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Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.

After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.

"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.

Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.

Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.

From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.

During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.

Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis

From the fires and floods of the Australian bush on her debut, Soon, which Phil Elverum reissued via his label, P.W. Elverum & Sun, tiarn now takes us to the shores of the Pacific Ocean where classical and electronic arrangements move with an ever-present longing for connection and nature. Stretton has weaved a new world, set on the brink of night, when the world is soft and suspended in blue. Living in isolation near the ocean, overlooking the winter migration of whales, Stretton would regularly swim during the brief 20-minute period known as the blue hour. Ideas would come to her in the icy salt water, and walking home in the dark, she would carry melodies back to record that night. At its heart, tiarn reflects ecological grief and the search for connection in a changing world. tiarn is also inspired by a piece of home camera footage Stretton found of her family in Japan where they lived in the ‘90s before she was born.

It shows the distant mountains, and Stretton’s young family looking over the valley in the soft static of one summer evening. Decades later, using the untouched synth her parents had bought in Tokyo in 1991, Stretton began recording music directly to that footage, letting the images dictate the melody. Voices, insects, weather, movement, and the ambient sounds of the valley are woven throughout the record itself, blurring the line between documentation and composition. The result is an album that feels less created than uncovered — something remembered rather than made. Stretton’s work continues to carve a singular path in contemporary music, balancing environmental awareness, experimental composition, and deeply personal storytelling.

Lick a toad and who knows what might happen. Well, now our favourite amphibian BufoBufo is back on Dream Ticket, and in his little sticky toes he bears four joyous offerings of acid, breakbeat and IDM, primed for ready for your favourite pond rave. Now just lay down here on this lily pad with me and let's take a trip.

Slacker and Seth Troxler presents He Ain’t Here. 15 tracks by Slackers for Slackers. All exclusives.

Featuring exclusive music from: Seth Troxler, O.bee & Tomas Station, Audion, Jonny Rock, Dr Dunks, Krystal Klear, Marc Houle, Hiroko Yamamura and more. This is our dysfunctional family – and this will get weird.

Seth Troxler:

"When I created Slacker I wanted to make something to remind me of my youth in the ’90s. Being born in ’85, the ’90s was a decade that defined me. Culturally America was at a pivotal point. Post Reaganism of the ’80s, the ’90s was defined by the anti-hero. The idea that we had had enough. From grunge to hip hop, house and techno.

"This was the time of independence and indie music. Life without boundaries. A world where everything felt possible and a belief that the future was coming. Home game consoles, futuristic new sports like the X Games. It was about being radical. Living life on the edge and turning away from the imaginary cookie cutter American dream.

"I feel we are in similar times. The future we were promised every day seems more like a nightmare than a utopian dream. And all we have left are our minds and bodies, but who knows how long our freedom to be an individual will exist.

"This compilation is protest – from fight songs to moments of joy. It’s about living, dancing and being. It’s for the freaks, perverts, for the rebels, for those who forever were other, and dared the impossible to just be themselves in a world where everyone wants to be the same. The revolution will not be televised because it’s within ourselves. It’s about being unapologetically individual.

"Freedom is a state of mind as well as a state of being. Being a slacker is as much about pushing, as it is about being. Not giving a f#ck about the rules and making your own. I’m a slacker, you’re a slacker, a loser and nobody. History will forget me, history forgot Elvis.

"The world is about to change. Might as well have a bit of fun while it burns. Welcome to our dysfunctional family. Join us for the bonfire, I promise you things are going to get weird, in the best possible way. HE AIN’T HERE."

Hackney based Hidden Sounds Records launches – with support from Emotional Recordings – it’s Dark Times label by diving in the the music of Alkahest, a short-lived project from Canadian brother-production duo Lex and Rew MacCrimmon.

For the second EP, the Twisted Up release is re-examined, with a tweaked track list to represent the times and how their sound continues in relevance today. Released in 2 years (1994-1996), Alkahest was the darker side of the MacCrimmon’s productions and allowed them to focus on twisted, psychedelic electronics, away from their main Legion Of Green Men project.

Self-described music obsessives from a young age – lying under a home-made harpsichord, with their heads in the resonator box was an early indication of a love outside the norm. Experiments with forks and pencils on strings – totally unaware of the likes John Cage – highlighted an interest in sound from unusual places.

Anything with a synth notably grabbed their attention, going to the public library to take out BBC Sound Effects and Morton Subotnick albums, sat alongside contacting European mail order catalogues, to grow their knowledge and record collections.

As early productions formed, working under the sound production name of Incarnate, their love of art was just as influential as music. The likes of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Bridget Riley and the Op Art movement, was all part of brothers in their progression to form the Post Contemporary label in 1992.

Following the DIY ethos of the music they had long been buying, their “indie ethic” influences all coalesced in the label, not conforming to one sound or tempo, placed them within the electronic music coming from Canada, but also, out on their own.

Twisted Up expands the Alkahest sound, the title cut a stomping anthem, it’s unrelenting drums and lifting strings a call to arms. The compelling Shake arrives, acid techno rewiring synapsis, dub static between the beats.

On the flip, Twisted Another is just that, a reversion excursion, pushing the psychedelic synthesis to the forefront, stabs call and respond. Closing the EP with the perfectly titled, Kiss My Acid, a journey of industrial bang, reflexed, Alkahest showing their sound is pulsating, widescreen overtures.

Richard Sen debuts on Phantasy with ‘Space 1999 / Bergen Light Rail’, the first transmission from the illustrious DJ and producer since his vinyl-only solo LP, 2024’s ‘India Man’.

Deeply invested in electronic music for over thirty years, first at the intersection of London’s acid house and graffiti art scenes, evolving in cult duos Padded Cell and Bronx Dogs, and now generously sharing his formidable knowledge of club culture on London’s Do!! You!!! Radio, Sen is known to take listeners anywhere. On this occasion, he locks into two distinct influences from his winding creative journey, with ecstatic results.

The title of ‘Space 1999’ mirrors Sen’s own hand-painted accompanying artwork, yet its sonic influence sits much closer to our own orbit; A tribute to a slice of London nightlife history, Space at Bar Rhumba was a midweek party led by residents Luke Solomon and Kenny Hawes, whose selections helped sculpt the deep house scene at the turn of the millennium. ‘Space 1999’ transports contemporary dancers back there in no less than ten minutes, led by a deep bassline and swinging drums, while an intergalactic melody slowly takes hold, resulting in pure satisfaction.

‘Bergen Light Rail’ embraces a different kind of kosmische, looking to the northern light of space disco and following the tram route of its namesake to the Norwegian city’s beloved Club Ostre, riding a rhythm of pogoing toms and crashing drums. Conjuring a dreamy tête-à-tête between ever-expanding, heavenly synths and tightly-wound arpeggiators, Sen’s transmission to the stars is a deeply human call to dance.

2026 Repress

Originally Released as Ltd. Cassette- this is the first Edition of the Album on Vinyl! Matte Vinyl-Sleeve designed by Sam Gendel! For Fans of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, J Dilla, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Miles David, Knower, Alice Coltrane, Flying Lotus, Aphex Twin and Sun Ra ...

2025 repress.

Rhythm Section International proudly presents it's 8th offering from local boys Chaos in the CBD. Born in New Zealand, but based in Peckham for the last few years (literally just around the corner from Henry Wu and Bradley Zero), these brothers have made a real mark on the scene here in London town and with their latest set of productions are set to take this message further afield.

Having already released internationally on labels such as ClekClekBoom (Paris), Hot Haus (London) and Amadeus (Montreal), the duo's approach to production has matured immeasurably in the last year, as is evident in the restrained potency and poetic subtlety on the 4 tracks across this accomplished EP, Midnight in Peckham.

Taking it's title from the locale the boys have come to know as home, the record channels a delicate late night energy - equally indebted to the hypnotic incantations of Ron Trent as it is to the hazy suburban atmospheres of Burial. These 4 classic cuts pay homage to deep house in it's truest sense - at once sublime, melancholy and meditative . Chaos in the CBD have clearly taken their cue from the mid-west masters of the genre but have not been afraid to let their own influences and environ creep in, and in doing so have created something that is unmistakablely London and infact, timeless.

Twenty-five years after his debut album I’m Serious permanently altered the DNA of Southern hip-hop, Tip "T.I." Harris is officially closing this chapter with KILL THE KING, his twelfth and final studio album. For a man who has spent over two decades as the self proclaimed “King," the project’s title speaks volumes. This is not a surrender of the crown to a rival, but rather a symbolic death of the ego. T.I. is choosing to dismantle the moniker on his own terms, trading the battlefield for peace, legacy, and the freedom to step out of the booth and into the next phase of his life as an actor and family man.

Rather than leaning on pure nostalgia, KILL THE KING proves T.I. is walking away while his pen is still razor-sharp. The project is anchored by the certified gold lead single "LET 'EM KNOW," produced by long-time collaborator Pharrell Williams, which sets an immediate tone of veteran-level precision and polished bravado. Across the 18-track album, T.I. pulls together a masterclass of multi-generational talent that bridges the gap between his trap origins and modern dominance. The album boasts heavy-hitting Southern anthems like "DOPE BOYS ACADEMY” featuring 2 Chainz, Jeezy, and T-Pain, alongside soulful reflections from the Dr. Dre produced track "WHERE I’M FROM" with Anderson .Paak, Atlanta eloquence with Usher on "GORGEOUS," and moody, atmospheric cuts featuring Summer Walker and YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

Ultimately, KILL THE KING is designed to leave nothing unsaid, directly addressing the trials, tribulations, triumphs, and the undeniable imprint he’s left on global hip-hop culture. To mark the end of this historic era, T.I. isn't just letting the music speak for itself; he will be taking his final bow on the road with The King Succession Tour, bringing his sons Domani and King along to officially pass the musical torch. With this final statement, T.I. ensures that the trap music foundation he helped lay the framework for what will endure long after he sets down the mic. The King is dead; long live the legacy.

Probably the most respected and sought-after producer of the European reggae scene of the last ten years, Spanish genius Roberto Sánchez (Willi Williams, Earl Zero, Alpheus, Keith & Tex, Milton Henry,...) takes place behind the microphone to deliver a new album as a singer under his pseudonym LONE ARK. Soberly titled Showcase Vol. 1, this album is a collaboration between Sánchez and the Swiss band THE 18TH PARALLEL, whose playing is well known to reggae fans, since its musicians have recently played and produced some remarkable records, including I've Seen by Oku Onuora, Roots I Vision by Micah Shemaiah or Wonderland of Green by The Silvertones and Burro Banton.

Faithful to the Jamaican roots reggae tradition, Showcase Vol. 1 offers six vocal tracks followed by their dub counterparts where all the creativity of the sound engineer and the musicians is freely expressed. On instrumentals at the same time heavy and irresistibly dancing, with a modern production but deeply rooted in the roots reggae sound, Lone Ark and The 18th Parallel push their listeners to critical reflection. A strong message + powerful music = a must-have album!

Dolly TS welcomes Juri Heidemann! The versatile german producer is known for his modern stripped hypnotic grooves and unique rhythm textures. His Echo Mute EP strikes hard with a set of deep captivating, pumping, melodic, razor sharp techno!

This is a stunning new Japanese Modal / Spiritual Jazz album by the incredible Saxophonist Sinsuke Fujieda featuring Fumiko Takeshita on violin, recorded in Tokyo in 2023, five splendid own compositions - a beautiful listen!

Production Dessinee treatment on high-quality Japanese vinyl. Limited to 1000 copies

The second debut release by Fumio Karashima, who emerged in the jazz scene with his first leader album "Piranha" on WHYNOT. This popular piano trio work is known for its sophisticated, lyrical touch and outstanding jacket design. Series supervised by Koki Hanawa.

Across the past decade, KAS has established herself as a unique voice in experimental electronic music, a composer and synthesist whose work dissolves the boundaries between ambient electronica, contemporary classical, composition, and immersive sound design. Her new album “Ruin: It’s Not Just Music” arrives with a distinctive gravitational pull. The record moves with greater physical force, placing rhythm and impact at the centre of its architecture, revealing a more confrontational and embodied dimension of KAS’s musical language.
The first single “Ruin” arrives May 22nd, with the full album released October 2nd via SOMEONE SPECIAL the new label co-founded by KAS.
Where much of KAS’s earlier work explored harmonic environments, the forthcoming album is built around tension and release. Inspired by the sound of drum and bass, breakbeats fracture through dense fields of synthesis, percussive patterns and her signature melodic fragments – motions that feel closer to the kinetic language of club music than the meditative spaces often associated with her past catalogue. The result is a body of work that feels both recognisably hers and newly charged, music that moves through the body as insistently as it engages the mind.
For listeners who first encountered KAS through the glowing synthesis of “Ears” (2016) or the intricate experimental pop of “The Kid” (2017), this direction may feel initially surprising, yet the shift has been quietly unfolding across the past several years. KAS’s practice has steadily expanded beyond the expectations placed upon experimental electronic artists, moving between orchestral composition, audiovisual installations, film scoring, and large-scale commissions while retaining the unmistakable sonic signature that defines her work.
The 2022 albums “I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon” (2022) and “Let’s Turn It Into Sound” (2022) explored a deeply immersive approach to composition, expanded her reputation and instinct for constructing detailed sonic ecosystems while continuing to blur the lines between experimental electronics and contemporary pop structures. KAS’s most recent output has continued to widen that field including the rhythm oriented electronic album “Gush” (2025) and her return to more orchestral roots with “Thoughts on the Future” (2025). Together these releases underscored the breadth of her practice.
Her prolific collaborators and creative partners have ranged from Patti Smith and Suzanne Ciani to Danny Elfman, Tycho, Glass Beams, RY X, Caribou, Four Tet, Reggie Watts, and Max Richter, while her compositions have appeared in projects with Apple, Chanel, Meow Wolf, the BBC Orchestra, and major film and television productions.
On “Ruin: It’s Not Just Music”, that vocabulary becomes more kinetic than ever before. The record draws energy from jungle, drum and bass, and dance-floor focused electronic music while retaining the intricate synthesis and tonal curiosity that have defined KAS’s work from the beginning. The result is a record that feels equally at home within club culture, contemporary composition, and the experimental spaces that have long championed her artistry.
On May 27th KAS will present a major performance at London’s Barbican Centre alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra, marking the ten-year anniversary of her landmark album Ears. The evening will trace the arc of her creative evolution while also introducing material from the new album.

Maria Taylor is a singer-songwriter and founding member of Azure Ray, known for her hushed vocals, cinematic arrangements, and emotionally intimate songwriting. Her new album Story"s End unfolds like a reflective narrative, shaped by years of writing and profound personal change, where sweeping strings and quiet melodies trace loss, resilience, and transformation.

For ten years Spike Fuck has existed more as a messy myth than an art- ist; sporadic works forever poised on the precipice of triumph, rumours of death or insanity and so on. Spike’s mission is to distill the sacred and profane, balancing the melancholy and humour of life; “to be alive is to be traumatised.” Luckily, the devotion to his music persevered, some- what bolstered by his inconsistency and inaccessibility. This inexplicable goodwill towards his artistry is perhaps partly due to Spike’s timeless, pained and confessional lyricism, though more pointedly, the fragility of a life mired in addiction. His being or works does not question the virtue of life, but simply addresses the numb, pragmatic and far more immediate matter of surviving another day, an almost ineffable senti- ment only justified by his distinct, poetic audaciousness. Free from his arresting thoughts, evidence, the long anticipated debut album, is a bra- zen proof of life statement. Convicted by the outlandish idea of evidenc- ing a ‘you had to be there’ mentality, the record honours the presence in body, a record to be felt, never to be rationalized.

The material on evidence touches on elements of new wave, glam, soul and doo-wop, citing Pere Ubu, New York Dolls, The Temptations and Bettye Swan as key influences. Melodically it emits the energy of a down- and-out CBGBs band who cashes in by recording a lucrative Christmas album.

Spike frequently uses sonic and lyrical juxtapositions to perform comic twists of sincerity, a reflection of society's obsession with ‘getting a rise’. On “Bored to Death,” a scuzzy, laidback and soulful tune, paired with morbid ragebait lyrics that payoff as a stand up joke “when I look up at the sun it makes me so happy cause I know one day it’s gonna kill me, and it’ll kill you too!” Lead single “All By Myself” carries on in this fashion; with feelgood, family-friendly punk doo-wop production, Spike is misleading on if his joy comes from the pride in solitude, or from lone- liness and a ‘give me everything’ mentality in the act of shooting heroin. The vocal performances oscillate between being blasé, vulnerable and manic; “Sweet Release” meets power-ballad criteria solely due to Spike’s deteriorating cries into the void, the jittery delivery on “Getting Sober” embodies religious fanaticism while sounding like a pop song written by Suicide for a David Lynch film.

evidence is an album that lives outside the limits of discourse; its purpose is eponymous and self-evident. It is what it is, and is subject to interpretation. There is no point in interrogating attachments, virtue or value. The only rightful way to live is to be.

a 01. CAN'T GET IT UP 4:38
b 02. HAD YOUR WAY 4:04
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

2026 Repress

December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.
Fast Forward to today. 2024
Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees.
Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums.
You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.
The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled ‘It’s Yours’ (out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm) and I hope I'm one of them.
But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy
-Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024

Kukangendai are the innovative three-piece Kyoto based experimental rock band formed in 2006 with Junya Noguchi on guitar and vocals, Keisuke Koyano on bass, and Hideaki Yamada on drums. Since 2016 the band have set up shop in their studio and venue space, Soto, which houses an incredibly well tuned and powerful sound system that has become a well known destination for touring musicians. In March of 2025, Marionette was celebrating a belated 10 years of activity with label showcases across Japan in collaboration with Dotei Records, and Soto was inevitably one of the stops as many label alumni have set foot in the venue over the years. This is where I got to experience Kukangendai perform for the very first time and knew right then we were destined to work together.

Kukangendai embody an undeniable sense of timing and precision through collage-like repetition of minimalist phrases that manifest as a single unified rhythm. Their latest offering for Marionette, titled Baquet Wheel, is a purely acoustic endeavor, remarkably recorded live using Taku Unami's special binaural microphone. The trio seamlessly twist polyrhythms and melodies rooted in jazz, krautrock, blues, and Tuareg producing a timeless sound that preserves the primitive and memory evoking narratives buried deep within the music. Over the course of five tracks, the visceral nature of Kukangendai’s dynamic evolves from playful riffs that are seemingly familiar yet strikingly original, making it impossible to discern exactly when this material was conceived.

Kukangendai have maintained a prolific yet relatively low profile for the last two decades, with a handful of self-released editions on their own labels (Soto and Leftbrain) as well as a collaborative album with pioneering electronic music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2018, then venturing outside Japan in 2019 to release their first widely distributed album on Ideologic Organ, a label curated by Sunn O)))’s Stephen O'Malley. Other collaborative projects to date include an album produced with rap group Moe and ghosts, live performances with Keiji Haino and with poet Gozo Yoshimasu, productions with the Chiten theater company, and most recently a remix album of their works featuring Carl Stone and Madteo.

Elastica’s iconic self-titled debut album is set to be reissued by Rough Trade Records on 2 October in a new edition boasting rarities and b-sides.

Striking their own, distinct path in March 1995, Elastica proved uniquely fresh-sounding as the London four-piece delivered on the reputation they had built up gigging around the capital beyond in the months ahead its release.

Home to the likes of Line Up, Waking Up and Connection, singles at once timeless yet in the moment, Elastica’s debut captured the fraying emotions, hazy experience and burning energy of life, love and after-hours adventure.

Absorbing atmospheres and attitudes of their post-punk and new wave forbears, Justine Frischmann (vocals, guitar), Annie Holland (bass), Donna Matthews (guitar, vocals) and Justin Welch (drums) poured their own identities into the album’s 15 tracks which balancing youthful swagger, with sage-like observation and a knowing cool that made Elastica and their debut effortlessly timeless.

Valley of the Sun's sixth studio LP, "The Blacklight Sessions", is a deep dive into the sonic roots of the band who continues to defy genre norms. With tracks ranging from blues jam to psychedelic desert trip to driving stoner riffage, the band continues to demonstrate that their music knows no bounds, nor should it.

Hot Pink Vinyl. Valley of the Sun's sixth studio LP, "The Blacklight Sessions", is a deep dive into the sonic roots of the band who continues to defy genre norms. With tracks ranging from blues jam to psychedelic desert trip to driving stoner riffage, the band continues to demonstrate that their music knows no bounds, nor should it.

The third in a series of releases from the Digi Dub archives, Like it Here is a tribute to the poet laureate of Special Brew, the late Iffor Clarkson-Denbigh, who sadly departed us in 2021 to drink in the great park in the stars.

The infectious and futuristic late 90s vocal space dub of the A side finds Iffor waxing lyrically about both the nature of impermanence and the sentient ocean of Solaris over an irresistible bassline and low winding groove. The flip side features a suitably chugging version of the rail riding classic Loveborough Junction and a percussive early 90s acid dub of Heart like a Lion, the original of which dropped on the South East of the Thames collection. None of the tracks are traditional style dubs, but happily exist in the gaps between genres.


Iffor was a well-known multi-instrumentalist and vocalist on the South East London underground scene who lived life to the max without an off switch. He and label owner Lee Berwick truly had a laugh in the studio, producing Purple Boy (the classic ode to drinking in the park), the suitably named Clevor but Stupid album and many other uncategorisable musical wanderings.

“The hope is that Iffor, the dark son of Clenby, is cackling as he cracks another can while looking down on us from the great park in the stars.” Lee Digidub Berwick

This is the first full-length release from South Korea"s beloved pansori psych-pop band available worldwide. The release follows an extremely successful and eventful year for LEENALCHI. They had their first-ever North American tour, opening for Japanese Breakfast at Stern Grove, sessions at KCRW and (rumor has it) KEXP, and in the fall, they"ll be on the East Coast, including opening for Geese at Forest Hills on the very same date this record comes out. LEENALCHI is led by the great composer Jang Young-Gyu, who has undoubtedly scored all your favorite Korean horror movies, including The Wailing, Train To Busan, and the Good, The Bad, The Weird. Sugungga sounds like animals talking to each other over tripped-out bass lines. It gets its name from the old Korean folk tale about a clever and loyal turtle who tries to lure a rabbit underwater and into the lair of a Dragon King who has come down with an illness that can only be cured by the rabbit"s liver. What is the fate of the rabbit? This fall, you will find out.

Lily Juniper's debut album, 'Bloom Gloom' is set for release via Friends of Friends. Co-written and produced by long term collaborator and partner yours.truly, the record holds a mirror up to ourselves and the world around us. Inspired by sounds of the early 2010's post dubstep and indie scenes and written with feelings at the forefront, the album explores themes of self discovery, nostalgia and the endless battle between light and dark, with each track telling a story of what it means to be human:

The single is the latest collaboration from the pioneering electronic artist and follows “Intertwine,” which featured TT, aka Theresa Wayman of Warpaint. Other collaborations on A Body Of Voices include “Turns,” featuring the ethereal vocals of Nicole Miglis (Hundred Waters), and “True Love, Don’t Be Afraid” featuring Stephen McBean (Black Mountain & Pink Mountaintops), “Fight or Flight” ft. Aisha Badru, “Falling” ft. Maiah Manser and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Shaw, “Floating” ft. multi-instrumentalist and composer Spencer Zahn, and the unreleased track, “Take Me” ft. Raphaelle Standell-Preston (Braids, Blue Hawaii). A Body of Voices delivers the most collective and melodically driven project of his acclaimed quarter-century. Having spent decades mastering his natural instincts for space, tempo, and timing, LaValle set a deliberate goal to break beyond his usual parameters by inviting an expansive community of vocalists and marquee indie players into his realm. The resulting record pushes his sonic map entirely, seamlessly blending his signature, textural synthesis with a vibrant tapestry of voices spanning dream-pop, alternative, and R&B. Nearly thirty years into the project, A Body of Voices proves that while The Album Leaf remains unmistakably his, it is a pioneering musical universe he is never afraid to redefine.

This songwriting-focused approach on A Body of Voices marks a natural evolution for an artist who has been steadily making his mark as a soft-spoken innovator since 1999. Now based in Los Angeles, LaValle started out in the San Diego music scene, creating vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals centered around the Rhodes piano. Over more than two decades of acclaimed releases on seminal labels like Sub Pop, City Slang, and others, he has become a definitive touchstone for meditative electro-organic music. While earlier milestones like 2023’s Future Falling and 2024's Blast EP found him increasingly renewed by outside perspectives, A Body of Voices brings that collaborative spirit to its full, unbridled potential.

Perhaps the most acclaimed pianist and composer from his generation in Norway, mostly known for his Lightning Trio and presence in a variety of bands - here with a new band playing in the crossroad between jazz, Norwegian traditional folk and improvisations from a very strong combination of musicians. Including Veslemøy Narvesen, Nicolas Leirtrø, Hans P. Kjorstad, Guro Kvåle and Brede Sørum.

Liberation Front is a statement of pure intent from Sydney, Australia's TO THE GRAVE. Brutal and uncompromising in both sound and message, TO THE GRAVE create ugly music for uglier times. They rage against animal cruelty and environmental destruction, translating their death metal-infused deathcore into something unforgettable and utterly uncompromising. From the breakdown-laden assault of opener "MEAT THE HUMANS", Liberation Front is a suffocating return to form for the veganism-espousing quintet. While recent releases explored more hardcore-oriented territory, this album embraces deathcore at its most savage and relentless. Lead single "EYESTALK ABLATIONS" is a devastating statement, accompanied by a video every bit as violent and unforgettable as the music itself. Over the past 15 years, TO THE GRAVE have established themselves among the leading names of Australia's emerging deathcore scene, sharing stages with fellow Australians Thy Art Is Murder as well as international heavyweights including Lorna Shore. The band continues to tour extensively throughout Europe and North America, returning to the US and Canada in Fall 2026 alongside Crown Magnetar. Liberation Front is more than an album—it is a musical and lyrical call to arms, designed not only to rage against the machine but to educate, provoke and challenge listeners on every level.

2026 Repress

'Quiet Pieces' initiates Abul Mogard’s personal imprint Soft Echoes with a definitive self-portrait of calm, contemplative, and discreet inner landscapes made audible. It is the first solo album on vinyl in four years. RIYL Alessandro Cortini, William Basinski, The Caretaker.

While sifting through archived material left idle from earlier projects, a chance encounter with a late uncle’s trove of beloved 78rpm classical and opera records prompted the reworking and completion of what would eventually become the album. Spinning dusty records at 33 and 45rpm, Abul Mogard recombined their enduring spectres with unfinished sketches from his archive. The resulting soundscape blurs distinctions between his memories and those of another, exquisitely short-circuiting the senses with its waking, dream-like lucidity.

This was a process I hadn’t explored in my earlier works. I began sampling brief moments from these records, altering them with studio effects and playing them at slower speeds. In many cases, I wasn’t entirely sure how the original music sounded. These fragments, once further processed, became a source of inspiration for my new compositions. Over time, I realised that the old pieces from the archive and the new material derived from the samples naturally complemented each other.”

The resulting pieces hover over a threshold, a liminal space that harmonises the old and older material. Voluminous waves of quiet and loud undulate between consonance and dissonance, conjuring imagery of a decaying grandeur that humanity’s decadence has surrendered to the elements. Abul Mogard’s seemingly abandoned yet vast landscapes are nevertheless intimate with timbral frissons of red-lined distortion. Elusive, yet as tangible as sea spray or smog, they affect the olfactory senses with a rarified, synesthetic quality that modestly engages one’s emotional register – a hypnotic, distinguishing feature long hailed as one of the hallmarks of his work. A fidelity to memory and dream recall is sensitively probed in the journey from the stately symphonic stasis of 'Following a dream' to the almost industrial, untethered brutality evoked by a looming silhouette that’s never fully visible in 'Constantly slipping away', culminating in the foreboding coda of 'Like a bird'. Those pieces appear to shield the album’s sentimental core, where the tempestuous play of light and shadow of 'In a studded procession' escalates to breathtaking, panoramic climax, while 'Through whispers' evokes an out-of-body-like experience encountered with visceral poignancy.

Looking back, Mogard notes an unexpected influence: “I realise being inspired by Phill Niblock, whose work I had barely known at the time but explored after his passing in 2024. His album 'Boston Tenor Index' changed the way I approached dissonance. It encouraged me to push my sound further, to the edge of a space where I began to feel uncomfortable.”

The album artwork, created by longtime collaborator Marja de Sanctis, features a photograph taken at the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, an archaeological site overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Captured with an iPhone, the image traces the residual presence of construction techniques and architectural forms of the Romans, where material history is transcribed through contemporary tools. The convergence of ancient and modern technology aims to reverberate the site’s lasting spiritual presence – an echo persisting in what is now perceived as a quiet, emptied space. The spiral gestures towards infinity and light. Past and present dissolve into one another, reflecting 'Quiet Pieces' meditation on sound, memory, and time.

RIYL Alessandro Cortini, William Basinski, The Caretaker

Phill Niblock completed BLK+LND in late November 2023. It is one of Phill Niblock's final compositions and was commissioned by bassist Robert Black (who passed away in the summer of 2023). The piece is based on recordings of acoustic bass and bass clarinet performed by Neil Leonard and Robert Black under Niblock's direction in 2021.

Phill Niblock (1933-2024) as an artist whose fifty-year career spanned minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant-garde. In the history books he is the forgotten Minimalist. Since 1985, he served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, his signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. He said: 'What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly.' In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realized in partnership between Circuit (Centre d'art contemporain Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée (Paris). The following year he was honored with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award. Since 1968 he also put on over 1000 concerts in his loft space in New York.

"On January 6, 2024, two days before his passing, Phill called me to discuss the premiere and tour of BLK+LND. To distract him from his rapid decline, I engaged in his touring plan, only for him to reveal that all the details were still in his head and none of the events had been confirmed. He was entrusting the project to me. Phill would have been thrilled and honored by this concert at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. The thought of one more performance with Robert Black, whom he greatly admired, presenting his new work for low-pitched instruments that he was particularly fond of, andreconnecting with old and new friends in Donaueschingen would have meant the world to him." - Neil Leonard, Berklee College of Music, Boston

Possibilities Vol. 1 is a transatlantic collaboration between legendary Brooklyn MC Finsta (of the iconic 90s duo Finsta Bundy) and Finnish boom bap production collective Recluse Crew. This powerful joint effort blends gritty New York lyricism with soulful, sample-heavy beats rooted in classic hip hop tradition. Finsta, known for his sharp delivery and timeless voice, brings raw energy and wisdom earned through decades in the game. Recluse Crew complements his bars with expertly crafted instrumentals that honor the golden era while keeping things fresh for today’s underground heads. Released by the new Finnish record label Mood Monarch, Possibilities Vol. 1 is a must-listen for fans of true school hip hop, offering head-nodding beats, reflective rhymes and a rare synergy between two scenes, New York and Finland, connected through a deep love for the culture.

Madelyn Byrd returns to Glasgow’s Somewhere Press with a hazed set of weightless soundscapes. »Night Rider« opens in widescreen with the chirp of cicadas dancing across a desert landscape, before Shiroishi’s saxophone eventually cuts through the dark like neon. The story Byrd tells is close to their heart: they spent their teenage years in the Sonoran Desert, the vast subtropical expanse spanning parts of Arizona, California, and Mexico. Its seemingly alien landscape — pocked with giant, tree-like cacti and looming rocky outcrops — is lodged in the cultural memory, a quality Byrd draws on as they slowly reveal their poetic narrative.

The album plays like a road movie of sorts, moving through Byrd’s memories and setting them to very different rhythms. Clattering drums emerge on »Of Nature, Of Bodies, Of Dreams«, while Byrd’s soft tones, processed to sound almost otherworldly, glide gently across the metallic clangs. Each track highlights a form of movement: there is the microscopic, insectoid crunch of »Imprint«, where guitar prangs meet Shiroishi’s spirited runs, while »Into Sonoran Pool« creates motion from the atmosphere itself, recreating the thick desert air with shimmering electrical currents and psychedelic processes.

At this point, the album begins to echo Robert Ashley’s late-period theatrical work: compositions that broke with familiar formats, juxtaposing dialogue with knowingly experimental orchestral flourishes. Byrd strikes a similar note through a fusion of poetry, sound design, choral music, and chiming, listless ambient elements that also recall Harold Budd. Budd grew up in the Mojave Desert, which borders the Sonoran, creating an eerie parallel with the moods he conjured throughout his long career.

Byrd finds a similarly aesthetic link to the West Coast landscape, referencing the history of experimental music while establishing their own voice. As the album rides into the sunset with a roar of engines, they offer a distinct vision of pop: »What Is, What Was« integrates a chugging break and ketamised vocal hook, while the finale, »In Perfume, Remember«, lands as a James K-like heartmelter.

As Brice shares, "Anybody can see a sunset, but a sunrise, you gotta earn. Whether you're waking up or just pulled an all-nighter, I tip my hat to you, sunriser." Brice's sixth studio album delivers hopeful and resilient reflections on love, faith, and heartbreak for all sunrisers - from firefighters, nurses, and truck drivers, to blue- collar workers clocking out of graveyard shifts, to tired parents waking up to take care of little ones. Through the lens of what defines who he is -- God, country, and family -- the awardwinning Country star encourages listeners to keep rising.

Written in collaboration with British jazz pianist and organist Kit Downes, the album was recorded in the hushed, reverberant atmosphere of Bragernes Kirke in Norway in November 2024 - a setting that lends the record an intimate, almost sacred stillness. The album was mixed and mastered by Jorgen Traeen. The album takes its title from the landmark 14th- century mystical text by Julian of Norwich - the first book known to have been written in English by a woman. Sundfor encountered Julian's writing around the same time she and Downes were performing together in churches in 2024, and the timing felt fated. Drawn to the text's extraordinary themes of hope, resilience, and its quietly radical feminine perspective, she found in Julian's words a natural spiritual and artistic continuation from her acclaimed 2023 album Blomi . The connection felt so immediate and profound that she invited Downes to join her as a full collaborator on the project.

Three years following the critically acclaimed "A Journey told through Fire" (2023), the new album navigates a sprawling conceptual narrative, tracing the cyclical nature of the cosmos from its initial spark in the void to its inevitable dissolution. Lyrically, the album explores the terrifying scale of cosmic darkness and the fragility of existence within a primordial emptiness. Sworn investigates the philosophy of becoming and unmaking, where reality and time emerge from nothingness only to eventually collapse back into the same unfathomable origin. Musically, "Null Crowned the Infinite" pushes the boundaries of the band's established sound, balancing their signature melodic tension with newfound levels of aggression and atmospheric depth. The record features "The Starless Origin", a twelve-minute epic that stands as their longest composition to date, alongside " Fracture of Aeons ", which the band identifies as their most aggressive track ever recorded. Sworn collaborated with renowned producer Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios , who handled the mixing and mastering. Bogren's legendary portfolio, featuring giants such as Opeth, Arch Enemy and Behemoth, brings a polished yet devastating edge to the performances of Max Wilson, Christoffer Kjorsvik, Goran Hope and Tom Ian Klungland. The album artwork is equally striking, created by Par Olofsson, known for his iconic work with Aborted and Kreator.

Three years following the critically acclaimed "A Journey told through Fire" (2023), the new album navigates a sprawling conceptual narrative, tracing the cyclical nature of the cosmos from its initial spark in the void to its inevitable dissolution. Lyrically, the album explores the terrifying scale of cosmic darkness and the fragility of existence within a primordial emptiness. Sworn investigates the philosophy of becoming and unmaking, where reality and time emerge from nothingness only to eventually collapse back into the same unfathomable origin. Musically, "Null Crowned the Infinite" pushes the boundaries of the band's established sound, balancing their signature melodic tension with newfound levels of aggression and atmospheric depth. The record features "The Starless Origin", a twelve-minute epic that stands as their longest composition to date, alongside " Fracture of Aeons ", which the band identifies as their most aggressive track ever recorded. Sworn collaborated with renowned producer Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios , who handled the mixing and mastering. Bogren's legendary portfolio, featuring giants such as Opeth, Arch Enemy and Behemoth, brings a polished yet devastating edge to the performances of Max Wilson, Christoffer Kjorsvik, Goran Hope and Tom Ian Klungland. The album artwork is equally striking, created by Par Olofsson, known for his iconic work with Aborted and Kreator.

Presented here is the complete 1962 album Evidence, Steve Lacy's fourth album as a leader. It presents him in a piano-less quartet with Don Cherry on trumpet, Carl Brown on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The repertoire consists exclusively of compositions by Lacy's heroes, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. Includes the bonus tracks 'Day Dream' and 'Ask me Now'. "This album has a great deal to recommend it. Lacy's dry tone provides a nice contrast to Cherry's richer trumpet sound. The improvising is first rate." - ***** Harvey Pekar, DownBeat

Co-founder of Pond and touring member of Tame Impala, Jay Watson, also makes music as GUM. “GUM is my brain, unfiltered,” Watson says. A labour of love and an exercise in joy, written and recorded with Ambrose Kenny-Smith, best known as the mesmeric harmonica-player, keyboardist and vocalist with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and The Murlocs. The debut collaborative album between the two is a 10 track exploration into groove, blues and soul, deeply hypnotic from start to finish.

For more than thirty years, Hayden has built a body of work from moments in life that can easily pass unnoticed. His talent is to build grandeur around small events, not just within songs but as an accumulation across his whole career. Taken together, his ten studio albums amount to an ongoing conversation about family, memory, love, loss, absurdity, and the strange beauty hidden inside ordinary days. The realization that today’s routine may someday become the part of your life you miss most. Despite its title, Hayden's new album "The Recent Past" isn’t nostalgic so much as observant. It reflects on the strange feeling of longing for a time that wasn’t all that long ago, but it’s also about trying to stay rooted in the present while everything around us speeds up. It is a rich addition to Hayden’s continuing search for unsung moments. There’s heartache on this album, some frank declarations, a lot of comfort and danceable surprises. After years of mixing his own records, Hayden gave the final mixes to Grammy-winning engineer Tom Schick, whose work with Jeff Tweedy, Wilco, Mavis Staples and Willie Nelson had long been an inspiration. Adding subtle colours on the album are drummer Adam Hindle, pedal steel player Matt Kelly, fiddler Miranda Mulholland and upright bassist Ben Whiteley. "The Recent Past" is the perfect record to play when things are coming at you, when you want to take a breath, reflect, escape. Whatever memories or struggles play out you can hum to heartbreak, have lunch with your kid, know that trouble is out there for everyone but somehow this is still a beautiful day.