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DevilDuck wagt sich in neue Gefilde vor! WISENT heißt die bisher "härteste" Band im Label-Kontext und sicher liegt man mit dem Genre "PostHardcore" bei dem Quartett aus Leipzig ziemlich richtig. Allerdings mutet nicht nur das Genre etwas ungewöhnlich für das Hamburger Label an, sondern auch die Tatsache, dass es das erste Konzeptalbum einer Band auf DevilDuck ist. "The Acceptance. The Sorrow" heißt das recht ambitionierte Debütalbum der aus dem irischen Sänger Stephen Lyons, dem Bassisten Morris Duff, dem Gitarristen Mathias Bauer und dem Drummer Oliver Ruß bestehenden Band. "The Acceptance. The Sorrow" ist nicht nur musikalisch ein recht harter Brocken voller Kummer und Reflexion über viele vergangene Ereignisse und Gedanken, aber auch über die Hoffnung, die weiter in uns und den Menschen um uns herum herrscht, ohne die das Leben einfach unerträglich scheinen würde.

In August 2020, following some typical delays at the plant, Fourth Dimension Records released the limited edition 2LP (and now sold out) set of Kleistwahr's This World Is Not My Home and Over Your Heads Forever albums, originally released by the same label in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Packaged together in a single sleeve with printed inners reproducing all the artwork found on the original CDs, the 2LP was always designed to represent the first volume in a series of them. This next volume gathers everything on the next two albums, Down But Defiant Yet and Acceptance is Not Respect, both also initially released on CD in, respectively, 2017 and 2018, and presented in the exact same way. 2017's long sold out at source album, Down But Defiant Yet, collects four lengthy cuts which catch Gary Mundy (also known for Ramleh, Breathless and Broken Flag Records) furrowing his distinct and recognisable take on a kinda contemporary psychedelia with dystopian leanings. Each piece nods towards the fug generated by certain ‘krautrock’ groups whilst retaining threads of those uncompromising power-noise surges he built his reputation on, this is music guaranteed to take you to new spaces before forcing you to nervously look over your shoulder. 2018's Acceptance is Not Respect collects two lengthy pieces themselves broken down into seven parts often tempered to the point restraint assumes new, often disturbed (and disturbing) psychedelic or even filmic, properties, this music arrives like a spitting and foaming scream into the insanity of the void and the myriad challenges and questions it inexorably keeps hurling at us. Whereas Ramleh captures the sound of at least two people dealing as best they know how with the constantly rising rivers of shit around us, Kleistwahr is akin to one man having scaled a great height poking out of an infinite chasm and wondering why he bothered. This is uneasy listening sometimes renderedvirtually elegiac by dint of a prowess rarely found in such realms. Of this, Gary himself quite prophetically, in light of how events have shaped the world since said, “I was trying to make the music more spiritual sounding this time as the album is about belief. The first half is about personal and political belief and the second half about religious belief. I was wondering about whether in the 21st Century, you can seriously get anyone to completely change their beliefs and [am] asking is there anything you believe that you would be willing to die for, and the difference between the way that most beliefs have been accepted/tolerated and [are] supposedly respected in recent times in [the UK]. Now our society is starting to break down, it becomes clear that that acceptance tends not to actually be the same thing as respect at all.”

New Zealand-based, award-winning duo TRUTH are champions of contemporary dubstep. Back with their first studio album in over 4 years, TRUTH unveil the second and final single taken from Acceptance. The mystical title track from the LP “Acceptance” is due for release Friday, July 2 via Deep Dark & Dangerous.

Following a long, quarantined year and a string of heavily-trafficked Twitch streams, TRUTH is now back in full effect with ‘Acceptance’ - their 5th album. Combining their razor sharp synchronization and innovative flair, this 13-track opus is a dreamlike journey through lush basslines, eerie rhythms, and vintage synths. At the heels of “Pages,” the widely-celebrated lead single from the album, TRUTH unveils the album’s namesake and title track “Acceptance.” A brilliant follow up to its predecessor, “Acceptance” is at once technical, ethereal, and deeply affecting. A psychedelic musing that encompasses the kaleidoscope fractals of sound that make up the album, “Acceptance” is a cornerstone of the project it belongs to.

The 'Stages of Grief' series made up one of the inaugural releases on the newly launched Vaknar label, back in 2018.

3 years later, the series comes to an end via its third and final iteration, ‘Acceptance’, which is presented via 2 parts, containing compositions by both, old and new label affiliates and friends.



As the curtains draw on one stage, a new light might be shining somewhere else, and we are reminded that with every ending, there is always a beginning. Thus, hopefully this final segment will let us review these arduous and tumultuous previous months through a forward seeking gaze, accepting the weight of the past, while embracing the virtues of tomorrow.

This is part two of ‘Acceptance’.

Dub inna electro sweet style !

Esencia is proud to present Forgotten Ones, the new album from London based quintet Culross Close. The album opens with 'Fractured', a cosmic musing carried delicately by electric piano and decorated with a synthesized dalliance. The album then cruises into 'Forgotten Ones', a spiritual made potent by their choral-esque vocals by far their most accomplished piece to date.

'Acceptance' finds the quintet in familiar hip-hop territory, carving out a top tier groove with a recurring piano motif of the highest order. Their vocals, this time more chant than choral makes for a brilliant 5-minute mantra.

'Mood' is a stark contrast to anything else on the album, an acidic and rugged illustration of the group's present state. 'The Tiniest Lights Still Shine' is a syncopated excursion in 5/4 time. With an electrifying percussion solo, this will be the song that finds its way onto the dance-floor. 'Healing' is a percussion heavy journey, draped in synthesizers and style, embodying elements of 70's fusion and bossa-nova, a perfect closer to the album.

1 x LP Full Colour Sleeve, shrinkwrapped

Joanne Forman's Cave Vaults of the Moon created in 1987 for an exhibit of sculptures in Taos, New Mexico is a mesmerizing score for voice, Ensoniq Mirage, Juno 106, flute, guitar and effects. The playful extra-terrestrial recording wafted through the exhibit every day for its duration and then lay dormant for nearly 30 years. Unearthed now, Cave Vaults of the Moon sounds prescient and timeless, as if Pep Llopis and Iasos scored a Wicker Man remake set on Mars. Restored, remastered and cut using DMM.
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We humans, the nascent beings that we are, still haven't quite figured out the full potential of music. Dancing, meditating, emoting, protesting, these are all pretty basic. But what if we communicated more complex ideas with music What if we codified all of our activities with music This idea came to composer Joanne Forman
when commissioned in 1987 to create the soundscape for an environmental exhibition of sculpture called Artifacts from an Alien Civilization in Taos, New Mexico. The sculptures, elaborate ruins that had been found on the moon, begged the question: who created them and for what purpose

Joanne Forman imagined that Earth's moon was a vacation spot for advanced beings from another galaxy. In her mind, the sculptures in the exhibit were the remnants of a deserted playground. Cave Vaults of the Moon became a collection of sonic texts describing the recreational activities that went on there, earth-viewing, collecting information, building and playing.

Kicking off Vivod's new pheasant series and making their debut on the label, UNI.OMNI are a Glaswegian duo comprising of MWX and Wave Energy Converter. Inspired by feelings of duality and the unpredictability of our dynamic world, UNI.OMNI respond with challenging dark electronic notes, driven vocals and expansive percussive backdrops. Their tracks emit contradictory feelings of chaos and calm, motion and stillness, frustration and excitement, whilst using the energy and turmoil of big city life as motivation for their first EP. "Acceptance Resistance" kicks things off with an experimental, cavernous foray that shifts to the rhythmic, subliminal undertones of "Metaphysical Lives". Both "Sequential Self" and "Viral Dread" are attuned to empowerment, exacerbated by the strains of the modern world, with strong vocals reiterating the need for resilience in the forgotten generation.

The premiere soundtrack release to Peter Weir's 1977 Australian New Wave classic.
Lost electronic score from the enigmatic composer Charles Wain.
12-track LP sourced from the original stereo master tapes.t.
180g vinyl and deluxe packaging including archival film stills and original press material

The Last Wave (also known as Black Rain in the US) was the final chapter in a trilogy of films scripted and directed by the leading auteur of the Australian New Wave, Peter Weir.

Beginning in 1974 with the absurdist black comedy-horror The Cars That Ate Paris, and followed a year later by the lush gothic mystery Picnic At Hanging Rock, The Last Wave was a landmark in existential horror. Sitting alongside other Australian eco-terror films (e.g. Long Weekend) the film featured a haunting electronic soundtrack that is as mysterious and beguiling as the spiritual themes of the film itself.

With no LP issued after the films premiere in 1977, and together with the mystery surrounding the true identity of its enigmatic composer 'Charles Wain', the score is a largely unheard recording of pioneering experimental film electronics, easily compared to the music that contemporaries Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream were composing for Australian films during the same period or the electronic soundtracks of John Carpenter.

Tense atonal electronics, synthesizer drones and manipulated Didjeridu all perfectly capture the film's ominous atmosphere, punctuating the slow hypnotic pace of this brooding supernatural thriller. The Last Wave soundtrack is released in conjunction with the lost film music to Nicolas Roeg's 1971 New Wave masterpiece Walkabout composed by John Barry.

For his new full-length on Second End Records, Lyon-based artist Jonnnah turns deeply inward. Conceived as a form of therapy, as much as a reflection and a testimony, the record retraces a process of introspection and confrontation with one’s own history, looking back at origins, DNA, and the invisible ties that connect us to our ancestors, while opening paths toward new connections.

The double-sided structure of the album makes this journey tangible. The first side lingers in uncertainty : opaque atmospheres, fragmented rhythms, and restless textures mirror the doubts, questions, and fragile states of self-analysis. The second side, in contrast, embraces clarity and resolution, dense yet luminous soundscapes where reconciliation and acceptance take shape, culminating in The Blue Comet, a piece charged with finality and revelation.

Opening with the multipart suite N-zero, symbolizing the beginning of therapy, and closing with O-one, evoking the soul’s original purity, the record traces a complete emotional and spiritual cycle. Between them, the third edition of Insomnia Never Ends once again portrays the struggle between sleep and the irresistible pull of musical distraction, a fragile tension that runs through the album as a whole.

The record condenses Jonnnah’s language into something rawer and more direct. Layers of dub and dub sonic resonate against ethereal ambient passages, while techno impulses maintain tension and forward motion. Each piece feels at once intimate and expansive, designed as much for solitary listening as for collective experience.

A new chapter in Jonnnah’s trajectory, the album is a document of transformation : from shadow to light, from questioning to acceptance.

On 27 March, fabric Originals presents Shō, a five track EP of introspective, transcendent electronics from Japanese techno icon DJ Nobu. Inspired by the Buddhist Brahmavihāras - joy, compassion, loving-kindness and equanimity - Shō unfolds as a meditative, emotional journey rooted in Nobu’s experiences of Tokyo, mindfulness and inner clarity. From kinetic renewal to serene minimalism, the EP channels presence, acceptance and the simple truth that breathing itself is living.

Each track on ‘Shō’ marks a step in an emotional and spiritual journey, channelling the foundational virtues of the Brahmavihāras, which are the four ‘Sublime States’ of Buddhist practice: ‘Muditā’ (joy), ‘Karuṇā’ (compassion), ‘Mettā’ (loving-kindness), and ‘Upekkhā’ (equanimity). Together these principles form a path towards an open, boundless heart, which is mirrored in the EP’s unfolding sonic narrative.

“In recent years I became overly sensitive to my surroundings and society, finding myself strongly affected by every daily occurrence. It was during this time that I discovered meditation. And beyond that lay Buddhism. Through this, my sensibilities became able to express themselves more naturally. I decided to portray my feelings, and the scenery in Tokyo, conveying what I was experiencing in real-time, as music.

The EP title ‘Shō’ denotes views, thoughts, and actions aligned with Buddhist truth, and encapsulates my striving for presence, clarity, and acceptance. It also represents the conscious, mindful understanding that simply breathing is living.” DJ Nobu

This is her first album in five years, she returns with a renewed sense of clarity and control, asserting herself as a generational songwriter with a sharpened perspective. While her early work chronicled the emotional turbulence of young love, Ricochet reveals a deeper fixation: time, mortality, and the quiet terror of watching the things you love slip away. The album"s 11 songs are steeped in introspection, anxiety, and acceptance - an acknowledgment that the world keeps turning regardless of what"s unfolding in your own small orbit.

This is her first album in five years, she returns with a renewed sense of clarity and control, asserting herself as a generational songwriter with a sharpened perspective. While her early work chronicled the emotional turbulence of young love, Ricochet reveals a deeper fixation: time, mortality, and the quiet terror of watching the things you love slip away. The album"s 11 songs are steeped in introspection, anxiety, and acceptance - an acknowledgment that the world keeps turning regardless of what"s unfolding in your own small orbit.

REPRESS ON SILVER VINYL . COMES WITH 24”x24” POSTER + DOWNLOAD CARD + GATEFOLD JACKET.


On The Beths’ album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun -- to hear, to play -- in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) -- and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am -- toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.

Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”

The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.

Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been.

Bristol experimental band SUGAR HORSE are delighted to announce that their third album, Not A Sound In Heaven, will be released on 10th April 2026 via Fat Dracula Records.

To celebrate the news, the band are sharing the bruising lead single ‘Secret Speech’, available to stream on all good digital service providers from 12th February 2026.

Also announced today are a run of April 2026 UK album headline tour dates and an appearance at StrangeForms Festival 2026, with tickets on sale now (see below for full listings).

“We are fortunate enough to live in what is generally known as ‘The West’,” says front man Ash Tubb of the lyrical themes behind the new track. “I say fortunate with gritted teeth, because I know—as I’m sure the reader knows—that living in the West isn’t always rosy. The vast majority of people struggle everyday to feed, clothe and house themselves. Let alone receive adequate healthcare, schooling and workers’ rights.”

“We are, however, where all the world’s wealth is hoarded. We are at the centre of Empire. The people outside of this empire—those of the Global South—have had their resources extracted and their populations exploited by our own governments, with very little given back in return. This won’t go on forever. It will inevitably end, as all great empires do.”

“We in The West have a choice to make in the meantime; either help create a new, fairer world, or let the greed of our ruling classes become the undoing of all of us.”

The first glimpse of new material from the quartet, ‘Secret Speech’ starts as Not A Sound In Heaven means to go on—a politically-charged wrecking ball of a song that smashes its way through the often unbelievable chaos and brutality of the 21st century with vitriolic malice.

How do you capture the machinations of the geo-political industrial war machine—and all the horrors that go with it—in the studio, without seeming trite or crass? That’s the question that Sugar Horse have posed themselves on their forthcoming third album Not A Sound In Heaven, and they must surely be one of the only bands in existence capable of delivering on just that premise with both musical substance and cutting philosophical insight.

“Ever since I was born I can remember visions of war, famine, and death being beamed directly into my living room via the magic of television,” says Tubb of the record. “These visions were accompanied by newsreader narratives designed to either humanise or dehumanise the people involved. We humanise our government’s allies and dehumanise their enemies. This is taken as common sense, or even wisdom to some degree. People watch the news and accept it as fact, simple and true.”

“As a person gets older they move in one of three different directions with this acceptance of reality; They embrace what they’re being told, they fall into a kind of trust free nihilism or they learn that there are deeper narratives at play.”

“Not A Sound In Heaven is an aged acceptance of the latter. An acceptance of sitting at the centre of a global empire of both military and economic dimensions. An acceptance that the stories we’re told as a nation, or what’s generally in the zeitgeist, isn’t necessarily reality itself.”

“How does a person cope with the weight—and, frankly, the guilt—of a society that perpetuates such distinct inequalities? A society that thinks a bit of killing abroad is fine, as long as it improves the lives of people at home. You can see why so many choose to embrace it. Hell, nihilism seems pretty sensible. Once a person decides upon pursuing a degree of truth however, things get a bit depressing. Beyond depressing...maddening.”

“This album explores this kind of breezy, frivolous subject matter in a manner that will no doubt be uplifting to the listener and massively financially rewarding for the artist.”

The new album follows on from their standalone AA single ‘What’s Your ETA? Let’s Have A Tear Up’/‘Would You Like Me To Be The Cat?’ which was released late last year as a surprise double drop.

New album from Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch, known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic psych-pop. Life Slime is the sixth full-length album by Pictish Trail (AKA Johnny Lynch) - a strange, tender, psychedelic electro-pop record shaped by transformation, exhaustion, hope, guilt, and renewal. Written at home on the Isle of Eigg and recorded at Mike Lindsay's studio down in Margate (Tunng / LUMP), the album follows 2022's critically acclaimed Island Family, further refining Lynch's world of lo-fi electronics, warped pop melodies, baggy psych rhythms and emotionally direct songwriting. It's a record that balances woozy synth-pop, motorik propulsion and intimate acoustic songwriting, all infused with the emotional messiness that gives the album its title. Across the album's singles - the guilt-stained psych-pop ballad 'Hold It', the life-affirming shimmer of 'Infinity Ooze', the late-night confession of 'Torch Song', the expansive eight-minute centrepiece 'Another Way', and the cinematic closer 'Werewolf Ending' - Life Slime charts a journey from emotional fracture to uneasy release. 'Sorry Eyes' brings a punchy electro-pop strut with a sharp emotional edge, 'Crystal Cave' drifts through crystalline guitars and shoegaze haze into transformation, and the title track 'Life Slime' moves with a slow, weary swagger toward bittersweet acceptance. Together, these tracks form a cohesive album statement about surrender, resistance, change and renewal. "Wonderfully weird pop"- Brooklyn Vegan For fans of Hot Chip, The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev, Beck, John Grant, Empire of the Sun, Grandaddy. Colour vinyl and digisleeve CD

Music To Watch Seeds Grow By continues its second season with Seoul-based left of centre ambient duo Salamanda - Uman Therma (Sala) and Yetsuby (Manda) - and their meditation on the inner life of a basil plant. Seeds 008 is an ambient composition born from quiet domestic observation: a single basil on a windowsill, its days shaped by light, warmth, and the slow passage of time.

The album moves through a full day in the plant's life opening with ‘introduce my atom which is my favorite one’, an act of quiet self-declaration in morning light, before settling into the unhurried rhythmic pulse of ‘to to ki toki tok’- the drip of water, the tick of a clock, the slow beat of photosynthesis. ‘allez, pousse!’ - one of the standouts in this journey - carries the basil's gentle will to grow, to push, to tilt toward the sun, while ‘hungry snail’ captures a moment of creaturely encounter on the glass: an uninvited visitor, moving slowly, wanting. As the afternoon deepens, 'Basil's Ritual' traces the daily ceremony of light and warmth, repeated with calm devotion from root to leaf. Night falls across 'Basil's Dream', and in the stillness something like sleep arrives - the plant resting, imagining tomorrow's sun. The album closes with ‘the blue wine’, a final mysterious reverie in which the basil seems to contemplate its own fate, somewhere between acceptance and wonder.

‘Confession' is an album of quiet upheaval. An album about closeness that arrives late and unexpectedly. About stability rubbing up against desire. About the way friendship can suddenly tilt into something charged — and how that charge unsettles everything around it. Where earlier work often observed from a distance, Confession turns inward. The voice is closer, warmer, less shielded. “This wasn’t the album I intended to make,” says Carla dal Forno. “I originally wanted something veiled and abstract, but I realised I couldn’t hide behind abstraction — the songs only worked when I leaned into emotional truth.”

This is dal Forno’s fourth LP, written and recorded over several years in a small country town, in a studio housed inside a partially abandoned hospital. Long corridors, humming lights, emptied rooms — a place built for care and waiting, now quiet enough for thoughts to echo. That stillness shapes the record: intimate, watchful, unadorned. “I live in a small country town that offers a stillness my life didn’t previously have,” she explains. “In that quiet, feelings I might’ve ignored in a busy city grew loud.” Dal Forno sings plainly and conversationally, with an emotional precision that sharpens the everyday into something quietly unsettling.

The album moves through paired states: going out and staying in, wanting and withholding, devotion and distraction. Domestic calm set against private unrest. A long-held relationship offers safety and routine, while a newer connection opens emotional fault lines — longing, jealousy, fantasy, self-exposure. “At the heart of the album is a friendship that became emotionally charged in an unexpected way,” dal Forno says. “That shift brought daydreaming, jealousy, tenderness, confusion, self-awareness — and eventually acceptance.”

The drama here is internal, incremental, lived. Musically, Confession feels lighter on its feet than its subject matter suggests. Melodic basslines anchor the songs while guitars, harmonies, and gently off-kilter rhythms move around them. There’s a looseness, even a playfulness — “like the sensation of tension lifting once you finally admit something to yourself,” as dal Forno puts it. The album traces a subtle arc: attraction blooming where it shouldn’t; obsession quietly taking hold; fantasy overtaking reality; clarity arriving slowly, sometimes painfully. Visually and emotionally, Confession returns to modest spaces: backyards, beds, night streets, overgrown paths. “The record exists in that contrast,” dal Forno reflects. “Peaceful surroundings, unsettled interior.”

Like all of dal Forno’s work, Confession resists clean conclusions. It doesn’t moralise desire or romanticise restraint. Instead, it lingers in the in-between — where love is stable but not total, where yearning teaches as much as it hurts, where solitude becomes a form of care. Plain-spoken but emotionally complex. Rooted and restless. Held together by bass, breath, routine, weather. An album about admitting what you feel —and living with what that admission changes.

With his highly accomplished third album If This Is It, DJ Seinfeld (Armand Jakobsson) evolves further into the artist he always set out to be, refining his emotional, club-leaning sound across nostalgic house, UKG, and 2000s-tinged trance.

The 12-track LP — featuring SG Lewis, Confidence Man, TS Graye, Dan Whitlam, ARY, “Norwegian pop witch” Moyka, and Barry Can’t Swim affiliate just lil — explores letting go in a world that can often feel overwhelming.

“A million ideas turned into a few, a few turned into no ideas at all, and no ideas eventually turned into one,” says Jakobsson of the album, which he began the week his acclaimed 2021 record Mirrors was released. “Through writing it, I’ve tried to turn long-held anxieties into acceptance, and I hope listeners can take their own meaning from it.”

With his highly accomplished third album If This Is It, DJ Seinfeld (Armand Jakobsson) evolves further into the artist he always set out to be, refining his emotional, club-leaning sound across nostalgic house, UKG, and 2000s-tinged trance.

The 12-track LP — featuring SG Lewis, Confidence Man, TS Graye, Dan Whitlam, ARY, “Norwegian pop witch” Moyka, and Barry Can’t Swim affiliate just lil — explores letting go in a world that can often feel overwhelming.

“A million ideas turned into a few, a few turned into no ideas at all, and no ideas eventually turned into one,” says Jakobsson of the album, which he began the week his acclaimed 2021 record Mirrors was released. “Through writing it, I’ve tried to turn long-held anxieties into acceptance, and I hope listeners can take their own meaning from it.”

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

For its 25th anniversary, Cocoon Recordings returns to its roots with an elaborate vinyl LP box set, marking the first part of a two-volume anniversary project. 25 Years Cocoon Recordings – Volume
One brings together exclusive contributions from international artists who have defined the sound and diversity of the label over the past two decades, complemented by fresh talents who are helping to shape its future.
Over the span of 25 years, Cocoon Recordings has created a catalog that now comprises hundreds of releases, 12-inches, albums, mix CDs, and iconic compilation box sets, always bridging past, present, and future. While firmly rooted in techno and house, the label has also provided space for electronica,
ambient, and other evolving genres.
25 Years Cocoon Recordings – Volume One is more than just a compilation. It is both a homage to the label’s history and a glimpse into what lies ahead. With exclusive tracks that embody the Cocoon sound in all its depth and complexity, this release marks a milestone in the legacy of one of electronic
music’s most influential labels, arguably the strongest compilation in Cocoon’s history. To mark this special occasion, Sven Väth’s label presents the first of two carefully curated volumes, uniting 15 exclusive tracks from international artists in celebration of nearly three decades of Cocoon
Recordings. The luxurious 5x12" box set features a spectral-reflective foil finish and includes contributions from renowned names such as Butch, Robag Wruhme, Josh Wink, Guy J, and Dino Lenny, alongside longtime companions of the label including Extrawelt, Harvey McKay, Johannes
Volk, and Raxon. New discoveries of recent years, Jonathan Kaspar and Riccardo De Polo, enrich the release in their own distinctive ways. The compilation is completed by the unmistakable talents of Damiano von Erckert, Fedele, and ja:ck, who provide the perfect conclusion to the first of two parts.
This release sets the stage for what's next: a daring diptych where musical voices emerge, shining with originality and passion, carrying the spirit forward. The story is just beginning. Something special is on the horizon. One can only wonder which artists will shine on the second chapter.

The definition of the word 'fado' is technically 'fate', though the Portuguese meaning bound up with this term is more complex. The music itself can be fairly closely compared with that of Greek rebetika - also the American blues or the original working-class tango music of Argentina and Uruguay - and similarly takes it's common subject matter from the various cruel realities of the world. Though perhaps what distinguishes fado in character is it's often poised acceptance of the pains of life rather than protestation or resistance - as writer Paul Vernon says "It speaks with a quiet dignity born of the realisation that any mortal desire or plan is at risk of destruction by powers beyond individual control"

Death Is Not The End compile here a spine-tingling collection of fado recordings, taken from records issued in the mid 1910s through to the 1930s. The fado's Lisbon and Coimbra variants are presented here by some of the music's earliest recorded stars - spanning a time period leading up to the emergence of the fado's all-conquering star, Amália Rodrigues.

'in a fugue state' finds pedal-steel guitar maestro Joe Harvey-Whyte collaborating with tape loop sound scientist Paul Cousins on a warped ambient excursion into the subconscious. Originally written and recorded in one night, the eight tracks of hypnotic electro-acoustic music explore the concept of memory and time.

The duo study how we remember and misremember things; forming an imperfect reorganisation of time, events and emotional states. This album exists at a cross- section where loss, confusion, trauma and dissociation meet moments of joy, healing, acceptance and groundlessness

Slowly yet firmly blooming into focus, An Unfinished Rose is the new album from Australian duo Troth.

This is their first since relocating to Hobart, Tasmania and their introduction to Night School Records. With a detailed web of past releases on labels A Colourful Storm, Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox, Knekelhuis and Bowman’s own Altered States Tapes imprint, An Unfinished Rose is the group’s most realised and composed work thus far. While still drawing on the improvisatory and DIY practices that informed Troth’s beginnings, it points to a new incarnation of the duo’s music; an intentional language emerging from the fog of obfuscation and mists of uncertainty.

Over these 9 meditations on change, acceptance, renewal and rebirth, An Unfinished Rose finds Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman peeling back some of the roughhewn architecture that defined their earlier releases to reveal a masterful - if auto-didactic - use of space and melody. Composition and improvisation compliment and feed each other throughout, with locked-loop earworms providing the springboard for lines of clarinet or synth melody, and the negative space between chord clusters giving ample room for Besseny’s most confident vocal performances to date. Shaving off a little of the defining dissonance and tape compression of old reveals Troth’s music in radiant daylight, humbly accepting of its place in the world while yearning for better, more sympathetic modes of living. Leaning more heavily on acoustic instrumentation and post-production processes than previously, the result is a transcendent body of work infused with an almost zen-like presence.

Troth’s music exists in the border between forming and becoming, its goal to project a kind of preternatural beauty, leaving interpretation open to the listener. Field recordings, happenstance and improvisation may provide seeds for the duo’s compositions, particularly on Side A, but there is a deft touch of songcraft on show. Loam Loom Leaf Litter opens An Unfinished Rose, directly referencing natural cycles of life, death and regeneration, before the blissed-out drum machine groove of Gold Plum continues a discussion concerning the totality of nature and one’s place in it. Besseny’s vocal, swelling like an ocean churn in duet with itself is adorned with synthesised harp and a revolving synth pattern, conjuring plumes of medieval smoke. Thistle’s rounded, bass-heavy drums, nodding to the vast echo of dub, is a relatively new terrain for Troth. It’s propulsive and thumping, pulsing with a meaning and symbolism consistent with Troth’s past work, referenced overtly in Bessey’s lyrics - “Say it too much and it loses its meaning…”. Similarly, the sprawling modern-classical suite, Tides Reflected In Her Eyes, is intentional in its lyrical themes while traversing new ground, revelling in layers of bowed cello and vocal intonations. Side B’s 4 tracks feel like Troth’s most thoroughly accessible and affecting music to date. Leaning into their own detoured version of Synth Pop, Cocoonist explores downtempoisms via a crunchy low frequency synth, and dream-like, fuzzy trip-hop modalities, not unlike Besseny and Bowman’s other group, Th Blisks. Following on, Myrtle Mystes is an open and searching DIY pop song, forged out of drum machine, bass guitar and cello. (An) Unfinished Rose’s title-track is a clear stand-out, built upon an evocative rhythm sample that appears to change emotional resonance with each undulating repetition. Its cascading waves of affect, interjected with a subtle breeze of synth, bowed instrumentation and soaring, densely-layered vocals.

An Unfinished Rose is enveloping, warm, forgiving. Difficult, yet retaining a unique beauty. Troth’s music aims to celebrate the duo;s shared experiences of being in the world, despite the complexity often surrounding us all. Theirs is a message of hope and perseverance, learning and patience.

Dense, deep, drifting in the universe between dream, memory and reality.
Thought-provoking impulses with a philosophical background add an empathetic component to the power of the narrators' words in a charismatic way.
The common thread running through the four tracks like a warm red ribbon is a homage to the freedom of the individual.
A utopian sound clip that tells of acceptance and departure.

After what seems like an aeon of anticipation, Yugen Blakrok returns bolder than ever with The Illusion of Being, a raw, fearless exploration of emotion and resilience. This album is a call to triumph. Through poetic lyricism and experimental soundscapes, this project offers the listener a journey into the heart of uncertainty and the power of perseverance. Created and recorded in a world in flux, The Illusion of Being reflects the artist's evolution as a storyteller and resonates directly with the era that shaped her. Driven by incisive lyrics andsoundscapes blending grunge, trip-hop, and 90s spirit, this project tests the boundaries of alternative hip-hop. Here, rhythm speaks louder than reason, and the acceptance of "Being" becomes the thread that ties each track together. This album captures a bold new chapter in Yugen Blakrok's discography. While rooted in the lyrical mastery and poetic precision that fans cherish, it marks a departure from the familiar, embracing a more unfiltered and experimental approach. The collaborations seem purposeful, and match this intensity: Sa-Roc delivers combative and sisterly energy,Cambatta brings his visceral urgency, while Hannah Allen offers a touch both delicate and impactful. Instrumentally, the arrangements dare to break new ground: wailing electric guitars,enchanting flutes, and hypnotic beats create a striking sonic alchemy. As described by Yugen in three words: Free. Involved. Anti.Free from convention. Involved in the fight. Anti-establishment. In many ways this album is a sonic manifesto. Each track resonates as a call to rebellion, an anthem for those who refuse to bow down. The Illusion of Being is not just a work of art; it’s a statement: for freedom, for community, against oppression. A mirror of our collectivestruggles and a light for those who keep moving forward. It promises its listeners a deeply personal connection, offering a glimmer of hope amidst despair and a soundtrack for their fight.

REVOLT hits double digits with a special release from Athenian underground veteran Other Reality—aka Alex Psaltakis—a figure deeply rooted in the rave culture of the ’90s. His journey began in the late ’80s via the Amiga demoscene, inspired by the raw energy of acid house and hardcore breakbeat. By the mid-’90s, he was DJing at raves, clubs, and open-air festivals, fueled by a passion for psychedelic trance, ambient, Goa, and experimental acid rock. His dedication to the underground has remained unwavering ever since—fed by records, synthesizers, and a deep love for sound exploration.

Still Thrill EP is a 4-track release shaped by a wide musical range, bringing together elements of Detroit techno, trance, house, Goa, ambient, and progressive. More than just a debut on the REVOLT label, this is Other Reality’s first-ever release on vinyl—a deeply personal milestone shaped by years of dedication to his craft and the support of close friends and peers.

Crafted with a mix of hardware and software, the EP draws from years of studio sketches and archived musical ideas. A hidden detail runs through it: a fragmented sample from a rock track that deeply marked Alex in the past—a line that never fully completes in the track.

Each piece carries emotional weight and narrative depth, blending analog warmth with timeless dancefloor energy. The EP moves effortlessly through moods—nostalgic yet forward-looking, playful yet deeply personal.

Ohm ’95—with a name that subtly hints at the Goa trance soul—delivers acid basslines, trance elements, and dreamy pads. A transcendental, unifying experience. Kinda Free pulses gently like a groovy caress at dawn, with dreamy layers, steady rhythm, and acid touches that feel both tender and elevating. More Than Advice embraces movement, disorder, and acceptance, rolling through intricate percussions, hypnotic loops, and a cosmic atmosphere. Emotional and raw. Still Thrill closes the EP with slow-motion energy, submerged in flowing textures and a fluid, nostalgic groove.

Vinyl only. Limited edition.

Eudaimonia is the outcome of a spontaneous connection between two artists, united by a shared passion for deep and emotional sounds. What began as an unplanned session evolved into a deeper exploration, flowing so naturally that it felt inevitable to create something more.

Inspired by the ancient Greek concept of Eudaimonia - a profound sense of fulfillment found through living authentically and purposefully - this EP dives into the inner world of its creators. From moments of reflection to waves of intensity -each track serves as a chapter in a journey toward inner exploration, embracing both the light and shadow within.
Eudaimonia celebrates the beauty of imperfection, the power of acceptance, and the pursuit of authentic expression. It invites listeners to lose themselves, to feel deeply, and to find meaning and healing through sound, connecting to something greater within themselves and the world around them.

Fresh off the momentum of his City Smile EP, Aleqs Notal wastes no time unleashing his next seismic release, Pain ofTruth, as a bold statement of his unstoppable creativity.The release delivers four distinctive tracks, unified by a shared identity yet offering unique perspectives through adynamic interplay of melodies and rhythms, allowing for endless interpretation and total emotional liberation.The central theme is "Self-acceptance"—a journey only unlocked by surrendering to the sound and letting go. Can youfeel it now?

Zara is the first album of Parus ethno-ambient project from Belarus that combines pagan songs that are sang by ethnographer and folk singer Hanna Silivonchyk on various dialects of Belarusian language and mixture of synthesizers and field recordings that where reordered in national parks of the country by electroacoustic music composer - Anton Anishchanka. The songs where collected during ethnographic expeditions in remote territories by Belarusian ethnographers in different periods of time

"What I choose to sing from the vast amount of authentic material are songs that
somehow feel like mine for all sorts of reasons, but that I love to be inside." - Hanna Silivonchyk

"Soniejka" is a summer song from the Dnepr river region, which sings about the readiness to meet life in any of its manifestations, about acceptance and love. "Zara" is also from the Dnepr river region, depicting the main Indo-European mythological story of the heavenly love between the Moon and the Dawn and their melting.

"Ruzovyja cviaty" is a lyrical song from Dzvina river region, romantic and touching, which sings about the very beginning of love between two people. And the song "Oj luhom idu" is a spring song from the territory of modern Poland, from Podlasie region, which tells about the life of a married woman, about the fate that may befall her and how it can be experienced. All of them are about one's own feeling of the present time, one's life, about personal life
experience, but at the same time - about universal human contents and meanings that exist outside of time.

Delicate Records delves into the swamp laden depths of heartbreak; inexplicable depth, darkness and twisted beauty with a 9 track full length debut from Saffron Bloom. The Iranian-American producer and performer; already prolific as Sepehr and known for his expertly raw and freaky sound, develops this alias to indulge the silver linings of agony. An illbient force of nature drawing on industrial atmospherics, trip hop flow and unbothered breakbeat influx. The record serves as an ode to the ever changing phases of lost love and grief, seasons of emotion weathering the passage of time each with their own ferocity and relation to the evolving cycle; one so personal yet universally understood.

Intro, the infrastructure of aura laced throughout the record, builds around an ominous and evocative piano soundscape bleeding with delay, intruding barely human vocal cries and percussive injections. Dripping into the DNA of Dirge of the Lonely and Jealous Desire, there comes a yearning, cries from beyond the grave; mourning relationships lost with an eerie familiarity. This sinister sanctuary bred through low slung stripped back breaks, those that echo within the soul and tie themselves to an anchor of inconspicuous growling sub bass; a signature idiosyncrasy perfectly elevated with Saffron Bloom timbre.

Quelling the urge to disintegrate, with power through distortion and commanding drumwork, corners of the B side like Curtain Call and Apathetic Rose reiterate a primal and hypnotic sonic discourse. At the heart of the LP and the artist’s ethos, it resonates through the mind and body in a psychedelic manner while remaining powerfully minimal. Time’s Up (It’s Over) featuring. Sam Weinberg feels like a fever dream, saxophone drenched and echoing throughout your brain, while album closer Ultimate Acceptance is named perfectly. A melancholic realization, soft in nature yet rich in complexity and beauty, a bittersweet conclusion.

Marysia Osu’s debut album, “harp, beats & dreams,” is a captivating journey of self-exploration and emotional expression, blending classical harp with innovative electronic production. A graduate of Brownswood’s ‘Bubblers’ academy and a key member of Levitation Orchestra, Marysia brings a unique background, including a classical music degree from Trinity Laban. The album, entirely homemade, captures intimate moments and raw emotions, featuring notable tracks like “seatime,” which celebrates self-acceptance, and “memento mori,” inspired by stoic philosophy. Collaborations with artists such as Emma Barnaby (cello), YUIS (flute), and Plumm (clarinet) enrich the project, which reflects Marysia’s classical training infused with modern experimental sounds. The album offers an absorbing and elevating listening experience, perfect for those seeking a peaceful, calming sonic sanctuary in an uncertain world

UEVPD - Usage/Efficiency/Variance/Platform/Domain - is the solo project of Dominic Goodman, a former member of Mosquitoes and currently one half of Komare.

The self-titled UEVPD debut LP, released on 22nd November via World of Echo, consists of eight sequentially numbered electro-acoustic tracks made over approximately five years, living recordings that have morphed in shape over time, each systematically stripped back to their elemental form before being deemed complete. From the outset, Goodman purposefully deployed a relatively limited array of equipment and adopted a determinedly minimalist approach to composition, a practice in restraint that privileges detail and nuance. Field recordings, made using a combination of dynamic, condenser, contact and electret microphones, geophones and hydrophones, were allied to a basic modular/analogue synth setup, allowing for little in the way of excess or indulgence.

The results are markedly defiant, displaying an expert exercise in control and restraint that lets in little light but plays a great service to space and time. This is patient, claustrophobic sound design that bears out the value in attentive listening, a meditation on the acceptance of passing time, change, growth, death and regeneration. As such, listeners might connect associative lines with the likes of Pan Sonic and Mika Vianio’s solo work, Emptyset and Civilistjavel (who’s Tomas Bodén shows up on mastering duties here), though this remains distinctively Goodman’s vision, a continuation of his interests shown in Mosquitoes and Komare that further pushes out into the murky unknown.

Full of bounce and experimentation in equal measure, ‘Triple Transit,’ Braille’s new album for Hotflush is about leaving his Sepalcure project (with Machinedrum) in the rear mirror, moving back to New York and using its energy to fuel new moves, confronting our hyper layered world and overcoming personal difficulties by being creative.

Focused squarely on utilising modular synthesis in sprawling studio sessions, the album covers a wide stylistic range and draws on the artist’s formidable battery of experience to craft a body of work that packs real emotional punch as well as a dancefloor sensibility.

We had a quick chat with him to wet your appetite…

Praveen Sharma aka Braille:
Moving on from Sepalcure
“That period of time when Sepalcure was at its peak was really inspiring. I’m still really in awe and humbled by the fans. It’s always amazing to hear about how music you’ve made has brightened up other people’s lives in some way, but ‘Triple Transit’ is really about transitioning from that period to something new. I’m intentionally not using many vocal samples on this album. That became quite a crutch for Sepalcure and I wanted to try and find ways to evoke those emotions and connect with the audience in other ways.”

The roots of his Bounce
‘Sour Patch Kiss’ and ‘While We’re Free’ are inspired by classic house and some early Detroit stuff. Songs like ‘Big Fun’ (Inner City), ‘I Wanna Be there’ (Model 500) and slowed down ‘Sex on The Beach’ (DJ Assault) have stuck with me since the beginning. I used to listen to this slowed down and doubled version of ‘Sex on The Beach’ on an early Juan Atkins mix cd on REPEAT when I was in high school.

Getting ambient
Triple Transit slows down and transitions through a bit of sadness and eventually acceptance at the end of the album. A lot of the music I’m making these days is trying to recreate that manic feeling so many of us have in 2024. Between social media, ridiculous hustle culture expectations and depressing global and national political events, it’s hard to not feel overwhelmed. I feel like Triple Transit is kind of a parabolic curve from mania to joy to a sober realization that yeah, actually the world is just fucked but somehow we carry on.