Cerca:world brain

Lucas Chantre, aka WORLD BRAIN, last graced us with a solo release half a decade ago, with 2019’s Peer 2 Peer. As its name suggests, that album explored the promise and perils of universal connectivity via quirked-up songwriting and instrumental psychedelia. His new release, Open Source, deepens this internal and external journey. Bursting beyond the four walls of ‘bedroom pop’ and reflecting a move from Berlin to Paris—where much of the album was recorded—and on to Brussels, the album has a jazzy, cinematic scope (as on the Brubeck-inspired march “Fromage collatéral,”) enveloping the listener in a cosmic-pastoral audiosphere.

There are still many tones that evoke the software sounds of decades past (the exemplar here is “cAPTCHA,” whose virtual marimba and vocalese suggest a breathless, Exotica-inspired introduction .mov for the information superhighway) but the palette has become richer and more organic, lead by the woodwinds which play a major role throughout, with flute provided by labelmate Martha Rose. (On the aforementioned “cAPTCHA” one also hears the world-class whistling talents of the incomparable Molly Lewis.)

Yet the single most noticeable new element may be the use of Chantre’s native French, sung by his sister on “Ville fleurie” and the gorgeous, fluttering “Minute papillion” (the title an idiomatic injunction to slow down!) Chantre initially wrote these lyrics in English, but felt something wasn’t quite right, only realizing what was off when he heard them sung in another language. That spirit of discovery – of finding a new spark in returning home – suffuses Open Source. It invites us to play, beckons us to relax, reminds us to find serenity amidst the churn of the present: minute papillon, dans le tourbillon.

A long-awaited dubplate finally sees the light of day. For years, heard only through a handful of the world’s most exclusive sound systems. Spirit World unites French dub pioneer Brain Damage with UK heavyweights Dub Dynasty (Alpha Steppa & Alpha & Omega), featuring the unmistakable voice of Tenastelin. Deep, meditative and powerful. A timeless vocal on one side, and a crushing, thundering dub on the other.

“One of the most prolific and inventive dub producers around.” Wire

“A serious player in the sound system world.” Mixmag­

“Obliteratingly heavy bass.” Q Mag

Matthew Dear has unveiled a new alias, Brain, which will debut with a double-EP called The World on Planet E. It’s the latest in a long line of trackier Matthew Dear aliases, including False, Jabberjaw and Audion, whose 2006 classic “Mouth To Mouth” came in at number 20 on Resident Advisor’s Top 100 Tracks Of The ’00s feature. The lead-off cut on the inaugural Brain release, “Boss,” was first heard on Carl Craig’s Detroit Love Vol. 2 compilation.

Grammy® Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Green Day will release Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band on 17th November. The playlist includes 20 hits spanning the band's prolific 21 years as a band, plus a brand new song called Back In The USA' and a new duet with award-winning Country Music superstar Miranda Lambert on Ordinary World.' Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong previously collaborated with Lambert at the 56th annual Grammy® Awards in 2014 for a live duet in tribute of the late Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers.

On 22nd March, God miraculously came down to the Ed Sullivan Theatre to introduce Green Day as God's Favorite Band' on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. When God speaks people listen, and he granted Green Day the title: Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band. The collection chronicles the sonic journey of one of the most essential and dynamic rock bands in recent history. Formed in 1986 in Berkeley, CA, Green Day achieved breakout success with 1994's Dookie which has sold over 10 million copies to date in the U.S. alone. Widely credited with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock, Green Day would go on to release Insomniac (1995), Nimrod (1997), and Warning (2000). In 2004, Green Day released the rock opera American Idiot which captured the nation's attention and sold more than six million copies in the U.S. Mojo declared It's exhilarating stuff, the kind of record that sets new parameters as to what is possible from a punk rock'n'roll band in the 21st century.' In 2010, a stage adaptation of American Idiot debuted on Broadway. The band went on to release the critically acclaimed 21st Century Breakdown (2009) and the album trilogy Green Day ¡Uno!, Green Day ¡Dos!, and Green Day ¡Tré (2012).

Green Day is one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. The group has won five Grammy Awards. On April 18, 2015, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of the 2015 class in what was their first year of eligibility for induction. Green Day's 12th studio album Revolution Radio was released on 7th October, 2016 and debuted at No. 1 on the UK Official Album Chart. Upon its release, People proclaimed: The punk vets still have a tattooed finger on the national pulse.'

London mainstays Half Baked push beyond a quarter of a century here with Romanian house favourite Dan Andrei debuting on the label. He offers the beautifully clean and serene ambient, minimal and tech fusion that is 'Orange Sunshine' - the sort of 5am gem that soundtracks deep immersion in an alternative world, complete with real beauty in the chords. Sticky' has a more pronounced rhythm and bubbly blend of rubbery drums and bass, while spacecraft-life synths circle the groove and neat melodic patterns unfold with a curious nature. London duo Brainsurfers aka Harry McCanna and Sam Bangura add more drive but keep things deep and crank up the cerebral details.

maya ongaku has always been searching for what exists just beyond the edge of perception. Since forming in the seaside towns surrounding Enoshima, the trio has followed a path guided less by intention than intuition, allowing songs, ideas, and experiences to emerge through a process they describe as 自然発生 (shizen hassei), spontaneous occurrence. Nothing Space Music is the deepest expression of that philosophy to date.

Written in the aftermath of several years of international touring, the album emerged from a growing desire to reconnect with silence. As stages became larger and the world around them moved faster, the band found themselves drawn toward the quieter spaces beneath it all. What began as a reflection on stillness & silence eventually expanded into the idea of "Nothing Space". To realise the album, maya ongaku created an entirely new environment for themselves. Near a seaside shrine in their hometown, the trio transformed a large soundproof building into Nothing Space Studio, a space built specifically around the needs of this record.

Nothing Space Music: a meditation on presence, perception, and the possibility of rediscovering the world through attentive listening.

Feiern Sie drei Jahrzehnte eines klanggewordenen Meisterwerks. Ursprünglich 1996 veröffentlicht, gilt DJ Shadows Debütalbum Endtroducing..... bis heute als Meilenstein der elektronischen Musik – als erstes Album überhaupt, das vollständig aus Samples entstand, offiziell verzeichnet im Guinness-Buch der Rekorde. Diese 30th Anniversary Edition ist die ultimative Würdigung eines Albums, das Hip-Hop, elektronische Musik und Produktionskultur für immer verändert hat.

"The Whole Of The Moon" is a classic. It's a song about awe and hope and love for the people who show us the best of this often broken world, the blessed few who show the way and introduce us to things and thoughts. Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch of Optimo was one of those people, and this version of the track - electronic, euphoric, open-hearted - was made by some members of the broader Optimo community after his terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2025. The task of making a version that could've been heard on the dance floor at Planet Peach, Mas, or the Sub Club on a Sunday night or Monday morning brought them together across oceans, an act of joy amidst so much loss. It was never intended to be released, but as it made its way to friends and others, it also felt wrong not to. Its sentiment is universal and applies to so many incredible people in music and beyond that are sadly missed. So here is the Watergirls' first and last track, presented as a limited white label with some particularly lethal mixes from Sean Johnston of Hardway Bros and A Love From Outer Space. We're giving all the profits to charity. It's meant to be played out. It's meant to make two friends hug and sing into each other's faces. It's for Keith and for everyone like him.

NOAHFINNCE’s ‘STUFF FROM MY BRAIN / MY BRAIN AFTER THERAPY’ is a collection of songs written before and after therapy.

The debut double EP collection features guest vocals from Chris Freeman of Hot Mulligan and builds the world of NOAHFINNCE’s unique, hyperactive brain.

The project tackles issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, past trauma and the path toward prioritizing mental health.

Deeply personal, but always expressed with a cheeky, quirky, not-so-serious sense of humour, NOAHFINNCE showcases the big personality that has amassed a huge YouTube following and led
him toward being a leading voice in Trans/LGBTQ+ youth issues.

With songs like ‘AFTER THERAPY’ and ‘LIFE'S A
BIT’, NOAHFINNCE is poised to break out as this
year’s new star of the new wave of pop punk.

For fans of YUNGBLUD, Waterparks, Set It Off.

LP pressed on cloudy blue vinyl.

Djrum's first release since 2019, the Meaning’s Edge EP is an introduction to a whole new world. For the artist also known as Felix Manuel, it was created in the final stretches of six rather traumatic years work. Having carefully honed his techniques and aesthetics, and learned some hard-won emotional lessons over this time, finally he began to work in a quicker, lighter fashion – and to cleanse his palate a little by bringing in a fresh ingredient: his own flute playing. For listeners, though, it will serve as an appetiser, a way into the delights and complexities of this new phase of his creativity.

It’s a serious work in its own right, mind. The use of flutes – including Bansuri, Shakuhatchi, Western Classical, and synthesised all blending and blurring into one another – gives it a coherence and a sense of airiness that unites the five tracks over half an hour, however divergent their beats get. And as in all his music, Felix’s whole life is in here. Ethnomusicology studies, untold hours of DJing everywhere from the gnarliest squat raves to the most rarefied deep house clubs, explorations of his own neurological and emotional makeup, and the technical finesse of someone who is never not creating music or art, all roll into an experience that’s dazzling, delightful and keeps on giving.

Just the opening track ‘Codex’ alone touches on OG dubstep, Aphex Twin-like braindance, post-classical exploration, movie themes and more. The gentle tones and melodies that rise up out of it perfectly conjure Felix’s running theme of a protective bubble that provides a sense of safety and tranquillity even as the beats and acid gurgles and spurts all around it conjure up the slings and arrows of life’s difficulties.

The tone set, the EP moves through ultra-rarefied glass-like percussion in an almost ambient setting, hints of grime’s counterintuitive patterns, and even more hectic patterns influenced by Tanzania’s hyperspeed singeli style of dance music – but always with that perfect balance of chaos and control, unpredictability and protection. It rewards playing and replaying endlessly, it’s a profound and often joyous experience… and it’s only just the beginning. This is the return of a master craftsperson more focused than ever on his vision and vocation and ready to blow your mind all over again.

Mastered and cut on 140g black vinyl by legendary mastering engineer Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, London. Pressed at optimal media, Germany.

Futurismo proudly present a vital compilation born in the shadows of American punk; AMERICAN GRAVE Gothic Punk / Deathrock USA: 1978-1988, the third volume in their Altered Vision anthology series.

Drawing from darkest depths of the American spirit, American Grave is testament to a subculture spawned from late night savagery, graveyard hangouts and suburban isolation. Deathrock, post-punk, goth, whatever term you prefer, this compilation showcases the sounds and aesthetics of a tarnished golden era, an underground movement that took the DIY concepts of punk and the velocity of a burgeoning hardcore scene and immersed it in echoes, distortion, tribal rhythms and macabre vocals, thematically preying upon cult horror flicks, surrealism, and the manipulation of religious iconography. Whilst the UK had a counterpart scene many would hail as Goth, this was different, this was a truly American incarnation, a new breed of youth haunted by the ghosts of old blues, garage and glam, bleak theatrical imagery dressed up to evoke a response, smeared eyeliner, leather, bones…black. This was a backlash against a culture in decay, bucking against a puritanical oppression brought on by the archaic social standards set by their parents. It was aggression manifested as gloom, it was a ceremony, the celebration of death.

American Grave has been co-curated by Wesley Eisold (Cold Cave/American Nightmare/Heartworm Press) in collaboration with Futurismo head honcho Del Jae, to bring you a haunting tracklist ranging from the all important integral mainstays of the genre to those rarer and more elusive artists, including many recordings that have never been reissued before on any format. Featuring the music of Christian Death, T.S.O.L., The Cramps, Of A Mesh, The Gun Club, Twisted Roots, Kommunity FK, The Brainz, Theatre Of Ice, Burning Image, Fur Bible, PSI Com, Shadow Of Fear, Super Heroines, 45 Grave and more.

The music on this compilation is reinstated further from a visual perspective by an array of incredible images by famed punk photographer Edward Colver, and lovingly designed to the level you would expect from a Futurismo release.

2xLP on limited edition ‘Splintered Tomb’ coloured vinyl. It is housed in a gloss laminated outer sleeve with colour inner sleeves and contains a large fold-out poster with unseen photos by the great Edward Colver, words by Lisa Fancher and liner notes by Wesley Eisold of Cold Cave/American Nightmare.

"The third part of "The Nightstalker" Saga emerges from the depths of dystopia, the last part of a Childhood Intelligence original tale written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich. After "The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World" (2020) and "Genetic Constitution" (2022), the final chapter "Flowers Of Agony" (2026) // Child 22 materializes through a 2x12 Lp. "Flowers Of Agony" presents yet another shade of the duo's analogue machine soul. Technoid brain dance electro from alien mysterious worlds. The album travels through various types of electro infused works, the live-arrangement dynamics and "The Nightstalker" Klangbild shines through each of the traxx, taking the listener through psychedelic cybernetic universes with strong techno force, bridging elements of the past works and taking them further into the future. Deep mind Influence intensifies the more listening time spent... This last chapter of a 3-Story Saga, is the essence, yet evolution of an analogue band, a 20 year friendship - the current zeitgeist & the partnership with Childhood Intelligence. For the future listener, we hope you might unravel the keys to this puzzle and find your own means to define and represent your true self in underground culture..."

Charlotte de Witte now unleashes her slamming three-track EP ‘The Resistance’, featuring Theo Nasa and XSALT, out on KNTXT. It follows the astonishing summer tour of her new audiovisual show ‘The Resistance’, including a spectacular ‘XXL’ version at Belgium’s Rock Werchter in July, for a 40,000 audience watching from inside and outside the tent.

World #1 techno artist Charlotte de Witte’s new show continues a standout year of experimental ventures and celebrations, global pop-up shows, monster street parties, incredible new music (EPs and Deluxe LP)… and most recently ‘The Resistance’ AV show world premier at UNVRS Ibiza and the EU tour. The new ‘The Resistance’ EP is hard, fast, and uncompromising. It features Theo Nasa, whose raw, deep techno EP ‘Lifeline’ was released on her KNTXT label; vocal artist / longtime collaborator XSALT, (previously on ‘No Division’, ‘Overdrive’, ‘Roar’, ‘How You Move’); and Charlotte’s own vocals on a personal track ten years in the making.

‘The Resistance’ EP title track feat. Theo Nasa is urgent, demanding, unapologetic. Juddering main theme, rattling hyperspeed beat, spacey hoover swoops form a matrix for the deep, amused authoritative voice of Nasa – ‘we are unity, we are techno’. The brief ‘The Resistance (Intro Version)’ opens with futuristic FX and Nasa’s voice to the fore introducing the techno credo.

‘Never have I ever teased a track this much as I teased ‘The Resistance’. From the moment the track was being made in the studio, I knew this was going to be a special one. Theo Nasa captures the spirit of the underground and guides you through the essence of club culture like no one did before. An entire A/V show grew out of this feeling, this philosophy. It’s one of the biggest tracks I’ve ever made.’ Charlotte de Witte

‘See Through The Lies’ feat. XSALT: futuristic FX, fast stabby synth theme, and XSALT intoning ‘see through the lies. It’s time to take control’. A message of defiance. ‘XSALT delivers again on ‘See Through The Lies’, offering his own take on the EP's theme. Open your eyes. Break the illusion, see through the lies. Release the pressure. It’s time to take control!’ de Witte says.

‘Another Place’ has relentless pace, twanging pizzicato synth, and de Witte’s whispered phrases becoming full voice. ‘’Another Place’ has been in the making for over a decade. It saw the light of day in Brussels, where the lyrics took shape together with my friend One Track Brain. The track was forgotten and resurfaced years later, leading to an entirely new track created around that magical vocal from all those years ago. This is an EP very close to my heart.’

At the heart of ‘The Resistance’ EP and AV show is a message central to de Witte’s work: Protect Club Culture and the communities that sustain it. That’s why de Witte is donating all proceeds from The Resistance EP to The Nighttime Foundation, a global nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding and shaping the future of nightlife, empowering grassroots communities and promoting nightlife as a vital form of culture worldwide.

Colours, to the mast, well and truly nailed.

'Life As A Duck' marks the return of Fergus Sweetland's imprint Pressure Systems and the label's first vinyl release. The title originates from a joke between two friends - friends that are ducks. These ducks found one another whilst discovering themselves, trying to navigate a world built for humans. Being a duck is another way of saying neurodivergent; existing adjacent to everything whilst trying to make sense of a strange planet, determined to remain as true to themselves at the same time as trying to be accepted in society. The tracks were made in direct response to a challenge presented to Fergus from a close friend: strip it back. The test was to apply brain-licking sound design to as few elements as possible and work them into functional club tracks. 'Tickle My Tism' meets the challenge. Fergus' signature low end captures the hips as the tension builds, expanding into an unexpected soundscape with precise smoothness. 'Trouble In The Bubble' is a dark yet dubby rolling club track full of texture and soundscapes. Nørbak's remix of 'Trouble In The Bubble' strips things down further with the Portuguese Garage (PTG) version, providing a more club-focused slant to the tune. 'Mind Easer' closes out the EP. The concluding track was written to ease the mind of a fellow duck when their feathers were ruffled by life. Its soothing focus allows one to melt into the sound and calm their mind. It tells you that everything is going to be okay. Expect the unexpected as Fergus' distinct sound design carries you through a four-track journey that emphasises that less is more - from a duck just trying to do his best.

If you dig deep enough into the internet's lower depths, you'll find a shaky video shot on a camcorder. In 43 seconds, we see a makeshift drum kit built out of backyard Ostbahnhof trash, hear distorted vocals, and feel the anarchic energy of band and ravers dissolving into each other. It's now been twenty years since Bonaparte played their very first show at the legendary Bar25 on Berlin's Spree river. The ringmaster of this unhinged musical theater was Tobias Jundt then, and it's Jundt again now bringing the Bonaparte extravaganza back to the stage. New and nostalgic sit close together when the party's been going this long. Or, as they put it: "PARADISE IF YOU CAN STAND IT."

From late October through mid-November, Bonaparte will tour Germany, Austria, and Jundt's native Switzerland at full intensity, the full lineup - band to burlesque. Since their 2006 debut through their supposed farewell in 2019, Bonaparte played over 800 shows in 28 countries. Bottom line: "Too Much" isn't enough to properly celebrate a body of work like this. And the new songs from "PARADISE IF YOU CAN STAND IT" are far too significant not to bring to the stage. The lo-fi trash-punk of Bonaparte's earliest records has been built out with added layers, in production (largely alongside British avant-garde electronic artist HELiX) and in the songwriting itself.

The world certainly hasn't gotten any simpler since 2006. Tracks like "EVERYBODY PRESiDENT," loosely riffing on Zoe Leonard's poem "I Want A Dyke For President," and the corrosive "BRAiN ROT" mirror the social chaos we find ourselves in 2026. "OBEY (THERE iS STiLL A RiOT GOiNG ON)" is just as furious, though here the principle of hope still holds, as a multigenerational choir concludes "everything will be okay." Jundt speaks across generations again on "i LOVE YOU (MORE LATER)," dedicated in equal measure to his parents and his daughters: "Let the echo chamber bleed - from here into eternity."

The reconciliation and hope Bonaparte allows for and tends to, amid violence and all that noise, make "PARADISE IF YOU CAN STAND IT" a singular document of an artist grown wiser. Separation and grief don't cancel out love and vitality - they depend on each other. Ultimately, the album is a record of searching for and finding a home. To arrive, you have to let go.

And what better place to let go than in step with Bonaparte's wild, hedonistic party circus, finally back to gently terrorize our cities?

Built with the immediacy that comes from limitation, iPhone Grime is almost exactly what it says on the tape case. Pulled directly from the portable communication device of Front Left Life's Louis Payne, iPhone Grime is the perfect distillation of raw ideas through a simple medium. When producers can drown in the infinite possibilities of the DAW vortex, a simple phone app can steer you swiftly to the sharpest results. Snippets of real world sound captured on the mic ground these quick-fire beats in a time and place, dynamic and street-level like grime and early dubstep was when it was being imagined on PlayStation games and filmed on ropey phone cameras.

Payne is undoubtedly bringing perspective to his sketches, having forged a connection with London's club scene through his part in the widely hailed Front Left Life parties in Catford, at Venue MOT and elsewhere. With a roll call of guests that cuts a sharp line through the best of bassweight club music right now, his taste and knowledge precedes his first steps into the production arena. Rather than puzzling out the path to a thousand likes for a hardware jam reel, he's opted for a direct line between his brain and the beat at the end of it.

You can hear the naivety behind vocal loops like the one nagging away on 'Follow That', calling to mind the first time you ever tried making a Fruity Loops beat. But these are no amateur throwaways — the technology has moved on and Payne's instincts guide him towards legit constructions that could easily do damage in the club. Sometimes they exist as no more than an eight bar loop, while others like 'Wind It Up (Dream Dealers Version)' or 'Extra Dimensional Being' stretch an idea out. Throughout it all, the looming throb of square wave bass glues the record together and anchors the grime dimension of Payne's job lot of phone jams.

Payne's work is all his own, and the snatches of real life around the beats anchor this music in his own London life. But, like previous shifts in technology and accessibility, iPhone Grime also raises an important prospect—that anyone with one of these apps, a Bluetooth speaker and an idea can bring music out of studios and into the world. History has already proven, when that happens the possibilities become thrillingly unpredictable.

It was in the year 2008 when Too Much came out: a 15-track debut that turned Berlin's underground upside down and made excess into a musical principle.
The album sounds like a party that has already gone off the rails - and is getting better because of it. Tobias Jundt's deadpan, heavily accented delivery collides with jagged guitars, rattling bass, vintage synths and restless dance grooves. Rock'n'roll, electroclash and dance-punk blur into something that never quite sits comfortably in any genre.
The songs are deliberately ridiculous, catchy and hedonistic. Too Much is full of party anthems, absurd one-liners and hooks that get stuck in your head whether you want them to or not. The title track itself became one of Bonaparte's signature songs - one of the early Myspace-era tracks that helped turn the band into a genuine underground sensation.
But Too Much was never just a record. Bonaparte's world extended into circus costumes, provocative performances, striptease, queer aesthetics and wildly excessive live shows. What began with illegal gigs under Alexanderplatz quickly moved to the Montreux Jazz Festival, international tours and legendary parties - with the band becoming one of the most distinctive acts to emerge from Berlin in the late 2000s.
Now Too Much returns on vinyl. A document of a particular Berlin moment - chaotic, funny, sweaty and impossible to ignore.
15 songs. Zero restraint. Still too much.

On their third album, FANGS, London collective HMLTD have created an entirely new genre: Götherdammerüng (or ÜberGöth). Predictably unpredictable, it could not be further away from their last outing, 2023 rock opera The Worm. The sixteen-piece orchestra has been traded in for Ableton, the timpani and violins replaced with side-chained four-to-the-floor and rave synths, and the gospel choir swapped for guttural gothic howling and black metal screams. The result is both unique and terrifying: a total reinvention and rehabilitation of the goth genre, through the looking glass of modern electronic and doomscroll-era dance music.

This new beginning was accompanied by a change in personnel, with Theo Spark and Andrei Martynchyk joining the fray alongside original members Henry Spychalski and Duc Peterman. Decamping to a ruined château in the Loire Valley, the quartet became obsessed with vampire lore, and the EBM and goth sound that inspired their early work: Fad Gadget, DAF, Nitzer Ebb, Suicide and Bauhaus. FANGS also points to more contemporary influences like Crystal Castles, German hardcore, 2000s blog-house a la Justice, and 2020s sleazepop.



The world crafted in FANGS is full of cosmic pessimism, glowing horror, imperceptible evil and digital dismemberment, ancient curses and ruined castles, Vampires. But it is also a thoroughly fun, and funny, record, as danceable as it is deep. Born of the club, some tracks would not sound out of place on Brat. Like a Smiths song which sounds happy and carefree until your brain tunes in to the misery of the lyrics, it can be listened to - and enjoyed - on two levels. One can get lost in the throb of bass and ludic synths, or tune into the horror of the lyrics which overlay them.



FANGS attempts to offer up a reflection to a culture that - like a Vampire - has lost its own. The result is something not only thoroughly modern, original, and inventive - but that feels genuinely dangerous and potent. FANGS delights in this ambiguity: simultaneously indicting decadence, decay, and moral rot, while luxuriating in its intoxication by it. Cacophonous sub-bass becomes a chthonic call of the void; seraphic rave synths become the screech of Valkyries; four-to-the-floor becomes a deathly funeral march. Vampire apocalypse.

Breakbeat Paradise Recordings proudly welcomes back one of the undisputed heavyweights of the international funk and breaks scene, Basement Freaks, for another scorching edition of the Toxic Funk series.

The brainchild of Greek producer George Fotiadis, Basement Freaks has spent more than two decades building a worldwide reputation for infectious grooves, heavyweight beats and dancefloor-destroying funk. With releases on labels including Jalapeño Records, Bombastic Jam, Good Groove Records and many more, Basement Freaks has become a staple in DJ sets around the globe and one of the most respected names in modern funk.

Opening the release is Got That Funky Stuff, an irresistible slice of raw party funk packed with chunky breakbeats, killer basslines and soulful samples that are guaranteed to get any crowd moving. Flipping over, Life For Dat Sweet Ting keeps the energy flowing with another irresistible groove, combining vintage funk flavors, rolling drums and signature Basement Freaks swagger into a certified dancefloor weapon.

Whether you're a funk DJ, breakbeat selector or simply a lover of timeless grooves, Toxic Funk Vol. 25 delivers two expertly crafted cuts that showcase why Basement Freaks remains at the very top of the global Nu Funk scene. Another essential 7-inch for collectors and DJs alike, and another dose of pure funk from Breakbeat Paradise Recordings.

On their third album, FANGS, London collective HMLTD have created an entirely new genre: Götherdammerüng (or ÜberGöth). Predictably unpredictable, it could not be further away from their last outing, 2023 rock opera The Worm. The sixteen-piece orchestra has been traded in for Ableton, the timpani and violins replaced with side-chained four-to-the-floor and rave synths, and the gospel choir swapped for guttural gothic howling and black metal screams. The result is both unique and terrifying: a total reinvention and rehabilitation of the goth genre, through the looking glass of modern electronic and doomscroll-era dance music.

This new beginning was accompanied by a change in personnel, with Theo Spark and Andrei Martynchyk joining the fray alongside original members Henry Spychalski and Duc Peterman. Decamping to a ruined château in the Loire Valley, the quartet became obsessed with vampire lore, and the EBM and goth sound that inspired their early work: Fad Gadget, DAF, Nitzer Ebb, Suicide and Bauhaus. FANGS also points to more contemporary influences like Crystal Castles, German hardcore, 2000s blog-house a la Justice, and 2020s sleazepop.



The world crafted in FANGS is full of cosmic pessimism, glowing horror, imperceptible evil and digital dismemberment, ancient curses and ruined castles, Vampires. But it is also a thoroughly fun, and funny, record, as danceable as it is deep. Born of the club, some tracks would not sound out of place on Brat. Like a Smiths song which sounds happy and carefree until your brain tunes in to the misery of the lyrics, it can be listened to - and enjoyed - on two levels. One can get lost in the throb of bass and ludic synths, or tune into the horror of the lyrics which overlay them.



FANGS attempts to offer up a reflection to a culture that - like a Vampire - has lost its own. The result is something not only thoroughly modern, original, and inventive - but that feels genuinely dangerous and potent. FANGS delights in this ambiguity: simultaneously indicting decadence, decay, and moral rot, while luxuriating in its intoxication by it. Cacophonous sub-bass becomes a chthonic call of the void; seraphic rave synths become the screech of Valkyries; four-to-the-floor becomes a deathly funeral march. Vampire apocalypse.

From the label ran by the influential SHERELLE and NAINA, and lovers of Underworld, Tim Reaper and Aphex Twin, this explosive jungle techno EP does exactly what it promises - drum damage. Dev/Null is a part of the new Jungle resurgence elevating the sound of faster music. Moving seamlessly between Breakcore, Jungle and underground club sounds, and with the use of a multifaceted range of intriguing samples, sounds from the worlds of house, danchall and trance, this will be one of 2026's most exciting jungle techno releases.

Function has long since cemented his legacy in the underground world but it's always worth reminding yourself where an artist's story began. In David Summer's case, that's with this EP, which dropped on Damon Wild's Synewave, who now reissue it in full, 30 years on. It's an impressively fully-formed sound for a debut: 'F1' is a jacked-up techno rhythm with a fat bassline and frazzled synths that bring it to life. 'F2' is a more experimental and beatless piece with modular pulses, echoing frequencies and decaying sine waves then 'F3 rides a dreamy dub rhythm that undulates gently amid some gorgeous sustained pads that recall Thebes of Detroit. 'F4' comes with more Millsian-style minimal that fires up your brain.

Josh Ludlow - one half of MAKE A DANCE - one of London’s most beloved duos - steps out on his own for a rare solo outing on legendary London imprint Rhythm Section International.

A late contender for EP of the year - the record meanders menacingly across four tracks of mind-altering, dissociative Brain Music, precision engineered to transport a listener and hypnotise a crowd without losing any dancefloor impact.

Interestingly, Bradley Zero (RS label boss) and Mr. Ludlow have a connection dating back to the late 2000s, when they were both drummers in rock and roll bands...almost 20 years later - a shared love of experimental electronic music has brought them back together, resulting in this spellbinding EP.

Channelling a much darker, heads down, aggressive sound than the uplifting house M.A.D have become known for, the record begins with 'Brain Music’, which serves as a Detroit techno-inspired wormhole of a track, guiding us into a parallel, inner dimension.

Time Upside Down is next up and it becomes apparent we have entered another realm entirely. The introductory bars of the song feel like a long journey down a dark tunnel. The sound design and acoustic backdrop are so evocative you can almost see it. Obnoxious bass notes reverberate through the space created by the track, slowly giving way to flurries of high-pitched, resonant acid lines - the sum of which escape easy classification. It would be lazy to call it house music, misleading to call it techno - but it’s definitely not tech house. Elements of disco, electro, post-punk, balearic and Weatherall-esque chug are all in the mix but essentially, this is its own thing - this is Brain Music.

The record continues to the penultimate track “The Kettle”, which starts off in more familiar upbeat, bongo-house territory before the calm is betrayed by a hovering intensity which grows out of nowhere before making space for a humungous bass synth melody - so big in fact that it has never once failed to elicit club-wide bass-face; which for a mid-tempo track is no mean feat. We round things off with ‘Mean Mother’, the most playful of the bunch: a Chicago house-indebted workout reminiscent of Paranoid London at their most visceral. The track feels familiar and almost safe until the synth-work is cranked up to 11, creating a cacophonous SH-101 build-up into a disco-esque drop that would get even the most reluctant raver jumping up and down for more.

Besides all the theatrics and acoustic world building, the evocative sound design and the insatiable, no-nonsense grooves - the thing that makes these tracks stand out is the attention to detail. No two fills are alike, every embellishment is EQ’d and polished to perfection - yet no immediacy is lost. The tracks feel alive, intentional and constantly evolving. Hyperbole aside - we have a serious, generational talent on our hands whose mastery of the equipment, understanding of the dynamics of the dance and unabashed
playfulness is being harnessed into something that stands out head and shoulders above the crowd.

2026 Repress

Regelbau chief Natal Zaks, who you may better known as Danish house talent Central, returns to his Picture alias hot on the heels of a full-length under the same moniker on his usual home, Short Span. This EP comes on P-TON, NMP's sub label, and is pristine dub techno with clean lines and minimal fuss. 'Faaaaaaaaa' has the right amount of swing and pop under sleek chords, 'Gaaaaaaaaaa' is less about firmware demotion and more about locking you in an endless cycle of brain cleansing thought. 'Kaaaaaaaa' is a darker world of cavernous bass and icy futurism and 'Tuuuuuuuu' nods to the best of Basic Channel. Proper dub techno that reinvents nothing but does everything exceptionally well.

We are honoured and excited to share the fourth Dream Space EP with the world: Domenic Cappello - Celestial Wave.

For more than three decades, Domenic Cappello has been at the helm of Subculture - the innovative and vastly influential Saturday night at Glasgow’s Sub Club. A true master DJ with deep rooted influences from Detroit & Chicago, Dom has consistently pushed things forward over the years and remains at the cutting edge of modern dance music.

Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, he put out high-quality records under various monikers on labels such as Soma, 20:20 Vision & Seventh Sign. Fast forward to recent years and Domenic has been on nothing short of a hot streak - releasing music under his own name on Craigie Knowes, Clone Royal Oak and his outstanding ‘Basement Philosophy’ LP on Alien Communications.

He brings the heat once more for this record; blurring the lines of house, techno and electro to deliver four awe-inspiring cuts of electronic music.

‘The Secret Moon Party’ sets things off, nodding to a certain Highland gathering by some of Scotland’s finest purveyors of quality tunes. A warm, gritty bassline carries the track, evolving into a symphony of precise sound design that is in equal parts playful and euphoric.

Dom’s knowledge of the dancefloor shines through on ‘Acid & Love’. This early night floor filler is the alchemy of just about everything you want to hear when things are getting going. Pure warmth and bliss throughout, also holding its place played deep into the late hours.

‘We Loved Your Ears (in memory of Keith)’ is a heartfelt tribute to the one and only Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch of Optimo. Dom wrote this track as something he thought Keith would have loved, and for this one, we’ll let the music do the talking.

Keith was, and continues to be, an enormous inspiration for us and so many others. In his memory, all proceeds from the digital sales of ‘We Loved Your Ears’ and 25% of all vinyl sales will be donated to Beatson Cancer Charity and The Scottish Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence.

Closing the EP is title track ‘Celestial Wave’, which does exactly what it says on the tin. A beautiful piece of music and fitting soundtrack for star gazing, moon dancing and dreaming.

In this post Sounds world, the boundaries of Post Punk have not only broadened but splintered. And over the course of (now) four releases, Index For Working Musik have seen to using the sprawling boundaries to great effect, flexing a polyglot of styles to convey the language of the moment. On Which Direction Goes The Beam, the murky, distant ambience that was 2023's Indexé has been fleshed out, incorporating everything from the Brian Aldiss laced, ground lightning shudder of Dome, to the chamber-like arrangements of This Kind Of Punishment. There's even a candle flickering in the window for Think Fellers Union Local 282 that warmed these ears. And if you're a fan of the great Dutch band, Trespassers W (who isn't?), the collective consciousness IFWM enunciates on here is a similar testament of a band growing more sure footed in the pursuit of not only knowing all the ways in, but carving a few of their own on the way out. And it's discerning releases like Which Direction Goes The Beam that keep us in the hunt. Long may they forge. - Tom Lax. RIYL: Brian Jonestown Massacre, Velvet Underground, TOY, John Cale, Wire, Dome

House and techno's most innovative improviser, KiNK, lands on Mutual Rytm X.

Offering four more thrilling dancefloor weapons, the iconic talent lands on SHDW's new Mutual Rytm X Series to deliver the label's second release.

Legendary Bulgarian artist KiNK is widely regarded as one of the most respected live acts on the global scene. He is a noted tech wizard who creates loops on the fly, crafts killer drums and never fails to hypnotise dancefloors. He has released on almost every influential label of the last 15 years and taken his unrivalled live show to all corners of the world, often drawing on those sets to bring aspects and inimitable qualities from his performances into his tracks. This innovative approach has helped to solidify his reputation as a groundbreaking figure, inspiring a new generation of musicians and producers, and he once again showcases precisely why he's in a league of his own here with a first appearance on SHDW's newly minted Mutual Rytm X.

'Unicord' opens up this new EP in thrilling fashion with sleek, Detroit-style synth loops flashing up top as the heavy, pounding while warm drums drive things down low. 'Quantum Shake' brings 90s energy with new school sound deists - the dubby drums are fast and urgent, the synth craft is deft, and the percussion adds texture to a straight-up but sophisticated techno anthem. 'Pitch Down' then brings fantastically unhinged synth leads that spray and zip about the mix to boggle the brain. Rattling percussive loops and chunky drums keep things moving as those synths get even more wild. To close, the digital bonus 'Highpass Lowpass' is a masterfully muscular cut with rugged bass and taught synths interlinking to mind-melting effect.

OK EG, AKA Lauren Squire and Matthew Wilson, take intrepid recce’s on a Kalahari debut of fathoms-deep techno minimalism and opiated braindance styles.

With release titles like ‘Intertidal zone', 'Anther' and 'Prismatic Spring’, their ambition to evoke natural worlds is evident. But these tracks aren’t of this planet. Navigating truly alien terrain, ‘Rivulets’ finds the duo imagining uncharted environments into existence through the medium of analogue hardware.

This is very much an album of two halves; the first on heads-down tip aimed straight at the dancefloor, with a second plate that veers further into abstraction. That said, they’re all the kind of far-reaching explorations where close listening yields great rewards.

Between ‘Oxygen Channel’’s cavernous throb and the dub techno-leaning ‘Circular Arc’, the Antipodean duo set their stall out with a widescreen sense of space. Then, ’Rivulets’ comes in strong with the spiralling, trance-inducing gear. Stripped-back, no fuss; proper live improv techno for the most inquisitive souls.

Sending signals into the endless expanse, the second half is a demonstration of OK EG’s versatility. Where ‘Surface System’ and ‘Matched Grip’ further indulge dubby tendencies, ‘Flow Regime’ and closing gambit ‘Endless River’ traverse dreamlike dimensions through breaks and flow state IDM.

New York’s Ma Sha brings wigged-out rhythms to Nerve Collect with an explosive, future-facing new EP. The six tracks prove she is bound by no rules but knows exactly how to energise the club.

Ma Sha deals in sounds that operate outside the usual boundaries and demand full-bodied, physical reactions. She has become a driving force in the New York underground with Kindergarten, which is both a much-loved party and a much hyped label. Though built on global techno foundations, Sha’s grooves range from peak-time brain melters to more twisted and rugged, always at high tempo and with plenty of invention on labels like Steel City Dance Discs and Rhythm Section International.

‘Salpa’ opens with a clipped rhythm drenched in neon and psychedelic swirls as oversized bass cocoons from below with glitchy vocal fragments and hard but bouncy techno momentum. ‘Gillz’ swallows you in waves of bass and rubber kicks while screwy synths spray across the mix while a syncopated broken beat brings irresistible funk to a post-human world. ‘Shots’, a collab track with Hodge, works in overdrive with rising tones and liquid metal textures that trap you in a hall of mirrors. Intense club pressure builds with pristine percussion and hyperreal vocals.

‘Spinmachine’ is a freaky sound world of fuzzy synths, cantering drums and static electricity that is full of threat and never lets go. ‘Total Energy’ locks into rolling drums and hyping swing with descending leads and a sense of future rave chaos designed for sheer dance floor release.

Ma Sha’s sound designs feel beamed back from the future to rewire familiar rhythms that tickle the brain as they make their way through your entire body.

Featuring rare- and first-on-vinyl tracks from beloved producers such as 2000 And One, Stasis, and CiM. Remastered by DMX Krew and with an accompanying online essay by Oli Warwick.

Across eight carefully selected slices of starry-eyed machine soul, Cold Blow presents an exquisite tour through backroom techno and downtempo electro. With a focus on thematic flow and an immersive listening experience, the London-based label explores works from leading lights of the 1990s and previously unreleased cuts that celebrate the human heart that can be discovered in synthetic sound practices. The development of techno in the 1990s saw the music evolve in different directions across the world. From the expressive blueprint laid out by the Detroit pioneers, a wide range of tempos and energies emerged. Techno's evocative synthesis and intricate drum machine programming was especially potent for deeper explorations away from the dancefloor. Documents Of A Different Reality casts back to when technology was steering quantum leaps in communication and creativity and the future was shot through with naive optimism. It was also a time when the media and industry hadn't caught up with the music to box it into distinct categories. As such, there's a sense of creative freedom that informs the older tracks on the album, from 2000 And One and Sandy Huner's sparkling example of early Dutch techno to London-based LA Synthesis' detailed take on braindance and the majestic night sky vision of cult legend Stasis. There's also space for rare, late 90s machine funk from Icelandic outlier Thor alongside Connective Zone's charmingly fractured bleep dream and a more contemporary offering from Barcelona-based duo Permutation. Meanwhile Mind Control and CiM both capture the spirit of stylistic fusion with twitchier rhythms that take influence from hardcore and jungle as much as techno. With an atmospheric through-line of melancholic pads and harmonious leads, this small but perfectly formed collection naturally follows on from previous, equally thought-out compilations on Cold Blow, and adds a distinct perspective on the history and continuing legacy of pioneering early ambient techno.

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.



The Release:
Striking the sweet spot between sampledelic downtempo and earth-rooted deep house, Fila Brazillia's Old Codes New Chaos is a maverick patchwork of grooves and soundscapes. Crafted in North East England in the vibrant period before chill-out was co-opted by advertising, Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry's sharp-eared funk formula remains a cult classic suite of exquisite productions spanning deep house, broken beat and ambient shot through with wry humour.
Last physically released in limited quantities in 2002, Forever Records are revisiting this 1994 gem with an extensive reissue led by a triple vinyl pressing. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

'Chemistry' and 'Rankine', plus an exclusive print of Catherine Brennand's watercolour painting that graces the front of the album. All editions also features liner notes by veteran music journalist John McCready.

Press response to Old Codes New Chaos:
"The album that made the world finally sit up and take notice of the avant funk grooves coming from Hull's immaculately stoned tech funk magicians." Frank Tope, Mixmag, UK 1994.
"This album… stands out a mile from most of its peers as a work of untouchable genius." Bill Brewster, DJ Mag UK 1994.

"Fila works because they fit into that no man’s land, the space in your record collection where ambient seems too much like wallpaper and house seems just too braindead for your bedroom " Frank Tope, Mixmag, UK 1994.

"Having already created the perfect desert island disc, "Mermaids" and explored the darker side of sub bass on the 17-minute extravaganza "Fila Funk", Fila Brazillia have just unleashed their moving debut LP, "Old Codes New Chaos", and to be quite honest, you'd be fool to miss out this time around." Mandi James, Melody Maker, UK 1994.

“Where Cobby and Man rip up the rulebook on the four to the floor and probably make the greatest afterhours house album in the word”. Tony Marcus, Mixmag, 1996.

Over a decade has past since this was released, and it has truly aged like fine wine. This release features 2 timeless cuts from the mind and soul of cv313 mixed and recorded near the heart of Detroit. This was beautifully remastered by dub innovator and pioneer, Stefan Betke POLE @ scape mastering in Berlin, DE. The recordings were pulled from the session masters conducted by Bazza @ Alchemy Mastering in London to ensure a perfectly balanced mix and preserving the soul and spirit of the original tape masters. This EP features two equally seductive cuts opening with "Fading Lights" which finds its pulse in the rhythmic elements while floating in a world of vaporous mist and resynthesized stardust. On the B side "Magenta" fills the space with ghostly apparitions and a rather hypnotic hook; pushing the boundaries of the spiritual principles found in the power of repetition. Close your eyes and drift into 14 minutes of endless flotation as modulating low frequencies massage your brain and mind, dive deep into a fathomless analogue world!

Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

May 2026 marks the arrival of TYGAPAW (aka Dion McKenzie)’s first full-length album on Tresor Records, entitled Together You Gather All Power Applied Worldwide. An acronym of its creator’s name, TYGAPAW’s third studio album is a deeply personal collection of music building worlds where Black queer and trans siblings can thrive, while unifying dancefloors worldwide. A proposition that collective wisdom liberates us from the matrix of domination we live within. The album unfolds as the latest chapter in TYGAPAW’s ongoing techno opera opus, continuing to center the voices of Black women, which surface as layered incantations rather than lyrics - powerful, haunting, sensual, activating.
With the process of creating the album starting in 2023, as TYGAPAW (Dion McKenzie) was in the first year of their transition, the music reflects the intensity of that period, where they were experiencing deplatforming as a response to the shift in their physical appearance: Tracks like ‘M32 Riddim’ and ‘Helicopter hovers over my Crown Heights Apartment’ feature high-paced rhythms intersecting with intense siren-like synths to form demanding compositions echoing a heightened sense of alert. Yet throughout the album, relief comes in the form of TYGAPAW’s vocal features, co-conspirators, and chosen family, whose voices are treated with reverb and echo, a sonic fingerprint that leads back to the pioneers in the legendary studios of TYGAPAW’s native land, Jamaica, an important reminder that the past will always inform the future. It is an album for dancers first and foremost, where joy, defiance, and integration with the natural body coexist, and every drop feels less like a climax than a transformation. Expect a bass that permeates your soul and melodic synthesized sequenced phrases echoing the dancehall eras of TYGAPAW’s youth, reshaped into hypnotic melodies that glow over industrial kicks designed to command attention, reasserting Jamaica's pioneering yet often overlooked contribution to electronic music.
In the opening track, ‘Can I Live’, Precious Okoyomon’s words feel like the beginning of a ritual; setting the intentions for the rest of the proceedings. As McKenzie puts it, their “work is about regeneration, resetting, getting integrated into nature, and about rebirth. That’s the tone I wanted to set at the outset of the album.” Ms Carrie Stacks continues this thread of support in ‘Don’t Panic’ with heavily processed vocals on top of a beat that takes inspiration from another important ingredient in the antidote to the oppression of isolation: Ballroom culture. “ I feel like I found my queerness in Ballroom, that’s why this track is very important to me.”
Echoes of NYC Black queer nightlife scene also permeate in the energetic drums of ‘Exorcise the Language of Domination’, in which Julianna Huxtable’s spoken performance complements the various movements and tones of the music. “My producer brain thought this was the one that Juliana’s vocals would be best suited for. I hinted: ‘what do you think of this one?’ She just went into her notes and picked some passages to go with the first section of the track. From there, it was a year-long process of development. It required time and space for this thing to evolve, but I think it’s one of the most powerful tracks on the album.” London’s SUUTOO contributes the album’s only musical collaboration on ‘B2B’, a track that emerged from sessions in McKenzie’s New York studio where the real objective was to connect and have fun; a time out from the demands of life outside.
The album closes out with a double hit of emotion in the form of ‘Effects of Resistance and Black Trans Masculine Experience’. The former features South African scholar Khanyisile Mbongwa drawing connections that exist between Africa and the Black diaspora, whilst looking to the future and calling for a shared sense of community.
The latter piece, an instrumental version of the piece which featured on the IMMIGRANT E.P. of 2025 is a gentle and deeply affecting end to the record, a place of peace and acceptance. This end-of-cycle tone is mirrored in the sleeve photography, which also ties back to IMMIGRANT by finally revealing what was hidden: a portrait of the artist fully self-actualized; a step towards true inner liberation. TYGAPAW is sonically defiant across this album; bass frequencies feel tactile — less heard than inhabited — infectious lead synth melodies remain with you long after the track ends. An overall sound that leaves asserting an urgent need for connection. From Detroit to New York to Berlin to Jamaica, despite geographic distance, this album reminds us that we remain in solidarity, recognising that meaningful world-building requires collective input and action, both personal and communal, if we are to move toward liberation.

Drawing from traditions of musique concrète and ambient synthesis, The Vertical Luminous creates a world of textural depth and microscopic wonder. Across its tracks, bubbling tones, processed field recordings, and shifting electronic layers intertwine, evoking the sensation of listening in on the hidden rhythms of atoms, molecules, and micro-organisms.
'While grounded in experimental technique, The Vertical Luminous avoids the academic or austere, instead embracing a mischievous sense of melody and curiosity - a reminder that exploration and joy can coexist in sound.
'The result is a record that is both meditative and playful, equally suited to deep listening or casual drift.'

That time of the year has arrived! The next Various Artists is the prefect blend between old and new generations, including 2 new addition to the label and 2 familiar faces.

Opening the EP is MikeroBenics with “Julika (Original Mix)”. This track was officially released in 1994 on Harthouse and through the years on other labels in different versions. The version we are publishing has never seen the light before today. A deep melancholy trance journey characterised by driving acid lines and club-oriented rhythms. Followed by the return of Noboot with “Drive Control”. Made in 2022, this track bring us back to the sound of his first release. An immersive electro-acid track with a 303 melody that moves with punchy rhythms, letting our bodies move and our brains fly.

On the B side, Periferico is back with a new production made in 2021. “2804 A DEF12MIX” is an engaging journey into Livio progressive house world. Closing the VA, we welcome our dear friend CRL with “Breathe”. Composed in 2024 while trying new techniques and samples, characterised by its ethereal pads and a slow unfolding vortex of acid bassline, brings the minds into a deeper conscious state.

‘Distracted’ is Thundercat’s fifth studio album, featuring contributions from an incredible cast of friends including A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Lil Yachty, Channel Tres, and a long awaited collaboration with the dearly departed Mac Miller. The record was primarily created in close collaboration with a new creative partner – the super-producer Greg Kurstin – plus Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats (Kenneth Blume) and The Lemon Twigs. In the six years since his GRAMMY-winning album ‘It Is What It Is’, Thundercat’s star has risen: playing stadiums worldwide with Red Hot Chilli Peppers with Flea naming Thundercat “the best bass player on the planet”; performing live with A$AP Rocky, Steve Lacy, Tame Impala, Gorillaz, Silk Sonic, Erykah Badu, Spinal Tap, Yo Gabba Gabba; collaborating with Haim, Smino, Kaytranada, Kamasi Washington and Justice. He also branched out into acting with a role in Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett. His warm, playful presence is never too far away, and life’s all the more enlivened by it.