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Paisley Park Enterprises, in Partnership with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records, announces expanded reissue of Prince & the New Power Generation’s multi-platinum album Diamonds And Pearls. This 2LP contains Diamonds And Pearls remastered for the very first time by Prince’s original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.

Diamonds And Pearls is the thirteenth studio album by Prince, and was the first with his new backing band, The New Power Generation. Featuring six massive international singles, including the hits “Gett Off”, “Cream”, and the iconic title track, the album was a worldwide smash reaching multi-platinum status in the USA and the UK, where it remains his best-selling album.
The New Power Generation was a band that Prince believed in so wholeheartedly that he gave them co-credit on the cover of Diamonds And Pearls, something he’d only done previously with one other band, The Revolution. The group consisted of Sonny Thompson (vocals & bass), Damon Dickson (vocals & percussion), Rosie Gaines (vocals & keyboards), Michael Bland (drums), Kirk Johnson (vocals & percussion), Tony M (vocals), Levi Seacer, Jr. (bass, guitar & vocals), and Tommy Barbarella (keyboards).

A lavish four chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, VIS (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year"s acclaimed "Imaginary Landscapes" compilation. VIS then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album"s 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato"s cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation.

August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it"s shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. VIS is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind"s journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we"re returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it"s a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.

Neroli is back with a new album project by long time hero and music mastermind Kirk Degiorgio. This project links the Planetary Folklore aesthetics and Kirk’s praised contribution to The First Circle, the beautiful ‘Leave Everything Behind’, in a very spiritual and ethereal way.

Born after witnessing Pharaoh Sanders performance at We Out Here festival in 2022, ‘Robe Of Dreams’ represents Degiorgio’s tribute to the artists that shaped his musical world.

After last year’s Black Clouds Above The Bows, Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ, fatally wounded in a climate related event.

All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk due to the effects caused by receding coastlines around the globe. Wailing odes tell the story of the catastrophic activity of eroding waves and winds shaping the land that are enhanced by the climate crisis. First hand experiences and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject of these receding coastlines inspired Wanderwelle to compose these albums.

During their travels, the artists stumbled upon a small church in a town on the east coast of Scotland. The building was quite damaged, the roof was being stabilized and the ancient walls showed great tears running vertically down the structure. One of the church’s volunteers told Wanderwelle that the damage had been caused by a nearby cliff that collapsed in the sea. An event increasingly common in the region.

The church organ was ruined in such a way that it was deemed unplayable, as most of the pipes were gravely damaged and in dire need of restoration. Musical instruments directly affected by the environment -and especially the climate crisis- are quite rare. Despite the damage, the artists were allowed to record a few tones of the instrument with their equipment, which was actually meant to be used for field recordings later that day.

In Black Clouds Above The Bows, antique cavalry trumpets were recorded and manipulated by Wanderwelle to sound an environmental alarm in the same manner as they were once used to warn men on the battlefield. Similar processing was used on the recordings of the dying organ, resulting in spectral, deconstructed tones beyond recognition. In addition to the damaged organ, the artists recorded piano, cello and harmonic additive synthesizers in later stages of the composition process, manipulating these sounds to mimic the perpetual activity of the sea shaping the land.Furthermore, a great deal of inspiration was found in maritime superstition, lore and mythology.

As told in the legend of Aspidochelone, a legendary sea creature of enormous size, was once mistaken for an island. After sailors docked and lit a fire, the beast submerged resembling a land mass sliding into the sea. The album’s title is derived from the saying ‘All Hands Bury The Dead’, a maritime burial phrase, as the duo likes to think ‘All Hands’ refers to all of mankind since we are all responsible for these impending catastrophes.

Cello, violin, voice, pipe organ (damaged), bowed guitar, EBow, Prophet-6 synthesizer, modular synthesizer, field recordings.

RIYL: Oliveros/Deep Listening, Arvo Part, Lambda Sond, Sarah Davachi

Music From Memory is delighted to be turning 50 with a special release: MFM050 - V/A - Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997 (3xLP/2xCD). The first in a series of compilations, alongside more in depth artist-focused releases, Virtual Dreams will delve into music produced during the 1990’s that redefined the boundaries of ‘Ambient’. This was music that explored the possibilities of Ambient music within a new setting, created often by House & Techno music producers for a world beyond dance floors but made very much with the pre and post-clubbing listener in mind.

When House and Techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was redefined not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second ‘Summer of Love’ in 1988, millions of young people across the world would experience the life-changing ups of a brave new world but with it of course came the downs; enter the concept of a ‘Chill-out’ room. Whilst early Chill-out rooms lacked a specific sound and were often soundtracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young Techno and House producers themselves would become increasingly interested in developing a futuristic ‘Ambient’ soundtrack to a world beyond the thud of the main room.

‘Ambient’ in this new age now though had sharper teeth than in Brian Eno's key text for ‘Music for Airports’, instead here the sounds were the mode of transport rather than the backdrop. While the melodies were pretty, the soundscape steered away from the pastoral, dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up exciting new dimensions. Much like in the first Summer Of Love; the musicians were again exploring psychedelic, mind-altering and transcendental possibilities of music. And also much as in the first Summer Of Love, a psychedelic visual language would accompany the music. Though now the tracks could be accompanied by music videos, utilising early CGI techniques, they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopian future. Virtual Dreams of a better world.

From Ambient and early Chill-out classics, to lesser known one-off projects, as well as Ambient deviations by some of House and Techno’s leading producers, Volume One of Virtual Dreams features tracks by Bedouin Ascent, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more.

To celebrate our 50th release the first 1000 copies include a holographic 'Virtual Dreams' sticker plus a special insert poster with artwork by Victoria Pacheco and design by Steele Bonus.

The moons of Saturn are the inspiration for this brooding, often soaring and searching odyssey of dark electronica.

The second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter, and the sixth planet from the sun, Saturn is orbited by 53 confirmed moons, with another 29 that are unnamed and still being studied.

Saturnian is a suite of thirteen choral tracks taking their names from some of Saturn's known moons; Dione, Daphnis, Phoebe, Prometheus, Rhea, Janus, Titan, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Mimas, Hyperion and Iapetus, all named after figures from Greek and Roman mythology, each loaded with their own turbulent back stories. It is the debut release by Holmes + atten Ash, written, recorded and produced remotely in Edinburgh and Bristol by the duo Simon Holmes and Paul Nash.

Their project began during the 2020 lockdown. For Simon, time was spent exploring the Pentland Hills south of Edinburgh. For Paul, the Mendip Hills, south of Bristol. Both would experience the darker side of our human impact on the environment. Simon observed the wilderness as a wasteland, finding discarded, rusting metal littering the Pentland Hills while Paul witnessed the decimation of the ancient woodland of the Mendips' King's Wood due to the destructive tree fungus ash dieback.

These field trips fuelled a desire to navigate not just the landscape, but the duo's emotional place within it. Their collaboration led to a concept album that explores the outer reaches of the solar system, while simultaneously grounding them in a specific place. Looking inwards as much as outwards, theycreated soundscapes based on deeply imagined and felt connections to their surroundings.

After Simon had created a choral piece to accompany Luke Jerram's enormous, world touring artwork Museum of the Moon, Saturnian was a natural progression. When Simon was sent an initial score for the ethereal track Enceladus, composed by Paul in Bristol, he added choral arrangements recorded in Edinburgh. Their shimmering, tense opus continued to evolve from there. Just as the discarded bed springs and abandoned car parts that Simon stumbled upon in the Pentland Hills seemed to him at once "horrible but also oddly beautiful", Saturnian melds together melancholy and levity, fusing moments of dark angst with a celestial calm.

Opening with the glistening, hopeful brightness of Dione, increasingly urgent rhythms give way to digital, otherworldly calls from what might be rainforest creatures chirping into life with robotic squawks and delicate keyboard lines on Phoebe, followed by slowed down, monastic song on Rhea. Tethys is a hypnotic blur of synthesiser and soft chanting, while Rhea is a mysterious, echoing chasm, lifted by melodic, gentle male vocals. Janus has a glowing, effervescent energy, swiftly followed by a sense of tension on Titan, which throbs with driving percussive unease.

The album artwork is a pencil drawing created by Edinburgh artist Simon Kirby. It was made by a robot drawing machine, using custom algorithms that bring to life recordings of the sound of magnetic waves near Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus. The lines in the centre of the drawing are distorted by sound captured by the Cassini spacecraft which studied Saturn for over a decade.

Much like Saturn and its frozen, rocky moons, this debut album from Holmes + atten Ash is mysterious and beguiling, with a hint of foreboding in the depths of its powerful beauty and epic scale.

"Monks In A Club" from the Repeat Orchestras album "Infamous Lost Tracks" is a perfect example of elegant dancefloor understatement, smooth, minimalistic and groovy as hell; no wonder that Superpitcher got thrilled and created not a remix but his own track inspired by Repeat Orchestra, reworking the essence of "Monks In A Club". And Superpitcher did what only Superpitcher can: "Monks In The Sky" is an epic ride, expanding, stretching, ebbing and flowing, ten minutes of levitating groove hypnosis that goes in depth. Fascinating.

In an interview for The Wire magazine back in January 2012, Spencer Clark claimed that one the most important "lesson" learned while performing with The Skaters was "stay true to your imagination". Taking this life motto at heart, Clark's world today is still a place of wonder and myth, conveyed through a myriad of aliases and invocations like Vodka Soap, Fourth World Magazine or Typhonian Highlife. Always the wide-eyed mystic and searcher of the netherworld, Clark surfaces again on Discrepant sister label Pacific City Discs, straight from the Canary Islands with this not quite but somewhat reissue under his celebrated and celebratory Monopoly Child Star Searchers alias.

Combining visions from two long, long sold out and hardly traceable releases on Clark's own Pacific City label, pressed for the first time ever in wax with a new master by D&M - as it should - 'The Aqueducts Of Channel Island/Prince Of Parrot Shooters' stands as a vital piece in an ever changing and deeply personal mandala-like oeuvre. An hypnotic and appropriately lo-fi flux of bouncy hand percussion loops, nature calls and celestial synth harmonies that weave themselves into trance inducing rituals. Levitating fever-dream recordings from imaginary topographies, or perhaps a gateway to fortean alternate realities just lurking around the corner. Stay true to your imagination indeed.

“Cryptic, twilight emissions from Villalobos and Loderbauer; their synthetic compound of electronics and ouroboros jazz has walked from ECM and Perlon over to Mana.
Developing a sound that tends to drift along as otherworldly atmospheres and strange fusion, Vilod evade easy categorisation, even compared to Villalobos’ already experimental and genre-twisting solo minimal offerings. He and Loderbauer pull away the backbone inherent to the structure of that dance music, and The Clouds Know refines a deft and subtle musical noir built on ambient cues, sparks and claps of electricity, brushed drums, black voids and subterranean bass swoops. There's a twinkle in the eye and moments of deadpan levity, but the overall mood here is sober and introspective. Emotions run deep.

Through studio mastery and an enigmatic language the album forms a fascinating sonic and sensory work with few compromises. With erratic rhythms notably submerged—techno remains as an irregular pulse in the belly of the beast—fields of crisp, uncanny detail expand greatly. Humid environments appear, dense with the chatter of synthesised insects and the gentle rain of drums and whispering cymbals, enchanting the listener in focus or sublimating into layers of ambience depending on your disposition - and the quality of your stereo field.”

Infinity is the new release by Melbourne-based Leo James, and the second Patience production. Leo scratches a longstanding itch and delivers two sidelong excursions that inhabit a similar sonic space but spin off in opposite directions on the continuum.

Desert Nightflower hums with vitality in a seemingly lifeless landscape. Impressionistically tracing the lifecycle of a flower’s bloom in the desert night – from the searing afternoon sun through dusk’s chill, the midnight blossoming and symbiotic relationship with travelling bats, through the blue hour comedown to first light – Leo employs vibrant, buzzing electronics, plaintive strings and levitating clarinet to illustrate beauty’s brief conquest of nature’s harshest environment, with vividly evocative and deftly moving results.

After Desert Nighflower floats completely off the grid, an ever-present kickdrum drives Infinity’s near 20-minute trip into timelessness. Sharing Side A’s subliminal synthesised hum and free-form clarinet, Infinity moves fast and firm down a dub techno dirt road towards the end of time. As elements drop in and out of the mix, Infinity builds momentum to a pulsing, cathartic peak of poignant piano, ethereal keys and lucid clarinet expressions.

As an avid nature enthusiast, spatial awareness looms large in Leo’s work. His solo releases on Berceuse Heroique, Neubau and his own label Body Language have been inspired incarnations of techno, EBM, industrial and wave.

Patience is a new outlet for exploring further beyond the break than usual. Inspired by the music perpetually on rotation at HQ – with E2-E4 representing the format’s high tide mark – each release will be one artist’s deep dive down one inspirational wormhole spread across two sides of vinyl, or two side-long sojourns making full use of a round 12” piece of plastic. Set and forget, zone out to tune in.

Following the massive buzz a round the label's last release (voted THE record of 2017 by some 400+ international DJs and tastemakers on Bill Brewster's DJ History Podcast/poll (2017 Furtive 50) , Hobbes Music kicks off 2018 with a heavy slice of warehouse techno backed with deeper electro flavours, a second double-A-side 12" outing by the anonymous DALI.

You may remember DALI (NB all caps in the spelling) released a debut 12" around this time last year. Support came from Ben UFO, Laurent Garnier, Domenic Cappello (Sub Club), John Heckle, Chris Duckenfield, The Revenge, Tom Findlay (Groove Armada), Sean Johnston and XDB (among others) and a repress happened swiftly, with Laurent Garnier and Avalon Emersonalso supporting most recently (on WWFM and at Berghain, respectively).

DALI has a passion for analogue synths, abstract, hypnotic dance music and all things psychedelic. Don't bother looking her up on the net, social media etc. DALI is eschewing all that, to let the music do the talking for now.

EFUNK Volume V is the fifth installation of the annual VA compilation featuring music from a curated collection of artists set to perform at Soul Clap’s House Of EFUNK touring party series. This release date on wax and digital is right in time for the official Movement Festival afterparty @ TV Lounge in Detroit that spans 2 days with 3 areas of sound. This year’s compilation features music from Soul Clap alongside long time friend and Baltimore favorite Baronhawk Poitier who present “Set The Scene”, a futuristic earthshaking groove with Baronhawk’s spoken vocals backed by Charles Levine’s vocoder and a Moog topline played by Baronhawk that won’t quit. Hercules & Love Affair makes a debut on the label with “Stay Ready” a chugging tracky / acid infused banger which should absolutely induce a dancefloor sweat. Kai Alce shares a discofied sample-licious crowd pleaser called “Boogie” with the help of additional keys by Byron Blaylock better known as Byron The Aquarius. Detroit’s new school starchild JMT joins with the hard hitting peaktime soul powered “Black Magic Touch” and last but certainly not least, Lauren Flax adds an edge of danger while calling for “Revolution” featuring vocals from Liz Wight. These tracks are sounding warm and round thanks to the mastering expertise of Caserta and have been dancefloor approved by Soul Clap!

The fifth release on Objekt’s Kapsela imprint is (re)weave, an EP of crystalline club tracks from Detroit-born, London-based producer Tristan Arp.

(re)weave was written during a prolonged period of flux for the artist. “When I started making this record, my life and the world felt like a maze,” he recounts. As he routed and re-routed through past and future homes – Mexico to New York to Detroit to Mexico and finally to London – his output bore the marks of this repeated uprooting. “I was thinking about making music that reflected these twists and turns, and the knotty pathways through them. I was also re-reading Borges around this time, which must have influenced my interest in labyrinths.”

Accordingly, the EP is a mycelial puzzle, a tangle of spidery, undulating ostinatos and earthy percussion, stitched through with syncopated kicks. Employing the sounds of multitudinous critters and kin – whales, insects, thunder, water, forests – the arrangements sum to a sentient mesh of organic matter, the compositions living and breathing like earthly beings. Kaleidoscopic tendrils explore in every direction but are always underpinned by a driving, percussive backbone. It’s not easily classifiable: it’s bass-driven, but to simply call it “bass music” would sell it short.

In keeping with the winding geographical paths traced over the EP’s creation, (re)weave saw Tristan Arp revisiting and reinterpreting unfinished sessions and incorporating them into newer ideas. Rhythms and sounds have been transplanted and self-recycled from previous projects and woven into the fabric of the record. In this way, (re)weave also describes a looping back over time, a recalibration of the self from past to present through interlocking rhythms, channeling and communing with versions of oneself from times gone by.

The closing track, Wish Server, slows the EP to walking pace and hints at tentatively emerging from the deepest jungle into a delicate, innocent light. Tristan Arp imagines it as a dialog with a baby-self. “Some of my earliest memories are of sitting at my mother’s loom,” he offers. “The sequence of these tracks traces these feelings and follows the thread back to the primordial soup… through mazes… to a feeling of levitation.”

Formed in 2011, Beyond The Styx has established itself as a formidible presence within the European heavy music scene blending elements of hardcore and metal into a direct and aggressive sound The band has performed more than 300 shows across Europe including playing Hellfest as well as supporting Sepulture, Terror, Malevolence, and the Acacia Strain. Their consistent touring history and strong live reputation have positioned Beyond The Styx as a reliable and proven act within the extreme metal market. 2026 sees the release of their new album "DIVID" which follows their previous releases "Sentence" in 2022, StIIgma in 2018, and "Leviathanima" in 2015.

Einar Solberg (Leprous) kehrt mit "Vox Occulta" zurück, seinem zweiten Projekt unter eigenem Namen und einem kühnen, schweren und symphonischen Statement, das in Zusammenarbeit mit dem begehrten Norwegian Radio Orchestra aufgenommen wurde. Solberg will sich als einer der epischsten Charaktere der experimentellen Musik etablieren: "Ich möchte als der cineastische Mensch im Prog gesehen werden", erklärt er. "Ich möchte das vollständig für mich beanspruchen. Dies ist ein sehr cineastisches Album, und genau das war mein Ziel."
"Stella Mortua", der Eröffnungstrack von "Vox Occulta", spiegelt diese klare Vision wider. Solberg singt zu klassischen Streichern, bevor sich eindringliche E-Gitarren-Akkorde hinzugesellen und der Sänger sich durch einen majestätischen Refrain kämpft. Von da an hat jeder Song seinen eigenen Charakter - "Medulla" betont sein gewaltiges, metallisches Riff und "Grex" ist eine fast 12-minütige Odyssee.
"Vox Occulta" wurde von Solberg und David Castillo co-produziert, der für seine Arbeit mit Opeth, Katatonia, Amorphis und anderen bekannt ist. Auf dem Album sind Schlagzeuger Keli Guðj\u00F3nsson (Agent Fresco), Violinist Chris Baum (Bent Knee), Gitarrist Pierre Danel (Novelists) und Bassist Jed Lingat sowie John Browne (Monuments) und Ben Levin (ex-Bent Knee) zu hören. Adam Noble, ehemaliges Mitglied von Biffy Clyro, war für den Mix verantwortlich.
"Vox Occulta" wird als limitierte CD-Digipak- und Gatefold-Weiß/Schwarz-2LP-Version sowie digital erhältlich sein..

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present DEMON SPELL’s highly anticipated debut album, Blessed Be the Dark, on CD and vinyl LP formats. After the cursed EP Evil Nights in 2024, the coven of DEMON SPELL returns, unleashing a vision of dark, occult heavy metal born from dust, bone, and shadow. Appropriately titled Blessed Be the Dark, the Italians’ debut album is a descent into ritual fire and ancient doom, where the echoes of the grave sing once more. This is music for disciples of the timeless art of darkness.

With Blessed Be the Dark, DEMON SPELL deepen their devotion to a shadowed form of heavy metal rooted in the classic tradition yet veiled in occult and arcane tones, all performance with a provocative theatrical presence. Wholly untouched by modernity, their sound draws from the primordial essence of early heavy metal; one can imagine the cutoff year at 1985, or perhaps earlier. The record presents a more mature and refined vision of the band’s sound as first displayed on the quick-hitting Evil Nights, here exploring darker, more occult atmospheres while also offering raw, energetic passages that bring moments of levity and drive. Listening to DEMON SPELL in full-length form feels like entering an endless Sabbath, where past and present dissolve and the flame never dies. Blessed Be the Dark stands as a testament to heavy metal as ceremony—timeless, solemn, and possessed by the Spirit of the Night.

One which lyrically questions some of the radical changes affecting society. A society of increasing division and tension. Social media, influencers, online dating, the distraction of mobile phones, young adults financially trapped in the family home, AI, and bullying: are all scrutinised. Musically, the style has moved on since the last album, 'Things Are Getting Stranger On The Shore'. New members, Luxagen (keys, vocals) and Steve Thompson (bass) have added their considerable musical talents to an already strong line up of Mordecai (vocals, guitar) Tabitha (Sax, clarinet) and Michael Creech (drums, percussion). The new direction tips a nod to the "Art Rock" and "New Wave" music of the 1970's, with plenty of modern innovation in store to keep things sounding fresh and exciting. Previously, Mordecai Smyth has worked with Terry Bickers (House of Love/Levitation) and recently played live shows supporting Bickers' new band. He has had three albums released by Mega Dodo and has written soundtracks to historical films for the British Film Institute. 'Gather The Scattered Mind' is limited to 100 copies, comes in a gatefold sleeve with lyric insert.

Following our well received "Prince Philip Presents..." 2LP compilation, here's a lovely overview of the second phase of Philip's career, as engineer & producer at his own studio, HC&F. These ten tracks comprise our favorites from his production catalog, spanning the mid '80s when the studio really got going, right up until 1996 and his last set of proper productions. The album holds a mix of well known classics like the Garnett Silk, lesser known album only cuts like the Frankie Paul, NY dancehall 12" staples like the Scion Success or Shelene, as well as some lesser known gems. We'd be remiss in not mentioning that this album also contains two previously unreleased cuts - a wicked mid '80s Tony Tuff, and the wild vocoder laden 1985 theme song for Philip's "Get Smart" radio show, which ran for many many years on New York University's WNYU radio station.

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

Matryoshka has already built a reputation as a producer for DJ Loser's Magdalena's Apathy imprint as well as work for the Nostalgians, an under-the-radar ambient rap collective featuring Yungwebster, Mdb, tnotsobad, Nopaprr and ogpra1. Her musical roots – dubstep, trance and hard dance – tell some of the story here, but she transmogrifies those influences into haunted, Basinski-esque memories like the gaseous traces and decelerated remnants of the club.

On album opener »Lifelover«, Burial's hazed interludes spring to mind, or perhaps the 4am cityscapes of Space Afrika's now mythical »Somewhere Decent to Live«. Background ambiance simmers below Lawson's pensive FM pads, but once she establishes the mood, things take an unexpected turn with a pitch-bent bassline that might have been lifted straight from a 6LACK loosie, and a rhythmic pulse that traces the thin red line of Shinichi Atobe. If it's dub techno, it's a strand that hasn't been codified quite yet.

»Surface Tension« uses deep, Maybach Music-coded bass womps to twist through her skittering slow rhythms and sadcore pads. But it’s Matryoshka’s harmonic instinct that stands out; if you heard the airy »otr« or »fantasize« from Yungwebster's '»II' you'll know exactly what we mean«, and she takes it even further here, weaving cinematic, languid harmonies that bridge the gap between Steve Roach and Future.

Check »Where the Dancers are Spinning« with its levitational, almost orchestral sweeps that Lawson counterbalances with thudding subs, or the brief title track, an Akira Yamaoka-style save room loop that dissipates into a dreamy, dissociated fog, for further proof. Then there's the second side's centrepiece »Parted by the Sea«, where a ratcheting Chain Reaction-style rhythm builds to a tense crescendo only to get splintered unrecognisably in the second half, its broken pieces pillowed by Lawson's billowing time-stretched chords.

Mia Zapata was the greatest rock singer of her time. She may have likely been the greatest blues singer in punk rock history, the woman who married the 78 and the '78. Tragedy did not make this true. Mia Zapata made this true, and the ferocious, spring-loaded shrapnel frame that was built around her by Andy Kessler (guitar: metronomic and furious), Matt Dresdner (bass: fluid, punching, beat-addicted and melodic), and Steve Moriarty (drums: martial and explosive) - who, with Mia, combined to form The Gits - made it true. The Gits were formed at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in mid-1986, grabbing and swapping pieces of art, thrash, noise, punk rock, classic rock, and all the sorts of magical silly and bookish jingle bells that an old-school liberal arts education handed you; for the next few years they worked on turning it all into something tough, sensitive, both brutal and kind. Andy, Matt, Mia, and Steve moved to Seattle in middish 1989, landing in a house on Capitol Hill where they (and fellow travelers) wood-shedded and rehearsed for the next few years. The Gits put out three EPs in 1990 and '91 before signing with C/Z Records and releasing their first full-length album, Frenching the Bully. Seattle quickly claimed the quartet as their own and embraced the Gits blend of ferocious fangs and soft heart, the slug/slap of the guitars, and the gorgeous, soft underbelly of the poetic emotions. These qualities not only fit in with the doe-eyed/sharp-clawed grunge ethos but earned the Gits the respect of their peers, including Nirvana, who tapped them to open a major local show in 1990. Then other stuff happened, and their frantic, confessional barbed-heart snowball began rolling up hill very, very fast; the Gits "quickly" (hah! After half a decade learning to implode and explode hearts and stomping their boots on manifold beer-softened, Marlboro-weeded wood stages!) inspired rapture, awe, and the levitation that happened when peak emotion meets peak grindage in front of amps spitting out something that sounded like the mad marriage of Bolan swagger and Dischord tension_ all fronted by a genuinely incomparable woman who held her heart in her mouth and shared it, in all its celebration and fear, without hesitation. The Gits were an angry, inflamed slinky fully in tune with and tuned by the Bessie Patti Smith of her time, truly the only singer who could summon Joplin, Poly Styrene, Sam Cooke, Iggy Pop and Ian MacKaye all in the same goddamn song. In 1993, less than four weeks after accepting an offer from Atlantic Records, Mia died. I leave it at that, because this is not about death; it's about an extraordinary life. I do not say, "You should have been there," I say, "We are lucky so many of us were, and I am so glad we have this extraordinary evidence of the power and gifts of Mia and the Gits that you now can hold in your hands." And I note that Frenching the Bully, this extraordinary testament to the soul, shock, fury and feeling of the Gits, has been long out of print on vinyl and CD, and this new edition - remastered by legendary Seattle engineer Jack Endino - joyfully rectifies that. -Tim Sommer

Don’t believe your ears - Pepper’s Ghost is the latest offering from NYC project Nuke Watch.

Whatever you think it is - it is not. By the same token it really can be whatever you want - electronica, jazz, improv, noise, new age, ambient - it’s none and all of these. Like the primitive visual illusion it’s named for - Pepper’s Ghost is a projection of a thing, it’s not the thing.

The Nuke Watch method - like that of Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos’ other primary project Beat Detectives - leans almost entirely on live improvisation, with some advanced studio alchemy in post. Where the Beat Detectives palette draws from club music tropes, Nuke Watch blends recognizable tones (hand drums, woodwinds, keys, fretless bass) with sounds of providence unknown, the line between organic and synthesized instrumentation unintelligibly smudged. What is real and what is projection? It’s hard to say. What do our ears tell us? This is where we arrive at Pepper’s Ghost.

Warped as the sounds may be, the playing belies a crew of deeply expressive, learned improvisers who have their craft honed. Their friendship and psychic connection enhances the ritualistic rhythms, mutant modular synthesis, nimble keyboard runs, absurdist sampling and unidentified skronk. They’re wonderfully complemented across several tracks on this set by Cole Pulice’s levitational, sublime saxophone.

As unhinged as this might all appear, once the mind and music meet on the same wavelength this is profoundly moving, energizing and uplifting Alive Music that recalibrates the sense of what music can be.

Nuke Watch is Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos, with an array of friendly guests. They’ve released records as Nuke Watch on The Trilogy Tapes, Commend and Moon Glyph. As Beat Detectives they’ve released records on Not Not Fun, 100% Silk and their own studio imprint NYPD Records.

Pepper's Ghost was written and produced by Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos. Additional instrumentation on these recordings by Cole Police, Leonard King, Eric Timothy Carlson, Chris Farstad and William Statler. It was mixed by Chris Hontos and mastered by Jack Callahan. Painting on the cover is “The Unity Of Being” (2020), by Ry Fyan. Design and layout by Aaron Anderson.

RIYL - Musical illusions, puzzles and magic tricks, downtempo, music of the spheres, good journey, Eddie Harris, Ketron, "world building", orange sunshine, suspension of disbelief.

Lucid Express sind fünf junge Träumer aus Hongkong, die mitreißenden, bittersüßen Rock machen, der zum Träumen einlädt. Ihr zweites Album "Instant Comfort", das Nachfolger ihres selbstbetitelten Debütalbums aus dem Jahr 2021 ist, enthält ihre bisher komplexesten Arrangements. Lucid Express holten den Shoegaze-Autor Kurt Feldman (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Depreciation Guild) für das Mixing und Mastering an Bord - das Ergebnis ist ein noch klarerer und mitreißenderer Sound der Band. Über Discord zusammengekommen, entstand ,Instant Comfort" in marathongleichen nächtlichen transpazifischen Sessions zwischen der Band in Hongkong und Feldman in New York City - ein gemeinsames Streben nach Perfektion, das sich von Mitternacht bis zum Sonnenaufgang abspielte. Durchdrungen von gleichermaßen schleichender Melancholie und hoffnungsvoller Romantik, werden in diesen neuen Songs verwirrende Gefühle zugelassen. Luftige Melodien werden von einer schweren Gitarrenwand untermalt: siehe ,Promise Me" und ,Something Blue". Lucid Express waren schon mit Punchlove und Blushing in den USA auf Tour und hat auf renommierten Festivals in Asien und Amerika gespielt, darunter Clockenflap, LEVITATION und Slide Away.

Finlay Shakespeare is an electronic musician working from the UK and across Europe. A childhood obsession with his parents’ record collection led him to both create his own music and build his own synthesizer equipment throughout his teenage years. After studying audio engineering, he was invited to become in-house engineer for the Moog Sound Lab UK, leading to collaborations with acts as diverse as Suicide, Charlemagne Palestine, The Grid and Mica Levi & Eliza McCarthy, both in live and studio environments. In 2017, Finlay began recording a series of monthly “Housediet'' releases - all improvised and captured at home utilising drum machines, modular synthesis and processed vocals. After several encounters with Peter Rehberg of Editions Mego, a compilation of the Housediet tracks was drawn up by Rehberg and Shakespeare, culminating in the release of “Domestic Economy” in early 2019. “Solemnities' ', a second album for Editions Mego appeared the following year. In the period since Rehberg’s untimely passing, Finlay has recorded for Superpang, Modulisme and his own GOTO Records imprint. “Illusion + Memory”, meanwhile, continues on from where “Solemnities” left off, with Finlay once again aiming to work at the fringes of electronic pop. Alter is proud to present “Illusion + Memory”, the third full length physical LP of Shakespeare’s utterly unique and sophisticated output. Shakespeare’s obsession and knowledge of late 70’s and early 80’s electronic pop music is once again at the forefront of this intense and dynamic release. Alas, this is not some retro throwback. Shakespeare’s deep understanding of his machines breathes new life into a genre of music once defunct. Supporting the likes of Blancmange bolstered his reputation for sublime synth hooks and dark lyrical content. Building on his previous work in the field “Illusion + Memory” is an unabashed pop record, as joyous as it is intense, moving from the brooding opening ballad “Your Side of the River” through the punchy “Theresa” which could be read as a love song to Throbbing Gristle’s United. Elsewhere “Climb” unleashes the opportunity to the dancefloor as wild electronics snake into all manner of schizophrenic shapes. There is a romantic side to this music. In its homage to electronic pop of the late 70’s and early 80’s but also in the emotional punch Shakespeare injects into every second of every track. Shakespeare’s reboot of these musical forms is technically impressive, one rich in feeling and deep in emotion, atmospherically and vocally. The two come together to create a unique visceral sonic experience… today!

A moonstone glow infuses Boy Golden’s Best of Our Possible Lives, an album that finds its flow state. A pensive, questioning collection, Best of Our Possible Lives is informed by the artist’s intuitive, observational worldview, beaming honesty and levity in its quest for emotional balance. Buoyant, smooth and disarming, the music of singer-songwriter/producer Boy Golden is charmingly undefinable, drawing lines from the Tulsa sound to North Carolina indie, New Jersey DIY to swampy New Orleans folk. From opening riff to swirling final notes, Best of Our Possible Lives ripples like sun on the lake, an invitation to seek each our own bliss. Produced by Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas, Weather Station), Best of Our Possible Lives brought Boy Golden to Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles with Pino Palladino (D’Angelo), Gabe Noel (Father John Misty), Joseph Shabason (Destroyer) and Abe Rounds (Meshell Ndegeocello) alongside Church of Better Daze founding members FONTINE and Austin Parachoniak. RIYL - Mk.gee, Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, Plant & Krauss’ Raising Sand, Paul Simon

No Fuss is back with a 14th outing that levies up to its name of dealing in only quality, fad-free sounds. Saison kicks off here with 'The Truth' which is a deep, lithe and soulful sound laced with soft acid, before DJ Romain's 'I'm Gonna Love You' taps into 90s New York house depths with neat organ stabs. On the reverse, Manuel Sahagun gets loopy with his bumping and raw 'Rouff' and its deft melodic curlicues while classy house operator Toni Lionni's remix of Deepmore's 'Babe' is a prime slice of serene and gently back-lit deep house hypnosis.

Killer set of six from Picture aka Central aka Natal Zaks.

Speedy, flighty stuff. Filter dials turning, little licks, sometimes small vocal hits. Zephyr and pressure. Some midwestern techno vivre carrying the whole thing along. If you've caught any of the Picture records from the last few years you might know the momentum at play already, a mix of breezy euphoria and deeper, dubbier minimalist force.

Combining a live and impactful improvised energy with Nat's signature twinkling production that has always been in a class of its own. Club tools as well as multifarious instruments of levitation. You could have the 38 most productive minutes of your life with it spinning as your soundtrack next to you.

Mastered & cut by Mike Grinser at Manmade.

Art by Mammo.Works.

Der armenische Klaviervirtuose Tigran Hamasyan kehrt mit Manifeste zurück – eine kraftvolle Fusion aus Jazz, Progressive Rock und armenischer Folklore. Das Album wurde in fünf Ländern aufgenommen und verbindet rhythmische Komplexität, kinematografische Tiefe und spirituelle Intensität.
Tigran Hamasyan gilt als einer der einzigartigsten Pianisten und Komponisten seiner Generation, der Jazz und Rock miteinander verbindet. Als Klaviervirtuose mit einem einzigartigen Gespür für Groove verbindet Hamasyan mühelos Jazzimprovisation, Progressive Rock und die reiche Folkloretradition seiner armenischen Heimat.

Preisgekrönt und von Kritikern gefeiert hat sich Tigran Hamasya eine treue Fangemeinde auf der ganzen Welt aufgebaut und die Anerkennung von Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau und Chick Corea gewonnen.

Here, Flavien departs from his usual creative process to embrace collaboration—because plouf! (Léviathan) is also the story of a dive, his first collective adventure with musicians he had always dreamed of working with: Michelle Blades (guitar), Kiala Ogawa (keys), Akemi Fujimori (bass), Cédric Laban (drums), and Thibaud Merle (winds).



Reworking these songs is a way of revisiting forgotten musical landscapes, shedding new light on them with a different perspective. It’s about transforming a solitary electronic record into a collective piece by exploring new textures and instrumental approaches.



With this album, Flavien Berger uses his early tracks as raw material—as if the 2015 Léviathan were now a kind of demo from which to extract the essence and create something entirely new. The project, like the music that drives it, is rooted in the idea of reinvention.



The result is a fresh sonic exploration where Léviathan’s tracks take on new forms—some staying true to their original versions, others completely reimagined, blending past and present.

Waking Up the new album from Annabelle Chairlegs - produced by Ty Segall

With roots in the industrial heartland of New Jersey. Annabelle Chairleg's music fuses gritty, dark, mechanical textures with a playful and whimsical spirit. The band has shared bills with The Zombies, Lucy Dacus and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, while lighting up festivals including Austin City Limits, SXSW, Levitation, and Austin Psych Fest.
On her newest release, Waking Up, lead singer Lindsey Mackin is joined by Nick Cornetti on drums and Derek Strahan on bass. Produced and recorded by Ty Segall in his home studio in Topanga, CA- this marks Chairlegs’ third full-length album— a bold new chapter for the Austin mainstay.
To Note: This vinyl has two vinyl exclusive tracks 'I Feel So Mad' and 'Beef Witted' which will not be available in streaming services upon release

GAVIAL sind zurück. Deutlicher. Verletzlicher. Größer als je zuvor. Fast drei Jahre sind vergangen, seit Gavial mit "VOR" ein kraftvolles Statement abgegeben haben. Drei Jahre voller politischer Brüche, gesellschaftlicher Abgründe und persönlicher Erschütterungen. Drei Jahre, die Spuren hinterlassen haben - hörbar, fühlbar, unausweichlich. Jetzt kehrt das Quartett aus Dresden/Leipzig/Berlin mit einem neuen Album zurück. Hier prallen Soul und Gospel auf Country, Psychedelic-Blues auf pure, unverstellte Emotion. Gavial erschaffen Klangwelten, in denen Gitarren, Bass und Stimme zu etwas Größerem verschmelzen. Melancholie, die nachhallt. Hypnose durch Klang. Energie, die nicht mehr loslässt. Mit Vehemenz präsentieren sich Gavial so roh und kompromisslos wie noch nie. Ihre Songs sind Spiegel - von allem, was brennt: Eine Welt, die sich selbst zerfrisst. Gesellschaften, die verlernt haben zuzuhören. Technologien, die uns überholen. Militarismus, der zurückkehrt. Menschenrechte, die zu Worthülsen verkommen. Institutionen, die versagen. Und Egoismus, der gedeiht. "Thanks, I Hate It" ist keine Kapitulation. Es ist ein Soundtrack zu einer Zeit, die uns täglich prüft. Gavial sind hier, um uns zu erinnern: Wir sind noch da. Wir fühlen noch. Wir hören noch zu. Und manchmal lautet die einzig ehrliche Antwort auf diese Welt: Thanks, I Hate It.

Straight from the pantheon of techno greats, John Beltran’s Placid Angles project enters Kalarahi orbit.

Revived after a 22 year hiatus, PA has since become our main source for new Beltran material. Buy-on-sight stuff for those seeking ambient techno of a rarified calibre. There’s an inevitable pinch-me moment whenever a producer of undeniable influence jumps on the label, and safe to say, this is one of those moments.

Expect sun-kissed Balearica and sublime, acid-fuelled romance. Sometimes we levitate, bathing in the glow of JB’s beatific harmony and sanguine tenderness. The slow-burn simmer of 303, the lithe gliding of his breaks; all of it demonstrating effortlessness of execution.

Choral vocals ascend, vistas pristine and closer listens reveal even greater levels of detail. You might say it’s the gift that keeps on giving.