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Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK.
“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that ran throughout СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor Wiśniewski joining the band.

Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ, laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa, about the possibility of recording the new album in his recently finished studio in São Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile coming onboard as recording engineers.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ’ new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to São Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder’s studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band’s Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band’s finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ’ songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Ciça Góes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak žyćcia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry piece in Japanese by singer-songwriter Manami Kakudo.

"Waxwork Records is proud to announce the next entry into their collection of FRIDAY THE 13th soundtrack releases on vinyl, FRIDAY THE 13th PART 3. Waxwork and composer Harry Manfredini re-visited the original analog tapes in an effort to faithfully master the complete soundtrack for vinyl. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 includes every musical cue featured in the film and encompasses two 180 gram LP's clocking in at nearly one hour of chilling audio which serve as a dark musical backdrop to one of the most beloved franchises for horror fans. Originally released in 1982 and in 3-D, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 is the first film to feature the legendary slasher, Jason Voorhees, wearing his signature hockey mask. This image of a machete wielding, hockey masked killer became the trademark for the franchise, as well as an iconic image in American cinema and horror films in general. To keep in tune with the original 3-D theatrical release of the film, Waxwork created a deluxe quality 3-D lenticular mounted album cover for the heavyweight old-style tip-on gatefold jacket which houses two LP's featuring the complete score.

Waxwork Records incorporated the lost, deleted final scene of the film into the inner gatefold illustration. This deleted scene from the film depicted an unmasked Jason Voorhees violently beheading the “final girl"". Deemed too graphic by the film studio, the scene was cut from the movie altogether. Here's your chance to see it up close and personal through the artistic vision of Gary Pullin.

And yes, this soundtrack release includes the now famous “Disco Theme"" from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3's opening credits!

"Waxwork Records is proud to announce the deluxe vinyl release of FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Harry Manfredini! Released in 1981, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 is the follow up to the 1980 seminal slasher horror film, FRIDAY THE 13TH. Horror fans meet Jason Voorhees as the masked slasher for the very first time in this sequel, and it's the first and only time we see him donning a burlap sack over his head, later followed by the classic hockey mask in Part 3 and beyond.

Waxwork worked closely with composer Harry Manfredini to bring horror fans a very special and quality soundtrack experience. We're stoked to present the complete soundtrack sourced from the original 1981 master tapes as a deluxe package featuring artwork by Rich Kelly, 180-gram colored vinyl, and high quality packaging!"

Nachdem sie auf ihrem gefeierten Debütalbum ein multidimensionales Klanguniversum definiert hatten, verlassen der Komponist und Filmemacher Chris Hunt und James ,Munky" Shaffer von Korn auf EXINFINITE das Vertraute und driften in ein Reich der Rekursion, wo sie auf ein Gewirr aus gespiegelten Wurmlöchern blicken, die mit unheimlicher Mehrdeutigkeit summen. Das zweite Album von VENERA ist düsterer, heavier und perkussiver als sein Vorgänger, aber es gibt etwas Intimeres in seinen Schaltkreisen, das schwer zu definieren ist - etwas Mystisches, Geheimnisvolles und Melancholisches. Songs materialisieren sich aus dem Nichts, nur um von sauren Synthesizern aufgelöst oder von Hunts geschärften Beats durchbohrt zu werden, während Shaffers dichte, gequälte Riffs durch euphorische, zeitverzerrte Vocals von FKA twigs, Dis Fig und Chelsea Wolfe ausgeglichen werden. Nach ihrer Begegnung mit der Unendlichkeit haben VENERA nach innen geschaut, über die Grenzen der Existenz nachgedacht und ihre tiefsten Emotionen ausgegraben. VENERA entstand 2022, als Hunt und Shaffer nach Aufnahmen mit der albanischen Künstlerin Xhoana X. ihr eigenes musikalisches Terrain betraten. Das Duo improvisierte gemeinsam und experimentierte mit cineastischem, von Science-Fiction inspiriertem Sounddesign und erkannte, dass die Zusammenarbeit Potenzial hatte. So begannen sie, ihren Sound weiterzuentwickeln und zu verfeinern, wobei sie Unterstützung von Deantoni Parks, dem ehemaligen Schlagzeuger von Mars Volta, Alain Johannes von Queens of the Stone Age, dem Post-Punk-Duo VOWWS und den LA-Noise-Rock-Legenden HEALTH erhielten. Nachdem ihr Debütalbum 2023 auf Mike Pattons Label Ipecac erschienen war, setzten VENERA die Dekonstruktion und Neugestaltung ihres Songwritings fort, tauschten Eno-artige Ambient-Atmosphären gegen explosive Beats und dichte Texturen aus und fanden heraus, wie sie die von ihnen eröffnete Erzählung erweitern konnten, ohne alte Pfade zu beschreiten. Auf ,Tear" ist die neue Richtung des Duos deutlich zu hören, wenn Shaffers ursprüngliche Gitarrenklänge zu unheimlichen Widescreen-Expositionen umgestaltet werden, die Hunt mit pneumatischen Kick- und Snare-Zyklen untermalt. Unterbrochen von Luftschleusen-Zischen und leuchtenden Synthesizern, bietet der Track eine Kulisse, die VENERA kontinuierlich verwandelt und das Konzept im Laufe des Albums neu formt. Die Kult-Singer-Songwriterin Chelsea Wolfe gibt dem düsteren ,All Midnights" einen gotischen amerikanischen Touch, indem sie kraftvoll über VENERAs vakuumverpackte Rhythmen und gasförmige Synthesizer singt, und der in Berlin lebende Noisemaker Dis Fig, der bereits mit The Body und The Bug zusammengearbeitet hat, verleiht Shaffer und Hunts tape-verzerrten Industrial-Pops und -Whirrs in ,End Uncovered" hauchige, emotional vielschichtige Töne. Sie lassen squelchigen, verlangsamten Techno in okkulte Noise-Reflexionspools auf dem schlängelnden ,Asteroxylon" einfließen, und Hunt antwortet auf Shaffers hallende Zupftöne mit Nebelhorn-Stöhnen auf dem unheilvollen, nachdenklichen ,uuu773". ,EXINFINITE" baut sich kontinuierlich auf, bis es ,Caroline" erreicht, eine intensive Zusammenarbeit mit FKA Twigs, die ihre unheimlichsten Töne isoliert. Zunächst umspielt sie ihre Worte mit bedrohlichen elektrischen Verzerrungen und verstümmelten, geisterhaften Stimmen, bevor sie in einen aufgeladenen opernhaften Schrei ausbricht, dem Shaffer und Hunt mit flirrenden kybernetischen Beats und dichten Wänden aus Gitarrenlärm begegnen. Dieser Track bricht das Konzept von VENERA vollständig auf, verschmilzt das Synthetische mit dem Natürlichen und löst Dysphorie, Selbstverlust und unendliche Regression aus. So wirken der blutrünstige Lärm und die finstere Atmosphäre von ,Decreation" wie eine dissoziierte Coda. In ,EXINFINITE" werden Zerstörung und Tod nicht überwunden, sondern so lange intensiviert, bis sie sich vollständig verwandeln.

Carefully arranged jazzy cuts circle the first appearance of the enigmatic Edrift. For sure a future classic to fill your colorful afternoons, or to serve as a tapestry for late night conversations, will most likely end up on your forever loved records. Lovely melodies drift in perfect balance on top of some of the coolest beats. Unpack, throw it on the turntable, and enjoy it in the most relaxed way, as it was intended.

Cassette edition of Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series.

"A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."

Death Is Not The End's mixtape-style selection of clips from tapes recorded live at soundsystems playing during London's Notting Hill Carnival between 1984 and 1988, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in August 2018, is the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. Featuring sounds from the likes of Jamdown Rockers, Saxon, Java Nuclear Power, Killerwatt Turbotronic, Stereograph, Sir Coxsone, Volcano Express and more.

Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts of the Who Cork The Dance crew - big thanks going out to Jayman, Ruff House, Keimo, Omar, Gee Wizz and the one Jah Humble.

Death Is Not The End platforms a selection of brooding, haunting Turkish tango recordings from the decades following the foundation of the republic in the early 1920s through to the mid 1950s.

The Danish/Norwegian duo of Ida Urd and Ingri Høyland believe that music is an extension of one’s immediate sensory environment. Duvet, their collaborative full-length debut, explores the way that creating sounds together is intertwined with various quotidian actions: establishing surroundings, rearranging furniture, moving towards the light, collecting flowers or other objects for aesthetic and sensuous impulses. Through a quiet and attentive process, music becomes a way of nurturing space: a soft architecture for play, writing, care, or simply rest.

Sonically, Duvet feels like an extension of Høyland’s last album, 2023’s Ode to Stone, which also featured Urd along with ambient musician Sofie Birch and visual artist Lea Guldditte Hestelund. But where that album, created in response to an open call for work themed around Denmark’s national parks, suggested rolling landscapes and endless horizons, Duvet turns inward, countering chill winds with glowing warmth. Its eight tracks seek a balance between abstraction and melody, intention and happenstance.

“We had a truly inspiring and rewarding process working with Birk Gjerlufsen Nielsen from Vanessa Amara, who co-produced and mixed the album with us,” Ingri adds. “He approached the material with great care and sensitivity, while also bringing his own distinct presence and creativity into the sound.”

Høyland and Urd both studied at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, which has turned out many acclaimed artists over the past few years, including Erica de Casier, Astrid Sonne, and Smerz. Over many years, the two composers have developed a collaborative method based on connection and trust. A practice, they write, “where composing, or rather suggesting, sounds and melodies for one another is a way of carefully talking, mending emotions and obstacles. Saying yes to one another. The compositional space becomes a nest for entangling whatever emotions, thoughts, or barriers one of the composers brings to the given day or moment.”

Quiet and contemplative, Duvet is simple on the surface but rich in timbral, textural, and emotional complexity. Høyland and Urd sourced their sounds from an array of instruments and techniques—electronic devices, modules, pedals, and also electroacoustic treatments of various wind instruments.

Mixing primarily through analog tape units added further mystery and depth, weaving together wordless voices and unknown sounds—breathing, rustling, perhaps the coppery gleam of Urd’s electric bass—into a dynamic matrix. Like a nest, pull one twig and the whole thing unravels.

In the winter of 2023, Ingri Høyland and Ida Urd retreated to a summer house along the coast to create the album. Picture the scene: an abiding quiet all around. Gardens carpeted by snow; beach grass silvery against the silvery sky; a tendril of smoke rising from the chimney. Not another soul in earshot. This sanctuary was the perfect setting to yield this meditation on shelter, trust, and communication. The two composers hope the album can be a similar space for others—a temporary space of residence, it can represent a summerhouse, a cabin in the woods, your favorite bench or wherever you need to go. “The album also works really well when picking out apples in the supermarket” Urd laughs.

Followed by the first release last year Chinese label Motivation, curated by B.ai, comes back with its second V.A. featuring Ilkay Yeler, J6, SMEV and NAE. The vinyl attributes in progressive house, electro house and electro.

Opening track “Destiny” ‘s morphing main motif gets kept in check by a steady pulse of snappy bass. Enigmatical vocal samples add to the ambiguous atmosphere, so the sets of twinkling mallets J6 sleekly includes, bring a touch of subtle lightness.

A-2 Ilkay Yeler’s sound is fueled by endless nights of groove, and on “Frontliner” this translates to a hypnotic trip into the deep end. Underneath its dreamlike current of silky chords a steady bass riff propels everything forward, allowing a restless arp to zone in and out.

Flipping to the side B, Sev’s Miami-inspired 808 patterns have “Clearing The Fog” come out of the gates swinging. Bright flutes and big basslines provide this slab of machine funk with a tapestry of melody, and fluorescent synth solos top it off.

Nay ends affairs on a melancholic note with “Silent River”. The leads sound like they ran through an eighties wave pedal chain, and as pondering chords and choirs work their way in, a Juno 6 bass adds extra depth. Still firmly directed at the club, the track escapes easy classification - and suitably closes a diverse yet coherent EP.

Emotional Response is delighted to present the debut EP of Aaron Coyes (Peaking Lights / Leisure Connection) new project, as Exotic Gardens. An additional music universe as his love of dub expands to include new wave, goth and acid psychedelics across 5 catchy, bass heavy songs.

While the continuing journey of his duo band, Peaking Lights, with his wife Indra, earns plaudits and fans alike, his early years as a one-man lysergic music polymath that saw his youth in punk and hardcore bands, expanded during a mid-90s burst of “living in San Francisco” creative expansion, devouring music, genres, and influences for life.

Started as a sub-project to Peaking Lights and his personal dub excursions, Exotic Gardens pollinates a rich tapestry. Recording through the pandemic in their then home in Amsterdam, before being archived, assembled, and completed following the move back ‘home’ to the West Coast, California.

Re-embracing that love of his inner goth, the analogue warmth is all there, now featuring Coyes’ dub-languidity of stripped drum machines, widescreen bass, haunting guitar lines and an almost idle voice to peddle true, raw songs.

Combined, the pop layer of hooks and tight grooves instantly catch you. Opener and EP title, Drugs & TV is the perfect anthem for the Exotic Gardens sound, before the “dubwave” of Last Of The Light and Tonite shimmer that yearning melancholy of youth.

In the almost 10 minute dub house opus Organize Your Movement an appreciation and understanding of the psychoactive properties of the Roland 303 and 909, they also hark to a love of Industrial / Noise bands, a lineage from the death pulse of his cult project Rahdunes through to Sound Design and Sound System culture to the pop-dub psychedelics with Indra, now melded here to include a dark assault, whispering invocations and pulsing pads.

To close, Turn It On is a roaming multi-genre evocation, an exotic end from this constant troubadour, cassette junkie, record dealer, sound system builder, always looking to get back on the road, to live to roam.

“I turn it on, you lose your mind’.

26th May 1980. We were kids, or we were not even born yet. This day changed the thinking and the future of an entire nation. That day one man carried the weight of history and all the hope of a whole country, to infinity and back.

Bertalan Farkas was the first Hungarian to make a successful landing aboard SOYUZ-36 as part of the Interkosmos program led by the Soviet Union. Together with his partner Valery Kubasov, on 26th May 1980 he launched into outer space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. With this space travel Hungary became the seventh nation to enter outer space.

In addition to his professional knowledge and merits, an entire country celebrated him for his humanity and loyalty to his people. The national hero of the 80's inspired generations. As children we wanted to be astronauts, and as adults we look up to the stars and the endless sky with the same childlike enthusiasm.

Sex Tapes From Mars sister imprint, Hot Plates turns to junglist misbehaving, with chopped and screwed, pitched down and twitchin’ vocals, merging with ragga choruses. It’s hardwired to the dance but swerving every expectation - soulful chants spiral out like smoke in UV, tangled in a fever dream of gun finger pressure and rewound fragments.

The flip is driven by a deep, bellowing bassline, paired with ominous yet soaring strings. Each part contradicts the next, but somehow it holds, glued together with that early jungle lawlessness. Still sounds raw, still sounds vital - as grittily dangerous now as it was in ‘93.

The original release came as a limited white label 32 years ago, now grailed and silly bob on ‘cogs, lovingly remastered and cut loud, restoring the bite while adding clarity and bottom-end heft that rattles ribs.

With the planet in free fall and the dance scattered, the sentiment hits harder: “All we need now is love and unity”.

Proper summer system tackle. Not a repress - a resurrection.

The Money Records 2” multi-track tape of ‘Sugar Love’ and ‘You Bet I Would’ revealed an unknown title ‘We’ve Reached A Dead End’. This turned out to be a beautiful Richard Cason-penned ballad which featured a lush, dramatic arrangement by Los Angeles musician Ray Jackson, complete with male backing vocals.

Cason co-produced the three songs with producer Hadley Murrell who licensed the recordings to Ruth Dolphin at Money. ‘Sugar Love’ only appeared on the flip of the second pressing of ‘You Bet I Would’, the instrumental was used initially. ‘Sugar Love’ is in itself in-demand as a dance track. Money 606 did not sell enough to warrant a further release and the track lay unmixed in the vault until now.

Interestingly the tape was dated May 1973, just prior to the two releases, and was described on the box as a rework of a tape from July 1971 - the music certainly wasn’t rushed.

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.

The moment the instantly recognizable intertwined guitar passage on the title track to the Eagles' Hotel California begins, the record's genius becomes obvious all over again. Ranked the 118th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, certified by RIAA as the third best-selling LP in history, and considered the foundation on which the Golden State's mid-‘70s music scene was built, the 1976 landmark is a music staple immune to shifts in trends, eras, and styles. Fearlessly addressing the chaos and consequences of American life, its songs remain strikingly prescient and gain creedence with each passing day.

Mastered from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and limited to 17,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP vinyl box set ensures you will want to permanently check into and never leave this particular Hotel California. Up to the herculean task of standing head and shoulders above all prior reissues, this collectible edition plays with extreme clarity, organic richness, tube-like warmth, massive dynamics, and microscopic levels of detail. You'll be able to practically smell the colitas and feel the breeze in your hair. Songs come across with an epic sweep and feature immersive, front-to-back soundstages that allow the music unprecedented air, roominess, and separation. As for the noise floor? It's basically as invisible as the spirits that waft in the corridors of the unforgettable title song.

Aesthetically, the premium packaging and presentation of the UD1S Hotel California pressing befit its esteemed status. Housed in a deluxe box, it features gorgeous foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendour of the recording. From every angle, this UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artefact meant to be preserved, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the renowned cover art to the meticulous finishes.

Indeed, the opportunity to zero in on all the particulars of the 26-million-selling Eagles record dubbed "a legitimate rock masterpiece" by vaunted Los Angeles Times scribe Robert Hilburn has never been better. A global phenomenon that marked the band debut of guitarist-singer Joe Walsh, Hotel California continues to resonate and connect with listeners of all generations taken by its narrative depth, stark directness, picturesque melodies, daring majesty, and ardent emotionalism. Adorned with a breathtaking exterior photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel that serves as the simultaneously haunting and alluring cover art, and rounded out by a rear-cover shot of the Lido Hotel lobby that reinforces a notion that teeters between permanence and transience, Hotel California is brilliantly tied to a specific place that functions as a universally understood metaphor for the American Dream.

Confronting the darker undercurrents and oft-ignored constructs attached to that romantic notion, the record's songs revolve around a host of shared themes: excess, mobility, stability, illusion, fame, destruction, and idealism included. Notably, Hotel California appeared at a crucial junction in American history: During the country's bicentennial and amid escalating controversies related to the Vietnam War, energy crisis, and governmental corruption. That the Eagles manage to channel such cultural, social, and economical matters into a cohesive, stately, big-picture statement is alone a stupendous feat. That the album's reach, boldness, vitality, accessibility, and understated intensity have never waned make it a marvel.

Reflecting on Hotel California 40 years after its original release, and indirectly explaining its enduring appeal and increasing relevance, singer-songwriter Don Henley confirmed the record pertains to the "loss of innocence, the cost of naiveté...the difficulties of balancing loving relationships and work, trying to square the conflicting relationship between business and art; the corruption in politics, the fading away of the Sixties dream of ‘peace, love and understanding.'"

It can be argued that Henley and company squarely hit on and drove home those ideas in the surreal title track, chart-topping "Life in the Fast Lane," and grand "The Last Resort" alone. But that would miss the forest for the trees. Experienced as an unbroken whole, complete with the pristinely shot imagery and physical grooves, Hotel California unfolds like a geography-conscious saga by James Michener and plays like colour-saturated movie shot on 70mm film by Martin Scorsese. It's about our collective and individual decisions – and the shape of our past, present, and future. And, just like that conjured by our imaginations, Hotel California continues to take on a life of its own.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.

MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

The Temptations Get High on Psychedelic Soul: Cloud Nine Soars with Ambitious Arrangements and Production, Features Standout Vocal Performances and Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers

The Temptations’ Cloud Nine announced that Motown — and “The Sound of Young America” — would never be the same. Influenced by the emergence of cutting-edge rock and pop currents, as well as increasing sociopolitical turmoil, the album broke down barriers between rock, psychedelia, and soul while heralding the arrival of visionary arrangements and production techniques. Bookended by traditional R&B numbers, the 1969 record sent the Temptations in bold new directions and signaled the advent of psychedelic soul.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45PM 2LP set presents Cloud Nine in audiophile sound for the first time on a domestic pressing. This collectible reissue bestows Norman Whitfield’s extraordinary production with the grand-scale dynamics, natural tonality, expansive openness, and low-end weight it deserves. The timbre of each of the five members’ voices is readily identifiable — even within the group harmonies — bestowing a realism never experienced outside the recording studio.

Making its debut on 45RPM, the album further benefits from the wide groove space by playing with greater separation and more realistic presence than prior editions. Everything from the brassiness of the horns to the dry snap of the snare comes across with reference-grade clarity and positioning. And since Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers backing band plays on many of the cuts, you’ll want to savor every note. The imaging, soundstaging, and organic bloom-and-decay of the notes make that possible.

Amid Cloud Nine, the instrumentation and architecture stand out as much as any element. Never before had a Motown album contained such ambitious patterns and complex passages. Seemingly conscientious of the departure from their past methods, the Temptations and Whitfield bunched together the tracks that mark a deep dive into psychedelic territory and counterbalance them with seven sterling soul cuts that dovetail with Motown tradition drenched with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats.

On the original 33RPM release, traditional Motown soul — laden with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats — occupies Side Two. These songs reveal an ensemble still very much on top of delivering pristine pop-soul material graced with romantic sweetness, persuasive insistent, and soaring highs. Re-energized after the departure of lead singer David Ruffin, who was fired for a variety of reasons in June 1968, the Temptations seamlessly meld with his replacement, Dennis Edwards, on one melodic gem after another.

The collective tackles five songs co-written by the legendary Motown team of Barrett Strong and Whitfield. Not the least of which are the smooth, shuffling “Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)” and deceptively simple, horn-spiked “Gonna Keep on Tryin’ till I Win Your Love.” On these tracks, as well as on a lush rendition of the ballad “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing” and pleading, tender send-up of the Gerry Goffin-Carole King classic “Hey Girl,” Edwards and Paul Williams take turns on the lead with the estimable Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams providing backing support.

All five vocalists trade-off leads on the simmering title track, a groundbreaking composition shot through with wah-wah-pedal effects, liquid funk, deep bass lines, Cuban percussion, saturated reverb, and gang choruses. Whitfield mines each member’s natural vocal range with spectacular results, keeps time with cymbals, and channels both the heated temperatures and escapist desires of a society embroiled in war, conflict, and experimental drugs.

Amazingly, the Temptations top themselves on the similarly revealing “Run Away Child, Running Wild.” Nearly 10 minutes in length, the song explodes R&B parameters and harbors a cinematic scope. Urgent pianos, distorted guitars, stripped-down percussion, steamy Hammond organs, minimal bass motifs, five distinct voices narrating the tale of a boy who fled home and now finds himself amid the scary, unforgiving external world: They combine to give the urgent tune a walls-closing-in atmosphere where fear and desperation reign. Bolstered by an extended instrumental section that precedes a climactic return of the singers’ voices, “Run Away Child, Running Wild” equaled the success of the record’s title track, with both reaching No. 6 on the pop charts.

How enduring is the signature song from Harry Chapin’s Verities & Balderdash? So timeless that it became the subject of a 2025 documentary in which artists from multiple generations weigh in on its impact on their lives and craft. “Cat’s in the Cradle” doubtlessly remains the main event on the singer-songwriter’s 1974 album. The legendary opening track also serves as a guidepost for the bold personal and social material that follows — as well as the gorgeous folk-rock arrangements that underpin the New York native’s most commercially successful work.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, housed in a Stoughton jacket complete with a four-page insert, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM LP of Verities & Balderdash presents Chapin’s fourth full-length in audiophile quality for the first time on vinyl. Captured during a golden era for sonics and production, the Top 5 effort features remarkable tonal balance, instrumental separation, and organic naturalism. Those valued aspects come into supreme focus on this reissue, which plays with dead-quiet surfaces and a low noise floor.

The newfound clarity, openness, and imaging underscore the lasting appeal of Chapin’s tender deliveries, soulful timbre, and careful phrasing. Every word comes across with incredible realism, while his underrated guitar playing occupies its own distinctive space. Also notable: The extension of the tasteful string accents; airiness of the backing vocals; depth and shape of the spare bass lines; and width and depth of the soundstaging. When on “Six String Orchestra” Chapin calls out names of instruments, they appear like magic, the band performing feet from you. Chapin has never sounded so lifelike on record.

Certified double platinum, Verities & Balderdash resonated with the times and public. “Cat’s in the Cradle” reached No. 1 on the chart on its way to being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The romantic ballad “I Wanna Learn a Love Song” flirted with the Top 40 and wrapped listeners in the equivalent of a cozy blanket. The record’s other single, the mini-epic “What Made America Famous?,” helped establish Chapin as one of the country’s most incisive and insightful commentators.

Verities & Balderdash teems with situational devices and topical matters. Chapin observes everything from the polarization of the nation to changes in moral standards and cultural priorities. He investigates pressing themes without ever turning preachy or elevating himself above the matters at hand. On “Halfway to Heaven,” whose coda races to the finish and ranks as the most urgent moment on the record, Chapin inhabits the mind of his frustrated protagonist akin to an eagle-eyed novelist.

Conveying emotions that range from melancholic to carefree, Chapin is as much of a singer as a storyteller. He assumes the voice of multiple characters within a single narrative. During the quirky “30,000 Pounds of Bananas,” a tale based on a delivery-truck accident in 1965, Chapin alters his delivery, pronunciation, and diction to become an old man reflecting on the mishap and mess. The tempo, too, adjusts to match the speed of the vehicle Chapin describes.

Adorned with timely laugh tracks to reinforce the bittersweet humor, the stripped-down “Six String Orchestra” takes everything up another notch, with Chapin intentionally missing guitar notes or playing a broken passage to illustrate the failures of the hopeful protagonist who doesn’t have what’s required to make it as an artist.

Chapin, of course, did not have any such problem. The lynchpin of a career cut short by a tragic traffic incident, Verities & Balderdash is Exhibit A of the savvy craft, feeling, and perspective he lent to American music.

2026 Repress

Samurai Music heralds a new seam of spacious, rhythmically curious exploration with the launch of the Saibai sub label, opened in mesmerising fashion by Brendon Moeller.

The overarching premise of Saibai is to nurture a more delicate, meditative inversion of Samurai's physical, dense sound, leaning less on the dynamics of the dancefloor while holding true to the intricate drum play and dubby principles that bind the label's sound together.

In this open-eared, inquisitive environment, Moeller is the perfect fit as an artist with decades of diverse offerings across all kinds of dubwise manifestations. On SAIBAI1, the US-based, South Africa-born producer stretches out with a live-sounding drum palette and exquisitely rendered synth work loaded with detail, character and organic flourishes. It's a light-footed approach with plenty of air flowing through the mix, but there's considerable weight in every notch of the production, not least the imposing channels of sub bass coursing beneath the frequency range.

SAIBAI1 is a feast for the senses, wholly immediate and front-loaded with fascination, setting the perfect tone for Saibai as a platform for charming, immersive electronics that take a fresh diversion from the fundamental core of Samurai's sharply defined sonic focus.

Terry Francis stands as one of the original architects of acid tech house, a genuine pioneer whose influence shaped the sound and spirit of London’s underground scene in the 90s. From the seminal projects with Housey Doingz to his enduring tenure as a core resident at fabric, Terry has remained a constant and uncompromising force at the heart of the scene.

His contribution is impossible to overstate. Across three decades, Terry’s unmistakable sound, forward thinking approach and steadfast dedication have inspired artists across the globe. His work helped define an era and continues to resonate today.

Following a widely acclaimed run of reissues from the golden age of the early 2000s London underground, where the label was born, Sushitech Records now joins forces with Terry for a landmark moment, his first Sushitech LP, featuring various tracks from over the years alongside unreleased session recorded at Strange Weather Studios in 1999.

This special collection brings together eleven tracks, officially remastered from the original tapes and source material for the very first time. These are timeless productions, restored to reveal new depth, clarity and detail while preserving the raw energy that made them so vital and sought after, pressed on 180g vinyl. The release also features standout collaborations with Ricardo Afonso, Gideon Jackson and Haris, further cementing its status as an essential document of an era. A landmark collection, restored with precision and reintroduced in its fullest form.

Terry Francis stands as one of the original architects of acid tech house, a genuine pioneer whose influence shaped the sound and spirit of London’s underground scene in the 90s. From the seminal projects with Housey Doingz to his enduring tenure as a core resident at fabric, Terry has remained a constant and uncompromising force at the heart of the scene.

His contribution is impossible to overstate. Across three decades, Terry’s unmistakable sound, forward thinking approach and steadfast dedication have inspired artists across the globe. His work helped define an era and continues to resonate today.

Following a widely acclaimed run of reissues from the golden age of the early 2000s London underground, where the label was born, Sushitech Records now joins forces with Terry for a landmark moment, his first Sushitech LP, featuring various tracks from over the years alongside unreleased session recorded at Strange Weather Studios in 1999.

This special collection brings together eleven tracks, officially remastered from the original tapes and source material for the very first time. These are timeless productions, restored to reveal new depth, clarity and detail while preserving the raw energy that made them so vital and sought after, pressed on 180g vinyl. The release also features standout collaborations with Ricardo Afonso, Gideon Jackson and Haris, further cementing its status as an essential document of an era. A landmark collection, restored with precision and reintroduced in its fullest form.

Limited repress!

What is it about New York City, that concrete jungle that continually inspires the creative spirit? From Warhol’s Factory to Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage to David Mancuso’s Loft, collectives that celebrate and nurture unfettered, organic artistry have been absolutely intrinsic to the story of this sprawling metropolis. Its latest chapter is being written at the hands of ‘The Maestro’, Grammy Award winner Louie Vega and his Expansions NYC parties, the sound documented in his latest album Expansions In The NYC (Nervous Records).

Starting in February 2019 in Manhattan and Brooklyn venues, Vega’s Expansions NYC parties have their origin not in his revered prowess as a DJ but rather his whole-hearted appreciation of the different elements of the dance floor surrounding him: the dancers, the musicians who bring their instruments to join him ad-hoc on the night, the small, dedicated crowd of clubbers whose ears to the ground keep them informed on the underground party information. The events included 6-hour DJ Sets with Louie under his select curation, and would usually end with 3 AM jam sessions involving keyboardists, guitar players and poets all performing in front of a jam packed crowd. In just a few short years the Expansions NYC events have evolved into an NYC-clubland institution, an intimate celebration of house, funk, disco, afro, R&B and more.

As with his parties, so goes his album. The collective vibe that forms the beating heart of Expansions NYC parties is absolutely front and centre in Expansions In The NYC, Vega drawing in one of the most comprehensive lists of collaborators in recent memory. House heavyweights Honey Dijon, Joe Claussell, Moodymann, Kerri Chandler and Anané rub up against legendary vocalists Bernard Fowler, Cindy Mizelle, Lisa Fischer, Audrey Wheeler and Tony Momrelle. Gospel royalty BeBe Winans and Debbie Winans, pop icon Robyn and rising star Karen Harding sit alongside disco-era champions Unlimited Touch, Cuban jazz pianist Axel Tosca, Nico Vega, Two Soul Fusion with Josh Milan and Vega and underground legend DJ Spinna. At the centre of it all, fingerprint on every beat, touch on every groove, sits a master at work, weaving the individual threads into a rich dance music tapestry.

"In the past few years I’ve found new inspiration both from the musicians I’m working with and the audiences coming to see me at my DJ shows,” Vega says. “So for me this album represents new beginnings, bringing together a beautiful mosaic of artistic perspectives to express musically what we call Expansions In The NYC."

At its heart, Expansions In The NYC is a love letter to New York, as much as melting pot as the city it represents, the scope of its line-up possible only because of the influence and reverence of Vega the artist, the DJ, the producer, the curator. In creating this album, Louie Vega has once again utterly enriched the lives and libraries of music lovers the world over, far beyond the hustling streets of NYC that have so indelibly left their mark on his work.

Timely re issue of an Arthur Russell classic on West End Records that puts his unique avant-garde spin on disco. The success of this track led to Larry Levan remixing the song for club play at Paradise Garage. The song has been remastered from original analog tape for 2014 and repressed in conjunction with the rights holders, Verse Music Group.

DJ Support: Midland, Craig Richards, Vladimir Ivkovic, Benji B, Emerald, Cici, Darwin, Jossy Mitsu, I JORDAN, Daria Kolosova, Alienata, Carl Craig, Paula Tape, OK Williams, Hammer, Kassian

Kilig Unveils New Era with Air In The Dark / Back To Sofa Surfing

Elusive leftfield electronica producer Kilig emerges from the shadows to unveil a new era on Cross Country with Air In The Dark and Back To Sofa Surfing—two tracks that signal a matured, exploratory sound, balancing introspective ambience with subtle rhythmic propulsion.

In a celebration of London’s enduring spirit of community, experimentation, and unity - fabric resident Bobby. and FOLD’s own Voicedrone join forces to rework Air In The Dark. Bobby. crafts an epic, psilocybin-inspired reinterpretation; Voicedrone - a hard-hitting high BPM electro reinterpretation; and cult favourite RAMZi offering a warm, deep ambient cut.

Back To Sofa Surfing receives its own forward-facing treatment from Manami and Dufraine — two voices at the cutting edge of London’s bass and electro underground. Hailing from a shared studio space , the remixes are infused with raw dub, bass, acid, and electro infused energy.

»Reise der Schatten« (»Journey of Shadows«) is the soundtrack to the eponymous debut feature-length animation film by Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer. Composed by Anthony Pateras and released as a stand- alone album through Hallow Ground, the 29 pieces are based on »weird folk melodies ornamented with electro-acoustics to give the film a more fantastical, fairy-tale feeling,« as the composer puts it. His extensive international recording sessions with a slew of guest musicians results in a record imbued with a sense of mystical surrealism, otherworldly and haunting.

»Reise der Schatten« tells the abstracted story of a genderless being coming to terms with its identity and place in a world full of conflicts and systems of control. »The film was made with old animation software that only works on Mac OS 9. So already, we are in a very hermetic, unique space,« says Pateras. Having tried (and failed) to compose something »typically experimental,« he went for long walks in the Australian bushlands and came home with something else: the idea to create a soundtrack that would create »a kind of distance, or perceptual shift, but also a narrative drive and emotional context which is not always clear.«

While recording the album, the tētēma co-founder did not use digitally generated sound, instead workingwith live instrumentation whose sound palette was enriched by the use of feedback, tape delay, analogue synthesizers, and samples from vinyl records. Wanting to work primarily with acoustic instruments suchas the clarinet made Pateras embark on a complicated journey of his own. The initial recording sessions took place in Basel on metallophones that were designed by Domenico Melchiorre’s Lunason company and laid the foundation for everything that came after.

Pateras recorded with musicians such as guitarist Alexander Garsden, viola player Erkki Veltheim, clarinetist Aviva Endean, multi-instrumentalist Justin Marshall and Lizzy Welsh on the viola d’amore among other instruments. He recorded percussion and recorders with Rohan Rebeiro and Natasha Anderson in his hometown of Castlemaine, double bass with Benjamin Ward in Sydney, bass and flutes with Jon Heilbron and Rebecca Lane in Berlin, and electronics in Zürich with Netzhammer. »Reise der Schatten« was thus a literal journey, made with a »big, international electro-acoustic ensemble.«

As a stand-alone album, »Reise der Schatten« opens up a space of its own. Its stylistic diversity makes it atmospherically and emotionally multi-faceted. As its composer notes, »music for screen can be very virtuosic, sophisticated, and variegated!« His own work is a testament to that claim.

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A stunning reissue of Delano Smith's album on Sushitech, originally released in 2017.

This collection of previously hidden tracks from the master's archive was brought together into a beautiful album that has become highly sought after over the years, largely due to its exclusive vinyl only tracks.

This limited edition repress comes on special silver vinyl, released to celebrate the label's 20th anniversary.

The writer Max Sebald often pondered over the nature of human memory, specifically, how our thoughts and desires - and their results - overlap and mutate over time. In A Place in the Country, he writes of the significance of what see as “similarities, overlaps and coincidences”. Are they the “delusions” of the self and senses, or manifestations of “an order underlying the chaos of human relationships, ... which lies beyond our comprehension”?

Song of the Night Mists, the new album by post-classical composer Stefan Wesołowski, often feels it draws on Sebald’s premise.

On a simpler plane, the one where the market dictates the neatly ordered information we consume, Song of the Night Mists can be described thus: recorded in the main by Stefan Wesołowski in Gdańsk, both in his studio and in Saint Nicholas' Basilica, the album incorporates acoustic instruments - piano, violin, double bass - and classic synthesizers such as the Roland Jupiter-8, the Soviet Polivoks. A Roland Space Echo RE-150 tape delay was also pressed into service as an instrument. We also hear the basillica’s organ and field recordings from the Tatra Mountains. Other musicians were Maja Miro, who played the flute parts on ‘Glacial Troughs’ and brother Piotr Wesołowski, who played the organ on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’. Sound engineer was Marcin Nenko, who was also on hand to record the basilica organ parts. The album was mixed in New York by Al Carlson (Oneohtrix Point Never, Jessica Pratt, Zola Jesus, Lady Gaga, and Liturgy) and Rafael Anton Irisarri handled the mastering.

Ostensibly, Song of the Night Mists is the last in a trilogy, following on from albums Liebestod (2013) and Rite of the End (2017). All three deal with existential matters such as love, death, decay and “an ultimate end”; apocalyptic and Promethean in spirit, and betraying very human conceits. The Sebaldian nature of the new record starts to make itself felt when Wesołowski talks of how he used sampling. One element is unexpected, that of sampling himself: “I go back to dozens of my own unused sketches and recordings, treating them as raw material to cut, slow down, reverse, and transform in every possible way.” Memory as sound, to be reemployed by the listener through their own imaginings.

Another set of samples made by Wesołowski plays another role. These are field recordings, originally created for an audio illustration of the formation of the Tatra Mountains, and used in a film by sound designer Michał Fojcik. Wesołowski: “You can hear cracking ice, streams, footsteps in the snow and the wind, and a real avalanche, recorded from the inside.” The “Tatra connection” on the album is also found in samples referencing composer Karol Szymanowski. The album’s title alludes to a poem about the mountains by Polish poet, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer.

Wesołowski’s Tatra recordings are “about a world without humans - about the fact that the world existed, was beautiful, and had meaning long before people arrived, and for the vast majority of its history, it was a place without us.” Wesołowski, using one iteration of the natural world, plays out in sound Sebald’s idea of another order, underlying the chaos of human relationships lying beyond human comprehension.

These feelings play themselves out on the five album tracks. Sonorous and rich, they illustrate tectonic shifts we have no control over. Wesołowski hints that the overall sound is a “meditation on the metaphysics of the non-human set against the spirituality that human presence has brought into it.” In that light, the opening number, ‘Core’, with its slow build, and crackling and straining sound effects, create an effect of the earth groaning into life in a creation myth. Once the piano part raps out a simple melody and modulated tonguing trumpet samples add to the overall atmosphere, the listener can certainly find a cue in the “spiritual”, or “human” side of the story. Human versus nature: from the strains and harmonic muscle stretches of the second number, ‘Glacial Troughs’, through to the powerful and filmic ‘Stalagmite’ and heart-on-sleeve romance expressed in closer, ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, we listeners are cast as Friedrich’s wanderer, looking out over a landscape that will appear only if we engage with it.

Formations of melody appear incrementally, almost appearing by chance - like hidden footings in the rock shelves to give us something to grasp onto. Rhythms are used sparsely: the prolonged percussive taps on ‘Glacial Troughs’ are an anomaly and maybe there to give pace to the album to come; essentially to keep the listener strapped in. Elsewhere, percussion is used as an aid to mood, the two thudding, timpani-style passages on ‘Peak’ there to offset the short, beautiful, kosmische passage that splits them.

Elements of the borderline religious spirit that drove German electronic music in the late 1960s and 1970s also find a place on Song of the Night Mists. The swells and recessions of the organ find their emotional climax on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, a track which summons up echoes of the “mountain magic” vistas created by Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, especially with the slightly atonal wobble of the Mellotron that counters it.

This is a dramatic album, but it does feel a strangely short, or curtailed listen on ending, evoking the feeling one gets when waking from a dream, and, for all its incipient grandeur, a track like ‘Stalagmite’, for instance, ends on a minor note. Wesołowski admits that Song of the Night Mists is born of the all too human process of temptation, doubt and recalibration - Sebaldian overlaps and coincidences forming something that must live another life, away from its creator. In Wesołowski’s words, the album is “a newborn foal must stand up and walk right after birth.” Now it is yours to ponder.

Four Flies is thrilled to present the very first release of Gianfranco Reverberi's hidden masterpiece: a mind-blowing soundtrack, possibly his wildest and most daring. This Italian score is sort of a Holy Grail for fans of the spaghetti sound, especially thanks to the legendary track "Psicolimite".


In 1973, a mysterious 45 rpm single surfaced under the name 'Sharon Chatam e la sua Orchestra.' The single seemed to be a harmless cover of the theme from Last Tango in Paris, complete with a typical image from the film. But behind the innocent facade, a secret was hidden: the B-side track, "Psicolimite," was actually the main theme from Rivelazioni. When someone in the United States figured this out and realized the 'Sharon Chatam' moniker was a pseudonym for Reverberi and his team, the price of the record skyrocketed, making it a coveted collectible.


This makes the discovery of the full soundtrack even more exciting, considering that the music Reverberi composed for the infamous film by Renato Polselli - one of the most outrageous and uncompromising Italian genre cinema directors - was thought to be lost forever, perhaps vanished into the depths of some film processing lab. But thanks to the sleuths at Four Flies, this enigmatic masterpiece has been resurrected and presented in all its glory. It's available now as a luxurious gatefold double LP with original artwork by the brilliant Eric Adrian Lee.


While the film, despite some critics praising it as "psychotronic," is a bizarre mishmash of rambling pseudo-psychoanalytic theories and sexual deviance voyeurism, the music stands out as a foremost, vital element, able to exist on its own.


Reverberi's reputation as a serious, refined producer (for artists like Lucio Dalla, Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco, and many more), however, led him to keep his distance from exploitation films like Rivelazioni. To maintain his image, he had his friend and former schoolmate Umberto Cannone take credit for the score – a tactic he also used for Polselli's next film, Mania (1974).


But this anonymity might have unexpectedly increased his creative freedom, for the score he put together and recorded is experimental, at times raw, and driven by a relentless rhythm section where bass and drums lay down the groove. The use of electronic instruments is impressive for the time, with drum machines and spacey synths creating a dark and dreamlike atmosphere. Psychedelic flutes, piano phrases, crazed percussion, filters, compressors, and jazzy improvisations on sax and vibraphone complete the mix.


The full soundtrack was recovered following the discovery of the original 1-inch, 16-track tapes, which were transferred, mixed, and mastered for optimal listening on both vinyl and digitally, with the digital version featuring 8 bonus tracks.


Available from November 22!

Joe Bataan's extensive discography was expanded in 2022 with the release of some old recordings from the King of Latin Soul that had never been previously published. After the success of his album "Riot!" (1968), Bataan had easy access to a studio whenever inspiration struck to record a new song sketch or even a complete track. Sometimes, he would finish the recording entirely and offer it in its final version to Fania for release. This usually worked, although on some occasions, the song was rejected. In the case of 'Drug Story,' the track was recorded without a clear final purpose, even though Bataan hoped it would become part of an album. When the Fania executives heard the result, they immediately rejected it, thinking it promoted drug use. The tapes were filed away and lost in oblivion until they ended up in a thrift store in New York. From there, they were rescued by a Latin music specialist and later sold, eventually making their way to the Vampisoul archives. The song was finally released in its entirety in 2022 on the LP "Drug Story" by Now Again. It features a long, slow vocal intro that evolves into a more uptempo track with two very distinct parts, to the point that it almost feels like two different songs. It transports us to the best moment of Joe Bataan's career, with all of his classic ingredients, delivering a track as good as his most famous songs. Bataan himself takes on the lead vocals and piano, Bobby Rodríguez handles the flute, sax, and bass, Pete 'Choki' Quintero plays the drums, and William Howes Jr. plays the electric guitar with wah-wah effects. Vampisoul strongly believes that the song deserved to be released as a single as well, and that its structure was perfect for each side to have a separate identity. So here it is, for the first time on a 45, 'Drug Story,', parts one & two, the long lost track by Joe Bataan. Pure Latin soul, recorded at the peak of the artist's career!

The duo Spill Gold blends drums, synths and vocals into a sonic journey that invites listeners to explore realms of energy exchange. Nina de Jong on drums and Rosa Ronsdorf on vocals and synths joined forces in a collaboration that transcends genres. The music of Spill Gold serves as a woven tapestry of (unheard) voices, inviting you to lean in. The result is a fusion of psychedelic echoes, danceable rhythms, and intricate percussive layers. Their newest album is a result of a need for hope that longs for an anti-anthropocentric and non-patriarchal world. The duo's compositions navigate through cyclical patterns, echoing snakes biting their own skin, volcano's starting to errupt, witches fingers that crumble towers and birds of steel and feather. They invite you into a world where the concept of 'the first' or 'the best' fades away and to join them on their musical journey with no clear beginning or end.

2025 Repress

It's rare that a certain sound is entirely an artist's own. Although undeniably a stew of impeccable influences - from blues to folk to Latin to dusty funk, soul and hip-hop - one cannot hear a Tommy Guerrero song without immediately recognising it as his - and his only.The cult skater from San Francisco is globally renowned as one of the original members of the legendary "Bones Brigade" team. And as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, his laid-back soul is beloved by all who've basked in its blissful glow.There's something elemental about this music that really stirs the soul. Strikingly beautiful and instantly addictive, it's a kind of funk-fuelled, melody-driven, groove-based magic. There's a serenity and heart in the playing that radiates warmth and splendour, as if crafted for endless sunsets. His albums that surfaced on Mo Wax at the turn of the century have been treasured since their release and it's two of his most vital LPs that we're honoured to reintroduce.The originals were quietly pressed on to a single piece of vinyl so we've worked closely with Tommy this year to bring you these fresh, limited editions. They have been lovingly remastered, cut nice and loud on to heavyweight double vinyl and presented in deluxe gatefold jackets.A Little Bit Of Somethin' is a quietly majestic gem. Brimming with Guerrero's horizontal "loose grooves", these brief but innovative instrumentals demonstrate a rich variety and, as such, comprise an LP that is aptly titled. An enchanting start-to-finish listen, it was instantly regarded as essential upon release via Mo Wax in 2000. It has aged remarkably well.Throughout this inspired collection, simplicity is key. In deploying it, Guerrero presents a beautifully crafted melodic soundscape. The distinctive, mellifluous approach of his guitar style, blending Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, soul and jazz motifs, is at once startlingly new and tantalisingly familiar. Set against unrushed percussion, the music releases a crystal clear stream of healing frequencies to create a fragile, hypnotic atmosphere.Each track clocks in at around three minutes and, with a lack of studio polish or commitment to traditional song structure, it's a wonder how this enigmatic record demands your attention. However, through its gentle dynamism and impressive playing, it does just that. Whilst resolutely low-key, this lo-fi aesthetic feels genuinely organic and remarkably personal, its powerful intimacy truly connects. It's what makes this album so beloved of those lucky enough to be already familiar with it. From Margaret Kilgallen's truly iconic cover artwork to the music contained within, it's all brilliantly effortless.Guerrero's musical ideas are consistently compelling throughout, making it impossible to select highlights. The album's laconic drift touches upon jazz-fusion workouts and slow-mo hip-hop drums, Tortoise-style experimental post-rock and cinematic sound textures. It's at once hazy, light and bouncy yet sombre and bluesy. The Latin soul of El Chicano blends with the breezy jazz of Grant Green. By employing guitars and drum machines to create a stripped down rhythmic tapestry of spellbinding, addictive songs, there are even traces of The Durutti Column. A little bit of country, a little bit of rock & roll. A Little Bit Of Somethin', indeed.

For this new full-length output, Gil.Barte delivers on Teenage Menopause an 8 tracks LP full of formal strength and psychedelic grandeur. Unlike the vast near-death explorations or trancey adventures he developped on various labels such as Neubau, Big Science Records, Homemade Soundsystem or his own imprint Meth'O'Tapes, the meaningfully-named « Claviceps Purpurea » is a botanist guide to the valleys of the mind.
From the eponym opening to the ending echo, each entry is a glance at magical universal exotica. With an intense emphasis on rhythm, standing quite apart from his former releases, Gil.Barte draws the bouncing steps of a whirlwind dance rooted in western witchcraft.
Raging pieces of club-destroying material (for those who dare) meet sketches of electronic fever-dreams. A full circle that is meant to run on and on, breaking the veil of daylight consciousness.

The title says it all - A Cellarful Of Motown! ..A Northern Soul Love Affair.

West Grand has been set up to mine the deep vaults of mighty Motown courtesy of a licence deal with Universal Music.

The first West Grand LP fuses two musical religions, Motown and Northern Soul.

In some ways they are unlikely bedfellows. Motown became known as Hitsville by churning out hit after hit, while Northern Soul passion is fired by a constant search for the unknown and the obscure.
The 16 tracks here - on incredibly the first Motown various artists vinyl album released worldwide for 40 years - join the dots. All of them were recorded in the 1960s. None of them were released at the time, despite being prime examples of the sublime magic conjured up by Berry Gordy’s genius-like team of singers, writers, producers, arrangers and musicians at that tiny little snakepit of a recording studio on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.

Motown authority Adam White’s album sleeve notes confirm just how productive that studio was. It often ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As a result, lots of the most sublime music ever made was somehow rejected for release. It would have stayed unknown and unloved in tape boxes if it had not been for detective work by Soul aficionados turned detectives. That’s Northern Soul power. Many were DJs and collectors tracking down cassette copies or acetates (some of them found in rubbish skips and about to be destroyed). Others, notably Paul Nixon, the founder of the CD series A Cellarful Of Motown! which inspired this album, badgered the Motown gatekeepers so much they were eventually granted access to the forbidden kingdom.

Over recent years all the tracks contained here have been released—some bootlegged, some on legitimate seven-inch issues, some on CD, one download-only. The album proudly boasts debut vinyl release for some in the collection. All have been remastered and have never sounded better.

As a homage to Motown music makers + Rare Soul fanaticism, WEST GRAND believe we have come up with a classic.

Japans kultige Goldgrube DD. Records wurde innerhalb weniger Jahre eröffnet und wieder geschlossen. In dieser kurzen Zeit (1980-1985) erschienen 222 Tapes (und einige Vinyl-LPs) mit der seltsamsten, gewagtesten und süchtig machendsten subversivsten Musik aus ihren sozialen und kreativen Kreisen, die ausserhalb Japans nicht zu finden waren. Jedes Tape enthielt abstrakte, xerografische, oft von Musikern selbst erstellte Grafiken, während sich die inhaltliche Bandbreite von Avant-Punk, kubistischer Ambient-Musik, Soundcollagen, Pop-Concréte, Jazz-Prog bis zu früher Computermusik erstreckte. Zum Abschluss erschien vorliegende Compilation als Abschiedsgeschenk, die 5 fieberhafte Jahre neuer Musik abrundete und die kreative Identität des Avantgarde-Labels unterstrich. Darin befinden sich 13 endlose und merkwürdige Schätze, die jetzt nochmal das Licht der Welt erblicken.

Now four releases in, Razor-N-Tape Reserve continues to deliver the deepness with this EP from the Netherlands' Junktion.
Although a relative upstart on the scene, Junktion has been getting some serious heads nodding lately with releases on Sleazy Beats and Outplay, and the Hot & Bothered EP continues to define his dusty and organic sound. From the summery ease of the title track, to the fresh take on the oft-sampled 'I'm Wishin' to the discofied chugger 'Fling Cleaning' followed by the slow-burning 'Visions of You,' this EP is a beautiful listen from beginning to end. And the kids are gonna dig it too.

Imagine having a song go viral for 17 years - without even knowing it. That's exactly what happened to the German 1980s band FEX. And this isn't just any song - it's The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, a track that puzzled music detectives for decades before finally being identified in November 2024. Now, it has been officially released - twice.

The Story in Brief:
Sometime around 1984, a song was broadcasted on NDR Radio. The name of the song was Subways Of Your Mind - only found out 40 years later in November 2024. Back then, a listener recorded the NDR show on cassette, a common practice at the time. Decades later, the tape resurfaced, but while most songs from the recording were identified, one remained an enigma. On March 18, 2007, the track was uploaded to the internet in an attempt to uncover its origins. Due to its now-iconic opening lyric, it was tentatively titled Like The Wind. Over time, the mystery deepened, and the song was given a nickname: The Most Mysterious Song - or simply TMMS.

Starting in 2019, a dedicated Reddit group, TheMysteriousSong, now boasting over 63,000 members, took up the search. They meticulously documented every lead, hoping to solve the riddle of the song's origins. Then, in 2024, the breakthrough: Reddit user marjin1412 reached out to musician Michael Hädrich after discovering a reference to his band FEX in an old newspaper article. Hädrich, FEX's keyboardist, provided a recording from an old demo cassette which included an alternative version of the song. On November 4, 2024, the mystery was officially solved: FEX was the band, Subways Of Your Mind was the title.

What Happened Next:
Since then, FEX has released two singles - both featuring Subways Of Your Mind - through the Berlin-based independent label The Outer Edge. First, the demo cassette version was pressed onto vinyl, as the original NDR radio recording remained lost (see EDGE-028). The Remastered Demo Mix single instantly topped Bandcamp's global charts, holding the #1 spot for several days. By then, it was clear: this was more than just an internet curiosity. A real fanbase had formed. Enthusiastic comments on the sales page ranged from "best post-punk song to ever exist" to "FEX themselves (are) perhaps the most underrated musicians of all time."

But the story didn't end there. A higher-quality version of the NDR radio recording was rediscovered in late december, remastered, and now sent for a second vinyl pressing: the TMMS Version. This new vinyl 7" is backed with Talking Hands another great and unissued song that was found on the demo cassette.

Fame Comes with a Price
Suddenly, time isn't standing still for FEX. The band had to come to terms with the fact that they had become Lostwave super stars. A FEX fan club quickly formed on Reddit, fan-hosted FEX parties are popping up, and the internet is demanding more - an album, merchandise, live performances. But how does a band prepare for a comeback after a 40-year hiatus?

For now, FEX is carefully considering their next steps. Their demo cassette contains six songs - and a few other recordings have resurfaced which probably could be restored and compiled. But foremost, a brand new re-recording of Subways Of Your Mind is in progress.

One thing is certain: The Most Mysterious Song will continue its unstoppable journey around the world. Don't miss this (second) chance to own a piece of music history!

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

On June 27, 2025, a long-dormant signal reactivates from Hamburg’s hidden places: Helena Hauff and F#X return as Black Sites with R4 on Tresor Records—their first full-length album and the first release under the moniker since 2014. Like a hieroglyphic recently discovered and translated, R4 feels more like a long-awaited resumption than a comeback.
Recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production the record is a classic example of the symbiotic relationship that can come from the interaction of human and machine. This punk ethos isn’t invoked through distortion alone, but through method; in the album’s breaking from the received wisdom of hardness tethered to speed as most of the tougher pieces are lower BPM and vice versa (with one notable exception in the mind-melting stomp of BLOKK).
Across ten tracks, Black Sites traverse a landscape where genre dissolves into intention. It migrates through electro’s danceability, acid house’s corrosion, and into the liminal realm of machine funk—a genre coined by Andrew Weatherall, which sounds like the results of technology dreaming of soul where the emphasis is on live execution, on immediacy over perfection—a sound forged in the act of creating, not polishing.
In a 2013 interview, around the time of the first Black Sites EP, Hauff was quoted as saying that she wants “things to fit together properly, but on another level, I really want them to make sense together.” That principle animates R4: The album’s form reveals itself in time, with each movement echoing and amplifying the others to create a synergistic whole.
From the opening crawl of C4 (a name that like the music foreshadows the explosions to come) to the end-of-the-night bliss of MOTHERJAM via the intense peaks of BLOKK, 707, and classic acid track 3D it’s clear that R4 is a work made with serious intent; a refutation of a world where streaming has made the two-minute single the dominant musical form again. R4 demands immersion, not just attention. It is not a collection of tracks, but a singular, recursive experience: a mirror in which sound and listener repeatedly rediscover one another.

A 90 minute cassette-only mixtape taking in Filipino folk, rock, country & OPM from the 1970s, originally broadcast on NTS Radio back during the early months of the pandemic. One missed out of the collection of DINTE radio shows committed to tape as part of 10 year anniversary celebrations last year.

**CASSETTE**

Budapest based independent concept label Blue Sun celebrates its first anniversary with their second VA cassette, showcasing artists from the local underground and/or electronic music scene, along with some international guests.

Bound together by an aesthetic rooted in the "listening" culture, the release features mostly downtempo tracks with a colorful palette of genres like ambient, trip-hop, jazz, experimental electronica, new wave and even modern classical music. With a contemplative, wandering feel, it shifts the focus from music consumption at dancefloors to the listening-at-home experience.

Just as on the first VA (BLSN001VA) there are no ‘A’ or ‘B’ sides on this release. Instead the label uses colors to distinguish them, largely based on the mood of the tracks. The ‘orange side’ covers a more upbeat line of music, while ‘blue side’ takes us on a more introverted, experimental journey.

Curated with a ‘circular listening concept’ by the founders of the label, the tracks are sorted in such a specific order that they are designed to take the listener on an endless auditory loop - wherever the journey begins.

Curated by Hanussen & Kozmo D

Designed by Idil Emiroğlu

Mastered by Márton Grema Gregus

Manufactured by Headless Duplicated Tapes

Released under the Blue Sun.