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On his new album, Micha Acher rearranged compositions for bands such as Tied & Tickled Trio and Ms. John Soda from previous years.

Why are we interested in ghosts? What fascinates us about the eerie? According to cultural theorist Mark Fisher, the allure that the eerie possesses is not captured by the idea that we „enjoy what scares us“. It has, rather, to do with a fascination for the outside. For that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition or experience, as he writes in his book „The Weird and the Eerie“.

In fact, also none of the 15 pieces from Henry and the Ghost is really scary. On the contrary, they all feel strangely familiar. Like revenants or doppelgängers, which in fact they are. They have all been released before. But in a different form. In different line-ups. With different band projects such as Tied & Tickled Trio, The Notwist or the Alien Ensemble.

With the „Songbook“, Micha Acher's aim was, as he says, to find out how the familiar pieces sound in a chamber music instrumentation. Therefore he met with Theresa Loibl (bass clarinet, piano), Timm Kornelius (bassoon), Markus Rom (guitar, banjo, electronics) and Simon Popp (drums, percussion) in his living room for a musical séance in the summer of 2022. The séance lasted two days. Afterwards, Markus Rom (Oh No Noh), added some haunting electronical ideas.

The mood of most of the pieces is melancholic. There are surprising twists and siren-like melodies. Just as ghost stories should be. However, most of the songs sound very light-footed. With their feet in pop, folk, jazz and classical music. Pieces such as „Johanna“ with its wheezing harmonium and spooky piano, or the dreamy „Modest Farewell“ on the other hand have a cinematic flair. Immediately faces and scenes arise in the mind. But at the beginning, there is „Hamlet“. It starts with ghostly electronics and merges into a calm, almost classical guitar piece. Could it be that the ghost of Hamlet's father is hiding between the strings?

„34E“ begins with a banjo. Then the deep humming of Micha Achers sousaphone and the other brass instruments kick in. In the slow, solemn „Aelita“, the sousaphone starts a dialogue with a children's piano. With the banjo and the other wind instruments acting as mediators. The title of „All Tomorrow's Past“ brings Velvet Undergrounds „All Tomorrow's Parties“ to mind. Another ghost from the past. What connects the two pieces is free-floating percussion, which accompanies the sumptuous melodies.

„Arc“ takes us on an exhilarating voyage at sea, with the sousaphone providing powerful propulsion. Towards the end, things get quite turbulent. With the clarinet stirring up the water, before the sea calms down again. „Henry and the Ghost“ is characterised by a ghostly mood change between major and minor. In „Radio Four“ the banjo with its stoic chords keeps the lively brass section in check. „Solid Ground“ is imbued with melancholy. „Space Minor“ takes us into outer space, with the power of sousaphone and percussion.

„Tomorrows“ is filled with cautious optimism. And the concluding „Nordlead“ turns out to be a revenant of the instrumental „N.L.“ from The Notwist's legendary album „Shrink“ from 1998. In the new version, the piece sounds like a distant echo. One that also brings to mind how Micha Acher's music has evolved. Which new worlds he explored and opened up since the nineties. And yet Acher's signature is recognisable in every single note of this fascinating „Songbook“.

Critical Thot ist das kraftvolle neue Kollaborationsalbum der in der Bay Area ansässigen Rapperin und Produzentin Sha Ray sowie der Produzentin und Elektronikmusikerin DJ Haram - zwei kompromisslose Künstlerinnen, die Rap und experimentellen Sound neu definieren. Es ist eine spannende Kombination: Haram ist die eine Hälfte des Duos 700 Bliss zusammen mit der Rapperin und Poetin Moor Mother und hat zudem mehrere Soloalben veröffentlicht - darunter Beside Myself (Hyperdub, 2025), das von der Kritik gefeiert wurde - sowie hochkarätige Kollaborationen mit BbyMutha, Fever Ray, Ghais Guevara und Armand Hammer.Währenddessen handelt es sich bei Critical Thot zwar um Sha Rays offizielles Debütalbum, doch ihr Ruf als aufstrebendes Talent der nächsten Generation eilte ihr bereits voraus. DJ Haram wurde 2022 auf sie aufmerksam, als sie Sha Ray bei einem Auftritt in Brooklyn sah: ,Wir haben uns vor Ort unterhalten, und danach habe ich ihr auf Social Media gefolgt. Sie hat eine unglaubliche Performance abgeliefert, also war ich sofort dabei, als sie mir später eine Nachricht geschrieben und nach Beats gefragt hat", erklärt Haram.Ein Armand Hammer/DJ Haram-Konzert in Los Angeles wurde schließlich zum entscheidenden Moment, an dem sich diese Verbindungen konkretisierten. Sha Ray reiste aus der Bay Area an, um sich mit Haram zu treffen. Auch wenn an diesem Tag noch keine Aufnahmen entstanden, bildete er den Ausgangspunkt für die spätere Zusammenarbeit über große Distanz hinweg, die in Critical Thot mündete. Das gesamte Album entstand remote: Haram produzierte Beats in Brooklyn und schickte sie an Sha Ray, die ihrerseits Demos und Anmerkungen zurücksandte. Während der Arbeit an diesem Projekt lernten sie sich sowohl künstlerisch als auch persönlich besser kennen.,Haram und ich haben viele ähnliche Erfahrungen als Frauen in der Musikindustrie gemacht, was unsere Verbindung enorm gestärkt hat. Außerdem hat mich ihr markanter Produktionsstil stark beim Schreiben dieses Albums inspiriert", sagt Sha Ray.Diese Texte sind messerscharf und erfrischend direkt. Sha Ray beweist schnell, dass sie in ihrer eigenen Liga spielt und selbst die komplexesten Produktionen von DJ Haram mühelos meistert, ohne an Energie zu verlieren. Haram schöpft aus dem Vollen und bewegt sich mit ihren Beats zwischen experimentell-abrasiven Sounds, geschmeidiger Leichtigkeit und dunkel bedrohlicher Atmosphäre. Perkussive Einschläge und Schüsse werden mit feinen Details und weichen Klangflächen kombiniert. Ein traplastiger Banger löst sich plötzlich in einem Strom aus Streichern auf, während eine minimale industrielle Klanglandschaft sich langsam zu einer wuchtigen, kakophonischen Rap-Attacke steigert. Sha Ray navigiert sich souverän und trotzig durch jede Drumstruktur und jeden Synthesizer.,Als Rapperin interessiere ich mich fast ausschließlich dafür, Misogynie und Sexualität in meiner Arbeit zu hinterfragen. Critical Thot ist eine Auseinandersetzung mit unapologetischer weiblicher Autorität und gleichzeitig eine ehrliche Reflexion darüber, wie komplex es ist, an Selbstobjektifizierung teilzuhaben und Sexualität als soziale Währung zu begreifen", erläutert Sha Ray. ,Auf diesem Album geht es stark darum, Macht in weiblicher Sexualität als etwas Relationales und ständig Wandelndes zu definieren - und damit als grundsätzlich unvollkommen. Aber es ist eine Macht, die ich habe, und ich werde sie nutzen."Critical Thot enthält Beiträge von Nappy Nina, JWords und Archangel.

Critical Thot ist das kraftvolle neue Kollaborationsalbum der in der Bay Area ansässigen Rapperin und Produzentin Sha Ray sowie der Produzentin und Elektronikmusikerin DJ Haram - zwei kompromisslose Künstlerinnen, die Rap und experimentellen Sound neu definieren. Es ist eine spannende Kombination: Haram ist die eine Hälfte des Duos 700 Bliss zusammen mit der Rapperin und Poetin Moor Mother und hat zudem mehrere Soloalben veröffentlicht - darunter Beside Myself (Hyperdub, 2025), das von der Kritik gefeiert wurde - sowie hochkarätige Kollaborationen mit BbyMutha, Fever Ray, Ghais Guevara und Armand Hammer.Währenddessen handelt es sich bei Critical Thot zwar um Sha Rays offizielles Debütalbum, doch ihr Ruf als aufstrebendes Talent der nächsten Generation eilte ihr bereits voraus. DJ Haram wurde 2022 auf sie aufmerksam, als sie Sha Ray bei einem Auftritt in Brooklyn sah: ,Wir haben uns vor Ort unterhalten, und danach habe ich ihr auf Social Media gefolgt. Sie hat eine unglaubliche Performance abgeliefert, also war ich sofort dabei, als sie mir später eine Nachricht geschrieben und nach Beats gefragt hat", erklärt Haram.Ein Armand Hammer/DJ Haram-Konzert in Los Angeles wurde schließlich zum entscheidenden Moment, an dem sich diese Verbindungen konkretisierten. Sha Ray reiste aus der Bay Area an, um sich mit Haram zu treffen. Auch wenn an diesem Tag noch keine Aufnahmen entstanden, bildete er den Ausgangspunkt für die spätere Zusammenarbeit über große Distanz hinweg, die in Critical Thot mündete. Das gesamte Album entstand remote: Haram produzierte Beats in Brooklyn und schickte sie an Sha Ray, die ihrerseits Demos und Anmerkungen zurücksandte. Während der Arbeit an diesem Projekt lernten sie sich sowohl künstlerisch als auch persönlich besser kennen.,Haram und ich haben viele ähnliche Erfahrungen als Frauen in der Musikindustrie gemacht, was unsere Verbindung enorm gestärkt hat. Außerdem hat mich ihr markanter Produktionsstil stark beim Schreiben dieses Albums inspiriert", sagt Sha Ray.Diese Texte sind messerscharf und erfrischend direkt. Sha Ray beweist schnell, dass sie in ihrer eigenen Liga spielt und selbst die komplexesten Produktionen von DJ Haram mühelos meistert, ohne an Energie zu verlieren. Haram schöpft aus dem Vollen und bewegt sich mit ihren Beats zwischen experimentell-abrasiven Sounds, geschmeidiger Leichtigkeit und dunkel bedrohlicher Atmosphäre. Perkussive Einschläge und Schüsse werden mit feinen Details und weichen Klangflächen kombiniert. Ein traplastiger Banger löst sich plötzlich in einem Strom aus Streichern auf, während eine minimale industrielle Klanglandschaft sich langsam zu einer wuchtigen, kakophonischen Rap-Attacke steigert. Sha Ray navigiert sich souverän und trotzig durch jede Drumstruktur und jeden Synthesizer.,Als Rapperin interessiere ich mich fast ausschließlich dafür, Misogynie und Sexualität in meiner Arbeit zu hinterfragen. Critical Thot ist eine Auseinandersetzung mit unapologetischer weiblicher Autorität und gleichzeitig eine ehrliche Reflexion darüber, wie komplex es ist, an Selbstobjektifizierung teilzuhaben und Sexualität als soziale Währung zu begreifen", erläutert Sha Ray. ,Auf diesem Album geht es stark darum, Macht in weiblicher Sexualität als etwas Relationales und ständig Wandelndes zu definieren - und damit als grundsätzlich unvollkommen. Aber es ist eine Macht, die ich habe, und ich werde sie nutzen."Critical Thot enthält Beiträge von Nappy Nina, JWords und Archangel.

To celebrate the launch of the 4th and last DLC of Atomic Heart, Kid Katana Records teamed up with Mundfish to bring you this high quality album for the first time on an exclusive double vinyl.

With over 10 million players since its release, and a nomination at the 14th Hollywood Music in Media Awards, Atomic Heart has kept on bringing new content in the game, enriching the players’ experience with new Stories, Threats and Music to pursue the fight for freedom and progress.

The physical edition is a premium 2LP designed in close relationship with the game's creative team: Track selection handpicked by Atomic Heart team, including tracks from Mick Gordon, GeoffPlaysGuitar and Boogrov, and 1 new track (DLC #4 trailer exclusive) 2-colored vinyls with unique red and black “corona” effect: handmade vinyl effect melting red and black colors to shape a unique vinyl color on each product, mirroring the cover art.

Exclusive cover art with mat finishing and glossy effect on the Twin and motorcycle

Turn On The Sunlight is the long-running project of Texas-born, Maui-based musician and producer Jesse Peterson.

Originally formed in New York in the late 2000s, Turn On The Sunlight has evolved into a fluid, location-spanning practice rooted in collaboration, intuition and process. Now based on Maui, Peterson’s work draws together a wide network of musicians and environments, with recordings taking shape across Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, San Miguel de Allende and Haʻikū.

Loosely situated within a framework of organic, ambient-leaning jazz, 'Iseo' unfolds as a series of open, exploratory pieces, with electronics sitting subtly beneath acoustic and environmental elements. Built from layered instrumentation including synthesizers, guitar, zither, flutes, voice and field recordings, Peterson moves between grounded, tactile detail and more expansive, immersive states. A sense of warmth and permeability runs throughout: organic percussion, environmental textures and drifting rhythmic elements lend the record a gently saturated humidity, reflecting Peterson’s base in Hawaii, where the presence of nature is felt as much as it is heard.

Underlying the project is a way of working rooted in gathering, listening and tending. Instruments, ensemble sessions, field recordings and everyday environments are approached with attentiveness, shaped through collecting, refining and allowing things to settle. Relationships, landscape and lived experience shape the sound, giving 'Iseo' a tactile, almost hand-made quality.

Rather than fixed arrangements, the album feels as if it has been organically and lovingly assembled through a process of listening and response, each element finding its place within a wider, evolving whole. This approach reaches a natural centre point in the 15-minute piece 'Medianoche En La Calle Aurora', which unfolds patiently, bending through shifting environments as motifs and textures emerge and dissolve with quiet continuity.

Peterson’s role as both instigator and facilitator is central to the project. Bringing together a diverse group of collaborators including Carlos Niño, Mia Doi Todd, Laraaji, Ko Ishikawa, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli and Miles Spilsbury, he creates space for individual voices to emerge within a shared language. The result is a music defined by openness and generosity.

'Iseo' takes its title from Peterson’s son’s middle name, a word that can be understood to mean ‘one-world life’. The piece itself takes the form of a gentle lullaby, its melody loosely shaped around the syllables of his name and sung to Peterson’s son by Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, a close collaborator whose presence across the record reflects a long-standing relationship that extends beyond the music itself.
Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

We are excited to continue our work with Art P / Art Programming by finally offering the first full-length work from this Bremen-based electronic group. Originally released only on cassette in 1983, the self-titled album has now been fully restored and remastered, complete with bonus tracks and unreleased mixes unearthed from a rare demo.

The LP opens with "Wesen vom anderen Stern" ("Beings from Another Planet"), a downtempo, 808-driven electro synth wave track with German lyrics telling a story of aliens capturing earth, becoming the new "Herren" (lords), while humans are reduced to mere "objects." Art Programming founding member Jens-Markus Wegener notes that this track has always been a favorite during live performances, and it's easy to imagine how the futuristic sounds would have blown people away at the time.

Next is the electro/proto-techno title track "Art Programming," which we previously issued on a limited 12" in its full-length form. With its straightforward Roland 808 rhythms, catchy synth lines, and vocoder vocals, it's a classic example of German electro, and one of the earliest proto-techno tracks - long before Cybotron claimed the techno mantle. Its extensive break and electronic twist make it an early precursor to the genre. Wegener recalls that this track was created exclusively by him and Grotelüschen, with Grotelüschen contributing most of the melodic elements, while Wegener focused on drum machine programming and vocoder vocals.

On "That's Me," the album welcomes back singer Claudia Roebke. Although it's an electronic composition, Roebke adds a rock-infused, almost psychedelic vibe to the song. The lyrics, written by Wegener, depict a person obsessed with their appearance, using irony to critique societal beauty norms, questioning the obsession with perfection and attraction.

The album continues with a series of uptempo electro tracks: "Videoscreen," "La Gare," and "Genscher Pull 'N' Push." The first two feature slightly different mixes from an earlier demo that we personally prefered over the versions that were available on the final cassette release. "Videoscreen" expands on the theme of social isolation, with lyrics reflecting on a world obsessed with watching video all day - a topic that resonates strongly with today's culture of doom scrolling and social media addiction.

Next up, "Genscher Pull 'N' Push" is an incredible electro/wave/proto-techno track recorded in October 1982 with a political edge. Originally omitted from the album, it was only available on the demo cassette we mentioned earlier. The song takes aim at German politics, with lyrics that shout "bitte geh nach links / bitte geh nach rechts" ("please go to the left" and "please go to the right"), referencing the shifting political allegiances during the 1982 coalition change, when Genscher's party, the FDP, left the Helmut Schmidt cabinet to join the CDU/CSU opposition. The track was never released as the political topic had become outdated just a few months later.

The album closes with "Light and Fire," which originally served as the album's opening track. Its quirky, upbeat vibe now makes for a fitting outro.

The gear used on this album reads like a dream list for early 80s electronic music production: Roland Jupiter 4, TR 808, TB 303, System 100, SVC 350, Korg Mono/Poly, Moog Prodigy, FRICKE-Sequenzer, Roland CSQ-100 Sequenzer, Coron DS-8, MM 12/2, Sony TC 399, TEAC-244 Portastudio, Ibanez DM 1000, EH-Electric Mistress, EV-Micro. This unique lineup of equipment sets the album apart from NDW releases of the era, lending it a distinct sound with heavy proto-techno leanings and that straightforward electro vibe we all love.

The album is being released as a very limited edition of 300 copies on transparent red vinyl, complete with a full picture sleeve and lyrics inlay. This is yet another rediscovered and restored 80s gem on our label that you definitely don't want to miss!

With over 20 years of intense production work and prestigious collaborations, Irie Ites Records has established itself as one of the most respected reggae labels on the international scene. In 2025, the label continues it's strong momentum with a brand-new volume of it's flagship series: Cream of the Crop 2025. Following the success of the previous editions (2022, 2023, and 2024), which each reached several million streams and gained strong visibility in reggae media and playlists worldwide, this new release stands as a must-have for all roots & culture reggae lovers. True to it's reputation for excellence, Irie Ites Records has once again teamed up with some of the finest musicians and producers in reggae: Mafia & Fluxy, Bongo Herman, Earl "Chinna" Smith, Lone Ark, Naram, The Ligerians, King Jammy, Willy William, among others. All tracks were mixed at the Irie Ites Studio (France), ensuring a warm, powerful, and authentic sound. To conclude the album, four exclusive dub versions add the final touch to this outstanding compilation.

Microm Records V/A Vol.One reúne a siete productores españoles en su mejor momento.
Un recorrido por el electro contemporáneo desde distintas perspectivas, mostrando la fuerza y la diversidad de la escena nacional.

Microm Records V/A Vol.One brings together seven Spanish producers at their finest.
A journey through contemporary electro from different perspectives, showcasing the strength and diversity of the national scene.

Edición limitada a 200 copias.

Finetune — Impulse LP

Singeley Wax presents the third installment of the Russian Series — Finetune's "Impulse" album by electronic musician and media artist Mikhail Komisarov (Michael Dop), co-founder of Slowdance Records.

__About the Music

Finetune is a project through which Mikhail explores and experiments with a sonic palette encompassing ambient, electronic music with elements of jazz and neoclassical. His medium combines modular synthesis, acoustic instruments, field recordings, and deliberately crafted effect chains. He creates distinctive compositions that guide listeners through various emotional states.

The "Impulse" album brings together ten tracks of experimental electronica: hypnotic synthesizer sequences, polyrhythmic structures, cinematic textures, and subtly shifting modulations blend into sonic landscapes where time becomes relative.

__Art Concept

The album's visual identity is based on the multidisciplinary neuro-performance "Impulse," created at the intersection of art and neurotechnology in collaboration with neurovisualization pioneers NeuroLab, digital art studio STAIN (working with algorithmic abstraction since 2009), and physical theatre project "Dancing in the Dark" — Russia's only company featuring visually impaired artists.

During the performance, the brain activity of visually impaired dancers was captured in real-time via neurointerface and transformed into generative graphics. This visual content, born from electrical impulses of consciousness in moments of musical perception, became the foundation for the album's artwork — both static and motion graphics.

Call Sender is the collaborative brainchild that unites the talents of Paul Elliott, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and recording engineer from Suffolk/UK and Michael Reed, a multi-talented instrumentalist, recording engineer, and drummer residing in the Bay Area/USA. Despite working together for the past four years, the pair are yet to meet in person!

After connecting on social media over their love of drum breaks and vintage reverbs Elliott and Reed fostered their creative partnership by bouncing recordings back and forth via email and this virtual collaboration resulted in their first album, the jazz-funk inspired “Lost To The Storm” (Tru Thoughts, 2023). With four singles from the album gaining radio play and becoming a favourite for tastemakers and DJs, the pair began work on the follow up “Golden Langur”. With this new record, the aim was to retain their signature Call Sender sound, a heady mix of B-movie soundtracks, classic library music and psychedelic funk and soul, but also introduce elements of lo-fi soul as well as collaborating with some of their talented friends as featured artists.

These features include fantastic instrumental contributions from the incomparable funkmaster Shawn Lee (Ping Pong Orchestra/Young Gun Silver Fox) on “Brainforests” and the legendary JJ Whitefield (Poets Of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers) who kicks ass in two tempos on “Two Tails”. Not to mention the silky-smooth vocals from the Bay Area’s Andre Cruz, vocal duet from Lucid Paradise that is reminiscent of Gil Scott Heron and Paul Elliott’s seven year old son Buddy drops a vocal on the future B-boy classic “Rainbow”. Together Call Sender has an old-school vintage foundation with a modern perspective. Influenced by iconic acts such as Klaus Weiss, Miles Davis and Nino Nardini and with a hip and funky sonic aesthetic, Call Sender’s music is nostalgic without being pastiche, has a sense of travelling at its core, having been recorded in different parts of the globe, while never hesitating on the direction of the music.

Berlin-based musician and media artist Michael Vorfeld celebrates the 20th anniversary of his unique sonic explorations with a new volume of his Glühlampenmusic (Light Bulb Music). Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Michael Vorfeld is a musician and media artist, plays percussion and self-designed string instruments, and realizes electroacoustic sound pieces. He works in the field of experimental, improvised music and sound art, realizing installations and performances with light and sound, and working with photography and film. In addition to his solo activities, he is a member of various ensembles and collaborates with artists who work in many different art forms, e.g. Burkhard Beins, Mazen Kerbaj, Ute Wassermann, Reinhold Friedl, to name a few. Based in Berlin, his list of activities includes numerous concerts, performances and exhibitions in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Michael Vorfeld participated in the documenta 8, Kassel with the sound performance group "Heinrich Mucken".

Since the mid-1980s, Vorfeld has been realizing a multiplicity of partly site-specific light works (most of which also included sound) and where the incandescent lamp played an essential role. He conducted many tests to research the interplay of light and sound, experimented with all kinds of incandescent lamps in relation to various light-controlling devices and used many different types of microphones and pickups to "eavesdrop" into the acoustic potential of the various light events. The result of this research is Glühlampenmusik (Light Bulb Music), an electro-acoustic and audio-visual performance where sounds are generated through the use of different light bulbs and actuating electric devices. The incorporation of different analog light controllers such as switches, dimmers, relays, flashers and various others leads to diverse variations within the light event, made audible with the help of various microphones and pickups. The changes in the light intensity, the incandescence of the filaments and the rhythmic variety of the flickering and pulsing lights is directly transformed into a comprehensive and microcosmic electro-acoustic world of sound. First performed publicly under the titleGlühlampenmusikin the Labor Sonor series at Kule, Berlin in January 2005, and released in 2010, this new volume of Glühlampenmusik celebrates its 20th of these sonic adventures that can range from sparse abstractionism to almost "clubby" pulsations.

Last May, Hard Times captivated us with The Lost D.A.T.S (Part One)—a remarkable collection of unreleased and freshly unearthed gems from the vaults of NYC legend DJ Romain. But the story didn’t end there. To our surprise and delight, Romain had delivered an even larger treasure trove of beats—too many to reveal all at once.

Now, Hard Times is proud to present the next chapter: DJ Romain – The Lost D.A.T.S (Part Two).

"1996-97? Yeah, that’s when New York was still NEW YORK!

That was around the time we really started to get hold of exotic herbs. Copper Haze, hydroponic! The vibes in the studio were always lovely. I had hair at the time! Dread-Locs down to my shoulders... I was still rockin’ the Wallabees, or British Walkers as we called them - representing for Brooklyn and my West Indian roots!

There was no social media, no supervision, nobody all up in our business… It was classic "mind your own business" NYC Vibes! I was DJing at a lot of the hot clubs and THE hottest afterhours in the city. There were nights when I saw Micheal Douglas roll into the afters with Grace Jones - they were there to party and unwind and I was there dropping the dope tracks for the people.

When it was studio time, with my homie Matt Echols...I was probably setting things off with some quality herbage, a big ass bag of Funyuns and my trusty SP-1200, lol. I had picked up some tips and tricks from Todd Terry and by '96-'97 I was a Shaolin with it myself! This was around the time tracks like "Flowers" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dub)" were tearing up the clubs. I wanted to be able to get my ideas out with no problem, and by then I had a lot of confidence...

Being able to Dj in some of the hottest NY hot spots at the time, I was able to really see what worked and what didn't on the dancefloor. The best House Dancers from around the world and around the Tri-State area would be at my jams. I'm talking Ejoe, Voodoo Ray, maybe kids from the Mop-Top Crew... I was definitely taking note of the kind of rhythms and sounds that would make them go crazy on the dancefloor!

And that's how we went about it - I laid down the rhythms that made it happen in my sets and translated the vibes I was picking up from NYC itself. Matt threw down musically and we were just being as creative and inventive as possible! But we always kept in mind that our job was to make the people on the dancefloor jump!

A lot of the jams from those days got signed to various record labels, we dropped a lot of them on our own label...and some of them ended up in the archives - until now!"

Fierce and forlorn, Swarm Intelligence’s “The Shattered Self” delves into the complexities of human existence in an era dominated by technological advancements. In this thought-provoking exploration, the artist challenges listeners to confront the consequences of a near future where physical and mental augmentation are commonplace. In a world where limbs can be upgraded, where consciousness can be uploaded, where memories can be digitally archived and shared on social media, where our AI clones can liberate us from menial tasks… What remains of our selves? Who is our self?

Swarm Intelligence draws influences from black metal, industrial-tinged dub and post rock, splicing these with his distinctive take on techno to devastating effect. "Dejected," the inaugural track, unleashes grinding walls of feedback against a relentless broken beat, its foreboding atmosphere heightened by a menacing low growl of distorted bass that permeates the unease. It's a disquieting overture that sets the stage for the tumultuous journey ahead.

The second track, “Eros” envelops the listener in a visceral soundscape, where haunting atmospheres intertwine with grinding feedback and pounding percussion. Initially tense, the track evolves into an unexpected and almost euphoric climax, adding an unforeseen emotional depth to the sonic narrative. Yet, beneath the surface, an undercurrent of tension remains—an ever-present reminder of the fragility of our self.

On the flip side, "Inciter" channels inner fury through a guttural chant punctuating a Birmingham-styled broken beat, marching forth with unyielding force.

Finally, "Portal" offers a moment of quiet introspection, as haunting pads echo a mournful refrain while micro recordings of whirring machinery are assembled into the percussion section. It serves as a poignant curtain-closer.

Through "The Shattered Self," Swarm Intelligence challenges listeners to reconsider their perceptions of identity, consciousness, and agency in an age where the machine and the human converge. It's a haunting and profound journey—one that invites introspection and contemplation long after the final reverb tails fade into silence.

Nervous Records, the iconic label synonymous with the rise of house from the streets of New York City, will mark 30 years in the music industry by releasing the celebratory compilation LP ‘Nervous Records: 30 Years’ on October 1st (Part 1) and October 15th (Part 2).

Featuring original mixes of the label’s biggest tracks, plus remixes by some of its most celebrated acts, ‘Nervous Records: 30 Years’ is both a celebration of the past and of the future. Featuring a who’s who of electronic dance music, the long player sees names including Louie Vega, David Morales Darius Syrossian, Tensnake, Monki, Franky Rizardo, Danny Howard and more take on iconic Nervous cuts: ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’, ‘Treat Me Right’, ‘Future Groove’, ‘Feel Like Singing’, ‘Get Up Everybody’, ‘Break You’, ‘Hot’, ‘End This Hate’, ‘Unspeakable Joy’, ‘Can Ya Tell Me’, ‘Jerk It’, ‘The Anthem’, ‘It Makes A Difference’, ‘Learn 2 Luv’ and ‘Don’t You Ever Give Up’.

The album marks one of the most enduring, extraordinary legacies to grace America’s illustrious music history, not just in electronica but far beyond. Founded in 1991 by Michael and his father Sam Weiss, and recognizable immediately by its distinctive character logo, the label grew rapidly, in no small part due to Michael Weiss’ practically unmatched passion for discovering new music.

“Louie Vega and Kenny Dope woke me at 4am on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning from their studio telling me they had something really different that I needed to hear,” Michael recollects. “I asked if they could play it over the phone. They said if I wanted to hear it I had to come to the studio. So of course I got myself up, got dressed and went there. That “really different track” ended up being ‘The Nervous Track’, a tune that became our signature release and was also highly instrumental in the emergency of London’s ‘Broken Beat’ movement.”

The label’s willingness to take chances on fresh sounds and innovative concepts rising up from the melting pot sidewalks of NYC ensured a body of work that has become a living musical history of the city. House cuts ‘Unspeakable Joy’ and ‘Nitelife’ (Kim English), ‘Get Up (Everybody)’ (Byron Stingily) and ‘Feel Like Singing’ (Sandy B) bump up against hip-hop anthems like ‘Who Got Da Props’ (Black Moon) and “Bucktown” (Smif-n-Wessun) and reggae cut ‘Take It Easy’ (Mad Lion); soulful flows from Mood II Swing (Kim English ‘Learn 2 Luv’, Loni Clark “Rushing”), Armand Van Helden (‘The Anthem’) and Nuyorican Soul (‘Mind Fluid’) sit alongside seminal techno singles like Winx’ ‘Don’t Laugh’. The young artists and producers who joined the Nervous Records’ family have gone on to become some of the most hallowed and celebrated dance acts of all time: Louie Vega, Kenny Dope, David Morales, Tony Humphries, Roger Sanchez, Armand Van Helden, Kerri Chandler, Kim English, Byron Stingily, Josh Wink, to name just a handful.

“We did a release with Josh Wink under his Winx alias entitled ‘Nervous Build-Up’,” Michael said. “It did well and it was obvious how talented Josh was. Subsequent to that release I was pretty persistent in asking him to continue to play me his new demos. During one phone conversation he said, “Mike I’m gonna play you something over the phone but don’t laugh when you hear it.” That demo ended up being ‘Don’t Laugh’, which became one of our biggest international hits and still to this day is one of America’s earliest and most impactful techno hits.”

As much a celebration of the label’s future as it is of their past, Nervous Records: 30 Years is but a marker in the imprints’ history, a clear sign of where they’ve been and also where they’re going. With 30 years behind them, the label’s determination to unearth new raw diamonds in the rough is as unwavering as ever.

“I’ve always been one to look at what others are doing (the industry at large) and think, “ok, are they doing this specific thing for a reason, or doing it because everyone else is doing the same thing” and make my decision based on that,” says Nervous Records’ General Manager Andrew Salsano. “In an age where data metrics and analytics reign supreme, I remain steadfast that they should be complementary to your decision and not the sole indicator to make one. So many songs today are written with 15 second hooks in mind for social media, and while there’s nothing wrong with that business model you will always be chasing the wave instead of carving out your own path and identity.

“My primary focus for the sound of the label has and will continue to revolve around signing good songs and music that has the ability to react at the street level first. The best results come from artists that are firstly given a bit of local love that grows into a global impact. Fresh ideas that express child-like curiosity and artists showing vulnerability in their music are also something I look for, artists and producers that are not making music with certain markets in mind, but rather their own style and signature that is unique but able to straddle the fine line of underground and overground.”

Still as raw, as underground and as finely tuned to the dance floor as they ever have been, perhaps the secret to the success - and the longevity - of Nervous Records has something to do with that hard, dogged, no-holds-barred NYC edge that runs through the veins of the label. With the next generation of producers rising from the clubs of New York, one thing is certain; Nervous Records will be there to find them, nurture them and bring them to the world at large, over the next decade and beyond.

Wie jemand, der ein Signal aus Störgeräuschen herausfiltert, entdeckt Cosey Mueller immer wieder innovative Variationen von Punk und experimenteller Elektronik und entwickelt daraus in ihrer beeindruckenden Diskografie einen unverwechselbaren Stil - der mit „Embodiment of Denial" nun einen neuen Höhepunkt erreicht. Eine zunehmend treibende Tanzbarkeit bildet dabei die Kulisse für eine verstärkte Konzentration auf Muellers Stimme.

Die acht Tracks des Albums sind voller eingängiger Hooks, während sie, weit entfernt von den leeren Parolen, die in „Der Politiker" parodiert werden, die deklarative Aussage für die Kräfte des Guten zurückerobert.

aja monet ist eine surrealistische Blues-Dichterin, Musikerin und Bandleaderin, deren Werk fließend zwischen Poesie, Musik und politischem Ausdruck wechselt. Aus der Spoken-Word-Szene der Lower East Side in New York City hervorgegangen, wurde sie die jüngste Gewinnerin des Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry-Titels, bevor sie ihr Schaffen auf genreübergreifende musikalische Darbietungen ausweitete, die ihre Wurzeln im Jazz, Blues und experimentellen Sound haben. Ihr Debüt-Poetry-Album ,when the poems do what they do" wurde 2024 für einen Grammy Award in der Kategorie ,Best Spoken Word Poetry Album" nominiert und etablierte Monetas als einzigartige Stimme in der zeitgenössischen schwarzen Musik- und Performance-Szene. Das Projekt verbindet Poesie mit Live-Instrumentierung und Improvisation und erkundet Themen wie Widerstand, Liebe und Freude durch einen kollaborativen, ensembleorientierten Ansatz. Als tourende Bandleaderin ist sie weltweit bei großen Festivals und in bedeutenden Veranstaltungsorten aufgetreten, darunter das Newport Jazz Festival, das North Sea Jazz Festival, das Montreal Jazz Festival, das Guggenheim, das Lincoln Center, das Barbican Centre und die Fremantle Biennale. Neben ihrer musikalischen Arbeit ist monet eine gefeierte Dichterin und Autorin. Ihr erster vollständiger Gedichtband, ,my mother was a freedom fighter" (2017), wurde für den NAACP Image Award in der Kategorie Poesie nominiert. Ihr jüngstes Buch, ,florida water", erschienen bei Haymarket Books, schöpft aus mehreren Jahren des Lebens und der Organisationsarbeit in Südflorida und setzt ihre Auseinandersetzung mit Ort, Bewegung und kollektivem Gedächtnis fort. Zu ihren Auszeichnungen zählen der Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award für Poesie, der Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award, der Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award, der EBONY 100 Artist in Residence Award sowie der Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Vanguard Award. Zudem ist sie künstlerische Kreativdirektorin von V-Day, der globalen Bewegung zur Beendigung von Gewalt gegen Frauen und Mädchen, und Schöpferin von VOICES, einem Hörspiel aus dem Jahr 2022, das die Geschichten schwarzer Frauen in der Diaspora und auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent in den Vordergrund rückt. aja monet's zweites Studioalbum, ,the color of rain", wird im Mai 2026 bei drink sum wtr erscheinen.

One which lyrically questions some of the radical changes affecting society. A society of increasing division and tension. Social media, influencers, online dating, the distraction of mobile phones, young adults financially trapped in the family home, AI, and bullying: are all scrutinised. Musically, the style has moved on since the last album, 'Things Are Getting Stranger On The Shore'. New members, Luxagen (keys, vocals) and Steve Thompson (bass) have added their considerable musical talents to an already strong line up of Mordecai (vocals, guitar) Tabitha (Sax, clarinet) and Michael Creech (drums, percussion). The new direction tips a nod to the "Art Rock" and "New Wave" music of the 1970's, with plenty of modern innovation in store to keep things sounding fresh and exciting. Previously, Mordecai Smyth has worked with Terry Bickers (House of Love/Levitation) and recently played live shows supporting Bickers' new band. He has had three albums released by Mega Dodo and has written soundtracks to historical films for the British Film Institute. 'Gather The Scattered Mind' is limited to 100 copies, comes in a gatefold sleeve with lyric insert.

Faitiche welcomes a new artist: Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Her practice ranges from performances, concerts, to works with video and visual art, but she is best known for her sound installations and electro-acoustic compositions.

TUNING brings together three pieces by Christina Kubisch from different periods of her oeuvre. What they have in common is the way they transform sound phenomena originally considered “non-music” into compositions.

Jan Jelinek: Gaming in Silence (2024) is the most recent work on this compilation. It’s a collage of electromagnetic waves, voice, and abstract sound textures. How did this combination come about?

Christina Kubisch: Gaming was commissioned as a fixed-media composition for the Sound Dome at ZKM Karlsruhe. Since Resonances: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project (2005), I’ve been making recordings in the old and new server rooms at the ZKM and in their permanent collection of historical computer games. Computer games like Asteroids (Atari, 1979) and Poly-Play (VEB Polytechnik, 1986) have specially generated analogue electromagnetic waves that interest me in particular on account of their density, rhythms and textures. I originally studied painting and to me the work of composition often feels like painting an abstract picture. I alter my source material as little as possible, layering and overlapping until a distinctive sound space emerges. In recent pieces, I sometimes combine magnetic waves with field recordings or live instruments. In Gaming it’s my recording of a Chinese song about silence.

JJ: Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004) is a recording from your Electrical Walks series. Here we should give a brief explanation of one of your best known works: participants in an Electrical Walk move through public spaces wearing prepared headphones that allow them to receive electromagnetic waves from their surroundings – for example from security gates, ATMs or neon signs. They discover a situation that normally is inaudible to the human ear and they can actively shape it by choreographing their movements. I really admire this piece, not least because there’s no clear dividing line between participants and artist. What exactly do we hear in Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004)?

CK: With this early work, I wanted to understand what is heard by people participating in an Electrical Walk in the same place but moving in different ways. The Spanish composer Miguel Alvarez-Fernàndez and I set off from opposite ends of a major shopping street in Madrid, met briefly in the middle, and then continued to the end. We both recorded our walks and I then layered them over one another. You might call it a work of electromagnetic conceptualism.

JJ: Diapason (2009 version) is an installation that plays a composition based on sounds from fifteen tuning forks. This setting is audible in the recording: there’s no dramatic arc, no beginning or end – instead, it recalls a piece of aleatoric music focussing on the decay phase. How did you come to make this work and could you tell us something about your compositional method?

CK: Diapason is part of a series of three pieces that deal with “non-instruments” or instruments that no longer exist: electrical mine bells used to send signals to the workers underground; a historical glass harmonica originally used for medicinal purposes; and tuning forks that were used by doctors to test people’s hearing. All of these methods are no longer in use. The sound of the tuning forks, audible only if held close to the ear, was recorded at the electronic studio at Berlin’s Technical University in such a way that even their decay remained audible. The frequencies range between 64 and 2048 Hertz and they can be adjusted at micro-intervals using small movable weights. The sequence and the duration of the pauses are dictated by chance and were not defined in advance. The 2009 version was created for an installation in the historic Holy Cross Church (Korskirken) in Bergen. Visitors could enter and leave the space at any time, deciding for themselves where and for how long they wished to listen to the sounds played back over an array of small loudspeakers placed on the floor of the apse.

Credits:

Gaming in Silence: commission of the ZKM/Hertzlab, Karlsruhe 2023
elektronic sound processing: Tom Thiel
sound engineering and mixing: Eckehard Güther

Diapason: produced at Elektronisches Studio of TU Berlin
rearrangement: Eckehard Güther

Christina Kubisch, published by Edition Christina Kubisch / Random Musick Publishing

image front: Transitionen 2021 by C. Kubisch, sonagrams of electronic waves (courtesy: Galerie Mazzoli Berlin)
image back: Diapason Tuning Fork, property of Folkmar Hein, Photo: Archiv Christina Kubisch

design by Tim Tetzner
mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Thanks to Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Folkmar Hein, Dominik Kautz and Mario Mazzoli

As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.

Michel Houellebecq is, of course, well-known for his novels, translated into more than 40 languages, and his Goncourt Prize (The Map and the Territory, 2010), but perhaps less so for his debut album, released exactly a quarter of a century ago on Tricatel label. One can sense the influence of Serge Gainsbourg's L'Homme à la Tête de Chou, a disillusioned Procol Harum and a world-weary Burt Bacharach hovering over Houellebecq's poems in Présence Humaine, a now cult classic album orchestrated by Bertrand Burgalat and the musicians of Eiffel. Twelve thousand copies sold and a few concerts later, the writer decided (or so we thought) to bid farewell to the stage, only to generate more media attention though his literary success. Frédéric Lo is, of course, known as an exceptional lyricist, composer, arranger, and producer, author of a sublime fourth solo album (L'Outrebleu, released last March) and a master of collaborative work, notably with Bill Pritchard, Peter Doherty and Daniel Darc. Initially, Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Lo met for the tribute album that the latter was planning for the tenth anniversary of Daniel Darc's death, but their recording of "Psalm XXIII" was, to their great disappointment, rejected by the label and therefore did not appear on the final version of Cœur Sacré (2023). Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining, and the two men decided to take their collaboration a step further. Lo decided to set the writer's words to music, in his studio in Pantin. Raw, stripped-down music draped in electronica, adorned with piano and antediluvian drum machines, often minimalist, sometimes repetitive, provides the perfect backdrop for twelve tracks that question and reflect on humanity's past and future (if indeed there is one). Reflections on the human condition, 21st-century style, a work of speculative fiction conceived by two eternally modern "young lads," Souvenez-Vous de l'Homme (Remember Man) is an album that might occasionally evoke The Stranglers' La Folie, and, given the title, that's probably no coincidence. But above all, it's a hypnotic and melancholic album, uncompromising and captivating. Most importantly, it's an album like no other.

This new volume in the “City Music Tokyo” series, curated by Kunimond Takiguchi (Ryusenkei), focuses on Jazz Funk. From among crossover, Japanese jazz,
and soundtrack works released by Nippon Columbia, Takiguchi has carefully selected urban and sophisticated tracks that resonate with his musical sensibility.

Each piece carries a faint scent of the Showa era, evoking words like “night,” “drive,” “dandyism,” “car chase,” “city,” “hard-boiled,” and “man and woman.”

Selected, supervised, and annotated by Kunimond Takiguchi (Ryusenkei).

Written during a period of geographic and artistic transition, Country Music traces Severin Black’s movement from London to Berlin, unfolding through cycles of isolation and adaptation. Composed on the city’s periphery, the album’s material was continually dismantled and reassembled, reflecting a process of both artistic and personal reconstruction. The album marks a shift in production methodology, moving away from the immediacy of summed live takes toward a more deliberate, stratified multitrack approach. Sparse yet hypnotic, the record distills layers of sound formed by constant relocation, recurrent solitude, and a recalibration of instinct. In many ways, it echoes the experience of exile, not in a political sense but in the quieter, more insidious form of displacement that alters one’s perception of time and self. The music drifts between structure and dissolution, a reflection of existing at the threshold of different spaces—both physically and sonically.

The shedding of the previously used Nape moniker signaled a decisive sonic transformation, informed by extended time spent in the Pyrenees and a renewed engagement with folkloric material. Severin began playing the clarinet while making this record, and though its presence is minimal, it reveals itself as an interest in acoustic simulation, particularly the digital approximations of classical instruments that emerged within 1990s synthesizer technology. This interrogation of authenticity and mediation parallels the album’s thematic engagement with memory, where recollection functions not as a retrieval of fixed experience but as an iterative process of distortion and reconstruction. The relocation to Berlin reignited an affinity for grime music, evident in the syncopated brass of Pilgrim Wine and the fractured vocal layers of March, while memories of childhood in rural Wales permeate the record’s atmospheric spaces. The album includes contributions from longtime collaborator Vanessa Bedoret and Berlin-based artist Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno).

Country Music situates itself within an unresolved dialogue—between past and speculative futures, between folk lineage and digital fragmentation, between place and its embodied and sonic traces. What emerges is not a fixed statement but a process, an ongoing negotiation between what is left behind and what is brought forward. Words by Chantal Michelle

Mastered by Owen Pratt / Design by Severin Black / Center label image by Nicky Kidd / Back cover text by Alya Kanıbelli

TIMEPOINT is the studio album distilled from Stéphane Bissières’ eponymous audiovisual performance, where modular synthesis meets generative real-time visuals. In the live show, sound and image are intertwined: each musical gesture informs a visual response, creating a dynamic, evolving environment where music and visuals interact organically.

Paris-based composer and new media artist Stéphane Bissières works at the intersection of electronic music, generative art, and cybernetics. He develops algorithmic systems that explore timbre, structure, and the interplay of energies, translating data into immersive sensory experiences.

For TIMEPOINT, Bissières transforms the live, algorithmic energy into a self-contained sonic journey. Using modular synthesis and generative composition, he builds intricate, evolving textures that balance chaos and structure — a sonic ecosystem reflecting movement, pattern, and organic order.

The music explores timbre as a central element, sculpting sounds that resonate with the visual patterns of the performance. Each track functions as a microcosm of the show: algorithmically generated sequences, cybernetic textures, and evolving layers converge to form a lush, immersive soundscape.

TIMEPOINT invites listeners to explore a world where technology, imagination, and organic structure coexist. It’s an intimate translation of a live audiovisual universe, now accessible as a focused listening experience.

Mutant, in partnership with Sony Masterworks, is proud to present the soundtrack to this spring's runaway sensation - the Various Artists soundtrack to Ryan Coogler's SINNERS

The album is executive produced by the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson (who also serves as an executive producer on the movie), Coogler & Serena Göransson and features original songs and recordings by Miles Caton, Rod Wave, James Blake, Don Toliver, Brittany Howard, Raphael Saadiq, Hailee Steinfeld, Rhiannon Giddens, Buddy Guy, Cedric Burnside, Eric Gales, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jerry Cantrell, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Lola Kirke, Bobby Rush, Peter Dreams, OG DAYV, Jack O’Connell, Sharde Thomas-Mallory & others. 

The soundtrack is available digitally from Sony Masterworks (visit Amazon or any other major digital music services to stream/download). 

Mutant, and Sony Classical will also release a second album featuring original score by Academy Award® winning composer Ludwig Göransson.

SINNERS is written and directed by Coogler and stars Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller, Jayme Lawson and Delroy Lindo. The Proximity Media production will be released in theaters nationwide on April 18 by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Cruor Who? Cruor Hilla, Punk-Rock-Trio aus Berlin, das sich ,frech wie Oskar" auch gern den kleinen Dingen des Alltags widmet. Sie spielen melodischen, energiegeladenen Punkrock - mit großem Fokus auf die Texte. Zwischen Humor und Tiefgang erzählen ihre Songs von Freundschaften, Selbstzweifeln, Weltschmerz und dem Mut, den eigenen Weg zu gehen. Downloadcode mit 2 Bonustracks limitierte Auflage von 300 Stk. 180 gr. goldfarbenes Vinyl

Acclaimed experimental hip-hop artists Pink Siifu and Turich Benjy are thrilled to announce the release of a limited edition vinyl of their groundbreaking 2023 collaborative album, IT’S TOO QUIET..’!!. This exclusive pressing includes six previously unreleased bonus tracks, offering fans an expanded auditory journey through the duo's innovative soundscape.

Originally released on October 31, 2023, IT’S TOO QUIET..’!! was lauded for its genre-defying fusion of underground hip-hop, alternative trap, and electronic influences. The album showcases Pink Siifu's visionary artistry and Turich Benjy's dynamic versatility, creating a sonic experience that is both immersive and boundary-pushing. The project fea-tures collaborations with notable artists such as Nick Hakim, WiFiGawd, Vayda, Lance Skiiiwalker, and Kamilah, among others.

Critics praised the album's eclectic production and cohesive vision. HipHopDX noted that "IT’S TOO QUIET..’!! is a grab bag of deliriously joyful rap songs that span all sorts of popular subgenres," highlighting the album's ability to blend diverse musical elements seamlessly. In Search of Media commended the album's high energy and eclectic sound, stating that it "combines both their skills as emcees poignantly."

In addition to the original 17 tracks, this special release includes six unreleased bonus tracks, providing listeners with new material that delves deeper into the duo's creative synergy. All packaged in a beautiful 2LP vinyl in gatefold sleeve — don't miss out!





[d] A4. lookin..’!![gorgeous] featuring WifiGawd, Vayda produced by Tony Seltzer, iiye

Returning with its final instalments, Die Schachtel's Decay Music series extends its explorations of inspired contemporary experimental efforts of the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract with Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello’s “Liminale” and Sergio Armaroli and David Toop’s “And I Entered Into Sleep”, two astounding electroacoustic gestures of blurred space and time, plumbing complexity of meaning bound to sonority. Creatively groundbreaking and inspired, radically rethinking the terms of what ambient music can be perceived to be, they stand among the most striking efforts to appear within the series to date.

An aural bridge between two distinct generations of Italian experimental musicians, “Liminale” is the debut collaborative outing from the creative partnership of Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello. Active within the context for roughly two decades, Turra (b. 1975) is a reductionist/electroacoustic composer, noted from his tense deployment of concrete and acoustic sources — particularly small sounds and noises — whose work threads the balance between silence, tactile auditory perception, and aleatoric music. Martusciello (b. 1959), on the other hand, is a musician and composer working across the fields of acousmatic and electroacoustic composition, sound installation, multi-media and audiovisual art, and computer music improvisation, who is widely celebrated for both his solo efforts and his collaborations with Eugene Chadbourne, Mike Cooper, Alvin Curran, Chris Cutler, Rhodri Davies, Iancu Dumitrescu, Michel Godard, Tim Hodgkinson, Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, Jérôme Noetinger, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker, Z'EV, and others.

A single, nearly 40 minute work, extending across the two sides of the LP, “Liminale” — as its title eludes — is an exploration of the liminal through sonic means: “places that exist on the threshold, transitional spaces suspended between a before and an after, between the real and the evanescent” conceiving the soundscape as “a liminal place, a space to be inhabited without the certainty of where it leads.” Unfurling like a labyrinth navigated in darkness, the piece’s first half is marked by sparseness and restraint, as slow-paced guitar tones and harmonics thread silences and resonant ambience within a sprawling sense of space, delicately populated by tiny sounds, fleeting punctuations drawn from undeterminable sources, vocal utterances, and the unexpected appearance of intoxicating piano tones.

As “Liminale” progresses into its second half, Turra and Martusciello enter a more densely populated notion of the in between. No less defined by the presence of space and mystery, discreet textures rustle and writhe within passages of pure concrete abstraction and a fragmented, stretched sense of musicality: long-tones, metallic pulses, minimal vibrations, processed vocalizations, guitar harmonics, and deconstructed piano melodies, buried in spectral, gauzy hazes drifting from beyond arm’s reach within an imagistic and immersive landscape of profoundly meditative scope, where each sonic element flirts the line between emergence and disappearance.

Intimate, fragile, and achingly beautiful, “Liminale”, Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello’s debut collaboration, is a masterstroke in sound-craft and composition, revealing the potency of meaning locked within transitional spaces and the undefined, and imbuing silence with monumental gravity and weight. Mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi, and taking electroacoustic minimalism to an etherial extreme, “Liminale” is issued as the ninth entry in Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, highlighting inspired contemporary experimental efforts of the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract.

Mutant, in partnership with Back Lot Music, are proud to present the physical media debut of Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Rebirth Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with music by two-time Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.



To create the score for Jurassic World Rebirth, director Gareth Edwards turned to a distinguished friend, two-time Oscar® winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water), who worked with Edwards on Godzilla. “I feel very fortunate to be doing the music for a movie franchise like this, which entertained me so greatly, as a filmgoer, for decades,” Desplat says. “I dreamed of writing music for movies like this since I was a teenager, and now, here I am,” he adds with a laugh, “part of Jurassic World, almost a teenager.”



Rebirth represents the second time that Desplat has stepped into a franchise and inherited and adapted iconic musical motifs written by an artist he considers his “forever idol,” the legendary John Williams: Desplat previously took on that challenge with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2. “John Williams wrote a fantastic melody for Jurassic Park that I now get to reinvent, rejigger and resculpt in ways benefit our movie,” Desplat says. “My desire was not to quote John’s score bluntly but subtly echo it or make use of it in the original score I have written for the film in playful and meaningful ways.”



"Continuing in the legacy of composers like John Williams, Don Davis, and Michael Giacchino - Alexandre Desplat brings the action packed Jurassic World: Rebirth to life with equal parts bombast, and tenderness." says Mo Shafeek, co-founder of Mutant. "Beautiful piano melodies give reprieve from thundering percussion, in this beautiful and essential addition to the Jurassic franchise.”

Originally conceived as a compilation of outtakes and live recordings from The Shadow Ring's 1995 stateside tour, Wax-Work Echoes takes its name from the first line of "Put the Music in Its Coffin," the title track of the group's breakthrough release. Lambkin abandons the bitsand- bobs approach, advancing the Shadow Ring concept with entirely original material that builds on the unit's self-mythologizing lyrics, celebrates the clicking of horse hooves, ponders on the sociability of rats and mice, and warns of the dangers of poultry. The first Shadow Ring album to officially include Tim Goss in the main lineup, Wax- Work Echoes reveals the group in its final and lasting form, awash in the outer bounds of atmospheric exploration, with Lambkin's familiar wry and morbid lyricism and the stripped-down angularity of amateurishly detuned guitars fully intact. While Klaus Canterbury and Tony Clark seem all but forgotten, and the shrugged off S. Fritz is listed on the liner notes as performing only "when required," Lambkin did solicit contributions from outside the inner circle. A bit of "Mambo Twist," lifted from a tape of unreleased Vitamin B12 material sent to Lambkin by Alasdair Willis, found its way into "V.E.R.M.I.N.," while an extended epistle contribution from Richard Youngs (and, technically, Brian Lavelle) would be employed in the second half of "Catching Sight/Of Passing Things." Released on CD in 1996 for Bruce Russell's newly minted Corpus Hermeticum, Wax-Work Echoes was recorded concurrently with intense rehearsal periods, in anticipation of the forthcoming "Rose Watson Tour," and was supported by a celebratory fanzine media blitz. The album seemingly absorbs the frenetic excess of the band's transatlantic travels; Wax-Work Echoes channels the trio's wilder instincts into an unresolved catharsis, not yet free of frustration or restlessness. Out of print for almost three decades and available here for the first time ever on long-playing disc, Wax-Work Echoes is a classic from the outer eddies of The Shadow Ring's sound, a must-have for any aficionado's collection: "A window slides, glass slips from frame / And canvas carcass breathes again." Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, the Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning in 2023 with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre-Shadow Ring tape The Cat & Bells Club (1992), Blank Forms Editions has been conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group. Wax-Work Echoes and Hold Onto I.D. are the latest releases in a multiyear reissue effort that includes several LPs, a comprehensive CD box set, and a nearly five-hundred-page book.

"Chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams..."

December 25th, 2023 - an Instagram post. Stimulator Jones shared half a dozen FIRE tracks from his beat tape archive. We were immediately drawn to the rough hewn boom bap.

"I'd release that", Rob commented.

Hours of material was shared and the result is this: Cool Green Trees (1999-2005). A collection of beats and loops Stimulator Jones created between the ages of 14-20 at home in his basement, bedroom and computer room in Roanoke, Virginia.

You will not believe the profound soulful genius contained within these naive schoolboy melodies.

December 25th, 1998 - 25 years ago to the day and his much-coveted Yamaha SU10 sampler was finally bestowed upon young Stimmy AKA Sam Lunsford: "I immediately hooked up a CD Walkman to the input jack and looped the beginning two bars of Grover Washington Jr.'s "Mercy Mercy Me". I don't know what exactly was so thrilling about hearing two measures of music repeating over and over but it was so infectious and hypnotizing and enthralling to me. I'll never forget that ecstatic rush of making my first loop - an uncontrollable, gleeful smile plastered all over my face." When you hear the pocket breakbeat symphonies featured here on Cool Green Trees, you'll feel the same sense of frisson.

In the wake of his Stones Throw breakthrough - Exotic Worlds & Master Treasures - Stimulator Jones was pegged by many as a 90s throwback artist. However, he literally IS a 90s artist. He's been recording music most of his life and he's now 40. He created the bulk of Cool Green Trees as a teenager. Everything before 2004 was recorded when Sam was still in school. He was in 8th grade when he made the 1999 tracks - he didn't even have his learner's permit. This album is a snapshot of a young man in a simpler time. Things were still mysterious back then and he was flying blind, relying on his ears and having to figure things out for himself: "I had no road map for becoming a beatmaker. I have been collecting music since I was a kid, I am a lifelong digger and seeker of cool and interesting sounds. I was there in the golden age of Hip Hop, and while I may have been a suburban white kid in Roanoke, Virginia, I was tuned in and I bought so many classic albums when they came out. I was attracted to Hip Hop because of the musical and poetic quality. I was hypnotized by the rhythms, partially because I was a drummer. I didn't brag about collecting my breakbeat records or making beats - it was something I did in isolation. It wasn't something I generally wanted to bring attention to and it didn't really score me any cool points. I certainly wasn't flexing on social media about it."

Hell, he can do that now!

Opener "Pharoah Jones" was inspired by Yesterday's New Quintet and Madlib's ability to capture that classic 70s sound whilst playing all the instruments. Sam created this one stoned afternoon by laying down a 2 bar loop and a shaker loop on his Yamaha SU700 sampler. He hung a microphone from the ceiling and played his Yamaha Stage Custom drum kit over the top before adding ender Rhodes and playing his dad's Selmer tenor sax through an Electro Harmonix Memory Man echo pedal. Yes! Up next, "Ghost Gospel" utilises a dope loop from a gospel record and adds some soul-funk drums overtop, whilst working that filter knob. Says Sam: "The loop reminded me of something Ghostface would rap over. The sample was in 3/4 waltz time but I flipped it for a 4/4 groove, a technique I picked up from RZA. "Ill Feeling" uses sped-up pieces from a dusty old funk record and putting them over a classic NOLA drum loop; gain chopping up a slow, bluesy 3/4 time signature and bending it to a 4/4 groove. Classy shit. "Capital Punishment" features drums tapped in live, inspired by MF Doom's Special Herbs series. "Do Not Adjust" consists loops found on a compilation of 70s French music at Happy's Flea Market, a classic Roanoke digging spot.

The sublime, evocative title track, "Cool Green Trees" was created when Sam was still living at home. He dumped samples off his SU10 into the family desktop and arranged them in a demo version of Pro Tools: "This track was sort of my ode to the DJ Shadow style of sample based production. Super spacey, slow, and moody. The heavily filtered drums were inspired by Alec Empire's 'Low on Ice' album. I later added some scratches and sounds from a Spider Man storybook record." "Chill Scratch" snags the final bit of a bossanova record and pairs it with a drum loop before adding experimental scratching run through an Electro Harmonix Memory Man echo pedal. "Poisonous Fumes" was made using a sampler, mixer and a turntable; a kind of mixtape beat collage with added scratches and sounds from various records. Using dialogue from superhero records was a nod to Madlib. "Welcome Aboard The Starship" is dark, downtempo trip-hop with a spooky bent. Sam paired a slow, hard drum loop with a guitar sample grabbed off a psychedelic rock record. To finish, he added various backwards sounds and weird atmospheric effects and a little scratching. Swoon.

Side B opens with "Keep On Runnin", made on a borrowed Roland SP202 sampler. Having always loved the sound of the Lo-Fi filter on those machines, reminiscent of the Emu SP1200, Sam always imagined Del or another of the Hieroglyphics crew rapping over this beat. You can certainly hear why. "Sounds Impossible" sees Sam experimenting with layering multiple kick samples at different volumes to create patterns similar to those heard by Showbiz and Lord Finesse during their God-level 1995 period. "Painted Faces" was made by chopping up a REDACTED record which he had gotten from Happy's Flea Market and paired it with a REDACTED drum loop. By the time Sam recorded "The Knew Style", he had acquired a shitty old 1960s portable turntable off eBay. It didn't function properly when he bought it but his brother opened it up, cleaned it out and got it working: "I remember he told me that there was a bunch of sand inside of it when he opened it up, as if its previous owner had taken it to the beach. I would take that turntable on my Happy's Flea Market digs so I could preview records...that's how I found this loop."

"Chicken Wing Blues Sauce" loops up a classic blues joint and pairs it with some REDACTED drums. A bit of filtering and arranging et voilà! "Kool Breeze", from 1999, is one of Sam's oldest surviving beats, as is "Sexx Bullets". The Roots sampled the same record, leaving Sam frustrated yet vindicated. "Soul Child" was an early SU10 creation, looping a dusty old Soul Children 45 and pairing it with 70s rock drum loops to great effect. "Take Off Runnin" was another loop found digging with a portable turntable. Paired with some boom bap drums it makes for a hypnotic head-nod groove. "Centurian" was intended to be a little beat interlude a la Pete Rock. The sample is from a sun-dappled soft-psych record and it's paired with a Robin Trower drum loop that just happens to fit perfectly. Sometimes you slap things together kind of haphazardly and magic happens. "Bozack" was the first beat Sam made using Pro Tools, his first foray into using chopped sounds instead of loops, an exciting new world. "Church" is beat interlude using a Phil Upchurch loop with the "Long Red" drums - a favourite break of Dilla et al. Sam was really on a tear in late 2004, probably because he was unemployed and phoneless and able to just make beats all day. He made "Splash One" on a borrowed Yamaha SU700 and again was experimenting with tapping the drums in live with his fingers, instead of using a loop or sequenced pattern. Channeling 9th Wonder, Sam used a water splash sound effect from a Batman record as a percussive element, hence the title (also a 13th Floor Elevators reference). The main loop is a backwards portion of one of his favourite Roy Ayers songs.

"Hank" is another fun little beat interlude thing, created on a borrowed Roland SP202 sampler with the fantastic Lo-Fi effect that resembled the Emu SP1200 at a fraction of the price. "73 goatee", from 99, is another of his oldest surviving beats, created in his bedroom with his Yamaha SU10 and his brother's Vestax MR-300 4-track recorder: "This one will always feel special. I can remember having a feeling all the way back then on the night that I created it that this was a solid beat with a catchy loop. There was something in the Fender Rhodes melody that resonated with me emotionally, and I had never heard a producer sample that portion before. I felt like I had found my own unique sound, my own unique loop. It came from an Ahmad Jamal '73. I actually even recorded myself rapping and scratching over this beat way back then, I still have that version in all its imperfect sloppy glory."

Sam explains just how much these tracks mean to him: "They all have immense historical and sentimental value and I'm proud of them. These beats come from an innocent, simple time when I was just figuring out how to craft these sounds. They're something very personal to me. They are the initial part of a journey that I really was taking *alone*. There was no YouTube. I couldn't Google shit. I didn't even know any other beatmakers, producers or DJs in my town that could teach me anything. It was always just me, alone, in a room with some equipment - chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams. What I was doing wasn't cool. Most of my peers thought I was a weirdo and couldn't care less. Creating these sounds was an anti-social endeavour. In a sense, I felt like it was me against the world, and all I had to instruct and assist me were the recordings produced by my heroes - RZA, DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, Beatminerz, Showbiz, Diamond D, Beatnuts, Prince Paul, The Bomb Squad, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, E-Swift, Mista Lawnge, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Peanut Butter Wolf, El-P and so many more...I dedicate this collection to them, and to my older brother Joe who has always been a musical and technical guiding light for me.

This was a time before every kid was a self-described producer and beatmaker, before everyone had a DAW, before Kanye and "chipmunk soul", before Red Bull beat battles, before there was any social media beyond chat rooms and AOL Instant Messenger, before Soundcloud, before SP-404 mania, before lo-fi beats to study to, before Splice, before targeted ads for MIDI chord packs, etc. In 99 when I told people that I had a sampler and made beats I was mostly met with bewildered confusion and indifference. Kids and adults alike would wonder why I got this weird machine for Christmas instead of something worthwhile like a Playstation or a mountain bike or even a guitar for that matter because at least that could be used to make "real music". Back then, sampling was still not widely respected as an art form - it was seen as lazy, talentless and unoriginal at best and outright criminal theft at worst. I had gotten respect for playing drums and guitar and things of that nature but this was a step in the wrong direction in the eyes of many."

The cover photo is a picture of Sam standing on his back porch in the latter part of 1998, just before he got his first sampler. He was 13 years old, in 8th grade. His dad took the picture with his 35mm film camera: "I actually wanted to be pointing my dad's .22 pistol at the camera lens but he wouldn't let me. He gave me an old walking cane to use instead. The Tommy Hilfiger puffer jacket came from the lost and found at William Fleming High School where my mom worked as a secretary. I was thrilled when she brought it home because we never spent money on expensive name brand clothing like that - we were for the most part strictly a sale rack, bargain bin, thrift store, yard sale, flea market kind of family when it came to clothes. My watch is some cheap off-brand fake gold department store watch." Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Ist das noch Familie oder ist das schon ein Kult?

Mit ihrem dritten Studioalbum "FREAKS" erreicht die Karriere von DEINE COUSINE einen neuen Höhepunkt und zelebriert die Kraft der Gemeinschaft in einer Zeit, die uns immer wieder versucht auseinanderzureißen.

DEINE COUSINE alias Ina Bredehorn muss magnetisch sein, anders kann man es nicht erklären. Was vor einigen Jahren noch in schimmligen Clubs in den schlechten Ecken der Stadt stattfand, passiert heute in ein paar der größten Spielstätten des Landes. Und das alles aus eigener Kraft, ohne Majorlabel, Riesen Budgets oder mediale Überpräsenz. Mit unendlicher Power auf und abseits der Bühne zieht DEINE COUSINE immer mehr Familienmitglieder in ihren Bann, die mit "Freaks" ein Album randvoll mit neuen Hymnen geliefert bekommen.

Die neuen Songs behandeln kollektive Emotionen - mal im big picture, mal anhand von persönlichen Episoden erzählt - und vermitteln ohne Plattitüden ein Gefühl von Zusammengehörigkeit, das auf Geschlecht, Sexualität, Religion oder sonstige, verstaubte Rahmen scheisst. Laut Ina versammelt "Freaks" Songs über "mich, meine Leute und meine zehn Persönlichkeiten", und damit sind alle gemeint, die mit offenem Herzen und Toleranz durch die Welt gehen.

Das Album erscheint als farbige Vinyl (Re-Vinyl) im Gatefold

Pop-Singer-Songwriter Marlon Hammer kündigt für das Frühjahr 2025 sein Debütalbum »Szenarien« an und macht schon mit seiner ersten EP deutlich: Hier ist einer, der sich etwas traut. 2022 veröffentlicht er »44803 Bochum 2«, ein Titel, der sich auf das Studioalbum »4630 Bochum« von Herbert Grönemeyer aus dem Jahr 1984 bezieht.

Und auch wenn direkte Vergleiche mit lebenden Ikonen immer dünnes Eis sind: Einige Parallelen lassen sich kaum von der Hand weisen. Marlon Hammer ist ein Kind des Ruhrpotts, und der Bochumer bringt einige unverkennbare Merkmale mit. Seine Stimme sticht aus der Masse heraus – sonor, markant, immer leicht belegt –, seine Texte machen mit kleinen Alltagsbeobachtungen große Bilder auf und, typisch Ruhrpott: Er singt, wie ihm der Schnabel gewachsen ist.

»Ich fass dich nicht« heißt die erste Single aus dem kommenden Debütalbum »Szenarien«, das am 11. April 2025 bei Telamo / BMG erscheint. Es ist der vorläufige Höhepunkt einer rasanten Entwicklung, die dem Pop-Singer-Songwriter in den letzten zwei Jahren eine schnell wachsende Fangemeinde, erfolgreiche Singles wie »Angenehm kühl« und mediale Präsenz bescherte, zuletzt etwa in der VOX-Primetime-Show »The Piano« (wo er neben seiner eigenen Single »Zu dir fällt mir nichts mehr ein« Grönemeyers Song »Halt mich« am Piano sang). Dabei entspann sich zwischen Igor Levit und Mark Foster beim heimlichen Beobachten von Marlons Performance folgender Dialog:

»Das ist gut. Das ist mehr als gut!« (Mark Forster)
»Er klingt nicht wie ein 19-Jähriger.« (Igor Levit)
»Er klingt wie ein 19-Jähriger mit einer geilen Stimme.« (Mark Forster)
»Besonderer Typ.« (Igor Levit)

Kann man so stehen lassen. Und beliebig ergänzen, denn Marlon Hammer ist für seine (mittlerweile) 20 Jahre tatsächlich ein beeindruckend kompletter Künstler. Und wie bei jedem Ausnahmetalent steckt auch dahinter: viel Arbeit. »Ich habe wirklich mega jung angefangen, Straßenmusik zu machen«, erzählt Marlon. Was damals den praktischen Nebeneffekt hatte, sein Taschengeld aufzubessern, ist heute der Grund dafür, dass er ein echtes Multitalent ist: Marlon spielt Gitarre und Klavier, schreibt seine Musik und Texte selbst und hat ein außergewöhnliches Gespür für gute Hooklines.

"Chicago-based composer, improviser, multi-media artist and underground legend, Rob Mazurek, joins forces with modular-synth maestro and light magician, Alberto Novello for a blacklight invocation that hurls us out into new and uncharted sound-dimensions.

Born of a chance encounter, Alberto Novello and Rob Mazurek's improvised collaboration, Sun Eaters, was recorded in a single afternoon at Dobialab, an experimental artist run space in Northern Italy. Alberto provided a loose rythmic and timbral bedrock over which Rob Mazurek sketched and weaved delicate harmonies with trumpets, adding atmosphere with bells and sampler.

Sun Eaters is a dizzying and disorientating space ritual, a totally out excercise in telepathic collaboration and psychedelic sound."

Modular Synth by Alberto Novello.
Trumpets, sampler, bells by Rob Mazurek.
Produced by Alberto Novello.
Recorded at Dobialab, Italy on 6th February 2024 by Michele Pegan.
Mixed by Alberto Novello at Ni Dieu Ni Maitre Studios Italy & Air Residency Austria.
Mastered by Hrvoje Nikšić, Croatia.
Artwork by Giulia Spanghero.

Dedicated to the memory of Filippo Novello.

Es war 2003, als "Fire", das Debütalbum von Electrix Six aus Detroit quasi aus dem Nichts erschien, um weltweit die Dancefloors zum Beben zu bringen. Hitsingles wie das ikonische "Gay Bar" oder "Danger! High Voltage!", zu dem gerüchteweise Jack White persönlich Backing Vocals beigesteuert haben soll, laufen noch heute in den Clubs und Indie-Playlisten. Zum 21sten erscheint jetzt eine remasterte Version von "Fire" auf Vinyl und CD. Die CD wird außerdem fünf Bonustracks enthalten. "Fire" wurde zwischen 2002 und 2003 in Michigan aufgenommen mit ergänzenden Arbeiten in den Londoner Abbey Road und Olympic Studios. Bereits die erste Single "Danger! High Voltage!" schlug medial ein. Pitchfork schrieb über den Song: "it drops a hard beat, announcing itself with taut wah-wah guitars before exploding into fuzztone and horns while singer Dick Valentine duets with the White Stripes" Jack White". Die Folgesingle "Gay Bar" stieg in die Top 5 der britischen Single-Charts ein und wurde von Q und Kerrang für das "Video des Jahres" ausgezeichnet. Auch "Dance Commander" kam mit einem epischen Video vom gefeierten Regisseur Ruben Fleischer.

Prehistoricisms by Intronaut is a landmark album in progressive metal, merging complex rhythms with deep, atmospheric textures. Originally released in 2008, this album showcases the band’s unique approach to combining elements of jazz, sludge, and progressive metal, setting a new standard in genre-blending. Intronaut, formed by accomplished musicians Sacha Dunable, Joe Lester, Dave Timnick, and Danny Walker, stands out for their technical mastery and innovative soundscapes, drawing listeners into a journey through ancient themes and explorations of human existence. Prehistoricisms is revered for its intricate compositions, with tracks that seamlessly shift between aggression and introspection, highlighting the band's bold musical vision and mastery of dynamics. This exclusive vinyl reissue is carefully crafted to preserve the album's original depth and clarity, making it the definitive version for discerning listeners. Perfect for both long-time fans and new listeners, "Prehistoricisms" remains a testament to Intronaut’s legacy in modern metal and is an essential addition to any vinyl collection. Experience the immersive power of this high-quality pressing and rediscover the timeless impact of Prehistoricisms.