Suche:nrg

It’s a properly transcendent Kalahari debut as S.A.M. makes nods to ’90s Eurodance and deeper, spiritual invocations.

At the helm of multiple labels, but this marks a Kalahari debut for the Danish artist. Sometimes anthemic, sometimes operating from a more meditative space, but always serving as an outlet for ecstatic release. Rapturous big room ascension into more contemplative territory.

Channelling some divine NRG in the vocal hooks, like much of their work, an air of blissed intent cloaks the whole thing. This is a suite of tech and deep house that strikes a balance between the introspective and direct, the metaphysical and corporeal.

Pitting sonic immersion against forward momentum has almost become a blueprint for any Kalahari release, and here, we bear witness to a prime example. Heady stuff.

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Highlights include more terrific songs from the Plague and Lexington Avenue, bands whose members would be better known when they created the Jarvis Street Revue. Twelve tough tracks by the Checkerlads, White Knights, Tomorrow's Keepsake, NRG, and Solid Reputation . The Gaiety roster was rich in talent (the 49th Parallel, Jarvis Street Review, and Souls of Inspyration, not to mention the Checkerlads, White Knights, Dewline, Tomorrow's Keepsake, NRG, Merriday Park, and Portland Street South) -- but it was not rich in resources, which is why these singles are as relatively unknown as they are even today

Formed by Don Grashey and Lloyd Palmer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Gaiety Records was an outlet for many relatively obscure but excellent Canadian garage and rock bands during its existence. They released their own singles as well as sub-licensing material to other labels, such as RCA (49th Parallel), Columbia (Jarvis Street Revue and Souls of Inspyration), Decca, Epic, Musicor, and others. Features the Checkerlads , White Knights , Tomorrow's Keepsake, Lexington Avenue, NRG , Solid Reputation, and the Plague , including their face melter, 'Face of Time' and the essential psych classic 'High Flyin' Bird'.

Another Squid inks its way into existence. The new project from northern operator
Accented Measures, whose synth tower stacks taller than the horizon it’s aimed at. A self
made groove patroller, Aqua Surf releases four well swung jewels of power, an ode to
motion, pressure, and late night systems thinking.

Each track is cut from the same cloth but bent at a slightly different curve, offering a
focused glimpse into the Aqua Surf orbit. You’ll find heavy nods to the Quasimidi
classics, early Korg rompers, quirky Roland workstations and lost dub style vocal
fragments strung throughout the EPs play through. Ultimately, the record is a multi
planetary trip built on MPC sequences, where swing does the steering and texture does
the talking.

Functional but curious, these are tracks designed to travel through rooms, through
bodies, through time slots where the lights stay low and the floor stays sweaty.

The Sound of Hardstyle Vol. 2 – The Anthems marks the long-awaited return of the iconic vinyl series, celebrating the most unforgettable anthems that defined an era. This exclusive release features monumental tracks like ‘Scrap Attack’ by Headhunterz, ‘Lost In Dreams (Alpha² Remix)’, and Alternate Reality, the legendary Qlimax anthem by Brennan Heart.

Each groove on this vinyl takes you back to a time when anthems weren’t just tracks, they were moments that united crowds, shaped festivals, and pushed the boundaries of the Hardstyle sound.

Whether you’re a vinyl collector or a true Hardstyle devotee, The Sound of Hardstyle Vol. 2 – The Anthems is a must-have piece of history.

Monomoods Records proudly presents Thunder Skull, the new EP from Doctr, previously featured on Rimini Moods. For this release, he teams up with A.M. Sam on Highrider and Seppl on the title track Thunder Skull, delivering a collection that expands his sonic universe into darker, more cinematic territories, like a road trip through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Spanning four distinct tracks, the EP moves between Indie Dance, Italo-Disco, and Hi-NRG, each painting its own scene within this dystopian landscape. ‘’Highrider’’ bursts forward with euphoric Eurodance energy; ‘’The Boys’’ unfolds as an epic, heroic tale rising from the ashes; ‘’The Last Waterfountain’’ combines intensity and emotion with an almost survivalist tension; and finally, ‘’Thunder Skull’’ stands as a true Italo anthem for the wastelands — a soundtrack for the last dance under a burning sky. Fusing raw power with hypnotic rhythm, Thunder Skull is a soundtrack for late-night journeys and fevered dancefloors, meticulously crafted with attention to detail, atmosphere, and a bold cinematic spirit.

Red Vinyl

The Communards’ sophomore album ‘Red’ consolidated the genius of the musical partnership between Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville and pianist Richard Coles. Fusing synths and hi-NRG production with lush string and horn arrangements, The Communards straddled pop and the political, the album’s themes set against the political unrest and moral panic of late 80s Britain. A global smash upon its release, this remastered and expanded 35Th Anniversary Edition features an extensive array of B-sides, live tracks, demo versions and remixes, including classic mixes by legendary 80s club doyens Shep Pettibone, Clivilles & Cole (better known as C&C Music Factory) and a euphoric new 2022 remix of ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ by UK outfit The 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and DJ Raf Rundell). Available on Deluxe Double CD , Collector White & Red Double Vinyl , Black Vinyl. All editions remastered , with new sleeve notes.

Ayū returns to his home imprint with another EP, marking his second solo outing on the label. Whether operating alone or alongside Alfred Czital, Ayū has shaped a signature sound that fuels long nights and tightly packed dancefloors. Spiral Motion sees him dive further into his deeper, late-hour aesthetic. Smooth, yet hypnotic, and built for those moments when the room locks into a shared groove.

Side-A is a systematic prog compulsion. Starting with Ayū’s ‘Come on,’ the track deploys a strictly sequential energy curve, using its paced and nearly robotic vocal anchors as a command-line for dance-floor madness. A2, ‘Pure NRG’, as the name indicates, it’s an energy-based weapon built on a heavy bassline. Instrumental elements that add up sequentially through fades, boops, and rougher vocals.

Adding fuel to the EP, side B is dedicated to remixes of A-side creations. B1 by IN2STELLAR delivers the tech-house version of ‘Come on’. Drummy and spatial, the track builds up towards an explosion of rhythm. B2 crafted by D.Tiffany inverts ‘Pure NRG’ and presents it through a darker lens. Slowly, but surely, the track emphasizes shadow and minimal texture, flavored by D.Tiff’s tone & style.

DJ Support: Danny Krivit, Michael Gray, Dr Packer, The Shapeshifters, Tedd Patterson, Seamus Haji, Terry Hunter, Brian Tappert, Hector Romero, Danny Rampling and many others

Groove Culture's ongoing 'Jams' series continues to deliver disco-house excellence with its fifth edition. This high-quality compilation features standout tracks from Micky More & Andy Tee, Reverendos Of Soul, Soulista and Serge Funk.

Highlights include: Reverendos Of Soul Feat Sheree Hicks - ‘Wasted Time'(Micky More & Andy Tee mix): An all-night disco spirit track verging on Hi-NRG style, bringing big energy and a lively atmosphere to any dance floor. Another great one is Soulista, Micky More & Andy Tee ‘Like I want You" (feat.Anduze): A perfect blend of disco and house, featuring a heavy beat and great guitar sounds that create an infectious groove. Closing things out on a classic leeven is Serge Funk's heater ‘Just Disco’ and Micky More & Andy Tee’s “Soul Education”. These fantastic edits of the classic disco tracks are a filtered gems that is sure to knock the roof off the discotech. Groove Culture once again proves its reliability as a source of top- tier disco-house with this stellar collection.

A DJ, producer and prolific collaborator, Greg Paulus’s musical career has led to a truly enviable discography. Born in Minnesota and now an essential part of New York’s sprawling musical landscape, Paulus has taken the foundations of an organic childhood education by his father, the composer Stephen Paulus, and seen it blossom into an unpredictable musical journey encompassing house, soul, jazz and hip-hop.

While touring as a trumpet player with indie band Beirut, as well as in Matthew Dear’s live ensemble, back home he was helping to redefine New York’s underground dance scene as one half of No Regular Play. Alongside childhood friend Nick DeBruyn, the pair brought their deeply musical sound to no less than fifty countries across the world. A decade on, and Paulus arrives on Seth Troxler’s Slacker 85 imprint for his long-awaited debut solo LP, ‘Close To Home’, a deeply felt long-play celebration of his personal cornerstones; family, trust and hope.

From the opening, organic swell of ‘Perot’, arranged with Seth Troxler himself alongside John Camp, ‘Close To Home’ introduces itself as a focused, conscious trip, it’s languid trumpet spilling over into the reflective ‘World Keeps Changing’, which introduces Paulus’s philosophy of music as a constant. ‘Midtown Mirage’ meanwhile leans into the idea of the city itself as a collaborator, resisting pressure and finding its own restful groove. Back over the river, ‘Bond’ roots itself in Brooklyn with a contribution from resident Dillon Cooper, flipping rap standards amid psychedelic flourishes.

Paulus nods toward his dancefloor form on ‘NRG’, a slinky, lo-slung club groove that seamlessly evolves to meld the artist’s nocturnal and studio instincts. In contrast, ‘Real Job’ switches the tempo on Paulus’s MPC to embody an old-school, beatdown flavour, subtly teased out alongside composer and sound designer, Taylor Bense. Doubling down on this languorous groove, ‘Hat Down’ introduces a full-scale No Regular Play reunion, the first of two collaborative tracks that recall the duo’s imperial phase of confidently minimal productions, while evolving their craft.

Following a few missed calls made with love taken from Paulus’s answering machine on ‘$1000’ the minimal, reflective arrangement of ‘Hold Dear’ finds the artist stripping back his layered sound for a skittering, vulnerable exploration of intimacy and life’s devotions.

For a memorable finale, Paulus recruits jazz prodigy Michael Feinberg to deliver upright funk on the deliciously rich ‘Sometimes It’s About Us’. A purely celebratory collage of bopping rhythms and vocals, sharply plucked guitars and archive samples, ‘Close To Home’ concludes with Paulus leading his friends, ensemble and many influences in rare harmony.

Nick The Record returns to Natural House for his third outing, delivering three essential edits straight from his record bag to yours. For those who’ve caught Nick in action over the past couple of years, these floor-tested versions have been mainstays in his sets - now finally available for the wider vinyl community.

The A-side brings the proto-house/NRG bomb “Move On Down To The Other Side” - an instant energy lift for any dancefloor. On the flip, “Break Fast Club” channels the Balearic spirit, all sun-soaked grooves and late-night momentum, while “Steamy” pushes up the BPM for a deeper, boogie-tinged workout.

The next instalment in the classic DJ-Kicks series is a selection of rapturous house, blissed-out breaks, and transcendent rave from the high priestess of the motherbeat herself, Chicago"s Eris Drew. DJ, producer, musician, long-time resident at Chicago"s Smartbar, and co-creator of the T4T LUV NRG party and label, Eris Drew has been DJing since the early 90s, and has since taken her ecstatic house and high-energy, uncompromising mixing style to clubs, raves, and festivals worldwide. Eris" DJ-Kicks mix is 79 minutes of, as she puts it "the funky, emotional, ecstatic house-and-breaks backbone that defines my sound", and includes tracks, remixes, and exclusives by Moby, Calisto, DJ Garth, Onionz, DJ Who, Kair, Hoof, and Toka Project, as well as from Eris herself and partner Octo Octa. The result of countless hours of digging, her selection delves into the rattling breaks, rave stabs, and haunting strings of classic and lost "90s hybrid house-and-breaks jams, and matches them with more recent digs, the mix moving back and forth between emotive, bittersweet, and evocative, to raw, tough, and twisted with consummate ease.

Ein inspiriertes Treffen musikalischer Köpfe erzeugt eine mehrdimensionale Noir-Welt auf diesem luftig-intimen, wunderschönen Kooperationsalbum. Zugleich der Höhepunkt seiner Disciples-Trilogie, treibt Ruth Mascelli (Special Interest) zusammen mit Mary Hanson Scott die paranoiden Torch-Songs des Vorgängers "Non-Stop Healing Frequency" in noch liminalere und abgehobenere Gefilde. Die Songseite ist stärker denn je, während die FX-beschallten Rohrblatt-Klänge von Mary Hanson Scott nicht nur Ruths verführerisches Gesäusel perfekt untermalen, sondern auch ein wolkig-ambientes Klangbett für die Instrumentals bilden, die die Sequenzen zusammenhalten und zu einer wahrhaft emotional mitreißenden Reise formen. Mit Gastauftritten von Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher) und Maria Elena (Special Interest). Im Coverdesign von Brett LaBauve von der Queer-Dance-Party-Institution Gimme A Reason, New Orleans. Zu den Höhepunkten zählt die episch-sehnsuchtsvolle Power-Ballade "Haunted Hearts", das hinreißende Zeitlupen-Cover des Hi-NRG-Pop(per)-Knallers "Self Control" und die zerhackten Rhythmen von "A Lover's Theory Of Value" zwischen abgestumpftem Trip-Hop und Julee Cruise, während "Vaseline Lens" an die elegischen Klagelieder über den Niedergang auf Seite 2 des Debütalbums "A Night At The Baths" erinnert.

Celebrated DJ, producer, and sonic explorer Auntie Flo (aka Brian d’Souza) — described by The Guardian as “one of global club culture’s most vital voices” — returns this autumn with ‘Birds of Paradise’: a rhythmically rich, emotionally resonant, and ecologically grounded new album, out 23 October via his A State of Flo imprint. The album will be launched with a special live show at London’s Jazz Caféon the same day.

‘Birds of Paradise’ draws on d’Souza’s global club experience while deepening his connection with the natural world. Built around classic Roland drum machines and iconic vintage synths, the record is a joyful, body-driven celebration of rhythm and movement, but one grounded in ecology and place. The album’s spiritual centre lies in Saligao, Goa, near d’Souza’s maternal homeland where his Auntie Florie (where the name is derived from) is buried. Where he found his ‘paradise’ nearby, staying in a converted fisherman’s hut and recorded dawn choruses from a riverside studio overlooking mangrove-lined waters. Environmental textures from Japan also make their way into the music, creating a sonic map rooted in lived experience.

“Birds of Paradise is about finding beauty and rhythm in a chaotic world. It’s about listening, to nature, to our bodies, to what’s real. It’s a reminder that dance music can be both joyful and grounded.” The album blends Afro-Latin polyrhythms with Western 4/4 patterns, fusing instinctive, dancefloor energy with field recordings that anchor the music in the earth. Described by d’Souza as “tropical with a few deeper edges, a balance of light and dark.”

The new record follows the acclaimed ‘In My Dreams, I’m A Bird and I’m Free’, which earned 4 stars and Global Album of the Month from The Guardian, featured in Disco Pogo’s Albums of the Year, and received support from Luke Una, Resident Advisor, Juno, Bandcamp, Mixmag, DJ Mag, Electronic Sound, The Skinny, Beatport, Ban Ban Ton Ton, and more. The album’s launch show at Omeara London sold out. Other recent projects include the ‘Outernational Dance’ EP on cult label Multi Culti, event series ‘Plants Can Dance (and Mushroom’s Sing)’ which explore plant and fungi bioelectricity as a means of live composition, and ‘Black Beacon’, a haunting cassette release and soundwalk series recorded on the abandoned military island of Orford Ness. There, d’Souza explored the eerie intersection of nature, decay, and deep time, gaining special access to restricted buildings to capture long-form soundscape compositions.

Alongside his production work, d’Souza has emerged as a leading voice at the intersection of sound and science. He curated music for Imperial College’s groundbreaking psychedelic therapy trials, developing six-phase playlists to guide participants through psilocybin-assisted sessions treating conditions such as fibromyalgia and gambling addiction. His five-hour ambient set at Watching Trees Festival, selected as Resident Advisor’s Mix of the Day, continued this exploration into the therapeutic potential of sound in altered states. He also spent six months collaborating with BBC producer Tom Raine on a documentary for BBC World Service, centred on a two-week journey through Kenya and Goa. There, he performed live, led plant music workshops, and joined a deep listening retreat rooted in field recording. “I realised my studio isn’t just four soundproofed walls filled with instruments — it’s the journey itself. It’s the people I meet, the natural world I listen to, and the connections I feel.”

This same commitment to deep listening fuels his live concept Plants Can Dance, a project that combines the biosonification of plants and fungi with modular synthesis. The next event, on 14 September at Hideout Hackney Wick, will feature performances by Stella Z and Lapalace, with d’Souza and resident Lamine playing live alongside responsive plants in collaboration with Repot Hackney Wick and the label Music To Watch Seeds Grow By. “I’ve spent years exploring how electronic music can connect us, not just to each other, but to the natural world. Whether it’s translating mushroom data into melody or capturing birdsong at dawn, it’s about finding resonance across bodies, ecosystems, and machines.”

Rooted in his Goan and Kenyan heritage and shaped by years of travel and collaboration, d’Souza’s creative mission is simple: to reconnect the electronic world with the natural one. Through A State of Flo, he continues to blur the boundaries between club culture, sound art, and ecological awareness.

Italian producer, musician, DJ, and groove architect Sam Ruffillo drops his long-awaited debut album Tipo Così on Toy Tonics – a sun-drenched, genre-blurring statement that blends classic house with Mediterranean flair, romantic funk, and tongue-in-cheek Italo vibes. Over 11 expertly crafted tracks, Ruffillo delivers a dancefloor-ready, emotionally rich LP that connects deep musicality with irresistible rhythm and light-hearted elegance.

After three acclaimed EPs and collaborations with revered artists such as Barbara Boeing, Kapote, and Fimiani, Ruffillo has firmly cemented himself as a core artist on the Berlin-based label. Known for his unmistakable signature sound — a warm mix of vintage disco, 90s house, and Italian vocals — Sam’s music has garnered widespread DJ support from tastemakers like Gerd Janson, Palms Trax, Seth Troxler, and DJ Tennis, while becoming a staple on Italian airwaves. His infectious summer anthems like Danza Organica and Perfetta Così have soundtracked countless club nights and festivals, creating a loyal following that eagerly awaited this full-length debut.

Tipo Così is the natural culmination of a musical journey that’s both playful and profound — a travel diary written in grooves, synth stabs, and melodies that feel like postcards from a parallel Mediterranean universe. The album expands and deepens Ruffillo’s world into a fully immersive experience: lush emotional chords meet tight syncopated grooves, vintage synth textures collide with irresistibly catchy pop refrains, and the boundary between sincerity and playful irony is exquisitely blurred.

Entirely written, produced, and recorded in Italy, in his beloved hometown of Bologna, the album finds Ruffillo at the helm on keys, drum machines, and production, supported by a talented cast of musicians contributing live bass, guitar, and other organic elements — further enriching his trademark fusion of electronic grooves and natural instrumentation. There’s a tactile warmth in these tracks, a hands-on feel that adds soul and depth to every beat.

This album also marks Ruffillo’s heartfelt return to singing in Italian, with standout tracks like House Tipo Così, Mi Fa Volare, Ancora, and Dentro Di Me, where romantic naïveté meets pulsing club energy in a way that feels both timeless and refreshingly new. The vocal performances add an intimate, human touch to the music, reinforcing the personal stories woven into each song. There’s poetry in the casual, a bittersweet elegance in the way the lyrics float over groove-heavy production.

Having toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Mexico — with sets at iconic venues like Panorama Bar and festivals such as Sónar Barcelona — Ruffillo has fine-tuned much of this album in front of live audiences. The real-world testing ground infused the record with a dynamic energy and immediacy that only comes from genuine crowd interaction. These songs weren’t just made in the studio — they were lived on dancefloors around the world.

Tipo Così is not just a collection of tracks. It’s a philosophy — playful, stylish and unmistakably personal. A modern club album bursting with heartfelt emotion and sophistication. Music for dancers with taste; for lovers of beauty, rhythm, and the little imperfections that make things feel real.

But what exactly is Tipo Così? More than just a phrase, it’s a way of being. It’s about embracing elegance without effort, mixing irony with sincerity, and letting nostalgia slip into the room without taking over the party. It’s Sam Ruffillo’s signature language: relaxed, confident, meticulous yet never rigid — where a chord progression can say as much as a lyric, and every beat carries intention.

The album’s visual identity complements this vision perfectly. The artwork and promotional materials lovingly reference Italian design from the ’80s and ’90s, combining bold graphic elements with playful pop culture nods. This aesthetic mirrors Ruffillo’s music — a fusion of vintage warmth and contemporary freshness, delivered with authenticity and charm.

Sam Ruffillo belongs to a new generation of European artists who are reshaping electronic music by blending past and present, analog and digital, groove and emotion — without nostalgia or pose. His artistic universe is coherent, vibrant, and alive; a rich tapestry of sound, images, and stories that coexist with lightness, precision, and a distinctive voice.

Reflecting on his artistic journey, Sam describes music as a vital, deeply human impulse — a tribal connection to rhythm and body that has driven him since he was a teenager. His creative process balances meticulous planning with room for spontaneity, usually sparked by clear melodic ideas that evolve naturally. Collaborations with close friends, especially vocalists like Ninfa, add warmth and authenticity, exemplified in tracks like “House Tipo Così.” For Sam, music is honest self-expression — crafted for listeners who crave memorable melodies and rhythms imbued with genuine feeling.

While technical perfection is tempting, Sam prioritizes emotion, knowing that what truly resonates is the soul behind the sounds. His long-standing partnership with Toy Tonics has been key in nurturing his vision, offering a blend of creative freedom and professional support. Looking ahead, Sam Ruffillo is excited to broaden his live performances, and release new projects that continue to blend electronic grooves with organic, heartfelt sounds — maintaining the delicate balance between playful irony and sincere emotion that defines Tipo Così.




Kurzversion:
Italian DJ, producer and musician Sam Ruffillo drops his debut album Tipo Così on Toy Tonics - a sunny blend of house, funk, Italo and pop, full of groove and emotion. Written and recorded in Bologna with live instruments and Italian vocals, it’s a playful, elegant journey shaped on dancefloors worldwide. A stylish, sincere club album where nostalgia, irony and rhythm meet in perfect harmony.

- Mi Fa Volare
Road-tested across continents and now finally released, “Mi Fa Volare” channels 90s uplifting euphoria with big breakbeats, lush chords, and Italian vocals built to stick. Somewhere between balearic bliss and piano house nostalgia, it’s a feel-good club weapon made for peak-time moments - already sung back by crowds after just one listen.


- Ancora
“Ancora” is a vibrant hi-NRG track inspired by 80s Italo disco, sung entirely in Italian. It blends driving rhythms with dreamy melodies, capturing the radiant spirit of the decade. This fresh yet nostalgic song delivers euphoric vibes and timeless energy, making it a perfect fit for both dancefloors and reflective listening moments worldwide.


- Dentro Di Me
“Dentro Di Me” channels ‘90s sensuality through a fast-paced, UK house-inspired lens. Entirely in Italian, it’s a bold and contemporary dance track where hypnotic vocals meet high-energy grooves. Blending nostalgic textures with forward-thinking production, the result is a seductive and euphoric trip - equal parts emotional and club-ready.


- Amigo
“Amigo” blends Latin groove, acoustic guitar-driven rhythm, and Mediterranean flair into a warm, magnetic, cross-cultural dance anthem. Sung in Spanish and Italian, it celebrates connection, inclusivity, and the joy of moving together - whether stranger or friend. With its unstoppable rhythm and vibrant energy, it’s a feel-good track with a unifying spirit.


- Ma Sei Fuori
“Ma Sei Fuori” is a tongue-in-cheek dancefloor bomb blending raw house energy with catchy vocal phrases and a nod to classic French touch. Driven by hypnotic vocal lines and a playful attitude, it doesn’t take itself too seriously - while still proving serious club impact. Built for late-night moments, it’s bold, bouncy, and impossible to ignore.

Big one from Milanese maestro Inner Lakes. Hell-bent on making 2025 his year, the Kalahari debutant maintains form and momentum with the latest in a flurry of vital releases.

A meticulously-crafted 4-tracker imbued with menace and urgent, late nite throb, it’s precisely the spiralling, nocturnal kinda style that has become his hallmark. Streetwise, upfront and packing a sizeable amount of f*ck-off NRG.

Expect noirish, night-stalking rave suspense and hardware-fuelled, high-velocity torque. Best heard in the company of shadow-dwelling spectres, or perhaps, at the event horizon of a black hole.

DJ tools reveal greater depth and nuance upon closer inspection, and disembodied vocals lure inquisitive ears deep into the dream state. Finely measured throughout, it’s a masterful balance between functionality and full-blown dancefloor immersion, all courtesy of a fella at the top of his game.

Written and Produced by Inner Lakes.
Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering.
Distributed by One Eye Witness.
Artwork by S.O.N.S

2025 Repress

Long-overdue repress of the 1998 classic Ural 13 Diktators debut release. From Ghetto Techno to Hi-NRG influenced Neo-Soviet Electroclash and traditional melodies. Mastered from the original tapes and lacquer cut in 2025 by Mike Grinser at Manmade Mastering, Berlin. Slava Ukraini!

Buh Records presents Primera Secuencia, the debut album by Ballet Mecánico, the project of Fernando Pinzás. After his time in the synth-punk band Varsovia, Pinzás embarks on a new phase as a solo artist and producer, exploring electronic styles from the 1980s like synthpop, Hi-NRG, Italo disco, and techno pop. The album blends synthesizers, programmed sequences, and pulsating basslines to create a nostalgic yet danceable soundscape. Set against the backdrop of the pandemic and social movements in Peru, each track tells a story, featuring guest vocalists from the Peruvian independent scene, including Susana Fátima (Gomas), Noelia Cabrera (Blue Velvet, Silveria), Kat Kathia, Luxsie, Luminiscencia, Anabhell (Las Ratapunks), Laura Rosales (Solenoide), and Elva Cío (Specto Caligo). Singles No Cederé and Testamento define the project's dark and ethereal pop aesthetic. No Cederé, featuring Susana Fátima, critiques societal notions of success over an Italo disco and Hi-NRG beat. The track includes a remix by Italoconnection, the duo of Fred Ventura and Paolo Gozzetti, who take it into a hypnotic, spacey realm. Testamento, with Luminiscencia, reflects on the emotional weight of the pandemic, blending synthpop and ethereal pop. Other standout tracks include La ciudad de los incendios, a dystopian vision of Lima with dark disco rhythms, and Como la última vez, a synthpop-driven, melancholic song featuring Noelia Cabrera.

The dons from Down Under have only gone and done it again. Demonstrating the breadth of the Sleep D sound, the ever-prolific duo dish out a 3-track invocation of mesmeric techno and trance.

Following a remix cameo on Alfred Czital and Ayu’s recent ‘Talk To Me’ EP, this is the fully fledged label debut. A truly engrossing triple-pronged attack from two intrepid explorers of the “rave unconscious”.

Celebrated for live hardware sets and in-the-moment improvisation, that same freeform NRG courses throughout. Synapses firing on all cylinders as we’re caught somewhere between the warped, direct and emosh.

Pivoting from cybernetic meltdown to sci-fi dystopia before finally settling on some full-blown trance ascension. Proper techno freak-out into the levitational and sublime, all primed for the big room.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

David Douglas and Applescal both share a deep passion for the road. In the summer of 2023, they decided to come together to write a track. Full of inspiration and atmospheric ideas, this evolved from a rough concept into a collection of tracks. What initially began as an idea for a single track quickly grew into the full-fledged electronic album 'Démarrage'.

Barcelona’s Egyptian Greyhound and Berlin-based Ziel join forces in search of a modern sound rooted in the spirit of classic dancefloor cuts. Riding the revival wave, their EP blends Progressive, Trance, and Balearic elements with Classic House undertones.

A1 – Ziel’s "Divinity" is a sensual vocal track, channeling the eroticism and transcendentalism of past eras. Straddling the line between after-hours soft-trance and progressive house with Hi-NRG ambition, it delivers a compelling emotional punch.

A2 – "A Life in Paradise" follows in tone but leans further into Classic House. Less Hi-NRG, more warmth — it’s a strong warm-up tool, ideal for building energy early on.

B1 – "Nature Dancer" by Egyptian Greyhound brings a powerful kick and drum groove for peak time, combining Balearic colors and trancey aesthetics to ignite the dancefloor.

B2 – "Ace of Swords" sees both producers come together for a trippy, acid-tinged closer that fuses deep Trance and Balearic moods into a dreamy final statement.

3XL’s first new release in 2025 by Italian trio Cortex of Light is a synapse-tickling dose of classic FSOL-era world-building that takes in gloopy trance cooked down with sub-heavy, vaporous dub, mutant acid, breakbeat rave, Artificial Intelligence and a Mark Fell-style algorithmic brainmelt.

You'll know if you've spent any time following Piezo's output that the Milan-based producer and Ansia boss has a knack for lysergically enhancing any club template he sets his sights on. With releases on Idle Hands, Wisdom Teeth, Loefah's 81 and most recently Dekmantel, Luca Mucci has blottered up dubstep, hard drum, 2-step and minimal techno, here re-convening with fellow Milanese journeymen Aitch and primordial OOze/xàr num as Cortex of Light to blur those edges even further

'ILLUMINOTECNICA' isn't the trio's first release, but it's their most substantial and easily most developed. If 2024's 'Aeon Is A Child At Play With Colored Balls' showed off their aptitude for threading their luminous soundscapes into a horizontal soundtrack, then this album is a proper chance for Cortex of Light to show off their versatility in a different setting, matching dancefloor hallucinations with expertly sculpted sound design.

Psilocybin-tainted soundscapes scrape into breathy flute sounds and chest-thumping bass drops on the opener, haunted by a vision of electronic music that's been contrived in back rooms, squats and outdoor raves for decades at this point. Like so much of the rest of the 3XL catalog, there's a drive and coherence here that comes from classic dub techno and chill-out room fodder (think The Black Dog or Pentatonik), but always infused with something that dates it to the present era, be it a tactile sliver of Visible Cloaks-style neo-new age ambience, or a sort of mescaline-dipped take on Photek's bass-heavy, meticulously hazed 'Solaris' period downtempo gear, chopped 'n screwed into the uncanny.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Here’s another gem from the Made Up Records catalog, crafted by none other than Laserdance legend Michiel van der Kuy. Once again, Vintage Pleasure Boutique delivers a beautifully remastered original, breathing new life into this classic cut. But that’s not all. Thanks to the access to the original studio stems, the release also features four brand-new remixes. A.P. Mono, Electro Potato, Bellatrix, and Chris van Buren all stayed true to the essence of the original production, but each one gave “Let Me Free” a fresh twist – tweaking, polishing, and reimagining it to build a smooth bridge between the old school vibe and modern dancefloor energy, all while giving a respectful nod to today’s DJs.

Ricardo Baez, a Milan-based DJ and producer, returns with his second single on Mule Musiq. Known for his regular party “Tropical Animal,” Baez launched a label of the same name and has released music on Toy Tonics and Live at Robert Johnson—the label of the renowned German club Robert Johnson. He continues to establish himself as one of the most promising artists in the scene. His latest release opens with a jazzy deep house track reminiscent of Larry Heard, followed by “Dark Room NRG,” a slowed-down take on '90s rave house. “Whisper Wood” reinterprets '90s Italian Balearic house with a modern touch, while “Animarara,” a highlight from his previous digital-only release, makes a return. The record closes with “The Life of Larry,” a cinematic breakbeat track. The variety showcased across the release speaks to the depth and range of Baez's musical vision.

Team TD take a break from re-scoring Colin McCrae Rally to pay our own oddball homage to some of our DJ deities in the form of Talking Drums Volume 8.
Keeping things diverse-yet-disco, this little mover grooves through Muzic Box pump, Lofty symphonics and a Ku-curveball with a smile on its face and a pep in its step.

The A-side erupts in a flash of sexy Euro-NRG, twisted and lifted to give any sweatbox a massive Hardy-on. Sequencers throb, swell and burst, horns wail and not one, but two, killer basslines blast the floor with erogenous urgency. Chuck in a coquettish vocal, delay madness and a fist pumping breakdown and you've got pure peak-time play folks.

The B1 belongs to the sumptuous strings, loose funk and live disco strut of 'Too Hot'. Low slung, low tempo but plenty punchy, this classy cut builds and builds through Merc-y repetition before blooming a fully fledged groover. Taut funk breaks sit beneath a floor-filling vocal and twinkling Rhodes, the wah guitar works overtime, and it all adds up to take the dance floor temperature sky high. Enjoy on a hi-fi sound system with plenty of spiked punch.

The curtain call comes via the alfresco flamenco-frenzy of Ronseal-approved 'Maximum Balearic Dancer', which does exactly what it says on the tin. The TD troupe takes a tiny snippet of Swiss fusion and fleshes it out into the fully fledged floor-filler it always deserved to be. Blessed with a buoyant bassline and balmy mood, this beauty sways along through some weird but wonderful synth riffs, holding you close for that soul-soaring piano solo.
Sometimes you gotta wake up on a beach naked.

Limited Press - Numbered Insert - Drum Fun Guaranteed. .

A Lost Hi-NRG Gem Returns – After 38 Years!

Another iconic diamond of German electronic disco is finally back on vinyl after 38 years! This is no ordinary reissue – it’s a Mike Mareen production, the mastermind behind the legendary “Love Spy”. Released under his Night’n’Day Records, a label that ruled the ’80s dancefloors, this track is pure Hi-NRG gold.

Enter “Roadrunner”, a high-energy banger from Jeff Harrison, this time hiding behind the alias U.K.. Packed with playful synths, an electrifying tempo, and Jeff’s dynamic vocals, this track is made for the dancefloor—like a fitness trainer hyping you up for that final rep!

But that’s not all! This special edition also includes never-before-released versions straight from the original recording session. Stored on tape, buried in a drawer for 38 years, and now – FINALLY – ready to hit your turntable.

Get it. Spin it. Feel the energy!

In the late 1980s, as techno and house made its way around Europe, mutating as it hopped from city to city, one young DJ from Curacao made a mistake that would inspire a brand new sound. While he was performing at Den Haag's Club Voltage, DJ Moortje accidentally dropped a dancehall track at 45RPM rather than 33, and let it play out. Thirsty for a hi-NRG sound, the crowd loved the squeaky vocals and rapid beat, and bubbling (or bubbling house) was born.For the next couple of decades, bubbling was a crucial part of Holland's Afro-diasporic club landscape. And as a new generation of wide-eyed young DJs and producers began to take the reins, it evolved accordingly. In the late-2000s, Den Haag-based teenage prodigy Guillermo Schuurman followed in the footsteps of his uncle DJ Chippie (one of the genre's co-founders) and cousins DJ Daycard, DJ Master-D, Stiko Jnr and DJ Justme, and began performing and writing beats. Using Fruityloops, he fused familiar bubbling rhythms with rap and R&B samples, trance synths and electro house wobbles, and his tracks quickly became a regular fixture on the Dutch circuit."Bubbling Inside" is a collection of Schuurman's most essential cuts from the era (2007-2009), with a couple of newer productions added for context. Crafted solely for the dance, most of these tracks were never properly released and have been painstakingly hunted down and collected by the Nyege Nyege Tapes together with Sascha Roth from Pantropical in Rotterdam and De Schuurman himself. Hearing them together highlights just how forward thinking the young producer was, steering a Dutch institution into the future.2008's 'First One' is a proto-Berghain belter, with booming bass-heavy kicks underpinning the kind of cheeky melodies that remain the calling card of the genre. 'Pier Je Bil!!' ratchets up the tempo, twisting bubbling's syncopated dancehall kicks into a rapid-fire club clatter and decorating them with steel-pan melodies. Elsewhere, 2019's 'Domina' shows how Schuurman's production style has developed as he mutates trap percussion, dubstep bass and eerie synth textures, while retaining the DNA of bubbling. "Bubbling Inside" is a testament to the evolution of the bubbling genre, as witnessed by one of its most visionary producers.

In the late 1980s, as techno and house made its way around Europe, mutating as it hopped from city to city, one young DJ from Curacao made a mistake that would inspire a brand new sound. While he was performing at Den Haag's Club Voltage, DJ Moortje accidentally dropped a dancehall track at 45RPM rather than 33, and let it play out. Thirsty for a hi-NRG sound, the crowd loved the squeaky vocals and rapid beat, and bubbling (or bubbling house) was born.For the next couple of decades, bubbling was a crucial part of Holland's Afro-diasporic club landscape. And as a new generation of wide-eyed young DJs and producers began to take the reins, it evolved accordingly. In the late-2000s, Den Haag-based teenage prodigy Guillermo Schuurman followed in the footsteps of his uncle DJ Chippie (one of the genre's co-founders) and cousins DJ Daycard, DJ Master-D, Stiko Jnr and DJ Justme, and began performing and writing beats. Using Fruityloops, he fused familiar bubbling rhythms with rap and R&B samples, trance synths and electro house wobbles, and his tracks quickly became a regular fixture on the Dutch circuit."Bubbling Inside" is a collection of Schuurman's most essential cuts from the era (2007-2009), with a couple of newer productions added for context. Crafted solely for the dance, most of these tracks were never properly released and have been painstakingly hunted down and collected by the Nyege Nyege Tapes together with Sascha Roth from Pantropical in Rotterdam and De Schuurman himself. Hearing them together highlights just how forward thinking the young producer was, steering a Dutch institution into the future.2008's 'First One' is a proto-Berghain belter, with booming bass-heavy kicks underpinning the kind of cheeky melodies that remain the calling card of the genre. 'Pier Je Bil!!' ratchets up the tempo, twisting bubbling's syncopated dancehall kicks into a rapid-fire club clatter and decorating them with steel-pan melodies. Elsewhere, 2019's 'Domina' shows how Schuurman's production style has developed as he mutates trap percussion, dubstep bass and eerie synth textures, while retaining the DNA of bubbling. "Bubbling Inside" is a testament to the evolution of the bubbling genre, as witnessed by one of its most visionary producers.

Originally released on Robs Records offshoot Pleasure, followed by a repress on Air Trance in 1995 featuring Francesco Farfa & Kiticonti on remix duty, the debut offering from French/UK outfit Prism - aka Pascal Eloy & Grant Wilkinson - ‘Vapour Trails’ EP eventually gets a much needed reissue on Cosmocities this summer, enhanced with a remix from Bliss Inc.

From its initial sortie on the label run by Rob Gretton, former manager of legendary New Wave bands New Order and Joy Division, onto making it to a then en-vogue Italian trance imprint, this record made waves and opened new portals for many lovers of the burgeoning electronic sound, including - years later - Cosmocities head exec himself, holding the special status of being his first ever vinyl record buy. Harder was the path towards that longed-for repress, but with a twist from destiny - after tracking down one half of Prism - Pascal Eloy - to no avail, the label managed to find him through his father, contemporary composer Christian Eloy, plans were set out to release a first EP, ‘Rain’ (2022), and now ‘Vapour Trails’, which comes as the icing on the cake.

A future-facing slice of fast-track trance bound to have ravers melting in XTC thru and thru, the lead single treats us to a deluge of prismatic arps and multi-faceted synthwaves, ushering us into a vivid, mind-expanding kaleidoscope of throbbing colours and propulsive groove; an absolute killer of a tune that’s lost nothing of its frenzied punch. In the hands of Italian duo Farmakit, the track morphs into a further corrosive churner tailored for peak-time rumble in the warehouse with its calibrated mix of acid-drenched bass whorls, hard house bounce and Tangerine Dream vibrations.

Flip sides and here’s ‘O.N.V.I.’ shifting gears towards a more tribal / spiritual kind of uptempo hoodoo, running the gamut wildly from ethereal choirs to warlike drum programming, via sci-fi-indebted cosmicness and proper 303-infused salvos from outer space. New addition to the bunch, the remix from Bliss Inc. treats us to a more focussed parade of jacking house percussions, hi-NRG acid tropes and Afro funk-minded psychedelia, revving up the engines as the room temp rises from hot to sweltering. No surrender

From Sweden with Italo to Dresden with love. Stockholm's DJ City drops his first release on Dresden's Uncanny Valley with the COSMICOMICS EP, a 100% fun record for all the senses, deeply inspired by Italo Calvino's iconic short story collection.

The stories have inspired DJ City to a record that aesthetically draws from 80s Italo Disco and 70s science fiction films. In the book, each story is based on a scientific fact about the world and the cosmos whilst using fiction to ask how we understand it. Where Calvino's stories are comical and absurd, DJ City surrenders to the sublime and romantic and moves further into the metaphysical world that Calvino created to come up with three energetic and melodic tracks bursting heavily with fantasy and drama. Deeply rooted in dance music's history, they shine with Hi-NRG-vibes, strict dancefloor commitment and little easter eggs like that Drexciya-reference in COSMICOMICS.

The cover of the record is a painting from 2020 by Swedish artist Jens Faenge called THE INN. The picture seems to have been broken up into several dimensions, and abstract details make it difficult for the viewer to know exactly what and when the scene is taking place. When shown in Shanghai, the painting was censored by government agents and had to be taken down. A testament to the power of the image. Perhaps it shows our main character, perhaps it shows us the author or the artist. Depending on who listens, who reads and who looks, a multitude of universes open.

Red Laser continue their prolific purple patch, unpacking four more slabs of red lit Manctolo from a host of box jammers, old and new.

Frank Butters wastes no time at all, 'The Call Of The Wild' engaging photon tubes with a highly kinetic array of crystalline synth shards, thunderous bass and hyperactive sfx. Without geeking out too much, special mention has to go out to the synthesis on display here - Butters advancing up the levels of sonic shamanism as he conjures up never-before-heard patches of interstellar cosmic NRG...

Bob Swans' 'Bodyform4U' unites the robots with a universal message of togetherness. Its multiple layers of shuddering arpeggios and star-aligned synths working in unison to quell any fears and send us off into a space age utopia. One that'll work as well soundtracking the end of the session as it will as the dancefloor's filling up; its subtle anthemic qualities sure to rouse the spirits of even the most dehumanized cyborgs.

New signing Lone Saxon drops 'Hypersleep' which utilises rich piano chords and a hefty breakbeat, switching up the vibe but keeping things super uplifting. This one reminds us of that innocent period when you could get on the megabus for 50p and score three for a tenner on the dancefloor. An evocative vocal refrain adds a moment of thoughtful introspection in between the e-rushes and arm-raising for another moment of interactive harmony.

Finally, 'Webo' sees Franz Scala (with a little help from Il Bosco) return to source, delivering a bona fide slice of maximum balls out MANCTALO chug. With tension-wrought chord progressions, delicious layers of lead melodies and a soaring vocal, there's few that can resist the charms of this late night electro-disco hyper anthem.

All aboard the starship !

RL x

THE TWO CLASSIC EARLY SINGLES ORIGINALLY ON THE BLACK EYES LABEL. RE-PRESSED AND REISSUED ON RED AND BLACK SPLATTER VINYL. PLUS FIVE 1982 DEMOS FROM THE LEGENDARY PETE BURNS FRONTED BAND. CAPTURING DEAD OR ALIVE’S MUTATION FROM PROTO- GOTHIC ROCK BAND TO HI-NRG POP SUPERSTARS.

Having been ‘discovered’ working in Liverpool’s Probe Records during the punk rock explosion of the late 1970s, Pete Burns found himself fronting his own band, Nightmares In Wax who mutated into the more familiar Dead Or Alive, eventually bringing Pete into the UK pop mainstream, and a star was born.

Bringing together two-self-released 1982 singles and a collection of early versions of HiNRG tracks which would eventually find their way onto the band’s debut album, ‘Let Them Drag My Soul Away’ showcases the blossoming of one of the 80s pop scene’s most colourful characters.

Repressed on suitably atmospheric red and black vinyl and housed in a cover photograph by Dead Or Alive’s then manager Francesco Mellina, ‘Let Them Drag My Soul Away’ presents a last glimpse at a pre-stardom Pete, and a long overdue back story accompaniment for fans and collectors alike.

Liquid Crystal, AKA NRG, is on top form with this 4th Volume in the Chromatic EP series. Three absolutely tearing tracks, showcasing his ability to drop ruff beats and up lifiting piano riffs like no one else!

Solomun & CASSIM remix two of the track rake from Radio Slave’s Venti album released earlier this year

Diynamic boss and Ibiza titan Solomun remixes Radio Slave ‘The Lunatics’ on Rekids, following the original’s inclusion in Matt Edwards’ acclaimed ‘Venti’ album in May. The original, a rework itself, reimagined the 1981 Fun Boy Three track ‘The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum’, with Edwards’ ode to the band’s late lead vocalist and The Specials frontman Terry Hall winning support from Saoirse, Erol Alkan, Jennifer Cardini, Laurent Garnier, Paul Woolford, and Honey Dijon.
Solomun’s remix of ‘The Lunatics’ is sparkling aural nostalgia executed with total joy. Crisp 80s drums, Stranger Things-esque Jupiter 8 synth swells, the vocoded titular vocal, and a gloriously rich sliding bassline combine to drag the listener back to 1983 in the best possible way. As the track builds, rousing guitars join the ensemble, completing what is a hypnotic, melodic trip to the 80s via what’s set to be a 2024 anthem.

CASSIMM’s remix of Radio Slave vs Audion’s ‘Mouth To Mouth’ continues the story of Matthew Dear’s classic, which Radio Slave revived and reinvented as part of his 2024 LP, ‘Venti’.
Radio Slave’s hi-NRG disco cover of Audion’s minimal/maximal 2006 and era-defining anthem has dominated dancefloors since it emerged as a single in late 2023, with the likes of Erol Alkan, Job Jobse, Sean Johnston, Jennifer Cardini and Eats Everything continuing to play it today and the latter awarding it an Essential New Tune whilst sitting in for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1.
Now, recent Rekids alum CASSIMM continues his huge run of form with a chunky, main-room house interpretation that shows just why his recent release, ‘House of Moves,’ won DJ support from the likes of Tong, Arielle Free, Paul Woolford, Honey Dijon, and Jennifer Loveless.
CASSIMS’s remix of Radio Slave vs Audion quickly follows Lindstrom and Solomun’s remixes of the ‘Venti’ LP’s tracks, which have seen support from the likes of Ivan Smagghe, Chloé Caillet, Nightmares On Wax, and more.

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, The San Francisco Sound.' Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)', Dance Disco Heat' and Stars.' This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love' and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12 singles, like Menergy' and Megatron Man'. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, Menergy'. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk' for Sylvester, and Right On Target' for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp'. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.

In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections Muscle Up' and School Daze' released in 1979 and 1980. Afternooners' is the third collection of Cowley's instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we've used the titles from Fox Studio's 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on Afternooners' reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.

Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick's 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

The wild greaser with an ever-broken heart, Cong Josie, is back! His
eagerly anticipated sophomore album; Moto Zone, pulls up throbbing,
revving, sweating and grinding hotter than bitumen on a summer day
It is a non- stop EBM'in', synth- punkin', rock 'n' rollin' and doo- woppin' sizzler, in
much the same vein as his 2021 debut Cong!. With this release however, Cong
pushes his own M.O. even deeper. The throbs get bolder, the NRG goes harder,
slow sleaze hip-grinding enters and the dream washes return to envelope all that
hear them like a siren's call. On Moto Zone, Cong conjures the age of rock 'n' roll,
a world of motorcycle gangs and hot rods, leather, chains, backcombing and hair
pomade, with an Aussie twist on greaser 'cool'. Confessional lyrics tell tales of
addiction and mental illness tracing the scars of a troubled past. Cong says the
"Moto Zone" reflects his daily life and mindset. A life of ADHD, burning the
midnight oil, living on black coffee, obsessively creating and revving through
every day. Ultimately Cong is reaching for bliss, feeling connection and a new
world in these songs. Exhilarating? Anxious? Hedonistic? Dangerous? Beautiful?
A lust for life? The record is all of the above.

The wild greaser with an ever-broken heart, Cong Josie, is back! His eagerly anticipated sophomore album; Moto Zone, pulls up throbbing, revving, sweating and grinding hotter than bitumen on a summer day. It is a non-stop EBM’in’, synth-punkin’, rock ’n’ rollin’ and doo-woppin’ sizzler, in much the same vein as his 2021 debut Cong!. With this release however, Cong pushes his own M.O. even deeper. The throbs get bolder, the NRG goes harder, slow sleaze hip-grinding enters and the dream washes return to envelope all that hear them like a siren’s call. On Moto Zone, Cong conjures the age of rock ’n’ roll, a world of motorcycle gangs and hot rods, leather, chains, backcombing and hair pomade, with an Aussie twist on greaser ‘cool’. Confessional lyrics tell tales of addiction and mental illness tracing the scars of a troubled past. Cong says the “Moto Zone” reflects his daily life and mindset. A life of ADHD, burning the midnight oil, living on black coffee, obsessively creating and revving through every day. Ultimately Cong is reaching for bliss, feeling connection and a new world in these songs. Exhilarating? Anxious? Hedonistic? Dangerous? Beautiful? A lust for life? The record is all of the above.