Buscar:who is who

Undun is the story of a man, Redford Stevens, dying in reverse, rewinding from the moment he became a statistic and hitting the points in his life where he's at his most self-aware. That he's a criminal who got caught up in the familiar street-hustle trappings that the modern media's documented countless times is a pivotal detail-- it's hit at an angle that seems to emphasize the futile inevitability of it all. His life could be any number of misdirected narratives that ends with a toe tag, and what details listeners learn about him are hazy, buried under archetypal turns of fate and decisive struggles. That this protagonist is a fictionalized composite of a handful of real people, filtered through a matter-of-fact narrative that splits character ambivalence with journalistic impartiality, only makes his lack of direction and the failure of any real closure stand out even more. "Lotta niggas go to prison," Dice Raw states on "Tip the Scale", "how many come out Malcolm X?"

So the Roots' latest album isn't a sprawling, rise-and-fall crime story, not a condemnation or a veneration of a man living outside the law, not a bullet-riddled grand guignol heavy on explicit details of soldiers getting cut down. It's a character study of a man whose existential crisis ends only with his death-- a death gone largely unspecified, the glamor and tragedy washed over with a doomed resignation. That's a hard thing to pull off, even for a band as given to deep-thinking concepts as the Roots are. And when your main lyrical catalyst is Black Thought-- a man more given to allusions than direct statements-- it's likely that it'll take a while for the full scope of Undun to really sink in.

If and when it does, it might strike listeners as a bit skeletal: omit the mood-setting instrumental bookends, including a brief, four-part orchestral suite that builds off Sufjan Stevens' "Redford (For Yia-Yia and Pappou)", and you've got maybe a half hour's worth of material. By ?uestlove's accounts, writing Redford's story introduced the headaches and challenges that come with scriptwriting into their songwriting, and what's left on Undun is the end result of frequent revisions and rewrites that attempt to reconcile character, theme, and continuity. If it comes at the expense of nuance, it's not always obvious: There's an easy-to-trace narrative line from Redford's acceptance of his fate ("Sleep") to his acknowledgement of how close it's approaching ("Make My"), back through declarations of aggravated toughness ("One Time"), and celebratory fatalism ("Kool On"), along ups and downs that juxtapose motivation ("Stomp") and helplessness ("Lighthouse"). When the vocal portion of the album ends with two of the bleakest sets of verses in the Roots discography, peaking with the estrangement of "I Remember" and the desperation of "Tip the Scale", Undun reveals itself as a story where a man's actual death isn't quite as tragic as the circumstances that pushed him to it.

Whiskey is the 1996 debut album by Jay-Jay Johanson. An exciting mix of trip hop, nu jazz and drum 'n' bass; all with the amazing vocals of Jay-Jay himself. Key tracks like ""So Tell the Girls That I Am Back in Town"" and ""It Hurts Me So"" showcase his ability to fuse smooth, lounge-like vocals with electronic beats and lush instrumentation. Whiskey received critical acclaim for its emotive depth and unique style, establishing Johanson as a compelling figure in the late Nineties music scene. This album is a must for anyone who enjoys Moloko, Tricky, Archive and Lamb.

2026 Repress

Lars Huismann returns to Mutual Rytm as he delivers the second instalment of his "Sounds From The Past" trilogy on the label.

As SHDW & Obscure Shape's Mutual Rytm imprint continues to grow, it's clear that the DJ and producer pairing have a strong vision for the label and are building an equally impressive roster of artists to form the imprint's core family members. One of the early standouts is Lars Huismann, who arrived to deliver a selection of impactful offerings influenced by the "golden years" of techno in his own unique style crafted by various production techniques. Having featured on the label's opening VA and delivered the first EP for MR002, racking up a wealth of global support in the process, mid-November welcomes a return for the Berlin-based talent as he serves up six fresh cuts in his signature sound for "Sounds From The Past II".

Opener "Sounds From The Past II" is an action-packed title cut fusing typically slick rolling grooves with hazy melodies and atmospheric releases of tension, while "Propulsion" takes cues from its title and sees precise drum shots, echoed background vocals and a tunnelling groove taking the track right into the thick of the action.

On the flip, B1 "Loucura" brings a percussive workout as frantic organic drums and resonant brass melodies bring a party
to proceedings, with "Stroke" and "Nudge" both armed with tough kicks, zipping synths and more subtle vocal work.

Digital buyers get an extra exclusive in the form of "Dub Division", welcoming a slightly more subdued but equally as impactful track guided by dubby chords and peppy hi-hats to close the show.

Some tracks have a lot of history to them. Some are just one of life's mysteries.

TEDI seems to have been a work in progress with New York producers Greg Carmichael and Mitch Braithwaite.

The body of work being recorded during the late 1970's and early 1980's was a daily procedure with many people passing through. Over time Greg had no recollection of the recording and neither did his good friend Leroy Burgess. Sadly Mitch Braithwaite is no longer with us. But his music lives on with this boogie soul record with those stabbing piano keys , synth and reverbs. Topped with some growling vocals. The singer sounds familiar but I haven't a clue who it is? Tedi someone!!

Djo, the musical project of Joe Keery, returns with his fourth studio album, The Crux Deluxe—an expansive, 12-track companion album to The Crux, written, recorded and produced by Keery and his collaborator Adam Thein. Following the massive success of his single “End of Beginning,” which topped both the US and Global Spotify charts and amassed over 2 billion streams worldwide, the deluxe record is full of songs that were written at the same time as The Crux album sessions and recorded at Electric Lady Studios in NYC.

Solo 500 delivers another irresistible donut that takes the form of this 2-sided celebration of afro-latin & jazz-funk classics. GSC dusts off 2 deep catalog selections here — & part of the appeal is that neither side is a played-out sample cliché. This one is for heads who already burned through the obvious joints.

Side A digs into Manu Dibango beyond the endlessly flipped “Soul Makossa” universe. “The Panther”, from the 1973 album “Africadelic”, isn’t one of his commonly sampled tracks — & that’s exactly why it hits so hard. Low-slung Afro-funk, stalking bass & suspense-building horns that feel like a break record even if they haven’t been rinsed by every golden-era producer. Selectors who chase texture over recognition will understand the power here immediately. It’s the kind of cut hip-hop heads love not because they’ve heard it before — but because they haven’t.

Side B moves into Latin jazz-funk royalty. Ray Barretto is one of the most sampled percussionists of all time, but “Together” (from the 1969 album of the same name) sits slightly off the obvious break-beat path. Instead of a clean, isolated drum loop, you get rolling congas, warm keys & a communal groove that’s been DJ-tested far more than it’s been sampled. This is the type of Barretto cut that crate-diggers pull when they want rhythm to breathe — bridging jazz floors, disco-leaning sets & hip-hop selectors who think like musicians, not beat miners.

Melodize is bringing the world back on the dance floor with Lauer and his 4-track “K1m Fantasy” EP. Behind the label is Brooklyn-based DJ and musician Beartrax, who is known for his groovy yet moody compositions. Philipp Lauer, known as Lauer, is a true veteran in the electronic music sphere, with over 20 years of experience, yet his sound remains novel and fresh.

This time, Melodize and Lauer shape the world of a fantasy dance floor where everything is possible. “K1m Fantasy” starts with Lauer letting his confidence shine through as an experienced professional with a signature sound in the first track “Boss Electro”, which will inevitably showcase why he’s the boss.

The playful tune of “Rabbits” takes the listener on a journey through electro-induced synths much like the image of curious rabbits playing on a grass field. The eponymous B-side “K1m Fantasy,” with its steadily unfolding mellow soundscape, is an introspective piece exploring the fantastical world of the techno dance floor where all becomes one.

Lauer’s last treat is “Choirs,” where brassy exclamations take turns with a haunting choir of electronic voices, reminding us that unity is key to pleasure and existence.

INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS is back with the third instalment of the ANTIKHRIST VISIONS saga. This release is particularly symbolic: it’s the ninth in the catalogue, marked by the infernal numerology that runs right through the whole series. It’s a descent into a sonic underworld, where noise becomes ritual and pleasure is just pure agony.

The artist tasked with opening this new chapter of the saga is the mighty Óscar Mulero, an essential figure on the national electronic scene and one of our biggest international ambassadors, whose career has left a deep mark on contemporary music. Here, with Faceless, he delves into dark, precise, and devastating electro territory; a spiritual machine that dictates the pulse of chaos.

Next up, we’ve got Pressurized Modulator with Reddrum: hard, crunchy, industrial electro, absolutely buzzing with electrical tension and twisted sonic matter.
Closing out the A-side is Jacko Volvone (aka Hoax Believers) with Quieren Cerrar Las Fábricas: a track that expertly blends electro, techno, and post-punk echoes, resulting in a tense, distorted, and combative sound, like a working-class echo shouting from the abyss.

Flipping over, the B-side opens with Hanging Nuts (made up of Waje Martín, Fake Robotik, and Ruben Montesco). They unleash a murky descent of filthy, distorted, primal electro, slashed through with guitars and raw, guttural vocals: a genuine chant from beyond the grave. The second cut marks the debut of Techselektah & Phil Fork with Champagne No Potable: a raging street anthem packed with fury, energy, and social criticism, where Spanish vocals emerge amidst EBM structures that have that ‘80s spirit, reinterpreted with today’s raw edge. And the big finish is down to HBK1 alongside Rigor Mortis, with Instinto Caníbal: a full-on explosion of electro-industrial and EBM that awakens the body’s most primitive urges.

Antikhrist Visions Vol. III is a sonic summoning from the lands of Hades: ritualistic matter, organic sound, and primal force. A testament to pleasure and torment—Tormento do Gostar—etched into the vinyl as if it were molten iron.

Memento Mori.

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.

The long-awaited reissue of Another Song by Music Service, one of the finest Italo-Disco tracks goes to Antony Soumas, the amazing Greek DJ owner of Disco Time Records in Athens. Tony's passion for Italo-Disco style is known worldwide and is worth further amplifying. Among the spin-offs conceived by Amin-Peck (editor's note: in strict Bolognese dialect means "I hang myself!"), Another Song turns out to be the favorite of the "purists" of Italo. The synthesizers of George Fyron and Leonard Parker are excellent as always, but here we also find awesome sauce male voices! In a certain sense you have the sensation of listening to Big In Japan, but perhaps it is just a suggestion of the dee-jays who push one record after another. One last curiosity dictated by the sagacious dj-writer Antonio Stanzani, better known as Ciancio DJ: the Music Service band proposed to Luca Zanarini to sing Another Song, but the lyrics of the song did not yet existed His friend Gianni Ruberti made himself available and by isolating in a room for two hours he made the lyrics that all of us after more than 40 years enjoy.

Tim Maia’s self-titled 1973 album is one of those records that hits you from the very first groove and doesn’t let go. Originally released on Polydor Brazil, this was the fourth in a series of Tim’s self-titled albums and many fans and critics still consider it the crown jewel. Packed with irresistible hooks, lush arrangements, and that unmistakable Tim Maia swagger, the album captures the singer at the peak of his creative powers.If you’re new to Tim Maia, here’s the quick story: born in Rio de Janeiro, Tim was a larger-than-life icon whose music married American soul and funk with Brazilian samba and pop long before “fusion” was a buzzword. A true musical polymath, he absorbed everything from Curtis Mayfield to Motown and translated it into a sound entirely his own, gritty, passionate, and full of groove.



He didn’t just introduce soul to Brazil; he made it Brazilian.On this 1973 release, Tim pushes everything up a notch. The arrangements are bigger, slicker, and surprisingly majestic, without losing the raw spirit that earned him a devoted following. From the moment ‘Réu Confesso’ opens the album, you know you’re in for something special—smooth, funky, and heartfelt in all the right ways. The bittersweet ‘Gostava Tanto de Você’ remains one of his most beloved classics, while ‘O Balanço’ bursts with Brazilian flavor that practically dares you not to move. And with tracks like ‘Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself’ and ‘Over Again,’ Tim shows just how naturally the soul idiom fit him, even when he switched to English.This record has everything: deep grooves, soaring strings, magnetic vocals, and that unmistakable sense of joy that Tim Maia carried into every session. It’s a front-to-back winner—one of those albums that deserves a spot not just in Brazilian music history, but in any collection that celebrates great soul, funk, and timeless grooves.If you’re a longtime fan, it’s a reminder of why Tim Maia is legendary. If you’re discovering him for the first time, this is the perfect place to start. Either way: press play, turn it up, and let Tim do his thing.

Patience moonlights as one of the most underworked muscles of the modern human. Time meanders at the same pace as always but yet everyone seems to be living their lives as through they are stretching it out like elastic jelly through their fingertips, ignoring the virtue necessary to ride each moment. At the end of patience always lies a reward. DJ Teeth, a veteran disciple of time, presents a sonic palette to Kasra V's V-Sion imprint that is for only the most determined. Symphonic synths and acid swells ebb and flow, vocal samples move like auditory hieroglyphics scrawled on cave walls, and other hidden messages appear, but only for those who wait. Patience will be rewarded.

3 track 7" EP from Bristol emo / folk / punk trio Toodles & The Hectic Pity.
Where the debut Toodles LP was a collection of very intensely personal songs, this record comprises three songs that are closer to short stories than personal writing. All three are from imagined perspectives: the perspective of a cat, someone who may or may not be being abducted by a UFO, and people who live in a hotel respectively. They’re all nighttime songs.
The title 'Every Night is a Beautiful Night' pays homage to the 1950 film Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart, who remarks early on in the film “Why, every day is a beautiful day.”
Recorded at JT Soar, Nottingham in March 2025. It was produced and recorded by Phil Booth and Robin Newman, mixed by Robin Newman and mastered by Ed Hall at All Silk Mastering House. The artwork is by Emily Seffar.

Motown Records: The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves and The Vandelas and, of course, The Temptations. It is antithetical to mention any of those without the others. The community of artists started as the Sound of Young America, but as history has proven, it became the sound, the look and the inspiration of so much more. And now, little nuggets of Motown's influence can be found the world over. David Ruffin, founding member of Motown superstars The Temptations, went on to become a successful solo artist even after he left the group. In 1969, Ruffin released two fantastic solo records, My Whole World Ended and Feelin' Good. Between 1970 and 1971 he recorded what was to be his third long playing solo record. However, his career was suddenly put on hold when Motown, for reasons unclear, shelved the album that had been dubbed David. The record had even been assigned a catalog number and final artwork. Ruffin returned in 1973 with a brand new LP titled David Ruffin (treated officially as his third LP) and the previously recorded album David sat on the shelves, unheard for decades. This deluxe 2xLP set features the original, rare David LP, plus an LP of bonus tracks and mono single mixes all packaged in a beautiful gatefold jacket, featuring extensive liner notes and striking color photographs of Ruffin. His red and yellow suede suit featured in the interior gatefold LP jacket is an absolute must-see! The record was cut and pressed at Third Man's Detroit HQ, just a couple miles away from the original Motown HQ. For the first time ever on vinyl, Third Man is proud to present the essential, true third LP from the Temptations' mighty David Ruffin.

This is a special work by acclaimed composer and musician Adriaan de Roover, who has released records on Dauw, VIERNULVIER, PIAS, and Consouling Sounds. Chansons de trottoir / Stoepliedjes documents his relationship to sampling in the form of a radio play.

Originally created as a radio piece for Resonance FM in Manchester, the album is a sonic portrait of a walk through Brussels. It is constructed from two field recordings: one made during a walk from Metro Midi towards Adriaan’s home, and another recorded on a walk towards Flagey. Rather than foregrounding recognizable landmarks, the piece focuses on the pavement underfoot: the steady, repetitive rhythm of footsteps on sidewalk tiles.

The recordings are mixed with samples from the music of the Brussels hip-hop group STIKSTOF. Their music became the soundtrack to a period in which Adriaan’s desire to move from Antwerp to Brussels began to take shape. Through repeated listening, the city of Brussels gradually revealed itself to him. This experience echoes that of countless music fans who, while listening to The Beatles, imagine what Liverpool might be like: a city revealed through sound and myth, often crystallized in lukewarm Hard Rock Café–style projections.

Chansons de trottoir / Stoepliedjes is an exercise in sampling and an exploration of how one might find a personal place within the music of others. It frames appropriation as an attentive and considered act. Suspended between memory and imagination, the piece exists closer to a dream state than to reportage.

Remastered from the original recordings and now presented on a 45rpm 2 LP deluxe audiophile edition, this is first time the complete 7-track album has been available on vinyl. 'In My Own Sweet Way', recorded during a month- long European tour in 1987, captures Woody Shaw in peak form playing with a spirit and a sense of adventure that identify him as a jazz giant. Woody calls the trumpet "the prince of all the horns". Woody is the king of all the trumpet players.

Nobody around plays with such a big, round, ravishing sound - a sound which could easily fool you into thinking that you are listening to a flugelhorn. Woody's musical asociates on this album are Alex Deutsch, a young drummer from Austria who has worked in Europe with many American jazz stars; Neil Swainson, a highly gifted bassist from Toronto who has worked with Pat La Barbera and Peter Leitch but is perhaps best known for his superb collaboration with George Shearing; and Fred Henke , a pianist from Montreal whose credits include backing Clifford Jordan, Steve Grossman and Junior Cook

On this 8 track EP every song has UK and USA lyricists side by side as equals. It includes older icons of Hip-Hop, established talent from the current underground rap scene, and young emerging rappers who haven't been given a platform until now. This project is a collaboration between producer Sam Seed, a dozen rappers, 4 record labels,

the 05:21 music platform and a DJ night. No filler, all killer.


Introducing Sam Seed

A rising name on the underground rap scene. North London producer Sam Seed has a list of top tier production credits to his name with artists including Vinnie Paz, Billy woods,

Mickey Diamond, Conway the Machine. The Unaligned Vol.1 is his eagerly awaited debut EP.

Mats Gustafsson met Jan St. Werner in Berlin when they both performed with Peter Brötzmann and a group of prolific improvisers. Mats and Jan share a passion for performing not just inside rooms but also with them, activating space and shaping sound via divertion. Mats introduces Johan Berthling who adds complex bass structures to the nervous jitter of Mats’ saxophone & pedals and Werner's digital machinery.

The trio instantly agrees on sound as a physical material which can bend and move anywhere within seconds. With this material they establish musical forms which they immediately dissect and reassemble again. It’s a nervous ride, a hyperactive conversation keen on detail and open to argument. Although IFANAME’s sound is instantly graspable it is also hard to pin down. Nothing seems stable yet it lasts, holds like some kind of catchy glue and disssapears as quickly as it came to life. IFANAME is question and concern. It is music as much as it is movement. It is attention, care, curiosity and disaster. Wherever IFANAME came from there is much more waiting ready to burst and reshape in front and inside of our ears.

Crackazat returns to Freerange for his latest EP entitled Shine, and sees the artist in his finest form to date! An absolute anthem in the making the title track appears here in Club Mix and Mana’s Dub form, plus an amazing flip of Crouching Tiger from Baltimore legend Karizma Shine is a soulful, jazz-inflicted epic which will have any dance floor worth it’s salt fully locked in. Crackazat’s own vocals bring hints of Jamiroquai whilst his production calls golden era MAW and Blaze to mind. Add an incredible arrangement, live horns, bass and drums to this already heady concoction and you get an idea of why we’re so excited about this release. These kind of club tracks are few and far between these days! Next up we have one of Crackazat’s own Mana’s Dubs of Shine.

A chance for Ben to strip things back, loop things up and dub things out. Keeping the funk intact, we’re treated to a feelgood party-starting house track which has a classic sound that can’t fail to warm the cockles! Flip over for a proper curve-ball from everyone’s favourite Baltimore house hero Karizma who turns Crouching Tiger into the kind of twisted, rolling, jazzy and leftfield workout we love him for. A driving force of the city’s underground, he always comes with the raw energy and fearless creativity. A staple of the dance floor and a leader beyond it, Karizma represents the past, present, and future of Baltimore House and once again proves why he’s such a don.

Drop this one and run for cover whilst the dancers throw crazy shapes! Closing out the EP we have Crackazat’s Mana’s Dub take on previous single Watchu Say. Looping up the killer piano hook and his live bass line, Ben manages to craft the kind of warm, uplifting slice of house music which simply works. And for those who love a big drop, this one should fit the bill with a trademark Mana’s Dub seratonin-boosting build that hits all the right buttons.

On his second album for Bruk, hoyah חיה continues to take an unflinching look at his Jewish identity while confronted with the heinous actions of the Israeli state. Echoing the name of his Refuge Worldwide radio show, he examines the shared histories of the Jewish diaspora across the Middle East and North Africa — from Morocco to Uzbekistan and everywhere in between. Can I Get A Chayah? is an honest attempt to explore what Judaism could become at a time when the culture faces an existential crisis.

The sonic approach hoyah חיה takes on Can I Get A Chayah? is central to the album's theme, as hard-gated processing on every sound creates a disorienting effect aiming for a kind of 'functional transcendentalism'. From the opening strains of preceding single '808s n Trance Gates' the jagged stop-start intensity of the samples sets a head-spinning tone for the album. The source material comes from across the aforementioned Jewish diaspora, challenging the nationalist idea of the single Jewish state.

Balancing beauty and aggression, hoyah חיה also reaches to a strong cast of collaborators to round out his cultural explorations. Principle among these is the late David German, the US-born guitarist and songwriter behind Silver Jews, whose repeated, bewildered mantras on 'Shalom Aleichem' embody hoyah חיה's own struggles with faith in the face of current horrors. Internationally celebrated Turkish-descent German musician Derya Yıldırım graces 'Talmuds' with her haunting vocal — a tribute to ancient Jewish mysticism that gets passed through the album's unrelenting sonic framework. On 'The Lock' Muha tackles African transcendentalism, while Rael pulls no punches with the questions he poses on the barbed 'This Song Has A Different Title But It Can't Be Published Here Because Of "Reasons"'.

With further prayer recitals on 'Lekha Dodi' and 'The Nose' and videos examining the psychedelic nature of reading the talmud and repetitive prayer movement shuckling, hoyah חיה has taken his research deep into the spirituality of his heritage at a time of crisis for Jewish identity. Naturally, Can I Get A Chayah? is not an easy listening experience, but neither is it a bleak one. There is beauty, mystery, complexity and nuance woven within the stark approach — an intentional, considered statement on a culture much deeper and wider than the barbaric acts of an unrepresentative group of twisted ethno-nationalists.