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After completing his nationwide run with Ice Nine kills, the rocker has been hard at work prepping Cruel World. The collection of songs includes several notable features, including the likes of From First To Last, as well as Ice Nine Kills. The 9-song minialbum is chock full of TX2's well-known hard-hitting sinister sound, and he's bringing an added dose of heavy with these new songs as well. Fan-favorite track "MAD," which has seen 10,000+ video creates on TikTok and has created an unstoppable buzz around the project. Rising out of the shadows of a small town known for music, Fort Collins; TX2 brings an unmatchable intensity in his music through the form of powerful raw lyrics and explosive performances. After struggling for so many years as an artist, TX2 used his pain as fuel and finally found his sound. As a result, his music went viral on TikTok and he now has ~800K followers on the platform. TX2 has since begun a movement known among his fans known as the "X Movement", which is all about bringing awareness to mental health and creating a safe space for those in need to talk. The rules are simple, any member can vent and share how they are feeling, while other members are encouraged to push other members' self-esteem up. The movement is currently growing every day, providing a platform to speak about mental health, vent, and support one another. TX2 wants everyone to know they are not alone in their struggles. The nine rack minialbum is available on CD & LP!

Continuing the trajectory set by last year's EPs and experimental long-player, Reeko returns to Samurai Music to deliver an expansive album that goes further into his experimental practice at the intersection of deep techno, drum & bass and electronica.

Since the early 00s Juan Rico has been applying his exacting vision to the deeper end of dance music culture. As Reeko, he's carved out an imposing presence in the modern techno scene by building up the steely, hard-hitting sound of Mental Disorder while also contributing to scene-leading labels like Modularz, Semantica and Delsin. With a trio of releases through 2024 for Samurai Music, the Spanish producer demonstrated the wider scope of his craft as he opened up to broken rhythms, spacious arrangements and a wholly diferent dimension to his music-making.

Fresh from the success of 2024"s "Hombres", "Gun" continue their comeback with this revitalised edition of Swagger. Originally released in 1994, the album featured their hit single "Word Up", a cover of the Cameo"s pop song that they transformed into their own tongue-in-cheek hard rock banger which charted all over Europe and went to the top 10 in the UK. The Deluxe Double CD package contains a 24 page booklet with brand new liner notes written by Joel McIver featuring an interview with Dante (vocals) and Giuliani "Jools" Gizzi (guitar), plus archive photos from the original singles. The Green Vinyl version features renewed and replicated cover art, and contains an 8 page insert with brand new liner notes written by Joel McIver featuring an interview with Dante (vocals) and Giuliani "Jools" Gizzi (guitar), plus archive photos from the original singles.

2025 REPRESS

A DJ, producer and significant figure in contemporary electronic music, Marcel Dettmann steps forward to contribute to Running Back’s ongoing Mastermix series. Whereas previous editions of Mastermix have taken an ear to the sound of lapsed, legendary clubs such as Wild Pitch and Front, Dettmann’s curation deftly captures the man himself in ongoing perpetual motion, raiding the vault for his own precision-tooled edits, long-employed on dancefloors to devastating effect. Alongside a continuous mix, this release arrives as a 3LP gatefold, and as a limited edition cassette.

Closely associated with Berlin’s techno landscape, Dettmann was born and raised in the former GDR, then later immersed in the bleary-eyed counter cultural landscape of post-unification Berlin. Initially oriented by post-punk, industrial and new-wave music, Dettmann has been DJing since 1993, always expanding and perfecting his repertoire. He later began working behind the counter at the city’s tastemaking rave boutique Hard Wax, and a decade after he first dropped a needle, became (and remains) resident at notable local nightspot Berghain/Panorama Bar, where his instincts have helped sculpt the signature sound of both main dancefloors.

Of course, you’re probably not asking, “Who is Marcel Dettmann?” More importantly, you might want to know; just what treats has he gifted us here? The trip begins with a simple pitch-shift skywards, transforming Identified Patient’s creeping ‘The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania’ into a peak-time freakout, before an alternate take on Toctronic’s ‘Bis uns das Licht vertreibt’ emerges from the vaults for the first time. Dating from 1995, and one of Dettmann’s all-time favourites, Cristian Vogel’s ‘Untitled’ clambers back into the box with respectable cuts, while John Bender’s ‘Victims of A Victimless Crime’ kicks off the flip sporting a new arrangement, transporting us back to the foundations of a confident, stripped-back sound.

A few subtle edits to Clark’s perilously funky ‘Dirty Pixie’ takes us to Dettmann’s remix of Junior Boys. Produced in 2010, it transposes the Canadian duo’s sophisticated pop with our curator in his minimal prime, and has since become an irresistible prize for high-minded diggers. The same can be said for Experimental Products’ explosive proto-electro anthem ‘Who Is Kip Jones?’, empowered from pricey Discogs purgatory with just the slightest of tweaks. It’s deservedly sandwiched between the guiding influences of Chicago and Detroit in the form of Mutant Beat Dance’s raw ‘The Human Factor’ and a shimmering new version of previous solo production ‘Water’, featuring close friend and Ostgut Ton ally, Ryan Elliot.

The second half of the Mastermix seamlessly connects the mechanical past and digital present of EBM and industrial in the dance, with Dettmann’s instincts as a guiding hand. Severed Heads’ iconic ‘We Have Come To Bless This House’ emerges with mere nips and tucks, while Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Shame’ is significantly reimagined as a highwire act of rhythm and tension, setting up a sensual second take on a 2017 remix of ‘Limbo’ from Swiss synth heroes, Yello.

Core musical memories are shaken and stirred with a context-shifting take on Frank Duval’s emotional classic ‘Ogon’, while Ian North’s ‘Sex Lust You’ and Ford Proco’s notable Coil collaboration ‘Expansion Naranja’ effectively throb with only minor adjustments, respectfully imagined as “shadow versions”. Meanwhile, a simple breakbeat lifts Albert Kuningas’s ‘Astraalprojektio’ in the direction of wide-eyed dancefloors, while a fresh take on K-Alexi Shelby’s ‘Season of The Real’ inexplicably emerges somehow even funkier than before.

The conclusion of the compilation leads back to Das Tier from the prolific experimentalist Conrad Schnitzler, whose swirling synths and hypnotic vocals are duly tightened by Dettmann, but only as he puts it, “in conversation with the original.” Concluding three discs and thirty years of commitment to the dancefloor, this Mastermix not only offers us the opportunity to eavesdrop on this endless exchange, but to gain some sought-after material for our own record collections.

Pelican has always been a band that's not just from Chicago, but distinctly of Chicago. Formed in 2000 by guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec alongside brothers Bryan and Larry Herweg on bass and drums respectively, Pelican's foundation was built upon the rule-free, genre-agnostic scene synonymous with the Fireside Bowl. "The `90s in Chicago was a free-for-all. Everyone was just coming from a place of pure creativity," says Shelley de Brauw. With Schroeder-Lebec returning to the band following Dallas Thomas' exit in 2022, this reunified version of Pelican allowed the band to tap back into those influences and build something distinctly new with Flickering Resonance. While longtime Pelican fans will find an updated version of the band's ethos_one that's been constantly evolving since their very first EP_their new partnership with Run For Cover Records emphasizes something that's always been implicit to the Pelican formula. These songs take as much inspiration from titanic `90s post-hardcore, space-rock, and emo as they do traditional metal, showing that though Godflesh and Goatsnake records occupied the shelves of Pelican's songwriters, so too did Quicksand, Christie Front Drive, and Hum. "A lot of people didn't hear it," says Schroeder-Lebec. "I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now, I'm willing to acknowledge all the suits we're wearing." On Flickering Resonance, Pelican allowed themselves to look at their music less as a means of hard-earned catharsis and more as an appreciation for the glimmers of joy that occur even in the bleakest landscapes.

From the maniacal opening notes and carnival barker howl that launch the album, The Ugly Organ wasted no time searing itself into a listener's ears and quickly established Cursive as a musical force with which to be reckoned. A selfaware examination of artistic constraints (or lack thereof), relationships, sex, and the intersection of all three, The Ugly Organ wowed critics and audiences alike with its cerebral, cathartic blend of songs. Fiercely intelligent and cohesive - the liner notes laid the songs out like a play, complete with stage directions - across its diverse sonic landscape, the album landed Cursive on the Sunday Arts & Leisure section cover of The New York Times (which also called it "a marvelous collection of riddles and left turns, conceived as a single piece of musical theater") and earned accolades from Rolling Stone ("a brilliant leap forward"), Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Alternative Press, MAGNET ("The best punk record you'll hear all year"), Esquire, and SPIN, among many others, as well as a place on numerous year-end best lists. The Ugly Organ feels as vibrant and vital today as it did upon release more than 20 years ago. A landmark album, it not only catapulted Cursive from the simmering indie underground to the forefront of a genre, but also served to inspire a host of young bands in its wake.

Noumen returns to Central Processing Unit after a six-year absence with Altum. This bumper record, the Ukrainian artist's fourth release for the Sheffield label and first since 2019 double-LPObscurium, serves to remind us all why Noumen's music has been lauded by the likes of Mixmag and Resident Advisor in the past.Altumis a consummate piece of contemporary electronic production, a technoid exploration of outer-edges electronica that nods to genre greats like Autechre while still maintaining its own unconventional charm.

Across well over an hour of music here we find Noumen repeatedly playing punchy mid-tempo beat work off of some more cerebral tuned synths.Altumkicks off with the epic 'Oion' - beginning in that Autechre/AFX mid-tempo zone, full of deep-sea bangs and whirrs, the track slowly builds to a final stretch of delay-drenched keys which set us free amidst the outer cosmos, almost Sun Ra-style. It's a perfect liminal-space roller and an apt scene-setter forAltum.

'Oion' provides a blueprint for several of the album's other highlights - plenty of the joints here adopt that same approach of hitting hard with the drums and soft with the synths. Second track 'Splitter' takes on the baton from 'Oion' while souping up the kick to warehouse levels; the beats in 'Far Wind' splutter like a needle skipping on a mid-90s Tresor drop; 'Fate Carette', all eerie looped synth leads, is a highlight as the album enters the home straight.

The rhythm production (which, it should be noted, is exemplary throughoutAltum) is ratched up in intensity on a handful of numbers. 'Telemask' displays a delightful breakbeat - if you'd told me this was sampled from golden age A Tribe Called Quest, I'd have believed you. Mid-section anchors 'Awe' and 'Axis' are glitchers in the Mike Paradinas mould, with the latter showing off some pleasing steel pan-esque synth leads for good measure. And whileAltumgenerally maintains a processional pace throughout, there are points where Noumen toughens up the drums for club deployment - 'Unveilness' shows off a real chunkiness in the low end, closer 'Spurling Sign' plays a satisfying rolling groove off of ever-layering synths, and the title-track is an alien machine-funker in keeping with fellow CPU electronauts like Silicon Scally and Cygnus.

Noumen's third album for Central Processing Unit is a pleasingly hefty double-LP which builds on the zany invention of acts like Modeselektor and Autechre to delightful effect.

FFO: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Modeselektor, Bochum Welt, LFO

There are artists we occasionally happen across, even 14 years into our FatKidOnFire journey, where we know we need to work with them. There is material from said artists which sets our world on fire, and then there’s the four tunes that make up our first physical record in over two years. This one’s a long time coming, and also marks one of the first instances in FKOF Records where we welcome an artist to the family with a straight-to-record release. When you hear it, you’ll understand why. This is the long overdue FKOFv009…

Over the last decade and a half, the 140 landscape has been through its peaks and troughs. Tastes and styles change, but the one constant is when we find the right beats, bass and space we know we’re onto a winner. The international TRAKA collective caught our eyes and ears early on in their project – for all the right reasons. We’re delighted to welcome them to FKOF Records with a long-overdue record, as well as welcoming long time FKOF fam Oddkut back into the fold.



“The ninth outing on FKOF Records’ physical imprint opens with the anthemic voice of Rider Shafique joining forces with TRAKA for ‘Soo’. Hard-hitting truths, juddering percussion and a rolling low end so solid you can almost chew on it. Keep fighting and rise.

“Next up, we ratchet things up a notch with ‘Shock Em Up’. It’s an absolute unit of a tune, and when we get asked for what we mean by beats, bass and space this is our 2024 example. Effective heavyweight sonic warfare.

“FKOF009’s B-side opens with ‘Silus' – continuing along the foundations TRAKA laid on the A-side. Suffocating power, engaging atmospherics and a vibe that works at peak time on the dancefloor as well as it does opening or closing out the graveyard slot.

“We close out the record welcoming Oddkut back for his latest outing on FKOF Records with the TRAKA collab ‘Shake Junt’. It twists and turns through its first drop, before taking a completely new direction in the break. It’s an absolute groove and one that’s been a firm favourite for as long as it’s been in the bag.”

In the two years since Parallel Minds’ Juno-Award-winning 5th release Homesick by label co-founder Ciel, we have taken our time reassessing our next moves as the larger dance music scene experienced a paradigm shift. What does it mean to release music made by underground artists from lesser-known scenes like Toronto at a time when bookers and A&Rs are taking fewer risks than ever before? How do we truly celebrate the musical diversity of electronic music when the bottom line threatens to reduce any and all forms of risk-taking?

You just do it, of course.

In truth, few artists have come to represent the music scene in the Big Smoke more than Phèdre, and having seen the duo’s progression from indie weirdo-pop to live hardware act to breakbeat wunderkind in the last decade has been nothing short of amazing. It’s really artists like these that inspired us to start the label in 2018, and we are super elated to usher in PM006 with their long-awaited album, Liquid Constancy.

On its face, Liquid Constancy is a breakbeat record. There are housier joints, to more bassy Baltimore club bangers, to breakneck footwork and jungle steeped in sunshine. All of them share a distinctly syncopated, dubwise rhythm that grounds the album’s tracks. With some having been developed as early as seven years ago, these tracks had their genesis in Phèdre’s mostly improvised live hardware sets from some of Toronto’s most notorious warehouse raves. Primarily powered by two Korg Electribe ESX-1s and the semi-modular Moog Mother-32, the jams found new life in the studio when the duo began recording them as tracks, which demanded a mindfulness of their permanence that Daniel Lee and apè Aliermo at first found intimidating.

Over time, the pair developed a synergistic workflow that pulls from Daniel’s background in drums and apè’s keen ear for texture and movement. They sourced samples featuring voices of BIPOC and feminist icons, drew from their shared love of sci-fi and kung fu movies, and from their Filipino, Chinese, German, and Surinamese backgrounds. Samples were manipulated via techniques like lowering bit rates and adjusting speed to maximize usage due to the Electribe’s limited sample time, which was a subtle way of injecting their interests into their music without being too on the nose. Growing up in the melting pot of the GTA, going to raves as teens, bumping post-punk, industrial, electro, hip-hop and 90s R&B — these experiences all had an undeniable influence on Liquid Constancy. As kids of immigrant parents, equally informed by both their adopted and native cultures, Phèdre makes music informed by sampling and defined by cultural hybridity. In times like these, what is more feel-good than believing in music as a universal language that brings our different backgrounds together?

"Straight up, no one is having more fun than me when we"re up there!" beams DRAIN frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, whose face is perpetually glued in a grin. For anyone that"s seen the Santa Cruz hardcore firebrands live, there"s no mistaking that fact. DRAIN isn"t just a good time as Sammy presides over the chaos of stage diving bodies and mic-grabbing frontline; it"s a party-and everyone is invited. (Dolphin shorts and boogie boards are optional but encouraged.) "The vibe of it is, enthusiastic, hectic," says the vocalist. "Five people deep singing and stagediving, then kids going berserk behind that. It"s a great vibe and I think people pick up on that." That, in a nutshell is DRAIN. The trio inject a serious dose of relatability-not to mention catchiness-into hardcore"s penchant for toughness and brutality on their new Epitaph album, ...IS YOUR FRIEND. Ciaramitaro"s desperate, snotty howl rides roughshod over thrash-leaning riffage as rhythms bounce in a big way. If you"re picturing the Pacific Ocean waves that rise and fall along the coastal town, occasionally violently so, you"re not far off.

"Straight up, no one is having more fun than me when we"re up there!" beams DRAIN frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, whose face is perpetually glued in a grin. For anyone that"s seen the Santa Cruz hardcore firebrands live, there"s no mistaking that fact. DRAIN isn"t just a good time as Sammy presides over the chaos of stage diving bodies and mic-grabbing frontline; it"s a party-and everyone is invited. (Dolphin shorts and boogie boards are optional but encouraged.) "The vibe of it is, enthusiastic, hectic," says the vocalist. "Five people deep singing and stagediving, then kids going berserk behind that. It"s a great vibe and I think people pick up on that." That, in a nutshell is DRAIN. The trio inject a serious dose of relatability-not to mention catchiness-into hardcore"s penchant for toughness and brutality on their new Epitaph album, ...IS YOUR FRIEND. Ciaramitaro"s desperate, snotty howl rides roughshod over thrash-leaning riffage as rhythms bounce in a big way. If you"re picturing the Pacific Ocean waves that rise and fall along the coastal town, occasionally violently so, you"re not far off.

When CRIMEAPPLE and Big Ghost Ltd first linked up on their "Aguardiente" collaboration in 2016, the two came to shake the game up. The iconic Antioqueño bottle left a mark in underground hip-hop that still stands strong to this day, and to follow up they cooked up the deadliest material to do that once again with "Bazuko".

Named after the deadliest and most addictive street drug in Colombia, basuco, the album embodies the raw, uncut and unfiltered essence of their artistic process, much like the gritty remnants of cocaine paste.

CRIMEAPPLE's razor-sharp lyricism cuts through Big Ghost Ltd's masterful, hard-hitting beats, creating a visceral, addictive and immersive soundscape. With "Bazuko," the two aren't just following up on "Aguar-diente"; they're raising the stakes, delivering a project that is as potent and unforgettable as its namesake.

When CRIMEAPPLE and Big Ghost Ltd first linked up on their "Aguardiente" collaboration in 2016, the two came to shake the game up. The iconic Antioqueño bottle left a mark in underground hip-hop that still stands strong to this day, and to follow up they cooked up the deadliest material to do that once again with "Bazuko".

Named after the deadliest and most addictive street drug in Colombia, basuco, the album embodies the raw, uncut and unfiltered essence of their artistic process, much like the gritty remnants of cocaine paste.

CRIMEAPPLE's razor-sharp lyricism cuts through Big Ghost Ltd's masterful, hard-hitting beats, creating a visceral, addictive and immersive soundscape. With "Bazuko," the two aren't just following up on "Aguar-diente"; they're raising the stakes, delivering a project that is as potent and unforgettable as its namesake.

None other than Nick Cave helped director John Hillcoat with the screenplay for the movie Lawless, while he also took great care of the movie’s soundtrack. Cave and fellow musician Warren Ellis form the core of The Bootleggers, a country and bluegrass ensemble that welcome a string of guests artist like Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley and Mark Lanegan. The Lawless soundtrack contains cover versions of artists such as Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart and also features original compositions by Cave/Ellis and the great Willie Nelson. Lawless is a studded movie by director John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) about a gang of bootleggers in Virginia during the Great Depression. And when we say star-studded, we really mean it: Guy Pierce, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy and Shia LeBoeuf signed up for the gritty and evocative story about brothers who try to create their own American Dream during Prohibition. Lawless is available as a limited edition edition of 750 numbered copies on smoke coloured vinyl and includes an 8-page booklet with movie pictures and liner notes by Hal Willner and director John Hillcoat.

The Band Rotosphere has become a cornerstone of the Blues Festival Baden (Switzerland). Since 2005, led by guitarist and bandleader Nic Niedermann, they"ve been lighting up the festival"s legendary Late Night Jam Sessions. Over the years, they"ve shared the stage with blues icons such as Magic Slim, Susan Tedeschi, Coco Montoya, Justina Lee Brown and Chicago"s own blues harpist, Matthew Skoller. A truly magical moment unfolded in 2022 when Mark Slate took to the stage. The charismatic blues and soul singer captivated the audience from the first note with his powerful voice. Having spent years on the road with the "Joe Cocker Tribute Show", Slate embodies the raw and gritty essence of the blues. Now, performing alongside Rotosphere, they deliver original tracks brimming with energy, passion, and musical fire - an unforgettable experience for every listener!

Sex Tags UFO presents the second instalment of the non stop ongoing HOUSE music collaboration between the Burger man and DJ Sommer! Music created as house music as a FEELING!

Another four track EP smashing out some fine underground house music, all with the mix of DJ Sommers studio skills and old-school hardware approach, and the Burger man's wonky touch! The almost weekly live session recorded in DJ Sommer's studio, then arranged and mixed at Casa de Fett bare some fruits, and here is their first record!

The first track on this EP, a deep and mellow house groover, with some trippy beats and percussion that keeps it moving. Deep pad, with a light and engaging melody on top. A real house groover to start the night.

The second cut, the energy shifts! A power infused feel good house track with spacey elements, timeless and simple 909 kick, a catchy bass line, swinging hi-hats for the groove, a strong classic snap. Added with some keyboard infused organ melody, and a 303 bass line. Sparkled with some synth EFX to give it a feeling of Galaxy!

One the flip side we go back to the depth. A deep tribalistic and dubbed out house track. Simple by all means. A moving and grooving beat added with a simple but catchy pad that brings everything together! Simple, pure and groovy!

The last tune on the EP, another uplifting energy driven house track! Classic US house style, with the driving, and swinging beats to make you move. With an uplifting organ pad, and some additional party oriented flute action! A real underground party smasher!

Just as previous time, versatile, simple, raw dance floor oriented HOUSE EP made in and for the underground!

Enjoy!

After releasing on some of your favorite labels, Paradise City Breakers start their own imprint with a very personal, no-compromise attitude.
The label exists to release timeless work, uninfluenced by the market or by what the audience thinks it wants.

The A-side is strongly influenced by early European club music, with a harder and more ravey attitude that culminates in Destroy the Power, while Dissociazione Jonica takes you on a stripped-down progression.
On the B-side, the sound becomes more modern, while still drawing from vintage influences. If What U Want is tight and enriched by clear melodies, Your Soul opens up a more oneiric dimension.

The first statement of many. Listen closely — the rest will follow

Big remix package for TOY TONICS'S boss KAPOTE. His song "Mystery" from the last album reworked by HARVEY SUTHERLAND, OPOLOPO, CLOSE COUNTERS with a bonus remix by french house master CASSIUS. Turning Kpaote's New school house anthem into super fresh jazz-funk disco, NYC 1990ies House hit and proto-dance bangers. There is no way there is not one version that every good DJ with an interesting fresh sound can't play.

It's 2025 and Toy Tonics one more time tries to define what are the perfect vibes for the "post-dark-electronic music age". Yes. After 10 years of explosion of hard techno, dark trance and fast race sounds Toy Tonics is trying every month to bring ideas for a more positive, high quality, forward-thinking dance music.

Opolopo: Opolopo brings his legendary touch to "Mystery." With a career spanning decades and a reputation for fusing boogie, funk, and broken beat, his remix promises a soulful journey. An artist who's famously remixed everyone from Gregory Porter to Stevie Wonder, Opolopo's version is pure, unadulterated groove.

Harvey Sutherland: Straight from the heart of Melbourne's electronic underground, Sutherland delivers his signature "Neurotic Funk." The celebrated synthesist and producer, known for his distinctive analog textures and a discography that's earned him ARIA Award nominations, is sure to inject his unique genre-bending energy into the track.

Close Counters: The duo from Melbourne, Close Counters, are set to turn "Mystery" into an electrifying fusion of house, soul, and jazz. Known for their dense synths and infectious energy, they have earned praise from tastemakers like Gilles Peterson and have wowed crowds at festivals like Splendour in the Grass.

Finally, the package features "Berlin Boogie Town" with a new interpretation from Parisian legend Cassius, adding some uplifting French Touch filter vibes.

Downwards present Alexander Tucker in metamorphosis from psych folk to techgnostic bard, aided by notable guests – Justin K Broadrick, Regis, Phew, Karl D’Silva, JJOWDY, and Elvin Brandhi – in a quest for disordered convention and new thrills. One up to Tucker’s outings for Alter and The Tapeworm, and spiritual successor to his »Nonexistant« trio on Downwards, »Clear Vortex Chamber« is an enigmatic take on the brownfield edgelands where the eldritch intersects electronic heck. Decades of work spread between hardcore punk, psych rock, folk, and drone — including work with Stephen O’Malley (Ginnungap) and Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club, ESP Kinetic) — feed forward into this album’s unsteady machine rhythms and cranky junkyard atonalities, where Tucker panel-beats aspects of his previous sound with a newfound industrial thrust and cyber-punky lust that suits him dead well.

A crafty example of how to mutate without losing sight of yourself, the album’s eight parts feel like a cyborg patching itself into modernity. On opener »Udug« Tucker’s signature falsetto peals from a A Scanner Darkly-style scramble suit of stereo-strobing electronics, setting a melodramatic, neo-gothic tension that riddles the album thru the knotted, fractured industrial dancehall bullishness of »Mallets« with Yeah You’s feral gob Elvin Brandhi, via a pair of standout »Fedbck« parts with Tucker’s personal idol, Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, and the rest), featuring the Brum deity’s claw-handed riffs and howl on the first, and smeared with Karl D’Silva’s brass in its noctilucent second part.

Regis also proves a staunch foil for the album’s most robust, club-ready cut »Zona«, hammered out from buzzing metallic drums and monotone bass drones, and pitting his severed vox against Tucker’s own androgynous harmonies to recall aspects of The Ephemeron Loop via British Murder Boys, whilst scene legend, Can and Ryuichi Sakamoto spar Phew (aka Aunt Sally) ideally tempers the flow in a relatively soothing »Sansu«, sharing more cyber-romantic, recombinant sentiments with the channelling of Robert Wyatt gone Funk Bruxaria on »Folded«.

"The Bad Seeds and Zakary Thaks were mid ‘60s Texas garage rock bands formed in the wake of the British Invasion, influenced by The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds and others, becoming top local live attractions at a time when the 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks were leading the way into psychedelia. In late 1966 Rod Prince on guitar and Roy Cox on bass from Bad Seeds joined up with David Fore from Zakary Thaks on drums to create a new band out of San Antonio featuring two lead guitarists. Todd Potter filled out the quartet on second guitar and they chose the name Bubble Puppy, taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was an early advocate of LSD, appropriately. In 1969 Bubble Puppy scored a top 20 hit single with “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” which led to their LP “A Gathering Of Promises”. International Artists, the legendary Texas label that previously had unleashed mind expanding classics by the Elevators, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn and others was a perfect fit. After the LP and additional 45s didn’t repeat the success of “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” the band hooked up with Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as their new manager and moved to Los Angeles. A new band name was in order, Nick St. Nicholas chose Demian, title of the 1919 novel by Herman Hesse. His books were popular with the counterculture at the time and had provided Steppenwolf with their new name after they changed it from the Sparrow and hit it big. Demian recorded the LP live in the studio at the Record Plant in one midnight to six session. They had their arrangements fully realized, allowing them to combine live show energy and economy with to-the-point delivery suitable for repeated listening. No doubt they were aiming for pop hit success, using proto hard rock skills in a radio friendly way without compromising the heavy guitar moves. The vocals have echoes of the earlier Bubble Puppy style in spots but are more melodic with vibrant harmonies reminiscent of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, James Gang… at times flashing on Steve Stills/Richie Furay westcoast without being too sweet about it. It works terrifically when the radio friendly voices top off killer hard guitar ensemble action. Early hard rock that is too bluesy flashy can get tiresome with repeat listening, especially if overdosing on guitar solos with the band relegated to the background… Demian keep it interesting with inventive song structures allowing all four players to integrate constantly into an ever changing but focused whole. This LP is a grower, despite the basic two guitars, bass and drums lineup and no frills production you reach a lot of different places during the ride. Demian is deadly hard rock, a perfectly organized vibe straddling live energy and crafted itinerary, amongst the first obscure major label killers that commanded premium $$ with collectors even way back in the late ‘70s. It gets you there every time, even half a century later!"

Chris Menist pares his sound right back for A book of imaginary beings, his fourth Awkward Corners outing with a project of electronic and abstracted global grooves. Experimenting with simple melodies and uncluttered arrangements, as well as taking inspiration from the Borges' short stories alluded to in the title, the project took shape in the early part of 2025, in the shorter days and dark evenings of January.

The initial challenge was to knock a basic track into shape each evening after work, then refine it later. There's a melancholy in the air in late winter, compounded by the creeping threat of national and geopolitical instability. Ulla, Natural Information Society, Jabu, Torso and Dawuna formed some of the background soundtrack as each tune took shape.

The track titles came after sitting with the sounds for a while, giving shape to images of people, creatures and their stories for a book that is yet to be written.

Two former friends sets the tone for the album perfectly as a minimal electronic piece with a slowly simmering synth bassline underpinning the groove whilst the trademark Awkward sound of the Shahi Baaja enters drenched in effects. It's the first demonstration of Chris' unique ability to create a world from apparently very little.

Dance of the silver beetles is completely unique in that we can hear chopped up Illimba samples seemingly playing backwards and forewords sometimes alone, sometimes together in duet with Chris' conga rhythms. Add to that a more conventional Illimba melody and added shaker percussion and you have one of A book of imaginary beings most curious chapters.

Anxious shadow puppets is closer to the Awkward Corners sound from previous albums as electronic pulses move around the arrangement with the urgency that the track title suggests. Chris' percussive roots move to the fore with the congas that tie down the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band's sound. Here, the bassline is more playful and works together with one of Chris' many African Illimbas.

Fans of Chris' adventures on his Roland 808 will dig A leopard with no spots, although the minimal mood continues to flow through on this track. The lolloping, but hard-hitting rhythm track provides the grounding for strange and twisting feedback-sounding tones to work the soundscape.

Abandoned boy (left in charge of the family business) is Awkward Corners at his atmospheric best. Drift off to the sublime sounds of Chris exploring the Shahi Baaja, whilst a soft, repetitive synth line and abstracted pads give the listener that feeling of meditation and peace.

Flamingo with bandaged neck is A book of imaginary beings' perfect coda and is exclusively Shahi Baaja draped in reverbs and delays. It feels like the resolution and the closing of a book that – as of yet – remains unwritten.

Awkward Corners is Chris Menist, a musician, DJ and writer. It started life as a small project in Islamabad, where Chris was living at the time. Initial recordings were made with local musicians in Pakistan and then subsequently in Thailand. This culminated in the Sweet Decay LP that came out on Finders Keepers' Disposable Music in 2014, and in turn led to a limited tape release on Boomkat/Reel Torque of original compositions and re-edits of Thai 45s the same year. Chris released – Dislocation Songs – his second LP proper with Shapes of Rhythm in May 2020, collaborating on many of the tracks with award-winning performer Sarathy Korwar. The LP was picked up by many radio stations including NTS, Resonance FM, BBC 6 Music, Balamii and many more. It made Tom Ravenscroft's LPs of 2020. Amateur Dramatics, Chris' second LP arrived just a year later in 2021 and was a more ambitious project featuring more jazz-focussed compositions and featuring Tamar Osborn and Kitty Whitelaw. Shortly after that came another pivot with the heavier, dancefloor-friendly EP Somebody Somewhere. Somebody Somewhere is Dancing in a Field brought the House (yes House!) vibes, whilst Hector Plimmer turned in a remix of No Words in the same club mood.

As one of NTS Radio's longest-standing presenters, Chris continues to hold down the Paradise Bangkok show. Playing drums and percussion since he was a kid, Chris is the percussionist for The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band as well as co-founding the record label of the same name. Chris has curated compilations for labels such as Finders Keepers, Soundway and Dust-To-Digital. He has been featured on the Boiler Room, Vinyl Factory Collections, played at the Four Tet curated Nuits Sonores festival, and has put together an edition of Volumes which featured unreleased Awkward Corners compositions.






[d] 04: All the Goodbyes (You Tried to Defer) [Original]





[j] 10: Abandoned Boy (Left in Charge of the Family Business) [Original]

After so long it becomes harder to say new things about older things you now just do. Some things you've become. Some things you simply (never simply) are. The thing becomes a slippery notion. The self slides along with it. After this long, the story is whatever are the songs. A Self-portrait at two decades. Here are 11 new ones, from the current constellation, and a future still to come. The cement is still wet on that one. From the forest near where I now live you can hear a chorus of different birds in voice at once, competing but each defined, in defence of a territory or to attract a mate. There's an app that tells you so. I wonder, too, what that app doesn't reveal, if their nature need not share those same purposes. This is simply (never simply) how it exists. If we can't speak to the mysteries of these strategies, they at least persist, regardless of who picks up the frequency. Singing to itself, and there will always be these kinds of songs. Indies only Blue Vinyl! 1.Ulrika Spacek - 'Interesting Corners' 2. Empty Country - 'D3SP4IR' 3. The Reds, Pinks & Purples - 'New Market Space (Down the Stairs Ver.) 4. Cindy - 'The Thousand First' 5. April Magazine - 'U Bop' 6. Index For Working Musik - 'Going to Heaven On the End of A String' 7. Midding - 'Do As You Would' 8. Luft - 'My Third Eye' 9. Hospital - '25 Jade Place' 10. William Doyle - 'The Sun Ain't Doing It For Me Lately' 11. Daily Toll - 'Begin Again'

"I don’t keep photographs, old letters, keepsakes or memorabilia.
I have sound-files, thousands of them, un-used, un-heard: folders of field recordings; sonic sketches;
experiments that failed but weren’t deleted. The files are saved on hard drives or the cards of obsolete
pieces of equipment replaced – bit by dusty bit – with something new, clean and shiny.
A remnant is what’s left over when the greater part it once belonged to has been used up, removed,
or destroyed. I think of my sound-files like this, the remains of ideas, of a time too.
Remnants"

Irish artist The Cyclist (Andrew Morrison) delivers a four-cut dispatch of throbbing house rhythmics and afterhours glow inspired by a trip to Chicago in the summer of 2023. “Mescalate” slides through the door with an uptempo house roller, piston hats and soft-clipped stabs. Title track “Sublimity” slides into a hard-edged garage-house sway with mantra-esque vocals whirling over rolling bass. “Beamin” turns the lights up bright, synthy chords arcing like sun through the fog. Closer “Black Velvet” dials it down into a dubby, deep, bass-heavy stout drift that lingers in the chest long after the needle lifts.

Following up on a cracker split single in 2023, Overload Liverpool enterted into 2024 firing on all cylinders with a 5 shooter of freaked-out electro, warm house, deep dub cuts, and gorgeous ambient.

Firstly, Liverpool-based label boss Morrison highlights two of his distinct and dissociative styles. On the front end of the A-side, his The Motorist alias provides us with a freaked-out formant-filtered electro that’s bursting at the lips. On the back end, a deep yet bright house cut from his The Cyclist alias, with warm warbling synths layered over his Wurlitzer electric piano and suitably grooved and jaunty beats.

To kick off the deeper B-side of the 12”, Wax Tek, a founder of the Liverpool Soundsystem crew Polyone Audio, hits us right in the chest with his dubbed-out breakbeat wonder, Get Set, which diverges through Balearic, bass music, a delirious breakdown, and hard-hitting breakbeats.

Deeper still, the second B-side from Puncta, another Liverpool-based artist, who last year came to light with their release on Sputnik One’s N-Face, dives into the deep Arctic seas with Snow Crab, an exercise in dubbed-out electro-style bass music.

Finally, Belfast-based Aaron Thomas brings the 12” EP to a fitting closure with Concert², which, washing over the listener, dances like opulent drapes with its ethereal synths that crash to and fro.

Repress of ‘Glow On’, the 2021 Grammy nominated third studio album from Baltimore hardcore punk quintet Turnstile. Co-produced by the band themselves along with hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo, and featuring the guest vocals of Blood Orange.



Recorded with producer Mike Elizondo and co-produced by the band’s Brendan Yates, GLOW ON follows TURNSTILE’s 2018 breakthrough album TIME & SPACE, which saw the Baltimore band charting new ground for hardcore, expanding stylistic boundaries and celebrating new possibilities.



With GLOW ON that utopic vision is fully realized; 15 tracks devoid of borders, boundaries, or entry obstacles, only abundant imagination, heart, and grooves plucked from all corners of the musical spectrum. GLOW ON includes the singles “HOLIDAY,” “MYSTERY,” “NO SURPRISE,” and “T.L.C. (TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION) from TURNSTILE’s recent TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION EP. GLOW ON also includes guest features from Blood Orange on “ALIEN LOVE CALL,” “LONELY DEZIRES,” with additional vocal contributions on “ENDLESS.”



“TURNSTILE has the ability to lure even the most poptimistic listener with spectacular hooks,” affirmed NPR remarking on the band’s single “HOLIDAY,” while The FADER named the track one of the 20 Best Rock Songs Right Now. Stereogum declared, “If you’re gonna go big, you might as well go gigantic, and with ‘MYSTERY’ TURNSTILE sound like they’re about to be huge.”



Bringing superhuman energy to the stage, TURNSTILE are scheduled to perform a string of sold-out headline shows this summer in the US, followed by appearances at next year at Spain’s Primavera Sound on 6/5, France’s Hellfest on 6/23, and the UK’s Outbreak Festival on 6/24.



Always more appeal than demand, more liberation than limitation, TURNSTILE extended their hand in 2018 with TIME & SPACE. Recorded with producer Will Yip, TIME & SPACE marked Turnstile’s Roadrunner Records debut and saw the band exploding the most outsized tropes of hardcore with tremendous heart. The album earned “Best of 2018” honors from Kerrang!, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard and more, with GQ naming TIME & SPACE one of “The Best Albums That Shaped the 2010s.”



Comprised of Brendan Yates (Vocals), Franz Lyons (Bass/Vocals), Brady Ebert (Guitars), Pat McCrory (Guitars), and Daniel Fang (Drums), TURNSTILE’s brand of youth-minded, youth-driven hardcore punk is intent on breaking down barriers, sonically and ideologically.

Backspin - the imprint launched by Regal as a love letter to early 2000s Hardgroove - welcomes techno titan Marco Bailey with the 'Drivetonik' EP: a powerful blend of past and present that pays homage to Hardgroove's golden era while keeping the focus firmly on today's dancefloors.

The EP opens with the title track 'Drivetonik', a brand-new production that sets the tone: raw, rolling and built to move bodies. A straight-up Hardgroove banger, it's Bailey at his most focused. All momentum, no compromise. What follows is a rare treat for longtime heads: three classic tracks, originally released on the legendary Primate Recordings, now freshly remasteredfor 2025. 'Hustler' brings the bounce with its infectious and instantly effective sound. 'Karma' leans into tribal rhythms and percussive layering, while 'Konverter' cuts through with synth stabs and vocal chops, offering a punchy, streamlined ride through early-2000s funk. To close things out, Swedish Hardgroove legend Hertz steps in to rework 'Konverter', injecting his signature style into a remix that's as crisp as it is driving, a perfect fusion of old-school grit and modern precision.

With each release, Backspin Records continues its mission to rediscover, revive, and redefine the foundations of 2000s groove-driven techno. With the 'Drivetonik' EP, Marco Bailey shows us why his legacy remains firmly embedded in the genre's foundation.

The faultless Scruniversal has sent certified digger, Los Protos, deep into Brazil on a mission to unearth rare gems and connect with local talent. The result? A fresh discovery in the form of DJ EL OHIM, a native digger and producer with a sharp ear for a serious edit. For this latest in the SCRULSD (Scruniversal Local Sugar Diggers) series, he collides vintage Brazilian grooves with some contemporary edge and flair. 'Mentiu Pra Mim (Re-Percussao edit)' is a snappy, breaks-driven funk workout with soulful MPB vocal hook up top. 'Vamos Juntos Nesse Funk' (Re-Percussao edit)' is harder and more edgy with booming drums and Latin percussion sprinkled over the mix. Steamy tackle for summer fun.

On H008 Len Faki goes back to his crate for a unique journey through synth-led landscapes, carefully selected and bolstered up for the dancefloor.
Starting with 2000 And One - Edge Of No Return from the mid 2000s, when it was just a standout synth-line - no beats. The Hardspace Mix takes this masterclass in building tension, adds a driving beat and searing percussion while keeping the iconic synth-play intact -layered with big, booming bass for that full-bodied, dancefloor-ready energy.
The flip boasts two of longtime Figure-collaborator Viers' productions. Re-L, released almost 10 years ago, it delivered that unmistakable pulse of deep, dubby, shimmering synths. Hardspace picks up these potent elements and injects them with a new low-end, dramatic rises and tight rhythms, creating a high-energy yet hypnotic flow.
Equally energetic but much more brooding in atmosphere is the Hardspace version of Free Your Mind. An elusive original, this mix builds on dense percussion, subdued vocals and droning horns while carrying some seriously spaced-out acid synth textures. One for the wee hours and those special memorable moments in a set.

OOOOH! by Alex Bad Baby Lukashevsky with Cocoa Corner (2025)

Celebrated veteran of Toronto’s music scene, known for his boundary-pushing approach to folk and avant-garde music, twists rock music into strange and brilliant new shapes with the help of young jazz players, U.S. Girls, and his own immensely talented son.



OOOOH! is hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Made in the spirit of unity,
humanity, and poetry — disobediently renouncing the glory of personal triumph for the
generosity of an honest experiment. On the last track of the album you’ll hear “Or do you only ever never want to make a single enemy? / That’s not freedom or humility / It’s nothing, honestly.” Oooh, that's a bad baby!

A celebrated Toronto songwriter and performer, Alex Lukashevsky has always been disobedient. Which simply means, nothing is off the table when he’s looking for his
poetic voice; when trying to find the realest I of the teller. As he sings on the lead track “that musician that’s dead” The musician is radical/ it’s the world that’s demented/ listening with their eyes, the music looks dented/ they’re over-represented.
OOOOH! was recorded in January 2024 at Sound Department in Toronto, engineered by Patrick Lefler (ROY), mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Matt Smith. All the songs were tracked live off the floor in two days, with one extra day for recording vocals, to keep the recording fully alive and breathing. As leader of Deep Dark United, as a solo performer, and a sideman in Brodie Wests’ Eucalyptus and Luka Kuplowsky’s Ryokan Band, Alex has been an outsized influence on the Toronto music scene that spawned acts like Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett. (Pallett, who has toured with Lukashevsky, went so far as to record an entire album’s worth of Alex’s songs, backed
by a full orchestra.)

Lukashevsky has approached each of his albums and projects as something completely new, using only the musical boundaries he creates with each song. Even when he
has recorded songs with nothing but his voice and his own acoustic guitar accompaniment, the results are never “stripped down” or “back to basics,”
Gong! How do you get to heaven / have fun! have fun!
It’s cool to approach music as a game of “spot the influence”; Burt Bacharach-meets-Black Flag; Lana Del Rey-meets-LCD Soundsystem etc. Glorified mash-ups are promising because of their conversational nature. But they can turn us into hyperboreans; blowing cold air beyond ourselves while doing what we can to remain warm. To devise a game or a narrative is to have a winner and a loser, but we all know that just as you win/ so you lose. And does anything really change? Alex Lukashevsky and Cocoa Corner are more at ease drawing blind contours or playing an old game like consequences. They let things add up without knowing particularly how. Cognition is recognition.

Lukashevsky, in addition to writing all the songs, plays guitar and sings on OOOOH!, doing both in ways that are soulful and spikey at the same time. Joining him on guitar and vocals is his oldest child, Charlie Lukashevsky, who, at 23, is already a talented performer and songwriter in his own right. Cocoa Corner also includes Aidan McConnell, an in-demand drummer and composer, Jack Johnston, a jazz bassist and Barry Harris acolyte, and percussionist Evan Cartwright (The Weather Station, U.S. Girls, Cola, Tasseomancy), who plays steel pan and marching drum.

Working with his son and with other younger musicians is central to the album’s
unpredictable aesthetic. It reinvigorated the sound in unexpected ways. Lukashevsky says, “I had to reconsider my own instincts. I had to deal with being 99 years old.”
In addition to these performers, the album includes a tasty contribution from Meg
Remy, the visionary musician and producer who is the leader of the critically acclaimed
project U.S. Girls. Remy duets with Lukashevsky on the imagistic and sprawling album
closer “things keep happening.”
About that album title: OOOOH! is taken straight from “that musician that’s dead” an
arch and unhinged comment on the exertion required to navigate a lifetime of music making.
Lukashevsky’s delivery of that one emotive word is a kind of cultural posture, but also a
hundred percent primitive expression. The impact is never less than visceral. His vocal
delivery ranges through rich baritone blues to keening falsettos to a kind of sprechstimme that periodically steps out from the music to grab the listener’s shirt. He
doesn’t sound too nice, but he is sincere. When life gives you lemons lament.
For OOOOH! his first official full-length album since 2012’s Too Late Blues, (a collection of knotty-yet-effervescent tunes built upon the enchantingly serpentine harmonies of Lukashevsky and his vocal collaborators, Felicity Williams (Bahamas, Bernice) and Daniela Gesundheit (Snowblink, HYDRA)), Alex has once again broken apart and rebuilt his own approach to music. Or rather (because that sounds too over-determined), he
has allowed his music to build itself into strange new shapes that only fleetingly and
coincidentally, but happily, resemble anything that might be called rock and roll. There is some editorializing within the song’s lyrics— Lukashevsky even cheekily contributes to the “spot the influence” game with the line “Muddy Waters, Rite of Spring!” a funny preemptive strike against anyone already reaching for some variation of avant-blues to describe what the song is up to here. In fact there are many names checked on this record (literally and in spirit); they are the lily pads that trace the path of this expression! Palestrina, Peter Pears and Benjamin Brittain, Andrés Segovia, Stravinsky, Lotte Lenya, Alice Coltrane, Skip James, Chuck Berry, D’Gary, Betty Carter, Mukhtiyar Ali, Chuck D, Yoko Ono, Hailu Mergia, David Bowie, Jane Siberry. rhythm is a skeleton mansion / haunted by melody / feckless prodigy / the world is under a spell / cast by some demon angel / Practice day and night / Try as hard as hell / no one can sing that well Musicians are often worried by the way in which they are prepared to fail rather
than how they would like to succeed; it’s such a deep concern that it tempers their creativity and shackles their process. Current cultural proclivities, tend to comfort a certain kind of artistic failure and abnegate another kind. How many testimonials, full of heartfelt care and investment, have you heard for Taylor Swift, and yet a craftsman like Chris Weisman is often dismissed easily as though he’s doing something anti-social. what’s throwing itself in my ears and my eyes / arrogant devil ad hominem christ.
The music you will hear on this recording veers off in multiple directions at once,
and features a rock and roll spirit with a divergent heart. This is no sclerotic clomp of the Average Rock Song, but in fact a flood of humanity in all its darkness and moodiness and unpredictability. If most performers make songs that are like sports cars or pickup trucks to drive around, Lukashevsky has built something more akin to a rowboat in a tree: it’s weird and beautiful.

Ramirez returns with THA PLAYA$ MANUAL II, the long-awaited sequel to his cult classic that helped solidify his place as one of underground rap’s most distinctive voices. Steeped in Southern-fried funk, Bay Area swagger, and Memphis-style menace, this new chapter finds Ramirez sharper, smoother, and more seasoned—delivering game like a streetwise sage with a gold grill grin.

Where the original Playa$ Manual was gritty and raw, THA PLAYA$ MANUAL II sounds like a player who's leveled up. The beats knock harder, the flows glide slicker, and the game is deeper. Ramirez weaves tales of betrayal, come-ups, late-night drives, and cold-hearted reality with the same charismatic cool that made him a standout in the $uicideboy$-adjacent G59 movement—but this time with a more refined, cinematic approach.

From trunk-rattling bangers to syrupy smooth cuts that soundtrack late-night escapades, THA PLAYA$ MANUAL II feels like a ride through Ramirez’s world with tinted windows up and the bass on max. It’s a record for the hustlers, the heartbreakers, the loners, and the legends in the making.

This is more than a sequel—it’s a statement: the playa’s still active, and the manual’s been updated.

Limited edition ORANGE SWIRL vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1990 vinyl reissue includes 3 bonus tracks. "We drove up there and my cousin Tracy had turned punk rock. And she said, 'I'm going to this show tonight. Come with me.' And so I went to this club called The Cubby Bear - it's right across the street from the baseball stadium - and a band called Naked Raygun were playing, and they're this legendary Chicago punk rock band. But I'd never seen live music. So my introduction to rock and roll was in a club that held about 150 people that was half full and I was belly up against the stage watching this incredible live band, like, sweat and spit and bleed in front of me." - Dave Grohl interview, The Record, 2011- // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

The anticipation is there in Elizabeth Stokes’ solo guitar riff under the opening lines of “I’m Not Getting Excited”: a frenetic, driving force daring a packed Auckland Town Hall to do exactly the opposite of what the track title suggests.

As the opener of The Beths’ Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 expands to include the full band, the crowd screeches and bellows. It’s a collective exhalation, in one of the few countries where live music is still possible.

The album title, and film of the same name, deliberately include the date and location, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce says. “That’s the sensational part of what we actually did.” In a mid-pandemic world, playing to a heaving, enraptured home crowd feels miraculous.

In March 2020, everything seemed on track for another huge year for The Beths. Home after an 18-month northern hemisphere tour, they had just finished recording sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers and were primed for more extensive touring. But within days, New Zealand’s lockdown split the band between three separate houses. All touring was cancelled.

“It was existentially bad,” Stokes says. As well as worrying about economic survival, they lost something crucial to the band’s identity: live performance. “It's a huge part of how we see ourselves... What does it mean, if we can't play live?”

The band found an outlet through live-streaming, returning to the do-it-yourself mentality of their early days to connect with a global audience. The album and film have their genesis in that urge to share the now-rare experience of a live show, as widely as possible.

The fuzzy-round-the-edges live-streams pointed the way aesthetically. Native birds, wonkily crafted by the band from tissue paper and wire, festoon the venue’s cavernous ceiling while house plants soften and disguise the imposing pipes of an organ. The presence of the film crew isn’t disguised: much of the camerawork is handheld; full of fast zooms and pans.

With much of the material still fresh, the band was less focused on re-invention than playing “a good, fast rock show”, Pearce says. The tempo is up on crowd favourites “Whatever” and “Future Me Hates Me” (released as a live single on its third anniversary) as both band and audience feed off the mutual energy in the room.

Certain songs have taken on special resonance post-Covid. Pearce has found “Out Of Sight”, a tender rumination on long-distance relationships, hits particularly hard with live audiences.

Album closer “River Run” visibly brings Stokes to tears as a mix of achievement and relief kicks in. “You can finally relax at that point … You play the last note, breathe out a sigh and look up - and you’re in a giant room full of people happy and smiling.”

Das schwedische Punkrock-Urgestein SATOR veröffentlicht mit den High (Rock'n) Rollern und Punkrockern THE HEADLINES eine Split EP: Eine längst fällige Herzens- und Freundschaftsangelegenheit! Schließlich war es Sator-Bandgründer Chips Kiesbye, der vor mehr als 15 Jahren das musikalische Potential und die wilde, ungestüme Power von The Headlines erkannte. Es folgten Supportshows und bis heute produziert und supportet Chips die Band im Studio. Die jeweils zwei exklusiven Songs der Bands auf der limitierten 10inch Vinyl spannen dabei den Bogen von Hard Rock, Sleaze, Glam bis straight forward Punkrock. The Headlines kehren mit "Fucked up" zu der klassischen Rock-Essence zurück, rotzig-frech verpackt in 2 Minuten mit allem was es braucht, um eine "fuckin great hymn" zu schreiben! "True Grit" - der zweite Song" orientiert sich mit melodischen Punkrock an den US-Westcoast Style: "Remember what you're fighting for!" The Headlines liebten es schon immer Gedanken über das Leben, die jeder kennt in griffige Rocksongs zu verpacken. SATOR präsentieren mit "Thanks (For nothing for all) einen vor langer Zeit geschriebenen wütenden Dampfhammer, der als Demo in den Bandarchiven irgendwie in Vergessenheit geriet. Während der Aufnahmen zu "Return of The Barbie-Q-Killers" stoplerte die Band über dieses Juwel und wurde neu aufgenommen. "Wir können uns nicht wirklich erinnern, worüber wir beim Schreiben wütend waren, aber es gibt immer etwas, das einen nervt. Wut ist nie aus der Mode." "I only want a date" wurde ebenfalls im Rahmen der Studio-Sessions für das letzte Sator-Album aufgenommen und ist ein Coversong der US-Band "The Embarrassment", die den gesuchten Song 1984 nur auf Tape veröffentlichten. Die 10inch EP erscheint streng limitiert in klassisch schwarzen oder blauen oder in limitierten zweifarbigen Swirl Vinyl und dürfte sich schnell als Sammlerstück etablieren. Swedish Alternative Rock at its best!

Das schwedische Punkrock-Urgestein SATOR veröffentlicht mit den High (Rock'n) Rollern und Punkrockern THE HEADLINES eine Split EP: Eine längst fällige Herzens- und Freundschaftsangelegenheit! Schließlich war es Sator-Bandgründer Chips Kiesbye, der vor mehr als 15 Jahren das musikalische Potential und die wilde, ungestüme Power von The Headlines erkannte. Es folgten Supportshows und bis heute produziert und supportet Chips die Band im Studio. Die jeweils zwei exklusiven Songs der Bands auf der limitierten 10inch Vinyl spannen dabei den Bogen von Hard Rock, Sleaze, Glam bis straight forward Punkrock. The Headlines kehren mit "Fucked up" zu der klassischen Rock-Essence zurück, rotzig-frech verpackt in 2 Minuten mit allem was es braucht, um eine "fuckin great hymn" zu schreiben! "True Grit" - der zweite Song" orientiert sich mit melodischen Punkrock an den US-Westcoast Style: "Remember what you're fighting for!" The Headlines liebten es schon immer Gedanken über das Leben, die jeder kennt in griffige Rocksongs zu verpacken. SATOR präsentieren mit "Thanks (For nothing for all) einen vor langer Zeit geschriebenen wütenden Dampfhammer, der als Demo in den Bandarchiven irgendwie in Vergessenheit geriet. Während der Aufnahmen zu "Return of The Barbie-Q-Killers" stoplerte die Band über dieses Juwel und wurde neu aufgenommen. "Wir können uns nicht wirklich erinnern, worüber wir beim Schreiben wütend waren, aber es gibt immer etwas, das einen nervt. Wut ist nie aus der Mode." "I only want a date" wurde ebenfalls im Rahmen der Studio-Sessions für das letzte Sator-Album aufgenommen und ist ein Coversong der US-Band "The Embarrassment", die den gesuchten Song 1984 nur auf Tape veröffentlichten. Die 10inch EP erscheint streng limitiert in klassisch schwarzen oder blauen oder in limitierten zweifarbigen Swirl Vinyl und dürfte sich schnell als Sammlerstück etablieren. Swedish Alternative Rock at its best!

Das schwedische Punkrock-Urgestein SATOR veröffentlicht mit den High (Rock'n) Rollern und Punkrockern THE HEADLINES eine Split EP: Eine längst fällige Herzens- und Freundschaftsangelegenheit! Schließlich war es Sator-Bandgründer Chips Kiesbye, der vor mehr als 15 Jahren das musikalische Potential und die wilde, ungestüme Power von The Headlines erkannte. Es folgten Supportshows und bis heute produziert und supportet Chips die Band im Studio. Die jeweils zwei exklusiven Songs der Bands auf der limitierten 10inch Vinyl spannen dabei den Bogen von Hard Rock, Sleaze, Glam bis straight forward Punkrock. The Headlines kehren mit "Fucked up" zu der klassischen Rock-Essence zurück, rotzig-frech verpackt in 2 Minuten mit allem was es braucht, um eine "fuckin great hymn" zu schreiben! "True Grit" - der zweite Song" orientiert sich mit melodischen Punkrock an den US-Westcoast Style: "Remember what you're fighting for!" The Headlines liebten es schon immer Gedanken über das Leben, die jeder kennt in griffige Rocksongs zu verpacken. SATOR präsentieren mit "Thanks (For nothing for all) einen vor langer Zeit geschriebenen wütenden Dampfhammer, der als Demo in den Bandarchiven irgendwie in Vergessenheit geriet. Während der Aufnahmen zu "Return of The Barbie-Q-Killers" stoplerte die Band über dieses Juwel und wurde neu aufgenommen. "Wir können uns nicht wirklich erinnern, worüber wir beim Schreiben wütend waren, aber es gibt immer etwas, das einen nervt. Wut ist nie aus der Mode." "I only want a date" wurde ebenfalls im Rahmen der Studio-Sessions für das letzte Sator-Album aufgenommen und ist ein Coversong der US-Band "The Embarrassment", die den gesuchten Song 1984 nur auf Tape veröffentlichten. Die 10inch EP erscheint streng limitiert in klassisch schwarzen oder blauen oder in limitierten zweifarbigen Swirl Vinyl und dürfte sich schnell als Sammlerstück etablieren. Swedish Alternative Rock at its best!

Following the reissue of his debut album Dispatches, Field Records is proud to return to the seminal work of Mike Parker with an overview of his releases on Prologue — a truly original strain of steely, hypnotic techno that has touched upon many different waves within the wider scene.
Having pioneered a hard-edged, reductionist style via his Geophone label since the mid-90s, around 2010 Mike Parker found himself at the vanguard of an emergent sound alongside artists like Donato Dozzy and Cio D'or exploring the possibilities of immersive, profoundly transcendental club music. The Prologue label came to define this cult zeitgeist, where reduction and repetition took on a truly psychedelic quality and the subtle details made all the difference. It ran from 2008 to 2015, laying the foundations for the deep techno sound that remains a vital, evolving subculture in the present moment.
From Parker's first appearance on Prologue with the Subterranean Liquid EP in 2011 through to the Lustrations LP in 2013, he delivered some of the most incisive music of his accomplished career — teased-out rhythms carrying exquisitely engineered textures veering from the subliminal to the visceral, locked into endless, cyclical oblivion and maintaining a stern, machinist veneer. This collection on Field Records combs through Parker's Prologue output and makes a considered selection, gathering key pieces from the first two EPs alongside six of the album tracks on a triple vinyl pressing, alongside a further eight cuts on the expanded digital edition.
Not just a straight-forward reissue, consider Epilogue a thoughtful reframing of a key point in Mike Parker's stellar career. In every exacting pulse, every inch of tacit spatial design, it's the work of an expert sculpting a sound which remains influential in the here and now.

The endless churning wheel of time revolverates once again, spinnin" out the latest evolution of timeless rock revival sounds native to Boston"s Major Stars! More Colors of Sound features eight new slabs of hard-hitting post-lysergia, their storied guitar trio buzz-and-squallin" in service of some sweet lyrical melodies. Writing"s divided, for the 1st time ever, between Wayne Rogers and the team of Tom Leonard & Noell Dorsey. More Colors forever!

Originally released on Mon 22 August 2005, the Furries’ third and final album to be recorded by Epic Records, Love Kraft is to be reissued on double vinyl, 2CDs, including the 22-track bonus CD, Kiss Me With Apocalypse and digital formats on Fri 24 October 2025 via the Cardiff-based independent label, Strangetown Records. Four previously unheard tracks are drawn from the vaults, including the squidgy ELO-stomp of drummer, Daf Ieuan-led Rock ‘N’ Roll Flu, plus the distorted space-jam of Cae Marw, the band’s deep-bass sketch of Palo Alto and ghostly, percussive morsel of Bedw Arian.

The album followed six previous albums by the band, including their statement debut album, Fuzzy Logic in 1996, melding an attention-demanding mix of literary, narcotic and musical influences. Maintaining a shape that was ill-fitting in the jigsaw of other 90’s guitar bands, their follow-up, UK Top Ten album, Radiator brought the hooky squelch of the bona fide indie dancefloor classic, The International Language of Screaming. The next decade saw the release of the first Top 20-charting, Welsh language album, Mwng (2000), followed by further experimentation and commercial success with Rings Around The World (2001) and Phantom Power (2003).

Love Kraft’s sense of cohesion, collaboration and free-flow of rich harmony has been credited to the five-piece escaping Wales to record in the shimmering heat of Figueres, Catalunya. Bringing famed Beastie Boys producer, Mario Caldato Jr along with them for the ride, the travelling band’s stay in the Catalonian hometown of Salvador Dali included found sounds, boozy petrol stations, gastronomic revelations and, finally, a rich album of strings, synths and opulent vocal harmonies.

While eventually finding their way to Baha, near to Rio di Janeiro to mix the album Love Kraft’s story began in Wales and Pleasure Foxxx Studios, where the band began to craft the album’s songs. Embracing the landmark of a seventh album, notably coming after the 2004 release of their first ‘best of…’ package, Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, Super Furry Animals pooled ideas and affected further democracy in their songwriting, taking a load off traditional lead-writer and front man, Gruff Rhys, and sharing in lead vocal duties (aside from the microphone-averse bassist, Guto Pryce).

Love Kraft was the first Super Furry Animals album recorded to hard disc instead of multi-track tape, and found the band typically explorative and open to happenstance. Zoom’s opening splash into the recording studio’s swimming pool is accompanied by the on-location, pool table samples found elsewhere on the album.

Updated packaging features the original, meticulously built diorama design by long-time collaborator Pete Fowler. Constructed by hand in his studio, complete with bulb-lit illumination, then photographed, the sleeve’s depiction of a monolith-rich desert landscape reflects the sense of other space and time depicted by Love Kraft’s woozy songs. The final sleeve design again comes courtesy of Mark James.

This curated collection highlights hard-to-find salsa 45s from the Discos Fuentes vaults-deep cuts that have long flown under the radar but still light up dance floors today. These tracks, once pressed in small numbers, feature top tier musicianship, fiery brass, unforgettable grooves, and lyrical gems that reflect the rich diversity of Colombia's musical landscape. Among the featured artists are: Super Combo "Los Famosos" with their irresistible barrio anthem 'El Bailador de la esquina', capturing the spirit of Cali's street life, Sexteto Manaure, delivering a poignant son that blends regional pride with poetic nostalgia, La Protesta de Colombia, a revolutionary Barranquilla outfit that gave a young Joe Arroyo his early spotlight and channeled the rebellious pulse of the times. This compilation also includes a range of studio experiments and covers-where artists like Piper Pimienta, Galileo y Su Banda, and La Integración reimagined beloved hits, from boleros to vallenatos, through a distinctly Colombian salsa lens. These obscure gems, long scattered across dusty crates and forgotten jukeboxes, now find new life. They speak not just to the past, but to a timeless rhythm that still moves dancers and dreamers alike.