Cerca:war of ages

“One foot out the door, another in the otherworld…”
So begins Hannah Lew’s debut, self-titled solo record, soaked in imperious, wide-eyed pop songwriting and a girl-group/post punk aesthetic that belies the artist’s history in the U.S. underground. A towering, hook-laden album, it’s infused with an optimism and surrealism that conversely deals with the times we find ourselves in.

Recorded at home in Richmond, CA and in The Best House studio with Maryam Qudus in Oakland CA, with the assistance of a crack team of West Coast musicians, this album sees Hannah Lew stepping out from behind the legacy of her two groups Grass Widow and Cold Beat. While musically bearing similarities with her previous work, “Hannah Lew” is a bold leap into direct pop territory, making ample use of a vocal style that teases out the inherent melancholy in her melodies. Mastered by Sarah Register, each song is a perfectly honed nugget that frequently pulls the heart in two directions at once.

Themes of change, breaking up, shattering old ways of being are shot through the record. For the front cover, a photograph of the artist’s face was printed, ripped up and re-assembled, resembling the creative process embarked upon by Lew for her first “solo” material. The album feels instinctual, almost dream-like in its assemblage of sweeping synths and pulsating, propulsive drum machine beat patterns with Lew’s vocal performances sensitive and caressing over the top. Increasingly relying on the subconscious and dreams to guide her creative process, Hannah Lew frequently abandons literal interpretations or linear narratives, the songs seeming to exist in a swooning, effortless flow-state while remaining emotionally hard hitting.

On an album where every song could be a single, there are kaleidoscopic shades and varying emotional tones in abundance. First single Another Twilight is carried along a pumping, Italo-disco-style 4/4 beat and mono-synth bass line, the low end pulling at the heart and body. Lew’s vocal melody teases the track before swan-diving into a gorgeous chorus as she sings “it’s all over baby and I don’t mind… in decline, I take my time…” The album is suffused with moments like this. On slow builder Damaged Melody, an arpeggiated synth elongates the verse before a cascading synth showers down melodic glitter. The stunning Replica uses dual swirling synth patterns before a driving, synthpop chorus for the ages carries Hannah Lew’s vocal into the stereo field, sailing in on a high register singed with the embers of a break up.

In a departure from previous groups, her solo songs are guided by dreams and free association inspired by Dada and the Surrealist movement and sculpted afterwards. As such, the songs reveal themselves on repeated listens, revealing traces of heartbreak inspired by both personal and global elements - Hannah Lew regards the album “a wartime album.” On Move In Silence, Lew intones “there’s a war outside, just out of view,” revealing the dichotomy at play throughout. With the songs evolving naturally and in a flow state, the pressures and sadnesses of the modern age bleed through, mixed in with Lew’s inherent love, sensitivity and fractured-but-intact optimism. On the swooning, sublime Sunday layers of Numanoid synths open up for the commanding vocal performance pontificating on grief, love, pain as she “feels the ache on Sunday…” As the chorus builds and Lew’s call-and-response vocal adds to the emotional tension, it almost feels like too much to take.

Elsewhere, there are echoes of Hannah Lew’s previous work. On Time Wasted a bass guitar comes in with a heavy, punk attack before the synths and vocal harmonies reminiscent of later Cold Beat elevate everything. The glassy, sweetly resigned closer The Clock sounds like so classic it could be cover, a sweetened Jesus & Mary Chain tune perhaps, before it erupts into volcanic chorus that could only come from Hannah Lew in 2026.

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present MEGATON SWORD’s highly anticipated debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, on CD, cassette and vinyl LP formats. It was but November of last year when MEGATON SWORD unleashed their glorious debut EP, Niralet, via DYING VICTIMS. Arriving fully formed, virtually without warning – no prior demo recordings existed, at least not publicly – this Swiss quartet evinced an ages-old sound that was wise (and wizened) well beyond their young years. Already, MEGATON SWORD knew the mystery of steel…and wielded it with a startling confidence. And no one knew just how high they could fly, only that they were just getting started. Now, with the arrival of their imminent debut album, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, MEGATON SWORD are marching into the halls of greatness, with no one to stop them. Retaining the same, well-named lineup – vocalist Uzzy Unchained, guitarist Chris the Axe, bassist Simon the Sorcerer, and drummer Dan Thundersteel – MEGATON SWORD maximize the strengths of the EP and then some, revealing new twists to that mystery of steel whilst retaining the charisma and crunch that endeared them to the true-metal underground the first time around. Indeed, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire is aptly titled, almost ridiculously so: this is true-as-steel HEAVY METAL drunk on high fantasy and the enduring themes of conquest and valor, triumph and tragedy, but rendered in a form even bloodier and possessing more bravado. It’s also more dynamic, maximizing drama between notes and from one passage to the next, each movement a narrative crucial to their conquest.

LA underground hubs DISCOS XXX aka DX3 and Elbow Grease join forces to proudly present Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 — featuring 20 distinct artists from the inspired local dance music scene, working under one unified studio roof in various collaborative
formation at the mighty Los Feliz hilltop palace Point Winona, overseeing the city they collectively represent. These timeless warehouse-wrecking tracks all stand on their own, but the compilation as a whole offers a solid geographic sonic statement with shared rhythmic DNA and bold rooted-futurist production blueprints, guided by the champion efforts of studio executive producers/curators Tavish DJ and Dave Aju.
The BPS stage-setting opener evokes crispy A.M. hours with lush Detroit-meets-Cali feels on “Within Reason” — then studio dream team 5 ATMs bring the dubwise floor vibes up a notch on “A Dub Called Mondo” and Chitown-to-LA legend Scott K lays down an FM bass-laced acid house heater with “Tighter & Tighter”. Nashville-born producer Gryph funks things up on the live space boogie bump of “Winona at Sunset” while SSRI, comprised of Underground Resistance’s DJ Dex/Nomadico, Aju, and Black Lodge’s fearless leader Kosmik, drop fierce robo-Italo bliss on “Omnicallora”. Things take a further psychedelic twist with the PW edit of Scotty Coats’ sublime midtempo tripper “Be Work Zone Alert”, then Omakase’s own Gold Code alongside longtime rave brother Aju drop the nasty J Saul-salute “Yolo Jungle”, and Warehouse Preservation Society aka Tavish DJ & TK fully detonate floors inna raucous Wicked Crew stylee with “Data Bliss”. Undisputed LA scene queen Stacy Christine arrives with her shining debut “Smart Move”, where she and Aju trade sly vox lines of party advice over a bouncing tech banger for the ages, before the “Obsesion Romantica (Free Winona Dub)” sees Sisters Of Sound aka Maddy Maia and Tottie's, OG track getting stripped back and fired up to acidic peak time form. Then Dave Aju and SF homies Moniker aka EO & Kenneth Scott unleash wild uptempo melodic bruk heaven on “Chuy Luis”, and Vastir sends us home with the stratospheric drum n bass closer "Turnpike"

BPitch präsentiert die nächste Ausgabe ihrer WE ARE NOT ALONE Compilation-Reihe - ein vielfältiges Paket mit Sounds, die den Geist der WE ARE NOT ALONE-Partys widerspiegeln und einen Einblick in eine Szene von Künstlern geben, die sich dem Underground verschrieben haben. WE ARE NOT ALONE pt. 8 bietet zwölf unverzichtbare Tracks für DJs, Raver und Musikfans, die eine breite Palette an Genres abdecken und dabei nie den Dancefloor aus den Augen verlieren. Die neue Compilation spannt die Fäden zwischen den Genres und dokumentiert mit der gewohnten Qualität des Berliner Labels das nächste Kapitel in seinem stetig wachsenden Beitrag zur Kultur.

WE ARE NOT ALONE pt. 8 zeigt, dass das Label keine Pläne hat, die Hitze zu drosseln, mit einer weiteren Runde reinstem Hedonismus für die Ewigkeit.

BPitch present the next iteration of their WE ARE NOT ALONE compilation series - a diverse package of sounds reflecting the spirit of the WE ARE NOT ALONE parties, and offering a glimpse into a community of artists that have committed themselves to the underground.

Touching on a wide range of genres whilst never losing sight of the dancefloor, WE ARE NOT ALONE pt.8 offers twelve essential cuts for DJs, ravers, and music heads alike. Tying the threads between genres, and with the mark of quality expected from the Berlin label, this new compilation documents the next chapter in its ever-growing contribution to the culture.
Returning to the label appearances on both BPitch and its accompanying label UFO Inc. - Turin-based duo Boston 168 open the club doors with a masterful fusion of trance build-ups and stripped back pointillism on ‘Feeling You’. Another member of the BPitch roster having just released an EP on the label, Tigerhead steps up with heavy kickdrums and uncanny pads on the aptly-titled ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’. Stepping into more minimal territory, Sina XX - founding member of the Paris rave collective Subtyl - offers a warm, bouncing cut that teeters between the dark and euphoric with a masterful balance. Taking a swift 180 into the darkest industrial spaces, Endlec serves up a gritty percussive workout on the formidable ‘Panther’.

Theo Nasa - a South London-based purveyor of weird, melodramatic techno - moves into hazier spaces on ‘Sex and Acid Pleasure’, an eccentric dose of acid for the senses. Shaleen - a resident of the WE ARE NOT ALONE event series - continues into the warmth with a headspin of analogue sounds and modular experimentalism with ‘Vernalagnia’. Öspiel, the French-Korean producer and label head known for his cinematic sounds weaves together angular rhythms underpinned by a strong sense of minimalism. In hot pursuit, Puglia’s Raho comes through with a cyclone of bouncing kicks and harsh leads.

Diana May, a Berlin-staple and resident at KitKat offers us a welcoming spiral on ‘Just Shut The F*** Up’. Plunging into deep industrial caverns, KRTM ’s ‘Küss Mich Jetzt’ is a pounding glitch of hardcore techno for the biggest speakers. VUUDUU’s ‘SNAXX’ shifts the speed up a gear with an expansive gothic rave banger. Rounding things off is madwoman’s ‘Chaos Theory’, a sparse but unrelenting cut of atmospheric techno from deep inside a warehouse.

WE ARE NOT ALONE pt.8 shows the label have no plans on lowering the heat in 2024, with another round of pure hedonism for the ages.










j d1 | KRTM - Küss Mich Jetzt (04 05)

At the start of the 1980’s X-Plode’s dad had a second-hand colour TV business in Bolton, Lancashire where he would buy, sell, repair and trade TVs. He would come back home with all kinds of things he had traded for a TV but the most memorable, to a 10 year old kid at that time, were the keyboards. He use to watch his dad play songs from the 1960’s on these keyboards and when his dad had gone out, Lee X-Plode would sneak on them and start messing about, experimenting with the drum programs and fiddling with the buttons, trying out ideas. He had to move fast though because these keyboards didn’t stay in the house for long as his dad would trade them again for something else; one time that was an old analogue echo chamber, which Lee also messed about with when his dad was out. That echo chamber was a revelation to Lee and opened up the possibilities of what was possible with sound. So by the time Lee was 16, he decided he wanted his own keyboard and started saving. When his 17th birthday came around he had saved up £200 and visited his local Argos where he bought himself a Yamaha PSS 680, an FM synthesizer with memory banks and a basic drum machine incorporated. ‘It was shit quality like, but I didn’t mind. I just wanted it for the programmable drum machine, the synth and the memory banks that came with it” Lee recalls. The year was 1987 and by this time in Lee’s life he was into reggae and hip hop, the latter he first embraced in 1983 by the way of breakdancing and listening to electro, so all he wanted to do when he got his gear was make reggae and electro sounding beats. Recalling his youth and the fun he had with the echo chamber, the next edition to his home set up was to acquire one of those, which he did via a mate of his. But by the time he got his minimal set up sorted in 1988, his musical tastes had changed. House music had landed here in UK and this was Lee’s new passion, so from that point on wards he started experimenting, trying to nail a decent house groove. ‘I wanted 808 sounds, but I didn’t know what one was!’ Lee explains.

Around late 1990 or early 1991, Lee started to improve upon his set up, purchasing an Atari STE, a Cheetah MS6 , a 6 voice polyphonic/multi-timbre analogue rack mounted synth that linked up to his Yamaha – “It wasn’t a great bit of kit, I kept getting electric shocks from it. Eventually it just blew up!” Lee had acquired a cracked copy of Cubase on floppy disk from his local computer game shop but struggled with it. “It was so complicated to understand and took me ages to get used to it. I was stoned a lot back then and I just couldn’t concentrate on anything for long” Lee laughs, continuing “I also picked up a 4 channel sampler/sequencer which plugged into the side of the Atari and that’s when I first started sampling, I think this would have been late 1991. I had the Simon Harris ‘Breaks, Beats and Scratches’ vinyl that he put out on Music for Life which were a godsend back then. I was also sampling a lot from cassette tapes, especially reggae. I would also record the Stu Allan show on Key 103FM, one of the main stations broadcasting out of Manchester. He would do a 3 hour show with hip hop and house, and then hardcore house came along. Eventually he dropped the hip hop altogether and it was just house and hardcore. I recorded the shows onto cassette most weeks and started to learn more about how house and hardcore was put together by listening to those shows.”

New edits label from the Deep&Disco crew outta NYC. 2 Killer cuts given a revamp and shine for the dancefloor.

Pressed on heavy weight 180g vinyl limited to 300 pressings hand stamped.
DJ FEEDBACK

Craig Smith (6th Borough Project) - Lovely edits, well produced and expertly put together. Good luck with the label chaps

Guy (Sleazy Beats, Monsieur Monod) - What a delightful debut for your new label. Feel The Rhythm is an irresistable boogie groover. We'll be playing these puppies all over the place! All the best with the release and label.

aliOOFT (OOFT! Music) - Being playing this for ages, good to see it being released. Best of luck with the label - I look forward to more Razor N Tape jams!

Sleazy McQueen (Whisky Disco) - Dig it, man!

Onur Engin (OE Edits) - Nice one! I'll definitely support this.

Jimpster (Freerange) - Nicely done. always a good one to have in the bag. cheers for the good edits.

Trujillo (Apersonal Music) - So Tight is a dope warm disco for the dance floor!, will spin it!

The Glue (Kolour) - Great edits both of them, we will keep an eye out for more stuff from you guys for sure!

Leftside Wobble (Futureboogie) - A pair of filtered boogie beauties.

Alkalino (Much Love) - Like both, but "Feel the Rhythm" is my fav.cheers!

Matthew Bandy (Z Records) - Solid edits here, will be getting support on both from me. Cheers.

Sell by Dave (Bedmo Disco, Juno Plus) - Excellent first release lads - enjoying both tracks. The edits scene needs some fresh cuts/styles, and you've delivered on these. Major props - can see both getting plenty of plays in Bedmo Disco sets this summer x

Daz (Get Down Edits) - So Tight never fails but this is my first time hearing Feel The Rhythm & cant wait to play it out its sounds excellent, have a gig @ Disco Deviance this sat & cant wait to play these at it :)

Mike W (Kolour Recordings) - Been looking forward to RNT001 and it does not disappoint one bit! edits that drip with funk & soul .. just like they should. got a nice batch of gigs in the pipes and these will definitely be seeing their way into my rotation as well as the full gambit of chart support! cheers j. kriv & aaron dae .. got yourselves off to a nice & tidy start .. best of returns to ya!

Nelue (Groove Democracy) - Both sound great!

South West Seven (SWS Music) - Love it!

Kid Color (Dollar Disco) - Slammin' work if I could say so myself!

The Beat Broker (Flexx) - So Tight is exactly that. Killer unstoppable groove. Love it!

Repress.

Back in 2015, Japanese DIY house pioneer Soichi Terada stepped back into the limelight courtesy of Rush Hour's 'Sounds From The Far East', a Hunee curated retrospective of material first released on his own Far East Recording label in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buoyed by the positive response and renewed interest in his work, Terada went back into studio to record his first new album of house music for over 25 years, Asakusa Light.

Developed over 18 months, Terada tried to recreate the mental and physical processes that led to the creation of his acclaimed earlier work. Those familiar with Terada’s celebrated, dancefloor-focused sound of the 1990s – a vibrant, atmospheric, and emotive take on deep house powered by the twin attractions of groove and melody – will find much to enjoy on Asakusa Light.

“I tried to recall my feelings 30 years ago, but when I tried it, I found it super difficult,” he explains. “I didn’t even know what I thought about myself five years ago, and the mental metabolic cycle seems to be faster than I thought. I tried different methods, including digging up my old MIDI data and composing by remembering old experiences. With the help of Rush Hour, I found some of the light from my heart that I had 30 years ago. I nicknamed the light I found in my heart, ‘Asakusa Light’.”

Produced using the very same synthesizers and drum machines that powered his 1990s work, the album is a joyous, colourful and life-affirming collection of timeless house music that not only recalls Terada’s own impeccable back catalogue, but also that of similarly celebrated contemporaries such as the Burrell Brothers or Ben Cenac (Dream 2 Science, Sha-Lor).

Terada, who has spent much of the last two decades writing video game music, has always had a gift for combining warm, undulating synthesizer basslines and perfectly programmed machine drums with stirring chords, smile-inducing melodies and mellow musical flourishes. It’s this immersive, sun-kissed and tuneful trademark style that takes centre stage on Asakusa Light, an album for the ages.

The set begins with the alien-sounding chords, soft-touch percussion and dawn-friendly warmth of ‘Silent Chord’ and ends on a high via the bouncing string stabs, starlight chords and thickset grooves of ‘Blinker’; in between, you’ll find a deluge of effortlessly feelgood music that’s the aural equivalent of a dopamine rush at sunrise.

There are subtle variations aplenty throughout the album – see the 8-bit lead lines and pulsing electronic textures of ‘Takusambient’, the vintage Tony Humphries flex of ‘Diving Into Minds’ and the effortlessly funky ‘Marimbau’ – but it’s the uniquely atmospheric, vivid and tactile nature of Terada’s loved-up sound that resonates. After well over 30 years in house music, the light in his heart is shining brighter than ever.

• Gil Scott-Heron’s “Pieces Of A Man” is one of the most important albums in the history of black American music. Although it didn’t set the charts alight, it stands as a masterpiece alongside contemporary works such as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”, Curtis Mayfield’s debut LP, Funkadelic's “Maggot Brain” and Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft”. All were brilliant in their way, but lyrically Scott-Heron was on a different level from almost every other writer.

• It was a landmark album with its bold, poetic lyrical content allied to progressive and melodic music, and it saw producer Bob Thiele help Gil and his musical partner Brian Jackson paint the picture they needed to get their message across. Thiele put Gil and Brian together with Ron Carter, Hubert Laws and Bernard Purdie, giving them the musical heft they wanted.

• For many years the focus was on ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, which was included in the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2014, but this focus sometimes overshadowed the heights which Gil reached throughout the album. Today ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’ and ‘Lady Day And John Coltrane’ are also considered standards, whilst the album’s title track is a prescient and heart-breaking warning about the way in which big business dehumanises its workers.

• The album reached its landmark 50th year in 2021 and we decided that we would create this special edition to celebrate its incredible sound. The original master tape was taken to Frank Merritt at The Carvery in London, who cut it as a double disc 2 x 45 RPM record, in an all-analogue chain. The original record - especially side two - was long, and serving it up this way allowed the music a greater level of fidelity.

• The release is packaged in the original album’s gatefold sleeve.

Nurtured on 90s alternative indie, lucky break's music melds the emotional directness of Fiona Apple, the wide-eyed warmth of Bedouine and the Americana-leaning alt rock of Lucinda Williams. Fans of Alvvays, Hole, Phoebe Bridgers and The Breeders will find familiar touchstones here. lucky break is a hand-drawn cartoon character and a girl with a guitar, an ever-expanding container for the feelings that come with making art. She can be very sad and very joyful, living somewhere between worlds. On her debut for Fire Records, made it!, lucky break builds a new world for her character to inhabit. made it! collects songs written between the ages of 19 and 23, documenting the uncertainty of early adulthood, the end of a first major relationship and the process of learning to stand up for yourself. Tracks like "Crush" pair sharp lyrical insight with big drums and crisp bass, while "Head Down" uses bright, dreamy guitars to explore themes of politics, consumer culture and moral complacency. Confessional, direct and emotionally precise, lucky break's songwriting is matched by a versatile and expressive vocal performance that shifts across moods and styles throughout the record. Produced with Elliott Woodbridge in Burbank, made it! is a playful, self-assured debut from a young artist who has already found her voice and is stepping confidently into a bright future. Digisleeve-CD and coloured Vinyl-LP w/ dlc available!

Nurtured on 90s alternative indie, lucky break's music melds the emotional directness of Fiona Apple, the wide-eyed warmth of Bedouine and the Americana-leaning alt rock of Lucinda Williams. Fans of Alvvays, Hole, Phoebe Bridgers and The Breeders will find familiar touchstones here. lucky break is a hand-drawn cartoon character and a girl with a guitar, an ever-expanding container for the feelings that come with making art. She can be very sad and very joyful, living somewhere between worlds. On her debut for Fire Records, made it!, lucky break builds a new world for her character to inhabit. made it! collects songs written between the ages of 19 and 23, documenting the uncertainty of early adulthood, the end of a first major relationship and the process of learning to stand up for yourself. Tracks like "Crush" pair sharp lyrical insight with big drums and crisp bass, while "Head Down" uses bright, dreamy guitars to explore themes of politics, consumer culture and moral complacency. Confessional, direct and emotionally precise, lucky break's songwriting is matched by a versatile and expressive vocal performance that shifts across moods and styles throughout the record. Produced with Elliott Woodbridge in Burbank, made it! is a playful, self-assured debut from a young artist who has already found her voice and is stepping confidently into a bright future. Digisleeve-CD and coloured Vinyl-LP w/ dlc available!

Oceanine, Jolanda Moletta’s third album and her first for Beacon Sound, is a powerful and ethereal statement of artistic community. Expanding on her previous work, each track represents a collaboration with a different female vocalist, with the foundational elements being generated entirely by her own voice. By turns haunting, enchanting, and inspiring, you won’t want to come up for air once you’ve been pulled under. Representing a
musical practice that is distinctly feminist, this is an album with a longer view in mind, to an age when the altars were to goddesses and women were centered as powerful beings representing the earth’s cycles of regeneration and renewal. Oceanine then, in all its beauty, can be viewed as an album of survival. It is deeply transportive, accessing something that lies within all of us. As the late, great Lithuanian folklorist and archaeologist Marija Gimbutas noted, “We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of 'progress' is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth.”

Jolanda Moletta is a multimedia artist and one-woman electronic choir. She creates wordless compositions through extended vocal techniques, integrating wearable-controlled live processing, alongside symbolic visuals. Moletta considers her performances to be a collective ritual and creates her Sonic & Visual Spells following the cycles of nature and the moon. Jolanda's 2022 critically acclaimed album Nine Spells was released on the Ambientologist label, followed by Night Caves on Whitelabrecs in 2025. Moletta’s artistic practice is a radical and spiritual journey through sound art, ritual, and the symbolic archaeology of the feminine.

Oceanine is inspired by sirens, water nymphs, and the timeless call of the sea. At its core lies Jolanda’s deep, lifelong connection to the Mediterranean Sea and to the ancient and modern myths and folklore that have emerged from its waters. Growing up by the Mar Ligure, Jolanda was surrounded by stories carried by salt, wind, and waves: legends of sirens, echoes of ancient voices, and the sea as both origin and oracle. This intimate relationship with the Mediterranean is not merely a backdrop, but a living source that shapes Oceanine’s emotional, symbolic, and sonic world.

Each track features a different female vocalist, creating a rich tapestry of voices, styles, and perspectives. This artistic choice not only broadens the album’s sonic palette, but also deepens its narrative core: celebrating the power, beauty, and mystique of feminine energy through myth, history, and sound.

The entire album is built exclusively from the human voice, processed and layered, yet always remaining voice, and nothing else. For each piece, Jolanda invited every vocalist involved to contribute a raw stem: a short, unedited melodic fragment of just a few seconds, inspired by the album’s themes. These intimate vocal seeds became the foundation of each track: the guest artists’ voices appear as brief, melodic stems, while the entire surrounding “orchestral” fabric is created solely from Jolanda’s own layered and processed voice. In this way, Jolanda’s voice becomes the Ocean itself, embracing, absorbing, and carrying the sirens’ calls within a vast, immersive soundscape. Every song is a unique expression of the feminine experience, revealing its depth, complexity, and emotional range, echoing the call of the sea and the many faces of the siren archetype.

The figure of the siren has transformed across centuries. In myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, sirens were hybrid beings, part woman, part bird, whose irresistible songs lured sailors to their doom. During the Middle Ages, the image shifted toward the half-woman, half-fish figure, often associated with temptation and danger. Historically, the voice of women has often been feared. Sirens were considered harbingers of misfortune not simply because they seduced or destroyed, but because they were powerful liminal beings.

In Ancient Greek, sirens functioned as psychopomps: figures who existed between worlds and guided souls, especially between life and death. Their songs were believed to carry forbidden knowledge, including prophetic insight and the ability to reveal truths about fate and the future. The danger of the sirens lay in what they revealed: knowledge that humans were not meant, or ready, to hear.

Oceanine confronts this legacy head-on. The voices heard throughout the album are not merely beautiful: they are dark and luminous, wild and enchanting, magical, soothing, dreamy, and at times fractured or distorted. They whisper, lament, beckon, and enchant. Like sirens, they skim the surface of the water and sink into its depths, hovering on the edge between tenderness and danger, vulnerability and power. They rise toward the sky, dissolve into mist, and return as echoes charged with raw, elemental emotion: voices that seduce, warn, mourn, and remember. They refuse to be reduced to decoration.

Alongside the album’s release in May, Oceanine will also unfold as a visual and performative work through a short art film. The film includes a live session recorded inside a sea cave facing the Mar Ligure, the very coastline where Jolanda spent her childhood, dreaming of sirens and listening to the sea as if it were speaking directly to her. This site-specific performance reconnects the music to its place of origin, allowing the voice to resonate within stone, water, and air, and transforming the cave into both a sanctuary and a threshold between myth and reality.

What if the sirens’ songs were considered dangerous because they carried another truth, an ancient truth long forgotten?

Oceanine embraces the idea that we are still deeply woven into myth. Though we may see ourselves as rational and modern beings, our world is saturated with ancient symbols and archetypes, often distorted, simplified, or stripped of their original meaning. And if those symbols are allowed to shift, if the mirror once held by the siren becomes an invitation to look beyond appearances and into what has been obscured, then we may finally uncover a deeper truth and reclaim the voice that was always ours.

Oceanine is not just an album. It is a reclamation, a spell, and a call from the depths.

As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.

Barry Walker Jr. is a pedal steel player and guitarist whose roots in Americana, Country and Folk traditions influence his melding of minimalism, ambient and spiritual music. The Portland-based instrumentalist is also a member of the Rose City Band, known for his gorgeous phrasing and deft interplay with guitarist Ripley Johnson. On Paleo Sol, Walker demonstrates his singular voice as a pedal steel player and composer. Evoking the American western ranges and basins, the album embodies a longer, geologic view of time that patiently marvels at the ripples of change throughout lifetimes and ages. Walker is joined on Paleo Sol by drummer Rob Smith (Rhytion, Pigeons) and bassist and Mouth Painter bandmate Jason Willmon (Fruited Planes). Paleo Sol"s tranquil landscapes glide, built on warm finger-picked guitar figures and pedal steel swells coupled with deft percussion and bass touches by Smith and Willmon respectively. The trio plays with exceptional fluidity either completing each others phrasing or working together to build momentum. Smith notes: "The drums are not keeping time as much as evidencing its elasticity, mixing into the other instruments, changing phase states." Every gesture on the album is rich with intention, moving with grace and playing with timbre and time.

"Raise your swords up high: BLOODBOUND march into a powerful future with Field Of Swords, out November 21st via Napalm Records. Twenty years after the release of their debut album, the Swedish warriors stand taller than ever on the front line of epic power metal, delivering their most modern work yet. Most recently drawn to the Viking era, the latest concept album Field Of Swords turns the page to another chapter in history, moving past the year 1066 and into the Middle Ages. As warfare evolves and the significance of forging iron with carbon leads to superior swordsmen, the bloodstained battlefields show new, grim faces, leaving room for more of BLOODBOUND’s vivid storytelling that continues to thrill audiences at countless live shows around the globe. BLOODBOUND’s first release with Napalm Records adds another 11 captivating battle hymns to their repertoire. A diverse record with aggressive songs and epic tracks alike, their eleventh album also contains some of the band’s fastest material ever written. The opening title track, “Field Of Swords”, immediately storms into BLOODBOUND’s signature sound, braiding stories of glory with a sweeping blend of melodic and heavy power metal. The dominant “As Empires Fall” follows the crusaders east and powerfully depicts said glory in epic battle in contrast with sacrifices made on the way. “Defenders Of Jerusalem” cleverly expands on the topic of loss, leaving listeners to wonder which side is holding their heads up high in the face of imminent defeat. Catchy flutes have the heroes take heart in “The Code Of Warriors” to guide them into the “Land Of The Brave” and Field Of Swords to new heights at the same time. “Light In The Sky” further illustrates BLOODBOUND’s battle scars turned electrifying sound, while the mature “Teutonic Knights” opens up the bleak reality of the tragedy that undoubtedly accompanies this battle-torn era of history. Yet, “Forged In Iron”, “Pain and Glory”, and “Born to be King” hold their ground as equally unforgettable tunes, all leading up to the brilliant finale: Brittney Slayes of powerhouse Canadian band UNLEASH THE ARCHERS joins “The Nine Crusades” as another valuable fighter to lead Field Of Swords to greatness. BLOODBOUND’s latest triumphant march impressively illustrates the importance of purpose and perseverance with heroic tales in shining heavy metal armor.

f *Goodbye, Asshole* was the wild night—tequila-sharp riffs, sticky floors, and last-call chaos howled into the void of a disappearing city—then *Boone* is the merciless morning after. The sun cracks the blinds. The brain throbs. Every bad decision gleams in the hard light, raw and undeniable.

Fuckwolf’s second album pares their scuzz-wave blitz down to exposed nerves: Eric Park’s basslines stalk like a hangover pulse, Simon Phillips’ drums land like a palm slapping the alarm into silence, and Tomo Yasuda’s guitar wirings spit like diner coffee left to burn on the hotplate. The fog has lifted; the damage is inventoried. These ten tracks are crime scene Polaroids, tales of longing and woe, fresh mystery bruises and eulogies.

There’s no wallowing here, just the tight, terrible beauty of a band that’s stared down the void and come back swinging.

The party’s dead. Long live the reckoning.

Fuckwolf have been around the SF scene for a while, and it took Ethan Miller (Silver Current / Comets On Fire / etc) ages to get them to record the debut album, they then toured Japan and released a limited split mini with Green Milk From The Planet Orange. They reconvened late 2024 and recorded Boone..

This new album "Boone", polishes and extrapolates the fizzing psychedelia of their first album, and turns Fuckwolf into the heirs to the crown of mass-consumptive Sike-rock. This album is in the same vein as Mercury Rev's "Yerself Is Steam", Butthole Surfers' "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" and Flaming Lips "Telepathic Surgery", there's sheer pop in amongst the mind's eye rattling dollops of psychedelic wallop... the Koolaid was drunk and the songs were made.. plug it in, turn on...drop out.

Master by the one and only Mikey Young!!

Returning to Curvature for his eagerly awaited second EP, Senses brings an impressively varied array of atmospheric jungle to the table, drawing from a multitude of influences across the musical spectrum with Convex Reflex.

A1 - Ratio
A break-laden intro lays the groundwork for a considered foray into the old-school - Senses flecking the mix liberally with synths and female vocal hits of yesteryear, before the welcome crunch of thunderous amens takes over. A cascade of rip-roaring edits
floods the track taking you on an epic ride through the ages, breaks chopped with riotous energy confirming this track as a perfect DJ tool for the dancefloor.

A2 - Sun Runner
Beautifully crisp drums open a DJ-friendly intro to Sun Runner, delightfully clear sounding with distinctive cymbals, a thick snare and subtle bongos. An airy soundscape soon washes into the mix with calming synths and flutes, creating a delicately jazzy blend of styles with soothing melodies contrasting perfectly with the breaks. More pronounced synthwork follows to spice things up as the bassline rumbles along below.

B1 - Spirit Vector
Dense atmospherics are the order of the day as Senses deploys Spirit Vector, opening with an array of synths and strings to create an intro reminiscent of Intense's work in the late 90's. Soon we are treated to a paradoxical assortment of heavy amens that work impeccably in the mix - thundering forth with pads soaring high and a heavy sub bass below. Various instrument samples litter the breakdown before a vocal sample declares "Yes". Yes indeed.

B2 - Still
Closing the EP in style, Still opens with sparse breaks, lightly building with extremely subtle apache breaks in the backdrop with sporadic keys and smooth pads. The drop arrives with warm, room-filling basslines and synths to elevate the atmosphere alongside luscious flute samples.Layers are added to the excellent breaks as Senses sprinkles instrument samples, keys and a classic female vocal, completing a joyous composition for Curvature.

Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

The Belfast duo make ready this exceptional 6-Track Sampler from their forthcoming debut LP...

After showcasing their broad and boisterous tastes on a series of super limited Edits 12's, plus original releases on labels like Touch Sensitive, Hoga Nord, Duca Bianco and Optimo Music, we finally have a fully formed suite of original cuts which take us on a journey through their varied and vivid vibrations...

A general tip of the hat to the dark, post industrial basements illuminated by Weatherall's 9 O'Clock Drop comp.
From haunted dancehall, via beautifully throbbing ethno-chug and mesmerising clank-fests, to gloriously scuffed and foreboding Crammed Disc and Wax Trax! reminiscent offerings to the strobe gods.

One very limited press wrapped in screen-printed sleeves - one for the ages !

Georgette Sayegh & Melhem Barakat – Belghi Kull Mawaidi & Instrumental:

Finally, hopping across from Egypt to Lebanon for this infectious number, Georgette Sayegh delivers what some consider her magnum opus in a captivating duet together with Melhem Barakat, and on the flipside a stripped-down instrumental version that’s equally catchy.

Georgette Sayegh is a legendary Lebanese singer and actress known for her tender and dulcet voice that echoed the grace and beauty of the inimitable Fairuz yet carried its own unique warmth. Her passion for collecting vinyl at an early age formed her eclectic musical palette, and she eventually caught the eyes of the Rahbani brothers and played the lead role in a monthly play written by Fairuz’s son, Ziad. Georgette’s household classic "Yay Yay Ya Nassini” shot her to stardom across the Arab world in the 1970’s, and till this day carries the exact same nostalgia of a Lebanese summertime anthem – flirtatious, jolly, and unfettered. In Belghi Kull Mawaidi (I cancel all my appointments), Sayegh’s voice entwines with compatriot and fellow household staple, Melhem Barakat in an emotional display of longing and depth - her voice delicate yet powerful, effortlessly blending with Barakat's commanding baritone.

The instrumental version on the flipside (surprisingly a stereo mix) reveals a highly catchy arrangement that is lush and emotive, driven by strings that glide smoothly through the melody, while brass instruments add a touch of drama. The rhythm section, punctuated by a steady percussion, anchors the track, allowing the interplay of instruments to build a sense of urgency and longing, accurately reflecting the struggles and emotional resilience that defined Sayegh’s own life.

This reissue, remastered with painstaking care, brings both versions of Belghi Kull Mawaidi back to life, making it an essential addition to any avid listener, DJ or collector’s shelf. It captures the timeless beauty of two of Lebanon's most cherished musical icons, their voices and instruments merging to create a track that resonates through the ages.

Muhammad Al-Najjar
London, April 2025

credits
Audio restoration and vinyl mastering: Colin Young
Lacquer cut: Timmion cutting lab
Sleeve and label artwork: Grotezk Studio
Under License of Voix de L'Orient

Planet Trip Records is pleased to present Aqua Terra, the latest EP release from Friedrich Trede and Stephan Braun, the respected Munich-based DJ and production duo better known as Rhode & Brown. Since 2010, they’ve racked up a slew of quality releases through Permanent Vacation, Public Possession, Shall Not Fade, and their own Slam City Jams imprint, while playing well-received DJ sets across Europe. Along the way, the two longtime friends have spent the last fifteen years incorporating influences from electro, italo, synth-pop, breakbeat trance, rave music, and ambient into their blend of uptempo house and techno productions.

Shifting gearspeed, Aqua Terra sees Rhode & Brown trying something completely new and unexpected from them: a record inspired by UK street soul, digi-dub, and transatlantic R&B and boogie from the 1980s and 1990s. Beginning with the Loose Ends slanted synthesiser chords and shuffling machine beat of ‘Heart Attack’ and the glossy new jack swing bounce of ‘Passion Sauce’ (both featuring sultry Berlin-based New York singer Marlena Dae), Aqua Terra quickly reveals itself as a treasure chest of heavy tunes. Steeped in love and lust, ‘Heart Attack’ and ‘Passion Sauce’ are essential sing-along numbers for the warm-up and the warm-down.

The exemplar of a groove that keeps on giving, ‘Aqua Terra (Acid Frog Mix)’ is a note-perfect example of digi-dub redone for the 2020s. Keeping us guessing, Rhode & Brown flip the script on ‘Longo Doggo’ by borrowing elements from sampledelic ‘90s turntablism and blending them with a post-disco/electro beat and a slinky bassline for the ages. From there, ‘Multiflora’ sees our protagonists back in a bassy digi-dub mode, before closing things out with an acid breakbeat slanted demo mix of the title track.