quête:lon

Long requested and previously confined to the digital realm, Spaceship Galliot and Sabre-tooth Animal now materialise on wax - pressed as a very limited 10" edition

REPRESS ALERT! Long out of press and with copies regularly changing hands for close to £100 on the second-hand market, Air Miles are proud to present a limited repress of their inaugural release, “An Ode To Midnight EP’ by Jeigo.

The tone is set from the off with the eponymously named first track of the release ‘an Ode to midnight’. The tracks mellow break beat feel is met by warm rushing pads, ebbing and flowing between textures of the night before last.

Floor focussed, zero fussing ‘Wing Systems’ carries the front side at an orbital trajectory. No time for an intro, the drums jolt you into alertness, the wobbly bass perfectly counterpointed by gated, washing keys.

‘Lime Hawk’, melancholic euphoria brings the release back to the conscious. It’s structure toy-fully crescendos and builds, all while the Balearic synth peaks with the sub line keeping you grounded throughout.

Rounding off the record is ‘By My Side’ meandering the record into slightly darker territories. The shifting keys wash over, the siren call vocals penetrate and the thudding kick punches through, anchoring the track as an emotionally driven, cerebral affair.

Lately, it feels like the world is one endless bad news cycle. Joshua Idehen isn’t here to pretend otherwise – but on the spoken word artist’s new album, I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try, he provides a phenomenal sonic, poetic space. Made with his creative partner, musician Ludvig Parment, the album (out 6 March 2026) is an urgent but transcendent collection that holds you through it all, filled with grief, euphoria and hope.

I Know You’re Hurting… comes after the virality of Idehen’s track Mum Does The Washing, a wry and whipsmart poem examining how the world works (which started life as a Twitter thread), set to Parment’s spacious beats. The song has seen the pair propelled beyond Idehen’s wildest dreams this past year.

Across the album, that means uplifting choirs, cozy samples and exuberant, sometimes house-tinged beats. “I am personally drawn to music that transports you to a place, or scene or mindset,” says Parment. This is topped with ruminative musings on morality and human connection; about the longer loves in life – like friendships, family – that sustain us. These come from Idehen and Parment, along with a host of friends and collaborators, including writers Leone Ross and Charlotte Manning, and vocalist Amanda Bergman, to help expand on the topics of the record without sounding preachy. Similarly, there are musical guests including saxophonist Pete Fraser and Shabaka Hutchings on flute, each helping to imbue the album with a rich warmth.

Santamaria Brothers are the latest incarnation of a lifelong musical journey rooted in rhythm, rebellion, and reinvention. The children of Peruvian and Ecuadorian immigrants to Australia, brothers Pat and Andrew Santamaria grew up steeped in the sounds and culture of Latin America - a deep inheritance that coloured everything they did, even as they moved through scenes and styles far from home.

In their youth, the brothers sharpened their first musical swords playing in globally touring indie bands. As the rhythm section of cult outfit Lost Valentinos, they had the opportunity to see the world and learn from the best; touring with, working alongside, and releasing music through the likes of Soulwax, Ewan Pearson, and Kitsuné. Taking those experiences home, they dove deep into the rave underground, co-founding of the crucial Sydney-centric techno label, warehouse party collective, and long-running radio show Motorik! In that guise,they helped shape the city’s electronic music scene over the past decade from the booth, the studio, the airwaves, and the street.

Now, after years behind the decks and on both sides of the mixing board, Santamaria Brothers return to their roots - releasing music under the family name for the first time. With We Got Latin Soul, they bring it all together on a 4-track EP of club-ready edits (via Sosilly Records). Reworking four towering figures of Latin soul; Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers, and Joe Bataan — the brothers inject each cut with tasteful touches of Balearic haze and chugging acid house pressure, honouring the originals while making them sing on today’s dancefloors.

This is Latin soul filtered through a unique blend of antipodean rave culture, crate-digging, and relentless reinvention. It’s joyful, percussive, and made for the club - a full-circle moment from two lifers forever finding new ways to move bodies.

Der Soundtrack zur irischen Komödie ""The Spin"" (2024) in der Regie von Michael Head, der zahlreiche Auszeichnungen bei diversen unabhängigen Filmfestivals von Belfast über Chicago bis Toronto gewann und auch auf dem Filmfest Bremen lief. Die Originalmusik wurde von Mark McCausland (McKowski) komponiert und produziert und enthält Gastbeiträge von: Howe Gelb, Jolie Holland, John Parish, Nick Power, Dave Murphy, Pieta Brown, Dead Goat, Steve Wickham, Gemma Doherty, Laura McFadden, Brenock O’Connor und Drew McConnell. Die LP erscheint auf farbigem Ecomix-Vinyl, bei der jedes Format ein Unikat ist.

Fresh from a run of must-check EPs on Syncrophone Recordings, Black Jazz Consortium man Fred Peterkin inaugurates a new label, Base. The New York-based producer appears to be the man at the helm, since his next scheduled release also appears on the freshly minited imprint. He begins with 'There & Back (Long Player)', a languid, mid-tempo chunk of string-laden deep house classiness, before opting for a breezier, dreamier and sunnier sound on the impeccable 'Something For The Road'. Peterkin's ability to fuse looseness, heaviness and subtly soul-flecked instrumentation comes to the fore on EP highlight 'Rhythm & Movement', while 'BTA10711 (4am Mix)' tiptoes the fine line between dubby deep house and spacey, far-sighted futurism.

Snoop Dogg’s 22nd album is a tight, 35-minute project that blends his classic G-Funk style with a more futuristic sound.

Featuring production from Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and Erick Sermon, it moves between high-energy tracks like

“Step” and smoother moments like “QTSAMYAH” with October London. The album presents a polished, cinematic look at Snoop’s evolution,

reinforced by an accompanying short film, showing his style and influence remain strong in 2026.

Snoop Dogg’s 22nd album is a tight, 35-minute project that blends his classic G-Funk style with a more futuristic sound.

Featuring production from Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and Erick Sermon, it moves between high-energy tracks like

“Step” and smoother moments like “QTSAMYAH” with October London. The album presents a polished, cinematic look at Snoop’s evolution,

reinforced by an accompanying short film, showing his style and influence remain strong in 2026.

Música para Plátanos takes its name — and much of its inspiration — from the group’s recording studio, situated in the heart of a banana plantation on the humid north shore of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The ever-present sight of the green, sun-drenched fields surrounding their weekly sessions seeped directly into the music: improvised jams that are playful, layered, and deeply connected to place.
This release gathers a distilled selection from those sessions — a kind of “greatest rotten hits” distinct from their ongoing Imaginary Island Music volumes.
The album functions as a living archive bringing together a distilled selection of recordings spanning more than five years: from dusty, long-forgotten sessions to evolving tunes that have become staples of the band's live sets but have never before been committed to record. These long-form sessions served as a petri dish for the Lagoss sound, allowing their experiments to putrefy into their chaotic signature strain of cyber-exotica, unstable kosmische or heavily-corroded dub.
The title obvs nods to Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, but the logic is inverted. Instead of clean, ambient drift, the record inhabits a dense and fertile environment: polyrhythmic structures, Latin-infused electronics, and shifting counter-tempos that feel weighted by the local humidity.
Ultimately, Música para Plátanos is as much about the process as it is the place. Like the plantation outside, the music is subject to the elements; the tracks change shape depending on the heat of the day, what we drank, what we ate. It’s an unstable, honest harvest of sound—shaped by the weather and the state(s) of mind alike.

Tum Tum Tum is the eighth album from London-based Brazilian artist Marcelo Frota aka MOMO., featuring guest appearances from Brazilian bossa nova legend Marcos Valle and Smoke City's Nina Miranda as well as UK jazz trombonist Rosie Turton and his tight-knit band, all recorded in South London This is a free-flowing, warm, expansive and fully assured album, and exudes a playfulness and a sense of someone who is truly in their element and at peace when writing and recording.

Welcome to the ROCKSTEADY SOUND from Jamaica..

Towards the end of 1965 some say due to the extreme heatwave that was hitting the island, the people that followed the Sound System Dances demanded a slower beat so they could still move and groove to the all night musical affairs.

So sit back and enjoy the tunes that rocked the island between 1966-1968 the Rocksteady Sound that hit the town…..

Written and recorded throughout 2025 in their longtime ex-taxi-office-turned studio 'Cherry Lips', and produced by frontman Richard Archer alongside longtime collaborator Wolsey White.

The album looks outside the window to the fractured present, and paints it in bold musical strokes, with the same sharp- eyed social commentary that powered their classic debut Stars of CCTV, but with fresh perspective, new sounds and hard-earned freedom.

Written and recorded throughout 2025 in their longtime ex-taxi-office-turned studio 'Cherry Lips', and produced by frontman Richard Archer alongside longtime collaborator Wolsey White.

The album looks outside the window to the fractured present, and paints it in bold musical strokes, with the same sharp- eyed social commentary that powered their classic debut Stars of CCTV, but with fresh perspective, new sounds and hard-earned freedom.

Lifeforce is the 1985 sci-fi horror cult film directed by Tobe Hooper, responsible for the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Based on Colin Wilson's 1976 novel The Space Vampires, the film is about the remnants of a race of intergalactic vampires who are brought to London, where they soon begin to infect its population.

Legendary composer Henry Mancini has soundtracked this apocalyptic descent into chaos. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in film history exemplified by his impressive trophy wall: he won four Oscars, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is most famous for "Moon River" performed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and of course The Pink Panther.

James Horner was first asked to compose the score, but Mancini was brought in instead and crafted a piece of music both bombastic and ambient (and sometimes even atonal), employing the London Symphony Orchestra. Sit back and feel the fear...

The soundtrack of Lifeforce is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on purple marble vinyl, and includes a 4-page booklet containing an alternate cover, film stills, and a fold-out movie poster replica.

Snoop Dogg’s 22nd album is a tight, 35-minute project that blends his classic G-Funk style with a more futuristic sound.

Featuring production from Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and Erick Sermon, it moves between high-energy tracks like

“Step” and smoother moments like “QTSAMYAH” with October London. The album presents a polished, cinematic look at Snoop’s evolution,

reinforced by an accompanying short film, showing his style and influence remain strong in 2026.

Snoop Dogg’s 22nd album is a tight, 35-minute project that blends his classic G-Funk style with a more futuristic sound.

Featuring production from Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and Erick Sermon, it moves between high-energy tracks like

“Step” and smoother moments like “QTSAMYAH” with October London. The album presents a polished, cinematic look at Snoop’s evolution,

reinforced by an accompanying short film, showing his style and influence remain strong in 2026.

Originally released in 1981 on the New Jersey-based Debbie Label, Sweet Magic is the one and only album by Lee McDonald. Produced by Ron Foster -
best known as a member of Ecstasy, Passion & Pain—the album is widely regarded as a standout modern soul classic, covering everything from uplifting
Philly-style dancers to sweet and mellow slow jams.

The album also features superb arrangements that update well-known classics into vibrant Philly soul, including The Carpenters’ smash hit “We’ve Only Just
Begun” and Ecstasy, Passion & Pain’s “I’ll Do Anything For You.” This reissue is pressed on limited yellow-colored vinyl inspired by the album’s iconic
illustrated sleeve, long cherished by rare groove collectors.

Black vinyl with Starlight Sparkle effect. Barry "Epoch" Topping returns with the long-awaited soundtrack to BIRDCAGE. The widely celebrated game is the debut release of POLYGON BIRD Games. BIRDCAGE is a fast-paced, vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that blends the explosive action of 90s arcade classics, with modern gameplay and storytelling. What is the value of a bullet, when you wield a sword? While players have been praising BIRDCAGE for transferring retro aesthetics into modern times, the incomparable soundtrack is always pointed out for the same reasons. Entering Barry Topping, who gained recognition for the famous Paradise Killer game soundtrack and lately continued to spread those funky city pop vibes with his very own project The Needs. But for BIRDCAGE it was time to stray from his "trademark sound" and explore a different sonic space he had always been passionate for as well.





[e] 5RAPTOR [FLEDGLING]



[i] 9RAPTOR [MOTHER]

‘Perfect We Are Not’ the latest track from Soulwax, emerges directly from the band’s recent Abbey Road After Hours project - a unique collaboration with the iconic London studio that saw Soulwax take over the building for a series of recording sessions and a landmark live event.

Working across Abbey Road’s historic spaces - from Studio Three, to Studio Two, to Studio One - the band used all three rooms as a continuous creative environment, moving fluidly between them in pursuit of new material. It was within these sessions that ‘Perfect We Are Not’ was written and recorded with their full live band (including three drummers).

The track was cut using the studio’s vast array of analogue equipment before being pressed direct to vinyl and played as the opening moment of their 2manydjs set inside Studio One

Now released as a standalone single, ‘Perfect We Are Not’ carries that immediacy forward — a driving, full-bodied track that reflects the band’s instinctive, performance-led approach in the studio, and will also be released as a limited edition 12” via DEEWEE.

2026 Repress

Here's to a special one..

Ashtar Afterhours is Kenneth Graham - originally from Los Angeles, he has been a defining presence in electronic music ever since the 90s. Buying his first classic synthesizer, a Yamaha CS01, in 1984, he delved into music production at an early stage. Kenneth put out over 40 releases over the years- under his own name as well as stepping up under various aliases- Estelle Montenegro, KG Beat, Exit Strategy and many others. Kenneth also formed some super-groups together with friends, his Sun Children / Sunkiss project- together with David Alvarado- put out highly influential music on legendary Peacefrog Records.

Body Music was originally released on Plastic City in 2001 and it has been a Smallville favourite since a long time, so we are super happy to present this beauty as a repress, as always with a full cover artwork by Stefan Marx.

All tracks written & produced by Kenneth Graham, B3 w&p by Kenneth Graham & Gabriel Ortega
Vinyl cut by Helmut Erler at Lathesville

2026 Repress

We feel like Frank & Tony and Smallville have been on the same musical wave-length since forever. Our musical paths have crossed back and forth over the years and we have always shared a lot of the same values- steadily putting out quality music, that stands the test of time - growing consistently - never stop following our very own way - always not-following trends forever..
Frank & Tony is the collaborative guise of Scissor & Thread co-founders Francis Harris and Anthony Collins aka Grant. Both have long been staples of the underground with material under their own names and numerous other guises shaping the musical landscape of House Techno and beyond since the turn of the millennium. Both lived together in New York and as Frank & Tony the pair have delivered multiple albums and many EP’s on their own label, Tokyo’s Mule Musiq and Pacific Rhythm- now they are warmly welcomed onto the Smallville Records roster with their latest collection of works.
‘Ways Of Mine’ leads on the A-Side and showcases the pairs signature deep hypnotic house style via soft billowing pads cascading metallic chimes psychedelic spoken word and dreamy dubbed out keys floating atop a robust bouncy rhythm
section.To open the flip-side title-track ‘After All’ lays down a subtly blooming chord sequence shuffled drums and bumpy bass stabs at its core all subtly nuanced while the latter half introduces more dynamic rhythmic elements and intertwined melodic touches. ‘Dimension’ then concludes the release diving deeper with saturated ethereal pads and bubbling resonant arpeggio lines alongside heavily swung crisp drums jazzy keys and delayed vocal chants.
After All comes with a full cover artwork by Stefan Marx.

All tracks written & produced by Francis Harris & Anthony Collins
Mastering and Vinyl cut by Helmut Erler at Lathesville

Early DJ Support: Massimiliano Pagliara, Paranoid London, Logan Fisher, Terry Farley, James Holroyd, Rocky (X Press 2), Francois K, Marcel Vogel, Sean Johnston, Austin Ato, Ron Basejam, Richard Rogers, Oliver Dollar, Crazy P and many more

Creating an international name for itself over the past decade as a sample pack label, Samples From Mars made its inevitable venture into the music world originally as a home for founder Teddy Stuart’s work. Long before making samples, Stuart garnered credits working as a grammy-nominated recording engineer in the hip hop world, and DJing / producing with Justin Strauss as A/JUS/TED, for labels such as DFA, Domino Records and Southern Fried Records. Now the label is set to release a variety of genres - house, disco, techno, ambient, all with a vintage tinge and a focus on high quality, analog production.

Enter Salt Queen. Visual artist and musician Magali van Caloen together with Samples From Mars founder, Teddy Stuart. Based in New York, the duo combine hardware dance aesthetics with dry, salty takes on familiar club moments into music that sits somewhere between funny, raw and unpredictable.

Salt Queen’s debut ‘ARE U OK’ is an acid-laced, deadpan spoken word track with an opening line that snaps any room to attention. A disorienting club encounter unfolds over Italo-inflected 808s and a relentless 303 bassline. There are no chords and no melodies - just a skeletal groove and an intimate voice circling the dancefloor. Drifting between concern and provocation, the vocal runs through cliché club conversations before destabilizing completely into a siren-laden crash out. The ‘Freak Nasty Club Mix’ ditches the plot and lets the hardware breathe, with a thick SH-101 bassline anchoring the first half before a sudden switch into an unrelenting acid pattern that refuses to settle. Two versions of the same wild night out.

Daybreakers head to Chicago for this one, bringing back How Bad I Want Ya from Soul Element, aka Stacy Kidd, alongside Peven Everett. This record is a true representation of the city — Stacy’s deep approach to house music and Peven’s unmistakable voice up front. It carries that raw, direct energy that defines a lot of their best work.

How Bad I Want Ya has been around for a while now, one of those records that stayed in bags and never really disappeared. It’s a proper slice of deep house with a vocal that stays in your head.

The original keeps things direct and deep. No excess, just a track that does what it needs to do on the floor.

On the B side, Glenn Underground steps in with the Peak True Time Mix, stretching things out and adds some percussion and an infectious bassline. It’s a proper GU remix — longer and patient, while keeping that Chicago swing intact.

Two sides of the same city, done properly.

House that was always deep.

Buy or cry.

The Trip To Vega is about deep outer space odyssey that occurs in the process of traveling from Earth through the Cosmos to another "favorable" star system 25.3 light-years away.

The time is year 2097, Sept 23rd.

To this day, Earthlings have managed to dodge some of nature's more dangerous extremities, massive volcanic eruptions, Earthquakes, solar burst that knocked out the Planet's entire electrical grid for 3 years, numerous plagues of disease, food and fresh water shortages, domestic and International Wars and many other life-changing operas, but for this event, what remains is a realization that has no remedy. The cause: Earth's physicality has changed. It is no longer favorable for living things.

It is the constant shifting of the planet's internal tectonic plates which has unfortunately produced an unexpected and impassable dilemma.

Because of the collisions, deep within the planet's core, the planet is now producing an extraordinary amount of sound that includes a specific harmonic frequency that erodes the natural senses of all life on Earth.

It is intensifying. It is intolerable and it is unlivable.

Yet, some humans prefer to stay, to "ride it out" like the Titanic captain going down with his ship. Some, in total disbelief as some have concluded it is the second coming of Jesus Christ. But for most, the decision is clear. Tolive another day, leaving is the only rational choice.

At an increasing rate, scientific research data shows that humans and most animals, excluding the Jellyfish will eventually lose the usage of hearing and are to greatly suffer from an array of other neurological and psychological effects. The sense of touch and taste, sleep depreciation, severe nerve damage, constant hallucinations. Everyone will lose many of their cognitive abilities within an estimated 12 months from now.

On this day and every 7 days afterwards until all registered passengers have departed, the first of a fleet of large number of massive size spacecraft carrying approximately 1 million humans per vessel will permanently leave Earth to begin the long and adventurous trek across outer space to a new home: Vega.

This is not a precautionary tale as there is nothing to learn. Instead, a decision has been made and a Trip To Vega is the consequence.

- Jeff Mills

(*Previously unreleased)

Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)

Always lurking amidst the underground Porto music scene is Spitbender, the most stable moniker of the ever-morphing Francisco Antão. Spin gathers a collection of tracks that demonstrate his experimentalism & coy sonic precision. Spitbender takes cues from Jungle & Hip Hop producers to create his own unique blend of Downtempo. What becomes clear throughout the album is the attention to detail: it is infused as much by Industrial's red-line spectra as it is by the dubplate logic of the Darkside Continuum, yet it does so at its own tripped out speed.

Spin begins with the laid-back but constantly shifting 'Global Overgroove'. Its breakbeat science moves in & out of DSP glitch-work & dub reflections. When its slinky bassline melody arrives, a certain dread sets in.

'Weyward Fold' drops into a driving, hard-edged chug, threaded with snippets of Malcolm X's disobedient pedagogy. The momentum carries into 'Headnod Doctor', where the bass distortion thickens & the cymbal circuit is overloaded, landing somewhere between Hip‑Hop grit & metal weight.

Side A ends with the downtempo roller 'Dogs and Moles (Skylurk Mix)'. The familiar break drifts into new territory, pulled along & wrapped in a slap-back echo. A quirky melody cuts through the haze, giving the track a fresh tilt. The mulch of the track forms a steady, unhurried pulse.

Spitbender's spacious atmospherics & groove-focused approach comes further into focus on 'Nothing Here But the Recordings'. Creating his own chapter in the book of Trip Hop, his minimalist touch is laid out in full.

'Force the Hand Ov Chance' pulls Boom Bap gently into dub mechanics, letting space do the heavy lifting. Its simplicity hides a deep pocket.

Returning to broken-up distortion, 'Mirrors of Flesh (Dub Mix)' finds Spitbender using the mixer as an instrument to push & pull the heavy drums of Benjamin Brejon of Méchanosphere alongside the voice of Rui intoning the title phrase.

Sitting between the album's two poles, 'Out Take Dub' fuses the clipped‑obsession timbres of Spin's heavier moments with its blissed out flow. Feedback & distortion are welcomed & drawn long.

In the end, Spin hits like a fully formed statement—lean, focused, & unmistakably Spitbender. Every track pushes its own angle, but together they land with a clarity that feels earned. It's a sharp marker in his trajectory, & it leaves a charge in the air.

Gary Bartz und das neue Londoner Ensemble Your Brother’s Keeper präsentieren mit "Where Rivers Meet" ein tiefgründiges und intuitives Studioalbum, das die seltene Begegnung zweier Generationen von Jazzmusikern einfängt. Das Album, das pünktlich zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum von Brownswood erscheint, vereint Bartz' Tradition mit der jungen, pulsierenden Szene Londons. Das Ergebnis ist Musik, die sich mit Offenheit und Intensität entfaltet, getragen von tiefem Zuhören und gemeinsamer Improvisation.

Im Zentrum des Projekts steht Bartz, eine der einflussreichsten Vertreter des modernen Jazz. Der Saxophonist, dessen Karriere sich über mehr als fünf Jahrzehnte erstreckt, machte sich einen Namen durch Auftritte mit Charles Mingus, Max Roach und Art Blakey, bevor er sich Miles Davis in dessen elektrisierender Phase der frühen 1970er-Jahre anschloss. Mit seinen gefeierten Aufnahmen mit der NTU Troop wurde er schnell zu einer prägenden Figur des Spiritual Jazz und schuf ein Werk, das Generationen von Musikern und Zuhörern gleichermaßen begeistert. Sein Spiel – lyrisch, tiefgründig und unverkennbar gefühlvoll – zählt nach wie vor zu den markantesten Stimmen des Jazz.

Das Album markiert zudem die Gründung von Your Brother’s Keeper, einem neuen Kollektiv um Schlagzeuger und Produzent Jake Long (Maisha), dessen musikalischer Dialog und die Improvisation tief in der Musik verwurzelt sind. Mit Ali MacSween (Piano, Synthesizer, modulare Effekte), Axel Kaner-Lidstrom (Trompete), Twm Dylan (Kontrabass), Tim Doyle (Percussion) und Chelsea Carmichael (Tenorsaxophon) sowie Long am Schlagzeug spiegelt die Gruppe eine Szene wider, die den Sound des zeitgenössischen Jazz im letzten Jahrzehnt maßgeblich geprägt hat.

Mauro Pawlowski's 'Unspectacular Times' is the sound of an artist completely at ease with himself, and with the world, in all its ordinary, unglamorous beauty. Ten songs rooted in everyday observation and emotion, produced by Scorpio Twins (Stephane Misseghers and Bruno Coussée) with a full 24-carat 80s gloss: lush synths and basslines.

Where everything around us seems to demand maximum volume and instant outrage, Pawlowski turns that logic quietly inside out. These are songs about love that sneaks up on you, desire that builds in an art gallery, and a Nobel Prize winner falling off his bike and giving a thumbs up. Small moments, but in Pawlowski's hands, that's where everything worth paying attention to actually lives.

Guest appearances from Brianne Dunne (Daryl Hall & John Oates) and Pol Coussée, a Belgian saxophonist who found his way from London to Toronto and has played alongside Barry White and Isaac Hayes.

Following the 70s-tinged 'Eternal Sunday Drive', his second album on Unday Records 'Unspectacular Times' is Pawlowski's most pop focused to date. His most recent chapter in a career that has taken him from Evil Superstars to dEUS, through theater, dance, film and more alter egos than most artists have albums.

From the coastal city of Paramonga, three hours north of Lima, comes one of Peru's most electrifying and unjustly overlooked stories. Victor Ramirez and his band forged a sound that fused cumbia with guaracha, salsa and guaguanco - psychedelic guitars, wah-wah pedals and Fender amplifiers driving rhythms that conquered first northern Peru, then the capital itself. Spread across four sides, this lovingly assembled compilation draws from their two landmark albums and their 45 singles catalogue, so it is a full colour capture of Los Orientales at their peak. A complete portrait of a band that helped define modern cumbia is long overdue.

Paling Trax returns with their 6th Split EP coming from labelhead TAFKAMP and the Irish multi-talent Dylan Fogarty. On the A-side we find the long anticipated release of TAFKAMP’s Friestalig, combined with some filterhouse galore on Trakpad #4! On the B-side Dylan delivers the big room banger ADE Special, and the super groover Morning Ritual to finish off the release. Highly essential!

Nobody knew. Not the crowd packed into Circolo Kessel that Sunday evening, not even the six musicians on stage. When Giardini di Mirò played on March 19, 2023, it was supposed to be just another homecoming show in Cavriago, the kind of night where you play for the people who’ve known you longest. Some were missing from the audience, though: “Our closest friends stayed home to watch the football match tonight,” Jukka quipped from the stage. “But that’s fine, we’ll deal with them tomorrow.” In hindsight, even Juventus fans who celebrated their 1–0 victory over Inter made the wrong choice.

Seventy minutes in, all the instruments converged into a one-chord riff, driven by the drums and punctuated by screaming guitars. A repetitive rhythm that paired brutal volume with hypnotic precision. Even those at the back of the room felt it: that trance-like state where sound becomes physical. Then the wall of sound collapsed. Guitar feedback lingered in the air for a few seconds before fading into nothing.

This was the last sound Giardini di Mirò made. They haven’t played since, and there are no plans to do so again. But in that moment, nobody knew.

The closing song that night was also the opener of their debut full-length, recorded more than two decades earlier. Its title, A New Start, carries an unintended irony the band would likely appreciate. It is also oddly fitting that their final show took place in the same building where they began. Circolo Kessel, previously known as Calamita, served as the band’s rehearsal space for many years. Yet since their rise to becoming one of Europe’s defining post-rock acts, they had never performed a concert there.

In a fortunate coincidence, Markus Mathis – a longtime fan who had recorded several of their shows before – also captured this final concert using two room microphones and a feed from the mixing desk.

Quasi Casa is the complete, unfiltered document of that night: an “official bootleg” spanning over 70 minutes of purely instrumental music, drawing on material from across their entire career, from the earliest releases to Del Tutto Illusorio. It captures, with striking clarity, the intensity that defined the band’s live performances.

Rather than simply uploading the recording and calling it a day, the band chose to assemble a physical release as a parting gift to their fans. The double LP includes a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes and visual material.

Stanz Amor delivers a five-track EP that blends crunchy sound design, tribal influences and driving grooves into a cohesive statement of energy, movement and atmosphere. Hailing from Blackpool UK, Stanz Amor emerged in 2023 with a distinctly old-school approach, channeling groove, rhythm and intensity into a modern context, which he showcases on his Backspin Records debut EP 'Mercurial'. ??Opening with 'Kong', the EP sets the tone with an old school spirit reimagined through a contemporary lens. Loopy structures, banging percussion and textured, gritty elements create a hypnotic flow designed for peak-time moments. 'Mercurial' raises the intensity, propelled by fast-paced hi-hats and shimmering rides that injectconstant motion, while a rolling low end gives the track serious weight. A striking Latin vocal lingers throughout, leaving a lasting impression long after the track fades. On the B-side 'Count' shifts the energy into a groove led by rolling bongos, underpinned by a heavy sub and catchy, repeating vocals that lock into a tight, circular rhythm. 'Yawhoo' follows with a punchy kick, rumbling foundation and driving percussion, elevated by a cheeky vocal and a whistle straight out of the 90s rave era, adding a playful, nostalgic edge. The closing track is a remix of 'Count' by Steve Redhead, who reinterprets the original with forceful yet hypnotic percussion and finely detailed vocal work. A Belgian techno mainstay since the early 2000s, Redhead is known for his uncompromising, groove-driven sound and lasting influence within the underground. ??With this release, Stanz Amor delivers a focused and effective collection built on groove, repetition and dancefloor functionality. Released on Regal's Backspin Records, a label rooted in the underground and dedicated to honoring techno's origins while pushing its future, the project balances nostalgia with modern clarity, designed to resonate in clubs and leave a lasting impact.

What About Never debut from Intertoto, who deals a tracky beatdown ace in ‘If I Take You Home’ — a late-night/early-morning house instrumental that hints at ambiguous post-club activity. Bridging the eclectic spirit of the Motor City with the raw, textural styles of European contemporaries like NWAQ and Kassem Mosse, ‘If I Take You Home’ filters these ideas through the experimental aesthetics that have long simmered in the underground of Intertoto’s native Scotland.

Michael J. Blood expands on the after-hours theme with the cannily titled ’Walk of Shame Mix’ — a cracked reflection of the original that channels the essence of Theo Parrish, Delano Smith, et al. His ’Morning After Mix’ flips the pace entirely, layering hypnotic chimes and dark New Jersey–style synths with an almost overwhelming sense of dub-wise dread.

Japan-born, London-based composer-producer Hiro Ama releases his new EP Booster Pack, out now via PRAH Recordings. Where his previous record Music For Peace & Harmony explored spacious, meditative soundscapes, Booster Pack is an energetic, groove-driven statement, a deliberate move toward music designed to get the body moving while retaining the textural detail that defines his work.

Opening track “Booster” sets the tone: a percussive, rhythm-first piece that builds into propulsive, rave-leaning momentum. It was the seed that shaped the rest of the EP, establishing a new direction rooted in groove, movement and physicality.

On the EP, Hiro explains that “After releasing ‘Music for Peace and Harmony’ I wanted to create something completely opposite. Something dancy, something intense. A total 180-degree flip. The album was all about stillness, subtlety, and emotional resonance. This time I wanted to lean fully into energy, fast paced songs, and groove. Create something that I never created and something that could shake you awake rather than calm you down.

“Instead of beginning with piano or harmonic ideas which is usually my starting point. I focused purely on beats and rhythms in the beginning. I didn't add any chords or melodies until I felt happy with the drums and groove layers. It was a new approach for me and it pushed me to think about music more physically and less emotionally.”

The EP features earlier single “Lava”, a rave-inspired, rhythmically intense track built from pulsing bass and a siren-like synth, designed to create tension, energy and movement while keeping the groove at the forefront.

Across the rest of the Booster Pack EP, Hiro leans into percussion, deceptive rhythmic patterns and taut bass to create forward drive; each track begins with groove before melodic elements arrive, resulting in a record that trades reflective stillness for kinetic urgency while maintaining his compositional precision.

Berlin-based producer and DJ Benjamin Fröhlich returns to his own Pleasure Principle imprint with the long-awaited vinyl edition of The Muv It EP -
Rooted in dusty, dubby house music and inspired by the open spaces and raw energy of a recent desert trip, the EP channels warmth and groove in equal measure. The title track Muv It sits at the heart of the release - a driving, hypnotic floor-burner that showcases Fröhlich's instinctive feel for rhythm and texture.
Alongside it, Get Up raises the energy further, bringing a higher-octane dancefloor urgency to the EP's middle section. Its dub counterpart Get Dub then strips things back - a spacious, reverb-drenched variation that lets the groove breathe and reveals the track's deeper, more meditative side.

The vinyl edition comes with an exclusive bonus track: Gruv It - a stripped-down, atmospheric rework of Muv It that trades hands up moments against a hypnotic rolling vibe.

Michael J. Sheehy has been making records for almost three decades, initially as founder and mouthpiece of mid-"90s cult band Dream City Film Club, then as a solo artist and frontman of rootsy garage rock act Miraculous Mule. He has toured with the likes of Kristin Hersh, Tindersticks, John Cale and Peter Murphy, while his songs have been utilised in films such as "Intimacy" and the TV show "Deadwood". Following a six-year hiatus, Sheehy has just "Don"t We Deserve Some Kind of Love?", his seventh solo album but first for Dimple Discs. "Don"t We Deserve Some Kind Of Love?" features contributions from Fiona Brice (violin), Sandy Mill (backing vocals), Ian Burns (drums) and Patrick McCarthy (guitar). It was recorded at home over a five-year period while Sheehy was a stay-at-home father and working evenings at a bar in Camden, north London.

Incubus is an American rock band from Calabasas, California. The group was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer José Pasillas while they were students at Calabasas High School. The lineup later expanded to include bassist Alex “Dirk Lance” Katunich and Gavin “DJ Lyfe” Koppel. Both were eventually replaced, Ben Kenney took over on bass, and DJ Kilmore joined as the band’s turntablist. In 2024, Nicole Row replaced Kenney on bass.

Incubus’ sound has been described as a blend of rap metal, funk, jazz, and post‑grunge, often incorporating elements of hip‑hop. This eclectic style helped them become one of the most popular alternative metal bands of the early 2000s.

The band has achieved significant commercial success, earning multiple multi‑platinum releases and producing several hit singles. In 2017, they released their eighth full‑length studio album, 8, with Skrillex contributing to production and mixing.

Sam Cooke, inventor and true King of Soul, recorded Mr. Soul in 1963, the same year as Night Beat, and seems to be its more adult counterpart, with soulful ballads taking up most of the album. A laidback tempo and rich arrangements lay the foundation for Sam's somewhat melancholy voice floats, creating an uplifting spirit that can mend anyone's broken heart.

With standards such as "Willow Weep For Me", "I Wish You Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons", Cooke shows a quiet emotive side of himself without losing his keen sense of melody, using the strength of his voice without overpowering the listener. Had Sam Cooke lived longer, we might have had more music of this rare quality. As it stands, we must make do with the treasures he left behind.

Mr. Soul is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl.

Ready for a hot summer? It will get hot when listening to the new Mat Chiavaroli EP called "Ammaro"!
Mat has a long time connection with Quintessentials and released his first ever album "No stranger to madness" back in 2017. His new sound is more driving and club friendly, ranging form the mediterrainina inspired "Ammaro" the the UK garage styled "Need" to the classic deep house tune "We can figure it out". To top if off, Quintessentials buddie Ralph Session adds a NY influenced remix to heat things up even more! And yes, artwork provided by Mat's son Divo, a real family affair!