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"Taking influence from the pioneers of Música Popular Brasileira, Wolfgang Pérez has crafted an exquisite album of summery experimental pop music that encapsulates the beauty and chaos of modern Brazil. A must-listen for fans of Tom Zé, Gilberto Gil, Kiko Dinucci, Negro Leo, Ricardo Dias Gomes, and João Gilberto.

Genre-blending songwriter, arranger, and guitarist Wolfgang Pérez is set to release his highly anticipated new album Só Ouço in July 2025 on Hive Mind. Known for his unique fusion of influences, the German-Spanish artist first captured attention with his 2021 debut WHO CARES WHO CARES (Fun In The Church), followed by the critically acclaimed Spanish-language album AHORA (BAUMUSIK, 2024).

Só Ouço is the fruit of an 18-month creative residency in Rio de Janeiro, where Pérez collaborated with a group of young Brazilian musicians. Deeply inspired by the city's sounds and rhythms, the album marks an exciting chapter in Pérez’s evolving artistic journey.

In 2022, Wolfgang Pérez arrived in Rio de Janeiro on a university exchange to study composition, and quickly found himself immersed in the city’s rich musical landscape. Introduced early on to Rio icons like Thiago Nassif, Arto Lindsay, and Ana Frango Elétrico, what began as a semester turned into a transformative three-semester stay. Pérez absorbed the city's contrasts - it's beauty, its people, it's chaos and violence, all it's contradictions and life - while deeply studying Brazilian music at UFRJ/UNIRIO under the guidance of masters Josimar Carneiro, Marcello Gonçalves and Almir Cortes.

Wolfgang spent the first 6 months or so soaking in as much as possible, going to shows, to the baile funk parties, walking the streets, hiking the mountains in and around Rio, listening to music, making friends, learning where to go and where not to, learning the language, learning the slang, incorporating the culture. He used the time to forget himself in the vibrance of the city.

After this the band came together through a series of chance encounters and happy accidents...some loose jam sessions led to shows around Rio, where Wolfgang, alongside Luis Magalhães (bass), Pedro Fonte (drums) and Paulo Emmery (electric guitar), started to flesh out some of Wolfgang's compositions. At a show at Audio Rebel they met Angelo Wolf (owner of Wolf Estúdio and engineer for artists such as Bala Desejo, Dora Morelenbaum, Zé Ibarra, Marcos Valle, Antonio Neves and Ana Frango Elétrico); moved by the music, Wolf offered Pérez residency and studio time at Wolf Estúdio, providing the foundation for Só Ouço. Angelo was a catalyst for the production of Só Ouço, his openness and generosity helping to shape the sound of the record. Carol Maia, a young guitarist, lyricist and singer brought a sensitivity and tenderness to the songs, while Antonio Neves helped to pull together the brass and woodwind players who would complete the lush sound of the album.

Meticulously arranged, and beautifully composed, Só Ouço is a joy to listen to and surprising at every turn. Classic songwriting and cutting edge production blend to produce an album that is by turns tender and gentle, abrasive and unsettling, a joyful celebration of life in all its complexity."

Furthering the passionate exploration of cinema that has guided her two previous LPs - 2017’s ‘Fassbinder Wunderkammer’ and 2020’s ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’ - the Milanese guitarist/composer, Alessandra Novaga, returns to Die Schachtel with ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’, two sides off shimmering, tense compositions – culminating as one of her most creatively ambitious and conceptually rich outings to date – freely inspired by the life and work of the Russian director Andrej Tarkovsky and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Classically trained at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland, over the last decade Alessandra Novaga has emerged as one of the leading figures within northern Italy’s thriving new, experimental, and improvised music scene, rendering striking solo efforts, in addition to collaborations with Loren Connors, Stefano Pilia, Elliott Sharp, Nicola Ratti, Paula Matthusen, Sandro Mussida, Kid Millions, Travis Just, Francesco Gagliardi, and others. Remarkably ambitious and forward thinking, her approach to the guitar embarks upon a relentless deconstruction and rethinking of her instrument’s unique properties through distinct applications of structure, resonance, space, and tone, creating in a deeply personal and emotive music, seeking narrative and meaning within the abstractions of sound.

In 2017, with the LP, ‘Fassbinder Wunderkammer’, issued by Setola Di Maiale, Novaga embarked upon the exploration of her love of film. Having begun with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this was followed in 2020 by Die Schachtel’s release of ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’, a deeply intimate mediation on the life and work of Derek Jarman. Rather than focusing on a fixed point of inspiration or a single film to work from, these pieces achieve a form of abstract portraiture, distilling elements drawn from these filmmaker’s life and work into ambient networks of texture and tonality. ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle”’ freely inspired by the Russian director Andrej Tarkovsky and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, finds Novaga radically expanding her sonic palette within this approach.

The seeds of ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ can be traced to a conversation that Novaga had with Alan Licht (contained in the highly regarded Common Tones: Selected interviews with artists and musicians 1995–2020, Blank Forms, 2021), relating to the connections between music and cinema, which led her to consider Andrej Tarkovsky’s use of Bach's music within a symbiotic framework: how the music illuminates the imagism of the films, and the film illuminates new dimensions of the music. Slowly developing over the subsequent years, the resulting album comprises six individual works, some of which draw directly upon pieces of Bach’s music that Tarkovsky used in his films – specifically 'Erbarme dich, Mein Gott', 'Das alte Jahr vergangen ist', and 'Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ' - while others draw upon the sensibilities and moods evoked in the imagination by the director’s films.

As a point of departure and illumination into the process and spirit that underscored the creation of the album, Novaga points toward a passage in Tarkovsky’s "Sculpting in Time”:

“Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken a wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for its own sake. What purports to be art begins to look like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalized action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in artistic creation the personality does not assert itself, it serves another, higher and communal idea.”

‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ can be understood as a realisation of the collectivism of which Tarkovsky speaks, in the service of something far beyond the expression of self. Encountering Novaga moving into fairly uncharted waters, three of the album’s pieces incorporate the human voice we encounter the voices of others: that of the poet Arsenij Tarkovsky, the director’s father; a singer from Bach’s ‘Erbarme dich, Mein Gott’, capturing a broadcast in an underground parking lot, and Novaga’s own, rendering the melody from Bach’s “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”. Roughly alternating between solo excursions on guitar and bristling electroacoustic pieces, over the course of the album’s two sides Novaga weaves one of her most abstract and ambitious bodies of recordings to date, shifting between the complex tonal mediations generated by the six strings of her instrument, and phycological densities activated by the expanded pallet of sonority made possible by the tactics and approaches of musique concrète.

An immersive, deeply engaging meeting of beauty and melancholy within a labyrinth of voices and ideas, ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ transfigures the life and work of Andrej Tarkovski – one of the greatest auteurs in the history of cinema – into a singular, experimental statement of collective truth. Belonging to recent, ambitious stream of contemporary new music releases on Die Schachtel that’s already included Novaga’s ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’, Stefano Pilia’s ‘Spiralis Aurea’, Jim O'Rourke & Giovanni Di Domenico’ ‘Immanent In Nervous Activity’, Claudio Rocchetti’s ‘Labirinto Verticale’, and Damāvand’s ‘As Long As You Come To My Garden’, among others, ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ is available on as a limited edition of 300 dark turquoise vinyl LPs released on June 21, 2024. The LP, designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano, comes with an 8-pages insert illuminated by Alessandra’s text as well as the lovely and intense photographs of Matilde Piazzi.

Returning to Die Schachtel with his fourth full-length with the label, the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia, delivers “Lacinia”, a new, immersive cycle of compositions, delving deeper into the realm of metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, weaving astounding arrangements of sonority from a palette of synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion. Resting at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music - overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, - “Lacinia” stands as a high-water mark in Pilia’s already remarkable and forward-looking career.

Since its founding in Milan during the early years of the new millennium, Die Schachtel has occupied a singular place in the landscape of experimental music, issuing a carefully curated body of reissues and archival releases by historically significant figures and projects like Christina Kubisch, Luciano Cilio, Marino Zuccheri, Prima Materia, Claudio Rocchi, Lino Capra Vaccina, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Roland Kayn, and numerous others, balanced against bristling contemporary counterparts by the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Giovanni Di Domenico, Nicola Ratti, Luigi ArchettI, Valerio Tricoli, etc. Running like a spine through the label’s output is a deep dedication to the work of the Italian guitarist and electroacoustic composer Stefano Pilia. Now Die Schachtel returns with “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth full-length with the label and their first release of 2024. Building on the ground of deeply personal engagement with metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, explored within his previous LP with Die Schachtel, 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, “Lacinia” encounters the composer working in close calibration with various ensembles, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze and Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, weaving synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion into an astounding reconfiguration of immersive, contemporary minimalism that stands among Pilia’s most noteworthy releases to date. Issued by Die Schachtel in two special double vinyl editions and a CD edition, “Lacinia” features artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano, and is an absolute marvel that draws you in and doesn’t let go.

First emerging during the early 2000s, over the past two decades – via solo releases and numerous collations with artists like Oren Ambarchi, Valerio Tricoli, Alessandra Novaga, Z'EV, Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, and numerous others - the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia has presented a singular voice within Italian experimental music, harnessing visceral energy and hands-on immediacy within delicately woven tapestries of sonority, each investigating the sculptural properties of sound and illuminating its relationship to space, memory, and the suspension of time. “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth solo venture with Die Schachtel, encounters the composer reentering his longstanding practice of collaboration with various ensemble forms, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze, for the albums central piece, “Lacinia Off Axis”, spinning stunning string confirmations by Pietro David Carami and Elena Maury on violin, Alessandro Savio on viola, and Mattia Cipolli on cello.

A new, important cycle of compositions by Pilia, “Lacinia” (meaning "lace" in Latin) builds upon the exploration of the metaphysical, spiritual, and divine dimensions through numbers, geometry, and the creation of tonal forms explored by 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, mirroring archetypal, immutable forms at the juncture of the abstract realm of mathematics and architectural structures in the physical world, expands the poetics and compositional ideas featured in its predecessor. Regraded by Pilia as both a series of individual compositions and a single work, “Lacinia” was conceived to “define a circular path (a sort of "rhizomatic lace") where the beginning and end touch, suggesting the concept of time not only as linear but also cyclical and ritualistic—an eternal return, a process of transformation where matter changes, its state changes, but without altering the invisible internal principle of mutation”, embarking upon a a series of “steps, degrees, and energetic quanta in a progression of archetypal whole numbers and transcendent creation.”

The resulting 16 tracks unfold as a series of complex sonic meditations. While deeply resonant with the minimalism of composers like Arvo Pärt, LaMonte Young, Pauline Oliveros, and Eliane Radigue, Pilia digs deep and moves far beyond the predictable tonal relationships and structures of that idiom, echoing the ancient liturgical and devotional music of composers like Gesualdo da Venosa, Monteverdi, and John Dowland, at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music.

Fascinatingly structured as a whole to include a number of motif returns, across which we encounter works like “Lacinia Off Axis” appearing in slightly different rendering, states, or evolutions three times, and compositions like “Eve” appearing twice in subtly different forms and arrangements - first for four oscillators, guitar and voice and then for string orchestra - as well “Maris Stella”, which similarly makes two appearances, first for horn trio, organ and percussion, and then for string orchestra, with “Lacinia” Pilia delves further into the world of chamber music than ever before, creating a deeply inward, mediative body of work the totality of which, guided by its rich string arrangements of arching, sorrowful tone, feels almost like a mass for some unproclaimed loss; simultaneously locked in the nuances of a moment, while managing to suspend time.

Perhaps most remarkable is Pilia's ability to create a remarkable sense of sonic cohesion while using such a varied number of ensembles and instrumentation. From the sprawling string arrangements delivered by Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, under the direction of Paolo Mancini, and Ensemble Concordanze, and a flute trio (Cadux / Plectere) brilliantly played by Manuel Zurria, to pieces for sax, organ and percussion, violin duo and percussion, organ and percussion, Pilia manages to create a sense of singular, encompassing world that flows forward like a shifting stream.

Overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, “Lacinia” is unquestionably a high-water mark in Stefano Pilia’s already remarkable, forward-looking career. Nothing short of a marvel of contemporary Minimalism that, through its shifting arrangements of harmonics, tonality, and texture draws flickering images of ancient forms of music into the present day, “Lacinia” is Issued by Die Schachtel in two special editions on double vinyl and a CD edition, featuring artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano. This is an immersive all-consuming listen that can’t be missed.

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.

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.

Reconfiguring the notion of bridge building on a multitude of terms, it feels fitting that the tenth and final installment of Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, Sergio Armaroli and David Toop’s “And I Entered Into Sleep”, was co-created by an artist whose work featured in the first suite of LPs issued by Brian Eno’s Obscure Records in 1975, the groundwork toward which Decay Music’s own efforts nod. Since that auspicious debut, “New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments” — his split with Max Eastley — David Toop has been regarded as a pioneer in British experimental and improvised music: a sonic voyager who has continuously challenged the sources and materiality of sound through rigorously thoughtful performances, a vast catalog of recordings, and a steady flow of highly influential texts. Be it as a member of Alterations, his group breaking group with Peter Cusack, Terry Day, and Steve Beresford that ran between 1977 to 1986, or through is noteworthy work with artists like Rie Nakajima, Thurston Moore, Paul Burwell, Rhodri Davies, Lee Patterson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akio Suzuki, Elaine Mitchener, and numerous others, collaboration has always played a central role within Toop’s singular practice, but few can claim the sprawling sense of beauty and intimacy that’s achieved by “And I Entered Into Sleep”, his first recorded outing with Sergio Armaroli.

A composer, percussionist, vibraphonist, and multidisciplinary artist, Armaroli has been issuing radical and forward-thinking musical gestures for decades, working as one of Italy’s most noteworthy interpreters of composer’s like Giacinto Scelsi, John Cage, Franco Evangelisti, Giancarlo Schiaffini, and Walter Branchi, as both a solo performer and member of the highly regarded Rib Trio, as well as forging a singular practice as a composer, intertwining his efforts as a painter, concrete percussionist, fragmentary poet and sound artist, within a total art, rooted “within the language of jazz and improvisation” as an “extension of the concept of art”. Like Toop, Armaroli’s career has been populated by many collaborators, notably with Riccardo Sinigaglia, Alvin Curran, and Walter Prati, among others, setting the stage for a remarkable meeting between the pair.

Featuring Armaroli on vibraphone and prepared vibraphone and Toop on electronics, “And I Entered Into Sleep” is “a sonic journey, a Proustian suggestion à la Recherche, into the unconscious between electronic and acoustic sounds”. Using a bell that sounds at the beginning of Proust’s “À la Recherché du Temps Perdu”, which reappears more than 3,000 pages later — signaling a transition of phases, as well an auditory trigger of memory — as a departure point, as an association to the percussive vibraphone pulses that thread the album’s two sides, the pair weave a striking interior world of immersive psychological depth. Feeling almost subaquatic at times, like captured glimpses of rumbling, shadowy ecosystems lost within murky ambiences, before washing ashore in a series of pointillistic, highly detailed alien landscapes of the mind, each artist’s markedly different sound-sources, and treatment of the subsequent material elements, dance in abstract grace, incorporating subtle nods to minimalism, free jazz, and musique concrète within its seamless total form of sparse texture and tone.

Easily one of the most striking and memorable releases by either artist to appear in recent years, Sergio Armaroli and David Toop’s “And I Entered Into Sleep” traverses uncharted realms at the borders of literary reference, sound art, ambience and abstraction through delicately musical sounds, revealing new depths at every turn. Issued as the tenth and final album in Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, highlighting inspired contemporary experimental efforts of the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract.

NYOS are a Finland-based instrumental band comprised of guitarist Tom Brooke and drummer Tuomas Kainulainen. Known for their immersive and often physically demanding live shows, NYOS create massive sonic worlds using Brooke's labyrinthine loops and atmospheric layering alongside Kainulainen's kinetic drumming, in music that is rhythmic, raw, and eclectic. Since their formation in 2014, NYOS have carved out a distinctive place within Europe's experimental and post-rock scenes, characterized by their relentless energy, polyrhythmic complexity, and hypnotic layering. While still rooted in their signature loop-based approach, new album `Growl' is "more ambitious with song soundscapes and compositions", says guitarist Tom Brooke, naturally embracing a denser, more textured sound with greater attention to atmosphere and tension. "`Growl' feels like the best we've managed to harness the dynamics, and maybe the one thing we did focus a bit on is finding new ways to create those dynamics and making sure they aren't too predictable - it's our longest record to date, and when producing it, we were very conscious to make sure it is an album that holds the listener" (Brooke) As eclectic and exciting as ever, NYOS are a band in continuous motion, unafraid to challenge themselves and their listeners with ever-expanding sonic vocabularies. `Growl' is an album that is both coherent and seamless in its movement, walking a tightrope between meticulous structure and explosive energy. FOR FANS OF Battles, And So I Watch You From Afar, Don Caballero, The Mars Volta, Lightning Bolt, Tortoise, Hella, Tiny Fingers, Death Grips, Zach Hill, Russian Circles, Explosions in the Sky, Tera Melos

NYOS are a Finland-based instrumental band comprised of guitarist Tom Brooke and drummer Tuomas Kainulainen. Known for their immersive and often physically demanding live shows, NYOS create massive sonic worlds using Brooke's labyrinthine loops and atmospheric layering alongside Kainulainen's kinetic drumming, in music that is rhythmic, raw, and eclectic. Since their formation in 2014, NYOS have carved out a distinctive place within Europe's experimental and post-rock scenes, characterized by their relentless energy, polyrhythmic complexity, and hypnotic layering. While still rooted in their signature loop-based approach, new album `Growl' is "more ambitious with song soundscapes and compositions", says guitarist Tom Brooke, naturally embracing a denser, more textured sound with greater attention to atmosphere and tension. "`Growl' feels like the best we've managed to harness the dynamics, and maybe the one thing we did focus a bit on is finding new ways to create those dynamics and making sure they aren't too predictable - it's our longest record to date, and when producing it, we were very conscious to make sure it is an album that holds the listener" (Brooke) As eclectic and exciting as ever, NYOS are a band in continuous motion, unafraid to challenge themselves and their listeners with ever-expanding sonic vocabularies. `Growl' is an album that is both coherent and seamless in its movement, walking a tightrope between meticulous structure and explosive energy. FOR FANS OF Battles, And So I Watch You From Afar, Don Caballero, The Mars Volta, Lightning Bolt, Tortoise, Hella, Tiny Fingers, Death Grips, Zach Hill, Russian Circles, Explosions in the Sky, Tera Melos

A mythical tune for all serious digital reggae collectors, finally reissued. The obscure Junior Khadaffy (various spellings!) released only a handful of tunes in the mid-late '80s, but all are fantastic. This one was cut for E&F Studios in the Bronx, ran by the late artist I-Plee. Stereo Fletcher happens to be family to I-Plee, producing several records by the artist for his own labels. But the works went both ways, and Stereo produced this one for release on E&F's in-house label. Slick but killer digital reggae, this one has always reminded us of the production style of Little Kirk's "Weed Them Out", a fantastic arrangement, great vocals and a complex head-nodding rhythm. The original press is extremely rare and the tune is simply too good to remain that way, so here it is, top top top shelf '80s digital, now available for all.

12:01, time to wake up! Aris 1201 is back on CAF? with a new record. Deeply rooted in the city center of Geneva, this eight tracker is as smokey as its rush hour traffic jams. Bringing together old tracks with new material, this album spans from 4/4 club-ready highways to hip-hop inspired groovy beats. Using a minimum amount of ingredients (raw samples, percussive rhythmics, grainy textures), Aris 1201 delivers a result full of layers and complexity. So only one thing to do: hop in front of the Blunt Mobile and have a nice ride.

"Horizons/West" (2025) completes the thematic arc begun with "Horizons/East" (2021), pairing personal reflection with sweeping sonic ambition. Self-produced by the band, engineered by guitarist Teppei Teranishi, mixed by Scott Evans, and mastered by Matthew J. Barnhart, "Horizons/West"balances cinematic tones with spacious atmosphere. Teranishi calls it "less dense," while vocalist Dustin Kensrue sees it as their first sequel-two halves of a larger emotional and political panorama. Blending post-rock textures from their earlier albums "Beggars" and "Major/Minor", with rhythmic complexity from "Horizons/East", the band sharpens its edge without losing nuance. Kensrue"s vocals shift from whisper to roar, anchoring meditations on perception, memory, and social influence. "Horizons/West" looks inward while never ignoring the larger world - urging listeners not to adopt beliefs, but to interrogate them. After more than two decades, Thrice continues building catharsis from chaos, and clarity from noise.

"Horizons/West" (2025) completes the thematic arc begun with "Horizons/East" (2021), pairing personal reflection with sweeping sonic ambition. Self-produced by the band, engineered by guitarist Teppei Teranishi, mixed by Scott Evans, and mastered by Matthew J. Barnhart, "Horizons/West"balances cinematic tones with spacious atmosphere. Teranishi calls it "less dense," while vocalist Dustin Kensrue sees it as their first sequel-two halves of a larger emotional and political panorama. Blending post-rock textures from their earlier albums "Beggars" and "Major/Minor", with rhythmic complexity from "Horizons/East", the band sharpens its edge without losing nuance. Kensrue"s vocals shift from whisper to roar, anchoring meditations on perception, memory, and social influence. "Horizons/West" looks inward while never ignoring the larger world - urging listeners not to adopt beliefs, but to interrogate them. After more than two decades, Thrice continues building catharsis from chaos, and clarity from noise.

The Keith Tippett Group's Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening is a landmark in cutting edge fusion/avant-jazz. A vital and profoundly adventurous Jazz-Rock record that still swings very hard, it was first released on Vertigo in 1971.

Original copies are now very tricky to score and, as most of you really should know, it’s aged ridiculously well.

A legendary work, this Be With re-issue has been newly remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, demonstrating just why this deserves to be back in press. The stunning gatefold jacket fully restores Roger and Martyn Dean's original, arresting album artwork to complete this must-have reissue.

Alive and bursting with a joyful energy that has to be heard to be believed, Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening flirts with perfection. It's truly magical and forever essential.

A brilliant jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader "who could make the outlands of modern music feel like the most hospitable of places" (The Guardian), Keith Tippett's second album is oft-regarded as his Canterbury album.

Indeed, not only does he draw heavily on Soft Machine members past, present and future but the album title itself archly references a Soft Machine composition. Ray Babbington handles bass alongside Neville Whitehead and the drums are shared between Brian Spring (Nucleus), Robert Wyatt(!) and Phil Howard (who would go on to replace Wyatt in Soft Machine). Gary Boyle (Isotope) is on guitar whilst the great percussionist Tony Uter is enlisted for his conga and cow bell expertise. Elton Dean on Alto Saxello, cornetist Marc Charig and Nick Evans on trombone round out this quite stunning ensemble.

Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening presents a collective of superhuman musicians really, *really* enjoying themselves in the studio. The sheer exuberance of the performance is totally infectious. It's wild, energetic, atmospheric and, bluntly, bordering on chaotic at points. In a word, it's beautiful.

Robert Wyatt's drumming opens the record with a bang on the majestic Be With favourite "This Is What Happens". Some have described his work here as "easily the most inspired of his career on record." It's an ultra-funky conga-driven groove that truly sparks via the duelling interplay between the three horn players. In the background, Keith's insistent piano, in conversation with those unignorable drums, is the anchor that keeps this piece rollicking away. Breathtaking.

The epic, energetic "Thoughts to Geoff" is a 10-minute jammer that tends towards the dissonant and improvisational but becomes more fluid, laconic and melodic as it unravels. The interplay between soloists and ensembles is particularly dazzling here - blazing solos by Evans, Charig and Tippett himself in a flourish of angular arpeggios interspersed with chordal elocution. Phew.

Up next, the no less-urgent Mingus-referencing "Green and Orange Night Park" is a soaring example of ambitious jazz mixed with rock aggression, with Dean strutting his stuff by launching into a scorching solo. An absolutely jaw-dropping piece. Arguably the highlight of this album of huge highlights!

Though much of the album tends to fall on the raucous side ("Gridal Suite" approaches free-jazz at its most chaotic and, dare we say it, "difficult"), there are a few more sedate, at times spacey numbers, such as the deeply impressionistic "Five After Dawn". The rhythmically complex "Black Horse" is the most accessible track here, a sort of swinging Big Band number with tight grooves, soaring horn & reed melodies, a sizzling Boyle guitar solo and tasty electric piano riffs from Tippett. An hypnotic climax to a staggering record.

This Be With edition of Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Cicely Balston's cut at Abbey Road Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The stunning gatefold sleeve has been restored in all its brainchild glory so you know you're dealing with the definitive reissue, here. Now, are you listening?

"Pop" is a tag that's been assigned to Minus The Bear throughout their career. It's been used to set a distinction between the unique brand of complex indie rock they introduced on their first EP and the more angular and aggravated sounds of their previous bands Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. It's also a tag that was thrown around frequently in the wake of their streamlined fourth album, OMNI. And it's a descriptor that immediately comes to mind within the first few seconds of their classic second formal EP, They Make Beer Commercials Like This. Now celebrating its 10-year anniversary and first time in print since 2011, Beer Commercials is the evolutionary step between Minus The Bear's first two landmark albums, Highly Refined Pirates and Menos El Oso. Opening track "Fine + 2 Points" remains one of the band's strongest opening tracks in their discography,charging out of the gates with a syncopated stomp that comes across as a more agitated take on Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Outta My Head". If Minus The Bear were looking to make pop music without any of its major-scale bubblegum trappings, they nailed it here. The band follows it with "Let's Play Clowns" and "Dog Park" - nods to Highly Refined Pirates' formula of frenetic clean guitar work, bombastic choruses, and Jake Snider's lyrics of detached romantic nostalgia. These tracks may represent Minus The Bear's original trademark version of pop, but on songs like "I'm Totally Not Down With Rob's Alien" the band eschews it's restless energy for atmosphere and dynamics, creating a sound that's inspired more than a handful of contemporary melodic post-rock bands. By the time the band belts out "Pony Up!" the listener has watched the three-year sonic transition between Minus The Bear's first two full-lengths transpire within under half-an-hour, with the their earlier math rock predilections yielding to the tightly wound club-banging pedalboard trickery that defined their sophomore album. Even if Beer Commercials doesn't fit within your definition of pop music, the unorthodox energetic charm of this relatively low-profile release serves as an exciting reminder of why Minus The Bear became one of the most important and influential indie rock bands of the new century.

Off The Record (faitiche 39), the new album by French collagist Roméo Poirier, is an amusing romp through the discarded history of recording studios. It contains fourteen miniatures based on accidental recordings of studio talk, revealing things that were never meant for the public: we hear instructions from studio staff, scraps of talk between musicians, or just microphones being adjusted, as well as false notes, false starts: everyone stops. Start again: 1, 2, 3, 4!

Poirier’s approach recalls Accumulation, an artform practiced by Arman, Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri that involved piling up everyday items into assemblages. The objects themselves often remained unaltered, the artistic gesture consisting in the careful curating of a distinctive selection. Poirier’s audio collages explore similar terrain. The fourteen pieces on Off the Record combine more than a thousand found sounds from studio archives into complex miniatures. The audio content of these outtakes is twisted, stretched, cut, reassembled, slowed down and accelerated. Voices cut into a microgroove, from a very old recording, intertwine with digital voices gleaned from YouTube. All of them in dialogue, engaging the listener with the impression of being part of a new music group.

Poirier uses the mundane routine of setting up before the actual recording gets underway to tell a universal story about working in a recording studio. And he manages something few achieve, transforming specialist knowledge into a narrative whose beauty goes far beyond its immediate subject. It speaks to everyone, because the story is told in a musical language that is open and accessible, evoking magical images reminiscent of Oz – a world consisting less of events than of camp hallucinations, captured in grainy black-and-white photographs. En passant, Poirier shows us how the notion of material accumulation can produce great art.

Written and produced by Roméo Poirier, mastered by Stephan Mathieu, photos by Roméo Poirier, graphic design by Tim Tetzner.

Nobukazu Takemura"s music is singular in its ability to create a musical sense of childlike wonder and curiosity, with gracefully executed yet complex compositions. His pieces embody an innocence and the intricacies of self discovery that every human is faced with as their worlds become more complex. An acclaimed producer and composer, Takemura is known for his idiosyncratic music and video artistry as well as his prolific collaborations including those with Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, DJ Spooky and Steve Reich. knot of meanings, Takemura"s first proper album in a decade, finds the Japanese artist wrestling with the rise of technological influence on art and culture in the modern era, in tandem with his own relationship to religion, and where those struggles meet. Like the colorful, irregularly shaped glasses on the cover, the album is a mosaic of technicolor elements that come together to form a complete picture, a dense portrait of interconnected struggles and triumphs.

Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late "60s and early "70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live performance, alongside cultural musicians resident at his Jazz Village club in Addis. Mulatu Plays Mulatu realises Mulatu"s long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, intricately balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. Throughout the album, he reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and a deepened rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels as vital and contemporary as it does steeped in tradition. Familiar compositions like "Yekermo Sew", "Netsanet" and the celebratory "Kulun" are reinvented here as elegant big band performances. Bridging continents and generations throughout his 50-year career, Astatke now offers us an invitation to hear his music again, with a completely fresh perspective. Ethio-jazz, like its creator, is always in motion.

The official soundtrack to the first season of the acclaimed historical drama Vikings is now, for the first time, available on vinyl, offering fans and collectors a rich and immersive listening experience. Composed by Emmy Award-winning composer Trevor Morris (The Tudors, The Borgias, Dragon Age: Inquisition), the score captures the raw intensity, emotional depth, and mythic atmosphere that helped define the tone of the series. From sweeping orchestral moments to brooding ambient textures, the music reflects the harsh beauty of the Viking world and its complex characters. One of the standout tracks is the opening theme, “If I Had A Heart” by Swedish artist Fever Ray, whose haunting vocals and minimalist electronics set the tone for the series. The track became iconic, earning recognition for its unique contribution to the show’s identity. The series itself has received widespread acclaim and multiple awards, both for its storytelling and technical execution, with the music playing a vital role in its success. Vikings (Music From The TV Series) is available for the first time on vinyl as a limited edition of 750 numbered copies on blue coloured vinyl. This 2LP package includes a 4-page booklet with pictures and liner notes by Trevor Morris.

Following the success of the first season’s release, the official soundtrack to Vikings Season 2 returns to vinyl with another immersive chapter in the saga. Composed by Emmy Award-winner Trevor Morris (The Tudors, The Borgias, Dragon Age: Inquisition), this score continues to build the series' signature atmosphere. From pulse-pounding battle themes to introspective, ambient textures, the music reflects the growing scale and complexity of Ragnar's world as alliances shift and empires collide. For this second season of Vikings, Trevor Morris collaborated with Einar Selvik from the band Wardruna. The soundtrack features original music by Einar as well as co-compositions together with Trevor. Vikings (Music From Season Two) is available as a limited edition of 750 numbered copies on red coloured vinyl. This 2LP package includes a 4-page booklet with pictures and liner notes by Trevor Morris.

Sam Prekop"s work over the last 30 years, whether created primarily on his guitar or on his modular synth, is consistent in its powerful melodicism, delicate arrangements and subtle evolution. Prekop"s singular blend of melody, impressionistic lyricism and quietly intricate rhythms are the core of the singular sound of The Sea and Cake. Since 2010"s Old Punch Card, Prekop"s exploration of modular synthesis and electronic atmospheres, has come into its own. Highly skilled at manipulating the sonic interplay, Prekop has established a sytle all his own, his pieces are complex expressing real movement. Harmonies bloom with granular detail and contrary to their machine sources are able to convey emotion. Open Close is an album that captures the flow and energy of a live performance through the lens of a deft craftsman, an equilibrium of intuitive composition and the excitement of possibility.

Sam Prekop"s work over the last 30 years, whether created primarily on his guitar or on his modular synth, is consistent in its powerful melodicism, delicate arrangements and subtle evolution. Prekop"s singular blend of melody, impressionistic lyricism and quietly intricate rhythms are the core of the singular sound of The Sea and Cake. Since 2010"s Old Punch Card, Prekop"s exploration of modular synthesis and electronic atmospheres, has come into its own. Highly skilled at manipulating the sonic interplay, Prekop has established a sytle all his own, his pieces are complex expressing real movement. Harmonies bloom with granular detail and contrary to their machine sources are able to convey emotion. Open Close is an album that captures the flow and energy of a live performance through the lens of a deft craftsman, an equilibrium of intuitive composition and the excitement of possibility.

Released in 2015, Get To Heaven is the third studio album by British art-rock band Everything Everything. The album blends elements of indie rock, electronic, and experimental pop, showcasing the band's signature complex rhythms, sharp lyricism, and dynamic vocal performances by frontman Jonathan Higgs.Featuring standout tracks like "Distant Past", "Regret", and "No Reptiles", the album explores themes of political unrest, media influence, and societal anxiety, wrapped in vibrant, high-energy production. Get To Heaven received widespread critical acclaim for its bold sound and thought-provoking lyrics, solidifying Everything Everything as one of the most innovative bands of the 2010s.With its infectious hooks, intricate instrumentation, and emotionally charged songwriting, Get to Heaven remains a defining album in modern alternative music, appealing to fans of intelligent, genre-blending rock.This much sought-after cult classic is now reissued on 1LP for the first time in a decade. Get To Heaven is available as a limited edition on translucent magenta coloured vinyl.

Originally released in 2023. Combining the mutant funk-punk looping of Battles and Tortoise with a cinematic wall of sound akin to that of post-rock titans Russian Circles, NYOS continue to contrast their outstanding compositional complexity with live improvisations. First explored on the 2022 LP `Celebration', this newfound call and response creative freedom on `Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever' sees NYOS reach new heights of playful chaos and uninhibited, soaring joy. Already renowned for their inimitable control over layers of looped guitars and polyrhythmic percussion, `Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever' sees Brooke and Kainulainen contrast their formidable precision with the chaotic potential of free-jazz inspired, call and response improvisation. Not only is this one-take compositional approach further testament to the astounding musical bond the friends share, it represents an exciting new chapter in NYOS' sonic evolution that can be felt on this record as much as it can be heard.

Originally released in 2023. Combining the mutant funk-punk looping of Battles and Tortoise with a cinematic wall of sound akin to that of post-rock titans Russian Circles, NYOS continue to contrast their outstanding compositional complexity with live improvisations. First explored on the 2022 LP `Celebration', this newfound call and response creative freedom on `Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever' sees NYOS reach new heights of playful chaos and uninhibited, soaring joy. Already renowned for their inimitable control over layers of looped guitars and polyrhythmic percussion, `Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever' sees Brooke and Kainulainen contrast their formidable precision with the chaotic potential of free-jazz inspired, call and response improvisation. Not only is this one-take compositional approach further testament to the astounding musical bond the friends share, it represents an exciting new chapter in NYOS' sonic evolution that can be felt on this record as much as it can be heard.

Crystal Clear Vinyl, limited to 1000 copies. Who were the first punks? Do The Damned have more of a shout than The Sex Pistols? The Stooges or Ramones? Gregg Deal, the acclaimed visual and performance artist behind his new project Dead Pioneers, is making a claim that Indigenous Americans were the first real punks. Deal suggests that the overarching theme of the album is "an introduction to the band itself". Created with a DIY disposition and the "love of a scene that saves lives", they reel off a roll call of marginalised groups and protected characteristics: "Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond_". This is central to their identity and focus, saying that "with a North American Indigenous person as the vocalist, being unapologetically upfront on the social, political and cultural side of things doesn't seem necessary, but paramount to the overall tone of the band." This self-titled debut, coming in at a lithe 22 minutes with only one of the twelve tracks exceeding three minutes, is almost over before it begins, but covers a huge amount of ground in that time. Blistering opener 'Tired' sets out their stall; as with the whole album, it is passionate, but never preaching. Capitalised 'Political Music' can be hard to land without coming across as hectoring or earnest, but Deal's literary, humorous lyrics effortlessly cut through complex issues of marginalisation and colonialism.

Toko's in-house all-star Si Brad brings forth three fresh jams for the long running UK institution, ensuring record bags are festival fit and nightclub-ready for party season.

Opening with a glitzy, contemporary disco jam, 'Doublestar' provides wide-screen glitterball action with a dazzling instrumental track, busy with key changes and chord progressions that'd make Patrick Adams blush. Sure to have fellow peers like Another Taste and Perpetual Singers checking their wing mirrors, the track is rich with musical decadence - orchestral strings, punchy synth licks and frenetic live bass all shining through this highly dynamic arrangement.

'Compress' moves swiftly into beefy house territory; Si's patented full fat, cushion soft bottom end providing just the low frequency support for a wide array of warehouse-ready bleeps, vocal snips and rave motifs set to cause a whole manner of chaos and confusion come 2AM in the club. A master of functional intricacy, Brad's multi-layered compositions thread together more elements than other producers would care to consider, manifesting almost effortless and involuntary body movement which belies the complexity of the track and is sure to have the dancefloor in a spin.

Concluding with a beautiful piece of Balearic-boogie-beatdown, and with Attaboy muscling in on proceedings; 'Faro Sunset's dreamy and expansive moods cascade over a loose, conga-laden groove glued to the spot with a rugged b-line. Instantly conjuring memories of grilled calamari and poolside play, and sure to garner repeat plays across the familiar party paradises of the Adriatics and beyond; it finds the crew dialling into a deliciously languid vibe that's in contrast to the immediate urgency of the preceding tracks yet retains, assuredly, the sonic trademarks of the producer's hand.

Another unmissable addition to Toko's storied catalogue!

If there is one person, who has been causing a stir on the international club circuit recently, it is Barcelona's John Talabot. Already his debut “My Old School“ (which is meant literally by the way) on Permanent Vacation in 2009 and shortly after that the single “ Sunshine”, which he put out on his own Hivern Disc imprint, made him one of the most promising musicians of the Spanish electronic scene. And those two releases also already set the mark for John Talabot’s unparalleled music: raw, loopy, heavy on the kick drum, sample based, moderate on the tempo, distorted on the drums and light years away from the clean and ever revolving house sound of today. This unique style which also blends influences from afro beat, Detroit techno, Chicago house and cosmic disco, but also northern soul or the energy of Flamenco, immediately turned some heads around. James Murphy, Âme and Aeroplane started including Talabot music in their sets like it was the most natural thing. However - and this is quite rare - he not only gained legions of fans in the house and disco community, but also amongst the leftfield pop and indie rock followers. NME and Resident Advisor both had “Breakthrough“ features on John Talabot and he can be proud of a “Best New Music“ dubbing on
Pitchfork. (Being rather elusive on showing his face in magazines or the web it also came to some funny rumors that John Talabot was the alter ego of a well-known techno producer from Detroit).
At the same time he drew the attention of like-minded artists like James Holden and Luke Abott from Border Community, Blondes or Delorean, which lead to a bunch of fertile collaborations: Luke Abbott and Blondes remixed Talabot’s “Sunshine“ single , John Talabot remixed a track by Delorean and vice versa Delorean’s Ekhi contributed vocals to the track “Journeys “ on John’s album). Another example is the Young Turks Label (home of Jamie XX, Holy Fuck, El Guincho or SBTRKT ) on which he released the “Families“ EP in 2010. It was praised beyond limits. Pitchfork for
instance hailed: “… where pop and house influences sweetly buffer up against one another to provide an unyielding sense of elation“ and even brought Talabot a comparison with artists like Four Tet or Caribou.
While staying true to his sound, John Talabot has nevertheless shown a constant evolution as a producer since his first release. He has traced a solid musical path that has turned him into one of the big references of European House and has made him also a highly in demand Remixer (for the likes of The XX, Francesco Tristano’s “Aufgang” project, Shit Robot on DFA, Thaiti 80, Joakim or Teengirl Fantasy to name just a few ).
A progression that now crystallizes in “ƒin”, his first full-length album for Permanent Vacation. A record, in which the Barcelona mastermind sets aside the danceable immediacy to expand his stylistic palette more than ever. For that purpose, Talabot melts all the elements that have constructed his distinctive sound until now and makes them emerge from a new perspective, in which the construction of complex song structures, intricate rhythms and superpositions of ever-evolving melodies and atmospheres pick up the baton of the “a kick-drum and a sampler” philosophy of his initial productions. The result brings us 11 tracks (we should call them songs really!) dominated by dark ambiances, gaseous textures and bittersweet moods that, above all, reveal a kind of vivacity that’s really hard to find in contemporary electronics. “Fin” is far from being a track collection. From the majestic opener “Depak Ine“ to it’s solemn ending with
“So Will Be Now“ , one of the two tracks that features Talabot’s soul and label mate Pional, each song traces an overall dialogue with the rest, culminating a highly emotional journey through Talabot’s always compelling and unique musical vision.

Running with Scissors is a cathartic heart ache and, ultimately, a therapeutic exploration of what it means to be alive—to love, to grieve, to regret, and to grow. It pulses with rawness and authenticity, sincerity and honesty, offering both solace and strength to anyone navigating their own emotional journey.

Running with Scissors is the third full-length album from Canadian trio Afternoon Bike Ride. Residing in Montreal, the group is made up of Lia (vocals, guitar, programming), David (vocals, guitar, drums, programming), and Éloi (vocals, keys, drums, programming). Since their formation in 2019, the band has released numerous projects where indie rock blends with acoustic pop, ambient field recordings, and lofi folk.

With each track on the new album, the three artists explore the rollercoaster ride of life’s most profound lessons—falling in and out of love, embracing grief, and navigating the complex spectrum of human emotion. The album feels like a series of journal entries, capturing moments of vulnerability, self-discovery, and personal growth. A lot has changed since their formation in 2019 but their hearts are still in the right place. Lead singer and songwriter Lia reflects on the bittersweet realization that life is an ongoing journey and we’ll never have all the answers, but we can still find meaning through love, meaningful connection, and the lessons that shape us. If life is one big lesson, then according to Lia, "I guess these songs are some classes I've taken."

The twelve song soundscape blends raw, emotional acoustic elements with subtle electronic layers and indie rock grunge, creating a textured blend that feels as vast and intimate as the album’s themes. It’s an immersive record that shifts perspectives, from the micro to the macro, zooming out to explore the universe and zooming in on the personal experiences that define our lives. Throughout the album, ABR explores the beauty of feeling deeply while embracing both the intensity of emotion and the struggles of finding purpose. "I'm finding my way through this world now," says Lia, "with the comfort of knowing I'll never know it all.”

Here we are with the Earth perched on a thin tenuous wire. The neo-liberal order and its fascist mirror world burning through fossil fuels and the souls of vulnerable peoples the globe over. Conflict, warfare, climate degradation, misinformation. The time is nigh to break the spell with music.

Right on time comes IC007 – Four cuts of progressive elektro roots to shine a light on only four of the multitudinous hot spots of suffering while also inspiring a musical movement forward through the storm. Dedicated to the peoples of the Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine, and Taiwan this tune is another ITAL COUNSELOR sound system scorcher.

The message at its very core is to keep keeping on. Never give up. Forward through the storm like an ITAL WARRIOR! This RHYTHM SHOWER is a guideline toward a better tomorrow.

Delivering this message are some of ITAL COUNSELOR MUSIC’s stalwart players. Inyaki Basque Dub Foundation returns to the fold with yet another top-notch original rhythm – A drum and bass workout that harkens back to the best of Sly & Robbie’s Compass Point era science fiction dubwise and just a little bit of Aswad’s “To The Top” era progressive roots. Both raw and rhythmically complex, Inyaki makes the drum and bass hit hard with the mixing help of top studio man James Zugati. The dubwise cuts on side two are of course custom made to make bass bins rumble and weakheart drop.

Alas, we cannot forget Soothsayer horns – here as always proving that they are the best horn section out there. They feel it. They know it. They execute it in the hardest and sharpest of manors. Heavy heavy hornsman manners…

Progressive. Heavy. Horns. Elektro. Roots. Forward.

One Love and Guidance along the Way,
Andy G, IC

Transparent green vinyl. After an uncomfortably long five-year hiatus-likely spent arguing about time signatures, chord progressions, and who forgot to bring snacks to rehearsals-Glutton is finally back. The beloved (by at least a few people) trio is ready to unleash their questionable wisdom upon an unsuspecting world with their upcoming album: "Skiva heter Vishnu!" On their latest outing, Glutton boldly ditches vocals (likely realizing that nobody was really listening to their lyrics anyway) and commits fully to an instrumental format. This time around, it's only guitar, bass, and drums-because who needs keyboards or vocalists when you have enough distortion pedals and élan? Guitarist Eirik Orevik Aadland (Spurv), bassist Ola Mile Bruland (Actionfredag, Jordsjo), and drummer Jonas Eide Hollund (Mt. Mélodie) clearly didn't bother to consider commercial viability while crafting this sonic oddity, delivering tracks like "Hallux Valgus," "Orkensur," and "Rematusenogennatt" with absurd seriousness and delightfully misplaced confidence. Expect a reckless fusion of punk attitude, jazz complexity, and prog rock pretentiousness, presented with complete sincerity and zero self-awareness (well, almost zero). Each track is carefully constructed to give the illusion of a band deeply serious about their art, while simultaneously admitting that they may have no idea what they're doing. Whether you're a sophisticated music connoisseur with an ear for complexity, or just someone who enjoys pretending to appreciate weird music, Glutton's latest record promises to be precisely the type of organized hotchpotch you didn't realize your life was lacking. "Skiva heter Vishnu!" - because of course it does.

Star Feminine Band, hardest working women in Beninese show business, are releasing their third album on Born Bad, who went all out for their first. Some get malaria at the sight of that sticky world label : rest assured, the world is all they deserve after nine years of hard work. These eight young women, from a village that even Beninese can't quite place, started out in hard mode.

They had to convince themselves that it was worth a shot, but also their family, their village and an entire continent.

André Balaguemon, composer, manager and lyricist, does a lot, while remaining in the background. He put the group together, included his three daughters, houses everyone with his wife Edwige who also manages dances and costumes. He gave them a musical training, and created the framework for them to continue school while rehearsing hard. From local heroes to UNICEF ambassadors, the group has made it. The very existence of this new album is a testament to the perseverance of Grâce, Anne, Urrice, Bénie, Angélique, Sandrine, Julienne and Ashley. The personnel of this family affair has changed a bit : two new women have joined the group, which conquered bigger stages (Glastonbury in the summer, the X-mas BBC special).



This new album brings simple joys : watching them grow from Benin's first girl band to a band in its own right. And never forgetting why they took to the stage in the first place. Star Feminine Band makes straightforward music, taking no detours to express what's missing in the country. When Grâce advocates for kids getting a chance to get to school it's because there's nothing else more important to say that day. Teachers, don’t leave the kids alone, after all.



As they said on their first album, « music is our job », let them be that : musicians having a lot of fun on this album. It wanders through the vast territory of the countless West African styles. They even make a quick foray into reggae to talk about marriage (with a little rap thrown in), and interweave their voices in multiple languages (Waama, Ditamari, Bariba, Fon, Yoruba). And boy do they have hits. To each is own, but “L'enfant c'est un don de Dieu » (Child is god’s gift) is a mighty steamroller, methodically smoothing out the ground for dancing together to its final chorus, singing « debout-les-en-fants / get up, kids ! » along.



Smoother than the first two albums, supported by fine arrangements, ambitious keyboard parts and more complex vocal harmonies without losing any of their spontaneity, this third opus quietly adds to Benin's musical heritage. As they make clear in « Jusqu'au bout du monde », clever little number that we can already hear swelling up on stage: « oui, c’est Star Feminine Band qui a gagné - o / Star Feminine Band won».

Signals Aligned stands as a sonic testament to the intersection of science, spirituality, and the vast unknown. Inspired by pioneering theories on the nature of anomalous phenomena, viewing them not as extraterrestrial but as a complex, multidimensional enigma.

There’s a consistent theme of “discovery through distortion.” Truth is often obscured by layers of misinformation, disinformation, and misperception. The music plays with the concept of clarity and distortion, revealing hidden textures beneath shifting layers of sound.

The sound palette is vast and ethereal, incorporating elements of noise, shimmering synths, and organic textures. There’s a sense of both wonder and unease that mirrors theories on the strange and unexplainable.

Limited Black Repress! Kontakt proudly welcomes J.S.Zeiter to the label family with this massive Detroit-dub four tracker. Zeiter needs no introduction to dubtechno fans and this release yet again proves why his productions have been highly appreciated by fans over the years. Fluxion gives Regenerate a proper dub treatment and adds a unique melodic vibe carefully combined with complex soundscapes which has a resemblance to his early stuff on Chain Reaction. The original mix is an interpretation of his own Rework and he turns it into a unique broken beats dub escapade.

Anushka's third album Ancestry comes out on BBE Music as both digital and vinyl and represents a massive hitting of the duo's potential as songwriters, musicians and performers following their well received and critically acclaimed previous releases on Brownswood and Tru Thoughts respectively. Indeed Ancestry represents their best album to date and one which befits a release on one of the UK's (and the world's) premiere independent record labels. Anushka is the collaborative name for Victoria Port and Max Wheeler. The duo first met in the vibrant club, music and arts scenes in that creativity incubating south coast town that is Brighton.

With their first single, Yes Guess, gaining support from major broadcast influencers such as Gilles Peterson they released their debut album, Broken Circuit, in 2014. With major airplay support from Mary Anne Hobbs, Annie Mac, the aforementioned Gilles Peterson and others the second album Yemaya was released in 2021. On this second record they experimented with their sound, exploring darker and more complex songs and palettes. Both albums forged Anushka's sound and production values, combining a deep respect for the UK's electronic club culture mixed with Jazz and Soul. Now, with the release of Ancestry on BBE Music, the duo has created an album that furthers their sound, their songwriting, their arrangements and their production. Victoria's songwriting for Ancestry is influenced by her love of Ella Fitzgerald, Sampha, Jimmy Cliff and Georgia Anne Muldrow.

Max's approach to the production on Ancestry is driven by his own ancestral back catalogue of music from Moodymann and Theo Parrish and further back to Larry Heard, Wu Tang Clan and the 90's electronica of Tricky, Portishead and David Holmes. It definitely bears repeating that list of influences has resulted in Ancestry being Anushka's best album yet. Releasing on BBE Music, on both digital and vinyl formats, Ancestry is an album that is a must for lovers of the highly innovative, jazz and soul fuelled club sound that is part of the UK's contemporary music scene.

Welcome to a kaleidoscopic picnic where you can feast on a music scene that was rich, sparkling, multi-colored, ground-breaking and it'll blow your mind. A prodigious soundscape that blends the Caribbean and the Amazon sophistication and flavors; raw yet delicate textures. "Joropop. Psych Pop & Folk in Venezuela, 1968-1976" features infectious Latin rock rhythms and timeless folk melodies across 15 ultra-rare tracks-most of which have never been reissued until now. Let's set off together to discover the magic of Caracas in the late '60s! DESCRIPTION Welcome to a kaleidoscopic picnic where you can feast on a music scene that was rich, sparkling, multi-colored, ground-breaking and it'll blow your mind. A prodigious soundscape that blends the Caribbean and the Amazon sophistication and flavors; raw yet delicate textures. "Joropop. Psych Pop & Folk in Venezuela, 1968-1976" features infectious Latin rock rhythms and timeless folk melodies across 15 ultra-rare tracks-most of which have never been reissued until now. The golden age of Caracas pop started in 1965. It replaced the wave of cloyingly romantic song writing as fresh talents leant into richer and more complex styles: folk-rock, psychedelia, soul, hard blues, symphonic pop, Latin rock etc. Singer-songwriters, experimental electric guitars and jam sessions all appeared on the scene, creating music that became increasingly refined and free. The industry took a while to catch on to this new trend and leave behind the teen idols and dream lifestyles. By the late 60s, there was a long list of new bands in the capital city. Young people finally found their voice. Let's set off together to discover the magic of Caracas in the late '60s!

The album introduced a lush, complex dream world that the singer, composer, and producer created and inhabited largely on her own. She produced all the songs, and wrote and performed everything on the self-released collection outside of a re-imagined cover of Pink Floyd’s “Green is the Colour” and 2 other tracks (“The Time,” “Give It Back To You”), which started as instrumentals written by Survive’s Kyle Dixon (who composed the Stranger Things soundtrack with his bandmate Michael Stein), to which Ainsworth wrote melodies and added lyrics. Ainsworth, who’s relocated to Los Angeles from Toronto since 2017’s Darling of the Afterglow, explains that the collection revealed itself to her “as a play taking place in Mother Nature’s vanishing home,” aka Phantom Forest, and that she’s singing from 3 perspectives: herself, Mother Nature, and Greek Chorus. For instance, of the album’s opener, “Diamonds Cutting Diamonds,” she explains: “The Greek Chorus sets the scene, narrating and offering direction on how to enter Phantom Forest. It’s my hope that the listener will imagine the narration to be directed to them as well, as they begin the journey of the album.” You’ll get a sense of this from the collection’s edenic cover art and the playful, pastoral video for the album’s first single, “Can You Find Her Place.” Its inspiration came from Ainsworth’s love for Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s 15-century masterpiece “Primavera,” an allegorical representation of the burgeoning fertility of the earth in spring. She notes: “The video features the Greek gods of the painting in a choreographed Baroque style dance.” Keeping with the personal feel of the collection, her sister Abby Ainsworth directed the clip. In line with the classical and historical depths of Phantom Forest, Ainsworth, who holds a Masters Degree in film scoring composition from NYU and studied composition as an undergrad at McGill, notes that although the album might be considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. “Even if I’m dealing purely with synths,” she says, “The songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I’ve included my string arrangements on ‘Tell Me I Exist’ and ‘Can You Find Her Place.’ I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on ‘Edge of the Throne,’ ‘The Time,’ and ‘Floating Dream,’ and wove those live elements into my programmed elements.” Phantom Forest is a beautiful, vast collection that mixes the historical and the hands on, with hooks about the apocalypse and people obsessively using face-recognition software to see what paintings their face match with, in search of some kind of connection. It’s a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but that can also exist on a purely emotional plane. In all cases, it asks that you listen, and take some kind of action.

With influences ranging from Burt Bacharach to Quincy Jones, Tilsley Orchestral No.10 belongs on the shelves of all record collectors. Sweeping strings, pounding drums, leaping flutes, and polished horn sections take the listener on a sonic journey of late 60’s orchestral pop. Composed and arranged by the library legend Reginald Tilsley, this eponymous collection of recordings digs deep into jazz harmonies that adds a level of complexity while maintaining the simplicity of easy listening, highlighting the true genius of the composer.
Tilsley Orchestral No. 10 spans a spectrum of spirits, from the lows of lost love (Sue) to the highs of winning the big game (Grand Slam). This LP features a favorite of hip-hop producers, Warlock, which has been sampled in songs by artists including Cam’ron, KRS-ONE, Soulja Boy, and Jay Electronica.

"Back in print with a brand new 2024 cut by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, pressed on striking Transparent GOLD colored vinyl and topped off with a collectible “Footlong” OBI. NPR calls “Angherr Shisspa” a “vital reissue of a punk-prog opus”.

Japan's Koenjihyakkei blend progressive rock, jazz fusion, symphonic rock and neoclassicism with the energy of hardcore punk, the volume of metal and the attitude of rock in opposition.

Tatsuya Yoshida’s (of the renowned bass and drum duo RUINS), progressive rock powerhouse is Area and ELP at their most excessive; Deus Ex Machina with tempo changes multiplied by 100; and Magma at their orff-ian choral, fusion jazz, overcharged gospel peak.

“Angherr Shisspa”, the band’s landmark fourth album explodes with glittery keyboard lines, speedy bass/drum workouts, emotive reed respites, and operatic female vocals that take the listener from sheer exuberance to absolute apocalypse... all performed with superhuman technique in confoundingly catchy, complex arrangements.

“...towers over most modern progressive rock because of an attention to detail and an almost overwhelming force of conviction. No irony here: this rocks with the teeth and heart to cut through scenes and the ""overground"" like a knife."" - PITCHFORK"

In a culture of instant gratification, patience is a subversive virtue. This attitude is precisely what lies at the heart of Farron's debut 12" on the Mojuba sublabel, a.r.t.less. The "Patience EP" is a convergence of two distinctive musical forces. Here, the architect behind the Shaw Cuts imprint, whose rhythmic complexity is influenced by a personal music taste ranging from hip-hop to punk via breakbeat, meets the emotional Detroit and dub-infused techno coordinates of a.r.t.less. The result is a record that embodies this tension. Farron's characteristic, subtly broken percussion merges with warm, floating pads and stabs to form a unique, seductive whole. It's not techno for pure escalation at peak time, but rather, music for the hours before and after with a sound that challenges and rewards the body and mind equally. The EP's four tracks tell a coherent story of maturation and catharsis that goes far beyond functional club tools. Following early releases as LaChriz on labels such as Ilian Tape and the consistent refinement of his vision through Shaw Cuts, this release is both a natural progression for Farron as an artist and an exciting new addition to the sound palette of a.r.t.less. Some things are worth waiting for!

Torn traverses the charnel realms of the grey area on his debut EP for DNO, ‘Taiga’. Steely beats and stony bass coalesce into chimeric rhythms across four enthralling constructions; techno and drum & bass seeping into each other like liquids in a solution, changing the very nature of both.

Opening with a solemn march shrouded in swathes of noise and jitter that blur the soundscape like the death throes of some unlucky video game character, ‘Wreak Havoc’ is an incessant builder. When it finally lets loose the chaos promised by its title, reinforced breakbeats rain down like great factory apparatus hammering out metal plates.

‘Whalebone’ is of a similarly industrial bent. Like a head full of rotor blades, it ripples with densely packed polyrhythms that rattle and whirr, new layers emerging from the churn to grab the consciousness before sinking back into the melee.

‘Taiga’, meanwhile, channelling the cold, ancient immensity of its boreal forest namesake, progresses at a plant-like pace — unhurried and purposeful. It's droning low-end seems to mask secrets, while a canopy of tangled percussion cuts angular shapes through the shadowy undergrowth.

And on ‘Stay’, the complex drumwork vibrates so rapidly around the track’s irradiated pads as to almost merge with them completely, rhythm and ambience becoming a singular hypnotic form.

A natural fit for DNO, Torn’s mystic machine music opens new pathways for the label’s darkling voyage through sound.

Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.