Suche:was a be

They Came Like Swallows is the first album-length collaboration between Thurston Moore and Kramer (now officially Bonner Kramer), two giants of alternative/ experimental music. The accomplishments and influence of these two artists in the world of independent music cannot be overstated and the result of their artistic union is a startlingly cohesive statement that burns through landscapes of primitive outsider rock, avant-garde composition, progressive ambient and further locales boldly and beautifully unnamable. “Kramer and I reconnected in Miami, Florida, a few years back, many many years after each of us had departed NYC on separate life adventures. It was only a matter of time before Kramer and I started making plans to record together and with his irrepressible due diligence he quickly set up a mobile recording contraption in the pad I was decamped in, the Florida sunshine flowing through the palm leaves, lithe lizards skittering across the windowsills, and we just went for it.

Kramer had the idea to cover a Joy Division tune, a left turn from the improvisations we had been tracking, though wholly in keeping with both our sensibilities of light and dark unifying in transcendent songwriting, both of us devotees of 'the song' as well as 'the freedom.’ What transpired is They Came Like Swallows, a session we immediately felt should exist as a prayer to the war-torn souls of the families of Palestine continually decimated by the brutality of genocide. We agreed beyond words to offer our music as a sonic activism and as a beneficent energy. This album is our duo exchange for human dignity, it is our soul music for any semblance of a peaceful planet.” ~ Thurston Moore “For the first time in our nearly 45 years of friendship, we had identical time windows open to make a record together,” recounts Kramer. After all this time not a moment is wasted as the duo immediately taps into the heightened core of improvisational tension across these seven offerings. Volcanic opener “Urn Burial” notches a similar historic union (John Cale and Terry Riley) to meet the circumstances of the moment, with swirling mists of organ and pounding toms over guitar that thickens the atmosphere with jagged, grimy dissonance.

Solemn strings open the second track, “The Redness In The West,” with Kramer’s cello and viola in dueling bow beneath the high tension drive and sustain of Thurston’s electric guitar, tapping out a Morse code of tension that mounts endlessly into a fog of inevitable war by the end. Moore and Kramer’s sense of experimentalism is in free and full grandeur throughout They Came Like Swallows, though the duo keep a strong and constant sideways eye on melody, composition and architecture, to the ends that any strict lines between song and improvisation are blurred beyond qualification.

As if to punctuate this point, Swallows closes with a nightwork cover of Joy Division’s “Insight,” a doleful coda that breathes out with a solemn inner grace under Thurston’s instantly stylistically recognizable guitar melodies as they weave into he and Kramer’s unison voices. As the lone vocal piece and only traditional ‘song’ form on the album, “Insight” is unique to this set and as a closing statement draws connective lines back to the kind of dynamic, electrified melodicism that wove deep, melancholy patterns into the untamed fire of Sonic Youth’s Sister and Daydream Nation. In the album’s final moments, the two voices repeat the lyric “I’m not afraid anymore” as mantra, underscoring the heavy, unsettled themes and methods that preceded it. Kramer describes the creative process of They Came Like Swallows: “I had composed and recorded a few pieces at my home studio over the course of a couple weeks. Thurston was spending the winter in South Florida, so I flew down and spent a few days recording his guitar parts in his home there. Watching him spontaneously compose his parts was pretty astonishing, to say the least. Once we'd finished working on those pieces, we began improvising and following wherever the music pointed us, and another few pieces were born. We got straight to it, without anything driving us other than the joy of finally working together.

My personal goal was to remain present and catch as many surprises as I could from Thurston's guitar work, and there were plenty during those few days. We had a fucking blast.” Thurston’s contributions here will be readily familiar to any acolytes of his other works, the through-line between his inspired playing, cradled in Kramer’s meticulous, solid arrangements. “If I had to make this record again, I'd do it all exactly the same way,” Kramer says. “It’s like jazz, you don't think about it. You just do it. It was miraculous, and you don't fuck with a miracle.”

Rhythmus ist die erste Sprache. Ein Puls, der irgendwo beginnt - in einer Maschine, in Händen, als Gedanke. MINCKA existiert in dem kreativen Prozess, der sich daraus entwickelt: ein Dialog zwischen Struktur und Chaos. Entstanden als Idee zwischen einem Schlagzeuger und einem Produzenten, lädt MINCKA heute Produzentinnen, Musikerinnen und Kreative gleichermaßen dazu ein, dem Projekt immer neue Formen zu geben - als etwas, das sich stetig weiterentwickelt.Alles beginnt als Skizze: ein Fragment oder eine Kadenz, die scheinbar ins Leere führt - bis das Live-Schlagzeug übernimmt und der Groove die Richtung vorgibt. Mal festgezurrt in unerbittlichen Beats, mal verträumt und schwer greifbar. Wie der Soundtrack zu einem Fiebertraum, mit Echos von Mo' Wax ebenso wie von International Anthem.Von dort aus öffnet sich ein Raum, in dem Musiker frei auf das reagieren, was bereits existiert. Klänge werden zerschnitten und neu zusammengesetzt, wie Filmszenen, die ihre Bedeutung erst im Schnitt erhalten. Eine passende Analogie für den Hintergrund des bosnisch-niederländischen Schlagzeugers Sergej Kreso, der zugleich ein vielfach ausgezeichneter Dokumentarfilmer ist. Gemeinsam mit dem niederländischen Produzenten Subp Yao initiierte er MINCKA. Doch eines wird durch diesen Ansatz schnell klar: MINCKA ist kein Duo.Statt einer einzelnen Vision wurden unterschiedliche Musikerinnen und Kollaborateurinnen (aus Seattle, Peking, Maastricht, Essex, Amsterdam, Heerlen und Uden) eingeladen, mit der Musik in einen Dialog zu treten. Ihre Antworten und klanglichen Abzweigungen prägten den Sound von Beginn an. Kollaboration ist das Wesen von MINCKA. Und ebenso der Kontrast: Mensch und Maschine. Organisch und elektronisch. Freie Improvisation und meticulousche Präzision. Wertschätzung für Low-End-Theorien.Es ist ein Sound im permanenten Wandel, der sich weigert, in eine Schublade gesteckt zu werden. Stattdessen tritt er die Schublade ein, zerreißt die Überreste und baut aus dem, was bleibt, eine vollkommen neue Collage.Selbst jetzt, da die Musik veröffentlicht wird, ist MINCKA nicht abgeschlossen. Der Dialog geht weiter und lädt jeden ein, MINCKA mitzugestalten, indem über Stems der eigenen Musik Produzentinnen und Musiker*innen zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Was du hörst, war es nicht. Was es werden wird, ist noch offen. Diese Veröffentlichung ist erst der Anfang._ MINCKA

Auf insgesamt 100 Stück limitiert. Rhythmus ist die erste Sprache. Ein Puls, der irgendwo beginnt - in einer Maschine, in Händen, als Gedanke. MINCKA existiert in dem kreativen Prozess, der sich daraus entwickelt: ein Dialog zwischen Struktur und Chaos. Entstanden als Idee zwischen einem Schlagzeuger und einem Produzenten, lädt MINCKA heute Produzentinnen, Musikerinnen und Kreative gleichermaßen dazu ein, dem Projekt immer neue Formen zu geben - als etwas, das sich stetig weiterentwickelt.Alles beginnt als Skizze: ein Fragment oder eine Kadenz, die scheinbar ins Leere führt - bis das Live-Schlagzeug übernimmt und der Groove die Richtung vorgibt. Mal festgezurrt in unerbittlichen Beats, mal verträumt und schwer greifbar. Wie der Soundtrack zu einem Fiebertraum, mit Echos von Mo' Wax ebenso wie von International Anthem.Von dort aus öffnet sich ein Raum, in dem Musiker frei auf das reagieren, was bereits existiert. Klänge werden zerschnitten und neu zusammengesetzt, wie Filmszenen, die ihre Bedeutung erst im Schnitt erhalten. Eine passende Analogie für den Hintergrund des bosnisch-niederländischen Schlagzeugers Sergej Kreso, der zugleich ein vielfach ausgezeichneter Dokumentarfilmer ist. Gemeinsam mit dem niederländischen Produzenten Subp Yao initiierte er MINCKA. Doch eines wird durch diesen Ansatz schnell klar: MINCKA ist kein Duo.Statt einer einzelnen Vision wurden unterschiedliche Musikerinnen und Kollaborateurinnen (aus Seattle, Peking, Maastricht, Essex, Amsterdam, Heerlen und Uden) eingeladen, mit der Musik in einen Dialog zu treten. Ihre Antworten und klanglichen Abzweigungen prägten den Sound von Beginn an. Kollaboration ist das Wesen von MINCKA. Und ebenso der Kontrast: Mensch und Maschine. Organisch und elektronisch. Freie Improvisation und meticulousche Präzision. Wertschätzung für Low-End-Theorien.Es ist ein Sound im permanenten Wandel, der sich weigert, in eine Schublade gesteckt zu werden. Stattdessen tritt er die Schublade ein, zerreißt die Überreste und baut aus dem, was bleibt, eine vollkommen neue Collage.Selbst jetzt, da die Musik veröffentlicht wird, ist MINCKA nicht abgeschlossen. Der Dialog geht weiter und lädt jeden ein, MINCKA mitzugestalten, indem über der eigenen Musik Produzentinnen und Musiker*innen zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Was du hörst, war es nicht. Was es werden wird, ist noch offen. Diese Veröffentlichung ist erst der Anfang._ MINCKA

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.

The year was 1985. The reformation of Sweet was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker and we’d talked about putting together a “new” Rock line-up of Sweet after the hiatus of the original band. I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass, now we needed the Voice! Paul Mario Day walked in and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined Sweet. Our first dates were in Australia, total sell-outs which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit and 3 sold out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video and DVD. “Live at the Marquee” did well in various charts around the world and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time. There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for Sweet but due to a management dispute only 4 tracks were released. Sadly Paul is no longer with us but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.

The year was 1985. The reformation of Sweet was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker and we’d talked about putting together a “new” Rock line-up of Sweet after the hiatus of the original band. I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass, now we needed the Voice! Paul Mario Day walked in and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined Sweet. Our first dates were in Australia, total sell-outs which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit and 3 sold out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video and DVD. “Live at the Marquee” did well in various charts around the world and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time. There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for Sweet but due to a management dispute only 4 tracks were released. Sadly Paul is no longer with us but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.

The year was 1985. The reformation of Sweet was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker and we’d talked about putting together a “new” Rock line-up of Sweet after the hiatus of the original band. I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass, now we needed the Voice! Paul Mario Day walked in and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined Sweet. Our first dates were in Australia, total sell-outs which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit and 3 sold out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video and DVD. “Live at the Marquee” did well in various charts around the world and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time. There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for Sweet but due to a management dispute only 4 tracks were released. Sadly Paul is no longer with us but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.

The year was 1985. The reformation of Sweet was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker and we’d talked about putting together a “new” Rock line-up of Sweet after the hiatus of the original band. I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass, now we needed the Voice! Paul Mario Day walked in and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined Sweet. Our first dates were in Australia, total sell-outs which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit and 3 sold out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video and DVD. “Live at the Marquee” did well in various charts around the world and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time. There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for Sweet but due to a management dispute only 4 tracks were released. Sadly Paul is no longer with us but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.

The year was 1985. The reformation of Sweet was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker and we’d talked about putting together a “new” Rock line-up of Sweet after the hiatus of the original band. I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass, now we needed the Voice! Paul Mario Day walked in and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined Sweet. Our first dates were in Australia, total sell-outs which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit and 3 sold out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video and DVD. “Live at the Marquee” did well in various charts around the world and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time. There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for Sweet but due to a management dispute only 4 tracks were released. Sadly Paul is no longer with us but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.

“Tako” means “octopus”, “kite”, and even “bunion” in Japanese. Bald men or men with shaven heads, as well as red-faced, staggering drunks, are also referred to as “tako”. It’s a word that appears in a lot of slang and sayings. Taco is also the name of an 80s music and performance collective whose performances were like nothing before or since. The Japanese band Taco, formed at the beginning of the 80s, is a loose group/collective of varying members that belongs to the post-punk alternative music movement. The network of members were all friends and acquaintances of Harumi Yamazaki, ex-member of Gaseneta and Taco’s central member.

Taco can be described as a band of guerrillas who, over the years, continued to connect, collect, interrupt, and scatter while sending out into the world music and sounds that can best be described as transient. Taco also performed without Harumi, and so it is as though the band is an anonymous group of mercenaries. Taco’s first album was released in 1983 and had a huge impact on Japan’s underground music scene as an anomalous and collaborative album involving various participating artists (the stars of Japan’s underground music scene!) and Harumi, who provided the lyrics. Although each track represents a reverberating conglomeration of sounds created by this transient local network, common to all the tracks are Harumi’s expressive lyrics. This has the effect of transforming all the tracks into a single powerful force which, in turn, spawns an “incident” which spreads like a giant ripple. However, because of another incident in which the records were recalled due to the scandal caused by some of the lyrics, only a limited number of people actually own a copy of the album. Taco’s second album (a 12” EP), released in 1984, features a live recording of a performance that was held at the end of 1982. Taco is a band of indeterminate members which only ever played one-off performances, but this is an album that reveals a unit whose performance was unusually musically coherent. This is an album which effectively conveys the power of Taco’s astounding and legendary live performances, as well as Harumi’s inflammatory, sensational, and masochistic presence on stage. Her mutterings and screams, which practically ignore the detached beat, confront the audience like an overwhelming groundswell.

The following is a description of Taco by one of its members following one of its live performances: “Taco’s like a project where the indeterminate participants fan each other’s heightened emotions of wanting to wreak personal revenge and retribution. It’s an ecosystem of tangible and intangible mouldy slime which accumulates in order for emotions to be acted out, both indoors in the studio, or outdoors on stage. That’s why the avenger can often end up being the victim.”

Nameless, March 1985

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
Ghedi has always been an artist that in many ways perfectly encompasses folk music in its purest form but he is also someone that frequently pushes the boundaries of that label and no more so is that apparent than on this record. As like previous albums, such as 2018’s A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021’s In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. “With the traditional material on this album I wanted to find songs with content that resonated with me,” says Ghedi. “But also that were based roughly around the north of England.” This is a central underlying theme to the album for Ghedi. The feelings of loss, erosion, and degradation are often most pronounced in working class communities and this was something he wanted to weave in. “It was important to voice and choose material that represented or expressed issues that correlated with things going on around me.”

However, as remarkable as some of the traditional material is, some of the most arresting work on the album is Ghedi’s entirely original compositions. Lead single ‘Wasteland’ is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.

The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. “The lyrical content needed something more band-driven and loud to deliver them,” he explains. “Incorporating the electric guitar in my songwriting was also a big part of opening the sound up, using drop tunings pushed me to use my voice in a wider range, which forced me to use falsetto a lot which I haven’t previously done before. That then opened the sound up and gave me creative ideas for bigger arrangements and to sonically really push things.”

What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
Ghedi has always been an artist that in many ways perfectly encompasses folk music in its purest form but he is also someone that frequently pushes the boundaries of that label and no more so is that apparent than on this record. As like previous albums, such as 2018’s A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021’s In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. “With the traditional material on this album I wanted to find songs with content that resonated with me,” says Ghedi. “But also that were based roughly around the north of England.” This is a central underlying theme to the album for Ghedi. The feelings of loss, erosion, and degradation are often most pronounced in working class communities and this was something he wanted to weave in. “It was important to voice and choose material that represented or expressed issues that correlated with things going on around me.”

However, as remarkable as some of the traditional material is, some of the most arresting work on the album is Ghedi’s entirely original compositions. Lead single ‘Wasteland’ is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.

The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. “The lyrical content needed something more band-driven and loud to deliver them,” he explains. “Incorporating the electric guitar in my songwriting was also a big part of opening the sound up, using drop tunings pushed me to use my voice in a wider range, which forced me to use falsetto a lot which I haven’t previously done before. That then opened the sound up and gave me creative ideas for bigger arrangements and to sonically really push things.”

What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

Some words from Nat about the music – “For this recording I composed some songs using more “exotic” (for want of a better word) modes,
which I have always meant to explore in more depth but never really got around to very much. The first song for instance, Red, Gold & Green, uses an Ethiopian scale.
The title comes from the colours of the Ethiopian flag, which is also symbolic in Rastafari so has a kind of double meaning, like a lot of my songs.The title track, Path of Enlightenment, uses several modes,
starting in a major key then moving to the Phrygian mode, then to a minor key. The piano solo is in a 28 bar minor blues form. Menat is based on a mode of the Byzantine scale,
I’m not sure if it has a particular name or not. Amenhotep was the name of several Egyptian pharaohs,
Amenhotep IV being the original given name of Akhenaten.When I was writing this song it put me in mind of my song, Akhenaten, simply because they are both in 5/4 time,
so I decided to give this one a pharaonic name too. Spheshile is a Zulu word (and sometimes name) that means “beautiful gift”, the title was suggested by a friend from South Africa.
All this means nothing of course if the music doesn’t tell a story, I think the unfamiliar modes allowed us to speak of interesting things that may not have come to us otherwise.
Finally, I chose to use the quartet format for this recording because it occurred to me that it tends to make for a more cohesive group sound, and it had been a while since we recorded this way.”

2026 Repress

johnny's disk record is an independent jazz label run by the owner of jazz cafe kaiunbashi no johnny located in rikuzentakata city in iwate prefecture, japan.

the legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning from modern jazz, avant-garde jazz to left-field pop. albums such as 'farewell my johnny / left alone' and 'aya's samba' has reached cult status among fans as some of the best works to come out of the japanese jazz scene.

another japanese jazz classic, aya's samba was a debut effort by bassist eiji nakayama, who played as part of elvin jones' jazz machine and toured with don friedman.

this album is an important release in the johnny's disk catalogue, not only because it is the first ever release, but also because the owner hearing the band play was the reason why the label came to be.

'aya's samba' is a mellow jazz samba in minor key that's considered a japanese jazz classic. slow ballad 'yellow living' is drenched in melancholy with emotive keys and sax notes, while the dreamy 'sea sea town' impresses with a captivating, expressive sax solo. the 4 tracker ends with 'far-away road,' an uptempo tune with rhythmic keys.

Lip Critic’s 2024 Partisan debut Hex Dealer was one of the most-hyped experimental releases of that year (“Like the B-52s on ketamine” -Paste) and signaled the Brooklyn band’s arrival as a borderline-batshit creative force. Theft World is their next chapter, built again from the chaos of two drummers locked in psychic combat, a sampler that sounds like it was struck by lightning, and frontman Bret Kaser’s paranoid preacher energy. But where Hex Dealer leapt from one absurdist vignette to the next, Theft World plays like a fully locked-in transmission. Themes orbit around the concept of theft, not just as a political force or digital dilemma, but as a surreal, emotional constant. Club rhythms and hardcore breakdowns pull as much from Tyler the Creator’s ‘Igor’ and Korn as they do Skrillex and Soul Coughing, coming together to soundtrack a world that’s constantly being striped apart and resold.

Missing Link was produced by longtime ally Niek Van Den Driesschen and recorded at Far Out Sound Studios in Rotterdam - the Dutch city where the band's bassist Marrit Meinema and drummer Leon Harms reside as singer Jeroen and guitarist Peter continue to live further north in Groningen, where the band started out. It was mastered by Melbourne-based Mikey Young, who works mostly with garage, psych and punk (Amyl and the Sniffers, Preoccupations, The Chats)

AMBOSS ist die neue Band von TOXPACK & BIERPATRIOTEN-Sänger Schulle zusammen mit weiteren Freunden plus Gästen, die in den letzten Jahrzehnten im deutschen Punk- und Oi-Sektor viele heiße Eisen im Feuer hatten. Jetzt haben sie zusammen gleich 20 alte Eisen neu geschmiedet. Ihr Debut-Album erscheint als Doppel-Album mit Liedern ihrer Jugend von Bands aus dem Osten und Westen Deutschlands, sowie als besonderen Bonus ein Cover eines US-Hardcore Klassikers. Die Herangehensweise für "Altes Eisen neu geschmiedet" war dabei von vornherein klar: diese alten, großartigen Klassiker benötigen keine aufpolierte Hochglanz-"Oi!"-Produktion! Roh, ehrlich und brutal war das Motto und das Ergebnis spricht letztendlich für sich. Nicht nur wer noch aus alten Tagen die liebevoll selbst zusammengestellten Tape-Compilations kennt, wird diese prägende Zeit gern erinnern und das Album dafür lieben! Seit Sommer 2025 haben AMBOSS zwanzig Songs ausgewählt, was schon eine Aufgabe für sich war, gefühlt hätten es hundert werden können, die nicht nur die Band prägten sondern auch "Punk-Historie" geschrieben haben: Klassiker, vergessene Schätze und oftmals auch Raritäten von Bands wie u.a. Toxoplasma, Broilers, Daily Terror, Verlorene Jungs, Troopers, Springtoifel, Zusammrottung und Lokalmatadore sowie Madball. Als Gäste sind auf diesem Album vertreten: Dennis (Dreiviertel Noin), Zoppel (Toxpack), Stolp (Maul Halten), Hacker (Shock Troops) und Hinkel (Volxsturm). "Altes Eisen neu geschmiedet" ist auf nur 500 Stück gesamt limitiert, entweder in schwarzem Doppel-Vinyl oder als weiße 2LP erhältlich.

AMBOSS ist die neue Band von TOXPACK & BIERPATRIOTEN-Sänger Schulle zusammen mit weiteren Freunden plus Gästen, die in den letzten Jahrzehnten im deutschen Punk- und Oi-Sektor viele heiße Eisen im Feuer hatten. Jetzt haben sie zusammen gleich 20 alte Eisen neu geschmiedet. Ihr Debut-Album erscheint als Doppel-Album mit Liedern ihrer Jugend von Bands aus dem Osten und Westen Deutschlands, sowie als besonderen Bonus ein Cover eines US-Hardcore Klassikers. Die Herangehensweise für "Altes Eisen neu geschmiedet" war dabei von vornherein klar: diese alten, großartigen Klassiker benötigen keine aufpolierte Hochglanz-"Oi!"-Produktion! Roh, ehrlich und brutal war das Motto und das Ergebnis spricht letztendlich für sich. Nicht nur wer noch aus alten Tagen die liebevoll selbst zusammengestellten Tape-Compilations kennt, wird diese prägende Zeit gern erinnern und das Album dafür lieben! Seit Sommer 2025 haben AMBOSS zwanzig Songs ausgewählt, was schon eine Aufgabe für sich war, gefühlt hätten es hundert werden können, die nicht nur die Band prägten sondern auch "Punk-Historie" geschrieben haben: Klassiker, vergessene Schätze und oftmals auch Raritäten von Bands wie u.a. Toxoplasma, Broilers, Daily Terror, Verlorene Jungs, Troopers, Springtoifel, Zusammrottung und Lokalmatadore sowie Madball. Als Gäste sind auf diesem Album vertreten: Dennis (Dreiviertel Noin), Zoppel (Toxpack), Stolp (Maul Halten), Hacker (Shock Troops) und Hinkel (Volxsturm). "Altes Eisen neu geschmiedet" ist auf nur 500 Stück gesamt limitiert, entweder in schwarzem Doppel-Vinyl oder als weiße 2LP erhältlich.

Zum ersten Mal auf Kassette! Mit nur sechs Singleveröffentlichungen zwischen 1965 und 1966 und von einem musikalisch abgelegenen Ort wie Lima erschufen LOS SAICOS einen rohe, wilden Sound, der Einiges mit dem gemeinsam hatte, was zur gleichen Zeit auf der Nordhalbkugel ,Garage Rock" getauft wurde. LOS SAICOS teilten sich Gene mit THE SONICS, ROCKET FROM THE TOMBRS, THE CRAMPS und BLACK LIPS. Diese Veröffentlichung versammelt sämtliche ihrer Aufnahmen und erzählt die grandiose Geschichte von LOS SAICOS. Die Archäologie des Rock'n'Roll hat viel gemeinsam mit anderen Formen des Grabens. Wichtige Fundstücke erfordern eine Neueinschätzung der alten Gewissheiten. Ich hatte niemals zuvor von LOS SAICOS gehört, hatte jedoch die WAU Y LOS ARRGHS!!! Version von ,Demolicion" genossen. Während mir die Wildheit des Tracks gefiel, dachte ich nicht eine Sekunde daran, dass das Original noch verstörter sein könnte. Was noch viel wichtiger is: dieser fauchende Strudel Nihilismus wurde in Lima aufgenommen, während der Rest der Welt die BEATLES abfeierte. Chemie ist ein Faktor, der wichtiger als theoretische Kenntnisse oder Können. Es gibt einen Punkt, an dem die Natur die Führung übernimmt - das Individuum muss gehorchen. Wer hätte gedacht, dass es da draußen in Peru eine Combo geben würde, die THE SONICS nach den verdammten SIMON & GARFUNKEL klingen lässt? Best ever Saicotherapie!

mclusky sind eine Band, die eine Band war, keine Band war und nun wieder eine Band ist. Sie wurde Ende der 90er Jahre gegründet und löste sich 2005 nach drei Alben zum ersten Mal auf. Meinungen zu diesen Alben finden sich im Internet. Der Weg zurück zur Band begann 2014, als die Band sporadische Konzerte spielte, um Geld für einen lokalen Veranstaltungsort zu sammeln, der von der Schließung bedroht war. Nach einigen Rückschlägen, die man als die schönsten Seiten des Lebens bezeichnen kann, veröffentlichten sie 2025 ihr erstes Album seit zwanzig Jahren. sporadische Konzerte gab, um Geld für einen lokalen Veranstaltungsort zu sammeln, der von der Schließung bedroht war. Nach einigen Missgeschicken, die man als Teil des Lebens in seiner schönsten Form bezeichnen kann, veröffentlichte die Band 2025 ihr erstes Album seit zwanzig Jahren. Nun, im Jahr 2026, setzt sie ihre musikalische Reise mit weiterer neuer Musik in Form dieses 6-Song-Mini-Albums fort. Der Zeitpunkt dieser Veröffentlichung fällt mit einer US-Tournee im Frühjahr 2026 zusammen, die nach ihrer Australien-Tournee im Januar und einer Reihe weiterer Tourneen aus dem vergangenen Jahr rund um den Globus stattfindet. Die Rückkehr der Band wurde mit Begeisterung aufgenommen, insbesondere von der Presse, wo Medien wie NPR schwärmten: ,Progressiver, ungewöhnlicher, frecher Post-Punk mit echtem Sinn für Humor und Grandiosität. Diese Musik ist einfach voller Kreativität", und Pitchfork sagte: ,Mclusky, bekannt für ihre explosiven Live-Auftritte, klingen auf ihrem Comeback-Album genauso laut... Viel Spaß dabei." Das Album enthält vier neue Songs, die im Herbst 2025 aufgenommen wurden, sowie einige Songs aus ihrer nur digital erhältlichen Comeback-EP aus dem Jahr 2023.