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Limited coloured LPs housed in gatefold w/ special canvas cardboard stock and silver hot foil! Nordic pop diva KARIN PARK of ÅRABROT adds her ethereal, mournful voice and keys to the primordial sound of legendary electronic pioneer LUSTMORD for this sublime and poignant collaboration. ALTER is a ritual of our times. On the pair's frst collaborative work, the nine tracks that make up ALTER are every bit as heart-wrenching as they are terrifying, mining new sonic territory, it is a fascinating study of light and shade that delves deep into vast uncharted darkness. Their ability to create atmosphere on the album opener "Hiraeth" is second to none, perfectly assembling a harrowing backdrop for Park's lilting sound of longing. From there, Park's vocals add all of the emotional depth and power found in names like Kate Bush, Maynard J Keenan and Elizabeth Frasier, perfectly playing against Lustmord's waves of dark drama and creating a wholly unique record that recalls Dead Can Dance, Massive Attack and Portishead at their greatest. Considering Park's credentials, it might be surprising that a collaboration with Lustmord would ft so seamlessly. Utilizing a sound comprised of elements of industrial, synth pop and more, the celebrated Swedish solo artist and member of Norwegian rock band Årabrot utilizes experimentation in her work, blazing trails and bringing to mind the work of her peers The Knife, Scott Walker, Robyn, Depeche Mode and Burial with her darkly-rich compositions. Multiple winner of Norway's Spellemann award, Park co-wrote the Norwegian entry for the 2013 Eurovision, fnishing fourth overall. But it is the sensibility of the sacred music of her youth that Park adds to ALTER, contributing a powerful vocal that guides the listener through the cavernous, mystical depth of their collaborative work. "Lustmord is the Gustave Doré of music", Karin Park ofers pensively. "Painting magical pictures with a sound that is so vast, it gives space for your own imagination." Brian Williams grew up in North Wales, beginning his musical career as Lustmord in 1980 and becoming a pivotal fgure and pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. A former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, Williams went on to work with Throbbing Gristle members Chris & Cosey and appeared on early albums by Current 93 and Nurse With Wound amongst others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed, as well as on several video game, television scores and solo albums. Williams has also contributed to and collaborated with artists as varied as the Melvins, Clock DVA, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream), Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit), Puscifer and more, including Grammy Award-winners Tool from their much acclaimed eforts 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum.

Tape

Tekanan is the full-length debut of Melbourne-based Indonesian-Australian drummer and sound artist, Rama Parwata. A thorough exploration of rhythmic capabilities and percussive improvisation under ever-shifting timbral and stylistic environments, Tekanan is Parwata’s examination and documentation of his vast musical influences in electro-acoustic improvisation, Indonesian gamelan music, free jazz, electronic music, R&B, and noise music, whilst still maintaining an entirely unique non-idiomatic musical voice. Tekanan sees Parwata experimenting with not only the drum kit, but additionally implementing no-input mixing boards, musique-concréte sampling techniques, junk percussion, electric guitar, and computer music production to create a relentlessly metamorphosing soundscape that abruptly, yet seamlessly oscillates between ethereal ambiances to turbulent barrages of rhythm and noise through five unique movements.



Aptly named after the Indonesian word for pressure and stress, Tekanan was composed by Parwata with the intent of it being a listening experience which would pressure the listener to have no clear indication of the direction of the music and where it will ultimately settle, leading the listener on a sinuous, yet intriguing aural journey. This title additionally applies to the pressure of the challenging nature of the music, in a performative sense, which pushed Parwata to his physical and mental limits to perform and compose.



“As cliche or banal this might sound, I tried to make a record that was purposely made to be hard to put into a box. I didn’t want to make a “drumming” record or a noise record or anything of the type, but a record that just contained "good” music (or what I constitute as being good). Many aspects of my musical life were injected into this release: gamelan music (the first music I was exposed to), noise, hip-hop, free-improvisation, Xenakis, jazz, electronic music. Ultimately this record is a homage to those musical influences.” - Rama Parwata

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An active figure in Australia’s experimental music and art scenes, Parwata has worked with the likes of Marco Fusinato, Robin Fox, and Robbie Avenaim, and choreographers Stephanie Lake, Juliet Burnett, and Melanie Lane. He is also a member of seminal long-running Melbourne Doom Metal band, Whitehorse.


As of 2019, Parwata has been a co-curator and committee member of Melbourne’s legendary concert series, Make It Up Club, which has been presenting weekly avant-garde improvised performances since 1998.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Soul Jazz Records new 'Two Synths, A Guitar (and) A Drum Machine' is a new collection of current D-I-Y post-punk bands shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid). Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield's industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can. Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles D-I-Y band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, VexRuffin from the Philippines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups. That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound - hip-hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture, and more.

In the spirit of old school power metal, Germany’s up-and-comers HAMMER KING have gathered to set fire on their new album Hammer King (out June 11 via Napalm Records)! Ever since HAMMER KING burst onto the scene in 2015, they have proven themselves as an unstoppable force. Hand-picked by thy majesty, the Hammer King himself, the band consists of former ROSS THE BOSS vocalist Titan Fox V and former SALTATIO MORTIS drummer Dolph A. Macallan, alongside Gladius Thundersword on bass and Kleveland's most timeless lead guitarist: Gino Wilde. HAMMER KING keeps it heavy with speedy riffs, energic grooves and fist-pumping choruses, devoting their existence to the one and only myth of the godly Hammer King! The new self-titled album starts off with blasting drums and brisk guitars on “Awaken the Thunder”, with frontman and guitarist Titan Fox V showing off his incredible vocal range, whereas tracks like “Atlantis” prove HAMMER KING’s ability to write catchy and memorable choruses. Hammer King tells the lore of the Hammer King himself, a wrathful and mighty war god, who is praised in tracks like anthemic “Baptized by the Hammer”, energetic and double-bass driven “In the Name of the Hammer” and the hard-hitting “Hammerschlag” featuring the legendary Gerre from TANKARD, Isaac from EPICA and the almighty The Crusader (WARKINGS). Hammer King will be available as a deluxe box edition including, as well as on gatefold vinyl amongst others. Kneel before the king of kings, the HAMMER KING! 1. SINGLE - EN "Kicking off with a tight, punishing drum groove and heavy guitars, “Hammerschlag” gets your blood pumping right from the first second! A catchy power metal singalong hook and guest vocals by Gerre from TANKARD and Isaac from EPICA and the almighty Crusader (WARKINGS), topped off with dizzying guitar solos – HAMMER KING knows how to get your head banging! " 2. SINGLE - EN "On “Atlantis”, power metallers HAMMER KING reveals its melodic side as singer and guitarist Titan Fox V shows off his incredible vocal range. Dynamic songwriting meets multi-faceted, virtuoso guitar solos! " 3. SINGLE - EN “Awaken The Thunder” by HAMMER KING is a heavy, fist-pumping power metal anthem! The double-bass groove will catch the listener off guard, leading seamlessly into the passionately performed verses by Titan Fox V. HAMMER KING at its best!

For fans of AMON DÜÜL, CAN, FAUST, NEUBAUTEN, BRIAN ENO, CLUSTER, CULT OF LUNA, NINE INCH NAILS, MASSIVE ATTACK OR - Norwegian for "dizzy, confusing" - is the third album from Italian avant-rock trio OSLO TAPES, and the album keeps what the word promises: a dizzying ride through a feverish dreamscape of imaginary Norwegian highlands painted in cubistic shapes. Hypnotic basslines, repetitive drum patterns, new wave synths and psychedelic guitar textures covering the full width of the stereo room, all seamlessly woven into a gloomy Kraut - tapestry which sounds refreshingly_ modern, while paying tribute to the aged genre. Marco Campitelli, born and raised in Lanciano on the Southern Adriatic coast of Italy, founded OSLO TAPES in the early 2010s after a trip to the Norwegian Capital left him deeply impressed. Under the influence of this infatuation, he composed and produced OSLO TAPES' first record "OT (un cuore in pasto a pesci con teste di cane)" within a week in 2013. Supervised and supported by friend Amaury Cambuzat (faUSt / Ulan Bator), Campitelli's first attempt to capture the mystical vibe of Norway was released on DeAmbula Records (Ulan Bator, The Marigold, 7C). In 2015 he was joined by Mauro Spada and Federico Sergente (Zippo) and together they recorded OSLO TAPES' sophomore album "Tango Kalashnikov", also released on DeAmbula Records. "OR" is a much more collaborative effort for OSLO TAPES than the first two records. Next to Campitelli, the album was co-produced by Amaury Cambuzat (Ulan Bator) and James Aparicio (house engineer for Mute Records and mixing and mastering engineer for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Nick Cave). During production, Campitelli became friends with Emil Nikolaisen of Serena Maneesh w h o guided him "through the Norwegian imagination". As a result, the record's title is also courtesy of Nikolaisen. During this journey spanning over eight songs, OSLO TAPES, completed by Mauro Spada (bass) and Davide Di Virgilio (drums and percussions) construct a dense and ever so dark atmosphere that is captivating, brooding and imaginative. After a spiraling takeoff with "Space is the place", we find ourselves floating weightlessly above the nocturnal Norwegian highlands through "Zenith" and "Kosmik Feels", an airy circulation of jazzy drums, pulsating bass lines and shimmering guitar clouds. We saddle up, gallop across the sky on "Bodo Dakar" and drift back into the night on "Cosmonaut". The trifecta of "Norwegian Dream", "Exotic Dreams" and "Obession Is The Mother of All" conclude this agitated fever dream journey. There is a sense of solitude in OSLO TAPES' compositions which makes it easy to imagine them as interstellar jam sessions between cosmonauts, each in their own isolated space capsule. Every spin of "OR" brings new discoveries: sometimes it is a noise that we did not notice before, sometimes a slight change in the drum groove, sometimes just a piece of the lyrics, meandering through our mental space. "OR" is a vertiginious journey to be remembered - and repeated. "The focus of Oslo Tapes is to harmonize the noise" says Marco Campitelli.

The trio of fiddle player Erlend Apneseth with guitarist Stephan Meidell and drummer Oyvind Hegg-Lunde follows up their Nordic Prize-nominated album of 2019, ‘Salika, Molika’, with a remarkable suite of tunes inspired by the rhythms and physicality of the human body in motion.
Originally commissioned by FRIKAR Dance Company to accompany the performance of a new work, ‘Skaut’, dealing with the covering of the body in different cultures, the music of ‘Lokk’ takes the trio further than ever before into completely fresh areas of electro-acoustic improvisation.
The sounds of their original instruments are integrated with electronic beats and treated textures to form a kind of enhanced digital-folk style whose influences stretch from traditional south Asian ragas to contemporary dance culture from around the globe.
The result is intense, and intensely rhythmic, music where the normally separate realms of the cerebral and the corporeal can appear to fuse into one irresistible groove.
As the trio rocks on - in a dream of perfect interplay between instruments and players, soloists and ensemble - deep, trembling sub-bass intersects with ethereal ambient soundscapes. Elsewhere, the twittering of birdsong - from both real bird-calls and the uncanny imitation of them by Apneseth’s Hardanger fiddle - meets archival recordings of Norwegian herdswomen.
“Our musical idea for this project was to unite different extremes, connections that felt “forbidden” in one form or another”, says Stephan Meidell. “For example, by using the sampled recording of traditional herd-calling, blended together with aesthetics from more contemporary music styles. This exploration has led us further into a rhythmic and danceable landscape than in previous releases. We also wanted to use this opportunity to deliberately make more dance-related music. As regards the original commission, were pretty free to do what we wanted, but there was one specific dance in mind, ‘Valdresspringar’, for which Erlend wrote the melody. It’s a traditional, asymmetrical dance and has a very particular form. The melody is on the track called ‘Springar’, which we then messed around with.”
This “messing around with” element is key to the sound of ‘Lokk’, whose playful experimentation over the nine separate tracks creates a beguiling, constantly surprising sense of adventure and intrigue that both draws the listener in, and then keeps them on their toes as to where the next stage of the journey will take them. It also becomes inescapably obvious that this is a group of three equals.
The contributions of Stephan Meidell and Oyvind Hegg-Lunde, as musicians, co-composers and producers, appear every bit as important as that of Erlend Apneseth, who performs superbly throughout. “Even though the trio carries Erlend’s name, it’s a band in every sense of the word”, says Stephan Meidell. “We make the music together, where everyone brings their ideas and we build on each other’s input and output. This is not our “coming out” as a band, but the group is sometimes interpreted as having a hierarchical structure, as a soloist and accompaniment.”
As is evident from the trio’s live performances, where each member seamlessly integrates the acoustic and the electronic elements in their respective sounds through constant monitoring and tweaking, Apneseth, Meidell and Hegg-Lunde are also pioneers,
creating real-time effects that in the past were only available through post-production or the intervention of a sympathetic engineer and a truck-load of kit. ‘Lokk’ translates this fleet-footed improvisational approach, and the players’ lightning-speed reaction times, back into the environment of the recording studio, where the music composed for the original FRIKAR dance piece was further embellished and adapted. Played live, it will continue to change again, as improvised music always does.

It took German metalcore vets, CALIBAN recording a cover of Rammstein’s “Sonne” to realize that their native tongue was a seamless fit with their time tempered collision of punishing riffs and Andreas Dörner’s urgent vocals. With fans hungry for the Essen-borne quintet to record an album exclusively in German, the band simply said: “Why not?” and “Zeitgeister” was born. 11 genre-defining LPs deep into their career, the band’s vision for the album came naturally – a career retrospective and deep-dive into CALIBAN favorites that haven’t had a live airing in some time. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but once we allowed us to make them as different from the originals as we felt it was needed it came fairly naturally”, explains guitarist and main songwriter Marc Görtz. Of course, some updating was necessary when it came to translating the songs to German. “It turned out to be surprisingly tricky,” says Dörner. “While I feel more at home with my native German it made it a lot more complicated, as I had more options to phrase something.” Formed in 1997, CALIBAN’s legacy has been a tireless one, touring the globe and sharing stages with the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Killswitch Engage and many more, “Zeitgeister” was a welcome homecoming. With the help of long-running producer Benjamin Richter (Moonspell, Emil Bulls and more) CALIBAN hand-picked seven tracks to bring new life to: “Trauma“ (feat. Matthi from Nasty, “Arena Of Concealment”), “Herz” (“I Will Never Let You Down”), “Ausbruch nach Innen“ (“Tyranny Of Small Misery”), “Feuer, zieh mit mir“ (“Between The Worlds”), “Nichts ist für immer“ (“All I Gave”), “Intoleranz“ (“Intolerance”). “Mein Inferno” (“My Little Secret”). “Zeitgeister” also boasts a new track, “nICHts”. “It’s a song about feeling disoriented and hopeless, about depression and feeling powerless. Feelings that many of us can probably relate to during these days”, says Dörner.

Glasgow post-punk six-piece Kaputt aren’t strangers to directing their explosive energy and maximalist vibrancy in the name of allegory and critique. Their 2019 debut album on Upset the Rhythm ‘Carnage Hall’ confidently deconstructed themes of surveillance, paranoia, and cultural identity through a sonic lens of high-tempo, bright, danceable pop hooks and technical, polyphonic rhythms which border on the bombast of Zeuhl. 


New EP ‘Movement Now/Another War Talk’ continues the synthesis of animation and discontent with an ethos that exemplifies post-punk’s most original and guiding purpose: casting aside the rigid, signifying fashions of modern performative genre tropes and instead combining a vast fluidity of influence, tone and style to create something as unique and personal as it is counter-cultural. The result is a release that responds to the apathy of our current situation with a positive thesis, breathing life into the lived-in, bursting through every vessel, leaving nothing unturned.

‘Movement Now’ enters with the distinct high-low drive of guitar whines and racing low toms, emblematic of the presence one feels when pushing past bodies in a heaving DIY venue, but it is not afraid to play with expectations. When the song thematically opens out, disrupts convention and progressively rebuilds upon itself, the track, a comment on the ever-lagging pace that jaded, old values take to transform, transitions from a goth aesthetic to the optimism characteristic of any indie heavyweight.

‘Another War Talk’ shines in production and composition as arguably one of the best examples of distilling the band’s manic live energy into a studio recording. The divergent vocal duality of Cal D. and Chrissy B. accompanied by competing percussionists and dynamic saxophone lines encapsulates the performative strengths that has allowed the band to become a constant highlight in Glasgow’s ever exciting DIY scene. It is, in essence, the naturalness by which six passionate voices can combine into one vision so seamlessly, which one who has not experienced the band live should take away from the track for now in anticipation of the future.

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

1. SINGLE - EN Crowned by expert, airtight vocal domination from frontwoman Skye “Sever” Sweetnam, “Bystander” owns the listener with its aggressive, fast-paced attack of low, grooving metal riffage, relentless, erratic drums and slinking electronic accents. Tied together with a gritty hook, the track cements what “Cycos” can expect from the heavier side of Initiation. 2. SINGLE - EN Sauntering, forceful and haunting, “No Surrender” track shines as a prime pick on Initiation. The anthem fills the room with a pointed vocal attack and chugging lead riff of the heaviest metal, underlined by creeping electronic murmurs, seamlessly blending several more under-the-radar genre influences ranging from industrial to world while never losing its primary hard rock flavor. 3. SINGLE - EN Purely electrifying and in-your-face throughout, “Vertigo”, unlike its title suggests, is nothing but balanced – connecting like a sucker punch as soon as its electro-laced intro breaks into the first verse. Featuring the production mastery of Juno Award-winning producer Kane Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, In This Moment, Papa Roach), the anthem stands tall with its airtight, gritty pop rock sensibility. 4. SINGLE - EN As unpredictable and infectiously manic as the news itself, “Bad News” is a rollercoaster of charging, metallic rock riffage, jolting rhythms and catchy, sing a-long vocal lines. Poised as one of the most eclectic offerings on Initiation, lyrically, the timely track careens the listener down a road all too universally familiar – exploring tensions and eventual emotional explosions ignited by the cycle of never-ending bad news that has seemingly saturated the world.

Red Vinyl

The unmissable, head-twisting debut LP by Cairo’s 1127 returns on red vinyl pressing for those who missed its shockwaves for the first time back in summer 2019, Huge recommendation if you’re into Autechre, Arca, Croww w, Rabit...
Getting right under the skin with its hugely variegated palette of brutalist, rhythmic power electronics and evocative location recordings, ‘Tqaseem Mqamat El Haram 2016-2019’ resembles something like a soundtrack to a Neil Blomkamp flick set it Cario, Egypt, 2050 where stifling heat and pollution means everyone wears
breathing apparatus and hover cars sputter about its dusty sprawl. It’s surely one of the most shocking and transfixing sides from North Africa this side of the debut LPs by 1127’s peers, Myslma and Zuli, and should be prized by anyone with an ear for futurist rhythms and microtonal synths of a modern, Afro-futurist order.
Comprising collaged chunks from 1127’s archive arranged in a seamless, diffracted flow that recalls Autechre as well as the mutant adjuncts in Arca’s &&&& or Croww’s ‘Prosthetics MechaMix’, the results feel as though scraped from the insides of 1127’s skull, capturing and rendering the sounds of Cairo street raves ricocheting
with spasms of gristly noise, strafing into pockets of cutthroat flashcore and dropping out into smoky,
intimate scenes of Arabic dialogue, all threaded together with a distinctive taste for metallic microtonal synthlines and coruscating noise.

The Mental Traveller - A Soundtrack by Noa Erni

If music can take our mind to any imaginable place, on endless individual journeys, Noa Erni's "The Mental Traveller" is the infinite soundtrack. A soundtrack for mental wandering and soul searching, a blend of rap, jazz and hip-hop beats. "The Mental Traveller", an album assembled like a literary anthology, offers musical arrangements and unique narratives where epilogue and prologue of each track merge seamlessly. Far beyond the horizon of compiling single tracks, "The Mental Traveller" is a journey of sound and unity. Inspired by David Axelrod and William Blake, Ahmad Jamal and Flying Lotus - just to name a few - this work aims to be a tribute to these legends' legacies of past, present and future, detached from trends, norms and classical narrative structure.

Swiss-born producer and computer conductor Noa Erni has been crafting obscure jazz and hip-hop behind closed curtains (a.k.a. his flat in Berlin, Germany) for years - free from external pressure and as an adjunct to his day jobs as sommelier and co-owner of local fine wine store "Friedenauer Weinhandlung". On April 30th, 2021, Kommerz Records will release Noa Erni's debut album "The Mental Traveller" on 12" vinyl as well as on all digital platforms. The project features internationally renowned artists such as Count Bass D (alternative rap pioneer, who worked with Snoop Dogg, MF Doom (R.I.P.) and Retrogott), Miles Bonny (New Mexico-based singer and trumpeter), S. Fidelity (hip-hop producer signed to German tastemaker label Jakarta Records) and more. Erni's guests meld seamingly with this unapologetic and experimental album showcasing stand out performances on vocals, instruments and production.

While the album sounds like it was played by a jazz outfit with years of stage experience, the truth surprises and is even more exciting: Noa crafted the songs in countless hours of experimenting with a midi keyboard, various instrument plugins and perfected reverb settings. It was not one and the same band but one and the same person. Just a few tracks include actual live instruments: drums by Max von der Goltz on "The Mental Traveller Theme" and "Uncertainty", bass by Roman Klobe on "Longitude" and flugelhorn by Miles Bonny on "Train Ride".

On July 4th Kase Avila is set to raise the bar even higher with his latest effort ‘Minerva’ via Low Key Source. The Filipino-Australian producer is set to delve deeper into his artistry and penchant for the experimental with 14 new tracks.

When Covid-19 turned the world upside down, Kase sent himself into self-isolation. Confined to the studio, the Sydney beatmaker faced this tumultuous time with his love for producing music. Kase explored his love of 90’s boom bap, neo-soul, and the Soulquarians, while playing with the crisp sounds of electronic music to strengthen his perseverance and resolve. Taking its name from the Roman goddess of music, poetry, medicine and wisdom, ‘Minerva’ is a celebration of the resilience found in creativity when faced with uncertainty. The record envisions a sonic landscape that is as intimate as it is expansive. Lush chords pervade Kase’s signature hard hitting drum lines and smooth melodies like an evergreen being traced with graceful footsteps. The result is a sound that is regal in its confidence and joyous in it’s expressiveness. The lead single ‘Magic Birds’ strikes a harmonious balance between the sample-driven beats that have made Kase a fan favourite amongst the lo-fi hip-hop community, and ethereal synth flourishes that give the track a seamless fluidity.

Kase has long been a cornerstone of the Sydney music scene; his brand of ebullient and soulful beats have been filling dancefloors and bedrooms of hip-hop heads for the better part of a decade. In 2019 he released his first ever LP ‘Soul Calibre’, a project that also marked his debut on renowned label Low Key Source. ‘Minerva’ signifies Kase’s continuing ambition to preserve the purism of hip-hop while simultaneously pushing its boundaries with one kick, snare, and key at a time.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin and has since become a cult classic due in no small part to the use of music in its storytelling. The soundtrack album and score were originally released in 2010 by ABKCO Records.

Each side of each LP is graced with an image of one of the “Seven Evil Exes” characters from the film, with an image of Scott Pilgrim with Ramona Flowers on the eighth side. This marks the first time ever that Godrich’s score will get a vinyl release, which will also be available separately on a blue vinyl 2-LP set, also on March 26. On the same day, the original single LP version of the soundtrack will be reissued as the Ramona Flowers Edition on blue, green and magenta vinyl, representing the colors of the character’s hair throughout the film.

Now ABKCO, with Edgar Wright and Nigel Godrich’s oversight, has curated an expanded, four LP picture disc Seven Evil Exes Edition offering of the soundtrack/score, including more performances by Sex Bob-Omb and demos from Beck, as well as fan favourite “Black Sheep” by Metric and sung by actress Brie Larson.

Since its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) has received many accolades. UK’s The Independent ranked it at number 4 out of “the 40 greatest film soundtracks of all time,” declaring that Wright “found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s narrative.” It was also included on Alternative Press’ list of “16 Fantastic Movie Soundtracks You Need To Hear.” “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” won the 2010 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Seven Evil Exes Limited Edition)
• 4x LP picture discs
• Limited Edition Set
• Exclusive bonus tracks not included on original soundtrack by Sex Bob-omb, Beck, plus highly sought- after Brie Larson w/ Metric
• Social support from Edgar Wright + Beck
Bonus ephemera: 
 • Full colour film poster
 • Exclusive Colouring Page by Bryan O’Malley
• Printed note from Edgar Wright, Director

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin and has since become a cult classic due in no small part to the use of music in its storytelling. The soundtrack album and score were originally released in 2010 by ABKCO Records.

Each side of each LP is graced with an image of one of the “Seven Evil Exes” characters from the film, with an image of Scott Pilgrim with Ramona Flowers on the eighth side. This marks the first time ever that Godrich’s score will get a vinyl release, which will also be available separately on a blue vinyl 2-LP set, also on March 26. On the same day, the original single LP version of the soundtrack will be reissued as the Ramona Flowers Edition on blue, green and magenta vinyl, representing the colors of the character’s hair throughout the film.

Now ABKCO, with Edgar Wright and Nigel Godrich’s oversight, has curated an expanded, four LP picture disc Seven Evil Exes Edition offering of the soundtrack/score, including more performances by Sex Bob-Omb and demos from Beck, as well as fan favourite “Black Sheep” by Metric and sung by actress Brie Larson.

Since its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) has received many accolades. UK’s The Independent ranked it at number 4 out of “the 40 greatest film soundtracks of all time,” declaring that Wright “found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s narrative.” It was also included on Alternative Press’ list of “16 Fantastic Movie Soundtracks You Need To Hear.” “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” won the 2010 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Original Score Composed By Nigel Godrich)
• 2xLP
• First time released on vinyl
• Blue colour vinyl
• Social Support from Edgar Wright (Director) & Beck

Vertaal first mixtape, Paradigm Shifting had a soft digital released on the 23rd April 2020, on Vertaal’s Empty Quarter Tribe imprint.

Self-produced, recorded and mixed in their own studio, the EP was nominated by Jazz Revelations for EP of 2020 and produced

four singles, ‘Polar’, ‘Duels, ‘Drop Off’ and ‘Dilla5’.


2020’s lock down led to a completely remixed and partial re-recording of the mixtape into a full, seamlessly mixed double LP with 6 additional

tracks and a further 6 musical ‘skits’ recorded separately by all the contributor musicians on the album during lock-down.
The limited edition numbered coloured vinyl 2LP will be released on March 26th 2021 supported by a fifth single, Alcazar b/w Husky on April 2nd

with promo video directed by Ben Sommers (Smoke No Pony Productions) whose previous credits include Mary Epworth, Archive, Young Knives and many others.



Vertaal have been an increasingly notable presence in the nu-jazz scene over the past 3 years.
Tipped as “ones to watch for 2019” by Jazz Re:freshed, Vertaal played an exclusive pick of sold out shows at prestigious venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Soho and the Jazz Café.

They have also supported the likes of Mark Guiliana (David Bowie), & Pete Ray Biggin (Level 42) and finished off 2019 guesting for Richard Spaven at The Cambridge Jazz Festival.



Of the six tracks on the current mixtape, first single ‘Polar’ was played on the uber-cool Deeper Cuts show by DJ Karl Bos who described the track as an “incredibly produced record.”

Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM) urged his listeners to “…hunt this down. They’re making incredible music!” after playing two tracks from Paradigm Shifting on his show,

and the mixtape has garnered similar excited responses from many DJs and reviewers (press list below).



Paradigm Shifting will be released on March 26th. The shrink-wrap will be stickered with full information and press quotes.

The collaborative debut of American minimal techno pioneer Troy Pierce and Colombian audiovisual artist Natalia Escobar aka Poison Arrow was conceived in reverse: first they created a collection of shadowy surrealist videos, then wrote music inspired by them. This inverted process proved remarkably fruitful. Shatter is a simmering, slow-burn noir odyssey inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus, traversing subtle shades of sleepwalker dub, metallic lament, broken beats, and erotic negative space. It's an effectively unsettling evocation of the legend's core theme: "There is nothing more complex than a shattered heart, or a heart that can't love." Considering their shared background trafficking in darkened dance floor modes, what's most striking about Pierce with Arrow's partnership is its rhythmic restraint. The album's 10 tracks seethe and shudder between glamor and gloom, with only occasional dread-steeped metronomes mapping the malaise to a grid. They speak of pursuing a "spatial approach" with this project, which manifests in the music's immersive design and patient execution, each mangled clang and rippling pool of bass allowed to reverberate its full flickering waveform. Guest appearances by austere techno producer Konrad Black ("Obsidian Glass") and drum n bass institution dBridge ("It's A Love Story, After All") flow seamlessly into the whole, subtle sculptural accents on a dimly lit descent through purgatories of longing and lust. But the shadows recede for the record's closing cut, "Narcissus," which swells elegiacally in a mass of devotional drones over a muted heartbeat, like Narcissus gazing upon his reflection in holy awe: elusive true beauty, finally beheld, by itself.

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records are proud to present a long awaited reissue of Dead Sea Apes & Black Tempest – The Sun Behind The Sun.
This re-issue is presented in a reflective Mirri Board reflective outer sleeve.
Manchester’s Dead Sea Apes and Godalming’s Black Tempest engage in a mind meld of galactic proportions on this; both band’s first outing on vinyl. Both entities weave together seamlessly as Grey Alphabets recalls Goblin’s giallo soundtracks, whilst Wilder Penfield pulses with post-punk metal-loid Harmonia kraut vibes. Side 2 is given over to the 25+minute Heliopause - a dubby astral meditation, where Oneida meet Tangerine Dream in an elongated Komische drift. For fans of: Harmonia, Oneida,Goblin, Mogwai, Tangerine Dream.

When the pandemic hit the US, Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott descended into a state of mourning. Her plan had been to join her partner, Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, as violinist on tour, a privilege rarely afforded since both maintain busy road schedules and for Truscott the prospect of spending most of the year in a van wasn’t met with exhaustion so much as exhilaration. At long last, she’d be making a living playing music, no side hustle needed. The cancellation of the tour represented a sidelined dream.

 Routine was born of this disappointment. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Truscott and Duterte’s collaborative project offers a glimpse of the creative possibilities that can emerge from a state of defeat.  Written and recorded over the course of a month in Joshua Tree, Routine’s lush debut EP ‘And Other Things’ finds the couple trying on new roles. Truscott, who plays bass in Chastity Belt, wrote the bulk of the material and sings on the EP, while Duterte, normally a band leader, used the project as an pportunity to, in her words, “Take the backseat,” as accompanist, producer, and engineer.

 Duterte describes the making of the EP as “seamless.” In the mornings, Truscott sat outside of the cabin in the not-yet-blazing sun and worked out chord progressions on guitar while Duterte slept in. Staring out at the horizon, Truscott could see a smattering of houses and the sharp outline of a mountain range but overall the property felt remote, far removed from home in Los Angeles. On long walks Truscott admired the recently bloomed spring flowers and pondered the legacy of friendships and experiences that made her. “I spend a lot of my time thinking about the people who’ve impacted my life,” she says. “‘Routine’ gave me an opportunity to explore those relationships through music.”

Despite having been one of the most devastating years in the history of electronic music culture, 2020 has also brought about some creative momentum for music producers worldwide. In the case of Space Echo, it presented an opportunity to complete their third EP for Luv Shack Records.

The energy fuelled “Cha-Cha” is a title track that boasts with all the elements we’ve come to expect from a Space Echo joint; uplifting live drums blended with a classic 4-to-the-floor beat, a funky syncopated bassline, motivational vocal chops and lots of grainy delay. This time however, the main theme is played by a live saxophone that seamlessly fits the formula by switching between rhythmic and melodic phrases throughout the track.

The B-Side takes us to the laid back funk that is “Another Dream”. This sombre slice of sunrise music is jam packed with lush rhodes, live bass and sax and quirky mellotron melodies to boot.

Polish sound wizard Das Komplex gives “Another Dream” the remix treatment, churning out an uptempo disco rendition that is meant to be played on balearic beaches and sweaty afterhours alike.

Following the release of the single of the same name, Dutch duo Tunnelvisions return to Disco Halal with new EP ‘Gold Teeth’, out on Friday 27th November.

A three-track release, ‘Gold Teeth’ opens with an extended version of the title track, an infectiously feelgood house number, characterised by driving synths, busy percussion and catchy vocals. Next up, ‘Hyperfocus’ is a slow-burning progressive house cut that unfurls steadily across its six minutes. Closing things out, ‘Heat Wave’ harnesses an old school house vibe, characterised by deep bass and fluttering percussive elements.

Speaking about the EP, Tunnelvisions says: “We’re proud to present you our next EP called ‘Gold Teeth’. Three tracks combining our percussional and synthpop influences into something we’re very excited about.”

With an unmistakable ear for imaginative, melodic themes and entrancing rhythms, Tunnelvisions hit the sweet spot by seamlessly fusing worldly influences with analog synthesisers.

A diverse collection of tracks, ‘Gold Teeth’ sees Tunnelvisions skilfully explore various shades and tones on the house music spectrum.

When the film ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ was released in 1992, an EP of music from the film was dropped almost simultaneously. That EP, cheekily titled ‘White Men Can’t Rap’, featured a couple of exclusive gems, notably Gang Starr’s ‘Now You’re Mine’ and a cut from Main Source called ‘Fakin’ the Funk’.

The only single borne of that six-track EP was the Main Source track, released in remixed form on Wild Pitch records the same year. No surprise, it was head and shoulders above the rest.

Opening with those unmistakable harmonies from Main Ingredient’s ‘Magic Shoes’, the intro segues into a crisp beat borrowed from Grady Tate’s frequently sampled ‘Be Black Baby’ from 1969. Throw in a sprinkle of Kool & The Gang and you’ve got a track that would fit seamlessly onto Main Source’s masterpiece of an album, ‘Breaking Atoms’.

Instead, it’s the group’s last hurrah, the final collaboration between K-Cut, Sir Scratch and Large Professor before the latter departed the trio. It’s fitting that he saves one of his best vocal performances for last, railing at sell-outs with the assistance of his long-term collaborator Neek the Exotic.

Never released before on an official 7”, it’s a track that has lost none of its appeal, and the remix is the definitive version of this classic.

• Samples Main Ingredient’s ‘Magic Shoes’ and Grady Tate’s frequently sampled ‘Be Black Baby’

• First ever 7” release of the Remix

• Also available on Limited Edition Neon Green vinyl

Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it’ll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges’ hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. The state is vast, crisscrossed with rugged expanses of road flanked by limestone cliffs and granite mountains, forests of pine and mesquite, miles of desert or acres of sprawling grassland, all depending on what part you’re in. And it’s all baking under the Texas Sun that lends its name to Bridges and Khruangbin’s new collaborative release. “Big sky country, that’s what they call Texas,” Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee says. “The horizon line goes all the way from one side to another without interruption. There’s something really comforting about that.” On ‘Texas Sun’, these two members of the state’s musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas’ past, present, and future - a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. It calls equally to the cowboys bootscooting at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, the chopped-andscrewed hip hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, the art-school kids dropping acid in Austin, the cross-cultural progeny who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso. All of these things, overlapping in a multi-coloured melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state’s rightfully celebrated sunsets. A journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances and late night contemplations, the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Like the highways that inspired it, ‘Texas Sun’ is guaranteed to get you where you’re going - especially if you’re in no particular hurry to get there. Khruangbin and Leon Bridges are critically acclaimed artists with extensive coverage in print and online, including the New York Times, NPR, FADER, four Grammy nominations (Leon Bridges), The New Yorker, Washington Post and Pitchfork, among many others.

Today, The Wytches announce their third album Three Mile Ditch. The album features the recently released single “Cowboy” which marked their return after four years away and to celebrate the announcement they share new single “A Love You’ll Never Know”. The track is accompanied by a music video by Mark Breed and he explains,

“The music video format was a long process. Making the set was incredibly fun with Kristian crafting most of the miniatures.I then had to film the green screen band performance within the set before recording the edited version onto my VHS camera. Finally I shot the finished edit inside the view finder.”

The album recorded with Luke Oldfield at Tile House Studios will be released on their own label Cable Code Records on Friday 2nd October.

“This is the first thing that I've ever been proud of for longer than a week,” says The Wytches frontman Kristian Bell of the band’s latest album Three Mile Ditch. This sense of vigour and enthusiasm coming from Bell about the band’s third album is matched by its contents. The album is an explosive collection of 10 tracks that weaves seamlessly between gut-wobbling monster riffs, swampy rock, slick surf, and finely tuned songcraft. It’s also the result of a band coming back from the brink of collapse.

The band’s early trajectory was a steep and speedy one as they quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most exciting and pulverising new bands. Major festival slots stacked up at places such as Glastonbury, SXSW, Reading and Leeds, and British Summertime with the Strokes. As did the tours across the US with METZ, traversing Europe with Fat White Family and Death Grips. They garnered support from BBC 6 Music, DIY, MOJO, NME and more. However, when the ascent to the stratosphere is moving at such a speed, there’s a risk of burning out and imploding, and the band came close to this.

They were on the rocks for a while, unsure of themselves and if the band should - or even could - go on. “I had it in my head that this kind of thing only really happens once and to try it again might be a big waste of time,” Bell reflects. However, despite the difficulties, the powerful pull of the band was too great to ignore.

“We had an album’s worth of songs that was some of our best material. The mission became to complete a Wytches album rather than get The Wytches back on the touring circuit. This album helped us make the decision to try it again.”

Raleigh Ritchie releases his highly anticipated second album, ANDY. A twelve track project, Andy sees Bristol born and London-hailing Raleigh holding a colossal magnifying glass to himself. Over the production, for the most part, from long-term collaborator Chris Loco but also, the incredibly talented GRADES on “Time In A Tree” and “27 Club”, Raleigh leaves no stone unturned. The album is a creation of heartbreakingly honest songs that seamlessly fuses sweeping soul and mellow R&B with forward-thinking electronica and gutsy orchestral moments. (Raleigh has become well known for working with the sensational Rosie Danvers and Wired Strings.) This is a truly powerful record, a long-awaited return that packs a poignant punch.

It has been four years since Raleigh aka Jacob Anderson, released his inaugural debut album You’re A Man Now Boy but fans have not been left wanting. When he wasn’t releasing music, performing at his sold out show at Shepherds Bush Empire, or alongside Stormzy in his iconic Glastonbury headline, featuring on Gang Signs & Prayer, Stormzy’s critically acclaimed debut, or acting as Grey Worm in the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones, he was and is “Andy”.

With North Star, Viking Metal pioneers EINHERJER release their eighth studio album on February 26, 2021, proving their status as the pioneers of blending Nordic Black Metal and Folk Metal genres once again. The album marks the band’s return to Napalm Records after 25 years, and their release of the legendary Dragons Of The North album (1996). The Norwegian metal outfit remains musically true to themselves and reinforces their exceptional position. North Star was recorded in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic at the in-house Studio Borealis, owned by founding member and mastermind Frode Glesnes. The raw production ties in seamlessly with its predecessor Norrøne Spor and makes North Star probably the most powerful EINHERJER album to date! North Star is EINHERJER's musical mission towards something bigger - the search for guidance by the North Star in a constantly changing world that is searching for stability. The album’s opener, "The Blood And The Iron", peppered with uncompromising double-bass thunderstorms, pulls the listener in from the very first second, while "Stars" stomps through atmospheric soundscapes with dark chords. "West Coast Groove" underlines EINHERJER's technical songwriting sophistication with finest guitar solos. North Star will be available in black, blue/white inkspot and limited gold vinyl editions (gold limited to 300 copies). Founded in Norway in 1993, the band has significantly influenced the way of Viking Metal in the following years with Dragons Of The North - 25 years later, EINHERJER are stronger than ever and are bursting with energy on North Star! 1. SINGLE - EN Stomping drums and gloomy guitar chords, paired with ice-cold vocals by singer and guitarist Frode Glesnes - "Stars" draws the listener into the icy, dark world of EINHERJER! 2. SINGLE - EN With powerful double bass grooves, a catchy chorus and technically skilled guitar solos, EINHERJER are more uncompromising and harder than ever on "The Blood And The Iron"! 3. SINGLE - EN Old school vibes meet dark Viking Metal atmosphere in "West Coast Groove" - EINHERJER are in top form and still prove their status as genre pioneers after more than 25 years!

Half of Manie Sans Délire, June, turns up on Artificial Dance with his anticipated new mini-album, ‘Horizons’ - following on from his studio companion Trenton Chase’s ‘Planar Array’ released earlier in 2020. True to the signature synth-splattered sound of his and his duo, June’s newest wave-imbued manifesto has us swimming amidst an organized chaos of roughly extruded keyboard wizardry, punk-minded drum programming and a retro-futuristic headspace.

Scanning out the gap between Italo, new wave, EBM and new beat, ‘Horizons’ shifts seamlessly from forward-moving, arpeggio-laden circuitry (‘JW’, ‘Infinity Room') to hi-intensity body music (’New Horizons’), through ambientoid spaced-out sonic explorations (‘Uncharted Territories’) and quirky downtempo chuggers (‘Reverie’, ‘Psychic Process’). A kaleidoscope of rhythmic tricks and shape-shifting mirages, June’s scope-expanding six-track voyage vows to play mind games with its listener till all lights have gone off.

Founded in 1996 by the German-Nigerian lead singer Ade Bantu, his brother Abiodun Odukoya and Patrice, BANTU have been one of the West African acts transforming the legacy of King Sunny Adé and Fela Kuti into the soundtrack of the continent. The group is distinguished by the fact that while created and fronted by vocalist Ade Bantu, it is unmistakably a collective, collaborative effort. When you have a band this strong, this tight where everyone gets to shine, magic happens. And once again with this new album, the 13-piece ensemble is pushing the boundaries of funkiness and political prowess for contemporary music, in Africa or globally.

From their first release, “No Vernacular in 1996 to the present, BANTU has scored a series of hits across Europe and Africa garnering major awards. Indeed, the list of artists who've collaborated with BANTU is a testament to the power, originality and talent of the band: an international cornucopia including UB40, Tony Allen, Orlando Julius, Brothers Keepers (which they created), Gentleman, Ebenezer Obey and Burna Boy just to name a few. These collaborations helped the band earn several major Continental awards, including the Kora Awards (the Pan African equivalent of the Grammys) for “Best Group West Africa” and “Best Group Africa”.

Their latest release Everybody Get Agenda is nothing short of a musical sensation - Afrobeat, Funk and Soul seamlessly flow into one another as they merge with Jazz, Highlife, Hiphop and Yoruba music. The lyrics address issues around corruption, injustice, migration, xenophobia and urban alienation while a guest appearance by Seun Kuti on “Yeye Theory” rounds up this solid long player. There is no doubt that with Everybody Get Agenda BANTU has not just charted new musical territory but reached it and planted the flag.

Visitor, founded in 2017 is a two piece Canadian act comprised of Veronica Stefanuik and Philip Traikovski that seamlessly combines the best elements of old school EBM with new beat. The result is something out of time yet uniquely modern. Dark frantic beats and bass lines, Visitor will take over your body.

Fabrizio Maurizi makes his debut on Infuse this October as he delivers his latest EP ‘Jumping’, backed by a remix from Pierre Codarin.

A staple within the Italian house and techno scene for over a decade, Bologna’s Fabrizio Maurizi is a producer and DJ now known across the globe for his seamless blend of the two styles across his productions and DJ sets. One half of the duo Bassa Clan, with material via their self-titled imprint, and a member of the Bolo Represent collective, Maurizi’s recent releases include EPs via labels such Bodyparts, Memoria, Want?, Re.face, whilst playing sets worldwide for renowned institutions such as fabric, Robert Johnson, Womb and Cocoricò. Next up, October signals the arrival of a new name to his catalogue as he heads to FUSE sister imprint Infuse to deliver three fresh productions in the form of his ‘Jumping’ EP – accompanied by bubbling UK talent Pierre Codarin on remix duties.

The slick and paired back title track ‘Jumping’ opens proceedings as Maurizi fuses minimal soundscapes with more jazz-influenced notes and tones, whilst Pierre Codarin’s remix ups the energy levels as he introduces metallic drum licks, spiralling electronics and a snaking bassline to the mix. On the flip, ‘Night and Day’ harnesses a classy blend of dubby chords, slinking hats and echoed vocals, before closing the package via the off-kilter rhythms and loose, glitch-driven drums of hypnotic after-hours cut ‘Caravel’.

Despite current circumstances, Speedy have had a busy year. The London-based label run by producer Dan Carey alongside Alexis Smith and Pierre Hall were recently coveted with the Best Small Label Award by AIM after being nominated for the second year in a row. Carey also picked up UK Producer Of The Year earlier in the year at the prestigious Music Producer Guild Awards. He also produced the critically acclaimed sophomore album ‘A Hero’s Death’ by Fontaines D.C. which landed a welldocumented No. 2 position in the official album charts.
Speedy Wunderground released their fastest ever selling 7” - The Lounge Society’s timely tour de force ‘Generation Game’, the second band to be signed to the label for a forthcoming EP release following Squid’s ‘Town Centre’ EP in 2019. They also announced the label’s first ever full album release - Tiña’s ‘Positive Mental Health Music’, with recent single ‘Golden Rope’ having just come off the A-list at 6 Music.
Bringing bands into the studio wasn’t an option so the label started an ongoing project called ‘The Quarantine Series’ in which Carey under his Savage Gary techno/electronic alter ego collaborated with artists and friends, old and new over the internet and then uploaded them to the label’s Soundcloud/socials with little or no fanfare - no PR-ing or radio pluggers, just let the bands do their own thing, organically.
The common thread throughout all is Carey, whether it be in his regular name or his Savage Gary guise. However, collaborators in the series so far have included a wide range of people: Kae Tempest, PVA, Willy Mason, Heartworms, Warmduscher, Charlotte Spiral, Boxed In, Stephen Fretwell, Goat Girl and more.
“We chose two tracks/artists that I think we really wanted to shed some more light on” says label co-runner Pierre Hall. “Two that we really didn’t want to go under the radar - and in our opinion reflect this parallel strand of the label that’s forming - with new artists we’re really excited about - and that will hopefully draw people in to explore the series as a whole.”
First on the release is ‘Wait & See’ from rising Bajan artist RoRo. A hypnotic masterful flow which meanders seamlessly around Carey’s pulsating electronics. It’s bursting with attitude and originality. “I saw Dan Carey play with Kate Tempest on one of my first few times ever being out in London” she says, “it was such an amazing show. I was extremely excited to then get the chance to work with him. I’d been trying to do so while in London, but it didn't quite work out that way. We did manage to make it happen remotely whilst I was back in Barbados though, and we knocked it out!”
Second is ‘Cigarettes Pt. 2’ from the enigmatic Londoner youngblackmale AKA Rutare Savage: “It’s a poem, transformed into a song by the ever amazing Dan Carey. It touches (lightly) upon the topics of fear of the police, drug and alcohol abuse, family, and pulling oneself out of a nihilistic worldview driven by a newfound lust for life. This is me trying to reason with the void.”

Released in 1981 and seamlessly blending passion, sleaze and synths, this was the stunning debut album by the influential duo Soft Cell. The album's critical and commercial success was helped by the worldwide success of its lead single single 'Tainted Love', a cover version of a soul song by Gloria Jones, which topped charts worldwide. The album produced two more wonderful top five singles in the UK in the shape of 'Bedsitter' and 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'. Meanwhile the infamous 'Sex Dwarf' caused something of a national furore. Bravo, Soft Cell! 180g, Back To Black vinyl with an MP3 Download voucher.

Frans Zwartjes is famous for his art-house films (look him up on YouTube). A Dutch underground auteur, his prolific output dates from 1968. A unique talent, Zwartjes produced, directed and edited his own films (his last work was in 1991), but more importantly he created and improvised the soundtracks too. Zwartjes and his large body of work is only now being recognised by a wider, more international crowd, with screenings at the NFT and other important art-house cinemas across the world. The recordings on Tapes 2 were mixed directly from the Zwartjes soundtrack tape archive. They were assembled directly and in real time by Zwartjes archivist Stanley Schtinter and have never been issued before.

The music and sound have been put together as two long, seamless sequences; they are dreamlike, unsettling, peculiar, plugged-in, prescient and unlike any other soundtrack we have heard.

The album 'Balance' by Frank Bretschneider & Taylor Deupree was originally released in 2002 by Mille Plateaux on CD only. The 9 tracks on 'Balance' are a perfect example for the aesthetics to arise within the Click & Cuts scene and (ambient-)glitch music movement of the late 90s and early 2000s.

The two masters of microscopic sounds and sine wave/white noise-based music constructed these seamlessly mixed pieces around rhythms and melodies, which grants the album plenty of dynamics. The wide variety of carefully chosen ambient sounds throughout the whole work endows 'Balance' warmth and intimacy.

The recordings are now available for the first time on vinyl within the KeplarRev series, presented in a new updated artwork based on the original layout with photographs by Taylor Deupree.

From the original press release in 2002:

"Balance is the first and so far only collaborative release from Frank Bretschneider (Berlin) and Taylor Deupree (Brooklyn). Both of these artists are no strangers to the ears of many; Taylor Deupree is one of New York's most vibrant electronic producers. From his early techno days as a member of Prototype 909 to his current status as one of N. America's key "microscopic" electronic composers and to add runs the prestigious 12K and LINE labels. Frank Bretschneider is a key member and founder of the prestigious Raster Music label, he has critically acclaimed releases under the names Komet and Produkt. It's easy to say that Frank Bretschneider has created some of the most influential spatial electronics of the late 90's.

Utilizing both artists keen ears for carefully crafted sounds, Balance blends the clean sine wave / white noise of Bretschneider with the defined grit of Deupree's granular synthesis. Realized entirely on Nord Modular synthesizers, Bretschneider and Deupree exchanged patch files through email and began constructing foundation loops. Bretschneider then created initial mixes of 9 songs and then sent them to Deupree who remixed and re-processed them. This digital exchange allowed for them to work using their own methods and aesthetic while combining the similarities of each others interests. The result is a looping and churning rhythmic work that is both synthetic, warm, dubby and tonally challenging. Thus Balance creates an engaging balance between the 2 artists aesthetics."

The story of how Transatlantyk came to be is, in many ways, one typical of our times. We've grown accustomed to being isolated, even stranded, in recent months, and Technology has become our means of overcoming these aspects of quarantine.

For Lübeck-based producer David Hanke, a.k.a. Keno, and Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège, their intercontinental relationship began long before the days of lockdowns and social distancing. The pair 'met' on-line through mutual friends back in 2018 and quickly realised they were, in a musical sense, kindred spirits. Their shared tastes meant that what started out as a single track quickly morphed into an EP, and finally the full length album that you're enjoying right now.

Tristan's experience as a neo-classical musician was the ideal foil for Hanke's skills with a sample and production expertise. Both shared a love of the more lush and cinematic end of instrumental Hip-Hop and Downtempo music. This sound partnership is evident throughout the album, but particularly on tracks like Nkosi, and the title track, where luscious string sections dance playfully with fractured, programmed beats; or the melancholic opener, Kouyou, where more laid back drums underpin muted horns and joyous harps.

The pair's perfectly formed fusion isn't the end of the story though, as French chanteuse Elodie Rama is on hand to provide not only some impeccable vocals, but also irresistible melodies to this already mellifluous long-player. Speak The Language sees this brilliant vocalist drift seamlessly between euphonious song and spoken word whilst delivering one of the ariose moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, on Dancing In The Dark, Elodie gives a slightly more sombre performance, combining with lavish strings and driving rhythms to a tee; and on To Find A Way offers up an even more emotional and almost heart-breaking performance, aided by wistful and forlorn instrumentation.

Transatlantyk is a body of work from an amalgamation of rare talents who combine beautifully to take us through myriad emotions; from the urgent and compelling Off The Mark via the pensive Forever We Were, and finally find their Way Across thanks to a shared love of graceful and refined musicality and a good song.

To this day the three have never actually met in person, but here's a last hopeful thought that one day soon, as we emerge out of the darkness, they can finally join together in a physical, as well as a musical, embrace.

It's been four years since Sweatbox Dynasty, the fourth solo LP from Pennsylvanian experimentalist TOBACCO. In that time, Tom Fec's project has toured with Nine Inch Nails, provided the theme song to HBO series Silicon Valley, and teamed with Aesop Rock for a collaborative album as Malibu Ken. He now returns to Ghostly International for Hot Wet & Sassy, a full-length album oozing with his most playful and approachable songs to date, which, conversely, express notions of antilove, self-hate, and disappointment in others. Pop impulses have always surged beneath the surface of his sound - blown-out bass, analog synths, drum machines, and Fec's unmistakable analog gurgle and hiss - here they've bubbled to the top. "I feel like it's the most I've been able to refine what I'm doing," says Fec. "For the past decade I've had this motherfxcker on my shoulder that makes me pick away at structure and melody. Purposely covering up moments because I can. That really came to a peak on Sweatbox. So I wanted the opposite this time. Write the songs without ripping them in half. I went from 'what would the Butthole Surfers do?' to 'what would Cyndi Lauper do?'" And what would Trent Reznor do? Fec found his answer straight from the source. Their collaborative track, "Babysitter," fuses their voices into one deranged presence: "I'm the new babysitter," they alert, before pivoting into a menacingly saccharine bridge. The track tumbles on a tom fill, then a punishing synth line rips into a cacophony of drums and feedback like a lawnmower gnawing through the living room carpet. "This was new for me, but I wanted to write a song that was everything I am and have been, and then like one notch further. Trent was the notch further," adds Fec. The collaboration is a work of alchemy seamlessly blending TOBACCO's trademarks with Reznor's industrial rust and sonic gore. Downcast, sincere, woozy, "Jinmenken" might be the closest Fec has come to a ballad. "Maybe you can find me down the line," his vocoded delivery bounces along the beat. "It's me trying to write a Jets song," says Fec. Album opener "Centaur Skin" presents the stylistic concoction that has been the TOBACCO MO from the beginning, crossing dreamy melodic shimmer with the sinister tones and slime. This has become easier to digest, but also far more potent. A motorik beat steadies the track's galloping arpeggio, acting as a springboard for Fec's dark ruminations as well as an uncharacteristically crystalline synth solo. "It's my feel good self hate anthem. Don't worry, I'm good. It was fun to write." TOBACCO hasn't been reinvented, but it has been refined and distilled. Brighter, sharper, and far more dangerous because of it. Hot Wet & Sassy is practically staring at the sun without shades and feeling those corneas roast. Everything looks good as your vision fades. The pop-forward structures exert their undeniable hooks with baneful precision, pulling listeners into their clutches; once there, sugary melody rewards submission.

Soulful selector and skateboarder extraordinaire Hugh Hardie is back with his latest EP, ‘Learning To Fly’, consisting of four sublime cuts, hot on the heels of his recent‘7 Tunes In 7 Days’ lockdown project. Produced from his home studio in Bristol, Hugh’s new release features collaborations with DJ Marky and singer/songwriter Cimone.

Named after the Indian mountain city in West Bengal, opening track ‘Darjeeling’ is a faultless embodiment of Hugh’s trademark jazz-inspired groove. Filled with transcendent piano chord progressions, rolling breaks and an enchanting upright bassline, ‘Darjeeling’ is a classic example of the soulful liquid beats the Bristol-based DJ has become known for.

‘Said & Done’ sees the commanding vocal talents of Cimone take the lead as Hugh Hardie and DJ Marky team up on the buttons to create a smile-inducing bouncer drenched in feel-good summer vibrations. Infectious descending bass wobbles lay the foundations below swinging piano licks and sharp-edged, shuffling percussions. With DJ Marky being an avid supporter of Hugh and Cimone’s initial link up on ‘Raindrops’, it only made sense for the trio to jump on a track together.

‘Learning To Fly’ with graceful strings and arpeggiated plucks, leads seamlessly into a crisp drum track and driving bassline. Hugh’s delicate yet powerful and uplifting pieces of music explore a broad range of emotions, taking the listener on a stimulating musical journey.

Drawing for original jungle sounds whilst staying true to his soul-heavy style, ‘Late Night Harp’ does exactly what it says on the tin as captivating harp melodies and acoustic guitar riffs are infused with fizzing sub-heavy basslines and steamrolling breakbeats generating a no-holds-barred banger.

His ‘Learning To Fly’ EP is the second project to emerge from Hugh Hardie in the 2020 lockdown. His previous ‘7 Tunes In 7 Days’ extended EP saw him create a track from scratch every day over the course of a week, and received support from DJs across the board including the legendary LTJ Bukem. With the success of both his ‘Shadows & Silhouettes’ and ‘Colourspace’ LPs under his belt, Hugh’s dedication to ensuring that soul remains the main ingredient in his productions is cementing him as a staple figure in the world of liquid drum & bass.

"Minor Planets completes a trilogy of cosmically themed electro-acoustic albums by UK and Berlin based trio Twinkle3, 15 years in the making. This third installment is once again all about the unique synergies the group discover in combining free group improvisation with studio and musique-concrete techniques. The group's combined love of everything from Lee Perry to Noh Theatre via Karlheinz Stockhausen and King Sunny Ade lead them to respond musically to create a single universe where they all coexist and interact. Aleatoric analogue sequencing, chamber-like acoustic improvisation and dub treatments become distilled into a distinct and emotive narrative that takes us on an exhilarating hyperspace cruise to the outer reaches.

Clive Bell is a virtuoso of the Shakuhachi. His aesthetic takes us on a timbral journey between noise and pitch, expressed and phrased rhythmically by the contour of human breath. This creates a perfect context and focus for a music that moves seamlessly between rhythm, suspension, time modulated analogue states, dissonance and melody. Richard Scott and David Ross share a background in acoustic free improvisation and have pioneered new approaches to rhythm using self-designed analogue systems. On Minor Planets these seemingly paradoxical orthodoxies cross-pollinate in a spirit of wonder and optimism to produce original and experimental music that is both life affirming and uplifting.

Album artwork by Benjmain Kilchhofer captures the feeling of peering through the vacuum of space and catching a rare glimpse of the mysterious alien biomes, fossils, and silhouettes cast by dwarf planets, asteroids, Kuiper belt, and other trans-Neptunian objects."