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The discovery of Doris Dennison's score represents a genuine musicological breakthrough—what once would have been "a tree falling in the woods" thirty years ago now holds the potential to render "a thunderous clap in our minds." While researching Anna Halprin's lesser-known collaborators, scholar Tom Welsh uncovered the archives of AA Leath, one of Halprin's principal dancers. Buried within these materials was Dennison's handwritten score for Earth Interval, dated May 1956. Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1908, and raised near Seattle, Dennison (1908-2009) encountered John Cage while teaching Dalcroze eurythmics at the Cornish College of the Arts. She joined Cage's earliest percussion quartet—alongside Margaret Jansen, the composer and his wife Xenia—in the group widely regarded as having performed the first complete concert of percussion music in the United States. This historic December 1938 concert was followed by tours and the landmark May 1941 performance at the California Club, comprising Cage and Lou Harrison's Double Music, the premiere of Cage's Third Construction, and Harrison's 13th Simfony.

As Bradford Bailey observes in his extensive liner notes, Earth Interval demonstrates "an extraordinary balance of elements that imbues the piece with a sense of clarity, directness, and constraint that is both distinct and ahead of its time." The work's most remarkable innovation lies in its approach to extended techniques, particularly Dennison's notation for the central movement: "In 2nd movement, 1st player lowers + raises a gong into a tub of water while beating." This technique, absorbed from Cage's experimental vocabulary, generates what Bailey describes as "fields of acoustic abstraction that bend and warp time through sustained resonances, beat, and space." The temporal sophistication of these manipulations anticipated Karlheinz Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I (1964) and Annea Lockwood's water-based sound investigations by over a decade. After joining Mills College as dance accompanist, Dennison maintained crucial connections to the Bay Area's experimental scene, collaborating with figures like Merce Cunningham and programming Cage's music throughout the 1950s.

Comprising three movements—Land Form, Air Tide, and Earth Play—Earth Interval is scored for recorder, drums, gongs, maracas, muted gongs, and bowl gongs. In total, the piece is just under eight minutes: "a fleeting glimmer of moment in time, a life spent at the cutting edge, and a singular creative vision that packs a powerful punch." When viewed in historical context, placed in contrast to roughly contemporaneous avant-garde percussion works by Cage, Harrison, Louis Thomas Hardin (Moondog), and Harry Partch, or important precursors like Edgard Varèse's Ionisation (1931) and Henry Cowell's Ostinato Pianissimo (1934), it's clear that Dennison was following her own path. Earth Interval is not derivative. It is a precursor to what was yet to come, alluding to developments of avant-garde and experimental music that wouldn't begin to appear on the cultural landscape until the 1970s and '80s, with the emergence of Post-Minimalism and more idiosyncratic artists and ensembles like Midori Takada, Ros Bandt, Peter Giger, Frank Perry, Christopher Tree, Michael Ranta, Gamelan Son of Lion, and Niagara.

This recording by Chicago's Third Coast Percussion, captured in March 2022, represents the first complete documentation of this pioneering work. The ensemble's interpretation reveals the piece's remarkable contemporaneity while maintaining its historical specificity. Where Cage, Harrison, and Partch employed "self-consciously off-kilter polyrhythms," Dennison's rhythmic sensibility anticipates minimalist developments by nearly a decade, yet integrates "forceful rests, as well as sharp shifts in sonic character, tempo, and meter, that break the momentum and breathe a sense of life into the piece's structure." This positions her work closer to Post-Minimalism decades before its emergence. The architectural approach demonstrates Dennison's understanding that "the composer almost entirely disappears" in favor of phenomenological listening experience, creating what might be called an egoless music that places its realities and meaning entirely in the ear of the beholder. The present recording, realized by Chicago's distinguished Third Coast Percussion ensemble, represents a significant achievement in experimental music scholarship and performance practice. As specialists in the Cage tradition and contemporary percussion repertoire, Third Coast Percussion approached Earth Interval with the historical sensitivity and technical precision required to illuminate Dennison's subtle compositional innovations. The March 2022 recording sessions, engineered by Colin Campbell, capture both the work's intimate chamber music qualities and its bold exploration of extended techniques. The ensemble's interpretation reveals the piece's remarkable contemporaneity—its ability to speak directly to current musical concerns while maintaining its historical specificity.

This recording serves multiple scholarly functions: it provides the first complete documentation of Dennison's compositional voice, offers insight into the broader network of experimental music practitioners surrounding Cage and Harrison, and demonstrates the sophisticated level of compositional thinking that was occurring within the Bay Area's dance-music collaborations of the 1950s. The work's emphasis on phenomenological listening—what might be called an "egoless" approach to musical experience—places it within a lineage of American experimental music that prioritizes perceptual process over compositional personality. The work's original obscurity—limited to AA Leath's performances at venues like the 1957 Pacific Coast Arts Festival at Reed College—paradoxically allowed it to remain "entirely on its own terms," free from the constraints of historical categorization. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever, the argument emerges that "the archive can acknowledge, celebrate, and resurrect" overlooked voices, transforming our understanding of experimental music history. The present Blume edition, featuring Third Coast Percussion's authoritative interpretation, includes a lavishly illustrated 16-page booklet designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano, containing complete scholarly apparatus, historical photographs, and detailed production notes. This recording enables "cross-temporal intersectionality," allowing Dennison to "belong to a newly formed and more dynamic understanding of the present and past," demonstrating how forgotten voices can reshape entire historical narratives when given proper scholarly attention and performance advocacy.

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and following the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney's legendary Postal Pieces, the label now presents the first LP published by the visionary Swiss composer Jürg Frey. Drawing from the transformative power of breath and resonance, this release represents one of the most profound explorations of musical metamorphosis to emerge from the contemporary experimental landscape.

The completed work represents a "conjunction of these two artists" that has "activated a transformative form of experimentalism." These renderings "dance with an airy lightness, humour, and play, imbuing them with a beauty and emotiveness that can be rare within experimental music." They exist as "breaths, carrying the curiosities of life, belonging to no time and all time, to no one and everyone: a human music to be inhaled and pondered, for which the outcome remains unknown." In this liminal space between composition and interpretation, between breath and resonance, Zurria and Frey have created something that transcends the boundaries of experimental music itself, offering what might be called a metaphysical cartography of sound in its most essential form. As Bradford Bailey observes in his penetrating liner notes, "music is rarely a fixed entity," existing instead in a state of perpetual flux, "taking on the influences of its interpreters and performers." This fundamental truth finds its most eloquent expression in the transformative collaboration between Italian flutist Manuel Zurria and Frey, longtime member of the Wandelweiser Group. Where conventional recordings might preserve a definitive version, this release activates what Bailey calls "states of unknowing and continued experimentation," allowing Frey's compositions to evolve into entirely new dimensional territories. The original string quartet and piano works dissolve into breath-carried architectures of sound, where "the original remains in a constant dialogue with its transformation." This is not mere arrangement but ontological metamorphosis - an alchemical process through which crystalline harmonies are reborn as atmospheric phenomena.

The metaphysical dimensions of this transformation become clear through detailed analysis of the musical result. Where Frey's original compositions operate through what he calls "basic confidence in the clear and restricted material," Zurria's interpretation activates entirely new perceptual territories. Space holds almost atomic sense of weight against the airy punctuations of timbres, textures, and tones, creating "suspensions of time within which questions and identities posed by instrumentation fade." The Extended Circular Music pieces - each comprising "a small number of bars to be repeated an undetermined number of times" - become organizations of sound that defy being definitive or fixed. Originally scored for different combinations of violin, viola, cello, and piano, these works now exist as pure phenomena of breath and resonance, where "hanging, breath-length utterances dance and intertwine amongst complex harmonic clusters and conjunctions."

The philosophical implications of this transformation illuminate a lineage of composers who have moved "away from abstraction and responding to the need to create" something beyond mere technique. Drawing parallels to Morton Feldman's understanding of non-functional harmony, Zurria's approach represents "a transformative form of experimentalism" that activates what Frey calls the "thaumaturgic power" of music - its capacity to heal and transform consciousness itself. The result is "a radical reimagining of ambience: sprawling sonorities and resonances adrift in space, carrying the liberated traces of the work's former incarnations and their truths." In Zurria's interpretation, Frey's String Quartet n.3 becomes something approaching "an organ played in slow motion, its seals leaking," while the Extended Circular Music pieces transform into "glacial chords from a diverse palette of voicings, harmonies, timbres, and tones."

Performed by Manuel Zurria. Recorded and mixed by Zurria at BigCardo, Catania between 2022-2024, with mastering by Bruno Germano at Vacuumstudio, Bologna, this Blume release represents a profound exploration of musical transformation.

This new "Experimental Chapter" by DJ Narciso comes as no surprise, really. Autonomous in the motorization of his music, pushing for progress within the framework of an undeniable (inescapable?) heritage. Twisting and bending sound every step of the way, Narciso definitely keeps in touch with the dancefloor, offering the always much needed transcendence through distinctive, non-linear melodies and patterns. The artist pursues a direct link with bodies in motion but seldom in the expected, institutionalized way club culture is being largely promoted.

This is challenging dance music, proud statements of difference. Narciso's previous record was named "Diferenciado". Now we get "Dificuldades", a track that simultaneously carries the weight of being somewhat odd and the difficulties of life. Check how the piano is venting, freestyle, communicating a feeling, and then lets itself get stuck in a loop, but that's exactly when the groove really starts flowing. And then another layer. It's like direct speech.

A common assertion of pride is found in the origin of the artists. The ghetto as a place where any transformation projects more power precisely because of... inherent difficulties. As others (including himself) did in more or less obvious ways, Narciso clearly states "I come from the ghetto" ( "Não Sabes" ). Twice the value. At least. Almost every segment of music in this album ends up sounding heavily emotional, reaffirming what may be - perversely - a well-known characteristic of Portuguese music: melancholy.

"Não Quero" begins side B as a march maybe more significant than a thousand words, such is the ominous tone of its texture. Next track is another lunar tarraxo, pulling down the shades. Then, "Dor de Barriga" lets things loose again, steering clearly off road, shouting this way and that until a peaceful resolution comes. In "Livra-me Desta", vocal snippets blend into synth snippets, disembodied voices abandon all traces of humanity and finally mutate into different entities that, towards the end, again sound vaguely human but now we find ourselves doubting. Closer "Bob" is a rather classic percussion track with plenty of echo, reverb and an unconscious nod to dodecaphonic music. Unlikely? No, the structural ADN of this music is made up of elements western and eastern, southern and northern. To say all-over-the-place is usually not flattering but in this case the expression translates as wonder, surprise, The Unexpected, and reveals Narciso perfectly at ease inside the nucleus of creation.

Italian techno force Alarico makes a striking debut on KEY Vinyl with 'Sweaty Techniques', a seven-track LP that encapsulates his signature style: groove-centric, stomping and irresistibly danceable. Known for his prolific output, the Berlin-based artist delivers a fast-paced and energetic sound, interwoven by the thematic thread of the whole release: a sweaty encounter.

From the opening pulse of 'Cradle to the Grave', rhythm takes center stage-percussion-driven and primed for peak-time occasions. Snipped vocals and bouncy baselines carve out some sort of hypnotic patterns, while deep, rolling low ends keep the momentum locked in. Gritty textures collide with fragmented modulations, twisting into distorted, high-energy productions. Across the LP, tightly coiled bleeps and moaning snippets emerge, lending a sinister yet seductive edge.

Then there's 'Dammelo'-Italian for 'give it to me'-which subsumes the album's thematic essence into pure physicality, embracing its vocal motif with a knowing smirk. As the record progresses, Alarico shifts between functional, stripped-back rhythms and more tension-driven moments, culminating in 'Touch My Heart', where sharper drum programming meets hypnotic vocal loops. Closing on a high, 'Jamira' encapsulates the album's crisp percussive edge, rounding off a release that is as relentless as it is intoxicating.
With 'Sweaty Techniques', Alarico solidifies his place as one of techno's most electrifying new voices-an LP made of steel, but definitely built to move.

Sebastian Krumbiegels "Aufstehen - Weitermachen!" - signierte Restexemplare verfügbar! 12 Songs, 100 % Krumbiegel: politisch, persönlich, poppig. Zwischen Mut, Meinung und Melodie - mit großen Chören, starken Texten und jeder Menge Herzblut. Kein glattgebügelter Mainstream, sondern ehrlicher Indie-Pop mit Haltung. Voll auf Risiko - und genau deshalb so gut

Andreas Doraus Album "Wien" - eine musikalische Liebeserklärung an die Stadt mit dem schönsten Namen. Kein Kitsch, keine Klischees - dafür feinsinniger Pop, schräge Perspektiven und Geschichten abseits der Touristenpfade. Produziert mit Zwanie Jonson und vielen Gästen. Jetzt die letzten signierten Exemplare sichern!

Night ist ein Konzeptalbum von über 50 Minuten Länge, das in 5 Segmente unterteilt ist, die fließend ineinander übergehen. Mit der konzeptionellen Anlage, den episch ausgreifenden Strukturen und der z.T. immensen Länge der einzelnen Stücke kommen Gazpacho dem, was der Proggie mag, so nah wie nie zuvor.

Dennoch ist Night sicher kein Neo-, Retrooder sonst-was-Prog, sondern die Band bleibt ihrem im Laufe der vorangegangenen Alben entwickelten Stil treu. Die Songs klingen wie eine Mixtur aus späten Talk Talk und späten Marillion.

An Talk Talk erinnert auch, dass sich die Stücke sehr gemächlich entwickeln. Das ist ein Novum für die bislang stärker songorientierte Band.

3XL boss and scene hyper-connector Special Guest DJ (aka uon, shy, Caveman LSD) lands on their own label with a debut album of hazed ambient noise and aquatic club anarchitextures, with a patented, heady style bent into new shapes.

For nigh on a decade, Berlin-based American producer, label boss, promoter and DJ Shy has operated at the centre of a scene that's still not fully defined. Their mythical DJ sets, where you're likely to hear precision-tweaked dubstep, dreampop, decelerated rap and dubwise ambient blended into vapour; gives some sense of the vibes at play, and a comb thru their spiderweb of a catalog - as Caveman LSD or uon, as part of Ghostride the Drift, Hoodie, crimeboys, virtualdemonlaxative and Cypher, or as the figurehead of 3XL, Experiences Ltd, xpq? and bblisss labels - further blurs that gist.

They've been caught in the crossfire of Big Ambient, sure, but there's always been something scrappier, sexier and more present going on under the hood. Shy and his network of associates - Huerco, Ulla, Perila, Ben Bondy, Naemi/Exael, Ponteac Streator and Arad Acid, among others - have asserted the interrelatedness of their discrete approaches. So-called "ambient" music doesn't exist in a vacuum, it un-focuses elements that undergird so many more corporeal sounds, and for Shy, their music reflects the druggy, DIY, genre-agnostic ethos of a trans-Atlantic neo-punk underground that exists in some liminal zone between the club, the bedsit and the basement.

Concerned with themes of “anger, sensuality, and dreaming”, the 40 minute roil of ‘Our Fantasy Complex’ frames Special Guest DJ at their most unapologetically oblique and illusive, expanding and contracting between whorls of shoegazing dynamics and extended portions of quasi-speed D&B x dub tech smeared on the mind’s-eye, with a vivid sense of bruised lushness that’s perfused all shy’s work thus far.

Joined by kindred collaborators Ben Bondy, Arad Acid and mu tate, and suspended in agitated bliss by Rashad Becker’s lucid mastering, the results feel out some of 2025’s most considered and distinctive within an amorphous zone that’s become a world unto itself. Ambient music’s fluffier signifiers are swapped out for a sort of sublime tension that, like the sound’s original ‘90s explosion, can be heard to reflect states of altered consciousness - both individual and collective.

Shy's layered, undulating productions are more like the chewed remnants of a thousand mixtapes cooked into a stream-of-consciousness hex. Save for the glistening, zoomed-out parting piece ‘Dream’, it all mostly avoids pretty melodies in favour of a spatio-textural sensuality that wraps us up, sometimes uncomfortably intimately, in shy’s thoughts. That oneiric closer is one of three gritty palate cleansers that swirl around its peaks, where elements of Reese-bass are suspended, writhing below looming atmospheric pressure in ‘How Long Can I Burn?’, emerging charred and flecked with rattled percussion on ‘Yoro (pt I & II)’, as though K-holing thru a blazing summer’s day.

In step with Perila’s notably darker turn of events on her ‘Omnis Festinatio Ex parts Diaboli Est’, album, or the unexpected ferocity of recent Space Afrika live shows, it’s not hard to hear a darkside gravitational pull on this one, where ambient music is no longer just a balm for troubled souls, but also suggestive of humanity’s most frightful odours.

Following on from his highly acclaimed debut Len Parrott"s Memorial Lift, Baxter proves that this was no fluke. His 2nd album Floor Show sounds like it was recorded in St Paul"s Cathedral, with vocals added in the whispering gallery. Narratively, it"s seems to be about a disintegrating relationship, although this is no confession booth moment. Guitars float like ectoplasm, Wurlitzer"s spin beneath mirror balls, summoning the presence of spectral beings, swaying to luxurious, narcotic music that predates trip-hop by a good sixty years. Stand-out tracks include the single "Lisa Said", "Cocaine Man" and the wonderful "Francesca"s Party". The album was produced by Baxter, Nick Terry and mixed by Craig Silvey (The Coral, Magic Numbers) in West London in the winter of 2004 / 2005. The band are Damon Reece on drums and Mike Mooney on the electric guitar- both former members of Spiritualized.

In neuer Auflage wieder lieferbar: das erste Studioalbum des begnadeten Singer/Songwriters William Fitzsimmons aus 2009 als LP mit dem zusätzlichen Non-CD-Bonustrack "Maybe Be Alright".

I envision this music as emanating from a moon inhabited by otherworldly life forms and ecosystems; these sounds as evoking the moon’s topographies, beings, lunar rivers, and strands of light — as if this moon’s essence were itself sonic, vibrational matter.

Musically and acoustically, Strands Of Lunar Light departs from a set of tones corresponding to a confined harmonic series segment of a very low fundamental frequency: 5.15 hertz. Through twelve continuous sections, each employing various methods of activating openly tuned guitar strings, the music is sculpted from the twenty-four pitches corresponding to harmonics 24 through 47 of this fundamental frequency.

At times, the natural second (octave) harmonics of the open strings are activated and introduce a secondary, octave transposed version of the original harmonic series segment, doubling the fundamental frequency to 10.30 hertz, and thereby revealing a brighter vibrational realm.

As a consequence of the rational pitch relationships integral to harmonic series of tones, these two sub-audio fundamental frequencies (pitch wise existing two and three octaves below the E-string of a double bass, respectively) can be heard in the music as the frequencies of the interference patterns produced by the simultaneous sounding of any pair of adjacent tones in the respective sets of tones.

These interference patterns, of 5.15 or 10.30 hertz (depending on the octave of the tones produced), are perceived as even pulsations occurring with varying degrees of clarity over the course of the piece.

I imagine these fundamental frequencies and their related harmonic tones as the elemental components of a moon, and this music as offering a glimpse into its vast lunar-sonic existence.

Fredrik Rasten, August 2024

Mainstays of the D.C. DIY scene, Pretty Bitter live up to their name. Masters of all kinds of dissonance, they juxtapose stories of haunting and heartbreak with dazzling pop-rock arrangements. Pretty Bitter makes music that gets the emo kids dancing. They’re unafraid to infuse their blistering breakdowns with hits of disco and synthpop—and that’s exactly what they’ve done on Pleaser, their sophomore album, co-produced by Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It., Pet Symmetry) and Simon Small (Strawberry Boy) and out July 25th, 2025 via cult favorite indie label Tiny Engines. Following a string of ethereal singles, their 2022 debut Hinges formally introduced Pretty Bitter and their dreampunk to a rapidly growing audience. Fearlessly led by Mel Bleker and sharing studio and touring members with D.C. punk all-stars Ekko Astral, Pretty Bitter has been embraced by DIY fans far and wide. On Pleaser, Pretty Bitter have amped up the drama of their lush arrangements—a match made in heaven for the emotional ferocity of Bleker’s lyricism. “If everything is out there, nothing’s embarrassing,” they sigh on “I Hope You Do,” expertly toeing the line between the personal and the universal over bright, bubbling synths. On the arresting closer “Outer Heaven,” Bleker sings “Time isn’t a lover in the way it likes to play / I’m getting older, every due I pay / Time isn’t a bandage in the way you always say / I won’t be abandoned by myself again this way.” Their observational, heart-on-sleeve songwriting is as effortless as their flittering between the jangly, dreamy inclinations of rock, pop, and folk. Pleaser is a triumph, an instantly lovable record that reveals just how bright Pretty Bitter’s future is.

LOSER pressing on - LIGHT BLUE BIO VINYL. Auf ihrem kaleidoskopischen zweiten Album, The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, definiert Debby Friday den Erfolg auf ihre Weise. ,Ich will ein Star sein, diesen Wunsch kann ich nicht verbergen", sagt sie. ,Aber ich will nicht den Traum von jemand anderem leben oder einem vorgegebenen Weg folgen." Für die nigerianisch-kanadische Universalgelehrte bedeutet Starrr zu sein, in den Extremen zu leben: öffentlich oder privat, Selbstüberschätzung oder Demut, Fliegen oder Fallen. Ein Starrr zu sein bedeutet, den apokalyptischen Hedonismus eines nächtlichen Raves zu umarmen - und die Gemeinschaft im ,dunklen Raum, Mädchen in der Schlange für die Toilette" in der brummenden House-Hymne ,All I Wanna Do Is Party" zu finden. Es bedeutet, dass sie mit den Detroiter Techno-Wunderkindern HiTech in ,In The Club" Zeilen über Flaschen auf Eis austauscht und auf der Tanzfläche ausflippt, während sie zugibt, dass sie ,in diesen Tagen kaum auf der Tanzfläche ist". Es ist der Sound der Entdeckung, was nach dem Erfolg kommt, von dem die meisten Künstler nur träumen - wie man hell brennt, ohne auszubrennen. In 11 Songs stellt The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life Freitags chamäleonartigen Gesang zur Schau. Von der spärlichen, hauchzarten Schönheit des liebeskranken ,Leave" bis hin zum treibenden Post-Punk von ,Darker The Better". Der Gewinn des Polaris-Preises 2023 für ihr Debütalbum GOOD LUCK hat Debby Friday nur noch mehr angespornt: ,I'm tryna see more/ Man, I want the payoff" rappt sie über laserartige Synthesizer auf dem mühelos kopierten Kiss-off ,Lipsync`. Aber das Leben auf Messers Schneide kann nur eine gewisse Zeit lang aufrechterhalten werden: Während einer Nonstop-Tournee zur Unterstützung des Albums wurde sie schwer krank. Die Diagnose? Stressinduzierte Gürtelrose. Diese Erfahrung zwang Friday dazu, sich nach innen zu wenden. Im folgenden Jahr änderte sich ihr Management, ihre Routine und ihre Prioritäten. Um ihre Vision von radikaler Ehrlichkeit auf der Tanzfläche zum Leben zu erwecken, rekrutierte Friday den australischen Produzenten Darcy Baylis (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal). Die beiden kehrten zwischen ihren Tourneen in ihre De-facto-Heimat London zurück und tauschten im Studio von morgens bis Mitternacht Ideen aus. The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life ist voll von verschlüsselten, wenn-du-weißt-schon-wem-Referenzen, die Liebesbriefe und Anspielungen aus den Namen von It-Girl-Parfüms, französischem Cognac und hellenistischen Prophetinnen, die in Zungen sprechen, verweben. Es liest sich wie eine Manifestation von Freitags Streben nach einem experimentellen Popsound, der sich immer noch unverkennbar nach ihr anfühlt. ,Dieses Album handelt von der Idee, nach etwas zu greifen", sagt sie. ,Es geht darum, die Zeichen zu sehen und diesem Impuls zu folgen, immer mit der Möglichkeit, entweder in die Sonne zu fliegen oder auf die Erde zurückzufallen." Auf The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life erhebt sich Debby Friday in die Lüfte, um ihre Flügel zu befestigen und dem Klang ihrer eigenen Stimme zu folgen.

WRWTFWW Records is very excited to announce its third release from visionary Japanese ambient/experimental/environmental composer/producer Yutaka Hirose, this time with brand new album Voices, available on limited edition heavyweight-sleeved double LP as well as double CD, both with liner notes from the artist.

Voices finds Yutaka Hirose expanding his signature spatial layering into a three-dimensional videography of sound, blending field recordings, electronic manipulations, and abstract narratives. The 12-track album is a journey through a crumbling library where books whisper, history collides, and sonic textures weave new realities. Chaos, memory, and transformation – Hirose’s voices echo throughout the space, creating a fully immersive sonic experience.

The pioneering experimental and abstract electronic piece with deep hints of ambient and IDM is beautifully represented by the original artwork by Koji Shiroshita and Mifuku gracing the double LP and double digipack CD sleeves.

Voices marks Yutaka Hirose’s third full-length release on WRWTFWW Records, following his kankyõ ongaku classics Nova + 4 (an expanded version of his genre defining Soundscape 2: Nova album) and archival compilation TRACE: Sound Design Works 1986-1989, both available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

SIDE B returns with the second installment of its newly established label, this time with Rill at the helm. Staying true to effect, the young German producer has honed his percussively forward style with a string of steady releases and performances over the past three years. In his EP 'Friss', Rill delivers three highly concentrated club tracks with a Beste Hira remix closing out the project, assembling a record destined for unforgiving sound systems and frenzied dance floors.

Driving and mental, Rill brews up a viscous first track 'Silky Stones' to make his intentions clear. Shooting through a bubbling lead with percussive stabs wide in the stereo field, the producer uses the element of surprise by sharpening the edge with a sharp key sequence, doubling down on tension to an already hypnotic cut. With no time to waste, the needle slides to 'Rakija', with an imposing groove and quick, dry hats. Characteristically, a dystopian melody warbles over a robust rhythm to ensure maximum movement. Two tracks in and Rill already proves to balance his tools with attitude. Taking a turn on the record flip, the B1 ups the audacity with the title track 'Friss'. Techno usually prioritising kicks is a rule that Rill sweeps aside in exchange for an intimidating bassline with an ecosystem of high frequency ambiance. A testament to balance and spatial definition, the German adopts in fitting chord stabs in the second half to up the ante in a contained manner. To conclude, celebrated Beste Hira puts her spin on the latter for a drum forward eye roller, versatile for almost any dancefloor. Reconceptualizing the rhythmic identity of 'Friss', Beste Hira is able to weather the far off atmospheres while maintaining an emphasized festivity. Combining the best of groove-focused club music with a touch of niche psychedelia, Rill and SIDE B prove that techno is very much alive no matter what side of Europe you search for it.

Words by Noah Hocker

Back in again soon. Following on from the success of ‘Greg Belson’s Divine Disco’ series Greg Belson and Cultures of Soul team up again to explore the world of Gospel Funk. Belson is one of the world's leading collectors and DJs of gospel music. You hold in your hands a collection of some of the rarest Gospel funk records from Belson’s amazing collection featuring everything from the laid back breakbeat laced “I Don’t Want to Be Alone" by Allen Gauff Jr to the high octane and socially-on-point take of the Gospel classic ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ by the Gospel Ambassadors to drum break funk of the Wearyland Singers ‘If You See Me Doing Wrong” to the sublime soulfulness of Zella Jackson’s “Days Are Just Like People." Without a doubt though, all of the artists included in this compilation, believed in themselves, the message, and the direction of the Gospel Funk intensity you hear within these grooves. Gettin’ on the Good Foot for God? Listen and decide for yourselves!

Wer ROME seit der 20-jährigen Bandgeschichte verfolgt, wird nicht bestreiten können: Jerome Reuter ist immer für eine Überraschung gut. Sicher ist der Folk Noir, die düstere Liedermacherkunst mit Akustikgitarre und melancholischen Vocals, seine kreative Basis und Kontinuität. Doch immer wieder finden sich auf seinen Alben atmosphärische Ambienttracks – filmmusikartige Collage und Vertonungen der Konzeptthemen, die ROMEs Ursprung in der Post-Industrial-Culture belegen. Und immer wieder überschreitet er souverän die Grenze zu anderen Genres wie dem Post Punk und dem dunklen Elektropop. Statt luziden Akustikakkorden treten dann noisige, kalte Elemente ins Zentrum, martialische Samples, analoge Synthieklänge und programmierte Beats, die auch auf dem Szenedancefloor nicht stören würden.

„Terres de Sang“ ist nun anlässlich des 20-jährigen Bandjubiläums eine Kollektion von Songs und Instrumentals, die in diesen Versionen noch nicht erhältlich sind, sei es live oder in Remixen. Dazu kommen jene typischen ROME-Klangkollagen, die man von den Intros der Livekonzerte kennt. „Terres de Sang“ ist ein Füllhorn der unterschiedlichen Stile, Themen und Stimmungen, die ROME seit zwei Dekaden kennzeichnen. Daraus ergibt sich kein eigenständiges neues Album, aber ein ebenso spannendes wie unterhaltsames Kaleidoskop der unerschöpflichen Kreativität Jerome Reuters, das dem ROME-Sammler aus dem Herzen spricht. Darunter finden sich auch alternative Liveversionen von beliebten ROME-Hits wie „Das Feuerordal“, „Blighter“ und „Secret Germany“.

Erhältlich als:
- 2CD Digipak
- Schwarzes, 180 Gramm schweres 12“ Doppel-Vinyl, Extra audiophiler Tonträger von hoher Qualität - deutsche Pressung, Gatefold-Klappverpackung, Mehrfarbig bedruckte Innenhüllen, Limitiert auf 500 Exemplare

Mansur Brown präsentiert seine bisher authentischste und ehrlichste Arbeit. "Rihla" ist das arabische Wort für Reise, kann sich aber auch auf Texte über die Reise beziehen. Auf dieser erlebt man einen Künstler in vollem Flow, der sich Trends widersetzt und Musik macht, die sich keinem Genre verpflichtet fühlt. Im neuen Kapitel liefert Mansur erstmals eigene Vocals, begleitet von einer härteren Rock-Unterströmung, ohne dabei seine typisch melodische Essenz zu verlieren. Anklänge an Elektronik und R&B mit Sci-Fi-artigen Synths strahlen lebendige Bilder aus. Die Gitarre bleibt das Herzstück seiner Musik, aber bei weitem nicht die einzige Komponente. In seinen Rollen als Songwriter, Produzent und Multiinstrumentalist prägt der Geist der Eigenständigkeit alles, was Mansur tut. Zuvor arbeitete er mit Yussef Dayes, Joy Orbison und Little Simz zusammen.

Horace Silver’s 1962 tour of Japan had a deep impact on the pianist who dedicated his album The Tokyo Blues to his Japanese fans. With his quintet of Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and John Harris Jr., Silver combined a “Japanese feeling in the melodies with the Latin feeling in the rhythms.” This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Moni ist neu in der Klasse. Weil sie so komisch angezogen ist, wird sie von allen verspottet. Auch Bibi mag Moni nicht. Warum muss die "doofe Neue" ausgerechnet den Platz neben ihr bekommen?! Zu Hause spricht Bibi mit ihrer Mutter darüber. Und plötzlich wird sie nachdenklich. Ist Moni vielleicht doch nett?

Die Bewaffneten sind zurück und präsentieren "The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed", dem Nachfolgewerk des von der Kritik hochgelobten Albums "Perfect Saviors" von 2023. The Armed sind Post Hardcore Non-Conceptual Alternative Metalpop! Nach der Fertigstellung der Alben-Triologie, die sich auf die Analyse der künstlerischen Authentizität im Informationszeitalter konzentrierte, begannen The Armed mit der Arbeit an neuem Material, ohne vorher festgelegte Regeln oder Konzepte, sondern nur mit neuem Druck und Dringlichkeit, um eine neue Ära für das Post-Hardcore-Kollektiv einzuläuten. Das Ergebnis ist ein wütendes und konfrontierendes Album, ein ungefilterter Ausdruck von Weltschmerz, ein deutscher Begriff, der den Schmerz über die Realität der Welt im Gegensatz zu unseren idealisierten Visionen von dem, was sie sein sollte, beschreibt. "Diese Platte ist eine Absage an sanierte, für den Geschmack der oberen Mittelschicht kuratierte Rebellion", erklärt Sänger Tony Wolski. "Es ist Musik für eine statistisch wohlhabende Bevölkerung, die sich irgendwie kein Essen oder keine Medikamente leisten kann und endlos durch Urlaubsfotos, Fitnessstudio-Selfies und Bilder von amputierten Kindern im selben Feed scrollt. Sie spiegelt die Abgrenzung wider, die man braucht, um in dieser Realität zu existieren." Die Waffen von The Armed sind weiterhin ihr Kanalisierung von Wut über die unfassbaren Umstände in ungewöhnliche Songs mit innovativen Sounddesign und ihr fester Glaube an das Miteinander, was sich im Gedanken des Kollektivs, aber auch an den vielen Kollaborateur*innen festmachen lässt. Mit Beiträgen von Ken Szymanski, Patrick Shiroishi, Urian Hackney, Kurt Ballou, Troy Van Leeuwen, Meghan O'Neil, Cara Drolshagen, Tony Wolski, Brian Wolski, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Ben Chisholm, Prostitute, Zach Weeks, Mark Guiliana, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, and Derek Coburn. Inklusive der Singles "Well Made Play", "Kingbreaker" und "Sharp Teeth" LP & LP Ltd im Gatefold mit bedruckten Innenhüllen & 44seitigem Booklet, CD als 6-panel-digipak!

Limitiertes Cloudy clear with yellow, green and pink splatter Vinyl mit 44-Seiten-Booklet! Die Bewaffneten sind zurück und präsentieren "The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed", dem Nachfolgewerk des von der Kritik hochgelobten Albums "Perfect Saviors" von 2023. The Armed sind Post Hardcore Non-Conceptual Alternative Metalpop! Nach der Fertigstellung der Alben-Triologie, die sich auf die Analyse der künstlerischen Authentizität im Informationszeitalter konzentrierte, begannen The Armed mit der Arbeit an neuem Material, ohne vorher festgelegte Regeln oder Konzepte, sondern nur mit neuem Druck und Dringlichkeit, um eine neue Ära für das Post-Hardcore-Kollektiv einzuläuten. Das Ergebnis ist ein wütendes und konfrontierendes Album, ein ungefilterter Ausdruck von Weltschmerz, ein deutscher Begriff, der den Schmerz über die Realität der Welt im Gegensatz zu unseren idealisierten Visionen von dem, was sie sein sollte, beschreibt. "Diese Platte ist eine Absage an sanierte, für den Geschmack der oberen Mittelschicht kuratierte Rebellion", erklärt Sänger Tony Wolski. "Es ist Musik für eine statistisch wohlhabende Bevölkerung, die sich irgendwie kein Essen oder keine Medikamente leisten kann und endlos durch Urlaubsfotos, Fitnessstudio-Selfies und Bilder von amputierten Kindern im selben Feed scrollt. Sie spiegelt die Abgrenzung wider, die man braucht, um in dieser Realität zu existieren." Die Waffen von The Armed sind weiterhin ihr Kanalisierung von Wut über die unfassbaren Umstände in ungewöhnliche Songs mit innovativen Sounddesign und ihr fester Glaube an das Miteinander, was sich im Gedanken des Kollektivs, aber auch an den vielen Kollaborateur*innen festmachen lässt. Mit Beiträgen von Ken Szymanski, Patrick Shiroishi, Urian Hackney, Kurt Ballou, Troy Van Leeuwen, Meghan O'Neil, Cara Drolshagen, Tony Wolski, Brian Wolski, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Ben Chisholm, Prostitute, Zach Weeks, Mark Guiliana, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, and Derek Coburn. Inklusive der Singles "Well Made Play", "Kingbreaker" und "Sharp Teeth" LP & LP Ltd im Gatefold mit bedruckten Innenhüllen & 44seitigem Booklet, CD als 6-panel-digipak!

Die 2021 gegründete Band ACCVSED bleibt ihrem Prinzip treu: authentisch sein, ohne Rollen oder Beschönigung. Sie verarbeiten tiefste Ängste in ihrer Musik – eine kraftvolle Mischung aus Gitarrenriffs, markantem Gesang und rohen Emotionen. Ursprünglich aus Wiesbaden, strebten sie von Anfang an mehr als lokale Bekanntheit an. Mit ihrer Debüt-EP "House of Doubt" (2023) und der Single "Currents" erlangten sie internationale Aufmerksamkeit. Festivalauftritte und Support-Shows folgten. Nun veröffentlichen ACCVSED ihr lang erwartetes erstes Album "Dealers of Doom"

Clinically excellent by Salik from Going Good Records Brixton with a superiourly consistent, bass heavy, strict & steady (dub) stepper molding deep, dark & atmospheric strings pending between dub step and the sounds of D&B. Backed by DJ Sotofett's off-kilter & de-syncronized excursion surging through acidic & 3D sonic landscapes.

Finnish Samuli Tanner is a drummer and producer swimming in alises and side-projects. Tanner's been part of Modern Feelings (released on Sähkö Recordings) and on this 7" it's back to early-mid 90's Braindance with hectic & quick paced patterns, klanks, whirl and rhythmically short voice snippets. B-side has Jimi Tenor Remix, highlighting a (clubbier) structure resembling the area of early Rephlex and Warp releases.

2025 Repress

The reissue of SOCIAL LOVER's sophomore effort on TUGBOAT EDITIONS, after the previous sell outs of this & "FEEL MY LOVE". This edition gets a slight update with the dub/instrumental version as the B side. The A SIDE is a dubby bubbly cover of EVELYN "CHAMPAGNE" KING classic "LOVE COME DOWN".

Die Südlondoner Sängerin Jaz Karis präsentiert mit 'Favourites' ihren ersten Tonträger mit 15 Songs aus ihren bisherigen, digital erschienenen EPs. Jaz' stilistische Vielfalt reicht von R&B über Reggae bis Afrobeats, als Gäste sind TINYMAN, Blue Lab Beats und Afronaut Zu & Sillkey vertreten, als Producer u.a. P2J (bekannt für seine Arbeiten mit Beyoncé, Wizkid, Stormzy, FKA Twigs, Tems, Doja Cat) und Juls (Mr Eazi, Stonebwoy, Goldlink, Wanda Coal, Burna Boy).

Chaz Bear (formerly Bundick) was a musician from birth. Growing up, it was normal to hear music across genres, from Michael Jackson to Elvis Costello to The Specials, in the Bundick household. These influences were quite unique for a biracial kid growing up in South Carolina, contributing to the complexity of Chaz’s self-understanding and expression through his own music.

Chaz began playing and recording original compositions in his preteen years, forming multiple indie bands starting in middle school and continuing until his personal project, Toro y Moi, was signed by Carpark Records in 2009. Before getting signed, he was already an incredibly prolific artist, having released over 10 Toro y Moi albums on his own (and undoubtedly retaining a vast compendium of unreleased songs). His personal work drew upon a vaster array of influences than did his full band. Early Toro work called upon Chaz’s childhood exposure to 80’s R&B, pop and electronic music, while also evolving with his discoveries of acts like My Bloody Valentine and J Dilla and his burgeoning interest in French house. Just before his graduation from the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in graphic design, Chaz caught the attention of music bloggers and record labels with his dreamy, bedroom recordings.

Outer Peace, was written and recorded in the Bay Area after Chaz’s return from a one year stint in Portland. It is somewhat of a homecoming celebration, filled with features by friends and saturated with a playfulness that had not previously been embraced in past Toro albums. Outer Peace stands in contrast to the more sparse and contemplative Boo Boo, an album recorded while in Portland in relative isolation. With Outer Peace, Chaz showcases his ability to remain on the cutting edge of music’s evolution while not taking himself too seriously. There are contemporary hip hop references mixed in with funk, Eurodance and ambient elements, all interwoven expertly and retaining that quintessential Toro y Moi aesthetic.

ROMEs „Martial Ambient Serie“ mit ihren düsteren, industriellen Klanglandschaften - größtenteils auf restauriertem historischem Audiomaterial basierend - versetzt uns zurück in die blutgetränkten Schlachtfelder der jüngsten europäischen Geschichte, als sich ähnlich wie heute die Ideologien auf europäischem Boden bis zum Tod bekämpften.

Was mit „Käferzeit“ (2019) und „Gärten und Straßen“ (2020) begann und später mit „Haus der Flieger“ (2021) und „Blätter und Steine“ (2023) erweitert wurde, findet nun in „Aster und Edelweiß“ seine fünfte und finale Umsetzung.

„Aster und Edelweiß“ befasst sich mit dem Leben und dem Vermächtnis des 1960 in Pully verstorbenen General Guisan, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Schweizer Armee zur Zeit des Zweiten Weltkrieges, der es wie kein anderer verstand, das Durchhaltevermögen und den Wehrwillen der Schweizer Soldaten und der Bevölkerung angesichts eines möglichen Einmarschs zu stählen. Dabei laden ROME den Hörer auf eine düstere Klangwanderung ein, die durch filigrane Samplearbeit und traumhafte, orgelgetriebene Sequenzen voller dunkler Anmut und zerbrechlicher Eleganz geprägt ist: Eine eindringliche und atemberaubende Reise in das Reich der Pflicht, der Beharrlichkeit und des Opfers.

- Schwarzes, 180 Gramm schweres 12“ Vinyl, Spezielles Schallplatten-Master, Extra audiophiler Tonträger von hoher Qualität – deutsche Pressung, Stabile Kastentasche, Cover im Inside-Out Druckverfahren bedruckt, Schwarze, antistatisch gefütterte Innentasche, Postkarte, Handnummeriert von Jérôme Reuter, Signiert von Jérôme Reuter, Limitiert auf 500 Exemplare

Thank You For Using GTL is a 2020 album from vaunted Los Angeles rapper, Drakeo the Ruler. The album contains verses recorded entirely through phone service from GTL while Drakeo the Ruler was incarcerated at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles, California. The album focuses on topics such as the targeting of rap and rappers by the US criminal justice system, the prison-industrial complex, incarceration, capitalism, and the gray area between what’s real versus fiction in hip-hop. Lauded by Pitchfork as “Likely the greatest rap album ever recorded from jail,” and included at number 32 on their 50 Best Albums of 2020, the album serves as an interesting moment in hip-hop, further cementing Drakeo the Ruler as one of LA’s most beloved rap luminaries. For the very first time, for any album, on any format, Drakeo’s music will be available on vinyl for fans. Pressed on Green & Blue A Side B Side vinyl and limited to 1700 copies.

Vines, the solo project of New York-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Cassie Wieland, offers a window into her inner world through expansive swaths of sound. She pieces together a celestial mix of synths, percussion, strings, and vocoded voice, making music that is at once deeply personal and cinematic in scope. This diaristic approach first took shape with her 2023 EP Birthday Party, and is crystallized on her debut LP, I’ll be here. With the sweeping and vulnerable I’ll be here, Vines arrives fully formed as an artist who crafts deeply resonant and open music–the kind that invites listeners in to listen, reflect, and share in the journey of learning through living.

“It was through making music that I was able to meet myself,” Wieland said. “Anything I’m going through or feeling is something that somebody else out there can relate to, and that’s really special to me.”

I’ll be here is both a culmination of years spent creating gossamer soundscapes and an opening to a new journey for Wieland as an artist. The album grew out of her years as a composer and songwriter, and builds on the language she developed on Birthday Party, which transformed the tumultuous feelings of the passing of time into minimalist meditations. It was just a start, though–a prologue, a development of the kind of language and ideas she wanted to express. With I’ll be here, she digs deeper and writes music that feels more sprawling, further solidifying her singular voice.

Wieland’s musical composition process is similar to journaling, lending itself to the music’s honesty. When she writes, she makes room for all the ideas she has; in these sessions, there are no wrong ideas, and she allows the music to be attuned to the experiences she’s having at the time. With I’ll be here, Wieland zeroes in on themes of anxiety, loneliness, navigating human connection, and having to grow up from a young age, ultimately coming to a place of acceptance. And though it began as a journal written in solitude, her collaborators shape the music with her.

Working with friends, in fact, was a crucial part of bringing the record to life. “Everything that was supposed to happen came together so easily because of the people involved,” Wieland said. I’ll be here was co-produced and recorded with Wieland’s longtime collaborator Mike Tierney, a four time Grammy-nominated engineer who has worked with artists across the contemporary classical and experimental scene like minimalist pioneer Steve Reich, LA’s preeminent classical ensemble Wild Up, and various bands on Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music label. Percussionist and composer Adam Holmes and violinist Adrianne Munden-Dixon are two other longtime collaborators who are frequent fixtures of her live show. Holmes plays synths, drums, and banjo; in live settings, his kit is loaded with elements of the songs that are then triggered by MIDI, making the music an interactive, evolving experience. The album’s gentle, filamented edges are colored by Munden-Dixon, whose poignant string melodies elevate Wieland’s introspective compositions, as well as cellist Helen Newby, saxophonists Julian Velasco and Jordan Lulloff, and bassist Pat Swoboda.

Wieland takes an economic approach to writing music, building the swirling and immersive landscapes of Vines through short melodies, lyrics, and phrases. As each element layers and interweaves, they grow into sprawling webs of ghostly sound. Prior to Vines, Wieland composed pieces for other people to play using a minimalist’s sensibility, writing slowly unfolding melodies for instruments like violin and saxophone. In recent years, she sharpened her solo style across a variety of singles and covers which have garnered significant attention on social media for their emotional resonance (“being loved isn't the same as being understood” in particular went massively viral on TikTok in 2024). Birthday Party, her debut as Vines, brought her writing to a much more intimate space, centering on her vocoded voice cloaked in feathery reverb. A series of recent singles, meanwhile, including “I am my home,” showcase the way that Wieland’s music is born from the story of her innermost feelings, extending far beyond just the self.

Though Wieland’s music often deals with dark themes, it unfolds with tender melancholy, the kind that feels like a warm embrace. On “Evicted,” Wieland wonders if she’s getting sick or moving on, if she’s lost or found. Her vocals expand with each lyrical repetition, as the instrumentals slowly encircle and the music’s rhythm grows and bursts into a heart-wrenching, yet radiant wave reminiscent of post-rock bands like Explosions in the Sky. “Tired” follows a similar trajectory, building from a looping, melancholy rhythm and floating lyrics into a solemn resignation. Elsewhere, Wieland takes a more ruminative approach: “Omw” begins with twinkling piano and melancholy strings that gradually transform into an undulating mass. It is a song born out of the warm feeling of reminiscence, the slight return of hope that comes with nostalgia.

With any searching journey, there is also a point of understanding. The title track closes the album with the freedom of acceptance. A marching drum beats steadily beneath Wieland’s open vocals, moving forward, ever onward as it flies into the ether. In Wieland’s delicately textured music, there is room to come into yourself, and learn to love whomever that is. I’ll be here is a special space that can be all your own, one in which to feel what needs to be felt. “This is music for your story,” Wieland said. “I want you to use it how you need it.”

Der Bürgermeister hat heute "Tag der offenen Tür" und will eine Rede halten. Doch plötzlich redet er nur dummes Zeug; es geht ihm wohl nicht gut. Kein Wunder: Beim Empfang des Botschafters hat er viel zu viel gegessen. Bibi tut er sehr leid, und sie möchte ihn gesund hexen. Doch das hätte sie besser nicht tun sollen.