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2024 Repress

A year on from the first release, Cleric returns for the 3rd edition on Clergy.

Beyonce's sixth album Lemonade (when life serves you lemons, make lemonade) is an album that follows a clear story, the discovery of your partner cheating, the anger which is followed by her leaving him, reconciling, and ending with the beginning of a fresh start together. The music has a very Southern Blues feel to it overall (harking back to Beyonce's childhood and the roots of her parents), but also has a couple of the Beyonce-standard piano lead slower numbers, and a few feisty hip-hop leaning grooves that are a bit similar to the BEYONCE era tracks. Telling such a painful and personal story through the songs gives Beyonce's vocals amazing depth and power, from her vulnerability in Pray You Catch Me, the anger in Don't Hurt Yourself, defiance in Sorry, the sadness behind Sandcastles, acceptance in Freedom, to the hope tinged delivery of All Night - Lemonade delivers it all.

The hour-long film is composed of the music videos for every song strung together to form the visual story of the potential destruction of a relationship, the journey of emotions and self-discovery the wronged party goes through, and finding forgiveness. Beyonce did the 'visual' concept for the deluxe edition of B'Day and for BEYONCE, but Lemonade is heads and shoulders above them - the videos here aren't about Beyonce looking pretty, rather adding to the emotive tale of the songs.

- 12 TRACKS
- HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL
- FULL COLOR LABELS + PICTURE SLEEVE

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band's name is derived for the dazzling new album Doko Mien. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on Doko Mien, the followup to their Merge debut Uyai.
In a glowing piece in the New York Times, those songs were praised for following 'in the tradition of much African music, [making] themselves the conscience of a community.' By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams' lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents.

Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk. The London octet have enveloped themselves in that maximalist quilt proudly since their 2013 formation. Though it can often bring with it news of stress and uncertainty, the modern world further brings all these disparate traditions into connection.
'Everyone has everything now,' says multi-instrumentalist Max Grunhard. 'Everyone has immediate access to every genre, picking things up from everywhere—like magpies.' And while they haven't suddenly left their African roots behind, Doko Mien does find increased representation of English lyrics in the ratio. By sharing more directly with more universal lyrics, the record feels more anthemic, reaching for grander heights.
'We wanted to give people a reason to sing along, to find their soundtrack every day,' Williams says. 'We wanted everyone to feel as if they're part of the music as well.'

Late album highlight 'Guess We Found a Way' addresses the change with a coy smile. 'Guess we found a way to speak to you/ Guess we found a way to say what's true/ To say what's real,' Williams coos over glistening chains of reverberant synth and diamond dust percussion, before returning to Ibibio in the chorus. Perhaps the best example of the group's ability to convey meaning across language and tradition, to blend past and future into a singular present comes on 'She Work Very Hard'. The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette's drums and Derrick McIntyre's bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won't be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'

Doko Mien: Tell me everything. On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

A thrilling 9-song set, Murmurations is as perfectly pitched for headphones as it is for clubs, named after giant cloud formations of starlings and themed around the stunning emergent behaviors that appear within them. To mirror these movements in the sonic landscape and visuals of Murmurations, SMD's James Ford and Jas Shaw collaborated with the celebrated Hackney-based vocal collective The Deep Throat Choir, as well as creative directors Kazim Rashid of ENDLESSLOVESHOW (Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawk) and Carri Munden.

Finding time in between Ford's work as a producer and Jas' club gigging last year, the duo arranged a session in Shaw's countryside studio. Via an introduction from a friend of Ford's wife, The Deep Throat Choir's director Luisa Gerstein and SMD began swapping some production and melodic ideas. They decided to bring the whole East London-based choir into the studio to experiment, and the results were intense. Jas says, 'Listening to them moving their voices around a tone, altering the timbre, making chords, was like working with an incredible new synthesiser.' Rashid and Munden explore related ideas centered on kinetic energy and communal movement throughout the visuals of Murmurations. Rashid says of the collaboration, 'We were both having discussions around the purity of collective human experience and how transcendental this can be. Techno and the dance-floor is one of the last true expressions of this euphoria.'

From the beat-less introduction 'Boids' onwards you can hear uncanny patterns and sounds rising up from the sea of voices -- not traditional chords or harmonies, but complex interference patterns that play tricks on the mind and merge perfectly with SMD's distinctive synth tonalities and instinctive dancefloor nous. At times you might hear hints of Bulgarian choral music, or Cocteau Twins, or avant-garde composers like Iannis Xenakis or Pauline Oliveiros - but really, thanks to the creative freedom of SMD's working methods, it is a sound completely of its own, something all too rare in an age of retro and reference.

Ford and Shaw still have the same love of pure sound, human harmonies and electronic possibilities that they did when they first met at university, and it's clear that their career path has allowed them to nurture this love and express it as vividly as ever before.

SAPIENS TALKS - JACQUES Jacques is like no other. A cult artist already. Loved or hated. Jacques divides. Who better to follow the exciting and passionate Emmanuelle Duez for this new volume of the Sapiens Talks This initiative of a label usually familiar to dancefloors who promised to break the carcans of the traditional music label. Asking questions about the world around us. Give a voice to actors in civil and cultural life. Speak to another audience. A slowdown in the frenzy of everyday life, which favours thoughts, the Talks Sapiens are rare moments. Available on vinyl in a limited edition of 500ex. Discover Jacques an odd personnality. Spontaneity, inspiration, sharpness, equanimity and digressions are all part of the Sapiens Talks 2!

Lowercase Life returns with more melancholia out of machines made in the past. Detroit and 90's UK vibes brought to present time in three originals and a killer electro remix by Orson Wells (777 Recordings). Limited vinyl with hand made iris printed silkscreen covers.

Composer, improviser, and Buchla Music Easel master Charles Cohen returns to Morphine with a suite of new material.
In keeping with the timbre spectrum of his semi-modular system, Brother I Prove You Wrong is built around pointillist analog tones—Cohen's cosmic "beeps and boops"—that swarm and scatter in mesmeric patterns across four sides. Moving through surrealistic textural overlays and industrial miasma, the album's nine tracks reveal a more introspective and personal side of the artist, following from a retrospective LP trilogy released via Morphine in 2013. Those assembled works, dating back to the late '70s, quickly became essential listening and brought Cohen—at the time largely unknown outside Philadelphia's experimental circuit—to critical renown.

Brother I Prove You Wrong was recorded in Berlin in September 2014 using the Buchla Music Easel, with production help and support from Rabih Beaini. Mastered by Neel and curated and designed by Tank Boys; cover art by Nathalie du Pasquier.

New pressing on black vinyl (500 units). Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue their debut album ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’as a standalone release. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. “When we are talking about psych folk or acid folk, we are really talking about music like this by Trees” Stuart Maconie, BBC6 Music. Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs. The record includes readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’, the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’. // “The music’s arcane power remains intact” Mojo. // “A fantastic band” Record Collector. // “Spectacular” Uncut. // “Sublime” Shindig. // Timeless” Prog. // “It’s these two original albums that stand as pinnacles of form” The Wire. // Track listing: A1. Nothing Special A2. The Great Silkie A3. The Garden of Jane Delawney A4. Lady Margaret B1. Glasgerion B2. She Moved Thro' The Fair B3. Road B4. Epitaph B5. Snail's Lament

'The Roundhouse Tapes' contains a captivating Opeth performance from
the Camden Roundhouse, London, UK, on November 9th, 2006 (a gig
which also featured Goth metal legends Paradise Lost), & sees mainman
Mikael Akerfeldt & co in scintillating form, churning out a selection of
classics from their illustrious career to date
Since their formation in 1990 in Sweden, Opeth has risen to the forefront of the
metal world over the years; bringing many aspects of progressive rock/metal to a
whole new audience by combining soft acoustic ambience with complex, melodic
& heavy guitar often familiar to forms of death/black metal, perfectly concocted
into a completely peerless sound. A constant factor of their success is that the
band have never been afraid to experiment with their song- writing, taking us
through some truly magical & hypnotic soundscapes from blackened death/prog
debut opus, 'Orchid' back in 1995, through to the highly accomplished prog/rock
outfit witnessed in recent years

LA underground hubs DISCOS XXX aka DX3 and Elbow Grease join forces to proudly present Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 — featuring 20 distinct artists from the inspired local dance music scene, working under one unified studio roof in various collaborative
formation at the mighty Los Feliz hilltop palace Point Winona, overseeing the city they collectively represent. These timeless warehouse-wrecking tracks all stand on their own, but the compilation as a whole offers a solid geographic sonic statement with shared rhythmic DNA and bold rooted-futurist production blueprints, guided by the champion efforts of studio executive producers/curators Tavish DJ and Dave Aju.
The BPS stage-setting opener evokes crispy A.M. hours with lush Detroit-meets-Cali feels on “Within Reason” — then studio dream team 5 ATMs bring the dubwise floor vibes up a notch on “A Dub Called Mondo” and Chitown-to-LA legend Scott K lays down an FM bass-laced acid house heater with “Tighter & Tighter”. Nashville-born producer Gryph funks things up on the live space boogie bump of “Winona at Sunset” while SSRI, comprised of Underground Resistance’s DJ Dex/Nomadico, Aju, and Black Lodge’s fearless leader Kosmik, drop fierce robo-Italo bliss on “Omnicallora”. Things take a further psychedelic twist with the PW edit of Scotty Coats’ sublime midtempo tripper “Be Work Zone Alert”, then Omakase’s own Gold Code alongside longtime rave brother Aju drop the nasty J Saul-salute “Yolo Jungle”, and Warehouse Preservation Society aka Tavish DJ & TK fully detonate floors inna raucous Wicked Crew stylee with “Data Bliss”. Undisputed LA scene queen Stacy Christine arrives with her shining debut “Smart Move”, where she and Aju trade sly vox lines of party advice over a bouncing tech banger for the ages, before the “Obsesion Romantica (Free Winona Dub)” sees Sisters Of Sound aka Maddy Maia and Tottie's, OG track getting stripped back and fired up to acidic peak time form. Then Dave Aju and SF homies Moniker aka EO & Kenneth Scott unleash wild uptempo melodic bruk heaven on “Chuy Luis”, and Vastir sends us home with the stratospheric drum n bass closer "Turnpike"

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Enlace Funk magazine, they present the world's first Flamenco-Jazz compilation, featuring 16 tracks from between 1978 to 2025, released on vinyl for the first time. A musical dialogue between Flamenco and Jazz, unique in the world, a journey through some of the most important artists of this style, starting with the seminal work of the group Dolores in 1978, and continuing to examples of the current sound of this exciting fusion. Includes tracks never before released on vinyl by artists such as Jorge Pardo, Chano Dominguez, Pedro Ojesto, and Marc Miralta. The first volume of Flamenco-Jazz aims to showcase this unique style that has proven to be a bridge of communication and dialogue between flamenco and jazz musicians, creating an inimitable sound that is constantly evolving and transcending barriers. We take as our starting point a 1978 recording by Dolores, featuring Paco de Lucía, which later led to the formation of her legendary sextet with musicians who had participated in this recording. Of course, this first volume wouldn't be complete without other masters like Josemi Carmona, Pedro Ojesto, and Marc Miralta. And of course, a new generation of names that have elevated the genre to its current status, such as flautists Trinidad Jiménez and Sergio De Lope, Juanfe Pérez and Juan Pérez Rodríguez from Huelva, Pablo Martín Caminero from Vitoria, and Miquel Alvarez from Valencia. Not forgetting innovators like Antonio Lizana and Enriquito, who are crossing borders and sharing their unique style. Ltd ed.classic black vinyl double LP in gatefold sleeve

With »News from Planet Zombie«, The Notwist return to view after years of exploration and experiment with an album rich in both melancholy and positivity, sketched across a suite of thrilling, fiercely committed pop songs. It’s an album reflecting a chaotic world, but responding with warmth and generosity, to achieve creative and spiritual consolidation. Recorded in their home base of Munich, it reconnects with the security of the local to explore the troubles of the global: a guiding impulse writ large across this album’s eleven songs. It’s also the first studio album since 1995’s »12« that the entire band recorded together in the studio in its expanded live formation.

A new album by The Notwist is always a curious endeavour; their musical language is as consistent and resilient as the contexts for creativity are unpredictable and ever shifting. For »News from Planet Zombie«, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck embraced the plural possibilities of writing together, bringing songs to the collective and then arranging, rehearsing and recording that material live, in the studio.

The result is an album that’s energised, fully in ›the now‹, with spectacular moments where you can hear the magic bubbling up in the dynamic between the Achers, Beck, and fellow members Theresa Loibl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth, and Andi Haberl. If »Teeth« begins »News from Planet Zombie« quietly and reflectively, by »X-Ray« everyone’s supercharged, blasting out future anthems with the collective energy cranked up high. The chiming keys of »Propeller« skim the instrumental’s surface like stones across burbling water; »The Turning« clangs its way into one of the album’s most heartwarming melodies.

»News from Planet Zombie« was recorded over one week at Import Export, a non-profit space for arts and music. You can tell, too; there are some pleasingly rough edges here, as though The Notwist’s striving for hazy perfection means they’re also confident enough to let the songs breathe and mutate between our ears. That openness to chance also takes in guest turns from friends both local and international, reflective of a cosmopolitan Munich: Enid Valu joins in on vocals, while Haruka Yoshizawa guests on taishōgoto and harmonium, Tianping Christoph Xiao on clarinet, and Mathias Götz on trombone.

The Notwist aren’t best known for cover versions, but »News from Planet Zombie« features two: a gorgeous version of Neil Young’s »Red Sun« (from 2000’s »Silver & Gold«), which the group originally developed for a theatre play directed by Jette Steckel, and a take on Athens, Georgia folk-pop gang Lovers’ »How the Story Ends«. They slot into the album’s narrative perfectly, nestling in like old friends, revealing The Notwist as poetic interpreters. Played well, the cover version is both acknowledgement of fellow travellers and act of generosity, and The Notwist nail both aspects here.

And that narrative, the way the album plays out? »News from Planet Zombie« acknowledges the distress of our current geopolitical impasse, while reminding us there are collective ways forward. Fed through the figure of the zombie, Markus Acher explores our anxieties: »In the title and some lyrics I reference B- and horror-movies, which is a reference to the crazy world at the moment, which seems to be like a really bad and unrealistic B-movie.« But there’s a reminder here not to lose the thread entirely, that these things, too, will pass.

»The river here in Munich I often go to has been there forever and will be there long after us,« Acher reflects, pinpointing an important source of succour for him, »always the same but always changing. Very calming, but also always reminding me that like this river time only flows into one direction and you can’t go back. Every moment is very precious.«

Artwork by Marie Vermont

The Notwist:
Markus Acher: vocals, guitar
Micha Acher: bass, sousaphone, euphonium, trumpet
Cico Beck: electronics, keyboards, guitar, recorder, percussion
Theresa Loibl: bassclarinet, clarinet, piano, harmonium, organ
Max Punktezahl: guitar
Karl Ivar Refseth: marimbaphone, vibraphone, glockenspiel, congas, percussion
Andi Haberl: drums, dulcimer
+
Enid Valu: vocals on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
Haruka Yoshizawa: taishōgoto on 6, harmonium on 9, 10, 11
Tianping Christoph Xiao: clarinet on 4, 10, 11
Mathias Götz: trombone on 4, 10, 11

Daniele Baldelli
"A pleasant surprise to find in this release various atmospheres and sounds that have always been part of my DJing. It even made me rediscover M’Bamina, whom I used to play back in 1974 at the Tabù Club in Cattolica.
There are afro vibes as well, with Black Line – Myele, which is featured on one of my Cosmic tapes, and Nowhere by the Stratosferic Band recalls a track I used to play at the Baia degli Angeli…
Excellent work!"

Voom Voom Music was an independent Italian record label based in Turin, founded and managed by record producer Ivo Lunardi (Turin, December 6, 1940 – December 9, 2010). A pivotal figure in the Piedmont music scene, Lunardi was active both as a DJ and as the owner of several disco clubs.

The label operated for several years in the latter half of the 1970s, releasing mainly productions connected to the Italian dance and pop scene.
Since 2016, the original master tapes from the Voom Voom Music catalog have been owned by Gianluca Pandullo (I-Robots), a close friend of Ivo and Luca Lunardi. Through his labels Opilec Music and Turin Dancefloor Express, Pandullo oversees their preservation and historical enhancement.

The artistic direction of Voom Voom Music was marked by a distinct sonic identity — eclectic yet visionary. The Turin-based label founded by Ivo Lunardi embraced a sound that blended disco, pop, and rock influences, interwoven with African American grooves in a pioneering, international perspective.

Voom Voom Music was among the first Italian labels to introduce this kind of musical language in the country. A prime example is the Italian edition of the debut album by B.T. Express, Do It ('Til You're Satisfied), released in LP, 8-Track Cartridge, cassette, and 7" single formats.
The label’s productions clearly reflected the influence of black and funk music, as evidenced by the references and inspirations running through its catalogue. The track “Lady Pick-Up”, for instance, includes direct nods to “Do It Good” by KC & The Sunshine Band and Manu Dibango’s iconic “Soul Makossa”, revealing a musically refined and contemporary sensibility.

Among the label’s most representative works is Splash (1977) by the Stratosferic Band, a project conceived by Luigi Venegoni — producer, songwriter, and guitarist of Arti e Mestieri. Venegoni’s artistic journey spanned from progressive rock to space and Italo disco. The album artwork was designed by Piero D’Amore (1944 - 2022), a charismatic and multifaceted figure of Turin’s art scene (one of his works was even acquired by the MoMA in New York).
The record includes a disco reinterpretation of Van Morrison’s classic “Gloria”, and “Splashdown”, a track fusing the disco-rock energy of Rockets and Space. In contrast, “Nowhere” revisits the 1975 single by Hokis Pokis, a soul/disco band from Nassau County (New York), transforming it into a vibrant disco-funk number.

Another significant expression of the label’s catalogue is the afro-rock sound of M’Bamina, an Italo-Congolese group whose rhythmic energy and dialogue between African percussion and Western funk evoke the style of international formations such as Osibisa — themselves linked to a rich artistic history in Italy.

In an engrossing lattice of polyrhythmic beat science and deep atmospheric meditation, Samurai Music is thrilled to welcome Marco Shuttle to the fold for the Sumud EP.

Since his early years locked into the 00s London techno scene, Marco Sartorelli has developed as an artist entirely on his own terms. Through the rush of new ideas and cross-pollination that has characterised cutting-edge techno over the past 20-odd years, Sartorelli has travelled as Marco Shuttle from one considered stylistic concept to the next. On his own Eerie label and across expansive releases for respected outposts such as Spazio Disponibile, Incensio and Astral Industries, he's taken an exploratory approach to rhythm and spatial design while always drawing on intentional thematic frameworks, creating distinctive and immersive dance music in the process.

As Samurai Music continues to celebrate the rich seams of inspiration where deep techno and drum & bass intersect, Sartorelli's malleable, mysterious strain of drum work fits right in and sets a captivating tone for the label's operations in 2026. 'Sumud' is a steely drum mantra dealing in fractured patterns with the primal patina of the early Artificial Intelligence era, while 'Las Dunas de Taroa' leans on gently pulsing melancholia undulating at a half-time pace. 'Iso 50' taps into raw, analogue minimalism once more, evoking the sound of Roman Flugel's Ro70 records in their icy, alien formation. Completing the set, we're guided towards the tense electronica of 'Polylayering What I've Got', where uneasy melodic chimes interlock with intricately programmed drum machines.

There's a distinct sense of golden-era, mid-90s electronica coursing through Sumud EP, but Sartorelli shrouds the classic tools at his disposal in his subtle signature atmospherics, pushing towards a plain of expression that transcends time.

(Remix by Komakino) (2025 Replika)
Ein monumentales Stück deutscher Rave-Kultur kehrt zurück: Mehr als dreißig Jahre nach der Erstveröffentlichung erscheint Joachim Witts „Goldener Raver“ im legendären Komakino Remix als originalgetreue 12“-Vinyl-Replika.
Als der Song 1995 erschien, markierte er die spektakuläre Transformation eines der profiliertesten deutschen Künstler in die Welt des Techno und Trance. Die Frankfurter Formation Komakino verlieh dem Track eine hypnotische Energie, die ihn sofort in die Playlists der großen Clubs katapultierte. Seit Jahren vergriffen und auf dem Zweitmarkt heiß begehrt, schließt diese Neuauflage eine schmerzhafte Lücke in jeder gut sortierten Vinyl-Sammlung. Gepresst auf schwerem schwarzem Vinyl (45rpm) und verpackt in der klassischen Disco-Bag mit Loch und Sticker, atmet dieses Release den Vibe der Neunziger aus jeder Rille.

Cititrax release Sand Clock, the new full-length album by Men With Secrets, the Italian trio of Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono (Retina.it). Originally emerging from a shared background in experimental techno under the name Le Officine Di Efesto, the three musicians turned toward classic post-punk, minimal wave, and synth-driven pop with the formation of Men With Secrets. Their debut album Psycho Romance (2020), released on Bunker Records, introduced a meticulously produced body of work that felt like a rediscovered European darkwave recording from the early 1980s—yet was entirely contemporary in its construction.

With Sand Clock, the trio deepen this language. The album leans more directly into the melodic clarity and romantic tension of late-80s and early-90s darkwave and synthpop while maintaining the stark restraint that defines the project. Icy synthesizers, shuddering basslines, and precise drum machine programming frame baritone vocals that are intimate, emotionally exposed, and quietly apocalyptic.

Balancing pop structure with gothic atmosphere, Sand Clock moves between shadowed dance floor momentum and solitary headphone introspection. It is not an exercise in revivalism, but a continuation—an acknowledgment that the emotional architecture of that era remains unresolved and still relevant. Written and produced by Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono and recorded in Rome and Pompeii.

The vinyl edition is pressed on clear 160-gram vinyl, limited to 500 copies worldwide. Each record is housed in a heavy printed jacket with a printed inner sleeve.

Inspiriert von Vorbildern wie Earth, Wind & Fire, The Bar-Kays und Kool & the Gang erwarb sich die 1975 in Mississippi gegründete Formation Freedom im gesamten Süden einen Ruf als kraftvolle Live-Funk-Band. Die Debütsingle "Can't You See/Sunshine" (1977) klang unglaublich souverän, ausgefeilt, pulsierend und voller Potenzial. "Can't You See" mit seinem modernen Soul-Boogie-Sound und "Sunshine" mit knackigen Bläsern, treibenden Rhythmus und ausgelassener Energie. Tolle Reissue auf Miles Away mit türkisgrünen Labels und originalgetreuem Fotocover.

Editions Mego welcomes KMRU back to the fold. Kin is Kenyan born, Berlin based, sonic wizard Joseph Kamaru’s second release on Editions Mego, following on from the classic 2020 release Peel. Since the release and subsequent praise for Peel, the artist has been a staple on the electronic scene performing on numerous stages and festivals worldwide in tandem with a flood of media recognition. Kin could be construed as the second child following Peel. The project came out of initial discussions with Peter Rehberg about what a Peel sequel would sound like. Kamaru is quick to clarify that Kin is not that record; “I'll know when that record will come and when I'll make it. It's already happening... or maybe it lives within both of these Mego records”.

It is this deft ambiguity and vague tiptoeing around the concrete that encapsulates the ambiguous sound world of Kamaru’s vision.

Kin was started early 2021 in Nairobi with Kamaru exploring his noisier palette of sounds encompassing distortions reminiscent of the sounds he would muster from in his youth when playing guitar. He paused making this record for a year as soon as Peter died, then slowly returned to it through 2022 resulting in the immense new work we have here.

The charms within Kin lay as Easter eggs revealing the true identity behind the colourful sonics only after multiple deep listens. With Trees Where We Can See sets the tone by way of a warm swaying melody inviting the listener in for further investigation. In 2022 KMRU and Mego stalwart Fennesz toured the USA together resulting in a strong friendship and also, the second track here, Blurred. A neat Mego/Editions Mego loop as such. Blurred arranges twangy guitar strums alongside glistening glaciers of shimmering drones. They Are Here represents a darker hue as melancholic clouds of shadowy noir tap directly into the listener's nerve stream. Maybe takes a detour into a bristling euphoric electronic storm whilst We Are screeches in a pattern formation not unlike a highly abstracted Aphex Twin forcing its way out of a hard drive. By Absence concludes proceedings, operating as both exit music and a portal to further sonic investigation with acoustic bellowing residing amongst a kaleidoscopic backdrop.

Kin is a trip that rewards close repeated listens as all the colours and textures, nuance and narratives unveil themselves. This isn’t a record to be glossed over, magic rewards concentration.

Kin is a record to be Played slow and LOUD.

For Pita.

All tracks written, produced, mixed by Joseph Kamaru
Blurred co-written & produced with Christian Fennesz
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering
Photography: Joseph Kamaru
Layout & Design: Nik Void
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin

Mit "We Were Made For These Times" feiern die Klezmatics ihr 40-jähriges Bandjubiläum - und veröffentlichen zugleich ein Album, das die Gegenwart direkt anspricht.

Die Grammy-ausgezeichnete Formation verbindet seit vier Jahrzehnten jiddische Musiktradition mit politischem Bewusstsein, kultureller Verantwortung und einem unverwechselbaren Klang, der Klezmer mit Punk-Energie, Jazz-Improvisation, Gospel und globalen Rhythmen verschmilzt. Das neue Album versteht Klezmer nicht als nostalgisches Archiv, sondern als lebendige Ausdrucksform, die Kraft, Verbundenheit und Widerstandsfähigkeit stiftet. In Zeiten gesellschaftlicher Spannungen, globaler Migrationsbewegungen und öffentlicher Debatten über Zugehörigkeit richten die Klezmatics ihren Blick auf die historische Aufgabe jüdischer Musik: Menschlichkeit einfordern, Gemeinschaft stärken und Hoffnung formulieren. Die Songs reichen von Protest- und Arbeiterliedern bis zu spirituellen Stücken und feiern gleichzeitig Lebensfreude, Glauben und kulturelles Gedächtnis. Texte von Woody Guthrie, Holly Near, Dovid Edelstadt oder Chaim Zhitlovsky treffen auf neue Interpretationen und internationale Gäste - darunter Sofía Rei, Janis Siegel, Joshua Nelson, La Manga, William Parker, James Brandon Lewis und Enver Izmaylov. Im Zentrum steht der Titelsong, inspiriert von Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés" Botschaft: Wir sind für diese Zeiten gemacht. Das Album bekräftigt, wofür die Klezmatics seit 40 Jahren stehen: Musik als Werkzeug für Mut, Würde und gemeinschaftliche Zukunft.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left.

So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left.

So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

2025 Repress

Quickly following March’s The Fool - our label debut - Sa Pa reveals his new album Ambeesh on Short Span.

Coming five years after In A Landscape, and nearly a decade since his debut Fuubutsushi, Ambeesh pulls together a previously hidden body of work.

Written between 2014-2019 and long held in reserve awaiting the right moment for release, the album has often been grouped conceptually as a follow up to his FORUM debut. There’s a strong through line connecting the unique language and liveliness of ambient, layered field recordings, and dub techno found in those earlier records, as well as the seamless skydive through pressure formations found in the Enter Sa Pa production mix, which hinted at several of these tracks.

These pieces have taken time to surface and fully catch the light, but there’s still little else that compares. It’s a cache of some of his deepest and most texturally thrilling music, some of which have been rattling around in our ears and minds and conversation for years and have now found the right home and time. Forward thinking and singular in its combination of atmosphere; Ambeesh can press on the body at the right volume, and moves in thrust and riposte with the listener’s circadian rhythms. Sa Pa continues to dissolve the border between club-informed experimentation and intimate headphone listening.

Ambeesh also marks the artist’s return to Australia and the beginning of a new phase.

Mastered by Miles. Digital release of Lexanconical mastered by CGB @ Dubplates & Mastering.

Art from The Designers Republic.

In a year which marks the 40th anniversary since the initial formation - under the moniker of Black Death - of what would subsequently grow into influential genre legends, 2026 marks the return of the imperishable Norwegian duo of Fenriz & Nocturno Culto for their new opus of high calibre old metal, under the banner of ‘Pre-Historic Metal’. As Fenriz himself proclaims of the title’s symbolic origin, “Prehistoric is a loose term. I just figure it’s our VIBE, our take on things & it’s more a statement that we use old style to create something new”.

‘Pre-Historic Metal’ contains eight tracks of primal epics & gargantuan riffs with organic sound & the ever-present permeating spirit of the 70’s & 80’s, for a new continuation of the mastery witnessed on 2024’s ‘It Beckons Us All’. This next chapter in Darkthrone’s extensive & ongoing catalogue presents a vast odyssey through the sonic landscapes of Thrash, Black, Heavy & Doom Metal &, adorned with a punishing & “in your face” guitar presence, Darkthrone stirs the cauldron of savage creativity with a nod to the writing methods which were indicative of their earlier works of the late 80’s, but with a more refined craft.

'Pre-Historic Metal' was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios, Oslo, with production work conducted by Ole Øvstedal, Silje Høgevold & Mads Luis. Mastering was carried out by Jack Control at Enormous Door, & Maor Appelbaum Mastering.

This edition of 'Pre-Historic Metal' is presented on black vinyl.

Once again Trunk Records comes through with an album of sublime 1980s new age synthwave
music from an artist and library company you have never heard of.

With most Trunk LPs we write the story about how Jonny came across the music. And yes, this LP is no different...over to Jonny…

“My first encounter with Peter Patzer was when I was writing and researching the updated and fully expanded version of The Music Library Book, published by Fuel. The initial book - called The Music Library, was the first ever overview of library music and the wild, unpredictable graphic art of their sleeves. It was first published in 2005 and featured about 400 sleeves and about 120 library companies over 200+ pages. The book was based on over a decade of intense library LP collecting by myself and a handful of other geeky weirdos and made for fascinating and revealing reading and looking. It was a great education for many entering this odd, hidden musical world for the first time. The book quickly sold out.

A few years later the price of the original book had gone bananas. But the geeky weirdos like me had all carried on voraciously consuming and collecting library music so I strongly felt the first book could easily be doubled in size with new info, new sleeves and many newly discovered lost library companies. Which is exactly what I set about doing. The Music Library expanded edition came out in 2015. You have to realise here that The Music Library book was very much a first - until its unexpected arrival (and even the arrival of the much larger expanded edition) there was no published survey, accessible catalogue or anything about international library music. It was still an odd old world shrouded in some historical mystery - even the internet had not really caught up. And I was still finding unusual British one-off library LPs, more unusual Italian library diversions, hidden French funky things and then I finally found Peter Patzer. From Germany.

Hidden away in a very obscure music library corner. All on his own.Peter was unusual in that he was an artist and musician who made his own music and issued it all on his own library, called Crea Music, based out of Bremen in North Germany. Over a series of eight whitevinyl LPs produced in the 1980s Peter Patzer created synth heavy experiments for possible use in film, TV, video and anything else coming along. All his LPs had the same simple red, white and blue sleeve and a typed name and number. Across the eight LPs Peter goes to musical space, creates post-disco funk,travels to Vegas, goes all geological and more.

The eight Peter Patzer / Crea Music LPs are as follows:

01 - Puddy’s Bus 02 - Straight Line 03 - Pos-Attractions 04 - Patterns 05 - Canyons 06 - MIls Maniac 07 - Classic Themes 08 - Formation 17

This is a compilation of some of the music featured across those eight LPs, and yes, it was initially
licensed a few years ago but I held it back as I wasn’t sure people were quite ready for the plugged-inway out drifting 1980s electro sound of Peter Patzer with his synth washes, rhythms and chords. Or maybe I wasn’t ready. Anyway it’s here now... and if this sells out there could be another Peter Patzer LPbut with all his longer 7 minute compositions which there wasn’t room for here.

Vita Noctis is a curious Belgian formation that, in a more experimental vein, recorded two cassette tapes featuring a dark and distorted sound blending industrial with minimal, darkwave, and synthpop. Active during the 1980s, they remained inactive for many years until Dark Entries Records revived their work in 2011, releasing recordings created between 1984 and 1986. This encouraged Kris and Martine, the current members of the band, to continue the legacy of Vita Noctis by creating new music.

This EP is a selection of tracks created by Vita Noctis from the 2000s onwards. It includes songs that have never been released before, such as “Betrail,” an extended version of the song “Engaged,” along with other tracks that will appear on vinyl for the first time, marking the first release of Casual Strippers Rubicon Records. Also the EP comes with an insert featuring an image of Vita Noctis printed on yellow paper.

Hope you enjoy!

UILTY RAZORS, BONA FIDE PUNKS.



Writings on the topic that go off in all directions, mind-numbing lectures given by academics, and testimonies, most of them heavily doctored, from those who “lived through that era”: so many people today fantasize about the early days of punk in our country… This blessed moment when no one had yet thought of flaunting a ridiculous green mohawk, taking Sid Vicious as a hero, or – even worse – making the so-called alternative scene both festive and boorish. There was no such thing in 1976 or 1977, when it wasn’t easy to get hold of the first 45s by the Pistols or the Clash. Few people were aware of what was happening on the fringes of the fringes at the time. Malcolm McLaren was virtually unknown, and having short hair made you seem strange. Who knew then that rock music, which had taken a very bad turn since the early 1970s, would once again become an essential element of liberation? That, thanks to short and fast songs, it would once again rediscover that primitive, social side that was so hated by older generations? Who knew that, besides a few loners who read the music press (it was even better if they read it in English) and frequented the right record stores? Many of these formed bands, because it was impossible to do otherwise. We quickly went from listening to the Velvet Underground to trying to play the Stooges’ intros. It’s a somewhat collective story, even though there weren’t many people to start it.
The Guilty Razors were among those who took part in this initial upheaval in Paris. They were far from being the worst. They had something special and even released a single that was well above the national average. They also had enough songs to fill an album, the one you’re holding. In everyone’s opinion, they were definitely not among the punk impostors that followed in their wake. They were, at least, genuine and credible.

Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music ; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd.
And of course, we should remember this new wave, which was promoted by a few articles in the specialized press and some cutting-edge record stores, coming from New York or London, whose small but powerful influence could be felt in Paris and in a handful of isolated places in the provinces, lulled to sleep by so many appalling things, from Tangerine Dream to President Giscard d’Estaing...
In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state ; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one.
In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their gruelling shifts at the factory. Here and there, on the outskirts of major cities, you still could find a few rockers with sideburns wearing black armbands since the death of Gene Vincent, but it wasn’t a proper mass movement, just a source of real danger to anyone they came across who wasn't like them. In August 1976, a festival unlike any other took place in Mont-de-Marsan – the First European Punk Festival as the poster said – with almost as many people on stage as in the audience. Yet, on that day, a quasi historical event happened, when, under the blazing afternoon sun, a band of unknowns called The Damned made an unprecedented noise in the arena, reminiscent of the chaotic Stooges in their early adolescence. They were the first genuine punk band to perform in our country: from then on, anything was possible, almost anything seemed permissible.

It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and – crucially – a very healthy sense of rebellion (the protesters of May 1968 proclaimed, and it was even a slogan, that they weren’t against old people, but against what had made them grow old. In the mid-1970s, it seemed normal and obvious that old people should now ALSO be targeted!!!).
At the time, the desire to fight back, and break down authority and apathy, was either red or black, often taking the form of leafleting, tumultuous general assemblies in the schoolyard, and massive or shabby demonstrations, most of the time overflowing with an exciting vitality that sometimes turned into fights with the riot police. Indeed, soon after the end of the Vietnam War and following Pinochet’s coup in Chile, all over France, Trotskyist and anarcho-libertarian fervour was firmly entrenched among parts of the educated youth population, who were equally rebellious and troublemakers whenever they had the chance. It should also be noted that when the single "Anarchy in the UK" was first heard, even though not many of us had access to it, both the title and its explosive sound immediately resonated with some of those troublemakers crying out for ANARCHY!!! Meanwhile, the left-wing majority still equated punks with reckless young neo-Nazis. Of course, the widely circulated photos in the mainstream press of Siouxsie Sioux with her swastikas didn’t necessarily help to win over the theorists of the Great Revolution. It took Joe Strummer to introduce The Clash as an anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-ignorance band for the rejection of old-school revolutionaries to fade a little.

The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say at Porte d’Auteuil, despite being located in the very posh and very exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, didn’t escape these "committed" upheavals, which doubled as the perfect outlet for the less timid members of this generation.
“Back then, politics were fun,” says Tristam Nada, who studied there and went on to become Guilty Razors’ frontman. “Jean-Baptiste was the leftist high-school in the neighbourhood. When the far right guys from the GUD came down there, the Communist League guys from elsewhere helped us fight them off.”
Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that would soon follow). Tristam Nada spent his 10th and 11th unfinished grades with José Perez, who had come from Spain, where his father, a janitor, had been sentenced to death by Franco. “José steered my tastes towards solid acts such as The Who. Like most teenagers, I had previously absorbed just about everything that came my way, from Yes to Led Zeppelin to Genesis. I was exploring… And then one day, he told me that he and his brother Carlos wanted to start a rock band.” The Perez brothers already played guitar. “Of course, they were Spanish!”, jokes their singer. “Then, somewhat reluctantly, José took up the bass and we were soon joined by Jano – who called himself Jano Homicid – who took up the rhythm guitar.” Several drummers would later join this core of not easily intimidated young guys who didn’t let adversity get the better of them.

The first rehearsals of the newly named Guilty Razors took place in the bedroom of a Perez aunt. There, the three rookies tried to cover a few standards, songs that often were an integral part of their lives. During a first, short gig, in front of a bewildered audience of tough old-school rockers, they launched into a clunky version of the Velvet Underground's “Heroin”. Challenge or recklessness? A bit of both, probably… And then, step by step, their limited repertoire expanded as they decided to write their own songs, sung in a not always very accurate or academic English, but who cared about proper grammar or the right vocabulary, since what truly mattered was to make the words sound as good as possible while playing very, very fast music? And spitting out those words in a language that left no doubt as to what it conveyed mattered as well.
Trying their hand a the kind of rock music disliked by most of the neighbourhood, making noise, being fiercely provocative: they still belonged to a tiny clique who, at this very moment, had chosen to impose this difference. And there were very few places in France or elsewhere, where one could witness the first stirrings of something that wasn’t a trend yet, let alone a movement.

In the provinces, in late 1976 or early 1977, there couldn’t be more than thirty record stores that were a bit more discerning than average, where you could hear this new kind of short-haired rock music called “punk”. The old clientele, who previously had no problem coming in to buy the latest McCartney or Aerosmith LP, now felt a little less comfortable there…
In Paris, these enlightened places were quite rare and often located nex to what would become the Forum des Halles, a big shopping mall. Between three aging sex workers, a couple of second-hand clothes shops, sellers of hippie paraphernalia and small fashion designers, the good word was loudly spread in two pioneering places – propagators of what was still only a new underground movement. Historically, the first one was the Open Market, a kind of poorly, but tastefully stocked cave. Speakers blasted out the sound of sixties garage bands from the Nuggets compilation (a crucial reference for José Perez) or the badly dressed English kids of Eddie and the Hot Rods. This black-painted den was opened a few years earlier by Marc Zermati, a character who wasn’t always in a sunny disposition, but always quite radical in his (good) choices and his opinions. He founded the independent label Skydog and was one of the promoters of the Mont-de-Marsan punk festivals. Not far from there was Harry Cover, another store more in tune with the new New York scene, which was amply covered in the house fanzine, Rock News (even though it was in it that the photos of the Sex Pistols were first published in France).
It was a favorite hang-out of the Perez brothers and Tristam Nada, as the latter explained. “It’s at Harry Cover’s that we first heard the Pistols and Clash’s 45s, and after that, we decided to start writing our first songs. If they could do it, so could we!”
The sonic shocks that were “Anarchy in the UK”, “White Riot” or the Buzzcocks’s EP, “Spiral Scratch” – which Guilty Razors' sound is reminiscent of – were soon to be amplified by an unparalleled visual shock. In April 1977, right after the release of their first LP, The Clash performed at the Palais des Glaces in Paris, during a punk night organised by Marc Zermati. For many who were there, it was the gig of a lifetime…
Of course, Guilty Razors and Tristam were in the audience: “That concert was fabulous… We Parisian punks were almost all dressed in black and white, with white shirts, skinny leather ties, bikers jackets or light jackets, etc. The Clash, on the other hand, wore colourful clothes. Well, the next day, at the Gibus, you’d spot everyone who had been at this concert, but they weren’t wearing anything black, they were all wearing colours.”

It makes sense to mention the Gibus club, as Guilty Razors often played there (sometimes in front of a hostile audience). It was also the only place in Paris that regularly scheduled new Parisian or Anglo-Saxon acts, such as Generation X, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Johnny Thunders who would become a kind of messed-up mascot for the venue. A little later, in 1978, the Rose Bonbon – formerly the Nashville – also attracted nightly owls in search of electric thrills… In 1977, the iconic but not necessarily excellent Asphalt Jungle often played at the Gibus, sometimes sharing the bill with Metal Urbain, the only band whose aura would later transcend the French borders (“I saw them as the French Sex Pistols,” said Geoff Travis, head of their British label Rough Trade). Already established in this small scene, Metal Urbain helped the young and restless Guilty Razors who had just arrived. Guitarist for Metal Urbain Hermann Schwartz remembers it: “They were younger than us, we were a bit like their mentors even if it’s too strong a word… At least they were credible. We thought they were good, and they had good songs which reminded of the Buzzcocks that I liked a lot. But at some point, they started hanging out with the Hells Angels. That’s when we stopped following them.”

The break-up was mutual, since, Guilty Razors, for their part, were shocked when they saw a fringe element of the audience at Metal Urbain concerts who repeatedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. These provocations, even still minor (the bulk of the skinhead crowd would later make their presence felt during concerts), weren’t really to the liking of the Perez brothers, whose anti-fascist convictions were firmly rooted. Some things are non-negotiable.
A few months earlier (in July 1978), Guilty Razors had nevertheless opened very successfully for Metal Urbain at the Bus Palladium, a more traditonally old-school rock night-club. But, as was sometimes the case back then, the night turned into a mass brawl when suburban rockers came to “beat up punks”.

Back then, Parisian nights weren’t always sweet and serene.

So, after opening as best as they could for The Jam (their sound having been ruined by the PA system), our local heroes were – once again – met outside by a horde of greasers out to get them. “Thankfully,” says Tristam, “we were with our roadies, motorless bikers who acted as a protective barrier. We were chased in the neighbouring streets and the whole thing ended in front of a bar, with the owner coming out with a rifle…”
Although Tristam and the Perez brothers narrowly escaped various, potentially bloody, incidents, they weren’t completely innocent of wrongdoing either. They still find amusing their mugging of two strangers in the street for example (“We were broke and we simply wanted to buy tickets for the Heartbreakers concert that night,” says Tristam). It so happened that their victims were two key figures in the rock business at the time: radio presenter Alain Manneval and music publisher Philippe Constantin. They filed a complaint and sought monetary compensation, but somehow the band’s manager, the skilful but very controversial Alexis, managed to get the complaint withdrawn and Guilty Razors ended up signing with Constantin with a substantial advance.

They also signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring “I Don't Wanna be A Rich”, “Hurts and Noises” and “Provocate” (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for “class” confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn’t play French artists singing in English), it didn’t sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped… Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor (“Let’s say we sometimes caused a ruckus in their offices!” laughs Tristam.) In order to perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's “Lucifer Sam” from the Syd Barrett era – proof of an enduring love for the sixties’ greats –, “Wake Up” a hangover tale and “Bad Heart” about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent... On the album you’re now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. He was both an enthusiastic old hippie and a proper whizz at sound engineering. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band’s music.

Shortly after a final stormy and rather barbaric (on the audience’s side) “Punk night” at the Olympia in June 1978, Tristam left the band ; his bandmates continued without him for a short while.

But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up for good after three years (besides once in Spain, they’d only played in Paris). The reason for ceasing business activities were more or less the same for everyone: there were no venues outside one’s small circuit to play this kind of rock music, which was still frightening, unknown, or of little interest to most people. The chances of recording an LP were virtually null, since major labels were only signing unoriginal but reassuring sub-Téléphone clones, and the smaller ones were only interested in progressive rock or French chanson for youth clubs. And what about self-production? No one in our small safety-pinned world had thought about it yet. There wasn’t enough money to embark on that sort of venture anyway.

So yes, the early days of punk in France were truly No Future!

Shaped from fragile, emotionally charged piano motifs that distort, disappear and transform into dense, cinematic textures, 'CANALS' is a debut that's finely matured, the result of years of friendship and growth. Italian artist Vanja Sturno and Montréal-based Belgian-Spanish composer Pablo Geeraert (aka Sanea Ima) have worked together extensively on various projects up until now, but 'CANALS' is their first official release as a duo. Having both studied music academically, the pair were eager to work more intuitively, so applied their well-honed set of skills to sound that, instead of fitting into a conceptual box, reflected more personal experiences.

Back in 2023, Geeraert travelled to Rome to support his friend at a difficult time and, during the trip, received some bad news of his own. The complicated feelings unconsciously surged through a series of delicate Ryuichi Sakamoto-inspired piano improvisations and a new project began to coalesce. They didn't realize it at the time, but once the record was finished, Sturno and Geeraert began to understand that the entire process had been a form a joint catharsis - a release of pressure. They were able to function so effortlessly and swiftly because they had already provided the space for each other to resonate emotionally and the music flowed from that point.

So the album's title, while remaining ambiguous, suggests its formation: a sequence of eight interconnected channels that feed a creative whole. On the first segment, Sturno and Geeraert's initial recordings can be perceived most nakedly, the melancholy, Satie-like phrases floating peacefully for a moment before the tranquility is agitated by stormy distortions and swelled into thick waves of harmony. The piano provides the record with its emotional anchor, offering focus and clarity as multi-dimensional noise wells up around it before inevitably dissipating, leaving gentle, unadorned sounds once again.

And the familiar instrument is reshaped into a wheezing artificial organ on the animated 'CANALS III', punctuated by percussive, tape-warped pitch fluctuations that seem to bite into its very essence. Gauzy acoustic granulations snowball into a powerful, bass-heavy crescendo on the fourth part, setting the tenor for the album's second half. But after the crushing 'CANALS VI', possibly Sturno and Geeraert's heaviest track, a brief tremolo-heavy vignette that ripples through experimental rock and ambient music's braided history, the duo clear the air with a jazzy diversion, introducing soft woodwind blasts as a palate cleanser before an epic, widescreen finale.

It's an album that's best absorbed as a whole, a vortex of ritualistic, rhythmic repetitions that Sturno and Geeraert appropriately refer to as "spiral listening".

The journey continues with Constellations Vol. 3, weaving together a powerful blend of electro and techno. Anthony Rother delivers his signature precision in sound design, while Maelstrom bends the grid with a glitchy, IDM-infused excursion. Credit 00 dives deep into electro's darker corners, joined by a trippy collaboration from Serge Geyzel & Dagga, the rolling energy of TaronX, and The Spy'sindustrial-tinged intensity.

A bold and atmospheric continuation of the Constellations saga - built for exploration beyond the dancefloor.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left.

So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

"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.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left.

So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

Default Mode by Raleigh & Takenaga continues the newly established X series – Harmony’s platform for new voices and limitless exploration. Hailing from Prague, the duo embodies the next wave of adventurous sound design and musical talent from the imprint’s home town.

Incentive Program opens the EP’s A side with a drifting, trance-tinged flow wrapped in sweeping pitch movements and fractured vocals. The track sets a shadowy, almost sinister atmosphere, pulling all witnesses into its slow-burn gravity. It’s a steady build, tipping the floor over the edge. Stiff Envelope pulls you into its depths as it continues to build tension with resonating synth hits that quiver over a powerful trance foundation. With a few moments of silence that let its unsettling atmosphere settle across the stereo field before swinging back in at full force, this one is tailor-made for big systems.

B side’s Ground Floor carries on with metallic swells and shimmers that ring underneath the surface as the tension built on the A side bursts, settling into a grounding four-on-the-floor moment and leaving just enough time to breathe before Raleigh stirs up a concoction of devious vocals, snappy percussion, and a seductive bassline that lifts the mood tastefully. Takenaga wraps up the record with Head Count, a razor-sharp blend of crisp percussive cuts and stuttered crumbles that are seeking the perfect pitch all the way, climbing up and down. Heads are counted on a lively groove that radiates playful momentum and commands the dance floor to get in formation, keeping a tight rhythmic focus. Infused with the pulse of UK club culture, this track delivers a fresh and forward-thinking sound perfect for adventurous turntables.

Continuing his refraction of the rave continuum into pointedly dislocated, delicately bruising sound system meditations, Low End Activist returns to Peak Oil with a second instalment in his Airdrop series. This time around, he channels the ghosts of foundational tech-step and the quantum leaps of late-90s D&B to provide the inspirational fuel for his skeletal, astral constructions. A strong stylistic thread continues to weave through the LEA output from his earlier self-released EPs and Sneaker Social Club albums, where haunted atmospherics, blown out subs and snatches of breaks dart around each other in empty dancehalls, but the finer point of the sound design and synthesis makes very specific references to landmark moments in hardcore's evolution.

By weaving his own autobiography into the music, the Activist maintains a fundamental theme of his work to date. 'Colin's Golf', 'Smithy's Porsche,' 'Merv's Lazy Eye' and 'Brillo's Teeth' are all personal codes harking back to the formative Oxford rave scene. With the framework in place, he uses textures, timbres and studio tricks from scene-leading pioneers and local heroes of the era as ingredients in thoroughly modernist concoctions. None of the reference points are deployed as literal callbacks — they're waymarkers for the creative process and faint triggers bedded deep into Airdrop II's strange formations. Fleeting sonics might trigger latent memories for those who were there. For everyone else, Airdrop II is another step further along rave's eternally unspooling odyssey, guided by decades of precedents on a path into the future.

Lantern in the Woods is the new album from musician and multi-instrumentalist Misha Sultan – a project that marks an important milestone for the artist. It is his first work conceived and realized as a coherent, unified statement, from the earliest ideas and sounds to the final mastering.

The story of the album began back in 2021 in Saint Petersburg, during studio jam sessions with Anton (Mårble), Vova Luchanskiy, and Nikita (Minereed). These live
improvisations eventually led to the formation of the collective Sri Primat and left a significant imprint on Misha Sultan’s solo sound. Some of the instrumental parts on the album were recorded during this period, preserving the spirit of spontaneity and open dialogue between the musicians.

Later, after moving to Thailand, Misha recorded the second half of the material. These tracks absorbed the atmosphere of southern nights, tranquility, and comfort – bringing a distinct “bedroom jazzy vibe”, a touch of sentimentality and gentle melancholy into the music.

The album offers a beautiful blend of jazz and various other influences. At its heart, it’s a search for balance between memories and the present moment, between nature and the city, between the light of the lantern and the darkness of the woods.

“It was especially important to me that my friends and close people were involved in this album. Their presence gave the music that warmth and personal feeling I value so much. My brother Zhenya (Dyad), Anton (Mårble), Vova Luchanskiy — they all contributed a part of themselves to these tracks, as did Nina Livanova, who recorded vocal parts for several songs,” says Misha.

Lantern in the Woods is a soft and sincere work, where all things intertwine naturally.

A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane, the storied 'offshoot' formed by three quarters of independent pop group, The Cat's Miaow. On this, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century.

Recorded during 2024 in Melbourne and Ballarat, A Place In My Memory… picks up the thread Hydroplane set down with its precursor, 2001's The Sound Of Changing Places, though you can hear echoes of their other releases, too, with Withycombe noting a through-line from the group's 1998 "Failed Adventure" single. There's little quite like A Place In My Memory…, then or now, though. Maybe you can draw some connections between Hydroplane and their sister group, The Cat's Miaow, while fellow travellers might include Empress, The Ah Club, and further back, Young Marble Giants, Veronique Vincent (the muffled, ticking drum machine also makes me think of Robin Gibb's Robin's Reign).

There's also an umbilical to the bedroom-crafted electronica doing the rounds in the late nineties and early noughties. Hydroplane hint at this through their approach to songwriting, which often builds creatively around loops as structural devices. Through all this, the trio achieve an effortless, organic weightlessness across these nine lovely songs. Many feature Bolton's clear singing voice, drifting along, while guitars, keyboards, drum machines and loops tickertape away. The constituent parts fit together, but they also have a curiously detached quality - think of abstract cloud formations sharing the same sky.

Hydroplane and The Cat's Miaow often dealt in emotional ambiguity and uncertainty, and the uncertainty of the nostalgic. This was always one of the most appealing facets of their music, and A Place In My Memory… is thus named perfectly. I couldn't dream up a better title for the album and its reflections on history, lived experience, and the inevitable tangle between these two phenomena. These reflections variously address such concerns as human cruelty, flight, space travel, adventurism and spiritualism. There's also "To the Lighthouse", not a direct reference to the Virginia Woolf book, but a great title, nonetheless. (They've always had excellent titles, often borrowed, for songs and albums.)

A beautiful collection of drowsy, sleepy pop, humble and quiet, but resolute in its craft, A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is dream work in practice; a lovely reintroduction. Welcome back, then.

C.A.R. (Choosing Acronyms Randomly) is the musical project of Chloé Raunet, a Canadian-born, London-based artist known for her icy synths, warm vocals, and left-field pop sensibility. Drawing from post-punk, electro, and experimental songwriting, she creates music that’s both emotionally charged and sonically adventurous.

Following a five-year hiatus, C.A.R. returns with Shyana, the first single from her long-awaited fourth album, Dance at Oscar’s. Produced by Nathan Ridley, the release marks a creative rebirth: a new label, a new live formation with Joni Green, and a sound pulsing with revitalised energy. After a pandemic-induced break to focus on filmmaking — and a period of burnout and disillusionment — Raunet was ready to walk away from music altogether. But a pair of carried-over festival dates and an impromptu onstage reunion with longtime friend Joni Green unexpectedly reignited the spark. What was meant to be a farewell became the start of something new.

Shyana is a shimmering slice of machine-funk — a warped and groovy tribute to Paul Anka, filtered through C.A.R.’s surreal pop lens. A meditation on teen hysteria, pop manufacture, and the strange alchemy of early fame, the track pulses with wonky elegance and strutting confidence. One of the most playful cuts from Dance at Oscar’s, it showcases Nathan Ridley’s tight, swaggering production while capturing the album’s embrace of movement, humour, and the weirdness of cultural nostalgia.

On the B-side, Cecilia Road offers a more reflective counterpoint — a nostalgic, synth-drenched ballad built around a call-and-response vocal, throbbing melodies, and emotional tension. Intimate yet expansive, it hints at vulnerability without losing the pulse.

Artwork by Chloé Raunet, Craig Richards and Oliver Hupfau.

C.A.R. (Choosing Acronyms Randomly) is the musical project of Chloé Raunet, a Canadian-born, London-based artist known for her icy synths, warm vocals, and left-field pop sensibility. Drawing from post-punk, electro, and experimental songwriting, she creates music that’s both emotionally charged and sonically adventurous.

Following a five-year hiatus, C.A.R. returns with Shyana, the first single from her long-awaited fourth album, Dance at Oscar’s. Produced by Nathan Ridley, the release marks a creative rebirth: a new label, a new live formation with Joni Green, and a sound pulsing with revitalised energy. After a pandemic-induced break to focus on filmmaking — and a period of burnout and disillusionment — Raunet was ready to walk away from music altogether. But a pair of carried-over festival dates and an impromptu onstage reunion with longtime friend Joni Green unexpectedly reignited the spark. What was meant to be a farewell became the start of something new.

Shyana is a shimmering slice of machine-funk — a warped and groovy tribute to Paul Anka, filtered through C.A.R.’s surreal pop lens. A meditation on teen hysteria, pop manufacture, and the strange alchemy of early fame, the track pulses with wonky elegance and strutting confidence. One of the most playful cuts from Dance at Oscar’s, it showcases Nathan Ridley’s tight, swaggering production while capturing the album’s embrace of movement, humour, and the weirdness of cultural nostalgia.

On the B-side, Cecilia Road offers a more reflective counterpoint — a nostalgic, synth-drenched ballad built around a call-and-response vocal, throbbing melodies, and emotional tension. Intimate yet expansive, it hints at vulnerability without losing the pulse.

Artwork by Chloé Raunet, Craig Richards and Oliver Hupfau.

Just when you thought every holy grail must have been unearthed by now, here come Basic Unit with their deep cover late 90s masterpiece Timeline, the dankest darkcore-electronica-tech step album you've likely never heard.

Ben England and Rick Dallaway formed Basic Unit and debuted on Moving Shadow in 1997. They also moved on Nocturnal, a cult label that reached beyond D&B to platform some more experimental sounds. It was a short-lived label with some ominous footnotes — 'Several people involved with Nocturnal have vanished or are dead' reads the label's Discogs description. But in 1998 Nocturnal put out Timeline, a CD-only album from Basic Unit that cut a sharp, scathing figure against most D&B of the era. England and Dallaway embraced the album format as a chance to go deep, inhaling their inspiration from early days Autechre as much as Source Direct and boiling down the results to a steely, minimalist framework.

The likes of 'Resolution' are desolate, stark workouts that feel fractured and raw enough to align with early grime, complete with the strings, but the rhythms move in mysterious formations designed to confound like the most bloody minded electronica artists of the late 90s. Blown out bass and scattered flurries of machine gun breaks, squashed tundra drones that sound like they were pulled from 10th generation VHS b-movies and bit-crushed animal grunts fit for a Mega Drive beat 'em up. The sonics are redolent of the times, but Basic Unit chisel them mercilessly into their spartan vision, deploying brain-frying beat science with a stern restraint.

It's the kind of record that gives so much while holding so much back — a deadly tease that has flown under the radar for too long. This is the sort of shock reissue material that gets us gassed at Sneaker, and we're proud to be giving it a re-boost and a first ever outing on wax, all the better to shock you out.