Suche:cycle 6

Contemplating the role of the album format in an attention-deficient society, Speedy J presents Walkman -- a constantly shifting, 90-minute soundtrack to a journey of your choice. Jochem Paap's first solo album in over 20 years is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility, running from skewed rhythmic rabbit holes to exploratory tonal abandon. For Paap, the traditional idea of the album had become obscured by listening habits and the non-stop information barrage of our digital lives. Having moved on from his breakthrough years releasing LPs and touring off the back of them, he was more inspired to develop his many-sided STOOR project and feed into a bigger artistic body of work than the temporary shelf-life of a single release. As is natural for any artist, his perspective shifted over time and he found himself drawn back to the idea of an album, realising he connected best with longer releases while he was on a walk, out for a run or generally in transit one way or another. With an endearing call back to the humble Walkman, he selected an hour and a half of material created during studio sessions at the beginning of 2025, perfectly sized to fit on two 45-minute sides of a cassette tape. As has long been the case for his studio practice, there were no fixed intentions when sitting down in the STOOR lab to start making noise -- just a wealth of experience and an expansive set of tools to start exploring with. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. Every sound is intentional, but the overall delivery is instinctive and curious, showing multiple new dimensions to Paap's sound and offering unpredictability at every turn. 'Arp Amp Chasm' opens the album up in a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, while 'Ctrssalms17 (Cold Render)' journeys through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk. 'Modern Birds (Origin Edit)' reaches skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis. From the dexterous drum science of 'Drift Vector' to 'Osc Hop (Slow Collapse)'s lurching, beatless swamp of synths, on Walkman even the briefest snapshots leave an impression that lasts beyond the quick-scan cycle of the modern music experience. With his return to the album format, Paap's message is clear --put your headphones on, get outside and lose yourself in the sound of an artist constantly committed to moving forwards.

Over the last two decades, The Field has refined a language of repetition that feels not assembled but uncovered. His loops don’t just cycle; they gather weight over time, so the tracks seem set in motion rather than composed – patterns established early, then
gently altered, their emotional temperature shifting almost imperceptibly.
On this five-track EP for Studio Barnhus, the Swedish producer’s first solo release in 8 years, The Field returns to the sonic architecture that defined his seminal debut From Here We Go Sublime, but with a (dare we say
Studio Barnhus-esque) looseness that allows the structures to breathe.
Tracks like In Our Dreams and 333 706 move forward on meditative chords, harmonies stretching their reach until the tracks feel elated by their own momentum.
The B-side tilts the frame. Another Day introduces some melodic immediacy, folding a tender vocal presence into The Field’s glittering matrix of sound, softening the grid without dissolving it. Now You Exist is a grand finale radiating with restrained euphoria.
The Field’s music never insists, it just draws you in and keeps you there. In a landmark crossing of paths for the Stockholm label, Studio Barnhus proudly presents Now You Exist, out May 15 on vinyl and all digital platforms.

Peach’s Soak Vol. 1 is a cross-Canadian link-up with Mood Hut that moves through slower, deeper waters.

The mini-LP was written after a tour through Asia that opened up something new in how Peach approaches making music. The turning point, as she tells it, came during a visit to a neighbourhood sento in Tokyo, while surrounded by steam rising in suspended time, something clicked about the relationship between the body and the sounds she wanted to make.

She’d been learning about cycle synching and working out with the phases of her hormonal cycle, respecting energy fluctuations throughout the course of a month, and decided to apply the approach to writing music. She allowed shifts in energy to guide tempo, density, and emotional tone rather than strictly answering to the floor.

Soak came out of this exploration, sketched and layered with field recordings from her trips to Vietnam and the Philippines during a challenging time in her life. Fragments of heat, air, and shoreline are absorbed into the music itself. Vapourous pads, low-end weight, fractured percussion, and melodies hover at the edge of dissolution. Water runs structurally through the record in surges, in tidal pacing, in the slow accumulation of texture.

Wherever this music finds you, please enjoy the Soak.

Two Piers proudly announces the upcoming release of Bridges Towards Open Spaces: Circadian Rhythms 1967–2025.

This new collection brings together a wide range of artists and styles, weaving immersive sonic landscapes that explore a connection between natural cycles and the rhythms within.

Featuring artists such as Brian Eno, Moebius, Roedelius, Meat Beat Manifesto, Fun Boy Three, Daniel Avery, and Spectrum, the compilation moves fluidly between shimmering ambient textures and raw, straight-ahead garage rock.

Bridges Towards Open Spaces: Circadian Rhythms 1967–2025 follows in the footsteps of Two Piers acclaimed previous releases, Night Train: Transcontinental Landscapes 1968–2019 and Music for the Stars: Celestial Music 1960–1979, continuing the label’s exploration of expansive, time-spanning musical journeys.

“I wanted once again to shape a compilation around a time period, this collection is a nod to my days behind the counter of a record shop, the people I met and the styles of music that was played and I was introduced to. Some are from that time, some are of the style/feeling, that I can associate & with the friends I met there; from the early shift to the late shifts as the tempo rose throughout the day and the neons of London started to buzz”

The album will be available on Limited Vinyl and CD in May, arriving just in time for the longer, warmer days and the shifting light of the Seasons Sun.

Two Piers proudly announces the upcoming release of Bridges Towards Open Spaces: Circadian Rhythms 1967–2025.

This new collection brings together a wide range of artists and styles, weaving immersive sonic landscapes that explore a connection between natural cycles and the rhythms within.

Featuring artists such as Brian Eno, Moebius, Roedelius, Meat Beat Manifesto, Fun Boy Three, Daniel Avery, and Spectrum, the compilation moves fluidly between shimmering ambient textures and raw, straight-ahead garage rock.

Bridges Towards Open Spaces: Circadian Rhythms 1967–2025 follows in the footsteps of Two Piers acclaimed previous releases, Night Train: Transcontinental Landscapes 1968–2019 and Music for the Stars: Celestial Music 1960–1979, continuing the label’s exploration of expansive, time-spanning musical journeys.

“I wanted once again to shape a compilation around a time period, this collection is a nod to my days behind the counter of a record shop, the people I met and the styles of music that was played and I was introduced to. Some are from that time, some are of the style/feeling, that I can associate & with the friends I met there; from the early shift to the late shifts as the tempo rose throughout the day and the neons of London started to buzz”

The album will be available on Limited Vinyl and CD in May, arriving just in time for the longer, warmer days and the shifting light of the Seasons Sun.

Irish drone-doom-folk act One Leg One Eye, the project of founding Lankum member Ian Lynch and veteran noise monger George Brennan, announce their new album, CRONE, out on 1 May on AD 93.

Today the group share the first track on the album, ‘Many are my Names Besides’, on which they are joined by the elemental force that is legendary actor, performer, writer and director Olwen Fouéré (Operating Theatre) contributing vocals.

Olwen Fouéré comments:

“When Ian and George first approached me to work with them, they were already creating the Crone album as a sonic invocation of the ‘sovereignty goddess’, who personifies the land and the legitimacy to rule it, in her darkest and most terrifying form. As we spoke, the triple goddess figure of the Morrigan entered my mind, reinforced by a marked presence of crows every time we met. The Morrigan is essentially a war goddess, frequently appearing as a crow in a battlefield, a death prophet, a guardian of sovereignty, and a very powerful figure in Irish Mythology.

So I invoked her energy as a starting point, using text extracts that Ian sent me from the Ulster Cycle and other sources. The voice recording was done in one day, improvising the source material while the already composed music occupied my psyche through headphones.

Listening back, at this time in our world, I can only wonder at how much blood and war the Crone/ Crow of sovereignty is preparing to unleash now. Watch out.”

CRONE is the second album from Lynch and Brennan, following on from 2022’s slowburn slab of ambient grit, …And Take The Black Worm With Me. Bewildering, psychedelic and ultimately transcendental, the four tracks of One Leg One Eye’s CRONE shapeshift and morph endlessly in a coarse miasma. Traditional song structures and vocal melody are eschewed, instead the trio directly channel energies from the rich seams of mythological significance submerged below the Irish psyche. The anger, rage and beauty of the sovereignty goddess burn a consistent and deliberate line through the album in the form of obscure incantations and dire pronouncements, the gnarled sinews that bind it all together.

Just as the subject matter of the tracks delve deeper into Irish myth and the remote past, the temporal reality of the album reaches back into the bands prehistory, with the majority of it the material being recorded by Lynch and Brennan in 2021 before One Leg One Eye was conceived of as an entity with Brennan working on the CRONE project while Lynch worked on …And Take The Black Worm With Me.

When they were there they saw a lone woman coming to the door of the Hostel, after sunset, and seeking to be let in. As long as a weaver’s beam was each of her two shins, and they were as dark as the back of a stag-beetle. A greyish, wooly mantle she wore. Her lower hair used to reach as far as her knee. Her lips were on one side of her head.

She came and put one of her shoulders against the door-post of the house, casting the evil eye on the king and the youths who surrounded him in the Hostel. He himself addressed her from within.

"Well, O woman," says Conaire, "if thou art a wizard, what seest thou for us?"

"Truly I see for thee," she answers, "that neither fell nor flesh of thine shall escape from the place into which thou hast come, save what birds will bear away in their claws."

"It was not an evil omen we foreboded, O woman," saith he: "it is not thou that always augurs for us. What is thy name, O woman?"

"Calib," she answers.

"That is not much of a name," says Conaire.

"Lo, many are my names besides."

"Which be they?" asks Conaire.

"Easy to say," quoth she. "Samon, Sinand, Seisclend, Sodb, Caill, Coll, Díchóem, Dichiúil, Díthím, Díchuimne, Dichruidne, Dairne, Dáríne, Déruaine, Egem, Agam, Ethamne, Gním, Cluiche, Cethardam, Níth, Némain, Nóennen, Badb, Blosc, Bloár, Huae, óe Aife la Sruth, Mache, Médé, Mod."

On one foot, and holding up one hand, and breathing one breath she sang all that to them from the door of the house.

Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride - to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point.
The Director's Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It?s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we've done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term''
- Jeff Mills

'The Director's Cut' series by Jeff Mills

Following her debut album, I’ll Look for You in Others (Past Inside the Present), earlier this year, Patricia Wolf joins Spain’s Balmat label with See-Through, her second album. See Through finds the Portland, Oregon musician and field recordist continuing to develop her signature style of ambient, balancing radiant soundscaping with a carefully expressive sensibility. But the new album is also marked by an important difference. Where I’ll Look for You in Others was largely written in response to the death of a loved one, See-Through represents a kind of rebirth.

“After a long period of grief, I had been hoping to find my way to a place of lightness, peace, playfulness, curiosity, and sensuality again,” Wolf says. “What I was surprised and pleased to find is that for the most part, I had.”

She wrote and recorded many of the album’s songs quickly, in preparation for an August 2021 broadcast on the online radio platform 9128 Live. Excited for the opportunity to play live after more than a year of the pandemic, Wolf decided to write all new material for the event, working with a lean setup of Octatrack, Roland Synth Plus 10, Make Noise 0-Coast, and Novation Summit. (In fact, Wolf was the first sound designer invited to create patches for the Summit.) She also picked up an acoustic guitar that her brother had loaned her. “I decided to take the surrealist approach of ‘pure psychic automatism’ to see what poured out of me,” she recalls. “Woodland Encounter,” “Under a Glass Bell,” “The Grotto,” “The Mechanical Age,” “The Flaneur,” and “Psychic Sweeping” are all products of those sessions; the through line holding them together is their exploratory spirit and clarity
of vision.

Other songs, like “A Conversation With My Innocence,” “Recalibration,” and “Psychic Sweeping,” wrestle with the traumas of the preceding year. Though they may linger on the heaviness of loss, Wolf says, “What I discovered is that a stronger archetype had grown inside me to steer my emotions and thoughts to a better place.” Likewise, “Wistfulness” and “Upward Swimming Fish”—her first experiments with VST synthesizers—balance the bittersweet embrace of melancholy with the freedom to choose happiness.

“Pacific Coast Highway,” the album’s lone song with drums, might at first seem like an outlier. But it also signals Wolf’s interest in finding a fusion between the introspection of ambient and the togetherness of beat-oriented music. “Experiencing loss and isolation is what drove me into gentler territories of sound,” she says, “but I want to start making more beat-oriented music. After an extended period of loss and isolation, I’m ready to experience more joyous and social things.”

Listeners with keen ears might recognize the album’s closing song, “Springtime in Croatia”: A different mix of the song originally appeared on the 2021 digital compilation secondnature & friends Vol. II, from the Seattle label secondnature. This marks its first appearance on vinyl, however, and its spiritual home is undoubtedly here, at the close of See-Through. As the bookending answer to the opening “Woodland Encounter”—another song in which field recordings play a crucial role—it closes the circle of an album that is itself keyed to the steadily turning cycles of life.

Acid Nation is one of the defining releases from US techno and house icon K. Hand (Kelli Hand). First pressed in 1995 on Loriz Sound in collaboration with Acacia Records, the record captures the raw energy and forward-thinking spirit of the American underground scene of the era. Driven by gritty acid lines, powerful rhythms, and a fearless, machine-driven groove, Acid Nation showcases the full depth of K. Hand’s talent as a DJ and producer. Now seeing the light again on the Time To Impact imprint, the record returns in a remastered version, bringing its timeless acid power back to contemporary dancefloors.

David August's most expansive, ambitious album to date, the Italian – German composer and producer lets his vast sonic universe collapse, rediscovering in its wake an instrument that's been a constant presence in his life. 'Hymns' is a deeply personal set of candid piano – led reflections that tell a simpler but far more distinctive story; rather than concentrate on the life cycle of humanity and civilization, August narrows his field of vision, tracing his own background and re - asserting his relationship with a musical language he'd tried hard to unlearn. An intimate, instinctual album that emerged from isolation and contemplation, 'Hymns' is also a surprisingly hopeful suite of soft hued, evocative improvisations that well up from the depths of the soul. In August's own words, "it should recall light, not darkness."

‘Yarrow’ is a bouquet of new music by Portland, Oregon-based musician and field recordist Patricia Wolf, marking the label’s ninth release and the third of Season Two. These works are her reflections on the life cycle of plants and their dynamic ecological relationships.

Wolf created the album in response to her artist residency at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, as part of the Art-Science Exchange Project in the summer of 2024. She worked closely with ecologists Dr Paul CaraDonna, Dr Amy Iler, Dr Jane Ogilvie, Dr Nickolas Waser, Dr Mary Price, and Dr Will Petry, spending weeks engaged in long-term research on plants, pollinators, and their interactions as the climate changes.

Each track on Yarrow looks at a different part of a plant’s life. The songs touch on the conditions that plants need to grow, the quiet life of roots, how flowers attract pollinators, and the strength of seeds. The first single, 'Inflorescence', the scientific name for the floral display that a plant makes in an effort to reproduce, captures this event in song. The music slowly builds layers, reflecting the album’s overall feel. The album ends with the majestic Boards of Canada-esque 'Adapted for Extreme Conditions', and the entire b-side features Patricia’s field recordings from around Gothic, Colorado, and a guided meditation by Dr Paul CaraDonna, whose research inspired the project, inviting listeners to tune into the sounds and activities of the ecosystem.

In the evolving landscape of modern Southern hip-hop, the pairing of Starlito and Bandplay stands out as a unique bridge between street-level authenticity and refined, calculated musicality. Their collaborative project, Not The Country You Know, functions less like a standard release and more as a manifesto—a masterclass in the chemistry between a seasoned, introspective lyricist and a producer who possesses an intuitive grasp of the region's pulse. It is an exploration of legacy and adaptation, capturing the tension between where they came from and where the culture is currently headed.

Bandplay, long recognized for sculpting the sonic identity of Memphis icons, brings his signature, trunk-rattling 808s to the project, yet he manages to pivot here. The production feels remarkably expansive, masterfully blending the raw, stripped-back aesthetics of classic Tennessee rap with forward-thinking textures that refuse to be confined to a single sub-genre. Complementing this, Starlito operates with his trademark mix of cynical observation and genuine vulnerability. He navigates these beats with the weary grace of an artist who has weathered the music industry's relentless cycles, treating every bar like a necessary piece of a larger, ongoing story.

The album’s title serves as a direct commentary on these shifting tides. Across the tracklist, the duo investigates the growing disparity between the romanticized South and the cold realities of the streets, alongside the inevitable evolution of the music business itself. There is no frantic chasing of streaming-era trends or algorithmic bait here; instead, the project remains a stubborn, confident assertion of artistic identity. By weaving together Starlito’s "voice-of-reason" flow and Bandplay’s evolving, genre-bending sound, Not The Country You Know challenges the listener to abandon their preconceived notions of the region, offering instead a complex, urgent vision of a South that is as haunting as it is vibrant.

Water can retain or wash away memory; flowing or freezing. It gives life and shapes earth, while frozen imprints of an ancient past are waiting to melt – back into sound or fluid motion, or simply to dissipate and disappear. For their split release, Yoichi Kamimura and Olli Aarni offer two distinct reinterpretations of a performance recorded live at the Temppeliaukio Kirkko – a church in Helsinki built directly into solid rock and bathed in natural light – meditating on glacial landscapes and water cycles, using shared field recordings that bifurcate into two sonic visions of “ice journey”.

Yoichi Kamimura’s extensive recordings formed the bedrock of the original performance, notably from time spent on Suomenlinna Island just outside Helsinki in 2021, aiming to capture the remnants of the glacial movements that formed the area’s geology. Elsewhere, the voices of ringed seals, underground waterways of Kyoto, and icy rivers in Lapland from Kamimura’s library float in as well. “The small, charming, and gentle islands floating in the Baltic Sea—some with little cottages and restaurants—reminded me of the drifting ice in the Sea of Okhotsk between Japan and Russia,” describes Kamimura. Fragments of a Christmas choir creep in too, recorded at the church on Suomenlinna Island. Titled Kōri no ryokō , Kaimimura’s reinterpretation of the performance emphasises a shared future across all icy sea regions of the world: thawing ancient memories and the threat of disappearing entirely.

On Jäämatkailu, Olli Aarni presents his own expansive reworking of the same source material, heavily processed alongside his own field recordings from Vantaanjoki river and Suontee lake in Finland. “I was thinking about the processes of erosion, water carving rock, the prehistoric glaciers over the landscape in my own environment,” explains Aarni. The soundscape hums with both intimate details and macrocosmic flow, and a submersible bass rumble hinting at an iceberg far below the tip, morphing at time scales beyond human comprehension.

Side A is composed by Yoichi Kamimura using field recordings of drift ice (Shiretoko, Hokkaido, 2019–2022), the Lake Biwa Canal (Kyoto, 2020), the Therme Vals baths (Vals, 2017), spring water (a fountain next to Saint Benedict Chapel, 2017), a Christmas choir (Suomenlinna Church, Helsinki, 2021), ice in the Juutuanjoki River (Inari, 2021), and recordings from Yoichi’s and Olli’s concert (Temppeliaukion kirkko, Helsinki, 2021), KORG iPolysix, and KORG minilogue xd.

Side B is composed by Olli Aarni using the aforementioned sounds + field recordings of the river Vantaanjoki and the lake Suontee, sampled sounds, and a computer.

Voykot closes the trilogy with PANICO EN DIRECTO unleashing its darkest chapter: Terror for kids. The definitive third act where terrifying melodies and aggressive soundscapes come with no parental advisory. Sounds mutated into pure shadows, an uncompromising immersion into electronic darkness that completes the cycle of a perfect nightmare.

Rhiza Semar presents its fourth chapter with Yildizlara, a four-track odyssey shaped from shadow, rhythm, and elemental texture. Crafted as both visceral tools and introspective journeys, the record navigates between ominous density and luminous release, guided by a deep awareness of space, myth, and matter. As an artist, Hitam paves the way for a new sound emerging from his burrows to build bridges between electronic subgenres while shaping a landscape unmistakably his own. Orb Weaver opens the cycle with jagged IDM rhythms that coil and release like threads of a web pulled taut. Originally composed for the graduation project of fashion designer Tim van der Plas, who's collection was inspired on climbing out of depression, its atmosphere is dark and ceremonial, with textures scraping against silence until catharsis emerges from the tension. A confrontation between inner turmoil and release. On Vanishing of the Anasazi, cavernous reverbs carry traces of lost structures, percussion echoing as if across ruins. A relentless drive holds the ghost of ritual processions, summoning a spectral energy that feels at once monumental and hollowed-out. The track suspends itself between presence and absence, architecture and collapse, leaving the listener in a space where echoes become the only surviving form of memory. Mesh Grip plunges downward into subterranean force. A thundering groove rumbles like minerals being unearthed, goblin-like figures at work in hidden shafts, chiseling away at stone in endless rhythm. From this pressure, a sudden swell of melancholy pads rises, reframing the heaviness with emotional resonance as if the whispers of angelic guardians seep into the caverns, transforming extraction into elegy. What begins as pure drive of endurance evolves into an introspective meditation. Closing the release, Yildizlara unfolds as an epic ascent. Layered rhythms rush forward with urgency, intricate yet propulsive, while chopped vocals bring back a sensual human element, scattering like signals across the night sky. Animalistic atmospheres dart through the mix as spectral cries and furtive movements, adding a primal dimension to the drive. What begins as erratic and untamed slowly converges into warmth and ultimate catharsis: a cosmic tale inscribed in sound, both intimate and monumental, familiar yet born of hidden memory. Yildizlara is both innovative and ancestral; a release where turbulence becomes ritual, and where rhythmic complexity unearths fragments of hidden memory. Beneath its dark and erratic surfaces lies a strange familiarity, like echoes of a primal past resurfacing through sound, reminding us of worlds once known but long concealed. Words by A. Veyra

With Fuck, Marry, Kill, Tink delivers her most provocative and conceptually sharp body of work to date, firmly reclaiming her position as a premier storyteller in the modern R&B landscape. Moving beyond the diary-entry style of her earlier years, this project utilizes the titular game as a brutal yet honest framework for the complexities of modern intimacy. Tink navigates the chaos of the dating world with a dual-threat precision that few can match, seamlessly blending the grit of her Chicago rap roots with the velvet textures of contemporary soul. Under the executive production of Hitmaka, the album finds its heartbeat in the friction between high-gloss production and raw, unfiltered lyricism.

The album is meticulously structured to mirror the chaotic cycle of urban romance: the adrenaline of fleeting lust, the heavy stakes of long-term commitment, and the inevitable coldness of a bridge burned. In the "Fuck" segment, Tink radiates a lethal confidence, delivering anthems of autonomy and physical desire that demand space in the club and on the charts. As the project transitions into "Marry," she peels back the armor, offering a vulnerable look at the desire for stability and the terrifying leap of faith required to trust a partner. However, it is in the "Kill" section where Tink’s songwriting truly bites; here, she chronicles the aftermath of betrayal and the empowerment that comes from cutting ties, transforming her heartbreak into a weapon of self-preservation.

Ultimately, Fuck, Marry, Kill is a masterclass in "Toxic R&B" that refuses to settle for easy answers. Tink captures the specific anxiety of a generation trying to distinguish between a temporary thrill and a permanent soulmate, all while navigating a world of ghosting and digital infidelity. By leaning into her flaws and her triumphs with equal intensity, she creates a sonic space where listeners feel both seen and vindicated. This isn't just an album about love—it's a survival guide for the heart, narrated by an artist who has seen every side of the game and lived to write the definitive soundtrack for it.

Emily Wittbrodt's "Wearing Words" is a cycle of ten instrumentals and songs for harpsichord, cello, drums, clarinet, accordion and tenor. With precision, humor and grace, Wittbrodt translates a baroque sensibility into pop terrain, combining her fascination for language and poetry with her love for unusual instrumentation and classical forms.

Isa Gordon and Tony Morris were first brought together through their individual releases on Optimo Music, which established mutual respect within the label’s community. While they had not previously performed live together, they were invited to take part in a fundraiser hosted by Queen’s Park Arena in support of Glasgow NW Foodbank and later for JD Twitch’s end-of-life care. Tony asked Isa to contribute guitar and backing vocals to his set, including a track then called Last Night I Had a Dream. That performance became the seed for their collaboration.

The first phase of fleshing it out, recalls Tony: “Somebody said Isa sang like Shania Twain. That got me thinking about country music and call and response, prompting me to come up with alternative lyrics.” Isa remembers: “I cycled over to Tony’s house with my guitar, and we spoke about what the tune meant. It was about him being wrapped up in dreamland, luxuriating in his subconscious, while my character — impatient and trapped in her own routines — barely had time to remember her own dreams.” Tony continues: “Brilliantly I realised that I could never collaborate with anyone in situ and so I sat in the garden for two hours watching my wife tend to plants. Every now and again I would creep up the stairs and put my ear to the door. I could hear Isa warbling away and so would resume my garden watch. After two hours I went back upstairs to see how she was getting on, only to find that she had written one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard. I still think that.” Tony adds: “My overwhelming sentiment about Wake Up Baby is pride. I can honestly say that I’m more proud of it than anything else I have done. It ticks a whole load of boxes. Isa’s singing in various Scottish modes is unique. The way her electric guitar adorns the dance beat makes it a rock song as well as a dance and a C&W song — truly multi-genre.”

The B-side of the 12” release, Syringe Moustache, is a surreal, darkly playful counterpart to Wake Up Baby. The track was inspired by a dream Tony had: “I was in a shopping mall, in a two-level shoe shop, and my attention was taken by a little girl with a syringe taped beneath her nose like a moustache. She went about her business trying on shoes, confident and wise beyond her years. In the dream, I imagined her as the daughter of cultured, intelligent parents determined to raise her independently. I was struck by my own feelings of inadequacy — I knew I could never have coped with such a contraption myself.” Isa’s take on the meaning of this song somewhat differs: “Tony sent me the tune over Instagram months before I met him, and I was spooked — as far as I knew, he didn’t know anything about me, but the story felt like it was written about me as a little girl, growing up around heroin addiction. The syringe beneath the girl’s nose became a symbol of the inescapable constraints of that environment, literally written on her face, yet something you just have to carry on through. On a buzz from the serendipity, I added a full instrumental backing to this most bizarre of works.”

The result is absurd, unsettling, and strangely empowering, staking out its own surreal, cinematic space. The 12” dance single is a format Tony had long wanted to explore — a tangible artefact to leave for family, a medium that celebrates the physicality of sound and the ritual of listening. It allowed the artists to maximise the format’s potential: a strong, multi-genre A-side, a surreal B-side, and remixes that expanded the record’s sonic world. Glasgow music staples Auntie Flo and 100% Positive Feedback were invited to reinterpret the tracks, bringing their distinctive touch — Auntie Flo transforming the A-side into a luscious, dancefloor-ready meditation, and 100% Positive Feedback twisting Syringe Moustache into absurd, playful shapes with false-start drops and over-the-top vocal editing.

The cover photograph, taken at the University Café by Harrison Reid, captures Isa and Tony embodying the characters they brought to life in the songs — a visual reflection of the record’s narrative and emotional stakes. The Café also holds personal significance: it’s where all of Isa’s meetings with Keith McIvor took place, where she first remembers visiting Glasgow as a child, and a place Tony fondly likes to go to drip egg yolk down his tie and watch the world go by. Together, the 12” format, the remixes, and the artwork create a cohesive, tactile experience, amplifying the duality, theatricality, and emotional breadth of the collaboration.

Cyborg Quest encapsulates MODAZ 2024—its learning, its searching, and its becoming. It moves through cycles of connection and disconnection, yet above all, it is driven by music. This EP is deeply personal. It echoes the phrases that resonate with his daily life: “It’s happening again,” lifted from Twin Peaks; “Where you at?”; and even “Why the world isn’t the way I wanted?” Together they form a blend of symbolism, mystique, and raw reality.

Cymbals' landmark 1998 debut album That's Entertainment finally returns on vinyl.
This masterpiece blends Asako Toki's crystalline vocals with Reiji Okii's refined melodies, featuring signature tracks like “Show Business,” “Rain Song,”
and “RALLY.” A defining album for Japan's stylish pop scene, it effortlessly incorporates elements of 60s pop, neo-acoustic, and soul.
It stands as both Cymbals' origin and a crucial work in 90s J-POP.

Achievement presents a vinyl edition combining selected originals from Wigbert's Momentum album with remixes from the Momentum Remixes series. The A-side features reworks by Cirkle, Linear System, and Red Rooms. The B-side includes Wigbert's originals Synapse Impulse and Pattern Cycle, alongside Linear System's Deep Version of Supercell. The release highlights the core material of Momentum in both its original and reinterpreted forms.

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The loops cycle like bad habits. It is impossible to shake them off. It doesn't really matter if it costs a life. Being mean to survive as the loops cycle like bad habits.

VIER - IIII, a project by: Machinedrum x Thys x Holly x Salvador Breed.

Across its eleven tracks, 'IIII' dissolves borders between breakbeat, trap-meets-gabber, skippy UK shuffle, halftime, jungle and cinematic electronica, music that shifts from serious voltage to full-colour euphoria. What ties it together is philosophy, not genre.

The group's working method began playfully in the studio with a ten-minute egg timer: each member would sketch for ten minutes, then pass it on. That rule became a ritual, a way to keep things human, spontaneous and shared. In VIER, every track passes through four sets of hands; every decision is a test of trust. What could have been chaos instead became a flow state, a cycle of surrender and discovery thatdefines their sound.

Following singles such as Frankfurt, Control, Where Were You, Solitu and Vai Pulando, 'IIII' stands as VIER's first full statement, a body of work that feels both playful and deeply considered. Moments of quiet bloom into distorted joy; melody drifts through broken percussion; endings turn into new beginnings.

Seeking out the inspirational intersection between free improvisation, rave and ancient mysticism, Plants Heal deliver an album of kaleidoscopic, organic beatdowns to Quindi.
Plants Heal is a collaborative project between Dan Nicholls on synths, Dave De Rose on drums and Lou Zon (aka Louise Boer) on visuals. The roots of the project are entwined with Dan and Lou's London-based event Free Movements, which began in 2018 to explore how instrumental music could merge with live electronics and DJ sets. Dave and Dan found themselves playing together frequently at the event and as part of Dave's free improv project Agile Experiments, with their accomplished track records as multi-instrumentalists reaching across many layers of music culture. The particular synergy of their partnership taps into the subliminal, surreal and transcendental soundscapes, but they're reliably anchored by instinctive rhythms and driven by a natural flow-state.
From the tentative steps of their first collaborations, Dan and Dave coalesced Plants Heal as a more pronounced project with Lou's live visuals, culminating in a first self-released album in 2021 and since organically fed and watered through continued performances across adventurous festivals and intimate club spaces. Every incremental step along the path of the project yielded new surprises and the deepening sense of a unique, powerful energy. The trio opted to pour this energy into two days of studio sessions at Sonic Playground Studios in Athens, maintaining their unplanned approach and letting the music and visuals unfold in the moment. The end result is Forest Dwellers, a sincere document of truly free music that uses the rhythmic structure of dance and trance music as a springboard into heightened consciousness.
Throughout the album you can hear hints of the familiar - dub techno shimmers, trip hop boom-bap, kosmische momentum, snarling bass modulation, new age ambience and even the odd sizzle of disco. But none of these references are explicit, and they weave in and out of less placeable expressions deeply bedded into Dan and Dave's sonic practices. The end result is a swirling tapestry of unspooling groove, wide open and agile enough to shift gears mid-flow - just as comfortable letting the propulsion melt away as locking into a four-to-the-floor throwdown. From the slippery syncopation of 'Avena Moon' to the angular bait-and-switch of 'Alien Hardware', 'Yarrow's starry-eyed reverie and the rolling, warm-hearted funk of 'Space Ballad', the Plants Heal sound world is expansive and equally enthusiastic for immediate musical motifs as much as wild abstraction.
Lou's visual practice is an intrinsic part of the project. During performances she improvises with analogue footage from her library run through video mixers and synthesisers, focused on medicinal plants such as yarrow, hawthorn, nettle and thistle. All those plants feature in processed form on the cover of the record, which was designed in collaboration with Lou's brother Arthur Boer. Meanwhile, Lou recorded additional footage in Athens during the recording sessions to feed into the continued cycle of the project's live evolution.
Forest Dwellers' meaning honours this cycle and its reflection of the eternal undulations of the natural world. It's also a sincere tribute to the spiritual importance and radical potential of the dancefloor, drawn from the freedom taught by jazz and dedicated to reclaiming lost ideas about community, agency, bodies and the enduring allure of the unknown.

"The Land of the Sun, the Moon and Cosmic Melodies" is a conceptual Opera of III movements, inspired by a cosmogony that features the planets of the sun and the moon. These two characters guides us on a journey of light and shadow, rising and setting in a cycle of unexplored musical territories.
The Collective Move presents its debut album with a broad palette of sounds, ranging from jazz to opera, from southern Italian folk music to northern Indian classical music, orchestrating a 60-minute "sonic narration" that ends with the fable "What do the birds tell?".

The Collective Move is an international group of young musicians formed in the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2022. The Collective's vision is to unite diverse artistic expressions and musical genres, inviting diverse artists and musicians from diverse cultures and countries to collaborate in flexible and interdisciplinary formations.

Repetitive Rhythm Research presents: FW25/26 The sound of the season? Or a tongue-in-cheek reflection on fleeting trends? Techno has always moved in cycles--styles fade in and out of focus, but true character stands the test of time. As the genre enters its fourth decade, it's fascinating to see how experimentation sometimes becomes formula, and how fresh ideas can either break the mould or quietly slide into the mainstream. This new compilation on Repetitive Rhythm Research explores exactly that tension. 12 tracks by 12 artists--ranging from rising talents to established names--each bringing their own distinct approach. This isn't your typical 'cut from the same cloth' compilation. It's a diverse journey through contemporary techno with all its depth, quirks, and raw energy. From Marcel Dettmann's dark and spooky slow-burner This Is a Test, to Peder Mannerfelt's forward-thinking Alternate Current. Force Reaction dives into trippy terrain with Mysteries Unfolding, while Sanna Mun and Dynamic Forces channel classic Detroit vibrations. Section 6 (a well-known Dutch producer) and Sonic Propaganda (aka Earwax and Rosati) deliver peak-time power. UFO95 takes you on an epic trip with Apollo95, while Conrad Van Orton's Plaintive Drift operates in a lane of its own--fast-paced, hypnotic, and emotionally rich. And then there's the ever-consistent Jeroen Search, the fierce energy of Kerrie, and the unmistakable sonic fingerprint of Aleksi Per?l?--each contributing to this wide-ranging exploration of techno's current landscape. This Fall/Winter 25/26 release isn't just another techno compilation. It's a curated statement that embraces contrast, personality, and forward momentum. Pick your favorites. Revisit the outliers. Let the rhythms unfold.

Vibe Ride is the sixth release of Adam Rudolph's Hu Vibrational project and marks his 60th release as a leader or co-leader. Comes with insert and download code.

“With every record, the goal is to explore new creative territory,” explains Rudolph. Vibe Ride continues a deeper exploration of a trance-like groove and a conceptual framework known as Sonic Mandala. This album marks the most complete realization of that idea, partly due to the group's experience touring beforehand. That time on the road helped to refine ideas and strengthen musical chemistry. The recording process unfolded organically—likely due to the long-standing collaboration within ensembles like Go: Organic Orchestra and Moving Pictures, where the musicians have developed a deep familiarity with the shared musical language.

Sonic Mandala refers to a musical approach distinct from traditional linear structures of theme and development. Found in cultures across the globe, it may represent one of the oldest forms of musical expression—predating written history by tens of thousands of years. Today, it is most vividly preserved in the music of the Ituri Forest peoples (Aka, Baka, Ba Benzele, Mbuti), whose sound traditions revolve in cyclical, orbit-like patterns. Vibe Ride seeks to bring that ancient sense of circularity into a contemporary—and perhaps even futuristic—context.

The ensemble of Vibe Ride—Alexis Marcelo, Jerome Harris, Harris Eisenstadt, Neel Murgai, Tim Kieper, and Tripp Dudley—brings exceptional creativity and skill to the project. While grounded in the sonic languages of today, their performance channels an ancient vibrational lineage, connecting with ancestral sound makers who were attuned to the rhythms of the sun, moon, stars, and seasons. Human beings have always been deeply responsive to natural cycles.

Like a mandala, where the circle reveals itself as a spiral—always returning, but never to the exact same point—the Sonic Mandala musical experience spirals through motion. Refined signal patterns emerge through overtone-rich instrumentation. The groove becomes a threshold, shifting the listener from passive observation into active, even transcendent, participation. With open ears and an open mind, the sound spirals inward—toward a primal center—and outward into the cosmos. When this elevated state is shared among participants, it creates what mystics describe as resonance.

Vibe Ride thrives on the distinctive sonic voices of its players, interwoven with care and nuance into the compositions. Hu Vibrational merges elements of world music, electronica, and improvised jazz into something both funky and spiritual, intense and soothing.

Using signature techniques of organic orchestration, layered arrangement, and electronic processing, the compositions are sculpted from percussion, electronics, and ethereal textures. Rhythmic foundations drawn from diverse traditions serve not as endpoints, but as building blocks. As the saying goes, “Orchestration is the key.” In shaping the sound, the aim was to discover fresh ways of balancing structure and sonic color. As Don Cherry once said: “The swing is in the sound.”

The audiophile LP was carefully recorded, mixed, and mastered by James Dellatacoma—longtime engineer for both Bill Laswell and Rudolph—at Laswell’s Orange Studio.

“This crew artfully blends together to create a seamless tapestry of rhythm… the end results are mesmerizing. Hu Vibrational is all about communing with the groove spirits and creating worlds where earthy rhythms and other-worldly sounds are one.”
— Dan Bilawsky, All Music Guide

“You can be sure that when Adam Rudolph and an ensemble of breathtaking drummers get together mystical and wonderful things will happen.”
— Raul da Gama,

“A stunning effort, enjoyable and grows with repeated listening.”
— Stefan Wood, Freejazzcollective

10 years of KONFLKT - time to celebrate.

We started the label in 2015 as a home for our own productions and for tracks from artists and friends we appreciate. From the beginning, the goal was simple: to release music we'd want to hear ourselves on the dancefloor - the kind that makes us pull off strange, unrhythmic dance moves. In the same spirit, the fifth Sammelwerk compilation brings together familiar label artists and new contributors, all delivering tracks we'd be excited to rave to ourselves.

Listen Feel & Dance

2025 Repress

Sean McCabe’s impressive Good Vibrations Music is back with its 3rd vinyl instalment and features 4 heavyweight, tried and tested soulful cuts.

Kicking off the 12 Inch is the Black Sonix & Sean McCabe Extended Mix of ‘Rise’ from the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, a moving and heart-felt orphan choir group based in Liberia. The choir is an initiative that aims to provide education and break the cycle of poverty for vulnerable children around the world. With a strong message embedded throughout and given the 5-star production treatment, ‘Rise’ has already been heavily pushed by a wide array of artists including Daniel Steinberg, Red Rack’em and The Shapeshifters.

Next up is Sean’s lush piano-laden remix of ‘Baby Don’t Make Me Wait’, from David Bailey and MissFly. David is a firm favourite amongst the London house music community and regular across labels such as Idris Elba's 7wallace, Makin Moves, Rhemi Music & Unquantize. MissFly is widely renowned for her soulful serenades and ability to write songs 'on the fly' in the studio as well as being found regularly on tour with the likes of Thelma Houston, Andrew Tosh, and The Notorious BIG. Sprinkled with luscious piano undertones and subtle string lines. With support from the likes of Dave Lee and Natasha Diggs.

On the flip is ‘Got It Bad’ from Ellis Aaron & Sean McCabe. Built on a rocksolid foundation of late-night, swing-heavy beats, ‘Got It Bad’ bubbles and froths with creamy Rhodes, lush organ swirls and a bassline that moves and grooves in all the right places. Ellis’ warm and rich soulful vocals are the perfect complement to that unmistakeable sound Sean has become renowned for. Early adopters include Ash Lauryn, Ralf GUM, and Mr V.

Rounding off the EP is Last Nubian’s ‘Dance Together’ which beautifully blurs the lines quite beautiful between Deep House, House and Broken Beat, Josh’s strikingly soulful vocals pair harmoniously with the lush, musical backdrop spear-headed with an abundance of Rhodes, soothing string & synth riffs and a tight, rhythmic drum arrangement that simply refuses to let your feet rest!

For Martin Gretschmann, the ever-evolving Berlin artist known as both Acid Pauli and Console, music has always been a deeply personal journey.
His new imprint, All Is Acid, is the destination, a creative home for his uncompromising and experimental sound. Breaking from the cycle of trends, the label is a return to the essential, offering just a few curated releases a year. Each is intended as a timeless artifact for deep listening, primarily showcasing Acid Pauli's own intricate and intimate productions.
The label debuts with a newly remastered version of his classic 2010 EP "Den Mahlstrom rauf." But the release is given a powerful new dimension by a standout remix from Italian artist Adiel. Their collaboration was sparked by pure serendipity: a fan video of Acid Pauli playing her music in Milan reached Adiel, who responded with a short film for Vogue. In it, she revealed that "Den Mahlstrom rauf" was a formative influence and one of the very first records she ever bought.
Inviting her to remix the track that helped shape her sound was a full-circle moment, artistically and emotionally. Her bold, reverent reinterpretation honors the original's spirit while imprinting it with her own unique signature. With this release, All Is Acid launches not just with music, but with a story of connection, community and a shared artistic lineage

KR3.018 KR3 proudly welcomes Jin Synth & Marco Maldarella to its roster. To mark the conclusion of the label's fifth anniversary cycle, launched in September 2024, KR3 together with these two talented artists, presents "The Neural Abyss" a split EP that embodies both an ending and a new beginning through the theme of "Death/Rebirth".

This 4-track project, showcases the distinct yet complementary visions of Jin & Marco, each taking one side of the 12" vinyl. Together, their work invites listeners on a profound exploration of hypnotic, deep brainwave states. Let's celebrate the final chapter with this exciting collaboration! KR3 | 5YRS Down-Road

A vault of deep pressure unlocked - The Hidden Files collects a set of heavyweight VIPs from The Untouchables, each a reimagined version ofpast dread-infused cuts. Typically crafted for - and reserved within - theirown DJ sets, these alternate versions are now unearthed for wider transmission. Stripped back, rebuilt, and submerged in new layers of sub-weight, they explore a more introspective energy. Tension, restraint, and meditative pressure - the Brussels duo reveals hidden forms with signature finesse.

Having established a reputation as one of the most versatile and respected producers in the game - with over a decade at the forefront of UK bass music, spanning UKG, grime, bassline and drum & bass, Flava D needs no introduction. Now, with her debut drum & bass album Here & Now, she levels up once again, channelling years of dancefloor know-how into a project that's as weighty as it is emotionally dialled-in.

A self-proclaimed fan of Hospital Records from the age of 14 - the first drum & bass CD she ever bought being 'Hospital Mix Vol. 1' - Here & Now marks a particularly paramount milestone for the Bournemouth-born beatmaker. Across 15 tracks, Here & Now captures the breadth of Flava D's musicality, offering a bass-charged, genre-spanning statement that's rooted in experience but tuned into the present moment. With a star-studded bank of collaborators, including MPH, Anais, Unglued, SOLAH and more, the album highlights Flava D's curatorial ear and the strength of her network across the scene.

At its core, Here & Now is a meditation on presence - a fresh, fearless chapter from one of the UK's most consistently innovative producers. The album is equal parts masterful and functional, giving fans what they came for while revealing new layers of Flava D's ever-evolving sound. Through its stacked line-up of collaborators, Here & Now also connects voices who are helping shape the future of dance music, from the underground up.

Recursivity is a reflection on inspiration, derivations, cycles of life, environments, and the
consequence of time.
Written and produced by Maro Kariya
Artwork by Maro Kariya
Layout by Cookhouse Studio
Mastered & Cut by Tim Xavier at Manmade Mastering Berlin

Nicola Conte & Nico Lahs return with their eagerly awaited second EP, continuing the musical journey they began with their acclaimed 12” Macumba de Oxalȧ / La Danse de l’Esprit.
This new release confirms the creative synergy between two producers who speak the same musical language: a refined blend of spiritual jazz, Afro-American rhythms and electronic sensibility, designed for the most eclectic and sophisticated dancefloors. The Tema Due project is aimed at a refined club scene, attentive to the depth and purpose of sound. Once again, Conte and Lahs are turning the dance floor into a ritual space, where body and spirit move in harmony in a musical language that not only entertains but also elevates.


In this “EP2”, Nicola Conte and Nico Lahs collaborate for the first time with the talented young Brazilian percussionist Gabriel Prado and consolidate their long-standing partnership with pianist Pietro Lusso, who plays a fundamental role in shaping the musical identity of this work. Among the tracks, “Share Your Love” stands out in particular, interpreted by Brazilian singer Nina Miranda, who brings emotional depth to a track that talks about peace, sharing and love between peoples, and is enriched by the participation of Giovanni Guidi on Fender Rhodes and synths.
“EP2” precedes the release of Tema Due’s full-length album, which is currently taking shape – a work that promises to further consolidate the duo’s shared vision, expanding their conceptual and sonic scope. To crown this creative cycle, the album will also be followed by a third EP with additional unreleased tracks, symbolically closing a trilogy of sound and vision. A coherent, intense and uncompromising musical journey, where club culture meets spirituality and artistic exploration.

‘LE DON DES LARMES’, and was conceived and recorded during the artist's pregnancy — a time of deep transformation. It is a poetic offering to her newborn child, where the cycle of the seasons becomes a metaphor for birth, vulnerability, and renewal.

Her sound draws from the lullabies of her Kabyle childhood and the gentle melancholy of Algerian chaabi, carrying their echoes into a world entirely her own. LÉO LA NUIT is a Franco-Algerian writer and composer who weaves music as one might weave dreams — with tenderness, intuition, and a reverence for nature.

Through field recordings, intimate textures, and delicate pop melodies, LÉO LA NUIT invites us into her inner landscape. Her music breathes closely to the skin — fragile yet luminous — a collage of fleeting moments, stitched together with care. It is a world both grounded and dreamlike, where emotion flows freely, like tears given as a gift

Germany's Invexis comes back to the Manchester-based Scrap & Delete label with the 'Morphium' EP, arriving 19th September 2025. The four tracks follow up his remix for label founder Dorbachov's 'Ellesmere Street' EP earlier in 2025, which won support from Luke Slater, Jako Jako, Dave Clarke, and more. Title track 'Morphium' opens the EP in unexpected territory: an emotive, melodic crossover track that retains Invexis' mechanical backbone while reaching for something more transcendent.

With soaring synth layers and expertly balanced weight, it's a rare euphoric moment in his catalogue; one destined to erupt across festival tents. 'Nordic Noise' pulls things back into colder, rawer terrain, a frostbitten slab of functional minimalism with raw textures, fizzing hi-hats, and relentless groove cycles. 'Instinct' channels classic loop techno through a modern lens, driven by restless percussion and syncopated punch. Finally, 'RS' pays tribute to late-'90s groove science with complex, kinetic motion and heads-down intensity, reimagined for a new generation of warehouse punters.