Suche:d part

This 4th chapter of the Dubatriation Dubplate Style series presents Philosofy, an epic melodica instrumental crafted by Italian producer Crazy Hertz in a combination with his mentors and UK dub legends Alpha & Omega. While most of the lead instruments have been played by A&O, bass, drums and soundscapes have been provided by Crazy Hertz who also showed his terrific mixing skills on both sides, delivering an immersive dub on the flip.

Featuring DJ Anderson do Paraiso, DJ Sandrinho, Jonas Albrecht, Xexa, Felinto, Gabi Guedes & Sávio de Queiroz, Vincent Taeger, Kimia.



Upon their arrival in Brazil after the traumatic Atlantic crossing, enslaved populations from West Africa sought to reconstruct their sacred cultural and spiritual systems within a profoundly hostile environment. Five centuries later, the vitality of terreiros (ritual grounds) across the country bears witness to a living and adaptive religion that continues to evolve while remaining deeply rooted in ancestral traditions. Today, Candomblé is celebrated throughout Brazil and increasingly recognised internationally, far beyond Afro-descendant communities.


The project “Candomblé: Sacred Rhythms in Brazil”, articulated around the publication of a book and a double LP combining original sound archives with newly commissioned compositions, seeks to honour this tradition by documenting its historical foundations while offering a critical and artistic reflection on its contemporary transformations and future trajectories.

Alex Puddu's, second volume of the groundbreaking album of the soundtrack of The Golden Age of Danish Pornography from 2014, finally will be released as a new reissue on the artist's own label Al Dente in his entire original track list and with a brand new cover. The music on this record is inspired by and composed by Alex Puddu for "The Golden Age of Danish Pornography" - a collection of vintage hardcore short films from the early seventies,1971-74 directed by Danish porn pioneer Freddy Weiss - available on DVD from Pink Flamingo Entertainment.

2023 Repress


Voices From the Lake (consisting of Donato Dozzy and Neel) mark the 10th anniversary of their influential self-titled album with a fully remastered reissue on Spazio Disponibile. It arrives in full on vinyl for the first time, as well as on digital formats, first quarter of 2023 as the pair continues to play select live shows around the world. The release will see the light of day as a 4-set vinyl LP release, including download. Italians Dozzy and Neel have been friends united by a shared vision of music since their teenage years. They are immaculate sculptors of sound who fuse evocative ambient and leftfield techno into multi-layered soundscapes. For many years they worked as established solo artists but came together in 2011 to craft what is now regarded as one of techno's most pure and absorbing listening experiences. It's often said that the best music comes about as a happy accident, and that is certainly true of Voices From the Lake. The career-defining album first arose in the thoughts of Dozzy and Neel when the latter was preparing a mix for the former's wedding and named it Voices From The Lake. It was a pertinent title that stuck in the mind: both grew up by waters around the coast of Italy, and in their early days the pair even held private parties on the shores of a lake. Fittingly, Japan's celebrated Labyrinth festival at that time was also held by a river and a lake in the middle of a forest on a serene mountainside. It was that exact setting the pair envisaged when making music to play live on stage. During preparations, they "accidentally" wrote an entire album. It has only ever been performed live a few times - once at Japan's Labyrinth festival in 2011, at London's Barbican, Barcelona's Mira Festival, Paris' Marathon Festival and once during 2022's Amsterdam Dance Event. Those shows saw the pair using banks of analogue and digital equipment to improvise in the moment and essentially remix the album live on stage. That spontaneity is captured in the original Voices From the Lake recordings and on later LPs such as Live at Maxxi in 2015, and the most recent EP Quarto Freddo from 2020. But the debut album remains a standout achievement. A decade on, it's quiet intensity, musical storytelling and slowly unfolding tension remain in a class of one. Each sound is meticulously designed and placed, and the spaces left behind are just as important in conveying such a captivating mood and emotion. Rather than traditional kick drums, hi-hats or snares, this is music crafted from layers of real-world sound - dripping water, chirping birds, rustling leaves or a distant breeze - and it's that which defines the album's organic allure. From deeply contemplative to cautiously optimistic, pastoral organic scenes to more underwater worlds, Voices From the Lake is a cohesive collection of tracks that add up to one inseparable whole.

Even in these most turbulent of times, dub musician and fatigued onlooker Elijah Minnelli remains an inexplicable stalwart on the lower rungs of the Breadminster County Council.

His latest record ‘Clams As A Main Meal’ continues his astute siphoning of council funds, this time with help from the Breadminster Board of Abstinence. As a further mark of respect, the original head of the Board, Dr. K'houldoux, graces the cover art in his infamous ‘Looming Moon of Desire’ guise.*

As fine a backdrop as any for Minneli’s off-brand dub experiments, and ‘Clams...’ is the truest representation of his varied wheelhouse yet...

We find vocal appearances from dub goliath Dennis Bovell and Welsh-language singer Carwyn Ellis. A pair of tracks which build on 2024’s acclaimed ‘Perpetual Musket’, a collection of folk songs reworked alongside reggae vocalists, released by FatCat Records. It garnered glowing reviews, with nods from The Guardian and The Quietus concluding with prominent appearances on their respective yearly round-up lists.

Elsewhere, the album finds Minnelli in a more experimental mode, all wheezing contraptions and cockeyed bass, creaking with the weight of creation, a satisfying tactility laid seam-side up.

As well as ‘Perpetual Musket’, the new album follows years of sold out 7" singles, handmade and self-released. Online, the tracks have amassed global streams numbering in the millions. His tracks have found play across an eclectic range of radio mixes and dance floors, most notably the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Batu, Optimo and Zakia Sewell (BBC6Music).

It is perhaps worth mentioning that this everbuilding interest in his work is at great odds with the growing suspicions amongst his fellow townsfolk, who see his Breadminster County Council Music Initiative as nothing more than an empty cash-grab.

Further Reading on the Breadminster Board of Abstinence

In the late 70s, Breadminster was awash with the last vestiges of the hippy era. Though the flared silhouette of the lower leg remained, the utopian ideals that had once flowed merrily around the youth's shaded ankles had begun to wane. LSD and free love had led to a sharp spike in population and a generation of children raised by air-headed psychonauts unprepared for the bleary-eyed strictures of parenthood.

Aware of the crisis, the County Council entrusted Dr. Paulinque K'houldoux to spearhead a pushback, and it was his pro-abstinence movement - a mixture of education initiatives and radical renutrition campaigns - that came to impact Breadminster's census deep into the new millennium.

Being a pseudo-archipelago Breadminster has fundamentally limited resources, however deep-seated ties to distant coastal villages meant that oysters were a regular part of the local diet. K'houldoux pinpointed this as a factor in the town's overpopulation, and believed that simply replacing these with clams (a “lesser mollusk”) would help lower the erotic urges of the people. It was his “anti-aphrodesia” movement that first championed the idea of “Clams As A Main Meal,” and the slogan “Consider Abstinence” carried the message yet further.

The Breadminster Board of Abstinence soon became involved in all cultural happenings in the area, with K'houldoux MCing at prominent festivals and performances, sometimes dressed as the “Looming Moon of Desire” - an idea of his relating to the tide, seafood, menstrual cycles, and his privately held celestial predilections.

It was in 1981 that it was revealed Dr. K'houldoux had never fully qualified as a doctor and was seeking exile in Breadminster due to a series of botched bracelet heists in which he had previously been involved. K'houldoux was subsequently extradited to Basingstoke, where he served 3 of a 12-year sentence, owing to the lunar-oriented prisoner health campaigns he helped implement.

It has been a strange twist of bureaucratic fate that the Breadminster Board of Abstinence has never stopped receiving public funding, despite its lack of clear utility. And while its roots are tied to a rose-tinted past, the Board continues to sponsor cultural events and projects to this day.

An extract from: Eugeniq Schooner's article in Sydney Parishioner: “Clams, Breadminster and Countercultural Abstinence Trends” (2008)

From the windswept streets of Edinburgh comes a sound that gallops wild through the night — equal parts jungle heat and Highland haze. Los Chichanos, a fiercely multicultural collective formed in 2021 under the spirited direction of guitarist Sandino Borges. Never ones to wait for an invitation, the band have carved out a scene of their own in Edinburgh, a home for tropical rhythm and nocturnal joy amid Scotland’s long dark nights. Their devotion to the electrifying pulse of Peruvian tropical music, cumbia and chicha, intertwined with Afro-Latin rhythms and vintage psychedelia runs deep.
Add the soul Cuban son, the swing of Brazilian grooves and a hint of spaghetti western melodrama, and you begin to hear the distinct voice of Los Chichanos. Caballo Salvaje gallops forward with fuzzed- out guitar, echo-drenched organ, and the untamed spirit of the Andes. Cumbia de la Noche was written during a harsh winter season when daylight became a distant memory.

-3LP triple set featuring all the Prescription versions and the newly created AD II artworks by Steven Stapleton.



The booklet features all lyrics, extensive liner notes and sheds light on the interesting circumstances of the creation of this Coil release by Gary Ramon who not only instigated the sessions but also provided the haunting location for their recordings.



Has been respectfully and expertly remastered by grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson. Artwork by Steven Stapleton design & layout by Oleg Galay.

Ghetto Records was Latin music legend Joe Bataan’s way to get over on The Man and out of the ’hood, a bold move by an artist looking for independence and creative control in an industry that had exploited his talents and treated him like chattel.



As Bataan puts it today, “Ghetto Records was part of my journey, a stepping stone to everything else that I’ve done. I learned enough that it enabled me to get out of the box with my thinking, it showed me how to deal with adversity.” Like many dreams and schemes born of the street, this one was audacious, perhaps even reckless to a fault.

Hatched from desperation yet full of hope Ghetto Records came crashing down shortly after its inception. The seven albums in its discography languished out of print - until now.

Baby T is a space away from her work as B.Traits in which Brianna Price can lean more into the junglist, drum ‘n’ bass and hardcore sounds which she loves so dearly. With BSHEE02, the second drop on Price’s own Banshee label, Baby T delivers a darkside masterclass of an EP. This record is a quartet of system blowers which doesn’t let up for a single second from start to finish.

Opener ‘Times Up’ is urgent from the off - the initial strains of this joint find sirens wailing in the monitors over a twitchy kick/drum/hats combo. From here on it’s distilled raver perfection, the drums taking us on a wild Wipeout-style ride as the subbiest of bass skulks at the bottom of the mix. Imagine a more technoid take on the classic breakbeat freerides of Skanna and you’re not far off the ‘Times Up’ sound.

A remix of ‘Times Up’ from man like Aloka leans with devilish glee into the murky underworld that lurks beneath Baby T’s original. Aloka’s version is extremely eerie in a manner which makes you think of the darkest corners of a DMZ party. When things really kick into gear, driven by an irresistible kick dembow, the effect is hypnotic - think the dubwise junglism of the UVB-76 cohort.

BSHEE02’s B-side kicks off with ‘Coercive Control’. This is a cut which delivers on its title in spades, putting the listener in a trance with an interplay of low-slung bass, whirligig synth tones and more of those perfectly executed broken beats. The acid starts to kick in around the minute mark, and it turns out to herald a total earworm of a lead melody.

There’s plenty of dimly-lit malevolence to BHSEE02 closer ‘Dense Dickwood’s grinding atmospherics and gurgling bass throbs. However, Baby T opting for a half-time drum break here gives the cut a vibe not dissimilar to the weightiest jams of classic Massive Attack - that is, until an absolutely remorseless switch-up occurs halfway through, delivering volley after volley of intense drum hits.

2026 Repress

- Linen Paper, Foil Printed Box Set
- Includes 6 Double LPs + 1 Single LP, 13 Discs In Total
- All LPs Pressed on Coloured Vinyl
-Each Disc is Housed in a Printed Inner with PMS Print, Finished with Spot Gloss Printing. Each Sleeve Features an Abstract of the Original Album’s Artwork
- Also included are a 4 page Insert + Poster

Skintone Edition commemorates the singular talent of this music pioneer with the re-release of all of his albums released via his own Skintone label.
Over a 20 year period Yokota released 30 albums and countless 12s under a variety of aliases, across more than a dozen pre-eminent labels. Yokota received domestic and international acclaim as a house and techno DJ and producer throughout the nineties. Part of the vanguard of the Tokyo scene, his influential release Acid Mt. Fuji inspires techno artists to this day.

In 1998 though, at the height of his success, he established his Skintone imprint, which came to eclipse all of his previous achievements. Skintone shone a light on the diverse new directions in which his creativity had blown, from delicate, cyclical tape-loop meditations to neo-classical compositions. It also gave him the autonomy to combine his visual and music-making practices and, importantly, to create at his own pace. The label was a great success and his experiments proved foundational in the global 00s ambient canon.

Skintone Edition will be available as 2 box sets - the first volume coincides with the 10th anniversary of Yokota’s untimely death and the 30th year of Lo Recordings. All music has been fully re-mastered. This edition is presented with the generous assistance of the Yokota family.
Albums Included:

Magic Thread 1998
Image 1983-1998 [1998]
Sakura [1999]
Grinning Cat [2001]
Will [2001]
The Boy and the Tree [2002]
Laputa [2003]

Art teacher by day and musician by night, Aleksandar Ordev is a veteran of the Macedonian electronic scene, experimenting with DIY electronics and sound design since the early '90s. Jester is his latest release, stitched together under the glow of a disco ball in his home studio on Maksim Gorki Street in Skopje. With modular synths tangled into a chaotic harmony of obscure archives, the deep internet void, vintage pop, and Balkan pathos, he reshapes memory and sound into something strangely moving. Equal parts serious research and inside joke, this is a sonic journey at its most personal and peculiar.

Ten years ago, in a sharehouse on Chapel Street, four 20-year-olds with zero expectations wrote and recorded an EP in a single afternoon. Those six blistering minutes of music became Giddy Up. An hour later, Amyl and The Sniffers had a name, a Bandcamp upload, and the beginnings of a legacy.
Following a year of backyard gigs, playing for friends and partying across Melbourne's sticky carpet music scene, the band released their iconic second EP Big Attraction in 2017.
Now, to celebrate a decade of raw power and reckless spirit, Giddy Up/Big Attraction returns in a definitive 10th anniversary 12-inch vinyl edition — fully remastered for maximum punch.
Featuring early classics like “I’m Not A Loser” and “Stole My Pushbike,” plus enduring live favourites “Balaclava Lover Boogie” and “Westgate,” this is the sound of Amyl and The Sniffers before the world caught up — feral, funny, and unstoppable.
The LP is housed in a gatefold sleeve showcasing Chris Sutherland’s iconic 2017 band photo, alongside an exclusive new essay from Amy Taylor and a heap of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes shots from the band’s earliest days by Jamie Wdziekonski. As Amy recalls: “We recorded and wrote over the afternoon… we’d never played together before that day… it’s spontaneous, and fun and achievable in that time because to us it sounded more than good and we weren’t perfectionists and it didn’t matter.”
From DIY house shows in Melbourne to international stages, it all started here.

**Vinyl Only**

For their first step into the wax game, Genau Experience land with a strictly vinyl statement straight out of Udine. (Italy)Active since 2018, Genau Exp. have been quietly cultivating parties and pushing underground culture in their corner of the map. Now it translates into grooves. No rush, no noise: just the right moment to press this record.

Leading the charge is resident and long-time digger Stefano Conte. A vinyl collector with a deep-rooted connection to house, techno and electro, Stefano’s sound carries echoes of the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s | raw drum work, hypnotic sequences, stripped tension and subtlemachine funk. These four original cuts, written between 2025 and 2026, feel focused and functional. Club-minded but not obvious. Built for heads who listen.

On remix duties, taking the reins on The Landing, we find Shkedul – selector and producer who hardly needs an introduction. He draws us deeper into his signature style: decisive basslines, dark rhythms, and evolving sound design that flows and morphs across the full length of the track.

A versatile weapon with enough character to work across different floors and moods.

First time reissue of JP / US free jazz rarity.

The 1970s were Marion Brown’s most searching decade, a period during which he sought to move beyond the free jazz of the previous era and find more personal approaches to structuring improvisation and composition. After leaving New York for Europe in 1967, Brown began reshaping his music into what he described as “a more deliberate kind of music that had more structure to it,” pacing it so that moods and modes could develop over time. Albums such as In Sommerhausen, Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, Geechee Recollections, and Sweet Earth Flying trace this evolution: rhythmic structures moved to the foreground, harmony receded, and composition became a matter of orchestrating interlocking rhythmic parts as one would polyphonic lines.

Released in 1976, Awofofora is an overlooked but crucial entry in that sequence. At the time, its use of funk and reggae beats, electric guitars, and grooves drawn from contemporary Black popular music led some to misread it as a jazz-rock detour. In retrospect, it is entirely consistent with Brown’s methodology. As he admired in the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the stimulus comes from within the community. Here Brown filters Afro-Caribbean rhythms and funk through his own sensibility, abstracting their structural qualities rather than adopting surface style.

“La Placita,” making its first recorded appearance, layers distinct rhythmic phrases in a manner reminiscent of African drum ensembles, over which Brown and trumpeter Ambrose Jackson spin extended improvisations. The standard “Flamingo” is reshaped through diasporic rhythm and lyrical soloing, while “Pepi’s Tempo” and “Mangoes” harness crisp funk and reggae grooves to generate what Brown called a “manifestation of community” through collective improvisation. Even the overdubbed solo feature “And Then They Danced” reflects his structural thinking, ingeniously re-voicing a duet composition for two alto saxophones performed by one player.

This was the only recording by a short-lived band that briefly polarized audiences during festival appearances in 1976. Yet Brown consistently sought unity across change: different sounds, same principles — rhythm as structure, melody as architecture, collective improvisation, and above all, the primacy of tone. Awofofora stands not as a departure, but as a vivid synthesis of the elements he had been refining since the late 1960s, its grooves and golden alto lines conveying a sound drawn, in his words, “from life and from the world of experience.”

妖精の通る道 (The Path Where Fairies Pass) is the debut vinyl release by Reimaki, the duo of Rei Yokoyama (Triggers Flowers, Stakaidan, Lapiz Trio, 新井薬師自警団, and Fujio, Chiko Hige and Rei), and Maki Miura (Tsubamegami, Les Rallizes Dénudés, Shizuka, Fushitsusha, Ohkami No Jikan and Katsurei). The duo has been an understated presence in Tokyo, playing occasional under-the-radar shows and self- releasing a few CD-Rs, but they’ve recently started to break cover, with a recent cassette on UFO Creations, released in support of a late 2024 tour of China. It’s also a welcome reappearance on the scene for both musicians; Miura’s musical history, in particular, is being reevaluated thanks to a recent string of welcome Shizuka reissues.

But the music Reimaki make together is a different thing entirely, much as it shares some psychological and aesthetic interests with both Miura’s and Nokoyama’s other projects. Their sound is split between two main interests – an extension of glacial, deoxygenating psychedelic improvisations, and a deep interest in medieval European music. They’ve also been known to cover compositions by English prog/improv musician Fred Frith. These various elements of the Reimaki aesthetic are all present through 妖精の通る道, from the fragility of the opening “Novel Amor” through to the smeared, hazy textures of the three extended pieces that comprise the album’s flipside.

There’s a beautiful sympathy in these performances, and a generous simplicity, too; you can sense that this music is informed by decades of finding just the right way to say the right thing in the clearest manner possible. Yokoyama and Miura never overstate things; make the statement, play the song, let it hang in the air for a while, and then move on to the next essential expression. The music is unburdened by self- consciousness. Their take on medieval music cuts to the core of melody and melancholy; their psych- improv side is blurred and drifting without ever lapsing into rote generic gestures.

There’s some shared space with other artists who suspend the timeless within the kaleidoscopic possibilities of the psychedelic – Kendra Smith & The Guild of Temporal Adventurers; Emmanuelle Parrenin; Rosina de Peira – and a tangled folksiness that might put listeners in mind of Jan Dukes De Grey, Comus, Current 93, and Tower Recordings. Accompanied by beautiful photography from street photographer Takehiko Nakafuji, who was also personally chosen by Mizutani to document Les Rallizes Dénudés, 妖精の通る道 is a most unique and necessary trip.

Alex Puddu's groundbreaking album, the soundtrack of The Golden Age of Danish Pornography from 2011, finally will be released as a new reissue on the artist's own label Al Dente in his entire
original track list and with a brand new cover. The music on this record is inspired by and composed by Alex Puddu for "The Golden Age of Danish Pornography" - a collection of vintage hardcore short films from the early seventies,1971-74 directed by Danish porn pioneer Freddy Weiss - available on DVD from Pink Flamingo Entertainment.

"Funk Face is a 9-track journey drawing from the raw energy of 80s funk. The concept? A duel between my two personas: the pure madness of P-Funk versus a smoother, late-night vibe.

It’s a balance between two worlds, designed to follow you anywhere. Whether you’re cruising under the sun or settling into a late-night groove, the album adapts to your mood without ever losing the thread. Blending the influence of Rick James with nods to 90s sitcoms, it’s a cocktail of high-octane BPMs and sensual breathers.

There’s no room for melancholy here. Just press play, smile, and feel the vibration. Funk Face is, by definition, the ultimate happy face.”

American ambient powerhouse zake is back with a meditation on stillness, memory and the quiet power of seasonal change. Rooted in the Midwestern winter that inspires much of his work, his latest album Cantus for Winter in Six Parts unfolds in slow-moving analogue drones, soft hiss and faint environmental textures that are both intimate and expansive and true to his signature style. Each piece drifts gently into the next, evoking cracked wood, falling snow, distant strings and the eerie calm of frozen landscapes. By the time the 19-minute finale arrives, you are lost in a world of solitude and reflecting deeply on many things that will ultimately leave you feeling restored.

The fifth release on L.I.T.S. (Lost In The Swirls) Records cracks open the Swirl People's archive of Raoul & Dimitri, delivering four cuts pulled from different moments in time and locked firmly on the dancefloor.
"Just A Dub Suckah" lands in its unreleased version, with the vocal pushed upfront for a rawer, more upfront hit than the 2004 Amenti release. "This Tiiime", a long-running underground favorite, finally drops officially. On the flip, "Izit Reel" makes its first-ever appearance - an unreleased weapon capturing the off-kilter swing and playful tension that define Swirl Peepz. Closing the record is "Cooper Went Down", first released in 2001 on French imprint FFWD.
Four tracks, no distractions: Party Tricks is Swirl Peepz at their most direct.

From Wisdom Teeth’s recent compilation nagoyaka na kaze / 和やかな風 (quiet wind)—which cast a spotlight on the Japanese city of Nagoya—emerges “2++”, a new label launched by abentis, who curated the compilation alongside Facta and K-LONE as a central figure in the scene. Conceived as a series introducing facets of Nagoya’s underground electronic music to the world on vinyl, its inaugural release is abentis’ debut album, Dim Grow.

Across the album, intricately designed electronic mallet sounds—created using Ableton Live’s physical-modeling synthesizer—take center stage. Fresh and percussive like marimba or kalimba, yet simultaneously carrying an otherworldly, unreal quality, these tones form the core of the record’s sonic identity. In moments of near-silence, a crystalline resonance poised between glass and metal shimmers with subtle shifts in temperature, giving the album its distinctive texture.

While resonating with the sonic sensibilities of fellow Wisdom Teeth affiliates such as K-LONE, Tristan Arp, and Salamanda, abentis’ uniquely strange palette can be traced back to one of his strongest influences: Haruomi Hosono. In particular, Hosono’s mid-’70s tropical-infused solo albums — Tropical Dandy (1975), Bon Voyage Co. (1976), and Paraiso (1978) — serve as a key reference point. Symbolically reflected in Hosono’s marimba and vocal performance at a 1976 live show in Yokohama Chinatown, the marimba functioned as a central instrument for constructing imagined exotic landscapes inspired by Martin Denny and Hawaiian music.

For abentis—who worked at a local jazz bar before becoming active as a hip-hop beatmaker—the language of “tension chords,” a harmonic vocabulary rooted in jazz and R&B that hovers ambiguously between brightness and darkness, forms a consistent grammar throughout Dim Grow.

Behind the album’s core theme of “mallets + tension chords” lies a broad musical lineage: the harmonic sensibility of Claude Debussy, who anticipated the tensions of jazz; the proto-minimalist spirit of Erik Satie; the marimba-centered structures of Steve Reich; their continuation in Japan through Mkwaju Ensemble (with Midori Takada and production by Joe Hisaishi); and the subsequent branches into post-rock, electronica, and ambient music.

Growing up in Nagoya—an industrial city where creative independence is deeply valued—and being rooted in punk and hip-hop counterculture scenes naturally fostered abentis’ affinity with these predecessors. His practice between genres, combined with an encounter with the highly cross-pollinated musical perspective cultivated around Wisdom Teeth, provided the framework through which his own musical language crystallized. Dim Grow stands as the natural culmination of that journey.

A defining transmission in the history of Skylax Records. Originally released across different moments of the Skylax catalogue, these recordings are now assembled as the final chapter of the Skylax House Explosion series — a project exploring the architecture, memory and survival mechanisms embedded within house music culture. The record opens with Move D’s “Outer Rim 64”, originally released in 2018 as part of the Skylax House Explosion narrative. Suspended between motion and distance, the track establishes the conceptual perimeter of this final chapter — a space where rhythm no longer functions only as propulsion, but as orientation. Here the listener stands at the outer edge of the dancefloor’s architecture, where structure persists even as its original social conditions begin to disappear. The sequence continues with Hardrock Striker’s “Motorik Life (DJ Sprinkles Dub)”, originally released in 2011. Rather than operating as a conventional remix, the Dub reinforces the motorik continuum of the original composition, transforming repetition into endurance. DJ Sprinkles preserves the infrastructural skeleton of the dancefloor — its capacity to sustain bodies through duration alone, without narrative resolution or emotional release. The record culminates with “Motorik Life (DJ Sprinkles Mountain Of Despair Remix)”, one of the most politically explicit works ever associated with Skylax Records. Through the relentless repetition of the phrase “mountain of despair,” Terre Thaemlitz dismantles the traditional function of dance music, transforming remix culture into structural critique. Referencing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous metaphor, the remix removes the promise of redemption and leaves only the architecture of struggle. The dancefloor is no longer presented as escape, but as a temporary condition of survival. Together these recordings reveal house music’s true function: not to resolve despair, but to create temporary conditions in which bodies can continue to exist despite it.

AFTER THE DANCEFLOOR

you cannot preserve a dancefloor
by archiving its sound
because the dancefloor was never sound

it was bodies
finding temporary protection
inside systems designed to erase them

house music was never a genre
it was a survival strategy

when the lights disappeared
the structures remained
and so did we

Inner City Sound Archives returns with its second chapter — digging deeper into the forgotten vaults of New York’s underground disco culture.

This new volume brings to light another cache of mysterious acetate recordings: no titles, no credits, just cryptic handwriting, tape hiss, and the unmistakable pulse of a bygone era. Painstakingly transferred and fully remastered through analog processes, these raw and extended cuts preserve the full emotional weight of the original sessions — dusty, physical, and made to move bodies in the dark.

These are tracks that once passed hand-to-hand among a tight circle of selectors, whispered about and played just once or twice at legendary loft parties between 1978 and 1983. Then, silence. Until now. Once championed in the shadows by the likes of Larry Levan, Francis Grasso, Steve D’Acquisto, but also by more elusive selectors like Bobby Guttadaro, Michael Cappello, Roy Thode, and Mark Paul Simon — these grooves return to tell their story, the way they were meant to be heard. Each piece is a sonic time capsule — hypnotic, unpolished, and intimate. Pressed loud and with care, for those who still believe in the ritual of vinyl.

Cheeba’s Reggae Sound Boys are unloading the bass bins again with another two slices of funky reggae beats for the dance, in their second release on ECR

VOICE OF THE VOODOO - Emerges through a haze of psychedelic dub sounds into a big break beat laden skank. Organ riffs are chopped up over the funky reggae guitar rhythm and the big bass grooves. With vocals and JA deejay scats coming in and out of the mix. This has been waiting for release for a while and the dubplate has been hammered all round the country the last 12 months or more !

SAY IT LOUD - The flip side is equally club friendly with a hard hitting combination of beats and rhythms - coming on like Jah Shaka playing a soundclash at Wigan Casino - when it explodes into a big soul-stomping piano loop and heavy Hammond flourishes. The vocals riff on the JB “Black & Proud” theme, with a dancehall flava to create a party vibe just right for the summer BBQs

Written in the wake of a relocation year that quietly rewired the Australian-Macedonian DJ/Producer’s instincts, the latest record on Aldonna’s own Re-leaf Imprint trades the melodic density of earlier work for something more intimate, immediate, and bodily. ‘Infatuate’ closes the gap between what she is making and what Aldonna is reaching for in her record bag. That shift manifests in a tighter focus on groove. Gritty, swung drum samples lifted and reshaped from vinyl, FX drenched stabs flickering through delays, and basslines that feel less composed than inhabited.

The A-side rides a continuous low-end groove. The environments that shaped these tracks are still embedded in them: the sunburnt euphoria of a Brussels day party bleeds into “Squeaky,” while “Keep Up” captures the nervous, sleepless churn of a Berlin weekend on the edge of breakthrough.

The B-side’s “My Dear” softens into something more viscous and intimate, its warmth underscored by Aldonna’s own spoken word vocal in the Macedonian language, an understated but pointed nod toward underrepresented Balkan textures in club music. The EP rounds off with a functional remix from Berlin’s ‘Revivis’, applying his signature rolling sound to ‘My Dear’.

As a whole, the record feels deliberately situational, equally at home under low red lights in a sweat-slicked club or stretched across a festival system in broad daylight, but always orbiting that same core impulse: to pull bodies closer, lock them into the groove, and let everything else dissolve.

Zum ersten Mal seit Jahrzehnten erscheinen DJ Shadows legendäre Mo’Wax-Singles wieder offiziell – in einem umfassenden 8-teiligen Vinyl-Set, das mehrere Stunden bahnbrechender Musik enthält.
Die Aufnahmen wurden in den Abbey Road Studios von Miles Showell halbspeed-remastered und klingen so klar und kraftvoll wie nie zuvor. Die Box enthält zahlreiche bisher unveröffentlichte Mixe und Edits sowie eine exklusive Bonus-LP mit den ursprünglichen Demos von vier Tracks – ein einzigartiger Einblick in die Entstehungsgeschichte des Shadow-Sounds.
Abgerundet wird das Set durch neue Fotografien von Brian Cross (B+), DJ Shadows langjährigem visuellen Wegbegleiter.
Ein essenzielles Sammlerstück für Fans, Vinyl-Liebhaber und alle, die die Wurzeln moderner Beat-Kultur feiern wollen.

"This box wasn’t made for the casual listener,it was made with the hardcore fan in mind. I’ve always felt, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right, and every step of the process was
made with this philosophy firmly in mind. I had fun locating and resurrecting these songs, some of which still feel close to my consciousness as though they were made yesterday.”
-DJ Shadow

Mr Bongo presents a reissue of one of the rarest releases on the illustrious and now ultra-rare tax scam label TSG Records. A label with a checkered past, operated by Lloyd Price and with alleged ties to boxing promoter Don King. The album in question, Disco Party by Reality, is a stunning journey through ‘70s dancefloor-focussed funk into early proto-disco grooves. Back in mid-‘70s Manhattan, Dr. Otto Gomez and a group of fellow New York musicians including Tony Dixon, Norman Drayton, Tony Dupree, Al Jones and Fred Nanton were brought in for a recording session by songwriter and producer, Billy Nichols. Laying down one of Nichols' songs and a selection of the group's own, they were paid as session musicians and thought little of it. The tapes came to the attention of Lloyd Price who struck a deal with Nichols unbeknownst to Gomez and the rest of the band. Price then pressed the album and put it out in 1976 on a newly formed subsidiary label, TSG Records, that would later be documented as one of the US tax scam labels of the ‘70s. Such labels were created to exploit a loophole in the US tax system, running up inflated production costs / losses that investors or the parent label could write off against their tax bills. Releases on these labels were never intended to have commercial success. They would usually be produced in incredibly limited pressing numbers and have little to no promotion or distribution. As such many of these records instantly fell into obscurity, becoming mythical amongst DJs and record collectors. Sadly, this meant that artists like Dr. Otto Gomez and friends never had the chance for their record and their talents to shine at the time. In fact, it was only when Jazzman reached out for their 2022 reissue that Dr. Otto Gomez became aware that the album had ever been released and heard the story behind it. Disco Party is a time capsule where ‘70s instrumental funk edges and intertwines into an early disco sound. The sessions are for the dancefloor, minimalist and groove-based. The bass and drums are at the forefront, providing the pulse of the album. Driving funky guitar licks, and a brilliant horn section weave their way in and out of the productions. Highlights include the uplifting feel-good ‘Let's Party People’, the early disco swagger of ‘Reality’, and ‘Disco Party (Let's Have A)’ with its wah-wah groove and percussion break, which could easily have found its home on a Blaxploitation film soundtrack of the period. It’s not just rarity that makes this record so sought after, but rather the fact that it is a superb example of dancefloor-focussed mid ‘70s funk and disco.

The Nu’rons were a family group consisting of two sets of brothers and cousins, the four young men in question being brothers Daryl Howard and Raymond Gibson (Daryl’s mother registered him under his father’s surname of Howard and Raymond under her maiden name of Gibson) together with Otho Bateman and Charles Bateman. They were all born and raised in Salem, New Jersey and from the age of ten and eleven began singing with a fifth member and Gibson brother Rudolph as a group called The Gospel 5. They eventually decided to crossover to secular music and as a group known for their energetic dance routines they came up with the new performing name of ‘The Nu’rons’ (taken from the word ‘Neuron’ which is a cell that transmits nerve impulses). However Rudolph was soon to leave the group due to physical illness. Also Daryl Howard and Charles Bateman had also been part of a working group known as The Devotions prior to becoming The Nu-Ron’s.Following hours of practice The Nu’rons eventually felt confident enough to put their own shows together and began to perform at local dances and parties around New Jersey and Philadelphia, often being used as a non-paid warm up act for bigger named artists. They moved between several different managers including Jimmy Bishop (Duo Dynamic Productions) until they came under the tutelage of WDAS radio DJ Georgie Woods (his wife Gilda, being the owner of the Philadelphia Gil, Dion and Top & Bottom record Labels). It was Georgie who introduced them to Manny Campbell who in turn invited them to an audition at his and partner Charles Bowen’s Emandolynn Music studio in Chester P.A. The song The Nu’rons chose to audition with was the self penned “I’m A Loner”, the audition went well, as during late January/early February of 1970 Manny and Charles took The Nu’rons into the Sigma Sound Studio’s with Tom Bell and the TSOP musicians to record “I’m A Loner” and “All My Life” which was released on the Nu-Ron label in April of the same year. The two studio takes presente don this release came short after the band moved on from the collaboration with producer Emanuel Campbell to take music matters in their own hands. Beside recording "Disco Hustle" to be part of the disco boom in Philly of the times, they recorded also “You Came Thru”, a rough yet beautiful heavy bassline driven soul funk recording, and the just amazing “Hurry Up Tomorrow”, here presented in one of the original Studio takes.

In 1996, Busta Rhymes delivered his debut album, The Coming, three years after the Leaders of the New School unofficially disbanded. Though his talents were evident on those Leaders of the New School releases, Busta went on a series of features that only built up the public's desire for a solo Busta album. Right out of the gate, Busta dropped his classic debut single "Woo Hah!! (Got You All in Check)" that made it abundantly clear he was to be mentioned among Hip Hop's greatest solo artists. The energy and originality packed on that one song set a tone for the album that displays Busta's raw talent and ability to bend words with his ever rambunctious flow. The album features production by Easy Mo Bee, DJ Scratch, Q-Tip, and J Dilla. Songs such as "Everything Remains Raw", "Abandon Ship", and "Still Shining" all rise above as The Coming's stand-out tracks, but "Ill Vibe" is the album's crown jewel moment. Busta sounds right at home over this J Dilla beat, trading verses with his Native Tongue cohort Q-Tip. The Coming was a critical and commercial success for Busta Rhymes. It reached #6 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1996 and has since received a platinum certification from RIAA. As mentioned, The Coming boasts the hit single "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check " which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1996. It was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. It also ended up sporting another hit single, It's a Party featuring Zhané. The Coming shows amazing variety where Busta can break free from the bells and the whistles of the Busta Dungeon Dragon flow to explore other ways of leaving our jaws open by his incredible lyricism. The Coming surely lives up to its title, as Busta delivers a performance that ignited his impeccable solo career.

Erweiterte Deluxe-Jubiläumsausgabe von "The Fallen By Watch Bird", das neben dem Originalalbum auch das Kompendium "The Watchbird Alluminate" enthält, alternative Versionen und Neuinterpretationen von u.a. Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk und Emma Tricca. Seit der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung vor 15 Jahren hat sich Jane Weaver zu einer der markantesten und experimentierfreudigsten Stimmen aus UK entwickelt und eine Reihe von gefeierten Alben veröffentlicht, darunter "The Silver Globe", "Modern Kosmology", "Flock" und "Love In Constant Spectacle". Es ist ein psychedelischer Femme-Folk-Rock-Teppich, der Einflüsse aus dem osteuropäischen Kinderkino, deutschen Kunstmärchen, der TV-Musik der 70er Jahre und elektronischen Soundtracks der 80er Jahre aufgreift. Dieses konzeptionelle Album, das von Synths und Mystik durchdrungen ist, verwebt Bilder von abwesenden Seeleuten, Telekinese, Tierbotschaften und weißer Magie mit heidnischen Themen wie Tod und Wiedergeburt. Ein prägendes Meisterwerk aus ihrer ständig wachsenden Diskografie, das ihre Reise von ihren folkloristischen und poporientierten Anfängen bis hin zu den psychedelischen Synth-Pop-Experimenten von heute dokumentiert. Das Album umfasst sieben Kapitel und enthält Beiträge von Septième Soeur Wendy Flower vom Folk-Pop-Duo Wendy & Bonnie, das 1969 das Album Genesis veröffentlichte, Lisa Jen, der walisischen Sängerin auf Gruff Rhys' Candylion, der verstorbenen amerikanischen Folk-Pop-Sängerin Susan Christie und dem bosnischen Folk-Musiker und Violinisten Behar. Als Extra setzt "The Watchbird Alluminate" die Reise fort, indem es in Drone, Psychedelia, Folk und weitere Klanglandschaften eintaucht. Einzel-CD oder limitierte 2LP-Edition in Marineblau und Cremefarbenem Vinyl, Gatefold-Sleeve + Obi-Streifen & DL-Karte.

Last year Ace Records were delighted to reissue The Brides of Funkenstein’s debut LP from 1978, “Funk Or Walk”. Featuring their hit single ‘Disco To Go’, this album put the Brides on the map and sold strongly.

Before sessions commenced for a second album, Lynn Mabry left the group before sessions commenced for a second album, leaving Dawn Silva alone at the altar. George Clinton added P-Funk backing singers Jeanette McGruder and Sheila Horne to the mix, creating a three-pronged vocal attack.
Sessions featured the cream of the P-Funk players including keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell, bassist Bootsy Collins and guitarist Garry Shider. The resulting album, released in 1979, was even better that their debut.

The title track ran for over 15 minutes on side one, showcasing the vocal and musical prowess of all concerned. Other tracks included ’Party Up In Here’, ‘Smoke Signals’, ‘Mother May I?’ and the gorgeous ballad ‘Didn’t Mean To Fall In Love’.
Although it did not spawn a hit single, “Never Buy Texas From A Cowboy” sold as strongly as “Funk Or Walk” and over time has been hailed as a classic P-Funk album.
With liner notes from Ace’s Ian Shirley, we are delighted to release it on orange vinyl and CD. You don’t need your mother’s permission to buy it either.

a collaboration forged over the years with Francesco Borrelli, a sound engineer, musician and performer who has shaped Gerardo’s recordings for the last ten years and more. It embodies the natural evolution and fulfillment of a shared journey, a dedicated pursuit of sound and vision, and a creative dialogue where concept and execution become one.



“Meridio” primarily defines the project’s geographical roots: Francesco, from Naples, and Gerardo, with ties to southern Calabria, carry a Mediterranean sensibility that emerges organically, not as a mere reference but as an attitude: a sense of fluid rhythm, a constant tension between order and improvisation, between elegance and instinct. The titles of the two tracks included on this 7-inch single – ‘Partenope’ and ‘Ligea’, muses and symbols of the Mediterranean Sea – draw on mythological imagery and further reinforce the connection to a profound cultural dimension.



The result is a dense yet layered sound that openly embraces the funk and progressive aesthetics of the 70s and 80s, reprocessing them in a contemporary spirit; a language effortlessly moving between arrangement and production, between timbral exploration and rhythmic immediacy.

Like a meteor striking earth, two forces hit each other. Merkelbach and Nathan Homan found each other in a shared vision in music, and this is the reason they’ve started the label Beau Brummel. Combine the two and you get the alias Merkoman. If you were to take a look at both of their agendas, you’d see Thursday crossed off because that’s Brummel Day. After two years of Thursday evening Brummel sessions, a big vault of music has been filled. The result is The Story of Brooks Pipe, a two-part story of a refreshing new sound that only Merkoman can achieve. In Part 1 you’ll find four tracks strictly made for all sorts of dance floors. An additional injection of creative artwork was given by Sjeng Schupp.

Born and raised in the birthplace of House Music, Paul Johnson was known for his raw, soulful, and infectious sound, that helped shape Chicago's house scene and inspired generations of DJs worldwide in particular he was a massive inspiration to Daft Punk and the 'French Touch' scene.
Releasing a vast amount of music throughout the 1990s for some of the most consistently underground dance labels including legendary Chicago imprints Cajual, Relief and Dance Mania he finally gained global fame with his 1999 hit “Get Get Down,” a dancefloor anthem that topped charts across Europe. Despite facing physical challenges, including losing both legs in accidents, he remained an unstoppable force in music—touring, producing, and uplifting others with his resilient spirit and signature groove.
Re-pressed for our 35th anniversary, Paul Johnson’s classic 1995 debut album on Peacefrog, Bump Talkin is a timeless showcase of Paul’s signature deep, soulful house sound, blending irresistible peak-time, piano-driven anthems with a playful touch of bouncy Ghetto House energy.
They dont make em like this anymore...
RIP Paul Johnson.

Repress of 2018’s classic compilation from Brownswood.

A primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, this new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where genre markers matter less than raw, focused energy. Looking at the album’s running order, it could easily serve as a name-checking exercise for some of London’s most-tipped and hardworking bands of the past couple of years. Recorded across three long, fruitful days in a North West London studio, the crossover between each of the groups speaks to the close-knit circles which make up the scene.

Surveying the way that London’s jazz-influenced music had spread outside of its usual spaces in recent years, this album bottles up some of the vital ideas emanating from that burgeoning movement. Giving a platform to a scene where mutual cooperation and a DIY spirit are second-nature, it’s a window into the wide-eyed future of London’s musical underground.

Ubiquitous, much-lauded saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is the project’s musical director. His own recent projects span from South Africa-connected, spiritually-minded jazz players Shabaka and the Ancestors to Sons of Kemet, who match diasporically-connected compositions with viscerally-direct live shows. His entry on the album, ‘Black Skin, Black Masks’, is typically difficult-to-define: with an off-kilter, shifting rhythmic backbone, repeated phrases – mirrored between clarinet and bass clarinet – shape the track with an alluring hue. His input ties together a deft, genre-agnostic sensibility that’s shared through all the players on the record.

Theon Cross – who’s also part of Sons of Kemet with Hutchings – starts his track, ‘Brockley’, with the solo, distinctive low rumble of his tuba. Winding and mesmeric, it sees tuba and sax lines winding together in rhythmic and melodic parallels. Ezra Collective – whose drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso has toured with Pharaohe Monch – run a tight, Afrobeat-tipped rhythm on ‘Pure Shade’, with the final third changing gear into a melodic, momentous closing stretch.

Joe Armon-Jones, whose ludicrous chops on the piano have seen him touring with the likes of Ata Kak, showcases earworm-like, insistent motifs on ‘Go See’, balanced with a playful, improvisatory approach with room for ad-libbing and solos a-plenty. Taking a softer tact than many of the other entries, Kokoroko – whose guitarist Oscar Jerome has been making waves with his solo material – spin a lyrical, steady-paced meditation on ‘Abusey Junction’, matching chanted vocals with gently-played guitar.

Nodding to spiritual jazz influences, Maisha’s ‘Inside The Acorn’ is a wandering, explorative rumination, balancing delicate washes of piano and percussion with sharp interplay between flute and bass clarinet. In contrast, Nubya Garcia’s ‘Once’ is taut and carefully-poised, her tenor sax guiding a carefully-built energy to an explosive conclusion. And finally, Triforce’s ‘Walls’ is a performance in two parts: starting with Mansur Brown’s languorous, lyrical guitar, the second half switches up to a low-slung, g-funk-tipped groove.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High Focus Records are proud to present the latest collaboration from Verb T & Illinformed. ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ both continues and completes the trilogy that began back in 2015, with ‘The Man with the Foggy Eyes’, before broadening the horizons with last year’s release ‘The Land of the Foggy Skies’. This final chapter returns to the same conceptual landscape as its predecessors, but also sees Verb T & Illinformed returning to a more classic approach to album making. In spite of its concept, the Foggy Trilogy is something of a personal outpouring for Verb T, with the original aim being to vicariously discuss the trials and tribulations that play a part in his life, including his struggles with chronic illness and the feeling of alienation from leaving his hometown, while also reflecting on the state of the world as a whole. Their approach to making the album meant taking it back to the most natural form, where the idea for the track would be outlined, Illinformed would make the beat, Verb T would write to it and then they would tweak and adjust accordingly. The result is 19 of the most finely crafted tracks to emerge from the UK shores this year. As with the previous albums, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ finds Illinformed moving away from the more rugged sound that has shrouded the British scene over the last few months, thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Datkid and Wish Master, instead providing Verb T with an arguably more mellow backdrop. From the string and piano driven introduction on ‘Legacy’, to the blissful head-nod vibes of the closing track, ‘Blind Faith’, the union between beats and rhymes sits at the perfect level. The album also boasts one of the most impressive guestlists of the year, one that is very much a product of both players’ worlds. Thanks to Illinformed’s Bristol connection, there are features from the likes of Res One, Datkid, Leaf Dog, Smellington Piff and Chillman, as well as some locally sourced cuts from DJ Rogue. While on Verb T’s side of the fence, we have features from Rye Shabby and Moreone, along with a collaboration that reignites the same creative spark he found in his early days, as King Kashmere steps into the booth on Feeling Strange. All in all, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ does exactly what it sets out to do, by drawing the trilogy to a close while also providing insights into Verb T’s personal world and the world at large. The fact that it also happens to be one of the strongest rap albums of the year is the icing on the cake

Following the release of the dreamy and bewitching darkwave debut single “Mirror Twin”, Harsh Symmetry announces the release of a full-length debut Display Model on Fabrika Records, home of Selofan, Lebanon Hanover, and She Past Away, whose own Doruk Öztürkcan mixed and mastered the LP. With a vocal style reminiscent of Cocteau Twins collaborator Cinder (This Mortal Coil, Cindytalk), and Ian McCulloch of Echo & The Bunnymen, Harsh Symmetry’s Julian Sharwarko is the epitome of old-school and post-punk and goth, capturing a vision that perfectly matches his sound, while physically resembling his music forebears to the point where he looks like he just stepped out of a copy of Smash Hits circa 1983. Hailing from Sacramento, California, Sharwarko’s love of music began at the tender age of 8, with parents who influenced his early music tastes by playing the music of Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Birthday Party, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus. David Lynch’s work also made a profound impact on his style, specifically the short film The Grandmother.

Repress.

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

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

Sanam is a free-rock post-folk sextet consisting of Sandy Chamoun, Antonio Hajj Moussa, Farah Kaddour, Anthony Sahyoun, Pascal Semerdjian and Marwan Tohme. The group first formed as part of a performance with Hans Joachim Irmler from the legendary German experimental group Faust, at the Irtijal music festival. Their music and performances are akin to a ritual, a marriage and an exorcism of traditional Egyptian song/Arabic poetry and improvised rock, free jazz and noise. They recorded their first albumAykathani Malakonin a traditional house in the village of Saqi Reshmaya, which was then mixed by Radwan Ghazi Mounmeh (Jersualem In My Heart).

Relapse presents a remastered reissue from the undisputed king of Japanese noise-MERZBOW. "Pulse Demon" is one of the most celebrated releases of Masami Akita's storied 4 decade long career. Composed entirely by live noise concrete and the use of a fuzz box, "Pulse Demon" eschews all overdubs and studio trickery, laying MERZBOW bare. What follows in these recordings is the pure essence of unfettered noise. The rawness in "Pulse Demon" is palpable; praised as "genuinely extreme, downright torturous sounds that are strangely compelling in their shredding intensity." (A.V. Club) upon its original release in 1996. Remastered by James Plotkin (ISIS, ELECTRIC WIZARD, FULL OF HELL, and more,) the "Pulse Demon" reissues features "Extract 1", a never-before released track that was recorded as part of the original "Pulse Demon" sessions.