quête:uni son

Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

■ The latest installment in the popular ocean themed compilation series “SALT... meets ISLAND CAFE”, curated by the beach life magazine/media SALT...,
is DEEP BLUE the series’ first ever ambient music compilation. Centered around the title concept inspired by the deep, tranquil blue of the ocean, the album
presents soothing music tailored to modern lifestyles, spanning chillout, Balearic, meditation, and healing sounds.

■ Ten artists each highly trusted by discerning listeners across the ambient, chillout, Balearic, and surf‑music scenes have created brand‑new, original ambient
tracks inspired by the theme. From pioneers active since the ’90s to cutting‑edge trackmakers, this compilation brings together a stunning collection of
ocean‑themed ambient music.

■ Mastering is handled by ambient/Balearic maestro Calm, who is also featured as one of the contributing artists, delivering an exceptional sonic experience.
Enjoy all ten tracks, each expressing its own unique interpretation of DEEP BLUE.

■ The artwork features an artistic photograph by Pedro Gomes, a Brazil born, Japan based surf photographer, with design by Masato Maekawa (tAnkers inc.),
known for his work across apparel and outdoor brands. Under the supervision of SALT..., the visuals perfectly capture the compilation’s immersive world.


[b] a2. [.que] / deeply

Pick a Piper is a Toronto-based electronica duo featuring Caribou drummer Brad Weber and vocalist–songwriter Sophia Alexandra. Their music pairs catchy, ethereal vocals with warm synths, upbeat percussion, and a distinctive sense of sound design that feels both grounded and vulnerable.
The duo’s live show is an intoxicating blend of vibrant physicality and immersive lights and visuals, creating an experience that is both danceable and hypnotic. Pulsing with momentum, vocally driven and haunting, it radiates a charisma that unites the band and audience in cathartic release.
Their new album "Dandelion", explores how we exist in the space between opposing feelings while calling for resilience and the courage to recognize that growth is possible and inherently beautiful, even in life’s most difficult experiences. The record employs skippy beats, bass-heavy kicks, warm subs, hyperactive percussion, woozy synths and organic textures, delivered with a lovingly human-curated feel.
Pick a Piper has toured across Europe, the US, Canada, Guatemala, and Colombia, and has shared the bill with Bonobo, Gold Panda, Blue Hawaii, Do Make Say Think and Ghetto Kumbe.

2023 Backstock

New album of one of the biggest Reggae/Dub french soundsystem starring MacGyver, Rooty Step & Pupajim (who worked with Alpha Steppa, Biga Ranx, High Tone, Mungo's Hi-Fi ...).

Since their inception at start of the 2000s, Stand High Patrol have rocked sound systems to their own riddim, assimilating and re-purposing the codes of the genre in their own unique style. From tiny bars in Brittany to huge festival stages, on independent radio or across national airwaves, the crew have quietly trod their own path, never compromising their core value of independence. Connoisseurs have long recognised Stand High’s credentials both as a dub group and a leading sound system, but they stand out from the crowd because of their ability to deliver the unexpected, whether live or on record. Their ability to draw such a diverse audience is testament to this atypical approach to making music.

In 2020, almost 20 years since their humble beginnings, the collective presents their fifth album, “Our Own Way”. As with their first two albums “Midnight Walkers” and “Matter Of Scale”, now considered as classics in their genre, this new opus asserts itself as the latest representation of the crew’s versatile approach to crafting sound. Their music, a blend of its own known as “Dubadub”, has always borrowed influences from multiple sources, and over the course of their career their roots in dub and reggae have intertwined with hip-hop, jazz, new wave, trip-hop and numerous other genres. The ‘Dubadub Musketeers’ have never ceased experimenting, forever seeking to increase the sonic territory they cover, day after day. Both live and recorded, they’ve made it a point of honour to never offer up the same thing twice. Any resemblance that “Our Own Way” might bear to those first two albums is a consequence of this obvious creative continuity, rather than of going “back to basics”.

In contrast to the last two Stand High Patrol records, the hip-hop inspired “The Shift”, or the Bristol indebted “Summer On Mars”, “Our Own Way” doesn’t have a unifying concept or theme. Rather than being limited to a single aesthetic, the LP pays respect to the entire canon of Jamaican music, all unified under Stand High’s inimitable production values. With the wealth of experience gained during the recording of their last two records, the collective decided to aim for a freer project, letting themselves be guided by their own music and their own instincts. The end result is a musical portrait of what Stand High Patrol is in the present moment.

The tracks that make up the new LP burst out of the studio, each born out of unbridled, impulsive creativity. Previously unheard compositions and specially re-tooled dub plates have been assembled into a tracklist that shifts and moves like a classic Dubadub Musketeer live set. Each step of the process has been refined by years of practice : composition, effects, and the final mix. Throughout “On Our Way”, the brutal dub stepper, though still a favourite for sound system sessions, is noticeable by its absence. Instead, it’s the full weight of the crew’s reggae heritage that’s expressed in the mix. It's not just the depth and weight of each tune that strikes the listener, but also the spaces heard between the notes that grab and hold their attention.. The sense of a trip, whether musical, internal or geographic, is omnipresent throughout the LP, linking each track to those before and after. “Our Own Way” finds Stand High Patrol exploring as usual, yet also narrating their journey as they’ve rarely done before.

Christopher Tignors ,Bleeding Past the Edges" ist ein bewusster Kontrapunkt zur heutigen, von KI geprägten Musiklandschaft und stellt die menschliche Hand fest in den Mittelpunkt des Schaffensprozesses. In einem kleinen Studio voller Geigen, Stimmgabeln, Pedalen und maßgeschneiderter Software hat Tignor ein Performance-System entwickelt, das sich weniger wie eine Maschine, sondern eher wie ein lebendiges Instrument verhält. Anstatt sich auf Loops oder Backing-Tracks zu verlassen, generiert er jedes Stück in Echtzeit und fängt Klänge ein und formt sie um, während er spielt. Geigenstreichmelodien erweitern sich zu vielschichtigen Mustern, perkussive Schläge lösen sich entwickelnde Strukturen aus, und selbst eine einzelne Stimmgabel kann sich zu einem ganzen harmonischen Feld entfalten. Das Ergebnis ist ein immersiver, orchestraler Klang, der live von einem einzigen Interpreten erzeugt wird, der sich durch ein eng verwobenes System aus Gestik, Timing und Code bewegt. Jedes Element beginnt als physische Handlung und bleibt damit verbunden, was der Musik ein Gefühl von Unmittelbarkeit, Risiko und Präsenz verleiht, das sich durch das gesamte Album zieht. Auf dem Album bewegt sich Tignor fließend zwischen rhythmisch geprägten Kompositionen, die das Instrument als perkussiven Motor behandeln, und melodischeren Werken, die im expressiven Kern der Violine verwurzelt sind. Die Lead-Single ,Weight of Words" unterstreicht diese Balance und entfaltet sich mit einer narrativen Klarheit, die Tignors Kompositionsansatz widerspiegelt. Er beschreibt diese Stücke oft als ,Kurzgeschichten", in denen Melodien als roter Faden dienen und jedes Werk durch wechselnde Strukturen und emotionale Bögen führen. Der Titel ,Bleeding Past the Edges" verweist auf Momente, in denen die Musik über ihr ursprüngliches Konzept hinausgeht, in denen sich die Struktur lockert und der Klang nach außen fließt. Tignor vergleicht den Prozess mit ,einem Seiltänzer", bei dem sorgfältige Vorbereitung auf die Möglichkeit einer Transformation in Echtzeit trifft. Obwohl die Systeme streng ausgearbeitet sind, behält jede Aufführung ein Element der Unvorhersehbarkeit, wodurch sich die Musik ständig weiterentwickeln kann. Im Laufe von zehn LPs, die über Western Vinyl und New Albion erschienen sind, hat sich Tignor in klassischen und experimentellen Kreisen breite Anerkennung erworben. The Guardian bezeichnete ihn als ,absurd talentiert", während Bandcamp seine ,schiere technische Meisterschaft" hervorhob und The New York Times seine seltene Fähigkeit lobte, Computer bei Live-Auftritten nahtlos mit akustischen Instrumenten zu verbinden. The Wire lobte seine Kompositionen zudem für ihre fließenden, sich entwickelnden Strukturen. Über seine Soloarbeit hinaus hat Tignor mit Künstlern wie Rachel Grimes, Helios, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, John Congleton und This Will Destroy You zusammengearbeitet. Sein Hintergrund verbindet verschiedene Disziplinen: Er hat einen Doktortitel in Komposition von der Princeton University, einen Master in Informatik vom NYU Courant Institute und einen Bachelor vom Bard College, wo er bei dem Dichter John Ashbery studierte. Mit ,Bleeding Past the Edges" führt Tignor diese Stränge zu einem Werk zusammen, das sich sowohl streng konstruiert als auch lebendig anfühlt - ein Album, das Performance, Körperlichkeit und die anhaltende Ausdruckskraft menschengemachter Klänge in den Vordergrund stellt.

Eliza Rose joins the ‘FABRICLIVE. presents’ series with a release that reflects the breadth of her creative journey in club music culture. A DJ, vocalist and songwriter from London’s vibrant underground, she has become one of the UK’s most compelling voices, equally at home in the DJ booth, on record, and crafting music that resonates across dancefloors and charts alike.

To accompany the release, fabric presents commissioned a bespoke, hand made tapestry depicting Eliza Rose and her friends at Carnival, a celebration of community, heritage and collective joy that runs through her story and the culture she represents. Rich in texture and detail, the piece transforms a living moment into something timeless and craft led. Eliza is pictured alongside the tapestry in an iconic hot pink tracksuit, set within a council estate garden that feels instantly recognisable as a portrait of London life. Surrounded by nostalgic children’s toys, from a rocking unicorn to a plastic slide, the scene captures the everyday intimacy and character of the city’s estates, spaces where music, family and friendship intertwine.

The contrast between the ornate woven artwork and the raw familiarity of the setting creates a striking visual metaphor, bridging past and present, celebration and reality. Together, the imagery reflects the spirit of the release itself: rooted in community, shaped by lived experience and grounded in the environments that continue to inform Eliza’s creative world.

Chins For Lefty is the debut album and first recording by Gichard, a new duo chronicling the absurdities of end-stage capitalism and mouldering social rituals from their vantage point in Glasgow, Scotland. Recorded primarily in the band’s home studio straight to tape, Chins For Lefty combines gorgeous, ramshackle melody, DIY kosmische punk, drum machine + synth and, in vocalist/lyricist Lisa Jones, an absurdist commentator on the human condition as it navigates the anxieties of the modern world. Instrumentalist Chas Lalli’s swirling music accompaniment stitches an evocative mix of musical styles, the ragged wind beneath the lyrics’ wings.

Although the duo first collaborated in their previous group Dragged Up, their disparate musical and artistic backgrounds make for an alluring mix in Gichard. Lalli has spent the last 20 years in the Glasgow underground, most notably in the noise rock group VOM, while Lisa Jones’s practice was in poetry and spoken word. Beginning as co vocalist in her previous band, in Gichard her lyrics are centre stage; the vision concocted alongside Lalli amounts to a total world-build.

Chins For Lefty scans almost like a novel, with each track elucidating a skewed universe that bears only some resemblance to the one you and I partake in. Like all works of fiction Gichard’s songs are rooted in reality and the lived experiences of its authors, but here characters are exaggerated, social mores and habits are pulled apart to reveal their inherent alienness. Universal emotions are laid bare, the bright light of anxious examination searching out every hairline fracture in our relationships. Distorted and cracked, the mirror that Gichard hold up to our world is also pretty damn funny.

Opener Cholesterol Test launches an expansive, cosmic guitar and synth intro that belies the Tascam-tape recorder it was recorded onto, like a Chromatics cut substituting anxiety for overt sexuality. Here Jones intones an apology to a non-responsive recipient, in the medium of a long voice note forensically deconstructing an interaction from the night before. Over punk guitars and shuffling, lo-fi drum machine splutters, the narrator in Asking The Apes “prefers things to people” before being taken hostage in the city zoo to confess an obsession which consumes the protagonist, ending with the immortal two liner “I sleep in a cocoon of old newspapers at the end of your street / And I think I have been fired from my job,” On album standout Posthumous Hologram, the narrator is faced with a human simulacra, in this case an undead pop star; the face of the encroaching technological singularity. Yes, it does requests, it can do My Way in 200 different language options. But what are the implications? While you’re left pondering, the alternating deadpan verse delivery and undeniably catchy chorus keep you company.

By the time Break Up With Johnny Dogbirth rattles into view, the band are satirising a suburban inanity blown up to cartoon proportions, soundtracked with a drawled musicality that recalls Rowland S. Howard’s post-Birthday Party balladeering. This approach is furthered on Human Resources: over an angular guitar+bass track, Jones’s short story recalls Dry Cleaning’s erudite lyrical post punk. On Soft Face, Lalli’s guitar and drum machine are swathed in echo and delay, as Jones dissects dating rituals with a west of Scotland drollness. Hamming It Up brings a porcine perspective in a short story that begins with the line “I was breastfeeding discreetly in the service station. She didn’t mind.” What follows is a passage punctured with canned laughter and a narrative involving tribute acts, modern farming techniques.

Brilliant first single Your Private Hell closes the album, the closest the group get to earnest perhaps, filtered through a surreal central Scottishness. While Your Private Hell might seem like a sardonic take down of romance, perhaps it’s the very distillation of love in all its awkwardness, selflessness and weirdness. Here there’s a distinctive Glasgow-ness to this doomed romance: the protagonist falls for an outsider, offers them cheap jarred hot dogs and carbolic soap (the infamous, excoriating soap dished out in schools and government buildings throughout Scotland), offers to cover up a murder, stalks them in the all-night Spar. It’s a short story of intrigue, murder and the irresistible pull of self-sacrifice to share in someone else’s suffering. If that’s not love, what is it? You can see this vision mapped out in black and white on their video for 'Your Private Hell'.

Cogitat is the debut album by Nils Edte and the first double-vinyl release on PREDAWN Records. Across ten tracks, it blends classic deep techno with hypnotic, tribal rhythms, dub textures, and ambient, experimental elements. Beginning with the ambient Semen and concluding with the nocturnal Nox, the album unfolds as a journey through abstraction, nature, and artistic evolution-unified by a clear sonic vision and a mature, cohesive sound.

2025 Repress

(remastered classic incl DL card) Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition. In the late nineties, the budding producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani bonded over their shared love of slower tempos and '70s and '80s NYC club culture. Obsessed with record digging and the sounds they heard on late-night "club classics" radio shows—and turned off by current releases they saw as artlessly "updating" sublime disco by sampling, filtering and subjugating them with huge kick drums —the duo set out to discover how their favorite old 12" records were made. They naturally gravitated towards extended dubs of songs—full of strange mistakes and echoing backing tracks—instead of the better-known vocal versions. Lacking the big budgets and gear that made so many of their favorite classic records come together, they were forced to take a guerrilla approach. They reprogrammed their techno-oriented arsenal of secondhand synths and samplers, using novel digital recording technology to capture live instrumentation and prioritizing mood over hooks, and the resulting music was just wrong enough to sound unlike anything else being released at the time.After just four underground 12" releases, the duo—now well-known as Metro Area—released their first and only album, Metro Area, in the fall of 2002. Fifteen years later, it's time to celebrate the culmination of their shared history and inspiration once again. Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The 12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition.

2026 Repress

French talent Hyden makes label debut on Mutual Rytm with conceptual new techno EP, 'To Whom It May Concern'. Hyden is a potent force in the French underground, creating powerful techno with dense percussion, immersive grooves and subtle nods to classic influences - all through his own unique lens. Having delivered standout releases in recent years, here he offers up sounds "anchored in psychoanalysis, time, and emotional residue" as he makes his mark on SHDW's Mutual Rytm imprint, delivering influences of dream logic and surrealism as the palette moves between brutality and introspection. "It's hypnotic music for moments of rupture where something breaks or breaks through". Opener 'Manifest Content' is inspired by Freudian theory and explores the surface illusions of thought and dream. It's about the dissonance between what we perceive and the deeper meaning that slips away beneath and is a deep and dubby techno track with flashes of unsettling melody. 'Bruises' is emotional trauma made sonic. This piece delves into invisible scars and traumas, residues of past conflict or intimacy - it's slow-burning, heavy and raw. 'Jikan' is a meditation built on time and its erosion. Inspired by the Japanese concept of impermanence, it reflects fleeting moments, decay and the tension between stillness and motion with jacked up but warm drums and turbulent bass. Next, 'Free Will' is born from inner conflict and plays with deterministic rhythms and evolving layers, questioning whether we are truly in control or just passengers in a prewritten sequence. The vocal mentions, "creatures, you're out of time" to bring darkness to the intense but sleek rhythms. The streamlined physicality of 'Swarm' channels the primal force of collective movement and is a nod to the loss of individuality in group behaviour. In addition, the package is loaded with digital bonus cuts. 'Yumehara' is a dive into surreal dream-states and evokes subconscious landscapes where logic dissolves and emotion reigns, while 'Lu Bu' is brutal and warlike and named after the legendary Chinese general that captures impulsive violence, betrayal and reckless glory with relentless energy and rhythm. Lastly, 'Neon Pale' is a synthetic dreamscape about fading beauty under artificial light - a melancholy ode to cities at night and the loss of warmth in modern life.

A Profound Non-Event, the debut album by Sydney-based three piece Daily Toll, comprises 11 songs traversing three years of forged friendships, collaborative experimentation and a shared love of growing through words and song.

Those attuned to the ever-vibrant Australian underground may already be well familiar with Daily Toll, their consistent live presence since their inception in 2021 embroidered by a handful of (mostly) home-recorded, (mostly) digital self-releases that have steadily accumulated an appreciative following. Initially the project of self taught musician, poet & artist Kata Szász-Komlós(they/them) and Jasper Craig-Adams(he/him), and expended to a three piece with the more recent addition of friend Tom Stephens(he/him), Daily Toll represents the union of three unique creative dispositions, of relationships blooming through the push and pull of creative practice. Mapping the band’s existence through their recorded output is to bear witness to the flux of three people learning to respond to one another and gently ossify into a collective vision that at once calls to mind folk song intimacy, post-punk dynamics and the artful poeticism of an adjacent Flying Nun legacy.

If those earlier recordings reflect a band imagining themselves into being in real time, A Profound Non-Event observes a clear shift in both conviction and approach. Recorded in just three days with Alex Bennett at the purely analogue Sound Recordings studio in Castlemaine and holing up at night in the century old cottage situated beside the studio, sheltering from the late-June wind and rain within walls littered with instruments and microphones, lighting fires to stay warm. Kata describes the experience as defined by “candle light and creative camaraderie”, an idyllic account of a collection of songs that glide with an undeniably warm, easy charm, evidenced in particular in the record’s second half as the tone turns increasingly introspective, the very sound of a cold evening’s drift into night. When contrasted with the moody swirl and sing-song bounce of the opening trio of tracks, there’s clear evidence of a band not simply in the process of becoming, but committed to finding their truth in that process.
Still, if Daily Toll display a reluctance to be wholly defined, then album centerpiece ‘Killincs‘ (positioned in the middle for a reason) might just be their Rosetta Stone. A verbose rumination on unsettled feelings of isolation and longing, exploring the challenges in making peace with one's decisions amidst the uncertainty of an often harsh world and the realisation that some things remain best unresolved - “I have the keys still, but I’ve buried the path”.

Dublin meets Rotterdam.
Following the highly acclaimed Combination 2 EP featuring Pineal Navigation & Stanislav Tolkachev, Dublin-based label Awareness System returns with its boldest statement yet. Combination 3 EP unites the rising label head Pineal Navigation with Rotterdam’s prolific techno force Charlton for a powerful six-track split release. This third instalment in the Combination series delivers a deep dive into raw, machine-driven Techno and Electro, embodying the spirit and authenticity of the true underground. Each artist contributes three tracks, creating a dynamic and immersive listening experience designed for peak dance-floor impact.

Charlton opens the record with relentless grooves in “Whats The Answer” and “Relentless Pressure”, setting the tone with punchy Detroit tinged poly rhythmic driving energy. Pineal Navigation answers on Side B with “Forward Ever” and “Datafried”— two tracks of mechanical funk layered with cerebral textures that push the listener into a state of sonic bliss.

The journey continues as Charlton closes Side 1 with “Feeling Cloudy” an emotive track that blends his signature gritty, rhythmic percussion sound with dub-inflected techno elements. On Side 2, Pineal Navigation finishes the EP with “Purpose” exploring his electro influences through hypnotic synth lines and wandering vocal fragments that propels and image of a futuristic terrain.

Combination 3 EP stands as a testament to both artists’ commitment to crafting forward-thinking electronic music while honouring the underground ethos that defines Awareness System

The second solo chapter in EC13’s trajectory.

Loto Azul (EP) distills EC13’s sonic identity into four focused pieces shaped for the 12″ format: cinematic atmospheres, cosmic resonance, and meticulously crafted rhythmic structures — infused with high-energy dynamics, epic tension, and textured distortions that add depth, grit, and dramatic weight.

From the mystical tension of Astrum Nox (Phase I) to the melodic, ascending narrative of Sinfonía Tercera, the EP moves between introspection and propulsion.
Perdiendo, in both its original version and the Jupiter Rhythms reinterpretation, forms the emotional core of the release — a hybrid between electro, techno, and celestial harmonic design.

A refined work that expands EC13’s role within the Cosmic Tribe universe, reaching toward new sonic dimensions with precision and depth.

Todh Teri returns with a brand new record, and this time the spotlight falls on Hari Heart. The Return of Hari Heart marks the eighth release on Masala Movement Records and launches a fresh vinyl-only series that brings the mythical characters of Deep In India back to life in a bold new form. Todh Teri further expands his conceptual universe by focusing on deeper sonics & music explorations. Hari Heart guides the release with a delicious blend of nostalgia, analog warmth and a club-ready intentions - built for curious DJs (and listeners alike).

On the A side you will find Smriti (Remembrance) - a reimagined classic flipped into a peak-time driver - disco spirit, acid bite, and pure dancefloor release. Limited, loud, and made to move bodies. On the flipside we have ??a (Debt) - a deep, dubby slow-burn built around an evergreen melody which grows patiently - finally rewarding you with a sweet earworm.

The final tune on the record is Prem (Love) - a reinterpretation of a ’70s indie rock n roll gem. Unmistakably retrospective (if you know your history). Play it a bit longer into the dead wax, and you will catch a hidden acid sequence locked groove.

Art by Soju Aduckathil with creative direction from Masala Movement’s Manoj Kurian. This is the label’s eighth release, a vinyl-only exclusive, with more coming in 2026.

Wolfgang Haffner is one of Europe's most respected jazz drummers, known for his impeccable sense of timing, groove, and atmosphere. Though rooted in jazz, his musical language transcends genre boundaries, guided by pulse and subtle nuance rather than tradition alone. For Cocoon Recordings, he now enters an entirely new dialogue, offering warm, organic reinterpretations that honor the spirit of the source material while opening a fresh sonic horizon. The result is a meeting of two artistic worlds where Sven Väth's timeless energy and Haffner's refined touch flow naturally into a new musical form, an encounter between two artistic universes, merging into something both unexpected and deeply musical.

Fusion is a groove driven piece built around a clear, flowing melody, allowing Haffner to reinterpret it acoustically through a jazz lens. Its straight, driving pulse lets him explore the track's rhythmic and melodic interplay with clarity and nuance.

L'Esperanza, originally a dreamy, trance like track, envelops listeners in strings, filtered downbeats, and a playful synth melody, a perfect canvas for Haffner's warm, organic touch. Its ethereal layers and subtle tension allow him to explore the track's emotional depth while preserving its entrancing charm.

Barbarella, emblematic of Sven Väth's early 90s vision, carries the energy and innovation of a club classic. Haffner's reinterpretation transforms it into a rich, acoustic exploration that honors its hypnotic essence. By emphasizing the track's iconic motifs and underlying drive, and by drawing out the track's essential elements, he bridges its electronic origins with a new, organic perspective.

Together, these three reinterpretations form a cohesive journey that celebrates the timeless essence of Sven Väth's music while revealing a new dimension through Haffner's masterful touch, a release that invites listeners to experience familiar classics in a completely new light.

The label Erdgeschoss celebrates the freedom of sound and vision at the bar of life, like football – only with a bass drum instead of a ball. And with beer. Because even with vinyl records, the ball has to go in the net.

Pop Vampires Cologne will kick things off; their surrealist debut masterpiece, Karianne, was already released at Total 25 last year. PVC lives up to its name. Like vampires, oskø and Wassermann once again sample their way through the pop supermarket of unlimited possibilities.
Almost overnight, in their illegal, digital garage, they clone hybrid sound structures, saturated with both foreign and self-injected blood doping. Forbidden fruit is known to taste the best. Consciously, explicitly, and provocatively, PVC explores sampling as an indispensable stylistic device, a universal tool for quotation and pop networking. Equally daring and respectfully irreverent, they oppose the new, all-disenchanting AI search engines on the internet with the freedom of art. The rest is surrealism. Just like the accompanying video, which isn't a video in the conventional sense, but rather a kind of making-of with Sabine as the main front character. And the digital versions of some tracks may differ slightly from the vinyl versions.
Because: Anything goes…

Das Label Erdgeschoss feiert an der Theke des Lebens die Freiheit von Sound and Vision wie Fussball - nur mit Bassdrum statt Ball. Und mit Bier. Denn auch bei der Schallplatte muss das Runde ins Eckige.

Den Anfang machen Pop Vampires Cologne, deren surrealistisches Debüt-Meisterstück Karianne bereits im letzten Jahr auf der Total 25 erschienen ist. Bei PVC ist der Name Programm. Wie Vampire sampeln sich oskø und Wassermann einmal mehr durch den Pop-Supermarkt der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten. Quasi über Nacht klonen sie in ihrer illegalen, digitalen Garage hybride Sound-Gebilde, getränkt mit Fremd- und Eigenblutdoping. Verbotene Früchte schmecken bekanntlich am besten. Bewusst, explizit und provokant arbeiten sich PVC am für sie unverzichtbaren Stilmittel des Sampling als universelle Zitat- und Pop-Vernetzungsmaschine ab. Ebenso wagemutig wie respektvoll respektlos, halten sie den neuen, alles entzaubernden K.I. Suchmaschinen im Netz die Freiheit der Kunst entgegen. Der Rest ist Surrealismus. So wie das dazugehörige Video kein Video im herkömmlichen Sinne ist, sondern eine Art Making Off mit Sabine als Frontdarstellerin. Und die digitalen Versionen einiger Stücke sich leicht von den Vinyl Versionen unterscheiden. Denn: Erlaubt ist, was gefällt…

Grammy-nominated Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara returns in 2026 with MASSA, her most personal work to date. Introspective and powerful, the album explores motherhood, faith, memory, and resilience, transforming intimate reflection into universal storytelling. Through these songs, Fatoumata invites listeners, of all backgrounds, to embrace gratitude and accept that destiny is an inevitable part of the human journey. The album also carries a moving tribute to her late father, whose love continues to guide her beyond his passing. Musically, MASSA sees Fatoumata Diawara expand her sonic universe, blending her Malian musical heritage with pop textures, under the artistic direction of pop icon -M-, creating a sound that is both rooted and forward-looking. With MASSA, she reaffirms her place as one of the most vital voices in African music, transforming personal truth into universal resonance.

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called Fully Qualified Survivor. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together The City Is Coming to Erase it All, the follow-up to 2024’s Beauty In Your Wake. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Eur

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called Fully Qualified Survivor. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together The City Is Coming to Erase it All, the follow-up to 2024’s Beauty In Your Wake. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Eur

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky

Bolka is known as the man with the cap. His cap has lived through a lot: his glitchy and microtonal experiments, studies at Institute of Sonology in The Hague or through countless performative works. A few years ago, Bolka’s cap fell apart. By that time he was already a fixture on the slovak experimental scene, but only releasing his debut album, “smutné stropy.” He started wearing new caps from then: somehow reminiscent of the old one, but much more varied — same as “smutné stropy,” bubbling with motifs, charming humour and pop sensitivity layered over detailed soundscapes popping with surprises.

On schwarzkopf, Bolka returns wishing for a thick black hair. With his charming love songs, that are positioned somewhere between a tightly run freak folk orchestra, deconstructed ballads and colorful ecstatic melancholy, he creates an album that thrives on juxtapositions that are completely unique, yet strangely familiar. Bolka’s songwriting is at once tender and irreverent — lovestruck whispering suddenly tripping over absurdist jokes and surreal images that fizz like soda. His songs move in that strange space between vulnerability and mischief, where intimate confessions collide with radical playfulness and the poetic rubs shoulders with the delightfully ridiculous.

On schwarzkopf, Bolka expands his world with a wide circle of collaborators and an even richer sonic palette. The album is meticulously detailed yet carefree: delicate moments sit next to sudden explosions, drifting from gentle pop to bursts of noise. Toward the end, the album even slips into a footwork-infused remix by Kodiki, passes through Julek ploski’s signature neon-baroque string perspective, and briefly wanders into Lénok’s cinematic sonic world. Bolka sings that he wants to dissolve into a healing ointment, to be ground in a mortar with calendula — and he invites us into this musical spa with him: a place that stings a little but ultimately soothes, a gorgeous soundscape that is both painful and joyful at the same time.

Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.

If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.

Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.

With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. colour in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)

On June 5th, Tectonic Recordings will release Beatrice M.’s debut LP, Sinking, on a vinyl triple pack and digital download. The vinyl edition will be split across 3 separate 12” vinyl releases, packed in matching printed disco bags. This is part 2 of 3.
Beatrice M. pushes the needle forward for a sound and scene that nestles among a niche that blends UK dubstep, techno, and the golden era of tech house. The Paris-born artist is in their mid-20s and has been building up a grassroots following and plenty of momentum over the last few years, through their Bait label and its output of sonically resonant artists, alongside numerous remixes and collaborative and solo releases for labels such as Tectonic, Tempa, and Rinse. There are plenty of accolades coming in for Beatrice's work too, with notable DJ mixes for respected heavyweights such as Mixmag as well as featuring in Resident Advisor’s best mixes of 2025.
Beatrice is known for making deep explorations into the history of the scenes that have interested them, tracking and highlighting connections between dubstep, tech house, jungle and beyond across various self-produced, one-off radio shows, often taking a journalistic approach to subjects of true passion. They travel across Europe on a packed-out DJing schedule, avoiding air travel, and doing it mainly by train. Many of the LP's tracks started life as sketches put together on these long journeys, as the sights of different countries rolled past the window.
Having taken inspiration from Tectonic artists such as 2562, the label – a home to music that was originally placed in the dubstep-techno crossover spectrum—feels like the perfect place to host Beatrice M.'s debut album Sinking, beginning a new chapter for this kind of sound.
The album's lead single and sole vocal track, ‘In Touch’, showcases Beatrice M.’s split UK-France upbringing. The track unites French MC Kaba and UK MC Jinnal for a bass-driven anthem that seamlessly trades French and English lyrics. Next up is a vinyl exclusive track: the ‘Remedy Mix’ VIP of ‘Poison’, a rolling, bass-driven tech house/techno crossover version of a track originally released on the Tectonic Sound collection from last year.
‘Here’ sees Beatrice M. collaborating with Jay Carder to create a soulful broken-beat flavoured track as ‘Years’ rounds off the journey with contemplative melancholy, providing a deep and dubby closer.

After six years of purgatorial sway, Joel Shanahan’s Auscultation project returns with a fourth full-length of dazzling, convex electronics: IV. His signature production touches have only heightened in the interim: iridescent synths; dexterous bass; slinky networks of pads and percussion; regal, rolling fog. Icy bangers of isolation and beauty crafted over long Pacific Northwest winters of endless rain.

The album evolved fitfully, polished and shelved between bursts of inspiration and malaise. This push and pull gives the music a manic, mirror ball, mood-swing movement, tilting between reverie and regret and sweaty abandon. Seven songs of memory and mirrors, haunted by shadows of the past but dreaming of futures still liquid, and unions yet to come

Creator of Le Châ, a chimera emerging from the margins, Lutèce Lockness builds worlds where dreamlike imagery and satire intertwine, inviting us to embrace the bizarre, the strange, and the intimate. With her debut album Le Châ, she crafts powerful, incantatory soundscapes. Her compositions blend psychedelic tones, medieval timbres, drifting drones, bouzouki improvisations, and digital textures, enriched through collaborations with Christoph Fink, Maxime Denuc, and Jean Rondeau.


Inspired by David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Hayao Miyazaki, her practice shapes sonic material like exquisite corpses. Across disciplines, Lutèce Lockness explores new territories through projects such as the collective book Bande organisée (Seuil), born from the transport of a stone book across France during lockdown, and as part of the feminist punk group Forsissies. On stage, she has opened for Bonnie Banane at the Olympia and Flavien Berger at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, and is also preparing for the opening of Kanal Pompidou in Brussels - continuing a trajectory where music, performance, and visual experimentation converge to create spaces of freedom.

Michigan Band EJ & the Echoes: Rediscovering a Soul Legacy

The story of EJ & the Echoes represents a remarkable chapter in Michigan's music history and the early American soul scene. Its origins date back to the late 1950s, when Everett J. "EJ" Gronda was already active as a young musician. While studying at Central Michigan University in the early 1960s, he met the talented vocalist Manuel "Manny" Holcolm. Together with other musicians, they formed vocal groups that soon performed throughout the state and even recorded near Detroit's legendary Motown studios.

In 1963, Gronda founded EJ & the Echoes, a band that quickly gained popularity at dances, clubs, and weddings across Michigan. With Manny Holcolm as lead singer, the group developed a distinctive harmony-driven sound, blending influences ranging from the Beatles to James Brown. The band served as a house band in Traverse City, opened for national acts, and performed regularly at well-known Detroit venues.

Between 1964 and 1967, EJ & the Echoes released several singles on the Diamond Jim Records label. Although major commercial success eluded them at the time, their recordings later found international recognition. Today, their songs remain staples of the British Northern Soul scene.

After the band dissolved, the members pursued different paths. EJ Gronda became a schoolteacher but remained devoted to music throughout his life. In 2006, the musicians reunited for an emotional jam session. EJ Gronda passed away in 2022, followed by Manuel Holcolm in 2024. Their musical legacy endures-on this vinyl release, dance floors, and in the memory of a remarkable era.

Our sincere thanks go to author and blues historian Fred Reif. He wrote the accompanying text and provided all the pictures of the band printed in the gatefold cover. Without him, this project would not have been possible.

Cinna Peyghamy unveils new album fusing Persian tombak and modular synthesis Five years in the making, "Music For Tombak & Synth" bridges heritage, technology, and personal identity. The project, initiated in 2019 during Peyghamy's master's thesis research on contact microphones, was conceived as a means to reconnect with his Persian roots while exploringexperimental sound design. In the album, Peyghamy seamlessly blends the traditional Persian tombak with modular synthesis and digital signal processing, creating a distinctive musical landscape that bridges live improvisation and studio production. The album’s genesis traces back to Peyghamy’s exploration of improvised electronic music and his desire to craft a performance-ready setup. Over
several years, the project evolved from capturing the energy of his live shows into a fully composed studio work.

"Music For Tombak & Synth" stands as the first record where Peyghamy unites his dual identities as a live performer and producer, resulting in a body of work that reflects his deep connection to family, memory, and cultural heritage. The album features personal elements such as his father’s voice reciting the poetry of Ahmad Shamlo on the track Dar Shab ,?? ??collaborations with long-time friend Quelque Bourdon on clarinet, and the evocative sounds of the Persian setar, all anchored by the physicality and rhythms of the tombak. A sentiment further reflected in the album cover; a photograph taken by his father, Khosrow ‘Payram’ Peyghamy, picturing both his parents and grandparents.

With this release, Peyghamy moves beyond conventional boundaries of "traditional versus contemporary" or "acoustic versus electronic," instead offering a nuanced exploration of identity through sound. Each track serves as a keepsake, referencing cherished memories, emotions, and musical influences that define his experience as a French-born artist of Iranian descent, unable to visit his home country. "Music For Tombak & Synth" invites listeners to engage with a deeply personal narrative, rooted in both cultural history and sonic innovation.

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Son Little expands his musical palette on his upcoming album, Cityfolk. Blending elements of soul, folk, and blues, Son Little captures his signature sound along with expressive yet personal lyrics. Cityfolk is a reflection on love, loss, and finding peace in the chaos. It"s about holding on, letting go, and learning to breathe again when the world feels heavy. Born Aaron Earl Livingston to a preacher and a teacher in Los Angeles, Little"s collaborations with The Roots and RJD2 helped him make a name for himself in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia. Critics were quick to recognize the unique power of Little"s solo recordings, which stripped the past for parts that could be reconstituted into something wholly new and original. NPR hailed Little"s "impeccably crafted songs" as "honest and unpretentious," while The Independent proclaimed him "a formidable talent." Since then, his catalog has racked up over 250 million streams, and Little has toured with everyone from Leon Bridges and Kelis to Shakey Graves and Mumford & Sons alongside festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Newport Folk, and more. Never one to rest on his laurels, Little also earned a GRAMMYî for his work helming Mavis Staples" acclaimed "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean."

2026 Repress

Trickpony rightfully return with their sensual sophomore record, a six track tip of downtempo anthems elaborating on the sonic blueprint established through Pillow Talk (STEP11). Contemporary trip hop revivalists at the core; the trio specialise in new age pop collages, stripped, subbed and dubbed for your pleasure. With whispered secrets tangled over atmospheric decay and hooks that tug at heartstrings, the trickpony DNA is embedded deep in the musical discourse; “24/7 Heaven” elevates even the most devious to a divine higher place.

From top to tail slung breaks crash like waves, rolling and seeping into opulent synthesis which fills the room. Sometimes music can say a thousand words without a single lyric; Ripple and Trick Trick fixating on textural constructions, layers of harmonic delight working in unison with forward thinking percussion patterns. Angel and No/Direction delve deeper into a more sparse, stripped back landscape; delayed fragments with room to breathe between vocal stylings that will lodge themselves into your memory one word at a time.

Closing with a psychedelic exploration, Memphis Light derails structure formula and drum&bass starts to feel technicolour. With an understated maturity exuding from all angles, STEP17 offers an introspective assortment of illustrious songs ready to reach into your subconscious.

New album by SABA ALIZADEH, a groundbreaking voice in contemporary Iranian music who blends classical Persian traditions with avantgarde experimentation.

Born in Tehran in 1983 as son of the world renowned tar and setar virtuoso HOSSEIN ALIZADEH, SABA ALIZADEH established himself not only as a true master on the Iranian spike fiddle kamancheh but one of the groundbreaking voices in contemporary Iranian music, blending classical Persian traditions with avantgarde experimentation. His music, praised by THE WIRE as "a bridge between the ancient and the contemporary", turns sound and image into powerful narratives of memory and resistance. Over the past years, ALIZADEH (who relocated to the Netherlands a few years ago) has appeared at key festivals and venues such as Reeperbahn Festival, CTM, Flow Festival, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, solidifying his reputation as a singular live performer.
After the critically acclaimed releases "Scattered Memories" (his international debut, released on Karlrecords in 2019), "I May Never See You Again" (2021) and last year's "Temple of Hope", his new album fascinates again with a unique artistic voice, weaving together centuries-old sonic heritage and the urgency of the present through deeply immersive, meditative landscapes in two epic pieces. "Rituals Of The Last Dawn" may feel like a sad or resigned title (compared to the positively fierce "Temple Of Hope"), but at the same time the highly meditative music provides a good lot of contemplative strength. Appealing to an open-minded "world music" audience as well as fans of current streams of ambient or drone in its most subtle forms, ALIZADEH's latest work is a strongly needed soul food in bitter times. Created on the spot with his musical partners PIETRO CARAMELLI (guitar and electronics on "First Ritual") and LIEW NIYOMKARN (lap steel and electronics on "Last Ritual"), "Rituals Of The Last Dawn" is a pure, unfiltered emotional expression from one of contemporary Iranian music's leading artists.

2026 Repress

Sicily's SLV is able to merge technical mastery with emotional resonance. His potent techno sounds have come via the likes of SHWD's Mutual Rytm and Slam's Soma, and unite timeless yet forward-thinking sonics.
On 'Fleeting Dreams', he continues to refine his signature sound while channelling introspection and intensity into a collection of meticulously crafted cuts that balance precision and feeling, energy and space. Each track reveals a different side of his sonic identity: hypnotic rhythms intertwine with evolving soundscapes, while layers of distortion and melody merge into a dreamlike tension between the mechanical and the organic.

'Fading Moments' kicks off with a sleek blend of driving, supple kicks and warm synth ripples, while a euphoric vocal cry is buried deep to amp up the emotion. 'Scenario' then brings icy hi-hats and sinewy synths bring a futuristic feel to the unrelenting, high-pressure drums down low. 'Daruma' has a darker energy with menacing textures and paranoid FX bringing the rolling drums to life, while 'Bass Grit' has a hunched up rhythm, with groaning pads and fizzing static electricity that charge up the party. To close, 'Shimmer' sinks down into a muscular and deep rhythm that's marbled with restless synths and ever-rising tension.

In addition, digital bonus cuts 'Trust' and '1990' offer different perspectives with slamming drums, seductive vocals and feisty synth loops making for two more bold, immersive techno weapons.

Trippy Journey proudly presents Trippy Dove, the sister label of Trippy Cat and the new home of their feathered companion Kesha the Dove. Expanding the sonic universe, Trippy Dove explores the darker and deeper side of the journey a mysterious reflection of its feline counterpart.

The debut release Trip Mode 01 features five distinctive tracks from Trippy Journey, JJ Fortune, Prince de Takicardie, Javier Carballo, Aniano, and Nebulaee. Each track brings its own authentic character and hypnotic groove, designed to set the perfect mood on any dancefloor.

Get ready to dive into a trippy flight through to Trip Mode.


Mastered At Time Item Studio

2026 Repress

An anthology born out of isolation and deep introspection, Sky Dust Drifter is a cosmic medley of sun-soaked AOR, psychedelic folk, and soft rock. This soundtrack was driven by the lonesome cowboy, a lockdown savior leaving me adrift in desert winds and dimly lit country bars.

Long-distance trades and masked meetups yielded a collection of private press LPs and 45s from ten different artists spanning 1973 to 1980. This seemingly random stack of records revealed songs living entangled in themes of hard luck, heartache, and the inevitable loneliness of existence. Adorned in cracked leather and chrome, this album is an aimless wander from the soil to the stars.

Featuring an unreleased English version of the compilation’s title track “Sky Dust Drifter” (originally released only in Hebrew), the record shifts from laconic afterthoughts to bold proclamations. From Michael Andrews’ blue-eyed soul assertion “Something Bad’s Better Than Nothin’,” to the searing electric guitars and bold synths of Sunburst’s “Special Lady,” Sky Dust Drifter thrives on solitude in a universe of unconditional self-rule where loneliness is not darkness but rather a blazing light of autonomy.

2026 Repress

To enter the world of Sally Townes and Roberta Vandervort is to be swept away into a dimension of unique sound. Embellishments of smoldering jazz funk, seductive soft rock, breezy AOR, and misty folk, all paint a picture of the worlds which they inhabited; from the endless flat expanse of Dallas, the hot and humid bustle of a Bourbon Street night club, to the late night buzz of a Los Angeles studio session.
While Sally Townes and Roberta Vandervort never crossed paths in our reality, their supernatural union on this compilation feels like the meeting of old, yet familiar friends, set in a parallel dimension with lives intertwined. The songs feel like old friends, too — a comforting time capsule of the popular sounds of the era, yet offering something completely new. Bridged by the striking similarities in their musical confidence, vocal conviction, and boundless creativity, both women encapsulate an uncompromising passion for living, loving, and creating on their own terms.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Dalbergia Retusa, an extensive double LP selection of the solo guitar music of Hans Reichel, compiled by Oren Ambarchi. Last heard on Black Truffle as one quarter of the joyously anarchic Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett, Hans Reichel (1949-2011) is one of the great figures of experimental guitar music. Though perhaps lesser known than peers like Derek Bailey, Fred Frith and Keith Rowe, Reichel’s rethinking of the instrument was in some ways the most radical of all. Early on, he dispensed with existing guitars to build a series of his own that explored the use of additional strings and fretboards, moveable pickups, extra bridges, special capos, and other innovations documented in the extensive booklet accompanying this release.

Reichel was a long-term resident of Wuppertal, the small Western Germany city that became an unlikely centre of European free jazz in the late 1960s, also home to Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. His solo debut Wichlinghauser Blues was an early entry into the FMP discography and began a relationship with the label that stretched into the 1990s; all the solo performances heard here were first released on FMP. As Reichel says in the charming archival interview with Markus Müller included here, he was ‘always a cuckoo’s egg at FMP’, a label that began as an outlet for roaring European free jazz. What strikes the listener right from the opening selection on Dalbergia Retusa—‘Return of the Knödler show’, from 1987’s The Dawn of Dachsman—is the extraordinary beauty of Reichel’s music, at once alien in the shimmering sonorities and unconventional pitch relationships made possible by his invented instruments, and deeply lyrical, even romantic in its harmonic content. Growing up in West Germany in the 1960s, Reichel’s formative influences were mainly British and American rock bands, a background that shines through in many of the pieces included here: ‘An old friend passes by’ is haunted by the ghost of Hendrix’s rhythm guitar, and the wild closer ‘Heimkehr der Holzböcke’, taken from a rare 1975 7” and the only piece to use overdubbing, layers errant hammer-on and slide tones over a Canned Heat boogie chug.

Reichel was an important source for the development of Oren Ambarchi’s own extended approach to the electric guitar. Appropriately enough, his selection opens with the very first piece by Reichel he ever heard, on a flexidisc included with a 1989 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Though Reichel collaborated with others extensively in many settings and also performed on violin and his other major contribution to instrument invention, the daxophone, his music for solo guitar remains at the core of his oeuvre. Focusing exclusively on solo pieces recorded between 1973 and 1988, the 23 pieces on Dalbergia Retusa showcase the range and consistency of Reichel’s work, allowing the listener to see how his performances developed hand-in-hand with his instrumental inventions. On a piece from his very first LP, played on an 11-string instrument (partly strung with piano strings and using a schnapps glass a slide), we hear his intensive exploration of fret-hammering to create zither-like, chiming tone, which Reichel would hone further in later years with a double fretboard guitar specifically designed to be hammered rather than fretted and picked. On a piece from 1979’s Death of the Rare Bird Ymir, Reichel uses two steel-string acoustic guitars at once, with beautiful results: ‘some even say too beautiful’, he jokes in the interview included here. Many of the pieces from the 1980s make use of varieties of the ‘pick behind the bridge guitar’, instruments of uncanny harmonic richness primarily designed to be played on the ‘wrong’ side of the bridge. At times the unexpected behaviour of attacks, resonance, and decay can almost seem electronic, conjuring up the technology-assisted work of Henry Kaiser or even Fennesz, but realised solely through Reichel’s unorthodox techniques on his invented instruments. Extensively illustrated with photos and Reichel’s own plans and drawings of his instruments, Dalbergia Retusa is an essential introduction to the unique world of Hans Reichel. Rarely has music been at once so strange and so beautiful.

Nightfall marks Maoh's first release on The Third Room, channelling a sound distilled through years of deep exploration. Four tracks evoke natural forces and instinctive motion, reshaping the dancefloor into a psychedelic, collective yet deeply personal journey driven by a relentless, precise groove. Maoh commits to a tightly defined sonic language born from tribal percussion and restrained rhythmic dynamic, creating a physical and grounded listening experience. Deeply rooted in repetition and pulse, the release remains precise in its contemporary execution, serving as a bridge capable of uniting listeners in shared momentum. As the tool-driven composition unfolds into storylines, revealing vast and unfamiliar landscapes, sparse voices surface to complete the narrative like a final breath, reminding us of the human presence within the universal expanse that the release encapsulates. Ultimately, Nightfall traces a continuous line from early collective expression to a forward-facing, technological present. Rhythm functions here as ritual and joint movement, articulated with clarity and intent.

Hands Of Fate -- an industrial/tribal mini-album from Hands Of Fate (aka NGLY & Lycurgus). The release sits in a unique space sonically, appealing to fans of O Yuki Conjugate, Coil, and Zoviet France.

Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders return with their best album yet, and a UK tour this August. Press by Silver PR
‘’On the alternate timeline where the Meat Puppets inherited the bulk of the Grateful Dead’s tourheads when Jerry Garcia died in 1995, none of this would be necessary, because Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders are a household name for evolving their own musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock, building an audience that ranges from open-eared curiosity seekers to deep committed music weirdos that’s also yielded the Heavy Lidders, an infamous sub-cult of concert tapers that you’re already sick of hearing about. A lot of other things are better over on that timeline, too.
But in this consensus reality (and probably the other one, too), Liquid Donnon catches the Lidders at their heaviest, “heavy” in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical idea. There’s heavy like the album-opening “From Loch Raven to Fells Point,” one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer Scott Verrastro. But there’s heavy, too, like “Calliope Walker” and “Tightroping,” featuring Gardner shifted to dream-space vibraphone, the former with saxophonist Tacuma Bradley, the latter with Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in some 20 years.
But then there’s also heavy like the cover photo of Alexander’s late friend and album namesake Donnon, taken at a Dead show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo in 1989, a spirit threading through the songs and weaving unexpectedly into Alexander’s life decades later, emerging especially when Alexander passed through a near-death experience of his own. But, taken together, the different heavies of Liquid Donnon add up into a state of musical grace, where all the Heavy Lidders from all the universes come together as one. Just, like, imagine.
Convened in 2019 on Alexander’s relocation back to his native east coast, the Heavy Lidders are the latest hard-touring expression for the guitarist’s music, joining a vast and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus and others, and you’ll have to keep digging for the rest.
And while it’s not hard to find tapers at Lidders gigs (and they encourage you to be one), or to track themes and songs over Alexander’s many live releases, Liquid Donnon makes a new primary text, the original versions of six new pieces for the repertoire. The album closes with a devastating pairing of “Reservoir Drop” into “The Summer Song,” floating into a duo between Alexander’s guitar and Carter’s voice. Catch a half-dozen Lidders shows this summer, and you might not ever catch them playing it like that again, but you just might open the doorway back to that better place." - Jesse Jarnow (writer, WFMU DJ, producer and host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast)

2026 Repress

In March 2023, Tresor Records will release "Crash Recoil", a new album by Surgeon. It marks Anthony Child's first techno LP in five years, following a period in which he felt uncertainty in his role as a techno producer and found it tough to locate inspiration. This new album encounters him drawing on spontaneous techniques to arrive at unchartered topographies.
"Crash Recoil" originates from Surgeon's recent live sets, where he experimented with constraints in performing and embracing the twists, turns and paradoxes that arrive from this. Each fresh iteration on consistent MIDI sequences and hardware reconfigured tracks into dierent constellations, creating an inspiring vortex of unpredicted events where ideas could flourish. This new approach allowed him to capture the spontaneous energy of his live shows in a way he had never done before. "This is not a live album, since it has not been recorded in one go during a live performance. In the same way that bands tour songs before going into the studio to record an album, I was able to explore these songs and hone their eectiveness during my live performances before creating a studio version."
The result is eight tracks that emphasise a new techno sound for Surgeon, drawing in references from across the musical spectrum. "I can hear Coil, King Tubby, Detroit Techno and The Cure all wrapped up with 30 years of DJing," Surgeon says of the album. Melancholic hum-like ambiences smudge around unadorned, near-droning basslines, crunching rhythm and percolating arpeggiations. The tracks carry unique and potent locomotion, with a low-slung grind through toughened terrains, breathing with a free spirit, untethered by a studio-based perspective. We hear manifestations of the same raw material across the album, like a textural motif, carving new variants and creating a cohesive work full of recollection.