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Active Systems' debut EP, The Red EP (Split Lip Records), finds beauty in chaos and strangeness in the familiar: drawing from 90s/00s experimental grooves and stark electro (Underground Resistance, Boards of Canada, μ-ziq, Aphex Twin's Rephlex label) to create something rooted in the "dust, dirt and nostalgia" of underground electronica, Detroit techno and weirdcore. A genuine debut rather than an established alias, the four-track release moves from familiar patterns into unexpected new emotions, from the glacial hip-hop beat and starlit melancholia of "Gabbol" to the skippy rhythms of "Itsover" and the clock-shop funk of "Avoid”. This year, Active Systems has been invited to perform at Superbooth Berlin by Sequentix, played a debut show in Lost's much-hyped Club Room and closed Houghton Festival's The Warehouse stage on theopening night.

Sleep D and Mosam Howieson join forces for an EP that traverses peak-time pressure and deep hypnotic terrain.

Opening with ‘Syphon Filter’, a monstrous techno steam train that sparked the collaboration for the record, starting over five years ago. Industrial klanging to a banging beat. Simple and effective. Chugging along, ‘Inertia’ and ‘Mirror Pool’ offer respite with a psychedelic and emotive strain of techno.

Rounding out the release, Dutch producer Konduku reshapes one Mirror Pool into a stripped-back, fluid remix. Refracting the source material through his distinctive palette.

2026 REPRESS
Twelve tracks of morphinous, skeletal drift-sound wonders from the combined voices, guitars and percussion of ALAN SPARHAWK, MIMI PARKER and ZAK SALLY.
Diverse and painless songs that cut simply but effectively through heart-strings and nervous systems, leaving an absorbed and beautiful corpse in their wake. Features added instrumentation of strings, piano and timpani.

Daydream: 30th Anniversary Edition is a 2-CD set featuring the original multi-platinum-certified album Daydream, which includes the smash hits “Fantasy,” “Always Be My Baby” and “One Sweet Day." Disc 2 collects remixes and rare B-sides, including a brand-new remix, “Underneath The Stars (Eric Kupper Klassic Club Mix) (Radio Edit).” The second disc also features a writing session demo for “I Am Free.”

Murmuration’ is the low hum made by vast, beautifully choreographed flocks of starlings as they simultaneously flap their wings and take to the sky. Some people say that the frequency of this unique, rumbling, oscillating sound can cure diseases...

One of the most exciting live bands in the UK, British Birds combine the garage-punk energy of Billy Childish, the wry English sophistication of XTC and the witty pop inventiveness of The Lovely Eggs. Like a murmurating flock of starlings, they create a unique sound, and might even be able to cure diseases.

Based in Chorley, Lancashire, British Birds are a resolutely DIY band. Bobby records and mixes all the music; Emma creates all the artwork. Their first two albums were self-released, selling hundreds of copies at gigs and at a few chosen record stores. British Birds didn’t wait for permission to take flight. They just got on with it. Their songs are sophisticated, hard-hitting, and very skilful. It may be DIY, but it’s big and it’s ambitious.

Sessions for Marc Riley and Gideon Coe have followed, along with tours supporting The Bug Club, BC Camplight and Lovely Eggs.

‘Murmurate, Oscillate’ kicks off with Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas, a rousing expression of exasperation at our passivity in the face of lame authority. British Birds are acute observers of the English political scene, shrouding their observations in humour and surrealism. Polka Dot Eyes is another piece of sharp social observation: it portrays Lancashire lads – friends from school – who join the Army and return home physically and mentally damaged. The song is simultaneously disturbing, funny and catchy as hell. From the fog of disinformation and doubt that surrounds us all in 2020s Britian, British Birds embrace the darkness, but with wit and verve – no slogans, no easy answers – and with an energy that helps us escape the mundanity of a declining island. This might all sound a bit bleak, but it’s not: every single one of the songs on this album has a chorus as big as a house.

There are personal songs too: Scary Movies is a poignant description of Bobby and Emma’s grandfather, who delighted in showing them horror films when they were kids – giving them sneak previews of the darkness they’d come to embrace as adults; Just Like Them is a celebration of introversion: it might not be fun, but it’s better than being an idiot. (Paradoxically, any other introverts who hear this song will feel impelled to join in in the chorus.) Blame Game and Thunder Claps examine the darkness inherent in relationships: there is always an impending storm, if you recognise the low hum of the imminent thunder. Once again: the choruses of these songs confound the melancholy sentiment.

You’ll get the same impression if you see British Birds live: Bobby’s ferocious guitar and dark lyrics are counterpointed with Emma’s sometimes haunting, sometimes playful vocal responses and insistent rhythms. You’ll be swept away by the energy of a band who don’t know the meaning of limits. And as the songs get darker and darker the smile on your face gets wider and wider.

The core members of British Birds are siblings Bobby and Emma Townson, working from their HQ-cum-nest in Chorley. Drums are by Dominic Lawson (apart from Michael Aindley on ‘Just Like Them’). Bass is by James Robinson.

British Birds will be embarking on a headline tour of the UK in early 2027.

It’s the last W133 release for the summer of ’26 and it’s a big one. Label Papa Pino and Rotterdam’s samwho pair up for a banging, driving, proggy collaboration/split EP entitled “Baobab”. The duo behind W133 bestseller “Jacarandas” unite again for two more collaborative productions, complemented by one solo track each! Samwho starts off the EP with “D’espia”, a highly energetic progger with dreamy pads, crispy dembow percussion and sexy vocal stabs! On A2, we find the first collaboration, “Caramelo”. The two producers return to their signature percussion work, paired with a venomous rolling bassline and mysterious vocal snippets. On the flip side, the second collaborative track, “Lemon Hasj”, bangs in! A highly intense breaker with catchy vocal shots and chart-hit character. To close it off, Pino Peña delivers his solo production “Swarm Mystique”. The tune starts with a laid-back yet energising groove before swarm-like melodic pads creep in mysteriously! The cover artwork features a photograph taken by Philipp in Kyiv, Ukraine, printed on a two-sided cover sleeve. “Baobab” will be released worldwide on vinyl and digitally on 16th October.

In a blizzard of crushed breaks and dissonant tones, Shelley Parker lands on Sneaker Social Club with her third album, Screed. Taking a forensic approach to noise sculpture and harmonic interference, the UK-based artist maintains a fringe perspective on the legacy of hardcore-derived dance music, extrapolating the renegade spirit of the earliest innovators into unexplored zones where sound art and sound systems collide.

Parker's path through the underground has been informed by her art school background, equally at home in the parallel world of galleries, installations and institutions as she is in the club. This dualistic dimension to her practice charges her music with an outsider spirit that manifests across 10 striking new productions on Screed. Focusing on the sound over an umbrella concept, it's an album that rejects comfortable, functional formulae in favour of original expression.

There are plenty of forthright structures for DJs and dancers to lock onto, from the militaristic techno thrust and tightly clipped breakbeat loop of 'Relentless' to the splayed boom bap guiding the giddy string sequences of 'Stargazer Lily'. The insistent pulse of 'April' meanwhile offers only the faintest of paths to navigate dense thickets of jerky, swinging static and metallic clamour. 'Georgian Wire' closes the record out on dissembled drum licks with a brittle patina - a scooped out closer with the skeletal remains of a rave dialect that's second nature to someone with as much skin in the game as Parker.

In amongst those tracks lies a wide-ranging tapestry of rhythmic, textural and emotional approaches, from head-knocking beatdowns to billowing clouds of dub techno, angular stabs and industrial smudges. On Screed, Parker proves herself to be peerless and purposeful in her quest to find new forms within the well-worn canon of hardcore and rave.

David Norland is an Emmy-nominated English composer, known for his scores for drama and documentary, alongside his experimental choral and electronic music. Bringing stories to life through sound, he received critical acclaim for his debut solo album ‘Glam Tear Stain’ (2019) and is set to release follow-up album ‘La Source’ in June 2026 via Denovali Records.

Relocated back to his London home after many years in Los Angeles, and free from years of drug and alcohol problems, recent commissions for two choral works allowed Norland to return to the innocent origin of his musical world, and his experience as a parent prompted a lot of outward reflection. What kind of world are we leaving to our children?

Inspired by his score to the forthcoming silent black and white film ‘Carousel’ (2026), Norland found other music emerging that refused to be ignored. The film’s director opened the door to an entirely free scoring process – no temp music, no expectation, no guidelines, just pure intuitive expression. ‘La Source’ draws on this experience, alongside his childhood as a touring chorister, the honkytonk upright piano in the north-east London bedroom of his early 20s, his early recording experiments with a TASCAM 4-track cassette recorder, and his intense preoccupation with bells, flutes, stone architecture, and mysticism.

From the haunting, choral beauty of ‘E-Car Soul’ to the breezy album title track, Norland blends minimalist classical structures with electronics. A unified tapestry of blended voices, harmonies and textures, ‘La Source’ is a deeply emotional and melancholic journey for Norland. “In the end, I’m looking to find meaning through the music, like when I was a kid singing in choirs. But I get the most sense of meaning through transcendent experiences, rather than anything intellectual or dogmatic. I have to feel it, not think it. I’m trying to make work that’s luminous, wondrous, shimmering and strange, so I can keep having those experiences,” says Norland.

On his inspiration for the album, Norland adds, “I love making patterns in things and finding patterns. That’s why minimalism was so enticing to me, the patterns are so explicit. I love word play and anagrams. The big sadness coming through as I was making the record is this clarity over the future of my kids. Everything else is a complete distraction. This incredible nurturing planet and its ecosystem are being rapidly destroyed, and the forces destroying it are relentless and punitive. And they seem to be fine with consigning our children to live in an ever-more-hostile wasteland. You can’t pretend that’s not coming, if you do I think you’re lying to yourself. And perhaps eventually it will be the fact that people love their kids that will stir wider fear and action. It’s hard to think of anything more connected to the idea of spirit.” The result is the reflective, ecstatic, mystical and sad world of ‘La Source.’

Norland’s screen work includes the award-winning documentary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (2008), directed by Sacha Gervasi, and since 2010, he has composed much of the music for US broadcasting giant ABC’s primetime news documentaries. His work for ABC is broadcast in the US and around the world on a daily basis.

In 2012, he was the music supervisor for Hitchcock (2012) featuring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren & Scarlett Johansson and in 2017, he teamed up once again with Gervasi for the score to November Criminals starring Chloe Moretz and Ansel Elgort. The following year, he composed the score for the Emmy-nominated HBO film My Dinner With Herve, starring Peter Dinklage and Jamie Dornan.

Norland will be performing the score of Carousel later this year, and the score itself will be a forthcoming release on Denovali. 2026 will also see the release of documentary All Permits Secured, a valentine to the history of EDM, featuring Norland’s score.

Ariwa Sounds started in a front room in Thornton Heath, South London. Four tracks, some homemade equipment, and Neil Fraser, better known as Mad Professor, at the controls. That was 1980. Over four decades later, the label has more than 300 albums to its name and a legacy that stretches well beyond the reggae scene.

This compilation pulls twelve tracks from across the catalogue. Dub, lovers rock, heavy roots music, digital dancehall — it's all here. What ties it together is the Ariwa studio sound all going through Mad Professor’s desk.

Mad Professor is the backbone of it. Dub Me Crazy got him known and his production credits run from Jah Shaka and Horace Andy to Massive Attack, Sade and The Orb. The tracks here — the Dub Sampler, H2SO4, Disco Dude, Kathmandu Dub — show why.

The Jah Shaka collaboration Only One God is a landmark. Two of the UK's most important dub figures on one track. Dark and heavy roots music.

The Robotics appear twice — Hong Kong Flew! and Miss Mood. They are Ariwa's house band and have backed U-Roy, Lee Perry, Big Youth and more over the years.

Aisha closes things out with Can You Feel It. A track that crosses reggae, soul and boogie funk. Collectors have been after original pressings for years.

Starky Banton, Ragga Doll, Professor Doppler and Earl Lawrence complete the compilation. Exactly the kind of thing that reminds you how wide the Ariwa net was cast.

Sleeve design is by Trevor Jackson. One of the UK's most respected graphic designers. His work has defined the visual language of British music for thirty years. His involvement here signals exactly the kind of release this is. A serious serious catalogue and compilation of music, treated with the respect it deserves.

Ariwa sits alongside Greensleeves as the most important reggae imprint this country has produced. This compilation shows why.

The new album is inspired by the simultaneously magical and insidious ways that advertising and name-brand technology wraps itself around our memories. It’s an ambivalent ode to the nostalgic pull of commercial jingles and proprietary start-up sounds. The best things in life may be free, but childhood and corporate entertainment products are completely intertwined. The obsession with advertising and consumer technology informs the sonic make-up of the music as a source of raw material out of which the foundations of the tracks were built. Speaking on this impetus for the album Robbie Chater says ““It seems to be bound up with the nature of sampling itself. Once we start digging through forgotten sounds and uncovering their meaning, almost inevitably you get sent down a path of discovery. Every forgotten sound opens another door. And that’s what I love - feeling like a kid again. Diving into this whole world of advertising, looking at how jingles get made, it’s the kind of thing that keeps me interested in sampling as a process, an art form.”

To kick off our 5th year party celebrations the label begins its new set of releases starting with the joined forces of Regal86 and IMOGEN. The artists contribute two tracks each to the four track vinyl alongside remixes of each other's work, meeting at sonic crossroads.

The EP journeys through rave nostalgia filled with warmth and hope for the future, recollecting some favourite memories of the dance floor.

The A side is fast, driving with a sense of longing for the Halcyon Days and the offline times of partying when things felt easier. The release opens with ‘One Night In 1992’, IMOGEN’s nostalgic ode to an earlier rave era, built around a vocal recollection of her mother’s experiences on the dancefloor in the 90’s. Raw, hazy and deeply personal, it sets the tone for a record rooted in memory while remaining firmly in the present. Regal86 follows with ‘Rush’, bringing a different energy to the record. Driven by rolling rhythms, playful movement and a strong sense of groove.

The B side takes a more optimistic turn looking into the future with dubby aquatic pads and euphoric breakdowns, carrying a feeling of forward motion. There is a lightness to the tracks, a sense of joy running beneath NC Station and keeping the momentum locked whilst turning inwards on the final track, IMOGEN’s ‘Midnight At Bret’ rounds out a release that moves naturally between nostalgia, propulsion and the shared language of the dance floor.

As the next release launches, IMOGEN takes wigs on tour for a five year special run of shows starting on release at Tresor for a two club take over following with further cities: London, Milan, Dublin and more.

The wonderful Scruniversal takes a sidestep into electro here with a remix of a tune by Liza Gromova, a talented musician and rising star in the pop and indie world who hails from Moscow. Lipelis reframes her 'Papa, Poputny Veter' with 80s synth shimmers, glassy melodies and minimal electronics that maintain the emotional vocal of the original and manage to marry its optimism with a bittersweet edge. The flipside instrumental is another intimate sound but with an irresistible groove that will appeal to wave and Italo fans. Two ageless cuts that are subtly hooky.

Sorry We Play Vinyl makes no bones about their love of wax, and when they serve up music as worthy as this, then who can fault them? It's another anonymous offering with three cuts that traverse a wide world of sound. 'EDIT16' starts with an elephantine swagger and cow bells adoring a deep minimal sound next to woozy, aloof vocal musings. 'EDIT17' has a more ethnic groove that's clean and fresh, and this time the foreign-tongued vocal brings an exotic and eventually hypnotic charge that is sure to make this one a summer anthem with the heads. 'EDIT18' closes down with a psychotic melange of trippy vocals that are layered up in ghostly, spectral waves over a paddy rhythm. Brilliantly unusual.

EELS, eine der eigenwilligsten und beständig gefeierten Bands der Rockgeschichte, melden sich mit ihrem 16. Studioalbum zurück. COOKIE HAPPENED findet E (Mark Oliver Everett) dort, wo er am stärksten ist: in den kleinen Siegen des Lebens, den unvermeidlichen Enttäuschungen – und dem stillen Wunder, überhaupt hier gewesen zu sein.

Den Albumtitel erklärt E mit einem Zitat des großen Philosophen unserer Zeit, dem Cookie Monster: „Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened." Alles wird vergessen werden – aber war es nicht trotzdem etwas Schönes, dass es geschah?

Die erste Single 'Cap In Hand' gibt einen bittersüßen Vorgeschmack: ein abgeklärt-bewegender Song aus der Perspektive von jemandem, der seine Fehler endlich eingesteht und versucht, die Dinge wieder geradzubiegen.

COOKIE HAPPENED folgt auf das 2024 erschienene und vielgelobte EELS TIME! und beweist einmal mehr, dass kaum ein anderer Künstler so gut darin ist, im Chaos des Lebens Bedeutung zu finden.

EELS, eine der eigenwilligsten und beständig gefeierten Bands der Rockgeschichte, melden sich mit ihrem 16. Studioalbum zurück. COOKIE HAPPENED findet E (Mark Oliver Everett) dort, wo er am stärksten ist: in den kleinen Siegen des Lebens, den unvermeidlichen Enttäuschungen – und dem stillen Wunder, überhaupt hier gewesen zu sein.

Den Albumtitel erklärt E mit einem Zitat des großen Philosophen unserer Zeit, dem Cookie Monster: „Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened." Alles wird vergessen werden – aber war es nicht trotzdem etwas Schönes, dass es geschah?

Die erste Single 'Cap In Hand' gibt einen bittersüßen Vorgeschmack: ein abgeklärt-bewegender Song aus der Perspektive von jemandem, der seine Fehler endlich eingesteht und versucht, die Dinge wieder geradzubiegen.

COOKIE HAPPENED folgt auf das 2024 erschienene und vielgelobte EELS TIME! und beweist einmal mehr, dass kaum ein anderer Künstler so gut darin ist, im Chaos des Lebens Bedeutung zu finden.

Sadurn’s sophomore album The Underworld is a collection of heart-rendingly personal and instantly relatable songs, due out this fall on Run For Cover Records. Following years of lingering vocal issues for guitarist G DeGroot, the album is the culmination of an emotion- al and spiritual journey and a a deeply personal meditation on loss, healing, and transformation.
Sadurn began in 2017 as a solo project for G DeGroot, and from the start their approach to songwriting was informed more by emotional intuition than any kind of real ambitions to be heard. “I discovered songwriting as an outlet for processing my reality,” they explain. “A lot of times when something is hard to say, it flows more easily in songwriting. It’s a place where you can circle back to your own truth.” After moving to Philadelphia, DeGroot was joined by gui- tarist Jon Cox, drummer Amelia Swain, and bassist Tabitha Ahnert. The group recorded Radiator, a debut that immediately connected with listeners and was met with critical acclaim.

Throughout The Underworld, the rawness of DeGroot’s lyrics are matched by Cox, Ahnert, and Swain’s evocative playing. Stunning opener “the weight” describes the early stages of a relationship deteriorating, with brilliant soloing from Cox and DeGroot’s warm voice intertwining through its widescreen outro. Highlights like “mess,” “never tell me,” or “whole thing” strike a perfect balance be- tween lush arrangements and intimate performances, while tracks like “why does my heart” or “can’t stop” add unvarnished, single take moments of spontaneity, or GarageBand demo looseness that perfectly compliment the unabashed longing in the songwriting.

Sadurn’s sophomore album The Underworld is a collection of heart-rendingly personal and instantly relatable songs, due out this fall on Run For Cover Records. Following years of lingering vocal issues for guitarist G DeGroot, the album is the culmination of an emotion- al and spiritual journey and a a deeply personal meditation on loss, healing, and transformation.
Sadurn began in 2017 as a solo project for G DeGroot, and from the start their approach to songwriting was informed more by emotional intuition than any kind of real ambitions to be heard. “I discovered songwriting as an outlet for processing my reality,” they explain. “A lot of times when something is hard to say, it flows more easily in songwriting. It’s a place where you can circle back to your own truth.” After moving to Philadelphia, DeGroot was joined by gui- tarist Jon Cox, drummer Amelia Swain, and bassist Tabitha Ahnert. The group recorded Radiator, a debut that immediately connected with listeners and was met with critical acclaim.

Throughout The Underworld, the rawness of DeGroot’s lyrics are matched by Cox, Ahnert, and Swain’s evocative playing. Stunning opener “the weight” describes the early stages of a relationship deteriorating, with brilliant soloing from Cox and DeGroot’s warm voice intertwining through its widescreen outro. Highlights like “mess,” “never tell me,” or “whole thing” strike a perfect balance be- tween lush arrangements and intimate performances, while tracks like “why does my heart” or “can’t stop” add unvarnished, single take moments of spontaneity, or GarageBand demo looseness that perfectly compliment the unabashed longing in the songwriting.

Sadurn’s sophomore album The Underworld is a collection of heart-rendingly personal and instantly relatable songs, due out this fall on Run For Cover Records. Following years of lingering vocal issues for guitarist G DeGroot, the album is the culmination of an emotion- al and spiritual journey and a a deeply personal meditation on loss, healing, and transformation.
Sadurn began in 2017 as a solo project for G DeGroot, and from the start their approach to songwriting was informed more by emotional intuition than any kind of real ambitions to be heard. “I discovered songwriting as an outlet for processing my reality,” they explain. “A lot of times when something is hard to say, it flows more easily in songwriting. It’s a place where you can circle back to your own truth.” After moving to Philadelphia, DeGroot was joined by gui- tarist Jon Cox, drummer Amelia Swain, and bassist Tabitha Ahnert. The group recorded Radiator, a debut that immediately connected with listeners and was met with critical acclaim.

Throughout The Underworld, the rawness of DeGroot’s lyrics are matched by Cox, Ahnert, and Swain’s evocative playing. Stunning opener “the weight” describes the early stages of a relationship deteriorating, with brilliant soloing from Cox and DeGroot’s warm voice intertwining through its widescreen outro. Highlights like “mess,” “never tell me,” or “whole thing” strike a perfect balance be- tween lush arrangements and intimate performances, while tracks like “why does my heart” or “can’t stop” add unvarnished, single take moments of spontaneity, or GarageBand demo looseness that perfectly compliment the unabashed longing in the songwriting.

Keen listeners who have dug below the surface of Oren Ambarchi"s triple-digit discography know that alongside hypnotic minimalism, veins of irreverent and joyously wayward exploration run deep. Cooked is something of a landmark in Oren"s work, bringing this gloriously cuckoo sensibility right into the heart of his most high-profile solo work. Carrying on the grand Ambarchi tradition of meticulously constructed all-star studio jams (which reached new heights with Shebang), Cooked brings together collaborators from Australia, Germany, Japan and Sweden for two side-long epics where the foot keeps tapping even as the mind boggles. Cooked is a long way from the spacious, light-dappled grooves of Ghosted, but Oren"s Swedish bandmates play starring roles here, with Johan Berthling"s double bass anchoring both sides, and drummer Andreas Werliin lending his delicate touch to the second piece, "Sleight of Hand". Beginning with glistening layers of electric 12-string guitar, "Sleight of Hand" takes some key cues from electric Miles touchstones like "Feio" or his epic take on David Crosby"s "Guinnevere", with Berthling"s sparse basslines punctuating an almost weightless cornucopia of shifting detail, glimmering with subtle contributions from Michiko Ogawa on sho and James Rushford on a panoply of acoustic keyboards. Suddenly, everything is overwhelmed by a knotty, hyper-complex "solo" from Marcus Pal on digital synthesis, teleporting us to an alternate history where Allan Holdsworth traded the SynthAxe for Xenakis" UPIC. Building with additional drums and percussion from Will Guthrie to a peak of sizzling intensity, the music then goes sideways into a gently surreal coda, where some distinctly Zawinul-esque chords and Fredrik Rasten"s guitar float over a sprightly rhythm box, the avian inventions of Swedish virtuoso whistler Isak Hedtjärn wafting atop the sunlit stew.

Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat

Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat

Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat

2026 Repress

What an unbelievable record. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots from Ian Carr’s Nucleus is one of the dopest albums we know. This is seriously thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, other than a couple of versions at the time for other territories, Roots was never re-pressed since so it’s gone on to become another one of those impossible to find records.

Maybe it was a little too out there for the time, but it’s aged very, very well indeed and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels.

Working together with producer Fritz Fryer and engineer Roger Wake, the seven compositions by Carr, Brian Smith and Dave MacRae that make up Roots flirt with perfection, and Nucleus at that time made up of the cream of 1970s UK jazz with Brian Smith on tenor saxophones and flutes, Dave MacRae on piano and electric piano, Jocelyn Pitchen on guitar, Roger Sutton on bass, both Clive Thacker and Aureo De Souza on drums and percussion, Joy Yates delivering the vocals and of course Carr on trumpet.

The spellbinding title track immediately renders the album indispensable. Riding the illest of loping breakbeats, “Roots” is low-slung, doped-out heist-funk. An absolute monster. If it sounds familiar then that’s likely down to it being sampled by Madlib for Lootpack and Quasimoto’s “Loop Digga”, as well as by a whole host of beat manipulators. “Roots” conjures prime instrumental hip-hop / beat music, only 20 years ahead of its time. Truly, these are the roots. Through sinuous bass, twinkling keys and a hypnotic guitar riff, a smoky brass motif weaves its way into a gloriously deep haze around Carr’s solos. “Roots” is over 9 minutes long, but there’s not a single wasted second, not surprising given that this is a condensed version of an originally 40 minute long commissioned composition.

The soothing vocal fusion delight of “Images” follows. Meticulously constructed, with gorgeous flute work from Brian Smith, with Joy Yates’ silky vocals and Dave MacRae’s Rhodes never sounding better. The cool, driving “Caliban” closes out the first side. Originally the third movement in a four part commission to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday it stands up on its own, all robust rhythms and blended brass. Keyboard colour and Carr’s trumpet are splashed across the funk drums and basslines (and there’s even some bamboo flute). This really is fusion: the elements of jazz and rock coming together in beautifully synthesis.

Side two opens in riotous fashion with the short, thrilling samba of “Wapatiti”. Next up, “Capricorn” forms a smoothed-out, jazzy constellation. Mellow and dreamy, its twinkling percussion and languid horns slowly build the vibe before head-nod drums and a killer bassline enter the fray. With a distinct heaviness that Black Sabbath would’ve envied, “Odokamona” is a venomous slice of riff-soaked jazz metal (yes, you read that right), elevated by Carr’s wah-wah horns.

The album closes with MacRae’s exceptionally cosmic “Southern Roots and Celebration”. Very much in conversation with Weather Report, it opens as a languorous, spiritual jazz of chiming keys and serene guitar that turns slowly, gorgeously into a mid-paced, brass-laced banger. It’s another sure-fire party starter and the sound of the band having a righteous blast, building an ecstatic chaos that ends with Yates screaming.

And of course we need to talk about Keith Davis’ cover for Roots. Perhaps the coolest record cover of all time? Certainly one of the most bonkers. Just your run-of-the-mill high-gloss, acid-tinged airbrush dystopian/utopian living-room party scene. Consider this your chemical flashback trigger warning.

Front-and-centre the hip-to-death green robot holds court with their giant ball of yellow barbwire wool, hooked up to… something(?) being teased out from under the stairs (probably best not to ask). A thoroughly zoned-out, long-legged Pop Art party-goer lounges half-plugged in to the painting behind her as a pair of legs flail into shot from the the top of the stairs opposite. We won’t even begin to guess what the chap’s up to in the middle, but the view out of the windows is rather nice, and someone’s already got the hoover out ready to tidy up. All of the Nucleus sleeves are something special, but this particular one? Crikey.

This Be With edition of Roots has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The crazy cover has been restored at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

*COMES IN GATEFOLD 2LP WITH LINER NOTES*

The premise of this compilation is simple: music we’d like to hear at the airport.

The idea came after learning that Honolulu’s international airport has been playing AI-generated music over its speakers since November 2025. First reported by Civil Beat, the news has caused frustration and disappointment among residents and visitors, as well as within the local music community.

Everyone knows Hawaii is one of the most musically rich regions in the world — why then is the airport using AI music? 'Music For The Airport' is our response.

Located in the middle of the Pacific at the outskirts of one the most remote cities on the planet, Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) is for most people the first place they encounter when they arrive in Hawaii. Warm sun, tropical tradewinds, playful palm trees and majestic mountains welcome every traveler, as do the sounds of birds, familiar music from Hawaiian artists like Aunty Genoa Keawe and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and—at least for now—seventeen “island-themed” AI-generated songs.

In late 1977, while sitting in Germany’s Cologne Bonn Airport on a Sunday morning, Brian Eno noticed how terribly uncomfortable he felt hearing the airport’s “muzak” overhead. For a harried, hurried place like the airport where travelers scramble to their gates, stand in long border control lines, and wait impatiently for their luggage at the carousels, music can create more anxiety than calm. Asking himself, "What should we be hearing here?", Eno soon created ‘Ambient 1: Music For Airports’, a sonic remedy aimed at reducing nervousness in public spaces.

When we heard the news that HNL airport is playing AI-generated “muzak”, we were immediately reminded of Eno’s genre-defying 1978 album. And we were similarly inspired to react. But how? Recreating an ambient masterpiece wasn’t in our wheelhouse. We started digging through our catalog of licensed music which we haven’t yet re-released. We quickly realized this was our chance to highlight some of favorite songs from the so-called CD era: the 1990s and 2000s (with a few exceptions). In less than 20 minutes, we pulled 17 original songs recorded by local artists between 1984 and 2017.

The speed at which this project came together surprised us; reactionary gut instinct often produces swift and lasting results. Ironically, our new compilation likely took less time than it did for the state Department of Transportation to commission its AI songs in question. But even though ‘Music for the Airport’ came together in less than one week, the truth is that this collection of 17 songs is the result of years of hard work, trust, sacrifice, patience, and understanding. Building relationships with and licensing music from artists doesn’t happen overnight, but more importantly: these songs are the result of people pouring their hearts and souls into something they believe in. This music wouldn’t exist today without the artists and their loved ones who supported them along the way.

As of this writing, the DOT states its intention in creating AI-generated songs is to “highlight different aspects of the islands, aviation and the airport” and that “no state funds were used to produce them”. Okay, but at what cost? Technology disrupting the music industry isn’t news to anyone. AI music in public spaces are cost-saving measures, since its users (airports, for example) don’t have to pay the licensing fees typically required, which can be a worthwhile source of revenue for artists. But what happens when a place like HNL airport, which hosts more than 21 million passengers annually, uses music created by machines instead of people to represent Hawaii? The identity of a place beings to erode, diluted by a language learning model’s conceptual summary of what a people and its culture sounds like. To echo Brian Eno: what should we be hearing here? In other words: what should the music of Hawaii sound like?

We believe in the power of music, especially when it comes from the soul. We believe in supporting artists, especially as AI disrupts our lives. We believe that Hawaii must be represented authentically, especially when it comes to song. And of course we believe in vinyl, especially since it was a record from 1978 (Mackey Feary Band’s debut LP) that inspired Aloha Got Soul’s origins in 2010.

We hope you find as much joy in this compilation as we have. Perhaps it’ll soundtrack your next journey to Hawaii. At the very least, we hope some people take a moment to hear these sounds: in your headphones for now‚ maybe someday overhead at the airport in Honolulu.

* long version / previously unreleased on vinyl
** exclusive / previously unreleased
Felix Laband's highly acclaimed electronica masterpiece album "Dark Days Exit" (2005) is now available as an Extended Version 2LP vinyl. Originally planned for last year's 20th anniversary, this special edition features a new design by Felix Laband and includes a double-sided DIN A2 art print. Dark Days Exit features four exclusive tracks, alongside five vinyl-only tracks available for the first time in their original long versions. Listening to the key track, Sleeping Household, on Dark Days Exit is unsettling: like being an impostor rambling around an uncanny house, a Lynchian leitmotif in the form of a young girl divulging secrets that you probably shouldn't hear. Dark Days Exit is an album that paints an interior landscape, an invitation to transgress private thresholds. Made with old-school production tools that require hands-on application, Dark Days Exit is a sound-production tour de force. The music is as wide as the savannah and microscopic at the same time, a lesson in what can be achieved when 'music' is placed on an equal footing with sound as a phenomenon, by an artist who decides to apply themselves without reserve. The masterful manipulation of reverb and delays and hyper-detail was a generation ahead of its time, and Dark Days Exit is preferred by audiophiles for testing their systems. Dark Days Exit is intimate, demanding, and a masterclass in tension, and Laband's ability to use all sound without hierarchy to paint a detailed personal vision — one that is less overtly political and streetwise than on subsequent albums — is unsurpassed. Most discerning listeners are into music because, in the hands of a master, it can manipulate our mood and transport us. Felix Laband opens with a sonic portrait of spring happiness and gradually dismantles the atmosphere in front of our ears, as epitomised by the haunting track Black Shoes. No sooner are we afraid than the artist drops us off where we started. In many ways, the intimacy derives from the tight group of friends and believers whom Laband corralled as contributors: Mark van Niekerk (xylophone, "Miss Teardrop"), Jane Rademeyer (clarinet, "Black Shoes," "Radio Right Now"), Brendon Bussy (mandolin, "Black Shoes"), and Derek Gripper (sampled violin, used throughout) and Alex van Heerden on Minka. The difficulty in categorising Dark Days Exit is probably due to Laband listening mostly to ambient and classical music at the time, and consequently registering the album at the lush, cinematic end of the electronic spectrum. There is poise and restraint in the spare use of beats, and when they do appear, they hit hard. Forged in the optimistic post-apartheid years, Dark Days Exit is music about life and death, spanning hope, despair, terror, tension, with humour and empathy. Twenty one years on, the album's gravity endures, due to its almost perverse authenticity, its timeless themes of hope and despair, and its apex level of technical mastery. The additional, immaculately produced tracks add new rooms to the uncanny house we are invited into.

Mit"Lach doch mal" legen Bärchen und die Milchbubis ihr zweites Studioalbum seit ihrer viel beachteten Rückkehr vor. Die Band, die bereits Anfang der 1980er-Jahre mit ihrer eigenwilligen Mischung aus Punk, Pop und scharfem Humor Kultstatus erlangte, knüpft dabei an ihre Stärken an und präsentiert zwölf neue Songs voller Energie, Haltung und Alltagsbeobachtungen. Zwischen humorvollen Seitenhieben, gesellschaftspolitischen Themen und persönlichen Geschichten entstehen Stücke, die gleichermaßen wütend, nachdenklich und verspielt wirken. Produziert von Tobias Levin (u.a. Tocotronic, Ja, Panik, Rocko Schamoni), verbindet das Album den charakteristischen Charme der Band mit einer zeitgemäßen Perspektive. Gastbeiträge von Bela B, Stefanie Schrank und den Feigen Flittchen unterstreichen die kreative Offenheit dieser Veröffentlichung. Lach doch mal zeigt eine Band, die auch Jahrzehnte nach ihrer Gründung unverwechselbar geblieben ist.

Mit"Lach doch mal" legen Bärchen und die Milchbubis ihr zweites Studioalbum seit ihrer viel beachteten Rückkehr vor. Die Band, die bereits Anfang der 1980er-Jahre mit ihrer eigenwilligen Mischung aus Punk, Pop und scharfem Humor Kultstatus erlangte, knüpft dabei an ihre Stärken an und präsentiert zwölf neue Songs voller Energie, Haltung und Alltagsbeobachtungen. Zwischen humorvollen Seitenhieben, gesellschaftspolitischen Themen und persönlichen Geschichten entstehen Stücke, die gleichermaßen wütend, nachdenklich und verspielt wirken. Produziert von Tobias Levin (u.a. Tocotronic, Ja, Panik, Rocko Schamoni), verbindet das Album den charakteristischen Charme der Band mit einer zeitgemäßen Perspektive. Gastbeiträge von Bela B, Stefanie Schrank und den Feigen Flittchen unterstreichen die kreative Offenheit dieser Veröffentlichung. Lach doch mal zeigt eine Band, die auch Jahrzehnte nach ihrer Gründung unverwechselbar geblieben ist.

Eine auf 500 Stück limitierte 7"-Single auf NEONGRÜNEM VINYL von DERIK & THE DISASTERS! MIT DEN PUNK-ROCK-LEGENDEN CHARLIE HARPER (U.K. SUBS) UND DEL GREENING (PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES) Die A-Seite stammt von ihrem selbstbetitelten Debütalbum! Die B-Seite gibt's exklusiv auf dieser Veröffentlichung! Eine wunderbare neue Punkrock-Partnerschaft! Charlie Harper ist ein langjähriger Bewunderer von Del Greenings Gitarrenspiel und beide leben in Brighton. Da Del nicht mehr mit Peter And The Test Tube Babies auf Tour war und Charlie ,etwas" weniger Gigs mit den U.K. Subs spielte, hatten beide Zeit, etwas Neues und Frisches zu starten. Das Ergebnis ,Derik & The Disasters" besteht aus vierzehn Songs, die sowohl an Charlies als auch an Dels musikalisches Erbe anknüpfen und gleichzeitig einen einzigartigen, lebendigen Sound schaffen - mit Texten, die sich nicht scheuen, die vielen Probleme anzusprechen, mit denen die Welt heute konfrontiert ist. Das ist Punkrock im Jahr 2026. Laut abspielen.

Released first as three EPs, 9PM, 12AM and 3AM, each explores a different moment of the night, from the anticipation of getting ready, to the unifying energy of the dancefloor, and finally the conversations and reflections that linger long after the music stops. Together, they culminate in The Night's Not Dead, a complete body of work that celebrates nightlife as far more than a party.

The sun sat high above the desert outside Joshua Tree on October 17, 2024, baking the rocks and shrubbery outside the Farrington Observatory as a small group of invited guests ventured up a steep path towards the telescope. Kyle Simon, the artist and printmaker who founded the Observatory, was standing outside the print studio sat below the towering cylindrical building, greeting friends alongside his wife Sarah and lifelong friend Brian Weitz, the musician widely known as Geologist of Animal Collective. Simon and Weitz had spent the previous day testing and retesting a system that would transform the light of the oncoming full moon captured by the gigantic telescope into a signal that would modulate the control voltage of Weitz’s modular synthesizer. As the sun dipped below the horizon line, the audience gathered on a small wooden patio surrounded by speakers while Weitz readied himself behind the array of patches and knobs. Simon addressed the group, presenting the history of The Sirens, the sonic exploration of the night sky’s mystical and scientific significance about to unfold.

The music conjured under the Hunter’s Moon that night is now documented on this first official release of The Sirens, which was conceived by Simon and Weitz as a recurring performance piece and sound installation. Over a decade ago, Simon began immersing himself in literature on humanity’s sonic relationship to the celestial realm, including Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s “Spindle of Necessity, ” Kepler’s Harmonices Mundi, and the field of astroseismology. He fitted homemade telescopes with photodiodes and optical sensors to make the images audible, finding latent patterns in the noisy sonic signals he began receiving from the stars. With Weitz, the process expanded as the signal was routed through an analog amplifier and set to modulate the pitch, filter, and other elements of his synthesizer. Together they developed a system of improvisation, with Simon adjusting the telescope to change the intensity of the light based on its relationship with the moon’s position (imagine a theremin player moving their hands in subtle, meaningful motion), and Weitz responding to that input in real time: bending it, amplifying it, or letting it stand on its own. The duo debuted the piece at the Integretron in Joshua Tree in 2018, providing a crucial proof of concept for the performance at Farrington featured here.

The first thing the listener hears on The Sirens is the opening of Farrington Observatory, the cranking of motor and metal. As the lens of the telescope is exposed to the evening air, a wavering drone emerges from the synthesizer, flickering at the margins, the tuning of the oscillators adjusting to the rapidly cooling desert air. The piece progresses and the drone becomes a luminous, spherical constant, bathing the listener in pure tone as Weitz draws out harmonically ambiguous melodies that spiral upwards. Electronics crackle and convulse, coalescing into dense dissonance before widening out into an open octave. Just as the moon orbits the Earth and the stars shift as the planet rotates, so each sonic element appears in flux, interrelationships slowly forming and falling away. Divided into two parts, The Sirens flows as a continuous conversation between the artists and the starlight completing its thousand-year journey across the galaxy.

The Sirens belongs primarily to a lineage beyond music: of sea captains navigating by looking skyward, of astrophysicists studying the formation of the Milky Way, of the modern myths of werewolves, of the stories embedded in constellations. As Simon writes in the album’s extensive liner notes, “These stories and explorations reveal a collective yearning to become conscious of our connection to the universe, our deep-seated desire to understand how we fit into it all.” This music underscores the history of the night sky as the place where poetry and science find common ground, where exploration hinges on the imagination. Driven by curiosity and ingenuity, Weitz and Simon look up and wonder.

Over & Even was a breakout album for Joan Shelley. Originally released in 2015 and recorded in Louisville, Kentucky - with Shelley and her then neighbor Nathan Salsburg on guitar. The record was an album of the year at NPR Music and in The Los Angeles Times. Rolling Stone called it, "a masterfully turned set of folk reflections" in their 4 star review. This expanded edition features 8 never before heard demos, performed and recorded solo by Shelley who shared them only with Salsburg so he could learn the songs.

Die langjährigen Freunde Bibio und Dorian Concept tun sich nach diversen Kollaborationen für das gemeinsame Instrumentalalbum "Answers" zusammen. Ein Großteil der Musik entstand aus der Ferne; Ideen wurden zwischen Wales und Österreich hin- und hergeschickt, was die Vorliebe beider Künstler für einen eher zurückgezogenen, prozessorientierten Schaffensprozess widerspiegelt. Der britische Produzent Bibio, bekannt für die Verbindung von Folk, Ambient und Lo-Fi-Tape-Texturen, steuert eine greifbare, von der Gitarre geprägte Wärme bei, während der Wiener Dorian Concept, Autodidakt am Keyboard und Improvisationskünstler am Synthesizer, seinen fließend-experimentellen Ansatz elektronischer Komposition einbringt. Auch an der visuellen Gestaltung arbeitete das Duo eng zusammen; Videos und Artwork entstanden gemeinsam, inspiriert von der geteilten Liebe zu Vintage-Kameras und visuellem Spiel. Das Ergebnis ist ein texturreiches Instrumentalalbum, das sich weniger wie eine erste Zusammenarbeit anfühlt, sondern vielmehr wie eine Fortsetzung: Zwei eigenständige Stimmen treffen in einer gemeinsamen Sprache aufeinander, die über Jahre gegenseitiger Inspiration und stillen Experimentierens gereift ist. Beide Formate enthalten ein Concertina-Booklet, gefaltet in Ziehharmonika-Form.

Superfan is the songwriting veil of Kali Priya Flanagan, the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and producer. While initially imagined as a solo act, ambitious string arrangements crafted in collaboration with cellist Omeed Almassi have come to define Superfan’s noisy and magnetic pop soundscape.

Today, Superfan announces their forthcoming album ‘My Piledriver Heart’ (MPDH), out October 16 via new label home AD 93 (Joanne Robertson, Dagmar Zuniga, YHWH Nailgun). Along with the announcement, Superfan presents his new single “In the Gold Room” paired with the live version filmed by Garrett Winston inside Agger Fish Building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

MPDH marks the first release outside of the record deal Flanagan signed at age 14. The album finds Flanagan embracing a more expansive, experimental vision of indie rock - melding deeply tuned acoustic guitar, cello, and Eastern musical influences into what he calls his “Acousticello” sound. Recorded largely live with cellist Omeed Almassi and producer Hudson Pollock, the record explores heartbreak, independence, and hopeful melancholia. Kali says “This time around it was about being (myself) versus becoming myself. This album was made to acknowledge the ebbs and flows in chugging along with life and love, from a place of comfort within the self that opens you up to the beauty in everyday life.” He does so through intimate performances that blur the line between folk, chamber music, pop-rock ballads, and alternative rock. Last year, he released the singles “Apeiron (Fantasy Football)” and “Miss W Jones” and earlier this year he released “Picture of Return.”

Following his acclaimed debut Tow Truck Jesus, Flanagan opened for The Strokes at Red Rocks, and has quietly become a fixture of New York’s DIY scene, performing alongside artists like Horsegirl, Knifeplay, and Quiet Light, while also playing support shows with King Woman and Victoryland this summer. He is also in the rising emo band Holidays in United States.

Before Superfan, Flanagan found success during the pandemic under his first moniker, “KALI.” His initial releases garnered millions of streams and led to collaborations with seasoned high-profile producers and industry teams. Despite his budding career as an indie-pop star, Flanagan was dissatisfied with the conditions of his artistic output and community as he reached adulthood. His coming-of-age years in Los Angeles were marked by an ever-present new-wave pop music oblivion: “hits” made in 5-hour sessions with strangers, a social life suffocated by others’ aspirations for fame, and an absent audience for live music that pushed past the prescriptions of recorded music. On MPDH, Kali says “I can’t help my urge to write these pop-rock ballads, but we really wanted to push the boundary of genre and expressing the sentiments of the songs through experimentation.”

A glorious night of no particular significance, Totally, the new album by Baba Stiltz. Recorded in Helsinki in studio with a drummer and overdubs committed in 5 days. Ballroom- sink songs of loss, grief, long drives on the I-5, centralized acquisitions, and corrective conditioning towards the prolonged effects of computerized lifestyles.

Every song looks you straight in the eyes, crooked and veering towards a light fixture off the side of the mirror. Ambivalence and assertions track us, down some gauzy networked afternoon. Relatively, perfectly, three dimensional. Proportions as they appear to us from outer intuition. Sometimes meaning is evoked through pure nothingness. Concealed and nothing known. We have no need for any paradise informed by anything beyond what is directly in front of us.

Stone repetition thwarts the possibility of control and surrenders itself to understanding. Who are we, and what are we trying to understand? To understand being universally greater than being understood. There are soap operas everywhere for those with eyes to see. You don’t have to look as hard as we currently look. The dramatic is everywhere, we breathe it unintentionally, then we come to hate it. Haptic, embodied facts of a tedious life lodged in the jowls of history. Everything under the
sky being the best bedlam has to offer. Your family, your relationships, your memory. As you eat a burger you are reminded of every sharp protrusion and corner under the florescent lights, the same lights you see when you’re born, and although unconfirmed, when you die.

Some of these songs were written years ago, some recently. The bookshelf and television set come into full view. Women/men come and go. Stars and poseurs collapse under their alienated contradictions, the search for truth yields to continued gradients of probability (collapse). Spatial order maintains itself through perceptional feeling. Silence, singing along to Roger Miller, people entering and leaving, figures hovering over you in your dreams and waking hours. Cool and fun, Totally

Text by Barrett Avner

Selva Discos is proud to present its latest release: the EP by the band Discoteca Tropicana. This record features 4 original tracks that celebrate the rhythms that have influenced Brazilian disco music, showcasing the best of this fusion: the swing and tropical flavour that bring sunshine to any dance floor.

The project is the result of a collaboration between Kiko Costato, the enfant terrible of the Brazilian music scene, and Zé Nigro, a producer and multi-instrumentalist who has won two Grammy Awards and has worked with major names in Brazilian and international music such as João Donato, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi and Natasha Diggs.

This EP is based on 4 different themes. For each one, Kiko and Zé Nigro recruited some of Brazil’s finest studio musicians – people who work with Seu Jorge, Céu, Criolo, Metá Metá, Cidadão Instigado and Tulipa Ruiz – as well as pioneering artists from the Brazilian Black music scene, such as the backing vocalists who work with the legendary Gilberto Gil.

“Corpos Celestes” is a more classic “disco diva” track, featuring string arrangements and a grand piano, as if it were the start of the evening, a magical moment straight from the heyday of disco in the United States; “Corpo Treme” is the sweat, the vuco-vuco, a song for that moment when you’ve already let yourself go, a sprint to the frenetic rhythm of the carimbó; “Tobina” is the meeting of Brazil and Africa, from which Brazilian swing is born, an original chant straight from the Congo, with a characteristic African guitar, adapted to Brazilian rhythms, just like the afoxé. Finally, the dancefloor hit “Não Pode Acabar”, a more urban disco track, which works just as well for kicking off a party with the right vibe as for closing a set with the highest energy.

Driveline Records presents its first solo EP, welcoming Maltese producer Patient to the label. Across four tracks, Patient showcases his signature blend of deep low-end grooves, hypnotic atmospheres and driving rhythms, staying true to the label's vision of timeless, dancefloor-focused techno. The title track, "Genetic Mutation", opens the record with a powerful and atmospheric journey, combining hypnotic textures with a driving groove built for peak-time moments. On "Sphynx", rolling hi-hats, evolving percussion and subtle tension create a hypnotic, constantly moving groove that keeps the dancefloor locked from start to finish. Flipping to the B-side, "Drift" shifts the focus towards deep low-end frequencies. Rolling basslines, immersive atmospheres and subtle movement give the track a dynamic yet restrained energy. Closing the EP, "Not A Replica" delivers a classic syncopated groove, full of tension, punch and infectious swing. A functional dancefloor weapon that provides the perfect finale to the record. With DLR002, Patient delivers four distinctive cuts that balance atmosphere, groove and functionality, reinforcing Driveline Records' commitment to timeless, vinyl-focused techno.