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“So, how did this band even happen?” That’s the question most often asked of Winged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that’s unexpected but undeniable. The band includes Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s chain reactions. Early long distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022’s No Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024’s Big Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies.

Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green. After a run of shows across the Midwest in the spring of 2025, the group settled into a studio on the outskirts of Chicago to track their next record. Though the full lineup had only been solidified for a little over a year at this point, time together on stage led to a quickly-expanding sound and a unified vision of always going somewhere new. To this end, Winged Wheel abandoned the play-now-sort-it-out-later approach of Big Hotel and instead spent hours refining flashes of inspiration into coherent songs.

Geboren aus den rauen, ohrenbetäubenden Sounds von Keller-Jams und wilden House-Shows, strebt die vierköpfige Band Fuzz Lightyear aus Leeds danach, die lauteste und schnellste Band ihrer Umgebung zu sein. Getreu ihrem DIY-Ethos konzentrieren sie sich auf nachhaltiges Experimentieren, Gemeinschaft und ungehemmten Rock'n'Roll. Die Singles "My Body" und "Visual Effect" (auf Nice Swan) und ihre unermüdlichen Live-Shows zeugen von einer chaotischen und beeindruckenden Mischung aus Shoegaze, Industrial Noise-Rock und rasantem Punk, irgendwo zwischen Sonic Youth und Show Me The Body. Mit Gigs zusammen mit English Teacher, Adult DVD, Lambrini Girls und weiteren Ikonen des neuen und alten Punk haben sich Fuzz Lightyear eine Kult-Anhängerschaft erarbeitet.

- "Ein erdbebenartiger Live-Sound, der der Intensität von IDLES oder sogar der Gilla Band in nichts nachsteht. Fuzz Lightyears Musik zeichnet sich zudem durch Witz und lyrische Offenheit aus." - Clash
- "Schlammige Gitarren treffen auf dröhnende Drums, die wiederum mit Lärmfluten konkurrieren." - Far Out (Von English Teacher zur aufregendsten Band aus Leeds gewählt.)

In den 90ern hatte Jad Fair fünf Lieblingsbands und Songwriter: Daniel Johnston, The Pastels, Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub und Yo La Tengo. Das ist echt eine coole Liste, aber das Besondere daran ist, dass Fair im Laufe von etwa zwölf Jahren mit allen in irgendeiner Form Musik gemacht hat. Jad Fair ist seit einem halben Jahrhundert produktiv, lange bevor das Internet ein simultanes und scheinbar ewiges Archiv von allem schaffen konnte, was jemand mit seinen Vorlieben gemacht hat. Er war an mindestens mehreren hundert Titeln beteiligt, von denen viele bei kleinen Labels erschienen, die es heute nicht mehr gibt, und die vergriffen sind. Tatsächlich ist eine dieser Kollaborationen, die Fair in den 90er Jahren gemacht hat - Strange But True mit Yo La Tengo - schwer zu finden, obwohl sie am 20. Oktober 1998 in den USA bei Matador Records erschienen ist. Jetzt wird das Album zum ersten Mal von Joyful Noise und Bar/None auf Vinyl neu aufgelegt. Als Fair Mitte der 90er Jahre mit Yo La Tengo auf einer Party spielte, waren sie alle Freunde, Fans und Kollaborateure, die gemeinsam an Platten gearbeitet oder diese veröffentlicht hatten. Als Fair vorschlug, gemeinsam ins Studio zu gehen, war das Trio sofort dabei. Das Ergebnis, ,Strange But True", ist so wunderbar, abwechslungsreich und wild wie eine riesige Wiese mit einheimischen Gräsern. Dieses Kollaborationsalbum zeigt die unglaubliche Bandbreite der Künstler und versetzt uns zurück in eine Zeit, in der Indie-Rock noch so seltsam und widerspenstig sein durfte, wie seine Schöpfer es wollten.

Evolving from a solo-project of Christian Wilson Larsen to a dynasty including members of Serena Maneesh, Le Corbeau, Mindy Misty, Burning Motherfuckers, Next Life, Far From Tellus and Deathcrush, - Izakaya Heartbeat is seemingly a constellation in flux - complimentary to their psychedelic soundscape. "A pounding, drone infested body of work, "enter-rainbow lake" touches similar places that vintage black angels or even some of the more smacked out sonic youth soundscapes. Enveloping and immersive from the outset, the fusion of psychedelic dynamics with hardhitting musicianship is lethal." - Rough Trade (UK)

Evolving from a solo-project of Christian Wilson Larsen to a dynasty including members of Serena Maneesh, Le Corbeau, Mindy Misty, Burning Motherfuckers, Next Life, Far From Tellus and Deathcrush, - Izakaya Heartbeat is seemingly a constellation in flux - complimentary to their psychedelic soundscape. Three available albums in our catalog and more on the horizon. "They do a sort of driving early/mid 90s alt rock thing, mentioning Sonic Youth, MBV, Trumans Water, Unwound, Can, Mudhoney and 100 other bands you know as influences. Their guitar sound is definitely Thurston/Lee, but unlike SY, they have members who can headbang their impressively long locks when locating a locked noise-rock groove." - Stereogum

Laconic Zero is a one man music machinery aka Trond Harald Jensen. Utilizing Commodore 64 programming combined with a heavy wall of distorted bass, Laconic Zero produce complex dagger-stabs of metaldriven chiptunes. Sun to Death is a killer presented on smoked orange vinyl, CD and Cassette. Laconic Zero has shared stages with Lighning Bolt, the famed Sonic Youth and Swans producer Martin Bisi and collaborated with the late music prodigy Joey Hopkins.

Le Corbeau, the brainchild of Oystein Sandsdalen (Serena Maneesh), has become a formidable collective. here with a trilogy of albums spanning eight years. Why such a productive group choses to release twenty-seven songs simultaneously may be a greater reflection on the myopic nature of record labels -The mystic deities of noir have returned. "The band"s sound bows to the vestiges of V.U., Sonic Youth, and Lynchian glamour- but each of the three albums show ambition to go beyond, by player freedom and improv, exploring textural layers, and nuancing each groove. Many songs remind us what we loved in 2009`s Evening Chill / Montreal of the Mind - surrealistic, seductive, draped in velvet. Some circle to the familiar with punk fuzz and playful themes, like "1000 eyed behemoth": about leaving Oslo"s night life behind. Other times, they are creators of their own classics. Opening track to VI: Sun Creeps Up the Wall, "Blossom with an Evil Light" recorded between 2017-2018, illuminates a a new path of change. The long anticipation is over- come enter the murky and magical waters of Le Corbeau." -Ann Sung-an Lee

Le Corbeau, the brainchild of Oystein Sandsdalen (Serena Maneesh), has become a formidable collective. here with a trilogy of albums spanning eight years. Why such a productive group choses to release twenty-seven songs simultaneously may be a greater reflection on the myopic nature of record labels -The mystic deities of noir have returned. "The band"s sound bows to the vestiges of V.U., Sonic Youth, and Lynchian glamour- but each of the three albums show ambition to go beyond, by player freedom and improv, exploring textural layers, and nuancing each groove. Many songs remind us what we loved in 2009`s Evening Chill / Montreal of the Mind - surrealistic, seductive, draped in velvet. Some circle to the familiar with punk fuzz and playful themes, like "1000 eyed behemoth": about leaving Oslo"s night life behind. Other times, they are creators of their own classics. Opening track to VI: Sun Creeps Up the Wall, "Blossom with an Evil Light" recorded between 2017-2018, illuminates a a new path of change. The long anticipation is over- come enter the murky and magical waters of Le Corbeau." -Ann Sung-an Lee

Le Corbeau, the brainchild of Oystein Sandsdalen (Serena Maneesh), has become a formidable collective. here with a trilogy of albums spanning eight years. Why such a productive group choses to release twenty-seven songs simultaneously may be a greater reflection on the myopic nature of record labels -The mystic deities of noir have returned. "The band"s sound bows to the vestiges of V.U., Sonic Youth, and Lynchian glamour- but each of the three albums show ambition to go beyond, by player freedom and improv, exploring textural layers, and nuancing each groove. Many songs remind us what we loved in 2009`s Evening Chill / Montreal of the Mind - surrealistic, seductive, draped in velvet. Some circle to the familiar with punk fuzz and playful themes, like "1000 eyed behemoth": about leaving Oslo"s night life behind. Other times, they are creators of their own classics. Opening track to VI: Sun Creeps Up the Wall, "Blossom with an Evil Light" recorded between 2017-2018, illuminates a a new path of change. The long anticipation is over- come enter the murky and magical waters of Le Corbeau." -Ann Sung-an Lee

Debütalbum der australischen Post-Punk-Band dust. Mit einer Mischung aus kantigen Instrumenten und melancholischen Klanglandschaften, die eine viszerale, genreübergreifende Identität schaffen, haben Schlagzeuger Kye Cherry, Bassist Liam Smith, Saxophonist Adam Ridgway und die beiden Sänger/Gitarristen Justin Teale und Gabriel Stove einen Sound entwickelt, der sowohl kathartisch als auch konfrontativ ist. Ihre Debüt-EP ,et cetera, etc", die Anfang 2023 veröffentlicht wurde, fängt einen rohen und spontanen Ausschnitt aus der frühen Entwicklung der Band ein. Der Schwung, den sie durch die Veröffentlichung gewonnen haben, führte zu ausverkauften Shows im ganzen Land und Festivalauftritten bei Laneway, Pitchfork und London Calling. Ihre Auftritte bei BIGSOUND, The Great Escape in Brighton und SXSW Austin, TX erhielten auf der internationalen Bühne hervorragende Kritiken. Gegen Ende 2023 tourte die Band durch Australien als Support von Interpol und Bloc Party und stand gemeinsam mit den Shoegaze-Pionieren Slowdive im Enmore Theatre in Sydney und trat gemeinsam mit Protomartyr in Antwerpen auf. Ihre kraftvolle Live-Präsenz brachte ihnen eine weitere Einladung ein, gemeinsam mit Interpol zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum von Antics aufzutreten, wobei sie die Bühne einiger der renommiertesten Veranstaltungsorte in Großbritannien und Europa betraten. Im Jahr 2024 begann dust, ihren Sound neu zu definieren, indem sie Free-Jazz-Einflüsse und halllastige Gitarrenklänge in ihre Singles einfließen ließen und damit Anleihen bei Shoegaze und Experimentalismus machten. dusts Entwicklung setzt sich auf ihrem Debütalbum ,Sky Is Falling" fort. Ihr Sound, der auf Genre-Defiance und Neuerfindung basiert - Shoegaze und elektronischer Experimentalismus Seite an Seite mit schwer fassbaren Saxophonarrangements und abrasiven Gitarrenlinien - ist fest in Melancholie und Selbstreflexion verwurzelt. Anarchischer Drive, der an Geese bis Double Virgo erinnert, mit glückseligen Anspielungen auf Klassiker wie Sonic Youth und My Bloody Valentine.

An enthralling weave of cathartic, introspective spirituality and thrumming, industrial darkness; The Wounded Healer is the first full-length from PREYRS, the new incarnation of Irish singer-songwriter Amy Montgomery and her band as one formidable entity. From the fourpiece's new janiform name; a twisting, conflicting play on the tenderness and innocence of prayer and the deadly dance of prey and predator to the band's fiercely independent journey, PREYRS is a project already steeped in story. After breathtaking album opener `Humble Eyes', lead single `Wave of Wisdom' immediately lays this concept bare as Amy's incandescent delivery of uncertainty, "lesson learned / don't know how / but here I am again / stronger than before", soars over a defiantly discordant clash of alt-folk slide guitar and Mormecha's pummeling industrial percussion. Elsewhere, the high-octane `Zeros, Ones & Lies' wrestles with the spiritual toll of being fed constant footage of atrocity and catastrophe by a media that accepts no responsibility for their part in the global race to the bottom. As such, the track bursts into furious life with urgent, double-time drums met by guitars distorted to the brink of destruction before the song all but caves in on itself as Amy quietly asks of us "Can you feel it? / like a river / it flows so silently / it flows so violently". By contrast, `Bring Ur Bruises' radiates resplendent, self-empowering positivity. Centred once again on the concept of the wounded healer, `Bring Ur Bruises' implores the listener to welcome their trauma in, to own it and wear it as a paradoxical means of ultimately letting it go as triumphant, reverb-soaked guitars soar ever higher. If it wasn't already clear, PREYRS are no strangers to doing things differently and, across every iteration, the band have always taken a DIY approach to every aspect of their existence. From covering themselves in paint and rolling over every single early album cover to, until recently, booking all of their own shows and festivals as diverse as Glastonbury, Green Man (UK), Blizzarrrd Rock (GER) and Bloodstock (UK), last year the band found themselves touring the UK as Amy Montgomery in support of musical heroes and British post-punk legends New Model Army. In November 2025 they will be joining New Model Army again on tour across Europe, but this time as PREYRS performing tracks from The Wounded Healer, the same four people but an entirely different beast. FOR FANS OF Nine Inch Nails, Chelsea Wolfe, Sonic Youth, Julie Christmas, Alanis Morissette, My Bloody Valentine, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Melvins

An enthralling weave of cathartic, introspective spirituality and thrumming, industrial darkness; The Wounded Healer is the first full-length from PREYRS, the new incarnation of Irish singer-songwriter Amy Montgomery and her band as one formidable entity. From the fourpiece's new janiform name; a twisting, conflicting play on the tenderness and innocence of prayer and the deadly dance of prey and predator to the band's fiercely independent journey, PREYRS is a project already steeped in story. After breathtaking album opener `Humble Eyes', lead single `Wave of Wisdom' immediately lays this concept bare as Amy's incandescent delivery of uncertainty, "lesson learned / don't know how / but here I am again / stronger than before", soars over a defiantly discordant clash of alt-folk slide guitar and Mormecha's pummeling industrial percussion. Elsewhere, the high-octane `Zeros, Ones & Lies' wrestles with the spiritual toll of being fed constant footage of atrocity and catastrophe by a media that accepts no responsibility for their part in the global race to the bottom. As such, the track bursts into furious life with urgent, double-time drums met by guitars distorted to the brink of destruction before the song all but caves in on itself as Amy quietly asks of us "Can you feel it? / like a river / it flows so silently / it flows so violently". By contrast, `Bring Ur Bruises' radiates resplendent, self-empowering positivity. Centred once again on the concept of the wounded healer, `Bring Ur Bruises' implores the listener to welcome their trauma in, to own it and wear it as a paradoxical means of ultimately letting it go as triumphant, reverb-soaked guitars soar ever higher. If it wasn't already clear, PREYRS are no strangers to doing things differently and, across every iteration, the band have always taken a DIY approach to every aspect of their existence. From covering themselves in paint and rolling over every single early album cover to, until recently, booking all of their own shows and festivals as diverse as Glastonbury, Green Man (UK), Blizzarrrd Rock (GER) and Bloodstock (UK), last year the band found themselves touring the UK as Amy Montgomery in support of musical heroes and British post-punk legends New Model Army. In November 2025 they will be joining New Model Army again on tour across Europe, but this time as PREYRS performing tracks from The Wounded Healer, the same four people but an entirely different beast. FOR FANS OF Nine Inch Nails, Chelsea Wolfe, Sonic Youth, Julie Christmas, Alanis Morissette, My Bloody Valentine, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Melvins

Später, in den Tagen der funkelnden weißen Overalls, erreichte Elvis einen Höhepunkt, als die Musik ihn so tief bewegte, ihn in solche Höhen hob, dass es nur noch eines zu tun gab: "die umgekehrte Klaue". Wenn Musik dich dazu bringt, ist das ein wirklich großartiges Gefühl. "Die umgekehrte Klaue" ist das, worum es bei Deerhoof geht. Ihre jubelnde Musik zieht dich in den Moment hinein, und dort freust du dich. Auf dem transzendenten Album ,Friend Opportunity" überrascht die Musik immer wieder: Songs wie ,Perfect Me" haben drei oder vier Abschnitte mit atemberaubenden Offenbarungen des Erhabenen; ,Matchbook Seeks Maniac" zieht in der Mitte einen ,99 Luftballoons"-Breakdown-Move durch, rockt ein Brahms-Intervall im pop-narkotischen Refrain, und die Beach Boys und The Who sind überall im Mix zu hören - es ist eines der glorreichsten Dinge, die man je hören wird. Auf früheren Alben war eine der Hauptwaffen von Deerhoof der negative Raum - die atemberaubenden Stille zwischen den Beats und Akkorden schlugen härter zu als jedes Klirren und Klirren von Gitarren und Becken. Deerhoof waren wie Maler, die leere Stellen auf der Leinwand ließen, um ihre Pinselstriche hervorzuheben; jetzt neigen sie dazu, jeden Quadratzentimeter auszufüllen und laden uns ein, jeden brillanten Winkel zu genießen. Und Songs wie ,Perfect Me", ,Believe in E.S.P." und ,Choco Fight" sind weitaus groove-orientierter - und ja, auch sexier - als alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben. Das alles ist in Gegenüberstellungen integriert, die eigentlich irritierend sein müssten, aber einfach nur erstaunlich klingen. ,Believe E.S.P." beginnt mit Deerhoofs Interpretation von funkiger Slinkopation, aber der nächste Abschnitt klingt wie etwas aus Palestrina; wie so viele dieser Songs ist es eine malerische Fahrt, die von einer erstaunlichen Aussicht zur nächsten führt, von weiten, schimmernden Wüsten über neblige Schluchten bis hin zu atemberaubenden, schneebedeckten Berggipfeln. Wie Mike Watt einmal über seine Band The Minutemen sagte, schreiben Deerhoof keine Songs, sondern Flüsse. Woher kommt dieses Zeug? Da ist das hoch aufragende, ungerade getaktete Gitarrenriffarama von Chavez, der Heavy-Metal-Donner von Strawinsky, die beschädigten Schnörkel von Gastr del Sol, der Klang und Stomp von Led Zeppelin, Japans illustre Reihe atemberaubend innovativer, von Frauen dominierter Bands wie Ex-Girl und Melt Banana. Und jetzt gibt es diese Mensch-Maschine-Beatbox-Rhythmen, bei denen der titanische Schlagzeuger Greg Saunier die Technologie übertrifft wie ein John Henry mit zwei Holzstiften in den Händen anstelle eines Vorschlaghammers. Manchmal erinnern sie an The Who - wie ,Underture" aus Tommy oder die großartige Live-Version von ,A Quick One", eine Rockband, die die Arbeit eines Orchesters leistet, fesselnde Träumereien im Wechsel mit kraftvollen Ausbrüchen gewundener Melodien, lyrischen Machtspielen und Inverted Claws, die überwältigende Freude hervorrufen. Aber es gibt noch eine weitere wichtige Quelle: Seit mindestens 20 Jahren hat der Hip-Hop die ausgefallenste und experimentellste Musik hervorgebracht, die die Popmusik je gesehen hat. Warum kann Rockmusik nicht das Gleiche tun, auf ihre eigene Weise? Während ,Friend Opportunity" also tangential den Hip-Hop (und verschiedene Epochen des Rock in seiner abenteuerlichsten Form) zitiert, wendet es meist nur die gleiche Denkweise an - was wäre, wenn wir einfach unserer Fantasie freien Lauf lassen würden? ,Friend Opportunity" ist eine Meisterleistung der Neuerfindung, die nur von Künstlern kommen konnte, die bereit waren, alles zu überdenken. ,Es ist, als wäre man wieder ein Kind", sagte Saunier einmal zu Pitchfork, ,denn das ist es, was Kinder die ganze Zeit tun. Jeden Tag lernen sie neue Dinge, von denen sie nicht wussten, dass sie sie tun können." Mann, wenn man von Sonic Youth spricht - Deerhoofs Frühling ist ewig. - Michael Azerrad

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

Release Description:

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

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

Repress of ‘Glow On’, the 2021 Grammy nominated third studio album from Baltimore hardcore punk quintet Turnstile. Co-produced by the band themselves along with hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo, and featuring the guest vocals of Blood Orange.



Recorded with producer Mike Elizondo and co-produced by the band’s Brendan Yates, GLOW ON follows TURNSTILE’s 2018 breakthrough album TIME & SPACE, which saw the Baltimore band charting new ground for hardcore, expanding stylistic boundaries and celebrating new possibilities.



With GLOW ON that utopic vision is fully realized; 15 tracks devoid of borders, boundaries, or entry obstacles, only abundant imagination, heart, and grooves plucked from all corners of the musical spectrum. GLOW ON includes the singles “HOLIDAY,” “MYSTERY,” “NO SURPRISE,” and “T.L.C. (TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION) from TURNSTILE’s recent TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION EP. GLOW ON also includes guest features from Blood Orange on “ALIEN LOVE CALL,” “LONELY DEZIRES,” with additional vocal contributions on “ENDLESS.”



“TURNSTILE has the ability to lure even the most poptimistic listener with spectacular hooks,” affirmed NPR remarking on the band’s single “HOLIDAY,” while The FADER named the track one of the 20 Best Rock Songs Right Now. Stereogum declared, “If you’re gonna go big, you might as well go gigantic, and with ‘MYSTERY’ TURNSTILE sound like they’re about to be huge.”



Bringing superhuman energy to the stage, TURNSTILE are scheduled to perform a string of sold-out headline shows this summer in the US, followed by appearances at next year at Spain’s Primavera Sound on 6/5, France’s Hellfest on 6/23, and the UK’s Outbreak Festival on 6/24.



Always more appeal than demand, more liberation than limitation, TURNSTILE extended their hand in 2018 with TIME & SPACE. Recorded with producer Will Yip, TIME & SPACE marked Turnstile’s Roadrunner Records debut and saw the band exploding the most outsized tropes of hardcore with tremendous heart. The album earned “Best of 2018” honors from Kerrang!, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard and more, with GQ naming TIME & SPACE one of “The Best Albums That Shaped the 2010s.”



Comprised of Brendan Yates (Vocals), Franz Lyons (Bass/Vocals), Brady Ebert (Guitars), Pat McCrory (Guitars), and Daniel Fang (Drums), TURNSTILE’s brand of youth-minded, youth-driven hardcore punk is intent on breaking down barriers, sonically and ideologically.

Manchester based trio, Sonnenspot have unashamedly taken their favourite records from the Kosmische Musik landscape and fused these to inform their own spontaneous sonic constructions. Motorik drums, pulsating flutes, wah guitar and almost excessive use of space echo make this a dense and dreamy listen, with a hint of the rainy pensiveness of their home town.

Notable inspiration from Neu!, Manuel Gottsching, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo is all clearly audible in the various recordings on this album and minimal effort was made to shy away from this. The longest track 'Motorway' is an epic homage to the space rock art form and 'Madrugada' takes both John Martyn's 'Small Hours' and Gottsching's 'Inventions' as a starting point. Others include the tobacco lovers art-rock-ear-worm ('Liquorice Paper'), a dub laden celestial synth jam ('Slow Blinker') and the album opens with the first thing the band ever recorded, as a meaningless improvisation to tune their synths up to ('Figurescene'). Turned out it had a killer bass line and drum part.

Initial sessions were mostly just an excuse for the three long standing friends to get together musically for the first time, and after knowing each other for many full moons, it was long overdue.

They all bring some peripheral musical heritage to the table. Ian Smith was the guitarist in Alfie and the The Beep Seals and played on Badly Drawn Boy's 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast'. Pete Philipson played in Jane Weaver's band for ten years and has made his own ambient guitar albums. Dan Hope plays in the jazz folk band Mother Sky and promotes events around the city under the Rainy Heart banner.
They were joined by another long term musical friend Sam Kynaston who added heavenly flute to much of the album.

Originally released in September 2024 we continue the re-release of Clark’s recent catalogue with the chance to get some limited vinyl versions of ‘In Camera’. Since his first composition credit in 2016 with The Last Panthers (Warp) Clark has built a reputation for expanding film and TV scores into intricate, exhilarating soundworlds of their own. Here Clark has expanded his score for Naqqash Khalid’s award-winning debut feature ‘In Camera’ stretching out the film’s surreal ‘modern fairy tale’ atmosphere with reversed vocals and gauzy synthpop-esque chords. Of the recording process Clark says: “Using my vocals but abstracted in a way that totally matched the film was the most unique challenge. I was going to just include the cues but got far too into recording new stuff that fitted the tone and emotion of the film. The record has a very distinct colour/ feel. It’s drenched in muted joy/ dark euphoria”. This includes a gnarly cover of the Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’ that burns closer to the frazzled Sonic Youth version.

Ursprünglich aus Albany, NY, aber jetzt ein fester Bestandteil der Brooklyner Indie-Rock-Community, ist das Duo Ali Genevich und Jake Brooks für seinen verträumten, sonntäglichen Dreampop bekannt. Auf ihrem 3. Album und ihrem ersten für Bar/None haben Laveda ihre Komfortzone verlassen und verfolgen einen härteren Ansatz für ihre Rock-Tendenzen. Sie haben ihre traditionellen Einflüsse hinter sich gelassen und begeben sich auf den Weg, den Bands wie Unsane und Sonic Youth geebnet haben.

Though Toronto rockers Hot Garbage’s signature tinge of moody, heavy psychedelia remains present on Precious Dream, their forthcoming sophomore album careens at high speeds into a darker world of searing post-punk riffs, grappling with themes of dread, loss, the resilience of the human spirit and the highs and lows of solitude. From the onset, elegant yet brutalist sonic architectures provide the scenery for an escape route, while cryptic poetic spurts act as surreal signage. By the end of the journey, we are left with a strangely pleasant void, but also with an uncontrollable urge to backtrack into the outfit’s beautiful 36-minute musical trap. True to form, prolific producer Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck, No Joy, !!!, etc.) – with whom, Hot Garbage recorded their critically-acclaimed debut full-length, RIDE – does right by the band, masterfully harnessing the four-piece’s unique brand of rock & roll, setting in motion a parallel universe where phones are not what they seem, lobotomy has its merits, lower is actually better, and tunnels stretch the very fabric of spacetime. Fans of Sonic Youth, Frankie and the Witch Fingers or Joy Division should welcome a confused stroll down this romantic if dystopian opus, for a cathartic and tender sense of resolution awaits.

“'Lyceum' is a fountainhead of unqualified greatness. It’s a strange, sad sound harking back to old school tunesmanship – Aztec Camera, ‘Rattlesnakes’, prime-time Felt – but the whole affair is permeated with a resonant, almost tearful quality. ‘Lyceum’ is reminiscent of Galaxie 500’s ‘Today’ in that it sounds like it cost less than a round of drinks to produce. But the lo fi sound merely enhances the misty glazed-pop sound and raises the hallelujah choruses to the forefront. Rather than drowning them in production mush. Don’t pass it by”.
– Bob Stanley, Melody Maker 1989
Hailing from the suburbs of Glasgow, this five-piece are best known for their three starry-eyed albums on the renowned Sarah Records - this being an expanded version of their first (an eight-track 10” at the time).
By the tail end of the 1980s the independent music scene in the UK was turning its back on the polish and over-indulgence of the mid-80s with its gated drums and wallpaper production. And those who weren’t stretching the boundaries of sonic innovation had tuned back to the post-punk ethos of ramshackle charm and zealous melody, even dousing the spirit with some political fervour once more. Influences were more likely to be Television and the Television Personalities than MTV.
The Orchids and The Sea Urchins were the first two bands to release 7” singles on the Sarah label having previously begun their recording existence on a shared flexi disc in 1987 (The Sea Urchins went on to become Delta, whose classic album ‘Slippin' Out’ from 2000 will be the second release on Circuitry). The Scottish five-piece released ‘I’ve Got a Habit’ and ‘Underneath the Window, Underneath the Sink’ as EPs before really finding their feet with ‘Lyceum’; the tracks, remastered from the original Toad Hall tapes are included on this reissue as are the three songs from the ‘What Will We Do Next?’ 7” (this collection closes with the frazzled stretch that is ‘Yawn’). 'Lyceum' was originally released in August 1989.
The album opens with ‘It’s Only Obvious’ and its gloriously youthful chorus of “who needs tomorrow when all I need, all I needed was you”. James Hackett somehow appears both forthright and rejected, something that one of their musical heroes The Go-Betweens also had down to a fine art. It barely takes a breath until midway through side two where ‘Hold On’ (sounding suspiciously like an unlikely objective) descends into the intro of ‘Blue Light’, the counted-in ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ whispered like the most hopelessly dejected rally. If that sounds depressing it isn’t. This record by The Orchids was a spirited source of comfort for an 18 year old at the time and still shudders with the best type of melancholy, one that’s spirited not indulgent. If you’re not familiar with the band’s charm, this is where you should begin.
'Lyceum' is released on double black vinyl by new label Circuitry.

“Great Doubt” is the third full length LP by Danish composer Astrid Sonne. Throughout her acclaimed discography, Astrid Sonne has been carefully crafting different moods through electronic and acoustic instrumental endeavours. On “Great Doubt” this skill is refined, now with the distinct addition of the composer's own vocal in front. The tone of each track is unmistakably Sonne’s, structured around contrasts through an impeccable sense of timing. Lyrics on the album are sparse, merely highlighting different scenes or emotional states of being, leaving the music to fill in the blanks. Yet they also form a pattern of ambiguity, consolidated through the album title, searching for answers through looking at how and what you are asking, questions for the world, questions of love. The viola, a trusted companion since Astrid Sonne’s youth, appears effortlessly throughout the album, fully integrated into the sonic universe; through a pizzicato driven arrangement in the poignant track “Almost” or along with booms and claps in mutated cinematic stabs during “Give my all”, paraphrasing Mariah Carey's 1997 ballad. Yet the string section also gives way to explorations of woodwinds, counterbalancing the bowed movements with digital brass and airy flutes. Finally, beats and detuned piano are fresh additions to the soundscape, cementing how Sonne’s practice is always evolving into new territories. In fall 2022, Astrid Sonne relocated from Copenhagen with its peers of artists such as ML Buch, Erika de Casier and Smerz, to live in London, where musicians of the South-East London scene like Coby Sey, Lolina, Still House Plants and Mica Levi provide a new inspirational framework. “Great Doubt” bears witness to both of those geographical locations, yet finds itself in its own unique space, in many ways due to the presence of Sonne's voice throughout. A voice that has always been present in her work, but never fully explored as a solo instrument before now. Astrid Sonne elaborates on the wish to work more in depth with the voice: “I come from a tradition of choir singing where I’ve used my voice as a way of creating unity with other voices. I’ve disciplined my voice in a certain way and this album is an exploration of me trying to find my own voice as an instrument, as a communicator, as a new way of being honest.” Questions take up a central role throughout the album. The doubt is both a blessing and a curse, always lying in-between, acting as both what holds back and drives forward. A metamorphosis not going anywhere. The great doubt takes place in a space of courage, chances, love, loss, gifts and surprises. Genre: Electronic / Experimental

Limited 180g black vinyl (500 copies worldwide)
“Marcel Wave combine sharp-eyed Northern lyricism with DIY guitar-janglers rooted in a retro C86 aesthetic. Epic finale ‘Linoleum Floor’...is a gloriously bleak rumination on the horrors of enforced late-night hedonism worthy of prime Pulp” UNCUT
Marcel Wave write eulogies for tragic actresses, ancient riverbeds and concrete obscenity. Their inaugural sonic instalment ‘Something Looming’ is part trades club symphony, part itchy serenade, and part wistful lament. As their heady concoction of ‘Meades meets Pat-E-Smith meets Kirklees Borough Council’ gets prepped to be formally baptised on a dank stage near you, Upset the Rhythm and Feel It Records have dutifully stepped in to deliver its songbook to the masses on both sides of the pond.
Formed when Lindsay Corstorphine and Christopher Murphy of Sauna Youth and brethren Oliver and Patrick Fisher of Cold Pumas were summoned by northern ink-slinger Maike Hale-Jones, Marcel Wave’s debut offering is a walk through a smoke-filled pub with yellowing wallpaper and all eyes on you. It’s a chronicle of the death of the docklands, the decline of industry, of the high street, of civic pride, of civilisations, of hopes and dreams. As Hale-Jones delivers the bad news in her low, West Yorkshire brogue, Corstorphine adds the bells and whistles via the frantic pulsations of a wheezing Hohner organ in tandem with Fisher O’s rasping guitar. MW are completed by the throbbing basslines of Murphy and Fisher P’s fervent rhythms.
The title itself sets the tone for the listener. There’s a sense of foreboding in Hale-Jones’ lyrics which sit at the quintet’s core—elegiac, sardonic and piquant in equal measure. A mixture of narrative epilogues and inward paeans, her words weave tales across a broad thematic church. Crooked tales of urban renewal and the voices left behind are probed in ‘Barrow Boys’ and ‘Stop/Continue’ and are at the fore in ‘Where There’s Muck There’s Brass’ with its refrain lamenting ‘Concrete and slate shine in the rain, cities destroyed, nothing to gain’. In these lyrics, tower blocks loom over terraced houses with the same shadows that the Hollywood sign casts over Peg Entwistle before she takes her tragic leap. ‘Peg’ and ‘Elsie’ are both meditations on two different actresses with different fates crushed by the cut-throat trappings of showbusiness: ‘The mad hopes break, fragile as glass. She traded it all, for the cutting room floor.’ A snaking, existential dread also runs through the album, stated more obliquely in the otherwise poppier interludes of the title track ‘Something Looming’ and album opener ‘Bent Out of Shape’, and present too on the comparatively ramshackle ‘Discount Centre’, where Hale-Jones reports ‘On a mini bus on the outskirts of Enfield, I’m losing all of my spark’. On the album closing weeper ‘Linoleum Floor’, it is laid barer still—a keyboard-led reflection on the deflating nights out of our early-twenties.
Marcel Wave invites the listener to dance to society’s decline, and then to later weep into its lukewarm pint.

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt ist die Sängerin und Songwriterin Samira Winter eine feste Größe in der Musikszene von Los Angeles. In der DIY-Rock-Community der Stadt fand sie ihre kreative Heimat und schuf sich unter dem Namen Winter ihre ganz eigene Nische mit glorreich detailverliebtem und eklektischem Dream Pop. Ihr neuestes Album und Winspear-Debüt "Adult Romantix" ist ein Abschieds-Liebesbrief an LA - ,ein Tunnel aus Sommern und Erinnerungen" - inspiriert von der gotisch-romantischen Literatur Mary Shelleys und romantischen Komödien der 90er-Jahre. Samira wuchs in Curitiba, Brasilien auf und spielte in ihren ersten Bands in Boston, bevor sie 2013 nach Los Angeles zog und sich in die Stadt verliebte. Doch irgendwann verspürte sie den Wunsch nach einem Tapetenwechsel, um persönliches Wachstum zu ermöglichen - eine schmerzhafte, aber notwendige Erkenntnis, die sie schließlich nach New York City führte. In den rund zwei Jahren vor ihrem emotionalen Umzug von Küste zu Küste schrieb sie Songs im Übergangszustand - oft zwischen Tourneen, in verschiedenen Städten und temporären Unterkünften. Aus diesen Phasen entstanden die 13 Songs ihres neuen Albums "Adult Romantix", dem Nachfolger ihres gefeierten 2022er-Albums "What Kind of Blue Are You?". Nostalgisch und sehnsuchtsvoll verbindet "Adult Romantix" wirbelnde Gitarren, rauchige Vocals und einige bemerkenswerte Gastauftritte, etwa von Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love) und Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan). Beeinflusst von Klassikern wie "Rather Ripped" von Sonic Youth, "Either/Or" von Elliott Smith und dem sonnengetränkten kalifornischen Shoegaze der 2010er Jahre, schwankt "Adult Romantix" zwischen taufrischer, gitarrengetriebener Euphorie und dunkler, nächtlicher Sehnsucht. Geprägt von aufbrausenden Verzerrungen und offen gestimmten Akustikgitarren, liegt über diesen rohen, liebeskranken Liedern eine greifbare bittersüße Stimmung.

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt ist die Sängerin und Songwriterin Samira Winter eine feste Größe in der Musikszene von Los Angeles. In der DIY-Rock-Community der Stadt fand sie ihre kreative Heimat und schuf sich unter dem Namen Winter ihre ganz eigene Nische mit glorreich detailverliebtem und eklektischem Dream Pop. Ihr neuestes Album und Winspear-Debüt "Adult Romantix" ist ein Abschieds-Liebesbrief an LA - ,ein Tunnel aus Sommern und Erinnerungen" - inspiriert von der gotisch-romantischen Literatur Mary Shelleys und romantischen Komödien der 90er-Jahre. Samira wuchs in Curitiba, Brasilien auf und spielte in ihren ersten Bands in Boston, bevor sie 2013 nach Los Angeles zog und sich in die Stadt verliebte. Doch irgendwann verspürte sie den Wunsch nach einem Tapetenwechsel, um persönliches Wachstum zu ermöglichen - eine schmerzhafte, aber notwendige Erkenntnis, die sie schließlich nach New York City führte. In den rund zwei Jahren vor ihrem emotionalen Umzug von Küste zu Küste schrieb sie Songs im Übergangszustand - oft zwischen Tourneen, in verschiedenen Städten und temporären Unterkünften. Aus diesen Phasen entstanden die 13 Songs ihres neuen Albums "Adult Romantix", dem Nachfolger ihres gefeierten 2022er-Albums "What Kind of Blue Are You?". Nostalgisch und sehnsuchtsvoll verbindet "Adult Romantix" wirbelnde Gitarren, rauchige Vocals und einige bemerkenswerte Gastauftritte, etwa von Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love) und Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan). Beeinflusst von Klassikern wie "Rather Ripped" von Sonic Youth, "Either/Or" von Elliott Smith und dem sonnengetränkten kalifornischen Shoegaze der 2010er Jahre, schwankt "Adult Romantix" zwischen taufrischer, gitarrengetriebener Euphorie und dunkler, nächtlicher Sehnsucht. Geprägt von aufbrausenden Verzerrungen und offen gestimmten Akustikgitarren, liegt über diesen rohen, liebeskranken Liedern eine greifbare bittersüße Stimmung.

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt ist die Sängerin und Songwriterin Samira Winter eine feste Größe in der Musikszene von Los Angeles. In der DIY-Rock-Community der Stadt fand sie ihre kreative Heimat und schuf sich unter dem Namen Winter ihre ganz eigene Nische mit glorreich detailverliebtem und eklektischem Dream Pop. Ihr neuestes Album und Winspear-Debüt "Adult Romantix" ist ein Abschieds-Liebesbrief an LA - ,ein Tunnel aus Sommern und Erinnerungen" - inspiriert von der gotisch-romantischen Literatur Mary Shelleys und romantischen Komödien der 90er-Jahre. Samira wuchs in Curitiba, Brasilien auf und spielte in ihren ersten Bands in Boston, bevor sie 2013 nach Los Angeles zog und sich in die Stadt verliebte. Doch irgendwann verspürte sie den Wunsch nach einem Tapetenwechsel, um persönliches Wachstum zu ermöglichen - eine schmerzhafte, aber notwendige Erkenntnis, die sie schließlich nach New York City führte. In den rund zwei Jahren vor ihrem emotionalen Umzug von Küste zu Küste schrieb sie Songs im Übergangszustand - oft zwischen Tourneen, in verschiedenen Städten und temporären Unterkünften. Aus diesen Phasen entstanden die 13 Songs ihres neuen Albums "Adult Romantix", dem Nachfolger ihres gefeierten 2022er-Albums "What Kind of Blue Are You?". Nostalgisch und sehnsuchtsvoll verbindet "Adult Romantix" wirbelnde Gitarren, rauchige Vocals und einige bemerkenswerte Gastauftritte, etwa von Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love) und Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan). Beeinflusst von Klassikern wie "Rather Ripped" von Sonic Youth, "Either/Or" von Elliott Smith und dem sonnengetränkten kalifornischen Shoegaze der 2010er Jahre, schwankt "Adult Romantix" zwischen taufrischer, gitarrengetriebener Euphorie und dunkler, nächtlicher Sehnsucht. Geprägt von aufbrausenden Verzerrungen und offen gestimmten Akustikgitarren, liegt über diesen rohen, liebeskranken Liedern eine greifbare bittersüße Stimmung.

BACK IN PRINT! Glenn Branca’s first full-length album The Ascension is a colossal achievement. After touring much of 1980 with an all-star band featuring four guitarists (Branca, fellow composers Ned Sublette and David Rosenbloom, and future Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo) along with Jeffrey Glenn on bass and Stephan Wischerth on drums, Branca took his war-torn group into a studio in Hell’s Kitchen to record five incendiary compositions. Originally released in the summer of 1981, The Ascension effectively tears down the genre-ghettos between 20th century avant-garde and ecstatic rock ’n’ roll. On “The Spectacular Commodity,” chiming, shimmering tones unfold into sinister drone-territory à la Tony Conrad, while abrasive guitars and repetitive beats retain the raw primitivism of No Wave. The title track attains a densely packed, larger-than-life sound and (as author Marc Masters says best) “never stops climbing skyward.” With artist Robert Longo’s stark front cover that depicts Branca battling an unidentified man, The Ascension is a must-have record not only for fans of early Swans and Sonic Youth, but also of Steve Reich or Slint’s Tweez.

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.

BABY BLUE COLOUR VINYL

The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard Slanted and Enchanted or 'Cannonball.'

Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland's rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. 'Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,' says Stokes. 'I never thought I had the right voice for it.'

From the irresistible title track to future singles 'Happy Unhappy' and 'You Wouldn't Like Me,' Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me's dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the '60s, while inverting the trope of the 'sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.'

All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that's equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.

'There's a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,' she continues, 'that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.' Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. 'That's another New Zealand thing,' Stokes concludes with a laugh. 'We're putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.'

BABY BLUE COLOUR VINYL

The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard Slanted and Enchanted or 'Cannonball.'

Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland's rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. 'Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,' says Stokes. 'I never thought I had the right voice for it.'

From the irresistible title track to future singles 'Happy Unhappy' and 'You Wouldn't Like Me,' Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me's dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the '60s, while inverting the trope of the 'sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.'

All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that's equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.

'There's a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,' she continues, 'that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.' Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. 'That's another New Zealand thing,' Stokes concludes with a laugh. 'We're putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.'

The lovely, longing ‘I Still Think About You’ was a regular highlight of the band’s earliest live sets and was one of the first songs they wrote together. “We wrote it three years ago, before we had released any music,” explains the band’s Ben Easton. “It had a certain youthful optimism that we loved, but after a few road tests we decided to shelve it. However, we knew that there was still something in it, so we brought it back earlier this year and we’re chuffed with the result.” “We wanted to capture the purity of wanting to see someone again, hoping they appear around the corner, or in your local park or pub, without any form of doubt that creeps into one’s mind as we grow older,” adds singer Dottie. “We enjoyed exploring and challenging ourselves to achieve a softer and uplifting narrative – it’s possibly the most joyful thing we’ve ever written.” On the flip side, the ‘No Ordinary Love’ reframes the slick R&B of the original as a dark and delicious dreampop / trip-hop crossover. “The original was pretty much on repeat during our tour late last year and we thought it’d be an interesting thing to try,” explains the band’s Ben Easton of the decision to cover the song. “It’s a good representation of where we’re going, sonically, and it was also our first recording experience with Harry Catchpole on drums and so we particularly focused on what he brings to the table. We experimented with different snares, mics and other effects to create our own kind of drum sample which is something that feels important to the deary sound going forward.”

Mal Devisa is the songwriting, liberation, and poetry project of multifarious artist Deja Carr. Starting in 2014 and breaking through with 2016's Kiid, Mal Devisa's work spans a selfmade spectrum of sound from gravitic, soulful rock to soliloquy to unabashed hip hop. Although known for her unmistakable, smoldering voice and loop-based, bass-forward compositions, Carr's talents also extend to reaches of spoken word and production, paralleled by aspirations to start both a youth foundation and Afrobeat orchestra. Such boundless inspiration is a central facet of Mal Devisa's work, whose sonically and narratively unrestrained passages teem with empathy and liberatory visions for a better world.

Japanese acid pop outfit Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin channel the globe-trotting spirit of Haruomi Hosono’s 1970s tropical boogie on their debut album, Tradition.

Named after one of the basic rhythms of Cuban folk music and drawing on influences from across the globe, Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin are quite simply a world unto itself.

Comprised of three childhood friends, Daido, Yuta and So, who reconnected during the coronavirus pandemic, Cho Co Pa initially emerged as a playful way for the three 23-year-olds to pass the time. Tapping into their youthful connection, they created a sound that exudes confidence and curiosity, a homage to the masterful world of YMO’s and Happy End’s Haruomi Hosono, rooted in the trio’s own idiosyncratic experience of the present.

Recorded at home and promoted on hugely popular DIY TikTok videos, their debut album Tradition is a technicolour exercise in armchair travelling – a kind of lockdown exotica for the housebound whose nostalgic flights of fancy are laced with a sense of whimsical melancholy for the lost freedoms of youth.

Referencing everything from Afro-Cuban percussion to lo-fi beats, Buddhist spirituality to trap, each member of the band brings different musical inspirations to the table. Latin American and Middle Eastern styles sit adjacent to a fascination for the electronic music of Aphex Twin, Dorian Concept, Underworld and Daft Punk. At times, the music verges on acid pop bliss, at others, it grooves with the instrumental funk sensibility of BADBADNOTGOOD.

“In the first place, when I create a song, my goal is to transport the listener to a mysterious place,” vocalist Daido explained in a recent magazine interview. Using lyrics as another sonic texture in the composition of ideas, Cho Co Pa paint beguiling sonic postcards of far-flung moods across 12 highly original tracks.

Marrying the organic and the electronic on rhythmically sophisticated compositions like ‘Chichibu’ and ‘Watatsumi’, it is on the album’s standout track ‘Gandhara’ that the experimental sound of Cho Co Pa comes to the fore. Referencing the ancient city of Gandhara through which Buddhism made its way from India to China, the track is a vocoder-trap-inspired, Udu drum-driven pop jam that lilts with unmistakable Balearic flair. If that’s difficult to imagine, then know simply that ‘Gandhara’ sounds like nothing else on this side of Saturn. Even Daido seemed surprised by the outcome: “I feel like we were able to create something that exceeded our abilities. That was huge!”

Hugely popular in Japan, with festival appearances lined up alongside BADBADNOTGOOD at Asagiri Jam in October, it's safe to say the success of Tradition has taken Cho Co Pa by surprise. You won’t have heard anything like it."

Way back when, Upgrade & Afterlife was the umpteenth release from the individual and collective forces of David Grubbs (known then for Bastro, The Red Krayola, Codeine, Squirrel Bait) and Jim O"Rourke (known for O"Rourke), whose further history has since numbered at least another umpteen or so essential listens. What is it though, wrapped up in delectable sonic amber here, that defines this Upgrade? To be sure, we hear these young men dashing through the joys of youth-their actual young youth-as well as a version captured in memory and relived with a performative touch. Time remembered as tones, with gravity gained via perceptions. The stuff of memory and sentiment as selective and potentially deceptive in their nature. Who needed "em? As part of its time-traveling function, Upgrade & Afterlife is a return to roots, but not always necessarily Gastr"s. They were more than happy to stand on branches up above other folks in order to see any next thing worth leaping for. In addition to the elder-statesman Conrad, Gastr del Sol drew upon a memorable spectrum of players for the sounds of Upgrade & Afterlife, including Anthony Burr, Steve Braack, Gene Coleman, Mats Gustafsson, Terri Kapsalis, John McEntire, Günter Müller, Jerry Ruthrauff, Ralf Wehowsky and Sue Wolf. When issued, this combination of players, parts and play - packaged in an impressively broad tip-on Stoughton gatefold sleeve emblazoned with Roman Signer"s instantly iconic "Wasserstiefel" image - became the fastest-moving Gastr del Sol record to date. A delightful result, to our way of thinking, of the band"s ability to push at the far boundaries of their music while consolidating upon pleasure points within sounds and songs. Gastr used these polarities to compulsively draw the listener intimately close with sudden injections of g-force and an uncanny interpolation of space.

Percussionist Tim Barnes has played with Jim O"Rourke, Wilco, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Silver Jews, Tony Conrad, John Zorn, Faust, Tower Recordings, Alan Licht and many others in improvised & experimental music. Diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer"s in 2021, Tim"s new collabs with Ken (Bundy) Brown (Tortoise, Pullman) feature Joshua Abrams, David Grubbs, Oren Ambarchi, David Daniell, Darin Gray, Glenn Kotche, Tara Jane O"Neil, Jim O"Rourke, Ken Vandermark and Tim"s stalwart rhythmic zeal.

This is an album made during a crucial period in South Africa’s history during which there was a palpable feeling of a slow turning towards the collapse of the apartheid state side by side with an increasingly well-organised culture of resistance through the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and various affiliated bodies. However, as a result, there was increased pushback from the state security establishment, a turning to dirty tricks and the formation of hit squads whose members murdered and tortured many of our friends and created chaos throughout South Africa as well as neighbouring countries.

This album is situated in this political environment however it took advantage of the new do-it-yourself music technologies available at that time. Technologies that made it possible to make and release records without interference from traditional record company executives. Two musician friends of mine pooled their resources after their respective bands had broken up. Ivan Kadey (National Wake) and Lloyd Ross (Radio Rats) built an 8-track recording studio control room and fitted it out in a second hand caravan and called it Shifty. They parked it in a garage attached to the only house left in a demolished and derelict mining village near Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
All the work on this album was completed there, mainly after hours and mostly alone where I enjoyed an exhilarating freedom to develop a whole new set of musical skills and ideas, incorporating my love of a wide range of music I’d grown up with. Influences of 1970s progressive/kraut/and psychedelic rock combined with mbaqanga bass styles, early reggae/dub and Indian tabla rhythms. Stockhausen, early Zappa and Holgar Czukay were radio text and shredding influences, and Chris Cutler’s band Henry Cow & Art Bears helped me see a way to political expression. Mostly though was the exciting post-punk and no-wave music coming through to us from Europe and America: bands like This Heat, the Mekons, Raincoats, Sonic Youth and Pere Ubu were immensely important to me as was my reading from the period: J.M.Coetzee’s first 3 novels are strong influences on Free State Fence; the stark landscape, superstition, ritual, and sexual repression are in many of his settings. JG Ballard was a constant presence throughout that period, especially whilst living in such a surreal environment, surrounded by mine dumps, but mostly I think the whole French post-modern philosophical movement—Derrida, Foucault and of course, Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation—set out a new sense of possibilities, possible ways to express oneself, ways to think, and ways to try and analyse the political intersection of public and private life. Most important at that time was the influence of sound recordings I had made and experiences garnered from working as a sound recordist on documentary films. These financed my work and later the studio and were consistent employment throughout the 1980s. Film work also enabled me to experience much of South Africa that was hidden from most. The track Independence Day is a good example; drawn from some time spent in the rural homeland of Venda. This then was the first full length Kalahari Surfers album, completed in summer of 1984 it was taken to EMI pressing plant but rejected by the cutting engineer as being ""political, pornographic and anti religious"". Chris Cutler at Recommended Records took up the challenge and released the album through his label. He wrote the original liner note

Nach 25 Jahren Herman Dune und 15 Alben freut sich BB*ISLAND, Odysseús zu präsentieren, eine neue Sammlung von Songs, die den Hörer auf eine Reise durch das turbulente Leben von David Ivar mitnimmt, eine Reise voller Sehnsucht, Schmerz, Liebe, Tod, Glaube und Erlösung. Es ist das erste Mal, dass Herman Dune mit einem externen Produzenten, David Garza, zusammenarbeitet. Das Set-up besteht fast ausschließlich aus akustischen Instrumenten, die live mit der Band in einem Raum aufgenommen wurden. Es ist Folk-Musik im typischen Stil von Herman Dune mit Anklängen an Americana, Country, jüdische und hispanische Traditionen, aber mit einer ganz neuen Wendung in Sound und Arrangements, vor allem im Vergleich zu seiner letzten rein akustischen Trilogie The Portable Herman Dune. David Herman Dune über die Produktion: "...David Garza getroffen zu haben war reiner Zufall. Ich mühte mich gerade mit einem Geigenarrangement für einen der Songs ab, als er sich in einem überfüllten Café in der Innenstadt von San Pedro an meinen Tisch setzte und mich fragte, woran ich gerade arbeitete. David, ein mit einem Grammy ausgezeichneter Produzent und Musiker, hatte mit Fiona Apple, Iron & Wine, John C. Reilly und den Milk Carton Kids gearbeitet und mit einigen meiner musikalischen Helden wie Lucinda Williams und Townes Van Zandt gespielt. Wir verstanden uns auf Anhieb, und er bot mir an, meine Songs zu produzieren. Wir begannen, die Stücke jeden Abend bei mir zu Hause zu spielen, und einmal pro Woche in einem französischen Restaurant namens Le Compagnon. David kannte die besten Musiker in L.A. - Leute wie Sebastian Steinberg am Kontrabass (Fiona Apple), Richard Edson (Schlagzeuger von Sonic Youth, Schauspieler in Jim Jarmuschs Stranger Than Paradise und Spike Lees Do The Right Thing), Odessa (violin, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) und Paul J. Cartwright (violin, Olivia Rodrigo). Als wir uns bereit fühlten, versammelten wir alle in meinem Haus für drei Tage Live-Sessions. Es war ein chaotischer, schöner Prozess, bei dem alle in einem Raum zusammen spielten, keine Kopfhörer, keine Overdubs - nur rohe, echte Musik. Aufgenommen und gemischt wurden die Sessions von Chris Sorem (ebenso Grammy-prämiert für seine Arbeit mit den mit den LA-Legenden Los Lobos). Chris brachte eine Wagenladung alter Mikrofone mit und konzentrierte sich auf "Raummikrofone" - djene, die die Atmosphäre des Raums einfangen. Er sagte, dies sei eine Technik, die auf Alben wie Buena Vista Social Club verwendet wurde, und es erzeugte eine Magie im Raum, die spürbar war. Sogar die traurigsten Lieder wurden lebendig mit so viel Freude, Energie und Elektrizität. Die Aufnahmen waren ungefiltert, organisch und hatten Seele. Als wir mit dem Abmischen begannen, waren wir alle vom Ergebnis erstaunt, wir hörten einen Moment in der Zeit, der sich gleichsam zeitlos anfühlte"

Eight years ago exactly, in April 2017, the Australian soon-to-be dark synth maestro Buzz Kull released his first full-length album Chroma via Burning Rose imprint.

The seminal album is a mass of jagged synth lines and pounding drum machines, a testament to Marc Dwyer’s personal sonic exploration over time. Each song on Chroma transcends the traditional archetype of darkwave by pushing pop sensibilities, focusing on different emotional states and boundaries. Since his debut, Dwyer has given the world tewo more album tackled multiple tours abroad, and continues to remain an elusive but omnipresent figurehead of goth electronics global underground.

With this dark gem being out of print for years now, it was time to bring it to life!

New run of 500 on black vinyl LP housed in reverse board jackets.

Lac Noir - La Serpente is part of Emmanuel Raquin-Lorenzi's Lac Noir, a composite work inspired by a serpentine female creature or 'snake-woman' that he saw in Transylvania in 1976, with a total of 33 pieces using various media, 24 by himself and 9 by other artists. All the materials used in Lac Noir were gathered on the land of the snake-woman between 1990 and 1992. The first coordinated broadcast ran from June to October 2019, like a theatrical display of media. Parmegiani has been cited as a major influence by younger experimentalists like Aphex Twin, Autechre and Sonic Youth. Works of his were performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festivals

Belgian musician and filmmaker Jef Mertens has been an active force in the experimental music and film scene for nearly two decades. Known for his documentaries on artists like Sonic Youth and Borbetomagus, as well as his work with the now-defunct Dadaist Tapes label, Mertens continues to push the boundaries of sound exploration. His previous solo works include NO MATHEMATICS, released on KRAAK/Feeding Tube Records.

With Orchid Alto, Mertens dedicates himself to the taishogoto, a Japanese stringed instrument that became a new focal point in his sonic explorations. Initially drawn to its unique tonal qualities, he approached the instrument with an open-ended curiosity, using it as a means to reshape his musical language. The transition to taishogoto marked a shift away from guitar-based compositions, offering a fresh perspective on texture and resonance. Through these explorations, Orchid Alto serves as a blueprint for new sonic possibilities.

A bold and immersive sonic journey, Orchid Alto merges traditional resonance with modern experimentalism, further shaping Mertens' artistic voice—one influenced by artists like Michael Flowers, Turner Williams Jr., and Bill Nace.