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Windy City label Identity Spectrum is back with a third volume in its The Way Of The Rave series, and again it offers authentic techno from across the US East coast, the Midwest and Mexico. ViiV opens with a dubby, low-key groove packed with suspense and muttered vocals on Dollar Shake. Sister Zo's 'Diamond Hands' then cuts a rugged groove with razor sharp percussion and jungle breaks just about contained in a moody techno framework, then Snad strips things back to an abstract minimal groove with loopy rhythms and broken glass before Titonton Duvante serves up his smooth signature tech house cruiser, 'Unrequited.'

French modular tribalist Sindh launches the Komudo Origins Series on his own label with a fierce first chapter built for deep physical immersion. Still rooted in rythmic ritualism, these four tracks push further into shadowy, shape-shifting techno. 'Sauros' is the beatless opener, all hovering, menacing atmospheres and sonically refracted voices. 'Arbhar' glides along with a sleek, understated techno framework that feels like it's made of pure air. 'Mystic Sun' begins to edge towards the pumping, firing echoes and low level spoken words across a progressive-style builder, before 'Denali' closes things off via thumping, late-night techno charge. Subtle darkness, alien textures and body-focused grooves define this potent new series.

XDCVR_ unveils 'I HATE THAT SHIT, I HATE ALL THAT SHIT' a blistering sonic manifesto on the 'performativity of decay'.

In a world saturated with digital perfection, the album emerges as a vital, hand-made act of electronic rebellion.

Framed as a "soundtrack for the end stretch" the record explores the notion that societal decay is not a passive process, but an active performance—a machine chugging along long after its wheels have fallen off.

This is cyborg music for a bifurcated reality: carbon-fiber toughness shielding a core of systemic rot. The sound palette is intentionally raw and imperfect, a direct challenge to the sterile, automated order of what the artist calls the "techno-fascist oligarchy."

Tracks eschew conventional temporality, mirroring the feeling of existing in two concurrent timelines—one hyper-aware of the collapse, the other numbly consuming it.

Drawing a line from the Cold War anxieties of the past to the data-farming dystopia of the present, 'I HATE THAT SHIT…' posits art as the last authentic incubator for societal change. It is, in the artist's words, "a deliberate 'fuck you' to the oppressive order of the status quo. This is not easy listening; it is a contested space, a lit fuse, and a necessary noise for our complicated times."

Pioen is the second album by Elisabeth Klinck & Nils Vermeulen, released on blickwinkel. It was recorded in a small chapel of a monastery in the city center of Ghent. A chapel by nature is a place of contemplation and meditation, which automatically had influence on the music. Movements slow down, attention is sharpened and the overwhelming silence of the space becomes part of the music. Sound and silence are meticulously woven into each other. Even when the music grows at times dense and heavy, there is an ever-present sense of closeness and intimacy. This is reinforced by the use of the voice, which naturally appears throughout the album, not as a separate layer but as an extension of the instruments.

The pieces – this time more curated than on their previous album Pair, Paire – arose from hours-long improvisations where sound became space and space became sound. Bringing together violin, double bass and voice, Pioen unfolds as a serene and honest journey, inviting the listener into a state of contemplation.

Elisabeth Klinck is a contemporary violinist, composer and performer based in Brussels, known or her timeless, deep-listening sound worlds. Her album Picture a Frame (2023) and Chronotopia - selected by The Quietus as one of the best albums of 2025 - were released on the Swiss label Hallow Ground. A big part of her work revolves around tactility, fragility, and a very physical approaches to sound.

Nils Vermeulen is a Belgian double bass player active in all varieties of adventurous music. He has played with Paul Lytton, Martin Küchen, Seppe Gebruers, William Parker, John Dikeman, Luis Vicente, among others. He works across many scenes, from free improv to jazz to contemporary classical music, and in many distinct constellations, such as his own groups Kabas and Jukwaa, a Norwegian free jazz trio with Tollef Østvang and Heidi Kvelvane, a string duo with Elisabeth Klinck, and as the double bassplayer of Nemo ensemble. In 2023, he released his debut solo album on Aspen Edities.

The short, mysterious career of the female French duo Deux Filles is bookended by tragedy. Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule met as teenagers at a holiday pilgrimage to Lourdes, during which Coule's mother died of an incurable lung disease and Forque's mother was killed and her father paralyzed in an auto accident. The two teens bonded over their shared grief and worked through their bereavement with music. However, after recording two critically acclaimed albums and playing throughout Europe and North America, Forque and Coule disappeared without a trace in North Africa in 1984 during a trip to visit Algiers. The short and terribly unhappy lives of Forque and Coule are at the root of the small but fervent cult following the mysterious duo have gained since their disappearance, not least because the placid, largely instrumental music on the duo's albums betrays no hint of the sorrow that framed their personal lives.

This would be a terribly sad story if a word of it were true. In reality, Deux Filles were Simon Fisher Turner, former child star/teen idol and future soundtrack composer, and his mate Colin Lloyd Tucker. Turner and Tucker left an early incarnation of The The in 1981 to pursue another musical direction. Turner claims that the idea of Deux Filles came to him in a dream, and he and Tucker strictly maintained the fiction throughout the duo's career. Not only did they pose in drag for the album covers, the duo once even played live without the audience realizing that the tragic French girls on-stage were actually a pair of blokes from south London. Deux Filles released two albums through Turner and Tucker's Papier Mache label, 1982's Silence & Wisdom' and 1983's Double Happiness'. Both albums are included here and blend watery piano, occasionally ghostly vocals, sheets of synthesizers, heavily processed guitars and the barest minimum of percussion. Drifting and wistful, they're a pair of lost ambient gems from a time when the genre had yet to mature, an excellent example of post-Eno, pre-Orb ambient music.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in gatefold sleeve with original front covers of both albums, and a centerfold of archive images and the original liner notes. Each LP includes a sticker of the Lino cuts by Adrian Gill that was included with the original pressing.

"Like an early French film soundtrack with melodramatic overtones, the sound is jagged and disjointed but never harsh. Lilting guitars and ample use of echo smack of Vini Reilly, relying on the hypnotic qualities of the sound rather than abrasive noise" (Sounds, 03/1983)

Mia Zapata was the greatest rock singer of her time. She may have likely been the greatest blues singer in punk rock history, the woman who married the 78 and the '78. Tragedy did not make this true. Mia Zapata made this true, and the ferocious, spring-loaded shrapnel frame that was built around her by Andy Kessler (guitar: metronomic and furious), Matt Dresdner (bass: fluid, punching, beat-addicted and melodic), and Steve Moriarty (drums: martial and explosive) - who, with Mia, combined to form The Gits - made it true. The Gits were formed at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in mid-1986, grabbing and swapping pieces of art, thrash, noise, punk rock, classic rock, and all the sorts of magical silly and bookish jingle bells that an old-school liberal arts education handed you; for the next few years they worked on turning it all into something tough, sensitive, both brutal and kind. Andy, Matt, Mia, and Steve moved to Seattle in middish 1989, landing in a house on Capitol Hill where they (and fellow travelers) wood-shedded and rehearsed for the next few years. The Gits put out three EPs in 1990 and '91 before signing with C/Z Records and releasing their first full-length album, Frenching the Bully. Seattle quickly claimed the quartet as their own and embraced the Gits blend of ferocious fangs and soft heart, the slug/slap of the guitars, and the gorgeous, soft underbelly of the poetic emotions. These qualities not only fit in with the doe-eyed/sharp-clawed grunge ethos but earned the Gits the respect of their peers, including Nirvana, who tapped them to open a major local show in 1990. Then other stuff happened, and their frantic, confessional barbed-heart snowball began rolling up hill very, very fast; the Gits "quickly" (hah! After half a decade learning to implode and explode hearts and stomping their boots on manifold beer-softened, Marlboro-weeded wood stages!) inspired rapture, awe, and the levitation that happened when peak emotion meets peak grindage in front of amps spitting out something that sounded like the mad marriage of Bolan swagger and Dischord tension_ all fronted by a genuinely incomparable woman who held her heart in her mouth and shared it, in all its celebration and fear, without hesitation. The Gits were an angry, inflamed slinky fully in tune with and tuned by the Bessie Patti Smith of her time, truly the only singer who could summon Joplin, Poly Styrene, Sam Cooke, Iggy Pop and Ian MacKaye all in the same goddamn song. In 1993, less than four weeks after accepting an offer from Atlantic Records, Mia died. I leave it at that, because this is not about death; it's about an extraordinary life. I do not say, "You should have been there," I say, "We are lucky so many of us were, and I am so glad we have this extraordinary evidence of the power and gifts of Mia and the Gits that you now can hold in your hands." And I note that Frenching the Bully, this extraordinary testament to the soul, shock, fury and feeling of the Gits, has been long out of print on vinyl and CD, and this new edition - remastered by legendary Seattle engineer Jack Endino - joyfully rectifies that. -Tim Sommer

Die Ameisenstaat Platte wird nunmehr 29 Jahre alt. Mit 26 war sie bereits zum ersten mal beim Schönheitschirurgen und wurde kernsaniert. Im Sinne eines ganzheitlichen Schönheitskonzeptes wurde ihr ein einwöchiger Aufenthalt im Zoetrope-Beautysalon spendiert. 54 Einzelbilder sagen mehr als 1000 Worte. So viele Einzelbilder braucht es um eine Picture Platte zum leben und zum Sterben zu erwecken. Auf dem Vinyl wird der Lebenszyklus einer Ameise von der Geburt bis zum Tod nachgezeichnet. Um die Ameise zum leben (bzw. sterben) zu erwecken benötigt ihr: die Knochenfabrik LP Ameisenstaat Zoetrope Vinyl Edition, eine Stroboskop-App fürs Handy die 1800 RPM bzw 30 HZ kann, wahlweise ein Handy dessen Videofunktion 30 Frames/Sekunde kann. Platte auflegen, Geschwindigkeit auf 33 RPM und bei sehr hellem Licht (idealerweise direktes Sonnenlicht) mit der Handkamera filmen. Die Framerate muss 30 fps (=Frames per Second) betragen, das ist üblicherweise voreingestellt. Je heller die Beleuchtung desto schöner der Effekt. Eine weitere Möglichkeit ist das Beleuchten der Platte mit einem Stroboskop. Es gibt zahlreiche Stroboskop Apps fürs Handy, der Blitz muss individuell einstellbar sein. Eine Strobo-App die ausschliesslich im Takt der Musik blitzt ist hierfür ungeeignet. Die Blitzrate muss hierbei auf 30 Hz bzw. 1800 RPM eingestellt werden. Hier gilt je dunkler die Umgebung desto schöner der Effekt.

In an engrossing lattice of polyrhythmic beat science and deep atmospheric meditation, Samurai Music is thrilled to welcome Marco Shuttle to the fold for the Sumud EP.

Since his early years locked into the 00s London techno scene, Marco Sartorelli has developed as an artist entirely on his own terms. Through the rush of new ideas and cross-pollination that has characterised cutting-edge techno over the past 20-odd years, Sartorelli has travelled as Marco Shuttle from one considered stylistic concept to the next. On his own Eerie label and across expansive releases for respected outposts such as Spazio Disponibile, Incensio and Astral Industries, he's taken an exploratory approach to rhythm and spatial design while always drawing on intentional thematic frameworks, creating distinctive and immersive dance music in the process.

As Samurai Music continues to celebrate the rich seams of inspiration where deep techno and drum & bass intersect, Sartorelli's malleable, mysterious strain of drum work fits right in and sets a captivating tone for the label's operations in 2026. 'Sumud' is a steely drum mantra dealing in fractured patterns with the primal patina of the early Artificial Intelligence era, while 'Las Dunas de Taroa' leans on gently pulsing melancholia undulating at a half-time pace. 'Iso 50' taps into raw, analogue minimalism once more, evoking the sound of Roman Flugel's Ro70 records in their icy, alien formation. Completing the set, we're guided towards the tense electronica of 'Polylayering What I've Got', where uneasy melodic chimes interlock with intricately programmed drum machines.

There's a distinct sense of golden-era, mid-90s electronica coursing through Sumud EP, but Sartorelli shrouds the classic tools at his disposal in his subtle signature atmospherics, pushing towards a plain of expression that transcends time.

Antibalas established themselves in the late 1990s as a burning, tough, horn, bass and drum driven Afrobeat ensemble cut from the Fela Kuti mold, who were politically savvy and socially conscious. Their live shows have been incendiary events where rhythm and perspiration from completely crazy, booty-shaking audience members shared something deeper and wider than the music itself. Security is Antibalas' fourth album. It was co-produced by the band with John McEntire from Tortoise.

The group, whose name means "bulletproof" in Spanish, has indeed proved they possess the mettle to not only survive but also thrive by employing a musical arsenal that has become known worldwide. Initially using the revolutionary blueprint of afrobeat as a launching pad, the dozen-strong members of Antibalas weave a rich tapestry of latin, jazz, classical, funk and soul into their horn-driven mix. Words fail in trying to describe the result: simultaneously polyrhythmic and political, independent and contagious, and the reason why many have credited the band for introducing afrobeat's framework to a new generation.

Security is available as a numbered limited edition of 500 copies on white vinyl and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve.

Jennifer Touch release her next LP 'Aging at Airports' on Fabrika Records. The idea for the record title came before the music even existed as Touch was spending an increasing amount of time in airports while touring. In her own words: "It felt like I waste a large part of my life waiting for the next show to come, to entertain and perform my music and build timeless moments with others. This waiting, the slowly ticking time at the gate, was in complete contrast to what I want to do as an artist: to be in flux, to create things that will last forever. The airport, as a busy hub, was like a symbol of this ambivalence. And a reminder: every second, whether waiting or on the move, I have to accept that I am fading, that my creative power, my face, and my body are fading. As a (performing) artist, everything feels like a strange contrast. While you want to stay true to yourself and speak authentically from the soul, you are also expected to appear forever young, and powerful. Artists are often wanted to distract people, but creating this art forces me to confront my own transience. I feel the struggle to fit into this powerful artificial framework that the world has set and the desire to break free from it."

The Meth Lab returns for its third instalment with “Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab,” a sharp, hard-hitting chapter that cements Method Man’s place as one of hip-hop’s most consistent and enduring voices. Executive produced by longtime collaborator Handz On, this project finds the Wu-Tang legend in rare form—polished, precise, and laser-focused.

“The Rehab” pulls listeners back into the world Meth has been building since the first Meth Lab sessions: a mixtape-style showcase blending razor-sharp lyricism with streetwise storytelling, packed with energy and attitude. Method Man’s flow remains timeless, weaving between gritty boom-bap, polished modern production, and the unmistakable Wu-Tang aesthetic. A strong lineup of guests brings extra fire to the set—Cappadonna, RJ Payne, Redman, KRS-One, JoJo Pellegrino, Jadakiss, Carlton Fisk, Hanz On, Intell, Iron Mic, 5th Pxwer, Chunk Bizza, Eddie I, Cortez, and more—each stepping into Meth’s world with their own hard-edged energy. Behind the boards, producers like P. Version, Rockwilder, Eric Sermon, Adam McLeer, Daniel C. Wells, Darnell Norman McConnell, and Joshua D. Zimmerman craft a gritty yet refined sonic framework that elevates every performance.

More than just another chapter, Season 3: The Rehab feels like a victory lap: a culmination of decades of craft, a celebration of the Staten Island movement, and a reminder that Method Man still out-rhymes rappers half his age. It’s a must-own for Wu-Tang fans, East Coast purists, and anyone who appreciates sharp writing and decades-deep mastery.

Repress!

Danny Tenaglia’s discography is chock full of multiple seminal and genre defining classics, but as he shows with his new 12” vinyl release his production skills are as well honed as ever and he can still create tunes that represent a musical moment in time like few others. On the A-side “The Brooklyn Gypsy” is his highly personalized and pumping ode to one of the great anthems of House Music “Gypsy Woman,” produced with the full approval and appreciation from the original creators. And on the flip side “Move That Body” features a signature Danny Tenaglia deep, warm and bass heavy foundation with an inspired and memorable vocal performance from another legend of the New York City House Music community Cevin Fisher. The package includes a unique and frameworthy custom art jacket.

A chance meeting in Mexico City set Points of Inaccessibility into motion. When Ibero-American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri crossed paths with Dutch media artist Jaco Schilp at MUTEK in 2024, a conversation about how technology shapes perception revealed an unexpected common ground. Schilp invited Irisarri to a spring 2025 residency at Uncloud, the Utrecht-based collective he co-founded, where Irisarri's sound began to take form amid an environment shaped by Schilp’s visual research.

The Uncloud studio was located inside the former Pieter Baan Centre, a forensic psychiatric prison where suspects of violent crimes were once confined. Its long history of silence and containment shaped the atmosphere in which the project developed. Within this setting, Irisarri coaxed long bowed-guitar tones through a network of pedals and looping systems. The raw gestures thickened into a vaporous and architectural field of sound. Schilp processed the material through a custom point-cloud software patch that produced images in continuous flux. The visuals flickered, dissolved and reformed like memories that resist coherence, functioning as a digital Rorschach that reflected the observer’s own perception.

Amid these spectral echoes, the project evolved into an examination of how the past persists within present signals. Memory endures as residue and interference, continually shaping perception even when its source has faded.

Schilp’s visual process required a continuous stream of sound in real time. Irisarri improvised throughout the residency, generating material that allowed the visuals to develop in parallel. Once back in his New York studio, he began shaping the recordings by carving pathways through the improvisations and mapping selected passages into MIDI. This process allowed him to build outward from the bowed-guitar material with minimal overdubs, adding Prophet 5 textures, Moog bass and strings that expanded the harmonic field while keeping the original performances at the center. To refine the structure, Abul Mogard provided editorial input, working with Irisarri’s stems to guide transitions and strengthen the overall pacing. The material, originally created under conditions of immediacy and constraint, evolved into a fully realized work through careful revision, patience and sustained reworking.

The title engages the geographic concept of the Poles of Inaccessibility, locations defined solely by their distance from all surrounding points. Irisarri adapts this idea to the conditions of digital life, where new forms of inaccessibility arise through the informational enclosures that structure perception. What appears to be a fully connected network often produces a deeper kind of separation, one shaped by the filtering logic of the systems that mediate experience. In this sense, the digital sphere mirrors its geographic counterpart. We inhabit spaces saturated with signals, yet the possibility of genuine contact becomes increasingly remote.

At its core, Points of Inaccessibility considers what can be understood as the new rituals of capitalist realism. Irisarri uses the term digital shamanism to describe the forms of simulated connection that organize contemporary life. These systems promise comfort through algorithms, influencers and AI interlocutors, yet they often reproduce the same conditions that generate loneliness in the first place. What appears as connection becomes the echo of connection, a sequence of gestures that imitate solidarity while withholding it. Like the geographic poles, these rituals are defined by distance. They pull us into environments where everything is illuminated, yet meaningful proximity becomes increasingly rare. In this sense, the work approaches a hauntology of the present, a reflection on futures that have stalled and intimacies that have been thinned by the algorithmic infrastructures that surround us.

This thematic tension unfolds across the album’s four movements. Faded Ghosts of Clouds introduces the work with textures that rise and dissipate in slow cycles, creating an atmosphere that resists clear definition. Breaking the Unison occupies a pivotal position in the sequence and focuses on the moment when the individual and the system fall out of alignment. Its shifting patterns trace the scattering of signals that once suggested connection, revealing the instability at the heart of contemporary perception. Signals from a Distant Afterglow forms the center of the album and features vocals by Karen Vogt, whose presence enters the sound field like a fragile transmission shaped by distance and delay. The closing piece, Memory Strands, follows motifs that appear, recede and briefly intersect before returning to quiet. Across these movements, the album outlines a landscape in which emergence and disappearance continually inform one another.

Listening to Points of Inaccessibility is an encounter with a sound field that is constantly in flux. Elements surface briefly, shift position and recede, creating a sense of motion that resists stable interpretation. The music moves between closeness and vastness, carrying traces of memory while withholding a clear point of resolution.

The album’s visual identity completes the project’s conceptual arc. In Mexico City, where Irisarri and Schilp first met, Daniel Castrejón transformed stills from Schilp’s point-cloud visuals into the cover image. The final artwork captures a single suspended frame of the digital material, a moment extracted from a field that is normally in constant motion. Its surface recalls the texture and abstraction found in the work of Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, where material presence and erasure coexist within the same plane.

What emerges is a work that examines the tension between technological systems and human presence. Points of Inaccessibility asks whether connection is still possible within environments shaped by mediation and delay, or whether we have become isolated points within the very networks that promise proximity. What possibilities for relation persist within environments organized by algorithms and interruption? And how are we meant to understand presence when so much of it is constructed at a distance?

Points of Inaccessibility will be released on BioVinyl on February 6, 2026, with audiovisual performances planned throughout 2026.

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Artwork by Jaco Schilp
Design and layout by Daniel Castrejón
Artist photo by Iulia Alexandra Magheru.

"What If" ist das neue Album von MAIIJA - eine eindringliche Auseinandersetzung mit Verletzlichkeit, Mut und den Emotionen, die uns verbinden. Marilies Jagschs Stimme bewegt sich zwischen Stärke und Zerbrechlichkeit und steht im Zentrum eines Sounds, der elektronische und organische Elemente fein miteinander verwebt.
Persönliche Erfahrungen, geprägt vom Leben mit Endometriose, treffen auf die Unsicherheiten unserer Zeit. Produziert von Peter Paul Aufreiter mit Gernot Scheithauer, Lukas Lauermann und Gästen wie The Zew, Oskar Mayböck und Paul Szelegowitz, ist ein Album entstanden, das berührt, tröstet und verbindet.
"What If" erinnert daran: Was auch kommt, wir sind nicht allein.

EN

"What If" is the new album by MAIIJA - a powerful exploration of vulnerability, courage, and the emotions that connect us. At its heart is Marilies Jagsch's voice, moving between strength and fragility, framed by a sound that blends electronic and organic elements.
Personal experiences shaped by living with endometriosis meet the uncertainties of our time. Produced by Peter Paul Aufreiter with Gernot Scheithauer, Lukas Lauermann, and guests including The Zew, Oskar Mayböck, and Paul Szelegowitz, the album is both moving and comforting.
"What If" is a reminder: whatever comes next, we are in this together.

Adam Green"s new album is a flamboyant synthesis of his recent creative work, compiling the three EPs he released exclusively digitally over the last three years. Houseface University, Magic Spells / Vending Machine, and Falling Around finally unite into a single, coherent project: a singular work of incisive songwriting, lo-fi psychedelic pop, and poeticirony. A key figure in the New York anti-folk scene, the singer-songwriter, visual artist, filmmaker, and poet Adam Green has influenced an entire generation since The Moldy Peaches. His songs have been covered by Regina Spektor, The Libertines, Carla Bruni, and Will Oldham; his films and installations have been exhibited at the Beyeler Foundation and acclaimedby the international press. In 2023, the tribute album Moping In Style: A Tribute to Adam Green (featuring Father John Misty, Devendra Banhart, Sean Ono Lennon, and others) confirmed his enduring influence on the global indie and alternative music scene. With this new album, Adam Green continues his unique trajectory: an instantly recognisable visual and musical universe, somewhere between quirky pop and minimalist folk. One of his most accessible and accomplished albums.

This debut 12" is a real statement of intent from The Aries Project, aka the ongoing creative collaboration of Collin Suttles and moe.BPM. The sound is rooted in house music's classical values of inviting groove, heartfelt warmth and a sense of patience, but all shot through with a modern and cosmically minded confidence. The Jules.NYC dub of 'You Need A Rock' is pure peak-time persuasion, all forward momentum and locked-in swing, while 'Someone Who Dances' keeps things closer to the body, riding a supple rhythm with soulful ease. Flip it over and 'Keep Me' (Lucky.Moe dub) strips the palette back to let deep chords and spacious keys stretch out hypnotically. 'When I See You' with Toni's Son closes on a celebratory note and Latin disco energy in a deep house framework.

The wild lunar landscape of Lanzarote is the dreamy frame in which Populous paints his new album, “Isla diferente”.

An instrumental trip between cumbia and latin ambient music through the mysterious and magical landscape of Lanzarote, with some gloomy vocal interventions from Fuera (Italy), Javier Arce (Costa Rica), Eva de Marce (Mexico) and Esotérica Tropical (Puerto Rico).

An organic mixture of sweet ethereal melodies and experimental electronic sounds which the artist himself labeled as “latin ambient”.

2024 repress

In February 2021, Jan Jelinek's seminal album "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records" turned 20. The anniversary repress, a double LP with two bonus tracks (B-sides from the Tendency EP, 2000), is a little late to the party.
What the press said about Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records:
“Don’t be misled by the title, though for there isn’t a finger-snapping rhythm c bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm.” (Alternative Press)
“The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people’s arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas.” (ATM)
“Jelinek’s sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards.” (RPM)
“Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub Techno framework. (...) Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player’s hissing intake of breath – it would have been ‘jazz’ enough for his purposes.“ (The Wire)
“It’s a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm.” (Pitchfork)
“All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs (...) are warm, paradisical creations”. (NME)
“Listen carefully and you’ll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you’ve not fallen asleep of course.” (iDJ)
“At times, it’s all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness” (DJ)
“Loop Finding Jazz Records' is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along.” (Boomkat)
PS:
“I’ve been fortunate enough to see Jan Jelinek live once, at Tonic NYC (...). Wearing a black and white striped shirt, he looked like a nihilistic Charlie Brown.” (beachsloth)

Prolific beat pharmacist par excellence Brendon Moeller continues his hot streak with a return to Samurai to serve up the exquisite craftsmanship of Shadow Language. Across 15 fresh productions the seasoned house and techno producer demonstrates yet more variations on his rejuvenated sound since pivoting towards 160 tempo zones. Heavyweight dub techno pulses collide with D&B pressure and dubstep snarl, delivered with devastating restraint and mediative warmth.

Moeller's dub-informed, high-grade production hit a hot streak as he started to experiment with faster tempos and more broken rhythms, reaching into thrilling new sound fields where fast-slow rhythmic intrigue meets with spatial subtlety and constantly evolving synth voices. The past year has seen him release a swathe of albums, from Further on Samurai to outings on Constellation Tatsu, ESP Institute and Quiet Details that all burst with inspiration, each distinct from the last and offering an original perspective on this rich seam of crossover electronics.

Shadow Language shows Moeller burrowing even deeper into this new era of his work, continuing the hypnotic approach set out on Further while edging more forthright ingredients into the mix. From the outset 'Division By Zero' hits with immediacy even as it dips into a dubwise breakdown, with snatches of vocal and even the iconic loom bird making the slightest of appearances. 'Feral Hymn' finds a curious kind of uplift in the synth chord that twists in and out of the mental techno murmurations of the rhythm section. 'Impermanence' has some snarling bass that belongs in the gnarliest tech-step, while the nagging hats ticking through 'Junkyard Syntax' hint at a shockout without resorting to brute force. The majestic dub techno chords of 'Driftform' create a through-line across Moeller's extensive catalogue, but here they dominate the mix above a spongy bed of sub bass throb and framed by the tiniest slithers of percussion.

Throughout the album, it's the implications Moeller suggests with the tools at his disposal that create a powerful energy. Restraint governs the delivery, guiding the listener in deeper until they find a maximal experience from each elegantly understated roller. The weight and presence is abundant across every track, fuelled by the invigorating power of each tone and frequency while avoiding the clutter of overloaded arrangements.

Finding the notes in between and half-hidden rhythms, Moeller himself perfectly summed up his latest opus as he continues to develop his own compelling Shadow Language.

Jagged City unveils their debut instrumental EP, `There Are More of Us, Always`, a bold collection that moves between spacious, melodic guitar passages and raucous, swelling climbs. With heartfelt, melodious songwriting, a diverse range of eclectic touches buried within, and eruptions of dense, layered sound, this record delivers wonderfully balanced compositions through raw and personal production. The project began as a cross-continental art experiment between Jake Woodruff (Defeater) and Carlos Torres (former touring member of Explosions In The Sky). What started as a simple exchange of ideas quickly found real shape through collaborative composition and thoughtful arrangement. Early sessions with David Haik helped refine the songs' structures and drum frameworks, setting the groundwork for what would become Jagged City's striking debut. "We wrote with pure instinct, just tried to add something new to a genre that we love. As we traded ideas, we took some left turns and incorporated elements that may be unexpected." (Woodruff) The result feels immediate, deviously rough at the edges, and charged with a punk-minded intensity that keeps the momentum taut and the sound intimate. RIYL Mogwai, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed, Mono, Defeater, Explosions In The Sky

Jagged City unveils their debut instrumental EP, `There Are More of Us, Always`, a bold collection that moves between spacious, melodic guitar passages and raucous, swelling climbs. With heartfelt, melodious songwriting, a diverse range of eclectic touches buried within, and eruptions of dense, layered sound, this record delivers wonderfully balanced compositions through raw and personal production. The project began as a cross-continental art experiment between Jake Woodruff (Defeater) and Carlos Torres (former touring member of Explosions In The Sky). What started as a simple exchange of ideas quickly found real shape through collaborative composition and thoughtful arrangement. Early sessions with David Haik helped refine the songs' structures and drum frameworks, setting the groundwork for what would become Jagged City's striking debut. "We wrote with pure instinct, just tried to add something new to a genre that we love. As we traded ideas, we took some left turns and incorporated elements that may be unexpected." (Woodruff) The result feels immediate, deviously rough at the edges, and charged with a punk-minded intensity that keeps the momentum taut and the sound intimate. RIYL Mogwai, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed, Mono, Defeater, Explosions In The Sky

'In 2023, sound artist and composer Weston Olencki toured across the American South. Beginning in their hometown in South Carolina, they snaked a circuitous path from the mountains of West Virginia to the banks of the Mississippi River. As the miles accumulated, so did the initial seeds of new work.
'Instruments and artifacts they acquired hitched a ride in the backseat, while songs and sounds filled their portable recorder: water in its various states, the familiar insectoid buzz of those summer nights, trains cutting through the landscape, the traditional music that lived alongside the communities that kept it. Olencki took it all in, and over time, found ways that these experiences coalesced into a bramble-like perspective of time, where past, present, and future intersect in ways both barbed and beautiful.
'Broadsides, Olencki’s newest solo full-length is the multilayered result of this journey. The album follows their landmark release Old Time Music from 2022, which presented radical interpretations of traditional tunes from Appalachia and throughout the South alongside original compositions that drew significantly on archival recordings. On Broadsides, Olencki rejects delineations between the unmoored avant-garde and the rootedness of one’s cultural heritage, revealing their porous and intertwined nature. “My mother was a quilter. Her mother before that,” they write in the album’s liner notes. “Quilting, like music, is a practice of embedding knowledge and remembrance into the very core of the thing you are making. It’s not just about the materials, but how they’re reassembled, recontextualized, stitched, woven to form new patterns - the minutiae of craft holding significance to those looking to find it. Stories woven from stories, never told the same way twice.”
'Like all great road trips, Broadsides unfolds slowly and continuously, with moments of dramatic reverie punctuating the endless melt of highway in the rearview. We’re immediately confronted by the uncanniness of revisiting old haunts, as Southern storms break through the initial churn of the freight locomotives of Alabama. Olencki’s interpretation of the bluegrass standard “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” captures the euphoria of melancholy in motion. The permutational plucks of banjo are bounced around the frame by a computer, its pitches determined within algorithmic sequences and transcriptions of classic three-finger licks. The tonalities of old-time are smeared and stretched until all that’s audible is the insistence that Heaven might be real.
'In the album’s second half, “Omie Wise,” a murder ballad made famous by Doc Watson, follows an interlude recorded on the river in North Carolina in which the titular character’s body was laid. Ghostly echoes of a dozen other renditions float through the substrata as Tongue Depressor’s Henry Birdsey accompanies them on the pedal steel guitar. The album’s central composition, “all my father’s clocks,” is a profound meditation on entropy and impermanence. The sound of their father’s extensive clock collection ticks away as Olencki pulls a bow across the length of an autoharp sourced from a rural strip mall. The instrument was left as detuned as it was found, the resonance of its deep bass drone and clanging high-end the result of years of neglect and the warping effects of Southern humidity.
'Historically, broadsides were an early form of broadcasting, an often- musicalized telling of current news pasted in the public square. The name was later taken up by Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen in the 1960s, whose Broadside magazine published songs and social commentary when American folk music resurfaced as an urgent way of communicating the multifaceted politics of its time.
'Olencki borrows the phrase to recall both this old form of songmaking and that later prominent reexamination of traditional music’s role in modern life, but also to draw attention to the fragmented and machine- mediated way heritage is diffused in this very different, but no less pivotal, moment.
'As a sanitized past is used as justification for current violence and domination, we can turn to these artifacts to better understand the history of ourselves, but only if they are consciously pushed to evolve. Broadsides represents one personal, striking vision of what far-flung futurisms could be respun from = these high, lonesome sounds: a reflection of the unbridled joy and deep sorrow inherent to living together through time, and a desire to push further into the untold and unknown.'

Waiting is the essence of travel. Patience is its own reward.

Two people. A Telecaster guitar with a few effect pedals. A drum machine. An audio interface is connected to a laptop. The ingredients are simple yet effective.

But any suggestion of four-track cassette machines and vintage bedsit productions is quickly dispelled by digital dubbiness and refined arrangements. A tail of reversed echos. The crystalline flourish of octave-pitched delays. Riddled hi-hats tickle and taunt. A bass drum asserts its space.

Winkler's guitar patterns have a fragmented, almost haphazard connotation. Searching in a shimmer of reverb. Until the beat, the framework, sets in to reveal structure. Intentionality. Reihse's programmed rhythms go just to the point of a groove, holding the moment of tension, knowingly delaying the gratification. Beats that have scratchy patina anda subtly playful edge; their crispness stands in contrast to the contemplative drift of the guitar. Is it a trance? Or a dance? Yes.

There are some apparent references here: a good portion of Les Disques du Crépuscule, some kraut-esque electronica, even a smidgen of Morricone / Spaghetti Western, blending into a kind of Musique Noir – yet these serve as a set of orientational coordinates, rather than quotations.

This is so far the most assured release by Periode, perhaps eschewing some of the naiveté that was wilfully cultivated in earlier output – there is no cheeky cover version this time. And no singing either. The nine pieces have the quality of a series, a variation on a mood, or a subset of moods. What emerges is an inviting swagger in the face of bleakness. There is a profound melancholy, but it is not the darker kind, and does not exclude humour.

First impressions may suggest that this is purely nocturnal music. Yet it equally evokes the harsh sunlight and baking summer heat. Or a rainy day. And transportation: the music suggests the motion of travel, even if that travel only happens within the mind. And waiting. Waiting while doing nothing much. Because that's all you can do. (Alexander Paulick)

Clear Purple Marble Vinyl

Stone Machine Electric return with ‘FACES’, a deep and immersive exploration of their signature Doom Jazz sound, where slow burning grooves, atmospheric distortion and meditative heaviness merge into a single hypnotic flow.

The Texas trio expand the boundaries of doom, stoner and psychedelic rock with six expansive tracks shaped by textured guitars, fluid basslines and ritualistic drumming, creating a sense of weight and space that pulls the listener into a raw and introspective dimension.

‘FACES’ is an album built on tension and release, repetition and movement, crafted for those who seek heavy music that pushes beyond the traditional framework and into a more spiritual and experimental territory.

LP pressed onto Clear Purple Marble vinyl.

Essential for fans of Monolord, YOB, Shrinebuilder, Om and early Earth.

Delve into the quirky and psych-tinged world of Brazilian pianist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Mauricio Fleury.

With more than a hint to Brazilian jazz greats like Azymuth, Deodato and CTI Records in their prime, Revoada is a groove based jazz-framed record, primed with other transitory musical vignettes which touches on Turkish psych and soul-jazz born out of the 70's film soundtrack genre.

Revoada is a 6 track album and storyboard of Mauricio's migration and travels through Brazil's geographical oddities , its rural and urban enclaves. Recorded in Brazil, it's the result of numerous treks through funky flea markets, soaking up old vinyls and vintage cultural artefacts combined with a new life led in Berlin since 2022.

Mauricio, as well as a founding member of Bixiga 70 (google Brazilian Afrobeat pioneers), a band he fronted for over 12 years, is also an in-demand collaborator and musician who as a pianist, guitarist and even percussionist has shared stages and studios with the likes of Brazilian greats including Gal Costa, Emicida, Lucas Santtana, João Donato and Liniker.

In 2007 he had a life-changing experience meeting Tony Allen, at the Red Bull Music Academy. After hanging out, chatting music and life, Tony insisted to Mauricio to participate with Tony in a jam with blacktronica and soulful house music pioneers Ron Trent, Theo Parrish and Steve Spacek. Mauricio sums it up, "From that moment on, I was never afraid to collaborate musically with anyone, no matter who's playing. It also brought me to researching the connection between Brazilian music and Afrobeat which is something that still means the world to me".

Another unforgettable session Mauricio undertook happened alongside João Donato and Marcos Valle, playing Donato's classic album Quem É Quem, live, a record seen as a blueprint for second generation bossa nova. Mauricio has worked with Gal Costa on two albums, Estratosférica Ao Vivo and her last studio album A Pele do Futuro. Fabio Sá and Vitor Cabral (bassist and drummer on Revoada) were playing with Gal at her last concerts, including in Berlin in 2022 before she passed.

In contemporary music, Mauricio was part of Toy Selectah and Mexican Institute of Sound's Compass project. He's worked with Colombia's Los Pirañas and has even recorded a mysterious and unreleased album with Quantic.

Revoada shows signature traces of Thelonious Monk, Ramsey Lewis' swinging soul sound, Deodato's drama, and styles from further afield, spreading into Turkish psych and Ethiopian jazz, when the time is right. Each track, led always by Mauricio playing multiple instruments with a choice selection of guests and core members on bass and drums, highlights Fleury's meticulous approach to finding the right timbre, utilising his arsenal of organs and effects pedals to set the mood, taking the listener to a specific place or memory that has shaped him.

A vinyl DJ for over 25 years and someone who is immersed in digger and collector's culture, Mauricio places a lot of emphasis on the importance of the complimentary relationship between two artforms (DJ and composer/producer) in the sense of having a broad repertoire of musical knowledge, references and perhaps predictably, being a Brazilian, understanding the connection between rhythms. This is an impressive debut album that struts itself right into the runout groove.

Good things take time, but TRANSLATE is finally here. “Spheroid GAP” is a techno record built on meticulous sound design and deep, immersive textures. Crafted with precision and intention, the EP explores subtle movement, spatial depth, and hypnotic rhythm, revealing a carefully constructed sonic narrative.

The Danish label arbitrary presents Framework / Zwischen Remixes – a remix by German artistJan Jelinek and one by musician & label founder Mads Emil Nielsen originally made for a digital compilation, now published on 7" vinyl (arbitrary22).

For the CRXSSINGS release, Jan Jelinek remixed Nielsen’s Framework 10, a track from the Framework Book/CD (arbitrary01) based on sequences/recordings of sine waves and noise.

Side B: a rework by Mads Emil Nielsen of Jelinek’s voice collage and electronic sounds, from Zwischen – Marcel Duchamp, would you like or expect people to spin the wheel on your kinetic object Roue de Bicyclette?

Framework 10 (Remix) written & produced by Jan Jelinek, Berlin, 2019.
Zwischen/Marcel Duchamp (Remix) written & produced by Mads Emil Nielsen, Copenhagen, 2019.
Graphic design + score (cover, back: Framework 10) by Mads Emil Nielsen.
Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin.

Diagonal welcomes Scott Gordon to the fold. Scott has previously released on Editions Mego as one half of Oto Hiax, a collaborative project with Mark Clifford of Seefeel (Warp Records). He's also released a series of EPs and one album under his Loops Haunt alias via the Black Acre imprint. For his Diagonal debut, Scott offers up "Metals", a double EP of sorts: two sides of wax with two separate titles, "And Away" on side one backed with "Tilts" on side two. Each set is a study in using mechanical means to seek tone, rhythm and texture via unexpected objects and instruments. Both sides feature Scott's custom made Spinning Plate Instrument SPI. The SPI is a large, motorised vertical frame that spins a series of metal plates. These can be struck via midi - mechanical 'beaters'. These recordings also feature Scott playing the SPI manually. The results are both gripping and provocative. Mastered by Russell Haswell. Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) to vinyl.

Fresh out of Skudge HQ, we witness a return to home base after a few releases on other labels.

Coming back in strong form, SKUDGE 015 opens with "Corrosion", pulsing around at 143 BPM and accompanied by warm synth work.



Steadily pacing on, A2 brings us "Source", which captures a haunting vibe with a funky twist. A tune that echoes memories of the past but framed in the zeitgeist.

Flipping over to "Code", we're instantly thrown into a tension-ridden force, built from compact and steady sonic machinery.



Finally, "Distressed" provides the counterweight, keeping the pace and rhythm steady with sharp sonic directions, revealing itself as a hidden peak-time monster disguised as a closing track.

agoya-based multi-instrumentalist and rising DJ Hiroyuki Kato returns to the ever-consistent Flexi Cuts with Life 今 (FLEX 031), a record that perfectly distills the artist’s layered approach to sound and the label’s instinct for unearthing voices that carry both groove and depth. Having built a relationship with the label over the past two years—already signing an EP and a single—Kato now delivers a project that feels like a culmination of that dialogue: four tracks on wax, complemented by an additional cut exclusive to the digital edition.

True to its title, Life 今 exudes immediacy and presence. Kato draws on his background as a polyrhythmic player, folding live instrumentation into supple house frameworks, always with a subtle melodic sensibility. The vinyl selections range from the quietly propulsive to the rhythmically expansive, each tune infused with that warm, unhurried Flexi aura. Basslines strut with understated confidence, chords shimmer with daylight energy, and the arrangements move with a natural, unforced flow.

What stands out across the EP is Kato’s ability to balance the organic and the synthetic, never leaning too far into polish or rawness but finding a fertile middle ground that feels both contemporary and timeless. It’s the sound of someone equally at home behind a guitar as in the DJ booth, someone who understands that club music gains power not just from rhythm but from emotional resonance.

Flexi Cuts has long been a home for thoughtful, groove-driven records, and Life 今 is no exception. It is music that doesn’t demand attention with force, but rewards close listening with detail and atmosphere. At once intimate and club-ready, grounded yet expansive, it’s a confident statement from Hiroyuki Kato, an artist steadily carving his space within Japan’s evolving electronic landscape and beyond.


~~~~*
Written and produced by Hiroyuki Kato in Seto City, Japan
Mastered by Francesco Brini at Spectrum, Bologna
Distributed by Rubadub, Glasgow.
Designed by Galluzzi
A&R Simone Guerra aka Relative

Flexi Cuts, Italy 2025.

Four Framed Music is back with their second label release, featuring the talented Buenos Aires-based Colombian producer Diego Ruiz, also known as DFRA.

The EP, titled ‘Soul to Soul’, showcases four exceptional house tracks that beautifully blend DFRA’s own unique sound with strong influences from Detroit and Chicago house music of the 90s and early 2000s. His production skills are on full display throughout the EP, as he expertly weaves together a diverse range of musical styles to create a truly captivating and one-of-a-kind listening experience.

Get ready to be transported on a musical journey that is sure to move your soul as DFRA’s infectious beats and grooves take over.

An’archives presents 'sensitive', a new album, and the first solo vinyl release, by Japanese keyboardist and synth player, Mitsuhisa Sakaguchi. A deftly assembled suite of glistening electronic tonalities, 'sensitive' is the latest in a lengthy run of excellent, idiosyncratic albums by Sakaguchi. A low-key yet productive artist, Sakaguchi has released banks of solo titles via his own Bandcamp page, and is also an in-demand improvisor for electronics: see, for example, recent collaborations with Yoshiki Ichihara ('TO(R)RI INFRANTA', 'Ftarri', 2025), Tatsuhisa Yamamoto ('non equal mad', self-released, 2020), and the - trio with Yamamoto and Uchihashi Kazuhisa ('self-titled', Modern Obscure, 2023).

'sensitive' is a startling album for many reasons, not least its rich attention to detail. Sakaguchi’s ear is sensitized to the complexity of electronic sonority, something he’s developed through decades of performance and improvisation, though he’s not limited to that language. “I mainly use multiple synthesizers and process the sounds with effects,” he clarifies, detailing his approach to his music. “I also use a lot of acoustic sounds such as field recordings and percussion; sometimes I also use sounds such as prepared piano.”

Indeed, you can hear this see-sawing balance between the electronic and acoustic written across 'sensitive' – see the activated cymbals that twist and stutter through the first half of “metatoxic”, which are soon replaced by a similar stream of burbling synth-flow. The opening “sensitive rot” folds field recordings into Sakaguchi’s electronic kit to such a degree that the differing forms dissolve into each other; on “green shrine”, the field recordings are more present, yet still poetically framed, taken as they are “from the mountains of my hometown, Yawata City, Kyoto,” Sakaguchi explains.

The tender balance achieved by Sakaguchi as he moves between practices, tonalities and temporalities helps manifest the guiding conceptual force behind 'sensitive', where Sakaguchi explores a cleansing reverie. “What I wanted to portray with this album was to create an album of sounds that shattered and reassembled my current ‘sense’ and ‘toxins’,” he nods, “along with the ‘nature’ around me. Electronic sounds, our bodies, the environment around us, and nature all blend.”

From there, Sakaguchi attempts a transformation, or transmutation – an alchemical process of exchange. “I am attempting to explore whether it might be possible for the sounds to come closer to each other,” he concludes, “or perhaps even to interchange places.” On the five pieces that comprise 'sensitive', you can hear this fusing and exchange. Inhabiting similar spaces as the music of Nuno Canavarro, Asmus Tietchens, Omit, and other like-minded visionaries, 'sensitive' traverses curious, quixotic terrain between electronic composition, electro-acoustics, and improvisation.

‘No Fixed Point In Space’, the third full-length album by Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature, takes the palette of sound and themes that were honed on 2021’s ‘Island Of Noise’ and launches them into an expansive world of openness and vivid technicolour.

It’s a music that hasn’t been heard before; as melodic as anything Cooper has produced but framed by rhythms and instrumentation that reflect the chaos, unpredictability and colour of the natural world.

Certain moorings - woodwind, percussion, strings and Cooper’s lambent voice - are still present and recognisable from No Fixed Point In Space’s predecessor, ‘Island Of Noise’, but the new record marks a shift to utilising musical notation as a point of departure, from which the group explore the space around suggested notes and rhythms to create a semiimprovised, semi-composed ensemble performance.

These explorations of partly organised chance were recorded live and directly to tape.

This approach gives the music a remarkably fresh feel; songs pulse and evolve. The changes between movements, verse and choruses are almost all ambiguous. During the album’s opener, ‘Tonic’, a verse of hushed brevity washes away into a passage of overwhelmingly vibrant orchestration.

CD in four-panel digisleeve with 10-panel booklet with lyrics. LP pressed on 140g black vinyl with printed inner
sleeve and stamped postcard.

Brussels-based accordionist Suzan Peeters releases her debut album Cassotto on the Belgian label blickwinkel. With Cassotto, she opens a door into a hidden chamber of sound. The title refers to the “cassotto” — a small resonating chamber inside the accordion that warms, softens, and deepens its tone. Listening to this record feels as if you’ve stepped into that room yourself, enveloped in a world where intimacy and grandeur collide.

Although this is her first release, Peeters is already recognised as one of the most promising names in Belgium’s experimental music scene. Her distinctive live shows — from leading venues across Belgium to a packed Café Oto in London — have earned her a reputation for combining accordion, electronics and unconventional objects such as a massage board into a compelling whole where contrasts come together in an unexpected way. Cassotto captures this approach in recorded form, giving listeners the same sense of immediacy as her concerts, but framed within the intimate space suggested by the album’s title.

While the cassotto chamber naturally gives the accordion a soft and velvety voice, Peeters harnesses that warmth to explore extremes — from hushed detail to bold, expansive gestures that fill the room. As such, the album moves between the acoustic and the electronic, the tender and the abrasive, the static and the dynamic, the traditional and the experimental.

With Cassotto, Suzan Peeters presents a debut that places the accordion at the centre of an adventurous and contemporary sound world — one that invites to discover how far an accordion can reach when tradition and imagination intertwine.

Suzan Peeters (*1999) is a Belgian accordionist, composer, and experimentalist. She is constantly looking for new timbres and sound textures within the accordion, pushing its acoustic spectrum to its limits by manipulating the interplay between her body and the body of her instrument.
Suzan studied classical accordion at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. She is currently studying Live Electronics at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

Mesh-mainstay Jinjé teams up with A. Montane for a collaborative EP born out of live improvised sessions, and composed over the period of a year.

Taking a slowed approach to the production of Neon Garden EP, the two hardware aficionados met sporadically for live jam sessions - an homage to the importance of not rushing the process, and letting ideas build over time. Each session consisted of an intense burst of musical propositions followed by a careful editing framework, giving space for each moment to flourish. Oscillating between moments of catharsis and intense rhythmic play, the EP merges disparate musical sources into exciting new structures.

‘Ikeya Seki’ launches with glistening arpeggiations and subaquatic frequencies that interact over UKG-adjacent drums. ‘Vrem’ marches to a slow-stepping half time beat, building through yearning vocals before breaking down into a storm of pointillistic percussion. On ‘Yū’, rich melodies and bouncy, bass-led rhythms dance below chopped up vocals. Closing things off, ‘Velvet People’ builds a spatial setting with bells ricocheting through malfunctioning flutters.

A nod to the joys of improvisation, Neon Garden EP takes the spirit of spontaneity and lays out new structures for its ideas to grow.

The song titles on Van Halen's aptly titled Fair Warning don't lie. The likes of "Unchained," "Mean Street," "Push Comes to Shove," "One Foot Out the Door," and more indicate the mood the band channels on its double-platinum 1981 record — the nastiest, darkest, and fiercest album of the group's storied career. For the fourth time in four years, Van Halen throws down the gauntlet to all challengers and emerges victorious.


Sourced from the original analog tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set plays with unfettered clarity, dynamics, and immediacy. Benefitting from superb groove definition, an ultra-low noise floor, and dead-quiet surfaces, this vinyl edition captures what went down in the studio with tremendous realism and involving presence.

Taking a more controlled approach in the studio and still completing everything in less than two weeks, Van Halen and producer Ted Templeman relied on studio amplifiers to direct the sound. Further diverging from the live-on-the-floor approach of its earlier albums, the ensemble also employed overdubs to great effect. The result: Dense, stacked architecture that underlines the hard-hitting tenor of the songs — and which comes alive like never before on this reference edition that looks as good as it sounds.

The premium packaging and gorgeous presentation befit the reissue's select status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. Aurally and visually, it is made for listeners who want to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, including the iconic cover art adopted from William Kurelek's haunting painting, "The Maze."

Isolated frames from Kurelek's childhood-inspired work — including a man bashing his head into a brick wall, a guy pinning down an adversary as he delivers bare-fist blows to his face and others watch with apparent glee, a boy tied down on a conveyer belt and being sent through the equivalent of a meat saw — adorn the front and back covers. The sunnier visual disposition of Van Halen's prior efforts gives way to something sinister and tortured, traits reflective of the music within. The band members, too, are visually depicted not in glamorous shots but in a serious black-and-white portrait in which the quartet is clad in black leather jackets.

Tough, aggressive, stark: Fair Warning comes on like a series of bare-knuckled punches to the solar plexus and boasts lyrical narratives to match. Though not a concept record, the concise album revolves around themes of roughing it on the streets and struggling to survive amid dim prospects. Singer David Lee Roth reportedly penned many of the initial lyrics after traveling to Haiti and observing extreme poverty. The characters and situations populating Fair Warning reflect hardscrabble existence, last-chance desperation, and underlying danger.

Witness the crazies, poor folks, and hunters of “Mean Street”; the former prom queen turned pornographic actress on “Dirty Movies”; the menace and vice of “Sinners Swing!”; the streetwise hustle of “Unchained”; the isolation and alienation of “Push Comes to Shove”; the desire for escape on “One Foot Out the Door”: A carefree California beach party Fair Warning is not.

Having said he felt angry and frustrated during the sessions, guitarist Eddie Van Halen uses the forceful arrangements as a playground for his seemingly unlimited arsenal. Supported by a crack rhythm section and a hyped-up Roth, he performs with an almost impossible combination of punk-like intensity, technical finesse, lyrical fluidity, and unbridled emotion. The virtuoso was increasingly butting heads with Templeton and seeking a freedom in the studio he believed denied him.

No wonder he plays like a bat out of hell. Listen to the rapid-fire manner in which he slaps the high and low E strings on the 12th fret of his instrument on “Mean Street,” instilling the tune with funk flair and metal-spiked sharpness. For the pouty strut of “Dirty Movies,” Eddie Van Halen contributes slide guitar magic made possible after he sawed off the lower portion of a Gibson SG so he could reach further down the fretboard.

Related intensity, urgency, and daredevil momentum punctuate the surging “Sinner’s Swing!” A heavily flanged, delicately melodic introduction frames the attitudinal “Hear About It Later,” among the most creative arrangements of Van Halen’s career. And do riffs come any bigger or magnetic than those on the high-wire kick of “Unchained”? As for the out-of-left-field “Sunday in the Park,” an instrumental composed on an Electro-Harmonix micro-synthesizer: Who but Eddie Van Halen to supply creep factor in such an ingenious way?

Despite selling fewer quantities than Van Halen’s prior efforts, Fair Warning remains for many diehards the record that epitomizes all of the band’s immense strengths —Roth’s manic energy and tongue-wagging humor, Alex Van Halen’s rhythmic heartbeat-in-your-chest bombast, and Michael Anthony’s lucid bass lines included. Arriving when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and new-wave movements were taking flight, it signaled a shot across the bow from a band determined to stay a step ahead and provide proof nobody could touch what it delivered.

More than four decades later, Fair Warning still sounds that alarm.

Released in limited numbers in tandem with Black Mahogani back in 2004 and never repressed. Black Mahogani II was a departure from Kenny Dixon Jr's usual house based music and featured cuts from Kenny Dixon Jr's late night jazz band sessions
The centrepiece is the eighteen minute 'When She Follows', a deep jazz session skittering live drum rolls into an electric Fender Rhodes, loping acoustic bass and distant saxophone all wrapped up in an amorphous vocal that drifts ever onwards like some epic detroit techno cut replayed by Gil Scott Heron's band in 1970. Incredible music.
'Rectify' follows in a similar mode, jazz in a detroit techno framework, while the final two tracks 'Dirty Little Bonus Beats' and 'When She (Reprise)' are revisions of the main cut, the former altering the bassline, adding vocal sighs and more rhythmic drums, while the latter shifts up the tempo with a wigged out techno synth element.
Stone, cold.

Sermon On The Rocks is Josh Ritter's eight studio album, released in 2015. Singles from the album include "Getting Ready To Get Down" and "Homecoming." According to Ritter, the album is "messianic oracular honky-tonk." Produced by Trina Shoemaker and Josh, the 12-song album was recorded over two weeks at New Orleans’ The Parlor Recording Studio and features Matt Barrick from The Walkmen on drums, Zachariah Hickman on bass, Josh Kaufman on guitars, and Sam Kassirer on keyboards. Josh Ritter is the definition of an experienced songwriter. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1999 Ritter devoted his life to a songwriting career, releasing albums independently and garnering word-of-mouth popularity. He eventually caught the attention of Irish- songwriter Glen Hansard (writer of the song 'Falling Slowly' from the movie Once) and was invited to be the tour opener for his band The Frames. This then resulted in Josh gaining international success, with his third record 'Hello Starling', becoming a charting hit in Ireland. His songs have been featured on the TV show Parenthood, and in movies like The Other Woman and Typeface. Josh Ritter has so far released 7 studio albums, is an author, husband, father, and is considered one of the best living songwriters by Paste Magazine.

Following the release of the 7-inch "La Tua Amica Più Cara / Corteggiamento Lento" last September, Marengo is thrilled to announce Lumiero's debut LP, Il Primo Grande Disco Di Lumiero. Distributed by Four Flies Records, the album will be available starting Friday 5 December.

Featuring a timeless voice and a sophisticated touch, Lumiero sends poetic postcards from Milan and its Barona district that expertly blend auteur pop, chanson, and 60s exotica. Born in '97, Lumiero is the city's new chansonnier. Drawing inspiration from both the core and fringes of Milanese life, he offers a romantic, nuanced, yet playfully irreverent look at contemporary Italy and its profound longing for new horizons.

Marquis's compositions and arrangements provide the perfect backdrop for Lumiero's captivating melodies, acting as both canvas and frame. Meanwhile, the lyrics explore passionate romances, fleeting summer escapades, and a nation striving to reconnect with its core identity.

Moving between exotic waltzes and theatrical atmospheres, Lumiero's full-length debut is imbued with lightheartedness, underpinned by elegant songwriting and vocals that combine irony and melancholy. Living fully in the present but rooted in tradition, the album's tracks are little musical gems that bridge eras and generations, infusing the classic style of Italian songs with a modern, elegant, and cinematic quality.

And so, as time comes full circle, we find ourselves at a new beginning.