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Mrs. Piss is a new collaboration between Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie . Drawing on their collective rock, metal, and industrial influences, the project began while the two were touring around together during Wolfe's Hiss Spun album in 2017. The result is their debut album Self-Surgery, which was recorded at The Dock Studio in Sacramento, CA and in Wolfe's home studio, The Canyon. These songs feel more urgent and visceral than anything either of them has created before: heaviness spurred on by punk spirit. Chelsea Wolfe (vocals, guitar): "Working on this project brought Jess and I so much closer as songwriters and production partners, after reuniting as friends and bandmates. It was freeing and fun to channel some wild energies that I don't typically put into my own music. We tried not to overthink the songs as we were writing them, but at the same time we did consciously put a lot into crafting them into our own weird sonic vision. This project was a chance for us to do things our own way, on our own terms, and we plan to invite more womxn musicians along for future Mrs. Piss recordings." CW Jess Gowrie (drums, guitar, bass, programming): "To me, Mrs. Piss represents a musical chemistry cut short long ago that now gets a second chance. Creating with Chelsea has always been very liberating for me, and we both push each other to try new things: anything and everything. Both of us have grown so much as writers and musicians since our first band together (Red Host), and with the journeys we had to take separately to get there, we both have so much more to say; so much more pain and anger to express. That said, we also had a lot of fun doing it, not to mention how freeing it is to not give a f-k and to just create." JG "Doomy chugs, ethereal vocals and massive distortion sounds are the order of the day, summoning the menacing timbres that fueled Wolfe's Abyss and Hiss Spun records" GUITAR WORLD "a grungy, sludgy new project that defies expectations" REVOLVER "Together, they make a grandly grungy noise - something bigger and more anthemic than what we're used to hearing from Wolfe" STEREOGUM "urgent and abrasive" CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND " thundering tracks that sound as if they had diliberately set about to destroy a roomful of amplifiers" BLACKBOOK

French electronic producer heylucas (formerly Luca) steps into a new era with his highly anticipated debut album, "hey".



Following a series of acclaimed singles throughout 2024 and 2025, "hey" marks a turning point in his artistic journey. After his first live performance in late 2024 met with enthusiasm, it became clear, Luca was no longer just a bedroom producer but a true performer. A shift that inspired the name change from Luca to heylucas, embracing a broader vision for his music. This career change is all the more significant now that he has just announced his very first solo live show at POPUP! in Paris on 24 May.


"hey" is a deeply personal recollection of emotions: the highs and the lows, the joy of loved ones, the grief of loss, and the thrill of firsts. From euphoric moments to introspective instants, the album showcase the diverse experience of the artist during this transformative year. Singles like "do the things that bring joy" "either it goes well, or it passes" and "keep dancing" are the perfect example, shaping his signature sound: heartfelt, uplifting tracks that make you want to move and reflect at the same time.


“Do It All Again” in collaboration with Swedish duo HNE, features spoken vocal snippets collected from real-life encounters in the final months of the album’s creation, blend with an energetic/euphoric production.


The album release will be doubled by the release of an exclusive live session by heylucas in which he will reinterpret classics from his repertoire as well as new tracks from his “hey” album.



More than an album, hey is a statement. It’s heylucas’s way of waving hello to listeners, to concertgoers, and to everyone who connects with the emotions he pours into his music.

What happens when you combine SUMAC: a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother: a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it"s less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power.

The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists" work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film"s moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: "The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art.

Thinking about the work as a Film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won"t understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process." The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother.

Slikback releases "Attrition" – a densely detailed, cinematic exploration of sound packed with intricate rhythms and gleaming textures.

Slikback’s "Attrition" marks his first full-length album for Planet Mu, delivering an immersive melding of cinema and game sound design with tough dance music. It's like a sci-fi film for the ears, exploring a chain of events with dark atmospheres and dramatic pacing; trapdoors and jump scares for your ears. These contrasts and the dense painterly colour of his sounds give it a beastly beauty.

The album came to life during a period of transition, while waiting for a visa after recently moving to Poland from Kenya, where he grew up. With this unexpected pause in travel, Slikback found himself working at a slower, more deliberate pace. Writing for a label instead of self-releasing also introduced new dynamics, like feedback and structured release schedules. Rather than feeling restricted, he saw this process as a blessing. In a happy and reflective headspace—newly married and welcoming a newborn child—he was able to fully develop his compositions. “I was finally able to explore ideas to a point where I didn’t feel the need to change anything,” he shares. "Attrition" is the result of that creative freedom. While "Attrition" nods to familiar genres, drawing on elements of Gqom, Dubstep, Tech-Step, and Hardcore Techno, it pushes them into new territory, shaping high-tech, intricate compositions. “I worked on the tracks back and forth, drastically transforming some from their original sketches,” Slikback explains. “I wanted to create a journey within each track, like something alien emerging from emptiness—beauty from chaos.” The album opens gently before diving into fast-paced 140bpm sounds, reminiscent of earlier Planet Mu releases. Midway through, "Taped" shifts the energy with a shimmering, 160bpm rolling bassline. As the album progresses, its intensity builds. The music grows darker, faster, and more unpredictable, culminating in a final track that bursts apart in a thrilling, chaotic climax. A standout moment in Slikback’s career, "Attrition" is a masterclass in sound design and vision. Strange yet beautiful, intense yet rewarding—it’s the most strikingly unique album you’ll hear all year.

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves.Much of Are We All Angels grapples with Scowl's newfound place in the hardcore scene, a community which has both embraced the band and made them something of a lightning rod over the past few years. Standout single "Not Hell, Not Heaven" outright rejects the narratives cast onto them by outsiders. "It's about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim," explains vocalist Kat Moss. "It's trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain't working for me." The band breaks from a sense of disassociation to seek deeper connections on "Fantasy." "It's incredibly challenging to try to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated," Moss says. "`Fantasy' is about feeling like I don't know how to connect with these people anymore, because I have shelled myself away so hard." The album ends in a philosophical place on the closing, titular track, "Are We All Angels," asking questions like, "Is this all there is?" and ultimately putting it on the listener to decide. "It's about the personal struggle between good and evil. It doesn't matter how `good' or `bad' you are, there are systems that will try to rewrite your narrative no matter what you actually do," explains Moss, noting that punctuation on "Are We All Angels" has been deliberately omitted in an attempt to leave the statement open-ended. Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl's debut, 2021's How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record's sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called "Seeds to Sow," that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. "It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we're fulfilling that," says drummer Cole Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023's widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next.Scowl's growth got a huge boost from producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Code Orange, Balance and Composure), who broadened the band's scope. "Will would say, `Everything you have here is correct, but it's in the wrong place,'" says Gilbert. Moss adds: "Will really helped restructure a lot of the material. Some songs he tore apart to make more space for the really good hooks and choruses." But even through this more eclectic approach, Scowl loses none of their edge, and still manages to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath. They are deeply committed to carrying the ethos of punk and its sense of community. "Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate, what we want to do as a band, and how we participate," says guitarist Malachi Greene. "At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes."

Southern Thailand, Songkhla-based Baa Records takes you on a guided tour of the grooviest tracks to come out of the
Golden Sound studios! From their headquarters on Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road, GS were pioneers of Thai studiocraft and
electronization, bridging the gap between the nightclub disco showbands of the '70s and major-label pop idols of the '90s.
Collected here are 10 rare and glorious cuts introducing you to this highly influential yet little-remembered scene.
All of the music that emerged from the studio, though, shared an unmistakable signature production sheen: like the
producers of Japan's city pop scene, Golden Sound was influenced by Southern California's "West Coast sound", an
amalgam of smooth soul, jazzy R&B and tight disco sounds, with an emphasis on both high-calibre musicianship and
adventurous incorporation of electronic gadgetry.
This excellent selection of tunes from the folks at Baa Records highlights some of the most vibrant and danceable of the
label's output, with an intriguingly synthesized sonic palate.

In 1965 in the face of social unrest, legendary Memphis label Stax Records put on two pulsating shows at the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles, featuring Rufus Thomas, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, William Bell, Carla Thomas, Wilson Picket and more. 60 years later the recordings, newly mastered by Joe Tarantino, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl, have been collected with a bonus set of performances recorded at Club Paradise, Memphis to form Stax Revue – Live In ’65!.

Classic black 2LP in gatefold! "Her darkest, heaviest and most personal album yet . . . a haunting, doomy exercise in loud-quiet dynamics." Rolling Stone Sleep paralysis plagues singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, and that strange intersection of the conscious and the unconscious has inadvertently manifested itself within her work. Across the span of her first four albums, there is an underlying tension, a distorted and nebulous territory where dark shadows hover along the edges of the sublime and the graceful. But until now, Wolfe's trials and tribulations with the boundaries between dreams and reality have only been a subconscious influence on her work. With her fifth album, Abyss, she deliberately confronts those boundaries and crafts a score to that realm she describes as the "hazy afterlife. an inverted thunderstorm. the dark backward. the abyss of time." Chelsea Wolfe's material has always felt intensely private, from the almost voyeuristic bedroom-production aesthetic of her debut album The Grime and the Glow to the stark themes and atmospheres of 2013's Pain Is Beauty. "Abyss is meant to have the feeling of when you're dreaming, and you briefly wake up, but then fall back asleep into the same dream, diving quickly into your own subconscious," says Wolfe. To conjure this in-between world, Wolfe continued her ongoing collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and co-writer Ben Chisholm and drummer Dylan Fujioka, with Ezra Buchla brought on board to play viola and Mike Sullivan (Russian Circles) enlisted to contribute guitar. The ensemble traveled to Dallas, TX to record with producer John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent). In the back of her mind burned the words of designer Yohji Yamamoto: "Perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion." The resulting eleven songs reflect that philosophy as they smoulder with human frailty, intimacy, quiet passion, anxiety, and deep longing. "Sleep and dream issues have followed me my whole life," remarks Wolfe as she revisits notes from the writing and recording sessions. In a way, these issues have become a part of Chelsea Wolfe's identity, for whom the notion of sleep as an escape has been subverted. Abyss captures this dichotomy, this battle between the soothing and the upsetting, and demonstrates why Chelsea Wolfe has become one of the most intriguing songwriters of the decade.

While some guys will tell you now it’s all computers, at Turbo we know in our hearts that everything in life can be understood as a funhouse mirror. Sascha Funke’s massive 2017 hit “MZ” is one of the most iconic house records ever released on our label, and thus deserving of the ultimate honour: a remix pack reflecting each of the manifold facets of a modern dancefloor classic from the most prestigious and respected angles imaginable.

As studious Turbo watchers have no doubt clocked*, we have paid access to the halls of European power, where you get to make backroom deals with Emmanuel Macron and British Seinfeld as Opus’ “Live is Life” blares over a gigantic bluetooth speaker. And, yeah, you’ll probably run into the most celebrated European producers of our time. Pional, Axel Boman, Mano Le Tough, and Roman Flügel — these are the kinds of names you only see once you’ve reached the highest levels of success, be it in dance music production or purchasing the hottest tickets in town on your favorite mobile device. We called each on these titans to anoint “MZ” into the modern pantheon of club anthems, and you can bet your last eurobond that they delivered. But we also wanted some new blood, so we turned to rising Lithuanian superstar DJ JM. JM is now a deep part of the Turbo family, and he’s made the theoretical space between bad-boy cousin and beloved nephew fully his own with what we hope Rolling Stone Magazine will call “a distinctively modern edge."

*Clocking is a cool way of noticing things. Try it sometime!

Simmer Pine, a five-member indie pop band known for its nostalgic, somewhat sad melodies and floating sound, has released their long-awaited first record with "Bubble" featuring a light ska-like rhythm and dreamy guitar.


"Bubble," included on Side A, is a song that draws you into Simmer Pine's unique lyrical worldview, with a light ska-like rhythm and a hazy, dreamy guitar sound that blendstogether comfortably. It evokes the feeling that past seasons and nostalgic scenery suddenly come back to life in the midst of the gently flowing time.

On the other hand, "milkshake" on Side B is a complete contrast, with a refreshing guitar riff in the intro that runs through it, making it a perfect song for the summer atmosphere.

The pop and light finish makes you want to listen to it with the windows open on a sunny afternoon. Simmer Pine's freshness and openness can be felt throughout the song.

This is a must-have album for both those who are experiencing their music for the first time and long-time fans alike, as it will gently accompany you through the seasons.

The warm sound quality that only analog can provide will bring out the delicate expressions of the songs even more

Cinematic funk visionaries The Diasonics drop a new disco-funk 45 vinyl with two killer tracks tailor made for DJs and cinematic funk fans. Only 500 copies pressed wordwide, instant collector's item. From the snowy streets of Moscow to the crates of vinyl diggers worldwide, cinematic instrumental combo The Diasonics unleash a new limited edition clear vinyl 45 with two killer tracks taken from the upcoming new album "Ornithology", set to drop worldwide on October 3 via Record Kicks. On the A side "Oriole" is a vintage disco-funk stormer taking inspiration both from the Soviet-era disco and jazz fusion records, as well as from 70s European library music and synth-funk movement. A minimalist synthesizer melody echoing the song of the oriole, paired with a steady disco-funk groove reminiscent of a train in motion ("Oriole" is also the name of a popular Russian electric train) lay the foundation of their most danceable track to date. The b-side holds the equally strong "Chickadee" a funk stomper with bold bassline and heavy b-boy breaks and percussions and a NY early 80 vibe able to set every dancefloor on fire. A peerless party-starter that you just don't want to miss it. Formed in 2019, this four-piece instrumental unit _ Daniil Lutsenko (electric guitar), Kamil Gazizov (keyboards), Maksim Brusov (bass), and Anton Moskvin (drums & percussion) _ quickly gained cult status through a series of sought-after 45s on Mocambo and Funk Night Records. Their critically acclaimed debut album "Origin of Forms" mixed by Henry Jenkins, producer of the Australian cult band Surprise Chef, came out on Record Kicks in 2022. The vinyl went sold out in few weeks and is now in-demand on the international cinematic funk scene.

Das dritte Album der Supersuckers aus Tucson, AZ - "The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers" von 1995 - ist ein Klassiker und endlich wieder erhältlich, und zwar auf limitiertem, undurchsichtigem, rotem Vinyl! "The Sacrilicious Sounds of The Supersuckers" wurde von Paul Leary von den Butthole Surfers produziert und ist wütender, höhnischer Punkrock, der die besondere Mischung aus Hardrock, Punk und anspruchsloser Country-Kultur der Band perfekt auf den Punkt bringt. The Damned trifft ZZ Top? Die Motörhead des Südwestens? So etwas in der Art, sicher, aber letztendlich sind The Supersuckers ihr eigenes Ding, und auf "The Sacrilicious Sounds..." - und vor allem auf der Single "Born With a Tail" - beginnen die kläglichen Country-Klagen von Sänger Eddie Spaghetti selbstbewusster durch das rohe Punk-Aggregat zu stoßen. Apropos Aggro: Dies ist das einzige Album der Band mit Rick Sims von den Punk-Legenden Didjits aus Illinois an der Gitarre, und Sims treibt die ohnehin schon gewaltige Wand aus übersteuerten Gitarren der Supersuckers pflichtbewusst in die Höhe. Als zusätzliches Schmankerl übernimmt Sims den Leadgesang bei dem rasanten "Run Like a Motherfucker".

2025 Repress Cherry Vinyl limited

A mystery bag of magical editing tricks is on full display here with a groove so sweet you could sprinkle it on a donut. This is a track that bobs, weaves and ducks like a seasoned Heavyweight Champion - all perfectly timed to an outrageously hypnotic rhythm that’s layered with heavy-slap bongos, triangle percussion and crisp congas. When the familiar bassline and unmistakable vocal kicks in, you’re certain you know where this journey is going. But you’d be wrong. All wrong. Reality is swiftly flipped by the mother of all rug pulls. Suddenly, you’re off-road; driving through a hazy, surreal combination of twisted sonic reverb cuts and delicious diva-drenched vocals. This is a masterclass in the art of the edit - adding subtle ingredients to make something so individual and so unique. Good enough to eat? You bet it is. Any self-respecting selector will want this gem in their record bag, so grab it while you can!

The lovely, longing ‘I Still Think About You’ was a regular highlight of the band’s earliest live sets and was one of the first songs they wrote together. “We wrote it three years ago, before we had released any music,” explains the band’s Ben Easton. “It had a certain youthful optimism that we loved, but after a few road tests we decided to shelve it. However, we knew that there was still something in it, so we brought it back earlier this year and we’re chuffed with the result.” “We wanted to capture the purity of wanting to see someone again, hoping they appear around the corner, or in your local park or pub, without any form of doubt that creeps into one’s mind as we grow older,” adds singer Dottie. “We enjoyed exploring and challenging ourselves to achieve a softer and uplifting narrative – it’s possibly the most joyful thing we’ve ever written.” On the flip side, the ‘No Ordinary Love’ reframes the slick R&B of the original as a dark and delicious dreampop / trip-hop crossover. “The original was pretty much on repeat during our tour late last year and we thought it’d be an interesting thing to try,” explains the band’s Ben Easton of the decision to cover the song. “It’s a good representation of where we’re going, sonically, and it was also our first recording experience with Harry Catchpole on drums and so we particularly focused on what he brings to the table. We experimented with different snares, mics and other effects to create our own kind of drum sample which is something that feels important to the deary sound going forward.”

Back in again soon. Following on from the success of ‘Greg Belson’s Divine Disco’ series Greg Belson and Cultures of Soul team up again to explore the world of Gospel Funk. Belson is one of the world's leading collectors and DJs of gospel music. You hold in your hands a collection of some of the rarest Gospel funk records from Belson’s amazing collection featuring everything from the laid back breakbeat laced “I Don’t Want to Be Alone" by Allen Gauff Jr to the high octane and socially-on-point take of the Gospel classic ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ by the Gospel Ambassadors to drum break funk of the Wearyland Singers ‘If You See Me Doing Wrong” to the sublime soulfulness of Zella Jackson’s “Days Are Just Like People." Without a doubt though, all of the artists included in this compilation, believed in themselves, the message, and the direction of the Gospel Funk intensity you hear within these grooves. Gettin’ on the Good Foot for God? Listen and decide for yourselves!

We’re back in the groove with the next instalment of our 45s, where killer music always wins over oddball cover art. This time we’re serving up a Balearic, under-the-radar sunset jam from obscure Belgian outfit North South East West. Soulful, warm, and effortlessly cool, it’s the kind of track that makes you want to quit your job and move to somewhere hotter.

To stretch out the magic, we called on Peckham’s finest, Medlar, who turns in a dubbed-out, spacey flip that sends the original into orbit. It’s deep, trippy, and built for the mix — you’ll want two copies just to keep it going.

File next to: forgotten private press yacht soul, poolside AOR, and those records that get Shazams pinging when they hit the turntable.

Thank You For Using GTL is a 2020 album from vaunted Los Angeles rapper, Drakeo the Ruler. The album contains verses recorded entirely through phone service from GTL while Drakeo the Ruler was incarcerated at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles, California. The album focuses on topics such as the targeting of rap and rappers by the US criminal justice system, the prison-industrial complex, incarceration, capitalism, and the gray area between what’s real versus fiction in hip-hop. Lauded by Pitchfork as “Likely the greatest rap album ever recorded from jail,” and included at number 32 on their 50 Best Albums of 2020, the album serves as an interesting moment in hip-hop, further cementing Drakeo the Ruler as one of LA’s most beloved rap luminaries. For the very first time, for any album, on any format, Drakeo’s music will be available on vinyl for fans. Pressed on Green & Blue A Side B Side vinyl and limited to 1700 copies.

Car Button Cloth' is an extraordinary affair of musical and emotional extremes, a soundscape spanning “the most beautiful piano-led mourning in the history of the broken heart” that switches into perky jangle-pop for fleeting moments and contains the ultimate self-deprecating classic ‘The Outdoor Type’, penned by Smudge cohort Tom Morgan, as well as a cover of the bluegrass standard ‘Knoxville Girl’ and ‘If I Could Talk I’d Tell You’ co-written with The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly. All bases are covered. “One of the most distinctive voices of the ‘90s” The New York Times. To further unravel where Evan’s head was at during the period of its creation, this deluxe double album comes with a record of exquisite and typically eclectic scene setting covers that occupied B-sides and alternative format versions, plus other super rare offcuts, live takes and remixes. A diet of Volcano Suns, Glen Campbell, The Jacobites, The Sir Douglas Quintet and Whitney Houston influenced Evan’s thinking and added further colour to an album that remains something of a Dorian Gray-style masterpiece. The first side of extras is rounded off with the never before released ‘Arise’, originally set for the remake of Great Expectations and later realised as Rancho Santa Fe on solo album ‘Baby I’m Bored’.

Die Südlondoner Sängerin Jaz Karis präsentiert mit 'Favourites' ihren ersten Tonträger mit 15 Songs aus ihren bisherigen, digital erschienenen EPs. Jaz' stilistische Vielfalt reicht von R&B über Reggae bis Afrobeats, als Gäste sind TINYMAN, Blue Lab Beats und Afronaut Zu & Sillkey vertreten, als Producer u.a. P2J (bekannt für seine Arbeiten mit Beyoncé, Wizkid, Stormzy, FKA Twigs, Tems, Doja Cat) und Juls (Mr Eazi, Stonebwoy, Goldlink, Wanda Coal, Burna Boy).

Vines, the solo project of New York-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Cassie Wieland, offers a window into her inner world through expansive swaths of sound. She pieces together a celestial mix of synths, percussion, strings, and vocoded voice, making music that is at once deeply personal and cinematic in scope. This diaristic approach first took shape with her 2023 EP Birthday Party, and is crystallized on her debut LP, I’ll be here. With the sweeping and vulnerable I’ll be here, Vines arrives fully formed as an artist who crafts deeply resonant and open music–the kind that invites listeners in to listen, reflect, and share in the journey of learning through living.

“It was through making music that I was able to meet myself,” Wieland said. “Anything I’m going through or feeling is something that somebody else out there can relate to, and that’s really special to me.”

I’ll be here is both a culmination of years spent creating gossamer soundscapes and an opening to a new journey for Wieland as an artist. The album grew out of her years as a composer and songwriter, and builds on the language she developed on Birthday Party, which transformed the tumultuous feelings of the passing of time into minimalist meditations. It was just a start, though–a prologue, a development of the kind of language and ideas she wanted to express. With I’ll be here, she digs deeper and writes music that feels more sprawling, further solidifying her singular voice.

Wieland’s musical composition process is similar to journaling, lending itself to the music’s honesty. When she writes, she makes room for all the ideas she has; in these sessions, there are no wrong ideas, and she allows the music to be attuned to the experiences she’s having at the time. With I’ll be here, Wieland zeroes in on themes of anxiety, loneliness, navigating human connection, and having to grow up from a young age, ultimately coming to a place of acceptance. And though it began as a journal written in solitude, her collaborators shape the music with her.

Working with friends, in fact, was a crucial part of bringing the record to life. “Everything that was supposed to happen came together so easily because of the people involved,” Wieland said. I’ll be here was co-produced and recorded with Wieland’s longtime collaborator Mike Tierney, a four time Grammy-nominated engineer who has worked with artists across the contemporary classical and experimental scene like minimalist pioneer Steve Reich, LA’s preeminent classical ensemble Wild Up, and various bands on Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music label. Percussionist and composer Adam Holmes and violinist Adrianne Munden-Dixon are two other longtime collaborators who are frequent fixtures of her live show. Holmes plays synths, drums, and banjo; in live settings, his kit is loaded with elements of the songs that are then triggered by MIDI, making the music an interactive, evolving experience. The album’s gentle, filamented edges are colored by Munden-Dixon, whose poignant string melodies elevate Wieland’s introspective compositions, as well as cellist Helen Newby, saxophonists Julian Velasco and Jordan Lulloff, and bassist Pat Swoboda.

Wieland takes an economic approach to writing music, building the swirling and immersive landscapes of Vines through short melodies, lyrics, and phrases. As each element layers and interweaves, they grow into sprawling webs of ghostly sound. Prior to Vines, Wieland composed pieces for other people to play using a minimalist’s sensibility, writing slowly unfolding melodies for instruments like violin and saxophone. In recent years, she sharpened her solo style across a variety of singles and covers which have garnered significant attention on social media for their emotional resonance (“being loved isn't the same as being understood” in particular went massively viral on TikTok in 2024). Birthday Party, her debut as Vines, brought her writing to a much more intimate space, centering on her vocoded voice cloaked in feathery reverb. A series of recent singles, meanwhile, including “I am my home,” showcase the way that Wieland’s music is born from the story of her innermost feelings, extending far beyond just the self.

Though Wieland’s music often deals with dark themes, it unfolds with tender melancholy, the kind that feels like a warm embrace. On “Evicted,” Wieland wonders if she’s getting sick or moving on, if she’s lost or found. Her vocals expand with each lyrical repetition, as the instrumentals slowly encircle and the music’s rhythm grows and bursts into a heart-wrenching, yet radiant wave reminiscent of post-rock bands like Explosions in the Sky. “Tired” follows a similar trajectory, building from a looping, melancholy rhythm and floating lyrics into a solemn resignation. Elsewhere, Wieland takes a more ruminative approach: “Omw” begins with twinkling piano and melancholy strings that gradually transform into an undulating mass. It is a song born out of the warm feeling of reminiscence, the slight return of hope that comes with nostalgia.

With any searching journey, there is also a point of understanding. The title track closes the album with the freedom of acceptance. A marching drum beats steadily beneath Wieland’s open vocals, moving forward, ever onward as it flies into the ether. In Wieland’s delicately textured music, there is room to come into yourself, and learn to love whomever that is. I’ll be here is a special space that can be all your own, one in which to feel what needs to be felt. “This is music for your story,” Wieland said. “I want you to use it how you need it.”

“Rob wanted the world of The Northman to feel harsh and uncomfortable, and for everything to feel like it was caked in mud and dry blood, so it was crucial for the score to mirror that.” Composers Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) were given a task of epic proportions when director Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) asked them to create the score for his ambitious and highly anticipated new film The Northman, releasing on April 22nd. They needed to make a score that both honored the immense research that had gone into the authenticity of this Viking era period piece and complimented the cinematic maximalism of the film for a modern audience. The artists stretched themselves to the depths of their creativity and the resulting album is a gorgeous sonic tableaux that places the listener right in the center of the film.

While arranging the score the composers consulted musician and ethnographer Poul Høxbro for inspiration and insight into the history of Viking music. Having backgrounds in left field electronic music, Robin and Sebastian felt liberated by the constraint of using a small selection of musical tools for this piece. “Electronic music has almost limitless potential when it comes to making sounds and that’s obviously an incredible thing, but you can also go down the wormhole and get lost in it sometimes. There’s no risk of that happening when you only have a few primary instruments to draw upon.” Robin remarked.

They utilized traditional instruments such as the tagelharpa, langspil, kravik lyre, and säckpip to build the cinematic world of The Northman but they also took creative freedoms in adding instruments likes drums, which some academics believe wouldn’t have played a big part in Viking musical culture, simply due to the lack of archaeological evidence of actual drums. “One of the pieces we wrote was intended to emulate the sound of a bullroarer; an ancient instrument used in sacred rituals or in battle to intimidate enemies. It makes a really disorienting roaring vibrato sound and low frequencies capable of traveling insane distances.” Robin says when asked about one of the more unique aspects of the score. Everyone involved put so much effort into both their research and their creativity and this richness is evident in every track. The album as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece of sound and ambiance, both gorgeous and disturbing, like the film it so beautifully accompanies.

Friends since the age of six, most of the album was written and recorded by the pair when they were nineteen. The songs possess all the singular magic of a duo writing and playing together while sounding like a full, sonically charged band. Their debut E.P. track 'Two Monkeys', included here, has a level of shoegazey dirt that will leave many distortion freaks reeling. `Every Word Said' is prog-pop perfection. The title track is as moody as anything by Flying Saucer Attack. 'Another One Making Clouds' evolves over 35 minutes and doesn't stop elevating and surprising. A founding notion of our label was to release recordings made as the musicians' first intended. No `notes' and no re-recording with a `proper' producer in a `real' studio. A noble preference we saw labels like Rough Trade pursuing with The Strokes, The Smiths, The Fall et al.This album is a proud example. And captures something you can't fake. A young band finding an epic, emotional, cinematic sound in their bedroom. Using it in that peculiarly British way to express the wonder, confusion and heartache of being nineteen. Of wanting to be seen and not seen. It's a kind of British `soul' music with ancestors like The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain and the original shoegaze bands. Progressive guitar music, channeling deep emotion, a desire to hear something that sounds like how you feel inside. The stuff nobody talks about. Everything Else.

Friends since the age of six, most of the album was written and recorded by the pair when they were nineteen. The songs possess all the singular magic of a duo writing and playing together while sounding like a full, sonically charged band. Their debut E.P. track 'Two Monkeys', included here, has a level of shoegazey dirt that will leave many distortion freaks reeling. `Every Word Said' is prog-pop perfection. The title track is as moody as anything by Flying Saucer Attack. 'Another One Making Clouds' evolves over 35 minutes and doesn't stop elevating and surprising. A founding notion of our label was to release recordings made as the musicians' first intended. No `notes' and no re-recording with a `proper' producer in a `real' studio. A noble preference we saw labels like Rough Trade pursuing with The Strokes, The Smiths, The Fall et al.This album is a proud example. And captures something you can't fake. A young band finding an epic, emotional, cinematic sound in their bedroom. Using it in that peculiarly British way to express the wonder, confusion and heartache of being nineteen. Of wanting to be seen and not seen. It's a kind of British `soul' music with ancestors like The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain and the original shoegaze bands. Progressive guitar music, channeling deep emotion, a desire to hear something that sounds like how you feel inside. The stuff nobody talks about. Everything Else.

Back in 2016 a talented wordsmith from the Bronx going by the name Mickey Factz teamed up with producer Nottz to release his full-length "The Achievement: Circa '82". The album is an ambitious piece of work that finds Mickey trying to encapsulate all his thoughts in lieu of this very moment, with Nottz serving as the executive producer providing a plethora of landscapes for Mickey to illustrate his stories. Featuring guest appearances by names such as Styles P, Smoke DZA, Phonte, Curren$y, Royce Da 5'9", Skyzoo, Stalley and several others, this deluxe and extended edition also presents a few remixes and unreleased tracks, all packed in a 2LP limited edition vinyl, bringing Mickey's achievements on physical copy for the first time ever.

‘Tomorrow Held’ is the visionary new album bytwenty-something mould-breakers andconservatoire-trained virtuosos, fiddle player OwenSpafford and guitarist Louis Campbell.
Eight largely instrumental tracks that hold space,resolve into mystery, that fold in elements of jazz,post-rock and chamber classical music whileraiding the folk music toolbox.
Call it what you want: post-folk; trad-noir; folknihilism. Then know that Spafford Campbell areblazing a trail that erases genre and finds gold inthe embers. Forget about tomorrow, they say.Welcome to the now.
LP includes printed inner sleeve.

For most members of the band it's the best album. But, tragically, the release of Operation Heavenly in 1996 was overshadowed by the sudden death of drummer Mathew Fletcher. The promotional tour was cancelled, the surviving members of the band went into emotional hibernation and no-one could bring themselves to celebrate these vibrant, upbeat songs. So, this release by Skep Wax Records, nearly thirty years on, is more like an album launch than a re-issue. Time has healed most wounds, and the songs on Operation Heavenly feel like they can finally emerge onto the stage, with Mathew's spirit very much alive: his effervescent witty drumming sounding as fresh now as it did then. These tracks are gleeful, melodic, sophisticated and knowing. The tough riot grrrl edge that Heavenly had developed a year before with seminal singles P.U.N.K. Girl and Atta Girl, has been blended with a deliberate quantity of Britpop styling. Heavenly were clearly listening to what was going on, liked the energy, but didn't necessarily feel the need to join in. Some of the tracks (eg Ben Sherman) are as jaunty as early Blur, but the lyrics, mocking a narcissistic boyfriend for his obsession with hair, clothes and his own erections, show that Heavenly didn't need or want to be part of the la - or even ladette - herd. Operation Heavenly was the band's first release on a label other than Sarah Records. Matt Haynes and Clare Wadd had brought that exceptional label to a deliberate and dramatic end. The liaison with US punk label K Records continued - as did the duets with Calvin Johnson: Pet Monkey is a moving duet between a growling Calvin Johnson and a sweet-voiced Cathy Rogers, as they dramatize another complex, maybe doomed relationship, with another self-centred boy finding himself frustrated by a girl who won't take any shit. But in the UK, Heavenly needed to find a new home - and Wiija Records were welcoming hosts, ushering the band into a brasher, less cloistered world: the production on this album is brighter than before, the artwork is colourful and upbeat. With tracks as catchy and as complete as Fat Lenny, Trophy Girlfriend and Space Manatee there was an expectation that Heavenly might finally emerge from the indiepop shadows and trouble the charts. And who knows if this might have happened. Mathew was lost before the album was released, and the band had no choice but to bring things to an end. This reissue also contains two tracks that appeared on the B side of the 7" single of Space Manatee. They are both cover versions, and along with Serge Gainsbourg's Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges on the main album, these vivacious assaults on Art School by The Jam and You Tore Me Down by The Flamin' Groovies show that the band, briefly in its prime, could happily embrace any variant of pop music and make it something Heavenly.

Experience the Double-Platinum 1996 Album in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Is Sourced from the Original Analogue Tapes
1/2” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

If great art, as many believe, is inherently polarizing, then the Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop easily ranks as the California-based band’s finest album. Simultaneously celebrated and castigated upon release in spring 1996, the group’s third full-length finds vocalist Scott Weiland and company expanding their “grunge” palette with a smart blend of glam rock, psychedelia, jangle pop, and other related styles. Having benefited from long-view reassessments that shed the biases and meanness of initial criticisms, the double-platinum effort is now largely and rightly seen as a creative masterwork. All the more reason why it deserves reference-grade production.

Overseen by producer Brendan O’Brien, Stone Temple Pilots used bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms, and the lawn to capture a broad blend of textures, spaciousness, and ambience that helped underline the group’s obvious (and somewhat unexpected) leap from normal “alternative” status to an artist whose aspirations went beyond that of many of its contemporaries. You can hear the multitude of details and tonalities with previously unattained clarity, presence, and scope on this fantastic reissue, which also delivers the impact and punch every rock record deserves. Another tremendous asset: The depth, grain, and pitch of Weiland’s voice.

For all the contagious choruses and glossy melodies that help make Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sparkle, the vocal performances of the late singer arguably rank as the best that the much-missed Weiland committed to tape. None other than the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan — who, like many peers and critics, felt a pressing need to reevaluate the record as both time marched on and the self-importance attached to the “alternative” scene faded — praised Weiland’s efforts by noting: “Like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere.”

Smooth and diverse, those traits are everywhere on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. From the clever combination of emotional closeness and distance he brings to the catchy albeit ultimately melancholic “Lady Picture Show”; to the lounge-fly balladeering that causes “And So I Know” to lightly swing akin to a bleary-eyed house band’s final number at a 4 A.M. bar; to the effortless cool and laissez-faire casualness he articulates on the grinding “Pop’s Love Suicide”; to the dimensional raspiness, defiant energy, and let-loose wail that sail through the crunchy “Big Bang Baby.”

The latter tune, the record’s first single and per Weiland a conscious attempt by the band to deconstruct its prior approaches, clearly borrows from the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Because of it, the song drew all kinds of barbs from naysayers. Their disdain extended to most material on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which indirectly references other prized acts such as the Beatles, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, and Lush. Those cynics failed to grasp that Stone Temple Pilots were paying homage and having a blast, with even Weiland, then battling serious substance-abuse and legal issues, getting in on the action.

Stone Temple Pilots’ skeptics also turned a deaf ear to the records’ stellar pop craftsmanship, sticky hooks, and sly commentary on music-industry machinations and fame. Not to mention the band’s intent, made clear from the outset. In an interview conducted in 1994, guitarist Robert DeLeo stated: “The last thing I wanted to do with this band was make everybody believe we invented something.”

Seen through that lens and the hindsight afforded history, and appreciated independent of the self-righteous authenticity standards of the day, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sounds borderline fearless while authoritatively checking all the right boxes for fun, flavor, and finesse. Part winking send-up, part tribute to the glitter rock age, and part middle finger towards the hip crowd that didn’t know what they were missing, this mid-90s classic repeatedly invites you to drop the needle and press play.

Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Plays with Authoritative Tonality, Airiness, and Clarity:
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl and Strictly Limited to
3,000 Numbered Copies
1/4” / 15 IPS Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Joni Mitchell is the only artist who could’ve made Hejira. The legendary singer-songwriter said as much when discussing the album decades after its release. Yet that fact seemed obvious from the moment the gold-certified effort streeted in fall 1976. An adventurous travelogue, probing narrative, and offbeat homage to freedom, Hejira remains an inimitable entry in the catalog of recorded music — a spare, gorgeous, meditative series of sonic vignettes comprised of floating harmonic pop, cool jazz, soft rock, and sensitive vocal elements that beckon feelings of motion, discovery, and self-examination.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the record ranked the 133rd Greatest of All Time by Rolling Stone with definitive detail, richness, accuracy, and directness. Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD.

Playing with a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible reissue reproduces in enveloping fashion the tones, textures, and craftsmanship that help Hejira function as the equivalent of a liberating trip down an open road with nothing but blue sky, natural landscape, and fresh air in the immediate vicinity. Passages bloom, carry, decay as they do amid an acoustically optimized environment. Soundstages extend far, wide, and deep, with black backgrounds and pinpoint images adding to the realism.

The reference-grade immediacy, airiness, and presence put in transparent perspective Mitchell’s dense strings of words, stream-of-conscious-like phrasing, and unhurried albeit forward momentum. Likewise, the instrumental contributions of her A-list support musicians — a cast that includes L.A. Express members John Guerin, Max Bennett and Tom Scott, plus Neil Young, Victor Feldman, and Abe Most — emerges with breathtaking clarity and dimensionality.

While Mitchell, whose intimate vocals and abstract guitar parts center everything, Mobile Fidelity's restoration of Hejira further reveals the visionary breadth of guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Jaco Pastorius. Though heard on only four tracks, Pastorius' fretless bass epitomizes the fluid, subtle, flexible, roomy, and shape-shifting characteristics of songs that often appear to transpire out of nowhere akin to the formation of a puffy cumulus cloud overhead. In sync with Mitchell’s voice, Pastorius’ fusion hovers and floats, suspended in a fog you want to deeply inhale. The "grace notes" Mitchell desired on Hejira can now be heard in full. Ditto the luxurious tapestries of alinear lines, fills, and supplements unreeled on Carlton’s six-string.

Visually, the packaging of this UD1S set complements its identity as the copy to own. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, the LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics. This version is for listeners who desire to become immersed in everything about Hejira, including the unforgettable album cover — a pastiche of 14 different photos Mitchell used a Camera Lucida to assemble into one image that’s anchored by a portrait of her in a stoic pose — and the interior shots of Mitchell skating on a frozen Wisconsin lake wearing a pair of black skates, black shirt, and fur cape.

The notion of skating, feeling an awakening wind whipping against your face, and losing yourself to the surroundings are extremely apt for Hejira, which Mitchell wrote after a sequence of trips and relationships prompted her to reflect on the complicated conflicts between independence and marriage, success and satisfaction, duty and desire — and, more specifically, “the cost of being a woman.” The Canadian native delved into such themes before. But never as she does on Hejira, whose liberating, running-away aura doubles as another of Mitchell’s rejections of tradition as well as a suggestion of a better alternative.

At once observational and personal, expansive and insular, cheerful and poignant, Hejira spans a sea of human conditions, emotions, and circumstances. It addresses drifting, isolation, pleasure, place, time, and surroundings with strikingly poetic discourse matched with music that, save for the crooned ballad “Blue Motel Room,” forgoes conventional structures and choruses.

The jazz-based arrangements, marked by scaled-down percussion and all manner of bent, rounded, and unsettled notes, hint that Mitchell has no exact destination in mind. Excursions such as the moody “Furry Sings the Blues,” funky “Coyote” and edgy “Black Crow” throw open previously locked doors to possibility and journey. They signal it’s time for a welcome departure from norms and the past, one that leads to a heightened sense of clarity and perspective. Or, as Mitchell said upon choosing the album title, it’s time for “leaving the dream, no blame.”

Zum 40. Jubiläum von Modern Talking überrascht Sänger Thomas Anders mit einem ganz speziellen Album-Projekt: Eine Hommage an Modern Talking!

Zum 40. Jubiläum von Modern Talking überrascht der Sänger mit Neuaufnahmen der ersten sechs Modern-Talking-Alben und ist somit der erste deutsche Künstler überhaupt, der sein komplettes Frühwerk neu interpretiert! Seit 2003 geht das erfolgreichste Duo der deutschen Popgeschichte bekanntlich getrennte Wege, doch die Modern Talking Songs, zu denen man bis heute in aller Welt tanzt, bleiben nach wie vor weltweit unsterblich.

Die Neuaufnahmen der ersten Modern-Talking-Alben sind mit seiner unverwechselbaren Stimme eine Hommage an das einzigartige Erfolgsduo und an die glorreiche, vermeintlich bunte und sorgenfreie Zeit Mitte der Achtzigerjahre. Die einst vom pulsierenden Italo-Disco-Sound inspirierten Songs sind alle auf Anhieb zu erkennen, klingen jetzt aber dank modernerer Drums und Synths zeitgemäßer. Zusätzlich erscheint das 6-Album-Paket erstmals im Dolby-Atmos Sound, also 3D-Audio. Auf jedem Album überrascht Thomas Anders außerdem mit zwei bislang unveröffentlichten Songs, etwa “Don’t Fly Too High“ oder “Hold Me Tight In The Night“ auf dem ersten Album. Versierte Studiomusiker haben alle Stücke zusammen mit Thomas Anders unter der Ägide von Christian Geller komplett neu eingespielt, begleitet wird Anders dabei übrigens von denselben Chorsängerinnen und Sängern, die schon damals auf den Originalaufnahmen zu hören waren. Bei der Produktion wurden Spuren aus der Originalproduktion so detailgetreu wie möglich neu produziert und den neuen Versionen hinzugemischt.

Die sechs Alben – “The 1st Album“, “Let's Talk About Love“, “Ready For Romance“, “In The Middle Of Nowhere“, “Romantic Warriors“ und “In The Garden Of Venus“, auf denen alle großen Modern-Talking-Hits der 80er vertreten sind – erscheinen ab März 2025 in regelmäßigen Abständen bis Ende des Jahres beim Label Stars by Edel. Zum 40. Jubiläum von Modern Talking kommt es jetzt also einmal ganz Anders ...

Madlib’s WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip Returns on Double Vinyl via BBE Music BBE Music is thrilled to announce the long-awaited rerelease of WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the final installment in the legendary Beat Generation series from none other than Madlib. Originally released in 2008, this masterful collage of dusty loops, raw beats, and left-field soundscapes remains a high-water mark in the Stones Throw producer’s sprawling discography.

Now, for the first time in years, fans can experience the album in all its analog glory with this deluxe double vinyl edition, carefully remastered to preserve Madlib’s signature warmth and grit. A tribute to pirate radio culture and late-night airwaves, WLIB AM weaves together a rich tapestry of hip-hop, jazz, and soul, featuring an all-star cas t of collaborators, including Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson, MED, and Oh No. Each track showcases Madlib’s uncanny ability to blur the lines between genres, effortlessly flipping obscure samples into hypnotic, off-kilter rhythms. From the hypnotic bounce of “Blow the Horns on ‘Em” to the smoked-out groove of “The Plan Pt. 1,” this is Madlib at his most playful, unpredictable, and inspired.

This special double vinyl edition, released exclusively via BBE Music, brings one of the Beat Generation series’ most celebrated albums back into circulation for crate-diggers and collectors alike. With original artwork and a high-quality pressing, this rerelease is a must-have for Madlib aficionados and vinyl lovers who appreciate raw, unfiltered beat craftsmanship. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of hip-hop history—WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip is back and sounding better than ever.

Jeroen van der Smut launches the 2nd volume of Smutty Edits. The crew from the first release DJ Mawashi, Tom Bolas and MLiR are joined by Italian Dama and Japanese crew C.O.M.P.A.S… The second edition carries through the concept of 3 electronic and House edits on one side with more disco and synth-pop leaning offerings on the flip.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Das 1. Album ist das gigantische Debütstudioalbum des deutschen Duos Modern Talking. Das Album erreichte den Spitzenplatz in Deutschland, vier Wochen an der Spitze der Charts und 18 Wochen unter den Top 10. Es verkaufte sich weltweit mehr als acht Millionen.

Between The Seed And The Timber is a cycle of six songs exploring ritual and mystical aspects of the modern era. At times both noir and psychedelic, they evoke a strong sense of nostalgia for a disappearing age. In contrast to industrial music’s dystopian semiotics, Jas Shaw challenges us to hear sounds inspired by machinery, electricity and mechanisation in a new light.

“I made the synth parts for a Swans gig,” says Shaw. “As SMD we’d supported Swans. James was away doing some production but I didn’t want to pass it up, so I offered to open solo. It turned out the gig was sooner than expected so I made all these synth things to do live.”

Shaw put the tracks to one side and forgot about them, only returning to them years later. “You know when you’ve changed as a person and you listen back to something from a different angle? I suddenly could hear what I had been after. It reminded me of experiences I’d had at Swans gigs. I wanted to achieve that energy and charge.”

Dubbing techniques are crucial to the sound of the record. “I set up a few synths on a table and had my mixer running loads of auxes back into the desk so it was all on the edge of feeding back. Then I realised that if I put a mic into the desk I’d have an extra feedback route. I found a setting where I could get it to build when I pointed the mic at the monitors but then turning it away you could put the brakes on the regen.”

Between The Seed And The Timber is Jas Shaw’s inaugural release for the London based, Kindred-affiliated TEETH label. TEETH is rooted in a reverence for texture, space, and sonic decay - amplifying experimental sounds that blend dreamlike melodies with weathered landscapes. Each release informs the next, with every track as vital as the last to complete the whole set.

Orchestrated by Jojo Mathiszig-Lee, founder of London’s Kindred, the label celebrates like-minded talent from the community, providing a platform for transgressing music.

Artworks are made by Scarlet Griffiths.

We reunited for this second EP two best friends who have been shaking up the South of France techno community for a few years now. They started as a duo named Flyov before exploring their solo projects. Tibahuult has since been touring all over Europe with his explosive live set, blending Techno, Electro, and Punk music. Nathanaël, on his side, has grown into one of the DJs you don’t want to miss when partying in Marseille.

We’re thrilled to bring them back together on this project, where you can witness how a shared universe can evolve in two very different ways as each artist grows. To highlight this evolution, we selected for each of them one track produced a few years ago and one track created more recently with this project in mind.

On the A-side, Nathanaël opens the EP with a mysterious, trippy, jazz-infused house track, revealing all his finesse as the bass comes to embrace you like a big warm morning hug. For his second track, Cosmic Messenger, Nathanaël dives into a much darker space with a banger designed to destroy any dancefloor it hits

With Bass in the Sound, Tibahuult expresses his love for Punk music and flawlessly merges both worlds into an addictive ear-worm that will stick in your mind all day long. Tibahuult closes the B-side with one of his all-time festival anthems—the track that made me fall in love with his music. This high-energy piece will make anyone dance like the devil has taken over their body.