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Limited to 350 copies

Stop what you're doing and give us your full attention because Hell Yeah mainstay My Friend Dario's new album Senza Estate is going to define the sound of summer 2024. It's an eclectic eight-track collection that has something for everyone and is inspired by dreamy Italian soundtrack composers Piero Piccioni and Umiliani.

Curveball Italian talent Dario is a real dance floor don who collides acid, nu-disco, breakbeat and electro. His take on Balearic is unique and always sends dance floors wild, as proven with his last outing Food For Woofers Vol 2 earlier in the year. His new album is the sound of life by the Mediterranean, Balearic audio pleasure for daytime dreaming and nighttime dancing with vocal tracks written and performed by the UK's Space Echo Records associate Darene Obika.

Dario hails from Catania on the island of Sicily and his inspiration for Senza Estate, which translates as 'without summer,' was an imaginary holiday, weekends at the seaside, car journeys in the sun, relaxing sunsets and late-night dancing. 'For five years, I worked in a shop six days a week so despite living on a Mediterranean island I could never enjoy these things. Instead, I locked myself in the studio and jotted down the ideas, sensations, melodies and rhythms I had about another lost summer.'

'Keep On Cruising' is a downtempo opener with innocent synths that are filled with hope and promise for the warm months ahead. 'Zingarella' is a wide open sea view with wispy pads, seductive flutes and jazzy melodies that bristle with life and the tropical title cut gets more dancey on shuffling broken beats and radiant synth glows. There's a seductive laid-back cool to the tumbling keys of 'Marittimo' and 'What You Need' is a horizontal groove with loved-up vocals, 'Falò' pairs sensual acoustic guitar with work with pillowy drums and 'Il Pianeta Proibito' layers up sci-fi synths and stuttering bass into a bubbly sound that leads to cosmic take-off. 'Acid Panorama' is the melancholic closer which hints that the summer sun is setting one final time after weeks of carefree fun.

But the good news is, you can repeat the joys of My Friend Dario's masterful Senza Estate over and over again.

Mystery colored vinyl (a unique and kooky mix-up from an exotic palette) and including an insert with a unique drink recipe by Martin Cate and more. Limited edition of 600 copies only!

Lush and exciting, rich and vibrant, the modern masters of exotica - Ixtahuele's 2nd album is finally available again. Guiding your mind's eye over oceans and mountains, through jungle and desert, teasing and enticing your ears with layered soundscapes and catchy melodies, you'll find yourself whistling along on a winding mountain road, stalking through the rainforest, or humming lazily on a tropical beach. Building on their previous releases, both musically and thematically, the group flirts with jazz, mambo, and space age pop, all the while retaining their classic acoustic exotica sound and a high level of musicianship. This is music to lounge by the pool to, to armchair travel, to share a cocktail with a lover or a friend or to imbibe sacred libation in the rumpus room or Tiki bar. Sophisticated and savage, it's exotica for the modern age!.

The EP lands hot on the heels of her relocating to London after selling out three
Australian headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane and a packed out
summer of touring across the UK/ EU festival circuit. The multi- hyphenate has
been releasing left- leaning house & techno over the last few years which has
been causing a stir on dancefloors worldwide alongside playing dozens of
festivals across the UK, Europe & Australia (Glastonbury, Lost Village, AVA,
Parklife, Gottwood & more) With DJ support from Bonobo, Fred Again.., Barry
Can't Swim, George Fitzgerald, Romy (from The xx), Confidence Man alongside
international media support from Resident Advisor, Mixmag, BBC Radio 1, DJ
Mag, Triple J, Dazed & more.
Enveloping the space between all-out bangers and bittersweet love songs, Pretty
Girl's new EP is a six- track missive that demonstrates her ability to balance
romantic mood pieces with euphoric club moments. Glittering vocals, high-energy
drums and masterful production provide the musical backdrop for the new EP,
which is laced with symbols of transformation and personal development.

Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices’ Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard’s vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the “classic line-up” trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers has taken on a mythic status. It’s arguably Pollard’s strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. It’s like peering at the caliber inside a watch, responsible for making the whole enterprise tick. This nineteen-song collaboration with guitarist Tobin Sprout could be interpreted as spontaneous sketches, late-night improvisations, ideas that blossomed later in the timeline (“Knock ’Em Flyin’” and “Key Losers”), but as with anything in Pollard’s orbit, its intention is clear when heard as a cohesive whole. The Pollard tenet that “less is more” is on full display here. The songs rarely creep past ninety seconds and coalesce much like Pollard’s collage-styled visual art. Arena anthems in miniature (“158 Years Of Beautiful Sex”) bash up against eerie piano laments (“Universal Nurse Finger”) without any time to breathe, acoustic lullabies that sound like a Midwestern summer’s twilight (“Look It’s Baseball”) segue into monochromatic post-rock (“Maxwell Jump”). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollard’s voice is so palpable on the album’s standout, “Dayton, Ohio 19 Something & 5” (which has since become a live staple), that it’s impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog. The album’s closest analog is 1993’s Vampire On Titus, as it contains that album’s prickly, dark and shimmering obfuscation that only reveals its beauty after repeated listens. Tonics And Twisted Chasers maintains the lore because the melodies are so strong. Using a primitive drum machine, Radio Shack effects, minimal instrumentation and the DIY spirit that guided them in the first place, Pollard and Sprout constructed a masterpiece of pop that could only come from a basement in north Dayton, Ohio. Anyone in that hallowed era who happened upon it, kept it as a secret.

Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices’ Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard’s vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the “classic line-up” trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers has taken on a mythic status. It’s arguably Pollard’s strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. It’s like peering at the caliber inside a watch, responsible for making the whole enterprise tick. This nineteen-song collaboration with guitarist Tobin Sprout could be interpreted as spontaneous sketches, late-night improvisations, ideas that blossomed later in the timeline (“Knock ’Em Flyin’” and “Key Losers”), but as with anything in Pollard’s orbit, its intention is clear when heard as a cohesive whole. The Pollard tenet that “less is more” is on full display here. The songs rarely creep past ninety seconds and coalesce much like Pollard’s collage-styled visual art. Arena anthems in miniature (“158 Years Of Beautiful Sex”) bash up against eerie piano laments (“Universal Nurse Finger”) without any time to breathe, acoustic lullabies that sound like a Midwestern summer’s twilight (“Look It’s Baseball”) segue into monochromatic post-rock (“Maxwell Jump”). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollard’s voice is so palpable on the album’s standout, “Dayton, Ohio 19 Something & 5” (which has since become a live staple), that it’s impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog. The album’s closest analog is 1993’s Vampire On Titus, as it contains that album’s prickly, dark and shimmering obfuscation that only reveals its beauty after repeated listens. Tonics And Twisted Chasers maintains the lore because the melodies are so strong. Using a primitive drum machine, Radio Shack effects, minimal instrumentation and the DIY spirit that guided them in the first place, Pollard and Sprout constructed a masterpiece of pop that could only come from a basement in north Dayton, Ohio. Anyone in that hallowed era who happened upon it, kept it as a secret.

The follow up album to 2019's Dusted Jazz Volume 3. Pressed on 180 gram, White & Orange Marbled Vinyl. Jenova 7 emerges once again as a beacon of auditory innovation with his latest opus, Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes. Released under the banner of Cold Busted, this collection of 16 tracks serves as a time machine, whisking listeners away on a journey through dimensions both familiar and uncharted since his last foray with 2019's Dusted Jazz Vol. 3. Jenova 7 has meticulously crafted an album that resonates with the essence of ‘90s trip hop nostalgia while propelling us into the cosmos of futuristic soundscapes. The album's standout tracks—“The Future 1995,” “My Zero G Love,” and “Downtown Lost In The City Of Lizards”—are masterclasses in genre-blending and atmospheric storytelling. "The Future 1995" envelops one in a nebula of boom-bap beats, cosmic sound effects, and b-movie vibes, creating a sonic experience that feels like intercepting radio signals from a distant, funk-infused galaxy. Meanwhile, “My Zero G Love” floats the listener through the velvety darkness of space with its sexy lounge feel, portamento synth lines, and the undeniable funk that glimmers under starlight—evoking the sensation of grooving in weightlessness. Then, there's “Downtown Lost In The City Of Lizards,” a track that saunters through the urban jungle with sparkling keys, evocative guitar spurts, and strutting jazz bass, painting a picture as vivid and surreal as its title suggests. Jenova 7's skill lies in his ability to fuse moody, jazz-inflected samples with grooves that draw one into a distinctly atmospheric sound—a cinematic journey through time, space, and emotion. His tracks are experiences, wrapping the listener in a cocoon of vibrant soundscapes that are both introspective and expansive. Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes is an invitation to explore the unknown, to lose oneself in the depths of imagination and emerge on the other side transformed. For DJs looking to transport their audience to another dimension and for music fans yearning for a taste of nostalgia wrapped in the allure of the future, Jenova 7's latest release is a must-discover treasure. Dive in and let the odyssey begin

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and shortly after returning with the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney’s legendary “Postal Pieces”, the label is now offering a brand new, ambitious work by the American composer Ben Vida, entitled “Vocal Trio”, conceived, performed, and recorded in Bremen, Germany, during the Spring of 2022. A truly stunning work of compositional conceptualism, combining the ideas of systems based synthesis with real-time vocal collaboration - issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score - it’s a landmark in contemporary experimental practice and arguably the most forward-thinking and exciting piece by one of the most exciting American artists working today.

Ben Vida first emerged during the mid 1990s within a loose constellation of experimental musicians, centred around a performance series of improvised workshops at the Myopic Bookstore in Chicago, alongside Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Chad Taylor, and the other future members of Town and Country - Jim Dorling, Joshua Abrams, and Liz Payne - the band within which he would gain widespread recognition over the following years. Like many other members of that scene, Vida remains a restless product of a fleeting context - Chicago during the 1990s and early 2000s - continuously undermining concrete notions of idiom and signifier within a practice that witnessed him rendering bristling abstractions within Pillow, glacial melodies with Town and Country, the art-rock mayhem of Bird Show Band, and the angular, driving indie rock of Joan of Arc, before becoming immersed in a practice of systems based synthesis, beginning in the 2010s, that guided much of his first decade of output as a solo performer and composer.

As early as 2013, he began to incorporate acoustic sound sources - specifically the human voice - into his work. It was this shift, evolving and refining itself over the last decade, that underscores radically the leap in his practice represented by “Vocal Trio”, a work that encounters Vida composing for the human voice with the ideas that allow for synthesis - transferring the underlying concepts and structures of both subtractive and additive synthesis to the acoustic realm - without using a synthesiser.

During the Spring of 2022 Vida was in Bremen, Germany, collaborating on a dance piece with the choreographer Fay Driscoll, when the production fell into delays. Finding himself with time on his hands, a space at his disposal, and the company of two dancers - Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart - who were also singers, the idea for the piece - to utilising the larynx as audio paths (multi-harmonic or harmonically pure) while conceptualising each person’s mouth as a filter to sculpt the timbre and resonance of a given tone - began to take shape in his mind. Considering how typographical scores might be developed into a non-linguistic social framework, Vida drafted a single page of text - what became the score for “Vocal Trio” - accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestion and loose parameters, seeking a core meaning from each word's phonic make-up by each of the three singers (Vida, Gernux and Rudhart) singing as slowly as possible.

At the core of the pulsing vocal drones - intoxicating, harmonically rich long-tones - that make up the duration abstraction of “Vocal Trio”, is Vida’s regard for music as a social space. It is an experiment that seeks liberation through the act of collective music making, by challenging the terms through which the act of composing is perceived and then relinquishing control. The piece’s rehearsals were simply the three performers hanging out, allowing their knowing each other and natural dynamics to contribute to its form as the score, before recording during a single afternoon at the end of a number of days sharing company and space.

Creatively visionary and groundbreaking on numerous terms, as well as being intoxicatingly beautiful and remarkably listenable, Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio” represents a striking step forward for one of the most ambitious and outstanding sonic artists working in the United States today. Issued by Blume in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score, this is hands down one of the most important contemporary records we’re likely to encounter in 2024.

Comprehensive, full-spectrum, sonic experiments build for clubs. Uncategorisable in all the right ways. Danny Daze and Jonny From Space team up for their joint Craigie Knowes debut. The ‘Tumbadora’ EP is a masterclass in technical production whilst retaining all the rhythm and power required to destroy dancefloors. It’s one of the listeners and the clubbers. Nick León steps in with a stripped back version of ‘Sweet Spot Radio’ that’s every bit as mind-melting as the 3 original tracks. Prepare for the freefall!

Ten bad boy digi riddims from the myspace era by Copenhagen’s Maffi crew, dubbed out into 3D space by disrupt in 2024. Raw, minimalist CyberDancehall at its best, nostalgic and oddly futuristic at the same time, this album is quickly becoming RoboCop’s favorite playlist when going to work.
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Maffi Promotions a.k.a. Maffi Boys come straight outta 1773 Kbh V, Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally founded in 1990 by the two homeboys, lazy body Moog and Junior the Rat, Maffi Promotions have been a steady producer of simple digital riddims for years. Hanging out in the streets of Hummel City Junior & Moog used to entertain their friends with the primitve riddims of the Maffi sound. Not knowing that they would do the exact same thing fifteen years later, they continued to believe that one day they would move up the ladder, break out of the underground and reach for the stars.

Now, after finally adopting a little sense of realism, the two homeboys have realised that stardom is nothing compared to spamming people on myspace. So the two stoners decided to get a couple of friends together and turn up the bass online. Together with their sound crew FIREHOUSE, Maffi deal nuff weed and gyals!

Maffi Boys are very dedicated to the art of playing Sensible World of Soccer, rolling weed joints with Manitou tobacco and keeping it real in a Vesterbro-style. So watch out! And don’t test! We’ll be putting up new riddims on a weekly basis. We have nuff things brewing – including a delicious chicken!
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Growing up in the streets of Hummel City, Vesterbro, MOOG learned the pleasures of sleeping late, playing Sensible World Of Soccer and picking up hot gyals at an early age. He has spent most of his life trying to master these crucial skills. Taking a break from the dog race, Moog is currently focused on reaching a higher understanding of reggae-science and weedology.

JUNIOR experienced the necessity of rolling well-made spliffs at an early age. Incorporating the aestethic heritage of Scandinavian design, he has spent most of his life perfectionizing this old and traditional art form. Junior is currently taking his ph.d. in digital reggae by buying crates of 80’s 7″ and selecting for his sound system Firehouse.

The magic and majesty of Holger Czukay’s late career works for Claremont 56 is being celebrated on a new compilation. The former Can bassist – a musical maverick renowned for his freewheeling approach to composition, recording and promotion – released a string of inspired tracks on Paul Murphy’s label between 2009 and 2012, typically delivering hard-to-pigeonhole workouts, bona-fide epics and radical reinventions of some of his most beloved tracks.

The collection has been a labour of love – fitting given the sonic details and inventive musicality that marked out the late artist’s solo career – for Claremont 56 founder Paul Murphy AKA Mudd, who first reached out to Czukay after witnessing his now legendary live performance at the Roundhouse in 2009. As Murphy details in his introductory liner notes, it led to a productive working relationship between the pair that included collaborative recording sessions with Ben Smith in Czukay’s legendary Innerspace Studio – a former cinema in Cologne in which much of Can’s music was recorded.The impact of that Roundhouse gig on Murphy is reflected in the fact that two of the tracks on the collection are based on that celebrated performance. There’s ‘Ode To Perfume’, a languid and solo-laden version of one of Czukay’s most celebrated solo records that ratchets up the original’s inherent dreaminess, and a jaunty take on quirky kraut-pop number ‘Photosong’ featuring a spoken introduction recorded at the concert in question.

Murphy’s ability to coax Czukay into delving into his archives is evident across the compilation. Opener ‘A Perfect World (Remix)’ is an eccentric, ever-building masterpiece originally recorded in 1984 – but later re-imagined for Claremont 56 – featuring vocalist Sheldon Ancel and former Can band-mates Jaki Leibezeit and Michael Karoli, while ‘Fragrance’ is a subtly re-wired slab of picturesque Balearic kraut-dub which was initially recorded as a coda for ‘Ode To Perfume’ but lay unreleased for decades.

Then there’s ‘Let’s Get Cool’, a bright and breezy, French horn-sporting 2009 take on 1979 avant-disco classic ‘Cool In The Pool’; ‘My Persian Love (Remix)’, a 2010 re-take of one of his earliest solos recordings; and the near 18-minute brilliance of ‘Music Is A Miracle’. Originally recorded for his fans in the 1980s – but only released three decades later – this widescreen epic not only features drums by Jaki Leibezeit and a fine spoken word vocal by Czukay, but also numerous nods to some of his most revered tracks.

It's fitting, too, that two of the most potent cuts feature Czukay’s much-missed wife and musical muse Ursa Major: the dense, trippy and fittingly out-there ambient soundscape ‘In Space’, and the mesmerising ‘Music To be Murdered By’. Partially inspired by hearing painfully out of tune violin practice through his studio windows, the track was originally recorded for an unreleased album but finally found a home on Claremont 56’s 10th anniversary box set ion 2017. A genuinely spaced-out and mind-mangling slab of organic dub in Czukay’s distinctive style, it delivers a fine curtain call to the iconic artist’s endlessly inventive career.

YESYESPEAKERSYES is the first vinyl release of the remarkable collaboration between Chicago foot-work founder Kavain Wayne Space (aka RPBoo) and London duo experiment XT (drummer Paul Abbott and saxophonist Seymour Wright). The trio’s synthesis of rhythms, sounds, strategies, technologies and traditions collapse genre, distance, boundaries and preconceptions into a total, and totally unique, brain-body music.

Its two 15-minute vinyl sides are cut from a 60-minute live set at Cafe OTO, London on Friday 8th October, 2021 also available as digital download. This was the fourth meeting of the trio followed, instead of being followed by*, an RPBoo DJ set.

Each time the trio play it pushes further into new technical, emotional and creative space. The collaboration needs ears, instruments, imaginations and bodies to be used in new ways. This need is transformative. Together they – and we – learn. This unique trio combination is rooted in deep conceptual foundations, that push into real and imaginary spaces of innovation and learning in a creative practice of 'interruption' far beyond genres or what is supposed to be. And what emerges each time is a trio technology - a total dance technology for any and all bodies.

Kavain, Paul and Seymour share a fascination with the musical history of Chicago – a source of which is of continual nourishment to their ongoing practice. While Kavain’s pioneering footwork work develops the rhythmic structures of Chicago house and the samples, grooves and melodies of 60’s/70’s Chicago soul, disco and R&B, Seymour and Paul share a fascination with these musics, and bring to this lineage a long-term engagement with Chicago’s jazz traditions, from Baby Dodds to the AACM through their unique prism of club, dance, free-jazz and improvised club structures, technologies and musics.

The LP was expertly mixed by Billy Steiger and mastered by Amir Shoat. Every purchase comes with a bonus download of the full, unedited live set from Cafe OTO.

The album includes artwork by Benedict Drew and text by Edward George.

2024 Repress

180 Gram, Tip On Sleeve RSD version of this classic. One of the rarer records of the mythical Strata East albums is finally reissued for the first time on Heavenly Sweetness!
The recording of Earth Blossom, the John Betsch Societys one and only album, seems something of an enigma nowadays. For even though Nashville is clearly one of the towns in the US with the highest number of recording studios, who would have thought that the capital of country music would give birth to one of the forgotten masterpieces of 1970s spiritual jazz. The path leading to the album starts in 1963 when John Betsch, originally from Jacksonville in Florida, arrives in Nashville to study at Frisk University. He is a young drummer and joins Bob Holmes trio. Holmes is one of the towns major jazz organists and pianists; he becomes Betschs mentor and, over the space of two years, John will play alternately with him and with the trumpeter Louis Smiths group. However, in 1965, John leaves town to go to the prestigious Berkeley University in Boston and do a two-year course along with his fellow debutants with names like John Abercrombie, Ernie Watts and Alan Broadbent. Two years later, he is invited by a pianist friend, Billy Chilf, to join the legendary singer/songwriter Tim Hardins group. Just after Woodstock, John Betsch and Tim record a psychedelic album Columbia will never release together with the members of the future group Oregon: Colin Walcott, Glen Moore, Paul McCandles and his friend Billy Chilf. But he soon leaves this group to return to Nashville where he hooks up again with his friend Bob Holmes. Two years later, he is accepted on Archie Shepp and Max Roachs famous course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMASS) and for the next four years he participates in this collective of intellectuals and musicians under the aegis of the two masters.
During this period he returns to Nashville to form his Society whose music is obviously influenced by the Afrocentric ideas of the UMASS student and political movement. However, the album, recorded in one day and in one take, also bears the hallmark of their generations psychedelic experiences, and in the themes and playing of the musicians we can hear a less violent form of music than the radical free jazz of New York or Chicago. Nature and environmental themes are the inspiration behind tracks touched by the spirit of Coltrane but also of Flower Power.

After Amherst, John Betsch joins Marion Browns group in 1976, leaves Tennessee for good and makes his home in New York over the next ten years or so. He plays and records with Dollar Brand, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and many others, before heading off to France. He has lived in Paris for the last twenty years and played in Steve Lacy, Mal Waldron and Archie Shepp bands, as well as forming groups of his own. He now lives in Paris and plays with many musicians/bands.

Beginning in the 60"s, the small chamber group ensemble became increasingly important in the advancement of jazz, enabling horn players including Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, and Ornette Coleman to seek uncharted sonic territories and achieve new levels of freedom without the support of chordal instruments. With a mature, cohesive ensemble sound, the young trio juxtaposes tranquility and space with energy and tenacity across nine original compositions showcasing their stylistic breadth. From the swinging waltz "December" with a melodic contour reminiscent of a jazz standard, the soothing folk-influenced simplicity of "Vent", the intimate lyrical interplay between bass and clarinet in "Duo", to the heavy, propulsive power of the title track, the trio demonstrates fearlessness, listening, and spontaneity in a raw and personal recording that puts each of their distinctive voices in the spotlight. Christian Holm-Svendsen, currently resides in New York, studying for a master of music at Manhattan School of Music. In Denmark he played with, among others, The Danish Radio Big Band, Copenhagen Jazz Orchestra, Odense Jazz Orchestra, Jesper Zeuthen, and Regnfang. Daniel Sommer is an award-winning artist and sought-after drummer on the international jazz scene. Known for crossing the borders of different musical landscapes with a distinctive musical approach, Sommer currently performs with Karmen Roivassepp Quartet, Foyn/Hess/AC/Sommer and recently released the trio album "From Within" with Arild Andersen and Rob Luft on April Records. Mariusz Prasniewski is a Polish double bass player, residing in Copenhagen. A part of the Danish and European jazz scene for more than a decade, the bassist has worked with musicians like Tomasz Dabrowski, Anders Mogensen, and Gilad Hekselman.

Warehouse Find!

As I-Robots launches a new compilation series that celebrates the roots and influences of Italo disco in Turin and the Piedmont region, the Opilec Music boss also offers up various singles from it with some special remixes and edits. After an EP from Johnson Righeira last summer comes the latest one featuring the legendary Captain Torkive and two of his tracks as well as some special versions by I-Robots. Captain Torkive is Daniele Torchio, an Italian artist active in the late seventies & early eighties who got his nickname from a love of UFOs and space, in fact the titles here are inspired by the Superman DC Comics classic.
He has worked with the likes of Valero Liboni and all the material here is officially licensed from Ponzo Records master tapes. His tracks here are some of the most rare 7" Italo space disco tunes from Turin's rich history and feature synthesizers and electronic effects that he made himself, as well as guitars and keys he also played. Up first comes the I-Robots 1979 Reconstruction of Flying Saucers To Krypton which marries both tunes into a lush retro space odyssey that shimmers and rockets through the cosmos with live drums and jangling bass. Rounding off the A side is 1979 original version of Krypton' which is just as dazzling and spaced out with layers of synths and arps all sounding squelchy beneath some robot vocals. Kicking off the B side is the I-Robots 1979 Space Reconstruction of Flying Saucers To Krypton that strips some of the layers and keeps one lead synth line and some ascending spaceship sounds, as well as a lovably loose groove that really stomps along with real character. Last but not least is the original 1979 version of Flying Saucers, a cosmic tune with sci-fi sounds and melodies shooting about above big disco grooves with the keys and synths that carries you away to another galaxy. This is another essential package from Opliec Music that shines a light on an artist and era that deserves all the attention it can get.

Outsider ambient soundscape by two musicians from the Paris alternative : Désiré Bonaventure & Zach.

An enchanted yet psychedelic dream-like ballad recorded in one take in an ephemeral delirium; borrowing from dub, drone, IDM & techno, reflecting singular inter-worlds and inviting us to join them.

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Rue des Garderies is a distillate produced by the spontaneous collaboration of Désiré Bonaventure and Zach, two musicians evolving in the Parisian alternative scenes and so named in homage to a former local hotspot of other-music Rue des Gardes - now bygone - where this improvisation took place. Accustomed to exorcising time and space with the multidisciplinary collective †een▲ge g:-)d, Zach has also been evolving in various frequencies - beatmaking, mastering - for over 15 years. Désiré Bonaventure, on the other hand, is a member of the duo Euphonic Alliances Ltd. and R.A.F. Soundsystem.

Rue des Garderies was recorded in one take, using samplers and effects, amidst a tangle of cables, with eyes closed, as dawn approached, in anticipation for another moment of the present. Here, Désiré and Zach delve into the in-between worlds (musical, but not limited to), immersing themselves in their cracks, folds and emanations, attempting to narrate them to us.

From this material they shape a new alchemy lasting over 1h30, akin to a prolonged journey into psychedelia, drawing from various currents (such as ambient, drone, IDM, dub techno, and the English electronic scene of the 1990s), rich in organic and analogue textures that overlap, stretch, fold and expand.

The result is a grand and ethereal fresco, with shifting colours and textures, evoking astral projections and sporadic rhythms; a whole other world, populated by shapes, hues and new lives, forming a complex but enchanting sound essay.

Born of a fragile chaos, Rue des Garderies is an ephemeral harmony that accompanies moments of existence; a dance without tangible movement.

Italian producer Toto Chiavetta returns to Mind Against's HABITAT with a spellbinding new single titled "My Eyes Are Failing". Off his new EP of the same name, the song is a haunting journey where crunchy textures and hypnotic melodies come together with the refrain, "I think my eyes are failing, but I feel my lungs inhaling," to envelop listeners in a dark, atmospheric soundscape. Featuring the mesmerizing Thom Yorke-esque vocals of Trenton, the new track showcases Chiavetta's mastery over immersive, emotionally-charged electronic music.

Bolstered by b-side single “The Sacred Space” and a club-ready alternative version from Toto himself, plus remix from Echonomist, the new EP rounds out to create a defining statement from Chiavetta. With a growing list of supporters that include industry heavyweights like Âme, Sasha, John Digweed, and Camelphat, to name a few, and previous releases on Innervisions and Diynamic, Toto Chiavetta is poised to make a big impact with this landmark release on HABITAT.

Archeo Recordings' rewarding relationship with Tony Esposito continues on AR027, as the label provide a remastered reissue of his transcendent fusion-pop masterpiece "Pagaia" alongside a trio of brand new reworks from Perugia's mighty Feel Fly. Whether you're looking for cosmic house, mellow acid, trancey techno or dubby downbeat, these remixes have you covered, and the original remains a true work of art. Available in all good record stores on 12th July as a 50 copy super limited edition on Solid Blue Vinyl (including gadget scarf) and limited black vinyl edition.
50 copy Solid Blue Vinyl Edition (including gadget scarf), and also limited black vinyl run "Pagaia" hails from the Neapolitan percussionist's 1982 LP Tamburo, his first release for the brilliant Bubble imprint. Though the album delights and excites from start to finish, dancing through jazz-funk, Mediterranean pop, slow disco and smooth fusion, it's "Pagaia" which is first among equals. Esposito's nuanced hand drums lay the foundation for Claudio Pizzale, Sara Borsarini and Simona Pirone's wordless vocals, a life affirming chorus which carries us onto the swell of bass, piano and horns which drive the track through four and a half minutes of emotional release. Emphatic and expressive, the track transports the listener into a state of body moving rapture, all driven by Tony's rhythmic fluency. The song found its way into Italian living rooms over the credits of TV show Domenica In, and found its way into club culture thanks to fanatical support from the likes of Daniele Baldelli, who even included it on his first official Cosmic compilation.
Following a string of essential releases for the likes of Internasjonal, International Feel and New Interplanetary Melodies, Daniele Tomassini, better known as Feel Fly, now joins the Archeo family with a trio of contemporary club translations of the killer "Pagaia". The Perugian's "Cosmical Remix" extends that familiar introduction into a deep and DJ-friendly blend of drum and voice, awash with airy reverb and augmented by additional percussion, building through the original piano and bass into the churn of a dance floor wormhole. Driven by an unstoppable sequencer throb, the interpretation skirts the dark side of space before landing in the light of the miracle, those heavenly vocals and lush keys leading the way. The "Instrumental Cosmical Remix", not entirely instrumental, but utterly cosmical nonetheless, sees Daniele serve a tense and tracky arrangement of his first rework, perfect for deep space exploration. Stripped of the joyful exuberance of the original, this variation is a complex blend of shadowy trance idents and the mature techno we'd expect from the likes of François K. Not content with soundtracking either side of the peaktime, Feel Fly serves up a third version, following the Compass Point through a musical map of club-dub to turn out an immersive interpolation of deep bass, spring reverb and stabbing keys that sits perfectly beside the Rhythm & Sound catalogue. Each interpretation is an emphatic demonstration of Tomassini's musical talent, production prowess, and stylistic range, and furthermore a fitting tribute to the lasting genius of Esposito's original.

There are albums that tap into the very heartbeats of rhythm, melody and intricate sound design, pulsating with every musical note. This is the case of 'Séptimo Sentido', the new album by Buenos Aires-based producer Seph.

Sebastián Galante aka Seph is no stranger to these realms; with almost two decades of experience under his belt, he has established himself as one of the leading talents in the Argentina techno scene and as one of the most intriguing minds in alternative Latin American electronic music. His productions have found a home in cutting edge labels such as Insurgentes –a platform led by the DJ and producer from Medellín (Colombia) Verraco, and sister label of TraTraTrax, which has reduced gaps between the Latin electronic scene and the rest of the globe– or his own label Aula Magna Records. He has also fostered collaborations, among which stands out his project Oscean alongside Andrés Zacco, a project that was recently released on the legendary Berlin label Tresor.

In his new album 'Séptimo Sentido', Seph exhibits superlative production skills and masterfully showcases the widest palette of the braindance sound, that intersection where countless genres and sub-styles can coexist. Here we hear echoes from the mid-90s that revive undeniable references of early IDM; but with a renewed form, under a fiercely contemporary new skin.

At the core of this intriguing album, we find an artist whose devotion to experimentation takes his rhythmic and melodic obsessions through vibrant magical-techno-urban landscapes, where radiant colors and mutating forms collide in a bold and imaginative sonic journey.

'Séptimo Sentido' hails from the prism of perception, beyond the five senses and a step further than instinct, hunting for mysterious resonances with the cosmos; like a space portal inviting us to float a handspan above the ground.

Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records in collaboration with Deep Water Acres and in tribute to Sunrise Ocean Bender Records bring to you: Elkhorn – ‘Other Worlds.’ Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard, the two-guitar duo of Elkhorn, share a musical brotherhood that spans several decades. From their nascent high school socialist-realist post-punk band Mayfirst, to teenage scavenger trips to the Princeton Record Exchange and City Gardens, the two came of age goofing along to the Dead Kennedys, the Butthole Surfers, and Sonic Youth in the dank Jersey/Philly-scene music holes. Elkhorn has long traversed the valleys between fried cosmic psychedelia and American Primitive, particularly the latter style’s reverence for a wide range of folk and blues idioms ranging from County Records compilations to the Mississippi Sheiks. While the pair is best known for their acoustic guitar explorations, ‘Other Worlds’ continues their recent experiments with other instrumental possibilities. For instance, on the previous Elkhorn release ‘On the Whole Universe in All Directions,’ Drew switched to vibraphone and drums, with Jesse playing 12-string guitar. ‘Other Worlds,’ on the other hand, finds them in a recognizable ‘rock trio’ format (in improvisational mode)—Drew is on electric guitar, with Jesse playing bass, and they are again joined by Ian McColm on drums, with the free-flowing groove he brings. On the opening track ‘Watching the Skies’ you can feel the forward propulsion this—dare I say—power trio sets up, a cosmic widescreen which Elkhorn proceed to rock and groove across the whole of ‘Other Worlds.’ Three flawless musicians in their own right, together they form a telepathic psychic link that taps into the otherworldly flow that is ‘Other Worlds,’ as the synergy created by Jesse and Ian leaves Drew plenty of space to take off on exhilarating and soaring flights of fuzzy haze fire that results in a musical journey toward transcendence. Elkhorn demonstrate again and again that there is no height they won't scale, no direction they won't travel. Have Elkhorn ever sounded as heavy or as on fire as the recordings laid down here? You be the judge. The trio is multitudes. The trio is one. Mastering - Chris Hardman Artwork - Brett Savage

Following a ten-year hiatus, multi-instrumentalists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard return with »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, their third LP together as Orcas. Building on the electronic minimalism of »Orcas« (2012) and the Twin Peaks-inspired haze of »Yearling« (2014), the duo have expanded their sound and vision into a full-spectrum ensemble.

In the time since their last major collaboration, Irisarri and Pioulard have done plenty on their own, while also traversing significant life changes: relocation from Seattle to New York, separation and divorce, illness, hospitalizations, and the loss of siblings, parents, and friends. Yet from these tribulations, they gleaned inspiration to reconstruct their lives, creating music with new collaborators and partners. Recorded in a variety of studios and cities including Brooklyn, Cambridge, Oxford, Seattle, and upstate New York, the resulting album, under the tutelage of UK producer James Brown (Arctic Monkeys, Kevin Shields, Nine Inch Nails), is a patiently-crafted beast, equally inspired by impressionism, British new wave, and dream pop.

With Irisarri’s guidance and Brown’s encouragement, Pioulard brings his velvety voice to its harmonized peak on songs like »Wrong Way to Fall« and the Durutti Column-indebted »Fare«. Where his most recent solo albums for Morr Music (»Sylva« and »Eidetic«) navigated foggy forests of ambient pop and stacked tape loops, here his characteristic blur shifts into focus with a unique degree of clarity and confidence. »How fare against balance do I / Navigate my errors?«, Pioulard sings in a heartbreaking tenor, echoing the album’s broader themes of introspection, grief, loss, trial and trauma.

Lead single, »Riptide«, is a summary of Pioulard’s life changes and personal upheavals in the past decade, »flitting eastward toward a yen deep in the past« and learning to glide through the tumult of ocean waves, as a metaphor for the punches one takes in pursuit of grace. Its towering, key-changing midsection arrives with the monumental drumming of Slowdive’s Simon Scott, a long-time friend and cohort who appears on most songs in the set. Scott’s quintessentially English, jazzier approach offers a balance of force and restraint as the backdrop for Irisarri’s majestic guitars, analog synth lines, and Martin Heyne’s Fender Rhodes counterpoints.

Second single, »Next Life«, began as a sketch by Scott, and reached its final form in the hands of Pioulard and Irisarri, at a point that each had endured major concurrent losses, finding a commonality in the need to gaze over the horizon while acknowledging the unavoidable bittersweetness of letting go – not only of people, but of routines, places, and expectations. It’s one of Orcas’ most nuanced pieces, with a mid-tempo, sunset glow that unfolds into a sparkling, slide-guitar finale as it disappears in the rear view.

On third-act highlight, »Bruise«, Scott is doubled on the drum kit by MONO’s Dahm Majuri Cipolla, whose Liebezeit-influenced metronomy anchors a nimble bass groove from Andrew Tasselmyer (of Hotel Neon), and some of the album's most syncopated, spaced-out interplay, courtesy of Puerto Rican guitar player Orlando Méndez (a childhood friend of Irisarri’s). Originally a droney, fingerpicked guitar demo, »Bruise« is the most storied composition here, having gone through almost a dozen versions and lyrical edits, with Brown distilling hours of improvised performances into the final arrangement.

Throughout »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, Irisarri uses his deep well of production experience to paint the stereo field with meticulously designed textures, exemplified on the slow burn of »Heaven’s Despite« and the heady rush of »Swells«. As a mixing and mastering engineer with Black Knoll, he has built a client list that reads as a who’s-who of modern, forward-thinking composition, including Temporary Residence, All Saints Records, and Ghostly International, among many others.

As with previous collaborations, Irisarri and Pioulard bring disparate styles and specialties to the table, but with an interpersonal dynamic that transcends friendship into brotherhood, their open-minded workflow and mutual respect are evident at every turn. »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes« brims with tight, complex art rock songwriting, masterful production, and sonic versatility, informed by a plethora of genres and tonal hues. The title might promise answers, but the gravitational center of the album is the dawning realization that, as you reckon with the infinite whims of the cosmos, there could be none.

The 2019 released "Caligula" took the vision of Kristin Hayter's vessel to the next level of grandeur, her purging and vengeful audial vision went beyond anything preceding it and reached an unparalleled sonic plane within her oeuvre. Succeeding her self-released 2017 "All Bitches Die" opus, "CALIGULA" saw Hayter design an ambitious work, displaying the full force of her talent as a vocalist, composer, and storyteller. Vast in scope and multivalent in its influences, with delivery nothing short of demonic, "CALIGULA" is an outsider's opera; magnificent, hideous, and raw. Eschewing and disavowing genre altogether, Hayter built her own world. Here she fully embodied the moniker Lingua Ignota, from the German mystic Hildegard of Bingen, meaning "unknown language" _ this music has no home, any precedent or comparison could only be uneasily given, and there is nothing else like it in our contemporary realm. Whilst "CALIGULA" is unapologetically personal and critically self-aware, there are broader themes explored; the decadence, corruption, depravity and senseless violence of emperor Caligula is well documented and yet still permeates today. Brimming with references and sly jabs, Hayter's sardonic commentary on abuse of power and invalidation is deftly woven. Working closely with Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets studio in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Hayter stripped away much of the industrial and electronic elements of her previous work, approaching instead the corporeal intensity and intimate menace of her notorious live performances, achieved with unconventional recording techniques and sound sources, as well as a full arsenal of live instrumentation and collaborators including harsh noise master Sam McKinlay (THE RITA), visceral drummer Lee Buford (The Body) and frenetic percussionist Ted Byrnes (Cackle Car, Wood & Metal), with guest vocals from Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), Mike Berdan (Uniform), and Noraa Kaplan (Visibilities). "CALIGULA" is a massive work, a multi-layered epic that gives voice and space to that which has been silenced and cut out.

Emerging from the shadows and plumes of smoke, Chicago, IL ensemble HUNTSMEN are set to make their return in 2024 with their third album, The Dry Land, set to be released via Prosthetic Records on June 7. On their first full-length in four years, HUNTSMEN’s The Dry Land traverses the liminal space between the living and the dead by lifting the veil of the abyss itself. Born of suffering and hardship, The Dry Land unifies the dark and light that resides in all of us through allegories of purgatorial strife and human spirit. Following the release of their sophomore full-length, Mandala of Fear, in 2020 and The Dying Pines EP in 2022 HUNTSMEN’s intervening years between studio albums were marked with devastatingly contrasting highs and lows. Whilst their body of studio work continued to garner acclaim from fans and critics alike, chronic illness would become a recurring uphill battle for the ensemble. As these jarring mixed fortunes reached their apex towards the end of 2022, the band reached towards each other outside of their craft as old friends. Taking stock of four years of tribulations led to a reevaluation of what it is to be creatives and, in turn, ushered in a collective rebirth. Writing sessions saw a number of artistic firsts for HUNTSMEN, most notably with the first full collaborative inclusion of vocalist Aimee Bueno-Knipe. The creative process soon saw HUNTSMEN adding more black metal influences into their Americana and folk tinged doom, evidenced most overtly on tracks such as This, Our Gospel and lead single In Time, All Things. Elsewhere, HUNTSMEN’s knack for finely crafted and richly layered melodies offer moments of resplendence on the slow burning Lean Times and closer The Herbsight. Mirroring the circumstances and environment that led to its creation, The Dry Land’s pacing is one rooted in the art of rise and fall dynamics both musically and lyrically. Tales of escaping religious violence, malevolent apparitions and death incarnate all play key roles throughout the album’s narrative thread. HUNTSMEN treat each tale as both exorcism and exaltation, adding a pervasively unsettling quality to The Dry Land that is sure to stick long after the runtime is over. The Dry Land was recorded and mixed by Pete Grossmann at Bricktop Studios before being placed in the hands of Brad Boatright for mastering, with the resulting sound adding a towering grandiosity to the album whilst simultaneously highlighting HUNTSMEN’s newfound corrosive qualities. The Dry Land’s striking cover art was created by Derek Setzer, depicting an immolating dancer in high contrast black and white amongst rusted gold. Through the fire, HUNTSMEN find themselves reborn on The Dry Land.

Sometimes music is supposed to feel weird and indescribable. It’s the moments of clarity within the dense, sonic mess that often feels the most satisfying. That’s the space that Earth Tongue occupy. At times, their songs are shrill and disorientating, other times their reverb-washed textures and instantly- familiar hooks can wrap you in a warm, loving embrace. The one consistent thread through their music, however, is the thick and all encompassing fuzz. Guitarist Gussie Larkin has become a master of the fuzz-smothered riff, and along with Ezra Simons’ off-kilter drumming, they’ve been sending punters into transcendental states since they began gigging in their home town of Wellington, New Zealand in 2016. Floating Being will be released this June 21st. The album was pieced together throughout their travels of Australia and Europe, with the finishing touches being added in their hometown. The album contains songs they’ve been playing live for the past year, and it captures the raw, primitive energy that exists within their live performance. Earth Tongue embrace the imperfections in their playing and recording - drawing influence from early 70s psych and prog rock. The last thing they wanted was to create a shiny, over-produced record - with that in mind, they recorded the drums to an old 8-track Tascam reel-to-reel in a friend’s garage in Melbourne. The result is a punchy, raw and fuzzy journey into psych-rock with songs that weave between melodic and jarring. Unexpected twists and turns leave the listener in a disorientated yet satisfying haze.

Theatrical rocker Arthur Brown gained notoriety and fame in equal measure through ‘Fire,’ an anthem to their pyrotechnic excess. When his backing musicians quit to form Atomic Rooster, Brown formed Kingdom Come to further explore the nexus of music and theatre and of the series of albums they cut for Polydor, Journey is the strangest and greatest. Stretching to the deepest reaches of space rock, Journey used the Bentley Rhythm Ace drum machine, and Victor Peraino’s synths, theremin and mellotron, to chart the astral records of history. This is Brown’s true masterpiece, an astounding record that was aeons ahead of its time.

Seablite is a four-piece pop band from San Francisco inspired by 80s/90s indie and shoegaze. Seablite was formed in 2016 when Lauren Matsui (vocals / guitar) and Galine Tumasyan (vocals / bass) bonded over a mutual appreciation of early 90's Britpop and UK underground music. The pair began writing songs and soon after Jen Mundy (ex-Wax Idols) joined on second guitar and Andy Pastalaniec (Chime School) would eventually join on drums. They have released an LP (2019’s “Grass Stains and Novocaine”) and 7" single (“Breadcrumbs” c/w “Ink Bleeds”) via Emotional Response Records and a 10" EP (“High-Rise Mannequins” - recorded and produced by Alicia Vanden Heuvel of the Aislers Set) in conjunction with Spain’s Meritorio Records. The band is among San Francisco’s current indie pop renaissance and have opened for the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Charlatans and Ladytron upon their recent Bay Area visits. Seablite has finished their sophomore album, “Lemon Lights” (due out this summer on Mt. St. Mtn). Recorded over the summer of 2022, “Lemon Lights” contains 12 dreamy pop tracks showcasing the group’s continued growth and maturity and marks a strong progression from their debut album. After recording basic bed tracks with Robby Joseph, the band finished overdubs in their practice space and Lauren's apartment. The freedom of home recording allowed them to experiment, resulting in an organic and intuitive manifestation of the band's emotions and creativity - a sonic inkblot of unfiltered pop appreciation. One may hear Manchester undertones on "Hit the Wall" and “Melancholy Molly”, or the feminine noise-pop of Lush on "Pot of Boiling Water" but Seablite are not to be mistaken for anglophile copycats. Seablite incorporates the jangle of their San Francisco “Fog Pop” contemporaries on tracks like “Hold My Kite” and a relentless and driving guitar on “Blink Each Day”, while the wonderfully dark elements on “Monochrome Rainbow” and the wistful closer, “Orbiting My Sleep” give them a wide range of sounds and vibes. Mastered by Mark Gardener of Ride.

Baby Blue & Halloween Orange Vinyl. In their decade-plus together, the four-piece_Julia Shapiro (guitar, vocals), Lydia Lund (guitar, vocals), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals), and Annie Truscott (bass, vocals)_have created a resonant body of work. Live Laugh Love is a natural continuation. Against the bizarre backdrop of the past few years, Chastity Belt remained a supportive space for the members to grow and experiment, drawing on the ingredients most essential to their process since the beginning: authenticity and levity. Recorded over three sessions in as many years (January 2020, November 2021 and 2022), the focus became more about enjoying their time together in the studio than making it feel like work. Their ease and familiarity with engineer Samur Khouja in LA, who also recorded their last album, made for a particularly enjoyable process. Once completed, they returned to renowned engineer Heba Kadry who mastered the album.Album opener "Hollow" sets the tone with a gently driving rhythm while guitar layers stream like sun rays through an open car window. A warmth radiates through Shapiro's voice, even while grappling with feeling lost and stuck. "The older I get," Shapiro says of the lyrics, "the more I realize that I might just always feel this way, and it's more about sitting with the feeling and accepting it, rather than trying to fight it." That wisdom seems to anchor Live Laugh Love. Chastity Belt has never shied from navigating the spectrum of difficult emotions, and an existential thread weaves throughout the subject matter. And yet the songs feel more grounded than ever; there's a sense of quiet confidence and self-assurance that comes with being less numb and more present. Facing discomfort takes more fortitude, after all.Live Laugh Love finds the members in their prime as musicians. Their parts trace intricate patterns over one another, but there's room to breathe between the layers. Everyone contributes to the writing, sometimes switching instruments, and for the first time, all four members sing a song. It's never been more apparent that they are creative siblings, cut from the same belt. "We've been playing music with each other for over a decade," says Shapiro, "so it really does feel like we're all fluent in the same language, and a lot of it just happens naturally.""Laugh" seeks in the balm of friendship, aware of the anticipatory nostalgia that hits during a good time that you're already missing before it's gone; the heavier guitar tones on "Chemtrails" streak ominous chord progressions over Grimm's precision timekeeping, lamenting memories that won't fade easily. During a transitional time, Truscott came across a note in their phone that read, "it's not hard all day, just sometimes," which inspired a poignant line in the chorus of "Kool-Aid," their first song as lead vocalist on a Chastity Belt recording. Another standout, "I-90 Bridge" shines with a silvery melody that soars as Lund belts one of the most resounding moments on the album: "Tell your girlfriend she's got nothing to fear/I'm set in my head/My body's a different story." The track "Blue" saunters nonchalantly with a wink; you can almost hear Shapiro's smile as she sings "Faking it big time/So I can hit my stride/Man, it feels good to be alive," channeling early Chastity Belt channeling early '90s before channeling the late Elliott Smith in a spiral of distortion and insight: "Don't get upset about it/It's gonna pass/Tell all your friends about it/They're gonna laugh.""We have such a strong sense of each other's musical inclinations" says Lund. "I think this allows for a lot of playfulness_we can kinda surprise each other, like a good punchline would."

Missing out on that super-chill, uber-jittery minimal groove thing? Let"s get real, real Ghosted again. Oren Ambarchi has been collaborating with the Fire! trio (Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin) for over a decade - and both Johan and Andreas played on Oren"s Live Hubris as well. Oren and Johan began music-making together back in the early aughts - but it wasn"t until 2021 that the three of them got together to record music. That became the first Ghosted album. When they were done, it was clear they had founded a new group. A music of sustained tension and deep atmosphere marked by subtle, shifting dynamics, Ghosted was released in May of 2022 to psyched response everywhere; the trio embarked upon an ongoing series of concert bookings around Europe, with loads of other people in the world still hoping to have the chance to be in the room at the next show. Two years on, Ghosted has gone through several represses, now it"s time for the "dreaded follow up album"! Rather than go back to the well, the guys decided to tear everything down and start all over again, reimagining themselves from scratch. Just kidding! As we"ve noted, Oren, Johan and Andreas have been playing together for years and years, developing an essential telepathy within their shared space. They get each other and feed each other"s music processes on an elemental level. Why change that? What made the most sense was to go back to Daneil Bengtsson at Studio Rymden in Stockholm for a couple days, then have Oren and Joe Talia mix and Joe master it at Good Mixture in Melbourne again, then get Pål Dybwik to do some well-distinctive cover art, and once more, call it a record. That"s just what they did - and it should be no surprise at all that the new Ambarchi/ Berthling/Werliin album looks and sounds as engrossing as their debut, if not more so! Ghosted II has a definitively fresh quality radiating throughout. The mutual feeling among the three players goes deep, allowing for lots more to say every time they get together - a further recombination of elements, a new expedition through alternative angles... there"s always more, and incredibly, it"s all improvised, with next-to-nothing prepared going in and minimal overdubs after they"ve laid things down. References are shared in shorthand, with just a single word, like "Santana," or "Police" acting as working titles for certain pieces on this record (have a guess!). It"s a disservice to call them jams: above and beyond the innate feel of the songs, there"s a strong sense of structure, informed by the band"s communal aesthetic, and edified immeasurably by their time spent in concert the last couple years. As noted at the top, these guys balance their music improbably between a relaxed feel and a nervy resolve, as each member holds down their corner in an open sound field. Making Ghosted II, the band found that there"s a different kind of tension making something for an established project rather than the kind one feels making something for the first time - and they used this new variety, as before, as a kind of fuel - driving their terse minimalism fruit-fully through the process of succumbing to and then transcending guilty pleasures. Finding fresh territory in funk sketches, jazzy heads, ambient pastorals and droning soundtrack pieces, Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin compellingly haunt a mad variety of spaces, leaving us wanting to get Ghosted II.

Two versions available - limited hand numbered (100 copies) of red vinyl and normal black vinyl version.

"Balance", the artist's third album, is a return to the roots, i.e. towards club sounds - on the album you can hear several amazing guests - Dominik Płonek, YANA, Dizkret, Runforrest, Einar Indra from Iceland and DJ Eprom. A unique mix of artpop with sophisticated electronics, which Envee brought together with its amazing mixing and mastering. For dessert, Barrakuz, which took the title "Balance" from Wojtek Koziar's photo to a new dimension with its collage. Everything is perfect on this album.

Club music culture necessarily shifted gears in many ways during and after the course of the pandemic. Older participants found their way into other interests and younger participants took new reigns to orient spaces they felt good inside of. The agenda for the music, and the cultural industry surrounding it at large, took a more frivolous and “fun” turn. Clubs needed to recoup lost money, people needed more refreshing catharsis for their nightlife escape, and in some pockets scattered around the globe a newer and younger cadre of producers/promoters/DJ’s pulled optical cues from a scattering of “darker” influences to give an alternate aesthetic to the aforementioned “vibes” culture. In the midst of this, a large polarization of conceptual energy shifted within the compositional and utilitarian machinations of the club music culture leaving behind the brooding and cerebral placeholders for different kind of enjoyable hedonism. Terrestrial Paradise’ “Artificial Hell” harkens to another prescient time before that shift occurred. “Artificial Hell’ might just be an illustration of what all of this fun escapism encapsulates.

Terrestrial Paradise is the latest moniker from Montreal come Los Angeles based producer Jaclyn Kendal. Having developed and cemented her sonic positionality with releases on North American labels like Ascetic House and Summer isle over the years, as well as a series of monolithic live sets, Bank is pleased to announce Kendal’s Terrestrial Paradise first full length album “Artificial Hell”. Over the course of nine recordings, “Artificial Hell” gives a master class in pressurized industrial techno of the slower variety. Fitting with the legacy of Bank’s output since it’s inception, Terrestrial Paradise’s aesthetic sensibilities sit within the canon of a certain tinge of club music imbued with a sense of natural grit, sans pretense.

“Artificial Hell” nods to artists like Scorn, Regis, and 400 PPM while maintaining it’s own territory in the landscape of cerebral and brooding rhythmic techno. Ominous, mechanistic drones sit above succinctly exacted percussion composition and sound design. Throughout “Artificial Hell”, Kendal shows her proficiency with the push and pull of building and releasing tension. On tracks like “Salvation” and “Relativity” she melds her synth wash wallscapes with driving percussion, serving as both a hint and counterpoint to the the entirety of the latter part of the album taking on spartan ambient compositions as a way to keep the listener in a subdued stasis. This album is a statement piece from a long time participant in the North American underground music sectors. It reminds the listener through perilous, considered rhythms and darker drone impositions to cement themselves back into a place where not
everything is always a good time.

Enjoy The Ride Records, in conjunction with Paramount Music proudly presents Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition, Music Composed and Conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.

Jerry Goldsmith's iconic score to the 1979 film has been restored, remixed, and mastered from the first-generation multi-track masters by Bruce Botnick (Original album Executive Producer and Goldsmith's long-time engineer). Mike Matessino co-produced the album with Botnick, handling the restoration, editing, and track assembly.

With over 80 minutes of music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition is available on vinyl for the first time in this definitive assembly. Pressed on 2xLP 140g colored vinyl and housed in a high gloss gatefold jacket with black poly-lined inner sleeves, there is also a double-sided full-color insert nestled inside.

As the winds of music blow, a wise heart navigates the spiral, finding wisdom in each of its twists and turns.

As the releases of DUBBLACK’s catalogue pile up, the novelty and exploration for new music keeps on thriving.


A brand-new record is approaching, as always available both on a 12” vinyl – limited to 300 copies – and in digital format, featuring the presence of two Masters from the Electronic Music scene: A2 Abd El Monim and Tocchitek.


The two-track EP baptised “Dark Side” includes the gems “Euriale” and “Steno”; two expansive compositions that, also due to their length, masterly observe the task of narrating two complementary stories, each with its distinct moments, yet marked by a strong rhythmic temper. Both tracks are planned to share similar sonic elements: a pulsating 160 bpm kick drum, ghostly pads serving as an inevitable backdrop, and indispensable rhythmic details enriching the whole structure and arrangement.


A2 Abd El Monim, born Alan Abd El Monim, is an Italian-Egyptian artist/composer. He expresses himself through the creation of music ranging from electronic to purely instrumental, and through the interaction between the arts. His poetics opens in a “dark” dimension that considers and interprets the facts through the notion of shadows and darkness but also through penombre. His “dark” vision stands as a filter through which he reads the world and its interactions, therefore using also the notion of light. His music has been performed in Festivals including Musica d’arte (Riccione – Italy), Luci d’Artista (Salerno – Italy), GAMO (Firenze – Italy), Spazio Musica (Cagliari – Italy), On Air – On site (Den Haag -Netherlands), Sound Spaces (Malmö – Sweden), etc.


He composed songs for the solo exhibition “La pelle degli oggetti” and for works Lui&Lei by the artist Giovanni Oberti. In 2020 he undertook a collaboration with the poet Milo De Angelis , putting to music the lyric “A volte , sull’orlo della notte, si rimane sospesi”. He wrote music for several theatre performances by director Emily Tartamelli and has written music for several directors films including Reto Gelshorn, Enea Francia, Paola Piscitelli and Fabio Corbellini. He collaborated with the London based fashion brand B DODI and was invited as an artist to participate in the collective exhibition “Instructions to Light-Keepers” (Milano – Italy). In March 2023, “Periodo Nero”, its interactive and generative installation music and video, was selected for the tribute to Picasso in the city of Florence, will be presented at the Certosa of Florence in September of the same year. In 2017 he won the International Competition of Composizione Silenzio Musica, in 2020 the diploma from President and Artistic Director of Winterreise International Composition Competition Moscow, in 2021 the Call For Scores banned by the Cultural Association Esecutori di Metallo su Carta. A2 Abd El Monim is signed to international label F.M.T Records and Dubblack Records, with which he regularly publishes his electronic music.


Tocchitek is an underground Tekno producer and performer born in Milan, Italy. He started playing live in 2007 as part of the “Approdo Caronte” sound system based in Milan. His first significant appearance as a live performer was at a “Mayday Parade” in 2008 in Milan. In 2009, he joined the “R909 Records” chapters crew based in Milan, bringing his live set to many local club dance floors. Meanwhile, he collaborated and played with many crews around Europe, spreading his music in the free Underground Tekno movement. In 2021, in Milan, he launched “F.M.T Records”.


Simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve when producing this type of music, primarily designed for uncompromising dance-floors, but the duo successfully channels their message with purity and truthfulness.


The visual aspects of layout and design are once again entrusted to Vittorio Valigi, who puts a greyscale spiral at the center of the cover. A spiral within which one an eye can be glimpsed – the eye of the musical soul of DUBBLACK harmoniously fused with that of A2 Abd El Monim and Tocchitek, who become worthy ambassadors of the Dubblack’s sonic mission.

The 9th studio album of the band tumido features trumpet player Alex Kranabetter (Soap and Skin, Vodoo Jürgens). For more than 20 years Tumido has been on the lookout for something new, always on the move, focused on energy in any form, driving rhythms, powerful bass, spacey drones. Trumpet has always been a big part of their sound universe, so it felt very natural to collaborate with a master of trumpet sounds, Alex Kranabetter and record an album together.
Lithox - a maelstrom you can't escape, sucked in by a hypnotic bass & driving rhythms into a trance world you don't want to leave Dwa - a summer hit out of Hades on the slide to hell.
180° - a volcanic eruption on a lonely island - pure energy; Dirt Rodeo - the branches of the fire tree dance with laughter, clouds of smoke cloud the senses and the landing is a success.

Marking one year following Phase Fatale’s (aka Hayden Payne’s) last EP on his label BITE, ‘Love Is Destructive’ is a clear shift into true techno territories, integrated with his distinct curation of narrative and sonic framework, imprinted with a musical diet of sleek, synthesised storytelling.The 4-Track EP reflects the turbulent ebb-and-flow found with emotional conclusion - a genesis soundtracked by raw energy and driving undercurrents. The Berlin-based DJ, Producer and Label-owner’s propensity for creating a symbiotic harmony by blending seemingly divisive elements from his genre defying repertoire, demonstrates his masterful understanding and control of the listener’s borderless, auditory journey. Exemplified by his marathon closing sets at Berghain, as well as techno arenas such as Khidi in Tbilisi (both of which he is a resident), Phase Fatale’s recent DJ performances and production endeavours reflect his fresh approach to pure techno sensibilities. The title track sets the tone with imperative grooves, energetic vigour and intrepid attitude. Following a progression of techno propulsion in ‘Magma Driver’, infused metallic textures and trippy, headier elements add depth, whilst the body of work’s cutting edge sound design echoes spacey vivacity and purification in equal measures. Dichotomy comes forward with tracks ‘Ambivalence’ and ‘Introjection’, processed vocal samples with dub techno leanings and hints towards broken rhythms are sculpted by Payne’s focused approach, resonating a feeling of hopeful resolution akin to resurgence. These romantic sensibilities offset by cold mechanical nuances are reflected in the EP’s artwork, depicting roses against the backdrop of engine-like machinery. ‘Love Is Destructive’ is dedicated to Juan, Simone and Luis. Featuring artwork by Silent Editions.

ZamZam 95 is a link with the enigmatic French producer Hiss Is Bliss. We’ve been fans since the very first drop on their 777Hz label and these two sides drive straight to the heart of the dub techno galaxy.

Little is known about Hiss Is Bliss beyond the fact that they hail from France, are steeped in esotericism, and create tunes as masterfully grounded in roots reggae as they are in techno and related strands of electronic music. Their releases are utterly free of hype, beautifully crafted 10” vinyl plates that let the singers and tracks speak for themselves.

At the risk of being cheeky, “Nope” is absolute dub techno bliss. The 808 kick propels the track relentlessly forward, saturated washes of color streak the night sky, while syncopated hi hats and warm, soulful chords bring life- dare we say funk- to a style too often stiff and clinical, too in thrall to the past to truly step forward. Matching Hiss is Bliss in mystery, Ras Lys’ vocal brings a Dread perspective on music and the sometimes shady business of music, a grounded contrast to the deep inner space explored by the tune itself. The B-side version “Abbadia” splits musical atoms through the desk, focusing squarely on the stripped 4/4 elements and gloriously distorted pads that echo and cycle like tides in a darkly shimmering sea.

1STEP Process 180g 45rpm Double LP Pressed on VR900-Supreme Vinyl!
Mastered from the Analogue Mix-Down Tapes of the Original Digital Recording by Bernie Grundman!
Ultra-Luxe "Monster Pack" Jacket with a Deluxe 16-Page Booklet & Striking Outer Slipcase!

New lacquers cut after each run of 500 pressings!

Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Pressings!

Impex 1STEP #5 celebrates Patricia Barber's 1999 "return" to The Green Mill, Chicago's fabled jazz club. Conceived as a "companion" to her Grammy-winning studio album Modern Cool, Companion finds Barber and her touring band in inspired form, playfully and energetically performing hits and deep tracks from her celebrated oeuvre.

The dynamic interaction between the artist and her reverent audience adds a palpable sense of space and community. At the same time, the fans' hushed attention creates a studio-like sense of precision and detail. The snap and crackle of Barber, her grand piano, and her onstage partners practically leaps off the groove into your listening room!

Companion's fan-favorite reputation is enhanced immeasurably by Jim Anderson's jaw-dropping, lifelike recording. Eschewing the crystalline sterility of digital recordings of the time, Anderson's sound is always warm, natural, and lacking unforced "hype."

Like Anderson, Impex aims to present great recordings that are as natural as possible. And we couldn't wait to put our favorite Patricia Barber release, using Jim's analog mix-down master tapes, on 180 grams of VR900 Super Vinyl. The deep, inky black backgrounds and absence of surface noise will pull listeners right into those three evenings in 1999, capturing a seminal modern jazz artist at a creative and professional peak and reveling in a perfectly rendered and joyous audio time capsule.

Finally, our deluxe Impex Treatment packages the whole party with a lovely outer slipcase, a booklet containing a new note from Patricia, and a dazzling array of photographs from the evenings by frequent Barber collaborator Valerie Booth, exclusive to our 1STEP. Heavy paper stock with spot gloss coating and a faithfully recreated exterior design will satisfy original fans and aesthetes throughout the music-loving world.

Patterns / Threshold, a collaborative split offering from Mesure Divide and Esse Ran, plunges the listener into a disquieting expanse of undulating rhythms and transmuted textures. Here, melodies and harmonies dissolve, fracturing into a heavy, systolic throb that whispers of superposition and entanglement.

Lush synthesizers shimmer with a noetic luminescence, their tones arching and bowing alongside relentless cyclical beats and sloshing electronics. Refractions of rave culture thrumming in stillness, their ecstatic energy dissipating into a radiant hum - a melancholic undercurrent born from the tension between fleeting exuberance and enduring inanition. This is a realm of heady paradox, where rigid structure and fluid intuition converge.

The artists navigate this liminal space with masterful precision, guiding the listener through a landscape of aural oscillations. Perception teeters on the edge of the concrete and the ephemeral; perception dissolves; reality grows soft at the edges.

Patterns / Threshold will be released on physical vinyl records and bandcamp only. No streaming, no bullshit.

"Listen to This." As the original working title for Bitches Brew, the instruction and invitation resonates to this day as the best way to approach a record that shattered conventions, altered music history, and, more than five decades after its original release, still sounds far ahead of its time. The aural Mount Rushmore of jazz fusion, Bitches Brew is rightly ranked by virtually every significant outlet among the 100 greatest albums ever made in any genre. Sewn together with vibrant colours, voodoo textures, and ethereal moods, the 1970 landmark emerges with supreme detail on Mobile Fidelity's definitive 180g 33RPM 2LP set.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, this numbered-edition version of Bitches Brew joins the audiophile ranks of other essential Miles Davis sets reissued by Mobile Fidelity. Having established new possibilities for studio-recording techniques, the record can now be experienced to maximum degree by way of a pressing that widens and deepens the soundstage, opens up separation between instruments, and broadens the dynamic range. If ever a jazz album can be said to have gone to outer space and back, this is it.

Davis conceived Bitches Brew by having the musicians stand in a semi-circle, where he pointed at them with vague directions for tempo, solos, and cues. The collective improvisation and interplay spawned a galaxy of melodies and grooves later spliced together by producer Ted Macero. On this reissue, these creations take shape with utmost realism. Compositions stretch across black backgrounds and paint abstract canvasses on par with those of Axis: Bold As Love and Abraxas. Juxtaposed percussion, loose jams, and melodic segues explode with impressionistic verve.

And "verve" defines Bitches Brew. Gathering a Hall of Fame-worthy lineup of musicians and tweaking it according to his desires, Davis follows through on his idea to "put together the greatest rock and roll band you ever heard." Central to his proposition is the presence of two (and sometimes three) drummers and two bassists, a tactical move that thrusts rhythms into central focus. Akin to the futuristic album cover art, the drum-driven suites head toward distant universes and uncharted territories. At once hypnotizing and grooving, they chart maverick adventures with quixotic rock, funk, and R&B elements.

Conceptually, Davis described Bitches Brew as "a novel without words" and "an incredible journey of pain, joy, sorrow, hate, passion, and love." The vast psychedelic expanses of warped echoes, liquid reverb, and tape loops confirm such ambitious contrasts of light and dark, fear and hope. Yet the most absolute characteristic of this watershed effort lies in how it resists definitive interpretation and encourages free thought — the very principles with which Davis conceived the everlasting beauty and fascination that remain Bitches Brew.

True audiophile joy — now cut at 45 RPM 2LP for better tracking, exceptional bass!
Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes
Plated and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings!
Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on heavyweight cardboard jacket


Praise for the 33 1/3 version of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get:

"(Side one) ends with the appropriately titled 'Happy Ways,' a Latin-tinged guitar-fest with lovely chunky bass lines that sounds absolutely glorious on this Analogue Productions pressing. The zing of steel string guitar almost sounds dead on the CD and tired on my ancient vinyl pressing, so this is clearly not one of those remasters that's based on an umpteenth generation copy of the tapes. ... You owe it to yourself to hear this album — and it will not sound any better than this spectacular pressing." — Recording = 8/10; Music 10/10 — Jason Kenedy, Hi-Fi+, Issue 148

"An outstanding new 180gm LP reissue from Analogue Productions, with improved sound thanks to a sparkling new remaster by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, makes it clear that this 1973 release remains — with the possible exception of 1978's But Seriously, Folks . . . — the undisputed highlight of Walsh's solo career. ... Another week, another beautiful-sounding, wonderfully packaged reissue from Analogue Productions." Read the whole review here. — Robert Baird, May 2017

In between his stints with the James Gang and the Eagles, Joe Walsh tackled his second solo studio album The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get which became his most successful solo outing. The 1973 LP continued the heavy and light rock mix of tracks found on his previous release, Barnstorm.

Analogue Productions has done reissue justice to the album that AllMusic decries "features some of the most remembered Joe Walsh tracks, but it's not just these that make the album a success. Each of the nine tracks is a song to be proud of. This is a superb album by anyone's standards."

To obtain the best sound possible we turned to Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to remaster this superb album from the original analogue tapes. Next we plated the lacquers and pressed LPs on 180-gram audiophile vinyl at the world's best LP maker, Quality Record Pressings. Top it all off with a deluxe Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on jacket and you've got the makings for audiophile joy.

But would we stop there? Hardly. Now with our 45 RPM release, the best-sounding version of this rock music gem gives listeners an even richer sonic experience. The dead-quiet double-LP, with the music spread over four sides of vinyl, reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately.

This amazingly eclectic rock album has Joe's smash "Rocky Mountain Way," his hit "Meadows," plus "Bookends," "Wolf; Dreams" and more! Walsh's ability to swing wildly from one end of the rock scale to the other is unparalleled and makes for an album to suit many tastes.

ora’s most innovative modern exponent bathes in communion with a re-imagined classical guitar, unveiling a new and previously unsuspected musical universe. In a meeting between instruments, not traditions, these maestros emerge from quite different and distant musical worlds. Ballaké Sissoko’s kora tradition and lineage traverse the once powerful West African empire known as Kaabu. South African Derek Gripper’s roots are in European classical guitar but infused with a unique jeli music mastery that takes guitar’s modern history in a captivating new direction.

But we are not hearing these traditions in dialogue: these masters meet on the sonic groundings of the kora, instrument of the griots, resonant vessel of the sacred and profane, sound carrier of history and wisdom. Through two decades of commitment and study, it is to this terrain that Gripper brings his guitar to meet its multi-stringed cousin.

The two men do not share a spoken language, but if it is true that music speaks universally, then they were already involved in profound dialogue long before they met for the series of London concerts which yielded this recording session – a session which matches deep communion with sparkling improvisation, which pushes a living tradition into brand new sonic spaces, and opens a live and direct channel of communication between kora and guitar. In the complex web of theme and variations spun by Sissoko’s twenty-two strings and Gripper’s six, a new African string theory is elaborated.

“Musically we tested each other,” says Sissoko, explaining that the most magical aspect of their encounters are spontaneity. “We have the mastery of our instruments, the technique and a good ear. Derek is very curious, that’s very important.”

“He’s just such a good listener,” says Gripper about Sissoko. “It’s not what he plays, it’s how he plays it. He’s an amazing interpreter, the prime master of timbre.”

Recording by Taylor Pollock at Platoon Studios, London.
Mixed, edited and produced by Derek Gripper.
Mastered by Murray Anderson at Milestone Studios, Cape Town.
Produced for vinyl by Chris Albertyn and Matt Temple at Matsuli Music.
Mastered for vinyl and lacquers cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London.
Vinyl pressed at Pallas GmbH, Germany.
Sleeve notes by Francis Gooding, French translation by Paulo Goncalves.
Cover design by Toby Attwell at Twoshoes, Cape Town.

"I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law." With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on News of the Universe, the new full-length from California rock band La Luz. News of the Universe is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland's experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. It's also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one. But is there any band in the world more suited to capturing the chaos of change in all its messy beauty than La Luz? Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band's mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia. Yet if Cleveland has spent years writing songs about ghosts, what lurks in the shadows of News of the Universe is nothing less than death itself. "There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth," says Cleveland. The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women-from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. Working with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz's most brutal record to date but also their most blissful.