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Le Sacre du Tympan est mon orchestre et mon instrument d’expression depuis 25 ans.
Avec cet ensemble a géométrie variable qui possède une dizaine d’albums a son actif, et de nombreux concerts en France et a l’étranger, je m’exprime en tant que compositeur mais aussi
arrangeur.
En 2008, nous avions crée un programme au festival Jazz a la Villette, avec cinq musiciens, en privilégiant la musique électronique et les synthétiseurs dans la musique de De Roubaix, pionnier du home studio et des Synthés. En 2015, nous avons enregistré ce programme.
Pour le cinquantenaire du compositeur qui aura lieu en 2025, j’aimerais élargir le programme autour de la musique orchestrale également très présente dans son oeuvre, ce qui permettra d’accentuer l’aspect intemporel de sa musique, tout en la confrontant aux œuvres de quelques autres compositeurs, pour démontrer l’influence qu’il a pu avoir y compris auprès de légendes telles que Morricone, Michel Legrand, ou John Barry.

Revenir sur les compositions de François de Roubaix permettra de mettre en avant la richesse des thèmes, des harmonies, et des timbres qui émanent de ses oeuvres, qui ont traversé les décennies en mettant en valeur leur portée intergénérationnelle auprès de tous les publics.
Fred Pallem, janvier 2025

Héritage Mélodies is the meeting point between saxophonist and composer Jean Vernhères and Black Stamp Music, brought together by a shared passion for the warm colors of music, groove, and the beauty of sound.

Nurtured from an early age by jazz and African-American music—from blues and soul to hip-hop—Jean Vernhères also ventured into Highlife, Afrobeat, and Funk, exploring the fertile “Black Atlantic” that runs throughout his musical journey.

For his first album as a bandleader, he brings together Pierre Bauzerand on Steinway piano, Laurent Vanhée on double bass, Guillermo Roatta on drums, and, as a special guest, Alfio Origlio on Fender Rhodes and piano. Six original compositions where Soul Jazz, Latin Groove, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, spirituality, and intimate melodies come together.

Recorded at Bernard Estardy’s legendary Studio CBE and mastered in Berlin at East Side Mastering, Héritage Mélodies embraces a true audiophile aesthetic: from the breadth and spaciousness of Haumea City, a nod to CTI Records, to the delicacy of Marion.

More than a jazz record, Héritage Mélodies is a story of lineage, travel, and transmission: a personal tribute to all those who have carried forward a musical heritage that transcends time.

With a breathtaking pair of intimately interrelated new albums, he applies that bold passion to an uncharacteristically pared-down setting, then transforms those stunning sounds via a startling process of sonic reinvention. ResoNation Trio convenes a new chordless trio with master improvisers Scott Colley on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums. The album's contemplative explorations feel like a departure from the raucous spirit that characterizes so much of the trumpeter's work, yet the trio discovers such an audacious beauty and celebratory gusto in these sparse environments that the music feels uniquely Bernstein's. It is also a rarity in his oeuvre for featuring Bernstein - whose mastery of the little- used slide trumpet has become so central to his sonic identity - exclusively playing valve trumpet and flugelhorn. In parallel with this captivating trio excursion, Bernstein handed the recordings over to his longtime collaborator, the pioneering producer Scotty Hard, to reimagine the album through his own iconoclastic lens. The result is the uncategorizable Ultra Resonance, which finds Hard breaking down the ResoNation Trio session into its constituent parts and redeploying them as the elements of a wholly original, mutant creation. The project will be released on June 5, 2026 via Royal Potato Family as a double vinyl or CD package containing both albums, and separately on digital streaming platforms.

A Project dealing with the relative length of time at a record label and the effect of adding another zero. To explore this passage of time and all those memories, we’ve commissioned remixes of key tracks from the LEX catalog by artists we love and admire. The album features contributions from Danger Mouse & Jemini, Fly Anakin & Pink Siifu, Eyedress, Golden Rules featuring Yasiin Bey and Freddie Gibbs, Neon Neon feat. Cate Le Bon, alongside Kaleida, Belief, Nevermen, Prince Po and MF DOOM. With remixes that reinterpret the tracks by Boards of Canada, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, DJ Premier, Prefuse 73, Madlib, Stereolab, Warpaint, King Krule, Chad Hugo and Thom Yorke. The limited edition physical release is presented in a rigid slipcase, with the vinyl housed in a triple sleeve gatefold, and accompanied by a large format board book, with both featuring artwork by Commission Studios. The records are pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl, with the D-Side finished with a bespoke etched design.

Defining the moment in sound and vision, Immersion are a snapshot of ‘the now’. Through constant reinvention, they have honed their sound into a startling present that references their past but refuses to live in it.

This perfect synthesis of their styles boldly creates a brave new world for core couple Colin Newman and Malka Spigel, along with satellite musicians Matt Schulz (Holy F*ck), whose drumming strongly features on many tracks, and Ed Chivers (AK/DK), who makes a guest appearance drumming on ‘Breaking Free, Diversity, Evolution’.

What Is Lost Will Return is the second ‘pure’ Immersion release in as many years and heralds their third UK tour since 2024. It follows 2025’s acclaimed WTF??, with the title reflecting the fact you can only say “What The F*ck??” so many times before looking beyond to see what endures.

With What Is Lost Will Return, the ever-productive ‘life and art partner’ duo present a reflective album of modular moods and stripped-down electronic psychedelia, leavened by a clipped guitar that you can nonetheless dance to, defying these chaotic times. It perfectly captures the yin and yang of the moment – or as Colin and Malka explain, “The emotion we feel the album invokes is a poignant mixture of joy and melancholy.”

“What Is Lost Will Return is an album of grooves, observational snapshots, hypnotic repetition, joyful creation, intoxicating melody and mystery, all threaded together by a fascination with new sounds and textures. It's both an underground gem and an album that bends pop into new shapes.”
John Robb, June 2026, MCR

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. ||

No Drama, the imprint founded and curated by Roy Rosenfeld, continues to expand its artistic vision with a sixth release valuing originality over convention. The label has steadily established a platform for forward-thinking electronic music, inviting artists to challenge familiar structures while remaining grounded in musical substance.

The latest release features two tracks by internationally recognized producer Yuvée, known for seamlessly blending live instrumentation with deep house, melodic elements, and organic percussion. While Yuvée appears solo on one track, the other is a collaboration with Omer Inbar, who performs under the name Oi.

The opening track, Lava Core, presents the sound that has earned Yuvée international recognition. Tribal influences unfold through carefully crafted percussion, while evolving textures occupy every part of the stereo field. Every section advances the narrative, allowing the arrangement to grow naturally while maintaining dancefloor impact from beginning to end.

The second piece, Blue, brings Yuvée together with Oi, an internationally acclaimed DJ, producer, and sound engineer whose work bridges psychedelic vibes and groove-driven electronic music. The collaboration introduces greater club energy. Tonal and atonal elements interact with shifting harmonies and evolving instrumental phrasing, creating constant movement without losing coherence.

Rather than relying on formulas, the duo demonstrates the value of artistic perspective in an era increasingly shaped by technological automation. The result is music that balances intellect with feeling, offering a listening experience that remains equally compelling on a festival sound system, in a club, or through focused listening at home.

With its sixth release, No Drama reinforces its commitment to artists who expand the language of contemporary electronic music through craftsmanship, authenticity, and creative ambition.

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.

2026 Repress

Multi-faceted artist Calibre today shares his sixteenth studio album "Feeling Normal". The album is out now to pre-order on Vinyl, CD and on digital platforms via his own independent imprint Signature Recordings.

The record is his first bonafide 140bpm record and a staggering body of work that shows the genius levels of one of electronic music's most respected auteurs. Across the 13 tracks, he transcends through space and time, creating music that will take the listener on a weighty sonic journey. The album announcement is accompanied by two dub versions "Bad" and "Badder" deconstructed from the track "Badman" with DRS from Mark Ernestus available via his Hardwax store January 29th and Bandcamp February 12th. "Getting to work with Mark Ernestus is a real honour, I collected Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and his other work for many years and still do. It's hard to avoid the influence of this guy in electronic music across genres and so it is a real pleasure to have him do his thing with the Badman tune which I think sounds closely related."

All of the tracks on the record have been road-tested in Calibre's DJ sets over the last 2/3 years with many of them being sought-out by his hardcore fans. It was only a matter of time then that he put them out for all to consume. With a nod to the dancefloor, the clear idea for the album came about following the release of his most personal album to date "Planet Hearth". "It still works in the headspace but ultimately it's been written for the sweaty club experience we miss now, also after an album like Planet Hearth it felt very liberating to do," he remarks. When writing albums, he often just puts it down to the general chaos of life, not citing any one influence but generally just waits to see what comes. With one of the tracks on the album written 7 years ago on the island of Valentia, It became a project that he spent the intervening years collecting tracks for, not really knowing when he was going to put it together as an album. "The whole album is special to me, everything on there has import and meaning beyond for me, I have spent much time on all these and hope they are special for other people too."

Belfast-born, Berlin-based Calibre - AKA Dominick Martin - shows no sign of slowing down. As a producer, DJ, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter, he is one of the most unique and inspiring living artists. With a career spanning two decades, his ability to remain underground whilst being one of the most-respected is testament to who this enigmatic artist is. To this day, he has never been remixed and has a seriously impressive amount of unreleased music under wraps. With everything on hold and gigs on the backburner, this record is exactly what the world needs right now.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

2026 Repress

Portuguese techno force Lewis Fautzi debuts under his own name on Mutual Rytm with ‘Beneath The Surface’. Hailing from Barcelos, Portuguese maestro Lewis Fautzi has carved out a formidable reputation through a run of uncompromising releases and a sound rooted in tension, precision and raw power - exemplified by his recent outing on the agenda-setting Hayes Collective. He has previously established his fierce, potent sound on Soma, PoleGroup, Mord, and a number of other influential labels, while also heading up Faut Section. Having previously appeared on Mutual Rytm’s Federation Of Rytm III compilation under his Non Cyclic alias, he now steps out on SHDW’s label with a six-tracker busting full of impactful techno cuts. The heavily-requested ‘Beneath The Surface’ opens the EP with menacing low-end and tightly coiled pressure that's released through simmering valves and hissing synths. ‘The Hollow Cycle’ brings a loopy, tunnelling groove with a snaking lead and snaking metallic percussion, while ‘Inner Mechanism’ keeps things dark, deep and driving with a backlit glow that pulls you in. ‘Nonlinear Form’ is streamlined deep techno that fizzes with texture, spraying chords and a rumbling sub-bass, while closer ‘Anamorph’ rides meticulously designed broken beats with an ever-present sense of bass-driven foreboding. For digital purchasers, sparse and eerie bonus ‘Surface’ slams down with industrial weight and real warehouse grit, shaping up another weighty offering for the label.

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.

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

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.'

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.

A remarkable mixture of echo, reverb, smoke, and resourcefulness, MERCILESS DUB lives on the edge of danger and adventure. This one's a real DUBWISE SITUATION! Remastered & Pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

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

The fourth release on Samurai Music sublabel SAIBAI comes from Spanish techno mainstay Reeko. True to his long-standing reputation for hypnotic sonics and rhythmic precision, Juan Rico builds on a recent run of activity on Samurai to offer up a densely packed, evocative pair of 160/170 BPM soundscapes. In keeping with the spirit of previous SAIBAI releases, Rico emphasises exploration on both sides of this new record as he draws out continually morphing textures that land between melodic expression and percussive impact. It's instantly clear there's a free tekno undercurrent buried beneath 'Gathering 1' that defines the energy of this latest transmission. The difference is how Rico wields that energy, artfully submerging the kick drum propulsion and letting three-dimensional sonic sculpture beat a path towards the dance. Layers of arrhythmic delay ripples loosen the valve, but there's a constant pressure pushing at the edges of the production from start to finish. There's a more immediate urgency to the mixing of the rhythmic elements on 'Gathering 2' as Rico teases a gabba-like intensity tempered by misty clouds and textural sweeps that soften the attack without sacrificing the thumping energy of the track. Measured and meticulous, bristling with micro-details on top of the imposing presence, both 'Gathering's reaffirm Reeko's current hot streak working outside his usual field of focus.

Soul Music legend Candi Staton returns to her down-home Alabama roots on her 32nd album, Back to My Roots. The twelve-track Americana set features an array of Staton-penned originals and some well-chosen covers.

"These songs represent my roots," Staton adds as she reflects on her many trials and triumphs. "Even the new songs on some level represent something I've experienced and that's what real soul music is about." Back to My Roots was produced by Staton with her second eldest son, Marcus Williams, a professional drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson, Isaac Hayes, and Tyler Perry. They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like `Peace in the Valley’ and `It’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”

Staton received the Americana Music Association UK’s highest honour, the International Lifetime Achievement Award, at the UK Americana Music Awards ceremony at Hackney Church in London last year for her southern soul work that stretches from her 1969 Muscle Shoals hits to her more recent collaborations with the likes of Americana kings Jason Isbell and John Paul White.
The album opens with a mid-tempo Bonnie Raitt-styled contemporary blues “I Missed the Target Again” that finds Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr. (aka the Prophesying Guitarist) showing off his skills that set the tone for the song and the album.

Staton’s older sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), joins her for two duets. The first, “It’s Gonna Rain,” features just a drum, steel guitar and vocals. “My mother used to sing that song to us all the time when I was a child,” Staton recalls. “It’s a really soulful kind of song I wanted to revisit.” They then take turns leading Thomas Dorsey 1939 gem “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s.

“Hang on in There” is a new, mid-tempo song that has an old school gospel flavour and features vocals from veteran bluesman, Larry McCray.
While in Europe in 2023 for her farewell concert tour that took her to the Glastonbury Festival and Love Supreme, Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a new version of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.” “I love the way that came out,” Staton says. “We put a big choir on it and put our own twist on it.”
From there, Staton revives another Thomas Dorsey classic, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” with a bluesy vibe. When Al Green started recording gospel in the early 1980s, he re-introduced this song into the culture.

“God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway” is a new mid-tempo blues with subtle Caribbean influences.

The mood takes a turn on “1963.” It’s a poignant, spoken-word reflection on September 15, 1963, when four black girls were killed in the Birmingham Church bombing. “I was in the city that day and I remember the chaos and horror after the bombing,” Staton recalls. “Just thinking of how racism and hatred caused those men to kill those girls was so emotional for me that I could only do it in one take.”

It's a perfect segue into "Reach Down and Touch Heaven," a haunting, plea for divine intervention into the affairs of mankind. "That's straight Baptist," she says. "I used to be a church pianist back in the 1960s. I've never played piano on one of my records before so that's a unique song for me because I’m finally playing on one of my records. The message of that song is about the homeless. It came to me when a homeless person on the street asked me for $5. When God touches your heart to help somebody else that’s heaven to God’s hears. So, when we reach into our purse or wallet to help someone, we’re touching heaven."

Staton offers love as an antidote to hate on the bouncy, Motown-styled, “Love Breakthrough.”

Her publicist brought Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY’s 2017 cut “My God Has a Telephone” to Staton’s attention. She shifts the track from a retro 1960s groove to more of a 1980s Malaco Records arrangement, a subtle but distinct variation. Staton brought in her longtime friend and STAX Records legend, William Bell (“I Forgot to Be Your Lover” and “Trying to Love Two”), to add raspy seasoning to the track.

The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” that was originally written and recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”
Staton says, “I grew up hearing a lot of these old songs when they were new songs. I toured with the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s and we got to know people like Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and others who sang these types of songs. So, I’m sort of paying tribute to them and the influence they had on me by refreshing these songs and making new songs in the old style.”’

Iconic return with “II”, a second album that doesn’t just continue the band’s journey — it defines it. Where their debut introduced the chemistry between five world-class musicians, II sharpens that vision into a clearer, heavier, and more confident sonic identity, delivering a sound that is more powerful, more direct, and unmistakably rock. At the heart of the album lies the electrifying guitar partnership of Joel Hoekstra and Michael Sweet, delivering a masterclass in soaring melodies, blazing solos, and muscular riffs that perfectly balance technical brilliance with pure hard-rock attitude. Beneath them, the rhythm section of Tommy Aldridge and Marco Mendoza drives the record with thunderous authority, creating a groove that is both massive and relentless. The album kicks off with “Cry No More”, a high-octane opener that immediately sets the tone — an energetic slice of hard rock packed with driving riffs, explosive drums, and a chorus built to stick. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, “Tears Keep On Falling” showcases the band’s dynamic range, unfolding as an electrifying power ballad where melody, atmosphere, and intensity come together in dramatic fashion. Towering above it all is Nathan James, whose performance on II is nothing short of extraordinary — powerful, soulful, and commanding, elevating every track with unmistakable presence. With bigger riffs, deeper grooves, and a stronger sense of identity, II captures Iconic at full force: a band no longer introducing itself but fully owning its sound.

born (literally) in fire, soma flared briefly as the alchemical pairing of two unique and dynamic musicians. david thrussell and pieter bourke met through mutual friends in the artistic melting-pot of early 1990s elwood, melbourne, australia. bourke was an integral member of the gothically ambient eden, thrussell frontman of anarchic industrial combo snog. both admired each others work, and though some considered them an unlikely combination, something rather potent was brewing which drew them inexorably together.

initially bourke joined snog live and then in the studio, contributing mightily to their epic second album ‘dear valued customer’. as a natural result of their friendship and muse, thrussell and bourke instituted their own project, soma, to explore the intersections of arcane and mysterious technologies. the first soma album “hollow earth” was released to acclaim.

soon after, thrussell was awoken by a 3am knock on his door. bourke was now homeless - the result of a devastating fire that had just torn through his apartment and studio - and he needed somewhere to sleep. this is when work on ‘the inner cinema’ began, with bourke and thrussell ensconced in the same dwelling, able to write and record around the clock (often only leaving to plan the next session while dining at local vegan eateries).

at the time thrussell was obsessed by the testosterone bravado and haunting alienation of ‘spaghetti-western’ theme songs, while bourke brought his love of all things percussive and the other-worldly atmospherics of arvo pärt (with the outer-space dub of king tubby) to the mix. together, on a diet of blood-plum sago, fortean times and lingering smoke fumes, they concocted their dadaist brew.

magical and unforgettable, ‘the inner cinema’ stands apart and outside of the musical mainstream. since its 1996 release the album has developed a mythical reputation and is spoken of in hushed and adulating tones among acolytes of atmospheric and electronic music. you hold in your hands a lovingly remastered deluxe reissue of this sonorous gem.

time marches on, and after a few more sporadic soma recordings bourke and thrussell moved on to other pastures. bourke would work with dead can dance, lisa gerrard and hollywood auteur michael mann, as thrussell toured regularly with snog and black lung, cut some interesting soundtracks and birthed the idiosyncratic omni recording corporation.

expelled from its fiery crucible, this dark jewel of sound, this soundtrack of the mind, has lain in the soft earth awaiting rediscovery. fluid metabolic rhythms and breathy washes of timeless melancholy pulsing, inviting, in the warm soil. now is your chance.

Ancient Infinity Orchestra return with their third album, It’s Always About Liberation, a new record that deepens the vision of their acclaimed recent work while moving into darker, more searching emotional territory.

Conceived as a partner to It’s Always About Love, this new body of work shares its predecessor’s generosity and spiritual openness, but carries a different charge. Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, It’s Always About Liberation is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and the desire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It is music made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrender to it.

Like It’s Always About Love the album title draws inspiration from words spoken by Moor Mother during their 2024 We Out Here festival performance that deeply affected bandleader Ozzy Moysey: “It’s always about love / It’s always about liberation.” Those twin ideas became a framework for the two albums Ancient Infinity Orchestra were creating. If one album explored love as repair, this one explores liberation as movement, continually striving toward freedom, clarity and deeper connection.
The 16-member ensemble is led by double bassist and composer Ozzy, with a distinctive line-up that explains their sound better than any artificial genre divisions: two double basses, harp, saxophones, clarinets, violin, viola, cello, oboe, flutes, mandolin, congas, piano, drum kit, with bells, shakers and other percussion instruments scattered on the floor of live sets and recording sessions, ready for members to use whenever the spirit takes them.

This orchestration, and the overlap between membership and friendship, gives Ancient Infinity Orchestra a sound that is at once expansive and intimate, earthy, and cosmic, constantly shifting yet grounded in shared intention. The attention to intention and the inviting sonic world connects the music to artists ranging from Alabaster dePlume to Gondwana label boss Matthew Halsall.
Gradually, the Orchestra became a grounding force in the emerging jazz scene in Leeds, bringing together individuals from different musical backgrounds co-founding the Café Oto-inspired Limpet Club or co-hosting the monthly Sonic Plunge (‘a platform for adventurous experimentation’) and co-founding the Leeds Improvisers Orchestra. Additionally, the ensemble acted as a bridge between musicians in Brighton and Leeds, after Ozzy spent a stint back on the south coast between 2020 and 2022.

Their debut, River of Light, was a vibrant celebration of togetherness recorded in three days and released on Gondwana in 2023. A Maida Vale session for Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 show brought them to a broader audience, as did bookings at North Sea Jazz Festival and Gretchen, Berlin. Since then, Ancient Infinity Orchestra has become a by-word for music that could be framed as ‘spiritual jazz’. Whilst Ozzy avoids the phrase when describing his music, he’s crystal clear that his heroes are associated with those words – citing Art Ensemble of Chicago, Pharoah Saunders, Coltrane (Alice and John), and Don Cherry as major influences.

Across trance-like meditations, rising grooves, moments of grief and collective uplift, It’s Always About Liberation speaks to the battle within the mind as much as the inequalities of the wider world. It acknowledges the darkness but lets connection and creativity have the last word Ancient Infinity Orchestra is a gathering of voices, traditions, and energies converging into something timeless. Their music is a journey inward and outward, always reaching toward the universal.

FIDES Records celebrates its 10th anniversary with 10Y OF FIDES: Mixed by Z.I.P.P.O, a landmark 41-track release capturing a decade of the label's artistic vision.

Centered around a continuous mix by label founder Z.I.P.P.O and accompanied by a limited 7×12" vinyl series, the project brings together 41 exclusive tracks from artists who have shaped and inspired the FIDES catalogue over the past ten years. Blending established names with emerging talent, the compilation reflects the label's distinctive sound and ongoing evolution.

Alongside the continuous mix, this complete digital edition includes all 41 unmixed tracks in their full-length versions.

A true disco anthem collides with French electronic elegance as Bon Entendeur reimagine the iconic Boys Town Gang classic Can’t Take My Eyes Off You for a new generation.

Originally released in 1981/82, Boys Town Gang’s explosive hi-NRG reinterpretation of the 1967 Frankie Valli original became one of the defining dance records of the era. The track stormed to No.4 in the UK Singles Chart while dominating dancefloors across Europe and beyond, hitting the top of the charts in countries including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Japan.

Decades later, its euphoric energy still feels timeless. Now, Parisian duo Bon Entendeur inject the record with a fresh wave of sophisticated French touch cool. Renowned for their seamless fusion of nu-disco, house, funk and nostalgic pop culture references, the duo have become one of France’s most distinctive electronic exports. Bon Entendeur have built an international following, mastering the art of blending retro emotion with modern electronic production.

Their connection to iconic French musical heritage has become a signature. Following the success of their celebrated collaboration with Jeanne Mas on Toute Première Fois, Bon Entendeur now turn their attention to another record deeply woven into France’s club culture DNA. And it makes perfect sense. Bon Entendeur tap directly into that shared musical memory, delivering a remix that feels both nostalgic and effortlessly contemporary.

The result is a dazzling crossover of generations and styles: disco emotion, uplifting grooves and sleek French electronic sophistication wrapped around one of the most instantly recognisable hooks ever recorded.

French touch meets disco immortality. Et voilà.

a A1 Bon Entendeur Remix Ben Liebrand 12" Edit

Der von der Kritik gefeierte Fotograf und in Paris lebende, aus Algerien stammende Künstler Mohamed Bourouissa hegt seit langem ein tiefes, alles umfassendes Interesse an Klängen. ,LILA" ist sein Solo-Debüt, ein selbst bezeichnetes ,musikalisches Objekt", das die wichtigen Beziehungen in seinem Leben auflistet; jeder der Tracks des Albums ist einer Person gewidmet (und nach ihr benannt), an die er dachte, als er das Album komponierte. Mit Gastauftritten von französisch-senegalesischen Künstlers Le Diouck und der italienischen Avantgarde-Künstlerin Valentina Fanigliulo (alias Mushy und Phantom Love) wirkt das Album wie ein Tagebuch hypnagogischer Reflexionen, das mit schwerelosen Synthesizern, herzzerreißendem Auto-Tune-Gesang und dissoziierten Beat-Sequenzen ein Bild von Bourouissas innerer Realität zeichnet. Emotional aufgeladen und verwurzelt in der Ästhetik, die Bourouissa mit seiner Verbundenheit zu Klang, Menschen und Kunst verbindet, ist es so komplex und vielschichtig wie jede seiner gefeierten Installationen oder Ausstellungen. Bourouissas erste erkennbare klangliche Referenz war ,Temps Morts" aus dem Jahr 2009, eine bewegende Videoarbeit, die er nach dem legendären Debütalbum des französischen Rappers Booba benannte, und seitdem ist er seiner Intuition gefolgt und hat nach und nach herausgefunden, wie er Klang nicht nur in seine Werke integrieren, sondern ihn in den Mittelpunkt stellen kann. 2017 arbeitete er gemeinsam mit dem libanesischen Free-Improv-Gitarristen Sharif Sehnaoui und Sina Araghi (alias Sina XX) an ,Si Di Kubi", einer Compilation, die experimentelle Klänge aus der arabischen Welt in den Vordergrund stellte, und sein Weg wurde klar. ,In diesem Moment wurde der Klang zu einem integralen Bestandteil meiner künstlerischen Praxis", erklärt er. Bourouissa arbeitete 2021 mit dem französischen Sounddesigner und Programmierer Jordan Quiqueret zusammen, um herauszufinden, wie sich die von der Akazie erzeugten Frequenzen in Rhythmen auf ,Brutal Family Roots` umsetzen lassen, wobei er Gedichte des Waddi-Waddi-Rappers MC Kronic und des ägyptisch-australischen MC Nardean integrierte. Später arbeitete er mit Fanigliulo an ,Haral!" - einem Duo-Projekt, das dem Künstler endlich das Selbstvertrauen gab, seine Fähigkeiten anzunehmen und seinen eigenen Produktionen Vorrang einzuräumen. Sogar seine jüngste Ausstellung ,SIGNAL" im Palais de Tokyo, Bourouissas erste Retrospektive, wurde ähnlich wie ein Album zusammengestellt, wobei der Künstler besonderen Wert auf die musikalische Logik ihrer Struktur und die ihr innewohnenden Rhythmen legte. ,Ich sehe Klang als Träger von Geschichte und Erinnerung, manchmal traumatisch", sagt er. ,Die Arbeit mit Frequenzen, Geräuschen und Atemzügen eröffnet einen Raum für Heilung, eine kathartische Möglichkeit. ,Und genau diese Philosophie leitet ,LILA`, von den hallenden Klavierakkorden und Chor-Echos von ,INTRO` bis hin zu den mikrotonalen Summtönen und verschleierten Rhythmen, die sich spiralförmig um das kurze, bewegende ,OUTRO` winden. Es ist ein Album, das sich schwer einordnen lässt; es gibt Spuren von Pop in ,HFC", einer beatlosen Suite aus modularen Schluckaufgeräuschen und biomechanischen Schreien, die in Richtung Kakophonie übergeht, und Überreste von Clubmusik, die an den Fenstern und Wänden des schweißtreibenden ,MG" zurückbleiben, in den zitternden Trommelwirbeln und Le Dioucks schrillen Ausrufen. Der rote Faden, der sich durch das Ganze zieht, ist die Tatsache, dass Bourouissa in der Lage ist, eher ein Gefühl als einen Klang darzustellen. Mit einer Palette, die er im Laufe des letzten Jahrzehnts stetig verfeinert hat, bewegt er sich schimmernd durch eine persönliche Landschaft, die sich in ein lebendiges, atmendes klangliches Ökosystem verwandelt. Auf ,AF" schweben gespenstische FM-Arpeggios unheimlich um seine lässigen, herzlichen Worte, und auf dem beunruhigenden ,SEUM" kontern mehrschichtige Synth-Drones sein verzerrtes Crooning mit elektrisierenden xenharmonischen Akkorden. Instrumentale Dunstwolken schweben durch angespannte rhythmische Ausbrüche auf ,MN", und als Fanigliulo auf dem Titeltrack auftaucht, rückt das Album in den Fokus, während warme, hoffnungsvolle Pads einige von Bourouissas eindringlichster Texte. "What did you say, why should I cry", wiederholt er in die Leere hinein und presst die Worte durch metallische Verzerrung und ungleichmäßige Beats. Es ist Musik, die so greifbar ist, dass man sie fast berühren kann.

A real cult favorite of the American psychedelic underground, Three blends hypnotic guitars, immersive atmospheres, and deeply melodic songwriting into a rich, transportive listening experience. Drawing from neo-psychedelia, space rock, and dream pop traditions, the album has become a sought-after modern psych classic with enduring appeal among collectors and fans of expansive, guitar-driven music. Originally released in 2012, Three by Flavor Crystals has steadily become a cult favorite within the modern psychedelic underground. Blending hypnotic guitars, immersive atmospheres, motorik rhythms, and deeply melodic songwriting, the album moves seamlessly between neopsychedelia, dream pop, and space rock. With its warm production, shimmering textures, and expansive mood, Three creates a rich and transportive listening experience that continues to resonate far beyond its original release. Over the years, the album has developed a devoted following among collectors and fans of atmospheric, guitar-driven music, earning recognition as an essential modern psych title. This vinyl reissue reintroduces a sought-after underground classic with strong crossover appeal across psychedelic, indie, and dream pop audiences, offering excellent long-term catalogue value for retailers and distributors alike. Recommended For Fans Of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Mazzy Star, The Black Angels.