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The producers of the new hit Broadway musical BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB and WORLD CIRCUIT RECORDS present the show’s Original Broadway Cast Recording, to be released in July 2025, recording produced by Dean Sharenow and David Yazbek. Step into the heart of Cuba, beyond the glitz of the Tropicana, to a place where blazing trumpets and sizzling guitars set the dance floor on fire. Inspired by true events, the new Broadway musical BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB™ brings the GRAMMY® Award-winning album to thrilling life—and tells the story of the legends who lived it. A world-class Afro-Cuban band is joined by a sensational cast in this unforgettable tale of survival, second chances, and the extraordinary power of music.

The BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB™ Musical officially launched at Broadway’s Gerard Schoenfeld Theater in March 2025 to huge critical acclaim and has been nominated for 10 TONY AWARDS. The show is produced on Broadway by Orin Wolf, John Styles, Barbara Broccoli, Atlantic Theater Company, Luis Miranda, LaChanze and John Leguizamo with Executive Producer Allan Williams, with Nick Gold (World Circuit) and Juan de Marcos González (Buena Vista Social Club) acting as consultants on the production.

*includes insert

Timely reissue of Only for the Headstrong, the seminal 12” from UK duo Psychotropic, arriving this November. Originally released in 1990 at the height of the Acid House explosion, the track quickly became a defining moment in UK dance music—melding house, breakbeat, and psychedelic pop influences into something utterly timeless. Revered by DJs, collectors, and ravers alike, Headstrong is a euphoric, genre-blurring anthem that retains a raw innocence and hypnotic pull even 35 years on.

Psychotropic was formed by Gavin Mills, a rising DJ with a deep love of house and hip-hop, and Nick Nicely, a seasoned psych-pop experimentalist whose history included cult releases with Arista and EMI. The pair met during the fever pitch of late '80s rave culture—bonding over illegal warehouse parties, makeshift home studios, and a shared impulse to explore new sounds and styles. Crafted using an Akai S900 sampler, a Fostex 8-track, and a Casio CZ-101, Only for the Headstrong emerged from Nicely’s South London home studio in a single inspired session, its unforgettable loops and soaring keys capturing both the chaos and euphoria of the era.

The track, and the Prince-style groove of B-side Out of Your Head, became underground hits, reaching the top of London’s independent record store charts and cementing Psychotropic’s reputation for marrying psychedelic sonic textures with club-ready grooves. Their sound stood out—rooted in DIY experimentation but elevated by emotional depth and melodic flair. Mills and Nicely’s unique chemistry would spawn further club classics like Hypnosis, Psychosis, and Feel Surreal, before diverging into solo paths in the mid-90s. Despite parting ways creatively, the duo has remained close friends, occasionally reuniting for remixes and digital reissues.
Now, in 2025, Only for the Headstrong returns to vinyl in its full analog glory—remastered and recontextualized for a new generation. With freshly penned liner notes by Nic Nicely, this nostalgic reissue captures the raw, open-minded energy of a pivotal moment in UK dance music and reconnects us with the heady, DIY spirit of early rave culture.

NOW Music proudly presents the next release in our “NOW That’s What I Call An Era” series – NOW That's What I Call An Era - Disco: 1973-1980 – a dazzling celebration of the golden age of disco.



This stunning 3LP set, pressed on blue, violet and pink vinyl, showcases 48 essential tracks that lit up the dancefloors, charts, and airwaves at the height of disco fever — an era when glittering anthems, euphoric grooves, and iconic vocal performances defined nightlife around the world.



LP1 opens in iconic style with Chic’s monumental ‘Le Freak’ followed by Sister Sledge’s equally legendary ‘We Are Family’, and Gloria Gaynor’s empowering #1 ‘I Will Survive’. Anthems follow from Sylvester with ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ and Chaka Khan with ‘I’m Every Woman’, ahead of the timeless ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ by Candi Staton and the first side finishes with production by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards on massive hits for Diana Ross with ‘Upside Down’, and Sheila & B. Devotion with ‘Spacer’. Flip the LP over for Amii Stewart’s version of ‘Knock On Wood’ followed by The Three Degrees, Eruption and the first smash from Boney M., ‘Daddy Cool’. The Village People topped the chart with ‘YMCA’ which has become an enduring party favourite, which leads to the infectious ‘Let’s All Chant’ from the Michael Zager Band, Lipps Inc. with ‘Funkytown’ and to close the first LP, sci-fi disco from Dee D. Jackson with ‘Automatic Lover’.



LP2 begins with Donna Summer’s epic version of ‘MacArthur Park’, before Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions bring pure euphoria on ‘Boogie Wonderland’, and McFadden & Whitehead with the floor-filling ‘Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now’. Great vocals from Marvin Gaye and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes come ahead of George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’, one of the collections’ earliest and inspirational moments. UK artist Tina Charles hit the top with ‘I Love To Love’, and Andrea True Connection complete the side with the ear-worm ‘More More More’ whilst over on the other side legends Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons hit dancefloor gold and the #1 spot with ‘December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)’, ahead of The Trammps with their era-defining ‘Disco Inferno’. A Taste Of Honey, Grace Jones and a second appearance from Diana Ross are up next – before the LP closes with an enduring classic, ‘Follow Me’ from Amanda Lear, Patrick Juvet’s ‘I Love America’, and Frantique with ‘Strut Your Funky Stuff’.



LP3 bursts to life with the international smash and UK #1, ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ from Baccara, before a huge hit cover from Belle Epoque with ‘Black Is Black’. Next; Alicia Bridges, Rose Royce and UK chart toppers The Real Thing, ahead of funk-infused disco brilliance from Kool & The Gang and Barry White – whilst the side closer is Yvonne Elliman’s ‘If I Can’t Have You’, from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and over on the final side there’s a stellar run of Disco nuggets: kicking off with Elton John’s irresistible ‘Are You Ready For Love’, originally released in 1979 and a #1 in 2003 along with ‘Boogie Nights’ from Heatwave, The Emotions with ‘Best Of My Love’, and LaBelle’s influential ‘Lady Marmalade’. The anthemic ‘Got To Be Real’ from Cheryl Lynn is next ahead of the trio of closing tracks: Odyssey with the sublime ‘Native New Yorker’, Thelma Houston’s Grammy-winning ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, and fittingly, Donna Summer’s iconic ‘Last Dance’, ending the collection in perfect style.



An unforgettable journey through the songs that defined the dancefloor: NOW That’s What I Call An Era – Disco: 1973-1980 — the definitive celebration of disco’s golden age.

Django Django & Man Power present a limited edition run of their collaboration “Home” with brand new sleeve design. Previously only available on white label, this new version of Home is limited to 100 copies only and features the original version plus Man Power’s Analogue Dub and an additional instrumental version.

Sun-soaked Italo-House vibes, freshly reissued. Step into a melodic ambience drenched soundscape with Atmosphere Tropical, the reissue of Maldido Primitivo’s 1992 deep-house / Italo-house gem of an EP. Whether you’re a collector, a DJ, or someone who just loves those warm, immersive grooves - this is one record that transports you straight to a tropical paradise, without leaving the dancefloor. Having been fetching collectors prices online for a number of years, this newly minted pressing breathes life back into this shimmering slab of Italian deep house goodness. File under 'Essential'.

Repackaged, refreshed, and fully endorsed by Expanded Music, this is the perfect repress edition of a true deep house underground classic.

Chase is a self-produced, self-funded artist, and this record channels the spirit of Caribbean pirate radio and London’s underground hiphop scene. Drawing from the Global South and reimagined through a raw, bass-heavy UK lens, Raggamuffin celebrates independence, heritage, and DIY energy.

Already championed by Bandcamp Editorial, featured on Rinse FM (Tim Garcia), and following sets at We Out Here Festival, Chase is fast becoming a vital new voice in the UK scene.

For our ninth offering we have ventured out of our small but fertile swamp in search of another source of magick. Meandering across boggy pastures new, we crossed paths with Steevio, who sat hovering serenely in the fern covered shade of a nearby valley. Instantly recognising the singular vision of this fabled artist, we hastily gathered our nets and cast them under Steevio’s branches, capturing four beautiful offerings as they wriggled towards us. Upon the return to our mulch, it became clear that we could not contain Steevio’s creations, so willful was their vitality. It was therefore all we could do to release them back to the universal dance from whence they came.

The dance germinates with the writhing polyrhythmic ‘Apricity’. Hearing the crunch of frost laden grass beneath our webbed toes, we look above us to search for the sun. Angular beams of light escape over the horizon, as the warmth of Steevio’s machines coalesce. A glistening hi hat breaks through the membrane to bind his creation and anchor its ever shifting arms.

‘Octopus’ glides gracefully through a sun-dappled kelp forest. Sub frequencies rumble up from the shadowy darkness below, rippling along the fronds as they ascend. As the ocean begins to churn, a wriggling melodic tentacle parts the foliage, gleaming with primordial energy. Its joyful visit to the surface realm leaves us with a brief yet powerful reminder of the mystery beneath.

The glow of the midwinter sun warms our bones on ‘Apricity (Sunrise Mix)’. Percussive elements bubble out of the depths, forming intricate cascading patterns as they grow over the perfectly formed kicks. The moog filter tames the brew with Steevio’s intuitive restraint , until he releases its mighty power upon the gleeful forest dwellers, to their rapturous gratitude.

With ‘Adref’ we return home. The sedate tempo provides oceanic space for a melody which inhales and exhales over a familiar landscape of perfectly tuned percussion. With each breath the melody seems to increase its reach, until it’s buried deep within our bones, its memory resonating on long after it’s gone.

Steevio’s music reflects the universal moments where seemingly chaotic and disparate elements are suddenly revealed to be perfectly harmonious. Of course examples of this are always universally present in nature, and have been eternally, but we have to be reminded to appreciate them. In the same way that a wave deposits a perfect line of shells on a beach, dew freezes on grass, or individual strands of mycelial hyphae bind together to form incredible patterns, Steevio’s music is likewise; effortlessly considered. For us, it has more in common with the unrelenting flow of a river than it does with dance music. It is psychedelic music in the same sense that nature is intuitively psychedelic; without ever leaning into any tried tropes of what is culturally considered ‘psychedelic’ music.

Daniele Baldelli
Considered one of the first DJs in Italy, Daniele Baldelli began his career in 1969 mixing vinyl at the Tana Club in Cattolica (his hometown),
predating the birth of the modern DJ by several years. In the following years, he solidified his talent and technique at histor such as the Tabù Club, Baia degli Angeli, and Cosmic. From 1979 to 1984, Baldelli created his unique and eclectic style, blendi ic clubs ng seemingly distant sounds and musical styles, complementing them with tempo adjustments (bpm) and deliberately extreme equalization,
creating a truly distinctive sound, known as "Afro Disco." Soundscapes and tribal percussion blend with early electronic music experiments, and Baldelli's sets become truly mystical experiences, where, for the first time, the temples are replaced by the dance floor.
The documentary film "A Cosmic Life" has just been released, starring Daniele Baldelli alongside other illustrious guests from the nightclub scene, recounting the history and formation of this movement from the 1970s to the present.
Gaudi
A producer/musician among the most highly regarded on the international dub/electronic scene, over the past 30 years Gaudi, from his
London studio, has contributed significantly to expanding the boundaries of musical genres with high-profile releases and innovative
music production techniques. Recently nominated for a Grammy Award with 'Mass Manipulation', the album he produced for the reggae
band Steel Pulse, and also nominated for a World Music Award with his album 'Dub Qawwali' with Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan, Gaudi has collected a series of number 1s on the international charts: Billboard - with the album 'Heavy Rain' by Lee "Scratch"
Perry, 'Vessel of Love' by singer Hollie Cook and with 'Mass Manipulation' by Steel Pulse -, UK Chart n.1 with the album 'Prism' by the
band The Orb (with whom he has collaborated as a producer and keyboardist since 2008), with 'Blue Monday' - by Gaudi himself with
the band Dub Pistols -, UK Dance Chart n.1 with 'Jus Come rmx' produced with DJ Angelino for Cool Jack. He also reached no. 41 the UK charts with the album ‘Midnight Rocker’ by reggae singer Horace Andy (known to the general public for his hits with Massive in
Attack), no. 13 with the album ‘Dubwise 2’ by the band Dreadzone and no. 5 in the Italian charts with the song ‘Lasciala Andare’, written
by him for Irene Grandi. With 19 solo albums and 350 remixes and productions under his belt, Gaudi, with his artistic versatility, has
worked with Groove Armada, UB40, Simple Minds, Brian Ferry, Devo, Big Audio Dynamite, Damian Marley, Seun Kuti, Mad Professor,
Trentemøller, Grandmaster Flash ft KRS-One, Lamb, Don Letts, The Beat, Deep Forest, African Head Charge (in which Gaudi is a keyboardist and dubmaster), Elisa, Scientist, Dub FX, Roedelius, Caparezza, Caravan Palace, EMF, Sizzla, Jovanotti, Sly & Robbie, Piero Pelù, Youth of Killing Joke, and Maxi Priest, to name just a few. Capleton,
Daniele Baldelli & Gaudi
DJ Daniele Baldelli and producer Gaudi first met three years ago at the Jazz Cafe in London. Mutual respect and an innate need to
create new stylistic fusions were the catalysts for Baldelli and Gaudi, leading to a series of subsequent meetings that inevitably culminated in the need to create music together. The project began at Gaudi's Metatron Studio in London using analog equipment and later
moved to Baldelli's studio in Cattolica, where the two organically defined their sound, also inspired by Baldelli's precious record collection. The duo consolidated a powerful compositional symbiosis, and the project, born from a simple initial groove, later transformed
into an entire EP consisting of four original tracks and a highly innovative sound, featuring fusions of psychedelic-funk, tribal-dub,
electronic-disco, and, of course, "Afro-Cosmic"! Daniele Baldelli and Gaudi began their sonic collaboration without setting any stylistic
direction and with the intention of not creating pre-established goals to achieve; it is a project of pure artistic freedom guided by their
compositional instinct and their experience. Constantly active with their evenings and live concerts, Baldelli and Gaudi have performed
individually in many of the best international clubs and festivals.

2025 Yellow Vinyl Repress

Detroit Deep House from New label Upstairs Asylum Recordings.

There are artists we occasionally happen across, even 14 years into our FatKidOnFire journey, where we know we need to work with them. There is material from said artists which sets our world on fire, and then there’s the four tunes that make up our first physical record in over two years. This one’s a long time coming, and also marks one of the first instances in FKOF Records where we welcome an artist to the family with a straight-to-record release. When you hear it, you’ll understand why. This is the long overdue FKOFv009…

Over the last decade and a half, the 140 landscape has been through its peaks and troughs. Tastes and styles change, but the one constant is when we find the right beats, bass and space we know we’re onto a winner. The international TRAKA collective caught our eyes and ears early on in their project – for all the right reasons. We’re delighted to welcome them to FKOF Records with a long-overdue record, as well as welcoming long time FKOF fam Oddkut back into the fold.



“The ninth outing on FKOF Records’ physical imprint opens with the anthemic voice of Rider Shafique joining forces with TRAKA for ‘Soo’. Hard-hitting truths, juddering percussion and a rolling low end so solid you can almost chew on it. Keep fighting and rise.

“Next up, we ratchet things up a notch with ‘Shock Em Up’. It’s an absolute unit of a tune, and when we get asked for what we mean by beats, bass and space this is our 2024 example. Effective heavyweight sonic warfare.

“FKOF009’s B-side opens with ‘Silus' – continuing along the foundations TRAKA laid on the A-side. Suffocating power, engaging atmospherics and a vibe that works at peak time on the dancefloor as well as it does opening or closing out the graveyard slot.

“We close out the record welcoming Oddkut back for his latest outing on FKOF Records with the TRAKA collab ‘Shake Junt’. It twists and turns through its first drop, before taking a completely new direction in the break. It’s an absolute groove and one that’s been a firm favourite for as long as it’s been in the bag.”

Sharp Fragments marks Stenny’s second full-length release on Ilian Tape, a tense exploration of spatial and material disruption. Each track functions as a fractured, self-contained unit, yet together they form a wider language where interference becomes structure. Across twelve pieces, the record shifts through evolving states, tracing a path defined by transition rather than destination.

Three years after his debut album, London-based Jeigo levels up with a new long player that displays his knack for meaningful melodies and deft rhythms while blurring the lines between ambient, garage and breaks. Inspired by three months on an olive oil farm in rural Italy, there is a beautiful sense of isolation and inward reflection to these sounds, even when the energy ramps up. Sultry, airy vocals and delicate strings weave between organic grooves on the opener, while pitched-up and pained tones bring a futurist twist to the paddy garage beats of 'Echoes.' There is a more warped low end and hints of Burial's ghostly vocal and drum designs on 'Emptiness' while 'Groundwater' is shuffling house suffused with luminous synth work that brings a nostalgic pang. Etum is a masterfully melancholic study that leaves a lasting emotional impact.

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.

A key label on the Berlin scene since the 1990s, Muller Records—famed for a deep and chunky club sound from artists like Dave DK, Claude Young and The Hacker—is back with a new EP from Beroshima feat Rummy Sharma with remixes from Namito and Pascal Hetzel. Beroshima, of course, is the production work of label Frank Muller sometimes accompanied by ethereal electronic music specialist Ulrich Schnauss. After more than twenty years together they have amassed a fine body of work that includes five albums and more than a hundred Eps!

Always mixing up acid, techno and tribal into something fresh, the Beroshima sound has its own unique signature.... For this latest single Muller steps up solo to produce another gem. The stellar Delhibelly is a slick and muscular cut that bubbles away on a bed of warming bass.... Smeared pads add soul and snares flap about like tin foil in a breeze. It's a futuristic cut that will always pack a punch in any context. The Techno Mix is just as soulful but is quicker and more expansive so as to carry dancers away on an uplifting groove. Namito is a Green Horn Records producer from Iran but based in Berlin. He is another veteran who is as relevant as ever and his mix slows things down to a deep, inviting roller with jazzy perc, absorbing synths and kinetic kicks driving things along in style. Finally Pascal Hetzel, fresh from his super CYRK release with Sierra Sam, completes this sterling great package.

His classy remix is another rounded affair full of warm synths and bass that is sure to keep energy and emotional levels high in any set. Once again here Muller Records have concocted a club ready record that both DJs and dancers will love.

Going Up, originally released in 1983, is one of the most curious and enduring records from British studio mavericks The RAH Band. Long out of print, it now sees its first ever vinyl reissue courtesy of Shocking Music and Rush Hour.

Led by super-producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Anthony Hewson, The RAH Band has always existed just outside the mainstream. Blending jazz-funk, sci-fi synth pop, and cosmic lounge, their sound never quite fit the mould. That might explain the cult status they’ve held ever since. Beloved by Balearic heads, rare groove collectors, and adventurous synth diggers, Going Up is perhaps their most influential record.

At the centre of it all is the intro track “Messages From The Stars”, the band’s runaway cosmic hit. A spacey, retro-futurist groove that has become a viral favourite in recent years, it now boasts hundreds of millions of streams, with a new generation discovering it through TikTok and YouTube. But it was originally just one track on this understated 1983 album.

The rest of Going Up is just as compelling, filled with dusty drum machines, off-kilter instrumentals, woozy vocals, and that unmistakable early '80s charm. It is a snapshot of a band in transition, blurring the lines between leftfield pop, sci-fi funk, and home-brewed synth experiments.

Out of print for over 40 years, Going Up finally gets the reissue treatment it deserves. Restored and remastered, and still sounding like nothing else.

Concrete Noir is the latest project from multimedia artist and sound designer Piero Fragola, known for genre-defying ventures like We Love (BPitch Control) and ANGLE (Tiptop Audio Records). With this project, he explores a hybrid space where electronics, voice and image merge into an introspective and shadowy form. The debut album, Romance Ruins, is the first release on the newly founded Frequens Records.

Composed entirely using Tiptop Audio’s ART modular system, it unfolds as a series of layered, emotionally charged compositions. These are structured songs with a physical low-end impact.

Musically, Romance Ruins moves beyond genre boundaries to inhabit a space shaped by contrast and collision. The result is a form of modern hybridization—melancholic yet forceful, intimate yet expansive. The sonic identity is carefully constructed but deliberately raw, emphasizing emotion over precision.

The title itself captures the core of this paradox. Romanticism, in its intensity, may ultimately destroy. And yet, from that destruction, something vital emerges. The album embraces the figure of a decadent hero—a child of broken ideals who reclaims beauty from collapse. It’s a romantic vindication of decadence, a belief that clarity can rise from ruin, and meaning from fragmentation.

Moving through a broad range of tempos, the tracks explore murky, melancholic, tactile and cinematic moods. Synths intertwine with guitars (Fender and Gretsch Dobro). All vocals are performed by Piero Fragola, except on Faraway Places, where his voice is joined by that of Viktoria Lishkee—the album’s only guest appearance.Nearly every track is paired with a video, expanding the work’s audiovisual dimension. As a designer for Tiptop Audio and instructor at IED and LABA in Florence, Fragola brings a multi-sensory vision to Concrete Noir—one where medium and message, form and feeling, are inseparable. With Romance Ruins, he delivers an artistic statement. A body of work that resists categorization and embraces the beauty of decay.

Romance Ruins marks the beginning of Frequens Records. Available in a 180-gram vinyl edition.

One of London’s underground dance music hero’s, founder of The Utopia Project and Love Fever Discotheque, Alex Bradley presents a fresh moniker, Dreamphaze, for People & Place’s 004. The ‘Glow EP’ is a four-track dive into the London-based artist’s psychedelic take on blissful house & techno, moving between trance-tinged dreamscapes and playful grooves to soundtrack the halcyon days of a summer gone by.

Funnuvojere’s curator and founder, Massimiliano Pagliara, reunites with longtime collaborator Gian to present a new chapter in their shared musical exploration: a full-length album under the moniker Hidden Frequencies. The pair’s creative dialogue began with a 2017 release on LACKREC — itself a tribute to Detroit electro — and this LP continues that sonic discourse, refining and expanding their vision. Hidden Frequencies pays homage to the emotive minimalism of acts like The Other People Place, channeling the melancholic elegance and machine soul of Detroit’s second wave.

It’s a record built on analog textures, brooding basslines, and crisp drum programming — both a reverent nod and a forward-looking reinterpretation. Tracks like “Oscillations Of Us” and “Dreaming In Electric Blue” inject peak-time energy into the atmospheric and almost restrained narrative, with a techno drive built for the dancefloor. “Obsidian Reflections” walks the line — structured around classic electroarchitecture but charged with intense propulsion. Pieces like “Dancing On Data Streams” — the contemplative title track — and “EncodedWhispers” offer more introspective soundscapes, inviting deep listening and emotional immersion.

Together, these tracks form a nuanced body of work that shifts seamlessly between reflective and kinetic, minimal and expansive. Familiar yet exploratory, Hidden Frequencies is the sound of two artists in conversation —not just with each other, but with a musical legacy they continue to honor and reshape. This is a modern electro séance that blends introspection with intention, nostalgia with forward motion.

In the two years since Parallel Minds’ Juno-Award-winning 5th release Homesick by label co-founder Ciel, we have taken our time reassessing our next moves as the larger dance music scene experienced a paradigm shift. What does it mean to release music made by underground artists from lesser-known scenes like Toronto at a time when bookers and A&Rs are taking fewer risks than ever before? How do we truly celebrate the musical diversity of electronic music when the bottom line threatens to reduce any and all forms of risk-taking?

You just do it, of course.

In truth, few artists have come to represent the music scene in the Big Smoke more than Phèdre, and having seen the duo’s progression from indie weirdo-pop to live hardware act to breakbeat wunderkind in the last decade has been nothing short of amazing. It’s really artists like these that inspired us to start the label in 2018, and we are super elated to usher in PM006 with their long-awaited album, Liquid Constancy.

On its face, Liquid Constancy is a breakbeat record. There are housier joints, to more bassy Baltimore club bangers, to breakneck footwork and jungle steeped in sunshine. All of them share a distinctly syncopated, dubwise rhythm that grounds the album’s tracks. With some having been developed as early as seven years ago, these tracks had their genesis in Phèdre’s mostly improvised live hardware sets from some of Toronto’s most notorious warehouse raves. Primarily powered by two Korg Electribe ESX-1s and the semi-modular Moog Mother-32, the jams found new life in the studio when the duo began recording them as tracks, which demanded a mindfulness of their permanence that Daniel Lee and apè Aliermo at first found intimidating.

Over time, the pair developed a synergistic workflow that pulls from Daniel’s background in drums and apè’s keen ear for texture and movement. They sourced samples featuring voices of BIPOC and feminist icons, drew from their shared love of sci-fi and kung fu movies, and from their Filipino, Chinese, German, and Surinamese backgrounds. Samples were manipulated via techniques like lowering bit rates and adjusting speed to maximize usage due to the Electribe’s limited sample time, which was a subtle way of injecting their interests into their music without being too on the nose. Growing up in the melting pot of the GTA, going to raves as teens, bumping post-punk, industrial, electro, hip-hop and 90s R&B — these experiences all had an undeniable influence on Liquid Constancy. As kids of immigrant parents, equally informed by both their adopted and native cultures, Phèdre makes music informed by sampling and defined by cultural hybridity. In times like these, what is more feel-good than believing in music as a universal language that brings our different backgrounds together?

Thama Series returns with its fourth release, Ikigai, the new EP by Vladw. Four tracks that balance power and clarity within a deep narrative, where LFO-driven synthesizers and intense breakdowns shape a functional and atmospheric journey.

Each piece stands out for its clean structure and a contained energy that unfolds with precision throughout the sonic progression.

The EP is completed by a remix from Orbe, who reinterprets one of the cuts with his distinctive approach, delivering a strong and impactful result.

From the shores of Lake Erie to the heart of the dancefloor, DJ Romain opens a brand new chapter with The Cleveland EP, his latest release on legendary UK house imprint Hard Times.

Having relocated from his beloved New Jersey to Cleveland, Ohio, Romain dismantled and rebuilt his studio piece by piece, laying the foundations for a new wave of creativity. Following his acclaimed Lost D.A.T.S. series and The New Jersey EP, this marks the first body of music born entirely from his new northern base.

The EP kicks off with the haunting vocal and ghostly chords of 'Change Your Mind', before diving into the rattling hats, crisp snares, and plucked bassline of ‘Crysis’ - a pure Romain floor-tool. 'Cuz You Like' rolls deep with warm, shuffling UK vocal energy, while closer 'Deep Reaktor' lands with preaching tones and heavyweight bump, sealing the collection in signature style.

With The Cleveland EP, Romain bridges past and present - new city, same uncompromising house spirit.

Hüsker Dü. Live. 1985. Das transzendente Punk-Trio aus Minneapolis in seinem explosivsten Jahr, live aufgenommen auf der Bühne im First Avenue, in der vielleicht am besten klingenden Aufnahme der gefeierten SST-Ära der Band. Diese 4xLP/2xCD-Edition enthält Beau Sorensons Restaurierung der 21 Songs des gesamten Sets vom 30. Januar 1985, dazu 20 zusätzliche Live-Tracks aus dem weiteren Tourneeverlauf des Jahres und ein Deluxe-Booklet mit detaillierten Informationen zu den zwölf geschichtsträchtigen Monaten von Hüsker Dü. Wie klingt eine Legende, in dem Moment, wenn sie geschrieben wird? Betrachtet man das Jahr 1985 durch die dynamische Linse der Independent/DIY-Musik, so gab es Mitte des Jahrzehnts für Hüsker Dü einen kraftvollen und unbestreitbaren Sprint von der rauen Punk-Institution bei SST zur künstlerischen Empathie bei Warner Bros. Die New York Times bezeichnete die Band als "die beste, die aus der Hardcore-Szene hervorgegangen ist". Im Einklang mit diesem Lob zeigte Hüsker Dü ein kreatives Tempo, das in keiner anderen Musikära zuvor oder seitdem jemals erreicht wurde. Nachdem sie im Juli des Vorjahres mit dem Doppelalbum "Zen Arcade" die aufkeimende Alternative-Rock-Bewegung sprengte, veröffentlichte die Band nur sechs Monate später, am 14. Januar 1985, das epochale "New Day Rising" und hörte nie auf, dem Sonnenaufgang über dem Hidden Beach nachzujagen, der das Cover des Albums zierte. Am 30. Januar 1985 erreichte Minneapolis am Abend zum Zeitpunkt des Konzerts -11 °C, was einem gnadenlosen Temperatursturz von 19 Grad gegenüber dem Tageshöchstwert von 8 °C bedeutete. Die 1500 Besucher im First Avenue brauchten jedoch kein T-Shirt, geschweige denn eine Daunenjacke: Von den ersten blendenden Momenten von "New Day Rising" an war klar, dass Bob Mould, Grant Hart und Greg Norton fest entschlossen waren, jedes Molekül im Raum in Brand zu setzen. Ihre Setlist bot eine nächtliche Kaskade von Feuerbällen aus den Alben "Everything Falls Apart", "Metal Circus", "Zen Arcade" und "New Day Rising" sowie fünf neue Songs, die später auf "Flip Your Wig" wieder auftauchen sollten. Außerdem würdigten sie ihre rockigen Vorfahren: mit einer rasanten Version von "Eight Miles High" von The Byrds, einer turbulenten Interpretation von "Helter Skelter" von den Beatles mit Dave Pirner von Soul Asylum, einem Pop-Punk-Remake von "Ticket To Ride" ebenfalls von den Beatles und ihrem charakteristischen Cover von Sonny Curtis' Mary-Tyler-Moore-Titelsong "Love Is All Around" zum Abschluss. Die First-Avenue-Bänder von 1985 zeigen Hüsker Dü in Höchstform mit bereits beliebten Songs, ein paar Jahre bevor sie ihren Status als Blaupause für den kommenden Alternative-Rock-Boom endgültig gefestigt hatten. Dieses Box-Set feiert diese Aufnahmen, die vielleicht die besten Hüsker-Dü-Aufnahmen sind, die während der legendenhaften SST-Jahre der Band produziert wurden. "Wenn ich an diese Zeit zurückdenke", kommentiert Greg Norton, "waren das drei Jungs, die das taten, was sie liebten, Spaß hatten und im Grunde anderen Menschen zeigten, dass man sich selbst treu bleiben kann, seiner Musik treu bleiben kann und sich nicht der Mode oder den Erwartungen beugen muss, um etwas wirklich Großartiges zu schaffen."

Comes with 4 page insert, English and Japanese liner notes and lyrics.

A contemporary folk wonder from Cornwall (Falmouth), England.

"We at EM Records love to transport our listeners to new worlds, other worlds; “Pantilde”, this magical new album from Cornish avant-folk performance artist The Worm, is indeed an ethereal new world: otherworldly, but somehow rooted; an imaginary oral and musical story of everyday village life in an alternative Celtic landscape. The music here is strange yet familiar, fantastical and enchanting while remaining simultaneously attached to the earth. Amy Lawrence, aka The Worm, plays cello, harp, recorders and percussion, accompanying and framing her rich voice, which is often overdubbed into lovely homespun vocal ensembles; they tell song-stories of mythical and mystical village life, of nature and the human relationship with the natural world. The Worm can be considered part of a lineage which includes The Incredible String Band, Shovel Dance Collective, Bridget St John, Dorothy Carter, Vashti Bunyan, Jessica Pratt, Cathrine Howe, Mary Lattimore, Tristwch Y Fenywod and of course many others. “Pantilde”, a time-trip to a dreamlike, pastoral world that nevertheless feels distinctly realized, is a remarkable avant-folk fantasia, co-released with Prah Recordings.

Celebrating their 10th anniversary, piano trio Alter Ego presents their first-ever best-of LP featuring their signature ballads!
Alter Ego, a piano trio from the Setouchi region, has captivated listeners with their lyrical melodies.
This first-ever best-of LP features a carefully curated selection of the finest ballads they've crafted over the past decade.
This album was remastered at Alchemy Studio, a studio essential to Alter Ego's music.
The album features 11 tracks, including (2) "Meeting That One Friend," a tale of a special encounter; (3) "Where Will We Go?", a jazz waltz depicting the emotions felt at
a crossroads in life; (4) "The Wind Blows on Penelope," which depicts the flow of people connected to the coffee shop "Penelope," which is considered the origin of
pianist Hitoshi Ogata's career; and (10) "The End Opens Up New Possibilities," a song written at a time when parting with a loved one can also be a moment when a new
door opens. Music nurtured over time will gently reach your heart and leave a deep impression.

Selected by Yoshikazu Ogata & Keisuke Taniguchi

Dub Spencer & Trance Hill once again realize their musical vision with their new release SYNCHRONOS: The perfect hybrid of dub and trance - analog, danceable and at the forefront of sound technology. With SYNCHRONOS, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill present an album that defies conventional categories. The new tracks surprise and guide the listener into a colorful world of sound - an acoustic kaleidoscope in which diversity becomes a principle. Musical components - dub, trance, dance, techno, rock, jazz - are put together by the musicians in new and unexpected ways. Experimental, multi-layered and always good for surprises, yet inevitably club-ready: That"s Dub Spencer & Trance Hill.

Originally a cover of track by iconic New York duo Suicide, ‘Ghost Rider’ has been recorded for the first time with brand new vocals from Marc, guest vocals from Jim Thirlwell from Foetus and saxophone from long term Soft Cell collaborator Gary Barnacle. Previously ‘Ghost Rider only existed live as part of the setlist of the band’s live shows during ‘The Art of Falling Apart’ era in 1983. It was performed for the first time in nearly 40 years at Soft Cell’s show at New York’s legendary Beacon Theatre in 2022, with Jim Thirwell duetting with Marc once again. This exclusive 12″ features bonus mixes not featured on The Art of Falling Apart re-issue via Universal.

Unchained is the long-standing guitar-based project of Nate Davis, originally from Providence, RI, and based in France for over a decade. In his two most recent LPs—Gabbeh (2024, A Colourful Storm) and Frontalier (2025, Stern Records)—Davis strives to describe a new path for outsider jazz instrumentalism that remains committed to harmonic and rhythmic form while placing greater emphasis on sonic texture through experimental production techniques.

Release Description:

Unchained—a name which at the project's inception or on earlier recordings spoke perhaps to the ecstatic saturation of high gain guitar—has over the past three albums (N.D. Visitor, Pic, and Gabbeh) come to represent more and more an acknowledgement of and sensitive remove from a crashing world. An excuse of oneself from trend towards a siloed artistic development.

On Frontalier, Nate Davis crosses further into this patient personal lexicon of guitar composition, presenting a new set of richly developed songs and leaps in arrangement which may very well shock Unchained fans the world over. The sympathetic geometric guitar themes of the earlier second-period Unchained style are almost entirely absent, making way for a fully realized presentation of the jazz, MPB, and fusion influence present to varying degrees on the previous three albums. Davis's keen sense of melody and songcraft have never been stronger, here landing on music which is at moments evocative of Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth, Jobim, or the jazzier impulses of Lô Borges. Distinct in Davis's music, however, is what these references might belie: an innate tending towards repetition as an affective tool—one which has less to do with the aesthetics of the scene from which the project emerged than it does with devotional prayer. In this way it feels as if Unchained has always been music for living. What was once a maximalist expression of youth has matured into the sound of living with and in the world and an empathic transmuting of all the joy, disappointment, and ambivalence that comes with it. Songs that feel like the sort of thinking one does looking out the window on a long train ride, or the routinism of internal and external life and the breaking out of it. As much as it will be recognized by the fandom as a significant step forward, Frontalier serves also as a perfect gateway for new listeners to the singular music of Unchained.

The Dears have made some of the most beautiful music of the past quarter century, but also some of the most defiant, with an attitude and emphasis that seems to blend the operatic with a punk sensibility. On their new album, "Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!", The Dears are again at the top of their form, coming back with passionate, compassionate, urgent music that uplifts, explores dark corners, and ultimately shines out in a way that's absolutely gorgeous, with an edge.

""Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful!" feels like a new masterpiece and provides further evidence that The Dears are a vital part of the musical landscape, and also just completely doing their own thing, as ever." "If I love The Dears, if you love The Dears, it's because that orchestral, symphonic feel, those gorgeous melodies, are grounded in a gritty, gonna-die-on-this hill mentality and a heady intellectualism." "... my heart skipped a beat from the opening chords of "Gotta Get My Head Right"—a masterpiece of rising tension and killer melodies, layered and precise and yet roving and wild, with changes in the music and the progressions that alter your brain while listening. What follows is an album that's as various and yet as unified as that first track. Few bands can achieve this kind of complexity while also making it seem timeless and so very perfect." "There's no one like The Dears and there never will be, and I really appreciate that so very much." - excerpts from the album bio, written by New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer

The Dears' 9th studio album, "Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful", pressed on gold vinyl in a limited edition of 1000, will release worldwide 11/7 via Next Door Records.

Finding Ways is a new project from Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear).

Sebastian Rochford is a singular force in British music, an extraordinary drummer, composer, and producer. His work with theiconic group Polar Bear helped redefine the boundaries of jazz and earned multiple Mercury Prize nominations. With a careerspanning collaborations with Patti Smith, Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Adele and Grace Jones, and his 2023 ECM duo album A ShortDiary with Kit Downes, an album written for his father described as a “ quiet masterpiece” , Rochford has carved out a uniquespace in contemporary music.Finding Ways, his new major project, marks a bold new chapter for Seb Rochford. The first album focuses on the guitar, featuringamong others, the dynamic lineup of Tara Cunningham, David Preston, Adrian Utley (Portishead), and Simon Tong(The Verve,Gorillaz), exploring various combinations and layering up to three guitars at once. The result is a striking blend of jaggedexperimental grooves and raw emotional depth, with an unaffected, pedal-less sound that evokes a timeless, exploratory edge.Rochford’s music, as ever, defies categorisation—a sound that feels alive, fractured, and profoundly human, and all mixed by thesingular talent and master of sound, Tchad Blake.The title Finding Ways refers to a frame of mind he chose to adopt after multiple significant life events happening in a smallamount of time. "It’s about finding ways to keep ourselves moving forward and buoyant, transforming life’s challenges intosomething meaningful, also in a practical, everyday type of way.In Finding Ways, it’s direct, energetic music that refuses to be boxed in, a reflection of Seb Rochford's trailblazing spirit. For fansof his previous work and newcomers alike, this album is a testament to his ongoing quest to find emotional truth in sound.

SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. Their second album, How You Been, finds the supergroup of prolific composer/producers pushing ever further into the hyperrealist, collectivist approach to music creation nascently explored on their debut Small Medium Large, which was lauded as "awe-inspiring" by Glide, "exuberant" by the Los Angeles Times, and "an exciting milestone" by Pitchfork. As SML has evolved and spread out in space-time, their fluencies, both as an improvising unit in performance and as a production team in the studio, have sharpened. At inception the band inspired disparate but distinctive artist comparisons like Essential Logic, Oval, Herbie Hancock"s Sextant, and electric Miles Davis, as well as assorted genre touchpoints like Afrobeat, kosmiche, proto-techno and new-jazz. With How You Been their work manages to both collapse and explode such derivatives, displaying a new, high resolution version of SML, fully-flowered into a new strain of sound, bound to incite its own copycats in due time.

Der Breakthrough-Artist sombr hat sein Debütalbum "I Barely Know Her" veröffentlicht. Das 10-Track-Album ist jetzt über Warner Records erhältlich und enthält die Hits „back to friends”, „undressed” und „12 to 12” (inklusive Musikvideo mit Addison Rae), die weiterhin international die Charts stürmen – darunter die globalen Spotify-Charts, die UK Official Singles Charts sowie die US-amerikanischen „Top 40 Radio“ und „Alternative Radio“-Charts. In diesen erreichte sombr schneller als jeder andere neue Künstler der letzten zehn Jahre Platz 1. Auch in den Billboard Hot Rock Songs setzte er ein Ausrufezeichen und verdrängte Hozier nach einem Jahr von der Spitze. In Deutschland befinden sich mit „back to friends”, "12 to 12" und „undressed” mittlerweile 3 Singles in den Top 30 der deutschen Single-Charts und das Debutalbum schoss auf Platz #16 der offiziellen deutschen Albumcharts!
"I Barely Know Her" wurde komplett von sombr geschrieben und vom 20-jährigen Künstler zusammen mit dem renommierten Produzenten Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, The Replacements) co-produziert. Gegenüber i-D gibt er zu Protokoll, die Songs seien inspiriert von „young romance, dimly lit rooms, late nights, and love, loss, and life.” Die Veröffentlichung folgt auf die Nachricht, dass sombr sein Debüt bei den MTV Video Music Awards geben wird – live aus New York am 7. September –, wo er als Best New Artist und Best Alternative Artist nominiert ist.

sombr (bürgerlich Shane Boose) wuchs im New Yorker Stadtteil Lower East Side auf und entdeckte seine Liebe zur Musik als Teenager im eigenen Schlafzimmer. Parallel dazu studierte er klassische Musik an der renommierten LaGuardia High School. Mit dem viralen Hit „Caroline“ (2022) wurde er über Nacht zum Internetphänomen. Seitdem hat er mehrere EPs und Singles veröffentlicht und bringt es inzwischen auf über 400 Millionen monatliche Streams über alle Plattformen hinweg. Heute lebt sombr in Los Angeles und verarbeitet in seinen Songs die Höhen und Tiefen junger Liebe – alles selbst geschrieben, co-produziert und veröffentlicht über Warner Records.

Fin" is the fourth album by Spanish band Exnovios, a group that has been described as a blend of Spacemen 3 influences and the best of Spanish '60s pop. The new dozen songs that make up their fourth LP happily shifts away a bit from to the usual unbeatable formula of this Pamplona-based quartet (garage reverbcore as if sung by Spanish legends Juan y Junior) and add new and fascinating layers-at once fresh yet entirely logical in the evolution of such a unique band within the local scene. Exnovios' new collection of songs wasn't created in a rehearsal space or recorded in a single week in the studio. Rather, it was composed and rehearsed slowly in bedrooms and living rooms-songs that were later brought into the studio with the idea of finishing building them there. Over the course of nearly a year, the band approached each song one by one, in a handcrafted manner, alongside their trusted ally, producer Guillermo Mutiloa. The result is a treasure trove of songs, perhaps more psych-folk than ever, as acoustic pieces abound-full of exquisite melodies without abandoning the consciousness-expanding journeys that have made Exnovios a cult favorite: from the instant classic 'Nubes' (with its very Byrds-like harmonies and gorgeous twelve-string acoustic guitar), to the delightful Big Star-style fiction of 'El cine se queda en silencio', or even the fabulous cover of Stephin Merritt's 'Tú tú tú tú.' These are often drumless tracks, perhaps with some light percussion, always featuring detailed and exquisite arrangements of guitar, electronics, percussion, and even touches of strings. And despite the reduced presence of drums (which, along with the laid-back recording approach, makes this almost Exnovios' "White Album"), fans of the band's legendary fuzz-guitar reverbcore sound won't be disappointed: there's the psychedelic 'Viaje Alucinante', full of their classic riffs; their brutal cover of Psychic TV's 'Godstar' (drenched in echo and eccentric vocal effects); and the perfectly crafted 'Naves Misteriosas', which pulls off the impossible feat of sounding like 'Cerca de las Estrellas'-era Los Pekenikes in the verses, Phil Spector in the chorus, and the Ramones in the post-chorus. And there's much more: percussion reminiscent of the most 'baggy' Primal Scream on the brilliant 'Aún no es tarde'; love lyrics wrapped in an exquisite drum machine soaked in reverb and Suicide-style Farfisa on 'Ha venido a quedarse'; the beautiful two-chord electronic Christmas carol 'Ya es Navidad'; and that lysergic waltz that sings of the peace brought by karmic revenge, carried along by waves of fuzz and delay, titled 'El día del juicio final.' "Fin" reveals more sides and nuances of Exnovios than ever before-a festival of eclectic styles that all remain true to the musical vision that has defined them over the past decade, with their melodic powers at the peak of their talent.

This is a reissue of the original 1963 album El Decano De Los Cantores 4. Chuíto el de Bayamón (Jesús Sánchez Erazo) was a legendary Puerto Rican troubadour and one of the earliest jíbaro singers to appear on the radio, also known as "el decano de los cantores" (the dean of the singers). Known for his witty décimas and lively improvisation, he helped popularize traditional Puerto Rican music. His work influenced generations, including salsa greats like Héctor Lavoe. In the 1940s, he became the lead-singer for cuatro player and composer Ladislao "Ladí" Martínez's Conjunto Típico Ladí, created in New York City. With Ladí, he recorded "Un jíbaro en Nueva York," a controversia with Ernestina Reyes "La Calandria." It was actually Ladí who baptized him as "Chuíto el de Bayamón". From 1949 to 1977 Chuíto collaborated with Abelardo Díaz Alfaro, the famous Puerto Rican author, in the radio program "La vida de Teyo Gracia y su mundo" aired in WIPR. In addition, Chuíto participated in the films "La trulla" (1951), "Preciosa" (1965), and "El otro camino" (1959). Throughout his career Chuíto recorded more than 40 LPs and performed in New York, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Hawai'i, Spain, Cuba and other Latin American cities. His repertoire is characterized by its witticism and sense of humor, and sophisticated musical arrangements. Along with Flor Morales Ramos "Ramito", Odilio González and Daniel Santos, he had a huge influence in the singing style of Puerto Rican salsa star Héctor Lavoe. In 1975 and 1976 he was recognized with the "Agüeybaná Gold Album" award. This is the forth edition of Ansonias Chuito reissue series.

The Eves celebrate the first anniversary of their acclaimed EP Both Sides with
a special vinyl edition to be released in November 2025
Produced and co-written with Dan Gautreau (Alicia Keys, Paolo Nutini) Both Sides was
released only on CD and digital in 2024. The new vinyl edition of the EP features a
previously unreleased bonus track The Silence produced by Mark Morrow (wrest,
Swim School). Title track Both Sides features prolific drummer and percussionist Ash
Soan (Snow Patrol, Tori Amos, Del Amitri). The EP showcases the duo's distinctive
songwriting style that encompasses smooth vocal harmonies and thoughtful
production, culminating in a fresh yet timeless sound that delivers their signature
blend of melodic pop.
The Eves have been played across BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Introducing.
Their song Brand New Day has over 137k streams on Spotify and spent 5 weeks on
the BBC Radio 2 playlist. It was also made 'Single of the Week' on BBC Radio Scotland,
played on Bauer Media's Forth 1 radio station, reached No. 6 and No. 15 in the iTunes
pop charts and iTunes main download chart respectively, charted in the Amazon 'New
Hot Releases' UK Chart, and made an impressive debut in the UK Official Charts
Company download and single charts in the top 65. The song also features on an
episode of 'The Kardashians' on Disney Plus and Hulu across America.
'Big Love' was adopted as the official anthem for Scottish Women's Football for the
2022/2023 League Season, and was the pair's first release as a co-write, written with
Jim Duguid (Paolo Nutini) and producer Lewis Gardiner (Ellie Goulding, Nick Jonas).
The track was also featured on BBC Scotland's most popular football show 'Off the
Ball' with Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove.
The pair are seasoned performers having opened for major artists at sold out shows
including Belinda Carlisle, Sister Sledge and The Shires. They've toured extensively
with Skerryvore and Horse across the UK, opened for Callum Beattie, and have
performed at festivals including TRSNMT, Country to Country, Edge Fest, Tiree
Festival, Moonbeams and Fringe by the Sea, sharing stages with Wet Wet Wet, Sophie
Ellis-Bextor, Gabrielle, Tony Hadley and Heather Small.
Other highlights include performing at the Guinness Six Nations rugby for Scotland v
Wales at BT Murrayfield, recording a live session for BBC Scotland's 'The Quay
Sessions', and several TV appearances on BBC Scotland's 'The Edit' on national TV
and BBC i-Player and STV's 'What's On' and 'The Braw and the Brave' chat show.

Los Angeles-based artist Sam Wilkes is known for his genre-defying solo work and collaborations in the experimental and jazz community. His debut release for Psychic Hotline, 104.3 is part of the label's ongoing Singles Series. Stepping away from his bass guitar, Wilkes explores new territory on a borrowed Fender Stratocaster, lent to him by longtime friend Brian Robert Jones (Paramore, Vampire Weekend). On the very night he brought the guitar home, Wilkes recorded a live, loop-based version of Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" in a single take, later layering in bass and background vocals. The whole thing started as an experiment; more about exploring an instrument than making a record. A few weeks later on his last night with the Strat, Wilkes recorded what would become the A-Side: his reimagining of Fleetwood Mac's "I Know I'm Not Wrong." "I just wanted to document what was happening without any other intention. Half of my time on bass is spent trying to make it sound not like a bass, so actually getting to play a different instrument felt incredibly liberating," says Wilkes. Both arrangements are intuitive and spontaneous. Captured without pretense, the result is a pair of understated songs, perfect for a summer drive. This release is the latest installment in our long-running Psychic Hotline Singles Series, which has featured standout tracks from artists like Kieran Hebden, Sam Gendel, Blake Mills, Flock of Dimes, Anjimile, and Bartees Strange. With each new entry, the series continues to showcase boundary-pushing work from across our extended creative family.

Segawa Hiroshi (vocals, guitar) / Ishima Hideki (guitar) / Harada Hiroomi (drums) / Nomura Mitsuro (drums) / Kozuki Jun (drums) / Yamauchi Tetsu (bass) / Ohno Katsuo (keyboards)

Segawa Hiroshi's solo album, pursuing country rock and southern rock in Japanese
A treasure of Japanese rock, bringing together members of Flower Travellin' Band, Samurai, and PYG
After the GS boom subsided and New Rock was in full swing, Segawa Hiroshi was one of the few bands pursuing country rock and southern rock in Japanese, while most bands were aiming for British rock.
The album "Pierrot," one of the culminations of this endeavor, was produced with the help of a lineup of representative Japanese new rock artists, including Ishihama Hideki and Kozuki Jun from
Flower Travellin' Band, Yamauchi Tetsu and Harada Yushin from Samurai, and Ohno Katsuo from PYG.
The album has been reissued with the additional recording of the single "The White Room Where You Were," released the year after "Pierrot," and remastered by Kubota Makoto.

Commentary: Ogawa Shinichi
Remastering: Kubota Makoto

Accomplished musical documenters Analog Africa shine a long-overdue spotlight on the trailblazers of Zimbabwe's Chigiyo sound with this lovingly curated new collection. Emerging from Kwekwe in the 1980s, the group fused reggae grooves with Shona chants, mbira-inspired guitars and bold brass to create a style uniquely their own. Anchored by legendary guitarist Gilbert Zvamaida, Zig-Zag's music carried spiritual weight and infectious energy with classics like 'Gomo Ramasare' and 'Mudzimu Mukuru' shaping the country's cultural landscape. This lovingly curated compilation revives their groundbreaking catalogue and celebrates their fearless creativity while introducing a new generation to one of Zimbabwe's most distinctive and visionary bands.

Ähnlich wie die nachtblühende Flora, nach der das Album benannt ist, ist Constant Smiles' Felte-Debüt ,Moonflowers" das Ergebnis langsamer, weitgehend unsichtbarer Wachstumsmuster. Die in New York ansässige Band hat sich ihren eigenen Weg hierher gebahnt und sich nach und nach von einer amorphen Sammlung hochkonzeptioneller Ideen zu etwas Greifbarerem entwickelt, wobei jeder Schritt ihres ungewöhnlichen Weges zu ,Moonflowers" führte, einem subtilen Meisterwerk des intern entstandenen Ambient-Pop. Constant Smiles wurde 2009 von Ben Jones gegründet. Er wurde von verschiedenen Mitwirkenden in verschiedenen Versionen der Band unterstützt, die sich in Form von lauten Soundscapes, szenischem Chamber Pop oder eisigem Coldwave-ähnlichem Synth-Pop manifestierten und oft auf undurchsichtig gestalteten, ultra-limitierten Alben veröffentlicht wurden, die nach Lieblingsfilmregisseuren benannt waren. Durch den Umzug nach New York und einige Platten bei Sacred Bones wurde die Band einem größeren Publikum bekannt, aber Jones und seine Freunde blieben in ständigem Wandel. Die große Entschlüsselung des Constant Smiles-Rätsels erfolgte, als sich die Band zu einer festen Kernbesetzung formierte, als Schlagzeugerin/Sängerin Nora Knight Ende 2022 zu Jones und dem langjährigen Bassist Spike Currier stieß. Nach Jahren, die von tiefgreifenden Veränderungen und Unbeständigkeit geprägt waren, veränderte diese stabilisierte Besetzung den Sound, die emotionale Färbung und die Wirkung der Band. Mit Knight und Currier, die einen Kontrapunkt und Struktur zu Jones' stets sprudelnder Kreativität bildeten, wurden die Songs stromlinienförmiger und direkter. Nach wie vor luftig und traumhaft, hat die Trio-Version von Constant Smiles, die Moonflowers produzierte, die Wolken der Unbestimmtheit und Unsicherheit beseitigt, die es schwieriger machten, sich mit früheren Versionen der Band zu identifizieren. Wie die besten Momente der grundlegenden Alben von Talk Talk oder Nick Drake, die gelebte Erhabenheit von Adrianne Lenkers Songs/Instrumentals oder Jim O'Rourkes Ausflüge in den Kammerpop erreicht Moonflowers seine dynamischen Schwünge auf natürliche, fast unterschwellige Weise. Es ist ein Sound, den frühere Veröffentlichungen von Constant Smiles andeuteten, aber nie ganz erreichten. Moonflowers ist die klarste Sicht auf etwas, dessen Entstehung Jahre gedauert hat, das sich aber dennoch ganz natürlich wie eine Einführung anfühlt. Die Musik ist sorgfältig, aber nicht überladen, und das passt perfekt zu Songs über Gefühle, die entstehen, bevor man Zeit hat, nachzudenken. In dieser vollendeten Form erschließt Constant Smiles etwas Instinktives, eine Atmosphäre der Stille mit mikroskopisch kleinen Teilen, die nie aufhören, sich zu bewegen, und Songs, die fast transparent sind, aber dennoch irgendwie schwerer als ein Berg.

The perfect accompaniment to that deep fall feeling, Frank Maston's beloved 2025 single finally gets its long overdue vinyl release! As our friends New Commute articulated beautifully, "Foreign Affairs" drifts through London fog and Paris shimmer, its avant-lounge glow wrapping each melody in a wistful ache. On B-side "Liaison," ghostly strings and a solitary piano paint a deserted twilight shoreline, Pacôme Henry's distinct 16mm cinematography hovering nearby." We've pressed just 500 of these gorgeous records so, be quick, Maston always flies.

Originally written for a film Maston was scoring in 2024, he decided to keep it aside for himself. And, well, us all. The song has a vibe Maston has previously flirted with; he wanted to dive in...all the way: "The arrangement is huge, definitely the biggest I've written, and it merited live musicians playing together. Also another experiment, to do it with all live musicians playing my arrangements. I wanted to make something that you'd want to put on when you bring a date back to your place. It's on the edge of sappy but that's sort of the point. I decided to give myself an unlimited budget - just spend whatever was necessary to get the right musicians and record it the best way possible."

It's this dedication to sonic perfection which Maston is rightly lauded for. We couldn't not put this on a cute wee 7" when we heard it.

The A side, "Foreign Affairs", is a brilliant, Bacharach-esque romp with a bit of that unapologetically romantic Morricone angle. Says Frank: "I was trying to synthesize that sort of jazzy/sexy/classy/romantic mature sound, where the edginess is in these surprising chord changes and subtle arrangement cues."

A wonderful complement, the flipside "Liaison", evokes Martin Denny, but Eden's Island was in Frank's head, too. He wanted to take a deep dive into that exotica sound - a genre he'd referenced a bit but never fully committed to - so the piece is lavished with those big sighing strings and a pretty lush arrangement. Happily, it all sounds super rich. Also, "Umiliani is always a reference for this sort of thing (Il Corpo etc.), That almost mechanical arrangement of things moving together and a simple melody over it (something I nicked from Ennio)".

The two songs were recorded in Paris and London in the summer of 2024. Aside from the rhythm section and piano, there's vibraphone, a full string section, trombones and alto and concert flutes. "Liaison" boasts strings, vibraphone, a female choir and tenor sax. Maston played piano and acoustic guitar but that's it (as opposed to playing basically everything on Tulips). His friend Oscar Sholto Robertson played drums and percussion whilst Maston mainstay Elie Ghersinu (formerly of L'Eclair) played bass.

The theme for a lot of Maston's titles is that they have two meanings. So "Foreign Affairs" is both a reference to him living abroad and the idea of constant cultural diplomacy and then there's this sexy/cheeky interpretation of foreign affairs in a literal way - "an affair abroad, ooh la la!". The artwork for this 7" single has Roman campaign flags, referencing the foreign affairs in sort of a sassy way. There's a violence implied. But then if you look from a bit of a distance it looks like a bouquet of flowers. So Frank thought it went with the spirit of the title. Also, he's used a lot of roman motifs now so he kept that theme going, even with the terracotta cover.

This is a vitally important project for our Frank. He explains why, here: "For whatever reason, these songs really resonated with me. I feel like they are either the end of a stylistic era for me or the beginning of a new one. They're sonically the culmination of what I'd been working towards and trying to get better at since I started. If I heard this when I was making Tulips I would have said "YES! *This* is what I want to be doing!". So that's the essence of it. It's a statement and the intended reaction is "This is really good, but why now?". Like the edge to it is the context of someone making this sort of thing in 2025, which I think is a huge strength. The real heads will get it. My music always has like a 2-3 year latency until people really catch onto it, and these ones will have a nice payoff I think."

We couldn't put it better ourselves. So we haven't.

Recorded during that unique period in the late ‘60s when jazz, blues and rock musicians found common ground in London’s vibrant subterranean clubs, 1968s Definitely What! was the second of the run of the four ground-breaking Trinity albums. Showcasing Auger's open-minded approach and his masterful organ & piano skills, the album whips up a rich blend of jazz, R&B, psychedelic touches and soulful grooves, complemented by the tight, dynamic rhythm section of Dave Ambrose (bass) and Clive Thacker (drums).

After the previous year’s Open (1967) with its 'Summer of Love' feel and its melting pot of Mod R&B, cover versions of US soul hits led by Julie Driscoll’s inimitable vocals, Auger considered Definitely What! as his first solo album, and so he travelled deeper into jazz territory, balancing original pieces with audacious covers. Tracks include versions of Mose Allison's 'If You Live' and of Wes Montgomery’s ‘Bumpin’ On Sunset’. “I got a letter from Wes's wife,” recalls Auger, “saying that it was Wes' favourite version. Can you believe that, Wes's wife wrote to me!”

Elsewhere, we find a dramatic re-arrangement of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’ complete with orchestral strings and a punchy horn section, alongside a supercharged version of Booker T & The MGs’ ‘Red Beans & Rice’ . 'George Bruno Money' was dedicated to Auger's drinking pal of the era, Zoot Money, and 'John Browns Body' both combine prime Hammond jazz with the very British surrealist humour that was in vogue at the time. The title track goes further “out” in a sprawling instrumental piece rooted in experimentation. Brian himself specifically states in his sleeve notes that his concept “lies along a straight line drawn between pop and jazz and aims at the 'fusion' of both elements” - ‘fusion’ at that time was not even a recognised musical term, further reinforcing Auger’s credentials as an innovator.

That forward-thinking approach was developed in Open and Definitely What! would come to fruition a year later with the release of Streetnoise (1969) featuring the Trinity and Julie Driscoll. At the time, the move to bring together jazz, rhythm & blues, folk, gospel and pop into a progressive new sound may have annoyed the purists and confused the less open- minded, but these albums stand today as a testament to Auger’s unique position within British music, foreshadowing his future 1970s explorations with the Oblivion Express and beyond. Definitely What! remains a fascinating snapshot of 1960s musical experimentation - raw, eclectic, and unapologetically Auger!

This new Strut reissue is curated by Impressive Collective’s Greg Boraman in partnership with Brian and Karma Auger. The album is remastered by Cosmic Audio from the original tapes, and is packaged in Brian's favourite version of the 3 different sleeves the album was originally issued in.