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Known for his pivotal role in the Acid Techno sub-genre revival through his label, Involve Records, Regal's latest work revisits the genre's essence while infusing it with a fresh, modern twist. Under his ACIDBOY alias, his latest album, 'The Final Chapter', is a nostalgic and forward-looking expression of an artist who has grown and adapted but remains true to his core musical identity. This eleven-track project blends the high-energy sounds that first defined his career with the depth and maturity gained over years of evolution whilst also honouring an unforgettable era of one of electronic music's boldest and most expressive sub-genres and artists.

'The Final Chapter' is an album that goes against the current flow, bringing to light the sound of the sub-genres of Techno from the last 35 years. It's a clever balance between past and present, the old and new Regal aka ACIDBOY, emphasising his introverted artistic side, a lover of music and production as well as a story intended for a patient and cultured listener. The album defies superficial musical trends, offering a profound sonic experience that invites listeners on a deeper journey, far removed from the quick-hit tracks designed for social media.

The name of this album and Regal's previous EP 'The Last Summer' certainly leaves room for interpretation as these might sound like signs of a farewell to the music scene.

third album, "Magic Seeds". The record represents his most personal and collaborative work and blends live recordings and analogue synths to create an organic, rhythmic sound reminiscent of trip-hop and hip-hop.

"Magic Seeds" explores themes of growth and reconnection, featuring unexpected musical moments and influences from 90s electronic music to neoclassical. Tracks like "Smoke in the Air" and "Inner Child" highlight his ability to balance emotional peaks with deep, moody atmospheres. The album’s dynamic range and authenticity reflect James's commitment to musical freedom and societal reflection, making it a compelling sonic collage of his recent experiences.

Over the past few years, Leifur James has steadily built a reputation as a vital new voice in electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic. He’s played prestigious London venues like the Barbican and Village Underground in London and toured Europe, as well as being named Pitchfork and KCRW’s ‘best new music’ in the US, and his music has been championed by the likes of tastemakers Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Bradley Zero and actor Cillian Murphy, and from BBC 6Music to NTS via KCRW and RMC Italia. James has also enjoyed further flagship press support from Consequence of Sound, Clash, CRACK, Passion of the Weiss, XLR8R, Complex, MixMag, DJ Mag, The Vinyl Factory, and more

His unmistakable mix of cold currents and warm melodies has made Martin Matiske a regular here at Bordello A Parigi.

Amore Galattico is the German artist’s third release with us, an intergalactic voyage with a synthesizer as a guide. The title piece is a bold, yet fragile, composition. Woven around slender drum patterns are flows and shifts, key changes and scaling notes where astral washes blend with romantic flourishes. Beats are bolstered and fortified by harmonic richness in “Cuore”, an analogue space opera of daring complexity and unsurpassable execution. Matiske’s twenty five years of experience are plain to hear in this quartet. His range and musical skill are coupled with an uncanny ability to balance contrasting tones. Glacial chords are buttressed by low juddering bass in “Heaven Knows”, the listener pulled ever skyward in this sublime work. The curtain fall maintains the cinematic and dramatic quality that underscores the EP. Striking synthlines shimmer before understated rhythms, a radiant finale on an EP that takes inspiration from the stars themselves.

Less than a year after Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill EP, Giovanni Natalini aka CO-PILOT, comes back on Simona Faraone’s label, New Interplanetary Melodies, with the Green Machine album, which is its natural prosecution: inside it we also find the three tracks previously published by the same label in audio cassette format only (NIM001- MC).

Green Machine is a concept album, which takes up and develops the ecological issues already treated by the artist in his previous work, namely the increasingly tricky dichotomy between nature and machine and the harmful impact of humans on it.

The A side opens with the already published Botanical Illustration takes patience and Skill (A1), an 8 minutes suite in which the powerful Live drum breaks are perfectly combined with synths and vocal samples, transporting us to the tops of exotic mountains, to continue with the ecstatic Himawari (A2) that sounds like a “desert session” made on Mount Fuji, for a result of pure musical mysticism and finally, Mother Love Nature pt.1 (A3), a track that takes us back to more familiar territories, winking at the most experimental British trip hop of recent memory and Mother Love Nature pt.2 (A4) characterized by a background of modular synths and nature sounds effects that precede Giovanni’s powerful drums, underlining once again this perfect fusion of organic and synthesized sounds.

Side B opens with the psychedelic choruses of Dancing Like Fela (B1) supported by synthetic arpeggios and a frenetic drumline sounds like a breakbeat. Continuing along this side, we come to the unsettling use of vocal samples on the beautiful Halo (B2), the ethereal and danceable art-pop of Lost You - In Translation - (B3) to conclude with the evocative Playing the Zurna in Ulan Bator (B4), a track with a pressing rhythm and elegant arrangements that once again underlines Giovanni Natalini’s mastery in mixing sounds and suggestions that are apparently far away but that always find the right place.

Green Machine sounds like a valid attempt to finally find a “solid” balance between humans and nature, but it also demonstrates how the continuous mixing of sounds is the most effective way to escape from the homologation that is increasingly widespread in contemporary society.

Die neuseeländische Künstlerin und Produzentin Fazerdaze (Amelia Murray) erforscht auf ihrem zweiten Album 'Soft Power' die Komplexität des Frauseins.

In den 11 Tracks, die sie selbst als 'Schlafzimmer-Stadion' bezeichnet, verschmilzt Amelia verträumte Synthies und elektronische Beats mit Rockband-Elementen und schafft so einen Sound, der die Balance zwischen düsterer Authentizität und raffinierter Pop-Brillanz hält. 'Soft Power' wurde von Amelia selbst aufgenommen und produziert und handelt von Themen wie Hingabe, starkem Selbstmitgefühl und reifer Selbsterkenntnis.

'Soft Power' folgt auf Fazerdaze's 2017er Debütalbum 'Morningside' und die 2022er 'Break!' EP.

- Ltd. Col. LP: (Silberfarbenes Vinyl)

- 140G schwarzes Vinyl inklusive Einleger und Downloadkarte

Nach der Veröffentlichung von 'POPtical Illusion' Anfang des Jahres kündigt John Cale die Wiederveröffentlichung seines Album-Klassikers 'The Academy in Peril' für den 15.11.2024 an!

Das Album wurde von Heba Kadry neu gemastert und es ist die erste von Cale Künstler autorisierte Neuauflage des beliebten Albums. "The Academy in Peril" enthält enthält den Bonustrack "Temper" und wird auf CD, Vinyl und digital erhältlich sein.

"Das Wiederaufgreifen von Werken aus der Vergangenheit ist für mich ein zweischneidiges Schwert. Natürlich ist das unvermeidlich, wenn man seit 60 Jahren oder so Musik macht. Das Besondere an diesem Prozess bei Domino ist, dass sie es richtig machen wollen. Es geht nicht darum, etwas nur wegen eines Jubiläums neu aufzulegen oder einen Katalogfavoriten zu sammeln, sondern darum, neue Schätze zu finden und das hervorzuheben, was sie ursprünglich besonders gemacht hat. Nachdem ich die Testpressungen gehört hatte, kam mir der Gedanke, dass das neue Mastering einen wesentlichen Teil der Präsentation dieser Werke ausmacht, anstatt sie einfach nur zu konservieren. Es gibt Momente der Klarheit und sogar den einen oder anderen Lacher, wenn man nicht nur die Musik, sondern auch die Sessions (und Possen) Revue passieren lässt, aus denen diese beiden Aufnahmen entstanden sind. Es ist mir eine Freude, diese mit Ihnen zu teilen . . wieder." - John Cale, September 2024

Die neuseeländische Künstlerin und Produzentin Fazerdaze (Amelia Murray) erforscht auf ihrem zweiten Album 'Soft Power' die Komplexität des Frauseins.

In den 11 Tracks, die sie selbst als 'Schlafzimmer-Stadion' bezeichnet, verschmilzt Amelia verträumte Synthies und elektronische Beats mit Rockband-Elementen und schafft so einen Sound, der die Balance zwischen düsterer Authentizität und raffinierter Pop-Brillanz hält. 'Soft Power' wurde von Amelia selbst aufgenommen und produziert und handelt von Themen wie Hingabe, starkem Selbstmitgefühl und reifer Selbsterkenntnis.

'Soft Power' folgt auf Fazerdaze's 2017er Debütalbum 'Morningside' und die 2022er 'Break!' EP.

Recorded at the same Feb. 12, 1964 New York concert that yielded the more balladic album My Funny Valentine, Four & More
showcases the Miles Davis quintet at their blistering best. The great trumpeter and bandleader (1926-1991), and his stellar group, which was less than a year old at the time of this recording, mostly essayed tempos that ranged from Indianapolis 500 to Bonneville Salt Flats.

Offering a well-balanced, albeit reconfigured, repertoire featuring the familiar hard-bop strains of “Four” and “Walkin’,” newer, original free bop compositions like “Joshua” and “Seven Steps To Heaven,” and the standard “There Is No Greater Love,” which the ensemble
performed relatively infrequently and is the only tune herein not taken at a supersonic pace, the quintet electrified a sold out Philharmonic Hall.

Spurred on consistently by the mercurial rhythm section of pianist Herbie Hancock (23 years old at the time), bassist Ron Carter (then 26), and especially by the cross rhythms of 18-year old genius drummer Tony Williams, Davis’ work, particularly in the upper register, was seldom more commanding. As for his front line partner, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, Davis would write in his autobiography that he “played better that night than I ever heard him play.”

Four & More is available on black vinyl and comes in a sleeve finished with linen laminate.

One of the Most Exhilarating Live Albums Ever Released: Santana’s Lotus Documents 1973 Performances Distinguished by Passionate Soulfulness, Chemistry, and Inventiveness

Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM 3LP Set Features Reference Sound and Deluxe Trifold Packaging Faithful to That of the Original Japanese Import: Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Copies, Includes Four Photo Inserts and Two Fold-Out Posters

The bizarre legacy of Lotus transcends its status as both the definitive onstage document of Santana’s career and one of the most spectacular live albums ever released. Originally issued in 1974, the triple LP contains exhilarating performances of the band recorded at two shows in early July 1973 at the 2400-seat Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan concert hall. It bears witness to the eight-piece collective playing with a chemistry, inventiveness, cohesiveness, and soulfulness no other Santana lineup would ever surpass. Featuring seven previously unreleased tracks as well as remarkable renditions of material from Santana’s first four albums and the Carlos SantanaJohn McLaughlin collaboration Love Devotion Surrender, Lotus simultaneously suggests and inspires, dreams and delivers.

Transferred by original engineer Tomoo Suzuki, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and housed in deluxe trifold packaging faithful to that of the original pressing, Lotus benefits from reference audiophile treatment on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 3LP set. Featuring rich tones, smooth dynamics, excellent separation, deep soundstages, and involving presence, this reissue pays tribute to both the virtuosic lineup and the magnetic fusion of Latin- and Afro-Cuban-influenced jazz, rock, psychedelia, R&B, and blues. The complexity of the spiritual passages, demands of the crescendos, delicacy of the calm transitions, electricity of the solos: everything is rendered with superb balance and free of the harshness, compression, and fatiguing peaks that would otherwise distract from the presentations at hand. Black magic, indeed.

Joni Mitchell Gets Jazzy, Counterbalances Love and Trust with Freedom and Confusion on Court and Spark


Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP
Plays with Definitive Detail and Clarity: Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Copies
Box Set Features New Liner Notes
1/4" / 15 IPS / Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe


Court and Spark, the most commercially successful album of Joni Mitchell's trailblazing career, arrived after a year in which she took some time to breathe and kept a low profile. The pause led to more breakthroughs for the singer-songwriter. Marking Mitchell's increasing drift toward jazz (and affinity for Miles Davis and John Coltrane), Court and Spark garnered four Grammy nominations, earned the Best Album of the Year vote in the prestigious Pazz & Jop poll, and ranks #110 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, and featuring new liner notes, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the 1974 classic with definitive detail, tonality, and directness. Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile-quality treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD sets.

Benefitting from a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible edition reproduces without compromise the textures, details, and breathtaking craftsmanship that help make Court and Spark into what many fans believe is the Canadian native’s finest hour. Notes bloom and decay as they do amid an acoustic live environment. Soundstages extend far and deep, with black backgrounds and balanced tones adding to the uncanny realism.

The reference-grade presence and openness put in transparent view Mitchell’s incisive words and unique phrasing, as well as the contributions of her prized support musicians — including Tom Scott and the L.A. Express as well as guest turns by the likes of David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jose Feliciano, and Robbie Robertson. Mitchell, experimenting with the melodic parameters of guitar and piano, is rightly found at the center of it all. The jazz-rock rhythms of drummer John Guerin, slippery guitar lines of Larry Carlton, vibrant horns and reeds laid down by Scott — crucial to the songs’ shape-shifting arrangements — can now also be heard with fresh ears.

Visually and physically, the packaging of the Court and Spark UD1S set complements its distinguished status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, both LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. This reissue is for listeners who desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including Mitchell’s “The Mountain Loves the Sea” painting — a picture of waves embracing and receding away from a mountain, a metaphor for the record’s lyrical themes — on the cover art.

Pitching deceptively light compositions against underlying tensions, Court and Spark witnesses the singer-songwriter finding her footing with a group of top-shelf musicians who seemingly understand her visions as well as expanding her lyrical palette and venturing further into territory no artist had dared explore. Mitchell’s accessibly complex structures, beat-propelled rhythms, and spirited interplay with Scott & Co. both give the music a different identity than her prior efforts and point in the directions she soon headed.

Lyrically, Court and Spark matches the wit, integrity, originality, and intellect of anything in Mitchell’s oeuvre — no small feat. Offsetting positives with negatives, and considering circumstances from multiple angles, Mitchell explores issues connected to love and freedom, certainty and confusion, and trust and fear with unfettered boldness and introspective empathy. She teeters between surrender and retreat, and spends a majority of the record sussing out the complications and sacrifices involved with such actions.

Mitchell addresses the transactional nature of desire (the intimate title track, the upbeat “Raised on Robbery,” complete with rock ‘n’ roll pep from Robertson and zesty sax from Scott); anticipation and disappointment of romance (“Car on a Hill,” “”Down to You); fame and celebrity (“A Free Man in Paris,” “People’s Parties”); and sanity (the dark and stormy “Trouble Child,” a satirical cover of Annie Ross’ “Twisted”). Throughout, she sings with an emotionally penetrating beauty and devastating honesty that teaches about ourselves.

Or, as Mitchell relays on “People’s Parties”: “Laughing and crying/You know it’s the same release.”

Krauty electrocis from FACTORY FLOOR re-promoted now! The music is taken from a project originally commissioned by London's Science Museum to live score Fritz Lang's 1927 cinematic landmark, Metropolis on its 90th anniversary. The band performed the score live at the Science Museum's IMAX in April 2017 in an event that was part of the acclaimed Robots exhibition. This new release is a studio recording of the 150 minute score, recorded in its entirety and mixed by Nik Void with the exception of the tracks `Heart of Data' and `Babel' which was mixed by award-winning producer Marta Salogni. It's something of a rite of passage for electronic artists to compose music for the classic sci-fi movie Metropolis, and with the simply named Soundtrack for a Film, Factory Floor join the ranks of Giorgio Moroder and Jeff Mills. ... While Soundtrack for a Film is subtler than Factory Floor's albums, it still bears the duos signature approach. ... Soundtrack for a Film also takes Factory Floor's skill at making expansive, evolving tracks to its logical conclusion, and the album could be heard as one two-and-a-half-hour cut. Despite its length, Gurnsey and Void never lose focus thanks to their carefully chosen motifs. ... As Factory Floor balance the organic and mechanical aspects of Metropolis and their music on Soundtrack for a Film, they achieve the best of both worlds -- a commissioned work that's just as original as their own albums. - Available as a box set comprising four 12" vinyl on the band's own imprint H/O/D Records. The artwork is by British artist Haroon Mirza adapted and arranged by Nik Void in collaboration with illustrator Sam Moore.

"We could go so far as to say that it is the human condition to be grotesque, since the human animal is the one that does not fit in, the freak of nature who has no place in the natural order and is capable of re-combining nature's products into hideous new forms." So reckoned Mark Fisher in 'The Weird And The Eerie', which chronicled the means by which the uncanny can enter the everyday. Mwg Drwg, the second album from South Wales psychic seers Obey Cobra, is an album that dwells in exactly this kind of headspace, where the otherworldly meets the kitchen sink. Always a band who've sought out new dimensions to explore via their trademark warped post-punk, electronic and industrial influences, Obey Cobra have crafted surreal new shapes here. Taking influences as diverse as Diane Arbus, David Lynch and Sonic Youth, they balance out heaviosity and grace on the likes of the majestically discordant 'Ten Of Wands' Elsewhere, on the title track, the band sculpt a Jesus Lizard-esque rhythmic pulse, eerie vocal abstraction and the crepuscular downtempo atmosphere of Massive Attack's Mezzanine into a uniquely haunting dreamscape. Mwg Drwg is where the weird and eerie are amplified to intimidating proportions It's where grotesquely and beauty happily cohabit. It's an aural exorcism of William Friedkin proportions that demands your immediate attention.

Where would a painter paint if it were not on a white canvas? Where would a composer compose if it were not on the stave and the spaces in between the lines? How would a musician play his instrument if there were no melodies composed, written down, painted for him to follow?

The magic of art needs a frame, a somewhat solid container to hold the freedom that can only be found once we integrate some form of structure. And that also holds in every other area of life. We all need a frame, a structure, a rhythm, or else, we fall apart. This human form needs the body, and yet it transcends the limitations of the body - through art.

Consistency being one of them seems oftentimes less tangible, for it resides more in the act of doing, and showing up for the practice, for devoting energy and presence. Strangely, if we consistently show up for our practice, regardless of its form, the solid frame of the hour we devote to playing the instrument, learning a language, doing the sport, sitting silently for that meditation: It feels different every single time. It feels new every single time.

The repetitive consistency in being present again and again allows for nothing short of magic to happen. Magic feeds consistency. Consistency feeds magic. Consistency sets a foundation that strengthens over time. It allows us to slowly but surely develop any kind of skill, to find and hence to embody expertise. On the fertile grounds of such a solid foundation, creativity fosters, and innovation blossoms.

Establishing consistent rituals and routines can bring a sense of comfort and safety into every-day-life. For routine beholds repetition and its frame enables our experience within to change. In the familiar, we dare to explore, maybe even experiment, merely because a part of us remembers we depart from, and always return to, a safe space. We do not get lost. We do not fall apart. As we practice, again and again, we build resilience in overcoming obstacles or literally persevering through challenging situations and stretches of time.

While consistency gifts steadiness and stability, its overdose risks to result in what may appear as uniformity. It feels like constantly - consistently - dancing on the fine line of freedom within a structure. Life is filled with unexpected twists and turns, adjustments need to be made to accommodate change and avoid rigidity. By striking a balance between consistency and flexibility, we can create harmony in our lives, just like a beautiful melody that flows smoothly from one note to the next.

Within the magical waves of music, skills are needed, too. Consistency is key to show up and do the work. It frames the freedom of magic that resides beyond and only beyond effort. Learning to play an instrument, learning to sing, does never happen within the blink of the eye. It takes time. Time to show up for the practice, to do precisely that: practice. Again and again, every single time, again and again. Precision feeds perfection that falls apart inside the structure of a song, a line, a rhythm, dissolving into magic.

Consistency in practicing, in composing and sharing music with the world regardless of the form allows any musician to refine his style, to carve out his uniqueness. For any artistic expression is, after all: Unique. And this uniqueness is born inside the vessel of any structure, over and over again. Sharing music in the form of new releases and public performances nourishes the bond between artist and audience. And for that to unfold, both parties need to show up - while the underlying beat of this never-ending practice is presence fuelled by consistency.

LP Ltd vinyl picture disc version w/ DL card, 500 pressed. Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome. Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas' left-field song-craft, Magaletti's singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai's long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop. These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album's title track and the constrained minimalism of "Subito", to the ambitious heights of pieces like 'The Down Below' and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker. Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date.

Mysterious, multifaceted collective i Häxa have unveiled their epic self-titled, full length debut; a ground-breaking conceptual double album shaped by a collision of ancient gods and bleeding-edge technology_ Released as four distinct Parts over the course of the year, `i Häxa' now comes together as a singular vision that weaves together genre-defiant soundscapes, abstract cinema and ancient meteorological mythologies from singer-songwriter and visual artist Rebecca Need-Menear (also of electronic alt-rock duo Anavae) and forward-thinking producer Peter Miles (Architects, Dodie, Fizz). i Häxa is a ritualistic dissection of the world as we know it, a forceful separation of the monotony of modernity from the rites and rituals that for centuries formed the foundations for who we are, how we came to be and where we claim to belong. Disjointed fragments of time collide. Two sides, one of logic and one of chaos, seeking unity and balance through an expression of freedom. This is i Häxa. Whilst the album is composed of four distinct movements, each consisting of four distinct tracks themselves; pulling them apart into easily digestible, standalone singles isn't an easy feat and, as is now clear from the project's sprawling cyclic nature, was never the intention. In an age of fast fun and instant gratification, the ties that bind these works together are intended to transcend tracklisting. With aural, visual and lyrical themes freely intertwining, i Häxa is something to be consumed whole; just as it will, in time, consume you. Charting an existential journey to the very depths of what makes us who we are, with every dark corner illuminated in glitched out, discordant glory; i Häxa is a project years in the making that draws simultaneously from rituals for old gods and the modern day deification of data. i Häxa is both heartwarming and horrifying; i Häxa is ancient history and hyper-real; i Häxa is everybody and no one at all. Check out if you like Radiohead, Julie Christmas, Agnes Obel, Bjork, Fever Ray, Massive Attack, Dead Can Dance, Emma Ruth Rundle, Jenny Hval, Cult of Luna, Eivor, Zola Jesus, Marissa Nadler, Soft Moon

Matter-of-factly, Lycox exclaims "Yaaahh" right at the beginning. That's an affirmation but in times of distress it can also mean resignation, something like "Yeah, whatever". Lycox says he was only freestyling though. Then the bassline appears. Elastic, expressive, full-bodied. And it's not even present the whole time. He was "trying to develop a new formula for the Kuduro beat."

Songs for the club? Most certainly. Different sensibilities, one same focused mind. Lycox evolves within tradition, he has mastered the groove, the ambience, the right tones. Simply called "Energia", the last track circles above wistfully, menacing but maybe just promising some sort of action. With a few drops one could almost switch over to a parallel universe of old school Trance, a reference that feels as alien here as maybe this track feels to someone for whom the standard Afro House sound represents modern African music.

These songs pile up in a threshold balanced between styles, sensations, maybe in the middle of life itself. Such a concentration of energy is bound to need release and that comes figuratively through details in the music reaching out to receptive ears. "To Bem Loko" explicitly tries to "literally drive everyone crazy on the dancefloor." Once again Lycox provides vocals, as in "Edson no Uige", about a friend who embarked on a trip to the Angolan province of Uige and came back speaking only the local dialect known as lingala. A nod to tradition, very emotional, without compromising complex arrangements. Consequently, we the listeners are kept believing there is still enough space for a bright future. To ears accustomed to Lycox productions the title "Contemporaneo" (opening of side B) reads like a redundancy, then.

Maybe this music can never be quite as massive as other Afro styles. Without sounding pretentious, it avoids simplistic patterns, it demands a bit more mental processing while it certainly aims to loosen the limbs. Universal in vocation, underground at the core, Lycox definitely calls it Batida but for some it is still Ghetto Music. Like DJ Veiga said when describing a previous release for Príncipe, Ghetto is home, though. Lycox adds it is a foundation of personality. "Few in our community will recognize your work when you come from the same environment, but once you establish your reputation outside of the neighbourhood and even outside of the country, people will look at you differently, as if you were a star."

Next up on Feral Child comes the debut vinyl release from Austin Tx psych outfit NEON LEMON.

Having caught the eye of label head Dom on some cool looking, local Spacemen 3 themed nights’ posters; further digging revealed this incredible, richly melodic, yet deep psychedelic beauty with -seemingly- no home for a release on wax, so it was pretty easy to step in and offer to release it. “Hypnagogic Visions” is a superb, fuzz n’ drone drenched 6 track 10” LP in a sleeve designed by the legendary Jim Franklin (a friend of the band) who famously designed beautiful posters, flyers and gig tickets for the Elevators, Shiva’s Headband and Canned Heat amongst others, in his role as owner of the Vulcan Gas Company, a revered 60s Austin psychedelic club and concert hall. As Ben Siebert from the band explains: “This record was mostly written and recorded in a warehouse space outside of Austin (that no longer exists) called The Inner Chamber. We tried best to capture our live sound in this space, and with most band members in a state of constant turmoil at the time of its recording, this space offered a refuge from our personal lives and a place to transcend reality through creation of this music.” Neon Lemon blends together mind altering psychedelic sounds of the 60's with transcendent space rock of the early 70's. Finding their own balance between free form psychedelia and a mainline of roots rock and roll.

Limited one time 10” pressing, distributed by Forte Music Distribution and available late October 2024.

Skylax Records Proudly Introduces the "Cold Summer Ep" by Peter Lc, an Electrifying Collection of Five Tracks That Showcase the Artist's Mastery in the European House Music Scene. Emerging From the Enchanting Landscapes of Apulia, Italy, Peter Lc's Sonic Expedition Begins With "Hasta La Playa." This Track, Reminiscent of Rhythmic Tides Against the Shore, Captures the Essence of Carefree Summer Days With Its Sun-Soaked Vibes and Lively Percussion, Setting the Stage for an Energetic Dance Floor Filled With Joy. as the Journey Continues, "Piano Ipnotico" Unfolds, Revealing a Hypnotic Dance Between Rhythmic Piano Chords and Pulsating Beats.

Peter Lc's Enchanting Melodies Create an Immersive Atmosphere, Guiding Listeners Through a Spellbinding Journey That Seamlessly Blends Classic Elements With a Modern, Entrancing Flair. "Time in Cologne" Marks a Temporal Shift, Resonating With Echoes of the City's Historic Charm. the Track Weaves Intricate Sonic Tapestries, Capturing the Unfolding Essence of Time in Each Beat.

Layers of Sound Interlace, Creating a Rich and Immersive Experience That Stands as a Sonic Exploration, Evoking Both Nostalgia and Forward Momentum Simultaneously. "Dive Into the Ethereal Realm of "Your Dreams," Where Dreamlike Melodies Intertwine With Pulsating Rhythms. This Nocturnal Odyssey Invites Listeners Into a World of Introspection and Reverie, Transcending Boundaries With a Seamless Blend of Atmospheric Elements and Rhythmic Patterns.

"Your Dreams" Becomes a Musical Voyage That Resonates Deeply With the subconscious.The Ep Concludes With "With Nobody," a Venture Into Darker Territories That Maintains an Undeniable Energy. Pronounced Beats Create a Driving Force That Propels the Listener Forward, With Mysterious Undertones and Intricate Arrangements Unfolding Like a Narrative. "With Nobody" Encapsulates a Perfect Balance Between Intensity and Allure, Leaving an Indelible Mark as the Grand Finale of the Ep.

Peter Lc's "Cold Summer Ep" Is a Testament to His Boundless Creativity and Mastery, Poised to Carve an Indelible Mark on the Global House Music Landscape. Each Track Is a Testament to His Unique Style—a Captivating Blend Reminiscent of Dj Sneak, Coupled With a Nod to the Golden Era of Italian Dream House From the Early '90s, but Elevated in Production Quality. Whether Basking in Sunny Vibes or Venturing Into Darker Territories, Every Composition Stands as a Bona Fide Banger....

Legowelt returns to Clone Records with yet another sonic journey that defies conventional electronic music boundaries, offering an album that is as eclectic as it is immersive. Blending different styles and textures seamlessly and proving that electronic music can still be creative and that function doesn't always prevail style. He delivers a collection that transports listeners through a kaleidoscope of retro-futuristic sounds, deep grooves, and cosmic melodies. Despite being in the music game for more than 25 years the music from Danny Wolfers remains playful and refreshing. Stylistically taking elements from his whole musical career and not commiting to the latest trend or any genre specifically, and low-key taking the piss with everyone who takes themself to seriously. While many electronic music artists are stuck in their own void, busy pleasing the big room, Legowelt meticulously crafts rich textured soundscapes, balancing between cosmic exploration and the dancefoor, that evoke both nostalgia and futuristic visions. His ability to fuse elements of house, techno, disco and electro with cinematic influences results in an album that is not only ready for club use but also gratifying at home. Each track offers something unique--whether it's the hypnotic rhythms, the lush synth lines, or the subtle, eerie undertones that creep in unexpectedly. Legowelt's attention to detail and passion for his craft shine through, making this album a worthy follow up to his last album on the Clone Jack For Daze series.

This self-titled LP marks the fifth release of Scottish artist Murray Collier’s Dip Friso project, his longest running alias and the solitary vanguard of his own Real Landscape imprint. Across the six tracks he delivers another collection of warped percussive loops, heavily manipulated guitar work and psychedelic sound experiments that drift between popular music forms ('I’ll Get to Hiding') and whittled down takes on electric blues and shoegaze ('Another Country’). The former features the instantly recognisable croon of Still House Plants vocalist Jess HK embellishing a backdrop of tape loop alchemy, an inspired pairing given the shared history of Glasgow dwelling. ‘Thin Ayrshire’ (written with Hannan Jones) treads a similar path with Collier’s own beyond-unrecognisable voice featuring, broken suddenly by a brief flash of 12th Isle’s Loris S. Sarid & Innis Chonnel’s ‘Spalted Water Portal’ thanks to a recycled tape spool. ‘A Sorry Business’ takes on avant-jazz inspired puddle skronk, a stunted casio bleep propelling forward guitar dirge and cymbal crashes, whilst Australian minimal wave heroes The Systematics are paid homage via a farewell cover of their track ‘Midnight on Balancing Day’ (here ‘Midnight’).

All in, the album sees the project incorporating more instrumentation and a full use of vocalists, leaning less heavily on gauzy sample collage styles and providing a more introspective look at the hazy, dubwise world Collier has been building for the past half a decade.

Pique is the sensational debut solo album from Dora Morelenbaum, one of the key talents spearheading Brazil’s new musical wave. A member of the Latin Grammy award-winning band, Bala Desejo, Dora showcases a new side to her solo productions on this special LP. Whereas Dora’s first solo EP, Vento de Beirada, was a leap of faith, Pique sees her soaring as one of Brazil’s standout stars, emboldened, emphatic but ever elegant. Building bridges between past and present, it’s a funkier, more groove-based affair, weaved together with those signature, slower, celestial tracks. Touching on disco, MPB, soul, R&B and jazz, the album is enriched with an indie pop aesthetic courtesy of fellow Brazilian star and co-producer, Ana Frango Elétrico.

With an ethereal, enveloping air few can match, Dora’s gift shines through both the serene and the spirited songs contained within. The blissful, sun-soaked ‘Não Vou Te Esquecer’ opens, before the funk-fuelled, feel-good ‘Venha Comigo’ and ‘Sim, Não.’ give a glimpse of the creativity bursting from the production partnership between Dora and Ana Frango Elétrico. Elsewhere, the album reclines into hazy lean-back realms via ‘A Melhor Saída’ and ‘Petricor’, virtuoso jazz funk in the form of ‘VW Blue’ and radiant MPB through the album’s title track ‘Pique’.

The drumming is tight, fresh and swung, the horns and strings deftly arranged, as funk-driven basslines and strutting guitars mesh with playful production touches that give an added vibrancy to the record. It is an album that exhibits every side of Dora and one she has been involved in from the ground up, from the songwriting, singing, arrangement and production to booking the studio time and sourcing the artwork designer, Maria Cau Levy.

An exchange of musical ideas powers every great scene and Rio’s contemporary landscape is no different - a family of interconnected musicians and friends that collaborate on each other’s productions. Pique is graced by a wealth of these leading Brazilian lights including her Bala Desejo bandmates Lucas Nunes, Julia Mestre and Zé Ibarra, as well as Guilherme Lirio, Alberto Continentino and Tom Veloso to name just a handful. This exchange crosses generations merging tradition with modernity. In a full circle moment, Dora’s parents Paula and Jaques Morelenbaum, who featured in countless recordings from Tom Jobim's Nova Banda and Ryuichi Sakamoto to Gal Costa and Gilberto Gil, join on the album through backing vocals and arrangement.

Pique sees Dora embrace a freedom through fresh forms, showcasing the depth and diversity of her creative artistry. An infinitely listenable release that nods to Brazilian greats like Gal Costa, Banda Black Rio and Lincoln Olivetti, fused with the indie pop edge of Ana’s production. The result is truly unique and sure to be a future Brazilian classic.

Blue vinyl repress

With a voice of pure gold and a startling sensitivity for heartfelt pop songwriting, on No Reino Dos Afetos (In the Realm of Affections), Berle firmly embraces earnestness, through starry-eyed Brazilian love songs, ambient vignettes, warm, home-cooked beats and gentle strokes of MPB genius.

Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state on its sprawling east-coast, is home to pastel coloured colonial houses, white sand beaches and a brilliant young composer, poet and multi-instrumentalist named Bruno Berle.

With a voice of pure gold and a startling sensitivity for heartfelt pop songwriting, on No Reino Dos Afetos (In the Realm of Affections), Berle firmly embraces earnestness, through starry-eyed Brazilian love songs, ambient vignettes, warm, home-cooked beats and gentle strokes of MPB genius.

“It’s an album that was built from my desire to find beauty”, Berle explains - his simple, graceful words mirroring the graceful simplicity in his music. But amongst the simplicity, the compositions, arrangements and productions on No Reino Dos Afetos tingle with nuance and detail.

On the contemporary R&B inspired lead single “Quero Dizer” - produced by Berle and longtime friend and collaborator Batata Boy - the swirling, lo-fi, kalimba and guitar-fronted beat is turned into a feel-good hit by the ingenuity of Berle’s honey-soaked vocal melody.

Powerfully intimate, “O Nome Do Meu Amor” (My Love’s Name) is a guaranteed tearjerker, with Berle’s stunning voice soaring over gently plucked acoustic guitar and the textural flutter of soft movement, as if we hear him writing the song in the moment.

Drawing upon a close-knit, collaborative scene of Maceió artists and musicians, (of which Berle and Batata Boy are vital members), Berle also recorded some of his friends songs on the album, including João Menezes’ “Até Meu Violao”, the album’s beautifully laid back sunshine soul opener, which has all the charm of early-70s João Donato.

Having cut his teeth in soft-rock group Troco em Bala, and more recently finding himself embedded in both Rio and Sao Paulo’s contemporary music scenes - collaborating with the likes of Ana Frango Eletrico, who took the photo for the album cover - No Reino Dos Afetos is as musically diverse as Bruno himself. It’s hazy indie rock (“É Preciso Ter Amor”), calming ambient and field recording (“Virginia Talk”) as well as Berle’s own take on West African High Life (“Som Nyame”).

Instantly recognisable as a truly special artist, Berle’s character fills every corner of the sound, which is unsurprising considering he played most of the instruments.

space•lab presents the Negen EP from Human Space Machine, a journey into Mike Jungerius’ unique take on the deeper shades of techno. Featuring four meticulously crafted tracks, this release showcases his signature sound—as rolling basslines and hypnotic acid lines weave seamlessly through intricate percussion, beautifully balanced with the perfect dose of melody and harmonics.

Each track offers a unique glimpse into Human Space Machine’s refined approach to techno: atmospheric yet grounded, minimal but rich in texture. With tracks ranging from 100BPM to 144BPM, this is the record you can reach for at any time of the night.

A Willed and Conscious Balance is the first album of material arranged for an ensemble by multi-instrumentalist composer Tomin Perea-Chamblee. The bulk of the album was recorded in one day at The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY by IARC house engineers Dave Vettraino and David Allen, and features a truly incredible lineup that includes members of Irreversible Entanglements and jaimie branch"s FLY or DIE. Tomin"s work with this group of veteran musicians is singular though, instantly setting this material apart from the discographies of its contributors.

A Willed and Conscious Balance is the first album of material arranged for an ensemble by multi-instrumentalist composer Tomin Perea-Chamblee. The bulk of the album was recorded in one day at The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY by IARC house engineers Dave Vettraino and David Allen, and features a truly incredible lineup that includes members of Irreversible Entanglements and jaimie branch"s FLY or DIE. Tomin"s work with this group of veteran musicians is singular though, instantly setting this material apart from the discographies of its contributors.

Michael Mayer albums don’t come round too often, which is one of many reasons why his fourth collection, The Floor Is Lava, is a genuine event. It’s been eight years since his last one, the collaborative & released on !K7; its predecessors, Mantasy (2012) and Touch (2004), took their sweet time, too. It’s no real surprise, given the many hats Mayer wears – globetrotting DJ, revered remixer, inveterate collaborator, and boss of both Kompakt and Imara – that his solo productions are relatively sparing. But this also speaks to their quality: Mayer’s name on a record sleeve is a sign of quality, of music that’s both looking to the future and calling back to the past, that balances the imperatives of the dancefloor and the loungeroom, that’s as exploratory as it is functional.

On The Floor Is Lava, Mayer seems to be taking the temperature of both the music that surrounds him (past and present), and the ides of the industry he works within. There’s that iconic album title, for a start. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in both producer and listener, focuses them on genre, on market, on the next new thing: “Being a free minded spirit that transcends genres has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, though, and with The Floor Is Lava, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.

Throughout, Mayer finds thrills in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to blossom and giving them their life, their platform, throwing the listener exciting curveballs: “It’s a DJ album by a DJ that’s easily bored.” Either easily bored, or endlessly curious, The Floor Is Lava is rich with ideas. It opens with “The Problem”, which looks back to look forward, embracing the rickety way early house productions threw samples together with gleeful abandon. Mayer mentions Pal Joey, and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their Different Drummer imprint, as reference points, and you can hear that freewheeling spirit throughout.

It’s followed by “Vagus”, a slinky, sensual minimal house number that Mayer describes as his “musical catnip”. The flow of these two opening cuts defines the dynamic of The Floor Is Lava, defining the dialectical drive at its core: thesis and antithesis leads to synthesis, but with a welcome prickliness that means you’re always excited, always engaged. It’s also productive in the way it derives energy from rubbing genres and sounds against each other, in unexpected ways, for maximum musical frisson. There’s psychedelic techno on “Feuerstuhl”, more minimal techno with “Ardor” (Mayer mentions ‘Immer 1’ era 90s minimal as inspiration), slippery, Shepard-tone breakbeat through “Sycophant”, a lovely, lush vocal turn on the poppy “The Solution”.

The album closes with the melancholy “Süßer Schlaf”, where Mayer sets a poem by Goethe to one of his most haunted, moving pieces of music yet, in abstract tribute to a lost friend. It’s one of the most affecting moments on The Floor Is Lava. There’s also an update on 2020’s wild Brainwave Technology EP, with the surrealist glitter-stomp of “Brainwave 2.0” (check out those handclaps!),where Mayer’s thinking about the socio-political precipice of the now: “I’m reading with great interest about this whole complex of how humanity is about to cross so many lines and the implications that the resulting financial and educational inequality will bring.”

That’s The Floor Is Lava: then and now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres on fire; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the endlessly curious. Mayer has the last word, telling us all you need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, the exuberant powers of music.”

Michael Mayer veröffentlicht nicht oft Alben, was einer von vielen Gründen ist, warum ‘The Floor Is Lava’ ein echtes Ereignis ist. Es sind acht Jahre vergangen seit seinem letzten Werk, dem Kollaborationsalbum &, das auf !K7 erschien; seine Vorgänger, Mantasy (2012) und Touch (2004), ließen ebenfalls auf sich warten. Es überrascht nicht wirklich, da Mayer viele Rollen gleichzeitig erfüllt – weltreisender DJ, vielbeschäftigter Remixer, unermüdlicher Kollaborateur und Chef von sowohl Kompakt als auch Imara – weshalb seine Solo-Produktionen eher sparsam ausfallen. Doch das spricht auch für deren Qualität: Ein Album mit Mayers Namen auf dem Cover steht für Qualität, für Musik, die sowohl in die Zukunft blickt als auch auf die Vergangenheit verweist, die das Gleichgewicht zwischen den Anforderungen des Dancefloors und des Wohnzimmers hält, die genauso erforschend wie funktional ist.

Auf The Floor Is Lava scheint Mayer sowohl die Musik um ihn herum (vergangen und gegenwärtig) als auch die Strömungen der Branche, in der er arbeitet, zu reflektieren. Da wäre zunächst der ikonische Albumtitel. „Die Grundhaltung des Albums“, sagt er, drückt sich in diesen vier Worte aus. Für Mayer ist es teilweise eine Kritik daran, wie die Industrie sowohl Produzenten als auch Hörer in Schubladen steckt, sie auf Genres, auf den Markt und auf das nächste große Ding fokussiert: „Ein freier Geist zu sein, der Genres überschreitet, ist zu einem steinigen Weg geworden.“ Ein Kampf, der sich jedoch lohnt, und mit The Floor Is Lava ist das Ergebnis ein Album, das vielfältig, eigenwillig, charmant und tiefsinnig, aber auch süchtig machend ist.

Im gesamten Album findet Mayer Freude an der Erforschung und Gegenüberstellung von Stilen, lässt unerwartete Dinge erblühen und gibt ihnen Raum, überrascht den Hörer mit spannenden Wendungen: „Es ist ein DJ-Album von einem DJ, der sich schnell langweilt.“ Entweder langweilt er sich schnell oder er ist unendlich neugierig – The Floor Is Lava ist reich an Ideen. Es beginnt mit „The Problem“, das in die Vergangenheit blickt, um nach vorne zu schauen, und die wilde Art, wie frühe House-Produktionen Samples mit fröhlicher Unbekümmertheit zusammenwarfen, aufgreift. Mayer nennt Pal Joey und die Szene um Rockers Hi-Fi und ihr Label Different Drummer als Referenzpunkte, und dieser freie Geist zieht sich durch das gesamte Album.

Es folgt „Vagus“, eine sinnliche Minimal-House-Nummer, die Mayer als seine „musikalische Katzenminze“ beschreibt. Der Fluss dieser beiden Eröffnungstracks definiert die Dynamik von The Floor Is Lava und den dialektischen Antrieb im Kern: These und Antithese führen zu einer Synthese, jedoch mit einer willkommenen Schärfe, die dafür sorgt, dass man immer aufgeregt und engagiert bleibt. Zudem gewinnt das Album Energie, indem es Genres und Klänge auf unerwartete Weise aneinanderreibt, um maximalen musikalischen Nervenkitzel zu erzeugen. Es gibt psychedelischen Techno in „Feuerstuhl“, mehr Minimal Techno mit „Ardor“ (Mayer erwähnt ‘Immer’ Ära Minimal als Bezugspunkt), gleitenden Shepard-Ton-Breakbeat in „Sycophant“ und einen lieblichen, üppigen Vocal-Auftritt im poppigen „The Solution“.

Das Album schließt mit dem melancholischen „Süßer Schlaf“, in dem Mayer ein Gedicht von Goethe vertont und eine seiner bisher eindringlichsten und bewegendsten musikalischen Kompositionen schafft, als abstrakten Tribut an eine verschiedene Freundin. Es ist einer der ergreifendsten Momente auf The Floor Is Lava. Ebenfalls gibt es ein Update der wilden Brainwave Technology-EP von 2020, mit dem surrealistischen Glitzer-Stampfer „Brainwave 2.0“ (hör dir diese Handclaps an!), in dem Mayer über den sozio-politischen Abgrund der Gegenwart nachdenkt: „Ich lese mit großem Interesse über diesen ganzen Komplex, wie die Menschheit dabei ist, so viele Grenzen zu überschreiten und welche Auswirkungen die daraus resultierende finanzielle und bildungstechnische Ungleichheit haben wird.“

Das ist The Floor Is Lava: Damals und heute, Gehirnwellen und Nervengeflechte, Probleme und Lösungen, brennende Genres; das Reale, das Unreale und das Surreale. Ein Album für die schnell Gelangweilten und die unendlich Neugierigen. Mayer hat das letzte Wort und sagt uns alles, was wir über den Geist des Albums wissen müssen: „Brennen für die Sache, leidenschaftlich sein, süchtig nach der Hitze der Nacht, den überschwänglichen Kräften der Musik.“

With his 9th album, Housemeister invites you on a fascinating journey through electronic music. This work combines influences from techno, electro, synthesizer music, melodic house and synthpop, and shows the artists diversity and creativity. Driving rhythms, optimistic sounds, life-affirming vibes and less nervousness than in previous releases make this album more mature and an incomparable listening experience. The album captivates with its varied mix of different styles that magically come together in harmony. Beautiful melodies that stay in the ear and a successful balance of slow and fast tracks make it a work that constantly reveals new facets. A particular highlight of the album is the track Love is a Killer, in which Joy Tyson provides goosebump moments with her incredible voice. This alternative synthpop song is an emotional highlight and shows Housemeisters ability to create deep and moving music. This album is a must-have for all electronic music lovers and a versatile companion for any playlist. Whether in the club, on the radio or in a personal playlist, Housemeisters new album will set dance floors ablaze and hearts melting. And like always, the artwork is made by Housemeister himself.

Label founder Mark Gavrikow presents Body2Body, his debut release, delivering a powerful tribute to the energy of the dancefloor.

The A-side is a driving mix of UK influences and the hard,
percussive sounds of the classic CLR Schranz era. Drum-heavy and full of energy, it's perfect for peak-time sets.
The B-side reveals a different side: more housey, dubby, and infused with warm chords, deep grooves, and hypnotic acid, offering the perfect balance between functionality and depth.

This beautiful splatter vinyl, color-matched to the inner sleeve, comes in a tie-dye cover with a large HFM logo. This special edition is strictly limited to 200 copies.

Just under a year after their acclaimed self-titled debut, dreampop duo deary release a brand new six-track EP – Aurelia – via Sonic Cathedral on November 1. It includes the singles ‘The Moth’, ‘Selene’ and ‘The Drift’ and features Slowdive drummer Simon Scott playing on three songs. It will be available on three different vinyl variants, a CD with three bonus tracks and digitally. It’s a stunning record, which displays a new-found maturity in terms of production as well as musically and lyrically. The band – singer Rebecca ‘Dottie’ Cockram and guitarist/producer Ben Easton – have had to grow up in public since the release of their debut single at the start of 2023, supporting legends such as Slowdive and Cranes and TikTok sensations like Wisp along the way. An aurelian is a rare old term for a lepidopterist – someone who studies and collects moths – derived from the Latin aurelia, meaning chrysalis. The perfect title for an EP which is based around the theme of metamorphosis and change. “It leans on the natural world, the human body, the earth and sky as well as human emotion,” says Ben of how the EP represents physical and metaphysical growth. “Change can be daunting but equally exciting, which is something we’ve come to learn.” “While writing the EP, I found a letter I had written to myself when I was 22,” adds Dottie. “I was fresh out of university and had moved back in with my parents as Covid was in full force. I was uninspired and lost and reaching out to my future self for some hope. It was a physical representation of what can happen in a few years; how much can change and how you never know what’s coming next. “I found it interesting that – at the age of 26 – here I was looking back to my younger self for hope or just some comfort in the fact that things will and do move on. It was important to me to bring both of these versions of myself into the new songs.” “Personally, I had noticed a change in myself; a new level of social anxiety, a strange disassociation to things that once brought me joy as well as negative repetitions in my daily life,” reveals Ben. “I began the year sober which allowed me to finish the writing process as a letter of care to my own mental health. There are motifs throughout the EP – for example the riffs in ‘The Moth’ and ‘The Drift’ being reminiscent of each other – which are like musical reflections of these repeated cycles.” It’s musically where the change deary have undergone is most obvious. ‘The Moth’ mixes howling guitars atop a strident breakbeat making it more Curve than Cocteaus; ‘Selene’ is a slow-building wall of noise; ‘The Drift’ combines a perfect pop melody with an incredible sense of urgency. These three singles are balanced by the brief but beautiful ‘Where You Are’ which leads into the Portishead-style trip-hop of ‘Dream Of Me’. The title track has been a staple of their live sets for about a year as ‘Can’t Sleep Tonight’, but its mix of The Cure circa Disintegration and Mezzanine Massive Attack has grown and evolved so much that they renamed it ‘Aurelia’ as the embodiment of the change they have been through. “We’ve allowed deary to naturally grow over the past year, we didn’t want to force it to take a certain shape or sound,” explains Dottie of the duo’s slow and steady approach. “A lot of the last EP was written by sending ideas back and forth over WhatsApp, but this time we were able to sit in the same room and I think that really shows. We know each other a lot better now as we have experienced this journey together and that benefits the writing process as we are more open with each other and can be vulnerable.” “Aurelia definitely feels a lot more collaborative, more personal and more fully realised than the first EP,” concludes Ben. “It feels like a real document of what has been a very important time in both of our lives. Ironically, the band has changed and matured even more since the recording, so we’re both excited to document the next stage

2024 Reissue

"Still Smiling" is the first album of songs written in four hands by Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld; a work conceived and composed over two years, with dedication, working side by side, deciding and choosing every sound, every word, every silence together. The album, contains 12 songs: 10 previously unreleased, a new version of "A Quiet Life" and the cover "Alone with the moon" by Tiger Lillies. On the album, recorded between Rome and Berlin, in Teardo"s Rome studio and in Einstürzende Neubauten"s "Andere Baustelle" (the historic band of which Bargeld is leader), cellist Martina Bertoni and the Balanescu 4et collaborated. Teho and Blixa dialogue in symbiosis, Blixa"s deep and intense singing ranging from Italian to English and German, Teho"s music sublimating and enchanting between strings, electronics and experimentation. The maturation of ideas and intentions, in the numerous journeys between the two capitals, the desire, listening and meeting of their respective expressions, have left their mark. Still Smiling is a record that gives time, it is a privileged vision that covers all the sky between Rome and Berlin. The collaboration between the two artists began in 2009 for "Ingiuria", a performance by Raffaello Sanzio"s "Societas" that featured Alexander Balanescu on stage in addition to Bargeld and Teardo. In 2010, Bargeld and Teardo collaborated again to record A Quiet Life, the title track of the soundtrack of the film "A Quiet Life" with Toni Servillo. After these two experiences, a strong understanding and artistic affinity was born, which has led to the genesis of "Still Smiling".

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp’s latest album, “Ventre Unique”, is a dynamic exploration that seamlessly blends folk, krautrock, post-punk, and African rhythms, delivering an emotionally charged yet exuberant listening experience. Helmed by Geneva-based Vincent Bertholet, the orchestra’s ever-evolving lineup and distinctive sound pay homage to both African music traditions and avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp, while pushing the boundaries of contemporary music.

Recorded over ten days in the outskirts of Paris at Studio Midilive, the album features an eclectic international cast of 12 musicians. The result is a beautifully organic sound that balances Bertholet’s simple, loop-based compositions with intricate arrangements of marimba, horns, strings, and angular guitars.

Ventre Unique is the group’s sixth album and follows their acclaimed 2021 release, “We’re Ok But We’re Lost Anyway”. While their previous work captured the disarray of the world during the pandemic, “Ventre Unique” reflects on shared human experiences, inviting listeners to find common ground through music

PIFF Records welcome 4 in - demand artists to the label on their latest release, also available as a limited 500 press vinyl release. Home to forward-thinking house, trance, and techno, PIFF Records boasts a diverse yet united musical output. Cosmic, dub - driven techno, atmospheric house beats, and everything in between coalesces under the imprint’s distinctive output of thoughtful, club - ready sounds. All aspects of PIFF Records come together on this release as the featured artists balance the cerebral and visceral in their productions.

Cybernet kicks off the release with Resonant Shifter. Pumping kicks lay the foundation for captivating synth arpeggios and warped call and response basses in this ‘90s - inspired cut of contemporary progressive trance. The perfect soundtrack for any location from sunset on the Ibiza seafront to sunrise as the shutters open at a warehouse rave.

Goa elements are out in full force on Hoe Down, courtesy of Glen S. Squelchy 303s, low textures, and metallic arpeggios resonate above a pulsating bassline and weighty kicks, relentlessly pushing forward and ascending to a new sonic dimension - taking you along for the ride.
Body Clinic substitutes the progressive trance for progressive house on Love X, bringing down the tempo but keeping intensity intact. An infectious, syncopated plucked bassline dances around groove - rich drums, psychedelic effects and leads indebted to early ‘90s releases. A masterful blend of the past, present, and future together on one track.

Closing the EP with Empty Clip, Tom Jarmey disrupts the 4x4 rhythms of the preceding tracks w ith a genre - bending cut of electro - infused breaks. Two-step drums are matched with clinical sound design, deep basses, and mystical arpeggios. Sure to add depth to any set and turn heads in the process.

3 Years After His First Ep on the Label, Souffle Caramel Is Back on Aurore 404 With Club De Jazz 2. to Balance the Long Hiatus, Souffle Is Treating Us with a Full 11 Track Album Making the Project Our First Ever Lp. Once again, He Collaborates With Many Musician Friends (Piano, Saxophone, Flute, and Trumpet) to Create a True Jazz symphony.With Ample Time for Personal expression, This Record Is Rich With Lush, Smooth-Jazz Elements, Seamlessly woven With Deeper, More Contemplative Sounds, Making It a Perfect Blend Of artistry and Soul....

The Leeds jazz scene is the gift that keeps on giving. From the dub-leaning ambience of Submotion Orchestra through to the afro-jazz fusion of Nubiyan Twist and TC & The Groove Family, a multi-generational lineage has emerged. Adding yet another page to the eclectic story of jazz from the city, emerging punk-jazz upstarts Plantfood announce the imminent arrival of their debut album ‘Carnivores’ on Friday 4th October via Bridge The Gap.

Consisting of JJ Petrie (percussion), Ruben Maric (keyboards), Joe van der Meulen (tenor saxophone), Woolley (baritone saxophone), Finn Hamilton (drums) and Woody Hayden (bass), Plantfood began in the throes of lockdown, during which all the members lived together. The group spent day after day sharing their eclectic music tastes, ranging from the electronic punk of The Prodigy and art-rock of Black Country New Road, through to the jazz dance of Steam Down and The Comet Is Coming. Taking these influences, they crafted their own sound, but without live shows, their only audience was the plants in their rehearsal room:

“We called the band Plantfood because we were writing and rehearsing in one of our bedrooms which was full of house plants. The plants kind of became our only audience, so it was like the music was food for the plants.”

The band’s debut album ‘Carnivores’, plays on this theme, referring to the plants as carnivores for consuming the bands music, whilst also reflecting the apocalyptic palette of sounds and chaos found within the record. However, mirroring the dynamism of a Plantfood live show, the album is anything but one-dimensional. The group expertly balance moments of serenity and vulnerability with cataclysmic urgency, all brought together under the guidance of producer David Haynes (TC & The Groove Family, Nubiyan Twist). The group share:

“The album’s moments of vulnerability and hope are intended as the depiction of a return-to- earth theme (circle of life, growth and decay), reflecting that the cycle of nature is not simply destructive.”

The project’s lead single ‘Y.U.S.’ drew praise from tastemakers including Jamz Supernova on BBC Radio 6, with the track featuring the talents of UK-Palestinian MC Yung Yusuf, a serial collaborator who also appears on album closer ‘Monstera’. Both tracks channel Plantfood’s explosive live energy into a blend of afro-latin rhythms and broken grooves, with the distinctive blend of tenor and baritone saxophone weaving in and out of grime-leaning, poetic exchanges with Yusuf.

Elsewhere, the second single from the project ‘Birdgang Pt. II’ is a fresh take on the band’s contemporary jazz sound, blending jazz, Balkan folk and Moroccan rhythms with a punk edge. The album’s title track resets the balance, soothing the soul through a swirling approach to spiritual jazz that wouldn’t be amiss amongst the Gondwana Records catalogue.

2024 Reissue

"Ballyturk" is the new album by Teho Teardo, and his first release after "Still Smiling" (SPECULA004), the succesful collaboration with Blixa Bargeld. Includes contributions by some great musicians like Joe Lally (bass player in Fugazi), Lori Goldston (played with Nirvana) and Nick Holland from the Balanescu Quartet!

Die Musikzeitschriften "Audio" und "Stereo Play" betitelten Lenny Mac Dowell als "Rockflötist Nummer eins in Deutschland".
Lenny Mac Dowell hatte unzählige Tourneen mit Musikern wie Manni von Bohr, Horst Stachelhaus (Birth Control), Peter Oehler, Mike Herting, Bodo Schopf (Michael Schenker Group) oder Zeus B. Held (Guru Guru), Clemens Winterhalter, Alex Grünwald und immer wieder Großproduktionen mit Musikern wie Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) und Wolfgang Schmid (Passport).
Eine Ära des musikalischen Experimentierens setzte sich unter eigener Produktion fort. Nach "Flying Torso" folgt "Balance Of Power", das mehr in die esoterischen Gefilde geht - feinste Meditationsmusik mit Ambient-Elementen. Auch das Album "The Farthest Shore" spiegelt die meditativen und esoterischen Klänge wider. 1987 veröffentlichte Lenny Mac Dowell in einem Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit Christoph Spendel "Autumn Breath" oder "Landscapes" (2015) und in den 90er Jahren bis heute "The Lost Paradise", "Echnatons Return", "Launch Control", "Get Ready", "Retrospective", "Lenny Goes India", "Look Of Love" und "Raja Yoga" Produktionen unter eigener Flagge.
"Vinyl Experience" eignet sich auch hervorragend als Referenz oder zum Testen Ihres Soundsystems, von der Plattenspieleranlage bis zu den Lautsprechern.

Since first bonding over Slowdive at a Texas karaoke bar six years ago, musicians Uriel Avila and Jonathan Perez have grown trauma ray into Fort Worth's foremost flag bearer of crushing shoegaze. A five-piece rounded out by bassist Darren Baun, drummer Nicholas Bobotas, and guitarist Coleman Pruitt, the band's debut album, Chameleon, captures their evolving sound at an apex of majestic devastation. A fusion of downer hooks, gauzy melancholia, and bulldozer riffs, the album heaves and crashes across 50 minutes of stacked amplifier alchemy. Lyrically the songs trace similarly lofty and brooding terrain; Avila says "The theme is death. And a chameleon, like death, can shape-shift in and out our lives in different forms." Chameleon opens with "Ember," dreamy and distant, alternately anthemic and apocalyptic, defeated and deafening. Lead single "Bishop" perfectly encapsulates trauma ray's depth and dimension, ripping out of the gate with "the biggest, baddest, saddest wall of sound." Lyrics about being burnt at the stake and "tossed in the flame" float above a stop-start assault of precision distortion, eventually expanding into a lush, heavy, sorrowful end coda. "Spectre" is a mysterious, introspective dirge, envisioned as a "mellow, slowcore, Duster-thing," all feeling and heavy fuzz chords (with no lead guitar). Avila wrote it, "to be a hymnal" from the perspective of someone who won't let go - a ghost, an ex, a shadow self. Although the album is rich with subtleties, graceful lulls, and "breaths of air," the band's three guitar attack is its defining force, a power flexed to its peak on "Bardo." Perez's intentions were blunt: "I wanted to write a riff that was hard as fuck." The result is alternately mean and eerie, veering between noisy one string bends and surging headbang, mapping a middle ground between Unwound and early-Deftones. One of trauma ray's greatest gifts is their ability to make doomy, sledgehammer heaviness sound like an earworm, without production tricks or gimmicks: "Riff, verse, chorus, three guitar parts - that's all you need." This quality is particularly apparent on the title track, a churning slab of amplifier worship, swirling chords, and heavenly, defeated vocals about not belonging, shape-shifting, and death ("A twisted face / Void of attention / An empty space / In your reflection"). "U.S.D.D.O.S" closes the album, swaying across seven minutes of grey skied guitar and haunted voice, subtly thickening as it deepens. Feedback and shrapnel gradually begin raining down, like a satellite disintegrating in the atmosphere. Titled as an acronym after a poem by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño that loosely translates to "a dream within a dream," the melody softens, smears, and then disappears, slowly swallowed by the gravity of eternal descent. Chameleon is a masterpiece of craft, balance, melody, lyricism, and gravity, flexing a fresh vision of loud-quiet-loud architectures and the vertigo depths of blasted harmonics. From Slowdive to Nothing, to Hum and beyond, the band absorb and expand on their influences into a rare and dedicated alchemy. trauma ray's cinematic tempest is a gathering storm only just taking flight.

Since first bonding over Slowdive at a Texas karaoke bar six years ago, musicians Uriel Avila and Jonathan Perez have grown trauma ray into Fort Worth's foremost flag bearer of crushing shoegaze. A five-piece rounded out by bassist Darren Baun, drummer Nicholas Bobotas, and guitarist Coleman Pruitt, the band's debut album, Chameleon, captures their evolving sound at an apex of majestic devastation. A fusion of downer hooks, gauzy melancholia, and bulldozer riffs, the album heaves and crashes across 50 minutes of stacked amplifier alchemy. Lyrically the songs trace similarly lofty and brooding terrain; Avila says "The theme is death. And a chameleon, like death, can shape-shift in and out our lives in different forms." Chameleon opens with "Ember," dreamy and distant, alternately anthemic and apocalyptic, defeated and deafening. Lead single "Bishop" perfectly encapsulates trauma ray's depth and dimension, ripping out of the gate with "the biggest, baddest, saddest wall of sound." Lyrics about being burnt at the stake and "tossed in the flame" float above a stop-start assault of precision distortion, eventually expanding into a lush, heavy, sorrowful end coda. "Spectre" is a mysterious, introspective dirge, envisioned as a "mellow, slowcore, Duster-thing," all feeling and heavy fuzz chords (with no lead guitar). Avila wrote it, "to be a hymnal" from the perspective of someone who won't let go - a ghost, an ex, a shadow self. Although the album is rich with subtleties, graceful lulls, and "breaths of air," the band's three guitar attack is its defining force, a power flexed to its peak on "Bardo." Perez's intentions were blunt: "I wanted to write a riff that was hard as fuck." The result is alternately mean and eerie, veering between noisy one string bends and surging headbang, mapping a middle ground between Unwound and early-Deftones. One of trauma ray's greatest gifts is their ability to make doomy, sledgehammer heaviness sound like an earworm, without production tricks or gimmicks: "Riff, verse, chorus, three guitar parts - that's all you need." This quality is particularly apparent on the title track, a churning slab of amplifier worship, swirling chords, and heavenly, defeated vocals about not belonging, shape-shifting, and death ("A twisted face / Void of attention / An empty space / In your reflection"). "U.S.D.D.O.S" closes the album, swaying across seven minutes of grey skied guitar and haunted voice, subtly thickening as it deepens. Feedback and shrapnel gradually begin raining down, like a satellite disintegrating in the atmosphere. Titled as an acronym after a poem by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño that loosely translates to "a dream within a dream," the melody softens, smears, and then disappears, slowly swallowed by the gravity of eternal descent. Chameleon is a masterpiece of craft, balance, melody, lyricism, and gravity, flexing a fresh vision of loud-quiet-loud architectures and the vertigo depths of blasted harmonics. From Slowdive to Nothing, to Hum and beyond, the band absorb and expand on their influences into a rare and dedicated alchemy. trauma ray's cinematic tempest is a gathering storm only just taking flight.

Label heads Decoder and Jay York return to Toca with their second release, a split EP titled "Distant". This new collection of tracks aims to resonate with home listeners and DJs alike, offering a profound journey that balances introspective depth with dancefloor functionality. "Distant" emerges from the spaces between - the physical and creative distances that have shaped the music crafted by the duo for this release. Despite the miles apart due to their intense touring schedules, they have harnessed their separation as a source of inspiration,
resulting in an EP that reflects the nature of their circumstances. While each track has its own unique theme, the tracks share a common motif with minimalistic yet emotive layers of sound that invite listeners to delve into more deeper and introspective ideas. Each piece within
the EP exemplifies the artists' ability to create a sonic bridge that serves as an auditory journal of their experiences.

Back in print, on white & purple splatter vinyl!

Hailing from Buffalo, NY, Head North has used their indie-influenced pop-punk to break out of the local scene and demand the attention of a national audience. Packing in sentiments as big as their sound, the band hits home with walls of guitar lines, frenetic punk rock drums and an emotional complexity anchored behind their lyrics. Singer Brent Martone hits raspy notes of anger and sadness, knowing when to shriek and when to soften, adding a layer of versatile energy to back up his passion.

RIYL: The Dangerous Summer, Brand New, Have Mercy

Blending elements of post-hardcore, emo and Southern-tinged indie rock, Microwave balance frankness with a penchant for wit, allowing for seemingly standard personal confessions to make a significant and striking impact. While often tipping into the heavier side of resonant punk, the band shines brightest in soft reservation. Their self-released debut album Stovall feels like a snapshot in time, bringing to mind that same unforgettable feeling that albums like Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American, Manchester Orchestra’s I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child and Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends did years ago.

RIYL: Manchester Orchestra, All Get Out, Taking Back Sunday"