Steve Hauschildt returns after six years with a new album titled Aeropsia. After a transcontinental relocation from the US to Tbilisi, Georgia, the electronic composer emerges from a personal and global transformation to explore themes of perceptual distortion, disconnection, and renewal. Aeropsia (which roughly translates as "seeing the air") refers to a visual phenomenon in which objects appear to float or shimmer, often due to changes in pressure, perception, atmospheric shifts or neurological disturbance. This becomes a metaphor for the liminality that informs the record: blurry visions, dreamlike displacements, and the fragile membrane separating what is seen from what is felt. In the years since his last solo release, Hauschildt's world has been marked by relocation and a growing sense of global turbulence. These experiences became the raw material for a work that navigates institutional haze and uncertainty itself. The result is music that employs decay as method, structure as entropy, and mutation as expression. While Aeropsia remains subjective in its vision, Hauschildt invited two previous collaborators to expand the album's gravitational pull. Cellist Lia Kohl, who previously performed on Nonlin, returns and brings a tactile warmth to select tracks, while guitarist Michael Vallera threads spectral harmonics into the mix. The album's electronic foundation and its tactile elements meet in a state of luminous suspension to navigate the shifting in physical and psychological terrain.

Widely regarded as one of the most uncompromising works in experimental noise, Kevin Drumm's Sheer Hellish Miasma is once again available on vinyl. First released on CD in 2002 on the original Mego label, the album remains a landmark in extreme electronic sound and is an essential and ferocious document of Drumm at his most inventive. The history of Drumm's Sheer Hellish Miasma is one of resilience to the twists of underground trends that have come and gone since its initial release. Using guitar, tape manipulation, microphones, pedals, analog synthesizers, and subtle computer processing, Sheer Hellish Miasma is an overwhelming experience: a sonic onslaught of storming feedback, fractured textures and an unrelenting energy. At once brutal and meticulously composed, the album offers a singular vision at the outermost edges of sound art. For seasoned noise veterans, Sheer Hellish Miasma offers a bracing soundscape filled with exquisitely abrasive textures and more than enough hidden detail to warrant repeated listening -- a distinct voice in the increasingly same-sounding world of abstract electronic noise. For everyone else, Drumm's journey through the noisy underworld is likely to inspire fear or, in an optimistic case, fearful admiration. Drumm's Sheer Hellish Miasma is an abstract noise classic with this 2LP reissue being an artefact of eternal power. Gatefold sleeve, gold pantone print. Includes hot foil stamping.

A duo concert featuring universal artist and activist Moor Mother and Archie Shepp was planned for October 19, 2023, at the Enjoy Jazz Festival. However, a spinal disc operation on the then 86-year-old saxophone legend led to the cancellation of this eagerly awaited world premiere -- and to a spontaneous demonstration of respect. To honor the great Archie Shepp, one of the most influential intellectuals in jazz, an Enjoy Jazz all-star cast spontaneously recorded a tribute song during the festival -- organized by festival director Rainer Kern. The line-up consisted of Nicole Mitchell, the most important flutist in the history of jazz, as well as the Enjoy Jazz "Artists in Residence" for 2023 and 2024, Moor Mother (spoken word) and Nduduzo Makhathini (piano). In her lyrics, the poetess creates a powerful linguistic monument to Archie Shepp, whom she greatly admires, by playing with the titles of the saxophonist's legendary recordings (instead of with him himself). The title One For Archie is an allusion to Shepp's 1964 Impulse debut, Four For Trane, which, according to Jazzwise, is one of the "100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World." In her moving text, Moor Mother also celebrates Shepp's political and social commitment. The way Moor Mother rhythmically and aesthetically picks up on Shepp's unique playing style, which oscillates between rugged clarity and deep humanity, begins to improvise on it, and thereby creates new connections, is impressive proof of her masterful artistry. Her recitation is peppered with haunting dramatic climaxes that give listeners goosebumps due to their authenticity. The B-side features "They've Got A Plan," a song that is like a beacon. An intense and powerful invocation of "Agenda 2063," a master plan of the African Union to transform the continent socially, economically, and politically. Both tracks are available on vinyl for the first time.

LP version. Yellow color vinyl. Anushka Chkheidze and Robert Lippok's Uncontrollable Thoughts on Morr Music is the duo's debut joint release. The Netherlands-based Georgian composer and the German sound artist from Berlin first met in 2019 in the context of a workshop program that took place in Tbilisi, and later worked with Eto Gelashvili, Hayk Karoyi, and Lillevan on the massive Glacier Music II music and book project, released in 2021. This led them to engage in a less conceptually driven form of musicking and real-time composition that corresponds with their respective environments. They draw on traditions such as minimal music or late 1990s and early 2000s electronica to integrate subtle beats with elegiac organ drones, playful melodies with lush textures. The first document of an ever-shifting intergenerational dialogue, Uncontrollable Thoughts is a product of mutual listening outside time. Though Chkheidze and Lippok had access to professional studios, they chose to rent a simple rehearsal space, equipped with only the bare essentials -- bass and guitar amps as well as a small PA -- to maintain immediacy in their working process. The music they made together corresponded to and drew on the respective possibilities and shortcomings of this studio, much like their collaboration in general is characterized by the care with which they approach each other's talents and ideas. While both had loosely defined roles -- Chkheidze was responsible for the free-flowing beat programming and the evocative distortion came courtesy of Lippok, for example -- they individually contributed in different ways to their joint process, which is as free of hierarchies as it is limitless. Hence, the duo's focus on spontaneity and out-of-the-moment emergence makes them organically move beyond tried and tested conventions, resulting in music that seems to suspend time altogether. While there is much that sets Chkheidze and Lippok apart as solo artists, the major shared leitmotif in their respective bodies of work is the sonic engagement with space. Uncontrollable Thoughts is hence best understood as an extension of this practice; as an album that maps the geographies of their minds in motion, tracing musical movements as they melt into each other.

Following a string of acclaimed collaborations, Peruvian artist Alejandra Cárdenas (aka Ale Hop) returns with her most personal work to date yet, A Body Like a Home. Marking her first album under her birth name, the project is a sonic memoir exploring the tangled realms of trauma, recovery, and love through autobiographical soundscapes. A Body Like a Home is the artist at her most exposed. Comprising 13 songs and 15 poems, the album sees her set aside collaborative fusions for solo catharsis, channeling years of turbulence - intergenerational scars left by colonialism, racism, domestic violence, and alcoholism -- into a work that oscillates between brutality and tenderness. At the heart of the album is Cárdenas's own voice -- part witness, part confessor -- reciting over layers of electric guitars, electronic textures, the haunting violin of Mexican musician Gibrana Cervantes, and a collage of field recordings, from rainfall, muffled whispers, broken glass, to archival protest footage from Peru. The result is a work that resonates like a diary written in sound. The first single, "Motherland," is a searing testimony where Cárdenas voice cracks under the weight of history and personal loss. Amid a storm of distorted guitars, she traces the cyclical legacies of colonialism, from state massacres branding Indigenous bodies as "terrorists" to the spiral of addiction as an unavoidable future. The lyrics draw parallels between political and domestic violence: a mother's drunken knife pressed to her chest, and a motherland where racism is currency. Yet, amid the wreckage, a willful grip on love and faith persists. Ultimately, A Body Like a Home is a document of transformation. Tracks like "Evangelina" and the title piece "A Body Like a Home" hold space for resilience, spirituality, and love, while "Early Road" and "Going South" thread subtle nods to Peruvian folklore, opening up bright vignettes into a sense of belonging. The poetry chapbook accompanying A Body Like a Home (five of its pieces are also recited on the album) extends the work, building a parallel architecture. Oscillating between the documentary and the mythic, the intimate and the forensic, the profane and the oneiric, these poems practice a theology of the ordinary, where everyday objects -- cameras, knives, moth-eaten cotton -- are charged with spiritual and historical weight. Here, the body is land, house, battlefield, collective pain, geological territory; and trauma is, in contrast, archival, cellular, ritualistic, inherited.

Quadrant Park is a new label from the makers of frozen reeds (which will continue in its own stream). It exists to present music that demands to reach a little further, occupying new spaces and a new context. For the inaugural release, SDEM delivers a live recording with a twist: this set was recorded in early 2024 in a single take to an audience of one, at a now abandoned empty club space beneath a railway arch in Leeds. Following a series of physical and digital releases culminating with Vortices (SKALD 038CD) in 2023, SDEM has focused on continuous upgrades to a mutating live set, sporadically performed, for example, alongside the Autechre and Gescom axes. In the phase documented here, the set draws deeply from turntable-era early hip hop and '80s drum machine architecture, resulting in a landscape of tactile slippage: rhythms gripping and releasing, gestural scrubs and stabs, scratching meets musique concrète. Interlocking parts snap in and out of alignment, before recombining on the fly -- kinetic, raw, and precise. The SDEM approach is marked by Tom Knapp's sculptural take on sound design, rhythm and texture -- ranging from dystopic ambient passages to pixelated, sub-heavy beats. A member of the Skam circle of atavistic beat freaks since the late '90s, Knapp's sound is that of hyperattentive electronica buried under soil and left to decay (or ferment). What emerges is somehow both ruthlessly futuristic and redolent of decrepit antique engineering. At Quadrant Park is presented in an edition of 500 compact discs with artwork by Robert Beatty unique to every individual copy. In a warped reflection of the recording circumstances, each copy forms one distinct frame of a short film never to be viewed in its totality. Liner notes are provided by the sole witness to the recording, long-standing SDEM co-conspirator Ed Martin, aka edv3ctor, while audio was mastered by the ears that matter, frozen reeds mainstay Jim O'Rourke.

What began as a nostalgic nod to Camden Market's bootleg culture has become the next chapter of in the Running Back Mastermix series. At once deeply personal and openly communal, it shows how a lifetime of production can be condensed into 90 minutes without losing its edge -- proof that the mixtape, even in 2025, still has stories left to tell. What followed was a patient excavation. Old DATs were pulled out of storage, forgotten files surfaced from hard drives, and new material was written to sit alongside them. Together, these fragments revealed a body of work stretching back more than 25 years -- tracks that moved across the spectrum of house and techno but shared a common thread of character and atmosphere. Recorded live on three decks using Serato, the resulting mix brings together 24 tracks: unreleased material from the past and brand-new productions, all stitched together into a continuous narrative. It's equal parts retrospective and statement of intent -- less a museum piece than a living document.

Found Keys is the debut album from American artist Ruth Maine. Although Ruth has been playing and composing music for over two decades, this is the first time she decided to record some of her varied compositions and share them with the public. But in times when it is the norm to clamor for attention, she prefers to go the opposite way. Ruth likes to let her music speak for itself and stay in the shadows. The 16 short piano pieces heard on this album, each about two to three minutes long, were recorded remotely and purely surrounded by nature. Once a composition was found and Ruth considered it mature, she only recorded it once, embracing the beauty of doing something for the first time with all its little imperfections. Found Keys sounds anything but imperfect though. These compositions feel timeless, intimate and comforting, as if they have been around for a long time, like an old friend. Gently played keys slowly evolve into minimal pieces through repetitive melodies. There's stillness as much as there's brightness, sadness as much as joy; welcome to a beautiful journey through Ruth's world of wonder. In many ways, Found Keys is a deeply personal record that takes Sonic Pieces back to its roots. And it leaves a feeling of nostalgia while reviving memories of the past.

LP version. "Hikmah is the astonishing new [studio] solo piano work from virtuosic and far-ranging sound scientist; deep and compassionate thinker; UK (and world) musical treasure: Pat Thomas. It is a singular work in his singular and now substantial body of work, and his first for the TAO Forms label. Pat Thomas was Born in Oxford, UK to Antiguan parents on July 27, 1960. Interestingly, just over 4 months separate his birth to that of fellow modern piano master Matthew Shipp (Dec 7, 1960) -- whose The Piano Equation was TAO Forms inaugural release. Thomas is most certainly among the Black Mystery School Pianists of which Shipp elucidates in the title essay of his recently published first book. Eight thoroughly focused improvised and otherwise compositions recorded at Fish Factory studio in London. The album's title, Hikmah, means 'wisdom' in Arabic. The title is also presented in two different forms of Arabic calligraphic script on the cover artwork. This album does indeed bring the information. The vibrantly living jazz tradition and new modes of expression in abundance are brought forth from a lifetime of work and Thomas' decades-long devotion to Sufism, understanding that the practice and performance of this music is an elemental form of spiritual practice. As William Parker writes in the liner notes, '[the] music becomes the prophet and the prayer all in one gesture.' And, 'If you haven't yet heard the music of Pat Thomas, get hip to it quickly.' Attuned American audiences are most likely to have become familiar with Pat Thomas through his work with the quartet [Ahmed], whom over recent years have amazed with their mesmeric, long-form explorations on the compositions of Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and more recently, Thelonious Monk. Their debut US performance took place in March 2025, and TAO Forms were lucky members of the rapt audience at Roulette in Brooklyn that night; the group flew to Knoxville the next day to perform to a equally rapt audiences at Big Ears."

"On the cover: Mulau Astatke; Deep into his latest tour, the pioneering 81-year-old Ethio jazz vibraphonist is finding new ways to be himself. By Francis Gooding. Inside: Features and regular sections: Griot Galaxy: Formed in 1972 by late saxophonist and poet Faruq Z Bey, and led by bassist Jaribu Shahid after a serious motorcycle accident left Bey unable to perform for the better part of a decade, the long under-appreciated Detroit Great Black Music ensemble have seen a renewal of interest in recent years. By Mike Rubin. Alpha Maid: Following a series of releases as one half of the duo Spresso with Mica Levi, Leisha Thomas, aka Alpha Maid returns with Is this a queue on AD93 records, her first solo release since 2021's CHUCKLE EP. By Claire Biddles. Emergence Collective: With a distinguished but revolving lineup of experimental performers from jazz, folk and modern composition backgrounds, the Sheffield group's improvised minimalism responds to the historical, architectural and acoustic qualities of each location where they perform. By Daryl Worthington. Konrad Smolenski: The Warsaw based sound and installation artist combines the DIY ethos and sonic antagonism of punk with minimalist formal strategies. By Robert Barry. Invisible Jukebox: Test Department: The pioneering industrial duo of Graham Cunningham and Paul Jamrozy down tools to take on The Wire's mystery listening challenge. Tested by Mike Barnes. Against The Grain: Holly Dicker on the histories of hardcore. Global Ear: UK Sacred Harp Convention. Unlimited Editions: Glint Music. Plus one page profiles of Debit, Klinck Trio and Erwan Keravec."

Lung Oysters is the new studio album from NWW featuring the multi-instrumentalist Diarmuid MacDiarmada, a heady free-range mix of krautrock, experimental and toe tapping psychedelia, leaning towards a slightly more rock orientated sound. Regular Nurse members Colin Potter, Andrew Liles and Matt Waldron are all on board with the added voice and talents of Irish artist and poet, Tara Baoth Mooney. Artwork by Babs Santini.

Hyper-limited ethereal ambient-guitar-soul, originally released on cassette only. First time ever vinyl release, on 140g vinyl. The phenomenally hyped Thought Leadership returns with another X ideas: the deck this time chooses the Ace of Swords. Originally out on cassette only, Be With presents the first ever vinyl issue. The sonic palate has been augmented by the addition of synth and bass; there are more guitar layers, more pedals and more organic drums this time -- a much fuller production. Still DIY, and still recorded straight to multitrack, just ever so slightly grander in scale; think a rough-hewn, long-lost Claremont 56 cut and you'll have some idea of how XI opens this future classic LP. The touchstones so key to the vision of Pentacles (Cocteau Twins, Dif Juz, Durutti Column) are all still present and correct; XII could be a piece from Extractions, XIII is pure Garlands-era Guthrie and, now with the shuffling jazz drums, XV makes TL even more LC -- but more disparate influences are found this time out too. ECM guitar legends John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny in the more considered melodic phrasing and harmonic structure of the ideas and a nod to the cosmic Balearic spirit in the overall vibe, means more is offered to the listener across Swords. Be With is honored to present the first ever vinyl release of Ace Of Swords, carefully remastered by Be With's engineer Simon Francis to ensure it sounds better than ever after its initial tape release. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry, in Holland. The original tape cover artwork, so crucial to Thought Leadership's striking visual aesthetic, has been rejigged for vinyl issue here at Be With.

With Michaela Melián's LP music for a while, a-Musik is releasing the first album by the visual artist, co-founder of F.S.K., and solo musician since Monaco (MONIKA 079CD), which appeared on Monika Enterprise in 2013. While her last releases, Electric Ladyland (2016), Music from a Frontier Town (2018), and Tania (2022) were created as part of exhibitions and sound installations, music for a while is Melián's fourth autonomous LP, characterized on the one hand by her unmistakable dreamlike sound along the interfaces between dark chamber music, solemn ambient techno, and cinematic sound art. As with her previous albums, there is also a wonderful avant-pop cover version -- this time of the track "My Other Voice" (1979) by the Sparks. On the other hand, music for a while, whose cover is adorned with Melián's photographs of the clouds above her new home of Marseille, spreads a comparatively ominous mood, thanks in part to the sedate, almost ticking drum sounds of co-producer Felix Raethel. Once again, the multi-instrumentalist, supported by Ruth May on violin and Elen Harutyunyan on viola, weaves her recordings of various string instruments -- cello, guitar, bass, and zither -- into fascinating, lurching, looping, and almost hypnotic soundscapes, but atonal synthesizer sounds in tracks such as "traverse Benjamin" and "märchenwald" open up the music to electroacoustic and experimental music. The concluding cover version of Irving Berlin's "they say it's wonderful" (1946) rounds off one of this year's most impressive releases in an incomparably groovy and melancholic way.

La Traversée (The Crossing) is Matthias Puech's second album for Hallow Ground and follows up on 2023's Mt. Hadamard National Park. Profoundly inspired by re-reading The Odyssey, the French composer, instrument designer, and scholar used a Eurorack modular synthesizer to create four pieces that are by far the most intuitive and emotionally charged in his ever- expanding catalogue. Puech's masterful command of sound comes to the forefront with even more urgency on this record. A wandering meditation on the human condition, La Traversée is an album that is constantly in motion -- complex electronic music at its most gripping and evocative.

Thank You For Almost Everything is the sophomore album for Headache, a collaboration between writer and poet Francis Hornsby Clark and music-producer Joseph Thornalley aka Vegyn. This new album follows on the surprise underground success of their debut: The Head Hurts But The Heart Knows The Truth, releasing on Vegyn's own PLZ Make It Ruins label. Since its release, Headache has built a dedicated global fanbase, with several fans even going so far as to get lyrics or the project's logo tattooed on themselves. Thank You For Almost Everything continues the original's distinct style of trip-hop/downtempo electronica but combining with its own unique (and now imitated) AI-voiced spoken word. For this new album, Headache steps away from the hum-drum of Blighty and instead focuses his gaze to sunnier shores. Recalling personal histories of ruffled hair and school cafeterias, ancient unsolved Albionic riddles, Rome's changing seasons and its poignant graffiti, arguments with girlfriends at luxury hotel beachfront restaurants, and what it truly feels like to be alive in this inscrutable but beautiful world. The project features a further collaboration with artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt who returns to design the packaging and cover for this new album. This double 12" vinyl release, like the first, includes the instrumental versions exclusive to the vinyl version. The album was mixed and mastered by Margo Broom at RAK Studios.

Marcel Dettmann's "My Own Shadow" is the latest chapter in the Berlin-based legend's illustrious career. The live project is, in his own words, "a space where all of my artistic expressions meet," blending techno with film, sketches and photography. The shows are less club sets and more immersive experiences, where the audience gets lost in a "full sensory narrative." "My solo work has always been open, evolving across records and remixes," Dettmann added. My Own Shadow's first official release, Approaching, is a five-track EP.

LP version. Japanese rebel music icon Yasushi Ide presents this remix album, The Journey. A cinematic mind trip from space to ancient times, from ancient times to space, The Journey is the latest work under the name of Yasushi Ide since Cosmic Suite 2. It is a remix album of tracks selected from Late Night Blues, Cosmic Suite, and Cosmic Suite 2. This album, featuring 15 artists from Japan and abroad including Ken Ishii, Shuya Okino & ROOT SOUL, Yoshinori Sunahara, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Charles Webster, Chris Coco, DJ NATURE, and Kiko Navarro, transcends the typical boundaries of a remix album. It feels like "a soundtrack to an imaginary movie," or perhaps even "the movie itself," evoking a variety of images and stories for the listener. Additionally, the entire album is a non-stop mix, with re-edits and dub processing applied in places by Ide and his creative partner, Watusi. The artwork features pieces by up-and-coming Japanese painter Yuko Kamiyama. Truly, from space to the ancient past, and from the ancient past to space.

"Over the course of more than two decades, Philadelphia musician Bill Nace (guitar, taishogoto) has carved out unique collaborations across a wide range of contemporary improvisational practices, and though these range from solos to small groups, there's a keen ear toward the immediate, stark tug of duets. Some of these meetings are one-offs for now (saxophonists Evan Parker and Masayo Koketsu), while others are regular partnerships that have evolved across continual play and refinement (violinist Samara Lubelski and saxophonists Paul Flaherty and Steve Baczkowski). Many of these recordings have been released via Open Mouth, the label that Nace founded in 2004 which documents not only his work, but also that of fellow travelers in the worlds of experimental rock, noise, free improvisation, electronic music, and spectral folk in more or less limited editions. Rinse Cycle is the first recorded encounter between Nace and French saxophonist Sakina Abdou, whose searing and personally declarative solo CD, Goodbye Ground, was released by Relative Pitch at the close of 2022... An apt partner, Abdou's high-pitched wails and wide vibrato ululations are like a searing light out of which gradations in hue develop, closely valued and materialist, their afterimages bouncing in the retina and doubled by Nace's obsessively hammered double-string taishogoto. On the opening 'Vented, All in One (Part I),' Nace's instrument is made into a gauze of steel wool through distortion and looping, pulsing with ambient heat, a supple and narrowly dynamic platform that encourages Abdou's sawtooth alto in dry, metallic corkscrews and bright intervallic furrows. The close-miked egg shaker employed on '(Part II)' generates a series of grainy bursts in such odd succession that any traditional sense of rhythm is dispensed with. 'Mega Capacity' finds the two musicians acting as slabs that both support and push against one another, split-toned tenor brays and relentless peals of feedback coagulating into a mass that generates form, phrases spiking out in dissonant relief. Abdou is well capable of flywheel crescendos that recall Ayler and Brötzmann, but the pure-sound excavations that emerge are a curious complement to Nace's delicately controlled squall... It's difficult to know whether Rinse Cycle is the only LP that the pair will cut together (they also performed live at the venerable Philadelphia establishment Solar Myth), but as it stands this is a striking document of two improvisers pushing one another's boundaries." --Clifford Allen, August 2025

Double LP version. Originally released in 2005, the Furries' third and final album to be recorded by Epic Records, Love Kraft, is now reissued. Four previously unheard tracks are drawn from the vaults, including the squidgy ELO-stomp of drummer, Daf Ieuan-led "Rock 'N' Roll Flu," plus the distorted space-jam of Cae Marw, the band's deep-bass sketch of Palo Alto and ghostly, percussive morsel of Bedw Arian. The album followed six previous albums by the band, including their statement debut album, Fuzzy Logic in 1996, melding an attention-demanding mix of literary, narcotic and musical influences. Maintaining a shape that was ill-fitting in the jigsaw of other '90s guitar bands, their follow-up, UK Top Ten album, Radiator brought the hooky squelch of the bona fide indie dancefloor classic, "The International Language of Screaming." Love Kraft's sense of cohesion, collaboration and free-flow of rich harmony has been credited to the five-piece escaping Wales to record in the shimmering heat of Figueres, Catalunya. Bringing famed Beastie Boys producer, Mario Caldato Jr along with them for the ride, the travelling band's stay in the Catalonian hometown of Salvador Dali included found sounds, boozy petrol stations, gastronomic revelations and, finally, a rich album of strings, synths and opulent vocal harmonies. While eventually finding their way to Baha, near to Rio di Janeiro to mix the album Love Kraft's story began in Wales and Pleasure Foxxx Studios, where the band began to craft the album's songs. Embracing the landmark of a seventh album, notably coming after the 2004 release of their first "best of" package, Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, Super Furry Animals pooled ideas and affected further democracy in their songwriting, taking a load off traditional lead-writer and front man, Gruff Rhys, and sharing in lead vocal duties (aside from the microphone-averse bassist, Guto Pryce). Love Kraft was the first Super Furry Animals album recorded to hard disc instead of multi-track tape, and found the band typically explorative and open to happenstance. "Zoom"'s opening splash into the recording studio's swimming pool is accompanied by the on-location, pool table samples found elsewhere on the album. Updated packaging features the original, meticulously built diorama design by long-time collaborator Pete Fowler. Constructed by hand in his studio, complete with bulb-lit illumination, then photographed, the sleeve's depiction of a monolith-rich desert landscape reflects the sense of other space and time depicted by Love Kraft's woozy songs. The final sleeve design again comes courtesy of Mark James.

2025 limited repress. WRWTFWW Records presents the first release from its new City Pop Series with Japanese singer, actress, entertainer, scholar and all-around legend Momoko Kikuchi's sun-drenched classic Ocean Side album, available as a limited-edition transparent vinyl LP in a heavyweight sleeve with obi. A cult classic among Japanese music collectors, Ocean Side was originally released in 1984 by mythical label VAP and features lush compositions and arrangements by J-Pop icon Tetsuji Hayashi (Mariya Takeuchi, Miki Matsubara, Omega Tribe, Junichi Inagaki). Momoko Kikuchi's city pop gem is a flawless mix of heartwarming beachside funk, breezy grooves, and silky-smooth vocals -- the feel-good music we all need in our life right now. The nine-track summer-is-forever adventure notably includes the ultra-funky megahit "Blind Curve," the fan-favorite title song, and the insanely romantic ballad "Futari No Night Drive." A vibrant reflection of summer in 1980s Japan, Ocean Side masterfully balances nostalgia and elegance, and provides part of the origin story for revered modern music genres such as chillwave, and future funk, and vaporwave. The official reissue licensed from VAP, Inc. is sourced from the original masters with an audiophile-cut by Sidney Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios.

A reissue of the masterpiece by the great French folk singer Veronique Chalot produced in the late 1970s by the Tuscan label Materiali Sonori, a collective with which Veronique collaborated for years. Celtic music and traditional Breton ballads presented in a new elegant guise, world music created when "world music" had not yet been invented. A fascinating sound, enriched by melodies that seem ancient but are actually timeless.

Channeling inventive sound design into incisive, characterful techno variations, Jurango returns to Livity Sound with an eight-track double album -- his longest release to date. Taíno Gold captures a moment in time for Bristol-based Nate Reece's continually evolving sound as it draws on the full spectrum of UK club music. Reece is more assured than ever tackling a variety of club-focused cuts. The tracks on the release all came together before, during and after a two-month visit to Reece's grandparents' home -- an idyllic tropical environment in a small community at the top of a hill in the northern part of Jamaica. Taíno Gold refers to the island's indigenous Taíno community and the legend of a witch luring Spanish settlers into a trap on the Martha Brae river. There are no messages explicitly embedded in the music, but the release is both a personal reflection of Reece's own experiences and family heritage, plus a reminder about the enduring scepter of colonialism and the continued need to fight against it. From absorbing Jamaica's fraught history through museum and plantation visits to the abundant nature in the garden surrounding his grandparent's house, the double EP marks a place in time for Reece, with eight advanced, ear-catching tracks as the end result. From the cascading arps of "Black Torches" to the tunnelling chords of "Waiting For Trelawny," the melodic dimension of the Jurango sound is more confident than ever. With the space afforded by a longer release, Reece widens out the scope of his artistic identity while absorbing the particular scene and setting that surrounded him while making the tracks. Taíno Gold is a vibrant next step for Jurango and a natural continuation of his work with Livity Sound.

2025 repress; double LP version. Silver pantone, UV spot varnish. 180 gram vinyl. Tresor Records announce forthcoming special editions of the entire catalog of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rights holders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalog. The series starts with Neptune's Lair, first released in 1999, with the Hydro Doorways single arriving shortly after. These records, individually and as a catalog, represent some of the most crucial moments in the Tresor label history, with the sound and mythic world of Drexciya undoubtedly inspiring generations. Detroit's Drexciya, with their close ties to Underground Resistance, emerged in 1991. With an encoded agenda and socio-political mission aimed at the world, a new page of Drexciya's grand history was written entitled Neptune's Lair. Drexciya is the sound of originality embodying all the musical styles and history that Detroit the city has seen and been part of. Drexciya is music for change that defies categorization; traditionally armed with freestyle electro, techno, funk, and jazz while covering an entire spectrum of moods. While words won't do Neptune's Lair proper justice, rootsy Kraftwerkian techno, gives way to G-style electro, while jazzy freestyle funk evolves alongside classic 4/4 club sound. Although the roots run deep, Neptune's Lair heralded an important new chapter in the musical connections between Detroit's finest and Tresor.

2025 repress; double LP version. 180 gram vinyl; silver pantone, UV spot varnish. Reissue, originally released in 2002. Tresor Records announce forthcoming special editions of its entire catalog of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rights holders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalog. These editions will be released sequentially, bimonthly, starting early-September 2022. Harnessed The Storm and Digital Tsunami (TRESOR 182X-EP) come in November. The series will be completed by the long-awaited re-release of Shifted Phases - The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope. These records, individually and as a catalog, represent some of the most crucial moments in the Tresor label history, with the sound and mythic world of Drexciya undoubtedly inspiring generations.

An essential Roy Ayers album blending soulful jazz roots with crisp 1970s funk. Featuring Ayers' signature vibes, tight arrangements, and standout tracks like "The Boogie Back" (sampled by the likes of NWA, 2Pac, and De La Soul) and "Change Up the Groove," this LP is a must-have for any fan of jazz-funk and vintage grooves. Step into the vibrant soundscape of the 1970s with Change Up the Groove, a hidden gem from Roy Ayers Ubiquity's early Polygram years. Often overlooked in favor of Ayers' bigger hits, this soulful album is a masterclass in jazz-funk fusion, capturing the essence of Ayers' evolving style as he bridged the gap between his jazz roots and the rhythmic snap of the '70s funk revolution. From the very first track, Ayers' signature vibes take center stage, shimmering with emotion and groove. The album leans heavily into instrumental richness, with standout contributions from jazz greats like the legendary Bernard Purdie on drums. Strings weave in and out subtly, enhancing Ayers' already deep and textured arrangements. Change Up the Groove isn't just an album -- it's a snapshot of Roy Ayers' artistic evolution, full of rhythm, heart, and timeless groove. Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering his legacy, this record is essential listening.

A samba funk essential. This debut album from Jorge Ben's iconic backing band blends Brazilian rhythms, soulful vocals, and American funk energy into one unforgettable groove. Includes the hit single "Coqueiro Verde" along with standout tracks like "Meu País," 'Aleluia, Aleluia," and "O Canto da Ema." A timeless gem for fans of Brazilian soul, vintage funk, or global grooves. First time official reissue. Trio Mocotó is best known for being the powerhouse backing band behind Brazilian legend Jorge Ben during the height of his creative explosion in the early 1970s. But their contribution to music goes far beyond the supporting role -- they were instrumental in shaping what would become known as samba funk, a vibrant fusion of traditional Brazilian rhythms with the groove and energy of American soul and funk music. Formed in São Paulo's iconic Jogral nightclub, Trio Mocotó -- featuring Fritz Escovão, Joãozinho Parahyba, and Nereu Gargalo -- began their musical journey as resident musicians, providing live accompaniment for a rotating cast of performers. It was here that Jorge Ben first encountered their raw talent and unmistakable chemistry, ultimately inviting them to join his band. The collaboration would go on to define an era. In 1971, Trio Mocotó stepped into the spotlight with their debut solo album, Muita Zorra! (São Coisas Que Glorificam a Sensibilidade Atual). The record made an immediate impact, climbing the charts with the infectious single "Coqueiro Verde" and marking the start of a prolific period in the group's career. Muita Zorra! is a dazzling blend of styles -- mixing the baroque funk and melodic sophistication of artists like Marcos Valle with the soulful spirit of Jorge Ben. Layered with elements of American funk, the album delivers a dynamic, rhythm-driven sound that still feels fresh today. The trio's vocal harmonies are front and center, weaving through each track with warmth and richness, creating a captivating sonic tapestry that energizes every beat. This album isn't just a snapshot of a musical moment -- it's a cornerstone of Brazilian soul. A must-listen for fans of global grooves, vintage funk, and timeless Brazilian music, Muita Zorra! is once again available and ready to take its well-deserved place in your collection.

Among the most revered voices in funk, Marva Whitney holds a special place thanks to her fierce energy and unmistakable style on tracks like the classic "Unwind Yourself," a long-time favorite for DJs and dance floors alike. Emerging from the dynamic world of the James Brown Revue in the late 1960s -- alongside iconic names like Lyn Collins and Vicki Anderson -- Marva quickly carved out a name for herself. In 1969, she began recording as a solo artist under James Brown's King label, scoring a Top 20 R&B hit with 'It's My Thing.' While mainstream hits were few, her music resonated deeply with funk lovers and crate diggers around the world. Songs like "You Got to Have a Job" and the endlessly sampled "Unwind Yourself" have only grown in stature over the decades. Her album, It's My Thing, dropped that same year and has since become a touchstone of the genre. Backed by the legendary JB's and produced by James Brown himself -- who also contributed to most of the songwriting -- the album captures a raw, unapologetic funk sound with a distinctly female voice at the forefront. From the explosive opening of "It's My Thing" -- a bold response to the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing" -- Marva channels sheer intensity, backed by a band that doesn't let up. The pace briefly softens with "If You Love Me," a soul-soaked ballad in the spirit of Otis Redding, before diving back into the rhythmic grit of tracks like "Unwind Yourself." Decades later, It's My Thing continues to inspire, sampled by producers and treasured by collectors -- a powerful snapshot of funk at its most uncompromising. Reissue on 180g vinyl.

2025 repress. "Regular edition" on 140 gram vinyl. We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) present the official reissue of criminally overlooked Japanese jazz gem Mellow Dream by Hokkaido pianist wunderkind Ryo Fukui, originally released in 1977. Released in conjunction with the its legendary predecessor 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP/LTD-LP). Firmly standing on the foundation he laid down with Scenery, Ryo Fukui continues his exploration of modal, bop, and cool jazz sounds with meticulous grace and absolute mastery. As its title suggests, Mellow Dream ventures into slightly mellower, more soulful, and sometimes more contemplative territories (the Bill Evans-reminiscent "Mellow Dream" and "My Foolish Heart") while still packing the commanding punch Fukui's work is loved for, as heard on the amazingly bombastic "Baron Potato Blues" or the gigantic McCoy Tyner/John Coltrane-influenced "Horizon" which sees each member of the trio -- Satoshi Denpo is on bass and Yoshinori Fukui is on drums -- demonstrating their virtuosity for nine exhilarating minutes. With his sophomore album, Ryo Fukui swings from melancholy to vibrant joy with ease, and reminds you that jazz is best served with a pinch of blues, and displays an immensely rare combination of pure talent, unique personal approach and focused discipline. The man undeniably deserves a spot in the pantheon of all-time great jazz pianists. After releasing the outstanding Scenery and Mellow Dream back-to-back, Ryo Fukui worked on developing his live skills, often performing at Sapporo's Slowboat Jazz Club (which he co-founded with his wife Yasuko Fukui), and even releasing two live albums. He sadly passed away in March 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that all jazz lovers should explore. Sourced from the original masters. Mastered at half speed; 140 gram vinyl; includes sticker.

"Somewhere around 2007 a rather remarkable sight and sound appeared around these parts. Two women, seated among a variety of instruments, playing their own mesmerizing songs amid scattered covers (Richard and Linda Thompson, Donovan, Anne Briggs). Sometimes they played together, sometimes one or the other would do a song while the other watched or added a bit of harmony. It was closer to something you'd see in a university club in 1967 than anything contemporary, but there they were. A large and devoted audience developed quickly, following them from gig to gig. At the time it seemed like they were ready to for the world to discover, something so good that everyone would know about them soon enough. Within a couple of years they would seem more like an apparition, something flown by that you weren't sure was ever really there. They had made some tentative starts at recording, but nothing much to show when I approached them in 2009 to make an LP. One afternoon they loaded all their gear in and set up as they would for a gig. We recorded everything live, including vocals, in one or two takes -- usually one. It was a lovely afternoon, without a hint of the usual recording jitters or other distractions. The songs flowed out, one by one, as naturally as you please. We later added a touch or two to a couple of songs, but the resulting record is almost entirely live, just as you would have heard it if you were lucky enough to see 'em around town. As it turned out, that session was close to the end for Baba Yaga. There were a few more gigs, and then they split -- Carla moving to NYC and Amanda staying local. There were scattered sightings of each over the years: Amanda joined Major Stars for a while. Carla formed Raajmahal with Pat Murano (of No Neck Blues Band and K Salvatore) and put out several LP's and cassettes. But the album they made together as Baba Yaga was seemingly doomed. For a couple of years emails were exchanged, but trying to get the recordings sequenced and artwork prepared for a defunct band whose members lived in different states was slow going. Finally in 2013 everything was in order and 250 copies of the LP were pressed. Then the finished art for the cover went missing. That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. Boxes of unfinished LP's were tucked into a closet, where they've sat for over a decade. But you can't keep a good record down forever, right? A couple of chance meetings in the middle of this decade restarted the conversation, and designer Darryl Norsen (Grateful Dead, Yes, Joni Mitchell) was brought in to design an all-new sleeve. The records were exhumed and unboxed and after a sixteen year wait the Baba Yaga album everyone 'round town was waiting for is finally here." -- Wayne Rogers

When rock music from Germany gained international recognition under the label "krautrock" in the 1970s, it was far more than a mind-expanding phenomenon. In basements, youth centers, and improvised studios, a vibrant scene emerged-shaped by fearless curiosity and a strong will to transcend traditional musical structures. Some bands produced only a single recording; others became experimental platforms for established musicians or transient fixtures in local underground milieus. What united them was a desire to cross boundaries: rock met jazz, folk merged with electronics, soul touched the avantgarde. These intersections produced soundscapes that remain powerful documents of a creatively restless era. The recordings collected here reflect that spirit-not only from the krautrock period, but also from the decades that followed, including contributions from both Germany and Austria. Featuring Skyline, Psi, Toto Blanke, Ragawerk, Lychee Lassi, Abadie, Zoppo Trump, Epsilon, Radio Noisz Ensemble, Mocolage, Dschinn, Frob, Emotion, Join In, Morpheus, Opossum, Zyma, and The Terrible Two.

Originally released in 2021. "crys cole is a Canadian-born composer, currently based in Berlin. She has a long history as a sound artist, both for performances and recordings that display a subtle approach to sound generation (often involving small gestures and the amplification of objects not necessarily designed to produce music). She also creates sculptural installations featuring sound as one element amongst others. This might suggest she possesses some of the mania associated with Fluxus, but crys's work generally eschews the antic, focusing on the slow build and accretion of sound layers. On this night in Nanaimo BC, Oren and crys sat at a pair of tables. Oren held a guitar and his table was covered with electronics. crys held no instrument in her hands, but her table contained a mass of objects, some clearly electric in nature, others looking more like random bits found in a kitchen drawer. Working with these tools and microphones to amplify their voices and/or gestures, the pair created the two pieces here -- wonderfully flowing soundscapes from imaginary vistas of otherness. The instruments they employ sometimes recall the essence of things you've heard before, but more often they are sonic events whose source can only be discerned (and then, only fitfully), by trying to see who is doing what with their hands. The interplay of gesticulation and the slow swaying of their bodies resembles a kind of slow-motion dance, almost like something taking place underwater. And at times there is a concordant submarine heft to the music. Drifting as though heard through a waving wall of water at 20,000 leagues beneath the sea. Other portions make you feel as though you are lying in a tent at night in a jungle filled with cyborg insects. It was a night of music that came and went like a dream state. Beautiful, familiar and utterly strange all at the same time. Sadly, this will be the last LP in this series recorded at the original White Room, upstairs at 4 Church Street in downtown Nanaimo. A new landlord wanted to do something different with the legendary performance space/gallery, and so it goes. We are assured, however, that a new venue will be secured in the Nanaimo area, and the shows (with concomitant live LPs) will continue once the plague has abated. For now, take the opportunity to take a trip with Oren and crys. You won't regret a moment of it." --Byron Coley

"Although it is true that the Nanaimo concert hall known as 'The White Room' has been eradicated by real estate greedheads, Jack and Dave (who ran the place and its documenting record label) have decided to keep the label going because why the hell not? The first fruit of this divine union is the Belfort Strasse LP by Eugene Chadbourne's Contemporary Rock Band (whose name was copped from an otherwise anonymous Pismo Beach cover band). Under this exquisitely generic banner you'll find Eugene Chadbourne on vocals, guitar and banjo, Schroeder on drums, Jan Fitsjen on bass and baritone guitar and occasionally Titus Waldenfels on lap steel. Unlike their namesake, this Contemporary Rock Band only plays a couple of covers -- Johnny Paycheck's 'The Cave' and Willie Nelson's 'Wake Me When It's Over.' These are also the tracks on which Waldenfels's lap steel adds musical width, while on 'Prisoner' (recorded for Bulgarian National Radio), the ensemble features solely Chadbourne and Schroeder. The material here was recorded in 2018-19 in a basement studio on Belfort Strasse in Freiburg-im-Brieslau, Germany or in taverns within walking distance of the studio, using a mobile recording facility. A few of the tunes have appeared on some of Eugene's recent CDRs, but this the first vinyl appearance of the music, and a damn fine appearance it is. Unlike his more 'purely' avant instrumental records, Belfort Strasse is a suite of Eugene's sometimes-straight/sometimes-bent lyrics, spiced up with experimentally-canted musical flourishes that fuck with time, melody and harmonics in equal measure and at their own cruel pace. Eugene's approach is so amazingly advanced it can often be head-spinning to try and unravel its intent, but the overall effect kinda destroys the perceptual barriers between sounds deemed 'inside' and 'outside.' This is a trick Chadbourne has long been working at, but as much as I loved many of his early efforts at this syncretic mode of creation, over the years his tactics have become a bit less manic, which seems like a good thing in terms of making the lines blurrier than ever. Eugene is an artist whose aesthetic has long seemed to be dictated by Duke Ellington's statement, 'if it sounds good and feels good then it is. Good. There's no art when one does something without intention.' And to my ear, Belfort Strasse, is Eugene's most adamant exemplar of this dictum yet. If you can't dig it. I'm not certain you can dig." --Byron Coley

LP version. After a critically praised debut in 2023 and numerous tours across Europe, Yalla Miku returns with 2, a new record that further asserts their unique identity. Still based in Geneva, the band moves forward with a reimagined lineup -- not as a departure, but as the natural continuation of a project envisioned from the start as a space for encounters, movement, and musical reinvention. Blending post-kraut grooves, mutant folklore and electronic trance, Yalla Miku continues to spark dialogue between traditions from the Horn of Africa and the most unrestrained experiments of Geneva's underground. The krar riffs of Samuel Ades Tesfagergsh, the sculptural bass of Louise Knobil, the taut percussion of Cyril Bondi, the raw electronics of Emma Souharce, and Cyril Yeterian's modified banjo weave a dense, collective sonic fabric, full of sharp turns and rhythmic surges. There's no smooth fusion here, nor any fixed folklore: 2 is an interplanetary journey where multiple voices overlap, clash or complement each other. It's a music of otherness, built as a shared space where each texture keeps its own roughness. With this second album, Yalla Miku digs deeper into its sound: raw, militant, unclassifiable -- for curious ears and open hearts.

Mentioned on Julian Cope's essential guide Jap Rock Sampler, Food Brain released their debut album in 1970, gathering influences from prog, proto-hard and psychedelic music. By far a supergroup consisting of Shinki Chen (Speed, Glue and Shinki), Hiro Yanagida (Milk Time) and Hiro Tsunoda (Flied Egg), the band showed an incredible interplay on their nine instrumental pieces, generating a cult following aboard.

2025 restock; LP version, Volume 1. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. Since their debut in 1975 (FARO 117X-LP), Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world's greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock 'n' roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature "Samba Doido" (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid. Before they became Azymuth, José Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan 'Mamão' Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Azymuth's name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti, and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music -- from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward; these previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami's home studio. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world, that sounded anything like them, so it's unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, told in effect that the music was 'wrong'. When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, "Prefacio" would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996). Only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form. On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros, and Conti were realizing at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth's earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.