Search:was that all it

The Dead 60s seminal self-titled album gets a timely Deluxe edition reissue on Vinyl for its 20th Anniversary, on Deltasonic Records



“Back in the day, punk and dub weren’t just sharing space—they were smashing into each other headfirst. Late '70s Britain was a pressure cooker, and for kids like me, growing up between Brixton’s bass bins and the chaos of King’s Road, that collision was everything. Jamaican sound system culture met punk’s raw spirit in a haze of smoke, sweat, and feedback. It wasn’t about genre—it was about energy. Identity. Defiance. so when The Dead 60s came along, post-Britpop and post-bullshit, it felt like someone had dusted off the blueprint and run it through a battered old tape echo. These weren’t just lads with good taste—they understood the assignment. They took the DNA of two rebel cultures and mutated it into something that could stand tall in the 21st century. Dub-soaked, punk-fuelled, dripping with that Liverpool attitude. I remember first hearing them and thinking—yeah, here we go again. Not in a retro way, but in a real way. Guitars that cut like sirens in the night. Basslines fat and warm, straight out the Channel One playbook. Lyrics that painted the grey corners of Britain like CCTV poetry. It was the sound of youth under pressure. The sound of not fitting in—and not wanting to.

Their debut album dropped in 2005, and it hit like a flare in the dark. “Riot Radio” was a pirate broadcast from the concrete frontlines. “Control This” swaggered with menace and reverb. It was like someone opened a time capsule from the punky-reggae party and rewired it for a new generation.

Now, with this 20th anniversary vinyl reissue—complete with the full dub companion produced by Central Nervous System—we get to hear the bones and blood of it all. The dub versions pull the tracks apart and let the ghosts speak. Reverb, delay, space—it’s not just production, it’s meditation. Revolution slowed down to a heartbeat. It’s music that makes you move and think. What they’ve done here is more than remix a record—they’ve revealed its soul. That’s what dub does when it’s done right. And The Dead 60s, they got that. They weren’t tourists in the culture—they were students of it, shaped by it, and ultimately, contributors to the legacy. Liverpool’s long had a love affair with Jamaican music—you can hear it in the streets if you’re really listening. The Dead 60s tapped into that lineage, but they brought their own thing to the table. Punk's fire. Dub’s depth. Ska’s bounce. All filtered through a Northern lens and blasted out like protest graffiti. This 20th anniversary reissue ain’t about nostalgia. It’s a reminder. A celebration. A call to arms. Music like this doesn’t belong in a museum—it belongs on a system, shaking walls and waking minds. Crate diggers, completists, young punks, old heads—this one's for all of you.

So put it on and turn it up. Let the punk edge sharpen your thoughts, and the dub shake your bones ‘cos this isn’t just a reissue - it’s resistance on wax.....”

Chris Menist pares his sound right back for A book of imaginary beings, his fourth Awkward Corners outing with a project of electronic and abstracted global grooves. Experimenting with simple melodies and uncluttered arrangements, as well as taking inspiration from the Borges' short stories alluded to in the title, the project took shape in the early part of 2025, in the shorter days and dark evenings of January.

The initial challenge was to knock a basic track into shape each evening after work, then refine it later. There's a melancholy in the air in late winter, compounded by the creeping threat of national and geopolitical instability. Ulla, Natural Information Society, Jabu, Torso and Dawuna formed some of the background soundtrack as each tune took shape.

The track titles came after sitting with the sounds for a while, giving shape to images of people, creatures and their stories for a book that is yet to be written.

Two former friends sets the tone for the album perfectly as a minimal electronic piece with a slowly simmering synth bassline underpinning the groove whilst the trademark Awkward sound of the Shahi Baaja enters drenched in effects. It's the first demonstration of Chris' unique ability to create a world from apparently very little.

Dance of the silver beetles is completely unique in that we can hear chopped up Illimba samples seemingly playing backwards and forewords sometimes alone, sometimes together in duet with Chris' conga rhythms. Add to that a more conventional Illimba melody and added shaker percussion and you have one of A book of imaginary beings most curious chapters.

Anxious shadow puppets is closer to the Awkward Corners sound from previous albums as electronic pulses move around the arrangement with the urgency that the track title suggests. Chris' percussive roots move to the fore with the congas that tie down the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band's sound. Here, the bassline is more playful and works together with one of Chris' many African Illimbas.

Fans of Chris' adventures on his Roland 808 will dig A leopard with no spots, although the minimal mood continues to flow through on this track. The lolloping, but hard-hitting rhythm track provides the grounding for strange and twisting feedback-sounding tones to work the soundscape.

Abandoned boy (left in charge of the family business) is Awkward Corners at his atmospheric best. Drift off to the sublime sounds of Chris exploring the Shahi Baaja, whilst a soft, repetitive synth line and abstracted pads give the listener that feeling of meditation and peace.

Flamingo with bandaged neck is A book of imaginary beings' perfect coda and is exclusively Shahi Baaja draped in reverbs and delays. It feels like the resolution and the closing of a book that – as of yet – remains unwritten.

Awkward Corners is Chris Menist, a musician, DJ and writer. It started life as a small project in Islamabad, where Chris was living at the time. Initial recordings were made with local musicians in Pakistan and then subsequently in Thailand. This culminated in the Sweet Decay LP that came out on Finders Keepers' Disposable Music in 2014, and in turn led to a limited tape release on Boomkat/Reel Torque of original compositions and re-edits of Thai 45s the same year. Chris released – Dislocation Songs – his second LP proper with Shapes of Rhythm in May 2020, collaborating on many of the tracks with award-winning performer Sarathy Korwar. The LP was picked up by many radio stations including NTS, Resonance FM, BBC 6 Music, Balamii and many more. It made Tom Ravenscroft's LPs of 2020. Amateur Dramatics, Chris' second LP arrived just a year later in 2021 and was a more ambitious project featuring more jazz-focussed compositions and featuring Tamar Osborn and Kitty Whitelaw. Shortly after that came another pivot with the heavier, dancefloor-friendly EP Somebody Somewhere. Somebody Somewhere is Dancing in a Field brought the House (yes House!) vibes, whilst Hector Plimmer turned in a remix of No Words in the same club mood.

As one of NTS Radio's longest-standing presenters, Chris continues to hold down the Paradise Bangkok show. Playing drums and percussion since he was a kid, Chris is the percussionist for The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band as well as co-founding the record label of the same name. Chris has curated compilations for labels such as Finders Keepers, Soundway and Dust-To-Digital. He has been featured on the Boiler Room, Vinyl Factory Collections, played at the Four Tet curated Nuits Sonores festival, and has put together an edition of Volumes which featured unreleased Awkward Corners compositions.






[d] 04: All the Goodbyes (You Tried to Defer) [Original]





[j] 10: Abandoned Boy (Left in Charge of the Family Business) [Original]

‘Icon’ is an overused word when it comes to describing singers and musicians, but when it comes to Nina Simone there are few artists that the word describes more accurately. The ‘High Priestess Of Soul’ is surely one of the most iconic singers of the 20th century, and one whose fame and acclaim stretches far beyond conventional black American music circles. 

Nina Simone has featured on Ace and Kent CDs before but this is the first time she’s had one all to herself. “Let It All Out” is the first and only Nina Simone collection to draw repertoire from every label she recorded for between the late 1950s to the late 1970s. 

Not a traditional ‘Best Of’ or ‘Greatest Hits’ package (although the performances included here ARE among her very best, and do include most of her Greatest Hits!) it is a singles collection that presents Nina Simone’s soul and R&B-slanted 45s in chronological order. Invariably they are the definitive versions of the songs, whether she recorded the original versions or not. 

As well as almost all of her American pop and R&B chart hits from 1960 onwards, “Let It All Out” also contains all of Simone’s UK chart hits from the same period – several of which were more successful here than they were back home, including both versions of her biggest British hit ‘Ain’t Got No; I Got Life’, a UK #2 that did not chart at all in the US as was the case with the belated UK Top 5 hit ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ which also made no chart impression on its home turf…

Carefully curated and concisely annotated, “Let It All Out” lets the listener in to two dozen of Nina Simone’s most celebrated singles. There have been many compilations of her works since she passed away 20+ years ago, but none that gets to the heart – and soul – of her catalogue in quite so direct a manner as this one does. 

"The Bad Seeds and Zakary Thaks were mid ‘60s Texas garage rock bands formed in the wake of the British Invasion, influenced by The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds and others, becoming top local live attractions at a time when the 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks were leading the way into psychedelia. In late 1966 Rod Prince on guitar and Roy Cox on bass from Bad Seeds joined up with David Fore from Zakary Thaks on drums to create a new band out of San Antonio featuring two lead guitarists. Todd Potter filled out the quartet on second guitar and they chose the name Bubble Puppy, taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was an early advocate of LSD, appropriately. In 1969 Bubble Puppy scored a top 20 hit single with “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” which led to their LP “A Gathering Of Promises”. International Artists, the legendary Texas label that previously had unleashed mind expanding classics by the Elevators, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn and others was a perfect fit. After the LP and additional 45s didn’t repeat the success of “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” the band hooked up with Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as their new manager and moved to Los Angeles. A new band name was in order, Nick St. Nicholas chose Demian, title of the 1919 novel by Herman Hesse. His books were popular with the counterculture at the time and had provided Steppenwolf with their new name after they changed it from the Sparrow and hit it big. Demian recorded the LP live in the studio at the Record Plant in one midnight to six session. They had their arrangements fully realized, allowing them to combine live show energy and economy with to-the-point delivery suitable for repeated listening. No doubt they were aiming for pop hit success, using proto hard rock skills in a radio friendly way without compromising the heavy guitar moves. The vocals have echoes of the earlier Bubble Puppy style in spots but are more melodic with vibrant harmonies reminiscent of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, James Gang… at times flashing on Steve Stills/Richie Furay westcoast without being too sweet about it. It works terrifically when the radio friendly voices top off killer hard guitar ensemble action. Early hard rock that is too bluesy flashy can get tiresome with repeat listening, especially if overdosing on guitar solos with the band relegated to the background… Demian keep it interesting with inventive song structures allowing all four players to integrate constantly into an ever changing but focused whole. This LP is a grower, despite the basic two guitars, bass and drums lineup and no frills production you reach a lot of different places during the ride. Demian is deadly hard rock, a perfectly organized vibe straddling live energy and crafted itinerary, amongst the first obscure major label killers that commanded premium $$ with collectors even way back in the late ‘70s. It gets you there every time, even half a century later!"

MAFIA may be a name you dont recognise straight away... but I know you all know of DJ Vern & DJ Ash on Tearin Vinyl that we repressed back in 2019. And you may recall a couple of years ago the Big Vern release that we did too... and the real spotters will recognise the track 'Say It Loud' as that appeared on the Big Vern release (copies still in stock).

Vern was a resident DJ on London pirate Weekend Rush plus he was the head honcho over at World Bass Records from the mid 90's too. He is one of the great jungle innovators from the 90's who used his knowledge as a DJ and applied it in the studio, creating many anthems.

This release was originally pressed in 1995 on World Bass Records and we are super excited to be able to repress it 30 years later!

"It's a Beautiful Day" brings together 12 outstanding songs recorded between 1971 and 1976, reminiscent of sunshine pop, psych folk and soft rock with Peruvian touches, taken from extremely hard to find records, some of them reissued here on vinyl for the first time. A mindblowing look at a really stunning musical moment in Peru. Unusual instruments and exceptional vocal play also feature in the ten original songs and two cover versions, all performed by Lima-based groups. MAG has been, since its foundation in 1953, an essential label in the music scene of Peru, allowing the development of the careers of both tropical artists and musicians of other genres. At the head was Don Manuel Antonio Guerrero, its founder, whose name comes from the acronym of the label itself (M.A.G.). In 2021 MAG was acquired by the Spanish company Distrolux SL, owner of the Munster and Vampisoul record labels, after years of previous collaborations in which some of the most emblematic titles in the catalog were already reissued for the international market: Nils Jazz Ensemble, Sonora Casino, Traffic Sound, Al Valdez, Pax... Following our recent release "14 MAGníficos Bailables", comprising some of the best tropical music on MAG, this new compilation brings together 12 songs recorded between 1971 and 1976, reminiscent of sunshine pop, folk psych and soft rock but with Peruvian touches. The lyrics range from youthful reflections, environmental awareness, paradigm changes to all shades of love that the youth of the day experienced. Unusual instruments and exceptional vocal play also feature in the ten original songs and two cover versions, all performed by Lima-based groups.

Lénok’s 'Langue of Tongue' is a descent. An unhinged pinballing down a realm of incomprehension and lunacy, a darkly psychedelic ego-death-spiral into a world of pure, deranged disquiet. It is, and this cannot be emphasised enough, a truly fucked up place. It comes complete with clearly marked borders delineated by its opening and closing tracks '(Entrance' and 'Exit)’. The message is clear: this is less album than zone.

There's no comfort to be found here. It’s like the inner monologue of some insectile, cyborgian abomination, something unfeeling and hostile, something that could only thrive in a mirror world that perverts light and sullies warmth. It's a netherworld: tracks jut out and stab like cold, craggy wastelandscapes, tangled meshworks of alienic transmissions bleed out into deformed knots of gurgling white noise, lacerations of sound roil and heave and claw as if imprisoned within oppressive waveforms.

‘Tongue’ is marked by a kind of wackiness, a demented slapstick that renders its darkness all the more sinister. Voices wail and taunt like schizophrenic spirits trapped between torment and cackling ecstasy. Tracks giggle and skitter as if populated by grinning, snaggletoothed shadows.

‘Langue of Tongue’ is recommended for the curious and advanced listener. This is music for whatever the opposite of escapism is — it’s REAL twisted. But sometimes morbid fascination takes hold. Sometimes you lift the rock, because you can’t help it, and you observe the squirming mess of life it plays host to. What you experience may not be pleasant, but you might just struggle to tear yourself away.

Let the Good Times Roll (Terlinde Music Shop, St. Paul, MN, 1956)
I Got a New Girl (Informal Recording, Hibbing, MN, 1959)
Jesus Christ (Informal Recording, Minneapolis, MN, 1960)
K.C. Moan (Informal Recording, Madison, WI, 1960)
Remember Me (Informal Recording, East Orange, NJ, 1961)
Railroading On the Great Divide (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1961)
Man of Constant Sorrow ('Bob Dylan' Rehearsal, NYC, 1961)
He Was a Friend of Mine ('Bob Dylan' Outtake, NYC, 1961)
Ramblin' Round ('Bob Dylan' Outtake, NYC, 1961)
Story: East Orange, New Jersey (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Po' Lazarus (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Dink's Song (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
I Was Young When I Left Home (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Cocaine (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1961)
Talkin' New York (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1962)
Corrina, Corrina (Gerdes Folk City, NYC, 1962)
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle ('Freewheelin'' Outtake, NYC, 1962)
Rocks and Gravel ('Freewheelin'' Outtake, NYC, 1962)
Let Me Die in My Footsteps (The Finjan, Montreal, 1962)
Tomorrow Is a Long Time (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1962)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (The Gaslight Cafe, NYC, 1962)
The Cuckoo (The Gaslight Cafe, NYC, 1962)
The Ballad of the Gliding Swan (BBC-TV, London, 1962)
John Brown ('Broadside Ballads' Album Version, NYC, 1963)
Dusty Old Fairgrounds (Town Hall, NYC, 1963)
House of the Rising Sun (Informal Recording, NYC, 1963)
Seven Curses ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
Masters of War ('Freewheelin'' Alternate Take, NYC, 1963)
Girl from the North Country ('Freewheelin'' Alternate Take, NYC, 1963)
Liverpool Gal (Party, Minneapolis, MN, 1963)
Boots of Spanish Leather ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
Moonshiner ('The Times They Are A-changin'' Outtake, NYC, 1963)
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Party, Los Angeles, 1963)
The Times They Are A-changin' (Informal Recording, Los Angeles, 1963)
Who Killed Davey Moore? (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Lay Down Your Weary Tune (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Blowin' in the Wind (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
North Country Blues (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Talkin' World War III Blues (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
Only a Pawn in Their Game (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)
When the Ship Comes In (Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1963)

„I Can’t Let Go“ ist die erste Zusammenstellung der Aufnahmen der Brooklyn-Sängerin Evie Sands aus den 60er Jahren, die alle 15 Titel ihrer ersten 8 Singles auf der Vinylversion enthält. Die CD-Ausgabe umfasst weitere 11 Titel, darunter ihre kompletten 45er-Singles aus den Jahren 1963 bis 1970. · Sands, die bereits als Kind zu singen begann und schon in jungen Jahren im Studio arbeitete, verfügte über eine kraftvolle und faszinierende Stimme, die ihr Alter Lügen strafte und auf klassischen 45er-Singles zu hören war, die von Soul- und Rock-Sammlern sowie Liebhabern von Girlgroups und Femme-Pop gleichermaßen geschätzt wurden. · Nach ersten Veröffentlichungen bei ABC und Gold tat sich Sands 1965 mit dem Songwriting-, Arrangement- und Produktionsteam Chip Taylor und Al Gorgoni zusammen, um eine Reihe exzellenter und oft erstaunlicher Platten bei den Labels Blue Cat, Cameo und A&M aufzunehmen, die in ihrem vielbewunderten ersten LP gipfelten. Dabei nahm sie die Originalversionen (und definitiven Versionen) von „Take Me For A Little While“, „I Can't Let Go“, dem Northern-Soul-Floor-Filler „Picture Me Gone“ und dem majestätischen „Angel Of The Morning“ auf und sah ungläubig zu, wie sie alle zu Hits für andere Künstler wurden. Nachdem sie 1969 mit „Any Way That You Want Me“ endlich einen eigenen großen Hit gelandet hatte, folgte nach einer kurzen Auszeit Anfang der 70er Jahre ein gut aufgenommenes Comeback-Album, „Estate Of Mind“, und zwei US-Top-50-Hitsingles. Durch die kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung ihrer Produktions- und Songwriting-Fähigkeiten standen bald die Größen der Popmusik Schlange, um mit ihr zusammenzuarbeiten und ihre Songs aufzunehmen: Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Karen Carpenter, Dionne Warwick und später auch Missy Elliot coverten Sands' Kompositionen, und Elvis hätte es beinahe auch getan... · „I Can’t Let Go“ wurde von Jai Rathbone in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Evie Sands zusammengestellt, die ihre Gedanken und Erkenntnisse über diesen frühen Abschnitt ihrer Karriere teilt. Mit zahlreichen Illustrationen versehen, ist dieses Buch ein Muss für jeden Fan. · Bewundern Sie erneut (oder zum ersten Mal) die Vielseitigkeit eines der bestgehüteten Geheimnisse der 60er Jahre: die volle, emotionale und wahrhaft unverwechselbare Stimme von Evie Sands.

"I live in the arcades. Reality was never an option!"

The 85-year-old video game queen and film composer pdqb (born on November 14, 1939) delivers a beautiful love letter to your boomer childhood, a wild ride through the golden age of video gaming. Hear how she dodges bullets, jumps over cosmic chasms, beats bosses, reaches bonus stages, uses cheat codes and even her last continue...just to stay in a world of pixels and vectors forever. pdqb will bring you back all those fond memories of unburdened joy that you might have lost while growing up. She could be your savior.

Synaptic Cliffs is filled with otherworldly pride to present these 14 timeless masterpieces to its beloved listeners.

Following up on a cracker split single in 2023, Overload Liverpool enterted into 2024 firing on all cylinders with a 5 shooter of freaked-out electro, warm house, deep dub cuts, and gorgeous ambient.

Firstly, Liverpool-based label boss Morrison highlights two of his distinct and dissociative styles. On the front end of the A-side, his The Motorist alias provides us with a freaked-out formant-filtered electro that’s bursting at the lips. On the back end, a deep yet bright house cut from his The Cyclist alias, with warm warbling synths layered over his Wurlitzer electric piano and suitably grooved and jaunty beats.

To kick off the deeper B-side of the 12”, Wax Tek, a founder of the Liverpool Soundsystem crew Polyone Audio, hits us right in the chest with his dubbed-out breakbeat wonder, Get Set, which diverges through Balearic, bass music, a delirious breakdown, and hard-hitting breakbeats.

Deeper still, the second B-side from Puncta, another Liverpool-based artist, who last year came to light with their release on Sputnik One’s N-Face, dives into the deep Arctic seas with Snow Crab, an exercise in dubbed-out electro-style bass music.

Finally, Belfast-based Aaron Thomas brings the 12” EP to a fitting closure with Concert², which, washing over the listener, dances like opulent drapes with its ethereal synths that crash to and fro.

Harry Romero and Samaran remix Radio Slave and Kameelah Waheed’s ‘All Rize’ on Rekids It follows the release of the original single in May 2025, arriving this October. NYC House legend Harry Romero and respected Paris DJ, producer, and sound designer Samaran step up to remix Radio Slave and Kameelah Waheed’s ‘All Rize’, arriving via the label 24th October 2025. Originally released in May ‘25, ‘All Rize’ was dubbed a ‘perfect moment’ tune by Mano Le Tough, with support from the likes of Bradley Zero, Call Super, Sean Johnston, and more.
“Glad to be working a lot closer with Radio Slave on his label and projects. It’s just one of those brands that put out quality. So before I even heard what I was asked to remix for Matt, my answer was yes. My idea was to put a completely different twist on the original and make a new version that was peak time. So glad I took a chance!” - Harry Romero

“I wanted to create a darker club vibe for All Rize, adding another bassline, just keeping the vocal elements that have a strong character and some percussion to keep some organic groove to it. The idea was to keepa minimal idea as the original and make it Rize for darker clubs.” – Samaran

Founded in 2006, Radio Slave’s Rekids has since launched the Techno-focused Rekids Special Projects in 2017 and its latest sublabel, REK’D, in 2024. With Matt Edwards as the sole A&R, Rekids has been instrumental in developing emerging artists and remains a trusted home for House and adjacent sounds, recently featuring names such as Hilit Kolet, Tal Fussman, Frankey & Sandrino, Mathias Kaden, Huxley, and many more.

When Soft Cell played a spectacular, sold-out show before 20,000 fans at The O2 in September 2018, the London concert was seen by all and sundry as a grand finale. It had been billed as One Night: One Final Time, leaving devotees in no doubt that a duo who had done so much to define the sound of British electronic pop in the 1980s were saying hello to wave one last, emotional goodbye. At least that had been the idea. Singer Marc Almond and instrumentalist Dave Ball had originally gone their separate ways in 1984 before reuniting for two years in the early 2000s to make a new album, Cruelty Without Beauty. The intention at The O2 had been to draw a line under a rollercoaster ride that had seen Soft Cell secure three Top Ten albums and six Top Ten singles, including 1981’s all-conquering Tainted Love, while setting a template for synth acts from the Pet Shop Boys to Years & Years.



But such was the reaction – and the sense of purpose the pair rediscovered onstage – that the big adieu ultimately turned out to be a brilliant new dawn. The reality is that Marc and Dave bring the best out of one another as performers, both onstage and in the studio, and the sense that there was still plenty of mileage left in their partnership was inescapable. The latest fruits of a bond that was first forged in the art department of Leeds Polytechnic in 1977 were in the shape of a new studio album, *Happiness Not Included, and a series of live dates in the UK and the US that saw the band treat fans to a mixture of new material, classic hits and their 1981 debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which was played in its entirety for the first time to mark its 40th anniversary.

Mit seinem neuen Album Who Is The Sky? schlägt David Byrne ein weiteres spannendes Kapitel seiner künstlerischen Laufbahn auf. Nach dem weltweiten Erfolg von American Utopia - gefeiert als Album, Broadway-Show und HBO-Film - richtet Byrne nun den Blick nach innen: Was bedeutet es, kreativ zu sein? Was ist Liebe? Was ist unser Platz in der Welt? Gemeinsam mit dem Grammy-prämierten Produzenten Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) und dem New Yorker Kammerensemble Ghost Train Orchestra ist ein Werk entstanden, das persönliche Geschichten mit orchestraler Klangvielfalt und popmusikalischem Feinsinn verbindet. Gäste wie Hayley Williams (Paramore), St. Vincent und Tom Skinner (The Smile) verleihen dem Album zusätzliche Tiefe. Songs wie "My Apartment Is My Friend", "She Explains Things to Me" oder "I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party" erzählen Alltagsbeobachtungen mit Witz, Menschlichkeit und einem Hauch Absurdität. Byrne gelingt es wie kaum jemand anderem, komplexe Gedanken in eingängige Musik zu verpacken und so stets zugänglich zu bleiben. Who Is The Sky? ist verspielt, tiefsinnig und durch und durch Byrne: voller Fragen, Überraschungen und Momente echter Verbundenheit. Ein Album, das zum Zuhören, Nachdenken und Tanzen einlädt, ein orchestraler, verspielter und tiefgründiger Blick auf das Menschsein selbst.

Mit seinem neuen Album Who Is The Sky? schlägt David Byrne ein weiteres spannendes Kapitel seiner künstlerischen Laufbahn auf. Nach dem weltweiten Erfolg von American Utopia - gefeiert als Album, Broadway-Show und HBO-Film - richtet Byrne nun den Blick nach innen: Was bedeutet es, kreativ zu sein? Was ist Liebe? Was ist unser Platz in der Welt? Gemeinsam mit dem Grammy-prämierten Produzenten Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) und dem New Yorker Kammerensemble Ghost Train Orchestra ist ein Werk entstanden, das persönliche Geschichten mit orchestraler Klangvielfalt und popmusikalischem Feinsinn verbindet. Gäste wie Hayley Williams (Paramore), St. Vincent und Tom Skinner (The Smile) verleihen dem Album zusätzliche Tiefe. Songs wie "My Apartment Is My Friend", "She Explains Things to Me" oder "I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party" erzählen Alltagsbeobachtungen mit Witz, Menschlichkeit und einem Hauch Absurdität. Byrne gelingt es wie kaum jemand anderem, komplexe Gedanken in eingängige Musik zu verpacken und so stets zugänglich zu bleiben. Who Is The Sky? ist verspielt, tiefsinnig und durch und durch Byrne: voller Fragen, Überraschungen und Momente echter Verbundenheit. Ein Album, das zum Zuhören, Nachdenken und Tanzen einlädt, ein orchestraler, verspielter und tiefgründiger Blick auf das Menschsein selbst.

We're thrilled to announce the release of "The Mackenzie - Classics EP 2", the long-awaited follow-up to the popular EP 1 everyone was excited about. This limited edition pressing comes on stunning smoked black-colored vinyl, with only 500 copies available worldwide. Housed in a deluxe threefold sleeve, this release is a true collector's item.

The Mackenzie name is legendary in the Belgian trance scene, and this EP brings together some of their most sought-after classics and overlooked masterpieces. Each track has been carefully remastered for 2025, breathing new life into these timeless anthems. This EP 2 is spanning over more than 2 decades of hit releases, amongst of them are "Falling In Love", "Walk Away", "All I Need" and "You Got To Get Up".

Expect rich melodies, mesmerizing builds, enchanting vocals, and that unmistakable 90s spirit that made "The Mackenzie" iconic in trance. This is not just the successor of EP 1 – it's the final chapter in a tribute to the golden era of Belgian quality trance music.

Four cuts of unapologetic, immediate Jungle that capture Tim Reaper’s frantic energy and Fracture’s deadly sonics — a perfect balance of aggression and detail. No holds barred, examined with a fine-tooth comb. Precision Pandemonium. Alongside the music, the collaboration extends to artwork, with each label’s iconic logo reimagined in the other’s style. This visual partnership spans the 12” label and sleeve design, as well as an extensive range of streetwear merch.

Fracture says:

I’ve known Ed for over 15 years, going back to the forum days of Subvert Central and Dogs On Acid. Even then, his approach to Jungle was authentic and compulsive. He’s stayed on that path with unwavering focus, never chasing trends—just pure, raw Jungle. What he’s built with Future Retro London is so desperately needed in this day and age: a space where music and community come first, shining a light on artists and DJs often overlooked by mainstream channels that favour gimmicks. His passion for Jungle is infectious, and I’ve always wanted to work with him so doing a full label collaboration feels completely right. Working with Ed is a real eye opener - he’s so full of ideas and the speed at which he can generate patterns is scary. Watching him fly around his laptop, chopping breaks and writing basslines is like watching a Grandmaster play speed chess—always on, never off. Shout out Tim Reaper each and every. An incredible DJ as well.

Tim Reaper says:

I think this is probably the longest ever I've spent on any release for Future Retro London, clocking in at just over 3 years of back & forth between me & Fracture in the making of this. There's a lot of backstory behind this project, so excuse my ramblings below.

The story starts with me hearing Sully playing a tune by Fracture called "Booyaka Style" which I really liked and thought would be great to release. I reached out to Fracture about it and found out later that he already made plans to include it on an album project (0860) that he was working on at the time which later came out on his label Astrophonica. He asked if I would be up for sending him any tunes to be considered for release on Astrophonica, but in response to this, I suggested a joint label project that both of us would have tunes on & he seemed keen to do it.
Few months later, I got back in touch to ask if he had done any tracks for this release but he was still busy with other things and instead sent me a track he had been working on, with the suggestion of us collaborating on it. We finished a track together that we both liked & felt as if it was a good starting point for the release. We then got a few more collabs done with a fair bit of back & forth, but upon reflection, he felt as if they could be a lot better than what they currently were and so, the release started to change in format a bit. Fracture suggested that we should meet up in his studio and work on some tunes together in person, with the aim of getting a few bits done over a bunch of sessions and getting it all sorted out in a much quicker timeline. Thankfully, this actually worked, we managed to get some collabs done that both of us are very happy with (even managing to sample a recording of Blackeye from a set from a Future Retro London event!)

Thanks to Fracture for his co-operation & perseverance with this release, helping to see it through to the end & not allowing it to be anything less than the best possible version of itself, thanks to Mark at Sequence for his role in helping with the logistics/manufacture of this release, thanks to Utile for assisting on the design on this release and most importantly, a very special thanks to all the obstacles along the way that I faced in the making of this release, which helped me appreciate getting to this point so much more than I ever could have!

Debut album by Cindy is aptly called I'm Cindy. Produced by Kai Hugo a.k.a. Palmbomen II. Vinyl comes with a 20-page handmade booklet, an individually signed and kissed handkerchief of Cindy (some of them even have her teardrops on them) and a huge fold-out poster! Who exactly is Cindy? If producer Kai Hugo used oblique strategies it would be this question that's been central to his past four years of musical output. First appearing on his 2015 LP Palmbomen II as the titular subject of the track Cindy Savalas, her life has become intertwined with the producer's. "Following that release, I made a music video for Cindy Savalas, where Cindy came to life through the portrayal by Blue LoLan,' Hugo explains. 'I really felt a connection with this character and went deeper into developing who she was and the world she lived in. The result was the creation of the LP Memories Of Cindy, where my goal was to reveal more about Carmel Vista, the town Cindy lived in. Afterwards, I imagined Cindy having her own 'lost' album, as if she had once released a record that was kind of forgotten.' I'm Cindy is altogether different though. It sits at an uncommonly explored intersection between Italo disco and shoegaze - Cocteau Twins and Slowdive are mentioned as influences and you can hear that in the blurred textures and hazy synths of the 13 tracks here. But Hugo also revels in a chance to use his self-created character as a conduit to explore his love of both mainstream pop and its more skewed forms. In many ways the record is as much LoL?n's. It was she who gave the character her voice - initially across 27 tracks recorded with the producer - but her own connection to Cindy runs deeper than that. 'It makes me really nostalgic thinking about everything Cindy went through, she and I have similar feelings' says the vocalist. 'Cindy is a mix of me and Kai so when I listen to the album I feel like I'm half entering Kai's head and half in mine, with a whole bunch of deep emotions, purity and loneliness that just makes me want to dance and cuddle with all my cats in a disco forest somewhere outside of Carmel Vista.'

Debut album by Cindy is aptly called I'm Cindy. Produced by Kai Hugo a.k.a. Palmbomen II. Who exactly is Cindy? If producer Kai Hugo used oblique strategies it would be this question that's been central to his past four years of musical output. First appearing on his 2015 LP Palmbomen II as the titular subject of the track Cindy Savalas, her life has become intertwined with the producer's. "Following that release, I made a music video for Cindy Savalas, where Cindy came to life through the portrayal by Blue LoLan,' Hugo explains. 'I really felt a connection with this character and went deeper into developing who she was and the world she lived in. The result was the creation of the LP Memories Of Cindy, where my goal was to reveal more about Carmel Vista, the town Cindy lived in. Afterwards, I imagined Cindy having her own 'lost' album, as if she had once released a record that was kind of forgotten.' I'm Cindy is altogether different though. It sits at an uncommonly explored intersection between Italo disco and shoegaze - Cocteau Twins and Slowdive are mentioned as influences and you can hear that in the blurred textures and hazy synths of the 13 tracks here. But Hugo also revels in a chance to use his self-created character as a conduit to explore his love of both mainstream pop and its more skewed forms. In many ways the record is as much LoL?n's. It was she who gave the character her voice - initially across 27 tracks recorded with the producer - but her own connection to Cindy runs deeper than that. 'It makes me really nostalgic thinking about everything Cindy went through, she and I have similar feelings' says the vocalist. 'Cindy is a mix of me and Kai so when I listen to the album I feel like I'm half entering Kai's head and half in mine, with a whole bunch of deep emotions, purity and loneliness that just makes me want to dance and cuddle with all my cats in a disco forest somewhere outside of Carmel Vista.'

OOOOH! by Alex Bad Baby Lukashevsky with Cocoa Corner (2025)

Celebrated veteran of Toronto’s music scene, known for his boundary-pushing approach to folk and avant-garde music, twists rock music into strange and brilliant new shapes with the help of young jazz players, U.S. Girls, and his own immensely talented son.



OOOOH! is hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Made in the spirit of unity,
humanity, and poetry — disobediently renouncing the glory of personal triumph for the
generosity of an honest experiment. On the last track of the album you’ll hear “Or do you only ever never want to make a single enemy? / That’s not freedom or humility / It’s nothing, honestly.” Oooh, that's a bad baby!

A celebrated Toronto songwriter and performer, Alex Lukashevsky has always been disobedient. Which simply means, nothing is off the table when he’s looking for his
poetic voice; when trying to find the realest I of the teller. As he sings on the lead track “that musician that’s dead” The musician is radical/ it’s the world that’s demented/ listening with their eyes, the music looks dented/ they’re over-represented.
OOOOH! was recorded in January 2024 at Sound Department in Toronto, engineered by Patrick Lefler (ROY), mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Matt Smith. All the songs were tracked live off the floor in two days, with one extra day for recording vocals, to keep the recording fully alive and breathing. As leader of Deep Dark United, as a solo performer, and a sideman in Brodie Wests’ Eucalyptus and Luka Kuplowsky’s Ryokan Band, Alex has been an outsized influence on the Toronto music scene that spawned acts like Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett. (Pallett, who has toured with Lukashevsky, went so far as to record an entire album’s worth of Alex’s songs, backed
by a full orchestra.)

Lukashevsky has approached each of his albums and projects as something completely new, using only the musical boundaries he creates with each song. Even when he
has recorded songs with nothing but his voice and his own acoustic guitar accompaniment, the results are never “stripped down” or “back to basics,”
Gong! How do you get to heaven / have fun! have fun!
It’s cool to approach music as a game of “spot the influence”; Burt Bacharach-meets-Black Flag; Lana Del Rey-meets-LCD Soundsystem etc. Glorified mash-ups are promising because of their conversational nature. But they can turn us into hyperboreans; blowing cold air beyond ourselves while doing what we can to remain warm. To devise a game or a narrative is to have a winner and a loser, but we all know that just as you win/ so you lose. And does anything really change? Alex Lukashevsky and Cocoa Corner are more at ease drawing blind contours or playing an old game like consequences. They let things add up without knowing particularly how. Cognition is recognition.

Lukashevsky, in addition to writing all the songs, plays guitar and sings on OOOOH!, doing both in ways that are soulful and spikey at the same time. Joining him on guitar and vocals is his oldest child, Charlie Lukashevsky, who, at 23, is already a talented performer and songwriter in his own right. Cocoa Corner also includes Aidan McConnell, an in-demand drummer and composer, Jack Johnston, a jazz bassist and Barry Harris acolyte, and percussionist Evan Cartwright (The Weather Station, U.S. Girls, Cola, Tasseomancy), who plays steel pan and marching drum.

Working with his son and with other younger musicians is central to the album’s
unpredictable aesthetic. It reinvigorated the sound in unexpected ways. Lukashevsky says, “I had to reconsider my own instincts. I had to deal with being 99 years old.”
In addition to these performers, the album includes a tasty contribution from Meg
Remy, the visionary musician and producer who is the leader of the critically acclaimed
project U.S. Girls. Remy duets with Lukashevsky on the imagistic and sprawling album
closer “things keep happening.”
About that album title: OOOOH! is taken straight from “that musician that’s dead” an
arch and unhinged comment on the exertion required to navigate a lifetime of music making.
Lukashevsky’s delivery of that one emotive word is a kind of cultural posture, but also a
hundred percent primitive expression. The impact is never less than visceral. His vocal
delivery ranges through rich baritone blues to keening falsettos to a kind of sprechstimme that periodically steps out from the music to grab the listener’s shirt. He
doesn’t sound too nice, but he is sincere. When life gives you lemons lament.
For OOOOH! his first official full-length album since 2012’s Too Late Blues, (a collection of knotty-yet-effervescent tunes built upon the enchantingly serpentine harmonies of Lukashevsky and his vocal collaborators, Felicity Williams (Bahamas, Bernice) and Daniela Gesundheit (Snowblink, HYDRA)), Alex has once again broken apart and rebuilt his own approach to music. Or rather (because that sounds too over-determined), he
has allowed his music to build itself into strange new shapes that only fleetingly and
coincidentally, but happily, resemble anything that might be called rock and roll. There is some editorializing within the song’s lyrics— Lukashevsky even cheekily contributes to the “spot the influence” game with the line “Muddy Waters, Rite of Spring!” a funny preemptive strike against anyone already reaching for some variation of avant-blues to describe what the song is up to here. In fact there are many names checked on this record (literally and in spirit); they are the lily pads that trace the path of this expression! Palestrina, Peter Pears and Benjamin Brittain, Andrés Segovia, Stravinsky, Lotte Lenya, Alice Coltrane, Skip James, Chuck Berry, D’Gary, Betty Carter, Mukhtiyar Ali, Chuck D, Yoko Ono, Hailu Mergia, David Bowie, Jane Siberry. rhythm is a skeleton mansion / haunted by melody / feckless prodigy / the world is under a spell / cast by some demon angel / Practice day and night / Try as hard as hell / no one can sing that well Musicians are often worried by the way in which they are prepared to fail rather
than how they would like to succeed; it’s such a deep concern that it tempers their creativity and shackles their process. Current cultural proclivities, tend to comfort a certain kind of artistic failure and abnegate another kind. How many testimonials, full of heartfelt care and investment, have you heard for Taylor Swift, and yet a craftsman like Chris Weisman is often dismissed easily as though he’s doing something anti-social. what’s throwing itself in my ears and my eyes / arrogant devil ad hominem christ.
The music you will hear on this recording veers off in multiple directions at once,
and features a rock and roll spirit with a divergent heart. This is no sclerotic clomp of the Average Rock Song, but in fact a flood of humanity in all its darkness and moodiness and unpredictability. If most performers make songs that are like sports cars or pickup trucks to drive around, Lukashevsky has built something more akin to a rowboat in a tree: it’s weird and beautiful.