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French composer, artist and co-founder of Transversales Disques, Jonathan Fitoussi has developed a distinctive body of
work over the past two decades, blending analog synthesis, minimalism and electronic music.

Inspired by the mineral landscapes and luminous atmosphere of southeastern France, DELTAS is his fifth solo studio album.
Combining hypnotic drum patterns, flowing pulses, shimmering electronic textures and contemplative movements, it unfolds as a deeply immersive journey through space, light and motion.
A rich and evocative work from one of the most singular voices in contemporary electronic music.

French composer, artist and co-founder of Transversales Disques, Jonathan Fitoussi has developed a distinctive body of
work over the past two decades, blending analog synthesis, minimalism and electronic music.

Inspired by the mineral landscapes and luminous atmosphere of southeastern France, DELTAS is his fifth solo studio album.
Combining hypnotic drum patterns, flowing pulses, shimmering electronic textures and contemplative movements, it unfolds as a deeply immersive journey through space, light and motion.
A rich and evocative work from one of the most singular voices in contemporary electronic music.

LUMINA marks a new chapter in C"mon Tigre"s evolution, where electronic music moves from the background to the core of the band"s sound. Across thirteen interconnected tracks, synthesizers, arpeggiators and club-inspired rhythms merge seamlessly with acoustic instruments such as oud, cello,vibraphone and percussion, creating an immersive, continuous listening experience. Rather than opposing tradition and innovation, LUMINA embraces their constant coexistence. The album explores how technology is reshaping not only the way music is created, but also how we experience sound, time and physical presence. Inspired by the rave as a space of collective ritual and temporary freedom, it treats repetition and rhythm as tools for communion rather than escapism, turning listening into a deeply physical experience. The music was first developed and tested live at Robot Festival (Bologna) and JazzMi (Milan) in late 2025. Those performances became a laboratory where the interaction between the music and the audienceultimately shaped the final record.

Phill Niblock completed BLK+LND in late November 2023. It is one of Phill Niblock's final compositions and was commissioned by bassist Robert Black (who passed away in the summer of 2023). The piece is based on recordings of acoustic bass and bass clarinet performed by Neil Leonard and Robert Black under Niblock's direction in 2021.

Phill Niblock (1933-2024) as an artist whose fifty-year career spanned minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant-garde. In the history books he is the forgotten Minimalist. Since 1985, he served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, his signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. He said: 'What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly.' In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realized in partnership between Circuit (Centre d'art contemporain Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée (Paris). The following year he was honored with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award. Since 1968 he also put on over 1000 concerts in his loft space in New York.

"On January 6, 2024, two days before his passing, Phill called me to discuss the premiere and tour of BLK+LND. To distract him from his rapid decline, I engaged in his touring plan, only for him to reveal that all the details were still in his head and none of the events had been confirmed. He was entrusting the project to me. Phill would have been thrilled and honored by this concert at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. The thought of one more performance with Robert Black, whom he greatly admired, presenting his new work for low-pitched instruments that he was particularly fond of, andreconnecting with old and new friends in Donaueschingen would have meant the world to him." - Neil Leonard, Berklee College of Music, Boston

“Neither from here nor from there” is often used to describe migrant identities in territorial terms. In the case of Siete Catorce, it works better temporally: his music has always been so far ahead of its moment that it ultimately carved out a space of its own within both Latin American and global electronic music.

Born in Mexicali and shaped between the Bay Area and northern Mexico, his musical identity emerged through hip hop, dubstep, and the independent borderland scenes. After several years in Mexico City — without a clear place inside the local circuit — he created his own space through his music, developing a distinctive DJ/live set and a singular vision of contemporary Mexican electronic music, becoming a key figure within the city’s most forward-thinking underground.

In 2026, he releases El Valle, his first album in nearly three years. The record moves through different currents of electronic music — ambient, techno, cumbia, and tribal — filtered through a unique rhythmic language marked by syncopation, unpredictable breaks, and a constant tension between restraint and energy.

The album opens with “Mexicali,” alongside Andre Pereda, a tribal track stripped down to its percussive essence, evoking the genre through an ambient and synthetic approach. From there, “Aragón” and “El Rancho” progressively increase the tempo and intensity, combining cadenced phrases with minimalist tribal beats and unexpected turns.

In the second half of the album, now moving through territories of 140 BPM and beyond, tracks like “Montecarlo 1” and “Tierra Roja” drift between futuristic bass music and large-scale techno structures. This is followed by the 8-minute epic “East LA,” where Siete Catorce expands the energy of syncopated techno before releasing it into a pre-Hispanic tribal journey with flute and all the drums required for the occasion.

The closing section arrives with “Tlatelolco,” accelerating into an epic cumbia infused with trance references, and “Los Pinos,” a direct and forceful finale sustained by some of the album’s most precise sound design.

More than genres, Siete Catorce’s work is defined by meticulous sound design and an exceptional rhythmic sensibility — qualities that have established him as one of the most respected drum programmers of his generation.

Downtempo ambassadors Truffle101 continue to fly the flag for the chillers as they land on their fourth release. A new series within the label “Lazy Susan Selects”, various artist releases highlighting different moods and energy founders 2StepBec, oliver.r, and Zeus love to play.

Volume One moves across six different tracks spanning artists such as Scary Cherry (DJ Tjizza & Zeus), Fraise Records boss Wilba, and Rumps on the A side. On the flip side LA based Franky A kicks things off, before Jamie Leather enters with his “A Night Under The Sea”, and Locky Mazzucchelli closes with a hazy late night cut.

*2X12" Gatefold LP - includes download code.

Electronic musician nthng presents his fifth album, Last Light of the Sun, his debut release on topo2. Renowned for his meticulous productions and quietly distinctive artistic voice, nthng continues to move effortlessly between ambient, IDM, dub techno, and drum & bass without ever feeling bound by genre. Last Light of the Sun shows that the album format is a natural home for nthng's expansive musical vision. Throughout its ten compositions, the album moves gracefully between dreamlike melodic passages, restrained, fragile 4/4 structures, melancholic drum & bass punctuated by vintage house vocal fragments, and spacious ambient compositions that feel unmistakably his own.

The double LP is released by adventurous electronic music label topo2 on October 2, 2026. The record is pressed on two 180-gram discs of ICCS-certified bio-vinyl and housed in a heavyweight full-colour gatefold sleeve. Mastered by Isabel Schröer at OLO Mastering, with artwork by Alyssa Warren and Raen Coplin. Additional contributions include bamboo flute on "Flutter" by Temple Rat and typewriting by Karina Rovira.

Palms Trax returns to production with his first release since 2019. The first single off his upcoming 2 track EP 'Soft Trance, Hard Gossip' is a journey through bold basslines, ear tingling acid lines and hopeful synth lines. It feels measured in its temperament for a listen on the bus home whilst punchy enough to earn its place across festival and club sets this summer. The title track Keys To A Printed Garden captures him at his best, moving deeper into a lush, melodic setting that stretches beyond the dancefloor while never fully leaving it behind. The track is built around warm deep house grooves, hazy nu groove textures and subtle IDM notes. The record unravels with a dreamlike smoothness. Swirling synth work, jazz-inspired saxophone lines and soft lo-fi textures give the record an immersive, almost weightless quality, while moments of glitch and ambient drift push it into more experimental territory. Even at its most reflective, steady percussion and rolling grooves maintain a subtle club-rooted pulse, balancing emotional depth, introspection and atmosphere with movement, rhythm and understated precision.

Berlin-based trio Roomer weave noise, melody, and memory into expansive guitar-driven songs. Formed by long-time friends and collaborators Ronja Schößler, Ludwig Wandinger, and Luka Aron, the band brings together distinct voices from across Europe's avant-garde, folk, and electronic scenes, folding these lineages into a sound that moves between shoegaze density, diaristic songwriting, and sonic exploration. Their music often holds opposites in suspension: clarity and blur, structure and drift, intimacy and collapse.

Their debut album Leaving It All to Chance (2025,) introduced this language in full, pairing emotionally direct songs with shifting textures and dense layers of distortion. With Staircase Made of Rope, their second album on Squama, Roomer widen the frame further. Built largely from improvisations and first takes, the record embraces instability as method, moving between density and silence while allowing melodies to surface and dissolve in unexpected ways.

Following the successful return of Cyberfunk Records, Frequency Damage EP showcases four brand-new productions from DJ Quest, blending over 25 years of breakbeat experience with modern production techniques.
From old-school funk influences and rolling basslines to heavy club grooves and precision-engineered drums, the EP demonstrates the versatility that has made DJ Quest one of the pioneers of the Bassline Breaks movement.
Each track brings its own identity while remaining unmistakably Cyberfunk—music written for DJs, built for powerful sound systems and inspired by the underground dancefloors that shaped the label's legacy.

2026 Repress

The voraciously prolific Brit producer Four Tet returns to his untypeable-but-highly-listenable windings alias for this surprise new album on his own Text label. Remaining as a vinyl-only LP for now, and currently limited to 2000 copies, it was announced just a week or so ahead of the release. No track titles or details and a bucket load of vibes and strange ideas. Opening softly with gentle eastern instrumentation, he gradually pulls us deeper and deeper into his unique universe with every bendy frequency and strange accent. By the time we're three tracks in, we're bopping away to big bodied dubstep/garage mutations laced with chimes and all kinds of textures that only Keiran Hebden would choose to use. The B-side bares a similar varied, opened-hearted soul as we move from bumping club grooves to slo-mo ethereal shuffles that wouldn't sound out of place in a cathedral. Textbook Text. Grab this if you can, it won't hang around

The third release on the All City imprint Gurriers, with Rustal and Chaz Moloney coming together for their first release as a duo after years of playing live. The four tracks were started during a six-day session in Chaz’s studio in Friedrichshain, Berlin, and completed together in Dublin. Drawing on a shared love of techno, Pressure Kiss moves through dub, Detroit and raw ’90s influences, with a hypnotic and experimental edge. Opening with the heavy, driving pulse of “Inertia Cycle”, the EP sets the tone for four tracks that keep things stripped back, hypnotic and moving. “Pressure Kiss”, “Born From Oak” and “Head Of The Wolf” continue the journey across two tracks per side.

EverEve - "Seasons", "Stormbirds" & "Regret"The first three masterpieces of Germany's EverEve, (Their name is taken from a poem out of "Lord of the Rings") "Seasons" (1997), "Stormbirds" (1998), and "Regret" (1999), are deeply emotional works of art, forged in darkness, melancholy, and poetic introspection, standing today as some of the most compelling statements ever produced within the Gothic Metal movement.In the late 1990s, while countless bands attempted to define the boundaries of Gothic Metal, EverEve effortlessly rose above convention Their music was never confined by genre limitations. It drew equally from Doom Metal's oppressive weight, Gothic Rock's romantic desolation, and the emotional grandeur of Dark Wave, creating a soundscape that was uniquely their own. "Seasons " marked the beginning of this remarkable journey. A debut album rich in atmosphere and emotional depth, it introduced a band already possessing a mature artistic identity. Its songs unfold like chapters from a forgotten gothic novel, where every melody is wrapped in shadows and every lyric resonates with profound emotional sincerity.

EverEve - "Seasons", "Stormbirds" & "Regret"The first three masterpieces of Germany's EverEve, (Their name is taken from a poem out of "Lord of the Rings") "Seasons" (1997), "Stormbirds" (1998), and "Regret" (1999), are deeply emotional works of art, forged in darkness, melancholy, and poetic introspection, standing today as some of the most compelling statements ever produced within the Gothic Metal movement.In the late 1990s, while countless bands attempted to define the boundaries of Gothic Metal, EverEve effortlessly rose above convention Their music was never confined by genre limitations. It drew equally from Doom Metal's oppressive weight, Gothic Rock's romantic desolation, and the emotional grandeur of Dark Wave, creating a soundscape that was uniquely their own. "Seasons " marked the beginning of this remarkable journey. A debut album rich in atmosphere and emotional depth, it introduced a band already possessing a mature artistic identity. Its songs unfold like chapters from a forgotten gothic novel, where every melody is wrapped in shadows and every lyric resonates with profound emotional sincerity.

The first three masterpieces of Germany's EverEve, (Their name is taken from a poem out of "Lord of the Rings") "Seasons" (1997), "Stormbirds" (1998), and "Regret" (1999), are deeply emotional works of art, forged in darkness, melancholy, and poetic introspection, standing today as some of the most compelling statements ever produced within the Gothic Metal movement.In the late 1990s, while countless bands attempted to define the boundaries of Gothic Metal, EverEve effortlessly rose above convention Their music was never confined by genre limitations. It drew equally from Doom Metal's oppressive weight, Gothic Rock's romantic desolation, and the emotional grandeur of Dark Wave, creating a soundscape that was uniquely their own. "Seasons " marked the beginning of this remarkable journey. A debut album rich in atmosphere and emotional depth, it introduced a band already possessing a mature artistic identity. Its songs unfold like chapters from a forgotten gothic novel, where every melody is wrapped in shadows and every lyric resonates with profound emotional sincerity.

The first three masterpieces of Germany's EverEve, (Their name is taken from a poem out of "Lord of the Rings") "Seasons" (1997), "Stormbirds" (1998), and "Regret" (1999), are deeply emotional works of art, forged in darkness, melancholy, and poetic introspection, standing today as some of the most compelling statements ever produced within the Gothic Metal movement.In the late 1990s, while countless bands attempted to define the boundaries of Gothic Metal, EverEve effortlessly rose above convention Their music was never confined by genre limitations. It drew equally from Doom Metal's oppressive weight, Gothic Rock's romantic desolation, and the emotional grandeur of Dark Wave, creating a soundscape that was uniquely their own. "Seasons " marked the beginning of this remarkable journey. A debut album rich in atmosphere and emotional depth, it introduced a band already possessing a mature artistic identity. Its songs unfold like chapters from a forgotten gothic novel, where every melody is wrapped in shadows and every lyric resonates with profound emotional sincerity.

Rakete returns with its fourth release from Minneapolis-based producer and DJ, Baher.

The Cairo-raised artist has spent years carving out club-focused hardware-driven sounds that drift between different shades of techno, house, and the spaces in between, drawing inspiration from old school rhythms, underground culture and distant memories.

The artist’s debut EP on Rakete, Fragments, is a reflection of those moments. From the desert winds of Cairo to the intimate warehouse raves of Minneapolis, each track from the founder of Rakete carries an emotional imprint and raw energy onto the dancefloor, shaped by the artist’s diverse and wide-reaching influences that feel distant yet familiar.

Fragments EP is the founder's first complete body of work stitched together with precision through classic drum machines and old school synthesizers. Music full of soul, movement, and energy, made for the dance floor.

RKT04 release

Gi Gi describes his process as “dubwise sampledelia.” It begins with fragments and ends somewhere else entirely, destabilizing its source material until it stops pointing backward. A borrowed sound, looped and bent, eventually forgets where it came from; it stops referencing anything but itself.

This liquid sensibility shaped his earlier work, music that hovered between drift and propulsion, suggesting the dance floor without fully stepping onto it. Presence was implied, edges stayed soft. The center was always there, but diffused like mist on a screen.

With In Lieu, that center comes into focus. Half written in Texas, half in Australia, the shift isn’t simply geographic, but internal. The record moves with a coiled, anticipatory energy; the drums arrive with more force and the bass organizes the room instead of melting into it. It's dense with the feeling of more bodies in the frame. Textures still smear and refract, but they move around a clearer axis.

Where past records circled their core, these inhabit it, pulling closer to the body. “Some Of” and “Arque” lean into low-end pressure without abandoning his instinct for drift. "Pink Dirt" circles around mechanical drums and dizzying vocal chops, head-down and visceral. Elsewhere, voices gain newfound contour, materializing in “Downswept” with intimate musings and nearly forming a lead vocal on the title track before dissolving again.

In Lieu moves with a newfound confidence, compressing inward, sounding closer to the source of its own pulse.

Marcal has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices of a new generation of techno producers, combining rhythmic precision with an instinct for detail, tension and movement. On Four Small Escapes, he delivers four tracks built around subtle shifts and carefully placed moments of surprise, where intricate sound design and groove remain in constant dialogue. Opening with Smoke from Respawn, Marcal immediately establishes the record's character. Syncopated rhythms, intricate percussion work and subtle sound design details unfold within a streamlined framework, creating a groove that feels both spacious and forward-moving. Wooden rimshots and glassy textures interact across an open arrangement, giving the track a fluid and trippy quality. Arapuca shifts into darker territory while maintaining the same sense of control. Organic percussion, rolling low-end momentum and sharply placed accents continuously reshape the groove, creating a track that feels alive through movement rather than dramatic intervention. On Ultimamente, Marcal introduces one of the record's most immersive moments. Fleeting sonic details appear and disappear throughout the arrangement, while a carefully integrated vocal element adds depth and emotional weight without disrupting the flow. The result is a track that invites complete immersion while remaining firmly focused on the dancefloor. Closing the EP, The Surprise Test delivers its most direct statement. Rough and driving without leaning into industrial aesthetics, the track is powered by rolling energy, syncopated claps and a series of subtle electronic details that continuously animate its surface. The contrast between rawness and precision gives the record a powerful closing moment. Across all four tracks, Four Small Escapes highlights Marcal's ability to create tension through detail rather than excess. Reduced yet expressive, the EP balances functionality with a strong sense of character, allowing small gestures and unexpected shifts to leave a lasting impact.

Zoo Brazil’s “Stockholm to Paris EP” on Phonogramme80 channels that deep, classy house energy tied to Laid’s timeless sound.
Written, mixed and produced by John Andersson, it carries the same refined groove and club weight that made “Punch Up” stand out.
Warm, sharp, and built for the floor, this EP moves with real purpose from start to finish.
A proper house record for heads who know the classics and want something with lasting impact.

The first HEREAFTER label release enters the universe with three deep, rolling cuts from DOTT and a pumped-up peak-time remix from JUAAN.

“1955 Revival” sets the tone with a killer groove, warm drone-filled textures and DOTT’s off-kilter character. “Grumpy Merlin” moves deeper into the murk, while “Drunken Tune” brings an infectious, eyes-closed groove to the B-side. JUAAN closes the EP by flipping the original into a tight peak-time driver built to ignite the dancefloor.

After seeing these tracks captivate the crowd at one of the UK’s best-loved festivals, we knew we had to share them with the world through the HEREAFTER label.

Rio de Janeiro producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Fabio Santanna returns with Copa Astral, an eight-track journey through modern Brazilian boogie, disco and Balearic grooves. Released by Rio’s Onda Boa, a label founded by Joutro Mundo, the album captures the warmth of the city's sunlit days and the cinematic glow of its nights, blending lush synths, live horns, percussion and rich vocal arrangements into an unmistakably Brazilian sound.

Opening with the slow-burning title track, introduced by the unmistakable cry of a cuíca, Copa Astral sets the mood before unfolding into the rolling grooves of "Ponto de Areia" and the Afro-Brazilian pulse of "Odoya Beat". Elsewhere, "Nesse Tempo" drifts into dreamy nostalgia, while side B moves effortlessly through the carefree boogie of "Jabuticaba", inspired by Brazil's beloved fruit; the warm, enveloping feeling of longing in "Senti Saudade"; the seaside romance of "À Beira Mar"; before closing with "Cantagalo", a heartfelt tribute to the neighbourhoods, memories and spirit that continue to shape Santanna's music.

Inspired as much by Rio's beaches as its neon-lit avenues, Santanna draws from Brazilian boogie, 1980s cinema, vintage record sleeves and classics such as Junior Mendes' Copacabana Sadia, filtering those influences through the city's unique rhythm. Produced at his Copacabana studio with live brass, percussion and vocal harmonies, Copa Astral is both timeless and contemporary - an album equally at home on the dancefloor, by the ocean or during a late-night drive along the coast.

New pressing on black vinyl (500 units). Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue their debut album ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’as a standalone release. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. “When we are talking about psych folk or acid folk, we are really talking about music like this by Trees” Stuart Maconie, BBC6 Music. Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs. The record includes readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’, the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’. // “The music’s arcane power remains intact” Mojo. // “A fantastic band” Record Collector. // “Spectacular” Uncut. // “Sublime” Shindig. // Timeless” Prog. // “It’s these two original albums that stand as pinnacles of form” The Wire. // Track listing: A1. Nothing Special A2. The Great Silkie A3. The Garden of Jane Delawney A4. Lady Margaret B1. Glasgerion B2. She Moved Thro' The Fair B3. Road B4. Epitaph B5. Snail's Lament

The Nu’rons were a family group consisting of two sets of brothers and cousins, the four young men in question being brothers Daryl Howard and Raymond Gibson (Daryl’s mother registered him under his father’s surname of Howard and Raymond under her maiden name of Gibson) together with Otho Bateman and Charles Bateman. They were all born and raised in Salem, New Jersey and from the age of ten and eleven began singing with a fifth member and Gibson brother Rudolph as a group called The Gospel 5. They eventually decided to crossover to secular music and as a group known for their energetic dance routines they came up with the new performing name of ‘The Nu’rons’ (taken from the word ‘Neuron’ which is a cell that transmits nerve impulses). However Rudolph was soon to leave the group due to physical illness. Also Daryl Howard and Charles Bateman had also been part of a working group known as The Devotions prior to becoming The Nu-Ron’s.Following hours of practice The Nu’rons eventually felt confident enough to put their own shows together and began to perform at local dances and parties around New Jersey and Philadelphia, often being used as a non-paid warm up act for bigger named artists. They moved between several different managers including Jimmy Bishop (Duo Dynamic Productions) until they came under the tutelage of WDAS radio DJ Georgie Woods (his wife Gilda, being the owner of the Philadelphia Gil, Dion and Top & Bottom record Labels). It was Georgie who introduced them to Manny Campbell who in turn invited them to an audition at his and partner Charles Bowen’s Emandolynn Music studio in Chester P.A. The song The Nu’rons chose to audition with was the self penned “I’m A Loner”, the audition went well, as during late January/early February of 1970 Manny and Charles took The Nu’rons into the Sigma Sound Studio’s with Tom Bell and the TSOP musicians to record “I’m A Loner” and “All My Life” which was released on the Nu-Ron label in April of the same year. The two studio takes presente don this release came short after the band moved on from the collaboration with producer Emanuel Campbell to take music matters in their own hands. Beside recording "Disco Hustle" to be part of the disco boom in Philly of the times, they recorded also “You Came Thru”, a rough yet beautiful heavy bassline driven soul funk recording, and the just amazing “Hurry Up Tomorrow”, here presented in one of the original Studio takes.

A1:Memphis Stomp
Super rusty sounding House touched Breakbeat Track!
The Bassline-Drop and Live mixing is hot!

A2:Come on Cum
Oldschool House Track without Bassline to be able to concentrate you on the "Dobble Match of two Drums Machines"!
The sequenced VOX Sample comes from a classic CS2X Synthesizer and is added to the Space Echo to bring a special Magic inside. DJ TOOL!

B1:Demon Area
Welcome to the TECHNO HELL!
Pure Darkness and a bright expressive Flow come together.
A Fat Bassdrum is hammering your head and the ultra effected Synthesizer Line will destroy your Brain.

B2:Furore Move
More an experimental Splitt Track...
The beginning of this track is a presentation of the CS15 Synthesizer with a Bassdrum.
The Break is coming... A synth-vox-line is coming... A 4 to the floor run is coming..
all things are going well.. Than a little chaos breaks out... and in the end, all is good again.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

Esteemed soul crooner Sam Cooke achieved much in a short space of time, notching 29 top-40 singles in his seven-year solo career. On Night Beat, released in 1963, Rene Hall’s tasteful arrangements allow Cooke’s voice to shine, most notably on ‘Lost And Lookin’; jump blues standards ‘Shake Rattle And Roll’ and ‘Little Red Rooster’ are playfully rendered, with Billy Preston’s organ on the latter. Originals ‘Mean Old World’ and ‘Laughin’ And Clownin’ remind of his strong song-writing ability and his spirited take of ‘Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen’ recalled his days with the Soul Stirrers. A prime album for all Cooke fans!

Djrum's first release since 2019, the Meaning’s Edge EP is an introduction to a whole new world. For the artist also known as Felix Manuel, it was created in the final stretches of six rather traumatic years work. Having carefully honed his techniques and aesthetics, and learned some hard-won emotional lessons over this time, finally he began to work in a quicker, lighter fashion – and to cleanse his palate a little by bringing in a fresh ingredient: his own flute playing. For listeners, though, it will serve as an appetiser, a way into the delights and complexities of this new phase of his creativity.

It’s a serious work in its own right, mind. The use of flutes – including Bansuri, Shakuhatchi, Western Classical, and synthesised all blending and blurring into one another – gives it a coherence and a sense of airiness that unites the five tracks over half an hour, however divergent their beats get. And as in all his music, Felix’s whole life is in here. Ethnomusicology studies, untold hours of DJing everywhere from the gnarliest squat raves to the most rarefied deep house clubs, explorations of his own neurological and emotional makeup, and the technical finesse of someone who is never not creating music or art, all roll into an experience that’s dazzling, delightful and keeps on giving.

Just the opening track ‘Codex’ alone touches on OG dubstep, Aphex Twin-like braindance, post-classical exploration, movie themes and more. The gentle tones and melodies that rise up out of it perfectly conjure Felix’s running theme of a protective bubble that provides a sense of safety and tranquillity even as the beats and acid gurgles and spurts all around it conjure up the slings and arrows of life’s difficulties.

The tone set, the EP moves through ultra-rarefied glass-like percussion in an almost ambient setting, hints of grime’s counterintuitive patterns, and even more hectic patterns influenced by Tanzania’s hyperspeed singeli style of dance music – but always with that perfect balance of chaos and control, unpredictability and protection. It rewards playing and replaying endlessly, it’s a profound and often joyous experience… and it’s only just the beginning. This is the return of a master craftsperson more focused than ever on his vision and vocation and ready to blow your mind all over again.

Mastered and cut on 140g black vinyl by legendary mastering engineer Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, London. Pressed at optimal media, Germany.

Manchester-based producer Lily Mumby, the creative force behind Lapalace, has chosen Lavender as her botanical muse for this sixth instalment. Like the aromatic herb that grows from tiny seeds to fragrant purple stalks, her compositions unfold with a similar patience and elegance. Her synthesisers breathe with a natural rhythm, creating textures that emerge and recede like morning dew on lavender buds waiting to bloom.

The standout track ‘new age night’ – a stunning love child of William Basinski's decaying tape loops and Aphex Twin's intricate programming—carries subtle lavender-inspired tones, balancing the plant's calming essence with hypnotic rhythms. Just as lavender requires thoughtful tending before rewarding the gardener with its distinctive aroma, Lapalace's landscapes reveal deeper complexities with each listen.

Much like gardening itself, Mumby demonstrates an innate understanding of when to intervene and when to allow natural development. This approach echoes throughout her career, from her debut EP "Ephemera" which caught the attention of Insult to Injury Records' Timothy Clerkin, through to her contributions to Chez De Milo's "So It Goes" Remix EP and Manchester label Skiptrace's various artists compilation.

Her work across BBC Introducing and fossil.radio reflects this same philosophy – creating environments where sound, space, and organic movement find their natural harmony. But this composition really feels that Mumby has come of age. "Music To Watch Seeds Grow By Vol. 6" represents the continued cultivation of Lapalace's distinctive sound and demonstrates the maturity of an artist way beyond her years. This music stands as a lighthouse through a thick fog of nostalgia, much like lavender standing tall amidst an English cottage garden.

Early DJ support including - Auntie Flo, Ruf Dug, Courtesy, Vladimir Ivkovic.

Demilitarize follows Nazar’s remarkable 2020 debut Guerrilla, which reprocessed Angolan kuduro music with rough textures, field recordings and media clips, telling a personal story of the civil war that exiled his family to Europe, while his father, a rebel General, fought a losing battle in the jungle back home. After Guerrilla, and an extended period of serious illness, now Demilitarize is motivated by a reckoning with mortality and the flowering of new love, turning the ‘rough kuduro’ of Guerrilla inside out.This is a deep sound world, genuinely dreamy, the arc of the album describing shedding the armour of trauma and surrendering to this new situation. A constant and unexpected aspect of Demilitarize is Nazar's gentle, submerged vocal. Insistent and mantra-like, it’s like a cross between Elisabeth Frazer, Arthur Russell and Frank Ocean, and the music is fragile and opaque in response. The rhythms of kuduro are still here,but move around his voice like fish around a swimmer, while precise sound design illuminates from different angles. Chords spiral, ripple and shoot through the beats giving tracks the loosest of settings; songs disassemble; vocals float off-centre.

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Elektronische Klangreisen zwischen pulsierendem Techno, treibendem House und atmosphärischer Ambient-Electronica. Treibende Grooves, verspielte Beats und futuristische Effekte schaffen Kopfkino, Bewegung und positive Energie – perfekt für Dancefloor, Afterhour oder entspannte Hörmomente.

EN

The electronic sound goes from pounding techno to driving house and atmospheric ambient electronica. Driving grooves, playful beats and futuristic effects create mental images, movement and positive energy – perfect for the dance floor, after-hours or relaxed listening moments.

Midway through Martin Luther King, Jr's historic speech at the 1963 March on Washington, a voice rang out from behind him: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" That voice belonged to Mahalia Jackson, King's close friend and one of the most revered gospel singers of the 20th century - Glorious Mahalia, a visionary tribute to Jackson's life by the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet, uses that moment as a springboard to explore the depth of Jackson's musical craft and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement, including her relationship with Clarence Jones and Studs Terkel, other luminaries of the time

As the first release of Flux Code Recordings, Ferplay brings us this 4 tracks EP called “Electric Waves”.

Blending trance and breakbeat elements, acid sequences and punchy old-school drums, each track captures the energy of the 90s underground electronic music spirit.

Flux Code Recordings is a record label inspired by old-school and underground electronic music, exploring styles such as trance, breakbeat, acid and more.

It is born from the concept of music as a living language, an ever-changing code and a continuous flow of rhythms and melodies in constant evolution.

Flux Code channels the raw energy and the rave spirit of the underground electronic music culture, connecting past roots with future sonic pathways.

Ralf Hildenbeutel is an award-winning producer and film composer. His style is shaped by his eclectic background as of his classical education in piano and composition and his obsession for electronic music since the late '80s.

In the 1990s he collaborated with Sven Väth on Väth's major albums, released a countless number of club classics and founded his electronic live-project Earth Nation. He has been touring across Europe and playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, London's Brixton Academy, Tribal Gathering Universe and others.

In that time he also produced various remixes for artists such as Anne Clark, Robert Palmer, Enigma and Yello and was awarded with the "Viva Comet" as Best Producer from Germany's music TV channel VIVA. His film music for the movie "Hommage á Noir" received the golden medal at the New York Festivals in 1996.

At the end of the '90s and first years of the 2000s it was the time for new directions and Hildenbeutel started focusing on artist-related productions and songwriting. He founded the production company Schallbau with Stevie B-Zet and A.C. Boutsen. They produced and co-wrote for artists such as Laith Al-Deen, Andreas Bourani, Yvonne Catterfeld, and Simon Collins (son of Phil Collins). That time they archived several top-ten entries and gold or platinum records.

In 2010 Hildenbeutel moved away from pop productions and focused on film music. He worked on feature movies such as "Vincent will meer" ("Deutscher Filmpreis", 2012 – German Film Academy Award) and international productions such as the Italian mini-series "Maltese".

His film music for the short movie "Momentum" (by Boris Seewald) received various awards such as "Cinedans" and a nomination for best music at the Newport International Filmfestival in the UK in 2014. In 2017 he won the "Goldene Reiter" at the esteemed Filmfest Dresden for his score for the movie "Eine Villa mit Pinien".

Hildenbeutel currently works on several international and German productions. He also collaborated with Chris Liebing on Liebing's latest solo album "Burn Slow", which has been released worldwide on Mute Records.

For those with an ear to the Afro-Latin scene in New York City, Doug Gomez is one of the main men. His infusion of those sounds into a deep house framework is sublime, always, and not least on this fourth instalment in his series for his Merecumbe Recordings label. 'Dis a Way of Life' is a collab with fellow heady house hero Trinidadian Deep, and is a spine-tingling affair with spiritual pads that stir your soul as rasta vocals add to the dubbed-out feels. 'Dance Activator' is more about movement, with supple drums swaying beneath jazzy synth expressions that ring out into an infinite sky. On the flip is the warm deep house bubbler 'Sonic Uprising' and a remix by Trinidadian Deep that turns up the colour and soul. Pure class.

Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.

After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.

"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.

Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.

Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.

From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.

During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.

Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis

Ismael Pinkler lives in Buenos Aires. Belly Dance Services head Nick Hanzo in Vienna. Turns out the exact midpoint between the two is somewhere in open ocean. So they abandoned the plan to meet on Earth at all, and met on planet 126 in outer space.

It turned out to be a strange, hospitable little world — spinning at its own pulse, 126 beats per minute, changing landscape every few kilometers, as if it couldn't decide what kind of planet it wanted to be either. Ismael and Nick wandered it together, letting each new terrain talk them into a different song, until ten tracks had quietly assembled themselves. What they brought back drifts somewhere between shoegaze, techno, ambient, trippy tribal house and pop — grounded and gravitational, emotional and mental, to put it in terms Earthlings might understand.

Now, speaking seriously: Ismael and Nick built Planet 126 by passing sounds and ideas back and forth across the ocean, night after night, for eight months. The entire process — composition, vocal recording, production and mixing — took just eight months, a dream scenario for any electronic musician. The collaboration stayed positive, proactive and fresh throughout, letting the project move forward effortlessly. All tracks were written and produced by both musicians together; Nick wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals, Ismael handled the mix. No samples, no references — just two people building a world from scratch.

Planet 126 also marks a milestone for Belly Dance Services: the label's 30th release, and likely its last. BDS began with BDS001, a vinyl EP by label founders Hanzo & Yaman, and has been solely helmed by Nick Hanzo for the past five years. Now it comes full circle — laid to rest with a big bang: a double vinyl gatefold album co-produced by Ismael Pinkler and label head Nick Hanzo.

From the fires and floods of the Australian bush on her debut, Soon, which Phil Elverum reissued via his label, P.W. Elverum & Sun, tiarn now takes us to the shores of the Pacific Ocean where classical and electronic arrangements move with an ever-present longing for connection and nature. Stretton has weaved a new world, set on the brink of night, when the world is soft and suspended in blue. Living in isolation near the ocean, overlooking the winter migration of whales, Stretton would regularly swim during the brief 20-minute period known as the blue hour. Ideas would come to her in the icy salt water, and walking home in the dark, she would carry melodies back to record that night. At its heart, tiarn reflects ecological grief and the search for connection in a changing world. tiarn is also inspired by a piece of home camera footage Stretton found of her family in Japan where they lived in the ‘90s before she was born.

It shows the distant mountains, and Stretton’s young family looking over the valley in the soft static of one summer evening. Decades later, using the untouched synth her parents had bought in Tokyo in 1991, Stretton began recording music directly to that footage, letting the images dictate the melody. Voices, insects, weather, movement, and the ambient sounds of the valley are woven throughout the record itself, blurring the line between documentation and composition. The result is an album that feels less created than uncovered — something remembered rather than made. Stretton’s work continues to carve a singular path in contemporary music, balancing environmental awareness, experimental composition, and deeply personal storytelling.