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Grammy-Nominated, multi-platinum Hip-Hop legend Pusha T's third studio album Daytona was released in May 2018 via G.O.O.D MUSIC / Def Jam Recordings. An instant classic and arguably Pusha's best work as a solo artist. Now in limited edition Purple Splatter vinyl.

This new "Experimental Chapter" by DJ Narciso comes as no surprise, really. Autonomous in the motorization of his music, pushing for progress within the framework of an undeniable (inescapable?) heritage. Twisting and bending sound every step of the way, Narciso definitely keeps in touch with the dancefloor, offering the always much needed transcendence through distinctive, non-linear melodies and patterns. The artist pursues a direct link with bodies in motion but seldom in the expected, institutionalized way club culture is being largely promoted.

This is challenging dance music, proud statements of difference. Narciso's previous record was named "Diferenciado". Now we get "Dificuldades", a track that simultaneously carries the weight of being somewhat odd and the difficulties of life. Check how the piano is venting, freestyle, communicating a feeling, and then lets itself get stuck in a loop, but that's exactly when the groove really starts flowing. And then another layer. It's like direct speech.

A common assertion of pride is found in the origin of the artists. The ghetto as a place where any transformation projects more power precisely because of... inherent difficulties. As others (including himself) did in more or less obvious ways, Narciso clearly states "I come from the ghetto" ( "Não Sabes" ). Twice the value. At least. Almost every segment of music in this album ends up sounding heavily emotional, reaffirming what may be - perversely - a well-known characteristic of Portuguese music: melancholy.

"Não Quero" begins side B as a march maybe more significant than a thousand words, such is the ominous tone of its texture. Next track is another lunar tarraxo, pulling down the shades. Then, "Dor de Barriga" lets things loose again, steering clearly off road, shouting this way and that until a peaceful resolution comes. In "Livra-me Desta", vocal snippets blend into synth snippets, disembodied voices abandon all traces of humanity and finally mutate into different entities that, towards the end, again sound vaguely human but now we find ourselves doubting. Closer "Bob" is a rather classic percussion track with plenty of echo, reverb and an unconscious nod to dodecaphonic music. Unlikely? No, the structural ADN of this music is made up of elements western and eastern, southern and northern. To say all-over-the-place is usually not flattering but in this case the expression translates as wonder, surprise, The Unexpected, and reveals Narciso perfectly at ease inside the nucleus of creation.

Italian techno force Alarico makes a striking debut on KEY Vinyl with 'Sweaty Techniques', a seven-track LP that encapsulates his signature style: groove-centric, stomping and irresistibly danceable. Known for his prolific output, the Berlin-based artist delivers a fast-paced and energetic sound, interwoven by the thematic thread of the whole release: a sweaty encounter.

From the opening pulse of 'Cradle to the Grave', rhythm takes center stage-percussion-driven and primed for peak-time occasions. Snipped vocals and bouncy baselines carve out some sort of hypnotic patterns, while deep, rolling low ends keep the momentum locked in. Gritty textures collide with fragmented modulations, twisting into distorted, high-energy productions. Across the LP, tightly coiled bleeps and moaning snippets emerge, lending a sinister yet seductive edge.

Then there's 'Dammelo'-Italian for 'give it to me'-which subsumes the album's thematic essence into pure physicality, embracing its vocal motif with a knowing smirk. As the record progresses, Alarico shifts between functional, stripped-back rhythms and more tension-driven moments, culminating in 'Touch My Heart', where sharper drum programming meets hypnotic vocal loops. Closing on a high, 'Jamira' encapsulates the album's crisp percussive edge, rounding off a release that is as relentless as it is intoxicating.
With 'Sweaty Techniques', Alarico solidifies his place as one of techno's most electrifying new voices-an LP made of steel, but definitely built to move.

3XL boss and scene hyper-connector Special Guest DJ (aka uon, shy, Caveman LSD) lands on their own label with a debut album of hazed ambient noise and aquatic club anarchitextures, with a patented, heady style bent into new shapes.

For nigh on a decade, Berlin-based American producer, label boss, promoter and DJ Shy has operated at the centre of a scene that's still not fully defined. Their mythical DJ sets, where you're likely to hear precision-tweaked dubstep, dreampop, decelerated rap and dubwise ambient blended into vapour; gives some sense of the vibes at play, and a comb thru their spiderweb of a catalog - as Caveman LSD or uon, as part of Ghostride the Drift, Hoodie, crimeboys, virtualdemonlaxative and Cypher, or as the figurehead of 3XL, Experiences Ltd, xpq? and bblisss labels - further blurs that gist.

They've been caught in the crossfire of Big Ambient, sure, but there's always been something scrappier, sexier and more present going on under the hood. Shy and his network of associates - Huerco, Ulla, Perila, Ben Bondy, Naemi/Exael, Ponteac Streator and Arad Acid, among others - have asserted the interrelatedness of their discrete approaches. So-called "ambient" music doesn't exist in a vacuum, it un-focuses elements that undergird so many more corporeal sounds, and for Shy, their music reflects the druggy, DIY, genre-agnostic ethos of a trans-Atlantic neo-punk underground that exists in some liminal zone between the club, the bedsit and the basement.

Concerned with themes of “anger, sensuality, and dreaming”, the 40 minute roil of ‘Our Fantasy Complex’ frames Special Guest DJ at their most unapologetically oblique and illusive, expanding and contracting between whorls of shoegazing dynamics and extended portions of quasi-speed D&B x dub tech smeared on the mind’s-eye, with a vivid sense of bruised lushness that’s perfused all shy’s work thus far.

Joined by kindred collaborators Ben Bondy, Arad Acid and mu tate, and suspended in agitated bliss by Rashad Becker’s lucid mastering, the results feel out some of 2025’s most considered and distinctive within an amorphous zone that’s become a world unto itself. Ambient music’s fluffier signifiers are swapped out for a sort of sublime tension that, like the sound’s original ‘90s explosion, can be heard to reflect states of altered consciousness - both individual and collective.

Shy's layered, undulating productions are more like the chewed remnants of a thousand mixtapes cooked into a stream-of-consciousness hex. Save for the glistening, zoomed-out parting piece ‘Dream’, it all mostly avoids pretty melodies in favour of a spatio-textural sensuality that wraps us up, sometimes uncomfortably intimately, in shy’s thoughts. That oneiric closer is one of three gritty palate cleansers that swirl around its peaks, where elements of Reese-bass are suspended, writhing below looming atmospheric pressure in ‘How Long Can I Burn?’, emerging charred and flecked with rattled percussion on ‘Yoro (pt I & II)’, as though K-holing thru a blazing summer’s day.

In step with Perila’s notably darker turn of events on her ‘Omnis Festinatio Ex parts Diaboli Est’, album, or the unexpected ferocity of recent Space Afrika live shows, it’s not hard to hear a darkside gravitational pull on this one, where ambient music is no longer just a balm for troubled souls, but also suggestive of humanity’s most frightful odours.

An adversarial network of ideas, electronic post-punk trio The Wants welcome the possibility that embracing friction can give rise to something cathartic and unexpected. Formed by Madison Velding- VanDam and Jason Gates in 2017, and with the addition of Yasmeen Night in 2021, The Wants' sound is defined by the push and pull of its members' processes: floating rhythms upheaving grounded songwriting, pulsing synths overwhelming live instrumentation. Their new record, Bastard, is an evolution of many of the seeds planted in their debut record, Container (2020), with a refined sense of acerbic emotional urgency and sonic experimentation. Drawing from a deep well of influences across decades and genres, The Wants forge an unlikely alliance of sounds that feels both radical and inevitable. Velding- VanDam channels both the raw power and snark of Public Image Ltd. and The Smiths' romance, while Gates draws intensity from bands like Bauhaus and Throbbing Gristle, and inspiration from experimental techno. Night's sound bridges inspiration from '90s alternative rock like Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage between the nocturnal trip-hop atmosphere of Massive Attack. The result sits in its own category—too raw to be pure electronic music, too mechanised to be straight rock— drawing favorable comparisons to early PIL and contemporaries like Model/Actriz while remaining distinctly their own beast.

The extroverted blend of attitude, energy, and ostentatiousness that spills from the New York Dolls’ self-titled debut can be seen in full view on the album cover. Depicting the quintet in its hallmark flash-and-trash apparel and in drag appearance, the 1973 album scared away a considerable amount of potential listeners while capturing the attention of a sizable audience that recognized the band for what it was: zeitgeist pioneers who helped develop the punk and glam rock movements.

Named by Rolling Stone the 301st Greatest Album of All Time and by Mojo the 49th greatest album of all time, New York Dolls receives long-overdue audiophile treatment on Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set. Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, this collectible version marks the first time the group’s career-making statement is available to be experienced in audiophile quality.

Far from harboring the crude elements that became associated with the punk scene, New York Dolls benefits from keen production overseen by none other than Todd Rundgren. Though more accustomed to working far higher-caliber musicians, Rundgren — taken by the New York Dolls’ charisma and cool, if not their instrumental approach — fully understood the ensemble’s aesthetic. He captured what went down at New York City’s Record Plant with an astute blend of live-on-the-floor feel, raw authenticity, and professional acumen.

On Mobile Fidelity’s definitive-sounding reissue, you can hear those facets as well as key details, dynamics, and textures with previously unimaginable insight. Rundgren preserved generous degrees of grit, grime, and grease while bestowing the raucous music with elevated levels of separation, solidity, and impact every landmark recording deserves. His vision extends to introducing choice accents — barroom piano notes, Moog synthesizer passages, Buddy Bowser’s honking saxophones — that add to the songs’ appeal without interfering with the primary architecture.

Afforded extra groove space on this pressing, the tenor, presentation, and attack of both vocalist David Johansen and now-iconic guitarists Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain come across with stunning vibrancy and vitality. The New York Dolls often seem headed off the rails and into the red, but somehow, the strut, swagger, and sloppiness — and the associated sleaze and scruff, scrape and snarl, frenzy and feverishness those characteristics entail — remain together as a whole that shakes its collective fist at the frustrations, isolation, disarray, and disillusionment of youth chaos and urban decay.

Kicking off its debut with “Personality Crisis,” cited by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the band makes obvious its grasp of alienation, deviance, displacement, and suburban disaffection — as well as its capacity to play hanging-by-a-thread boogie, noisy rock ‘n’ roll, and Brill Building-inspired pop. The lipstick-kissed New York Dolls possesses traits many of its harsher predecessors would overlook: joyfulness and melody, topped with a knack for knowing how and where to take a song inside of three-and-a-half minutes.

Dive and dash with the belligerent “Looking for a Kiss”; stomp your feet and clap your hands to the big choruses of “Jet Boy”; surrender to the demands and provocations of the coded “Vietnamese Baby”; decide whether “Bad Girl” yearns to explode or implode. It’s one of several tunes here that allude to the world coming to end. Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for a fling before everything burns. “There’s no place I gotta go,” yowls Johansen. And he means it.

Adorned with tonal crunch, glitter, and gristle, New York Dolls takes pride in its brashness and brattiness. The rambunctious effort, which earned the band the distinction of being voted both “Best New Group of the Year” and “Worst New Group of the Year” in the pages of Creem, displays knowing reverence for the blues without calling attention to the style. The folk-laden “Lonely Planet Boy” is nothing if not a collision of heart-on-the-sleeve emotions and the desire in the face of challenges to maintain a tough-skinned exterior. An interpretation of Bo Diddley’s “Pills,” complete with shivering harmonica and clattering rhythms, announces there’s no cure for what infects this band. It’s that contagious. And how.

His deliveries gushing with campy fun, playful irreverence, and sheer decadence, Johansen doubles as the equivalent of an open fire hydrant that spouts at will. He’s at once tender and vicious, serious and tongue-in-cheek. On arguably his finest hour on the album, Johansen’s phrasing, passion, and lyrical ambiguity alone turn “Trash” into an insistent glam-rock gem whose echoing harmonies and girl-group references stamp it a pop classic.

Too much, too soon? Only for those averse to some of the finest rock ‘n’ roll ever put on tape.

Alanis Morissette Delivers the Equivalent of a Spiritual Awakening on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie:
Introspective Themes and Compassionate Emotions on Eastern-Tinged Album Have Grown More Relevant
1998 Smash Plays with Enhanced Detail, Rich Textures, and Sharp Focus on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM 2LP Set:
First-Ever Audiophile Edition Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies
1/2" / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Alanis Morissette refuses to adhere to convention on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. While most artists follow-up their breakthrough with an album that closely parallels the approaches that helped make them famous, the maverick singer-songwriter stayed true to herself and drew inspiration from travel to India before she began the recording sessions. As much as the preceding Jagged Little Pill put her on the global radar, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie confirmed her role as a vital generational voice — and proved her blockbuster success was no fluke. Having set a mark for most sales of an LP in its debut week by a female artist, the 1998 smash remains a pop-rock staple.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM 2LP set of Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie presents the triple-platinum LP in audiophile sound for the first time. Benefitting from defined grooves that befit the album’s nearly 72-minute length, this pressing plays with enhanced detail, refined clarity, sharper focus, and broader dynamics than prior versions.

Those traits are key given Morissette’s use of more textured and atmospheric soundscapes, not to mention her evolution into a more nuanced and controlled singer. Similarly, the scale and reach of David Campbell’s string arrangements come across as orchestrations should. Ditto the synth-based architecture shaped by producer and principal Morissette collaborator Glen Ballard. All in all, Mobile Fidelity’s collectible edition simply delivers more information via transparent means.

Notable for its balance, sophistication, and richness, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie at heart finds Morissette pausing, taking a breath, and learning how to navigate life in a healthy manner after enduring one of the most exhausting and rocket-to-fame stretches any musician ever experienced. It’s the sonic equivalent of a spiritual awakening, a call to betterment, a brave assessment of the self and humanity as a whole. As such, the tunes on her second international (and fourth Canadian) release teem with gratitude, compassion, love, empathy — emotions that lend themselves to the largely mellow, contoured scope and Eastern-tinged melodies of the songs themselves.

“How ‘bout how good it feels to finally forgive you,” Morissette sings on the lead single “Thank U.” “How ‘bout grieving it all one at a time.” Those sentiments, and the vocalist’s embrace of concepts such as divinity and acceptance, not only provide a foundation on which Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie rests. They also reflect the personal maturation she gained from her embrace of Buddhist culture in India and a mindset bent toward notions of reconciliation, peace, and sensuality that were nearly absent in popular music in the late ‘90s.

Those themes continue on “That I Would Be Good,” a confident reflection that takes stock of one’s mental, physical, and emotional state in the face of both changing and unpleasant circumstances — and concludes with Morissette performing a flute solo, further exposing the raw intimacy of the introspective tune. She channels relatable simplicity and joy on “So Pure,” with her invocations of “dance” and “freestyle” speaking to the freedom of expression that courses throughout Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. And perhaps no song finds Morissette showcasing her refreshed attitude toward life and opening up more than the relationship-themed “Unsent,” whose unconventional structures and lack of a chorus only add to its directness.

Akin to many albums that were ahead of their time, and despite the critical and commercial accolades afforded it upon release, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie attracted new appreciation and perspective as it got older. Issued during an era where its ideas of serenity, absolution, tranquility, and contentment seemed largely alien, the record — akin to the ways its predecessor foreshadowed a movement — now functions as a visionary beacon that foretells of way to maintain sanity, dignity, and goodness amid a contemporary landscape filled with constant distractions, polarizing views, and incessant calls to purchase, promote, and produce without questioning the what-for purpose.

Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie dares to ask the questions and, at its best, supplies meaningful answers and alternatives that lead to longed-for enlightenment, healing, and laughter. For these reasons alone, it’s a record that never goes out of style.

Experience the Double-Platinum 1996 Album in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Is Sourced from the Original Analogue Tapes
1/2” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

If great art, as many believe, is inherently polarizing, then the Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop easily ranks as the California-based band’s finest album. Simultaneously celebrated and castigated upon release in spring 1996, the group’s third full-length finds vocalist Scott Weiland and company expanding their “grunge” palette with a smart blend of glam rock, psychedelia, jangle pop, and other related styles. Having benefited from long-view reassessments that shed the biases and meanness of initial criticisms, the double-platinum effort is now largely and rightly seen as a creative masterwork. All the more reason why it deserves reference-grade production.

Overseen by producer Brendan O’Brien, Stone Temple Pilots used bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms, and the lawn to capture a broad blend of textures, spaciousness, and ambience that helped underline the group’s obvious (and somewhat unexpected) leap from normal “alternative” status to an artist whose aspirations went beyond that of many of its contemporaries. You can hear the multitude of details and tonalities with previously unattained clarity, presence, and scope on this fantastic reissue, which also delivers the impact and punch every rock record deserves. Another tremendous asset: The depth, grain, and pitch of Weiland’s voice.

For all the contagious choruses and glossy melodies that help make Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sparkle, the vocal performances of the late singer arguably rank as the best that the much-missed Weiland committed to tape. None other than the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan — who, like many peers and critics, felt a pressing need to reevaluate the record as both time marched on and the self-importance attached to the “alternative” scene faded — praised Weiland’s efforts by noting: “Like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere.”

Smooth and diverse, those traits are everywhere on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. From the clever combination of emotional closeness and distance he brings to the catchy albeit ultimately melancholic “Lady Picture Show”; to the lounge-fly balladeering that causes “And So I Know” to lightly swing akin to a bleary-eyed house band’s final number at a 4 A.M. bar; to the effortless cool and laissez-faire casualness he articulates on the grinding “Pop’s Love Suicide”; to the dimensional raspiness, defiant energy, and let-loose wail that sail through the crunchy “Big Bang Baby.”

The latter tune, the record’s first single and per Weiland a conscious attempt by the band to deconstruct its prior approaches, clearly borrows from the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Because of it, the song drew all kinds of barbs from naysayers. Their disdain extended to most material on Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which indirectly references other prized acts such as the Beatles, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, and Lush. Those cynics failed to grasp that Stone Temple Pilots were paying homage and having a blast, with even Weiland, then battling serious substance-abuse and legal issues, getting in on the action.

Stone Temple Pilots’ skeptics also turned a deaf ear to the records’ stellar pop craftsmanship, sticky hooks, and sly commentary on music-industry machinations and fame. Not to mention the band’s intent, made clear from the outset. In an interview conducted in 1994, guitarist Robert DeLeo stated: “The last thing I wanted to do with this band was make everybody believe we invented something.”

Seen through that lens and the hindsight afforded history, and appreciated independent of the self-righteous authenticity standards of the day, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop sounds borderline fearless while authoritatively checking all the right boxes for fun, flavor, and finesse. Part winking send-up, part tribute to the glitter rock age, and part middle finger towards the hip crowd that didn’t know what they were missing, this mid-90s classic repeatedly invites you to drop the needle and press play.

Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Plays with Authoritative Tonality, Airiness, and Clarity:
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl and Strictly Limited to
3,000 Numbered Copies
1/4” / 15 IPS Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Joni Mitchell is the only artist who could’ve made Hejira. The legendary singer-songwriter said as much when discussing the album decades after its release. Yet that fact seemed obvious from the moment the gold-certified effort streeted in fall 1976. An adventurous travelogue, probing narrative, and offbeat homage to freedom, Hejira remains an inimitable entry in the catalog of recorded music — a spare, gorgeous, meditative series of sonic vignettes comprised of floating harmonic pop, cool jazz, soft rock, and sensitive vocal elements that beckon feelings of motion, discovery, and self-examination.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the record ranked the 133rd Greatest of All Time by Rolling Stone with definitive detail, richness, accuracy, and directness. Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD.

Playing with a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible reissue reproduces in enveloping fashion the tones, textures, and craftsmanship that help Hejira function as the equivalent of a liberating trip down an open road with nothing but blue sky, natural landscape, and fresh air in the immediate vicinity. Passages bloom, carry, decay as they do amid an acoustically optimized environment. Soundstages extend far, wide, and deep, with black backgrounds and pinpoint images adding to the realism.

The reference-grade immediacy, airiness, and presence put in transparent perspective Mitchell’s dense strings of words, stream-of-conscious-like phrasing, and unhurried albeit forward momentum. Likewise, the instrumental contributions of her A-list support musicians — a cast that includes L.A. Express members John Guerin, Max Bennett and Tom Scott, plus Neil Young, Victor Feldman, and Abe Most — emerges with breathtaking clarity and dimensionality.

While Mitchell, whose intimate vocals and abstract guitar parts center everything, Mobile Fidelity's restoration of Hejira further reveals the visionary breadth of guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Jaco Pastorius. Though heard on only four tracks, Pastorius' fretless bass epitomizes the fluid, subtle, flexible, roomy, and shape-shifting characteristics of songs that often appear to transpire out of nowhere akin to the formation of a puffy cumulus cloud overhead. In sync with Mitchell’s voice, Pastorius’ fusion hovers and floats, suspended in a fog you want to deeply inhale. The "grace notes" Mitchell desired on Hejira can now be heard in full. Ditto the luxurious tapestries of alinear lines, fills, and supplements unreeled on Carlton’s six-string.

Visually, the packaging of this UD1S set complements its identity as the copy to own. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, the LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics. This version is for listeners who desire to become immersed in everything about Hejira, including the unforgettable album cover — a pastiche of 14 different photos Mitchell used a Camera Lucida to assemble into one image that’s anchored by a portrait of her in a stoic pose — and the interior shots of Mitchell skating on a frozen Wisconsin lake wearing a pair of black skates, black shirt, and fur cape.

The notion of skating, feeling an awakening wind whipping against your face, and losing yourself to the surroundings are extremely apt for Hejira, which Mitchell wrote after a sequence of trips and relationships prompted her to reflect on the complicated conflicts between independence and marriage, success and satisfaction, duty and desire — and, more specifically, “the cost of being a woman.” The Canadian native delved into such themes before. But never as she does on Hejira, whose liberating, running-away aura doubles as another of Mitchell’s rejections of tradition as well as a suggestion of a better alternative.

At once observational and personal, expansive and insular, cheerful and poignant, Hejira spans a sea of human conditions, emotions, and circumstances. It addresses drifting, isolation, pleasure, place, time, and surroundings with strikingly poetic discourse matched with music that, save for the crooned ballad “Blue Motel Room,” forgoes conventional structures and choruses.

The jazz-based arrangements, marked by scaled-down percussion and all manner of bent, rounded, and unsettled notes, hint that Mitchell has no exact destination in mind. Excursions such as the moody “Furry Sings the Blues,” funky “Coyote” and edgy “Black Crow” throw open previously locked doors to possibility and journey. They signal it’s time for a welcome departure from norms and the past, one that leads to a heightened sense of clarity and perspective. Or, as Mitchell said upon choosing the album title, it’s time for “leaving the dream, no blame.”

Natty Dread gilt als Bob Marleys bestes Album, die vielleicht beste Reggae-Aufnahme aller Zeiten.

Es war Marleys erstes Album ohne seine ehemaligen Bandkollegen Peter Tosh und Bunny Livingston und das erste, das er als Bob Marley & the Wailers veröffentlichte.
Das hier präsentierte Material definiert, worum es im Reggae ursprünglich ging, mit politischen und sozialen Kommentaren, gemischt mit religiösen Lobgesängen auf Jah.

Bob Marley war ein jamaikanischer Reggae-Sänger, Songschreiber, Musiker und Gitarrist, der internationalen Ruhm und Anerkennung erlangte.
Seine Musik begründete in den 70er Jahren seinen weltweiten Ruf und machte ihn mit mehr als 75 Millionen verkauften Tonträgern zu einem der weltweit meistverkauften Künstler aller Zeiten.

Berlin-based Colombian DJ, producer, and curator Edna Martinez presents a sonic journey into the electrifying world of Picó—the vibrant and dynamic sound system culture that has defined the streets of Cartagena and Barranquilla for decades. More than just a musical movement, Picó is a way of life, a bold expression of identity, community, and resistance. From its roots in the working-class neighbourhoods of Colombia’s Caribbean coast to its deep connections with Africa and the Caribbean, this compilation captures the pulse of a culture where music is played at full volume, rhythms travel across oceans, and dance is both a form of celebration and storytelling. For those unfamiliar, Picós are hand-painted sound systems, often adorned with dazzling colours and striking imagery, each with its own name and sonic identity. These mobile discos became the heart of neighbourhood bailes, where the sounds of champeta, highlife, soukous, mbaqanga, zouk, soca, and cumbia would turn every street corner, market, and terrace into a dancefloor. Initially built by local craftsmen using modified speaker components, Picós became legendary for their powerful bass and exclusivity, with DJs sourcing rare vinyl from African and Caribbean ports and rebranding them with unique piconemas—new names adapted to local slang, making the tracks instantly recognisable within the community.

This compilation brings together a carefully curated selection of these rare and sought-after tracks, tracing the deep-rooted musical exchanges between Colombia, West and Central Africa, and the Caribbean. Featuring artists like Los Corraleros De Majagual, Peacocks International Highlife Band, Pedro Lima, Zaïko Langa Langa, and more, the album also includes edits by Edna Martinez, reimagining these timeless rhythms for contemporary audiences while staying true to their original spirit.

Strut presents ‘Picó! Sound System Culture From The Colombian Carribbean’ across 2LP Vinyl, 1CD & Digital focusing on a celebration of the raw, undiluted energy of Picó culture. Through Edna Martinez’s curation, and extensive liner notes, this compilation offers a powerful and authentic glimpse into one of the most vibrant musical traditions of the Colombian Caribbean

Following their debut album, Bay Area industrial duo Gridlock quickly pushed their creative boundaries. They restructured their live setup, incorporating new technology that expanded their sonic possibilities.

Their first experiment with upgraded digital tools resulted in the track Enzyme for Pendragon Records’ Quadraphobia compilation. Soon after, they embarked on a short West Coast tour before returning to the studio to craft their next album, Further.

Embracing real-time audio editing, Further developed rapidly, defined by its signature distorted percussion. Initially met with little feedback from their label, the album gained final approval after a live performance at the CMJ festival.

Released in early 1999, Further exceeded expectations, earning critical acclaim and charting in the the RPM charts. It became a landmark in the evolution of industrial music, blending emotional depth and cerebral complexity with brute force.

Gridlock continued evolving through two more albums before disbanding, leaving their work rare and highly sought after. Now, in tribute to Mike Wells, who passed away in 2022, Viasonde is reintroducing Gridlock’s music with the blessing of Wells’ family.

Following the 2024 reissue of The Synthetic Form, Further will be released on July 11th on clear vinyl with greyscale splatter. Half of the proceeds will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Wells’ honor.

Analogue Productions' UHQR, the pinnacle of high-quality vinyl! 45 RPM Ultra High Quality Record release limited to 5,000 copies Mastered from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl® Purest possible pressing and most visually stunning presentation and packaging!

By the time Bob Marley died, he was one of the world's first global superstars, famous and lauded from Europe through Africa and the Americas. Some even saw him as not just a reggae singer but as a folk hero, a sort of freedom fighter, and to this day his enduring image feels greater than the music he made, writes Pitchfork. In the 21st century, Bob Marley is a global cultural icon and the first Jamaican inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 1977's Exodus — recorded in London exile after a failed attempt on his life — turned out to be Marley's biggest-selling studio album.

Time magazine named it the greatest LP of the 20th century. Other Marley discs had bigger hits and still others had better album tracks, but the balance Marley strikes between politics, religion, and romance on Exodus — compare and contrast the urgent title track and the laid-back "Jamming" — shows a pop star at the peak of his powers.

Now, Analogue Productions presents perfection — Exodus in UHQR 45 RPM format on Clarity Vinyl. This Ultra High Quality Record release will be limited to 4,500 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets. After the success of 1974's Natty Dread and 1976's Rastaman Vibration, Bob Marley was not only the most successful reggae musician in the world, he was one of the most powerful men in Jamaica. Powerful enough, in fact, that he was shot by gunmen who broke into his home in December 1976, days before he was to play a massive free concert intended to ease tensions days before a contentious election for Jamaican Prime Minister.

In the wake of the assassination attempt, Marley and his band left Jamaica and settled in London for two years, where he recorded Exodus. Exodus represented a subtle but significant shift for Marley; while he continued to speak out against political corruption and for freedom and equality for Third World people, his skill as a songwriter was as strong as ever, and Exodus boasted more than a few classics, "including the title song, 'Three Little Birds,' 'Waiting in Vain,' and 'Turn Your Lights Down Low,' tunes that defined Marley's gift for sounding laid-back and incisive at once," writes AllMusic. This UHQR is remastered at 45 RPM by Sterling Sound's Ryan K. Smith from the original analog master tapes. Each UHQR will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Acoustic Sounds' industry-leading pressing plant Quality Record Pressings (QRP) using hand-selected Clarity Vinyl® with attention paid to every single detail. These records will feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable. From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer's stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center. Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation. Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market. Each UHQR will be packaged in a custom clamshell box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

Third edition of NDR’s limited 12’’ various artist releases on the occasion of the label’s 2025 Japan tour. In addition to NDR owner and regular Juergen Vonbank, the record brings new faces to the label in the form of the Luxembourg duo Nothing in Common, Salzburg’s markmechanik and Berlin’s Tresor resident LNS.

Following the release of Ghibli Jazz and Ghibli Reggae comes a brand new compilation of Ghibli covers from underground hip-hop producer Grey October Sounds.
Lofi Ghibli is the definitive Ghibli cover album - a 10-track record containing covers of Carrying You (Castle in the Sky), a Town with an Ocean View (Kiki’s Delivery Service),
Yasashisa Ni Tsutsumareta Nara (Kiki’s Delivery Service), and other iconic Ghibli songs. Grey October Sounds’ deft production takes classic Ghibli melodies and melds them
with hip-hop instrumentation, adding an all new dimension of chill to Joe Hisaishi’s compositions. With homages to both Ghibli and the aesthetics of lo-fi hip-hop, the artwork
by illustrious illustrator Rika Nagatani is the cutest thing to ever grace P-VINE’s catalog! With one of our iconic obi-strips attached, this is sure to be one for the collectors!
So put this on your turntable, take a deep breath, and chill out.

A deep excavation from the archives of Italy’s electronic vanguard, Navigators finds Franco Falsini—founder of the seminal Interactive Test label—charting bold, genre-defying territory at the dawn of the internet era. Created in 1997 with an Amiga Tracker interfaced via MIDI to Roland samplers, the EP reflects a hands-on, forward-thinking production approach that sidestepped industry norms of the time.

Named after Netscape’s iconic browser, Navigators is imbued with the spirit of early digital exploration. Ethereal vocals from Ashram’s Bettina and Ilaria Ciampolini drift through intricate, off-grid arrangements, while contributions from Riccardo Falsini, Ubj, and Atma Lai add rich, unconventional textures. The result is a collection that resists simple classification, bridging ambient, trance, and proto-techno with a distinctly Italian sense of depth and atmosphere.

Tremendo Recordings proudly reintroduces this timeless work—unmistakably personal, quietly radical, and ahead of its time.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

oulette - GO! (2025) | Melodic Rock at Its Finest!
Roulette is back, delivering another AOR/Melodic Rock milestone with their highly anticipated full-length album, "GO!" Featuring 10 brand-new
songs, this release follows the critically acclaimed "Now!" (2019) and continues the band's remarkable musical evolution.
Their recent EP "From Now Until Today" (2024) showcased their ability to develop their songwriting while staying true to their roots. Now, "GO!"
takes that journey even further.
"We have connected to our roots of Thin Lizzy, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, and Van Halen," says bass player Hansi Fellbrink.
Expect powerful melodies, soaring vocals, electrifying guitar riffs, and a pounding rhythm section-everything that defines Roulette's signature
sound.
Following the massive success of their latest single, "Love's The Drug"-which has dominated the Swedish charts for over 7 months-"GO!" is set to
raise the bar even higher.
And with their reputation for extraordinary live performances, Roulette will bring their energy to the stage with several live shows, including an
exciting tour in Spain this October (2025).

Sounds like: Def Leppard, Journey, Europe oder Foreigner!

oulette - GO! (2025) | Melodic Rock at Its Finest!
Roulette is back, delivering another AOR/Melodic Rock milestone with their highly anticipated full-length album, "GO!" Featuring 10 brand-new
songs, this release follows the critically acclaimed "Now!" (2019) and continues the band's remarkable musical evolution.
Their recent EP "From Now Until Today" (2024) showcased their ability to develop their songwriting while staying true to their roots. Now, "GO!"
takes that journey even further.
"We have connected to our roots of Thin Lizzy, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, and Van Halen," says bass player Hansi Fellbrink.
Expect powerful melodies, soaring vocals, electrifying guitar riffs, and a pounding rhythm section-everything that defines Roulette's signature
sound.
Following the massive success of their latest single, "Love's The Drug"-which has dominated the Swedish charts for over 7 months-"GO!" is set to
raise the bar even higher.
And with their reputation for extraordinary live performances, Roulette will bring their energy to the stage with several live shows, including an
exciting tour in Spain this October (2025).

Sounds like: Def Leppard, Journey, Europe oder Foreigner!

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Named after the old district where Jesse lived during one of the most vibrant years of his life, La Pavonia EP captures the warmth, unpredictability, and deep musical curiosity that define him. Drawing from memories of joy, love, and discovery—and echoing the floral name linked to Runas' Spanish roots—the EP unfolds across four distinctive cuts.

“Crystal Swamp” opens the journey with eerie pads, buzzing synths, and a groove shaped by introspective winter days. “Body Blaster” follows with a raw, body-moving rhythm, born from a shift between Electro and Progressive moods and anchored by a punchy TX-81Z bassline. On the flip, “Warp” plays with imperfection and transformation, turning a single synth and stretched percussion sample into something strangely human. The EP closes with a remix of “Warp” by Belgian-Peruvian producer DC Salas who transforms Warp into a slow-burning, groove-heavy trip, layering thick basslines, subtle percussive shifts, and a progressive pulse. It's a hypnotic rework that keeps the original’s raw textures while opening it up for late-night floors and deeper moments.

Nihilistic Easyrider ist das geistige Kind von Narrow Head-Frontmann Jacob Duarte - aber täuschen Sie sich nicht, er geht nicht solo. DELUXE EDITION ist eine Art Mixtape, eine Sammlung von Songs, die zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten in Duartes Karriere geschrieben wurden. Diese Songs umfassen ein breites Spektrum an stilistischen Referenzen, von zuckersüßem Y2K-Emo und jungem, dummen und poplastigem Punk Punk bis hin zu sowjetischem Fuzz-getriebenem Alt und reinem Evan Dando-Core Vers-Refrain-Vers-Refrain-fertig Pop-Rock. Zum Leben erweckt von einer Reihe von Charakteren, darunter Narrow Head-Schlagzeuger Carson Wilcox, Produzent (und ehemaliger Tourkollege) Graham Hunt und Features von Momma's Allegra Weingarten und Ella Friedman, bietet dieses Debütalbum dennoch meisterhaft ausgefeilten und mit Hooks gespickten Interpretationen von Duartes charakteristischer Songwriting-Ästhetik. Diese Songs waten in derselben Unordnung aus romantischen Fehlschlägen und verbrannten Gehirnsynapsen, die langjährige Narrow Head-Hörer kennen und lieben gelernt haben, nur aus einer anderen, neuen Perspektive. Duartes Geschichten über Einsamkeit, Vorfreude und die verworrenen Komplexitäten des Lebens in Songs wie ,Getaway Plan" und ,Well Kept Secret" werden von einer lebendigen Begleitband aus dröhnenden Synthesizer-Klängen, Bar-Piano-Stichen, rasselnden Akustikgitarren und tribal-tat-codierter Record-Scratch-Ästhetik umrahmt, die subtil sowohl an die härtesten Momente von Incubus als auch an die sanftesten von Deftones anknüpft. Mit DELUXE EDITION liefert Duarte uns tagebuchartige Vignetten eines Lebens in ständiger Bewegung und bietet einen eher introspektiven Einblick in die Gedankenwelt eines Songwriters, dessen Leben sich um die Bühne dreht, aber letztlich anderswo stattfindet. Für Jacob sind "die Songs von Nihilistic Easyrider näher an der Musik, die ich schon immer machen wollte, als ich aufwuchs, sagt er, "ein persönliches Tagebuch des Erwachsenwerdens durch Musik."

When you’re immersed into something you never actually realize if the essence will project as bright as the efforts, as deep as the process and as loud as the intentions. WOW, the Roma Est duo of China and Leo Non, have never had to create magic or delve into mystique along their meandering path, it’s just been a long solemn wait for what life throws at them and actually sticks. Cause and reaction, because the essence is quietly there when the clamour fades away. Their new album ‘Rosa di Luce’ is as pure as they come, a crystalline documentation of a new family, new meanings and new languages where the only rule is to gently adapt and just let things flow.

Welcoming Mina Wow, a tiny creature, into the fold was never going to be easy for a life lead on the road and for a band as radical as WOW where nothing is sugar-coated or constructed behind the scene, a different approach was desperately wanted, needed and searched. Almost total disarm, doing the small things, undress, get rid of the unnecessary feedback. That’s why ‘Rosa di Luce’ more than ever showcases WOW’s other-worldy spectral capability of creating songs that contain immense and minimal emotions, raw but welcoming, sincere but cutting and could play out to be a career defining album. Loosely recorded between their house in Rome and a campsite in Southern Puglia (where WOW organizes their yearly Shawala Festival) these songs are masqued my a minimalist entendre that leaves space for China’s stellar vocal delivery, a haunted range with frequencies to tickle a soul and pierce hearts, with Leo’s resolute guitar playing leading a timeless revolution.

The center-piece ‘Le Montagne E Noi’ is a perfect example of their stripped-back nakedness hiding complex arrangements (the beautiful sax played by Ryan Spring Dooley and celestial flutes by Alessandra Lazzarini) that sound effortless and imperative. Spiritual orchestrations that match our times and most importantly their new family and definition of space. Peaks that can always be reached, forests that need crossing (La Radura) in order to find a sound. There is no pretension or conceit to WOW’s style, it is entrancingly vibrant yet melancholy, taking notes from the most visceral strand of Italian traditional music, yet, still, walking down a trail that is very much their own. A planet where Branko Mataja and Alice Coltrane are backed by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru and Mina on a perennial quest for the ethereal. Music to remember the essence, this is what we are, like the ocean. “

Strut now present a new single vinyl reissue of Vambe"s privately pressed original album from 1982, Drumgita Solo. A self-taught drummer, inventor, and sonic experimentalist, Vambe is a unique figure in British music. The creator of his own instrument, the drumgita (pronounced "drum-guitar") or string-drum, Vambe intended to create a kind of music that had never been made in order to pursue access to the fourth dimension. The album plays with time, mixing hypnotic, trance-like drumgita pieces with the same segments played backwards. You can hear echoes of African drumming traditions, minimalist repetition, and tape-manipulated musique concrète - but ultimately, the album defies genre. It is a solitary voyage, spiritual and futuristic.

Joe Bonamassas Album Had To Cry Today aus dem Jahr 2004 jetzt im neuen Look. Erhältlich in limitierter Auflage auf blauem Vinyl. Diese von den Fans geliebte Veröffentlichung zeigt Bonamassa an einem entscheidenden Punkt seiner Karriere, indem er brennende Blues-Rock-Riffs mit tiefem Soul und Vintage-Sounds mischt, alles verpackt in einer rohen, emotionsgeladenen Performance.
Diese Wiederveröffentlichung auf blauem 180g-Vinyl erweckt ein Album zu neuem Leben, das den modernen Blues für eine neue Generation definiert hat. Mit herausragenden Tracks wie „Never Make Your Move Too Soon“, „Reconsider Baby“ und dem explosiven Titeltrack „Had To Cry Today“ ist diese Ausgabe sowohl optisch als auch klanglich ein Genuss.

Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God"s World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album"s infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances.

Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God"s World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album"s infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances.

Following their rattling 45 Cry / I’ll Be There Now and the wiry full-length My Mother Was a Friend of an Enemy of the People, Blurt returns to All City with Mecanno Giraffe - a new 12" capturing Ted Milton’s band of beat-punk absurdists in full, surreal stride.

The A-side delivers the title track: Mecanno Giraffe, a spiky, off-kilter groove threaded with Milton’s unmistakable bark, rhythmic sax blurts, and angular momentum that feels both mechanical and oddly animal. It’s Blurt as alwaya: driving, dry-witted, and defiantly out of sync with any prevailing trends.

On the flip, Milton shifts gear with a number of spoken word pieces. Stripped bare, intimate, incantatory. More Artaud than Allen, these pieces reveal another facet of Blurt’s singular frontman, echoing threads found in recent interviews tracing his ongoing collision of poetry, punk, and performance.

Third strike on the label and still no sign of softening. Mecanno Giraffe proves that Blurt still remains gloriously out of step, part animal, part machine!.

Demon Records Single Club are delighted to present a reissue of
Shaun Escoffery’s club anthem Days Like This.
Originally released in 2002, Days Like This is a classic by the very
definition of the word. Days Like This was Shaun’s second single and itwent on to cement his place as one of the most exciting British artists to emerge in Soulful House.
Remastered by Phil Kinrade at Alchemy Mastering and now featuring
mixes from K-Klass and Spen & Karizma and, for the very first time,
we’re releasing MJ Cole’s majestic mix of Shaun’s debut single Space
Rider. Appearing on vinyl for the first time!

A long-lost Japanese acid folk gem, Niningashi’s 1974 private press debut Heavy Way shimmers with originality, deft song writing and a dream-like groove.

Although he was training as a pharmacist, Kazuhisa Okubo was much more interested in prescribing musical medicine.
A coming-of-age album, Heavy Way captured a turning point in Okubo’s life, and Japanese society more widely as a nostalgia for the pastoral calm of the traditional life, met the cosmopolitan thrill of coffee, sex and cigarettes in the big city.
Intoxicated by Tokyo, driven by a passion for music and surrounded by a thriving acid folk scene, the young student filtered his experiences through a psychedelic cocktail of soulful influences from the US and Japan.
Niningashi was his first band, and Heavy Way was their only album. It was honest and raw, deep and strangely funky, in an off-beat kind of way. Across nine tracks, Okubo and the 6-piece band put their own spin on the new folk sound of Japan, combining witty lyrics with electric guitar-driven solos and crisp, understated grooves.

Melancholy and profound, opening track ‘Ameagari’ feels like a synthesis of Harvest-era Neil Young and Haruomi Hosono’s Happy End. Then there’s the whimsical washboard country sound of ‘Semai Boku No Heyade’; the moody, low-lit charm of ‘Restaurant’; and ‘Hitoribotchi’, a sensitive portrayal of childhood, steeped in memories of rainfall that will resonate with fans of Woo and Mac Demarco.
While Okubo would go on to taste success with psychedelic folk bands Neko and Kaze, the latter of which scored three #1 albums, little is known about his mysterious debut with Niningashi.
Self-released by Okubo in 1974, and featuring album artwork by his brother, it has slowly generated a cult following online, intrigued by its soft and enchanting sound. So few records were ultimately pressed that those remaining have fetched up to £1,500 online.

Featured on Time Capsule’s era-spanning collection Nippon Acid Folk, Niningashi’s Heavy Way is a deep-cut grail of a vibrant time in Japan’s musical history, where even the pharmacists were making jams.

2025 Repress

Kid Katana Records teamed up once again with DON’T NOD to release Lost Records: Bloom & Rage OST on vinyl.



This album accompanies the adventure of four teenage girls between 1995 and 2022, in the seemingly sleepy little town of Velvet Cove, Michigan.


With their growing friendship embodied by their punk band, music plays a key role in both the story and gameplay. In terms of music, this 18-track OST features different genres: dream pop, ambient, and punk, featuring an incredible lineup of artists and several songs with vocals: Ruth Radelet – former Chromatics front singer, Milk & Bone – acclaimed Canadian electropop duo, Nora Kelly Band – fresh Canadian alt-country / punk band.



This roster defines a dreamy and ethereal soundscape resonating with the 90s nostalgia and the Super 8 aesthetics of the game.

The physical edition is a 2LP designed in close relationship with the game studio:


- 2 colored vinyls: transparent pink & blue, matching the cover art.
- gatefold art: featuring exclusive in-game graphics
- teenage punk poster: nod to the game’s rebellious spirit & characters
- liner notes: giving insights from the game’s creative team and featured artists

This one is very special! Last time the Dusty Donuts DJ Squad got invited down to play in Skopje/ North-Macedonia we all got together in the Studio of the undisputed South Balkan King to cook up some magic. DJ Goce had the whole team including his DJ brother Chvare in the control room and ideas were sparking. Marc came up with a very unique twist on this def joint. Straight Brown Sugar Brooklyn flavours on this one to make bootys shake around the world. The flip stays in Brooklyn, DJ Chvare hooked us up with this special masala as the notorious combination and arrangement of spaced out US-Indian Funk combined with heavy weight Brooklyn Beats will make it into any 45 DJs box.

This one is very special! Last time the Dusty Donuts DJ Squad got invited down to play in Skopje/ North-Macedonia we all got together in the Studio of the undisputed South Balkan King to cook up some magic. DJ Goce had the whole team including his DJ brother Chvare in the control room and ideas were sparking. Marc came up with a very unique twist on this def joint. Straight Brown Sugar Brooklyn flavours on this one to make bootys shake around the world. The flip stays in Brooklyn, DJ Chvare hooked us up with this special masala as the notorious combination and arrangement of spaced out US-Indian Funk combined with heavy weight Brooklyn Beats will make it into any 45 DJs box.

Nubiyan Twist present NT Soundsystem - Dubplate Inferno, a new 9 track album reimagining tracks from their critically acclaimed album ‘Find Your Flame’, transforming them into bass-heavy, dub-infused dancefloor killers. Produced by band leader Tom Excell alongside singer Aziza Jaye, the remixes channel the raw energy of the band’s live performances, blending their signature fusion of jazz, afrobeat, soul, and reggae with the gritty, immersive sound of traditional UK soundsystem culture.

The album features some extra guests on vocals, legendary MC Horseman appears on a drum & bass version of ‘Battle Isn’t Over’ whilst newcomer SkillFul Kxng from Kingston, Jamaica, breathes some Dancehall fire on ‘Woman’, adding to contributions from the original record including Seun Kuti, Mamani Keita & NEONE the Wonderer.

This project is a celebration of collective musical innovation, paying homage to the UK’s rich soundsystem heritage while pushing boundaries with their genre-defying style.

Nubiyan Twist have built up a name as one of the forerunners of the UK Jazz scene, fusing together global grooves, soul and jazz; intertwined with electronic elements, horn-led melodies and spontaneous improvisation.

The influence of soundsystem culture has been ever present in their music, from dub sessions the band used to attend in Leeds to jungle raves of East Anglia in the 2000’s. Band Leader Tom Excell has a history of DJing and producing dance music, including with reggae side-project Chief Rockas, working with reggae giants such as Super Cat, Luciano & Turbulence.

Nubiyan Twist’s lead singer Aziza Jaye was born of Jamaican heritage and has grown up around soundsystem culture, boasting an incredibly versatile vocal style and large catalog of work alongside a plethora of producers, including recent work with Mungo’s Hi-Fi.

DJ Haram's debut album “Beside Myself” is about the survival of the spirit in day to day struggle. Following on from her collaboration with Moor Mother as 700 Bliss on “Nothing to Declare”, here she is joined by a swarm of collaborators, collectively navigating pain and rage, and in occasional moments of joyful respite, mocking the strife. Haram describes herself as a “multidisciplinary propagandist, contemporary anti-authoritarian Arab, gendered labor class, god fearing atheist” who makes “anti-format, audio propaganda, anti-lifestyle, immersive sonics”. Her music attests to this, as she brings in friends and collaborators, from MC's Armand Hammer, Bbymutha, SHA RAY, Moor Mother, and Dakn, through to co-producers August Fanon, Egyptian producer El Kontessa, and Jersey Club producer Kay Drizz, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, and guitarist Abdul Hakim Bilal. It's immediately identifiable as her work, but simultaneously unclassifiable, finding equal space in its dusty live production for Jersey Club, punk noise, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Percussion, synths, 808's and lurking, rumbling bass. Often central to this is her own performance of unflinching sorrowful verses, comparable to the poets Audrey Lorde or Ai in tone and Kim Gordon in context, examining the material and the abstract in equal measure. Her grungy futurism offers no easy resolutions, yet the drama and catharsis it presents is rarely so defiantly delivered.

2025 Repress

Hector Couto joins Cécille Records this summer for the heavy hitting ‘Hot Stuff’ EP, comprising one collaboration with Alejandro Paz and three solo jams.

Spain’s Hector Couto has long been at the forefront of the underground house scene now, since the early 2000’s he’s racked up releases on Hot Creations, BPitch, Defected, Solä, Saved, ElRow and of course his own Roush among others. Here we see Couto add another reputed label to his affiliations, namely Nick Curly and Marc Scholl’s Cécille, the powerhouse German label that’s also been a staple platform in the scene since the early 2000’s.

Opening up the EP is a special collaboration that’s already been causing a stir across South America, Alejandro Paz’s original vocal of ‘El House’ was released on the beloved Cómeme 12 years ago and became a cult classic. Here Hector revisits it, stirring in the vocal alongside his own robust, stripped-back house style. ‘Cami’s House’ follows with vacillating sub bass tones, shuffled snares, crisp percussion and resonant flutters running
alongside dubbed out chords and hypnotic vocal hooks. Opening the B-Side is ‘Hot Stuff’ , leaning into a more filter-house aesthetic with sweeping, choppy soul samples and swinging drums before ‘Red Velvet’ concludes the release, laying down funk-infused guitar licks, organic percussive grooves, bulbous low-end tones and twitchy synth stabs.

Nicola Conte once again expands the boundaries of his creativity through a joint venture created with fellow Bari-based and rising to international fame producer Nico Lahs. A connection rooted in an artistic synergy melting leftfield dance music and live organic sounds. This new project is set to make waves in 2025.

Stylistically, Tema Due is defined by a sophisticated, elegant approach to dance music, tailor-made for discerning club environments. Anchored in Afro-jazz percussion, the sound naturally evolves into electronic territory through an irresistible groove. The compositions are richly layered yet deceptively simple: on “Macumba De Oxalá” - whose title alone evokes trance-like states and cathartic release - voices and instruments gradually emerge, each at their own pace, building toward an increasingly hypnotic and immersive crescendo.

“La Danse de l’Esprit” unfolds in a similar fashion and features four special guests who bring an exotic, textured feel to the track: Dario Bassolino on electric piano, Magnus Lindgren on flute, Abdissa Assefa on percussion, and Lalin St. Juste on vocals.

This “EP1” is just the beginning. A second 12” and a full-length double LP are set to follow by autumn-glistening gems for lovers of the most refined electronic Afro-jazz for the dancefloor.

Eines wollen die Forth Wanderers vor der Veröffentlichung ihres dritten Albums "The Longer This Goes On" klarstellen: "Wir sind nicht zurück", sagt Gitarrist Ben Guterl mit Nachdruck. Das ist vielleicht eine unerwartete Aussage für das erste Album der Band seit ihrer Trennung vor sieben Jahren, aber die Band besteht darauf, dass es eine ehrliche Antwort ist - sie haben sich zusammengefunden, um die zehn kompliziert konstruierten Perlen aufzunehmen, die dieses neue Album ausmachen, und sie sind immer noch dabei herauszufinden, was es für sie bedeutet, in Forth Wanderers zu sein. Wenn man sich diese Songs anhört, von denen jeder einzelne ein glitzerndes Fest der eindringlichen und intuitiven Texte von Sängerin Ava Trilling und der natürlichen musikalischen Chemie der Band ist, hat man allerdings kaum das Gefühl, dass irgendetwas ungesagt bleibt. Das Album ist voller glänzender Melodien, klingender Gesangsharmonien und schlüpfriger, schräger Rhythmen und ist mehr als nur eine Rückkehr zur alten Form. Die Band scheut sich nicht, den Umweg über eine Hook zu gehen, indem sie instrumentale Schnörkel übereinander legt, um die leeren Stellen zu füllen, Raum für Trillings eindringliche Stimme zu schaffen oder ein Riff oder einen Text zu wiederholen, bis er zu einem Zen-Koan wird. Auf "The Longer This Goes On" klingen Forth Wanderers selbstbewusster und selbstsicherer als je zuvor. Man sollte es nur nicht als Comeback bezeichnen. Der Weg zu "The Longer This Goes On" begann im Sommer 2021 in einem Café in Brooklyn. Dort trafen sich Guterl und Trilling zum ersten Mal seit der Auflösung der Forth Wanderers im Jahr 2018. Die drei Jahre, die sie voneinander getrennt waren, hatten den Druck, den die Band während der Tourneen mit ihrer früheren Musik verspürte, teilweise abgebaut: "Wir fühlten uns alle frei, herumzualbern und Spaß zu haben", sagt Guterl. Die Wiedervereinigung mit dem Bassisten Noah Schifrin, dem Gitarristen Duke Greene und dem Schlagzeuger Zach Lorelli führte dazu, dass sich das Spielen so gut anfühlte, wie seit der Gründung der Band nicht mehr. "Es fühlte sich an, als wären wir wieder in der High School". Die Band hat die Art und Weise, wie sie bisher gearbeitet hat, neu definiert. "Dies ist das erste Mal, dass ein Großteil der Musik organisch entstanden ist", erklärt Schifrin. "Alle fünf von uns haben wirklich auf eine Art und Weise zum Schreibprozess beigetragen, wie wir es in der Vergangenheit nicht getan haben", fügte Guterl hinzu. Das daraus resultierende Album, das unter dem wachsamen Auge von Dan Howard produziert wurde, zeigt die Band so präsent und unbelastet, wie sie ihren Sound zum ersten Mal in Echtzeit geschaffen hat. Die Texte sind vollgepackt mit Bekenntnissen, die so breit gefächert sind, dass sich jeder, der sich in den Wirren einer unsicheren romantischen Vorhölle verirrt hat, verstanden fühlt, und doch so präzise geschrieben, dass sie eindeutig aus eigener Erfahrung stammen müssen. Das ist genau das, was Forth Wanderers sowohl so universell nachvollziehbar als auch so speziell macht. Auf "The Longer This Goes On" haben sie diese Fähigkeit, mit minimalistischen Texten und üppiger Instrumentierung an den starken Fäden der romantischen Langeweile zu ziehen, noch vertieft. Forth Wanderers sind sich nicht sicher, was als Nächstes kommt - sie wissen nicht, ob sie weiterhin neue Musik aufnehmen werden oder ob sie diese Songs jemals live aufführen werden. Diese Aufnahmen sind also zehn flüchtige, aber unschätzbare Eindrücke aus der Zeit, die sie als Band verbracht haben; das Wiederaufleben von Freundschaften zwischen Highschool-Kumpels, deren Träume sie ins Rampenlicht katapultiert haben, bevor sie alt genug waren, um Auto zu fahren; Songs, die die Ungewissheit der Zukunft ebenso einfangen wie ihre Musik ihr eigenes Selbstvertrauen in der Gegenwart zementiert. Auf "The Longer This Goes On" machen die Forth Wanderers Musik zu ihren eigenen Bedingungen.