Cerca:studio one

Kid Katana Records collaborated with the incredible teams at KOEI TECMO GAMES, Team NINJA, PlatinumGames and Xbox Games Studios to bring you the NINJA GAIDEN 4 OST on physical format for the first time.


This release is composed of three premium editions:


4LP Vinyl Slipcase - Limited Edition (No Repress) - no consignment, 25 units minimum order

Limited “blood splatter” vinyls with a unique “splatter” effect: handmade vinyl effect with transparent red base and white splatter. Each vinyl has a unique pattern that evokes Yakumo & Ryu combat style. This edition will not be repressed.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific vinyl edition. Includes “Infinite Gale“ DLC track as bonus.

Matte 4LP slipcase with a glossy effect on the game’s logo.

4 printed sleeves with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.


4LP Vinyl Slipcase - Standard Edition

4 classic black vinyls.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific vinyl edition. Includes “Infinite Gale“ DLC track as bonus.

Matte 4LP slipcase with a glossy effect on the game’s logo.

4 printed sleeves with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.


3CD Boxset

3 printed CDs with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific CD edition. Includes 4 DLC tracks and 4 instrumental versions.

Crystal Jewelbox 3CD Boxset vintage packaging.

4-pages booklet featuring tracklist, credits and concept art from PlatinumGames Sound Team.


Kid Katana Record produced this album with supervision from NINJA GAIDEN4 Sound Team, who composed the original game music.

Kid Katana Records collaborated with the incredible teams at KOEI TECMO GAMES, Team NINJA, PlatinumGames and Xbox Games Studios to bring you the NINJA GAIDEN 4 OST on physical format for the first time.


This release is composed of three premium editions:


4LP Vinyl Slipcase - Limited Edition (No Repress) - no consignment, 25 units minimum order

Limited “blood splatter” vinyls with a unique “splatter” effect: handmade vinyl effect with transparent red base and white splatter. Each vinyl has a unique pattern that evokes Yakumo & Ryu combat style. This edition will not be repressed.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific vinyl edition. Includes “Infinite Gale“ DLC track as bonus.

Matte 4LP slipcase with a glossy effect on the game’s logo.

4 printed sleeves with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.


4LP Vinyl Slipcase - Standard Edition

4 classic black vinyls.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific vinyl edition. Includes “Infinite Gale“ DLC track as bonus.

Matte 4LP slipcase with a glossy effect on the game’s logo.

4 printed sleeves with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.


3CD Boxset

3 printed CDs with “Bloodbath” design, alternating between Yakumo and Ryu execution animations.

Handpicked curation of the game music, mastered for this specific CD edition. Includes 4 DLC tracks and 4 instrumental versions.

Crystal Jewelbox 3CD Boxset vintage packaging.

4-pages booklet featuring tracklist, credits and concept art from PlatinumGames Sound Team.


Kid Katana Record produced this album with supervision from NINJA GAIDEN4 Sound Team, who composed the original game music.

LP! is the fourth studio album from renowned Baltimore rapper JPEGAMFIA. Released on October 22nd, 2021 (his 32nd birthday), the album features guest appearances from DatPiffMafia, Kimbra and Tkay Maidza. It received a great critical response from Pitchfork, NME, and more. The album thematically speaks to JPEG’s struggles within the music industry and staying true to his art, and is entirely self-produced like much of his work. JPEGMAFIA has established himself as one of today’s premiere contemporary and experimental hip hop artists, with over 1.5M monthly listeners on Spotify, and 500K+ Instagram followers. His fanbase is dedicated, excited and engaged with everything JPEGMAFIA does.

The incredible story that began with The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet (TMMS) now enters an exciting new chapter: Skyscraper, the debut album by FEX.

Skyscraper features ten original tracks recorded in the early to mid-1980s-carefully re-transferred, remastered, and brought back to life. The album cover, designed by Darius S., brings the story full circle. Darius is the very person who preserved the now-iconic track Subways of Your Mind by recording it from NDR radio in the mid-80s. Without him, FEX may never have been discovered.

FEX's debut opens with its namesake, Skyscraper-a brooding, previously unreleased track the band once described as part of their "psychedelic phase." With haunting synth-helicopter textures and deep guitar riffs, it immediately sets the tone and raises tension.

The release flows naturally into the energetic and fully remastered studio version of Subways of Your Mind. This version of the TMMS - re-discovered on the "yellow label tape" by Reddit user Marijn-was long believed to be from a smaller home studio, but was actually recorded in November 1984 at Hawkeye Studios in Ganderkesee, near Hamburg.

Goldrush, first teased in raw form on FEX's YouTube channel, bends toward mechanical rhythm and shimmering synths, a snapshot of the band's experiments with programmed drum machine sound. Rückwardt's lyrics point to greed and criticizes materialism, and while the music leans toward pop sensibilities, it carries a raw, fractured edge.

Heart in Danger and I've Got My Eyes On You offer contrasting experiences-one rooted in classic post-punk tension, the other floating in melodic synth layers. The latter in particular feels like a fragment from a parallel radio history: a precise and one of a kind synth pop love song with a progressive touch.

From a rehearsal tape comes Dirty Slapstick, its urgency intact. Missing keyboard parts were later reconstructed by Michael Hädrich using his original DX7 synthesizer-recovering lost elements without rewriting the past. The lyrics take a wry look at forced optimism. Also included are the songs Talking Hands, Jenny and Strange Feeling, the latter being a slower blues-tinged cut, revealing yet another facet of the band's reach and Rückwardt's songwriting diversity.

The album closes where the legend began-with the original radio recording of Subways of Your Mind from Darius' cassette. This version of The Most Mysterious Song features alternate vocal effects, contributing to the track's enigmatic aura. Digitally transferred using a high-end Revox machine and carefully remastered, it now has its long-deserved official release.

The cover features a photo of the Eichenberg Bunker in Kiel-one of FEX's original rehearsal spaces and a symbolic monument to their sonic legacy.

Much like the fusion resulting in the output of light and heat within a star, the last seven years for Dave Sumner, aka Function, have been defined by immense change and an outpouring of creative energy. What began in late 2016 as a period of burnout from a relentless touring life became a catalyst for the most prolific recording era of his career. At the time, the studio became the only viable escape, a space to transmute exhaustion into a gestalt work.
Aeternum (Existenz) serves as the missing element in this creative arc. It acts as the final chapter of a cycle, that began with the 2019 album Existenz and moved through Subject f (Transcendence), Awakening from the Illusory Self, and Green EP. Drawing inspiration from the seven stages of alchemy, this mini-album represents a cathartic process; a natural end point of a psychological cycle and the beginning of a new curve.
Across the six tracks on the mini-LP, recorded 2016-2019, Function builds a unique world, one which underlines his place as one of the luminaries of contemporary techno. Opening track, Ascent, traverses the space between ambient and techno; second track City Of Luz almost fades into itself across its twelve minutes before Transmutation brings around a reawakening with a beat that would not have sounded out of place on an early Rephlex or even a Sähko release. Final track on the 12”, Growth Cycle is fittingly a re-version/re-vision of a track on the Existenz LP; Robert Owens’ soulful vocal now Stefanie Parnow's floating Siren-like voice with music that feels reborn: fresh, strong and insistent. The digital pack contains two further tracks, the deep electro of November 29, as well as Rubedo, a spacial ambient track that feels like the final glowing red embers of a fire turning to ash as the sun rises to reveal a new, golden dawn.
Aeternum (Existenz) is the final chapter of the soundtrack to Function’s spiritual awakening, the closing of a door and the clearing of a path. It’s a sonic manifestation of the Magnum Opus completed, a moment of total integration, where the leaden weight of the journey is finally perfected into the incorruptible gold of the spirit.
It is dedicated to John Mendez, aka Silent Servant, Sumner’s dear friend and lifelong collaborator.

First Word Records proudly present ‘One 4 Detroit’; the third single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred), complete with a remix by 14KT.

This 7" vinyl release follows on from last Summer's MF DOOM cover 'Arrow Root', which received strong support from the likes of Japan's DJ Koco and Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff, and their recent cover of ‘Change’ which was originally by Shadez of Brooklyn, most notably appearing on DJ Premier's 1997 mix album 'New York Reality Check 101.

One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.

Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.

Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite Primo beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.

kidkanevil explains that “after we made a bunch of piano joints it felt like time for a switch up, I had these raw drums looped and Manfred started playing this simple synth line on the Prophet - it kind of happened in an instant. This one was really a case of capture a moment and let it be. It had this cold, industrial bounce to it that really felt ‘Detroit’ somehow, so it became something of a tribute to that sound. Obviously there’s a rich musical history there that’s beyond anything we could encapsulate, but I hope the respect comes across. From Berlin to the D with love!


We felt pretty strongly that if we’re gonna nod to Detroit, we needed a remix from someone who reps there directly. I’ve been a fan of 14KT since the early 2000s beat scene, and as he’d previously released music on First Word, it made perfect sense to approach him. We asked and did he oblige!! I’m very comfortable saying we got schooled! He really blessed us with an amazing remix that brought a life and soul to what was originally a pretty stark beat, we’re super honoured to have this as our first ever remix.


‘U3P1’ (named after a synth preset so we didn’t forget!) is on the flip - this also came about pretty fast. I was thinking Ummah-era Tribe with the drums, and Manfred once again put down this super nice riff and it grew from there. It kinda felt like it needed some trumpet and it's always nice to highlight some of the amazing musicianship lurking beyond the club systems here in Berlin, so we called up Berlin based trumpeter and composer Paolo de Jesus, who blessed us with a beautiful performance and arrangement. And that was that; we hope you enjoy!”

‘One 4 Detroit / U3P1’ is released on limited 7" vinyl & digital platforms, June 12th 2026.


b 02: One For Detroit (14KT Remix) feat. 14KT


b 02: One For Detroit (14KT Remix) feat. 14KT


[b] 02: One For Detroit (14KT Remix) [feat. 14KT]


[b] 02: One For Detroit (14KT Remix) [feat. 14KT]


[b] A2 | One For Detroit (14KT Remix) [feat 14KT]

Who, or, what, exactly is a Matured Sinner? In this case it's the result of a meeting of both minds and bodies between Swedish producer Johan Blende, freshly relocated to Athens, and fellow Eskimo artist and native Athenian NTEIBINT. Between the decidedly weak minds of succumbing to night time activities and day time regret an idea was born to create the best Greco-Norse creation since ABBA stole a bouzouki and used it shamefully for the best part of Mamma Mia (OST ?).

"I took one of my half-baked beats to George (aka NTEIBINT) to see what he could add to it and voilà - Mist 9000 was born!" explained Johan. Now complete with pulsating analogue arpeggios, a throbbing bass line and increasinglydistressed synths all writhing together in composed ecstasy that dance floors are made for, the track that emerged from George's studio left them hungry for more.

Returning to the studio, it isn't long before the song that would give this new project its name emerged. Created with the help of a friend Olga on backing vocals and an unnamed, equally sinning, young lad, Matured Sinner paired hypnotic disco beats, sinuous synths, squawking sine waves and almost queasily blissful sighs with a cautionary tale of drugs, flying saucer cults and a spiral deeper and deeper into sin and moral ruin.

Was it enough? It was. But then the third one came around, mainly by sheer want to continue, lingering like the third child of a marriage running out of ideas. Shall we keep going? "Of course we shall, this is our gift to the world!" Like a modern day cult, Bright Bum was conceived in a non-sexual context from leftover sounds after a nightof confusing creations and not necessarily tender compliments in an equal manner, chugging synths squelching their way over a mesmerising guitar loop as bright stabs cut through the humid funk of the track's insistent rhythm which, like all good nights out, increasingly fray at the edges as it rolls towards oblivion. Nobody requested it but like the nature of humanity itself, it must keep going.

This is not a Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein record; it’s a Play Time record. That’s a subtle but important distinction, for a couple reasons. One, the sound of Magic Object—a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog—doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects. And two, it was only while making Magic Object, their debut album, that Play Time realized they were a band at all.

Let’s back up. The roots of the trio date to 2020-21, when Will and then Booker moved to the Hudson Valley, where Ben was already living. The three got into the habit of playing together at Ben’s house, and they soon realized that their hang sessions felt fundamentally different from making music in some falling-down studio in Bushwick. Where those experiences were rushed and cramped, a new sense of time and space now suggested itself. Where once they rat-raced the music, now they relaxed into it.

Early gigs yielded similar revelations. A booking at Tubby’s, the beloved Kingston venue, evolved into a kind of residency. Tubby’s is a small space, fitting around 100 people, with a bar in the front room and a stage in the back. Play Time decided that they didn’t want to play on the stage; they wanted to play in front, among the people in the bar. Rather than hogging the spotlight and overpowering the other voices in the room, they blended with the energy of their surroundings and emerged as a sort of minimalist-jazz-krautrock bar band.

Gradually, they discovered a newfound “elasticity”—Ben’s word—that reshaped the music from inside. “It’s this communal thing,” he says. “It’s vibes. And it’s embedded in the community up here, which feels really vital and nourishing.” They were jamming, but it wasn’t just a free-for-all; they found themselves listening to each other in new ways. “Ben and Booker joke that they’re always playing in different time signatures,” Will says. “We’re all going forward with our own ideas, but we’re open to each others’ as well, and they’re all sort of dancing together.”

“We all have our painterly solo projects,” Will says—where, Booker adds, “we do a lot of studio arranging and thinking and composition that takes shape over a period of time.” Play Time, on the other hand, is all about being in the moment. That spontaneity was key to the process of recording the album. They booked two days in their friend Joey’s studio, a converted wooden barn. “It’s just a live room,” Booker says. “There’s no separation or anything. So we’re all in the space together and it’s got this beautiful, woody sound, and that’s very much the sound of the record.” For two days, they just jammed, for seven or eight hours each day. When it was over, they went through, edited down the portions they liked, and added very judicious overdubs designed to enhance the original recordings without fundamentally altering them, staying true to the spirit of the sessions.

The result is something like a snapshot and a mission statement all rolled into one. “You’re hearing us discover the voice of the band in real time,” Ben says. “We finished those sessions and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s what our band sounds like now.’”

Now, with Magic Object, the rest of us get to find out too.

—

Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.

“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.

G76 returns to Playedby with a one-sided EP "L5S1" after his debut LP "A World Without Mirrors". The producer is known for a distinctive approach to sound that results in a very original work of art.

"L5S1" represents a part of the spine that is typically subjected to excessive biomechanical stress. The track links emotions in an associative, algorithmic manner with the vulnerabilities of the producer, which are revealed in sonic narratives.

Struggling with severe back pain while in the studio, the producer translated the voice of his physical suffering into arrangements that are arresting. The chords that underpin them are equally insistent and immersive, deep enough to make you close your eyes but with a bass line that could keep a crowd moving forever.

Cote's influence on the imprint adds an extra artistic value to the release, as Playedby strives for a multidisciplinary art vision. The audio is complemented by a special visual support, as the vinyl is fully printed with a stylized, noisy L5S1 MRI scan on its blank surface.

It's clear why Playedby curated this one-sided EP. G76, whose new release already feels like a classic, has reaffirmed his status as an artist to keep an eye on.

Despite building their careers out of strikingly different musical places, both dBridge and Radioactive Man have taken influence from the field in which each other operate. dBridge (Darren White) was part of the iconic drum & bass outfit Bad Company and he helms one of the scene's most solid and quality imprints in Exit Records and Radioactive Man (Keith Tenniswood) was born from the acid house scene and the off kilter electronics of his Two Lone Swordsman projects (alongside Andrew Weatherall) which led him to create his decidedly UK take on Drexciyan electro. It's by no means a stretch to learn that both producers have crates that contain their favourites from each genre but they've also found a mutual respect and connection in the studio over the last few years, leading to the dBRm moniker for Craig Richards' The Nothing Special label.

Globally adored Spanish techno protagonist Indira Paganotto releases her debut album 'Arte Como Amante' via ARTCORE / PIAS Électronique. It brings together thirteen fearless tracks that stretch way beyond any one genre. It's high-pressure, high-energy, and deeply personal. A full-spectrum dive into the world of one of electronic music's most dynamic artists.

It follows a huge 2025. She debuted at Coachella. Played her first ever b2bs with Armin van Buuren at Sonar and Sara Landry at EXIT. She became the first woman to close Monegros. She held down her first Club Room residency at Hï Ibiza for 14 weeks, and even launched her own creative studio space, ARTOPIA, in Santa Eulalia. Her label ARTCORE the home of this special album also took their presence in the dance world to the next level with their own curated stages at Tomorrowland, Mysteryland and Dreambeach.

Now, she's telling her story. The title 'Arte Como Amante' means 'art as a lover'. For Indira, that's not just a phrase. It's her life. This album has been 14 years in the making. It began in Madrid in 2012, when she was 19, and was completed in 2024. She waited for the right moment. She lived life. She collected experiences. She built the sound. "I know to take 14 years to make an album seems crazy," she says, "but without living those experiences, how could I have made the music about them?"

The result is a diverse, adrenaline-fuelled body of work that hits hard and moves deep.

Maria is the debut album from renowned Brazilian electric bassist and composer Moyses Dos Santos. A homecoming for the London-based artist, Moyses’ debut reconnects him with his North-Eastern roots while assembling an international cast of collaborators including legendary Brazilian arranger Arthur Verocai, US trumpet sensation Theo Croker and London-based vocal star Lynda Dawn.

After relocating from Brazil to London in the early 2000s, Moyses dos Santos quickly became one of the capitals’ most in-demand players, sharing stages, studios, and writing credits with best-selling artists including Nile Rodgers, Janelle Monáe, Emile Sandé, Gregory Porter and Omar.

In 2022, Moyses toured with Brazilian jazz-funk legends Azymuth, completing the rhythm section alongside Brazilian drumming master Ivan "Mamão" Conti. "It felt like he was my wise Brazilian grandfather figure." Moyses recalls. "When you spend so many years working internationally, you unconsciously start to leave certain parts of yourself behind. Mamão encouraged me to reconnect with Brazilian music, and that's where this record really began."

Brazil’s North-east, where African, indigenous and European traditions collided and fused most intensely, produced a musical heritage unlike anything else on earth, Moyses dos Santos is a product of this syncretism. On Maria, named after his mother, Moyses brings the musical vocabularies of his youth to the fore. From the soul of the church band where he began to learn his trade as a musician, to the rolling batucadas – maractus, baiaos, sambas and frevos – which he played throughout his teenage years.

Drawing on the lineage of North American electric bass giants like George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, and Stanley Clarke, Moyses runs Brazilian musical traditions through jazz, funk, soul and disco: his sound charged with the cosmopolitan energy of London's contemporary jazz scene.

Lead single and album opener “Boa Viagem’ is joyous, carnivalesque dancefloor jazz: a timeless groove for the nightclub and street party alike. Calling directly to a higher power “Brazilian Spirit” is an astral-jazz phenomenon, featuring the transcendent trumpet playing of Grammy nominated Theo Croker. On “Saudade” Moyses calls upon iconic Brazilian maestro Arthur Verocai, whose signature string arrangements cascade around the divine vocals of ascendant London artist Lynda Dawn.

With impeccable style, charisma, warmth and virtuosity, Moyses steps forward with his stunning debut Maria: out on vinyl, LP, CD and digitally on the 12th June 2026.

By the time Jackie Mittoo released this outstanding album (his 4th), he had already gained a big reputation in the early days of Reggae, Ska and Rocksteady for his contributions to the Studio One catalog and his work with the Skatalites. With his beloved Hammond organ, endless talent and a bag on influences that included Jamaican sounds, Soul and Funk, Mittoo created a cool, moving, warm and groovy sound that would explode in his amazing dance songs and has gained cult status among followers of Jamaican Music, Soul and Funk lovers. A great collection of reggae-soul instrumentals by one of the most talented figures of the genre.

Looking back on her career in the early 90s, Stevie Nicks described the first track of Rock a Little as “the most exciting song that I had ever heard.” This coming from a superstar who was already closely affiliated with several bajillion-selling Fleetwood Mac albums — to say nothing of her own benchmark solo debut. Her remarks attest to the enthusiasm and effort she invested in her third record, a 1985 work that quickly furthered Nicks’ profile and cemented itself as a piece of 80s pop lore.

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents Rock a Little in audiophile sound for its 40th anniversary. Helmed by a cadre of producers and engineers, and recorded for a reported one million dollars, the platinum-certified album teems with a head-spinning array of colors, tones, dreamscapes, and accents. This reference-grade reissue marks the first time they are all brought to light and conveyed with proper balance, dimensionality, and positioning.

Though Rock a Little doubtlessly has period characteristics of a mid-80s LP, Nicks and company spare no expense when it comes to distinguishing the music with expansive sonics distinguished with lush melodies, high-tech percussion, echoing vocals, sampled keyboards, and layers of sophisticated accents. The degrees of spaciousness, headroom, and dynamics are nothing less than inspiring, while the newly enhanced detail, texture, and clarity make the songs sing like never before. As for Nicks’ voice? Wait ’til you experience the transparency and depth.

Those advantages extend, of course, to the aforementioned “I Can’t Wait,” a statement-making opener shot through with modulating synthesizers, splashy drums, metallic guitars, and serious drama. Holed up in a massive studio, Nicks required just one take to nail her part, which she called “magic and simply not able to beat.” The singer-songwriter also distilled the reverberating emotional essence of the Top 20 tune, stating “when I hear it on the radio, this incredible feeling comes over me, like something really incredible is about to happen.”

The same can be said for nearly all of Rock a Little. Crafted by the likes of Songwriters Hall of Fame multi-instrumentalist/producer Rick Nowels, Heartbreakers organist Benmont Tench, bassist Bob Glaub, jack-of-all-trades Greg Phillinganes, and session-pro guitarists Waddy Watchel, Les Dudek, and Danny Kortchmar — along with another two dozen or so participants — the record spills with diverse ideas, shapes, and moods. Everything is in the right place, as evidenced by the swirling glide and sensual undertow of the slightly funky title track to the snapping rhythmic pace and big hooks of “Imperial Hotel,” one of Nicks’ standout moments.

“What was it she wanted?” Nicks queries on “No Spoken Word,” continuing a theme of contemplation that runs through the narratives. Nicks never lands on a definite answer, but hearing her explore loneliness, love, and the secrets we keep to ourselves proves continuously rewarding. Take her passionate performance on a cover of Chas Sanford’s “Talk to Me,” a Top 5 smash furthered by tasteful saxophone lines and understated folk elements. Immersive yourself in the grand sonic corridors of “If I Were You,” laden with Nicks’ signature mysticism.

Moreover, surrender to the gravitas of the closing “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You,” a piano ballad composed about the death of Joe Walsh’s three-year-old daughter. As Nicks asserts earlier on the album, she sings for things money can’t buy.

So, rock a little, yes, but dare to feel even more.

Key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition.





For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.



Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hit cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.



Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly definitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

A portage is the stretch you carry across – the overland pass between two waters, where you shoulder the boat and the paddles and keep moving even after the current runs out. It isn't a break in the journey; it's part of it. TAMIZDAT's fifth release takes that as its shape: four artists carrying a single, measured groove from one shore to the next. Rooted in deep house, techno and minimal, Portage isn't built for the peak – it's an unhurried, warm, buoyant passage that stays light on its feet.

Genning is no stranger to this water — a MixCult regular since his 2018 debut, and his Sunlight EP was TAMIZDAT's second release. He returns from the heart of the family that shaped the label's dub-leaning sound.

Dot (Dotan Bibi) crosses over from Tel Aviv — an Israeli producer with roots in Detroit house. His Intergalactic Ride EP already landed on MixCult in 2024, and he returns here working out of his analogue home studio.

Overt has been a prominent MixCult voice since 2021, known for an ethereal, galactic juno sound that drifts easily into dub chords — records like his Simple Astral 12" mark him as one of the label's steadiest hands.

zekeN, the Romanian producer and one half of zekeniaN, brings more than fifteen years in electronic music: deep, energetic grooves, dreamy pads and percussive basslines that lean minimal rather than strictly rominimal. His zekeniaN project has surfaced on MixCult before; here he steps out on his own.

TAMIZDAT is a division of MixCult Records

Carly Simon’s No. 1 smash “You’re So Vain” lingers as one of the most clever and famous songs ever recorded. The subject of mass speculation ever since its release, soon after which it occupied the top spot on multiple Billboard charts for weeks, the anthem kept a captive public guessing at the identity of its smug subject for decades. The question surrounding the protagonist’s identity remained perhaps the only mystery on the otherwise sexually open and autobiographically daring No Secrets, Simon’s commercial breakthrough and ‘70s singer-songwriter staple.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set affords the platinum-certified 1972 effort the finest sonic treatment it’s received on vinyl. Helmed by Richard Perry and recorded at London’s Trident Studios — where Beatles, David Bowie, and Elton John captured landmark LPs — No Secrets touts exceptional production qualities highlighted by this restorative reissue.

Audiophiles and record collectors, take note: This is the first time No Secrets has been available on 45RPM. The wider grooves and dead-quiet surfaces pay instant dividends. Simple, elegant, and disarming, songs seemingly float amid wide, deep soundstages. Simon’s voice takes on a confident, assertive tenor that emerges with accurate imaging, balanced tonality, and palpable presence. String arrangements and backing vocals come through with similar realism.

Enhanced by an all-star cast — Simon’s then-husband James Taylor, Paul and Linda McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lowell George, Klaus Voorman, Bobby Keys, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, and Bonnie Bramlett are among the renowned musicians who lend a hand — No Secrets advances Simon’s themes of personal introspectiveness, no-holds-barred reflectiveness, and feminist-inspired boldness. She makes every moment of No Secrets worth savoring. Simon invests her all in the songs, handling beautiful ballads, sassy folk-rock numbers, and bluesy fare with calm, composure, and candor.

While acknowledging her own regrets (“You’re So Vain”) and loss (“The Carter Family”), Simon champions the highs (“The Right Thing to Do”) and pains (“His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin”) of love in a sincere manner indicative of her maturity as both an artist and singer. The New York native distinguishes “When You Close Your Eyes” with deep-rooted spirituality, recalls childhood joys via charming sentimentality on “It Was So Easy,” and and takes ownership of her persona on a cover of Taylor’s “Night Owl.”

“We have no secrets
/We tell each other everything,” Simon sings at the record’s midpoint, encapsulating both the themes and bravura of an effort that was nominated for four Grammy Awards and saw her write or co-write every song but one. Combined with Perry’s savvy instrumental arrangements, her self-assured performances and forthright lyrics grant No Secrets an edginess and relevance immune to the ravages of time.

Nobody thinks it is strange anymore that an artist changes his nom de plume to reflect a new direction; a metamorphosis of his art. As listeners, we must resist the temptation to compare a new expression with previous works but instead allow the artist the necessary leeway to follow where his muse leads. So it is with Lone Wolf & Friends. There is a departure from his previous work that is his alone to define. We are simply recipients and must let the work wash over us like waves on the beach and be slightly moulded by the force of each one.

By definition, a Lone Wolf has no friends so we are left with the nagging question of why the name has significance. Perhaps Lone Wolf’s friends are his previous artistic incarnations and although he alone created this work, those earlier versions were there to encourage his creative drive. We are never truly loners, are we?

Written, composed and produced in Vancouver, Canada, by Lone Wolf & Friends.
Mastered in Groningen, the Netherlands, by Johanz Westerman at Balyhoo Studio Mastering.
Designed in London, UK, by Irene Fo + Agente Morillas + Positivland.

Trevor Lucas and Gerry Conway were members of the folk-rock group Eclection, who released an album in August 1968 on Elektra Records. After the group disbanded in 1969, they formed Fotheringay with Lucas's girlfriend Sandy Denny, who had recently left Fairport Convention. The Fairports were recording mostly traditional folk material at this time and Denny left the group so that she could perform more of her own compositions.
The BBC session on Side One of this LP features songs from the first Fotheringay album and took place at the Playhouse Theatre on April 13th 1970. The songs on Side Two were recorded at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in November 1970. They are ‘off-air’ recordings but the sound quality is still very good.

The Temptations Get High on Psychedelic Soul: Cloud Nine Soars with Ambitious Arrangements and Production, Features Standout Vocal Performances and Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers

The Temptations’ Cloud Nine announced that Motown — and “The Sound of Young America” — would never be the same. Influenced by the emergence of cutting-edge rock and pop currents, as well as increasing sociopolitical turmoil, the album broke down barriers between rock, psychedelia, and soul while heralding the arrival of visionary arrangements and production techniques. Bookended by traditional R&B numbers, the 1969 record sent the Temptations in bold new directions and signaled the advent of psychedelic soul.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45PM 2LP set presents Cloud Nine in audiophile sound for the first time on a domestic pressing. This collectible reissue bestows Norman Whitfield’s extraordinary production with the grand-scale dynamics, natural tonality, expansive openness, and low-end weight it deserves. The timbre of each of the five members’ voices is readily identifiable — even within the group harmonies — bestowing a realism never experienced outside the recording studio.

Making its debut on 45RPM, the album further benefits from the wide groove space by playing with greater separation and more realistic presence than prior editions. Everything from the brassiness of the horns to the dry snap of the snare comes across with reference-grade clarity and positioning. And since Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers backing band plays on many of the cuts, you’ll want to savor every note. The imaging, soundstaging, and organic bloom-and-decay of the notes make that possible.

Amid Cloud Nine, the instrumentation and architecture stand out as much as any element. Never before had a Motown album contained such ambitious patterns and complex passages. Seemingly conscientious of the departure from their past methods, the Temptations and Whitfield bunched together the tracks that mark a deep dive into psychedelic territory and counterbalance them with seven sterling soul cuts that dovetail with Motown tradition drenched with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats.

On the original 33RPM release, traditional Motown soul — laden with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats — occupies Side Two. These songs reveal an ensemble still very much on top of delivering pristine pop-soul material graced with romantic sweetness, persuasive insistent, and soaring highs. Re-energized after the departure of lead singer David Ruffin, who was fired for a variety of reasons in June 1968, the Temptations seamlessly meld with his replacement, Dennis Edwards, on one melodic gem after another.

The collective tackles five songs co-written by the legendary Motown team of Barrett Strong and Whitfield. Not the least of which are the smooth, shuffling “Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)” and deceptively simple, horn-spiked “Gonna Keep on Tryin’ till I Win Your Love.” On these tracks, as well as on a lush rendition of the ballad “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing” and pleading, tender send-up of the Gerry Goffin-Carole King classic “Hey Girl,” Edwards and Paul Williams take turns on the lead with the estimable Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams providing backing support.

All five vocalists trade-off leads on the simmering title track, a groundbreaking composition shot through with wah-wah-pedal effects, liquid funk, deep bass lines, Cuban percussion, saturated reverb, and gang choruses. Whitfield mines each member’s natural vocal range with spectacular results, keeps time with cymbals, and channels both the heated temperatures and escapist desires of a society embroiled in war, conflict, and experimental drugs.

Amazingly, the Temptations top themselves on the similarly revealing “Run Away Child, Running Wild.” Nearly 10 minutes in length, the song explodes R&B parameters and harbors a cinematic scope. Urgent pianos, distorted guitars, stripped-down percussion, steamy Hammond organs, minimal bass motifs, five distinct voices narrating the tale of a boy who fled home and now finds himself amid the scary, unforgiving external world: They combine to give the urgent tune a walls-closing-in atmosphere where fear and desperation reign. Bolstered by an extended instrumental section that precedes a climactic return of the singers’ voices, “Run Away Child, Running Wild” equaled the success of the record’s title track, with both reaching No. 6 on the pop charts.

MUSIQUE POUR LA DANSE presents The Unreleased Themes From Hellraiser expanded ritual by Coil

Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hitted cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.

Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly defnitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

Notes by Danny Hyde
Original artwork by Trevor Brown
For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.

2026 REPRESS + DOWNLOAD

Years Of Denial is back on Veyl with their second LP 'Suicide Disco Vol. 2'. The follow up to 2019’s 'Suicide Disco', the duo makes a triumphant return, elevating their distinct sound which fuses dark wave, goth, newbeat, post-punk, EBM, and techno. The LP features 12 tracks all written and produced at Ark of Noise studio, located miles away from the polluted noise of social turbulences, immersed in isolation, creative indulgence, and poetic writing.
From the start, 'Art Break' provides the perfect warm-up, gently cleansing the palette and re-introducing us to Barkosina’s lustful vocals with a slow-burning pace that only marks the beginning. 'Wrong' picks things up, injecting a dose of body music for an infectious piece that bleeds into 'La Pendue' which keeps the energy rising. Next up, 'Mr. Guillotine' delivers a razor sharp edge, carving out a fresh post-punk feel which then brings us to the brooding, 'Never Satisfied'.
'Lover’s Crime' marks the halfway point of the record and one of the album’s standout tracks. Undeniably seductive with an ominous feel, the pair keep this mood going with 'City Lights' and then smash things open with 'Dancing With Demons'. After the devious message sent with 'The Letter', we are submerged in the romantic melancholia of 'Death Of A Lover' and 'Regarding the Pain of Others' before closing things out with 'Social Anxiety' which features vocals by longtime collaborator Broken English Club. The result is an immersive journey through the pair’s self described, Suicide Disco sound, and further builds on the Years of Denial form and legacy.

MUSIQUE POUR LA DANSE presents The Unreleased Themes From Hellraiser expanded ritual by Coil

Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hitted cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.

Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly defnitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

Notes by Danny Hyde
Original artwork by Trevor Brown
For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.

Curió Curió came to flight by chance. Two artists, Rio-born, Austria-based singer and actress Luiza Monteiro and German producer Dustin Braun, had separately reached a fork in their journeys. An opportune encounter soon blossomed into an uplifting, heartfelt Brazilian MPB-groove project shaped by psychedelic disco and studio experimentation. In their own words Curió Curió’s sonic vision “is not straight disco, not straight samba, not strictly old-school but inspired by all of them, creating something contemporary but still nostalgic”.

A modern fusion influenced as much by Gal Costa and Jorge Ben Jor as Say She She and Bala Desejo, their sound deftly plots a course all of its own. A celebration of freedom, movement, love and life, intertwined with introspective moments of reflection. Treating tradition as something alive, migratory and unresolved, the album is not simply bound by a shared love of Brazilian music, but by a deeper question that runs through every track; where does one belong when home becomes plural? As a Brazilian living in Europe, Luiza's lyrics explore themes of identity, culture, and existence. The tracks move between cities and emotional registers without settling, tracing a sense of identity that shifts rather than resolves. Songs like ‘Amor Doente’ and ‘Mar sem Dar Pé’ circle around relationships that resist clarity, while ‘Menina Passarinho’ captures the fear and necessity of committing to music as a path. For Luiza, deepening her commitment to music alongside years in theatre was both inevitable and difficult. Braun’s production follows a similar logic. Initial ideas were often built without obvious reference points, only later incorporating rhythmic and vocal elements that hint at Brazil without reproducing it. Analogue techniques, tape, ribbon microphones and live ensemble recording bring a tactile quality that reflects the duo’s interest in process as much as outcome. Highlights include ‘Bem Querer’, built on an authentic samba street vibe with a super-catchy sing-along chorus, and ‘Vem pra Casa’ with its cosmic-tinged Brazilian boogie flavour. The album closes with ‘A Cor do Meu Sonho’, a quiet act of insistence. A refusal to shrink in unfamiliar environments, and a belief in the strength of difference. It is less a conclusion than a continuation, leaving the central question open. “I started to understand that I can belong to many places at once”, Luiza reflects. “And that can be something to embrace”. Lyrics from the song ‘Raiz’ translate in English to “I value a burning sun and the cold in the air. Constant change is my companion”. With Curió Curió, that idea is lived through sound, story and collaboration. A debut that feels both searching and assured, grounded in heritage yet shaped by distance.

By 2005, the Rob & Si partnership had found its stride. Working from Online Studios in Croydon, South London, Rob Pearson and Simon Copleston (Iteration X) continued to refine their unmistakable take on underground Tech House, combining deep rolling grooves with crisp percussion and slick production skills.

Originally released as EVA015, Just Add Water was pressed as a limited white label release during a period of distributor changes, meaning it never received a full release at the time. As a result, original copies have become highly sought after by collectors over the years, regularly changing hands for premium prices whenever they surface on the second-hand market.

The EP features the unmistakable Original Mix, alongside an alternative interpretation from each producer, with the Iteration X Remix and Rob Pearson Remix offering their own distinctive twists while staying true to the stripped-back, rolling sound that defined the era.

More than twenty years on, Just Add Water remains one of the hidden gems from the early Evasive catalogue and a snapshot of London's underground Tech House movement at its most authentic.

Berlin's Hypersoft crew launch their new vinyl label with Clínica Electrónica by Italian DJ, producer and Evasione Digitale co-founder Andrea Dama. Following the start of their new residency at Panorama Bar, the label opens its catalogue with a strictly limited five-track EP recorded at Buenos Aires' legendary La Siesta del Fauno, bringing Dama's Berlin dancefloor sensibility together with the peculiar chemistry of one of the world's most extraordinary electronic music studios. Forged through extended jam sessions on an array of vintage analogue instruments, including the original Korg PS-3300, Moog modular and Yamaha CS-80, the spontaneity of the sessions translates directly into the finished tracks, where ideas mutate, collide and develop into unexpected forms. Switching gears between hypnotic, mechanical, groove-driven house, and stuttering, furious, off-kilter techno, Dama moves deep into more atmospheric territory, conjuring worlds that are at once lush, organic, paranoid and extraterrestrial. An analogue vision of a future past, built by machines that were already imagining it decades ago.

"Potency rolls into double figures with a new release from Malik Kassim, aka Retromigration. Following albums and singles on labels including Love On The Rocks, Rhythm Section and Wolf Music, the tenth release on Cromby's rapidly-evolving, floor-focused imprint locks into the sound of one of house music's most consistent and consistently exciting producers, seamlessly bridging the established Potency energy with a luxurious vision of the genre. 'Love Rock' summons an instant block party energy, showcasing the expert weight of Kassim's basslines, as well as hinting at the fusion of hip-hop and jazz that bubbles through the textures of the German-Nigerian producer's studio work. Meanwhile, 'I Do Dance' stays true to the promise of its title, delivering blissful sun showers of synths amid emotional pads and hints of the classic Korg M1 organ sound, a universal signal to party. Ushering in the flip, the more tightly-wound percussion of 'Neighbourhood' maintains Kassim's driving groove, while dancehall samples and dub influences expand the established Retromigration sound into new spaces. Finally, 'Go 2 Nowhere' completes the dance, masterfully blending pillowy breakdowns and wistful keys with the EP's most urgent groove. Rich in detail while keeping the floor in constant motion, 'I Do Dance' reinforces Malik Kassim's timeless touch for unmistakably modern house music."

Collecting orders for 2026 Repress

A year or two back, original Nottingham deep house don Gavin Belton (famed for being part of Smokescreen and Drop Music-adjacent duo The Littlemen) returned to the UK after living in New Zealand. One thing led to another and soon he was back in the studio alongside former creative partner Steve Lee for the first time in 15 years. Featuring heady spoken word vocals from Hector Moralez, the result is 'House For Change', a lightly electrofunk-fired slab of classic East Midlands deep house. Raising funds for homeless charity Help The Framework, this surprise EP also includes 2004 classic 'Tell Me' (a free party deep house classic) and two fresh reworks: a TB-303-bass-driven revision of 'House For Change' by their old pals Inland Knights, and a squelchy, spacey take on 'Tell Me' by Lee under his solo alias, Positive Divide.

Hit the North is a DJs’ movement
Not a label. Not a revival. A discipline.

Over the years, the collective travelled across multiple states in the US and parts of the UK, digging deep into private collections, basements, garages, storage rooms and forgotten boxes.

They weren’t looking for classics.
They weren’t looking for hits.
They were looking for attempts.

Artists chasing something bigger than themselves.
Trying to sound like Motown.
Trying to sound like Detroit.
Trying to sound like the records that saved them.

Many of them dreamed — at best — of becoming a one hit wonder.
Most never got that far.

Some never crossed a state line.
Some never crossed the street at the end of their block.
Some never played outside their hometown.
Some never played at all.

What they left behind were fragments.

Raw versions.
Unfinished recordings.
Alternate takes.
Rejected mixes.
Test pressings.
Acetates passed quietly from hand to hand.

Sometimes with real credits.
Sometimes with fake ones.
Sometimes with handwritten labels leading nowhere.
Titles that didn’t match the music.
Stories that changed every time you asked.

Often, the trail simply disappeared.

What remained was intention.

Energy.
Urgency.
Hope pressed into sound.

So the collective worked on it.

They edited certain parts.
Extended others.
Cut what didn’t serve the floor.

Not to modernise.
Not to rewrite history.
But to unlock the power that was already there.

The result sounds like Northern Soul pushed to its breaking point.
Fast. Physical. Emotional.
Built for movement.

Some circulated privately.
Others were never pressed at all.

Recorded in personal studios, borrowed studios, friends’ rooms, temporary spaces.
Always outside the system.

This is not nostalgia.
This is unfinished business.

Now, following great acclaim for Volume 1, CTR is proud to unveil another equally eclectic Post-Punk Era Selection Compiled by Jason Boardman ( Before I Die Records) Celebrated Manchester club-night curator & record Label Owner , DJ & digger - supreme.

A second compilation of late 1970s / early 1980s Post-Punk era bedroom & small studio innovations & DIY Inspirations - Featuring more rarely & never heard cuts from that period. Including tracks from the enigmatic Prana, Blank Students, Janet Armstrong & The Native Hipsters ..A rich vein .

Jason Writes Of Volume 2 :
"It was a delightful shock that No Ones Listening Anyway Volume One was so well received - thanks to everyone one who bought & enjoyed it. This led to John asking me to collate Volume Two, so here it is.

This time all the material was recorded & released in the UK between 1978 & 1984.

I was conscious that there was minimal female energy on Volume One so have tried to rectify that here on Volume Two. I have also tried to make it as varied as possible with none hit wonders, oddities, collectables, under the radar B-sides & a couple of previously unreleased on vinyl selections."

ALERT: BIG 90s ITALIAN RAVE COMP - a lot of very in demand tunes on here.

Navigators

Franco Falsini and the Interactive Test Universe

There are musicians who follow their time.

And then there are those who seem to move along a different trajectory—like navigators crossing sonic eras without ever truly belonging to any one of them. The story of Franco Falsini belongs to the latter. It is a story that begins long before raves, before techno, before the word “electronic” had even become a recognizable musical genre. A story that moves across continents, technologies, and sonic visions, eventually arriving at a small creative laboratory born in Italy in the early 1990s: Interactive Test. This compilation is a fragment of that universe. But as often happens with the hidden histories of music, understanding it requires going back. Far back.

The Beginning: Machines, Tape and Space

In the late 1960s Franco Falsini leaves Italy and moves to the United States. It is not merely a geographical journey—it is also a journey into a new idea of music. At the time, synthesizers are only just emerging from research laboratories. Multitrack tape recorders allow musicians to build entire sonic worlds on their own. Technology is still far from standardized: every studio is almost an experimental workshop. In Virginia, Falsini builds one of his own. Among cables, oscillators, electric guitars and reels of magnetic tape, a kind of music begins to take shape that resembles nothing else being made at the time. It is not simply rock, and it is not yet truly electronic. It moves somewhere in the space between the two. Out of these explorations emerges Sensations' Fix, the project through which Falsini releases a series of albums during the 1970s. Records that seem to come from a parallel dimension: cosmic landscapes, electronically treated guitars, synthesizers drifting like satellites. Many years later those albums would be rediscovered as visionary works. But at the time they were simply the result of relentless curiosity. A curiosity that would never fade.

The City That Never Sleeps

In the 1980s Falsini’s trajectory leads him to New York. The city is a sonic organism in constant transformation. In its clubs and recording studios something entirely new is beginning to take shape: music built from drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, created for the body before the living room. It is the dawn of modern dance culture. Falsini works as a sound engineer, producer and experimenter. From close range he observes electronic music transforming into a global language. Machines become more accessible, computers begin entering studios, and rhythm takes on an increasingly central role. Yet even in this phase Falsini does not simply follow what is happening. He absorbs. Observes. Reimagines. When he eventually returns to Italy, he brings back not only technical experience but also a clear vision: the conviction that electronic music is an open space, a territory still waiting to be explored.

Tuscany, Early 1990s

At the beginning of the 1990s something is happening in Italy as well. In clubs, abandoned industrial warehouses and clandestine parties, a new scene is beginning to form. It is rave culture: a spontaneous movement bringing together DJs, producers and listeners in a collective experience driven by rhythm, technology, and creative freedom. It is within this context that Franco Falsini, together with his brother Riccardo, creates Interactive Test.

The name almost sounds like a scientific experiment. In many ways, it is. Interactive Test does not emerge as a traditional record label. It begins as a laboratory—a place where ideas, sounds and musical identities can be tested and explored. Around the Falsini studio in Tuscany a small constellation of artists and DJs begins to gather, helping to shape the sound of Italy’s emerging electronic scene. Among them are Andrea Giuditta, Francesco Farfa, Gabry Fasano, Roby Mastelloni, Roby J and many others. Each brings a different musical sensibility. But they all share the same intuition: electronic music is not a genre. It is a language.

The Laboratory of Identities

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Interactive Test universe is its constant play with identity. Franco Falsini releases music under several different names: Open Space, Youth Wave, Agent Fylfoyt, Man Myth Magic. These are not simply pseudonyms.

They are different sonic perspectives, as if each project were a window opening onto a parallel musical universe. Open Space, for example, explores more atmospheric and visionary territories. Youth Wave moves between electronic groove and club-oriented rhythms. Other projects experiment with digital psychedelia or hypnotic techno textures. Interactive Test becomes something more than a label. it becomes an ecosystem.

Domestic Machines, Infinite Worlds

Looking back today at the technology used in those productions, one might almost smile. Many tracks were created on Amiga computers, MIDI sequencers and analog synthesizers wired together in home studios—tools that appear modest when compared to today’s digital possibilities.

Yet precisely these limitations became a creative force. Every sound had to be built, shaped and reinvented. Sequences developed slowly, almost like living organisms. The tracks did not always follow traditional dance music structures; often they felt like genuine sonic journeys. Music built from space.

A Hidden Constellation

Many of the records released by Interactive Test in the 1990s remained for years almost invisible objects, circulating quietly among DJs, collectors, and devoted listeners. Yet it is precisely this underground existence that helped preserve them. Listening again today, one perceives something rare: the feeling of music that does not fully belong to its own time. Music suspended between different eras. Perhaps because it comes from a vision that both precedes and transcends trends.

Continuing the Journey

Looking at Franco Falsini’s entire path—from the electronic psychedelia of Sensations’ Fix to the rave culture of the 1990s—a surprisingly coherent line emerges.

A line defined by exploration.

Each project, each pseudonym, each record appears as a new route within the same great sonic voyage.

Interactive Test was one of its stations.

A laboratory.
A community.
A creative platform.

This compilation gathers some of its traces.

Not as a simple archive of the past, but as a map of a musical territory that continues to expand even today.

Like all true sonic explorations.

REPRESSED !
Patrick Keel is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and performer. The Pool was his solo project, the sum of fifteen years of experience in live bands, studios, and home recording. Patrick was heavily influenced by the radio of the early and mid 1960's in Dallas. The British bands and Black soul of the era gave him a distinct style, and shaped his musical attitude. The New Wave/Punk/D.I.Y. attitudes of the late 1970s inspired him to express himself in a new way. 1980 saw the release of "Pool One," a sixty minute home-produced cassette. "Pool Two" followed in 1981, which received much praise and little distribution. In 1982 he released a 5-song self-titled vinyl EP of tight, skeletal, synthetic dance music.

In 1983, 'Dance It Down/Jamaica Running' 12' EP was released on Moment Productions. Based on response from D.J.'s in New York and the Bronx, Patrick went back in the studio and remixed two songs from the self-titled EP for rapping, scratching and break dancing. "Jamaica Resting" was sped-up, extended, and reconfigured as "Jamaica Running". The whirlpool synth-strut of 'Dance It Down' came out of the studio as 'Dance In Dub', with a heavier kick and extended dub outro. These spacious versions were optimal for DJ play, slotting regularly in sets at hip clubs like Danceteria. For this reissue we've added two bonus European remixes from the 1984 12' of 'Dance It Down/Jamaica Running', released on Nunk records from Belgium. Both songs employ the use of a Boss DR-55, Korg MS-20, Korg PolySix, and a Prophet 5, and were mixed on a 16- track Ampex recorder. The Pool's spartan, self-assured songs are experiments you can dance to.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record comes housed in a newly designed jacket by Eloise Leigh, updating the magenta and blue grid and Pool logo of the Moment Productions release. Each copy includes a 12-page booklet with a never seen before photos, press clippings and notes.

LOS ANGELES—To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the celebrated Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense, the set will be re-released as a 2LP and 2CD/Blu-ray set this summer.

Released last year, the sold-out Deluxe Edition of the soundtrack will return as a 2-LP black vinyl on Rhino and 2-LP crystal clear vinyl at retail. Both variants feature a 12-page booklet with liner notes from all four band members –Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison—and band photos. The 2CD/Blu-ray version includes the entire 28-page booklet from last year’s Deluxe Edition and a Dolby Atmos mix of the complete concert, mixed by Jerry Harrison and E.T. Thorngren, who also mixed the original release. Both will be available on July 26. Pre-order now.

The band appeared together for a sold-out screening and Q&A last night at the Pantages Theater, the same theater at which Stop Making Sense was recorded. They were joined by Blondshell, who performed “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel.” Another special screening with the band will occur in Brooklyn at the King’s Theater on June 13, with the Q&A hosted by Questlove and The Linda Linda’s performing “Found a Job.” The two events cap off a banner year of celebrations for what many consider to be the best concert film of all time.

The inspiration for Stop Making Sense came when director Jonathan Demme saw Talking Heads perform during the band’s 1983 tour for Speaking in Tongues. Afterward, he approached them with the idea of making the show into a concert film. They agreed and worked together over the next few months to finalize the details. Ultimately, Demme filmed three shows at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983 to create Stop Making Sense.

The concert film presents a retrospective of the band up to that point, with a performance that weaves together songs from all six of its studio albums. The show progresses methodically, opening with Byrne onstage performing “Psycho Killer” alone with a drum machine. After each song, he’s joined by a new band member until Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison are all on stage with him. The group continues to grow throughout the concert as members of the stellar touring band are added: keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist Alex Weir, and backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.

The band performs 18 songs in Stop Making Sense, including its recent single at the time, “Burning Down The House.” That summer, the song was in heavy rotation on radio and MTV, helping the song become the band’s first top 10 hit in America. It was, however, a different song from Speaking in Tongues that was destined to deliver one of the film’s signature moments. Talking Heads would perform “Girlfriend Is Better” wearing the now iconic, oversized suit inspired by costumes worn in traditional Japanese theater. For good measure, a picture of David Byrne in the suit also graces the album cover.

Stop Making Sense focuses mainly on music by Talking Heads but does include a few songs recorded outside the band: “Genius Of Love” by Tom Tom Club, “What A Day That Was” and “Big Business” from Byrne’s 1981 album, The Catherine Wheel. Limited edition vinyl versions of both of these albums, along with Harrison’s The Red And The Black, were released for this year’s Record Store Day.

When it arrived in September 1984, Stop Making Sense was an artistic and commercial triumph. The film had people dancing in theatre aisles, and the soundtrack sold over two million copies. Just last year, the Library of Congress added Stop Making Sense to the National Film Registry in recognition of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Weymouth praises Demme as a collaborator: “…Jonathan was a very enthusiastic, highly adaptive, and imaginative guy who was just as good a listener as he was a talker and collaborator. From the get-go you just got the impression he was as flexible as he was disciplined. Being team players, that boded well for a great relationship and a great film!”

Harrison says the film still holds up today: “To me, Stop Making Sense has remained relevant because the staging and lighting techniques could have been created in a much earlier time period. For example, Vari-Lights, lights with motors to re-aim them, had just come into vogue. Had we used them, there would have been a timestamp on the film, and it eventually would have felt dated...The absence of interviews, combined with the elegant and timeless lighting, created a film that can be watched over and over.”

Byrne says it’s interesting that this album was – for many people – an introduction to Talking Heads. “We had done a live album before this, but coupled with the film, and with the improved mixes and sound quality, this record reached a whole new audience. As often happens, the songs got an added energy when we performed them live and were inspired by having an audience. In many ways, these versions are more exciting than the studio recordings, so maybe that’s why a lot of folks discovered us via this record.”

Frantz recalls the sheer joy surrounding the entire Stop Making Sense experience. “I’m talking about real, conscious, transcendent joy… I’m talking about what the Southern gospel people call ‘getting happy,’ which means ‘to be filled with the Spirit.’ That is what happened to us onstage every night, and from my seat behind the drums, I recognized that this was happening to the audience too. Joy was visible in front of me and all around me every night.”

Kercha’s debut album ‘Open The Door’ arrives this April via DNO Records. The Black Sea artist’s mystical, disorienting style has set the tone for the label since he dropped the inaugural release six years ago. Now, across 16 tracks — including collabs with Mystic State, Congi, NST, Khromi and Finnoh — his smoky sampledelic dubstep is tighter, heavier, and more curious than ever, with a new sense of danger and bubbling rage that feels fit for our chaotic times.

Themes of movement and change course through the LP. On the opening gambit ‘A Path Into The Unknown’, twinkling arpeggios emerge from the gloom like stars lighting the way. Tracks like the eponymous ‘Open The Door’ and ‘Mind Extraction’ deliver that classic Kercha sound, where left-field samples dart in at right angles. ‘Dangerous Road’ weaves between the call and response action of grotty stabs and devilish subs. ‘Take A Break’, featuring Mystic State, goes on the attack with searing acid. ‘Can’t Wait For Today’, though lethargic in its pace, sees San Francisco-based rapper Finnoh deliver stream-of-consciousness bars that skewer our present and nudge us to revolution.

Work took place over the course of several years, during which Kercha relocated with his family from Russia to Georgia, where he now resides in the capital, Tbilisi. “Sometimes I wrote music while travelling on a bus, sometimes late at night while my family was asleep, sometimes just sitting on the grass in a park, and of course in my home studio as well,” he says. “By the time the album was finished, it included music from different periods, and it may vary in sound and concept.”

Any major upheaval in life will result in moments of hardship, but also hope. Both can be found throughout ‘Open The Door’. There’s times when the darkness threatens to envelope everything: during the cold, crackling ‘Disclosed’ and the eerie, dystopian ‘Infection Of Lies’; on ‘Trigger Activation’, with its grunting lows and broken glass hook, and ‘Ballistics’, where a wall of sub-bass is pierced by shrapnel stabs.

The balancing light comes on ‘4 AM’, featuring Nottingham duo Congi, when clashing swords and cinematic strings, meet a soft Rhodes piano — the juxtaposition between heavy low-end and floaty keys and vox reflecting those moments of transcendence often found in the early hours. From the injection of garage energy on ‘Bubs’, with Edinburgh’s Khromi. And on with ‘My Feeling’, featuring South Russian vocalist NST, which closes the album on a deep but expansive note, bookending the experience with more starlight synth tones.

“It’s a reflection of my life journey and the changes connected with emigration and overcoming various difficulties,” explains Kercha. “This period means a lot to me, which is why the album includes tracks from the time of preparing to leave up to adapting to a new country.”

Still, he wants listeners to be able to derive their own understanding. “I think the essence lies in the ability to contemplate, not in any predetermined meaning,” he says. “I can only say one thing: thank you for appreciating what I do and for your support. I hope it inspires you to make the same firm decisions to change for the better as it did for me.”

Out via 4 x 12” vinyl, ‘Open The Door’ is a captivating artistic statement, showcasing the journey of an artist with a truly original signature sound — a rarity that should be treasured and celebrated.

Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.

araviglia, the sixth album by Italian percussionist and producer Gabriele Poso, celebrates collective musicianship through a vibrant, groove-driven sound. Inspired by late 70s Italian disco and global rhythms, the record blends Mediterranean warmth, Afro Caribbean percussion and jazz sensibility, with one foot firmly on the dancefloor. Recorded live to tape in an analog studio in southern Italy, with heavy percussion, Rhodes, Hammond and a full brass section, the album delivers an organic, joyful sound built for both deep listening and global dance floors.

araviglia, the sixth album by Italian percussionist and producer Gabriele Poso, celebrates collective musicianship through a vibrant, groove-driven sound. Inspired by late 70s Italian disco and global rhythms, the record blends Mediterranean warmth, Afro Caribbean percussion and jazz sensibility, with one foot firmly on the dancefloor. Recorded live to tape in an analog studio in southern Italy, with heavy percussion, Rhodes, Hammond and a full brass section, the album delivers an organic, joyful sound built for both deep listening and global dance floors.

Announcing Maara’s new album Ultra Villain, a deeply personal, narrative-driven record that explores desire, heartbreak, obsession, and the freedom that comes with choosing yourself.

Written from a place of hard-won self-trust, the song marks a shift toward clarity. “I realized people can only meet you where they’ve met themselves.”

Written and Produced by Maara Louisa Dunbar
Additional Production and Mixing by Francis Latreille and Patrick Holland at Jump Source Studios
Mastered by Noel Summerville
Cover Art by Dodleyz
Design by Jesse Osborne-Lanthier

Bonafique return to Crosstown Rebels with ‘Terapia’, featuring Yuvèe and a standout remix from Josh Baker.

Out on 5th June 2026, the duo delivers a hypnotic release remixed by one of the most in-demand names in modern house music. Following their debut appearance on the label’s ‘SPIRITS VII’ compilation in 2025, Bonafique return to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint with a fully realised statement in the form of their ‘Terapia’ EP. With an instinct-driven studio process and emotionally charged sound, the duo continues to refine a style rooted in hypnotic groove, stripped-back club energy, and warped, psychedelic textures - perfectly exemplified across both solo and collaborative offerings here.

Lead cut ‘Profill’, crafted alongside previous collaborator and close friend Yuvèe, travels through tightly coiled rhythmic tension and driving low-end pressure, balancing intensity with restraint in a way that feels raw yet deliberate. Yuvèe’s background informs the track’s direction, bringing a sense of musical discipline that bridges composition and club functionality, adding an understated yet vital layer to Bonafi que’s vision.

On remix duties, You&Me boss Josh Baker makes a notable Crosstown Rebels debut, stepping in as one of the most in-demand figures in contemporary house music. His reinterpretation reshapes the original into a sharp peak-time weapon, injecting spiralling melodies and controlled pressure while retaining its hypnotic core. Closing the release, title track ‘Terapia’ offers Bonafique’s solo excursion of the EP and strips things back into deeper territory, unfolding through atmospheric layers and evolving rhythmic detail to off er a more introspective counterpart to the energy of ‘Profill’.

Slip My Soul Where A Sweet Sunday brings together four versions by Fundación Tony Manero in charge of three projects from the Catalan jazz scene: The Gramophone All Stars Big Band, The Changes and ·I·. At the hands of these interpreters, the songs by Manero (all taken from “Sweet Movimiento”, their second studio LP) wander through different spectrums of jazz. From the Jamaican-tinged ska of the Gramophone to the dragging, hip-hop groove of ·I· through the swing -more classical or more avant-garde depending on the subject- of The Changes, these four pieces prove that jazz and disco music are family. Or what is the same: that jazz has always been dance music. Slip My Soul Where A Sweet Sunday celebrates the legacy on the one hand, the Fundación Tony Manero, which is retiring from the stage after more than 25 years paving the way for new generations and new projects. Among others, those who now take the baton in this EP.