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BEC returns to Second State with another earth-shattering release containing four raw & atmospheric cuts.

The Berlin by way of Brighton producer BEC has been a member of the Second State family since her first release with the label in 2016. Since then, BEC has dropped 4 EP’s with the Berlin imprint, and regularly appears at the likes of Awakenings, Amnesia, Warehouse Project, Fabrik, Watergate & Burning Man to name a few.

Title track ‘Solitude’ opens with a sharp, rounded kick and crafty drumwork. Metallic swipes and rave stabs are injected to build tension, along with a choppy vocal and bubbling element. Punchy arrangements and rave stabs bring this track to rave territory at moments, before hauling back into the deepness of the cut. Next up is ‘Process Don’t Resist’, easing us in with a crackling bass and a solitary hi-hat, soon joined by buoyant claps and a muffled kick that submerges listeners into a different dimension. Darker, swiping elements are introduced with metallic textures, with the claps becoming more erratic as the track unfolds. An indiscernible vocal gives way to a jarring breakdown halfway through, sending shockwaves through the listener before submerging back into the hysteria.

‘Coming’ follows and initially appears as a break from the heaviness of the previous productions, before transforming into a high-octane stomper. A booming kick, bleeps and spiking vocal build the intensity as the track drives forward and hoover noise wavers menacingly. The vocal and kick bounce in unison towards the close, with a final cry towards the end. The finale is dark, mysterious and entrancing with ‘Fear Parade’. An authoritative female voice utters ‘not afraid’ under a myriad of shakers, howls and vicious synth swipes. The sample gradually takes over with the track building to crescendo, allowing shakers to come to the forefront along with eerie howls and a new, more robotic vocal that utters the initial phrase repeatedly until close in an effort to encourage listeners.

Force Placement's AEROBICIDE EP is a killer workout of afterhours acid and galaxian breakbeat.

Four hypnotic bangers from Los Angeles with remix support from DJ Manny, D.I.E., and Martyn Bootyspoon

Los Angeles – Following releases on 100% Silk, Clave House, BANK NYC and Lost Soul Enterprises, FORCE PLACEMENT arrives on EVAR Records with four tracks of naughty squelching acid and breakbeat techno hypnotically calling you to the afterhours, backed by a trio of remixes from Martyn Bootyspoon, Detroit In Effect, and DJ Manny, representing North American excellence in techno, electro, and footwork, respectively.

A longtime friend of the EVAR crew from renegade breakcore parties in Santa Barbara to underground experimental electronics happenings in Los Angeles, Into the Woods and The Black Lodge resident Jason "Force Placement" James taps into his love of weird trippy atmospherics, rhythmic complexity and DIY punk/noise aesthetics to create this quartet of mystic, mysterious bangers, crafted with the MPC1000, Elektron's Octatrack sampler, the Korg minilogue, and Ableton.

The AEROBICIDE EP begins its killer workout with "Yeeks," a cabalistic ass-mover driven by a haunted female vocal sample floating atop locomotive bass and shakers – a factory's worth of industrial sounds and eerie accents move in and out of the mix, adding intrigue and interest.

Moving to the main room of the rave, "Balloon Animal" shoots you through an inflatable tube of squelchy acid techno as knives cut the air around you, while "Upsetter" adds a shuffling breakbeat rave bounce into the acid mix. "Quartered" chops it up with Clone-style dark analog electro that gets increasingly deconstructed by dirty, stretched percussion and rivulets of synth reverb raining down the walls.

Rounding out this occult aerobics class, some of North America's most compelling forces in dance music are called in for remix duty. Unsung electro hero Detroit In Effect aka D.I.E. – the man behind such classics as "RU Married" and "Get Up" – leans deep into the classic Motor City palette, pairing lush, spacey pads with that hard-swung Detroit bounce to create a mellow groover that will keep you going all night. Montreal's world-class party starter M. Bootyspoon recalls Substance Abuse-era Hawtin and mid-'90s Midwest techno on his "Balloon Animals" remix, with nasty claps and concentric loops of hard acid bleeps and squelches. And who better to tackle "Upsetter" than Southside Chicago's footwork futurist DJ Manny? The Teklife king eschews the romantic R&B tones of his recent Planet Mu album for a tough-as-nails rework that ups the tension and the tempo to create an otherworldly saga for the dance circle.

Genre defining label Hot Creations welcomes in another milestone release this July, as imprint-founder Jamie Jones makes a long-awaited return with the three-track Bionic Boy. It acts as his first solo EP on Hot Creations since last September’s Handy Work, continuing a standout 2022 for the UK talent.

We’re graced with JJ’s techy, groove-laced sound right from the offset, as Bionic Boy leads the charge. Packed full of hard-edged percussion and rampant kick-hat pairings, a well-known female vocal takes us to the dancefloor and beyond before Moment Of Clarity soon arrives. Euphoric piano stabs live beside Chicago-esque key solos, paving the way for Here Comes The Drums. Darkened pads, tribal drums and whomping kicks meld to form a late-night, club-driven number that represents the signature Jamie Jones sound that we know and love.

As a world-renowned DJ and producer, head of Hot Creations and founder of the global Paradise event series, Jamie Jones has etched out a legacy in electronic music that few others can attest to. His personally curated Paradise series offers an international showcase of house and techno’s most recognisable artists, whilst his flagship label, Hot Creations, continues to pioneer a contemporary house sound. 2022 sees the label host a ‘Ten Year’ anniversary tour, with events planned across Miami, London, New York and Amsterdam, whilst Paradise makes its home in iconic Ibiza nightspot Amnesia. Confirmed guests for the weekly Wednesday residency include Joseph Capriati, Nicole Moudaber, Loco Dice, The Blessed Madonna and many other genre-leading performers.

Baby Buddha is David Javelosa and musical partner Charles Hornaday playing instruments and providing their own whacked-out vocals. Baby Buddha really was less of a band than a project; a side project in fact, for some members of another group, Los Microwaves. Baby Buddha would eventually record and release an album, 1981's provocatively-titled Music for Teenage Sex on Robbie Fields' L.A.-based Posh Boy label.

Happily, the project's guiding creative light, David Javelosa has recently seen to a vinyl reissue of the now-40-year-old record, mystifyingly retitled Music for Teenage Sects. Definitely among the stranger releases of the new wave era, Music for Teenage Sex/Sects could perhaps only have been created when and where it was made. But on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the music sounds as weirdly wonderful as ever. "We Are Not" sounds like Human League stuck in a car with The Residents. And their cover of "All Shook Up" sounds like a musical kin to those inscrutable eyeball guys too; it wouldn't be out of place on Meet the Residents. "Little Things" is a house-of-mirrors, scary track, with spoken-word vocals by Los Microwaves' Meg Brazill and label head Fields.

The album cover is slightly different as well: it displays a bedroom scene like the original LP, but with the young female model absent. The new release (on Javelosa's own Hyperspace Communications label) is pressed on beautiful translucent blue vinyl and comes in a gatefold sleeve with a lively collage of photos, buttons, gig posters. Limited to 500 copies.This playfully titled release features David Javelosa (on synth and vocals) along with Meg Brazill (on bass and vocals) plus drummer Todd "Rosa" Rosencrans. Side One features five studio tracks, none of which were included on the band's 1981 Posh Boy LP, Life After Breakfast. Three of these tracks were recorded in '82; there's no information regarding the provenance of the other two songs. The records' second side collects five live recordings, capturing Los Microwaves onstage in New York City (The Peppermint Lounge) and Boston as well as at San Francisco's own I-Beam, a venue that often played host to the band. Those tracks date form roughly the same ear, 1980-83. Sonically the songs variously recall Blondie, Flying Lizards, Gang of Four and a far less dour Human League. Importantly, the band rocks, even when it's employing a spare drum kit, solid but elemental bass, and monophonic analog synthesizers. The stripped down aesthetics of the group – necessitated by its minimalist instrumental approach – are nonetheless thrilling. Even if you weren't there in 1980, this'll take you back.

If there was ever a dance oddity it’s the bizarrely named single ‘Prisencólinensináinciúsol’, released in late 1972 by Italian entertainment icon Adriano Celentano, first appearing as a 45 on his own Clan label. A cult favourite if there ever was one, GW Edits kicks off their label with a sumptuous edit sewing the A and B side of the record into an 11-minute masterpiece named ‘Adriano Italiano’.

Renamed ‘The Language Of Love (Prisencol…)’ for the UK market, the original failed to make any impression on the UK chart instead becoming a cult DJ treasure. The fact that it was regularly reissued over the next few years illustrates its enduring appeal.

The novelty of its title and zany nonsensical lyrics may have caught the attention, but what sealed the deal was that groove! On top of that, Celentano’s vocal (as well as that of his wife Claudia Mori, who injected the short female section) that mimics the way English sounded to non-English speakers, comes across nowadays as proto-rap, receiving kudos as such in more recent times. The track is most certainly an anomaly, having no bearing whatsoever on hip-hop culture, yet somehow unconsciously envisaging it.

The flip side of the record was appropriately called ‘Disc Jockey’, also featured that infectious rolling groove complete with offbeat hat. It wasn’t as DJ friendly though, the drums not dropping for the first minute, whilst it also featured a more traditional sounding song in Celentano’s native tongue instead of the rhythmic rap gobbledygook of ‘Prisencólinensináinciúsol’.

Here the two are sewn together for a full-length ‘Adriano Italiano’, running at just over 11 minutes, with the addition of a further two-minute instrumental version. The full-length appears on vinyl for the first time and, along with the original ‘Adriano Italiano’, launches the GW Edits series, bringing this eccentric favourite to a new generation of DJs in time for its 50th anniversary next year.

Kapoor and Hvitling’s first album, The Odyssey, is monumental. It boasts eight tracks that are generous in terms of length and sophistication. Each has a distinctive feel and predominant mood, balancing intricate sonic arrangements with dynamic and rhythmically pleasant beats. Yet certain ethereal sound textures and melodies
make the tracks echo each other, creating a sense of journeying through uncharted waters. Masterfully produced female vocal synths become spectral presences in several tracks, most notably in Vox Diaboli and Vox Angeli. In the former, seductive whispers hiss a hymed incantation, creating a delightfully spooky atmosphere; while the latter lures the listener into sacred ecstasy with a combination of vibrant synths pristinely arranged with a string orchestra and LFO female vocals. Akumandra’s fourth official vinyl release stays true to its multicultural essence, adding this young Polish and Swedish producer duo to their vinyl catalog.

Continuing to make 2020 their own Tropical Disco are back with four tracks of joyous dancefloor fervour in the shape of Volume 19 of their well loved vinyl series.

The EP see’s a welcome return for the outrageously talented and regular contributor to the label Phased Groove. He is appearing alongside a debut for the equally revered Ziggy Phunk and a welcome return of Vagabundo Club Social on a release which is completed by a dynamite collaboration between Kikko Esse & Emanuele Del Carmine.

This is an EP punctuated by the jazzy flourishes that we have come to love from Tropical Disco which sit perfectly alongside a prodigious selection of disco edged funk.

Phazed Groove’s ‘In Motion’ is the perfect opener for this ever so stylish collection. Its dashing groove packs in everything from subtle guitar licks and disco flutes to gentle keys and an ever so sensual breathless female vocal which has likely beamed in directly from the 70’s. It’s a track which belies its laidback notions and is deceptively energetic. Expect this one to be played everywhere from Miami pool soirees to Mediterranean boat parties in the coming months.

Danish artist Ziggy Phunk has seen his star rise rapidly over the last couple of years on the back of a series of sublime releases. His track here ‘Vibes of Nola’ is as captivating as anything that he has produced to date. Built around some incredible keys its funk infused bassline gives it some genuine dancefloor guile.

Over on the flip Kikko Esse & Emanuele Del Carmine’s ‘Funky Tranky’ brings to mind some of Masters at Works jazzier moments as Nuyorikan Soul. Built round some wonderful live bass guitar playing its layers of sumptuous guitar and brass are a joy.

Closing the EP is an essential Latin-edged dance-floor gem in the shape of ‘Calabao’ from Colombia’s irrepressible Vagabundo Club Social. Acidic bass notes and filtered vocals add the grit here. It’s a track which you can expect to be ubiquitous on in the know dancefloors across the tail end of 2020.

Yet again Topical Disco raises the bar ever higher for contemporary disco.

Support across Mi Soul & House FM.

Hidden in a world of anonymity we are craving for intimacy.

AI. The second output in the MAT editions series on CLIKNO is a double 12" separated into "Anonymity" and "Intimacy". The digital world and social media in particular change our perception and behavior; our values and morals undergo a transformation and
shift. How much are we still anonymous? How much are we still intimate (with us/with others)? What does anonymity and intimacy mean to us today?

MUSIC. Dr.Nojoke shows on AI his deeper, darker and trippier side.

A. Petar Plet Plete is a Bulgarian tongue twister sung by anonymous voices, which hypnotize through endless repetitions over a straight Maurizio-esque groove with odd melodic percussion. Nivin grooves elegantly with typical Dr.Nojoke clicks and sophisticated loops of a mysterious female voice reminding slightly to Kraftwerk's Man-machine era.

I. EOW and Nuknot are both intimate orgies of thick textures of reverberations and reflections as if space is folding in itself and time is on hold. EOW seduces with a heavy kick-drum groove and a triplet bassline underneath crawling through unconscious memories. Woe! Nuknot is carried by transcending atmospheres, a dubby low end bassline and a repetitious glassy sound, that can drive a crowd into madness - inspired by Moritz von Oswald and Deadbeat. Nuknot ends with an ambient lock groove.

ART. CLIKNO curates artworks from living artists. On MAT ed.02 CLIKNO is proud to present digital artist Lucas Gutierrez and his work "Your Mesh.sgl", originally part of the exhibition - Knowledge Of - at Aperto Raum Berlin, 2017. An exhibition and dialogue exploring the term "knowledge" and the manner in which self-studies are structured within contemporary artistic approach.

TEXT. MAT02 comes with writings to anonymity and intimacy from the Danish philosopher, actress and choreographer Marianne Kjaer Klausen.

The album celebrates also the 15th CLIKNOversary of Dr.Nojoke.

Rocko Garoni knows what a techno dance floor wants. He’s learned it through countless hours spent on the floor himself as a punter, and through DJing at some of the best clubs and festivals in his hometown Berlin and all over the world. He knows exactly the type of productions that thrill crowds, and he brings this wealth of knowledge and experience to his third EP for Second State, Ammoniak.

The title and first track ‘Ammoniak’ drags you straight into the zone; a pounding, take no prisoners cut laced with stormy synths creating a vague sense of paranoia. ‘Gece‘ cranks the energy up with trancey, bouncing synths and a cool, clipped female vocal. Instantly, you’re pulled into the very sort of club that Garoni knows so well. ‘No Border‘ is the kind of expansive track that seems destined for huge warehouses or vast festival dancefloors. There’s an insistent, brooding bassline, robotic repeated vocals and a mid-track shift in tone that will send the crowd to a heightened state of reverie. The blend of post-punk vocals and eerie beats on ‘It’s All Yours‘, a track featuring Cook Strummer on the vocals, is at once highly unusual and completely compelling. It’s the track to play when the crowd are losing themselves in the best possible way. Closing the EP is ‘Helio‘, another completely different track that showcases the extent of Garoni’s range. Faint, echoed chanting lends the track an almost holy atmosphere. Combined with tunnelling synths and spindly percussion FX, the effect is euphoric, acting as a delicious palate cleanser between heavier tracks.

Put simply, Ammoniak is another first-class EP from a dynamic act who’s fast becoming a Second State star.

We are proud to release ‘Fortunate Isolation’ the sophomore album from Borusiade. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Borusiade aka Miruna Boruzescu started DJ-ing in 2002 as one of the very few female DJs in the city’s emerging alternative clubbing scene. Influenced by a classical musical education, a bachelor in film direction and fascinated by raw electronic sounds, Borusiade first combined these universes in the construction of her DJ sets and starting 2005 also in her music production. A sound of her own has slowly crystallized, often dark with poignant bass lines, obsessive themes and by all means melodic. She has released EPs on labels like Pinkman, Unterton, Cititrax, Correspondant and Cómeme, who released her debut album ‘A Body’ in 2018.

‘Fortunate Isolation’ is perhaps Borusiade’s most personal release to date. Eight songs that capture a bystander witnessing the world as it undergoes drastic changes. We have disconnected ourselves from ecology, humanity, preservation, care for what surrounds us, for what is still alive. Borusiade adds, “| know that this place, our home has went through so many other extinctions, but | believe things will find their own way on this planet only once we are gone. Entropy creates a time-line but also a transformation - a new beginning.” The album’s sound is gloomy and powerful mixing sonic film sequences, rhythmic excursions and soothing yet obsessive vocals that touch one’s deepest senses. Lyrically the songs tackle themes of forgotten memories, spirituality, mortality, and destruction. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each copy is housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh with decaying daguerreotypes against a rust color palette and includes an insert with lyrics.

For its new release, the Parisian crew Discomatin picked a lesser known banger of the boogie era, Maudit DJ by Clara Capri. Produced in Belgium by Jay Alansky with lyrics
written by his sidekick Jacques Duvall, this EP brings together an Italo discoesque bassline surrounded by shiny synths and irresistible guitar licks. On top of that, Clara Capri sings
with a high-pitched voice. Maudit DJ is a real celebration of the nightlife. Fortunately, it’s brought here with all 3 versions transferred from the original tape masters: the extended “Version Longue” with its great introduction sounding like strong early house, the shorter “Version 45 Tours” if you’re in a hurry and, last but not least, the instrumental version for those too shy to play the vocals. But let’s head back to the 80’s: Jay Alansky
and Jacques Duvall are having a real success. They just produced famous Belgium female artist Lio’s first hits and have access to Dan Lacksman’s studio in Brussels - member of Telex with Marc Moulin. During this euphoric period, they met Clara Capri, a young Italian girl really crazy about Disco, swearing only by Giorgio Moroder or Chic. Her two buddies decide to concoct her a real hymn to the dancefloor. For them it sounds like the perfect
time, considering the duo always dreamed of being like a shadow production team, just like Motown’s very own Holland-Dozier-Holland. With a great care to the production and the
sound and with the best technologies from the era, they managed to create this French dance music attempt, at a moment when nobody was speaking about French Touch.
Thanks to Discomatin, it’s now available to the real connoisseurs with an exclusive insert which contains lyrics, again with fantastic illustrations from french artist Camille de Cussac.

Sinnamon's '83 NYC boogie scorcher 'I Need You Now' gets the official remastered, reissue treatment - complete with the 'Fierce Reprise' dub mix alongside the accapella, providing essential sampling material.

Marrying the old with the new, 'I Need You Now' is drenched in funk bass slickness and colourful chords, yet embraces a wealth of synthesized sounds from electro sequencers to synth-based strings, giving it that early '80s post disco, boogie feel. Bernard Fowler of Peech Boys fame steps up on guest vocals bringing a deep, R&B tone to proceedings, complimented by the all-female vocal prowess of Sinnamon adding their trademark feminine touch to the track.

First up on the flip side, the six minute 'Fierce Reprise' mix. Reversed rides that suck back into the skull, tape delayed vocals and spacey synth echoes blend together, as elements are overlaid and dubbed out for maximum, heavyweight, proto house vibrations.

Last up, a favourite and much used vocal accapella that's been sampled by a whole host of early house, hardcore and garage producers from 808 State and Criminal House to Ray Keith and Paul Johnson.

An essential bit of kit for anyone with a penchant for that early '80s boogie flavour.

Every record includes a downloadcode to get the whole digital
release for free via Facebook !!
Dawson´s debut for Grain Audio is a grooving outlook for the summer
season of 2013. Motherkiss is hypnotising with strings and female
vocals while Dreamgirl is a real primetime drop with a well-metered
portion of saxophone flavour. Another underlining Dawson release
after the successfull "Holly / Sohno" EP from 2011.
Jede Vinyl enthält einen gratis Downloadcode für das gesamte
digitale Release (einzulösen via Facebook) !!
Dawson´s Grain Audio Debüt ist ein groovender Ausblick auf die
diesjährige Sommersaison. Motherkiss hypnotisiert mit seinen
Streichern und weiblichen Vocals während Dreamgirl ein wahrer
Primetime Track mit einer gut-dosierten Portion Saxophon im Break
ist. Dawson unterstreicht damit seine Ambitionen nachdem er bereits
mit seiner "Holly / Sohno" EP punkten konnte.

In the early 1970s, Milan was a city defined by a restless, creative energy. Its recording studios hummed with activity day and night, populated by an elite circle of jazz-trained session musicians who split their time between tracking dates in the studio and jam sessions in the city’s clubs. Among them was Giancarlo Barigozzi, one of the most revered flautists and saxophonists of the scene, who was just then beginning to navigate the enigmatic world of library music.

The Barigozzi Group – formed alongside guitarist Sergio Farina and pianist Oscar Rocchi, both fellow session musicians – became a defining ensemble of Italian library. Commissioned by publishers in Milan and Rome, they produced some of the most exquisite library LPs of all time, records that effortlessly translated the spirit of the era into sound.

Of these, Woman’s Colours stands as arguably their most iconic and celebrated achievement. Originally released in 1974 on the Fonovideo label under the artistic supervision of Fabio Fabor, the album is a cohesive, organic exploration of a single theme: a refined tribute to the female form, with every track associating a specific colour with a different part of the body (“Violet Lips”, “Green Nails”, “Lilac Arms”, etc.).

While the subtitle "Pop Jazz – Pianoforte Elettronico Wurlitzer" might suggest a simple affair, the reality is a surprisingly rich and layered sonic universe. Here, jazz-funk and jazz-rock intertwine with echoes of Afro-rhythms, exotica, and bossa nova. The result is a vibrant mosaic of fusion and lounge, where driving basslines, fuzz guitars, Fender Rhodes, and prog-leaning flutes create a soundscape that balances elegance and groove in equal measure.

Over the decades, the record has attained true cult status, cherished by successive generations of dedicated collectors and listeners. It is now recognized as essential to the very definition of the Italian psycho-beat sound, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of I Marc 4 and Alessandro Alessandroni, while remaining a foundational milestone for acid-jazz and funk enthusiasts. Above all, it is a rare example of a library record so consistent and fluid that the listening journey, from start to finish, remains entirely seamless.

Today, Woman’s Colours is finally available again in its first official reissue, and for the first time in digital format. Presented by Four Flies Records, this edition features a premium tip-on sleeve and meticulously restored artwork by Eric Adrian Lee.

Frankey & Sandrino make their HABITAT debut with *The Moment,* a thrilling three-track EP that reimagines early trance and house through a contemporary lens. The title track "The Moment" features a haunting female vocal line, "The moment is eternity and now is just a dream," set against lush, layered synths that evoke the euphoria of rave's golden era. Balancing out the EP are “Intrinsic”, with its hypnotic grooves and futuristic vocals, and “Motivation,” with its powerful, driving synths that are sure to take over any dance floor.

Here, the celebrated German duo has crafted a package that balances underground credibility with mainstream appeal, offering a masterclass in immersive electronic music. With a rich legacy releasing on labels like Innervisions, Diynamic and their own label Sum Over Histories, Frankey & Sandrino make for a welcome addition to HABITAT, pushing new boundaries, and solidifying their impact on the global electronic music scene with this mesmerizing new release.

Power began as a challenge.

Zachary Fairbrother began Countach to collect the unfinished scraps and fragments from his band GHÖSH, the digital hardcore duo that broke up in 2023. But when Feel The Four, the Philadelphia-based label run by Cristian Adams and Jarrett Dougherty (ex-Screaming Females), asked him for a proper 12”, he saw an opportunity to push the project in an ambitious new direction.

The result is Power - EP, which finds Fairbrother exploring the freedom of longer run-times and varied textures, all while maintaining the post-industrial vision of his previous work. Across 20 minutes, he runs through propulsive acid house, harsh electro, and ‘90s big beat, using 303s and 808s to build an upbeat but haunting record that’s as indebted to the forebearers of those genres as it is to the grim landscapes of Phillip K. Dick and Paul Verhoeven.

• “Guerrilla Girls!”, Ace Records’ much-anticipated first release of 2023, takes us on a thrilling ride from punk’s mid-70s origins, via the left-field post-punk groups, jangly female combos, grunge bands and vigilante Riot Grrrls of the 80s and 90s, to the she-punk bands of recent years – a five-decade alternative to the macho hegemony of rock.

• The collection highlights songs that emerged out of a dynamic underculture of female creative expression. What unites the featured artists is a healthy disregard for the way the music industry ties up its female performers into pretty, neo-liberal packages. From Patti Smith, universal mother of the punk movement, to the Bags, Bikini Kill and Skinny Girl Diet, this music is anti-A&R. Including lesser-known names such as San Francisco street punk Mary Monday and London-based experimentalists pragVec, it shows that, rather than being a few novelty bands existing on the margins, these performers represent a stronger, more three-dimensional version of the female experience.

• Glorious resistance was on display in the first wave of UK female-fronted punk bands. Poly Styrene’s charged vocals on X-Ray Spex’s ‘Iama Poseur’, for instance, were a deliberate refusal to be a pretty punkette. With 15 year-old Lora Logic on saxophone, X-Ray Spex epitomised a fearless, self-defined agency that was at odds with the pastel shades and flowery, submissive Laura Ashley version of 1970s girlhood. By the early 80s, there was a hugely vibrant scene propelled by the diverse rhythms and voices of post-punk feminism. Lora Logic had left X-Ray Spex to form the interweaving textures of Essential Logic, the Mo-dettes mangled ska and off-kilter pop, and Birmingham band Au Pairs sliced political rigour into their lyrics and funky guitar work.

• Some female artists took that elemental energy into pop, creating pop-punk with a twist. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! made a statement on music technology and female power with a cheeky play on words. Their song ‘Rules And Regulations’ shows that what Guerrilla Girls do well is debunking – taking genres of popular song and turning them inside out – like the way the Pandoras and the Pussywillows would amp up the driving beat and high vocals of the 60s girl group style, and subvert it with a DIY garage element.

• In its fanzine culture, use of montage and DIY music, 90s Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile drew direct inspiration from 70s punk, articulated through the prism of Third Wave feminism. Too often, Riot Grrrl gigs were invaded by men intent on heckling “the enemy”. Liz Naylor, manager of British Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, says that their concerts became war zones. From the US grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes emerged more female instrumentalists, with bands such as L7 and Babes In Toyland proving that it was possible to recruit cutting-edge drummers, bass players and guitarists. Lori Barbero, whose relentless power drumming is a major element of Babes In Toyland, took the one instrument that has been a staple of male rock’n’roll and made it her muse.

• In the 2000s a new generation of girl-punk bands drew on the Riot Grrrl underculture to form their own sound. London trio the Tuts refashioned C86, Riot Grrrl and lush dream pop on songs like the ironically titled ‘Let Go Of The Past’, while the Regrettes injected shots of ska and doo wop into their explosive West Coast pop-punk. What began with Patti Smith and 70s punk has grown into a vast, spikey infrastructure of girl music. Many take inspiration from their foremothers, like Skinny Girl Diet whose vigilante feminism and punk distortion has been championed in return by Viv Albertine of the Slits. As long as these female artists stay aware of their musical vision and what they are trying to express – in a sense, A&R themselves – the underculture will continue to grow and flower. And this “Guerrilla Girls!” compilation is a celebration of that power.


• The back sleeve of the release features a scene-setting introductory essay by Lucy O’Brien (author of She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music). Each of the two discs come in a swanky inner bag containing a track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick (Ace Records’ long-serving champion of female artists of all persuasions) and exclusive interviews with many of the featured artists by Vim Renault and Lene Cortina (founders of the Punk Girl Diaries webzine).

Chart topping British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters returns with much anticipated third studio album ‘Florescence’, co-produced with 2x Grammy Winner Ian Fitchuck with collaborators including Marcus Mumford and Julia Michaels. Florescence reflects on how the right love can help heal the wrong ones. It’s an album about perspective, self-realisation, healing, and ultimately, learning how to flourish. This lands as Maisie’s first new LP since she became the youngest solo British female artist in almost a decade to land a UK No.1 album with ‘The Good Witch’ back in 2023. Since then, she’s had the A-list co-signs via Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Smith and Olivia Rodrigo. She’s had a fiercely devoted fandom flock to headline tours around the world. And she’s played shows from Wembley Arena, to Glastonbury, to stadium slots with Taylor Swift and Coldplay.


“Florescence means ‘the process of flowering, of developing richly and fully’ and to me, this album describes exactly that. These 15 tracks depict a blossoming of myself from ages 23 to 25 and a blossoming of a true real love that anchors both me and this record. It tells the story of the last few long winters, with all of their villains and thorns, heartbreaks and rains, and it leads you, by the end, into a perfect English spring, into the hope and catharsis that comes when the first wildflower blooms. It’s a true representation of healing, of finding hope and peace and strength not just in somebody else, but in yourself. It is clear skies, cherry pits on the grass, windows flung open - it is Sussex country roads and London corner shop wine that leaves a stain when you kiss. It is the feeling of flying, then falling, then flying again. It is knowing that there was a point to all the sadness of before, and the point is the woman you see in this mirror now, and the person you see by her side. Love is weaved into every strand of every song on this album and for good reason - love is timeless, love is pure, love is organic and simple and effortless and real. I hope you find this album to be that as well.”

Chart topping British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters returns with much anticipated third studio album ‘Florescence’, co-produced with 2x Grammy Winner Ian Fitchuck with collaborators including Marcus Mumford and Julia Michaels. Florescence reflects on how the right love can help heal the wrong ones. It’s an album about perspective, self-realisation, healing, and ultimately, learning how to flourish. This lands as Maisie’s first new LP since she became the youngest solo British female artist in almost a decade to land a UK No.1 album with ‘The Good Witch’ back in 2023. Since then, she’s had the A-list co-signs via Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Smith and Olivia Rodrigo. She’s had a fiercely devoted fandom flock to headline tours around the world. And she’s played shows from Wembley Arena, to Glastonbury, to stadium slots with Taylor Swift and Coldplay.


“Florescence means ‘the process of flowering, of developing richly and fully’ and to me, this album describes exactly that. These 15 tracks depict a blossoming of myself from ages 23 to 25 and a blossoming of a true real love that anchors both me and this record. It tells the story of the last few long winters, with all of their villains and thorns, heartbreaks and rains, and it leads you, by the end, into a perfect English spring, into the hope and catharsis that comes when the first wildflower blooms. It’s a true representation of healing, of finding hope and peace and strength not just in somebody else, but in yourself. It is clear skies, cherry pits on the grass, windows flung open - it is Sussex country roads and London corner shop wine that leaves a stain when you kiss. It is the feeling of flying, then falling, then flying again. It is knowing that there was a point to all the sadness of before, and the point is the woman you see in this mirror now, and the person you see by her side. Love is weaved into every strand of every song on this album and for good reason - love is timeless, love is pure, love is organic and simple and effortless and real. I hope you find this album to be that as well.”

2 new edits from DISCO FIEBRE! The party never stops with this dynamic production duo from Tijuana, Mexico! A side delivers a funky female lead vocal version of the classic. The B side's subtle keys and funky bass lines are smooth and groovy from start to finish

Nonesuch Records releases Let X=X, by Laurie Anderson with Sexmob. This triple-LP/double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob – Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss on brass, Kenny Wollesen on percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. Its cover and interior packaging feature paintings by Anderson. The album features 23 songs, including many favourites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements – plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, ‘Junior Dad’. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer (details below).

The New York Times said Anderson and Sexmob’s concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) ‘wasn’t a historical recreation of past recordings; Sexmob’s sound is a beefier one than on Anderson’s albums. With musicians who can double on electric guitar and bass clarinet, its members offered a rich range of textural variation throughout the evening.’

Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates... It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life.’

Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records, the critically lauded Life on a String, in 2001. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002); Homeland (2010); the soundtrack to her acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015); and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; the album includes Anderson’s beloved, surprise hit, song, ‘O Superman’, which also is featured on Let X=X. Her recent Nonesuch release was 2024’s Amelia, about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight.

Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date. Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date.

Laurie Anderson was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson. That same year, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lane Shi Otay Onii, known professionally as Otay:Onii, is one of the most inquisitive and genre-defying artists of her generation. A multifaceted creator whose work spans performance art, composition, installation, and avant-garde music practice. Otay:Onii is the first ever artist selected for the three-year Triennium Residency at Roadburn Festival. She was a contributing composer and performer in Florentina Holzinger's groundbreaking opera production `SANCTA` and has performed at festivals world-wide such as SXSW, Roadburn, CTM, Fusion, Creepy Teepy, LGW, Fekete Zaj, and Full of Lava. Otay;Onii has already been celebrated with many awards worldwide, included the Global Music Awards `Bronze Prize for Best Female Vocalist` and `Best Sound' at Audiovisual Arts Industrial Incubator Awards. Otay:Onii's new album `Love is in the Shit', is a deeply intimate album that reaches a striking balance between control and chaos. Harnessing her ability to move from serenity to madness, `Love is in the Shit' is an exploration in representing trialing conscious states. Drawing-in and challenging the listener, the songs play with comfort and discomfort, deliciously crafting the sonic arc of the story so that intention is undeniably felt. Low frequencies vibrate with a bodily presence, while sharp, high-frequency textures cut through with urgency. There is a sense of movement embedded in the sound; music that pulses, sways, and surges, never settling into static forms. Even at its most aggressive, there is an undercurrent of precision and intention. Her voice becomes increasingly elastic and versatile through the service of melody, spoken poetry and pain-ridden wails. "Many songs begin with a need to sing - I sing to summon grace at the peak of anger and tournament, I sing to summon tranquility from a 6 hour panic attack, I sing to get out of my mind which shows mercy for fear.

Lane Shi Otay Onii, known professionally as Otay:Onii, is one of the most inquisitive and genre-defying artists of her generation. A multifaceted creator whose work spans performance art, composition, installation, and avant-garde music practice. Otay:Onii is the first ever artist selected for the three-year Triennium Residency at Roadburn Festival. She was a contributing composer and performer in Florentina Holzinger's groundbreaking opera production `SANCTA` and has performed at festivals world-wide such as SXSW, Roadburn, CTM, Fusion, Creepy Teepy, LGW, Fekete Zaj, and Full of Lava. Otay;Onii has already been celebrated with many awards worldwide, included the Global Music Awards `Bronze Prize for Best Female Vocalist` and `Best Sound' at Audiovisual Arts Industrial Incubator Awards. Otay:Onii's new album `Love is in the Shit', is a deeply intimate album that reaches a striking balance between control and chaos. Harnessing her ability to move from serenity to madness, `Love is in the Shit' is an exploration in representing trialing conscious states. Drawing-in and challenging the listener, the songs play with comfort and discomfort, deliciously crafting the sonic arc of the story so that intention is undeniably felt. Low frequencies vibrate with a bodily presence, while sharp, high-frequency textures cut through with urgency. There is a sense of movement embedded in the sound; music that pulses, sways, and surges, never settling into static forms. Even at its most aggressive, there is an undercurrent of precision and intention. Her voice becomes increasingly elastic and versatile through the service of melody, spoken poetry and pain-ridden wails. "Many songs begin with a need to sing - I sing to summon grace at the peak of anger and tournament, I sing to summon tranquility from a 6 hour panic attack, I sing to get out of my mind which shows mercy for fear.

Oceanine, Jolanda Moletta’s third album and her first for Beacon Sound, is a powerful and ethereal statement of artistic community. Expanding on her previous work, each track represents a collaboration with a different female vocalist, with the foundational elements being generated entirely by her own voice. By turns haunting, enchanting, and inspiring, you won’t want to come up for air once you’ve been pulled under. Representing a
musical practice that is distinctly feminist, this is an album with a longer view in mind, to an age when the altars were to goddesses and women were centered as powerful beings representing the earth’s cycles of regeneration and renewal. Oceanine then, in all its beauty, can be viewed as an album of survival. It is deeply transportive, accessing something that lies within all of us. As the late, great Lithuanian folklorist and archaeologist Marija Gimbutas noted, “We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of 'progress' is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth.”

Jolanda Moletta is a multimedia artist and one-woman electronic choir. She creates wordless compositions through extended vocal techniques, integrating wearable-controlled live processing, alongside symbolic visuals. Moletta considers her performances to be a collective ritual and creates her Sonic & Visual Spells following the cycles of nature and the moon. Jolanda's 2022 critically acclaimed album Nine Spells was released on the Ambientologist label, followed by Night Caves on Whitelabrecs in 2025. Moletta’s artistic practice is a radical and spiritual journey through sound art, ritual, and the symbolic archaeology of the feminine.

Oceanine is inspired by sirens, water nymphs, and the timeless call of the sea. At its core lies Jolanda’s deep, lifelong connection to the Mediterranean Sea and to the ancient and modern myths and folklore that have emerged from its waters. Growing up by the Mar Ligure, Jolanda was surrounded by stories carried by salt, wind, and waves: legends of sirens, echoes of ancient voices, and the sea as both origin and oracle. This intimate relationship with the Mediterranean is not merely a backdrop, but a living source that shapes Oceanine’s emotional, symbolic, and sonic world.

Each track features a different female vocalist, creating a rich tapestry of voices, styles, and perspectives. This artistic choice not only broadens the album’s sonic palette, but also deepens its narrative core: celebrating the power, beauty, and mystique of feminine energy through myth, history, and sound.

The entire album is built exclusively from the human voice, processed and layered, yet always remaining voice, and nothing else. For each piece, Jolanda invited every vocalist involved to contribute a raw stem: a short, unedited melodic fragment of just a few seconds, inspired by the album’s themes. These intimate vocal seeds became the foundation of each track: the guest artists’ voices appear as brief, melodic stems, while the entire surrounding “orchestral” fabric is created solely from Jolanda’s own layered and processed voice. In this way, Jolanda’s voice becomes the Ocean itself, embracing, absorbing, and carrying the sirens’ calls within a vast, immersive soundscape. Every song is a unique expression of the feminine experience, revealing its depth, complexity, and emotional range, echoing the call of the sea and the many faces of the siren archetype.

The figure of the siren has transformed across centuries. In myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, sirens were hybrid beings, part woman, part bird, whose irresistible songs lured sailors to their doom. During the Middle Ages, the image shifted toward the half-woman, half-fish figure, often associated with temptation and danger. Historically, the voice of women has often been feared. Sirens were considered harbingers of misfortune not simply because they seduced or destroyed, but because they were powerful liminal beings.

In Ancient Greek, sirens functioned as psychopomps: figures who existed between worlds and guided souls, especially between life and death. Their songs were believed to carry forbidden knowledge, including prophetic insight and the ability to reveal truths about fate and the future. The danger of the sirens lay in what they revealed: knowledge that humans were not meant, or ready, to hear.

Oceanine confronts this legacy head-on. The voices heard throughout the album are not merely beautiful: they are dark and luminous, wild and enchanting, magical, soothing, dreamy, and at times fractured or distorted. They whisper, lament, beckon, and enchant. Like sirens, they skim the surface of the water and sink into its depths, hovering on the edge between tenderness and danger, vulnerability and power. They rise toward the sky, dissolve into mist, and return as echoes charged with raw, elemental emotion: voices that seduce, warn, mourn, and remember. They refuse to be reduced to decoration.

Alongside the album’s release in May, Oceanine will also unfold as a visual and performative work through a short art film. The film includes a live session recorded inside a sea cave facing the Mar Ligure, the very coastline where Jolanda spent her childhood, dreaming of sirens and listening to the sea as if it were speaking directly to her. This site-specific performance reconnects the music to its place of origin, allowing the voice to resonate within stone, water, and air, and transforming the cave into both a sanctuary and a threshold between myth and reality.

What if the sirens’ songs were considered dangerous because they carried another truth, an ancient truth long forgotten?

Oceanine embraces the idea that we are still deeply woven into myth. Though we may see ourselves as rational and modern beings, our world is saturated with ancient symbols and archetypes, often distorted, simplified, or stripped of their original meaning. And if those symbols are allowed to shift, if the mirror once held by the siren becomes an invitation to look beyond appearances and into what has been obscured, then we may finally uncover a deeper truth and reclaim the voice that was always ours.

Oceanine is not just an album. It is a reclamation, a spell, and a call from the depths.

The series, written and directed by Flo Van Deuren and Kato De Boeck, tells the story of Bibi and Ama, two lesbian girlfriends in their twenties.

Hoping to become a better version of themselves, they move in together at a flat in Brussels. Each in their own way, but under the same roof, they come to new insights: life has no manual, love even less and themselves even less so. The result is an intimate series full of humour and familiarity.

Musically the series is coloured by an exclusive soundtrack and homegrown songs: 7 female or non-binary artists from Belgium were asked to write a song. Lara Chedraoui & Patrix, Juicy, Miss Angel, Tessa Dixson, Oriana Ikoma, Ana Diaz, SPACEBABYMADCHA and Mick Lemaire crept into their musical pen. The series also features existing songs by artists such as Martha Da’ro, Aili, B1980 and Fatal Error to showcase a maximum of local musical talent.

Repress!

Belgian techno powerhouse Charlotte de Witte has unveiled brand-new EP ‘Apollo’, out 14th October on her own KNTXT label.

An uncompromising collection of club tracks, ‘Apollo’ opens with ‘Missing Channel’, a turbo-charged acid techno cut pairing pumping kick drums with squelching 303s. Next up, the title track shifts things into warehouse techno territories, juxtaposing bludgeoning kicks with haunting, ethereal vocals, while ‘Mercury’ cultivates a striking interstellar energy. Closing things out, ‘PPC’ is by far the record’s most experimental track, a shimmering, beatless creation laced with samples of space transmissions.

"The vastness and solitude of space always interested me. A compelling contrast between monumental power and the vacuum in between.” Charlotte explains. “This diversion can also be found in techno music, a pure simplicity divergent in power."

Charlotte de Witte has become known for her dark, stripped-back brand of techno, acid and anything high energy. She’s often crossing borders but maintains a deep form of respect for the underground. Highlight performances across the continents - including being the first techno (and female) DJ to headline the mainstage at Tomorrowland - Mixmag and DJ Mag covers, high-ranking positions in the charts and lists confirm her status as nouveaux techno royalty.

Heavy, breakneck club fodder, ‘Apollo EP’ is Charlotte de Witte at her bold and brilliant best.

Japanese female singer's ska & reggae covers of Frankie Valli and Sixpence None the Richer classics released on 7-inch vinyl!

Naya Beat is excited to announce 'PAWA!', a soaring disco-funk anthem celebrating feminism and the power (pawa) of togetherness. It is a mouthwatering collaboration between legendary jazz vocalist and disco pioneer Asha Puthli and NYC’s punk-chic, discodelic stars Say She She.

A fortuitous and fleeting window between touring schedules allowed Puthli and Say She She’s Nya Gazelle Brown, Sabrina Cunningham, and Piya Malik to write and record Pawa! with members of the cult funk band Orgone in the English countryside at Mike Oldfield’s (Tubular Bells) studio. Pawa! is a tribute to female fortitude and an anthemic call to action for unity and collective action. PAWA TO THE PEOPLE! Asha’s spoken word bursts into a soaring falsetto while Say She She’s celestial three-part harmonies make for a sublime call and response between the fabled mentor and her gifted disciples. Throw in a stellar bassline and one of tightest rhythm sections around, and you have an instant classic. And if that wasn’t enough, four remixes bring Pawa to the dancefloor! The UK’s legendary Crazy P deliver not one, but three future classics – an epic house take with a stomping bassline, a stripped-down vocal dub, and a sunshine-ready disco dub. Not to be outdone, Greece’s favourite dance duo Boys’ Shorts add magical disco touches and reimagine the original as an eight-minute balearic opus.

Featuring beautiful artwork and a premium poly-lined inner sleeve, the 12" has been cut to vinyl for the discerning DJ and listener by Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt from The Carvery, London.

In the spring of 1977, Millie Jackson was in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, laying down tracks for what became “Feelin’ Bitchy” with co-producer Brad Shapiro. Released in August 1977, the album reached #4 and #34 in America’s Billboard’s R&B and Hot 100, going gold with over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson’s cover of ‘If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday’ – already a hit for Merle Haggard in March 1977 – also reached #5 R&B and #43 in the Hot 100 in August. Although the album did not chart in the UK, “Feelin’ Bitchy” sold strongly to a dedicated fanbase who had voted her the #1 female singer in the Blues & Soul magazine annual poll. Jackson also performed much of the material on her sold-out UK dates in early 1978.

“Feelin’ Bitchy” was not only a commercial success, cementing Jackson’s no-nonsense reputation, but is now considered an all-time classic. Her rap on Benny Latimore’s ‘All The Way Lover’ stretched the original out like chewing gum to 10 minutes. “’Back In Love By Monday’ is a great song an’ that,” she told Black Echoes, “but it didn’t sell the album. ‘All The Way Lover’ sold the album.” Indeed it did, but other tracks like ‘A Little Taste Of Outside Love’ ‘Lovin’ Your Good Thing Away’, ‘Cheatin’ Is’ and ‘Feelin’ Like A Woman’ show that while Jackson’s tongue – front and centre on the LP cover – was always ready to hand out a lashing, it also helped her sing beautifully.

Ace are delighted to reissue “Feelin’ Bitchy’ on vinyl and Millie Jackson spoke to Ian Shirley about the recording of the album. This interview runs on an inner sleeve along with classic photographs of Jackson from this period.

Nicaraguan-American artist Dagmar Zuniga makes music that feels both intimate and expansive: songs drift like disrupted signals, carried by harmony, tape hiss, and a strong sense of touch. Her debut solo album in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music — written and recorded in New York, Norway, and Athens, Georgia over a period of five years on her longtime companion, the Tascam 424 — was uploaded to Bandcamp and YouTube in January 2025, quickly garnering over two hundred thousand views and the attention of artists such as Mount Eerie, who invited her to tour with them that summer. This year, what was once a jewel of tapped-in algorithms and message boards will meet the world at large, with in filth arriving digitally on March 4, and physically on April 10, via AD 93.

in filth is an atmospheric, devotional collage where one voice multiplies into a chorus of selves, sometimes delicate, sometimes severe; an effect created by Zuniga’s masterful layering of texture and complex harmonies. Synths glitter out like spears of sunlight from beneath clouds of moody, time-distorted guitars, and songs spin about themselves like tightly-wound music boxes, making use of a kind of hypnotic repetition, before melting apart into their components or slipping into the following track.

Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium — how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows (“If something is not material, it does not exist,” she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio ‘World of Pain’, as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026.

Though Zuniga’s work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy — an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to “find a place between worlds,” echoing Badiou’s idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there — in the space between voices, between artist and listener. “I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences,” she says. “The same way it helps me.”

Mate knows that you can't really beat the original deep house blueprint so the music it releases doesn't often try. Instead, it just tweaks and refines, colours a little around the edges, but always keeps musicality and soul at the centre. Toolate Groove is next up with a super tasteful offering that opens with quietly euphoric 'Librame' and also comes as a delicious dub. '97 Ride' (Club Mix) has a distinctly 90s feel with fun Rhodes jamming and swinging claps. The Destiny Dream Dub ups the heat with a smoking female vocal and more pronounced bassline then 'Fresh From Abidjan' brings some dusty breaks to a surging groove. As classy as it gets from front to back, frankly.

Osunlade returns with a 5 track EP of exceptional quality showcasing his unique talent for creating emotive, electronic, cerebral house music with soul. Even within these boundaries Osunlade finds scope for variation, be it irresistible bumping grooves(Sistagurl), meditative melodies with etherial thought provoking spoken word, (The Journey), or full on electronic soundscapes encompassing the tribal and the esoteric, (Prism).

Pimpin’ takes a slowed down acid bass-line as the cue for a diatribe against the changes in the pimp game - a metaphor for today’s decline in standards of excellence.
The jewel in this crown is a hark back to the days of raw house music with a powerful and emotive female vocal. The Way U Left Me is an emboldened declaration of independence from toxic love guaranteed to tear down any dance.

WILDFIRE is the long-awaited new studio album from Loreen, set for release on 27th March. Marking her first full studio album in nearly a decade, WILDFIRE is a powerful and intimate body of work that explores emotion, perception and inner transformation, a record that allows the full emotional spectrum to exist, from vulnerability and pain to freedom, love and truth.

The album features the global phenomenon “Tattoo”, alongside fan-favourite “Is It Love” and the transcendent new single “Feels Like Heaven”, co-written with Sia. Together, the tracks reflect Loreen’s unique ability to fuse raw emotional honesty with cinematic pop, creating music that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Loreen is the only female artist to have won the Eurovision Song Contest twice and has amassed over 9 billion streams worldwide. “Tattoo” topped radio airplay and singles charts in five countries, further cementing her status as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in modern pop.

With WILDFIRE, Loreen returns with an album that is fearless, expansive and profoundly human

Preceded, in November 2018, by the monster hit ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’ featuring Miley Cyrus, Mark’s fifth studio album dropped in June 2019 to widespread acclaim as a carefully crafted, cohesive and intimate experience. Outfitted with one of the finest aggregations of so-called ‘sad bangers’ to be found anywhere in pop, including four further singles featuring stellar female vocal performances, Ronson described it as “definitely the best thing” he has produced (as well as the record that he worked hardest on) and it is difficult to disagree. As Clash Music concluded: “Ronson’s ability to tap into each artist’s strengths and dig out their particular prowess allows each voice to shine through and own each individual track. This is what elevates the record to a guaranteed award winner and a truly empowering listen.”

In the past, DVTR has definitely been shaking up the Canadian punk scene, racking up dazzling reviews, best of 2023 lists, soldout shows and some bootlicking awards for their first ever EP "BONJOUR". Somewhere between the B-52s and fast DIY punk à la Jay Reatard, Demi Lune & Jean Divorce's troublemaking duo pours out its bile on often surprising, sometimes awkward, and always salvatory soundscapes. Its unpredictable stage antics break all language barriers, already taking the band on stages everywhere from Mexico to the UK. DVTR is French-speaking, female-fronted, short and not sweet at all: it repeats, it repeats, it repeats - that's the only way to get the message across. Vasectomy for all, ACAB, Rhum coke and MDMA, etcetera, etcetera. A simple fuck off to anyone who'd need a reminder before everything burns? As the legendary magazine CULT MTL recently said: "This is a live band doing what great live bands do, live: entertaining, f*cking with people's heads, having fun, and showing what they've got - crazy licks - without showing off."

When Aretha Franklin passed away on August 16, 2018 we lost the Queen of Soul, acknowledged as the foremost female singer of her generation, someone who sold over 75 million records in her glittering career. The sadness that so many soul fans felt at that time was most acute knowing that we would never hear her beautiful voice on any new recordings. So it is with great pleasure that we present a live set from Aretha never before heard on a commercial CD. And it is with pride that we can say that the recordings, made in a TV studio in Cologne during her first European tour in 1968, are smack in the middle of soul’s Golden Age. The musical quality - the great artist at her peak – is so high that this issue can only enhance her reputation. This is prime Aretha Franklin – and soul music doesn’t get much better than this. Notes by John Ridley.