Search:the light

Rough Trade Records veröffentlicht eine remasterte Doppel-Vinyl-Neuausgabe von Love Is Overtaking Me. Die Sammlung vereint Folk-, Pop- und Country-Songs von Arthur Russell, darunter "Planted a Thought", "Close My Eyes" und "I Couldn"t Say It to Your Face". Die ursprüngliche Ausgabe erschien 2007. Für die neue Edition wurden frisch entdeckte Originalbänder verwendet und von Timothy Stollenwerk in Portland neu gemastert. Ergänzt wird das Release durch überarbeitetes Artwork von Molly Smith sowie ausführliche Linernotes von Tom Lee. Seit über zwanzig Jahren macht Audika Russells vielseitiges Werk zugänglich und hat maßgeblich dazu beigetragen, ihm posthum ein größeres Publikum zu erschließen. Heute gilt er als visionärer Künstler und Einfluss für viele zeitgenössische Musiker. Schon zu Lebzeiten arbeiteten zahlreiche Künstler mit ihm, darunter Produzent John Hammond. Auf dem Album finden sich außerdem Aufnahmen mit The Flying Hearts sowie Projekten wie The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty und Bright & Early. Aus über acht Stunden Material zusammengestellt, umfasst das Album Aufnahmen von 1973 bis 1991. Einige Stücke sind auch im Film Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell von Matt Wolf zu hören.

Vessel Recordings Group owner Ira James has curated another delicious deep house release with this big new house tune, plus a set of Todd Terry remixes which come as part of the label's 20th release celebrations. First up is the Freeze Mix, which brings emotional intensity and heavy low ends, then there's a flashy dub before Kameo & Nonfiction's original mix layers loose toms and elastic bass with disco synth colour. Terry also serves up a peak time house rework, Jon Lee & Ramiro bring a tribal twist with their mix and Blakkat's extended mix is a more tech edge affair. A fine way to mark 20 releases.

A Chicago legend who paved way in the underground with his Mr. Peabody record shop, the one and only, Mr. Mark Grusane steps up to L.I.E.S. with his "Angry Birds" lp. On this six tracker Grusane locks in and demonstrates an important facet of the Chicago sound that is often overlooked with a nod to the infamous "Reactor" sound pioneered by DJ RUSH. A rare style mostly shunned by jocks (and producers) on the modern floor, this record is full of straight up circle pit rx-7 programmed madness, chaos of the highest order...This is for the ones who know, the ones who have been obsessed, and the ones who need to know...this record sets it all off. Full on referee whistle chippin, neck snappers for those who dare to step into the real jackin zone. Hi octane, full swerve, blowing through red lights all nite long!

On Lila, his debut LP, Moroccan artist Karim presents a series of undulating electronic rhythms laser-etched into tessellated form: drumless techno from the pre-Sahara, built for communal psychic expansion.

Drumless, yes, but not percussionless. There are shakers, castanets, stabs, plonks, thuds. There are insistent basslines propelling forward, pulsing with energy, rippling in time. There are tones interlocking, rolling, fluttering, pattering. Dancing within, around, between each other. Considered in terms of sheer geometry, Lila is a techno record, unmistakably. But it sounds quite unlike any other techno record you've heard lately.

To write the album, Karim borrowed from the music of the Gnawa, a religious-spiritual musical tradition descended from West African peoples brought to Morocco as slaves hundreds of years ago. Now integrated deeply into Moroccan culture, the centerpiece of Gnawa music is the lila—or "night," in Arabic—an all-night-long ritual of rhythm designed to induce participants and musicians alike into a healing trance state. Which, if you're a dedicated raver, may sound familiar, yes?

Crafted entirely with modular synthesizers, Lila conjures a range of textures and moods. The show opens with "Bakh," a blissful exercise in beatlessness, clear and crystalline. On "Philipoussis," "Kiyex," and "Sonic," arpeggiated synths approximate Gnawa chants while interlaid percussion keeps time in multiple meters. "La" and "Kille" pulse in half-time, ideal for creative mixing. "Joul à lèvre" bristles with electricity, the sound of a charged lightning rod. "Pamil," woozy and lurching, feels like being shipwrecked on a forgotten island. Last and absolutely certainly not least, on the final track, "Miloir," Karim faces West and unleashes the album's only kick drum for a ten-minute psychedelic techno masterpiece. The mind warps; the body moves. 

Lila is released on Tikita, Karim's own record label, founded in 2014. Tikita's discography, spare but tightly curated, features artists from across the globe pushing outwards into techno's deepest reaches. Karim's album pushes even farther. Listen for yourself.

Archeo Recordings is a record label. Old, lost, obscure and forgotten gems and a boundless focus on the new Balearic scene for a wider audience of collectors, DJs and music lovers. All releases are limited edition. This release is a Limited Edition EP (100 on Pink Marbled vinyl). New life and an expanded treatment for the magical Free Disco - You Are My Sculpture with the Original 2010 Heterosexual Mix + the Zion Heat Version (an obscure raw unreleased demo from that period that will light up all the dancefloors on the planet) + 2 special Balearic Remixes by label boss Manu Archeo.

Archeo Recordings is a record label. Old, lost, obscure and forgotten gems and a boundless focus on the new Balearic scene for a wider audience of collectors, DJs and music lovers. All releases are limited edition. This release is a Limited Edition EP (100 on Pink Marbled vinyl). New life and an expanded treatment for the magical Free Disco - You Are My Sculpture with the Original 2010 Heterosexual Mix + the Zion Heat Version (an obscure raw unreleased demo from that period that will light up all the dancefloors on the planet) + 2 special Balearic Remixes by label boss Manu Archeo.

Wiederveröffentlichung des ȓȑȑȗ Albums der Hard Rock Legenden aus Schweden
Erhältlich als Digipak CD (ʜBonustrack) und schwarzem Vinyl
Produziert von Tommy Newton (Helloween and UFO)

Dx2ov arrives on Blank Mind with Tonegues, his second vinyl LP following on from Interzona on Gost Zvuk in 2024. The LP title is a wordplay on the idea of speaking in tongues and sonic tonalities, echoing the process and dialogue that went into creating the record. Taken from a vast archive of material from 2019-2025, these ideas were arranged with the collaboration of label owner Sam Purcell and then completed with the long-distance assistance of Toupaz.

Tonegues is best seen through the lens of a beat-tape, with the playful flow and variety that the format provides, bursting with oddball ideas and punctuated with intangible vocal samples. Much like the LP’s beguiling, hand-drawn artwork by Wolfgang Matuschek, it is a glimpse into an inner world, a portal to somewhere uncanny and strange borne through imagination.

Light dub flourishes mix with footwork/IDM hybrids and understated, melancholic synthesis on ‘2018’, whilst the loose, rhythmic march of ‘Fon32’ evokes the dusty beatdown styles of early 2000s Detroit downtempo records. Whilst on one of the LP highlights ‘Trout’ he lays down a gleefully strange bed for the surrealist storytelling of Jacob Dwyer about interactions with dogs, dripping old houses and a perennial wish for the phone to ring with a heavy dub poetry slant. Dx2ov swiftly moves through more footwork adjacent, almost bedroom hyper-pop territories with a penchant for gabber kicks on ‘No Strings (feat DJ Paprika)’ and the maximalism of album closer 'Demetch' which continues in the tradition of wonky, mid-2010s UK bass music flips. The outcome is a confounding, unorthodox piece of work, zigzagging between forms, textures and moods.

Edition of 200

Selection of IKIGAI Album by Nadia Struiwigh. IKIGAI was born in the quiet space between grief and remembering... Made entirely on hardware, from my living room in Berlin near Hermannplatz (my dad's name is Herman -- the odds), in the months my father passed away. Every sound, every sequence, every texture carries his fingerprint. Not because he made music, but because he made me love gadgets. Circuits, signals, blinking lights. He was the man who opened me up to machines and taught me how, eventually, to listen to them and use them for my craft. The name IKIGAI, a Japanese word for ''reason for being,'' found me when I was at a crossroads. The kind where you ask yourself: Why am I still here? What am I still creating for? What part of me still believes in beauty when everything feels like it's falling apart? These pieces came through slowly, on Japanese gear like Yamaha SEQTRAK, KORG, Roland -- like threads weaving a tapestry I didn't know I was making. Each track is a kind of purge... to him, to myself, to the listeners who find themselves in the in-between. The space where you're not who you were, and not yet who you're becoming. I found myself back into soundscapes and Ambient with a touch of Electronica. I weaved in sounds I captured from daily life, memories -- like the laugh of my sister. I built in silence and let the machines cry for me and let them tell the story I couldn't find the words for. IKIGAI is spacious. It's not trying to impress anyone. It's trying to just be, and hold space for all kinds of emotions. It moves like memory... slow, sacred, shifting. This release needs to be close to home, and will be released on my own imprint Distorted Waves, on the day 11.11 -- which refers to my first album that my dad had hanging up in his shed. For my father. Nadia

Big heart US deep house figurehead Chez Damier has opened his studio up to new school collaborators once again, with Italy's Nico Lahs and Adeen chief Camille getting back to work on a new series of tunes inspired by jazz-fusion and the sounds broadcast on legendary radio station WJZZ. 'Dragon Breath' opens with tense rhythmic interplay and expressive horns and vibraphones, while 'Tunita' offers shimmering rhythms. 'Third World Wave' is a busy broken beat with weighty kicks and brilliantly loose percussion all run through with off-kilter horns. The 12" expands the palette, from the lighter touch of 'Haiku' to the driving force of 'Bullet Train'. Another majestic collaboration.

Polished and forward-looking even 40-odd years on from its initial release, Bourbon Suite captures Japanese female keyboard trio Cosmos at a time when fusion leaned into pop accessibility without losing technical finesse. Built around layered keys and crisp studio musicianship, the album moves with a sleek, late-night feel. 'Midnight Shuffle' stands out for reworking earlier material into a smoother, instrumental-led groove, while 'Cosmic Cosmos' drifts into more spacey territory and is driven by elastic bass and shimmering synth lines. There's a clarity to the arrangements that keeps things light on their feet and means this remains a refined example of early 80s crossover fusion.

2026 Repress

Cirkle returns to Sublunar, Sciahri's label, following the success of Sonic Surge, with a new EP that showcases both refinement and immense talent. This release encapsulates Cirkles distinct sound and artistic evolution, offering a rich and immersive sonic journey.

The EP opens with Shadows of the Past, a track driven by a pulsating, groovy synth line and dynamic drum patterns that propel the rhythm forward. It seamlessly transitions into Beaten, a dark, hypnotic piece that envelops the listener in a shadowy atmosphere.
The B-side begins with Shamanic, a track that pays homage to a more classic techno sound while maintaining an irresistible, steady groove. Following this, The Wall That We Build offers a more delicate and minimalistic approach, balancing precision and subtlety. The journey concludes with Tears of Light, an epic and transcendental piece that takes the listener to another dimension.

Dr. Caligari was notoriously out of his mind — a genius fixated on experiments and a former lecturer at the Department of Experimental Phonetics. His students, Spacelunch included, spoke of him with cautious admiration: “Too smart to be normal; too bold to stop.” His laboratory looked like a hand-welded cosmos: cables everywhere, diodes, and the soft hiss of electricity.

“What’s that?” Spacelunch nodded toward the large glass dome.
“My new invention that allows sound to become tangible. Care to take a look?”

The Professor and Cat carefully stepped inside.

“You’re about to be the first to witness the voice of space!”
“Hey, we didn’t sign up for this!”
“Doesn’t that make the experiment more interesting?”

Caligari smiled and turned a dial. Their bodies stretched like strands of pasta and vanished. An instant later, they found themselves in another dimension: towers of transistors and coils rose into the sky, the air thrummed with low-frequency oscillations, and every flash of light carried the rhythm of a sonic lattice. Almost at once, the image wavered like old film, went black, and then snapped back to the laboratory. Caligari sat at the console, eyes fixed on the monitors. “It worked,” he whispered. “Perfect phase alignment!”

2026 Repress

Two massive hits from the past which have been brought back into the light of the day by Michael Mayer.

"Know Your Toms", it struck us that we have in our collections a number of amazing releases from artists writing deep and underground house music all going by the name Tom. The mission - to collect a track from each of them and make the kind of release which finds its way into only the best record collections. Tom Lown records as Lucky Sun and runs his own label of the same name. His track "Tomcat" is deep, pad drenched house for when the sun is out and the dancefloor is heating up.

Tom Gilbert is a master at crafting melody-rich, future-facing electronic music that's as timeless as it is tuneful, atmospheric and pleasingly nostalgic as can be heard in his track "Tom & Roland". Tom Churchill is a Scottish-based electronic music DJ, producer, and label owner involved in the scene since the mid-90s, his track "Backwards Glance" is his trademark deep house at its finest.

Tom (Shur-i-kan) Szirtes needs no introduction and has produced the kind of track which lights up the dance floor in a peak time house set, "Round Robin" is an instant classic. Between them they have been signed to the cream of the crop in underground house labels: Freerange, Headspace, We're Going Deep, Winding Road, Innate, Tronicsole, M>O>S, Nordic Trax, DiY Discs, Echocentric, Lost My Dog, 2Sox, Distant Worlds. The EP Comes on eco marbled vinyl, with "Know Your Toms" sticker and insert which is a guide to identifying the different types of Toms out there. A limited run of T-shirts available from Fourier Transforms Bandcamp

Following their recent appearance covering Sylvester and Patrick Cowley's 'I Need Somebody to Love Tonight' on Rocksteady Disco, the enigmatic cosmic pairing of Glenn Echo & Daniel Meinecke channel deep, shimmering disco and nu-disco vibes while calling on ethereal, cosmic textures. The throbbing 'Home Rule' opens with a warm, hypnotic pulse and well-worked vocals that deliver recognisable rhymes, while 'Love Letter' slows down to a heavyweight crawl with warped and twisted pads and plenty of texture. Both tunes here highlight the duo's skill at blending dancefloor immediacy with atmospheric nuance and feel like a journey through mirrored lights and late-night reverie.

Returning from an 18-month hiatus, Companion resurfaces with its long-awaited ninth offering – a six-track EP that beautifully distills the label’s devotion to patient tempos and deep immersive moods. The Garden is the result of a remote, cross-border dialogue between London and Belfast: a project born from a seasonal fatigue with the dancefloor and a collective turn towards our most inner states of being. The debut collaboration between Serenity Complex (Wigs) and Aika Mal, the EP is a meticulously detailed exercise in restraint, trading industrial harshness for a lush, subterranean hush.

The production breathes with a tactile, low-slung urgency: gritty, compressed drums and haphazardly recorded beatboxed percussion captured on a patio beneath the Devon sun provide a raw counterpoint to the EP’s cinematic sweep. Steered by narcotic basslines imbued with the brooding, early DNA of Massive Attack, these undulating pulses coil around the listener with a subtle, magnetic pull. They create a state of suspended momentum where tension never fully resolves and instead becomes the point of return. Aika Mal’s voice acts as a spectral anchor – mellifluous and transfixing as it moves in and out of each carefully curated element.

Drawing from the gossamer, reverb-drenched landscapes of Love Spiral Downwards and the gothic opulence of The Golden Palominos, the tracks lean into a slow, deliberate pace. Dub-influenced low end and trip-hop structures form the backbone, while fractured, gritty breakbeats bring a sharper edge. The release traces low-lit excursions into limerence, thriving in the heavy humidity of the afternoon just as easily as in the blue light of the pre-dawn or the apricity of first light.

The Garden celebrates togetherness by blurring two distinct artistic outlines into a single, prismatic whole. It is an invitation to submerge – a descent into the overgrowth.

Sounds of Sirius Music presents SOSNZ012 – Vedanā – Convergence / Polarity

All forces move in pairs. Light and shadow. Push and pull. Signal and silence.
Frequencies bend toward each other, magnetic fields collapsing into a single point of awareness. Tension becomes motion. Duality becomes flow.

New Zealand-based artist Vedanā leads the A-side with two original cuts, channeling a deep, hypnotic energy that moves between restraint and release. Each track reveals a different side of the same spectrum, balancing introspection with forward momentum.

On the B-side, label founder Herman Saiz delivers a reinterpretation rooted in his signature groove, bridging Chilean and New Zealand influences with a refined, driving touch. Romanian producer RQZ adds his own perspective, reshaping the original into a textured and immersive journey.

Convergence / Polarity captures the space where opposites meet — not as contradictions, but as essential counterparts in constant motion.

Are You Alien's first vinyl missive, a compilation style affair showcasing the work of four label affiliated artists, is genuinely packed to the rafters with cuts designed to be played loud on "deep dancefloors and late-night transmissions". HearThuG kicks things off with 'Relax', a post-punk/dark disco inspired slab of early morning hedonism inspired by DFX's 'Relax Your Body' (which itself borrowed heavily from the KLF's 'What Time Is Love'), before Light Blue File charges towards darkened warehouses on the tactile tech-house/stab-happy rave fusion of 'Guante El En Mic'. Over on side B, Briki opts for squelchy acid bass, trippy vocal snippets and spacey sounds on 'Droppin The Pressure', before Ahmet Mecnun adds spoken word vocals and French Touch flourishes to a deep tech-house groove.

DJ Support: Cerys Matthews, Gilles Peterson, Gideon Coe, Zakia, Jamie Cullum, Patrick Forge, Maflada, Dom Servini, Tony Minvielle, China Moses, Yolanda Brown

Drawing on influences from Charles Stepney to David Axelrod, into expansive folk-soul and jazz from the 60s, Bring Our Light To Every Corner is a deep and enchanting masterpiece from Scrimshire.

With captivating features by Dwight Trible, Idris Rahman, Faye Houston and Indian classical legend Mahesh Kale, the album holds together a suitably diverse set of ideas in a seamless journey full of heart.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band's "Cinematic Soul" aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. With their 2005 debut album Sounding Out The City, EMA spearheaded an instrumental funk / soul movement that inspired a slew of bands and even lead to the creation of a few independent record labels. El Michels has since lent his signature sound to artists from Adele to Dr John, Lana Del Rey to Aloe Blacc, and a who's who list of others. In 2016 he co-founded Big Crown Records and has since produced the lion's share of its output. A short stint as the touring band for Wu Tang Clan in 2007 led to the cult classics Enter The 37th Chamber (2009) and Return To The 37th Chamber (2017). Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair. In 2017 in between producing, playing, and recording on other artists' records Leon Michels began creating compilations of short interludes intended to be sampled by hip hop producers. Some of these wound up becoming songs by Jay Z & Beyonce, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. These minute-long snippets were inspired by the dense moody work of `60s composers like David Axelrod, and Francois de Roubaix, as well as Moondog's brand of classical jazz. Michels was having so much fun creating these instrumental / orchestral nuggets that he decided to expand on some of the ideas and create what would become the soundtrack for a movie that has yet to be made, an imaginary film entitled "Adult Themes." The album plays like the colors on an artists pallet. Songs like "Rubix" and "Villa" are densely orchestrated with the hard-hitting drums that El Michels Affair is known for. On "Life of Pablo", Leon's son makes his first appearance on record and intros a song with an epic arrangement and a moving mood. "Hipps" is a drum heavy ballad that could've easily fit on EMA's debut record, Sounding Out the City. Other compositions like "The Difference" and "Kill The Lights" are bare, melodic mood pieces with sparse drums and sophisticated chord movement. All of these tunes come together to make perfect backgrounds for dialogue and action. One of the beautiful things about instrumental music is that the listener can decide what the narrative is. With Adult Themes El Michels Affair has created a "choose your own adventure" in musical form.

Detroit producer, Shawescape Renegade, comes to Tresor Records with Exoframe, a five-track EP of pure techno and electro, including a remix by Arpanet.
As with so many forerunners and peers in the Detroit techno world, Shawescape Renegade, is a deep thinking and a world-building story teller and Exoframe uses the traditional sci-fi narrative to explore recent thought Shaw has had on the potential hidden costs of technological
evolution: what happens when overspecialisation leads to a dead end; when inflexibility means a return to the old forms becomes difficult.
The EP opens with 78 Light Years From Earth, an effects-laden slab of electro that pulls the percussion into other dimensions. Mechanus 9 brings a techno edge before Terraformers Warning unleashes a bass-driven beast.
A fast-paced remodel of Terraformer’s Warning from Gerald Donald’s Arpanet project follows, before the EP is closed out with another bassline-forward track, Ignition One, an updated version of the Shawescape cut that soundtracked the section of the Black To Techno
documentary focussed on the Detroit’s Jit dance scene. The strong symbiosis between Jit and Techno is a foundational part of Detroit’s culture and a community tie and suggests that while technology may lead to stagnation, the cultural muscle memory offers a path back to
authenticity.
In a thoughtful nod to the praxis of the DJ, the vinyl versions of A1 & B1 are five BPM slower than the digital, moving the music to between 128BPM and 151BPM on a standard Technics turntable and opening it up for play in a greater range of club environs.
It’s this deep respect for the artistry and traditions of Detroit’s longstanding music and dance scenes that mark Shawescape Renegade out as one of the true inheritors of the city’s heritage.

he all-time house music legend Roger Sanchez drops his brand new studio album ‘Spectrum’ - his first in twenty years. Previewed by three high-energy bangers - ‘Grinnin’ (with Fedde LeGrand), ‘Come My Way’ and ‘Temptation’ (with Low Steppa, featuring Ragdoll) - the record features the new focus track ‘How Do We Say Goodbye’, a collab with Karen Harding.

The globally celebrated and Grammy-winning DJ, producer and label head has been working on the album for years, much of it during his time in Shoreditch which has informed its euphoric UK summer sonic influences. But its diverse tracks reflect a spectrum of sounds, from pulsating club tracks to dancefloor fillers, through to more emotional moments and atmospheric elements. Lyrically it’s also the result of translating his personal experiences into song.

Roger says, “I’ve been working on this for the past six years, so it’s definitely a labour of love. During that time I got the chance to travel around the world and work with some amazing vocalists and songwriters to help me bring this project to life. I’ve got flavours from the UK, Spain, the US - all of this is part of the spectrum for. This project is about music and frequencies and light: so everything from the light to the soulful to the club-ready infrared, the emotionally-weighted ultraviolet. That’s what ‘Spectrum’ is all about for me.”

The new focus track ‘How Do We Say Goodbye’ was created with the topline extraordinaire and always in-demand collaborator Karen Harding, whose all-star credits include work with MNEK, Armand Van Helden, Rudimental, Wilkinson and many more. It’s a massive highlight of the album, with Karen’s soaring vocal class bringing both an irresistible hook and a touching sense of nostalgia, while Roger’s dynamic production ascends from a trance-like ambience into an electrifying drop.

Beyond the singles, ‘Spectrum’ also features a diverse array of other talents spanning multiple genres and nationalities. These include Melanic C, Kele Le Roc, Chico Castillo, Kelli-Leigh, Carnao Beats, Donae’O and more. It’s a guestlist which lives up to the anticipation for the record.

‘SPECTRUM’ is available as a special 3LP limited-edition pressed on red transparent vinyl.

Side A begins with CEM3340 & 2030’s “I Don’t Know”, a Detroit-inspired electro cut merging crunchy basslines, warm strings and raw energy, showcasing the nostalgic yet forward-thinking music crafted by two key figures of the Italian electro underground. Lake Haze keeps the electro narrative moving with “Modular Processed Data”, a melancholic broken-beat piece that balances softness and strength with timeless poise. Closing the side, 3KZ unveils “Step Into Light”, pushing the emotional range further through radiant melodic layers and harmonic clarity: high-impact, luminous, and built for those rare moments on a big system when everything clicks.

The journey ends with three shape-shifting cuts on the B Side that refuse to play it safe. Passarani 2099 (an alias of Marco Passarani) warps the frame with “Golden Valley”, channeling dubstep tempo, neuro-basslines, and haunting sequences into mutant rhythmic territory. Peryl’s “Res Affair” follows as a modular techno bomb—wobbling bass, broken patterns, alien textures, riding the edge between chaos and control with surgical intent. Finally, Nothus closes the compilation with “Tango”, an uncompromising finale of gritty rhythm work and experimental propulsion: the perfect full-stop to a decade mapped in sound.

Simple Symmetry’s recent gig in Cape Town yielded studio magic as they connected with singer Asandisa Siswana of the Thanda Choir on ‘Inkwenkwezi,’ which literally means star in Xhosa. Representing guidance, hope, and good fortune, her immensely powerful vocal performance made for a super potent mix with SS’s big room styling, and great remix material for Lipelis who brings it all back to crowd-pleasing bubble-gum house, while Peaking Lights shine some acid on the proceedings and Multi Culti A&R Thomas Von Party gives his new Teenage Engineering drum synth a workout on the Riddim Mix.

Random Color ReVINYL Edition. Never has a Songs: Ohia album's process been so integral to its overall feel as is the case with DIDN'T IT RAIN, the band's sixth proper full-length. The album, like the working class South Philadelphia neighborhood in which it was birthed, has a real used goods kinda feel to it. Engineer Edan Cohen employed what some may consider "old-fashioned" recording techniques -- the entire album was recorded live with no overdubs, the full band playing in one room with the players always within arms' reach of one another; singers Jason Molina, Jennie Benford and Jim Krewson (the latter two of Jim & Jennie And The Pinetops) sharing microphones singing live together, sometimes sitting in chairs, sometimes standing. The result is a sound which resembles the warmth and personality of the classic Muscle Shoals Sound recordings of the early- to mid-70s: Willie Nelson's PHASES & STAGES, the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses", and others by Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wilson Pickett.Inspired by the Mahalia Jackson song of the same name, the title track is a beautiful song about the shifting tides of life and the old cycle of "a lot of shit going down before shit clears up". It's a damn fine place to start an album that seems in no hurry whatsoever to make a universal statement, instead perfectly content to walk its own path toward resolution. And damn if Songs: Ohia principal songwriter Jason Molina hasn't gone and created a record that is even more intensely personal and healing than any of his previous works. Neil Young had his AFTER THE GOLDRUSH, this is Molina's DIDN'T IT RAIN. Indeed, this is the album with which Molina really leaves his mark as a serious songwriter and artist. On 1999's genre-bending Ghost Tropic full-length, Songs: Ohia made it clear that it could make a cohesive album that took its listener on a journey from front to back. Its dislocated feel set a haunting tone, and its largely instrumental and drone-like quality was the process of the Ohia eluding itself and its own tendencies, searching for the underside of its roots freshly yanked. With DIDN'T IT RAIN, Molina & Co. return to the beauty of the song form and offer up a startlingly soulful and introspective song cycle in which Molina -- accepting a comfortable degree of anonymity amongst the other players -- meditates on what it means to feel rooted again (in the city of Chicago, where he's called home for the past three years), sounding more sturdy at his core than ever.

Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.

The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.

Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.

The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.

Downtown Boys have pushed relentlessly forward as an artistic and political project since their founding. Singer Victoria Marie and guitarist/singer Joey La Neve DeFrancesco first met at union meetings while working together at a hotel in Providence, RI, writing many of the band's early songs about labor organizing and exploitative workplaces. The quintet is completed by Joe DeGeorge (sax/synth), Mary Jane Regalado (bass), and Joey Doubek (drums). Over years of touring, and three acclaimed albums, Downtown Boys have continued to grow as artists, musicians, and organizers. Now, the band has arrived with Public Luxury, an enthralling album that keeps politics front and center while summoning the band's most urgent and powerful sound to date. The definition of Public Luxury falls very much in line with that of the title of the second Downtown Boys LP, Full Communism. Straight up, Public Luxury means, "everything for everyone." It's the stubborn insistence that a better world is possible, while fully recognizing the horrors we witness daily, and the individual and collective responsibility to resist the nihilism and hopelessness we all feel. Sentiments like "everything for everyone," and "we will have it all" perfectly represent the cathartic, communal live experience this cadre of multi-instrumentalists create. These sentiments also encapsulate the inclusive, joyful sonic fusion that defines the album: anthemic punk and indie rock mix with Latin traditions, drum machines blend with acoustic drums, saxophones punctuate riffs, and layers of synths add flourishes from new-wave to industrial. The amount of ground covered on Public Luxury can't be overstated, and yet the album feels totally vital and cohesive. Public Luxury is a revisitation of the band's past for the sake of their future. It was co-produced by DeFrancesco with recording engineer and longtime Downtown Boys supporter Seth Manchester (Lambrini Girls, Lightning Bolt, Model/Actriz) at the Pawtucket, RI studio and arts space Machines With Magnets, not far from the band's first home of Providence, RI. Victoria Marie's grandmother-a monumental figure for the band throughout their existence-passed away in May of 2025, and her influence looms large over the album; the songs "No Me Jodas" and "Sirena" are crystallized representations of the love between a woman and her ancestor. Beyond the loss, rage and frustration of the present, Public Luxury points boldly towards a vibrant, open-hearted vision of both music and the world: "Our music is simply for anyone and everyone who believes in the new future we can make together," Victoria Marie declares. "A world that will be awkward, inconsistent, yet truly free when it comes to all that matters."

Random ReVINYL Edition. Black Mountain, the front-line soldiers for the Black Mountain Army, an arts collective from Vancouver, British Columbia, write, perform and record music that speaks (and sings) to this realization: that solutions are rarely simple, that the world is as complex as it is ambiguous, and that music sprinkled with an inoculating dose of madness may well be the Pied Piper that takes us all back into the primordial mountain, where our hearts can be made steady and our minds can be set free. Their debut self-titled record, like a space probe built of erector set parts and transmitting secret and arcane messages to earth by string, charts territories unknown yet remains grounded by the roots of classic rock and roll. It is easy to discern these roots: Black Sabbath, Animals-era Pink Floyd, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin and Can. Principal songwriter Stephen McBean's vocals are a smoother, bluesier amalgam of the voices of Neil Young, Mick Jagger and perhaps a James Brown loaded on cough syrup. And when Amber Webber's voice joins Stephen's, the combination brings to mind the potency and chemistry of Richard and Linda Thompson singing together on Shoot Out The Lights, or of Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley howling together on Bat Out Of Hell. Musical comparisons aside, the Black Mountain full-length is one part protest song, one part pop-cultural commentary, and one part sick-groove-rock casserole peppered with mesmerizing ballads and intoxicating ditties. "Modern Music" is the lead-off hitter and counts its way to the imposing and riff-rife "Don't Run Our Hearts Around". Immediately thereafter, the sludge-rock masterpiece "Druganaut" establishes the fecund heart and tone of the record. Black Mountain have also just recently released a 12-inch single (on Jagjaguwar), including an extended mix of "Druganaut" on the A-side. And the band's currently sexploitative counterpart The Pink Mountaintops, a band that also pipes into the prolific well-spring of Stephen McBean's mind, released their self-titled debut record (on Jagjaguwar as well) this past summer. A video by Heather Trawick of the song "Druganaut" is included on the CD version of the Black Mountain self-titled record.

Mr Bongo are thrilled to have one of the leading lights in contemporary soul joining the label. Melbourne-based vocalist, musician, and songwriter Ella Thompson is an artist whose name is being championed by some of the best in the business. She’s been building a reputation as one to watch, with two standout releases on Hopestreet Recordings, Domino EP in 2023 and Ripple On The Wing LP in 2024, alongside a heavy touring schedule and a stacked list of support slots and collaborations.

For this new 7” single, Ella collaborates with a selection of artists at the forefront of Naarm/Melbourne’s soulful DIY community. Featuring members of Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo, Liam McGorry from Temporary Blessings (College Of Knowledge) joins Ella as co-writer and co-producer, with go-to Melbourne engineer Henry Jenkins also producing and recording the track.

Bridging the worlds of classic and contemporary soul, Ella’s songwriting is drenched in emotion and personal experience. With a timeless feel that is hard to tie to any particular period, she has crafted a sound that instantly hits deep. It’s warm, tasteful and distinctly Ella. That talent has also seen her tour with Mark Ronson, and support other contemporary greats like Jalen Ngonda, Lee Fields, and Thee Sacred Souls.

‘Promise To Keep’ is the first taste of Ella’s new material on this 7” single. An irrepressible upbeat groover that echoes mid-to-late-sixties vocal groups. That influence though never overpowers Ella’s own unique creative voice or distinct sense of self. She draws from it, but the colour is all her own. The song tells a story of being carried by the current that keeps us moving, giving us courage. A commitment to oneself that speaks to action shaped by vision, and the pull of following what feels correct even when the distance is far.

The flip side finds Ella in a different mood. ‘Change Of Heart’ is a heavy sweet-soul ballad. Rich in drama, Ella’s falsetto vocals build to a stunning climax in the final section, with triumphant horns that signal the release of letting go. The lyrics reflect on temporality and impermanence, and the way moments can be missed or arrive with synchronicity. It’s that bittersweet paradox of triumph and sadness, where everything contains its opposite: absence and presence, innocence and experience. The song is underpinned by a brooding production quality and atmospheric, beat-heavy flavour that Surprise Chef and cinematic soul fans will relish.

Mixed by Wayne Gordon (Daptone, Womack Sisters), ‘Promise to Keep’ and ‘Change of Heart’ are a glimpse of things to come from Ella. Keep an eye open for more new music incoming from this phenomenal artist at the top of her game.

“Dancing is immediate. It happens in infinitely small blips of the present, strung together one into the next, direct and spontaneous. And as each moment fades out of the present and into the past, these blips coalesce and ferment and refract into memory.

Play is the first album from Sam Hall’s new project, Spinbeat. Sam has previously released glitch-inflected bedroom pop under the name Ghost Orchard, putting out albums on Orchid Tapes and Winspear. Spinbeat comes with a turn towards rawer sounds and something like the dancefloor.

The tracks on Play linger in the space between music for dancing and music for listening. They are the memory of a dancefloor- sounds, feelings, moments of darkness and color. In contrast with other recent music to come out of the dubby post-club zone, Play is marked by its lightness and warmth. Fragile, intimate moments come bubbling up from underneath the surface, glimmering in plain view for a moment before sinking back into the fog. These pockets of earnestness lend depth and substance to the mystique of the murkier stretches.

Dance music for post-rave romance, for August haze, for the frogs in the pond out behind the warehouse party.

Mastered by The Bastard.”

Featuring rare- and first-on-vinyl tracks from beloved producers such as 2000 And One, Stasis, and CiM. Remastered by DMX Krew and with an accompanying online essay by Oli Warwick.

Across eight carefully selected slices of starry-eyed machine soul, Cold Blow presents an exquisite tour through backroom techno and downtempo electro. With a focus on thematic flow and an immersive listening experience, the London-based label explores works from leading lights of the 1990s and previously unreleased cuts that celebrate the human heart that can be discovered in synthetic sound practices. The development of techno in the 1990s saw the music evolve in different directions across the world. From the expressive blueprint laid out by the Detroit pioneers, a wide range of tempos and energies emerged. Techno's evocative synthesis and intricate drum machine programming was especially potent for deeper explorations away from the dancefloor. Documents Of A Different Reality casts back to when technology was steering quantum leaps in communication and creativity and the future was shot through with naive optimism. It was also a time when the media and industry hadn't caught up with the music to box it into distinct categories. As such, there's a sense of creative freedom that informs the older tracks on the album, from 2000 And One and Sandy Huner's sparkling example of early Dutch techno to London-based LA Synthesis' detailed take on braindance and the majestic night sky vision of cult legend Stasis. There's also space for rare, late 90s machine funk from Icelandic outlier Thor alongside Connective Zone's charmingly fractured bleep dream and a more contemporary offering from Barcelona-based duo Permutation. Meanwhile Mind Control and CiM both capture the spirit of stylistic fusion with twitchier rhythms that take influence from hardcore and jungle as much as techno. With an atmospheric through-line of melancholic pads and harmonious leads, this small but perfectly formed collection naturally follows on from previous, equally thought-out compilations on Cold Blow, and adds a distinct perspective on the history and continuing legacy of pioneering early ambient techno.

WRWTFWW Records unleashes the first ever release of legendary post-disco, funk, soul and electronic UK trio Imagination's cult album Night Dubbing in (well deserved) double LP format. The limited edition full-length comes with pristine audiophile treatment and luxurious packaging : a 45rpm and Half Speed Mastered DLP housed in heavyweight silver cardboard sleeve.
Imagination's singular 1983 album Night Dubbing is a refined deconstruction of black British soul and club pop, filtered through the deep studio and mixing techniques of dub music. Elegant, restrained, and, in its very own subtle way, radical, the record reshapes choice selections from the group's stellar catalogue into an immersive and out-of-this-world listening experience.

The special mixes on Night Dubbing are built on time and space. Basslines elongate and dissolve. Vocals appear, vanish, and reappear like ghosts. Drums fall away into vast silences, while echoes, tape edits, and precise engineering manoeuvres smoothly slide across the stereo field, revealing themselves like magic over repeated listens. Far from simple extensions or 12" versions, Night Dubbing treats the studio itself as an instrument, opening new dimensions of sound.

Often cited as a foundational record in the genesis of the house genre, the album also features the historic Larry Levan remix of "Changes", a Paradise Garage anthem that helped shape the direction of club music for decades to come.

More than 40 years on, Night Dubbing remains a seminal work. Its influence continues to echo through contemporary dance music, offering a blueprint for how pop could be transformed into something darker, stranger, more physical - a timeless sound that drifts effortlessly from the dancefloor into space.

Important note : it sounds amazing played on 33rpm too !

Sound Therapy is the culmination of over ten years of sonic experimentation, developed across the past three years between Sicily, the United Kingdom, and Brooklyn. It builds on the foundation of the 2021 Dub-Stuy single Pon Pause featuring Al Campbell, whose success became the catalyst for the album’s eight tracks.

Conceived across two distinct halves, the album reflects the dual nature of D-Operation Drop’s sound, moving from one drop and roots/steppers traditions into more modern, forward-leaning bass music. The whole is intended to move the listener between foundation and progression, day and night, light and dark, a dynamic reflected in both the music and album artwork.

Sound Therapy also reflects the collaborative nature of sound system culture, featuring vocalists Blakkamoore and JonnyGo Figure (US), Galas and Marina P (Italy), and Rider Shafique (UK), alongside instrumental contributions from Brooklyn-based saxophonist Troy Mobius. The album was collaboratively mixed in person with McPullish (US) and mastered at Star Delta (UK), with a focus on depth, weight, and sound system translation.

Sound Therapy stands as a complete body of work while establishing a broader musical direction for D-Operation Drop, with further singles, mixes, and related projects to follow.

dgoHn (pronounced “John") is the moniker of John Cunnane, who hails from somewhere between London and Essex. ‘Tessares,’ his fourth album but his first for Planet Mu, is playful, unconventional drum & bass that contrasts sparse effects and melodic elements with complex drumfunk and breakcore. He often uses unusual time signatures and head-spinning polyrhythms inspired by jazz and math rock, sometimes within the same track. Somehow he makes it sound effortless, and occasionally pretty as well, keeping a fine balance that never feels punishing; exploratory without getting lost.

He's built a name for himself over the last two decades performing live at festivals and events around the world, while collaborating with fellow artists such as Macc, Nic TVG, Jodey Kendrick and Badun as well as solo releases.


The album opens with ‘Waiting For’ which combines complex breaks with melodic fills, spacey effects and dubbed out vocals that feel like snatches of lost conversations - a combination he uses throughout the album giving it an eerie touch of humanity. Lead single ‘I Couldn't Remember So I Made Something Up’ is in 15/8 time. It feels like a conventional melodic drum & bass track, but the time signature disrupts the listeners’ expectations, while the detuned melody eases its sense of dislocation. ’Whistling On A Tuesday’ opens with a light echoey piano countdown into bass stabs which introduce heavy whirling amen breakbeats that switch between 180 and 120 bpm. ’Holly Can Swim But She Doesn’t Really Like It’ is the most rhythmically challenging track here. It feels hard to hang on to as its knotty breaks play out over bell chimes, like something Autechre might make if jungle was in their DNA. The album ends on the dubbed-out drumfunk of ‘7 Years Or More,’ with an arrangement that builds a filmic, dusty atmosphere of chimes and electric guitar, layering in vocals, vinyl crackle and echoing synth giving way to tough drums, before all that is taken away so that just a voice remains.

Purple vinyl, limited to 300 copies. On this, Spirit Caravan's second foray into the long-player format, the band has collectively slowed down the tempo, and dropped the mood into even more contemplative territory. As the grandfather of modern stoner rock, Wino has certainly dipped his guitar picks in LSD this time around. Even though the engineering and production is bone dry and bottom heavy, Wino's psychedelic guitar work -- especially his stinging, busy leads -- has been ratcheted up a few clicks, even if the overall aesthetic is darker, and the superb musicianship from the trio simplified. The listener may be reminded of Hawkwind powered by an enormous diesel engine. As a title, Elusive Truth may indicate Wino's searching nature as a musician, and his attempt to continue down the sonic path through darkness, and through light. With this album, the listener is most certainly in darker territory. - All Music

Reissue. On this, Spirit Caravan's second foray into the long-player format, the band has collectively slowed down the tempo, and dropped the mood into even more contemplative territory. As the grandfather of modern stoner rock, Wino has certainly dipped his guitar picks in LSD this time around. Even though the engineering and production is bone dry and bottom heavy, Wino's psychedelic guitar work -- especially his stinging, busy leads -- has been ratcheted up a few clicks, even if the overall aesthetic is darker, and the superb musicianship from the trio simplified. The listener may be reminded of Hawkwind powered by an enormous diesel engine. As a title, Elusive Truth may indicate Wino's searching nature as a musician, and his attempt to continue down the sonic path through darkness, and through light. With this album, the listener is most certainly in darker territory. - All Music

DJ Support: Chris Coco, DJ Morpheus, Alexis Le-Tan, DVS1, Afterlife, Ally Tropical, Alex Ruder (KEXP), Andy Wilson, Bill Brewster, Makossa

Dawn Again continues his masterful run on Hell Yeah with a third new album in consecutive years. The Aussie "pubwave" architect this time serves up Pints Of Ambient Nectar, an eight-track collection of new ambient works and remixes of album tracks from 2024's Every Dog's Hotel and 2025's Lost In The Front Bar.

Melbourne producer Nick Verwey has spent the last decade quietly refining a sound that's loose, lived-in, and made for real moments rather than peak-time theatrics. With releases on Houseworx, Enjoyment Division and Hell Yeah, his sun-faded, lo-fi grooves drift between breaks, downtempo and hazy house. His “pubwave” sound is music born from lockdown nostalgia, communal pints and the romance of places where time slows, conversations linger, but the jukebox keeps things moving.

The scene is set with bird calls and saw synth awakenings on 'Backyard Paradiso', 'A Day in the Life of Pond Algae' is a quiet ode to hope and revival, while 'Slow Motion Goal Celebration' smudges chords like rays of sun cooled by a breeze. 'Kneverending Knockoffs' teases acid murmurs amongst floating melodic clouds, and new cut ' A Pub With No Beer' has sugary lines piercing sustained ambient drones. 'Hard Earned Thirst' is mellow magic for horizontal afternoons, 'Hair Of The Dawg' shimmers like heat waves on the horizon and 'Vanilla Sky' is a cathartic drift bathed in soft light, unfolding in slow, weightless waves.

This sun-dazed ambient sidestep from Dawn Again stretches pubwave nostalgia into hazy, unhurried pieces made for slow afternoons where your woes dissolve and your soul warms.

Following vibraphonist and long-standing member Lewis Wright"s move to the USA, the award-winning UK jazz ensemble, featuring Nathaniel Facey on alto saxophone, Tom Farmer on double bass and Shaney Forbes on drums, have embraced a more flexible lineup. The trio enlist high-caliber guest artists to expand their sound, with long-time collaborators Ivo Neame on piano and David Preston on guitar lending their distinctive musical voices to the album. The album traverses the musical terrain between contemporary classical music, soundscape, post-bop and free jazz. The jazz of the 1960s has long been a guiding light for Empirical, not least in the way it represented Black musicians" struggle for respect, freedom and civil rights, often drawing on their faith as a moral foundation.