Cerca:do nothing

Standard edition - 180g black vinyl in poly sleeve with no art-print insert The Technokunst label journey continues with the third iteration of the Split Series, bringing together two long-standing figures from the deeper reaches of Techno. This time, Japan’s Takaaki Itoh and Scotland’s Deepbass are proving that in Techno, nothing is lost in translation. The EP opens with Takaaki‘s signature, timeless mental synth workout, “Fusioner”. Deepbass strips the original back to its core elements and takes the track in a much more minimal, yet functional direction that we’re sure is going to work wonders on any floor. On the flip, Deepbass continues to venture into more emotive territory with his original “Monolite”. Unafraid to use vocal pads, the track is brimming with emotion, giving it a distinctly cinematic feel, like a story unfolding. Takaaki closes the record with a pounding iteration of “Monolite”, with tones like those straight out of an astromech robotics division. Mastered by Gio at Artefacts Mastering and lacquer cut by Simon at The Exchange. The artwork is based on a digitally scanned painting on canvas by Dorka Berkes.

Limited Edition - 180g red-black marbled vinyl in poly sleeve w/ art print insert - 200 copies with no repress The Technokunst label journey continues with the third iteration of the Split Series, bringing together two long-standing figures from the deeper reaches of Techno. This time, Japan’s Takaaki Itoh and Scotland’s Deepbass are proving that in Techno, nothing is lost in translation. The EP opens with Takaaki‘s signature, timeless mental synth workout, “Fusioner”. Deepbass strips the original back to its core elements and takes the track in a much more minimal, yet functional direction that we’re sure is going to work wonders on any floor. On the flip, Deepbass continues to venture into more emotive territory with his original “Monolite”. Unafraid to use vocal pads, the track is brimming with emotion, giving it a distinctly cinematic feel, like a story unfolding. Takaaki closes the record with a pounding iteration of “Monolite”, with tones like those straight out of an astromech robotics division. Mastered by Gio at Artefacts Mastering and lacquer cut by Simon at The Exchange. The artwork is based on a digitally scanned painting on canvas by Dorka Berkes.

On Expensive Shit, Fela chronicles a failed attempt to imprison him for possession of weed in 1974. At this time, Nigeria was under a military dictatorship that had declared a war on indecency. Fela’s insubordination infuriated the government, and they repeatedly raided his compound, Kalakuta.

During one of the raids, an officer produced a joint from his own pocket and attempted to plant it on Fela, which Fela then swallowed. He was immediately taken to prison, where the police waited three days for him to “produce” an incriminating sample. When the time came, police took Fela’s sample for analysis and found nothing. Each night, Fela and his cellmates had swapped their slop buckets around, allowing Fela to relieve himself without the authorities realizing it. By the time of the public shit, there was no marijuana left in his system. The police had no choice but to let him go.

This 50th Anniversary edition is pressed on gold nugget vinyl, packaged in a trifold jacket that features elements of the original vinyl packaging alongside newly licensed images, a dossier envelope with poster, print, and newspaper clipping, wrapped with a metallic gold foil band.

Consummate selector DJ Sundae returns to Efficient Space with Nothing Ever Was, an immaculate compendium of phantom independent melancholia spanning '60s/'70s village green folk, outsider shoegaze and new millennium domestic pop. Each recording an emotional exorcism, Sundae breathes oxygen into music that was barely there in its own time, made in quiet places and crawl spaces, shared only with a precious few via private presses, hobby labels and now-decaying CD-Rs.

Free of any prescribed epoch, continent, scene or rarity, Noughties homemade indie pop opens both sides with the 4-track wonders of The Motifs and Betelmire, unlinked contemporaries finding their place alongside Andrew Jay's Crazy Horse rust, the regional-garage adolescence of Pauline Scribner and the anaesthetised Mancunian guitar-poetry of the late Quigley.

The remaining coordinates zigzag between the UK and US. Folk wayfarers John Strang & Valentine Lewis Lloyd, Virgin Insanity, Kusudo & Worth and Penny Wager's spartan Garden of Eden acoustica find their mirror in Empress and Slumber's close-quarters indie pangs. Chicago power pop fixture Phil Angotti is caught at his most tender, while Teri Rini takes the final bow with her universe-stopping hotel lounge torch song.

A deeper, more personal exploration of Sky Girl's sentimental songwriting, Sundae found himself amassing a cache of tracks too undeniable to remain confined to his anonymous mixtapes for TTT, P.A.M. and Good Morning Tapes, or bi-monthly hour on NTS Radio. Again his emotional sorcery draws together an unlikely cast, their unwritten narrative assembled from fragmented memories of past lives left behind by future horse trainers, ketamine therapists and Fab Four cover band careerists.

With not a second squandered across 1LP, it took a village to bring this new companion into being, with David Bergot's forensic audio restoration, dreamlike imagery from Matthieu Crozier, Ivan Liechti's elegant design and a perceptive foreword by kindred spirit Jessica Pratt.

'Sometimes life can kick you in the nads,' says Dominick Martin (aka Calibre). 'When life does do that, I need to make music like this. With its tones of hope and gospel-level layers of self-recorded vocals. Raw, uplifting, soulfull... Even to the most ardent of Calibre follower, ' Grow' sounds like nothing else he's done before. Yet it's not actually on the album it gave a name to. Partly because its ultimately positive veneer (even though it was written in the midst of two toxic relationships - one personal, one with the bottle) doesn't quite complement the deeper, more contemplative aesthetic of the album. But also because this is the start of a whole new story for Calibre...

'A part of Dominick is a poet and a part of him is a man who's lived through Northern Ireland at its worst,' observes Craig Richards . 'There's a gentleness and a tension to him and his past and his experiences. Somewhere in that middle ground is his music.'

Taken from a interview by Dave Jenkins for DJ Magazine.

Always lurking amidst the underground Porto music scene is Spitbender, the most stable moniker of the ever-morphing Francisco Antão. Spin gathers a collection of tracks that demonstrate his experimentalism & coy sonic precision. Spitbender takes cues from Jungle & Hip Hop producers to create his own unique blend of Downtempo. What becomes clear throughout the album is the attention to detail: it is infused as much by Industrial's red-line spectra as it is by the dubplate logic of the Darkside Continuum, yet it does so at its own tripped out speed.

Spin begins with the laid-back but constantly shifting 'Global Overgroove'. Its breakbeat science moves in & out of DSP glitch-work & dub reflections. When its slinky bassline melody arrives, a certain dread sets in.

'Weyward Fold' drops into a driving, hard-edged chug, threaded with snippets of Malcolm X's disobedient pedagogy. The momentum carries into 'Headnod Doctor', where the bass distortion thickens & the cymbal circuit is overloaded, landing somewhere between Hip‑Hop grit & metal weight.

Side A ends with the downtempo roller 'Dogs and Moles (Skylurk Mix)'. The familiar break drifts into new territory, pulled along & wrapped in a slap-back echo. A quirky melody cuts through the haze, giving the track a fresh tilt. The mulch of the track forms a steady, unhurried pulse.

Spitbender's spacious atmospherics & groove-focused approach comes further into focus on 'Nothing Here But the Recordings'. Creating his own chapter in the book of Trip Hop, his minimalist touch is laid out in full.

'Force the Hand Ov Chance' pulls Boom Bap gently into dub mechanics, letting space do the heavy lifting. Its simplicity hides a deep pocket.

Returning to broken-up distortion, 'Mirrors of Flesh (Dub Mix)' finds Spitbender using the mixer as an instrument to push & pull the heavy drums of Benjamin Brejon of Méchanosphere alongside the voice of Rui intoning the title phrase.

Sitting between the album's two poles, 'Out Take Dub' fuses the clipped‑obsession timbres of Spin's heavier moments with its blissed out flow. Feedback & distortion are welcomed & drawn long.

In the end, Spin hits like a fully formed statement—lean, focused, & unmistakably Spitbender. Every track pushes its own angle, but together they land with a clarity that feels earned. It's a sharp marker in his trajectory, & it leaves a charge in the air.

Back in stock and highly coveted, The Smiths - Best… I is a compilation of some of The Smiths’ biggest tracks including This Charming Man, How Soon Is Now?, Panic and more.

Bruno Berle is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and figurehead of a contemporary Brazilian music movement. With a quiet mastery of songwriting and an astonishing voice, his music has won hearts around the world. Since the release of his debut album No Reino Dos Afetos (2022), Berle has performed across the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China, only leaving his home country for the first time in 2023. Shaped by these journeys, Berle’s third studio album, Sem Fronteiras (Without Borders), reflects a utopian vision of a unified world.

Recorded across London, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Germany, and Maceió, the album–co-produced alongside his longstanding musical partner Batata Boy–is the most expansive canvas Berle has worked on to date. Shot through with the imagery that has always animated his songwriting: open skies, morning light, vivid colours and the magic of human connection, Berle’s carefully crafted poetics and warm, delicate instrumentation drive this vivid body of work.

“I came from nothing”–Berle doesn’t take his rise to global prominence for granted.

Born to a working class family from Brazil’s northeastern Alagoas state, one of Brazil’s most economically deprived, Bruno moved frequently in his youth to follow any job opportunities his parents could find, before eventually settling in the coastal capital of Maceió. “I used to travel to Caruaru, Santa Cruz, Recife, Garanhuns, Arapiraca, which I loved and feel it made me ready to be in this rhythm i’, but at the same time I think not having friends from childhood and being in constant change made me a little numb to the constant upheaval”. On Sem Fronteiras, there is a similar duality at play. The album celebrates the collective joy and human connection that live touring brings, but it also sits with the darker realities of crossing borders. While music moves more freely around the world than ever before, our bodies are not granted the same privilege.

Though he’s never lacked self-belief, Berle recognises that talent alone doesn’t guarantee opportunity. “Before my second album No Reino Dos Afetos 2 everything I had ever recorded was made with the help and kindness of people who believed in my ability”. Determined to pay that kindness forward and help others from the sharp end of Brazil’s desperately unequal society, Berle produced and featured on the recent self-titled albums by his northeast Brazilian compatriots, Nyron Higor and Phylipe Nunes Araújo (both 2025), helping propel both onto the international stage. In turn, following the successes of Nyron & Phylipe’s albums alongside his own, Bruno finds himself at the forefront of a thriving community of artists now based in São Paulo, but primarily originating from northeastern states like Alagoas and Pernambuco.

Much like the famed Clube Da Esquina movement that spawned in 1970’s Minas Gerais, they operate with a free-exchange of ideas, writing songs with and for each other, performing on each other’s albums and on the live circuit together. Lead single ‘Manha’ flows from this ethos. It was written by Berle’s friend and fellow Alagoan João Menezes (writer of ‘Ate Meu Violao’ and ‘Te Amar Eterno’ from Bruno’s previous albums) and Marvin Viera, and originally recorded on their 2018 album Areia e Mar.

Sem Fronteiras opens with ‘Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo’, just six beats of one nylon guitar chord ring out before changing key, paving the way for the gentle strike of fender rhodes and the arresting call & response duet between Berle and Higor. On ‘Amor Inteiro’, the album reaches a celebratory burst of catharsis, with the punch-packing drums of Pedro Lacerda and Nina Maia’s joyous backing vocals encapsulating the live energy that Berle and his band bring to the stage.

With the abundant talents of this musical community at its heart, Sem Fronteiras releases 10th July 2026 via Far Out Recordings, supported by a summer tour across Europe. Bruno Berle will perform in a four-piece band alongside Nyron Higor, Phylipe Nunes, and Batata Boy, culminating in an appearance at Roskilde festival, Berle’s biggest live show to date. He’ll continue to carry a hopeful vision of a world where artists and musicians can move as freely as their music flows.

Tracklist:

A1 “Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric piano, synthesizers, vocals
Bruno Berle – piano, vocals
Batata Boy – piano
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A2 “Não Posso Viver Sem Você”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Bruno Berle – drums, bass, synthesizer, vocals
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A3 “A Noite de Estrelas”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – synthesizers
Bruno Berle – bass, drums, vocals

A4 “Outra Noite”
(Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass
Felipe Berle – congas
Lucca Francisco – guitar, vocals

B1 “Amor Inteiro”
(Bruno Berle)
Pedro Lacerda – drums, choir
Nyron Higor – bass, choir
Batata Boy – guitars, organ, electric piano, choir
Nina Maia – choir
Bruno Berle – guitars, acoustic guitar, congas, vocals

B2 “Ideias Mágicas”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Heloisa Alvino – trombone
Batata Boy – synthesizers, beats, electric piano, organ, bass
Bruno Berle – synthesizer, vocals

B3 “Vim Dizer”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Thomas Stankiewicz – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – synthesizer
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass, vocals

B4 “Tô Assim”
(Bruno Berle)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitars
Batata Boy – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – bass, synthesizer

B5 “Manhã”
(João Menezes / Marvin Silva)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, congas, shaker
Batata Boy – piano, shaker, electric piano, vibraphone, synthesizers
Nyron Higor – drums, bass

B6 “Sem Fronteiras”
(Bruno Berle)
Filipe Mariz – guitar
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, bass
Jennifer Souza – vocals, acoustic guitar
Rudson França – drums

Credits:

Produced by Bruno Berle and Batata Boy
Mixed and mastered by Bruno Berle, Batata Boy and Felipe Berle

Audio engineering:
Nyron Higor (track 1 – production; track 4 with Felipe Berle)
Joe Osborne (tracks 7 and 9)
Victor Gelling (strings on tracks 1 and 2)
Filipe Mariz (track 10)

Photography: Claudio Virgínio
Design: Minchai

Recorded in:
Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil
Tamandaré, Pernambuco, Brazil
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
London, England
Cologne, Germany

2026 Repress

What changed between Av. General Roçadas and Junkeira? Seven years in people's lives — yet the team's commitment remains untouched, and the steady hand on the plumb line that keeps dance music (still) upright holds firm. Years of sustained research and field work from both producers, with their own records, mutually independent and independent too in how they brought them to life. Moreno Ácido has been navigating detours through a conceptual yet grounded underground — in sound and in format (two self-released cassettes since 2019) — while keeping one eye on the floor. His post pandemic reawakening carries a clear message: Call to Action is the label that in 2023 put the still-in-demand Trash/Treasure out on vinyl. Diogo keeps Discos Extendes as his shelter, gathering talent and retreating into it. At the same time, a disseminating vocation — that talent turned outward, on a mission to champion the different sensibilities that can converge in music made for dancing.

Junkeira is direct. It hides nothing in its intent, nor does it conceal the origin of its love, nor the way it exercises its fascination with the source. Geography can define movements, described and echoed countless times outside and then inside the net. The signifiers are known to all — it's a matter of applying them with respect and flow. Perhaps the craft in this production really does come down to love, when it comes to it. What is "WTF" if not a declaration of love — at the very least of closeness — to the sonic essence of the English rave? The piano stab, the breaks defining that hardcore state of mind, the string bed lifting feet off the floor. Closing out the EP, "Freak" gathers different emotions — eyes still shut, body in comedown while still moving. Chill. Everything rounded. Bassline, vibes, vocals woven into the rhythm.

Rewinding, the opening track "100 Planos" is a throwback to Roçadas (2019) — harder on the ground, with a 4/4 beat broken up by claps, a circular structure built for DJs, with mix-friendly entry and exit points. Then "Turbo Love" puts the keys in control, foregrounding them, letting a car alarm ring out and balance the beat — a reverential nod to UK Garage felt as raw material, already part of the lineage that has been the continuous evolution from Disco onwards: an evolution that traces a line and its branches, from which you can isolate any chronological point since at least 1977 and combine whatever elements form a personality. The spirit lives, as summer kicks in.

There are records that do not so much belong to an era as they pass through it, leaving traces rather than statements, circulating in the margins where function outweighs discourse. World Cup, written at the end of the 1990s by Kiko, emerged in precisely that way — as a techno track whose presence was felt less through promotion than through repetition, carried from booth to booth, absorbed into the working vocabulary of DJs who recognized in it something immediate and self-evident. Its architecture is minimal yet insistent, driven by tension and release, a form of clarity that resists ornament and instead privileges duration, pressure, and movement.

When it resurfaced in 2006, it did not return as a revision but as a continuation, reaffirming its role within the ecology of the dancefloor. The same internal logic remained intact, allowing it to re-enter circulation without friction, as though it had simply been waiting to be picked up again. In both instances, the track operates less as a fixed object than as a tool — something to be used, extended, and recontextualized in real time.

Bringing together these two versions alongside Tainted Life, the release traces a subtle but telling trajectory. If World Cupdefines a certain techno functionalism, Tainted Life reveals another dimension: a proto-Italo sensibility that gestures toward what would later coalesce as electroclash, not through stylistic declaration but through texture, tone, and attitude. Long absent from digital circulation and largely confined to obscurity, it appears here not as a rediscovery, but as a piece whose relevance has simply remained latent.

Nothing has been added, nothing has been altered beyond what was necessary to restore presence. The recordings are allowed to exist in their own continuity, detached from the temporal markers that might otherwise confine them.

The artwork, conceived by H5, extends this approach into the visual field. Its restraint is not aesthetic minimalism for its own sake, but a form of structural clarity, where composition and absence articulate a space in which the record can be encountered without interference, as if resurfacing from a parallel timeline that never fully closed.

Double vinyl reissue of Skullflower’s epochal “IIRD GATEKEEPER” album - the first time that this album has been available on vinyl for 30 years. In addition to the original LP this definitive and expanded edition includes extra and unreleased tracks taken from the recording sessions. For the first time all the tracks recorded by the band during this period can be heard together giving fans unprecedented access to material previously only available in the bands’ archives. Recorded in London in 1991 and released in 1992 on Justin “Godflesh” Broadrick’s HeadDirt label in 1992, IIRD GATEKEEPER established a worldwide reputation and following for Skullflower and convinced many who heard it that they had encountered nothing less than the best band on the planet. Arriving at the height of the “grunge” and the expansion of underground guitar “rock” into corporate America, IIRD GATEKEEPER had its roots deep in the UK noise and power-electronics scene. Guitarist Matthew Bower and bassist Anthony Di Franco were both graduates of the Broken Flag school of British noise making with their respective projects PURE, TOTAL and JFK. IIRD GATEKEEPER was Skullflower’s third album and was the first of the band’s albums to feature a consistent line-up throughout its production: Matthew Bower (guitar), Anthony Di Franco on (bass) and Stuart Dennison (drums). Recorded and mixed in four sessions between January and June 1991the tracks on this edition of IIRD GATEKEEPER shows the band’s new line up developing their sound, warping and evolving in real time. As such this edition of IIRD GATEKEEPER provides a unique document of the band in a state of transition, with the chemistry of the individual playing combusting in the studio to create a wave of astonishing creativity. IIRD GATEKEEPER is perhaps the definitive British underground rock album of the 1990’s – unique and never equalled. With this new edition Dirter Promotions allows Skullflower fans old and new to listen to this classic album as it was intended: spark up, crank it up and prepare to have your ears and mind blown

Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The vinyl sounds like it means business.

The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster serves the synth work well, keeping the melodic lines clear and the low end present without overcrowding the mix. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl pressing confirms it.

Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows, and Mes doesn’t waste any time. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, and then the Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. It’s a lot, but Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You don’t resist it. You just follow.

The B-side belongs to the most requested track in the label’s catalog, and it’s easy to understand why. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and then opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a particular gift for this, the ability to make a moment feel like it could last forever without ever losing tension. Ramirez’s own keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. Dunster captures the whole thing with care.

It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Nothing complicated about it, and that’s the point.

Play it loud.

Track A1 written and produced by Maziar Namvar and Joshua Collins. Remixed by Bryan Zentz.
Track A2 written and produced by Jason Sutton.
Track B1 written and produced by Cesar Ramirez. Remixed by Mike Huckaby.
Track B2 written and produced by Gabriel Palomo & Geto Mark.
Mastered by Lawrie Dunster at Curve Pusher, UK.
Copyright Control
2026 Fresh Meat Records

Shorter Version

Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster keeps the melodic lines clear and the low end present. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl confirms it. Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, then Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You just follow. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a gift for making a moment feel like it could last forever without losing tension. Ramirez’s keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Play it loud.

After he dropped his full debut with Sneaker back in 2024, Oxford’s own Silas steps back up to serve more crispy grime variations. With a deep affinity for the power of a 140 instrumental, his breakthrough streak continues to yield the toughest beats with a stripped back, steely resolve that could fold into all manner of dance situations.

Continuing the pressure laid down on the ‘Wot’ EP, the A side bowls in heavy with ‘Dimensions’, a cool and deadly whip-up of nervy string stabs and crooked, cubist drums. Meanwhile ‘Lost Souls’ amps up the atmospheric tension and lets the bass flex out behind the groove for a potent sidewinder joint to get the whole club shifting its stance.

‘Book Of Spells’ on the flip stretches the nervous energy out even further, leading in on the iciest ambience before locking into a devastatingly stripped down drop evoking the assured restraint of the weightless grime days. Making sure nothing feels too predictable, Silas pivots to a rugged, 2- step informed structure on final floor wrecker ‘Ritual Step’ . It’s another demonstration of the clear-eyed intention at the heart of everything this must-check producer puts out — a consistency of vision yielding some of the dankest workouts in the wider bass music sphere.

There was nothing in contemporary music like Chris Isaak’s Heart Shaped World when it hit shelves in June 1989. More than three decades later, the singer-songwriter’s third album still sounds unique — and claims a backstory nearly as fascinating as the retro-leaning material and standout performances that propelled it to sales of more than 2.5 million copies. Home to the Top 10 smash “Wicked Game,” the set remains a masterful mood piece that invites you to pour a late-night drink, sit in a dimmed room, and relish Isaak’s elegant albeit raw ruminations on love, relationships, and questionable decisions.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and featuring the bonus track “Diddley Daddy,” Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set of Heart Shaped World unearths the staggering inner details, saturated tones, and brilliant atmospherics of the crisp production. It brings you up close and personal with Isaak’s spectacular singing — impeccably controlled, tense, brooding, steamy, smoldering, haunted — situated amidst stripped-down backdrops that allow every note to fully bloom and decay.

While Isaak’s ever-steady baritone remains the anchor, the contributions of his trusty backing band, the aptly named Silvertone, come across with just as much cool, command, and realism. The indispensable playing of guitarist James Calvin Wilsey particularly emerges with superb clarity and dimensionality. The character of his 1965 Fender Stratocaster, shivering twang of his spring-coiled fills, and his signature use of reverb, delay, and vibrato seamlessly match Isaak's patient deliveries and the band’s unhurried rhythms. Experienced on UD1S with ultra-black backgrounds and a nearly invisible noise floor, Heart Shaped World is in every regard a demonstration disc.

The premium packaging of this UD1S pressing befits its elevated status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics. Aurally and visually, this reissue is for discerning listeners who desire to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, not the least of which is the cover art depicting a lost-in-thought Isaak staring ahead and sitting in what appears to be an efficiency apartment. The image epitomizes the record’s lonesome temperaments and pensive themes.

Of course, if not for director David Lynch hand-picking two cuts from Heart Shaped World for his 1990 film Wild at Heart, the record would’ve probably suffered the same fate as Isaak’s prior efforts and gone unnoticed by the mainstream. Despite receiving raves from outlets such as NME, Chicago Tribune, and Rolling Stone upon its original release, the album stalled in the lower quadrants of the Billboard charts and, after a few weeks, dropped off.

Cue the ear of Lee Chesnut. Then the music director for a large Atlanta radio station, Chesnut heard the instrumental version of “Wicked Game” on Lynch’s soundtrack and started airing the album rendition at all hours of the day. Aided by a sensual video featuring Isaak and supermodel Helena Christensen, the song found its way into the public consciousness by early ‘91 and helped make Isaak a most unlikely mainstream star in an era where his techniques had little to nothing in common with popular tastes.

Despite its vintage vibes and shared DNA with legends such as Roy Orbison, Chet Baker, and Glen Campbell, Heart Shaped World transcends nostalgia, rockabilly, and throwback tropes. For all the melodrama and sadness at hand, Isaak’s gorgeously transparent singing dives deep underneath emotional surfaces. He mines subtleties that indicate his feelings go beyond heartbreak and anguish, and occasionally suggest frustration, menace, and anger. You can hear it in his quivering falsetto, and the slow and methodical ways he allows delicate whispers to break into shadowy phrasing that crosses over to the darker sides of romance and desire.

That approach bolsters the title track, which suggests calm yet moves on ominous currents — its simmering pace and snare-drum snappiness foreshadowing Isaak raising the volume and urgency during the coda. The southwestern-tinged “Wrong to Love You” plays with similar concepts of hesitation, unease, and discord, Isaak careful never to fully erupt and give anything away. His poised deliveries offer a master class in the art of insinuation and hurt on “Nothing’s Changed,” sent up with a wordless backing chorus and crackling guitar lines straight out of a Memphis blues joint.

Heart Shaped World further boosts its merit via its abundant stylistic variations, from the upbeat country-and-western trot of “I’m Not Waiting” and Spanish acoustic shimmer of the jazz-based ballad “Blue Spanish Sky” to the swinging horn-accompanied grooves of “Don’t Make Me Love You” and desert smokiness of the understated “Kings of the Highway.” On the latter, Isaak comes across as resigned and absolute. His singing and pain worm their way into your soul, and echo akin to the way the music prepares to strike when you least expect.

“Trouble going 'round,” Isaak croons right as the album begins. “Trouble going down.” Damn straight.

Trevor Lucas and Gerry Conway were members of the folk-rock group Eclection, who released an album in August 1968 on Elektra Records. After the group disbanded in 1969, they formed Fotheringay with Lucas's girlfriend Sandy Denny, who had recently left Fairport Convention. The Fairports were recording mostly traditional folk material at this time and Denny left the group so that she could perform more of her own compositions.
The BBC session on Side One of this LP features songs from the first Fotheringay album and took place at the Playhouse Theatre on April 13th 1970. The songs on Side Two were recorded at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in November 1970. They are ‘off-air’ recordings but the sound quality is still very good.

Looking back on her career in the early 90s, Stevie Nicks described the first track of Rock a Little as “the most exciting song that I had ever heard.” This coming from a superstar who was already closely affiliated with several bajillion-selling Fleetwood Mac albums — to say nothing of her own benchmark solo debut. Her remarks attest to the enthusiasm and effort she invested in her third record, a 1985 work that quickly furthered Nicks’ profile and cemented itself as a piece of 80s pop lore.

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents Rock a Little in audiophile sound for its 40th anniversary. Helmed by a cadre of producers and engineers, and recorded for a reported one million dollars, the platinum-certified album teems with a head-spinning array of colors, tones, dreamscapes, and accents. This reference-grade reissue marks the first time they are all brought to light and conveyed with proper balance, dimensionality, and positioning.

Though Rock a Little doubtlessly has period characteristics of a mid-80s LP, Nicks and company spare no expense when it comes to distinguishing the music with expansive sonics distinguished with lush melodies, high-tech percussion, echoing vocals, sampled keyboards, and layers of sophisticated accents. The degrees of spaciousness, headroom, and dynamics are nothing less than inspiring, while the newly enhanced detail, texture, and clarity make the songs sing like never before. As for Nicks’ voice? Wait ’til you experience the transparency and depth.

Those advantages extend, of course, to the aforementioned “I Can’t Wait,” a statement-making opener shot through with modulating synthesizers, splashy drums, metallic guitars, and serious drama. Holed up in a massive studio, Nicks required just one take to nail her part, which she called “magic and simply not able to beat.” The singer-songwriter also distilled the reverberating emotional essence of the Top 20 tune, stating “when I hear it on the radio, this incredible feeling comes over me, like something really incredible is about to happen.”

The same can be said for nearly all of Rock a Little. Crafted by the likes of Songwriters Hall of Fame multi-instrumentalist/producer Rick Nowels, Heartbreakers organist Benmont Tench, bassist Bob Glaub, jack-of-all-trades Greg Phillinganes, and session-pro guitarists Waddy Watchel, Les Dudek, and Danny Kortchmar — along with another two dozen or so participants — the record spills with diverse ideas, shapes, and moods. Everything is in the right place, as evidenced by the swirling glide and sensual undertow of the slightly funky title track to the snapping rhythmic pace and big hooks of “Imperial Hotel,” one of Nicks’ standout moments.

“What was it she wanted?” Nicks queries on “No Spoken Word,” continuing a theme of contemplation that runs through the narratives. Nicks never lands on a definite answer, but hearing her explore loneliness, love, and the secrets we keep to ourselves proves continuously rewarding. Take her passionate performance on a cover of Chas Sanford’s “Talk to Me,” a Top 5 smash furthered by tasteful saxophone lines and understated folk elements. Immersive yourself in the grand sonic corridors of “If I Were You,” laden with Nicks’ signature mysticism.

Moreover, surrender to the gravitas of the closing “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You,” a piano ballad composed about the death of Joe Walsh’s three-year-old daughter. As Nicks asserts earlier on the album, she sings for things money can’t buy.

So, rock a little, yes, but dare to feel even more.

Carly Simon’s quietly intense sophomore album comes across like an assertive notice nailed to a telephone pole for all to see. Bold, personal, and autobiographical, Anticipation announces the arrival of an artist who won’t back down. While Simon stands her ground on her eponymous debut, she elevates her passion and persona to heightened levels throughout this gold-certified record, dealing in private matters related to love, relationships, and desire. At times, Simon is nothing short of primal. She reflects on the difficulties of retaining your own identity while also giving yourself to a partner. Simon’s connection to her folk roots would never be stronger.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set of Anticipation lays bare the rich tapestries afforded by the spare blend of soft guitars, mellow orchestration, and dreamy melodies. Audiophiles and record collectors, take note: This is the first time Anticipation has been available on 45RPM. The wider grooves and dead-quiet surfaces prove extremely rewarding.

The rhythmic framework anchored by session pro Andy Newmark’s drumming sounds dynamic and balanced, with songs benefiting from a focused midrange and taut low-end. Simon’s attachment to and investment in each lyric is made evident by way of the intimate, hushed atmospherics and expansive responsiveness. And just as Simon’s vocals feel more transparent and direct, so, too, do the supporting choral arrangements.

Released before the singer-songwriter movement reached full bloom, Anticipation remains remarkable for the high-quality songwriting and Simon’s gutsy stance. The album cover — depicting the vocalist holding the gates at Queen Mary’s Garden in Regent’s Park and seemingly defying anyone to take her on — serves as a metaphor for the content within.

Known for having relationships with high-profile partners, Simon was heavily involved with Cat Stevens leading up to the recording of Anticipation. She draws from her experiences to craft tunes that resonate because of their honesty, realism, and strength. Few of those moments are better known than the Top 20 title track, which Simon composed in just 15 minutes as she waited for Stevens to pick her up for a date. Imbued with the nervousness, tension, and excitement that accompany the moments when a romance could go either way, the Grammy-nominated song presages the feminist-minded vulnerability and burning longing that informs a majority of the record.

On the soulful “Legend in Your Own Time,” also inspired by Stevens, Simon harnesses yearning as a conduit to feel-good paradise. Deemed by Rolling Stone an “absolute clincher, an awesome description of the psychic ravages of gone-nuts, know-nothing love,” her cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “I’ve Got to Have You” moans with no-holds-barred desire and breathtaking sensuality.

For all the wanting Simon pursues on Anticipation, her way of staying in control — vocally and personally — make the record a courageous statement of contemporary femininity. For further evidence, look to the bossa nova of “Summer’s Coming Around Again,” somber “Share the End,” soothing “Three Days,” and sincere “Julie Through the Glass,” a tribute to her young niece.

Simon would achieve international fame with her next album, No Secrets. Yet as this definitive reissue shows, Anticipation suggests the rest of the world was just a little late catching up to her.

"Memory Remains" A Vinyl Cover Painted by 20 Children Who Believed They Could

A new album where the artwork is as personal as the music, created entirely by first-graders from Croatia.
When it came time to design the cover for Memory Remains, there was only one group of artists who felt right for the job: the first-grade class 1A of Osnovna škola Luka in Sesvete, Croatia.
Every single child in the class took part. Each student was given the chance to draw whatever came to mind: memories, dreams, imaginary worlds, the people and animals they love, and every one of those drawings made it onto the final cover. Nothing was left out, nothing was "corrected." The front and back panels of the vinyl are a patchwork of more than two dozen individual visions, side by side, unfiltered and unmistakably their own.
The idea grew directly out of the album's centrepiece track, "World Child", a song about the simple, often-overlooked truth that every child carries a talent that belongs only to them, and that no two ways of seeing the world are the same. Rather than illustrate that idea with a single artist's interpretation, it felt right to hand the canvas to an entire classroom of six- and seven-year-olds and let them prove the point themselves.
The result is a cover that doesn't try to look polished or professional, because that was never the goal. It looks like a classroom wall covered in a year's worth of drawings, each one different, each one someone's best effort, each one worth keeping. Which is exactly what "World Child" is about.

Memory Remains is out on vinyl.
Track of note: "World Child"
Artwork by: The students of 1A, Osnovna škola Luka, Sesvete, Croatia 2026

“Beautiful. Feels like every corner has been lovingly created. Highly recommended" Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

“Incredible. One of my albums of the year” Dom Servini, Jazz FM

“What a beautiful message” China Moses, Jazz FM

“Completely envelopes you” Soweto Kinch, BBC Radio 3

“An uplifting, articulate soundtrack which instils hope and uncontaminated warmth” Backseat Mafia

“Scrimshire delivers a superior example of the style thanks to his musicality and inventive imagination” Jazzwise

“He has stepped up: a stronger musician, and a braver one, with nothing here that plays as filler” UK Vibe


DJ Support: Cerys Matthews, Gilles Peterson, Gideon Coe, Zakia, Jamie Cullum, Patrick Forge, Maflada, Dom Servini, Tony Minvielle, China Moses, Yolanda Brown

Drawing on influences from Charles Stepney to David Axelrod, into expansive folk-soul and jazz from the 60s, Bring Our Light To Every Corner is a deep and enchanting masterpiece from Scrimshire.

With captivating features by Dwight Trible, Idris Rahman, Faye Houston and Indian classical legend Mahesh Kale, the album holds together a suitably diverse set of ideas in a seamless journey full of heart.

Following the chart success of their debut album Survival Mode (#3 UK Official Rock & Metal Chart) and explosive appearances at Reading & Leeds, Download, TRNSMT and 2000Trees, THE HARA return with their most ambitious record to date. Backed by their signing to Mascot Records, the trio deliver a fearless, genre-bending album that fuses stadium-sized riffs, cinematic electronics and raw, unflinching lyricism. Having shared stages with Sum 41, Nothing More and Ice Nine Kills, THE HARA are ready to break through to the next level – and this album proves they’re one of the UK’s most vital rising rock acts.

Pure world magic brims from every groove of this new set of pearlers from the Beauty & The Beat label. We know nothing about Loopico, who is behind the originals, but they blend plenty of Latin, cumbia and expressive percussive sounds into ass-wiggling grooves. Cow bells litter 'Curimbobata', which has stringy rhythms and external synths weaving in and out. 'Maquio' has busy, relentless handicaps and acoustic strings with shamanic spoken words, then 'Upaon-acu' and 'Calma-cara' bring sunny spiritualism to another pair of urgent rhythms. Leonidas lays down hefty, bass-driven rhythms that make these suited to club deployment and open-air dancing this summer.

Prozak has been kicking out the garage-house jams for a while now, and always on the best labels, from Time Is Now to Instinct, which is run by Burnski, who also heads up this one. And it's another case of pure fire from the off as 'Freak Ya Right' layers up silky, melodic bass with charged up synth stabs and a bubbly groove. 'No Use For Love' has a darker 90s undercurrent with organ basslines and more coarse percussive textures. 'Classics' cuts loose with an off-balance bassline that's cartoonish and oversized, while 'Ravers Inside' shuts down with plenty of pent-up funk and playful samples that will destroy the floor and nothing less.

For the first Vinyl VA on UnExposed we wanted to showcase a few of our very favorite producers to kick things off with a dark & spacey bang.

A1 comes by way of “Dream Architect” (Alias for Colombia’s Buraye). “Maze of The Null Sun” is a dark & twisted journey through space. One of the best pieces of production to ever grace wax for this Colombian live-set master.

We fly across the pond for A2 to meetup with Italy’s rising star, Shkedul w/ “Mad Things”. Like most of Shkedul’s releases on wax, Mad Things is a trance, acid, techno-infused masterpiece. Nothing over the top. Not a banger by any means but still perfect for peak time or the afters. Absolute production mastery on A2. Elegant production work.

On the B-Side we travel back across the map to retrieve an original track by label boss, Jovi, and Honduras’ Adrian Alessandro. “Horror Film” is an eery techno-electro suspenseful nightmare of a track. This is the first of many VA appearances on UnExposed by this emerging powerhouse duo. Their first appearance on wax is a special one but there is much more to come. For now, enjoy their first serving.

To accompany Jovi & Alessandro’s original mix of “Horror Film”, UnExposed’s Mastering Engineer, Dani Labb steps in for remix duties! The Argentina Legend takes over control of the spaceship and drives us at the speed of life towards an alternate universe harboring a revered revision of Horror Film. A lot of attention to detail on Dani’s Remix. Intricate and very tasteful darkness.

If you have seen any of Dani Labb or Stefano Andiezzi’s tour stops the past few months then you have likely seen them utilizing B2 as a very effective tool for the late hours.

Quiet, from the Latin quies, evokes a state of being still. In its verb form, quiet means to clear so that something can gradually come into focus. Kind Stranger by Amedeo Cappelletti is where quiet materializes in a more transient, even foreign, way. Each track takes a step back from noise, borne out of a slow return to music, a different pace, and a familiar place left behind for years.

Kind Stranger, released on Aurora Edition on July 24th, is about the strangeness of a return. Cappelletti's melodic scores work their way between faint noise and disquiet, and sonically muse upon the familiar. That is, when given enough time and distance, the familiar can become unrecognizable, demanding stillness to resituate oneself within it.

The album began taking shape when Cappelletti performed at Aurora Edition at Silent Green, just after he had returned to music following a three-year hiatus. In one month, he wrote forty-five minutes of new material from scratch. Then Cappelletti left Berlin after eight years and returned to the Tuscan countryside where he had grown up, back into slowness.

The album develops as an atmosphere in the truest sense. Resampled voices, found sound, and years of sound design practice converge as compositions form by overlapping texture with spatial depth. Kind Stranger cultivates a quietude that envelops the listener.

Vocal recordings made with Matthew Walsh and Sarah McInerney, collaborators Cappelletti met by chance in a Berlin ice cream shop, appear throughout the album like a current, shaped during a residency at MONOM, Berlin's spatial sound institute. Thematically, the record moves through digital addiction, fragmented attention, and the grief of work done in the darkness.

Kind Stranger is an offering to whoever finds themselves here within the quiet, in this particular quality of sound between return and lingering.

Charm are back from the depths of Berlin. Following three successful releases, they are now presenting their new EP on Flaneurecordings. The EP comprises three tracks that captivate with their warm atmosphere, profound soundscapes and driving basslines. In doing so, they create space for the sound to unfold and invite listeners to an intense listening experience. With their music, Charm succeed in striking a balance between depth and movement.

ALERT: BIG 90s ITALIAN RAVE COMP - a lot of very in demand tunes on here.

Navigators

Franco Falsini and the Interactive Test Universe

There are musicians who follow their time.

And then there are those who seem to move along a different trajectory—like navigators crossing sonic eras without ever truly belonging to any one of them. The story of Franco Falsini belongs to the latter. It is a story that begins long before raves, before techno, before the word “electronic” had even become a recognizable musical genre. A story that moves across continents, technologies, and sonic visions, eventually arriving at a small creative laboratory born in Italy in the early 1990s: Interactive Test. This compilation is a fragment of that universe. But as often happens with the hidden histories of music, understanding it requires going back. Far back.

The Beginning: Machines, Tape and Space

In the late 1960s Franco Falsini leaves Italy and moves to the United States. It is not merely a geographical journey—it is also a journey into a new idea of music. At the time, synthesizers are only just emerging from research laboratories. Multitrack tape recorders allow musicians to build entire sonic worlds on their own. Technology is still far from standardized: every studio is almost an experimental workshop. In Virginia, Falsini builds one of his own. Among cables, oscillators, electric guitars and reels of magnetic tape, a kind of music begins to take shape that resembles nothing else being made at the time. It is not simply rock, and it is not yet truly electronic. It moves somewhere in the space between the two. Out of these explorations emerges Sensations' Fix, the project through which Falsini releases a series of albums during the 1970s. Records that seem to come from a parallel dimension: cosmic landscapes, electronically treated guitars, synthesizers drifting like satellites. Many years later those albums would be rediscovered as visionary works. But at the time they were simply the result of relentless curiosity. A curiosity that would never fade.

The City That Never Sleeps

In the 1980s Falsini’s trajectory leads him to New York. The city is a sonic organism in constant transformation. In its clubs and recording studios something entirely new is beginning to take shape: music built from drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, created for the body before the living room. It is the dawn of modern dance culture. Falsini works as a sound engineer, producer and experimenter. From close range he observes electronic music transforming into a global language. Machines become more accessible, computers begin entering studios, and rhythm takes on an increasingly central role. Yet even in this phase Falsini does not simply follow what is happening. He absorbs. Observes. Reimagines. When he eventually returns to Italy, he brings back not only technical experience but also a clear vision: the conviction that electronic music is an open space, a territory still waiting to be explored.

Tuscany, Early 1990s

At the beginning of the 1990s something is happening in Italy as well. In clubs, abandoned industrial warehouses and clandestine parties, a new scene is beginning to form. It is rave culture: a spontaneous movement bringing together DJs, producers and listeners in a collective experience driven by rhythm, technology, and creative freedom. It is within this context that Franco Falsini, together with his brother Riccardo, creates Interactive Test.

The name almost sounds like a scientific experiment. In many ways, it is. Interactive Test does not emerge as a traditional record label. It begins as a laboratory—a place where ideas, sounds and musical identities can be tested and explored. Around the Falsini studio in Tuscany a small constellation of artists and DJs begins to gather, helping to shape the sound of Italy’s emerging electronic scene. Among them are Andrea Giuditta, Francesco Farfa, Gabry Fasano, Roby Mastelloni, Roby J and many others. Each brings a different musical sensibility. But they all share the same intuition: electronic music is not a genre. It is a language.

The Laboratory of Identities

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Interactive Test universe is its constant play with identity. Franco Falsini releases music under several different names: Open Space, Youth Wave, Agent Fylfoyt, Man Myth Magic. These are not simply pseudonyms.

They are different sonic perspectives, as if each project were a window opening onto a parallel musical universe. Open Space, for example, explores more atmospheric and visionary territories. Youth Wave moves between electronic groove and club-oriented rhythms. Other projects experiment with digital psychedelia or hypnotic techno textures. Interactive Test becomes something more than a label. it becomes an ecosystem.

Domestic Machines, Infinite Worlds

Looking back today at the technology used in those productions, one might almost smile. Many tracks were created on Amiga computers, MIDI sequencers and analog synthesizers wired together in home studios—tools that appear modest when compared to today’s digital possibilities.

Yet precisely these limitations became a creative force. Every sound had to be built, shaped and reinvented. Sequences developed slowly, almost like living organisms. The tracks did not always follow traditional dance music structures; often they felt like genuine sonic journeys. Music built from space.

A Hidden Constellation

Many of the records released by Interactive Test in the 1990s remained for years almost invisible objects, circulating quietly among DJs, collectors, and devoted listeners. Yet it is precisely this underground existence that helped preserve them. Listening again today, one perceives something rare: the feeling of music that does not fully belong to its own time. Music suspended between different eras. Perhaps because it comes from a vision that both precedes and transcends trends.

Continuing the Journey

Looking at Franco Falsini’s entire path—from the electronic psychedelia of Sensations’ Fix to the rave culture of the 1990s—a surprisingly coherent line emerges.

A line defined by exploration.

Each project, each pseudonym, each record appears as a new route within the same great sonic voyage.

Interactive Test was one of its stations.

A laboratory.
A community.
A creative platform.

This compilation gathers some of its traces.

Not as a simple archive of the past, but as a map of a musical territory that continues to expand even today.

Like all true sonic explorations.

The original album + 6 bonus tracks - limited edition pressing on 180g vinyl
The most talented bossa nova group of the '60s, Tamba Trio perfected a breezy,
swinging version of bossa nova vocal jazz that proved incredibly influential in Brazil
and throughout the world.
Comprising pianist Luiz Eca, bassist Bebeto, and drummer Helcio Milito, the trio not
only played a wide range of instruments but also contributed incredibly close vocal
harmonies. Presented here is their debut album, 'O Barquinho' (Little Boat), which was
a huge hit in Brazil and throughout South and Central America.
One of their later recordings, a rendition Jorge Ben's ' Mas, que nada!' ( But That Is
Nothing!) and included here as a bonus, became their best-known hit, and used most
famously by Nike in a 1998 World Cup television commercial.

"Zuhause sterben" by Endstation Altes Krematorium is quite possibly Lux Rec darkest release ever and as such, a perfect closure. This absolute, idle, desperate record will suffocate you, haunt you, certainly annoy you, and all of which is precisely intended. Daniele Cosmo and Florin Buchel gazed long into the abyss, so the abyss gazed back. This recording is what was found down there.

The Trip To Vega is about deep outer space odyssey that occurs in the process of traveling from Earth through the Cosmos to another "favorable" star system 25.3 light-years away.

The time is year 2097, Sept 23rd.

To this day, Earthlings have managed to dodge some of nature's more dangerous extremities, massive volcanic eruptions, Earthquakes, solar burst that knocked out the Planet's entire electrical grid for 3 years, numerous plagues of disease, food and fresh water shortages, domestic and International Wars and many other life-changing operas, but for this event, what remains is a realization that has no remedy. The cause: Earth's physicality has changed. It is no longer favorable for living things.

It is the constant shifting of the planet's internal tectonic plates which has unfortunately produced an unexpected and impassable dilemma.

Because of the collisions, deep within the planet's core, the planet is now producing an extraordinary amount of sound that includes a specific harmonic frequency that erodes the natural senses of all life on Earth.

It is intensifying. It is intolerable and it is unlivable.

Yet, some humans prefer to stay, to "ride it out" like the Titanic captain going down with his ship. Some, in total disbelief as some have concluded it is the second coming of Jesus Christ. But for most, the decision is clear. Tolive another day, leaving is the only rational choice.

At an increasing rate, scientific research data shows that humans and most animals, excluding the Jellyfish will eventually lose the usage of hearing and are to greatly suffer from an array of other neurological and psychological effects. The sense of touch and taste, sleep depreciation, severe nerve damage, constant hallucinations. Everyone will lose many of their cognitive abilities within an estimated 12 months from now.

On this day and every 7 days afterwards until all registered passengers have departed, the first of a fleet of large number of massive size spacecraft carrying approximately 1 million humans per vessel will permanently leave Earth to begin the long and adventurous trek across outer space to a new home: Vega.

This is not a precautionary tale as there is nothing to learn. Instead, a decision has been made and a Trip To Vega is the consequence.

- Jeff Mills

Some tracks don’t need fixing. They just need a bit more room. South African composer and keyboard wizard Don Laka has been quietly sitting in DJ bags for years, especially with people who like their synth music warm, slightly
mysterious, and impossible to date properly. Somewhere between jazz funk, township pulse and studio electronics, but really just its own thing.
Stages was an obvious candidate for extension. Prins Thomas what he does best here: opens the arrangement, lets the synth lines breathe, stretches the groove until it starts floating a little higher off the ground. Nothing forced, nothing added for
the sake of it. Just more of a very good thing. I Wanna Be Myself gets a gentle nudge from Gerd Janson. The idea was simple: keep the personality, and give DJs a version that lands naturally in a modern set without losing the original charm. It’s still the same track, just standing a bit straighter.
And because the source matters, the original version of “Stages” is here as well. Always good to remember where the magic started. Three versions, no drama. Just strong music that already knew what it was doing.

Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.

Two jewels in the crown of the soulful electronic music scene in NYC unite for a spellbinding EP on Rhythm Section International. ”Full Circle” is a brand new body of work from Musclecars & Toribio.

To call this 12” simply epic would almost be doing it a disservice. The breadth of musicality and execution of ideas contained across 3 compositions is nothing short of miraculous. I use the word composition intentionally: these are not merely tracks - these are 3 movements making up a concerto - with a dub thrown in for good measure!

The record kicks off with a soulful house behemoth, “ That’s My Story” featuring NJ legend Roland Clark on vocals giving sweet sweet testimony. In many ways, this track feels like a coming together of the trios influences. The lyrics contextualise it, giving it this intimate, confessional feel. The latin drums shuffling amidst the 909 kick drive it forward and the organ swimming freely amongst it all takes us to church. It’s a timeless track - paying homage to the various New York traditions laid down by Louis Vega, Timmy Regisford, Joaquin Claussell , Ron Trent et al - all heroes and collaborators of the composers who - with this effort - have surely now earned their place in the pantheon of American Soul Music.
‘
Be Honest’ maintains the confessional tone with the lyrics but takes things right back down in terms of tempo. Is it a love song, an ultimatum or a cry for help? Whichever way you interpret it, this track is Toribio’s time to shine as a lead vocalist and he hits all the notes, leaving not a dry eye in the house. This is a delicate tour de force, delivered with such raw emotion and vulnerability it allows the instrumentation takes a back seat - just a gentle groove, swelling strings and some unresolved chords are all that’s required to transform us to the main character of this story. We’re left hanging, and it’s oh so relatable.

Agua De Florida serves as an uplifting, fast paced finale to the concerto and this one’s all about the trumpet - masterfully performed by Melbourne born, London based virtuoso Audrey Powne. If Herb Alpert was making house music - I imagine this is what it would sound like. Throbbing bass and noodling synths join the melee and crank the joy up to 11. If the EP is a story arc over 3 tracks, then we’re definitely not left hanging with this one. All is resolved, things are moving onwards and upwards and the circle is complete.

2027 Repress

In certain circles, this is a record that would easily be called „eternal“. Back in 1996, when it was originally released, it sounded like nothing else - and still does. The sixth record of Frankfurt’s soon to be imperial Playhouse label and Losoul’s first outing on the label, it hot-wired many things at once: house and techno, US roots and European fruits, grittiness and wittiness, high tech funk, the expansion pf playtimes and the concept of minimalism in dance music. Elegance met effectiveness.
A composition that hooked you and also caused a stir elsewhere. Daniel Bell licensed it to his Elevate label and commissioned a very young Theo Parrish to remix it, Michel De Hey did the same with his EC Records and treatments by Gerd among others.
Here you finally get both of those carefully restored, remastered and reissued next to the originals. Amply placed on a double 12“, it also features the previously unreleased D1. Stemming from the same time and era as Open Door it rings and feels like a compact lost brother. Addictive as on the very first day and here to stay.

For RCR003, we looked to someone carrying the West Coast lineage forward with our first full solo EP from upcoming producer Adam Rose.

“Gravitation of the Past” honors the past while setting its sights on the future.

A quiet drag from somewhere behind, like the past has unfinished business.

A moment suspended Time Ahead & Standby caught between where you’ve been and where you’re headed. Mostly static, then a brief moment where everything clicks. Then the voice shows up.

Familiar enough to trust. Dangerous enough not to.

Out by the still waters of Atitlán, watching the surface hold everything and nothing at once, it becomes clear some things aren’t meant to be solved. Just seen.
You can look, just don’t linger.

What’s left is lighter funked out, a little crooked, still moving.

Extinction Burst! is the new invocation in album-form by Guttersnipe, Leeds’ premier and pre-eminent XFCER (XFCER: Xenofeminist crisis-energy rock)* duo. Slamming at full speed to multi-dimensional oblivion, Extinction Burst! is the most full, hidefinition lurid dream-mare yet spewed out by Uroceras Gigas & Tipula Confusa. Engineered and mixed by Ross Halden at Hohm Studio in Bradford and mastered by Rashad Becker, Extinction Burst! follows 2018’s My Mother The Vent, which garnered universal critical adoration. Nevertheless, this long-awaited follow up is more extreme: it is wildness beyond reason, splitting new tears in the reality gauze, ultimate hallucination through sound ecstasy. 2026’s Guttersnipe are evolved, mutated by 8 years of touring together and with the labyrinthine network of groups both Guttersnipe members are involved with - Tristwch Y Fenywod, Nape Neck, Petronn Sphene, Yexxen to name a few. On Extinction Burst!, as with previous material, the duo are heavily augmented with technology. Tipula Confusa's drum kit triggers chasm-causing synth pulses with thumping low end attack.. Strafing from all over the stereo field the constant shatter of the cymbals and toms feel like Sunny Murray or Rashied Ali in full flight during a John Coltrane session in 1967. Uroceras Gigas’s guitar + synth storm is by-now similarly an instantly recognised tool kit in underground music. Switching from screeching guitar atonality to intricate riffs from the black metal/Voivod hinterland to ultra-distorted synth meltdown, it’s an utterly overwhelming, essential and vital pouring-out of the full emotional spectrum. Both artists vocalise, ecstatic and primal, drawn out or yelped in pain or pleasure or panic. Alive On Tuesday begins with some of the only space on Extinction Burst! Digital crackles and tight-delays blow out into a fullthrottled death-dive into sweet opaqueness, offset by the duo’s vocals. There’s a popular believe that Guttersnipe is chaos, but over 9 mins here the group are clinical in their control of the simulated entropy. Mincing while the Maelstrom Churns’s guitar is modulated into jagged atonal atonement, duetting with the virtuoso drum patterns before it thuds into gear at quadruple the speed. Threads Of Radical Unaliveness veers close to the extreme Metal influences with blast beats and guttural vocalisations until the track exhausts itself into unaliveness. Keep Honking summons a demonic digital panic, with the duo reincarnating in real time as haunted versions of themselves, almost translating the lurid, ultra vivid, simultaneous hell+heaven of being alive in this dimension. Primordial Invagination harnesses No Wave’s dissension of normality before the structured collapse of Skra¨ckblandad Fo¨rtjusning, in which Tipula Confusa’s accelerating drums simulate a bouncing barrel of brimstone descending into a primordial gunky ooze, a respite in the middle before the record splutters to a stuttering finale, both members’ vocals out there in the neon realness, alive with crisis energy. There is nothing on this cursed earth like Guttersnipe. For over 10 years they have whirled in a wiggliness both woebegone and wonderstruck on a mission of radical mutant exaltation using rock music weaponry loaded with a queer hysterical ammunition to rupture the fabric of the known Rock universe and unleash a tendril-soft hallucinatory violence; thrumming with the bracing vividness of insect bodies, crazed with alien synaesthetic emotions, harnessing jagged excoriating illogic as a face meltingly snazzy affront to redundant macho mediocrity with the hope to break minds, squeeze hearts, explode pelvises and maybe even reset the parameters of reality. Addendum: xenofeminist : proposing and creating a world defined not only by sexual/gender equality, queer empowerment and the toppling of the racist heteropatriarchal hegemony and it’s tyranny of phallogocentric signifiers, but a philosophy of radical queerness that explodes the basic notion of embodied existence itself beyond even the human, where we see bacteria, invertebrates, reptiles, marine life, animalia in general, inanimate objects, quantum phenomena and as yet inarticulated bodies and minds as social and political equals that may inspire and inform our concepts of self, feeling and meaning as we labour to build a collective reality that doesn’t completely suck!! crisis energy : a term borrowed from the weird fiction author china mieville to describe a type of extreme concentration of power which emerges when a system or organism is pushed to it’s absolute limit; the point of rupture, chaos, entropic overload, just before it all breaks apart. rock : Rock ’n’ Roll, rock music, the devil’s music, sex, guitar, drums, voice, rhythm, riffs!

Jhené Aiko’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, Westside Whimsy, pressed on 2LP standard black vinyl and packaged in a 12" gatefold jacket with LP insert

The world of discovering Soul music and artists can lead to sheer moments of jubilation. The thought of igniting a long lost sound, reviving the energy of a once exuberant individual . But not every story that's told is filled with joy. Some are peppered along the way with struggles and heartache. Over time artists have battled with over powering label owners, record executives who just don't back what you do. The story of Tommy Hill is one such story. Tommy along with friend and longtime collaborator Ricky Tarbo had a deal with Motown records back in the early 1980's which turned sour very quickly. His release "Flame"/"Super Star Of Love' was dropped pretty quickly with no promotion and record boss Sylvia Rhône calling the shots within the duo questioning skin colour within the group and even trying to get vocals wiped off the release to sabotage it.

This said the single didn't amount to much and nothing else was recorded for Motown records. The duo did record some 4 demo's in LA before Tommy headed to re-record them again in New York circa 1982.

The A side has never been released until now, which is such a crying shame as the quality is so damn good. It's an uptempo boogie cut called "All My Love" which we gave a sexy 45 mix so you get some slamming synth work half way in. Tommy Hill's vocal range is nothing but astonishing. Just check out the 2 step ballad of "Can't Get Over You", which was recorded and released back in 1980 by The James Simpson penetration Band written by Tommy Hill, who went back into the studio 2 years later to give the song much more depth not only within the production but also to his vocal range. Tommy Hill headed back to LA after not securing a record deal and a few years later tried to get this singing career back on track. Like many of the artists who have moved on to a higher place Tommy succumbed to his own mental health issues and took his life. We hope this record does you proud Tommy Hill