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Two years after his ​Apron Records debut in 2017, ​Molinaro makes a poignant return to Funkineven​’s forward-facing label. ​What The Future Was is both an ode to personal growth and a reminder of the responsibility to keep the tradition of musical trailblazers alive.

What The Future Was is the result of 10+ years spent honing his craft and home studio into his finest, most progressive work to date. Fans of his APRON35 debut will find home in the rugged, cosmic ruckus of “EMBER”, “PURITY” and “THE PNEUMA”. Elsewhere, tracks like “AEVEA FOREST”, “ENTITY” and “HER THEME” expose a more vulnerable and tender side to his growing palette of sound and feeling.

In a world where online personalities and reach are increasingly glorified more than ​actual skill, hard work and talent, Molinaro has ​constructed an alternative, sonic utopia where soulful, groove-based music is the antidote

Six drum-forward, tape-warped club constructions from the elusive Comandante engineer. Sampled 80s wreckage crushed through hardware and heavy compression: club-chug weapons + late-nite astral howling.

12″ edition of 200, individually hand-stamped and numbered. No represses.

Strange and sepulchral, Pedronium has crafted a mini-album on an astral flight, looping in and around macabre wormholes, from the strange sepulchre of opening serenade ‘4D VISION 1987’ to the deranged primal scream of ‘Nixe’ [dusk in the studio, crooning drunk on mic, disturbed sonics dragged up at the warbled gates]

‘Churms’, an unrelenting club chug banger that we’ve already heard send Lisbon’s best club systems into overdrive; ‘Finesse [The Right People]’, a teknicolor weapon hitting like a jackhammer on the concrete floor.

The grotesque charm of ‘Naked / Afraid’, the rickety jilt of ‘Snav’, all tape delay and foreboding pads, an imminent threat, a polysonic picture in a weird forgotten theatre.

The sanity of reason is already a distant dream on the late-night floor or the morning after. All tracks meticulously arranged and recorded live in one take.

Eine solide LP-Sammlung mit 14 Titeln, die die Hits des jungen Michael Jackson aus seiner Motown-Ära
umfasst, darunter die legendären Jackson-5-Hits von „I Want You Back“ bis „I’ll Be There“ sowie seine
Solo-Hits „Got To Be There“, „Ben“ und „I Wanna Be Where You Are“. Alle Songs, die in der neuen
„MJ“-Biografie zu hören sind, werden in diesem Set enthalten sein.

Eine junge, innovative Sängerin und Songschreiberin sorgt ab sofort auf dem Verve Label für einen mitreißenden Mix aus Soul, brasilianischer Jazz-Fusion, Funk, Mexican Bolero und House-Einflüssen. Die in Chicago
lebende Sparklmami eröffnet ihr Debütalbum mit den Worten “You’re listening to Sparklmami radio“, und
zieht sofort hinein in eine Welt jenseits klarer Genregrenzen. Nach den digitalen Singles “running“ und
„fajas“ (2024) wird hier erstmals die ganze Tiefe ihrer künstlerischen Vision hörbar.
Sparklmami versteht ihre Musik als Gesamtkunstwerk, erschafft ein eigenes Universum geprägt von markantem Styling. Die visuellen Elemente spiegeln sich auch musikalisch wider: “in this body“ lebt von einer
brodelnden Rhythmusgruppe, vielschichtigen Keyboard-Arrangements, warmen Bläsern und einer Stimme,
die mühelos zwischen Gesang und Spoken Word wechselt.
Sparklmamis Texte folgen diesem Prinzip: Themen wie Identität, Herkunft und Selbstfindung werden nicht
erklärt, sondern erfahrbar gemacht. Gerade darin liegt die besondere Kraft dieses Albums – verletzlich,
eigenständig und mit einer künstlerischen Handschrift, die Aufmerksamkeit verdient.

It’s been one hell of a wild ride for Wine Lips. Originally formed in Toronto back in 2015 as a part-time project between Cam Hilborn (vox, songwriter, guitar) and drummer extraordinaire Aurora Evans, Wine Lips quickly escalated into a full-blown, full-time, full-on international phenomenon. Their debut album took them across North America followed immediately by an intensive and unexpected tour of Hong Kong and China in 2018. They released their massive “Stressor” album the very next year (2019) to rave reviews and massive critical acclaim. Multiple tracks from Stressor charted across North American and European radio, while several songs ended up being featured in broadcast and Netflix series. Endless touring ensued. Then 2020 happened. The band used their mandatory downtime to fully dedicate themselves to crafting their groundbreaking third full-length “Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party” (recorded by Simon Larochette at The Sugar Shack). The record was released in October 2021 and then shit really hit the fan. The international music press lost their collective minds, penning over 250 glowing features and super positive reviews spanning 35+ countries. At the time of writing, the album blew past 40 Million spins on Spotify alone.

The vinyl release of MDSBP is currently in its 7th pressing with 9 different colour variants. The lead track “Eyes” has been licensed to a metric ton of films, series and video games including ABC’s The Rookie, Hockey Night In Canada and Population 11. Even more endless touring ensued, except this time the venues were huge and mostly sold-out. The 2024 follow-up album “Super Mega Ultra” was an absolute beast. Recorded by Simon Larochette at The Sugar Shack in Ontario, the album packed 12 ramped-up supersonic ear-scorching auditory delicacies and racked up millions of plays.

Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell is the fourth studio album by the American band Social Distortion. It continues the melding of country and rockabilly influences with punk that began two albums before with the album Prison Bound. Clear influences include Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.

The album also marks the first time that a Social Distortion line-up had not changed in three consecutive studio recordings. The American punk rock band Social Distortion formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California and is fronted by vocalist, guitar player and main songwriter Mike Ness.

This pressing of Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell is available as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on yellow vinyl. The record is packaged in a deluxe sleeve finished with linen laminate and includes an insert with lyrics.

A Project dealing with the relative length of time at a record label and the effect of adding another zero. To explore this passage of time and all those memories, we’ve commissioned remixes of key tracks from the LEX catalog by artists we love and admire. The album features contributions from Danger Mouse & Jemini, Fly Anakin & Pink Siifu, Eyedress, Golden Rules featuring Yasiin Bey and Freddie Gibbs, Neon Neon feat. Cate Le Bon, alongside Kaleida, Belief, Nevermen, Prince Po and MF DOOM. With remixes that reinterpret the tracks by Boards of Canada, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, DJ Premier, Prefuse 73, Madlib, Stereolab, Warpaint, King Krule, Chad Hugo and Thom Yorke. The limited edition physical release is presented in a rigid slipcase, with the vinyl housed in a triple sleeve gatefold, and accompanied by a large format board book, with both featuring artwork by Commission Studios. The records are pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl, with the D-Side finished with a bespoke etched design.

After years of steadily building momentum within the deeper side of drum & bass, Monika now delivers his long-awaited debut album, How We Saw Forever, landing this August on Spearhead Records.

UK-born and now based in New Zealand, Monika has developed a sound that blends deep rolling grooves, soulful textures, delicate musicality and moments of genuine emotional weight. Across the album he moves effortlessly between late-night introspection, euphoric warmth and darker, more experimental territory, showcasing an artist fully confident in his own sonic identity.

Having already made a strong impression through previous releases on Spearhead and appearances across the label’s 20-year anniversary campaign, How We Saw Forever feels like a major step forward creatively. From the haunting beauty of “What Turns Your World” featuring Oktae, through to the nostalgic rave energy of “Mango Pop” and the weightier pressure of “Syndicate”, the album captures Monika’s ability to balance emotion, atmosphere and dancefloor impact without ever feeling formulaic.

At its core, How We Saw Forever is an album about atmosphere, memory and emotion, music designed equally for solitary headphone moments and packed dancefloors at sunrise. There’s a cinematic thread running throughout the project, but also a raw honesty that gives the album its real depth.

Speaking about the album, Monika says:
“This project became a reflection of so many different seasons of life over the last few years. Some tracks came from really emotional places, others were written purely from joy and escapism, but together they tell the story of where I’ve been creatively and personally. I wanted the album to feel immersive, something people could disappear into.”

Released via BCee’s Spearhead Records — a label long celebrated for championing soulful and emotionally rich drum & bass. How We Saw Forever marks another exciting chapter for both Monika and the wider Spearhead family.

Der frischgebackene High-School-Abgänger Sonny Rollins war noch keine 19 Jahre alt, als er 1949 in
New York von Blue Note Records die Chance erhielt, an drei hochkarätigen Aufnahmesessions von Babs
Gonzalez, Bud Powell und Fats Navarro teilzunehmen. Sieben Jahre später kehrte er deutlich gereift zu
dem Label zurück, um vier großartige Alben als Bandleader aufzunehmen: “Sonny Rollins, Volume 1”,
“Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2”, “Newk’s Time” und “A Night at the ‘Village Vanguard’”. Auf “Sonny Rollins,
Vol. 2” präsentierte er sich mit einem erstklassig besetzten Quintett und einem temperamentvollen Set aus
teils selbst komponierten Bebop- und Hard-Bop-Nummern. Die Höhepunkte des Albums sind die unwiderstehlichen Versionen der beiden Thelonious-Monk-Klassiker “Misterioso” und “Reflections”, bei denen sich
der Komponist als Gast am Klavier zu den Mitwirkenden gesellte.

Die schwedische Künstlerin Sibille Attar kehrt mit ,Amor Fati" zurück, ihrem ersten englischsprachigen Album seit fünf Jahren. Attar, die bereits von Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Line of Best Fit, Clash und BrooklynVegan gelobt wurde, hat sich als eine der faszinierendsten und von Kritikern am meisten gefeierten Stimmen des alternativen Pop in Schweden etabliert. ,Amor Fati" - äußerst unabhängig und komplett in Eigenregie produziert - begann als Versuch, ein reines Liebesalbum zu schaffen - offenherzig, euphorisch und ungekünstelt. Doch während sich die Songs entfalten, beginnen sich emotionale Gewissheiten zu verschieben. Das Album, das in Schweden, Belgien, Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten entstanden ist, beschäftigt sich mit Intimität, Sehnsucht, Vertrauen und den seltsamen Wegen, auf denen sich Liebe im Laufe der Zeit neu formt. Es beginnt euphorisch, wird schnell kompliziert und weigert sich, sich für irgendjemanden der Einfachheit halber zu vereinfachen - vielleicht weniger beruhigend, aber dafür umso lebendiger. "madly wide-eyed, swooning songs" - Pitchfork "leaps out of the speakers so vibrantly that the band seems to be playing in the same room with you" - Stereogum "a masterpiece in artistic misery" - The Line of Best Fit "mournful and absolutely gorgeous" - BrooklynVegan ENG Swedish artist Sibille Attar returns with Amor Fati, her first album in English in five years. Previously praised by Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, and BrooklynVegan, Attar has established herself as one of Sweden's most fascinating and critically acclaimed voices in alternative pop. Fiercely independent and entirely self-produced, Amor Fati began as an attempt to make a pure love album -open-hearted, euphoric, and unguarded. But as the songs unfold, emotional certainties begin to shift. Written across Sweden, Belgium, Germany, and the United States, the album explores intimacy, longing, trust, and the strange ways love reshapes itself over time. It begins in euphoria, gets complicated fast, and refuses to simplify itself for anyone's convenience - less reassuring, perhaps, but far more alive. "madly wide-eyed, swooning songs" - Pitchfork "leaps out of the speakers so vibrantly that the band seems to be playing in the same room with you" - Stereogum "a masterpiece in artistic misery" - The Line of Best Fit "mournful and absolutely gorgeous" - BrooklynVegan

2026 feiern Mad Max ihr 45-jähriges Bandjubiläum mit »Stories Of Destiny«, einem besonderen Studioalbum rund um Songs, die Bandleader Jürgen Breforth gemeinsam mit bekannten Namen der Rock- und Metalszene geschrieben hat.

Das Album enthält neu im typischen Mad Max-Stil interpretierte Songs mit Verbindungen zu Sascha Gerstner von Helloween, David Readman von Pink Cream 69, Andreas Broon von The Sisters of Mercy und Michael Voss von Michael Schenker. Dazu kommen zwei bisher unveröffentlichte Mad Max-Songs aus dem Jahr 1991: »Til' The End Of Time« und »Weapons Of Love«.

Der neue britische Sänger Alan Clark gibt sein Studiodebüt bei Mad Max, während der ehemalige Sänger Andreas Baesler nach 45 Jahren erstmals zurückkehrt – unter anderem für ein starkes Duett auf »Piece of Candy« und die spanische Version »Dulces Falsos« als Tribut an die Fans in Lateinamerika.

While the sterile “professionalism” of some heavy bands can be like a clinical drone strike, Texas-based Judiciary feels personal. Like close combat with a knife. And it’s all in their chemistry. Judiciary is an amalgamation of four guys raised in the intersection of metal and hardcore—all devoted to pushing their craft further. Across two esteemed LPs, the band has proven their worth as a crucial entity in the crowded heavy music scene by evolving their sound further and further with each release. And now with the band’s latest Stalagmite Angels, due on September 4th via the venerable Closed Casket Activities, Judiciary can further showcase their status as a crucial, one-of-a-kind part of the evolution of hardcore in 2026. Life changes can bring about chaos and seismic shifts, but if Stalagmite Angels is any indication, then it’s all for the better. In the wake of the release of Judiciary’s second LP Flesh + Blood, the band called upon Juan Vazquez to pick up guitar duties, thereby changing the internal framework of the band for good, and unknowingly for the better. It’s this pivot in personnel that resulted in the band’s latest EP. “The goal with this EP was a hard reset, but we also wanted to chill the f— out a bit, have fun, and do something that felt true to the four of us,” recalls drummer Austin Looney. “We wanted time to reconfigure things and let the music come naturally–temper this new mindset that we've adopted post-Flesh + Blood.” Judiciary’s greatest strength lies in their musical singularity. Though Stalagmite Angels represents the collision of influences from across well-worn territories like metallic hardcore, death metal, black metal, d-beat and more, it’s the Lubbock-born band’s approach that makes it distinctly their own. Stalagmite Angels is a wholly new document that resembles a horde of bands ranging from Hatebreed to Carcass to Slayer to Iron Age, yet never aping any single band nor even revealing any single influence. It’s all familiar but none of it is specific. “90s hardcore and hardcore in general is always gonna be our natural inclination, but it manifests with different elements not only from song to song but within each song,” says vocalist Jake Collinson emphatically, who learned guitar specifically to help with writing new material. “Whether that’s Dying Breed or Cannibal Corpse or Crowbar or Machine Head or any number of other influences that any one of us may have, it all manifests in our work, and through our individual and collective lenses. With this EP, we transformed those ideas into the Judiciary approach.” Stalagmite Angels is an EP about anger at the world, belief in yourself, and how harnessing both in the pursuit of growth is necessary to achieve. But furthermore, it’s a concept record that envisions a subterranean world in both a literal and metaphorical sense—where hidden beauty lurks in the shadows (and in the eye of the beholder) and where triumph manifests in the ability to rise from the depths and into the world above.

Feiere die Musik der Simpsons mit ”Songs in the Key of Springfield” – jetzt als exklusive Deluxe-VinylEdition auf 2 LPs erhältlich. Diese Sammlung mit Fan-Lieblingen, seltenen Songs und klassischen Momenten aus der gesamten Serie ist ein absolutes Muss für Sammler.

“The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn’t have an audience when we were making them,” Oberst says. “But from Lifted on, I was definitely aware of an audience. Lifted was well-received right away, and then everything happened with Wide Awake and Digital Ash.” Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles – “Take It Easy (Love Nothing),” from the austere, remote Digital Ash, and “Lua,” from the warm, folky Wide Awake – debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. “First Day of My Life,” also from Wide Awake, would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music’s reader’s poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band’s careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, “When The President Talks To God.” These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era’s releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The reworked Digital Ash tracks, originally so clean and elegant, are, on the companion EP, full of “harmonica and mandolins – folky vibes,” Oberst says. While the analogue sweetness of the Wide Awake songs have been put through a detached nihilism filter.

Natalie Imbruglia ist Millionen von Menschen mit ihrem weltweiten Hit "Torn" bekannt, einer der bis heute prägendsten Songs der Neunziger. Damit begann eine außergewöhnliche Erfolgsserie, die u.a. 2 BRIT Awards, 3 Grammy-Nominierungen, 8 ARIA Awards und 7 Mio. verkaufte Exemplare ihres Debütalbums "Left Of The Middle" umfasst. In jüngerer Zeit stand sie durch Auftritte an der Seite von Olivia Rodrigo erneut im Rampenlicht. Jetzt ist der perfekte Moment für ein neues Kapitel: ihr neues Album Algorithm mit der Lead-Single "Upside Down".

Algorithm zeigt Natalie Imbruglia in einer neuen Ära – geprägt von Selbstermächtigung, Freiheit und kreativer Erfüllung. Das erste Album der australisch-britischen Pop-Ikone seit fünf Jahren ist eine echte Tour de Force: ein zutiefst persönliches Werk, das eindrucksvoll daran erinnert, warum wir uns ursprünglich in ihre Musik verliebt haben. Es erscheint in einer Zeit, in der sich der kulturelle Zeitgeist wandelt und Popmusik wieder stärker zur Tanzfläche tendiert – mit einer Ausrichtung, die sich an den eleganten Pop-, Disco- und House-Elementen von Robyn orientiert.

Nach dem UK-Top-10-Comeback mit Firebird (2021) meldet sich Natalie Imbruglia auf Algorithm voller Energie und Tatendrang zurück. Sie ist Co-Produzentin und -Autorin jedes Songs, neben namhaften Kollaborateur:innen wie MyRiot (London Grammar), David Sneddon (Lana Del Rey), Fraser T Smith (Adele, Stormzy, Sam Smith), Gary Lightbody von Snow Patrol, Anu Pillai (Lewis Capaldi), Tobie Tripp (George Ezra), Mark Crew (Bastille, James Arthur) und Dan Priddy (Rag’n’Bone Man, Bastille). Im Anschluss an die Veröffentlichung des Albums wird Natalie Imbruglia ausgewählte Festivaltermine spielen und auf Tour gehen.

Natalie Imbruglia ist Millionen von Menschen mit ihrem weltweiten Hit "Torn" bekannt, einer der bis heute prägendsten Songs der Neunziger. Damit begann eine außergewöhnliche Erfolgsserie, die u.a. 2 BRIT Awards, 3 Grammy-Nominierungen, 8 ARIA Awards und 7 Mio. verkaufte Exemplare ihres Debütalbums "Left Of The Middle" umfasst. In jüngerer Zeit stand sie durch Auftritte an der Seite von Olivia Rodrigo erneut im Rampenlicht. Jetzt ist der perfekte Moment für ein neues Kapitel: ihr neues Album Algorithm mit der Lead-Single "Upside Down".

Algorithm zeigt Natalie Imbruglia in einer neuen Ära – geprägt von Selbstermächtigung, Freiheit und kreativer Erfüllung. Das erste Album der australisch-britischen Pop-Ikone seit fünf Jahren ist eine echte Tour de Force: ein zutiefst persönliches Werk, das eindrucksvoll daran erinnert, warum wir uns ursprünglich in ihre Musik verliebt haben. Es erscheint in einer Zeit, in der sich der kulturelle Zeitgeist wandelt und Popmusik wieder stärker zur Tanzfläche tendiert – mit einer Ausrichtung, die sich an den eleganten Pop-, Disco- und House-Elementen von Robyn orientiert.

Nach dem UK-Top-10-Comeback mit Firebird (2021) meldet sich Natalie Imbruglia auf Algorithm voller Energie und Tatendrang zurück. Sie ist Co-Produzentin und -Autorin jedes Songs, neben namhaften Kollaborateur:innen wie MyRiot (London Grammar), David Sneddon (Lana Del Rey), Fraser T Smith (Adele, Stormzy, Sam Smith), Gary Lightbody von Snow Patrol, Anu Pillai (Lewis Capaldi), Tobie Tripp (George Ezra), Mark Crew (Bastille, James Arthur) und Dan Priddy (Rag’n’Bone Man, Bastille). Im Anschluss an die Veröffentlichung des Albums wird Natalie Imbruglia ausgewählte Festivaltermine spielen und auf Tour gehen.

Eden Samara grew up in the mountains of western Canada, writing folk songs and performing in the theatre. Following a trip to Europe where she had her first formative clubbing experiences, she relocated to London in 2019 where she’s become a consistent presence and voice in the city’s underground, collaborating with artists like Parris, Ciel and Loraine James and earning praise from The Guardian, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Crack and DJ Mag.

2022 saw Eden release her debut album Rough Night on Local Action, blending freaky club-pop, introspective R&B and more while collaborating with leading scene figures TSVI, Call Super and Shanti Celeste. Described by Dazed as ‘an embarrassment of riches’ and by Mixmag as one of the best albums of the year, in Eden’s words it was simply ‘a tragicomedy in seven scenes and an interlude’. She’s downplaying things: to us it was a rich tapestry that explored everything from fleeting moments in smoking areas to the Madonna-whore complex. Both, for better or worse, still make the world go round.

On her second album Odyssey, Eden brings more elements into her ensemble (jungle, choral singing, live harp) while honing her song-writing – it’s an expansion and a tightening at the same time. Inspired by epic literary works like Homer’s Odyssey, The Alchemist and The Picture of Dorian Gray, the album reimagines the archetypal quest through a personal lens: a healing journey amid the collapse of close relationships to addiction, mental illness, and the weight of codependency disguised as love. In Eden’s words: 'This work is a narrative and sonic expedition - part myth, part memoir - that traces my path through the emotional aftermath of watching loved ones struggle with drug addiction and mental health crises, and the impact it
had on my own mental wellbeing. The album addresses substance abuse, toxic relationships, and the internalised belief that love must come through sacrifice, even at the cost of one’s selfhood.'

For this special release, Barcelona’s Lapsus and London’s Local Action join forces for the first time in their respective journeys, reflecting the affinity between both platforms and their shared vision of contemporary electronic music.

The deluxe 10th anniversary edition of case/lang/veirs features the new track "Accidental Tattoo" and twelve never-before-released live recordings alongside the original studio album from supergroup of singer-songwriters Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs. Released in 2016, case/lang/veirs is a true collaboration between three phenomenal, self-driven artists: "the strongest voices in their field - lang the full-voiced seductress, Case the hurricane, and Veirs the wry storyteller" (Pitchfork). The women wrote all 14 songs and shared lead vocals equally, sometimes even within the same track. Full of stunning harmonies and spellbinding rhythms, case/lang/veirs travels through aches and eras, torch songs and tributes to the undersung. "There"s a generosity of spirit to case/lang/veirs," NPR praised upon the album"s release, "a worthy extension of three tremendous catalogs, in which three great singer-songwriters sound enhanced and invigorated by the challenge of living up to each other"s legacies." They worked over two and a half years in Portland, Oregon, where lang and Veirs both live, sometimes in lang"s loft with a view of Mount St. Helens, others in Veirs" dining room or backyard studio. The album was written from the ground up without any real plan beyond a desire to make music together and a faith that it would reveal itself. They produced the album with Tucker Martine, at his Portland studio in November 2015.

The deluxe 10th anniversary edition of case/lang/veirs features the new track "Accidental Tattoo" and twelve never-before-released live recordings alongside the original studio album from supergroup of singer-songwriters Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs. Released in 2016, case/lang/veirs is a true collaboration between three phenomenal, self-driven artists: "the strongest voices in their field - lang the full-voiced seductress, Case the hurricane, and Veirs the wry storyteller" (Pitchfork). The women wrote all 14 songs and shared lead vocals equally, sometimes even within the same track. Full of stunning harmonies and spellbinding rhythms, case/lang/veirs travels through aches and eras, torch songs and tributes to the undersung. "There"s a generosity of spirit to case/lang/veirs," NPR praised upon the album"s release, "a worthy extension of three tremendous catalogs, in which three great singer-songwriters sound enhanced and invigorated by the challenge of living up to each other"s legacies." They worked over two and a half years in Portland, Oregon, where lang and Veirs both live, sometimes in lang"s loft with a view of Mount St. Helens, others in Veirs" dining room or backyard studio. The album was written from the ground up without any real plan beyond a desire to make music together and a faith that it would reveal itself. They produced the album with Tucker Martine, at his Portland studio in November 2015.

Layered guitars, synths and wordless vocals set the scenery in this epic, beautiful and introspective solo debut by musical wanderer Lynn Wright.

Wright, who has mostly eschewed developing a fixed artistic identity throughout his already long career, has preferred to remain on the periphery of collaborative projects and behind the scenes. It took until recent times for him to make “Before The Sinking Plains”, which arrives as his first solo recording after decades of traversing underground scenes in New York and beyond. Wright defines the album as “a collection of atmospheric compositions structured as songs or songs masking as atmospheric compositions.”

The album began during a long neurological illness as guitar loops Wright would make each morning in his apartment and let play quietly in the background. At some point he began recording the ones he liked and adding layers of treated guitars, vocals, and synths, and then, eventually, giving them defined structures. The album features none of the aggression of his louder bands and improvisatory projects, but retains the dark hues.

Before The Sinking Plains lives on the familiar peripheries of our post-everything sound world, with elements of everything from washed-out dream pop and atmospheric drone works to sparse noir folk and minimalist vocal composition moving within the linings of Wright's subtle yet grand pieces, creating a perfect backdrop for watching the sky merge with the vast open fields.

Since relocating to Berlin some years ago from New York, he has worked closely with composer Simon Goff, who mixed his current album, as an editor, engineer and composer on various film and recording projects. He also plays lap steel guitar in Swans bassist Dana Schechter’s band Insect Ark. This is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to Wright's collaborations and projects throughout the years.

Mit "DECADE ON PARADE" feiern The Feelgood McLouds ihr zehnjähriges Bandjubiläum - und liefern ihr bislang kraftvollstes Statement im Bereich Celtic Punk Rock. Die siebenköpfige Band aus Saarbrücken verbindet seit über einem Jahrzehnt ruppigen Punkrock mit traditionellen keltischen Instrumenten wie Dudelsack, Geige, Flöte und Akkordeon. Das Ergebnis: Songs, die nach Freiheit, Bier, Straßenromantik und langen Nächten klingen. Über 250 Konzerte im In- und Ausland haben die McLouds zu einer explosiven Live-Maschine geformt, deren Shows für kollektive Singalongs und unbremsbare Energie stehen. 2025 folgt ein besonderer Höhepunkt mit dem Auftritt beim Wacken Open Air, der ihren Stellenwert auch jenseits der Szene unterstreicht. Zusätzlichen Rückenwind bringt der internationale Einsatz ihres Songs "Saints And Sinners" in der Netflix-Serie House of Guinness. "DECADE ON PARADE" zeigt die Band gereift, lauter und entschlossener als je zuvor - ein Album voller Hymnen für Außenseiter, Nachtschwärmer und alle, die sich zwischen Tradition und Rebellion zuhause fühlen.

Gordi presents Nylon: an exclusive vinyl-only mixtape of unreleased new songs recorded direct to tape. This rare collection offers an unobstructed window into Gordi’s emotional well, adorned by her trade mark beguiling voice. She recorded the body of work live-to-tape in a single afternoon — with no overdubs and no edits — and played the new songs to fans on her Australian tour, selling every single advance copy before the internet knew anything about it. Now on clear vinyl.

PUREST FORM pulls visceral dance-punk music from modern-day angst and unrest. The newly formed Los Angeles trio—vocalist Story Beeson, guitarist/programmer Madi Woodward, and bassist Riley Oikawa-Dahlson—draws on their respective backgrounds in hardcore bands and a shared love of industrial and techno, splicing the intensely heavy with the playful and sensual.

RESISTANCE, their debut with Dais Records, delivers a potent, six-track anarchist assault on the system, fueled by collective anger amidst late-stage capitalism and a year of nonstop trauma in Los Angeles, from the fires to ICE.
RESISTANCE builds on the promise of their self-titled 2024 EP, a sonic blueprint that Stereogum likened to Nine Inch Nails' Broken. RESISTANCE is more agile and charged-up, a cataclysmic set with structural jumps and hard left turns, confronting sonic and societal constructs. Serrated riffs meet fractured breakbeats, basslines, and body-quaking feedback, with nods to death metal and acid house in equal measure, all punctuated by Beeson's urgent, anthemic narration, often shouted to near shreds.

Zum 50. Bandjubiläum will es John Watts richtig krachen lassen: Ein neues Album – mit 7 brandneuen Tracks, sowie 4 Neu-Interpretationen (u.a. von »Marliese«) und einem DJ-Remix des neuen Songs »Strings« – wird von einer großangelegten Herbst-Tournee begleitet. Die neuen Songs behandeln dieselben Themen, über die er schon immer geschrieben hat – menschliche Geschichten und den aktuellen Zustand der Welt, aus der Perspektive eines Beobachters mit schwarzem Humor.

When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid-'90s, singer Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn't noodle around on a guitar in his basement. He wouldn't get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with a few MTV videos, a couple BBC sessions and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.That was until 2021, when a friend from the band's early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmerman, the band's bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. "We were off to the races," he says, "But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today?" Enter Hard Light, the band's stunning third record. It's the band's proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision. The first task making Hard Light was, of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer "T", the chemistry was undeniable. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone's hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. "Gal" comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, "And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel." Hard Light's first single, "Scapa Flow" is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they're at the top of their game.

Back for its 29th (!) birthday, No Use's fifth full lenght! "Bay area punk wonder-boys No Use For A Name have begun pleading for your friendship. Show your love for the boys, who were each reared with the ideals of Boy Scout Troup #221, by giving 'em wet sloppy ones when they come to your town." No Use for a Name was a melodic punk band from San Jose, California blending blistering skate-punk speeds with deeply melancholic, unforgettable pop melodies. What began as a scrappy late-80s hardcore act grew into a defining pillar of the 90s punk rock explosion, earning fans through relentless international touring and releases that perfectly balance grit and heart. Drawing comparisons to Lagwagon, Millencolin, and Strung Out, No Use for a Name pairs introspective, emotionally raw lyrics with fast-paced, harmony-driven arrangements built for sweaty club shows and massive circle pits. Their songs tackle alienation, broken relationships, and the struggles of everyday life, creating a connectionthat feels both intensely personal and universally cathartic. Their first two albums were released through the New Red Archives label, after which they signed to Fat Wreck Chords where they would remain, releasing seven studio albums and shifting to a melodic punk rock sound. With their fifth album `Making Friends,' the band continued to build on their momentum, delivering their tightest, most emotionally resonant, and career-defining collection of songs in 1997. 2026 it comes in brown vinyl color.

Following last year's world tour, Sparks were invited to perform a one-off show on the Moon - the first band in history to do so! Includes an introduction and outro from Cate Blanchett, who accompanied the band on their lunar trip.

Sparks Live On The Moon comprises a full live set of twenty songs spanning the band's 54 year career, including 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us', 'The Number One Song In Heaven', 'When Do I Get To Sing "My Way"', 'The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte' and songs from their most recent album MAD!

Sister Hazel is the American alternative rock band from Gainesville, Florida, onsisting of band members Ken Block, lead vocals/guitar, Andrew Copeland, guitar/vocals, Ryan Newell, lead guitar, Jett Beres, bass, and Mark Trojanowski on drums.

The band’s name pays tribute to Sister Hazel Williams, a beloved local missionary known for her unwavering compassion and community work....Somewhere More Familiar is the second studio album by Sister Hazel, the title of the album comes from a lyric in the song “We’ll Find It”, and was released in 1997.

Anchoring the album is the band’s song “All for You (which is Sister Hazel's biggest hit to date, hitting #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile “We'll Find It” found a second life on the soundtrack of the 2001 film The Wedding Planner, starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.

…Somewhere More Familiar finally arrives in its debut vinyl pressing and includes an insert with lyrics.

Appleton announce the release of a brand new EP, 'Side By Side', which will be released Friday September 4th, marking the first new Appleton body of work in over two decades.
Nicole says: "The reaction to 'Falling Into You' and our first Appleton show in over twenty years has been incredible We feel so grateful that people still connect with these songs and are excited about what we're doing now. This EP feels like the natural next chapter." After reissuing their cult- classic 2003 album 'Everything's Eventual' on vinyl, this January Appleton returned with 'Falling Into You' their first new music as a duo in 23 years.
While nostalgia may have sparked the reunion, 'Side By Side' is firmly focused on the present. Across four original tracks, the EP blends the melodic pop songwriting and distinctive harmonies that made Appleton favourites first time around with a fresh, contemporary sound that reflects where Natalie and Nicole are today. For both sisters, the project has been a reminder of the unique creative bond they've always shared. "We've always had a special connection when we sing together" says Nicole. "Making these songs reminded us of that. It never feels forced it just feels natural." More than twenty years after they first burst into the charts, Appleton aren't looking backwards. They're simply enjoying making music together again side by side.

Love as Art, Love under the Patriarchy, Love as a political and radical act - in short 'The Fatal Flaw' examines Love from a deeper and philosophical perspective. Even the songs that aren't about Love, also are. They are about the absence of love, and what happens in those spaces, so they are songs about the necessity of love, and the consequences of its absences.

Lisa O"Neill stammt aus Ballyhaise im irischen County Cavan und lebt heute in Dublin. Ihr Album Heard A Long Gone Song, erschienen auf River Lea (Rough Trade), verbindet traditionelle Folk-Lieder mit eigenen Kompositionen. Durch ihre unverwechselbare Interpretation verschmelzen alte und neue Stücke zu einem zeitlosen Ganzen. Das Album eröffnet mit einer puren, unbegleiteten Version von The Galway Shawl, gefolgt von der düsteren Ballade Along The North Strand, die durch Geige und Concertina eindringlich untermalt wird. Ein weiterer Höhepunkt ist das bewegende Duett The Factory Girl mit Radie Peat von Lankum. 2018 trat O"Neill bei Shane MacGowans 60. Geburtstag in der National Concert Hall in Dublin auf. Auf dem Album interpretiert sie zudem Lullaby Of London von The Pogues, dessen Textzeile dem Album den Titel gab. Zu ihren eigenen Liedern gehören Rock The Machine, das die Folgen der Mechanisierung für ehemalige Hafenarbeiter in Dublin thematisiert, sowie Violet Gibson, die Geschichte einer Irin, die 1926 ein Attentat auf Mussolini verüben wollte. Mit diesen Stücken verleiht O"Neill oft übersehenen Menschen und Geschichten eine Stimme. Aufgenommen in einem ländlichen Studio nahe dem Loiretal und produziert von David Odlum und Lisa O"Neill, knüpft das Album an den Erfolg von Pothole In The Sky (2016) an. Es ist eine zugleich politische, poetische und zutiefst persönliche Folk-Platte, deren Lieder zeitlos wirken.

‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ (2006) is an unusual album, first because it does things with classical music that aren’t usually done. The songs Josephine Foster sings here are classical pieces, written (the texts are German poems) by some of the greatest German composers of the 19th century, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. “Foster has found perhaps the most appropriate vehicle yet for her singular and affecting talents – 19th century German art-songs, wholly reconstructed here via Foster’s skeletal arrangements of voice and guitar” Pitchfork. Remastered and repackaged with new artwork.

"Psychedelia in White", das dritte Album des ehemaligen Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds-Mitglieds Mick Harvey und seiner langjährigen musikalischen Partnerin Amanda Acevedo, knüpft an ihr 2023 erschienenes Duett-Debüt Phantasmagoria in Blue an.

Das überwiegend aus Eigenkompositionen bestehende Album bewegt sich zwischen Mystik, Mythologie, Liebe und Verlust. Mit vielschichtigen Arrangements und opulenten Klangtexturen erkundet das Duo neue, experimentellere musikalische Räume. Traumartige Bilder und mythologische Motive verbinden sich mit einer persönlichen Botschaft der Hoffnung und der Sehnsucht nach einem Ausweg aus dem Chaos der Gegenwart.

Zu den Höhepunkten zählen „Perfect Storm“, entstanden in Zusammenarbeit mit dem kanadischen Komponisten Peter McNestry, „Song for Aurora“, eine Glam-Rock-Hommage an Marc Bolan und T. Rex, sowie „The Greatest Delight“, inspiriert von Acevedos Visionen von Schattenwesen und jenseitigen Liebenden.

DESCRIPTION
Lone Bison / Nick Bonell lives by the sea in Ramsgate. Mainly a guitar player and pedal freak, Nick bought a used Korg MS20 and fell in love with synths. As one half of Stuntmen, Nick released the sample-heavy single 'You're the Beat Find' on the groovy Tummy Touch label, which led to him scoring three Ford adverts in the U.S and a few pieces of well-used production music - which paid for more synths and pedals!
An album, 'Transistor Memory' and single 'Drugs' came out via Dom Martin's brilliant Polytechnic Youth records in 2021. "Wave Construction" was released by Castles in Space in Autumn 2023. An album for the CiS Subscription Library entitled "Mechanical and Electrical" was released in late 2024.
Nick Explains: "After recording "Transistor Memory", "Wave Construction" and "Mechanical and Electrical" pretty much back-to-back, I wanted to change my sound palette a little. I started programming my Hydrasynth Explorer in obsessive detail and was also drawn to using my voice, in a sampling kind of way at first. Sampling my voice then shifted into recording more straightforward vocals and writing proper songs again. "Rise Up" started as a field recording in my local park and then some wonky piano loops with a cheap mic – somehow a song arrived. I’ve always really liked really concise records, so I got interested in packing lots of synth textures into a three-minute pop song. As the record progressed, I did less leaning on vocoders and harmonisers and developed the courage to just do more up-front vocal mixes. Things like Maths and Minimal / Maximal are more groove-based and came from recording 20 minute drum tracks then jamming bass guitar over it then editing it all down and adding loads of synths. Oh, and there’s a bit of James Williamson era Stooges at the end of Minimal / Maximal – I was a bit nervous about playing garage rock guitar on a Castles in Space record but Colin told me I would be ‘fucking mental’ if I didn’t end the record with it."
Lone Bison's music is influenced by Krautrock, electronica, post-punk, soundtracks, a splosh of modern classical/minimalism and post-rock. He's a hot genius.
The album is preceded with "The Power" which will be available on streaming platforms as well as on our Bandcamp for those who want to listen or pre-order the album. There's a fantastic remix from MAPS included as well.

Die Gentrys, bekannt für ihren Hit „Keep On Dancing“ aus dem Jahr 1965, waren eine Garage-Rock-Band aus Memphis, die 1970 zu Sun Records wechselte, als das Label nach Nashville umzog. Diese Sammlung seltener Grooves und bisher unveröffentlichter, verschollener Titel aus dem Sun-Archiv präsentiert die Gentrys unter der Leitung des legendären WWE-Managers und TV-Stars Jimmy Hart, produziert vom Sohn des Visionärs Sam Phillips, Knox Phillips. „It’s Been So Long“ zeigt eine sanftere Seite der Band und verbindet Harmonien im Laurel-Canyon-Stil mit ihrem Memphis-Rock-Sound.

012 proudly presents 01211, a release marking the first-ever collaboration between Claudio PRC and CONCEPTUAL. A long-anticipated meeting of two like-minded artists, Syklit unfolds as a shared exploration of depth, restraint, and sonic research, supported by a masterful revisit by Marcal.

Built around the concept of cycles as continuous motion and transformation, Syklit develops through three original cuts that function as interconnected chapters of a single narrative. Hypnotic structures, stripped-back grooves, and carefully sculpted sound design define the EP. It blends techno sensibilities with an introspective, atmospheric approach. On top of that, Marcal delivers a striking reimagining of Sykli I, merging raw tribal energy with cutting-edge, sci-fi-driven sound design to unleash a relentless groove made for peak-time, late-night sessions.

The result is a cohesive and powerful release, equally suited for immersive listening and deep, forward-thinking dancefloors, celebrating a meaningful first-time collaboration and uncompromising shared sonic visions.

The most beautiful thing we’ve ever released?

It is virtually impossible to describe with mere words how emotionally powerful this work of art is. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen...

A blissed-out 80-minute epic, Hatchback's Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon is his magnum opus, a sprawling masterwork that encompasses ambient, new age and environmental music to wondrous effect. Moving, hypnotic and deeply meditative, it's FFO Mike Brooks, Deuter, Klaus Weiss, Innovative Communication, Harmonia, Cluster, Ashra's New Age of Earth, Stomu Yamashta, Haruka Nakamura, Yoshimura, Hosono, the works.

A record truly deserving of the deluxe Be With treatment, the vinyl was specially cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the original stunning artwork has been pleasingly expanded. Now, an eye-catching holographic-foil layer moon is set against the original tones, wrapped up in a sumptuous double-gatefold jacket.

Soaked in Californian consciousness and limited to a run of just 500 copies for the world, this release is a treasured balm like no other for these troubled times.

Hatchback is the atmospheric, melodious ambient alias of California-based artist Samuel Milton Grawe. Sam creates music that sings of the Cosmos, full of deep resonant tones, glistening arpeggios, lush pads and harmonic motifs.

"When I first was getting into the creative side of music making in my teens, I was heavily influenced by concept albums like Quadrophenia and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, as well as epic pieces that took up an entire side of a record: Pink Floyd’s Echoes, Yes’ Close To The Edge, Klaus Schulze’s Nowhere Now Here, Miles Davis' Shhh/Peaceful and He Loved Him Madly. In the extreme, these ideas coalesced in double albums where each side of each record is occupied by a single title - Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans and Tangerine Dream’s Zeit being primary examples. When I returned to making music after moving back to Northern California in 2020, the first piece I recorded landed around the 20-minute mark, and the idea of creating three other long pieces to realize a full album felt like a natural - if indulgent - goal. From there, each new piece followed sequentially. Four songs. My fourth album." - Sam Grawe

Phaser For The Ocean Chorus For The Moon is a pure expression, informed by a lifetime of deep listening unbound by algorithms or AI. These are songs for the sunrise and the sunset - and every colour in between.

Der zweite Teil von Chapter Musics gefeierter australischer Post-Punk-Compilation-Reihe ,Can't Stop It!" erscheint erstmals auf Vinyl als Deluxe-Doppelalbum. Die Compilation wurde ursprünglich 2007 auf CD veröffentlicht und präsentiert eine unglaubliche Auswahl an innovativer und oft bisher unveröffentlichter Musik aus den Jahren 1979 bis 1984. Nun aktualisiert Chapter Music die Compilation mit sechs bisher unveröffentlichten Bonustracks sowie neuen Liner Notes, Fotos und einem neuen Layout. Dies ist eine unglaublich reichhaltige und dynamische Zeit in der australischen Musikgeschichte, eine Zeit, in der Australien aus dem Schatten ausländischer Einflüsse trat und vielleicht zum ersten Mal seine eigene musikalische Identität behauptete. ,Can't Stop It! II" enthält Titel, die mittlerweile zu Meilensteinen der australischen Post-Punk-Geschichte geworden sind, darunter ,Lamborghini" von Severed Heads und den Proto-Oz-Rap-Klassiker ,Do the Job" von Use No Hooks sowie frühe Werke von Künstlern wie Lisa Gerrard von Dead Can Dance und Mark Seymour von Hunters & Collectors. Zu den Bonustracks gehören das verblüffende ,How" von This Five Minutes aus Brisbane, das ,Fool's Gold" von The Stone Roses um mindestens fünf Jahre vorwegnimmt, sowie Tasmaniens eigener Performance-Punk Chainmale mit seinem ausgeflippten ,Freakout". ,Diese Ära der australischen Musik wurde nicht durch einen Sound oder ein Instrument definiert, sondern durch eine anarchische Kreativität" - Stephen Deusner, Uncut

CULK um Sängerin und Songwriterin Sophie Löw (alias Sophia Blenda) sind zurück. Und wieder versucht die Wiener Band auf ihre ganz eigene Weise unsere Gegenwart in all ihren Ambivalenzen einzukreisen. Wie fühlt es sich an, heute als Mensch in dieser Welt mit den grenzenlosen Möglichkeiten, den Existenz- und Zukunftsängsten, Sinnsuchen und Identitätsfragen? Auf ihrem neuen, vierten Album tauchen CULK in einen Schwebezustand zwischen Euphorie und Überforderung ein. "smogstar" erzählt von dem pulsierenden Gefühl im Dazwischen. Alles so aufregend. Alles zu viel. Alles zugleich. Es geht um die endlosen Möglichkeiten, sich vermeintlich ständig neu erfinden zu können. Auch wenn man vielleicht immer noch nicht ganz genau weiß, wer man ist. "Ich wollte, dass die Texte leichtfüßiger sind und diesen speziellen Vibe ausstrahlen: zwischen Freiheit fühlen und lost sein", eine Stimmung, die sich auch in den urbanen Collagen und Zeichnungen des Artworks wiederfindet, die Sophie Löw im Stil einer Graphic Novel selbst gestaltet hat: die schwarzhaarige Protagonistin mit dem dunkel verschmierten Eyeliner auf dem Cover ist dabei so etwas wie die fiktive Titelheldin des Albums, die sich durch den Dunst und das schimmernde Versprechen der Großstadt schlägt. Denn wie der Albumtitel schon verrät: Der Smog und die Sterne liegen hier nah beieinander. Und überhaupt ist "smogstar" ein ausgesprochenes Stadt-Album geworden. CULK spielen hier freier auf als je zuvor. Die markante Stimme von Sophie steht immer noch im Mittelpunkt der hypnostischen Songs, aber diesmal klingen sie offener, reduzierter und weniger dark. Zu den musikalischen Referenzen gehört dieses Mal die kompromisslosere Soundästhetik von Noise-Rock-Bands der 80er und 90er, wie Swirlies, Sonic Youth und Unwound, oder auch aktuellere Bands wie Julie oder Blue Smiley. "Wir wollten, dass alles eher bare bones und roh und in your face klingt. Was können wir aus uns Vieren herausholen, in dem Moment, in dem wir gemeinsam spielen?" fragen (sich) Culk. Was wir darüber hinaus bereits wissen: So konsequent ausformuliert war der Popentwurf von CULK noch nie. "smogstar" ist ein wunderbar nervös flimmerndes Schlaglicht auf unsere Gegenwart.

CULK um Sängerin und Songwriterin Sophie Löw (alias Sophia Blenda) sind zurück. Und wieder versucht die Wiener Band auf ihre ganz eigene Weise unsere Gegenwart in all ihren Ambivalenzen einzukreisen. Wie fühlt es sich an, heute als Mensch in dieser Welt mit den grenzenlosen Möglichkeiten, den Existenz- und Zukunftsängsten, Sinnsuchen und Identitätsfragen? Auf ihrem neuen, vierten Album tauchen CULK in einen Schwebezustand zwischen Euphorie und Überforderung ein. "smogstar" erzählt von dem pulsierenden Gefühl im Dazwischen. Alles so aufregend. Alles zu viel. Alles zugleich. Es geht um die endlosen Möglichkeiten, sich vermeintlich ständig neu erfinden zu können. Auch wenn man vielleicht immer noch nicht ganz genau weiß, wer man ist. "Ich wollte, dass die Texte leichtfüßiger sind und diesen speziellen Vibe ausstrahlen: zwischen Freiheit fühlen und lost sein", eine Stimmung, die sich auch in den urbanen Collagen und Zeichnungen des Artworks wiederfindet, die Sophie Löw im Stil einer Graphic Novel selbst gestaltet hat: die schwarzhaarige Protagonistin mit dem dunkel verschmierten Eyeliner auf dem Cover ist dabei so etwas wie die fiktive Titelheldin des Albums, die sich durch den Dunst und das schimmernde Versprechen der Großstadt schlägt. Denn wie der Albumtitel schon verrät: Der Smog und die Sterne liegen hier nah beieinander. Und überhaupt ist "smogstar" ein ausgesprochenes Stadt-Album geworden. CULK spielen hier freier auf als je zuvor. Die markante Stimme von Sophie steht immer noch im Mittelpunkt der hypnostischen Songs, aber diesmal klingen sie offener, reduzierter und weniger dark. Zu den musikalischen Referenzen gehört dieses Mal die kompromisslosere Soundästhetik von Noise-Rock-Bands der 80er und 90er, wie Swirlies, Sonic Youth und Unwound, oder auch aktuellere Bands wie Julie oder Blue Smiley. "Wir wollten, dass alles eher bare bones und roh und in your face klingt. Was können wir aus uns Vieren herausholen, in dem Moment, in dem wir gemeinsam spielen?" fragen (sich) Culk. Was wir darüber hinaus bereits wissen: So konsequent ausformuliert war der Popentwurf von CULK noch nie. "smogstar" ist ein wunderbar nervös flimmerndes Schlaglicht auf unsere Gegenwart.