quête:step by step

Ratkiller steps into daylight for a brief moment with two tracks of fizzy experimental shenanigans. Let it fry your brain. Step by step. On & on!

Ratkiller is one of many projects by Estonia's outsider don Mihkel Kleis.

Easy going reggae covers. Jah Larry produced

** German Disco - first time on 7" ** "Matter of Taste" released their debut album on the small german Flame label in 1979. "Step By Step" is a monstrous Disco track while the flip side ("Haselief") is completely different and certainly surprises the listener. - as comped on "CAN YOU FEEL IT Vol. 4"! - 300 copies pressed! - first time on 7"! - 33 1/3 RPM!...

Nach der Veröffentlichung der Step By Step EP von Braxe + Falcon kommt nun die gleichnamige Remix EP der französischen House-Pioniere, mit Mixen von A-Trak, ABSOLUTE, Amtrac, Shakedown, Didi Han und anderen, die den vier Original-Tracks des Duos neues Leben einhauchen. Die Collection enthält auch die "Axel Boman's In The Air Version" ihrer großartigen Single "Step By Step" mit freshem Gesang von Panda Bear.

Die Pioniere des French House, Alan Braxe und DJ Falcon, alias Alain und Stèphane Quême, veröffentlichen ihre erste gemeinsame EP als Braxe + Falcon auf Smugglers Way, dem neuen, auf Dance & Electronic fokussierten Imprint von Domino.

Alain und Stéphane Quême, oder Alan Braxe und DJ Falcon, sind die unbestrittenen Architekten des French Touch - der gefühlvollen House-Musik, die aus geloopten Samples mit einem unnachahmlichen gallischen Flair gezaubert wird und Mitte der 90er Jahre in Paris entstand. Im Jahr 2022 werden diese beiden Originale ihre erste Zusammenarbeit als Braxe & Falcon in Form der Step By Step EP präsentieren, die auf Smugglers Way erscheint. Braxe ist bekannt für einige der wichtigsten und kultigsten House- und Popmusik-Platten der späten 90er und frühen 2000er Jahre, darunter "Music Sounds Better With You" (The Upper Cuts) als Stardust mit Thomas Bangalter von Daft Punk und offizielle Remixe für Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Kelis, Kylie Minogue und mehr. Bangalter arbeitete in den frühen Tagen auch mit DJ Falcon zusammen und veröffentlichte als Duo Together die French Touch-Hymne "So Much Love To Give". Neben wichtigen Remixen für Phoenix, Cassius und Justice hat Falcon zuletzt "Contact", den explosiven Abschlusstrack von Daft Punks Megalith "Random Access Memories" aus dem Jahr 2013, mitproduziert, geschrieben und mitgespielt.

• Step By Step are a 12 piece Milwaukee soul band and this is a rare album from the group
• Classic Brunswick album with a mix of breakbeats and harmonies that are in-demand
• Highlights from the album include the club classic title track plus ‘Cash Money’ and ‘I’m Glad’
• Originally released in 1977, this reissue has been pressed on 140g black vinyl with original artwork
and printed inner sleeve

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

John Gordon, a trombone master, brings us another gem from that most renowned of 70's record labels, Strata-East. The trombone is a difficult instrument. In the hands of an artist like John Gordon, however, it can create vivid images and conjure up beautiful music. And when the cohort of other players includes the likes of Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell, you know you're in for an extra treat.

2x12"

UPPERMOST will be releasing his upcoming album on March 23, 2018 with a completely new perspective that should change the course of his career, expanding to a brand new pop oriented approach but keeping his French signature at the core of the project. His previous hit tracks Flashback and Beautiful Light have already generated more than 27 Million combined streams across platforms, while Mercedes-Benz selected Uppermost single Disco Kids to be featured in their Formula One advertising campaign and Starz/Encore chose another of his instrumentals for their 2018 TV spot only few weeks ago. Uppermost is being closely followed by international media leading to great articles from influent press channels such as DJMAG, Vice, Complex, Paper Magazine, and famous radios such as BBC 1 and Virgin. In addition to releasing music via his own independent label Uppwind Records, Uppermost has released music through powerful labels such as Sony and Ministry Of Sound and done official remixes for Dada Life, Lemaitre and Crystal Fighters. He has also already shared french festival SOLIDAYS's stage with Madeon, Yelle, Fakear and Die Antwoord. This new year, Uppermost premiered his upcoming live show at Paris . Point Ephemere . for a sold out event that turned into a great success. Meanwhile, a U.S. tour is already confirmed for the month of March.

In this opus, KID has gathered its favourite MCs: Troy Berkley (Be), Demolition Man (UK), Jamalski (US), Senior Wilson (ES), Echo Minott (Ja) and Eva Lazarus (UK) - as well as the musicians Dubamix (Fr), Dubmatix (Can) and Crew Fogata Sound.

There can't be too many truly unknown golden era rap records left in 2019, but this is about
as close as it gets. Without a Discogs entry and as far as we can tell only one copy ever sold
online ($800!), 'Poetry' is a rarity in the truest sense. That is despite it being featured on a
recent DJ Shadow mix, which you would have thought would turn up some copies, but
instead left many collectors scratching their heads as to the identity of this previously
unheard track.
Not only is it incredibly rare, it's incredibly dope too! A Josh Davis co-sign always helps
but throw a dope guitar riff, 'Funky Drummer', 'Numbers' and 'Nautilus' (for the remix) into
the mix and you can't really go wrong. We still can't figure out which mix we like best so
you can decide that for yourselves.
S.W.A.T. were from Wichita, Kansas, of all places and have a whole album worth of
unreleased material from back in the days so there's a possibility we'll see more from them
in the future, but until then enjoy the masterpiece that is 'Poetry'!

Step Time Orchestra was the collaborative work of producers Jori Hulkkonen and Toumas Salmela, who began producing music together in the nineties whilst studying in Oulu, Finland. Whilst all their friends would be getting up early to go to university, they would only just be going to bed, having spent the night listening to house records from New York, drinking Whiskey and programming their MPC 2000!

Step Time produced a slew of tracks during this time, some of which were licensed and pressed on 12" singles during the late nineties/early noughties on labels operating in North America and Europe, but not everything they made saw the light of day. Heavily influenced by labels like Ibadan and Spiritual Life Music at the height of the New York House Scene, 'Jazz Error NYC' and '2am in Africa' were never signed, not fitting the profile of their other releases at the time, they were left in the drawer and sadly forgotten!

Skip forward to Winter 2016, and FBNM's Lorenzo, whilst over on a DJ excursion, visits Jori in Finland. Keen to keep working together, he presses him for something uniquely special. Magically, the Ajos E.P jumps out of the drawer into Hulkkonen's hand, and as it turns out, it has aged with a rather remarkable grace. Written using a combination of MPC sequencing and an Atari ST powering vanilla Cubase for some midi programming duties, it features the sounds of the Italian made Siel Opera 6, an Alesis S4 Rompler and other vintage Roland, Yamaha and Kawai Synths. They went full out on this one, even finally learning to play keys for that jazzy piano action. It was recorded live through a soundcraft analog board with outboard Fx, creating a sound that transcended it's time to feel remarkably fresh today!

The Ajos EP is named after an area in their native city of Kemi, Northern Finland, which is where they wrote and produced it in 1999.

Classic !

Following his first EP on Field Records in 2015, Staffan Linzatti presents the 25th instalment of the label with a perfectly balanced minimalist techno triple pack.

In the years since the release of Adrian Younge's Something About April, he has been coined America's black genius: the evocation of analog vestige in a digital era. His majestic music has garnered him reverence, likened to Ennio Morricone's best work and the Beatles' tenacity to create new sounds. Fortuitously, Something About April has made an indelible impression on modern vinyl heads and producers alike, being sampled by DJ Premier, Jay-Z, Common, 50 Cent and more. The Something About April brand is an axiom to the modern 'Breakbeat' and Linear Labs is happy to announce its successor: Something About April II. Recorded with Younge's collection of rare instruments, Something About April II advances his musical paradigm with enterprising concepts and grander compositions — it synthesizes the boundaries between dark American soul and classic European cinema. With effervescent conviction, Younge executes with an array of entrancing vocalists: Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab) and Bilal perform duets on 'Step Beyond' and 'La Ballade,' reminiscent of Serge Gainsborg and Jane Birkin; Raphael Saadiq blends 'Black Jazz' vocals with psychedelic soul on 'Magic Music;' Israeli star, Karolina, delivers haunting chants over concertos like 'Hear my love' and 'Winter is Here;' Loren Oden croons as if the apparent ghost of Donnie Hathaway created one last love song, 'Sandrine.' Younge is the experimental spirit of the modernist vanguard, looking at the past to create the future. What this album extrapolates, from vinyl culture, will become further magnified by its sampling down the line. Something About April II will replace the former as a holy grail for producers and collectors alike.

Gennaro, formerly known as Blackchild, returns to Cécille Records with his second release on the label, delivering a confident and deeply musical four-track EP that captures the full scope of his sound.

Each track reveals a different facet of Gennaro's musical identity.from stripped-back, groove-driven club tools to more nuanced and emotive moments - all tied together by his unmistakable sense of rhythm and atmosphere. It's a release that feels focused yet expansive, showing an artist who knows exactly where he stands and where he's heading.

Nick Curly and Marc Scholl are proud to continue working with Gennaro and to welcome him back on the label with a release that underlines both artistic growth and creative consistency. This EP isn't about following trends; it's about personality, craftsmanship and club-ready music built with intention.

A strong statement, a natural progression and a clear reflection of Gennaro's range - this is his next step on Cécille Records

Analog Fingerprints Vol. 0 is a compilation bringing together the early 2000s works of Marco Passarani under his Analog Fingerprints alias, collecting key tracks originally released on Rome’s Plasmek and Pigna labels.

For Numbers, the story starts long before the label itself. In their formative years, digging in Glasgow’s Rubadub, Passarani’s records felt like dispatches from a future city. Releases on his own Nature Records and on labels such as Generator and Interr-Ference Communications were mind blowing: rooted in Detroit techno, Chicago house and electro, yet pushing somewhere new. Much like fellow travellers Autechre, who would remix him in 2001, Passarani’s music balanced machine funk with restless experimentation.

Information was scarce, and you would hear these records first on the dancefloor or at listening stations in shops like Rubadub. Print fanzines like Ear and early web outposts such as Forcefield offered only fragments. But there was a palpable axis forming between Detroit techno and a new European wave of record labels including Skam, Rephlex, Clone, Viewlexx and Nature itself. It was the sound that defined Saturday nights at Rubadub’s ‘69’ parties in Paisley, just outside of Glasgow.

Passarani’s records, in particular, were instrumental in bringing together the future Numbers co-founders. Richard had already booked him pre-Numbers; meanwhile Calum (Spencer) and Jack (Jackmaster), then 16/17 year olds working alternate Saturdays in Rubadub, were so enamoured with the Roman sound that they travelled to Rome for the Bitz Festival in 2003 to seek out Passarani and Lory D at their source.

The first Analog Fingerprints release landed as a 12” on Plasmek in 2001, following the fractured, IDM-leaning 6 Katun material. For Passarani, the project marked a recalibration. A DJ first and foremost, he had moved into production via early computer setups, from a Commodore Amiga through primitive PC audio, Cubase and Logic, later experimenting with Ableton. The IDM scene had offered a playground for trial and error, but there was always a tension between abstraction and the dancefloor. Analog Fingerprints became the bridge: still intelligent, but with more dance than distance. After years of broken beats and complex arrangements, he wanted directness without surrendering identity.

Working closely with Francesco de Bellis and Mario Pierro in the Pigneto district, the trio formed Pigna as a vehicle for reclaiming a more accessible dance sound, deliberately steering away from the minimal wave beginning to dominate Europe. Sessions were fast, instinctive, often stretching late into the night with friends dropping by. It was a studio as social space, production as collective energy.

“In that constant search for balance, Analog Fingerprints was my way of expressing something closer to the classic dance floor. The track 'Tribute' - a tribute to my favourite early Detroit techno track of all time, 'First Bass' by Separate Minds - came after I realised I had almost lost my connection with the dance floor. The simplest step was to take inspiration from early Chicago and Detroit and twist it in our Roman ‘Pigna’ way. My goal was to create more accessible dancefloor tracks by mixing my unconscious Italo roots with my teenage love for that early US sound, ensuring the result was as far as possible from the minimal sound that was starting to dominate everywhere.” - Marco Passarani

Technically, the Analog Fingerprints tracks span a transitional era: Roland TR-909, SH-101 and Alpha Juno hardware met early software experiments. A Novation Drumstation rack stood in for the unattainable TR-808, syncing with TB-303 and TR-606. Yet the true secret weapon was Jeskola Buzz, a tracker-style modular environment that allowed step-by-step parameter control and strange melodic constructions, later exported into the audio sequencer. Even the lead on ‘Tribute’ came from an early PPG Wave-style plugin. It was hybrid thinking at a moment when digital tools still felt unstable but full of possibility for technologists like Passarani.

Behind the music sat Finalfrontier, a loose Roman collective orbiting Nature and Plasmek. Distribution and production were intertwined; importing obscure records into Italy built connections with like-minded outsiders across Europe and the US. Expensive phone bills and fax machines forged an “electronix network” that linked Rome to Clone, Viewlexx, Skam, Rephlex, Rubadub and Detroit’s Underground Resistance. There was a shared sense of survival and resistance, of operating against commercial systems.

Passarani recalls “The first time I found a sheet of paper inside an Underground Resistance 12” with info about upcoming releases... and a huge picture of Spock on the back. Imagine that: you love the music, you love Star Trek, and there’s someone on the other side of the ocean sharing those same values and sounds. It was the perfect match. We even gave our original company the suffix ‘Finalfrontier’: that says it all.”

Feedback in that era arrived physically: distributor faxes, conversations with visiting DJs, the experience of playing abroad and meeting kids who had connected with the records. Glasgow became a key node in a scattered outlier network. Passarani personally brought the first two Nature releases to Fat Cat in London, playing them in-store. Shortly after, a fax arrived from Rubadub in Glasgow requesting copies.

“I still remember that phone buzz and the fax paper slowly sliding out, with someone I didn’t know saying they wanted 75 copies of Nature 001. Or like the time we got a fax from the Rephlex crew just saying, “Hello Nature Records, Keep up the good work.” That was how we knew the message was getting through. It was a fantastic feeling; just one piece of thermal fax paper as an analog notification - the mood for the entire week would change.” - Passarani

The connection to Glasgow has since stretched across generations. As Passarani reflects, links often fracture as scenes renew themselves, but in Glasgow something different happened. New and old mixed seamlessly. There was a visible trust in what came before, and a willingness to carry it forward rather than discard it. Observed from Rome, it was deeply encouraging.

Analog Fingerprints Vol. 0 captures that moment of exchange: Rome to Glasgow, Detroit to Europe, experiment to dancefloor. It documents an artist recalibrating his sound and a network of scenes discovering one another in real time, connected by vinyl, faxes and shared intent.

A Profound Non-Event, the debut album by Sydney-based three piece Daily Toll, comprises 11 songs traversing three years of forged friendships, collaborative experimentation and a shared love of growing through words and song.

Those attuned to the ever-vibrant Australian underground may already be well familiar with Daily Toll, their consistent live presence since their inception in 2021 embroidered by a handful of (mostly) home-recorded, (mostly) digital self-releases that have steadily accumulated an appreciative following. Initially the project of self taught musician, poet & artist Kata Szász-Komlós(they/them) and Jasper Craig-Adams(he/him), and expended to a three piece with the more recent addition of friend Tom Stephens(he/him), Daily Toll represents the union of three unique creative dispositions, of relationships blooming through the push and pull of creative practice. Mapping the band’s existence through their recorded output is to bear witness to the flux of three people learning to respond to one another and gently ossify into a collective vision that at once calls to mind folk song intimacy, post-punk dynamics and the artful poeticism of an adjacent Flying Nun legacy.

If those earlier recordings reflect a band imagining themselves into being in real time, A Profound Non-Event observes a clear shift in both conviction and approach. Recorded in just three days with Alex Bennett at the purely analogue Sound Recordings studio in Castlemaine and holing up at night in the century old cottage situated beside the studio, sheltering from the late-June wind and rain within walls littered with instruments and microphones, lighting fires to stay warm. Kata describes the experience as defined by “candle light and creative camaraderie”, an idyllic account of a collection of songs that glide with an undeniably warm, easy charm, evidenced in particular in the record’s second half as the tone turns increasingly introspective, the very sound of a cold evening’s drift into night. When contrasted with the moody swirl and sing-song bounce of the opening trio of tracks, there’s clear evidence of a band not simply in the process of becoming, but committed to finding their truth in that process.
Still, if Daily Toll display a reluctance to be wholly defined, then album centerpiece ‘Killincs‘ (positioned in the middle for a reason) might just be their Rosetta Stone. A verbose rumination on unsettled feelings of isolation and longing, exploring the challenges in making peace with one's decisions amidst the uncertainty of an often harsh world and the realisation that some things remain best unresolved - “I have the keys still, but I’ve buried the path”.

Audaciously innovative sound designer/producer/live artist Enrico Sangiuliano reaches #0 in his countdown from ‘NINETOZERO’ on his eponymous ephemeral imprint, triggering its built-in autodestruct by the release of provocative 3-track EP ‘Absence’, out March 19th on vinyl & digital. The digital EP will also feature an Edit of ‘Step Into The End’.

The Italian tech maestro and artistic pioneer eschews populism, yet still storms charts & wins hearts – notably/recently in his unsettling, compelling manifesto x battle cry ‘The Techno Code’. Says Enrico of his label, ‘NINETOZERO is a cycle of listening, making, and letting go. Born from silence, shaped by space, directed by reflection, altered by change, revealed by glitch, unified through interconnection, lifted toward transcendence, refined by discipline, clarified by chaos, and finally returned to absence.’

On his ‘Absence’ EP: ‘With ‘Absence’ we come full circle, back to the womb of nothingness but charged with the echo of everything we have experienced. It is an ending, yes, but also an invitation. A new kind of silence is born, shaped by the memory of every frequency we unleashed.’ Enrico Sangiuliano can thrill listeners with his music, but dares to challenge, to trust them.

Main track ‘Step Into The End’: a full-on barrage of trustworthy techno danceability & energy, bookended by soulful violin, high horns & sirens, with spoken incantations as if summoning to a sacred rite. A ten-minute timeless dance track as ‘all we’ve learned converges into a single point where presence & silence merge.’

Title track ‘Absence’: The (Techno Code-esque) Voice speaks of sound, space, absence, trace... the track’s background noise is the almost- silence of his studio ‘through a magnifying glass’.. His breathing can just be heard in the recording. Melodic, beautiful, free-form chords in the middle section act like a breakdown in reverse. ‘A provocation, a track of silence, incidental noise. A tale of a story that just finished, but also a background for a story to be shaped. No one is intentionally performing for us. Here, the responsibility and work of listening is on you, to figure out what you can hear and what to make of it, to craft your own soundtrack based on the sounds that surround you, beyond the track. You can perform your own version yourself. Close your eyes and just listen. Engage with your environment. Be present. Expand your senses. Enjoy absence.’

‘The Aftermath’: a 40-second provocative coda. A snatch of stirring conversation signing off the EP and label alike. What will be launched post-zero by Enrico Sangiuliano? Watch this space, this absence.

A few words for the album
Moment’s Aeternity:
a 12/8 composition celebrating the raw power of the “moment”, marked by whirling improvised moments between drums, bass clarinet and Harris P’s Armenian duduk.

Pajko, fire in the forest on the mountain:
in Sokratis own words: “I have a really vivid memory as a child. I was staring at the Djena mountain from my window in Archangellos which sits on the Pajko mountain. A little beam of light shone far in the horizon; it was a fire that in my little eyes looked as if the giants of Almopia were trying to communicate with each other using phryktoria (a way of contacting through fire in Ancient Greece).”

Footprints of some Giant Steps:
While the classic compositions of two true Jazz Giants- Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane- are certainly different, they do both connect in a mystical way. Rearranged in 5/8 combining half of each melody and half of each one’s chord progression, keeping the form of the piece for improvisation, still in 5.

Oson Zeis Fainou (Seikilo’s Epitaph):
found in a tomb stone in the Northeast of Greece, this is the only melody saved from the ancient times. It is accompanied by lyrics contemplating the meaning of life:
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
‘’While you live, shine
don’t feel blue for anything because our life is short and time demands an end.’’

Here is to Oghene K:
’’Hey man, where is the groove?’’, he would say, just to trigger another wave of inspiration for Sokratis. Oghene was a true force of nature, a well of kindness, a masterful artist that left this world too early. This one is for him.

Balkan Riff (for Milcho Leviev):
Milcho Leviev (1936-2019), was a long-time friend and collaborator and a true inspiration for expression, creativity and colorfulness. Expressing the deep sentiments evoked by the Balkan sound and history, this is a sorrowful dialogue between bass clarinet and contrabass.

Spirits of Djena:
one of the most esoteric and personal moments of the album. Composed and recorded during the challenging times of the COVID-era, you can hear the baritone and tenor saxophone firmly grounded on a crispy, hypnotizing contrabass groove.

Sokratis Votskos Quartet
Kostas Anastasiadis / Giorgos Klountzos - Chrysidis: Drums
Leandros Pasias: Piano
Vaggelis Vrachnos: Contrabass
Sokratis Votskos: Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and Compositions


Sokratis Votskos is a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, educator, and bandleader from Greece. Deeply invested in unearthing the folk sounds and heritage music of Greece and Eastern Europe, he weaves these into modern jazz compositions though the use of melodies, polyrhythms, and his reedy, timeless tone. He leads the Sokratis Votskos Quartet, he is one half of Kolida Babo and member of the Reggetiko Project. A highly regarded sideman and ensemble player, he has worked extensively with renowned jazz musicians with several highly acclaimed releases (MiC, Jazzman, Walt Disney and now Fair Weather Friends Records).

He has performed his music in numerous venues and festivals worldwide from Vinterjazz in Copenhagen, to the EFG London Jazz Festival where he performed at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s alongside Greg Foat.

He is also an archaeoacoustics researcher and enthusiast, having completed his Master studies on the field of ancient ritualistic caves of Greece research.

Leandros Pasias was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. At age 10 was introduced to piano, continuing his studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki and later at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the department of jazz piano.Ηe holds a classical harmony diploma and a BA at the Department of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2020 he received jazz improvisation lessons from Aaron Parks.

With a series of appearances in multiple international jazz festivals, Leandros has collaborated with a wide range of musicians from Nicolas Masson and James Wylie to Marina Osk, Ivo Papasov and Haris Lambrakis, among others.

A member of the Yako Trio, he released “OdesSea” on Fair Weather Friends Records (2021).

Vangelis Vrachnos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1989. While he started playing the bass at the age of 12, alongside his brother, his studies would commence a few years later. Introduced to double bass at the age of 23, he undertook jazz double bass studies at the Codarts Αcademy of Rotterdam. He has participated in several festivals such as the Technopolis and Odessa international jazz festivals. Since returning to his hometown, in 2015, he has been a founding member of Mordana and Yako Trio and has collaborated with a series of musicians like James Wyllie, Sokrates Votskos and Dimitis Agelakis, among others.

Kostas Anastasiadis is a tireless researcher, that has been diligently studying Tradition and its evolution, creating a fresh amalgam of sound moods. His mature improvisational virtuosity highlights a uniquely individual artistic expression and was recognized with the ̈Unique Individual Stylist" award by the PIT (Percussion Institute of Technology) in Los Angeles, California. He has been associated with various ensembles that have garnered significant interest in the global music scene. As an educator, he is the founder of "The Harmony of Rhythm" musical method, which aims to explore and establish the elements that constitute the concept of rhythm.

Giorgos Klountzos-Chrysidis was born in Thessaloniki in 1991. Following studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki, he moved to France and the Conservatoire de Nice. With performances at well-known festivals like Nice Jazz Festival, Nuits du Sud and Jazz à Vienne, he had the opportunity to meet the American drummer Leon Parker, who encouraged him to move to Paris, where he spent the next two years under his tutoring and guidance.

In 2016, came a defining moment in his career as he traveled to New York for the first time. He participated in the quartet of saxophonist Diego Rivera for a series of performances and attended lessons by Rodney Whitaker and Randy "Uncle G" Gelispie at Michigan's State University.

Collaborations include Xavier Davis, Ricky Ford, Nicolas Masson, Diego Rivera, Craig Bailey, Baptiste Herbin, Marc Abrams, Pantelis Stoikos, Antonis Anissegos, David Lynch, Ziad Rajab and Ivo Papasov, among others.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

2LP 180gm heavyweight 45 RPM Audiophile Edition, Featuring a half speed remaster by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, Housed in polylined inners, Printed insert with sleevenote. The Alan Parsons Project"s multi-million selling critically acclaimed album Eye In The Sky (1982) is re-issued in a variety of formats, including including this 2LP heavyweight, 45 RPM Audiophile edition. Like other Alan Parsons Project albums, there were a variety of different lead vocalists employed including Chris Rainbow, Colin Blunstone, Lenny Zakatek, Elmer Gantry as well as Eric Woolfson himself. Plus, a selection of session musicians such as guitarists Ian Bairnson and David Paton and drummer Stuart Elliott with arrangements by Andrew Powell.

2LP 180gm heavyweight 45 RPM Audiophile Edition, Featuring a half speed remaster by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, Housed in polylined inners, Printed insert with sleevenote. The Alan Parsons Project"s multi-million selling critically acclaimed album Eye In The Sky (1982) is re-issued in a variety of formats, including including this 2LP heavyweight, 45 RPM Audiophile edition. Like other Alan Parsons Project albums, there were a variety of different lead vocalists employed including Chris Rainbow, Colin Blunstone, Lenny Zakatek, Elmer Gantry as well as Eric Woolfson himself. Plus, a selection of session musicians such as guitarists Ian Bairnson and David Paton and drummer Stuart Elliott with arrangements by Andrew Powell.

PURE GARAGE RETURNS WITH A CAREFULLY CURATED SELECTION OF COLLECTIBLE CLASSICS.

Pure Garage, the best-selling UKG compilation of all time, returns with a fresh stack of high value collectible classics on DJ friendly vinyl.

With a host of gold & platinum selling compilation albums under it’s belt, plus countless sold out events across the UK, Pure Garage is known and trusted by both hard-nosed purists & the casual listener.

This latest foray coincides with an incredible resurgence in interest for the UK Garage sound, bringing together 8 high collectible infectiously funky cuts, spread across a DJ Friendly 2 slices of vinyl.

Pure Garage Collectible Classics Volume 1 opens with Buggin Me by garage pioneer Zed Bias alongside Al Brown, a groovy bassline, funky beats and a great vocal hook combine perfectly to showcase the mighty Zed Bias at his funky best.

Set It Off, by Chris Mack / Flavour, is a truly collectible record. Originally only available on vinyl as a limited white label press, copies of Set It Off have been trading hands on sites such as Discogs for as much as £130… It’s worth buying this compilation purely to get hold of this track on vinyl!

Another track that is going for big money on reseller sites is Romantic 2001 by DJ Deller. With this minimal 2 step riddim having sold for up to £120. This is definitely one for the collectors.

Funkaholics aka Jeremy Sylvester rounds off the first piece of vinyl on this album with the bass heavy Down 2 Da Ground.

Vinyl 2 kicks off with the sing-a-long classic from 1998, Anthill Mobs’s track Don’t Leave Me, followed hotly by the speed garage sounds of Body Grooving by M.F. Project.

Finally, Deep Impact drops My Fantasy followed up with a regular name of the Pure Garage live event line ups, Scott Garcia drops his soulful club classic Music Takes You, rounding out an impressive batch of tracks representing everything exciting about the UK Garage genre.

PURE GARAGE COLLECTIBLE CLASSICS VOL 1 will be released on double vinyl 16th December 2022!

Despite its tragic breakup, Yugoslavia as a political, social and cultural phenomenon still inspires generations, especially those who were born or lived at the time of this utopian land of South Slavs. Those who didn’t enjoy the privilege are still amazed by its 1970s and ’80s music scene and the number of very modern, high quality acts that were so often ahead of their time. Two such acts were Data and The Master Scratch Band, both founded by Zoran Jevtic and Zoran Vracevic, who introduced synth-pop, breakbeat, and hip-hop music in Yugoslavia in 1984 with their releases: SP Neka Ti Se Dese Prave Stvari/Ne Zovi To Ljubavlju and miniLP Deogut (Jugoton). Our latest release, “It Was Ridiculous, It Was Amazing!” gathers their earliest unreleased material from 1981-1983, showcasing a broader range of genres – alongside synth-pop and breakbeat/hip-hop, they also experimented with industrial, EBM, minimal synth, and electro-funk!

The whole record is divided into two parts: on A side there are 7 previously unpublished songs by group DATA, and on B side there are 4 previously unreleased recordings by The Master Scratch Band.

The Data side opens with two unexpected “shocker” tracks: Ja Nisam Kao Ti” (eng. I am Not Like You) and “Izumi” (eng. “Inventions”) from 1981, where they sound like early Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft with unusual vocal pan sound effects on Serbian lyrics and uncompromising synth-based sound. Equally unpredictable are the next two songs: atmospheric “España” and dusty “Damage In My Head,” where Zoran Jevtić boldly steps into the lead vocal role. But the surprises don’t end there. The next two songs, France and Strahovi (eng. “Fears”), bring a mysterious and nostalgic atmosphere, elevated by the irreplaceable sound of the modular Roland System-100M. At the end comes the greatest surprise of all: Data covers YMO-Ballet in a song called Ne Zelim Da Tako Zive (eng, I Don’t Want Them Living Like That) and puts some extra energy in rhythm without losing the original song’s sensibility. Like in the original, the lyrics are tender and yet mysterious and provocative.

The Master Scratch Band side contains the very first versions of the songs Break War, Jailbreak, and Computer Break, originally recorded in studio Druga Maca in Belgrade in 1983. These versions were not released on their mini-LP album Dégout (Jugoton, 1984), and they are actually the first ever hip-hop/Breakbeat recordings in Yugoslavia. With great enthusiasm, every sound was uniquely crafted from scratch using the finest analog gear available in the early ’80s. The two young artists, aiming for international success, chose to write their lyrics in English. The album’s final track, “Mad Scratch,” showcases their talent for creating impressive sound effects, which would be a delight for contemporary DJs and producers who specialize in sampling and scratching old-school hip-hop.

This release is truly a “100% digger’s gem” – 11 previously unreleased tracks from legendary pioneers of electronic, hip-hop, and breakbeat. A collection to discover, enjoy, play, and treasure forever!

Red Axes step into the fabric presents series with a release that feels both inevitable and deeply personal. Known for their hypnotic, psychedelic approach to club music, the Tel Aviv–based duo bring a narrative-driven sensibility that aligns seamlessly with fabric’s legacy of long-form storytelling and forward-thinking curation.

Across years of performances at fabric and other key global institutions, Red Axes have developed a reputation for sets that unfold patiently and unpredictably, drawing dancers into a world where groove, tension, and atmosphere take precedence over genre or trend. Their contribution to the fabric presents series reflects this ethos: a carefully sculpted journey that prioritises mood, momentum, and emotional depth, while remaining firmly rooted in the physical language of the dancefloor.

Formed by Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi, Red Axes emerged from Tel Aviv’s underground with a sound shaped by post-punk, acid, krautrock, and cosmic disco influences. Over the past decade, they have built a catalogue defined by raw textures, twisted melodies, and a distinctly human looseness, qualities that translate as powerfully in the club as they do on record. Their releases and remixes for labels such as Phantasy, Correspondant, Running Back, Dark Entries, and Permanent Vacation have established them as artists who consistently operate just outside the expected.

As DJs, Red Axes are celebrated for their ability to stretch time on the dancefloor, weaving obscure selections, unreleased material, and leftfield classics into slow-burning, trance-inducing narratives. This approach has seen them invited to venues and festivals including Panorama Bar, De School, Bassiani, Dekmantel, Sonar, and Primavera Sound, where their sets are defined not by peaks alone, but by the tension built between them.

With the forthcoming fabric presents Red Axes release, the duo deliver a statement that captures years of shared musical intuition and a deep respect for the club as a communal, transformative space. It is a mix that rewards close listening as much as physical immersion, a snapshot of Red Axes at their most focused, expressive, and uncompromising.

To mark the launch of their forthcoming fabric presents album, the duo unveil the lead single, “Hot Rod To Hell”, a bold reworking of Man Parrish and Roy Garrett’s 14-minute spoken-word electro epic, reimagined through Red Axes’ signature psychedelic lens.

Stripped back and refocused, the original’s narrative tension is transformed into a hypnotic, downtempo house track built for late-night immersion. A rolling, elastic groove anchors the track, while pulsing low-end, subtly warped synth lines, and tightly controlled percussion create a sense of slow, smouldering momentum. The spoken vocal elements drift through the mix like fragments of memory, lending the track a ritualistic, cinematic quality without overwhelming the dancefloor.

Repress.

Step into a journey through time with Lapa Dula's debut album "Agua", proudly presented by the Early Sounds team. “Agua” is a sonic and aesthetic collage, a tribute to the sounds and memories of Naples and its surroundings in the vibrant cultural and social scene of the mid 1980s, not just a reflection of producer’s Alessandro La Padula childhood memories, but also a nod to the myths and legends of Partenope. Written between Rome and Naples and co-produced by label head Pellegrino, "Agua" is the latest addition to the imprint’s distinctive "Mediterranean sound" blending funk, Latin, world music, and disco, with songs like the balearic title track "Agua" and the nostalgic ode to rural life "Sibilla", also inspired by the myth of the Sibyl of Cumae, this album takes you on a journey of emotions and experiences.

From vernacular "Scemanfu", a fun play on the French expression "je m'en fous" (I don't care), to the contemplative "Navigante", dedicated to those who have found solace in the sea or in the virtual world, and the final track "Baibai", inspired by the adventurous and licentious affairs of English nobleman Sir Nathaniel Thorold, who lived on the island of Capri, each song tells a story and adds a piece to this mosaic of sounds, images, and places.

Genesis' Foxtrot is the band's fourth studio album, released in 1972. Regarded as one of the seminal albums of the progressive rock genre, it marked a significant milestone in Genesis' discography.

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says Foxtrot is where where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound. The startling thing about the opening "Watcher of the Skies" is that it's the first time that Genesis attacked like a rock band, playing with a visceral power, he writes, giving the album a 5-star review.

"There's might and majesty here, and it, along with 'Get 'Em Out by Friday,' is the truest sign that Genesis has grown muscle without abandoning the whimsy. Certainly, they've rarely sounded as fantastical or odd as they do on the epic 22-minute closer "Supper's Ready," a nearly side-long suite that remains one of the group's signature moments. It ebbs, flows, teases, and taunts, see-sawing between coiled instrumental attacks and delicate pastoral fairy tales. If Peter Gabriel remained a rather inscrutable lyricist, his gift for imagery is abundant, as there are passages throughout the album that are hauntingly evocative in their precious prose." — AllMusic

This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it's rightly celebrated for its enduring impact on the progressive rock genre, making it an essential listen for Genesis fans.

Analogue Productions has given Foxtrot the deserving full reissue treatment: Mastered directly from the original master tape by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and cut at 45 RPM. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

WRWTFWW Records presents an ultra limited (100 copies !) vinyl edition of Meemo Comma’s Decimation Of I album, originally released digitally in 2024 on Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label. The collector’s pressing is housed in a heavyweight sleeve.
Decimation Of I is the fifth album by Brighton-based electronic musician Meemo Comma. It's a work based on the Strugatsky brothers‘ 1971 novel Roadside Picnic, a book that was also turned into the Russian cult classic Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. The inspiration came from reading the book alongside the backdrop of global climate disasters where an environment is rapidly becoming less habitable, all while powerful nations occupy and commit genocide.

The rough story of both film and novel is about a select group of characters exploring a land that has been transformed by alien visitors. We never meet the extraterrestrials, nor is it important to, we only have the artefacts left behind. The environment itself becomes the character, neither wholly Earth-like nor alien, but a surreal blend of both, inviting introspection on our insignificance amidst profound change. Within this land’s rebirth, our characters confront ego death, a necessary step towards the profound revelation, the discovery of one's true desire in the absence of ego.

The album opens with the innocent flutes of ’They, spoke,‘ and the disorienting electronica of ‘The Soldier‘ building towards the Terry Riley like undulating clarinets of ‘The Poet’, whose intertwining synth organ drones set the scene. Nods to the seventies electronica of Wendy Carlos and Eduard Artemyev can be heard with the use of Bach melodies in ‘P3Alpha Exotoxin‘ and ‘Area X,‘ however each of these songs draw the listener to primal noise undercurrents, their disintegrating melodies hinting at humanity's gradual dissolution, unveiling profound revelations beyond our comprehension.

As the album reaches its midpoint, ‘Spectral Alignment‘ paints a hazy morning prairie scene with Aaron Copland style French horn, restful woodwinds, spatial arpeggios and a warm drone culminating in an emotional pitstop as the soldiers wake in the dewy morning of this alien landscape, unaware the last of their humanity remains.

The last sentence in Roadside Picnic “HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND MAY NO ONE BE LEFT BEHIND!” is the inspiration for ‘As It Is Written.’ We can either take from this the total annihilation of self has been filled with propaganda from their homeland, or the epiphany of their own autonomy in the war against a land and its inhabitants.

Mysticisms’ Dubplate series reaches number 10 with the first in a series of specials, taking the genre blurring music of Persian and presenting updated remixes and versions by up-and-coming producers, as well as friends and family of the label.

Started as a sporadic offshoot of Mysticisms’ main releases, with the idea to highlight the wonderful sounds of dub influenced dance music, Dubplate has now become an integral part of the mission.

To start, South London’s Picasso joins the label, showcasing his declared abstract grooves and an EP of Dub and Tech House movers. While his productions aim for the dance floor, they are often characterized by complex rhythms and unconventional structures, prioritizing atmosphere and texture over traditional melodies.

Drawing inspiration from ambient, jazz, experimental influences and the heavy hand of dub, Sam “Andrews” McKay has crafted an EP of immersive “soundscapes”. Joining the legendary Persian (Peter Reilly) as co-selector, his retakes are all warped grooves, wide bass and dubby atmospherics.

Opening with Space Within Art, the street soul meets reggae rhythms are jettisoned, and a Dub House swing drives the track. The love, homage and vibration for Sound System culture remains, enchanting trippy reggae sampledelic vocals weaving in the brain.

Dunya 2 sees a shift, minds expanding. A jazz influenced breakbeat, harp, strings, building to a psychedelic swirl, driven by a dub bass in a clash, morph and glow.

The deep Digi Dub of D Dub Twist grows, warping the ‘JA riddim meets English hedonism’ in true Soundclash style. Touches of drone underlay, highlighting Sam’s experimental leaning, utilising Persian’s love of Eastern mystical samples to marry perfectly for a deep dub excursion.

The self-prescribed “odd-fellow” completes his versions, exploring his love of depth and abstract sound in closer, Jacob’s Dub. The warm roots vibrations in original form develop into a scatter gun House bumper. Dubwise, Lovers, Stepper, all merge around shuffling, trippy beats and skippy hats, Picasso’s groove is laid bare, driving the EP to finale.

Abstract the Mystery.

On her new album, Two Whole Summers, Half A Life, Lisa Bassenge is once again accompanied by her trusted fellow musicians, pianist Jacob Karlzon and bassist Andreas Lang, with whom she has already realised numerous projects. Typical of Bassenge, the repertoire comprises a seemingly wild yet harmoniously connected mix of pop, singer-songwriter and jazz elements. The spectrum ranges from Elliott Smith to Duran Duran, from Billie Holiday to Björk. ‘It's always about the expressiveness of the songs – that's the common thread for us,’ emphasises the Berlin-based artist. The album features a track by Hank Williams as well as Madonna's ‘Frozen’ and “Catch” by The Cure. Two original compositions are also part of the recording: the title track ‘Two Whole Summers, Half a Life,’ a tribute to the power of friendship and youth, and the neo-folk ballad ‘I'm Getting Old.’ Both works impressively underline Lisa Bassenge's own artistic signature. For over two decades, Lisa Bassenge has stood for stylistic openness and a characteristic voice that lends new nuances to every song. Despite all the diversity, jazz remains the tonal basis. The Scandinavian-style relaxed sound of Karlzon and Lang lends the interpretations a soft, atmospheric depth.

A DJ, producer and significant figure in contemporary electronic music, Marcel Dettmann steps forward to contribute to Running Back’s ongoing Mastermix series. Whereas previous editions of Mastermix have taken an ear to the sound of lapsed, legendary clubs such as Wild Pitch and Front, Dettmann’s curation deftly captures the man himself in ongoing perpetual motion, raiding the vault for his own precision-tooled edits, long-employed on dancefloors to devastating effect. Alongside a continuous mix, this release arrives as a 3LP gatefold, and as a limited edition cassette.

Closely associated with Berlin’s techno landscape, Dettmann was born and raised in the former GDR, then later immersed in the bleary-eyed counter cultural landscape of post-unification Berlin. Initially oriented by post-punk, industrial and new-wave music, Dettmann has been DJing since 1993, always expanding and perfecting his repertoire. He later began working behind the counter at the city’s tastemaking rave boutique Hard Wax, and a decade after he first dropped a needle, became (and remains) resident at notable local nightspot Berghain/Panorama Bar, where his instincts have helped sculpt the signature sound of both main dancefloors.

Of course, you’re probably not asking, “Who is Marcel Dettmann?” More importantly, you might want to know; just what treats has he gifted us here? The trip begins with a simple pitch-shift skywards, transforming Identified Patient’s creeping ‘The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania’ into a peak-time freakout, before an alternate take on Toctronic’s ‘Bis uns das Licht vertreibt’ emerges from the vaults for the first time. Dating from 1995, and one of Dettmann’s all-time favourites, Cristian Vogel’s ‘Untitled’ clambers back into the box with respectable cuts, while John Bender’s ‘Victims of A Victimless Crime’ kicks off the flip sporting a new arrangement, transporting us back to the foundations of a confident, stripped-back sound.

A few subtle edits to Clark’s perilously funky ‘Dirty Pixie’ takes us to Dettmann’s remix of Junior Boys. Produced in 2010, it transposes the Canadian duo’s sophisticated pop with our curator in his minimal prime, and has since become an irresistible prize for high-minded diggers. The same can be said for Experimental Products’ explosive proto-electro anthem ‘Who Is Kip Jones?’, empowered from pricey Discogs purgatory with just the slightest of tweaks. It’s deservedly sandwiched between the guiding influences of Chicago and Detroit in the form of Mutant Beat Dance’s raw ‘The Human Factor’ and a shimmering new version of previous solo production ‘Water’, featuring close friend and Ostgut Ton ally, Ryan Elliot.

The second half of the Mastermix seamlessly connects the mechanical past and digital present of EBM and industrial in the dance, with Dettmann’s instincts as a guiding hand. Severed Heads’ iconic ‘We Have Come To Bless This House’ emerges with mere nips and tucks, while Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Shame’ is significantly reimagined as a highwire act of rhythm and tension, setting up a sensual second take on a 2017 remix of ‘Limbo’ from Swiss synth heroes, Yello.

Core musical memories are shaken and stirred with a context-shifting take on Frank Duval’s emotional classic ‘Ogon’, while Ian North’s ‘Sex Lust You’ and Ford Proco’s notable Coil collaboration ‘Expansion Naranja’ effectively throb with only minor adjustments, respectfully imagined as “shadow versions”. Meanwhile, a simple breakbeat lifts Albert Kuningas’s ‘Astraalprojektio’ in the direction of wide-eyed dancefloors, while a fresh take on K-Alexi Shelby’s ‘Season of The Real’ inexplicably emerges somehow even funkier than before.

The conclusion of the compilation leads back to Das Tier from the prolific experimentalist Conrad Schnitzler, whose swirling synths and hypnotic vocals are duly tightened by Dettmann, but only as he puts it, “in conversation with the original.” Concluding three discs and thirty years of commitment to the dancefloor, this Mastermix not only offers us the opportunity to eavesdrop on this endless exchange, but to gain some sought-after material for our own record collections.

Killer Groove Records proudly presents the self-titled debut album by Italian cinematic funk trio Atabasca. A sonic journey where funk, psychedelia and desert groove merge into a timeless narrative suspended between rhythm and vision.


"Atabasca" marks the debut release from the cinematic funk trio, dropping March 27th on limited edition LP, CD digipack and digital formats, the latter featuring an exclusive bonus track. This is a project built on evocative imagery: each song unfolds as an open scene, an emotional landscape where listeners can step inside and write their own ending.

Lap steel, kalimba, percussion and guitars interweave with bass and drums, striking an original balance between tradition and experimentation that evokes unwritten soundtracks for worlds at once distant and familiar. The record navigates between melancholy and irony, tension and release, with a sharp focus on dynamics and sonic narrative.


Deserts, seas, imaginary villages, getaways, pursuits and collective rituals: "Atabasca" emerges as a collection of musical landscapes that unfolds through vivid, evocative imagery.

Jazz-funk, world music, afrobeat, psychedelia and the Italian Golden Age of movie soundtracks merge into a singular emotional geography: warm, analog and deeply human.

The musical journey opens with "Dune", a melancholic statement that leaves room for imagination, before igniting with "Kundela Mawedi" and its cascading lap steel over haunting vocal chants. "Paco" tips its hat to classic westerns, tracing a bandit's trajectory, while "Cameo" drifts back to childhood through minimal rumba and shimmering kalimba. The cinematic imagery continues in "Cacopoulos", a nod to Spaghetti westerns and Eli Wallach, built on raw drum patterns and distorted guitars. Intensity builds in "Khettara", where afrobeat rhythms and Middle Eastern textures intertwine, before "Hell Dorado" tears off in pursuit of the American dream's funk-fueled mirage. "Papambra" weaves hypnotic polyrhythms between kalimba and lap steel, while "Porpora" delivers a sensual, visceral tango of passion and tension. The digital edition closes with "Reprise", a sequel that stretches the album's central theme into an expansive, meditative interpretation.

The tracks were recorded in single takes, capturing the raw energy and natural atmosphere of the performance. Artistic production was handled by the trio alongside Andrea Fabrizii (digger, musician, producer and catalogue curator for CAM Sugar), while Riccardo Ricci mastered the album at Velvet Room Mastering Studio in Brighton.

Like a desert blooming within the evergreen forests of the planet's far north, a unique, alien, disruptive environment. This is the vision behind Atabasca, the project of Luca Mongia (guitars, lap steel, keyboards, vocals), Paolo Mazziotti (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Valerio Pompei (drums, percussion, vocals).

Individually active for over twenty years on both the national and international scenes, the three Italian musicians came together in 2023 to create a project that merges experience, experimentation and creative freedom. Their music is imaginative and at times dreamlike, blending the classic concept of the instrumental trio with the worlds of film scoring and sound design.

Atabasca's sound moves through jazz-funk, world and cinematic territories, weaving together afrobeat, desert and psychedelic influences into a personal and timeless language. Each piece is a scene; each sound, a fragment of a world, a journey between reality and imagination where groove, texture and organic timbre merge into a singular sonic ecosystem: a perpetually shifting balance that generates new inner landscapes.


For fans of Khruangbin, Surprise Chef and instrumental psych-funk!

Real Bad Man and YUNGMORPHEUS are excited to announce their new album The Chalice & The Blade is out now. The album features Boldy James, Kool Keith, Grip, Blu, Fatboi Sharif, and more.

YUNGMORPHEUS is a highly innovative rapper that consistently endeavors to redefine the boundaries of originality and elevate the art of lyricism. Earlier this year, YUNGMORPHEUS dropped his critically acclaimed album “From Whence It Came” which received praise from The FADER, NPR, SPIN, and was hailed by QUIP Mag as “Everything you need from a hip-hop record.”

Since 2020, Prolific LA-based producer and designer Adam Weissman (Real Bad Man) has been on a sensational run releasing albums with Boldy James, Smoke DZA, and Pink Siifu. The Chalice & The Blade will be Real Bad Man’s third album of the year following his remarkable collaborations with Blu (“Bad News”) and Kool Keith (“Serpent”).

The Chalice & The Blade showcases a unique ambiance marked by a stoney and atmospheric quality, interspersed with elements of funk. Real Bad Man explains the album making process, "I always tailor the music to the artist I’m collaborating with. I sent Morpheus a bunch of beats that he’d sound good over and once he started picking them, that set the path. We’d record and I’d make more beats, and move stuff around, get rid of some songs and record new ones. It was a good process. I like being able to adjust as we go, I think that makes for a good album. We left some songs on the cutting room floor. Cream rises."

YUNGMORPHEUS discussing the new album, “‘The Chalice & The Blade’ is an album primarily rooted in dichotomies; contemplation of action vs action itself, inner locus vs outer locus, pursuit for self vs pursuit for others. Honesty is always the centerpiece. Play if you want cause I’m not!”

On The Chalice & The Blade, the seamless synergy between Real Bad Man and YUNGMORPHEUS takes center stage, showcasing an extraordinary chemistry that elevates every track to new heights of musical innovation.

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

Taï Phong is a French progressive rock band formed by two Vietnamese brothers, Khanh Maï (guitar, voice) and Taï Sinh (bass, guitar, voice, keyboards), in 1975.1 They were joined by Jean-Alain Gardet (keyboards), Stephan Caussarieu (drums, percussion), and Jean-Jacques Goldman (guitar, voice, violin). They released three albums between 1975 and 1979: Taï Phong (1975), Windows (1976), and Last Flight (1979). "Sister Jane" (1975), the first single from their first album, was a radio hit.

Step inside the shadow-drenched world of The Curse of Frankenstein with this definitive soundtrack release from Hammer Films, celebrating the film that launched Hammer Horror and changed cinema forever.

In early 1957, composer James Bernard wrote, orchestrated and recorded sixteen powerful cues for The Curse of Frankenstein. Created in a remarkably short production window, Bernard’s score became the sonic blueprint for Hammer’s bold new gothic identity.

Although all sixteen tracks were used in the finished film, the original session recordings are now lost. During Hammer’s painstaking 2025 4K feature restoration, approximately 13 minutes of clean music were newly extracted from the film’s original mixed music-and-effects track — a rare archival recovery that brings Bernard’s work back from the grave.

For the first time anywhere in the world, this historic music is released on vinyl, presented as four atmospheric suites across two 45rpm 7" EPs. Carefully curated to preserve the dramatic flow of the score, this release allows listeners to experience the chilling intensity, gothic menace and emotional weight that defined Hammer’s Frankenstein.

Pressed on green vinyl and produced exclusively as a Limited Collector’s Edition, this set is essential for Hammer fans, classic horror collectors and film-music connoisseurs.

This Limited Collector’s Edition includes:

• Four suites of music from the original The Curse of Frankenstein soundtrack
• Two 45rpm 7" EPs pressed on green vinyl
• Liner notes by David Huckvale, biographer of James Bernard
• Liner notes by Hammer music expert John Mansell

Own a landmark piece of horror film history and experience the sound that resurrected Frankenstein. This exclusive vinyl release is available only from Hammer Films — once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

Like its cover, Nicolas Remondino's Hìeratico plays in the rich shades of crepuscular spaces. A night-tuned, percussion led album where prepared drums are accompanied by flickers of spoken word, acoustic instruments and muted electronics,

The title translates to 'hieratic', for Remondino a "black and gold" term laden with dualities and complex connotations. A sense of teetering between sparkling light and richly coloured darkness imbues the music, the compositions simulating a sense of heightened acuity as they convey us through a spooky elemental soundworld. The opening title track begins with a metallic shimmer, a drum skin activated in a way that sounds like it's being smelted. A cushioned rhythm enters, a smothered timbre akin to hearing something lurking around the garden. On "litho non-danse", percussion cracks like branches and dried foliage under foot.

Remondino recorded initial outlines for the pieces at Giuseppe Ielasi's studio in Milan, before fleshing out these ideas with his own additional instrumentation and contributions from a globe-spanning network of collaborators. On "blue hymne", chiming percussion equal parts jubilant and sinister heralds spoken word from Limpe Fuchs. "Tombal" opens with Massimo Silverio whispering in the Carnic dialect, a minority language from the Carnic Alps. Around, Marco Baldini, Pierre Bastien and Remondino construct a somber soundscape that cranks and sighs in the crevices.

Hìeratico is an album of hybrids. Diverse voices, accents and dialects deliver its lyrics, the instrumentation underpinning it crosses idioms. The drumkit at its core is modified to amplify its resonant tones and harmonics. Inspired by natural substances and phenomena: stone, wood, wind, earth, metal, grass, rain, clouds and bark, Remondino explores how percussion could evoke their materiality, treating drums as lucid textural instruments as much as rhythmic timekeepers. It gives the album a finely shaded depth and clarity as it conjures the vibrancies that reside in darkened corners. Hìeratico dwells in a sensation that crosses borders, the speckles of light in the oblique night sky. Listening is an aural equivalent to stepping into a pitch black forest and waiting for your eyes to adjust, a lightless void turning into a spectacular tableau of shadows and glows. Daryl Worthington

High Cube is the beat-focused brainchild of Brian Foote (Peak Oil, Leech) and Paul Dickow (Strategy, Community Library), two low-key legends of the American experimental underground. After some 30-odd years of making music separately and together, Foote and Dickow are collaborating in earnest for the first time as a duo. For this debut, the pair enforced a simple, stringent set of rules: five instruments, a one-hour timer, and a total ban on overthinking.

The result is a record that is the sound of two old friends unplugging the usual levers and letting the "accident" of their chemistry take the wheel. It is drier, sparser, and decidedly "chunky"—a fictional band stepping into a suit to drive around for a while. It is neither dance nor chill-out, but a moody, complex trajectory defined not by the gear used to make it, but by the narrative mood it compels.

"Volcano Snail” starts things off in a disheveled shuffle, locking into gear with blurred and bubbling effluence. The shimmering dimness is lit low, with a woozy gait that recalls the headiest highs and luminescent lows of Jan Jelinek. “Underwater Welder” is a foggy, neon-lit cruise of skittering low-ends suspended in a permanent fall of color, while “A Dragon’s Treasure is its Soul” offers blown-apart, low-end city pop fragmented into an array of rhythmic detritus. Chordal textures hover in the air as a percussive loop takes its beguiling and frolicking shape.

B-side opener “Yonaguni” shapeshifts in real time, drifting with the grace of a glacier before bobbing in a frigid pool of vibrating clatter, static, and synth stabs. “Ofid+wor” offers a tried and true blitz of braindance, nodding to an endless list of 20th and 21st-century electronic body music. Buoyant closer “Mother of Thousands” holds a gravity-defying tenderness, pirouetting on a breeze with the elegance of effervescent longing. Woven together, the six extended tracks of High Cube are tethered to nothing but the ether—a giant sonic leap of peripheral absurdity from two artists with a lifetime of shared rhythm.