Cerca:vola

‘An Increase In Entropy’ is the third and final triumphant piece in the trilogy of the 90’s Jungle / Drum and Bass flavoured releases from ASC for Samurai Music.

Four oven baked sherbets from Sweden’s SSTROM (Shxcxchcxsh/ Rösten).

Credits:
Written & produced by Hannes Stenström
Mastered by Helmut Erler @ Dubplates & Mastering
Distributed by Rubadub
Artwork and design by Sean Bell

“Bluegold steps into the world as a ground for trance-inducing rhythm and collective movement. Rooted in techno but never bound to it, the sound leans toward the psychedelic: loops, atmospheres, and ritual percussion that blur perception and guide the floor into altered states.
The A side comes from Mruda, written during a day of turmoil where conflict and chaos spilled directly into sound. Machines were left to chance, generating unstable pulses that mirror the volatility of the moment.

Archypness takes the B side as a counterweight, drawing the energy inward. His productions move with a meditative focus, weaving rich textures and layered rhythms into journeys that feel timeless yet deeply grounded.”

Limited edition, handstamped.

For the first time ever, Roxette release ‘Baladas En Español’ on vinyl. The relationship between Roxette and Spanish-speaking audiences has been a love story since the early ‘90s and this release celebrates that special relationship. The release is timed with Roxette’s 40th anniversary and their return to South America for live shows in April. The album will be available on vinyl and CD, featuring 4 bonus tracks compared to the original release. The vinyl will be released in both a limited coloured edition and standard black.

Roxette have some exciting plans to celebrate their 40th Anniversary this year, including extensive touring, further anniversary re-releases, video upgrades, contemporary remixes and much more!

Comfort y Música Para Volar is the result of Soda Stereo's beloved 1996 MTV Unplugged session. The sessions provided a fascinating overview of the band's discography, offering unique new (un)plugged renditions of their songs. For example, the 1980s hit "En la Ciudad de la Furia" which sounds like a complete reinterpretation, stretching to eight minutes and featuring the powerful vocals of Colombian artist Andrea Echeverri. This gives the song a new life and adding something special to the original version. Because of this, the album is much more than just a collection of hits; it really feels like a unique milestone in the band's career and a must hear for all their fans.

This version of the album also includes the Vox Dei cover "Genesis", which was not included in the original release.

Los Angeles alt-punks Death Lens return with What"s Left Now?, an album that feels like a jolt of clarity after a year that never seemed to slow down. Fresh off touring with Militarie Gun, they dove into the studio with producer mixer Zach Tuch (Knocked Loose, Touché Amoré) to craft their first new music since 2024"s Cold World. The result is a set of songs that coil hooky guitar lines around lyrics about taking stock of what you have, what"s been taken from you, and confronting what remains without any sugar coating. Death Lens have always played with contrast: ferocity disguised by swagger, volatility wrapped in melody. Onstage, they transform that tension into something communal-cathartic enough to leave rooms wrecked, connective enough to leave people changed. Once a crew of partydriven garage punks, they"ve sharpened their voice into something broader and more urgent, speaking on life in heavily policed neighborhoods, immigration reform, and the responsibility to lift up the communities that raised them. What"s Left Now? pushes that vision forward, framing resilience not as a slogan but as a lived philosophy: one world, one community, one band refusing to stand still. Death Lens is comprised of Bryan Torres (vocals), Jhon Reyes (guitar, backing vocals), Tony Rangel (drums), and Ernie Gutierrez (guitar).

Latency presents Nexus, the new solo album by virtuoso Iranian percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, out October 4 on vinyl and digital. Covert art by Jordan Belson.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (b. 1979, Iran) is known for his groundbreaking work with the tombak and daf, traditional Persian drums that he has radically redefined through new playing techniques and extended vocabulary. Mortazavi began playing the tombak at the age of six. By nine, he had already outpaced his teacher and won Iran’s national tombak competition - a distinction he would earn six more times. By his early twenties, he was widely regarded as one of the foremost players of the instrument. Since then, his music has continued to evolve, embracing new forms and vocabularies beyond tradition.

Following his acclaimed 2019 release Ritme Jaavdanegi, Nexus marks Mortazavi’s return to Latency with a full-length album recorded entirely in Berlin. The record introduces new elements into his sound: voice, effects, and treatments never before used in his discography. These experiments serve not as departures but as further extensions of his ongoing exploration of rhythm, resonance, and transformation. The album opens with Zendegi (“Life”), a piece inspired by the chant “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Mortazavi broke down its underlying rhythm and used it to build a new compositional structure, offered as a gesture to his homeland and beyond. Nexus refers to a point of connection or intersection, a meeting place where different energies, times, and spaces converge and transform.

For the first time ever, Roxette release ‘Baladas En Español’ on vinyl. The relationship between Roxette and Spanish-speaking audiences has been a love story since the early ‘90s and this release celebrates that special relationship. The release is timed with Roxette’s 40th anniversary and their return to South America for live shows in April. The album will be available on vinyl and CD, featuring 4 bonus tracks compared to the original release. The vinyl will be released in both a limited coloured edition and standard black.

Roxette have some exciting plans to celebrate their 40th Anniversary this year, including extensive touring, further anniversary re-releases, video upgrades, contemporary remixes and much more!

A label long synonymous with raw, off-centre electronics and uncompromising club tools, Bjarki’s bbbbbb recors welcomes a producer whose approach feels cut from the same cloth, London’s Henry Greenleaf. In an era where functionality often outweighs feeling, ‘Brawn’ is a record that doesn’t court approval; it insists on impact. Built for high-pressure systems and low ceilings, it channels force not as spectacle, but as design.

Greenleaf’s catalogue to date, spanning labels such as Par Avion, YUKU, and ARTS, sketches a restless trajectory between precision and collapse. His productions operate where rhythm becomes architecture: kicks land like poured concrete, subs buckle and flex beneath shifting percussive grids, and textures are stretched until they fray at the edges. Sound is treated as a physical material, layered and stress-tested, reshaped until the familiar mutates into something tactile and strange.

Across the EP, that philosophy takes full form. A1 ‘Brawn’ sets the tone with dense, piston-like drums and tightly coiled low-end pressure, balancing brute force with meticulous spatial control. ‘Jump Up To Be’ follows with a more fractured swing, percussive shards ricocheting across a framework that feels perpetually on the verge of rupture. On the flip, ‘Gawk’ strips things back to skeletal components, carving negative space between distorted pulses and menacing, warped rhythmic figures, before ‘UNTUNTUNT’ closes the record in driving fashion, delivering a raw, functional workout that reduces the groove to its bluntest, most hypnotic form.

True to the label’s ethos, ‘Brawn’ doesn’t chase trends or smooth its edges. It folds air and pressure into motion, pares club music down to its working parts, and leaves room for spontaneous chaos to erupt within the grid; moments where structure splinters, energy misbehaves, and control gives way just enough to keep things volatile. Engineered yet unpredictable, utilitarian yet unruly, the EP embodies the tension, unpredictability, and uniqueness that have long defined bbbbbb recors.

From the cold North of Sweden, NORNA and LEGBITER deliver a six-track document of contrast, convergence, and uncompromising heavy music. Bringing together two distinct voices, the release explores the many shapes heaviness can take_stretching from crushing, slow-moving atmospheres to sharp, volatile bursts of aggression. Formed by musicians with deep roots in the European underground, Norna approach heaviness as a vehicle for emotional gravity. Their sound is expansive and deliberate, built on massive low-end, tectonic rhythms, and an acute sense of restraint. Legbiter approach heavy music as direct, confrontational, and unrelentingly physical. Rooted in hardcore and metal's most ferocious intersections, the band thrives on immediacy and impact. Legbiter compress time, delivering short, explosive bursts that hit with the force of a live wire. Their sound is lean, aggressive, and unapologetically raw. "Even though we sound very different sonically I think we all have a lot of common ground, not only in being parts of the 90's scenes, but also musically in the somewhat dissonant and harsh guitar parts", says Legbiter guitarist (Rickard Nordström. "Personally, I love splits with bands that don't sound exactly the same, but share some common traits and vibes." "Contrast is everything, we have always tried to flow between despair and beauty. Dynamics are important to us. This split will give you that contrast", comments Norna guitarist and vocalist and former Breach vocalist Tomas Liljedahl. FOR FANS OF Handsome * Quicksand * Fireside * Breach * Helmet * Superheaven * Narrowhead * Metz

For years, L.A.’s David Jasso and the UK’s Mike Vest walked separate but parallel routes through psychedelic noise rock—two genre outsiders pulling the music toward raw instinct, intensity, and sonic extremity. Their paths kept echoing each other, from their own projects and collaborations—most notably through their work with key artists in the Japanese psych underground—both speaking the same volatile language of improvisation and avant-garde abrasion. A collision wasn’t just likely—it was inevitable.
This ethos and commitment to raw, volume-overdosed psych rock led to this new collaboration. Rather than deliver the expected heavy psych freakout, they opted for something more direct and confrontational.
The result is Non Violence and the album “Lifted Curse,” a six-track blast of noise rock focused not on mysticism and psych tropes, but on psychological depth. The album rips through raw male emotion: fraternity, loss, carnal impulses, mental states. Jasso’s lyrics read like an unfiltered journal mid-burnout; Vest’s swirling, savant-garde guitars create tension with Jasso’s own guitars; and Sned’s rocksteady grooves form a fistfight of harmony and dissonance.
Together, this new power trio carves out a new sonic language—heaviness rooted not in posturing, but in realness and weight: fragility, weakness, and the human efforts forged to break out from it. Non Violence is noise rock with an unironic violent aim in the physical dimension—a new conversation in a familiar space, where vulnerability hits harder than distortion and conviction outweighs myth.
David Jasso — Guitars, Bass & Vocals
Mike Vest — Guitars, Bass & Mix
Dave Sneddon — Drums

London-via-Accra artist BLACK FONDU shares his seven-track debut EP ‘BLACKFONDUISM’, following the underground momentum of singles ‘im not sleeping’ and the Steve Lamacq BBC 6 Music-premiered ‘holla back girl’. Available on vinyl, and with a self-directed video for ‘#music’, the project marks the first full expression of a voice emerging as one of the UK’s most uncompromising new forces.

‘BLACKFONDUISM’ captures that evolution in its rawest form. The EP came together quickly through instinct and freestyling, recorded between his room in London and a short period in Paris. Each track reflects a world he understood only after living through it. ‘IN D4 CLUB’ channels the exhilaration of acceleration, ‘BOYS’ explores the foundation provided by maternal love, ‘im not sleeping’ confronts denial after more than twenty revisions, ‘C00N V2’ marks a moment of creative rebirth, and ‘BLACK1E’ navigates the tension between self-perception and the world’s gaze. Closing track ‘#music’ distills the entire project into one statement.

Working alone has brought challenges, but he has learned to trust the emotional volatility that fuels the work. “I care so much and would die for this, but I cannot let it kill me. I have to trust myself the same way I trust myself when I make music.”

At 21, BLACK FONDU has carved out a sound that collides hyperpop, noise, rap, punk energy and abstract grime into something instinctive and volatile. Influenced by everything from Rachmaninoff to MF DOOM to Xiu Xiu, he writes, produces and performs every element, including the fractured visuals that accompany his tracks. Praise from BBC 6 Music, Pitchfork, NME, The Quietus, Pigeons & Planes, METAL and Line of Best Fit has positioned him as one of the most intriguing new voices in the UK underground, with explosive live shows across London, the UK and Europe.

With BLACKFONDUISM, he introduces a universe that refuses to sit still. “I wanted this EP to act as an introduction to my worlds. It felt important to put this out so I can do anything after.” He hopes listeners feel alive when they hear it, and jokes that he wants the record to “evolve music, even just a little.”

BLACK FONDU’s sound remains a paradox, abrasive and fragile, chaotic and meticulous, always guided by instinct. Or, as he puts it, “A bit fucked. But alive.”

Predatory Void returns with their third record, an EP titled `Atoned in Metamorphosis`, a concentrated statement of intent that compresses the band's restless energy into four precise movements. The music negotiates extremes: patient, reverb-saturated passages give way to sudden, metallic eruptions; subterranean basslines provide narrative weight beneath volatile guitar textures, vocals growl, wail and lament as drums alternate between measured architecture and volcanic release. The result is an austere, immersive sound that is both incandescent and violently sharp. Conceptually the EP takes on the ugly shadow of the unconscious and cathartically wrestles the demon onto canvas. Calling on elements from sludge, doom and black metal, as well as the unrelenting energies of hardcore and contrasting slower, haunted atmospheres, Predatory Void's signature sound is as volatile and piercing as ever. Concise, tight compositions that hook you in melody and then rage in filthy agony. The music can be confrontational, but it is never gratuitous_force is deployed to clarify rather than to overwhelm as emotional depth is at all times the compass. The production aesthetic prioritises fidelity to performance: takes are preserved for their immediacy, dynamics remain uncompromised, and the mix privileges contrast so that quiet moments carry as much dramaturgical weight as full-band climaxes. `Atoned in Metamorphosis` consolidates Predatory Void's forward motion and stakes a claim for a sound that prizes architectural heft and textural nuance in equal measure. Listeners should expect an immediate physical response in what is undeniably an ardent expression, and enjoy the reward of cumulative detail, for the EP dares you to listen closely: to feel transitions as processes, and to accept tension as a pathway to release. Predatory Void invites engagement, not escape, and demands to be met on its own terms, boldly. RIYL Hexis * CELESTE * Wallowing * LLNN * Downfall of Gaia * Witching

Predatory Void returns with their third record, an EP titled `Atoned in Metamorphosis`, a concentrated statement of intent that compresses the band's restless energy into four precise movements. The music negotiates extremes: patient, reverb-saturated passages give way to sudden, metallic eruptions; subterranean basslines provide narrative weight beneath volatile guitar textures, vocals growl, wail and lament as drums alternate between measured architecture and volcanic release. The result is an austere, immersive sound that is both incandescent and violently sharp. Conceptually the EP takes on the ugly shadow of the unconscious and cathartically wrestles the demon onto canvas. Calling on elements from sludge, doom and black metal, as well as the unrelenting energies of hardcore and contrasting slower, haunted atmospheres, Predatory Void's signature sound is as volatile and piercing as ever. Concise, tight compositions that hook you in melody and then rage in filthy agony. The music can be confrontational, but it is never gratuitous_force is deployed to clarify rather than to overwhelm as emotional depth is at all times the compass. The production aesthetic prioritises fidelity to performance: takes are preserved for their immediacy, dynamics remain uncompromised, and the mix privileges contrast so that quiet moments carry as much dramaturgical weight as full-band climaxes. `Atoned in Metamorphosis` consolidates Predatory Void's forward motion and stakes a claim for a sound that prizes architectural heft and textural nuance in equal measure. Listeners should expect an immediate physical response in what is undeniably an ardent expression, and enjoy the reward of cumulative detail, for the EP dares you to listen closely: to feel transitions as processes, and to accept tension as a pathway to release. Predatory Void invites engagement, not escape, and demands to be met on its own terms, boldly. RIYL Hexis * CELESTE * Wallowing * LLNN * Downfall of Gaia * Witching

Formerly one third of the much-loved trio Black Box Recorder, alongside The Auteurs’ Luke Haines and Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist John Moore, the British singer-songwriter Sarah Nixey has steadily gained acclaim as a solo artist who makes savvy, sophisticated and poised pop.

Delivering vocals with a detached elegance over opulent tracks, any perceived nonchalance in Nixey’s luxe, cut glass voice belies her empathy, where social commentary serves as protest, both explicit and implied. Like Billy Bragg deepfaked as prime Julie Andrews, this strange but effective juxtaposition radiates soft power. ‘Lies of the Land’ depicts a corrupt post-Brexit and Covid-19 world where inequality and division flourish. ‘England's On Fire’ delves into the nuanced concepts of patriotism and nationalism, and ‘Pleasure Bay’ narrates the story of a love affair with a deprived yet beautiful English seaside town, written after Nixey left London, drawn back to the Dorset coast.
More than just a political record though, Nixey was drawn to the poetic elements of living too, telling stories of life and death, love and loss, conflicts and symmetry, in an intimate and close-up way, as if whispering secrets to her listeners.

“Sea Fever explores the bittersweet beauty of human life amid a volatile world of changing seasons and brutal elements,” says Nixey. “These are songs of deep sorrow, remembrance, birth, and change, set against a backdrop of the sensuous natural world.”
‘Rolling Waves’ explores profound grief following her beloved grandmother's death, while ‘Spring Equinox’ celebrates the joy and awe of life after welcoming her first grandchild. ‘At the Edge of the Forest’ is a poignant story of someone losing their memory, and ‘On This Wide Night’ recounts the early hours return home of a teenage runaway.

Blu:sh back in Kalahari orbit for a third bite of the cherry.

This one’s dark and dank, with sultriness off the scales. The antithesis of the Frenchman’s output as Terra Utopia, it’s everything we’ve come to love from the project in 6 deadly traxxx.

Moody but never unruly. Taught, tough and rendered in the same seductive, turbulent vortex that’s defined all the Blush material to date.

Strapping earworm grooves set pace, as is tradition with these records. Not sparing on the menace either. Some of it sounds like Blu:sh on a villain arc. Whether you’re a cut-throat stalking the backstreets or looking for a mean streak of pure sci-fi dystopia, we got you covered.

Proper late nite hedonism. Oscillating between sensuous clubland fantasy and a volatile astral kinda flex, the sense of impending danger is unabating.

The record captures the raw electricity of their live performances while revealing surprising moments of melody and restraint. Tracks like "Bastard," "Reptilian Brain" and "Professionalism Debunked" showcase the band's volatile edge, while "Holy Building Tourist" offers a brief but memorable shift in tone. The result is a cohesive and unpredictable debut that positions Volk Soup as one of the most inventive underground bands emerging from Leeds

Montreal indie rock trio Plants and Animals announce "The Jungle", their fifth studio album set to be released October 23rd via Secret City Records. Their shortest album yet and certainly their boldest, "The Jungle" is eight acts in a world full of noise. The album is auto-produced and was recorded at Mixart, their studio in Montreal. The band explains : "We started working on this a couple of years ago. Warren was afraid for a friend's health. He thought he was self-medicating too much and not taking care of himself. He couldn't let go of this image of an overworked dude swallowing too many sleeping pills and falling asleep with the stove on. So it began as the place next door, sometime before Greta Thunberg turned the expression into a rallying cry, where Earth is the house and the people are sleeping. It's terrifying, and on the whole we're not unlike this friend, are we?" "The Jungle" starts with electronic drums that sound like insects at night. A whole universe comes alive in the dark. It's beautiful, complex and unsettling. Systematic and chaotic. All instinct, no plan. Voices taunt,"yeah yeah yeah." This tangled time in which we find ourselves is reflected back in shadows. Every song is such a landscape. The first one grinds to a halt and you become a kid looking out a car window at the moon, wondering how it's still on your tail as you speed past a steady blur of trees. You watch a house go up in a yellow strobe that echoes the disco weirdness of Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer and David Bowie. You get pummelled by a rhythm then set free by a sudden change of scenery_the wind stops, clarity returns. You're under a streetlight in Queens, soft-focus, slow motion, falling in love. You speak French now too, in case you didn't already. Bienvenue. These are personal experiences made in a volatile world, and they reflect that world right back at us, even by accident. There's one song Nic sings to his teenage son who was dealing with climate change anxiety and drifting into uncharted independence. The band carries it out slowly together into a sweet blue horizon. Warren wrote the words to another shortly after losing his father. It's about the things we inherit not necessarily being the things we want. In a broader sense, that's where a lot of people find themselves right now.

Calling All Captains have built a reputation for turning personal struggle into explosive, emotionally charged punk rock. Blending post-hardcore grit with the melodic urgency of pop-punk and alt-rock, the Edmonton-based band delivers music that’s as volatile as it is vulnerable. Their upcoming EP, The Things That I’ve Lost (out January 9, 2026 via New Damage Records), is their most personal and sonically refined work to date. Recorded at The Audio Department in Edmonton, Alberta with longtime collaborator and producer Quinn Cyrankiewicz, the seven-track release features a standout co-write on “Blood for Blood” with world-acclaimed songwriter Tom Denney (A Day to Remember, Pierce the Veil, Neck Deep, etc.) Mastered by Stuart McKillop at Rain City Recorders, the EP explores burnout, grief, and the quiet collapse of identity; capturing a band reckoning with itself in real time: honest, raw, and entirely unfiltered. “This is the most personal release we’ve ever put out,” says Gauthier. “These songs came from a place of reflecting on everything we’ve been through, personally and as a band. It’s raw, but it’s real. And I think people will feel that.”

Miraculous reissue of "Ai No Volare" by Chico & The Gypsies and our own Shigeru Matsuzaki, originally released on 7" in 2014!

Chico & The Gypsies, formed by former Gipsy Kings member Chico Bouchikhi, is France's premier gypsy band, and this is the duo cover album "Love and Passion Gypsies", which was produced to celebrate the group's 20th anniversary. Ai no Bolare" featuring Shigeru Matsuzaki on vocals is a 7-inch cut from the duo cover album "Gypsies of Love and Passion," produced to commemorate the group's 20th anniversary. The B-side couples "Ai No Volare (Japanese Ver.)" sung in Japanese by Shigeru Matsuzaki, which was included only on the Japanese edition of the above album. The song is a great cheer for life, blending the passion and the original Gypsy spirit of Shigeru Matsuzaki, who was asked by some to wonder if he is really Japanese.

Sugaring a Strawberry, the sophomore record from Julia, Julia, is a study in coming undone—on purpose. Recorded at COMA, Julia Kugel's home studio, and mixed through a custom Flickenger clone, the album drifts in and out of clarity like memory itself. It's emotionally retrospective, creatively unvarnished, and deeply human. You can hear it in the hiss, the warmth, in the vocals so raw they're like an open window. These songs weren't engineered for perfection. They were built to breathe. Her long-time collaborator and husband, Scott Montoya, mixes it all so loosely that you can hear the air between tracks— a space that makes the music feel inhabited rather than recorded.


"Bound" opens the album like a secret passed between sisters, solemn and unspeakably close. It begins with the softest of touches: hushed guitar, a near- whispered delivery that carries the intimacy of someone singing only for one other person. It's a love song, but not romantic, more ancestral in the way long bonds can be. All glow and undercurrent, "I Know," is like hearing someone hum through a wound. The track arrives as if it had been waiting, coiled and complete, to be sung. Its pulse is slow but insistent, anchored on a hypnotic loop and a vocal that's half-incantation, half-confession. One of the most outward-facing songs on the record, "Feeling Lucky," opens like a cigarette flicked in the dark– smoky and a little bit slick. Built on a skeletal beat and a nearly detached vocal, it leans into a sarcastic swagger that barely masks the ache beneath. The delivery is droll and glazed, the instrumentation is sparse and a little woozy, leaving space for her voice to sway—a shrug of a song, stylish in its sadness. "A Love That Hurts" drifts in on soft, fingerpicked guitar and a dry, close-mic vocal that feels both haunted and immediate. The mix is stripped down and analog-warm, letting tape hum and silence frame the emotion. Julia sings like she's remembering something she doesn't want to, each line a slight unraveling. Like the rest of the album, "A Love That Hurts" doesn't push toward resolution. It sits in the ache, sifts through it, makes it beautiful.

Sugaring a Strawberry doesn't seek catharsis so much as stumbles into it. There's a quiet volatility to these songs like they might fall apart if you press too hard. It moves in shadow and softness, asking questions it doesn't answer. It doesn’t end with closure. It ends with truth.

"Marionette presents Mélodies pour Clairons, the debut album by multidisciplinary artist Ioa
Beduneau. Based in the South of France, Ioa’s world is rooted in creation - building intricate
self-playing installations and handmade DIY electronics. His practice is driven by a desire to
connect, challenge, and open up dialogues around disability and other social constructs.
Proudly identifying as a disabled artist who is attuned to how our bodies interact with the world,
Ioa brings a fresh and inimitable perspective to electronic and electroacoustic music.
On Mélodies pour Clairons, Ioa contemplates lifeforms using modular synths, channeling
principles of physical modeling and bioacoustics. Ideas begin on paper and evolve into sound,
forming an abstract yet intentional sonic ecosystem. Clairons refers both to a musical instrument
and to a loved one with whom this music was shared, serving as a kind of sound diary during
the stillness of the pandemic. The movement of air, pressure, resonance, and the physical
properties of the clairon (a medieval trumpet) are reimagined and manipulated on this album,
resulting in impressionistic and deeply moving compositions with poetic sensibility. Organic
ASMR tones, synthesized bird calls, and pirouetting melodies of pipes and bells score an
imaginary biodome where chaos and harmony coexist. Striking and singular, these works
embody the kind of boundary-pushing music that defines Marionette."

"Stiff Little Fingers iconic debut ‘Inflammable Material’ was one of the most important records of its era. Originally released in 1979 at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the album depicted volatile life in Belfast at the time and was met with critical acclaim.

The double-LP sets include the original album and the unreleased Troon 1979 performance "

Dávid Makó began The Devil's Trade in 2014. His early solo work, often performed with only an acoustic guitar or banjo, quickly garnered attention for its emotional depth and stark beauty. Drawing on Appalachian folk, dark Americana, and Hungarian folk traditions, Makó's music has been praised for its haunting vocals, minimalist arrangements, and profound emotional honesty. Recently, and especially in this new release, elements of post-metal and doom have taken Makó's sound into new, exciting territory, whilst retaining his unique intimacy. `Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép', translated as "there is no uncontaminated beauty", is a record forged in grief and the unflinching confession. Fans of The Devil's Trade will immediately recognize Makó's signature elements: the deep, rugged baritone, the uncanny ability to transmit raw emotion and melodies drenched in melancholia. With his fifth studio album however, Makó reclaims the heaviness of his early years, pushing his sound into new, atmospheric territory. "Nincs szennyezetlen szép is much darker and heavier and more complex than anything I have done", says Makó. Working within a larger, more dynamic canvas, Mako's confessional power is met with metal-wrought anguish, reborn as an intimate, haunting journey toward authenticity. Makó has woven percussive muscle and electric weight in which archaic drums feature prominently as a driving, emotional force. The result is a soundscape of swinging moods: eruptions of doom, passages of plaintive lament _ the volatility of grief itself captured. FOR FANS OF Neurosis, Pallbearer, Bellwitch, Amenra, Yob, Monolord, Steve Von Till, Der Weg Einer Freiheit

Dávid Makó began The Devil's Trade in 2014. His early solo work, often performed with only an acoustic guitar or banjo, quickly garnered attention for its emotional depth and stark beauty. Drawing on Appalachian folk, dark Americana, and Hungarian folk traditions, Makó's music has been praised for its haunting vocals, minimalist arrangements, and profound emotional honesty. Recently, and especially in this new release, elements of post-metal and doom have taken Makó's sound into new, exciting territory, whilst retaining his unique intimacy. `Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép', translated as "there is no uncontaminated beauty", is a record forged in grief and the unflinching confession. Fans of The Devil's Trade will immediately recognize Makó's signature elements: the deep, rugged baritone, the uncanny ability to transmit raw emotion and melodies drenched in melancholia. With his fifth studio album however, Makó reclaims the heaviness of his early years, pushing his sound into new, atmospheric territory. "Nincs szennyezetlen szép is much darker and heavier and more complex than anything I have done", says Makó. Working within a larger, more dynamic canvas, Mako's confessional power is met with metal-wrought anguish, reborn as an intimate, haunting journey toward authenticity. Makó has woven percussive muscle and electric weight in which archaic drums feature prominently as a driving, emotional force. The result is a soundscape of swinging moods: eruptions of doom, passages of plaintive lament _ the volatility of grief itself captured. FOR FANS OF Neurosis, Pallbearer, Bellwitch, Amenra, Yob, Monolord, Steve Von Till, Der Weg Einer Freiheit

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die return October 17 with Dreams of Being Dust, an album that finds the Connecticut-formed collective plumbing the depths of emotional ruin and emerging with their most scorched, unrelenting work yet. Co-produced by guitarist Chris Teti (Fiddlehead, Anxious) and Greg Thomas (END, Misery Signals), the album exchanges the band"s usual sprawl for something more serrated-folding djent-like heft and post-hardcore volatility into their post-everything DNA. Dreams of Being Dust is the band"s fifth studio album, and follows up their well- received 2021 album, Illusory Walls, which arrived as their "heaviest, proggiest, most audacious release to date" according to Stereogum. Tackling complex social and political themes like religion and capitalism, Pitchfork praised its scathing indictments as "fuming with resentment for the ruthless greed and self-interest fueling societal collapse. If Illusory Walls was their grand reckoning, Dreams Of Being Dust is the aftermath: raw, furious, alive. But even amid the chaos, the band"s core remains intact-a belief in community, resistance, and making sense of the world through sheer volume and vulnerability. TWIABP have always blurred the lines between hope and despair, and here, that duality feels sharper than ever. Now a decade in, the band- David F. Bello (vocals), Chris Teti (guitar/ vocals), Joshua Cyr (bass), Katie Dvorak (synth/vocals), Steven K. Buttery (drums), and Anthony Gesa (guitar/ vocals)-deliver a message that sounds less like a eulogy and more like a rallying cry.

Sleepytime Trio was a post-hardcore band that formed in 1995 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Originally a side project of the band Maximillian Colby, they quickly took off as they played shows around the mid-Atlantic region; building a reputation for their volatile, emotional sound and unpredictable live energy. Their shows were notorious for exploding into controlled chaos. They were a cacophony of tangled limbs, busted gear, and a visceral sense that everything might combust in a split second. In 2024, Solid Brass Records partnered with Sleepytime Trio and their longtime label, Lovitt Records, to begin work on a discography to memorialize this important band. 'Memory Minus Plus Minus' is a 14 track collection. Numerous songs have been remixed by J. Robbins at Magpie Cage Studio for improved quality and everything has been remastered by TJ Lipple. Limited edition opaque bublegum colored vinyl comes in a gatefold jacket and includes a booklet with extensive liner notes and full “gigography” documenting their shows from 1995-2018.

Scintillating, alchemical kosmische; visionary, deep, and luminous; and beautifully sleeved, with gold foiling and silver ink.

Works In Metal fans out a set of acid treatments and finely sharpened blades — cutting, shaping, suspending form. Sounds are melted down and forged as if liquid metal.
The works are paired. Arc’s Blue Flame previews the smoking volatility at the album’s core. Echoes and resonance soften the dissonant, bright textures; all overlaid with Fofana’s signature, percussive kick drums. Welding drills into the discordant thrills and spills of metamorphosis. Sparks fly and the bittersweet arc of change unfolds.
Fofana discreetly folds in text, poetry, and field recordings, spooring their decomposition and recomposition with a prismatic point of view. The coupling Obscure Light (Decomposition) and Obscure Light (Recomposition) marks something new in his music. The pulse is brightly honed, cascading beyond the dancefloor, exultingly eluding musical genre.
Works in Metal is perhaps Fofana’s most narrative album. At its heart is the killer, extended Lure of the Fragment / So Another Sound Suggests Itself. Melodies circle in call-and-response patterns, balancing proximity and distance, signalling the inward gravity required to work with metal. A nested story-line, with birds flying in; an album within an album. Dredging up memories and associations, Fofana filters in selections from his sound-archives. Layered with synths, field recordings become instruments in their own right. The last three minutes proffer precious clarity — a memory, in miniature, flashed onto molten metal.

In 1943 Suzanne Césaire declared that ‘our surrealism will then supply them the leaven from their very depths. It will be time finally to transcend the sordid contemporary antinomies: Whites-Blacks, Europeans-Africans, civilized-savage: the powerful magic of the mahoulis will be recovered, drawn from the very wellsprings of life. Colonial idiocies will be purified by the welding arc’s blue flame. The mettle of our metal, our cutting edge of steel, our unique communions — all will be recovered’. Works in Metal is a tribute to her prophecy; its enactment, sculpted in sound.

Italian producer, musician, DJ, and groove architect Sam Ruffillo drops his long-awaited debut album Tipo Così on Toy Tonics – a sun-drenched, genre-blurring statement that blends classic house with Mediterranean flair, romantic funk, and tongue-in-cheek Italo vibes. Over 11 expertly crafted tracks, Ruffillo delivers a dancefloor-ready, emotionally rich LP that connects deep musicality with irresistible rhythm and light-hearted elegance.

After three acclaimed EPs and collaborations with revered artists such as Barbara Boeing, Kapote, and Fimiani, Ruffillo has firmly cemented himself as a core artist on the Berlin-based label. Known for his unmistakable signature sound — a warm mix of vintage disco, 90s house, and Italian vocals — Sam’s music has garnered widespread DJ support from tastemakers like Gerd Janson, Palms Trax, Seth Troxler, and DJ Tennis, while becoming a staple on Italian airwaves. His infectious summer anthems like Danza Organica and Perfetta Così have soundtracked countless club nights and festivals, creating a loyal following that eagerly awaited this full-length debut.

Tipo Così is the natural culmination of a musical journey that’s both playful and profound — a travel diary written in grooves, synth stabs, and melodies that feel like postcards from a parallel Mediterranean universe. The album expands and deepens Ruffillo’s world into a fully immersive experience: lush emotional chords meet tight syncopated grooves, vintage synth textures collide with irresistibly catchy pop refrains, and the boundary between sincerity and playful irony is exquisitely blurred.

Entirely written, produced, and recorded in Italy, in his beloved hometown of Bologna, the album finds Ruffillo at the helm on keys, drum machines, and production, supported by a talented cast of musicians contributing live bass, guitar, and other organic elements — further enriching his trademark fusion of electronic grooves and natural instrumentation. There’s a tactile warmth in these tracks, a hands-on feel that adds soul and depth to every beat.

This album also marks Ruffillo’s heartfelt return to singing in Italian, with standout tracks like House Tipo Così, Mi Fa Volare, Ancora, and Dentro Di Me, where romantic naïveté meets pulsing club energy in a way that feels both timeless and refreshingly new. The vocal performances add an intimate, human touch to the music, reinforcing the personal stories woven into each song. There’s poetry in the casual, a bittersweet elegance in the way the lyrics float over groove-heavy production.

Having toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Mexico — with sets at iconic venues like Panorama Bar and festivals such as Sónar Barcelona — Ruffillo has fine-tuned much of this album in front of live audiences. The real-world testing ground infused the record with a dynamic energy and immediacy that only comes from genuine crowd interaction. These songs weren’t just made in the studio — they were lived on dancefloors around the world.

Tipo Così is not just a collection of tracks. It’s a philosophy — playful, stylish and unmistakably personal. A modern club album bursting with heartfelt emotion and sophistication. Music for dancers with taste; for lovers of beauty, rhythm, and the little imperfections that make things feel real.

But what exactly is Tipo Così? More than just a phrase, it’s a way of being. It’s about embracing elegance without effort, mixing irony with sincerity, and letting nostalgia slip into the room without taking over the party. It’s Sam Ruffillo’s signature language: relaxed, confident, meticulous yet never rigid — where a chord progression can say as much as a lyric, and every beat carries intention.

The album’s visual identity complements this vision perfectly. The artwork and promotional materials lovingly reference Italian design from the ’80s and ’90s, combining bold graphic elements with playful pop culture nods. This aesthetic mirrors Ruffillo’s music — a fusion of vintage warmth and contemporary freshness, delivered with authenticity and charm.

Sam Ruffillo belongs to a new generation of European artists who are reshaping electronic music by blending past and present, analog and digital, groove and emotion — without nostalgia or pose. His artistic universe is coherent, vibrant, and alive; a rich tapestry of sound, images, and stories that coexist with lightness, precision, and a distinctive voice.

Reflecting on his artistic journey, Sam describes music as a vital, deeply human impulse — a tribal connection to rhythm and body that has driven him since he was a teenager. His creative process balances meticulous planning with room for spontaneity, usually sparked by clear melodic ideas that evolve naturally. Collaborations with close friends, especially vocalists like Ninfa, add warmth and authenticity, exemplified in tracks like “House Tipo Così.” For Sam, music is honest self-expression — crafted for listeners who crave memorable melodies and rhythms imbued with genuine feeling.

While technical perfection is tempting, Sam prioritizes emotion, knowing that what truly resonates is the soul behind the sounds. His long-standing partnership with Toy Tonics has been key in nurturing his vision, offering a blend of creative freedom and professional support. Looking ahead, Sam Ruffillo is excited to broaden his live performances, and release new projects that continue to blend electronic grooves with organic, heartfelt sounds — maintaining the delicate balance between playful irony and sincere emotion that defines Tipo Così.




Kurzversion:
Italian DJ, producer and musician Sam Ruffillo drops his debut album Tipo Così on Toy Tonics - a sunny blend of house, funk, Italo and pop, full of groove and emotion. Written and recorded in Bologna with live instruments and Italian vocals, it’s a playful, elegant journey shaped on dancefloors worldwide. A stylish, sincere club album where nostalgia, irony and rhythm meet in perfect harmony.

- Mi Fa Volare
Road-tested across continents and now finally released, “Mi Fa Volare” channels 90s uplifting euphoria with big breakbeats, lush chords, and Italian vocals built to stick. Somewhere between balearic bliss and piano house nostalgia, it’s a feel-good club weapon made for peak-time moments - already sung back by crowds after just one listen.


- Ancora
“Ancora” is a vibrant hi-NRG track inspired by 80s Italo disco, sung entirely in Italian. It blends driving rhythms with dreamy melodies, capturing the radiant spirit of the decade. This fresh yet nostalgic song delivers euphoric vibes and timeless energy, making it a perfect fit for both dancefloors and reflective listening moments worldwide.


- Dentro Di Me
“Dentro Di Me” channels ‘90s sensuality through a fast-paced, UK house-inspired lens. Entirely in Italian, it’s a bold and contemporary dance track where hypnotic vocals meet high-energy grooves. Blending nostalgic textures with forward-thinking production, the result is a seductive and euphoric trip - equal parts emotional and club-ready.


- Amigo
“Amigo” blends Latin groove, acoustic guitar-driven rhythm, and Mediterranean flair into a warm, magnetic, cross-cultural dance anthem. Sung in Spanish and Italian, it celebrates connection, inclusivity, and the joy of moving together - whether stranger or friend. With its unstoppable rhythm and vibrant energy, it’s a feel-good track with a unifying spirit.


- Ma Sei Fuori
“Ma Sei Fuori” is a tongue-in-cheek dancefloor bomb blending raw house energy with catchy vocal phrases and a nod to classic French touch. Driven by hypnotic vocal lines and a playful attitude, it doesn’t take itself too seriously - while still proving serious club impact. Built for late-night moments, it’s bold, bouncy, and impossible to ignore.

The fiery second album from the Northern California squad, originally released in 1995.

Harmony marches eastward with its 21st EP, reconnecting with its roots through a collaboration with Kohra and Monophonik. While firmly grounded in the label’s deep-techno foundations, this release leans into a sharper focus on functional, dance oriented grooves and basslines.

A-side is opening with weight and intent, shedding the EP’s melancholic hues for something darker and more forceful. The gently broken spirit of “Uyire” follows, gliding between drones and gated vocals, stitched together by tactile percussion and an underlying volatility.

“Wavefolding Dreams” lives up to its name—wickedly modulated waveforms rise from a slapping bassline that pour like upside-down rain, finally dissolving into soothing, dreamy pads.

“Eastern Timbers” starts B-side with a deep, driving momentum. Trancey basslines and swinging arpeggios ebb and flow with tidal pads, wrapping the EP in a hypnotic finish that pulses with forward energy.

Decompress with “Neuroresonance” situated on the inner ring of the B-side. Suspenseful sliding drones in a wide stereo field and a sustained chord that breathes nostalgia, covered by a playful filter in motion.

Tin Fingers takes on a darker, melancholic direction on their second full album. Felix Machtelinckx' weeping vocals, preaching, searching, and trying to understand God, form the leitmotif. With rich melodies, haunting piano sounds, improvisations, first takes and no overdubs, Tin Fingers is searching for pureness and keeping things human and simple. The band is playing together intuitively, without a computer, without ego, just for the sake of music

The creation of the album was very fluent and spontaneous. Singer Felix wrote the backbones of the songs and the lyrics on acoustic guitar and piano. He wanted to have songs ready in order to be able to record and write arrangements fast. With an eye for details but without overthinking, keeping the ideas fresh. 'I wanted to stay in love with the music.' he explains. 'It needed to go fast, very fast, in just two weeks the entire album was recorded and ready to be mixed.'

In the studio, the band especially focused on picking the right mood rather than playing the right notes.

They were fed up with working on a computer for many hours, overthinking production choices, and adding instruments on top of each other as if they were Lego blocks. This time they decided to work in a more traditional way, going for first takes, jams, and essentially working with analog gear. No computers, no screens, no distractions. Only four humans in a studio trying to make a sound together by keeping things spontaneous and raw. They said goodbye to perfection and worked towards an unfinished product, a snapshot.

Tin Fingers also didn't want to sound like any other artist on this record. They decided not to listen to music during the sessions, and to never express ideas by referencing other bands. Just before the studio session, however, bass player Simen Wouters broke the rules and shared Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's, I See Darkness. Its dark and searching sound ended up inspiring the band unmistakably.

Once the recording was finished, the band decided to keep the volatile rhythm going and asked reputable NYC-based mixer and producer D. James Goodwin to finish the job. Goodwin, known for his analog folk productions with a real American punchy sound but a tender touch, proved the right man for the job. He opened up the songs and kept things poetic, minimal but impressive.

Celestial Echo (miche & Stu Clark) team up with Divine Disco’s Greg Belson to continue their 7-inch series spotlighting Detroit’s powerhouse gospel, soul and R&B label — HOB (House of Beauty).

This second 7-inch gives us two more in-demand killers:

Side A: Messiahs of Glory - “Can’t Find No Other Love"
Lp only before, this track makes its way to a 45 for the first time, super feel good soulful number. Uptempo with a glorious vocal, this one is built for the discerning dancefloor.

Side B: The Royal Travelers - “Jesus Hold My Hand”
raw, soulful and defining of the era. Rarer than rare and never before sold online, it’s a heavy dose of funky gospel oozing with breaky drums and soul.

Fully licensed and remastered, this 7-inch comes housed in a custom Celestial Echo / Divine Disco series sleeve with a faithful reproduction of the HOB label.

Founded in 1956 by Mrs. Carmen Murphy, HOB wasn't just a label — it was a beacon. From the basement of her beauty salon on Detroit’s West Side, she ran one of the most important Black-owned gospel imprints of the 20th century. At a time when both the music industry and the country were stacked against her, Mrs. Murphy built a sanctuary for soul — a Black woman-owned business and creative hub in volatile times.

Pressed and distributed by Prime Direct Distribution.
Don’t miss — buy or cry. Volume 2 continues the journey.

Pyrex’s post-apocalyptic punk slithers out of the melting pot that is New York City, nodding to influences ranging from early thrash to Crass Records post-punk and the city’s own storied hardcore lineage. Rooted in the classic acid-damaged sound of Chrome, Pyrex takes notes from disparate influences like Poison Idea, Needles and Crazy Spirit, delivering a rolling boil of punk nihilism with hints of psychedelia simmering beneath. Their latest, Slugman, is four tracks of irate punk fury packed into a taut eight minutes—all toxic sludge and raw nerve spilling in abundance. It’s nasty, unhinged and volatile but won’t leave your turntable for a long while. Approach with caution.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?