz crossover by Christal Zone - their one-off 45 promo release from 1971, Rai Rai, a deconstructed and abstract jazz classic by Yasuhiro Kohno with his solo piano rendition of My Favourite Things, and Mile and Half’s skin-tearing, shredding freak-out from their mega rare private press album.

A track that is so relentless, it leaves the listener in need of oxygen and a Valium. These hand-picked selections sit alongside other specially chosen numbers that embrace hard-driving samba (Seiichi Nakumura’s Judy’s Samba), epic head-nodding soul jazz (Masaru Imada’s World Line), psychedelic private press fusion (Aoyama Gakuin 101’s Fervor), angular post-bop tear-ups (Akira Miyazawa’s Nijimasu), intense and insistent fusion (Motohiko Hino’s Olive Step), serene cinematic pianism (Hideo Ichikawa’s On the Trade Wind) and tripped-out hallucinogenic tribal funky jazz (Masahiko Sato’s Garandoh’s Africa to Africa). Most of the tracks on this collection are being reissued for the first time, many of them only available previously on extremely limited and mega-rare private press or independent releases. J Jazz volume 5 is a fitting end to a compilation series that helped create a new audience and appreciation of Japanese jazz Some of the albums the tracks are drawn from are featured in the large format book J Jazz: Modern and Free Jazz from Japan 1954-1988, by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, published by BBE Music in 2024. With almost 7000 words of extensive sleeve notes, J Jazz volume 5 comes in a triple 180g vinyl set inside a deluxe gatefold sleeve with obi strip, and comes with a 4-page insert, with photographs from the renowned Tokyo Jazz Joints project. It is also available as a double CD and digital download. Mastered at the Grammy-nominated Carvery Studio by Frank Merritt, this latest collection is a worthy successor to the preceding four volumes that set the bar so high. The J Jazz series is curated for BBE Music by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden.

Brownswood Editions unearths another treasure from the catalogue, revisiting the Havana Cultura project. Initiated by DJ, broadcaster and curator Gilles Peterson in the late 2000s, Havana Cultura connected contemporary Cuban musicians with global audiences at a time when international perceptions of Cuban music were still largely rooted in the Buena Vista Social Club era.

Instead, the project spotlighted a new generation of Havana-based artists whose sound drew from contemporary diasporic influences - neo-soul, hip-hop and reggaeton - seen through a distinctly Afro-Cuban lens.

One of the project’s most explosive moments came with this Cuban reimagining of Fela Kuti’s classic Roforofo Fight, a track that quickly became a DJ favourite thanks to its live energy and deep rhythmic drive. The band features both Mayra Caridad Valdés (daughter of Chucho) - one of Cuba’s leading contemporary jazz and soul singers and internationally acclaimed pianist Roberto Fonseca.

This new 12" edition pairs the original version with a highly sought-after remix from house music legend Louie Vega, who brings his unmistakable New York Latin house touch, extending the groove for contemporary dancefloors while respecting the Afro-Cuban roots of the recording. The original remix pressing has since become highly sought after on discogs, making this long-awaited return to vinyl essential for DJs and collectors alike.

A meeting point of Afrobeat heritage, Cuban musicianship and club culture, the release reflects Brownswood’s long-standing mission to join the dots between scenes, sounds and generations.

Gilles Peterson presents Norma Winstone Live at Maida Vale is a live album that comes as part of an amazing collaboration between BBE Music and UK DJ and radio legend Gilles Peterson. Pre-empting the future release of Gilles' compilation BBC Sessions Vol 2 – Maida Vale: the end of an era on BBE Music, this Norma Winstone concert is an absolute must have for anyone who is part of the Jazz fanbase. Released as a vinyl LP this recording captures vocalist and composer Norma Winstone with a group of contemporary and emerging musicians that include her sons Leo and Alex Taylor on drums and vocals respectively, the world renowned tuba player Oren Marshall, pianist and composer Elliot Galvin (Shabaka Hutchins, Emma-Jean Thackray) and saxophonist Mark Lockheart (Polar Bear, Radiohead, Robert Wyatt). As BBE Music celebrates 30 years as one of the UK's (and the world's) pre-eminent and innovative Black music record labels this collaboration with Gilles Peterson is an apt partnership to curate, release and highlight some of the music from Gilles' groundbreaking BBC Sessions recorded at the globally famous Maida Vale studios. To feature a concert by a legend such as Norma Winstone, who has worked with everyone from Joe Harriot to Michael Garrick to Ian Carr's Nucleus in her over 50 year career, is clearly a highly personal moment for Gilles as he described the Maida Vale gig as 'possibly the biggest highlight of all my years at the BBC'. Released on BBE Music as a five track vinyl LP, Gilles Peterson presents Norma Winstone Live at Maida Vale comes in a gatefold sleeve which features photographs from the session and sleeve notes by the excellent music and culture writer Emma Warren.

Within the broad church of metal and its many offshoots – rock, doom, stoner and all the rest – it remains a minor thrill to stumble across a group who seem to exist at a slight tangent to everything else. Crumbling Ghost is one such anomaly. Crumbling Ghost are not newcomers. They've been operating for some time, releasing records sporadically, Four' is in fact their fourth release. Along the way they've accumulated a fervent coterie of followers, not to mention the occasional nod of approval from tastemakers such as Stuart Maconie, Stewart Lee and Tom Ravenscroft. And though they've appeared at Roadburn, shared stages with Hawkwind and even Damo Suzuki, they remain (possibly by design) curiously under the radar.
The group's core idea is deceptively simple: traditional folk material refracted through the haze and heft of heavy, fuzzy stoner rock with a chunk of psyche and a smattering of doom. But crucially, this is done without the costumery and theatrical tics that often accompany such collisions. No mock pagan pageantry, no graveyard cosplay, no cartoon Satanism.
What Crumbling Ghost latch onto is not folk as a museum piece, but as a lived experience, the dramas rooted in the culture, stories, and daily lives of ordinary people, the folklore, the tales of love and death, murder and adultery, freedom and oppression. Singer Katie Harnett says. "Doting mothers, possessive, violent partners, vulnerable women, seasonal workers and Royal scandals this album is our representation of the trials and tribulations of human existence and universal experiences that still feel relevant today.

Guitarist John adds. "Themes of murder, betrayal, loss, jealousy, and love are found across the record. In particular, the songs of Martin Carthy have been a particular source of inspiration".
The result is a set of murder ballads, supernatural reckonings and cautionary tales, all wrapped in slabs of heavy, thumping fuzz and atmospheric sonics. Harnett's voice sits at the centre: unmistakably folk rooted, but shorn of prettification, melodic yet capable of real bite.

The album opener 'Bows Of London' is a murder ballad of sisterly hatred and grim sibling rivalry, centred on a haunted fiddle fashioned from a dead sister's bones. The loping relentless, hypnotic backing chillingly and perfectly accompanies the narrative. Of course, the story doesn't end well. 'Bill Norrie' follows, a hooky melody propelled by an insistent bassline and a haunting psych tinged haze punctured with sheets of noise.. The story of young Bill Norrie who sends a token to a married woman, whose jealous husband beheads him, without knowing he was his wife's son from an earlier affair. An instrumental palate cleanser arrives in the shape of 'Valtz Efter Tor Lohne' a Norwegian traditional the band jokingly describe as a "banger".
Then we have 'Lovely Joan' which offers a rare note of sly triumph: a quick witted woman outmanoeuvres a predatory nobleman, escaping with his ring and his horse. Muscular riffs give this tale of empowerment a welcome sense of teeth. 'Gower Wassail' is a traditional Welsh folk tune that captures the raucous spirit of communal ritual, noise making and drink fuelled hope for a good harvest. Captured perfectly here by CG complete with wah wah guitar and a drunken groove catching the song's celebratory chaos. Then we have a little gem in 'Last Of All Sleep' , an original band composition and a genuine highlight: a heavy lidded, shoegaze tinged folk reverie, equal parts distortion and delicacy. It's a drop-dead gorgeous shoegaze-tastic psychedelic grunge mini epic. The album closer 'The Unquiet Grave' is a very apt place to finish. It's about a young man whose constant grief at the death of his true love disturbs her eternal sleep so she cannot rest. Even though the playout on this track, complete with a demonic repeated riff and feedback feels suitably bleak, even this song allows a glimmer of release ... we think.
And there we have it, 7 songs, 7 worlds, all honed to perfection by producer Wayne Adams (Green Lung/Big Lad) that will reward every repeated listen.

Folk and metal/heavy rock do have a connection of course, just look at Green Lung and their 'folk horror' infused musical universe, but Crumbling Ghost are a very different beast.
'Four' amply and beautifully demonstrates that when it comes to 'folk horror' there's nothing quite as horrible as folk ... Here, the horror such as it is, and it must be said, the moments of light, comes not from theatrics, but from the songs themselves – which, after all, is where it's always lived.
Crumbling Ghost are John Mosley – Guitar / Donny Hopkins – Guitar / Ruth O’Loughlin – Bass / Katie Harnett – Vocals / Matthew Atkins- Drums.

Nothing have always been rule-breakers. Shoegaze renegades who've rebuilt the stereotypically lightweight genre in their own bloodyknuckled American image. Outlaw poets spilling existential dread on mile-wide canvasses of fuzz and reverb. Beginning as a Philly-born bedroom solo project in 2010, Nothing's music has always captured the full scale of the human condition, both the blaring anger and the whispering sadness. a short history of decay, Nothing's fifth solo album and first for Run For Cover Records, widens that aperture even further, providing the most hi-def rendering of Nothing to date. The band have never sounded this colossal, never felt this intimate, never been this honest. With the strongest arsenal in Nothing's ever-shifting lineup locked in -- guitarist Doyle Martin (Cloakroom), bassist Bobb Bruno (Best Coast), drummer Zachary Jones (MSC, Manslaughter 777), and third guitarist Cam Smith (Ladder To God, also of Cloakroom) -- singer-songwriter Domenic "Nicky" Palermo knew he had the manpower to make the band's most ambitious record yet. Co-written and produced with Whirr guitarist Nicholas Bassett, and with additional production and mixing work from Sonny Diperri (DIIV, Julie), a short history of decay, is the most evolved musical statement in Nothing's catalog. Songs like "Cannibal World" and "Toothless Coal" are cataclysmic lashings of mechanized industrial-gaze that sound like My Bloody Valentine -- except more extreme. On the other end of the spectrum, the ornately morose "Purple Strings" boasts a beautiful string arrangement that includes harpist -- and two-time Nothing contributor -- Mary Lattimore. That baroque delicacy permeates other a short history of decay, highlights, particularly "The Rain Don't Care," a lilting ballad that channels the worn-down elegance of Mojave 3, and also "Nerve Scales," a pattering bop that resembles Radiohead in its marriage of otherworldly atmosphere and mortal precision. Palermo calls the new record "a final chapter." Not the end of Nothing, but the conclusion of a story that began with Nothing's 2014 debut, Guilty of Everything -- another album about time, regret, and confronting uncomfortable truths -- and now resolves with a short history of decay,. As much a snapshot of Palermo's past as it is a leap into Nothing's future.

The self-titled debut from French outfit PRISONER arrives as a raw, hypnotic burst of modern garage rock—less a traditional song-based album and more a mood piece built from repetition, texture, and atmosphere. Released on Wicked Cool Records, the record leans into a stripped-down philosophy: riffs first, everything else second. Unlike many garage releases, Prisoner is largely instrumental, with vocals used sparingly— often as distant, almost incidental elements rather than the focal point. This gives the album a cinematic, drifting quality. Tracks like “Je ne retiendrai que toi” and “Il nous faudrait une bonne guerre” feel less like songs and more like evolving soundscapes, driven by cyclical guitar figures, motorik rhythms, and a persistent, almost trance-like momentum. The result is hypnotic rather than explosive: music that pulls you inward instead of shouting at you