quête:máté si

Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnome actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material - quite a few albums' worth - on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp. Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston's rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnome became a band.

Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP - four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage - was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.



At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Frankston scene and around Melbourne. They started breaking out, sharing bills with the likes of Drunk Mums, Skegss, Split System, The Prize, The Unknowns, Cosmic Psychos, Hockey Dad, Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8's, The Breadmakers, Loose Lips, fellow Frankstoners/Singing Bird alumni The Belair Lip Bombs, and, on a quick trip to Sydney, Cammy Cautious & The Wrestlers.

And now, finally, we have The Gnomes' debut album. Twelve killer tracks that combine the best of the '60s with the best of today. Twelve killer tracks that show off assertive and accomplished songwriting, singing and playing and an explosive and authentic swinging group sound. Twelve killers slices of raw rock'n'roll running the gamut from the savage Rhythm & Blues of "Play With You" and “Better With You” to the vibrant beat pop of "I'll Be There" and "I'm Not The One", with forays into the heavy reverb psych of "Stung", the Cavern/Star Club stylings of "Flippin' Stomp" and the first flyte jangle of "Time Will Tell" along the way. There’s more of course, including a new version of that Kinks-style kranker “I Like It” for good measure.

Frankston’s Fab Four are taking their sound to the world. Join them for the ride!

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

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

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

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

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

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

British South African composer & producer Galina Juritz presents 'One Weird Trick', her debut solo album on London's home for interdisciplinary oddballs, Kit Records.

As a classically trained violinist, Galina has worked in bands and ensembles such as ShhArt Ensemble, Inclementine, and in various combinations featuring leading musicians from Cape Town and Johannesburg's classical and jazz scenes.

Galina composed the music for Madness: Songs Of Hope and Despair, a cantata made in collaboration with Dizu Plaatjies, with a libretto by psychiatrist Dr Sean Baumann. Madness debuted at the World Psychiatry International Congress in 2016, and had a two week run at Cape Town's Baxter Theatre in 2017. As a composer she writes frequently for film, animation and ensemble.

She has collaborated with the likes of composer Neo Muyanga, Mr Beatnick, Cara Stacey, Kelpe, Juliana Venter, Violeta Garcia, Kit Records head Richard Greenan & more. Galina has been remixed by the likes of Photay, Memotone and Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet, The Smile).

'One Weird Trick' is the culmination of her solo material. Still rooted in the ornate, technical world of string composition and arrangement, the album is stubbornly unclassifiable.

Opening with time-dilated ambient ('Leaves') before segueing into rippling, florid techno ('Skeleton and Tiger fighting'), Galina twists again and again, shifting gears through stoned, jazz-inflected r'n'b ('Things I Know to be True'), string-led widescreen songcraft ('Come Back') and orchestral minimalism for standing on vast shorelines ('Time Split at the Seams of Your Departure [everything is now before and after]').

On the B side, Galina flexes her composition chops with the storming jazz of 'Spirit Level', recorded by Cape Town-based musicians Buddy Wells, Andrew Lilley, Jonno Sweetman & Stephen de Souza. Galina is then joined by the Stockholm Sax Quartet on 'In Rebellion of Time', a stately Reichian revelation that moves from solemn ballet to ecstatic multiharmonic denouement. To close, Galina retrieves oozing electronics and smeared journal entries from the guts of a black hole - a fitting conclusion to a truly unique, unpredictable, delightful, sad, infectious, and bizarre record.

Influences / sounds like: Louis Cole, Matthew Herbert, Darkside, Thundercat, Eiko Ishibashi, ECM, Oliver Coates.

'One Weird Trick' is out 7th November 2025 via Kit Records, available on vinyl & digital formats.

Kit Records will throw an album launch party at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston, London on 30th October 2025. Tickets TBC.









[g] 07: Time Split at the Seams of Your Departure (Everything Is Now Before and After) [feat. sir kay]

rhi·zome
/ˈrīˌzōm/ • RIGH-zohm • noun
a somewhat elongated usually horizontal subterranean plant stem that is often thickened by deposits of reserve food material, produces shoots above and roots below, and is distinguished from a true root in possessing buds, nodes, and usually scalelike leaves a network that connects any point to any other point

Martin Denny returns with his loyal crew of multi-instrumentalists that had previously performed on
Forbidden Island, Primitiva, Hypnotique & Quiet Village: stand up bass player Harvey Ragsdale, vibe player Julius Wechter (also a member of the legendary recording unit The Wrecking Crew) and percussionist Augie Colon who was called the “Grandfather of Hawaii Percussion”. And of course, the famous cover girl on Martin Denny’s albums, Sandy Warner, otherwise known as “The Exotica Girl”, returns as well. Although Denny was recording his output at an astonishingly brisk rate, there’s something about Exotica Vol. III, which makes it one of his best and most sought-after with collectors and listeners. Of course, the brilliance of the lead-off track of Les Baxter’s “Jungle River Boat”, with its tight vibe-and-percussion workout intertwined with Colon’s iconic bird calls and other worldly sounds, only makes the sweet, lazy water sounds of the following track “Harbor Lights” all the more delightfully mysterious. So pour your drink of choice, dim the lights, open the windows, and let Exotica Vol. III roll across you.
“His last volume is a no-brainer. The material is simply too good to avoid.” – AMBIENT EXOTICA

Recital releases The Holy Restaurant, the new full-length album by Derek Baron, and their first solo LP since Curtain (Recital, 2020).

The album is built from years of miniature transcriptions of improvisations, functioning in many ways as a sister to Curtain. Half-thoughts and mistakes are revisited, gilded, and illuminated. The floorboards of the album are laid with piano, organ, string pads, while serrated accruements (distortions, flourishes, and recording interferences) step and drop overhead. The resulting conflux, as Baron notes in the accompanying booklet “becomes the point and the problem to explore.”

The second track “Oven Girls” opens with us galloping on a horse in some video-game meadow on a bed of MIDI strings. Abruptly, a helicopter soars over us and we transition to a latticed guitar and woodwind exploration. The album rolls on in this fashion, juxtaposing musical half-sentences within a museum of sounds rag-picked from history and daily life. Emotional interviews with Midwestern friars who build and sell caskets are set against gothic piano and guitar duets. On “Music in the Casket,” A disorienting and hilariously epic guitar solo erupts. The penultimate titular piece, “The Holy Restaurant,” sets a text written by Baron’s grandfather. A small chorus voices his words, echoing the humanistic storytelling of “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s A Letter From Home. Under sunlit piano progressions, a fleet of smokey trumpets emerges.

Running throughout the album is a series of “traces”: short melodic phrases painted over again and again with different real and MIDI instrumentation. The “luxurious asceticism of doubling” as Baron puts it. They explain, “Part of the allure for me is that the ‘original’ material is itself kind of thin, sketchy, meaningless, maybe calling attention to itself only by way of a felicitous mistake. Hearing, transcribing, and learning what was basically only ever played first on accident becomes the guiding concern.”

The album’s shifting, variegated forms and voices pass quickly; the record feels both comforting and elusive, suitable for any hour of the day.

The Holy Restaurant features guest players Ed Atkins, Lucy Liyou, Quentin Moore, Emily Martin, Dominic Frigo, Jacob Wick, and several of Baron’s family members. It is released in a limited edition vinyl pressing of 200 copies, accompanied by a booklet of effusive program notes by the composer, alongside an assemblage of photographs, scores, and artwork.

In between the folds of ceremony and commonality lies a perennial spring of musical expression.

A statement along the time continuum, or a testament to the resilient resourcefulness embedded in that truth, forms the philosophical approach of this album – the first outing of Dídac.
Studying an extensive archive of instruments, artifacts, and field recordings at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève—a space steeped in folkloric gesture – Dídac encountered a cosmos of liturgical music and folk song. Anchored in reverance for tradition and transformation alike, this album navigates the old-world Mediterranean lore through a post-modern ambient lens, threading drone, gentle rhythm, electroacoustic textures and the crude tactility of archival material into one woven tapestry.

Under the guidance of Dr. Madeleine Leclair, Dídac was invited to work within one of the world’s most extensive ethno- musicological archives—L’AIMP. In the saturated basements and tape-lined backrooms of the museum, he submerged himself in the sounds of ritual and rural life: wax cylinders from the Eastern Mediterranean, tapes of liturgical hymn, the worn edges of communal song.
In a makeshift studio on the fourth floor of the museum, he sifted through the hours of material he collected, gradually discovering that the archive was no static source – It did not dictate; rather, it served as a companion—offering not answers, but questions. Not a beaten track, but a cluster of sonic clues and riddles. Samples do appear occasionally, tenderly interwoven into the dialogue of the songs. In Dídac’s self-titled debut, the past is not worn as ornament or kitsch; it is listened to and responded to. The museum, its archives, and the visit to Geneva became a foundational culisse of sorts, igniting a myriad of rough cuts and improvisational outtakes.
Dídac, or Diego Ocejo Muñoz, was born in Madrid in 1994 to a family of both Catalan and Castilian origin.

Brought up in a religious household, the influence of the Catholic Church innately shaped the social fabric, schooling and daily life. This lingering dominance led the adolescent Diego into a path of rejection of everything sacramental, promptly resorting to subversion in the shape of grafitti, skateboarding and underground music. Only later in life, after a rigorous venture as an acid and electro producer, the Church re-emerged before him in new light, invoking a deep fascination for its mysticism, iconography and choral tradition.

Spain in general and Catalonia in particular, has long served as a crossroads of the eastern–western Mediterranean continuum, with many of its cultures sharing aspects of way of life and ceremony. At the MEG, Diego found himself puzzled with this realization, resulting in a sonic amalgamation that reaches farther away from the rugged mountains of Catalonia than you might perceive at first encounter.

The deeply embedded memory of rite and public ceremony, religious hymn and landscape—sieved through the undercurrent of personal re-emergence, forms the emotional topography of this album. The record does not trace this landscape; it inhabits it. Its repetitive mysticism and ambient, wide-eyed gaze could possibly evoke (perhaps redundant) comparisons to artists such as Dimitris Petsetakis, or Popol Vuh’s late 70’s cinema scores.
The delicate lines between the sacred and the secular – between memory and re-invention – serve as a cipher to understanding this album in its entirety. Titles like Malpàs Mines or Pantocrator’s Portal Outro nudge toward a folkloric and devotional bedrock—places where labor and spirituality coexist, where names preserve both dust and veneration.

Nevertheless, this is far from mere nostalgia. It is a reclamation — singing alongside the spirits of the past, nurturing what still hums beneath the soil. It is an intimate reflection on tradition, rebellion, adolescence, ceremony and fantasy – a pastoral contemplation on what once was and what is to be.

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

Charmaine Lee ist eine in New York lebende Sängerin, Komponistin und Elektronik-Künstlerin, die für ihre furchtlosen Erkundungen von Stimme, Geräuschen und Improvisation bekannt ist. Zu ihren Kollaborationen zählen Ikue Mori, Conrad Tao, JACK Quartet, Spektral Quartet und Wet Ink Ensemble, mit Auftritten im Lincoln Center, MoMA und Storm King Art Center. Nach ihrem von der Kritik gefeierten Debüt KNVF (Erratum Musical , 2021) kehrt Charmaine Lee mit Tulpaa zurück, einem kühnen neuen Statement, das das Ausdruckspotenzial der menschlichen Stimme und der Elektronik bis an die Grenzen treibt. Während ihre früheren Arbeiten ruhige Texturen und gestische Nuancen erforschten, ist Tulpa viszeral und unmittelbar und verbindet rohe Stimmkraft mit dichten Schichten analoger und digitaler Bearbeitung. Inspiriert von der Körperlichkeit des Rock der 70er Jahre und den esoterischen Eigenschaften von Hochspannungs-Röhrengeräten, schafft Lee eine Klangwelt, die sowohl wild als auch futuristisch ist. Tulpa pulsiert mit gesättigten Obertönen, mikroskopischen Details und dynamischen Verschiebungen in der Skala, die zwischen Intimität und Unermesslichkeit hin- und herpendeln. Produziert und aufgenommen von Randall Dunn (SUNNO))), Kali Malone, Anna von Hausswolff), wurde Tulpa mit einer einzigartigen räumlichen Technik erstellt: Lees Stimme wurde in ein direktes Signal und mehrere Vintage-Röhrenverstärker aufgeteilt, die als Lautsprecher dienten, wodurch eine feedbackreiche, dimensionale Umgebung entstand. Das Ergebnis ist eine Aufnahme, die sich taktil und immersiv anfühlt - gleichzeitig geerdet und spektral. ,Ich war fasziniert von diesem Sound der 70er Jahre - wie lebendig und unvorhersehbar er sich anfühlte und doch so tief verkörpert war", sagt Lee. ,In Tulpa geht es darum, Grenzen aufzulösen: zwischen Körper und Maschine, Raum und Wahrnehmung, Klang und Illusion." Der Titel bezieht sich auf ein Konzept aus der tibetischen Mystik: Ein Tulpa ist ein Wesen, das durch konzentriertes Denken heraufbeschworen wird. Lee verwendet diese Idee als Metapher für ihre Praxis, in der Klang zu einem materiellen Akt der Vorstellungskraft wird, der zwischen Präsenz und Erscheinung wechselt. Das Album endet mit einem meditativen Duett mit dem weltberühmten Reed-Spieler Ned Rothenberg an der Bassklarinette , einem spärlichen und weitläufigen Track, der vom Noh-Theater inspiriert ist. Es bietet einen Moment der Stille, der noch lange nach dem Ende des Albums nachhallt.

Retinal Rivalry ist der Soundtrack zu Cyprien Gaillards neuem stereoskopischen Film Retinal Rivalry (2024). ,Es ist eine faszinierende Reise durch die deutsche Stadtlandschaft und ihre vielschichtige historische und soziale Bedeutung. Aufbauend auf seiner früheren Erforschung der skulpturalen Qualitäten dreidimensionaler bewegter Bilder geht das Werk über die Grenzen der Leinwand hinaus. Durch die Ausschöpfung des vollen Potenzials modernster Technologie bietet Gaillard eine erweiterte, geschärfte und tief bewegende neue Sicht auf die Welt um uns herum. Retinal Rivalry ist nach dem Phänomen der visuellen Wahrnehmung benannt, das auftritt, wenn das Gehirn zwei widersprüchliche Bilder gleichzeitig empfängt. Anstatt zu einem 3D-Bild zu verschmelzen, wechselt das neuronale System zwischen der Priorisierung des einen Bildes und der Unterdrückung des anderen, was beim Betrachter Verwirrung und Unbehagen hervorruft. Gaillards Film setzt sich mit diesen Komplexitäten der visuellen Verarbeitung und den Grenzen der Technologie auseinander und sammelt visuelle Informationen durch außergewöhnliche, oft augenzwinkernde Aufnahmen, die das Innere und das Äußere, das Eingeschlossene und das Verstreute sowie das Natürliche und das Gebaute miteinander verflechten. Seine Kamera nimmt ungewöhnliche Blickwinkel ein, wechselt von sanften Luftperspektiven zu einem niedrigen Blickwinkel aus der Perspektive eines Nagetiers, zu schwindelerregenden Ein- und Ausblendungen auf der knolligen Nase einer Skulptur oder zu einer langen Einstellung eines Zuges, der durch eine Landschaft fährt, und zieht uns in eine vielschichtige Erfahrung hinein, die zwischen einem schlechten Trip und unerwarteter Schönheit, die Trost spendet, schwankt. In ,Retinal Rivalry" deuten verschiedene Treppen, Spiralen und Aufzüge auf einen Zustand des ständigen Auf- und Abstiegs hin und betonen das Wechselspiel zwischen Distanz und Nähe, abgrundtiefer Tiefe und lebendiger skulpturaler Darstellung. Der Film pulsiert rhythmisch mit Bildern, die anschwellen und sich zusammenziehen, sich aufblähen und entleeren. Er manipuliert das Gefühl der Zuschauer für Tiefe, Maßstab und Textur und lässt vertraute Materialien und Orte unheimlich erscheinen, wobei er die inhärenten Ungenauigkeiten und Verzerrungen der Darstellung hervorhebt. ,Retinal Rivalry" zeichnet die gewöhnliche Welt in großartigen Details auf und versucht dabei, unter die Oberfläche der Dinge zu blicken. Der Film ist eine Darstellung von Raum und Zeit, die Darstellungsweisen destabilisiert und eine neue Hyper-Vision-Version der Realität bietet. Mit 120 Bildern pro Sekunde aufgenommen und mit derselben Geschwindigkeit projiziert - fünfmal so schnell wie im Kino üblich - fängt Gaillard mehr ein, als das menschliche Auge natürlich wahrnehmen kann. Die Filmmusik greift auf verschiedene klangliche Elemente zurück und unterstreicht so die Erforschung von Dissonanz und Synchronität. Indonesische Instrumentalmusik wird überarbeitet und mit Feldaufnahmen von rumpelnden schweren Maschinen und seltsam melodischem Würgen kombiniert. Der Soundtrack enthält auch die ersten Zeilen aus Werner Herzogs Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) sowie die dazugehörige Ouvertüre der deutschen Band Popol Vuh. Die Klanglandschaft von Retinal Rivalry steht im Kontrast zu den Bildern - was wir sehen, steht oft im Widerspruch zu dem, was wir hören. Nur in einem Abschnitt verschmelzen Ton und Bild: Ein gebrochenes Bein betätigt das Pedal einer interaktiven Orgel, um ein Stück von Johann Sebastian Bach zu spielen, das immer wieder ins Stocken gerät.

Autodidactic musicologist and sample collagist U turned his archival eye on the melting pot of ‘80s post-punk with his debut ‘Life Isn’t A Fountain?’ EP for Lex. He follows up with an experimental exploration of regional identity with ARCHENFIELD, a deeply personal collection of ambient music and found sound that examines the relationship between geographical space and aural histories.

To construct this record U mined a wealth of recorded material relevant to the area. With a nod to traditional music, he takes samples from these records and creates beautifully atmospheric sound pieces that are often mixed with painstakingly researched snippets to create a stirring reflection on local history and broader themes of how we interact, or even fail to interact, with English folklore today.

Pressed on 180g vinyl, the album comes with a 24-page visual companion that expands on its themes and folk stories through imagery and narrative, echoing the album’s soundscape. : The Caretaker, Oneohtrix Point Never, JG Bie1berkopf, Maxime Denuc, Leon Vynehall

Mehr als 40 Jahre nach seiner Erstveröffentlichung ist Heartbeat City nach wie vor das kommerziell erfolgreichste Album von The Cars, das in den USA mit 4-fach-Platin ausgezeichnet wurde und weltweit die Charts erreichte. Produziert von Robert John „Mutt“ Lange, enthält es sechs Hitsingles, darunter „Drive“, „You Might Think“ und „Magic“.Die Deluxe-Edition zum 40. Jubiläum ist ein 4-CD-Set, das unveröffentlichtes Material enthält, darunter B-Seiten, Remixe, frühe Mixe, alternative Versionen und ein komplettes Konzert aus dem Jahr 1984, das in Houston aufgenommen wurde. Eine Replik der originalen Vinyl-LP sowie ein wunderschönes 16-seitiges, 12x12 Zoll großes Farbbuch sind ebenfalls Teil dieses Sets. Es enthält außerdem Track-by-Track-Kommentare von Keyboarder und Bandmitglied Greg Hawkes.

Bilders new album, Neverlasting is a mix of psychic adventures, hard psychedelia and commentary with a bite. Bilders have always sung outliers with a heap of empathy—exploitation of migrants, unmitigated killing and the state of our depleted planet. This album maintains an analog feel with technical finesse as it casts a cold eye on uses and abuses of power in the higher echelons. It is pure Bilders. Surprise collaborations bring in fresh tangents of colour and emotional edge. “We are the Neverlasting renter-squatters of Earth exhausted”. The band is once again the voice/guitar of Bill Direen, bass of Matt Swanson and near everything else by Alex McManus, with guesting by former Bilders. It’s the same lineup as last year’s acclaimed Dustbin of Empathy, released by Grapefruit and Sophomore Lounge, and the first ‘core’ Bilders lineup to remain constant for more than one album. The new compatibility shows. It’s an album that builds on current strengths. Notable guestings include Athens Georgia lights Claire Horne of 1980s BBQ Killers, and Curtiss Pernice, guitarist of heavy vanguard Porn Orchard, with a snook-in from experimental and electronic prince Todd Gerber. Two never-released tunes by vintage Bilders (Stu Page and Greig Bainbridge) sit perfectly with the new material. This is quite simply the strongest Bilders album ever.

When Soft Cell played a spectacular, sold-out show before 20,000 fans at The O2 in September 2018, the London concert was seen by all and sundry as a grand finale. It had been billed as One Night: One Final Time, leaving devotees in no doubt that a duo who had done so much to define the sound of British electronic pop in the 1980s were saying hello to wave one last, emotional goodbye. At least that had been the idea. Singer Marc Almond and instrumentalist Dave Ball had originally gone their separate ways in 1984 before reuniting for two years in the early 2000s to make a new album, Cruelty Without Beauty. The intention at The O2 had been to draw a line under a rollercoaster ride that had seen Soft Cell secure three Top Ten albums and six Top Ten singles, including 1981’s all-conquering Tainted Love, while setting a template for synth acts from the Pet Shop Boys to Years & Years.



But such was the reaction – and the sense of purpose the pair rediscovered onstage – that the big adieu ultimately turned out to be a brilliant new dawn. The reality is that Marc and Dave bring the best out of one another as performers, both onstage and in the studio, and the sense that there was still plenty of mileage left in their partnership was inescapable. The latest fruits of a bond that was first forged in the art department of Leeds Polytechnic in 1977 were in the shape of a new studio album, *Happiness Not Included, and a series of live dates in the UK and the US that saw the band treat fans to a mixture of new material, classic hits and their 1981 debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which was played in its entirety for the first time to mark its 40th anniversary.

System Olympia presents a bold, cinematic compilation that redefines the sound of sensuality. Love Language is an
18-track double-vinyl release pressed on deluxe heavyweight black vinyl.
It’s accompanied by a provocative, limited-edition 24-page fanzine, exclusive to 18+ audiences.
This is not just a compilation, Love Language is a manifesto. A carefully curated sonic journey through eroticism, artistic rebellion,
and liberation, it spans nearly five decades of music and features exclusive edits and rare gems that illuminate System Olympia’s
radical aesthetic vision.

****
Since her emergence on the electronic underground, System Olympia has carved out a distinct, sensual sonic universe, equal parts
vulnerable and defiant. With Love Language, she presents her most audacious project to date: a compilation rooted in what she
calls The Aesthetics of Sexual Desire in Sound.

It’s a daring declaration that desire is more than a feeling - it’s a language. Across 20 tracks, including her own sultry opener “The
Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN)” and a rare System Olympia edit of Working Men’s Club’s “Ploys”, this compilation speaks in
rhythms and textures that evoke longing, intimacy, and ecstatic release.
This is not a traditional compilation. System Olympia’s sequencing is cinematic and deliberate. Every track a scene in a film that exists
only in the listener’s imagination. From the retro-futurist seduction of Flavia Fortunato’s Italo gem “Se Tu Vuoi” to the deep, extended
tension of Musclecars’ “Running Out of Time,” each piece plays its part in an arc of anticipation, climax, and reflection.Uniting artists as diverse as Daniele Baldelli, Piero Umiliani, and DJ Rocca, Love Language refuses boundaries of genre, era, or
expectation. It dances between vintage Italo-disco, dreamy electronica, sweaty club tracks, and avant-garde jazz, forming a rich
tapestry of sound and sensation.

System Olympia explains, “This is music for lovers, outsiders, and dreamers. It's a rebellion made of velvet and
basslines.

The accompanying 24-page fanzine insert, restricted to adults, further deepens the narrative, with erotic visual fragments and
poetic texts that amplify the compilation’s raw, sensual energy. A tangible extension of the music’s spirit, the zine invites listeners to
step into Olympia’s world and engage their senses fully.

As much a provocation as it is a celebration, Love Language is a deeply personal curation and a radical act of creative freedom. It
champions eroticism as art, desire as dialogue, and music as a liberatory force.

a A1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN) 3:44
b A2. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi 3:38
c A3. See Thru Hands - Hot City 3:57
[d] A4. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light [4:43]
[e] A5. Ruins - Sexual Desire [3:14]
[f] B1. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix) [5:13]
[g] B2. musclecars - Running Out Of Time [5:10]
[h] B3. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit) [4:56]
[i] B4. Royalty - Heart Strings [5:05]
[j] C1. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper [3:45]
[k] C2. Admiral - Soho Girl [4:14]
[l] C3. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go? [3:41]
[m] C4. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever [4:40]
[n] D1. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro [3:55]
[o] D2. LNDFK - Hana-bi [1:55]
[p] D3. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante [2:47]

[a] A1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN) [3:44]
[b] A2. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi [3:38]
[c] A3. See Thru Hands - Hot City [3:57]
[d] A4. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light [4:43]
[e] A5. Ruins - Sexual Desire [3:14]
[f] B1. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix) [5:13]
[g] B2. musclecars - Running Out Of Time [5:10]
[h] B3. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit) [4:56]
[i] B4. Royalty - Heart Strings [5:05]
[j] C1. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper [3:45]
[k] C2. Admiral - Soho Girl [4:14]
[l] C3. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go? [3:41]
[m] C4. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever [4:40]
[n] D1. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro [3:55]
[o] D2. LNDFK - Hana-bi [1:55]
[p] D3. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante [2:47]

[a] A1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN) [3:44]
[b] A2. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi [3:38]
[c] A3. See Thru Hands - Hot City [3:57]
[d] A4. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light [4:43]
[e] A5. Ruins - Sexual Desire [3:14]
[f] B1. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix) [5:13]
[g] B2. musclecars - Running Out Of Time [5:10]
[h] B3. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit) [4:56]
[i] B4. Royalty - Heart Strings [5:05]
[j] C1. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper [3:45]
[k] C2. Admiral - Soho Girl [4:14]
[l] C3. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go? [3:41]
[m] C4. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever [4:40]
[n] D1. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro [3:55]
[o] D2. LNDFK - Hana-bi [1:55]
[p] D3. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante [2:47]

[a] A1. System Olympia - The Heat Of The Night (feat. REINEN) [3:44]
[b] A2. Flavia Fortunato - Se Tu Vuoi [3:38]
[c] A3. See Thru Hands - Hot City [3:57]
[d] A4. Daniele Baldelli, Francesca Amati - Inner Light [4:43]
[e] A5. Ruins - Sexual Desire [3:14]
[f] B1. Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Eli's Mix) [5:13]
[g] B2. musclecars - Running Out Of Time [5:10]
[h] B3. Working Men's Club - Ploys (System Olympia Edit) [4:56]
[i] B4. Royalty - Heart Strings [5:05]
[j] C1. Dirty Art Club - Daysleeper [3:45]
[k] C2. Admiral - Soho Girl [4:14]
[l] C3. Tom Sharkett & Raf Rundell - Where's It All Go? [3:41]
[m] C4. Gina Calabrese - Nobody Lives Forever [4:40]
[n] D1. Romolo Grano, Gianni Oddi & Edda Dell'Orso - Kilimangiaro [3:55]
[o] D2. LNDFK - Hana-bi [1:55]
[p] D3. Fitness Forever - Vederti Distante [2:47]

Body Clinic joins us for our next 12” release with four tribal tech-house cuts, recalling the sound of early-2000s Pacha. With E-Talking on Papa Nugs’ label running the festival circuit this summer, he’s already become the talk of the scene—and this EP makes clear why.

Each track is driven by drums at the highest grade—rugged, weighty basslines locking in with sci-fi warped FX, keeping the floor in constant motion. Trippy vocal cuts thread through the grooves, getting deep into our heads and sending minds off into nearby dimensions. And that’s just the a-side.

Flip it over and Bongo Loco comes rolling in—a true cruiser. Built around a huge breakdown of layered bongos, it kicks back in with the kind of chest-rattling low end that have become Body Clinic’s signature. It’s the moment where hands shoot in the air, the rhythm carrying you further into the night. On b2, My Mate Dave shifts gears again—jumping off the old-school tech foundations and landing closer to the progressive sound we know BC for. It’s a peak-time anthem through and through.

Promo downloads have quickly come in from Chris Stussy, Josh Baker, Christopher Ledger, Roza Terenzi, and East End Dubs, marking it as one of the most anticipated releases of 2025.

What began as a nostalgic nod to Camden Market’s bootleg culture has become the next chapter of in the Running Back Mastermix series. At once deeply personal and openly communal, it shows how a lifetime of production can be condensed into 90 minutes without losing its edge — proof that the mixtape, even in 2025, still has stories left to tell.
What followed was a patient excavation. Old DATs were pulled out of storage, forgotten files surfaced from hard drives, and new material was written to sit alongside them.
Together, these fragments revealed a body of work stretching back more than 25 years — tracks that moved across the spectrum of house and techno but shared a common thread of character and atmosphere.
In May of this year, the archive finally found its form. Recorded live on three decks using Serato, the resulting mix brings together 24 tracks: unreleased material from the past and brand new productions, all stitched together into a continuous narrative. It’s equal parts retrospective and statement of intent — less a museum piece than a living document.
Here the vinyl edition features a curated selection of 11 tracks from the mix.

The Lemonheads tease new material with this super limited 12" single. Rekindling the near-perfect pop for which they're famed, the single focuses on the light and dark balance of their impending new album Love Chant that will be released on Fire Records this Fall. Beautifully ill-balanced, `Deep End' and `Sad Cinderella' traverse the highs and lows of life, perfectly illustrating Evan Dando's esoteric musical taste. `Deep End' is a churning riff monster with light-the-blue-touch-paper guitar breaks by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, a compulsive fist-in-the-air piece of timeless punk pop, the perfect soundtrack for bumming a cigarette. Co-written with Australian sparring partner Tom Morgan of Smudge, featuring J. Mascis and Juliana Hatfield! Meanwhile, the exclusive flipside is straight out of the Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris songbook; a cover of the late, great Townes Van Zandt's `Sad Cinderella', it's a song for the romantics, a tearjerker that could have made its way onto Neil Young's `Harvest', or any aching George Jones opus; filled with regret and remorse, it's a beautifully brittle duet between Evan and Erin Rae. So, two slices of the born-again Lemonheads - a mature phoenix rising from the ashes of this legendary band who've been away way too long.

Anlässlich des 30-jährigen Jubiläums wird Fools Gardens zweites Album Dish of the Day, inclusive der
zeitlosen Hitsingle “Lemon Tree”, am 24. Oktober 2025 als erstmalig auf Vinyl erscheinen. Neu aufgelegt
als Doppelt-LP und sorgfältig für Vinyl remastert, beinhaltet die Deluxe Edition sowohl das Originalalbum
über 11 Songs, sowie weitere 11 Songs, bestehend aus B-Sides, Live-Aufnahmen und Demos.
1995 veröffentlicht auf dem Höhepunkt der 90er-Alternative-Pop-Bewegung veröffentlicht, bereitete Dish
of the Day Fools Garden dank des Charmes und der globalen Anziehungskraft der Hit-Single „Lemon Tree“
internationalen Erfolg. Der Song stürmte die Charts in ganz Europa und Asien. Die bevorstehende Jubiläumsausgabe ist ein absolutes Muss für Sammler*innen und bietet einen vollständigen Einblick in den
kreativen Prozess und die klangliche Vielfalt der Band während dieser prägenden Zeit.
LP1 präsentiert die komplette Original-Tracklist – liebevoll remastert für bestmögliche Tonqualität auf
Vinyl. LP2 öffnet das Archiv: Eine sorgfältig kuratierte Sammlung bislang unveröffentlichter Songs, LiveAufnahmen und Demos – ebenfalls erstmals auf Vinyl erhältlich. Das Ergebnis ist eine stimmige und
audiophile Würdigung des bedeutendsten Werks der Band. Dieses Album beinhaltet nicht nur einen WeltHit, welcher dank seines hohen Widererkennungswerts auch nach drei Jahrzehnten noch begeistert, sondern
lädt die Hörer*innen ein, tiefer in die Welt von Fools Garden einzutauchen und das musikalische Spektrum
der Band anhand exklusivem Zusatz-Material zu entdecken.
Verpackt im hochwertigen Gatefold-Sleeve mit restauriertem Artwork und exklusiven Archivfotos aus der
Entstehungszeit des Albums und Folgejahren, richtet sich dieses umfangreiche Produkt sowohl an nostalgische Fans als auch an eine ganz neue Generation, die die Band zum ersten Mal für sich entdeckt.
Die Neuauflage von Dish of the Day bildet das Herzstück der Jubiläumskampagne des Albums, begleitet
von der Veröffentlichung der Band-Autobiografie und einer neuen Headliner-Tour im Frühjahr 2026.

Ben Pest and ARA-U unite for the next release on No Static / Automatic. Kaos Sympatic EP started life with the pair recording jams of various vintage studio kit, including an EMS VCS3, Roland VP330 and an Orgon Systems prototype known only as the “Silver Box”, which developed into full tracks over subsequent sessions. Ben Pest has been busy releasing high grade club tracks including collabs with Radioactive Man and Kursa for Asking For Trouble and Love Love Records last year, and with solo EPs dropping on Cultivated Electronics and Posh End music. Here he links with NS/A boss ARA-U, turning out some of their headiest material to date.

The EP kicks off with ‘Err Hello’, it’s wholly discordant, lairy, and unapologetically weird. ‘‘Get A Grip’ drifts in with hallucinatory wafts of sound over a warped riff, building into a granular, distorted headfuck of a hoover-bass moment. This one will make the subs rattle on the right side of distortion. On the B Side title track ‘Kaos Sympatic’ gets stuck in with a big broken beat and guttural sub that transforms into a techno drop to drive this track home. Finishing up, ‘Slapback’ serves up a cut of high energy electro funk, coming off like classic ERP on heat. Limited edition purple vinyl.

Für Joyer, das Indie-Rock-Duo der Brüder Nick und Shane Sullivan von der Ostküste, ist Distanz in letzter Zeit ein seltsamer roter Faden - Distanz von zu Hause, Distanz zueinander, Distanz von einer stabilen Routine. Ihr aktuelles Album ,On the Other End of the Line_" reflektiert, wie Aufenthalte an weit entfernten Orten sie geprägt haben, Ängste und ein brennendes Verlangen nach Verbindung offenbart haben. Letztendlich ist es jedoch eine hoffnungsvolle Reflexion zweier unterschiedlicher Perspektiven auf wechselnde Kulissen und den Druck der Kreativität, gefiltert durch eingängige Ernsthaftigkeit und knackige Sechs-Saiten-Klänge. Seit ihrem letzten Album ,Night Songs", das 2024 erschien, sind sowohl Nick als auch Shane in andere Städte gezogen - Nick von Brooklyn nach Philadelphia und Shane von Boston nach Brooklyn - und mussten sich an ein neues Leben gewöhnen. Zusammen mit Joyers immer hektischer werdendem Tourplan, bei dem sie mit Horse Jumper of Love, Wishy und villagerrr, um nur einige zu nennen, suchten die Brüder nach gesünderen Ansätzen für ihr Leben auf Tour und zu Hause und kämpften mit der Einsamkeit in einer neuen Stadt. Trotz der Höhen und Tiefen war das Tourleben für Joyer bereichernd - sie trafen Gleichgesinnte und wuchsen als Band zusammen, was den Wunsch nach neuem Material weckte. Eifrig darauf bedacht, die Pop-Melodik von Night Songs noch weiter voranzutreiben, begannen Joyer mit dem Schreiben eines neuen Albums und buchten acht Tage in einem Studio in Chicago mit Henry Stoehr von Slow Pulp, der sie zu einem experimentelleren Aufnahmeprozess ermutigte, der an Joyers Zeit vor der Live-Band erinnerte, als sie ohne Deadlines im Keller ihrer Mutter Demos aufnahmen. Sie reduzierten ihre Shoegaze-Einflüsse zugunsten folkigerer Elemente und weniger konventioneller, ambitionierterer Arrangements. On the Other End of the Line_ zeigt Joyer von ihrer verletzlichsten Seite, weniger auf Bilder und Abstraktionen setzend und einen Blick auf ihr brodelndes Inneres gewährend.

Für Joyer, das Indie-Rock-Duo der Brüder Nick und Shane Sullivan von der Ostküste, ist Distanz in letzter Zeit ein seltsamer roter Faden - Distanz von zu Hause, Distanz zueinander, Distanz von einer stabilen Routine. Ihr aktuelles Album ,On the Other End of the Line_" reflektiert, wie Aufenthalte an weit entfernten Orten sie geprägt haben, Ängste und ein brennendes Verlangen nach Verbindung offenbart haben. Letztendlich ist es jedoch eine hoffnungsvolle Reflexion zweier unterschiedlicher Perspektiven auf wechselnde Kulissen und den Druck der Kreativität, gefiltert durch eingängige Ernsthaftigkeit und knackige Sechs-Saiten-Klänge. Seit ihrem letzten Album ,Night Songs", das 2024 erschien, sind sowohl Nick als auch Shane in andere Städte gezogen - Nick von Brooklyn nach Philadelphia und Shane von Boston nach Brooklyn - und mussten sich an ein neues Leben gewöhnen. Zusammen mit Joyers immer hektischer werdendem Tourplan, bei dem sie mit Horse Jumper of Love, Wishy und villagerrr, um nur einige zu nennen, suchten die Brüder nach gesünderen Ansätzen für ihr Leben auf Tour und zu Hause und kämpften mit der Einsamkeit in einer neuen Stadt. Trotz der Höhen und Tiefen war das Tourleben für Joyer bereichernd - sie trafen Gleichgesinnte und wuchsen als Band zusammen, was den Wunsch nach neuem Material weckte. Eifrig darauf bedacht, die Pop-Melodik von Night Songs noch weiter voranzutreiben, begannen Joyer mit dem Schreiben eines neuen Albums und buchten acht Tage in einem Studio in Chicago mit Henry Stoehr von Slow Pulp, der sie zu einem experimentelleren Aufnahmeprozess ermutigte, der an Joyers Zeit vor der Live-Band erinnerte, als sie ohne Deadlines im Keller ihrer Mutter Demos aufnahmen. Sie reduzierten ihre Shoegaze-Einflüsse zugunsten folkigerer Elemente und weniger konventioneller, ambitionierterer Arrangements. On the Other End of the Line_ zeigt Joyer von ihrer verletzlichsten Seite, weniger auf Bilder und Abstraktionen setzend und einen Blick auf ihr brodelndes Inneres gewährend.

Für Joyer, das Indie-Rock-Duo der Brüder Nick und Shane Sullivan von der Ostküste, ist Distanz in letzter Zeit ein seltsamer roter Faden - Distanz von zu Hause, Distanz zueinander, Distanz von einer stabilen Routine. Ihr aktuelles Album ,On the Other End of the Line_" reflektiert, wie Aufenthalte an weit entfernten Orten sie geprägt haben, Ängste und ein brennendes Verlangen nach Verbindung offenbart haben. Letztendlich ist es jedoch eine hoffnungsvolle Reflexion zweier unterschiedlicher Perspektiven auf wechselnde Kulissen und den Druck der Kreativität, gefiltert durch eingängige Ernsthaftigkeit und knackige Sechs-Saiten-Klänge. Seit ihrem letzten Album ,Night Songs", das 2024 erschien, sind sowohl Nick als auch Shane in andere Städte gezogen - Nick von Brooklyn nach Philadelphia und Shane von Boston nach Brooklyn - und mussten sich an ein neues Leben gewöhnen. Zusammen mit Joyers immer hektischer werdendem Tourplan, bei dem sie mit Horse Jumper of Love, Wishy und villagerrr, um nur einige zu nennen, suchten die Brüder nach gesünderen Ansätzen für ihr Leben auf Tour und zu Hause und kämpften mit der Einsamkeit in einer neuen Stadt. Trotz der Höhen und Tiefen war das Tourleben für Joyer bereichernd - sie trafen Gleichgesinnte und wuchsen als Band zusammen, was den Wunsch nach neuem Material weckte. Eifrig darauf bedacht, die Pop-Melodik von Night Songs noch weiter voranzutreiben, begannen Joyer mit dem Schreiben eines neuen Albums und buchten acht Tage in einem Studio in Chicago mit Henry Stoehr von Slow Pulp, der sie zu einem experimentelleren Aufnahmeprozess ermutigte, der an Joyers Zeit vor der Live-Band erinnerte, als sie ohne Deadlines im Keller ihrer Mutter Demos aufnahmen. Sie reduzierten ihre Shoegaze-Einflüsse zugunsten folkigerer Elemente und weniger konventioneller, ambitionierterer Arrangements. On the Other End of the Line_ zeigt Joyer von ihrer verletzlichsten Seite, weniger auf Bilder und Abstraktionen setzend und einen Blick auf ihr brodelndes Inneres gewährend.

The Spice of Life, released in November 1969, stands as Marlena Shaw's second--and final--studio album for Cadet Records, produced and arranged by the renowned Richard Evans and Charles Stepney. From the opening, Shaw's voice--both playful and powerful--cuts through the lush yet tight-knit arrangements, weaving together a vibrant tapestry of soul, proto-funk, jazz, gospel, and blues. The album features two defining classics: her deeply resonant original of 'Woman of the Ghetto' and a signature take on Ashford & Simpson's 'California Soul', both staples in sampling culture (you'll probably find that you're more familiar with Shaw's material than you thought.) Evans and Stepney's arrangements are far from mere support--they're panoramic and inventive. You'll hear kalimba flourishes, psych-tinged guitar accents, and bongo-fueled organ textures that elevate each track, keeping the atmosphere rich but never overwhelming. Moments like the Bacharach-styled 'Looking Through the Eyes of Love' or the dramatic flair of 'Stormy Monday' showcase their widescreen sensibility and Shaw's versatility. Beneath its musical elegance, "The Spice of Life" carries a weighty current of social commentary. Tracks such as 'Woman of the Ghetto' and the succinct, fierce 'Liberation Conversation' bring political and feminist themes into a soulful, expressive framework--adding unexpected depth to the sophisticated sonic palette. This album offers an immersive journey through soul-jazz mastery, one that rewarded listeners with sampling gold for decades to come. Reissue on 180g vinyl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clocks and Barometers is a collaborative project between veteran Limbo artists Seán Lee (Dive Reflex Service) and Alex Lupo (Lupo). All the source material for this album was recorded in one morning at Lupo's studio in the summer of 2023. They chose twelve one-minute acoustic improvisations and processed them that afternoon through granular eurorack units.

The results were bought to Bristol where DRS and Lupo shaped the album over the next year in several recording and mixing sessions at DRS’s home studio.

The name Clocks and Barometers is taken from a mysterious shop of the same name on the east Bristol/South Gloucestershire border which appears to never be

open. The title “Learning Through Investigation” as well as some of the track names refer to both artists’ experience as music educators.

High Roller Records, bone vinyl, ltd 300, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, download code Mit »Romantik III« präsentiert das österreichisch-ungarische Duo Bergfried den Nachfolger von »Romantik I« (2022) und »Romantik II« (2023). Die Formation besteht aus Erech von Lothringen, der alle Intrumente bedient, und Sängerin Anna de Savoy. Der Name Erech von Lothringen ist in Underground-Zirkeln nicht gänzlich unbekannt, ist der Wiener doch Urbeber zahlreicher verschiedener Projekte, vorzugsweise aus dem Black-Metal-Bereich, wobei die Interessen des Bandleaders deutlich breitgefächerter liegen. Beim neuen »Romantik III« handelt es sich um ein ausgesprochen eingängiges, sehr melodisches Album, das hier und gar nicht so düster klingt, wie die Songtitel vermuten lassen könnten. Im positiven Sinne grenzt das Material hier und da schon an Pop („Fallen From Grace“), wobei natürlich (fast) immer Melancholie mitschwingt. Auf »Romantik III« wird Erech von Lothringen unterstützt von Schlagzeuger Fabio Alessandrini (bekannt von Annihilator, Bonfire und Enforcer). Des weiteren sind als Gastsängerinnen neben der beeindruckenden Anna de Savoy aktiv: Maria Nesh von Red Eye Temple, Sarah Kitteringham von Smoulder sowie Damna von Elvenking.

Recorded in Switzerland and mastered in Madrid, on Deságua Mello blends classical harp training with experimental techniques, creating a rich sonic journey that pushes the boundaries of the instrument. Brazilian harpist and composer Marina Mello presents Deságua, her solo debut released by the Peruvian label Buh Records. Based in Zurich, Mello has developed a unique and expressive approach to the harp, combining her classical training with a deep exploration of the instrument's sonic possibilities. Deságua is the result of this process: an intimate and expansive work that traverses sonic landscapes rich in contrast and texture. In the artist's own words, this album is a synthesis of material developed through her musical practice. The title refers to the Portuguese word that describes the moment a river flows into the sea. This concept guides the album's sonic narrative, in which each piece functions as a tributary flowing into an immersive and unexpected listening experience. From bittersweet whale-like sounds to destructive, unsettling, and shattering noise provocations, she explores, senses, and transcends the musical boundaries of her instrument. The album presents a wide range of sounds and styles, yet maintains a strong internal coherence through its technical and conceptual exploration of the harp. Mello performs on both lever and pedal harps, employing a range of non-traditional techniques: preparing the instrument with objects, using guitar effects pedals, detuning the strings, and using close mic recording to capture the subtlest sounds and the shifts that lie between them. The result is a collection of pieces that move between the melodic and the dissonant. Deságua does not shy away from repetition, noise, or raw textures. Instead, it embraces them fully, situating the album at the crossroads of contemporary music, improvisation, and electronic experimentation.

The Sator Arepo, or Sator Square, is an ancient word puzzle comprising five palindromes that's etched on various historical sites throughout the Western world. Its origins are unknown, but the square has long been thought to hold magical properties, used as a charm against illness and evil, to cure insanity or to determine whether someone was guilty of witchcraft. Self-styled "punk ethnomusicologist", acoustician and musician Julien Hairon uses this mystical symbol as the starting point for his debut Judgitzu album in an attempt to reconnect with his Celtic heritage, exploring how its hallowed messages might harmonize with contemporary Tanzanian dance music.Hairon has been traveling across the world for over a decade, collecting field recordings from countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, China and Bangladesh, and presenting them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label, re-issuing any curious cassettes and CDs he came across on the PetPets' TAPES imprint. It was during this time that he became fascinated by rituals that involved spirits, prompting him to examine his own ancestry when he returned to Brittany. "Many artifacts in the landscape remain," Hairon explains, "and the power of spirits is still palpable." He represents this Celtic mysticism on 'Sator Arepo' with murky drones and magickal synth tones, using xenharmonic scales (tuning outside of standard 12-tone equal temperament) that reach back to the ancient world. These sounds are augmented with fast-paced, sci-fi rhythms informed by his time in Tanzania; "Singeli has contaminated me," admits the producer.The most astonishing example of this is 'Miracle', a thrusting soundsystem experiment that layers serpentine, bagpipe-esque electronic wails over extravagant clusters of blocky percussion. Driven by the frenetic 175BPM pulse that echoes through the streets of Dar Es Salaam - popularized globally by forward-thinking producers like Sisso, Duke and Jay Mitta - Hairon opens up a rare conversation, seeking to draw parallels between today's most urgent dance forms and the archaic rituals of antiquity. On 'Vitalimetre', Hairon drives his sonic palette into the red, harmonizing with Dutch hardstyle and gabber, and splaying distorted drones over maddeningly blown-out kicks and ratcheting percussion. 'L'or Des Fous' takes a more meditative route, prioritizing Hairon's eccentric tonality with expressive sheets of pitch-warped sound that ghost walk across energized, rattling beats.If you heard Hairon's last Judgitzu release 'Umeme / Kelele', described by Boomkat as "one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions," then you'll know how mindboggling this material can be. And with 'Sator Arepo', the French producer deepens his reach, grasping a world that we've almost forgotten and juxtaposing it with a landscape most of us barely comprehend.

Dave Huismans (ex_libris, A Made Up Sound) presents In Transit, a self-titled LP of arresting downtempo vignettes, with origins dating back to over a decade ago.

Renowned for some of this century’s most notorious rhythmic advances, the work of Dave Huismans (fka A Made Up Sound and 2562) continues to provide a blueprint for new generations of innovation-obsessives. After a long hiatus from releasing original material, he returned in 2025 with two beloved EP’s as ex_libris. Now he returns to FELT as In Transit, following up on his remix of Civilistjävel! from 2023.

Borrowing its name from the closing dialogue of a novel by Dutch author Hella S. Haasse, In Transit was written in just two weeks in the summer of 2013 on a Korg ESX sampler. Since then, he has patiently refined its constituent parts.

Over the course of 38 minutes across six tracks, In Transit maps out an absorbing vista. The music shimmers with a celestial quality, underpinned by rhythmic stamina and creeping intensity. Tangential to Huismans’ previous work, the beats here are decentred and further scattered, acting as buoys to the constantly evolving and intricate narratives of layered textures.

In Transit marks a fascinating new addition to Huismans’ sprawling catalogue, a truly remarkable racket to be crafted with such humble means, finding a suitable context within FELT’s continued venture into parallel sounds.

Written, produced and mixed by Dave Huismans

Mastered by Miles Whittaker

Photos by Dave Huismans

Skin/Glove is the second LP by Belgian musician Mathieu Serruys, following the release of his B.A.A.D.M. debut On Germaine Dulac back in 2014. Compiled over the course of a fortnight, the record features material recorded over the past five years: creaks of ice buckling under heat, thick hums like nauseating headaches, plumes of evaporated organ hymns, frostbitten crackles of dying tape loops. These disparate sources are unified by the pervasive corrosion of pain and time, which presses into the surface of every sonic object. Melodies splinter under the strain of being pulled apart; drones tremble under the gathering gravity of fatigue; dissonances flicker like candles on the brink of extinguishment. Yet despite the emotional density of the material itself, the process of composition provides a route toward comprehending how these sounds and experiences are connected. Skin/Glove reads as a constellatory map of adversity and grief, beautifully coalesced through the cathartic distance of retrospect, haunted by the sibilant whispers of distinct memories in dialogue, latticed by lesions that fatefully and poignantly intersect.

A decade after its release, A Fragile Geography returns transformed. This limited edition cassette accompanies the AFG10 anniversary reissue, offering an inspired re-envisioning of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s landmark compositions. Reworks presents distinctive readings of these pieces, with each artist leaving their personal mark on the material. The titles remain unchanged, with the sole exception of “Hiatus,” reborn here as “Ausencia.” Together, these reimaginings extend the emotional cartography of the album into new terrains.

KMRU reframes “Displacement” with expansive, glimmering layers that open into meditative ambient landscapes. Nairobi born and Berlin based, he is known for morphing field recordings into vivid aural experiences, often capturing the texture of footsteps, foliage, and distant city life and weaving them into contemplative soundscapes. In this version he introduces subtle new sounds, including stringlike synths that trace and heighten the piece’s emotional arc. The result invites close listening, offering enveloping tones where the organic and the synthetic gently collide and flow.

Penelope Trappes renders “Reprisal” as a voice-led invocation of the delicate and the intimate. Her wistful vocals bloom with fragile sorrow, rising over shimmering strands of strings to create a sound world at once sacred and shadowed. She is adept at channeling inherited grief into music that is transcendent and otherworldly. The interplay of her voice, the strings, and her use of space and depth draws those qualities into Irisarri’s orbit, imbuing “Reprisal” with the same spiritual weight and clarity that define her most powerful work.

Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) transforms “Empire Systems” into a cavernous “Iced Mix,” driven by polyrhythmic double bass motifs and sculpted from subterranean pressure and negative space. Known for pushing sound to its physical limits, Martin brings the stark intensity of his dub and noise infused practice into Irisarri’s architecture. The track seethes with harmonic distortion and erupts in white noise rhythms, its brooding low end depth and icy reverberant textures amplifying the tension. Vulnerability and force are set in stark relief, as silences feel as heavy as the bursts of sound themselves. The result is a stark study in atmosphere, restraint and impact, reframed through Martin’s singular lens of sonic mass and low end intensity.

On Side B, Mabe Fratti opens with a cinematic, dreamlike, Lynchian reimagining of “Hiatus” in her native Spanish (“Ausencia”). She threads cello and voice so wondrously that her rendering feels at once hauntingly beautiful and disquieting. Emotionally charged melodies shift in unexpected directions, while her soft, intimate vocals hover above Irisarri’s brooding synth textures. Fratti’s gift for blending experimental and avant pop sensibilities with visceral, emotionally powerful expression shines resplendently here. She gives voice to Irisarri’s reflections on the passage of time and his growing desire to reconnect with his familial roots.

Abul Mogard stretches “Persistence” into a vast drone elegy. A master of patient sound sculpting, Mogard layers evolving waves of analog synths into a dense shroud that radiates its own internal light. Gradual surges of tone and subtle harmonic shifts emphasize the piece’s endurance and inevitability. Irisarri’s original composition, in Mogard's hands, becomes a rumination on time’s unrelenting flow. Melancholy and transcendence coexist in equal measure in this engulfing, cathartic rework.

William Basinski and Gary Thomas Wright close the cycle with a spectral version of “Secretly Wishing for Rain.” Basinski’s field recordings of Reseda rainfall and birdsong, which open and close the rework, add a personal touch and evoke the imagined sound of a grainy film reel flickering to life. The piece suspends Irisarri’s yearning for the Pacific Northwest, lodging it hazily between memory, place and an unreachable dream. It feels like a fading recollection, half forgotten and half felt. A final gesture that dissolves the album into vapor, leaving the listener adrift in its lingering afterglow.

Mastered with great care by Stephan Mathieu and featuring a remixed version of the original artwork by Daniel Castrejón, this edition refracts the language of the original through new prisms. Less a return than a passage, across time, across interpretation, into uncharted emotional realms.

Clear Vinyl. Mit ihrem Debüt The Empty Space Between A Seamount And Shock Headed Julia hinterließen The Black Cat's Eye 2023 ein bemerkenswertes Echo in der Szene - ein energetisches und atmosphärisches Werk, das Psychedelic- und Postrock-Elemente auf einzigartige Weise vereinte und schnell vergriffen war. Nun, zweieinhalb Jahre später, präsentiert das Frankfurter Quintett sein neues Album Decrypting Dreams Of Weird Animals And Strange Objects. Auch diesmal lotet die Band die Grenzbereiche zwischen Psychedelic-, Kraut- und Post-Rock aus. Die Musik oszilliert zwischen hypnotischem Drive, verträumten Gitarrenflächen und dynamischen Spannungsbögen. Das Album umfasst sechs Songs, deren Spannweite von fünf- bis zehnminütigen Klangreisen reicht. Neu ist, dass diesmal zwei Bandmitglieder Kompositionen beisteuerten: Neben Gitarrist und Bandgründer Christian Blaser stammt die Hälfte des Materials von Bassist Jens Cappel. Sein kraftvoller, direkter Stil ergänzt Blasers atmosphärischen Ansatz ideal. Blaser: ,Auf dem Debütalbum stammten alle Stücke von mir. Als Gründer der Band lag mein Fokus zunächst darauf, eine musikalische Vision und Richtung vorzugeben. Jens war zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht so in die kreativen Prozesse eingebunden, obwohl er ein außerordentlich talentierter und umtriebiger Musiker ist. Er veröffentlicht regelmäßig großartige neue Musik auf den Bandcamp-Seiten seiner eigenen Projekte, zum Beispiel The Black Black Paint. Als es dann an das Schreiben neuer Songs für das zweite Album ging, brachte Jens einige wirklich tolle Demos mit ein." Stilistisch verbindet das Album, wie schon der Vorgänger, klassische 70er-Einflüsse mit zeitgenössischer Rockmusik - man hört Anklänge an Can, Motorpsycho, Neu!, Indie- und Stonerrock, aber auch an David Gilmours Gitarrenästhetik. Die Musik ist instrumental, einzig im finalen Stück ,The Magic Balloon" übernimmt Jens Cappel den Gesang. Ähnlich rätselhaft wie bei der ersten Platte klingt der Albumtitel: Decrypting Dreams Of Weird Animals And Strange Objects. Blaser erklärt: ,Der Titel ist inspiriert von einem faszinierenden Aspekt der US-amerikanischen TV-Serie Westworld. Dort werden humanoiden Robotern Gefühle und Träume einprogrammiert. Doch weil diese Androiden dadurch immer menschlicher werden, geraten sie außer Kontrolle - die Programmierer suchen daraufhin den Fehler in den von ihnen geschriebenen Quellcodes, analysieren die künstlichen Gefühle, Gedanken und Träume mithilfe ihrer Computerprogramme. Übertragen auf unsere Realität ist der Titel durchaus ironisch gemeint. Unsere moderne Technik vermittelt den Eindruck, wir könnten jeden Bereich unseres Lebens vollständig steuern. Selbstoptimierung und die Kapitalisierung des eigenen Ichs werden zum obersten Prinzip. Eine trügerische Illusion, denn wir sind nur winzige Teile eines größeren, für uns unergründlichen Ganzen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage: Was kann Kunst zu unserer Wahrnehmung der Welt beitragen? Welche Bedeutung hat es, sich mit musikalischen Mitteln auszudrücken? Durch Technik, Mathematik, Physik und reine Vernunft kommen wir dem Wunder des Lebens und dem Sinn unserer Existenz nicht wirklich näher. Was uns bleibt, ist das Ritual, die Beschwörung, die Ekstase. Musik, Tanz, Malerei, Geschichten - sie offenbaren für kurze Momente den wahren Kern des Lebens, richten unser Verhältnis dazu neu aus und verbinden uns mit dem Universum." Aufgenommen hat die Band wieder im Tonstudio Bieber in Offenbach am Main. Oli Rüger, Studiobetreiber und selbst Musiker, hat langjährige Erfahrung mit dem Aufnehmen von Gitarrenbands. Innerhalb von drei Tagen spielte die Band die Basic Tracks live ein, anschließend ergänzten sie diese durch Overdubs. Rüger war auch als Co-Produzent beteiligt. Cappel: ,Oli hat das richtige Händchen für die perfekte Balance zwischen rohen, heftigen und filigranen Sounds, ohne gleichzeitig den Blick für das große Ganze zu verlieren." Das Werk wurde final von Krautrock-Legende Eroc gemastert - eine passende Wahl für eine Band, die sich nicht nur als Erben der 70er sieht, sondern diese Tradition aktiv in die Gegenwart weiterdenkt. Das monochrome Cover-Artwork unterstreicht eindrucksvoll die dunkle Atmosphäre der Musik. Es verdeutlicht den konzeptionellen Ansatz der Band, Musik nicht nur als Klang, sondern als Raum, Konzept und visionäre Erzählform zu begreifen. Das Titelbild - eine scheinbar endlose Spirale, Symbol für DNA-Strukturen und Ewigkeit - wurde vom italienischen Grafiker Daniele Stochino entworfen. Die Innenseite des Gatefolds verbindet dieses Motiv mit einer Illustration des in Berlin lebenden Grafikers und Musikers Max Emil Hurlebaus. Durch farbige Akzente eröffnet sie kontrastreich neue Perspektiven.

In 2005, teenage trio The Subways made a phenomenal breakthrough with their Gold-certified debut album "Young For Eternity". It set them on the road to an endless succession of highlights, including their iconic "Rock & Roll Queen" becoming a mainstay of rock radio and streaming playlists. Twenty years on, and now five albums deep into their career, The Subways celebrate their 20th anniversary with the career-spanning collection "When I"m With You". The compilation brings new material too. It includes two new songs: "I Need To Feel You Closer", and "Passenger"s Side". The collection features the band"s work with some of the most influential producers around, including Butch Vig (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) and The Lightning Seeds" Ian Broudie (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Coral). The tracks taken from their self-titled album and "Uncertain Joys" were produced by Billy Lunn.

Mark Fell inaugurates his new label – The National Centre for Mark Fell Studies – with his first solo electronic material in years; a slinky, ravishing volley of unique dance drills that have been in the works for over a decade, feeling somehow like Derek Bailey dissecting Singeli, or Autechre and Hermeto Pascoal dancing in hyperspace. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Back on the floor for the first time since dealing a pair of deep house 12”s with DJ Sprinkles, sending a contemporary classic in »Protogravity« with Errorsmith, plus a lauded collab with Gábor Lázár – all in 2015 – Fell taps back into core club concerns last explored to this uncompromising extent on his string of »Sensate Focus« EPs released between 2012–2013. He’s hardly been slacking since then, with a slew of far-reaching avant collabs with everyone from Rian Treanor to Limpe Fuchs, Okkyung Lee to Pat Thomas, Explore Ensemble to Will Guthrie – each one blurring distinctions between producer, composer, and conductor.

The »Nite Closures« EP is worth the wait – and then some. As ever, Fell manages to retain a highly distinctive, instantly identifiable sound while also tracing and mapping new bends in the continuum. His exploration of contemporary styles and patterns is here distilled and articulated with a rare, daring playfulness and sinuous intricacy – for over half an hour he flows from frantic to almost emotional at the drop of a snare. Trust it’s not your everyday / everynight club music, with an asymmetric angularity bound to wrong-foot fresher feet, but also the type of absolutely future-facing, skewed machine funk that clubs are crying out for, even if they don’t quite realise it.

As someone who’s witnessed the dominance of colouring-book Jive Bunny DJs recycle tested ideas ad infinitum, the message is a firm do-one to myopic ravers in »Nite Closures«. From the displaced anticipations tested in its extended dub and ravishing, tweaked polymetrics on its version, through a »Large Modulos #3« teeming with organismic details, to the hair-kissing swang of »auchterhouse (inversion)« and its clipped, cascading 2.1-step reprise, Fell offers thrilling new options for the loosey-gooseyest dancers at each turn. For us, it’s perhaps his greatest record this century.

Developed over three years across residencies, tours, and periods of deep listening, “Your Whistle Tells of Landscape” finds Australian sound artist Alexandra Spence continuing her investigations into the perceptual entanglements of sound, place, memory, and imagination. Like much of the artist’s work, it unfolds at the liminal edge between the real and the imagined — between what is heard and what is remembered.

Composed from a constellation of materials gathered across sites and seasons — snowscapes recorded in Vancouver, insect choruses from a Sydney backyard, ceramic fragments unearthed while mudlarking with tinysound — it renders an intimate cartography of experience: one shaped equally by ecological resonance and internal drift. Each piece traces a kind of imaginary geography, where sonic ephemera become proxies for topography, weather, or myth.

The album is informed by time spent at EMS (Stockholm) and MESS (Melbourne), where Spence deepened her engagement with microtonality and tuned feedback systems, and by dialogues with sympathetic artists such as Tashi Wada and Patrick Farmer. Sound materials were sourced from Serge Modular systems, a custom lyre built by Tim Wall, amplified objects, handmade electronics, and Spence’s own field recordings captured within rockpools, beneath sand, and among a flock of sheep in the French Pyrenees. On “Magenta,” a collaboration with Delphine Dora, the domestic and mythic intertwine, as layers of voice, environmental recordings, and Halldorophone feedback drift in and out of one another like overlapping weather systems.

Despite its diverse material palette, the album resists spectacle or accumulation. Instead, it moves with a quiet sense of continuity and a rich interiority — less a sequence of compositions than a set of situated attunements. Across its duration, sounds seem to murmur, glint, or hover right at the edge of presence, invoking a listening practice that is as much about orientation as it is about reception. These are pieces not simply about place, but of place — etched with the grains of time, vibration, and breath.

Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time traces an audio-spiritual journey through time and place, recorded across a long-awaited debut tour of Japan in the fall of 2024. Compiled from environmental improvisations captured in and for the moment, material at once welcoming, responsive, and inimitable, the album distills a voyage guided by psychic wayfaring, unbound presence, and activating performance for a reciprocal exchange with space, listener, and each fully engaged instant. The Japanese tour documented on Cloud Time held an almost mythic significance for Sprague, taking on properties of her own sonic white whale. After many near-departures and dropped plans to play in the country, "the empty spaces of cancelled trips and forgotten music turned into strange little misty spirits that I felt followed by," she says. "When I began preparing for the tour, I couldn't shake a sense that the invitation to Japan was more about opening myself up to this new place instead of bringing something into it tightly under my control. Improvisation has always been such a pillar in my music practice, and I really wanted to meet the country, spaces and people through that process." To amplify these intuitive whispers on-stage, Sprague reimagined her time-tested live rig, designed to be as free from error as possible, as a looser, more flexible set up that would allow her to interface with what was essentially a blank sonic canvas every night. Each performance became a collaboration between environment and instinct, Sprague processing the events, energies, and emotions informing the evening through her new sound ecosystem, and projecting an entirely present and unique version of herself to each open-eared and hearted crowd. "It was very much more than just an act of playing for me, but a total experience of time and place," she says. The seven long-form pieces that plot the course of Cloud Time, excerpted from over eight hours of recordings archived on the artist's on-stage recorder and generously shared on the album with no additional mixing and only minimal editing, invite listeners to become still in these deep-rooted moments of presence as the album moves from city to city, venue to venue. Cloud Time chronicles material recorded at each tour stop, Sprague selecting and sequencing the album around mood-based storytelling more so than linear chronology. "I tried to make the whole album flow in the way that any one of the complete live performances did," she explains, "while also keeping the spirit of the whole thing as a journey." The result is equal parts travelog, love letter, and impressionistic collage channeled from the potent ferment of a now encased in the glowing amber of memory. Intrinsically inspired by kankyo ongaku, an environmental music philosophy, known both in and widely outside of Japan that tunes into the similarly expansive ethos as Pauline Oliveros' deep listening practice and posits the listener as composer, Cloud Time is ambient music that seems to be listening right back, grounded in heartfelt synthesized frequencies that abundantly hold and heal. Pieces like "Nagoya," "Tokyo 1," and the ten minute "Matsumoto" in particular hum with the atomic resonance of gently tended landscapes, offering space for tuning way in and dropping far out from perspectives that stifle and bind. Cloud Time is an invitation to embrace each moment as both fleeting and eternal, floating by with nothing to grasp onto and absolutely everything to gain. The exercise in acceptance and letting go that Sprague practiced throughout the tour deeply impacted her understanding of self as both a guest and venerable performer. "The process of loving wherever I am, being present and focusing on a clear channel of communication for mind and emotion, rooted so deeply in respect for the space, those within it, and myself, ended up being profoundly healing," she says. "My vision and hope is that this album can be released as a gift back to anyone who either was or wasn't there. A cloud time of life passing by."

Perfect Location Records in partnership with the one and only Ear Candy Music is proud to announce 00-04, a compilation of early works by Bevan Smith aka Signer, New Zealand’s most prominent name in ambient electronica and dub techno.

Smith has been producing emotive chords, pop ambience, and thick dub-ospheres since before the turn of the century. His output is prolific, ranging from various solo monikers (Aspen, Introverted Dancefloor) and collaborations (Skallander, Feeling Flying) to unique projects (Touching the Void soundtrack, Isolated Dreams’ 24 EPs and counting). A rare artist with indie crossover appeal thanks to the 2004 Signer album The New Face of Smiling released on Carpark Records (Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Dan Deacon, Montag), Smith has played as a member of bands such as The Ruby Suns (Sub Pop), Over the Atlantic (Involve), and Glass Vaults (JUKBOXR).

Encompassing field recordings and evoking a cloudy coastal sky, 00-04 is a collection of mostly unheard material written in the early 2000s as Smith navigated the chaos and stress of living in London just after 9/11. A portion of this release may be recognisable to those familiar with the Involve catalog––“Drone Early,” for example, is an alternative version to the dub giant “1201A”––and to those acquainted with Signer’s 2002 Low Light Dreams (Carpark/Involve), an iconic album composed of processed guitar, dub-influenced bass, and synth drones; as if that doesn’t sound appealing enough, Low Light Dreams is home to “Building Memories Without You,” an unforgettably engulfing track featured on Fact Magazine’s 25 Best Dub Techno Tracks of All Time.

00-04 is a (re)issue both nostalgic and new, familiar yet unknown, fresh out of the archive. It possesses the Low Light Dreams aural palette while offering a carefully curated array of never before heard icy-cold moods, soothing minimalism, and shyly optimistic melodies, all glazed with recently finalized additions.

Bone White & Orange Splatter Vinyl. John Carpenters Soundtracks für die jüngste Halloween-Trilogie, die er zusammen mit seinen langjährigen Mitarbeitern Cody Carpenter und Daniel Davies komponierte, markierten die Rückkehr des legendären Regisseurs und Komponisten zur Filmmusik nach fast zwei Jahrzehnten Pause. Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) und Halloween Ends (2022) wurden alle von David Gordon Green inszeniert, der Carpenter bereits früh in die Vorproduktion einbezog und ihn schließlich als ausführenden Produzenten und Soundtrack-Komponisten für die Trilogie engagierte. Halloween Expanded, ursprünglich 2019 veröffentlicht, erscheint nun in einer brandneuen Verpackung und ist damit ein neues Highlight für Fans, das sie ihrer Sammlung hinzufügen können. Halloween aus dem Jahr 2018 war ein Erfolg, der die kühnsten Träume aller Beteiligten übertraf. Der Film startete mit den höchsten Einspielzahlen in der Geschichte von Blumhouse und den höchsten in der Geschichte der Halloween-Reihe. Es war unvermeidlich, dass bald zwei Fortsetzungen, Halloween Kills und Halloween Ends, grünes Licht erhielten. Green unterschrieb für die Regie beider Filme, wollte aber nicht davon ausgehen, dass John, Cody und Daniel für die Filmmusik zurückkehren würden. ,Ich nehme nichts als selbstverständlich hin", sagt er. ,Man hofft also, dass sie eine gute Erfahrung gemacht haben. Ich weiß, dass wir Spaß an dem Projekt hatten, aber man weiß nie, wie die zeitlichen und finanziellen Interessen der Leute aussehen und all diese Dinge. Die Realitäten des Geschäfts, des Filmemachens, laufen nicht immer so reibungslos ab. Aber es gab keine Probleme. Wir sahen uns an und sagten: ,Wie können wir das hinbekommen? Lassen Sie es uns noch einmal versuchen.` Zweimal." Die erweiterte Version von Halloween enthält mehr als 28 Minuten zusätzliche Musik aus dem Film und bietet ein noch vollständigeres, immersives Hörerlebnis. Das zusätzliche Material der erweiterten Ausgabe umfasst insgesamt 24 neue Titel, die auf zwei weiteren Seiten der Deluxe-Doppel-LP verteilt sind. Diese neue erweiterte Ausgabe enthält brandneues Artwork von Chris Bilheimer und ein exklusives 24x36-Zoll-Poster, das von Creepy Duck entworfen wurde. Erweiterte Versionen der Soundtracks zu ,Halloween Kills" und ,Halloween Ends" sowie ein Box-Set mit allen drei erweiterten Editionen werden ebenfalls am selben Veröffentlichungstag bei Sacred Bones erhältlich sein.