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Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

AAls "Inbegriff des Southern Soul" (VIBE) und "bluesiger Geniestreich" (Okayplayer) gefeiert, mit "einer Stimme, die von der Gospelkirche geprägt ist, und einem fast übernatürlichen Umgang mit der tiefen Intensität des Blues" (KCRW), baut "Miss Black America" KIRBYs Mission weiter aus, ihre Wurzeln zurückzugewinnen und die Musik und Kultur von Mississippi den Massen näherzubringen. Wie Elton John kürzlich verkündete, ist KIRBY "zu Großem bestimmt", und mit diesem Album schlägt sie ein neues, tiefgründiges und persönliches Kapitel auf, in dem sie die Zuhörer dazu herausfordert, das Stampfen, Summen und Sehnen zu hören und diese Klänge in Sinn und Kraft zu verwandeln. Während KIRBY bereits mit Rihanna, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Black Thought, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Donald Glover und vielen anderen zusammengearbeitet und Songs mitgeschrieben hat und Millionen von Fans, darunter Hayley Williams und unzählige andere, für sich gewinnen konnte, ist "Miss Black America" ganz und gar ihr eigenes Werk. Dieses Projekt, bei dem Hymnen statt Hits, Geschichten statt Samples und Wahrheit statt Trends im Vordergrund stehen, ist das inspirierendste Werk ihrer Karriere und begleitet dich vom Grillfest am Samstag über den Gottesdienst am Sonntag bis hin zur Arbeit für "den Mann" am Montag. Es ist Blues- und Soulmusik für die Zukunft, gemacht für diejenigen, die vor ihr da waren: die Vorfahren, die auf dem Land der Dockery-Plantage, von der sie abstammt und die viele als Geburtsort des Delta-Blues bezeichnen, tanzten, weinten und sangen.

Nina Nastasia nahm mit Steve Albini bei Electrical Audio in Chicago auf und engagierte den Instrumentalisten und Arrangeur Paul Bryan aus Los Angeles, um ihre Songs für ein kleines Orchester zu arrangieren. Mit dem Schlagzeuger Jay Bellerose und dem Gitarristen Jeff Parker aus Chicago wird Outlaster von einer absoluten Traumband unterstützt. Dieses Album ist ein Werk von üppiger Raffinesse, das ohne Verlust an Charakter oder Wirtschaftlichkeit über Nastasias berühmte Sparsamkeit hinausgeht. Das Orchester geht mit Bryans kraftvoller, bewegender Partitur - die an Gil Evans und den verstorbenen Phil Ochs erinnert - eher formell vor und veredelt die Platte mit glänzenden Bläsern und einem dynamischen Streichensemble. Nachdem Outlaster mehr als ein Jahrzehnt lang vergriffen war, ist es nun endlich wieder auf Vinyl erhältlich. Die Neuauflage von Outlaster wurde 2025 von Josh Bonati für Vinyl remastert und ist auf limitiertem burgunderfarbenem Vinyl gepresst.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

Take Me, I’m Yours is the first collaboration album between Alan Abrahams and Jan Jelinek. Released through the latter’s faitiche, it builds upon multi-layered vocal sketches by the former. The Paris-based artist, primarily known for his work as Portable and Bodycode, supplied Jelinek with multi-layered song sketches that the German artist subjected to a rigorous process of manipulation, excavating the ambiguities of the original material and transforming its rhythms into subtle pulses. Take Me, I’m Yours is neither a typical Abrahams record nor a classic Jelinek album—it is something third, mediating between the physicality of the voice and the abstraction of electronic sound design.

The two had crossed paths before really getting to know each other after Abrahams invited Jelinek to play at one of his Süd Electronic parties. The idea of a collaboration emerged slowly. “It started as an experiment, and over the past few years grew from a few tracks into this album,” says Abrahams. He describes recording the basic material as a “tantalizing” process, not knowing how Jelinek would transform his material, some of which was based on wordless chanting, while other tracks were working with lyrical content. However, their mutual trust allowed Jelinek to remove the harmonies, radically reduce the rhythms, and concentrate on Abrahams’ voice.

Jelinek heard something “fragile” in this voice, “moments of doubt and dark premonitions.” He points to Forever as an example. “Alan’s original song reminded me of classic vocal house, but his voice seemed to almost break,” he says. “This contradiction made the piece even bigger, because we hear a singer in the moment of an awakening.” He further accentuated such tensions through arrhythmic synth modulations and time-stretching algorithms, while also adding concrete sounds from a variety of sources. With its dedication to both transforming and amplifying the emotional qualities hidden within Abrahams’ pieces, Take Me, I’m Yours functions as a dialogue between those two singular artists.

Jack Callahan und Jeff Witscher waren echt müde. Seit der Jahrtausendwende hatten sie sich beide in der amerikanischen Underground-Experimental-Musikszene abgemüht, unter Namen, die du vielleicht kennst oder auch nicht: Rene Hell, Marble Sky, die Reihe, um nur einige zu nennen. Ihr erstes Album Think Differently war das Ergebnis einer Reihe von Endpunkten: der Auflösung ihrer Underground-Szene und, nicht zuletzt deswegen, der Tatsache, dass die abstrakte Musik, die sie seit jeher getrennt und gemeinsam gemacht hatten, nicht mehr so gut ankam wie früher. Wo sonst sollten sie hingehen als auf die andere Seite des Hufeisens: zur Popmusik. Warum also nicht den Zeichen der Zeit folgen? Eine Gitarren-Pop-Rock-Hymne zum Jahrtausendwechsel aufnehmen, die davon handelt, dass man als alternde Underground-Musiker keine Noise-Musik mehr machen will. ,Sorry to Hear That" ist ein Album über ,Think Differently". Wenn ,Think Differently" ein meta-konzeptuelles Album war, dann ist ,Sorry to Hear That" ein meta-meta-konzeptuelles Album. Meta Meta+Hodos. Es wurde über einen Zeitraum von 9 Monaten nach dem ersten Album aufgenommen. Es war eine Zeit persönlicher und beruflicher Umbrüche: Der anfängliche Optimismus aufgrund der Aufmerksamkeit, die "Think Differently" erhielt, schlug schnell in Fanatismus um und mündete unweigerlich in Angst, Enttäuschung und Zerwürfnis. Das Album, das sie schließlich aufgenommen haben, ist ein Dokument und eine Erzählung über diese Zeit. ,Sorry to Hear That" ist eine Fortsetzung, die klanglich und konzeptionell dort ansetzt, wo das erste Album aufgehört hat. Hier gibt es mehr Gitarre, mehr Breakbeats, mehr selbstbezogenes Unwohlsein und mehr humorvolle Selbstironie. Es fängt perfekt ein, was das Duo von Anfang an vermitteln wollte: Es ist ein mitreißendes Album voller Kommentare von beiden Seiten, dem Spieler und dem Gespielten, die bis ins Unendliche gesteigert werden. ,Sorry to Hear That" hat eine Reihe von Gastauftritten von alten und neuen Kumpels aus der Independent-Musikszene: Marlon DuBois, Frontmann von Shed Theory, Dylan Baldi und Jayson Gerycz von Cloud Nothings, Flannery Silva alias F.G.S., Jazz Lambaux und andere.

repressed !

It's been a busy 3 years since Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em released on his own Bergerac imprint.

Since then he's toured relentlessly, released a whole album of live music based disco/punk funk for Sonar Kollektiv as Hot Coins, managed to completely update his biggest track 'In Love Again' to make it a hit the second time around plus released spaced out, wonky party smashers on Wolf Music, Phonica, City Fly and Telefonplan.

While all this was going on Bergerac was largely on ice but now Berman is turning his energy back to the label with a vengeance.
Wonky Bassline Disco Banger is accurately titled. An uplifting intro breaks down into a slamming disco house number and just when you think you know what's going on...
Then the trademark Red Rack'em wonky bass drops in. 150% Guaranteed party smasher... Jazzy House Extension is super vintage Red Rack'em from around 2004 - something for the jazz heads out there - cracked out piano and far too loud double bass come together to birth a euphoric yet banging snapshot of a producer learning his chops. Destined is a slightly demented leftfield house number featuring mangled, pitch shifting fretless bass and vocals samples discussing someone's destiny.
A woozy end to the EP.

■ Human is a deeply “human” cover album by Gota Nishidera (NONA REEVES), focusing on the world of 80s–90s Japanese kayokyoku and new music.
Following his well received 2023 solo cover album Sunset Rain, this new release features an unprecedentedly wide ranging selection of songs spanning works
by Kyohei Tsutsumi, Reiko Yugawa, and Eiichi Ohtaki, all of whom Nishidera either learned from directly or profoundly respects for their devotion to the study and
practice of pop music.

■ After experiencing major success across Asia including two China tours with NONA REEVES and solo performances in Taiwan Gota Nishidera revisited the essence
of Japanese pop music from a renewed perspective. The result is a meticulously crafted collection of eight ultimate tracks, tightly packed with the charm of Japanese
pop. Born in 1973, Nishidera absorbed the new wave of Japanese music that began in 1980 in real time, and here he updates that experience for the present day.
With arrangements and vocals filled with deep affection for the originals, he offers a modern and fresh reinterpretation of these classics.

■ The album is produced by long time collaborators Yuzuru Tomita, Tomoya Yamagata, and rising talent Yudai Ohi. On the track “Woman (from W’s Tragedy)”,
Nishidera performs a duet with Megumi Mashiro of Hicksville, a vocalist he has worked with for many years on NONA REEVES recordings and live shows.

■ Mastering is handled by ambient/balearic maestro Calm, delivering a stunning final sound.

■ The jacket design is created by Keita Fukumi, producer of the YouTube channel Gota Nishidera Channel NGC. Shot at Nishidera’s local barbershop in Sangenjaya
during his usual haircut, the artwork vividly captures the “human” essence at the heart of this project."

Transamericas reissues Atom™’s Kraftwerk-goes-chachachá classic

After 25 years out of print, El Baile Alemán — the cult album by Señor Coconut (one of Atom™’s many aliases) — returns on vinyl via Transamericas. What began as a half-joke (“The only way I’d cover Kraftwerk is as chachachá or death metal…”) became a fever-born epiphany: Kraftwerk’s electronic minimalism recast through a tropical imagination — where chachachá, mambo, and cumbia intertwine with glitch, breakbeats, and distressed samples.

Long before reggaeton and trap filled stadiums and playlists, Señor Coconut was already mapping the fault lines between Latin rhythm and electronic form.
Originally released in Japan in 2000, El Baile Alemán caught the ear of Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider, who unexpectedly championed the project. This reissue has been cut from Atom™’s 2022 remasters, preserving the album’s detail for a new generation of listeners. In the second half of 2026,

Transamericas will also reissue El Gran Baile (1997), his first outing — a rawer but equally idiosyncratic fusion of what Atom™ was going to frame as electrolatino.

London Jazz Classics originally came out in 1993 - the first album ever to be released on Soul Jazz Records. The album brought together rare and obscure dance tracks in a unique mix of jazz dance and fusion, funk, Brazilian and Latin grooves. 

The album was ironically titled - none of the music was from London, none of the music was traditionally classified as jazz, and all of the tracks were at the time practically unknown to most people. Instead these were tracks that were filling dancefloors in a nascent jazz dance scene in London being created by a small group of DJs – Paul Murphy, Gilles Peterson, Sylvester, Patrick Forge and a few others.

As demand for these rare groove jazz tracks grew, previously unknown records such as Alive!’s ‘Skindo Le Le’, Doug Richardson’s ‘Salsa Mama’, Carlos Franzetti’s ‘Cocoa Funk’ and Emilio Santiago’s ‘Bananeira’ became sort after and even-harder-to-find items with original copies going for £100s of pounds. 
These tracks became part of the soundtrack to this jazz dance scene which has now spread across the world. This music paved the way for the arrival of many of the UK’s new wave of current artists such Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective who today offer a uniquely London sensibility of fusing jazz with wide-ranging cultural influences – everything from afrobeat to soul.

London Jazz Classics was the first album to bring this jazz dance music featured here to a wider audience. More than 30 years since its initial release Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new 2026 edition, bringing the music once more to a new generation of listeners.

When funk music exploded onto the global pop scene in the late sixties, many of Jamaica's leading music-makers were inspired to incorporate elements of the exciting sound into their work. The result was the fascinating and compelling funky reggae style that proved immensely popular with record buyers on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the early ‘70s.

Pioneers of the sound included such celebrated producers as Lee ’Scratch’ Perry and Lloyd Charmers, whose recordings are heavily represented on both the CD and LP versions of this irresistible collection.

Collected here are some of the finest examples of the funky reggae, performed by some of reggae music’s most accomplished artists, from Ken Boothe and Lee Perry’s Upsetters to British-based acts, Greyhound and The Marvels.

Sometimes the title of an album tells you everything you need to know. Laurence Pike’s Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is like that: The music within represents a search for freedom, potentiality—liberatory strategies that transcend the ego and the solitary, atomized figure.

But in this case, the album title is also a red herring, because there is no jazz quintet here—just Pike, his drums, and his machines, not so much an ersatz ensemble as a purely notional one, a thought experiment equipped with drumsticks, circuitry, and the desire to go beyond hardwired limits.

And the results, strictly speaking, aren’t really jazz, though they incorporate the vocabulary of jazz, along with that of ambient, electronica, and post-rock. They are some other thing, cognizant of genre but never beholden to it. Again, we’re talking about a search for freedom here.

The Sydney-based musician has a long history of coloring outside the lines, not just in his solo recordings—including four albums for the Leaf label between 2018 and 2024—but also in the trio Pivot (later PVT); Szun Waves (alongside saxophonist Jack Wyllie and Border Community’s Luke Abbott); Triosk, which recorded an album with Jan Jelinek in 2003; and even post-punk titans Liars, whom he joined in late 2018.

Of his first album for Balmat, Pike says, “My loose concept was: What does music sound like when the expectations of late capitalism are removed from it? How might a jazz musician from an idealised culture of the future, or even another world, utilise musical language when the conventions of style and marketing are no longer a factor in music making?”

That inquiry, he says, connects to his “guiding principle: that the purpose of music is to access something bigger than the individual, and reveal a sense of possibility and freedom in the world to the listener. To create an understanding that the future can be something other than what we imagined or expect, even unconsciously.”

Heady ideas, but plug into his stream-of-metaconsciousness flow and you may start to intuit what motivates him. There is a deeply lyrical expression in these pieces—in the ruminative piano of opener “Guardians of Memory,” for example—but also a sense of exploded perspective, of ideas approached from more angles than any one mind could dream up. Of a collectivized consciousness, of mycelial networks branching across tone and rhythm and timbre, of ideas articulated in distributed fashion, nodal points dancing across drum heads.

Pike’s imaginary quintet is hardly without precedent; it’s a continuation of concepts floated across Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, Burnt Friedman’s many guises, and much of the recombinant improv of the International Anthem roster, not to mention the far corners of ECM’s catalog in the late 1970s and 1980s, which Pike says have been integral to his development since he was a teenager. Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is a point in a continuum, a voice in a conversation, a question with no obvious answer: How can the search for otherness in music manifest something true about ourselves?

Nach den jazzigen Library-Klängen der 2023 erschienenen gemeinsamen LP ,Dolphin" mit Greg Foat und Moses Boyd kehrt der venezianische Maestro Gigi Masin zu dem Ambient-Sound zurück, für den er bekannt ist - mit ,Movement", seinem ersten Solo- Album seit ,Calypso" aus dem Jahr 2020 und seinem Debüt bei Sacred Bones Records. Angetrieben von kreativer Neuerfindung und rhythmischer Bewegung bewegt er sich nahtlos zwischen melancholischen MIDI-Klängen, technoider Robotik, groovigen, liminalen Wolkenlandschaften und meeres tiefem Ambient. Seit seinen frühen Anfängen in der Anonymität baute sein Debütalbum ,Wind" aus dem Jahr 1986 langsam eine organische Anhängerschaft im Late-Night-Radio auf, die später noch verstärkt wurde, als ,Clouds" von Künstlern wie Björk, Post Malone und anderen gesampelt wurde. Zu seinen Fans zählen heute Oneohtrix Point Never, Devendra Banhart, Caroline Polachek und der verstorbene Kenny Wheeler. Das neue Album ,Movement" reflektiert Masins Stellung im Pantheon der Ambient-Meister, seine anhaltenden künstlerischen Ambitionen und seine Bestrebungen für eine Szene, deren exponentielles Wachstum er seit ihren bescheidenen Anfängen miterlebt hat. Die LP ist zudem eine Ode an die wörtliche Bewegung, sowohl in der Natur als auch in den körperlichen Ausdrucksformen des Menschen gegenüber dem Klang. Masin strebte danach, Ambient-Musik für Bewegung zu schaffen, nicht im üblichen Sinne von Tanzmusik, sondern ,dynamische Musik, mit einem schlagenden Herzen voller Liebe". Indem er die Assoziation von Ambient mit einsamen Hörerlebnissen und kühler Akademik auflöste, wandte sich Gigi nach außen und kanalisierte etwas Somatisches, das sich mit dem Körper verbindet, nicht nur mit dem Geist. ,Bed on Mars" gibt den titelgebenden Ton für Masins neu entfachte Neugier an, mit kosmischen Atmosphären, die das Gefühl hervorrufen, auf einem neuen Planeten ohne Furcht zu erwachen, während die ergreifende synthetische Trompete und der schwebende liminale Schwebezustand von ,Lost" sich anfühlen, als würde man in einem unbekannten Meer treiben. Noch tiefer in die exzentrischen Beats taucht der himmlische Techno-Funk von ,Deception Dance" ein, der klingt, als würden Sun Electric mit Carl Craig und Kraftwerk jammen. Das strahlende Licht von ,Golden" strahlt Wärme aus und klingt wie der Bossa-Nova-Bruder von Göttschings Balearic- Klassiker E2 E4. Trotz des Todes seiner Frau nach langer Krankheit und des Verlusts seines musikalischen Archivs durch eine Überschwemmung bleibt Gigi im Herzen rein und positiv und legt seine ganze Seele in das Streben nach Schönheit. Als jüngstes Werk einer langsam beginnenden, aber stetig wachsenden Karriere festigt Masin mit ,Movement" weiterhin seinen Platz unter den wahren Ambient-Größen.

Nach den jazzigen Library-Klängen der 2023 erschienenen gemeinsamen LP ,Dolphin" mit Greg Foat und Moses Boyd kehrt der venezianische Maestro Gigi Masin zu dem Ambient-Sound zurück, für den er bekannt ist - mit ,Movement", seinem ersten Solo- Album seit ,Calypso" aus dem Jahr 2020 und seinem Debüt bei Sacred Bones Records. Angetrieben von kreativer Neuerfindung und rhythmischer Bewegung bewegt er sich nahtlos zwischen melancholischen MIDI-Klängen, technoider Robotik, groovigen, liminalen Wolkenlandschaften und meeres tiefem Ambient. Seit seinen frühen Anfängen in der Anonymität baute sein Debütalbum ,Wind" aus dem Jahr 1986 langsam eine organische Anhängerschaft im Late-Night-Radio auf, die später noch verstärkt wurde, als ,Clouds" von Künstlern wie Björk, Post Malone und anderen gesampelt wurde. Zu seinen Fans zählen heute Oneohtrix Point Never, Devendra Banhart, Caroline Polachek und der verstorbene Kenny Wheeler. Das neue Album ,Movement" reflektiert Masins Stellung im Pantheon der Ambient-Meister, seine anhaltenden künstlerischen Ambitionen und seine Bestrebungen für eine Szene, deren exponentielles Wachstum er seit ihren bescheidenen Anfängen miterlebt hat. Die LP ist zudem eine Ode an die wörtliche Bewegung, sowohl in der Natur als auch in den körperlichen Ausdrucksformen des Menschen gegenüber dem Klang. Masin strebte danach, Ambient-Musik für Bewegung zu schaffen, nicht im üblichen Sinne von Tanzmusik, sondern ,dynamische Musik, mit einem schlagenden Herzen voller Liebe". Indem er die Assoziation von Ambient mit einsamen Hörerlebnissen und kühler Akademik auflöste, wandte sich Gigi nach außen und kanalisierte etwas Somatisches, das sich mit dem Körper verbindet, nicht nur mit dem Geist. ,Bed on Mars" gibt den titelgebenden Ton für Masins neu entfachte Neugier an, mit kosmischen Atmosphären, die das Gefühl hervorrufen, auf einem neuen Planeten ohne Furcht zu erwachen, während die ergreifende synthetische Trompete und der schwebende liminale Schwebezustand von ,Lost" sich anfühlen, als würde man in einem unbekannten Meer treiben. Noch tiefer in die exzentrischen Beats taucht der himmlische Techno-Funk von ,Deception Dance" ein, der klingt, als würden Sun Electric mit Carl Craig und Kraftwerk jammen. Das strahlende Licht von ,Golden" strahlt Wärme aus und klingt wie der Bossa-Nova-Bruder von Göttschings Balearic- Klassiker E2 E4. Trotz des Todes seiner Frau nach langer Krankheit und des Verlusts seines musikalischen Archivs durch eine Überschwemmung bleibt Gigi im Herzen rein und positiv und legt seine ganze Seele in das Streben nach Schönheit. Als jüngstes Werk einer langsam beginnenden, aber stetig wachsenden Karriere festigt Masin mit ,Movement" weiterhin seinen Platz unter den wahren Ambient-Größen.

W.R.F. was formed in 2015 by Nina and late studio partner Andrew Weatherall to help wrangle the vast output recorded together beyond his solo releases.
Spotlighting nine tracks from the Apparently Solo series of EPs recorded between 2016- 2019 and released on Bandcamp in 2023, this lustrous time capsule marks the culmination of Walsh and Weatherall’s creative relationship born after they clicked at London’s earliest acid house clubs, becoming partners then managers of their Sabres Of Paradise/Sabrettes labels before taking different paths by the late '90s.
An accomplished musician, Nina had learned the art of studio technology by the time they reunited and started working together in 2012. Created at her Facility 4 Studio situated in the dangerous, gang-ridden no man’s land between Streatham and Mitcham, Anamchara captures the super-prolific creative stretch starting in 2015 that produced Weatherall’s Convenanza and Qualia solo sets, W.R.F.’s The Phoenix Suburb (And Other Stories) plus a whole lot more. According to Nina, Andrew envisioned the spectacular ‘Borderland’ as natural successor to ‘Smokebelch’, his most revered track. When it came to his remix, Nina enlisted renowned viola virtuoso Sarah Sarhandi and composed new harmonies with Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor in mind.
The set also catches the breakthrough period when, through Nina’s careful coaxing, Andrew started using the computer system she’d set up to better express his musical visions by arranging the elements, grooves and melodies she sent him. Still considered the UK’s greatest DJ-producer, Andrew’s arrangements were inspired by his club-igniting sets. “This allowed me to mix the colours for his palette whilst he was painting the picture,” says Nina. Anamchara straddles the gamut of musical styles explored by W.R.F. at this time, from slower paced psychedelic “drug chug” outings ‘We Two’. ‘Heat To Meat Ratio’, ‘Hidden Watchers Part 1’ to banging acid house and techno sometimes inspired by the violence outside the studio door, including ‘SCHLAP’, ‘Crack-Ed’ and churning acid juggernaut ‘Yacidik’ (“After much dangling of the acid carrot, Andrew took a bite and, after one familiar raised eyebrow, never looked back,” says Nina).
Many tracks fly elements from the enormous sonic library Nina inherited from late partner Erick Legrand that she called The Akashic Library of Sound. Marking Andrew’s 2016 admission into the vault, ‘Rattly Old Puffin’ boasts Erick’s psychedelic guitar and tumbling drum loop Weatherall would run with, including on ‘Borderland’. “Erick was like our third member,” says Nina.
Bringing down the curtain, ‘Alma’’s exquisitely poignant melody that unfolds over thirteen time-stopping minutes was composed by Nina while navigating Erick’s birth and departure date anniversaries to accompany Andrew’s reading from Gordon Burn’s 1991 same-named novel at 2018’s Durham Literary Festival. Burn’s novel imagines early 60s popstrel Alma Cogan, who succumbed to cancer in 1966 surviving to reflect on fame. “Now it just makes me think of Erick. And every time I hear those well-placed cymbal crashes I can only think of the Captain himself.”
A beautiful grand finale for this astonishing selection of pure gold from the vaults.
Kris Needs / 2026

Kaiso Power is a collection of rare jazz, calypso and percussive gems from Trinidad and Tobago from the revolutionary generation of the 1970s, bringing radical new political vision and reclaiming ancient spiritual consciousness through music. At the dawn of the 70s a shift was taking place all around the world. The streets of Port of Spain thronged with Black Power marches, trade union demonstrations and Carnival protest bands - one epicentre in a growing global exchange of ideologies and strategies among Pan Africanist circles in Jamaica, Guyana, London, New York, Montreal, Lagos, Accra and beyond. And when the meetings were over, the revolution moved to the cramped secret dance halls, the Carnival fetes, the steelband yards. The music always had a sharp edge. Searing commentary has always been part of the various types of music in Trinidad, and in the absence of lyrics, the defiant use of the drum maintains the resistance, as well as the re-framing of the playing of European instruments to the needs of the message. Lancelot Layne, Delano Abdul Malik De Coteau, Andre Tanker, Clive Zanda, Mansa Musa were more than artists, they were teachers, community workers and advocates for justice. These recordings are as raw as an all-night Carnival jam, the horns loud, the percussion ringing out, the bass dripping with joy and rebellion. Under the modern influences is a solid rhythm, an unbroken connection to Africa, the songs and keys and cadences brought across the middle passage. These songs are a peep into the untapped treasures of a revolutionary generation, looking at the world with fresh eyes and believing that music was a central part of the mission to build consciousness and regain confidence.

Philip Glass, the great American composer, was already in his mid-30s before his first album appeared, and then only because he produced the double LP himself. Music With Changing Parts was the inaugural release on his own Chatham Square imprint in 1971.

At this point, Einstein on the Beach, Glass' first opera, was still five years away. Yet in Changing Parts, one can already hear much of his vocabulary in full bloom: the buoyant arpeggios, the melding of electronic and acoustic instruments, the elongated drones of human voice, the primary emphasis on pulse (an interest he shared with fellow composer Steve Reich) and the ecstatic potential inherent in repetition.

The album features the original Philip Glass Ensemble – the composer himself, along with Jon Gibson, Dickie Landry, Art Murphy, Steve Chambers and Robert Prado – playing Farfisa organs and woodwinds as well as Barbara Benary on electric violin.

As Glass describes in his memoir Words Without Music, he secured a $500 interest-free loan for the recordings' initial release from the Hebrew Free Loan Society – an organization intended to help immigrants from the Old World upon arrival in the US. Though Glass was merely the grandson of immigrants, the venture wasn't far off the society's charter as Changing Parts helped usher in a new world of sound that would become known as Minimalism.

Chatham Square went on to release albums by other composers in Glass' circle, including Gibson and Landry. The label was named after the Manhattan intersection where Landry had a studio and the ensemble rehearsed.

Born in Baltimore in 1937, Glass first moved to New York to attend Juilliard at just nineteen, having already graduated from the University of Chicago. A staple of the Downtown scene, he can perhaps be appreciated as akin to the likes of sculptor Richard Serra or filmmaker Jim Jarmusch: mavericks who became major cultural figures entirely on their own terms.

This first-time vinyl reissue reproduces the original side-breaks and gatefold sleeve.

Shed makes his first appearance on Dekmantel with Rave Echoes — a supple, mesmerising album of angular techno caught between the heat of peak time and the time-blurred hours after the club.

A combination of dreamlike atmospherics and rugged propulsion takes on many forms across the album. It's submerged and restrained on 'Loot 25', speckled with sharply sliced breaks on 'Everybody' and scattered across a sparse, steppy soundscape on 'Rave Predator'. Emotive, swooning strings collide with tough, squashed breakstep drums on 'Double Scoop' and 'Taking You Home' thrusts with urgency and rave romanticism in equal measure.

Wielding his signature blend of UK-school soundsystem pressure and Berlin-school techno momentum with poise and purpose, on Rave Echoes Shed offers a perfect impression of those wild, indescribable sensory overloads that leave their mark on anyone devoted to the dancefloor.

DJ Support: Graeme Park, Tall Paul, Paul Oakenfold & Danny Rampling and many more

The DMENJ crew returns after their huge debut with two massive tracks. Already dancefloor staples worldwide, these heaters are now available on vinyl for a limited time.

New Stand High Patrol album, featuring Joe Yorke, Nazamba, Jah Thomas - and remixes from Mad Professor, Androo & Jeanville.


Dub and House Music. Two aesthetics born in the shadows, shaped far from the mainstream music industry. Two underground cultures where independence is often a necessity and ingenuity is essential. Two scenes rooted in the margins of society, with dance, sound systems and minorities at their heart.
From the Jamaican sound system sessions of the late sixties, through the nights at Chicago's Warehouse, to the murmurings of the New York house scene in the early eighties — history shows that house, reggae and dub share far more than many people may assume. Collective action, resistance as a driving force, music moving straight from studio to turntable, shared messages: these are the threads that bind these landmark musical movements together. It is at this crossroads, driven by the spirit of experimentation that defines them, that the members of Stand High Patrol found yet another territory worth mapping.
"Skanking & Jacking", the new Musketeerz album, reveals a side of the Dubadub sound never heard on record before. Built for the dancers and for DJs, the LP brings together the pulse of house music and the vibrant groove of reggae. Uncharted territory, never interfaced like this before. The result of a meticulous blending of styles, house, reggae and dub intertwine across 12 extended tracks. The sound is carefully crafted. Built on immersive loops and interlaced with micro-variations that give it an organic texture. Born from the interaction between being and machine. This is not about simply bringing worlds closer together; it's about mobilising influences to chart a new sonic galaxy.


Beyond it's aesthetic statement, "Skanking & Jacking" also stands out for its international cast. The most extensive Stand High Patrol have ever assembled on an album. From England, Italy, Switzerland and Jamaica, the guest vocalists, producers and MCs deepen the sense of dialogue between cultures and styles. At the mic, Joe Yorke, Marina P, Nazamba and Jah Thomas join the Dubadub Musketeerz on their explorations. Each appearance subtly reshaping the contours of the project.
Never fixed, always in motion, "Skanking & Jacking" pays tribute to the traditions that shaped it and closes, as a final nod, with remixes from Jeanville, Androo and the legendary Mad Professor. The album stands as further proof of a crew that shows no signs of stopping its reinvention. Available on stream, digital and double LP on May 29th.

Caçador de Horizontes is the fourth and most ambitious album by Brazilian composer and songwriter Raphael Gimenes. Conceived as an expansive double album, it brings together voice and acoustic guitar with richly arranged strings, brass and a wide palette of percussion, engaging with the tradition of Brazilian songwriting while evoking the harmonic sensibility of artists such as Milton Nascimento, alongside elements of modern classical music.

Inspired by travels across the American continent, the album moves between intimate moments and large-scale instrumental passages, creating a cinematic and emotionally resonant atmosphere. Produced by Lucas Delacroix, Alexandre Andrés and Gimenes himself, it features more than 30 musicians from different countries and was supported by the Danish Arts Foundation (Statens Kunstfond).

Baccanalia is the new EP from PS5 : a collection of visionary dances inspired by the world of classic mythology. The syncopated rhythms and the ritual chants evoke war dances, satyrs ‘ parades and rites of passage and transformation. A deep sonic trip emerges, in which stylistic features of contemporary jazz interlace with ancestral suggestions creating a musical experience that is both physical and mystical. Pietro Santangelo is among the most prominent and recognizable voices of the contemporary Neapolitan music scene. Starting from the seminal experience of Slivovitz and the underground of the Crossroads Improving improvisation collective, in recent years it has given shape to PS3 and PS5, two of the most innovative ensembles in Italian jazz in recent years.The sound of his saxophone has characterized iconic records such as Nu Genea ’s Nuova Napoli and Dario Bassolino’s Città Futura, is featured in bands such as Fitness Forever, Funkin’ Machine, Khalab, Ex Generation (Napoli Exchange), Circolo Psiconautico, and many others.

With the release of De Todas las Flores, Natalia Lafourcade returned with an album of entirely original material for the first time in seven years.

Musically, De Todas las Flores, dives into a wide variety of Latin jazz and folk genres, such as bolero, cumbia, bossa nova, and samba. Lafourcade describes the album as her musical diary, exploring themes of heartbreak, loss, and grief. She drew inspiration from nature, particularly her home garden in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Lafourcade enlisted the help of her former neighbour, Adán Jodorowsky, for production. The musical touch came from musicians such as the guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, John Zorn) and the bassist Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Eddie Vedder, Fiona Apple).

De Todas las Flores is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on transparent vinyl and includes an insert and printed inner sleeves.

/// First track, Symmetry, debuted on BBC Radio 6 New Music Fix, 10th February: "A beautiful, beautiful album" /// I got my life back. On 17 February 2025, 1024 rays of ultra sound converged at an operation table in Bern, Switzerland, and disconnected a noisy circuit on my brain. 90% of the manifestation ceased – of a disease that I no longer wish to mention by its name. During the same period, I completed my new album: Self Help Manual. I’ve read more current research about the nameless disease than my neurologist, who despite that I didn’t follow his advice on suitable treatment, called me after the successful operation: a brave, brave man. I have composed the music in the same way as in my previous album – Songs for the Nervous System – through layers upon layers of improvisations in dialogue with my synthesizers, most of which are the same age as me. I made the majority of the songs in my studio in the remains of Old Hagalund in Solna. I edited the recordings in my bed during the waking hours of clarity at night. Some songs – NAC, Ketosis, Overkill – were recorded in the basement of my childhood home in Skutskär, in Norduppland, where I’d returned to be nurtured by my retired parents – who during a night when I couldn’t turn over in bed, or pull the blanket over me – made a list of what would happen to my belongings. To my friends who have stood out with me despite my disease, I want to state: you will not inherit me yet. On the new album, the electric bass takes on a leading role. ESG and Liquid Liquid have been important when I reinvented my baselines, limited and liberated by my poor fine motor skills. Plasma is my homage to Summertime Rolls by Jane’s Addiction, that I listened to frequently in my youth. I guess that no one will hear the resemblance. In several songs, the Fender Rhodes plays an important role, a magical instrument that I bought shortly after my diagnosis over a decade ago, and for a long time didn’t dare to touch out of respect for Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti. A couple of songs draw inspiration from the Horn of Africa – Inner Nile and Delta. At first, subconsciously in the reverb-drenched Inner Nile, then more consciously in Delta. I’m sorry it doesn’t swing the right way, but it was my attempt to return to the cradle of humanity. Longevity is possibly my favourite. The melody is played by an arpeggiator that I controlled by pressing down different keys in an exhilarating sense of freedom. One song in particular, the second track – One – has caused friends to associate freely: one thought it sounded like Patrick Cowley, another like Sly & Robbie meets Kraftwerk, a third like Air – Moonlight Safari. I made one song just before the surgery: opening track Symmetry. It’s the mightiest and most minimal song. I made one song after the surgery: finishing track Self Help Manual. My previous medication pump is heard through the microphone of my Ovation Magnum. It’s the most hopeful song on the album. I took the cover photos with my Hasselblad during walks in Tokyo suburbs of Ōmori and Kamata more than ten years ago. It was something about the faith of the traffic cones that fascinated me – born in the same streamlined form, they had over the years become increasingly individual and lovable. The mixing was finalized by Christoffer Roth in the newly built Studio Dubious in Nacka. Rashad Becker, who in an interview said that he listens as much with his mouth as with his ears, mastered the album at Clunk in Berlin. Right now it feels like anything is possible. My recovery is perhaps a small step for mankind, but a giant leap for me. I hereby leave the music to you. Joakim Forsgren

FELT wade deeper into the murky waters of contemporary Scandinavian electroacoustic music following the recent reissue of Johan Wieth’s Health & Safety project on sub-label LEFT and established gems from the likes of Civilistjävel!

Gintė Preisaitė, a Lithuanian artist and graduate of Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, reveals her first solo release under her own name, following a collaborative effort with Toshimaru Nakamura in 2025 and a number of cassettes as “Baraboro”. The deliberately genre-blurring sound Preisaitė deploys works with composed pop vignettes, sustained drones, FX manipulations and guttural bursts of noise. Sparse piano movements, sample-laden psychedelia and moments of big beat/trip-hop rhythms gel with crowd noise, close mic’d intimacy and experimental percussion with a focus on instrumental timbres and extended techniques.

With a background in composing for large ensembles, Preisaitė's multi-instrumental approach is evident across the eight tracks, moments of dense concrète-style sound collages anchored by the human voice never being far away. She laments on fantasy, absurdity and relationships as a cast of players contribute string, brass, accordion, and guitar parts. Passages move from delicate acoustic folk motifs through to wide-eyed, cut-and-paste glitch electronics and spectral melodic riffs, making the album an unorthodox and welcome addition to Denmark's current world-class music scene.

Maybe it was inevitable that Vilhelm Bromander and Fredrik Rasten would find each other. A symbiotic musical alliance of suggestive combinatory magic that stretches back to the interstitial two day space that separates their dates of birth and manifests here as the movement between ‘perfect’ or ‘just’ intonation and the ragged, psychoactive energy of the slippages from and towards that togetherness that render otherwise simple patterns or generally understood repetitions as wildly other and alive.

Astral Twins shares ‘twin’ works by each composer. The patiently unfolding real time retuning of Fredrik Rasten’s guitars on the a-side’s Sojourns and Vilhelm Bromander’s quickened steps and spry looping melodies on the flip’s Partially Dancing.

Both artists have history of going deep into the aesthetic and acoustic impact of intonation (how you think about what is ‘in tune’). Where their first LP (...for some reason that escapes us, 2019, Differ Records) shared a gorgeous set of sustained tone colour fields, this time they lean more explicitly into the folk music traditions of Scandinavia and further afield, whilst echoing the zoned minimalist atmosphere of Arthur Russell’s classic Instrumentals.

Recorded up close and in real time at Fylkingen’s soon-to-be-abandoned temporary location in Stockholm’s southern suburb of Bredäng, Astral Twins sings with the possibility that one plus one can equal more than two.

Fredrik Rasten:
 Sojourns explores the live retuning of guitar and double bass in a sequence of just intonation harmonies. A guitar ostinato runs throughout the piece where the retuning becomes an integral part of the composition. The slow pace reveals every detail in the transition from one harmonic arpeggio to another — how interfering waves emerge and disappear as the tonal interactions settle in electric clarity. The double bass shadows the guitar's process and comments with occasional pizzicato tones and register jumps, at times providing a low foundation for the sound and sometimes soaring together with the guitar. This is music that is deeply listening; experimental and at the same time humbly inviting many kinds of being with sound.

Vilhelm Bromander: 
As the title suggests, this song has a partially dancing character. The title also has a double meaning with reference to the partials and harmonics that dance together. The basic idea was to write music in just intonation that instead of being drone-based is reminiscent of a lightly dancing folk music, where the joyous feeling of just being in the music — “musicking" — is allowed to lead the way.

The double bass plays repeated overtone double stops in an open harmonic progression with subtle modulations that is inspired in equal parts by Steve Lacy's persistent repetition of phrases as east-asian khaen music. The guitars and mandolin have a freer role, with plucked retuned strings that enhance the bass's modulations and provide forward movement. The music invites to both melodic and spectral listening, suddenly halting so that other focal points can reveal themselves. For example, a chord sequence suddenly transitions to a more spectral part where Fredrik is playing a bowed guitar with a chain, several plucking guitars, voices, and pitch pipes. I wanted to make something ‘orchestral’ with just two people and no overdubs: a dance of overtones and open resonant strings, where we seamlessly take turns standing in the foreground.

Sie wurde in den Trümmern des Zweiten Weltkriegs geboren, als einziges Mädchen unter sieben Kindern, und man nannte sie Pinky. Sie wuchs in den windigen Ebenen des Texas Panhandle auf, sang im Kirchenchor und träumte davon, eines Tages auf der Bühne zu stehen. Mit gerade einmal 18 Jahren traf sie die Liebe ihres Lebens und heiratete bald darauf den Rodeo-Cowboy Cole Tex. Da sie beide den gleichen Durst nach Abenteuern teilten, bereisten sie gemeinsam die Landstraßen. Er schrieb die Songs und Pinky sang sie, wobei sie in kleinen Roadhouses und Honky-Tonks in den gesamten südwestlichen Bundesstaaten auftraten. Dies sind einige der wenigen Aufnahmen, die noch existieren.

Eines der prägendsten Merkmale des Ansatzes der Blues-Newcomer GA-20 in Bezug auf traditionelle Bluesmusik ist ihr unerschütterliches Engagement, die Songs zu spielen, die sie lieben, oder wie Bandleader Matthew Stubbs es ausdrückt: ,Wir spielen die Musik, die wir selbst hören wollen." Kenner sind fasziniert von der mitreißenden Energie, die die Band in die Welt des Heavy Blues bringt, und von den Songs, die sie spielen. Mit ORPHANS hat die Band eine Sammlung von Blues- und Blues-nahen Titeln zusammengestellt, die perfekt in diesen Rahmen passen. Die Songs auf ORPHANS sind genau das - einzigartige Stücke, die man sonst nur bei Live-Shows hört, Singles, die zwischen den Alben veröffentlicht wurden, und einfache Favoriten, die die Band (Stubbs, Cody Nilsen & Josh Kiggans) schon lange aufnehmen wollte. Und genau wie der Blues eine Tradition des Ausleihens, Teilens und der Transformation ist, werden diese Melodien und Texte auf ähnliche Weise neu interpretiert und neu erdacht - Waisen und Streuner, die liebevoll adoptiert und mit neuem Leben erfüllt werden. Die Nachfrage der Fans nach einer richtigen Veröffentlichung dieser Songs in voller Länge sowie der Wunsch, Nilsens Gesang und seine Meisterschaft an der Begleitgitarre zu präsentieren, werden hier in physischer Form verwirklicht.

2025 Repress

(remastered classic incl DL card) Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition. In the late nineties, the budding producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani bonded over their shared love of slower tempos and '70s and '80s NYC club culture. Obsessed with record digging and the sounds they heard on late-night "club classics" radio shows—and turned off by current releases they saw as artlessly "updating" sublime disco by sampling, filtering and subjugating them with huge kick drums —the duo set out to discover how their favorite old 12" records were made. They naturally gravitated towards extended dubs of songs—full of strange mistakes and echoing backing tracks—instead of the better-known vocal versions. Lacking the big budgets and gear that made so many of their favorite classic records come together, they were forced to take a guerrilla approach. They reprogrammed their techno-oriented arsenal of secondhand synths and samplers, using novel digital recording technology to capture live instrumentation and prioritizing mood over hooks, and the resulting music was just wrong enough to sound unlike anything else being released at the time.After just four underground 12" releases, the duo—now well-known as Metro Area—released their first and only album, Metro Area, in the fall of 2002. Fifteen years later, it's time to celebrate the culmination of their shared history and inspiration once again. Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The 12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition.

Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride - to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point.
The Director's Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It?s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we've done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term''
- Jeff Mills

'The Director's Cut' series by Jeff Mills

2024 Repress !

"Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride - to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point. The Director's Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It?s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we've done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term'' - Jeff Mills

2023 Repress


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

"I got to know visual artist, musician, and producer Guido Erfen and sound engineer, acoustic artist, and percussionist Michael Springer as part of a group of five by the name of SHM1. The members of the group organised concerts at Rhenania, a disused grain silo, where I performed with The Absurd in 1988 and 1989. The band was also featured on one of Erfen's tape releases. Erfen and Springer met when they were still at the same secondary school and soon became close friends and musical allies. With the other members of SHM they built an independent network for creating and distributing music beyond the mainstream in Cologne. Rent at Rhenania was incredibly low, allowing a recording studio to be established there.

The first traces of the Ukrainian Underground arrived at Erfen's door via a cassette tape with three bands from Kharkiv and Kyiv, the package including a long essay which detailed the rock scene in the two cities by Sergey Myasoyedow. In 1986, Myasoyedow, together with Sasha Panchenko, had founded the “Novaya Scena“ rock club in Kharkiv, presenting bands inspired by punk, the avant-garde, dadaism, and even medieval melodies. If Erfen hadn't been part of the independent mail-art scene, he wouldn't have had the chance to discover this unorthodox music. It was the summer of 1990, shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became an independent state the following year.

In 1991, singer and keyboard player Soloveyka from Kharkiv arrived in Cologne and gave Erfen half a dozen cassettes with underground bands from Ukraine and a handful with bands from the Soviet Union. Intrigued by the original music of many of the acts, he visited Ukraine twice, made friends there, compiled a tape with his favourite tracks and finally succeeded in convincing Hamburg label boss Alfred Hilsberg to present underground music from Ukraine on the CD “Novaya Scena“ via his label What's So Funny About (the original home of Einstürzende Neubauten).
The album compiled 20 tracks recorded between 1986 and 1992 by 14 bands out of Kharkiv and Kyiv– music beyond the usual Perestroika records, often with jarring dissonances over grooves that fans of Captain Beefheart or The Fall would certainly enjoy.

On the other hand, there are tracks featuring flute and trumpet that seem inspired by folk, classical music, and punk. Ghostly chamber prog miniatures by Cukor Belaya Smert (lit. Sugar White Death) from Kyiv featuring, among others, the classically trained pianist and singer Svitlana Nianio (née Ochrimenko) and guitarist, visual artist, and spokesman Yewgeny "Yenia" Taran. Nianio sang in her native Ukrainian, as did two more of the bands. Today, this seems more relevant than ever, more culturally and historically significant from a Ukrainian point of view than it was even in 1993. Young Ukrainians were amazed at that time that rock music sung in their native tongue could work!

It is in the aftermath of the “Novaya Scena“ album that the music on this LP was created. About a year after the release of the CD in August 1993, Nianio and Taran came to Cologne to work on music for the dance production "Transilvania Smile" by the dance theatre ensemble Pentamonia2.
The seeds for the Traces of Ukrainian Underground in Cologne were sown. Starting in 1994, a series of informal recording sessions took place at Michael Springer’s Phanton Studio and at SHM studio in Rhenania. Together, these sessions formed the basis of the four different incarnations of the Ukraine-Cologne connection heard on STROOMS’s compilation.

"Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride - to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point.
The Director's Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It?s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we've done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term''
- Jeff Mills

Tropical Pop return to serve two more peak-time refreshments to the stale dancefloors of the world !!

Bursting with flavour, artificial sweeteners and a whole load of E numbers, these cuts deliver totally tropical disco pump and tangy technoid madness - teased, tweaked and transformed for maximum sugar rush.

LIMITED EDITION - ILLICIT INGREDIENTS

Feel the fizz !

Hit the North is a DJs’ movement
Not a label. Not a revival. A discipline.

Over the years, the collective travelled across multiple states in the US and parts of the UK, digging deep into private collections, basements, garages, storage rooms and forgotten boxes.

They weren’t looking for classics.
They weren’t looking for hits.
They were looking for attempts.

Artists chasing something bigger than themselves.
Trying to sound like Motown.
Trying to sound like Detroit.
Trying to sound like the records that saved them.

Many of them dreamed — at best — of becoming a one hit wonder.
Most never got that far.

Some never crossed a state line.
Some never crossed the street at the end of their block.
Some never played outside their hometown.
Some never played at all.

What they left behind were fragments.

Raw versions.
Unfinished recordings.
Alternate takes.
Rejected mixes.
Test pressings.
Acetates passed quietly from hand to hand.

Sometimes with real credits.
Sometimes with fake ones.
Sometimes with handwritten labels leading nowhere.
Titles that didn’t match the music.
Stories that changed every time you asked.

Often, the trail simply disappeared.

What remained was intention.

Energy.
Urgency.
Hope pressed into sound.

So the collective worked on it.

They edited certain parts.
Extended others.
Cut what didn’t serve the floor.

Not to modernise.
Not to rewrite history.
But to unlock the power that was already there.

The result sounds like Northern Soul pushed to its breaking point.
Fast. Physical. Emotional.
Built for movement.

Some circulated privately.
Others were never pressed at all.

Recorded in personal studios, borrowed studios, friends’ rooms, temporary spaces.
Always outside the system.

This is not nostalgia.
This is unfinished business.

At the age of 72, "Evil" Graham Lee, the legendary pedal steel pioneer and veteran of the iconic Australian band The Triffids, delivers his first ever album under his own name titled ‘I Think I’m Alone Now’. In addition to his work with The Triffids, Graham’s place in ambient history was cemented in 1990 when his evocative pedal steel became the soulful centerpiece of The KLF’s masterpiece, Chill Out (specifically on the highlight “Baltimore to Fair Play”).

I Think I’m Alone Now is a profound exploration of the instrument's emotional range, blending traditional country infused melodies with vast, reverb drenched ambient textures. The album spans six tracks, anchored by the Side B title track, a 15 minute textural piece that leans heavily into the ambient genre. From the delicate melancholy of "Seeking Beauty in Sadness" to the curious abstraction of "Nursery in the Beehive," Lee uses his pedal steel and an array of pedals to sculpt unique, haunting soundscapes that exist between tradition and the avant garde.

The connection is brought full circle with exclusive liner notes written by The KLF’s Bill Drummond. Reflecting on a forty year friendship that began when The Triffids served as the backing band for Drummond’s solo debut, The Man, Drummond provides a personal and poignant context for this long awaited solo bow.

A 180g pressing housed in a full sleeve designed by Bradley Pinkerton with metallic sticker and bespoke inner sleeve featuring liner notes signed by Bill Drummond.