"Playing with a Different Sex was the debut album by seminal post punk band Au Pairs, released in 1981. Described retrospectively by AllMusic as 'one of the great post-punk records', a review by Record Mirror on its release said the band's 'critique of all forms of possession and sexual stereotyping assumes a devastating power.' Themes include sexual politics and the torture of women imprisoned in Northern Ireland during The Troubles of the 1970s, as well as a stunning cover of David Bowie's 'Repetition' about domestic violence. It peaked at No. 33 in the UK, and features the single 'It's Obvious', which reached No. 37 on the US Club Play Singles chart. Playing with a Different Sex is available on black vinyl and contains an insert."

2026 restock. Hardcover. 12.6" L x 9.8" W (2.75 lbs). 192 pages. "Edited with text by Erin Christovale. Foreword by Ann Philbin. Text by Franya J. Berkman. Interviews by Ashley Kahn, Erin Christovale. Rashid Johnson, Cauleen Smith and others pay tribute to a truly extraordinary figure in 20th-century American jazz. This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum, the book takes its title from Coltrane's 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was 'ahead of her time,' as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was 'one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.' Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from 19 contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane's archive -- including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage -- to honor her cultural output and practice. Alice Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937 and took up music at an early age, beginning piano lessons at seven years old. In 1967 her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane, gifted her a harp, on which she went on to record seminal albums including Journey in Satchidananda and A Monastic Trio, making her one of the very few harpists in the history of jazz. Coltrane moved to Southern California in 1972 and founded the Sai Anantam ashram. She lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she died in 2007 at age 69. This book was published in conjunction with Hammer Museum."

270 pages. Soft-cover, fully illustrated. 196 x 268mm. Edited by Eva Prinz. Preface by Neneh Cherry. Afterword by Joe McPhee. New York, NY, USA -- musicians Mats Gustafsson, Neneh Cherry, Joe McPhee, and Thurston Moore, along with music writer Byron Coley, have contributed to an illustrated collector's guide to records -- replete with 270 pages of beatific album art, labels, sleeve notes and collector musings on their life-long obsessions of record collecting, with a distinct focus on the recorded history of free jazz and free improvisation. Compiling personal archives of their selections of recordings which could be contenders within a list defined by a parameter of 100 of the most essential releases presented in chronological order, acknowledging the music to be preternaturally noncompetitive, non-hierarchical, and of equal value, Now Jazz Now is a book for all adventurous music lovers, whether ravenous record collectors, avant-garde jazz enthusiasts, students of radical culture, or simply curiosity seekers in wonder to this music's illustrious history and lineage. The gleanings of Cherry, Coley, Gustafsson, McPhee and Moore will enlighten, delight, amuse, and bemuse all who follow their streams of consciousness, knowledge, perception, and, most importantly, unbridled respect and regard for a genre of music dedicated to the dignity of practicing freedom.

2026 restock. All tracks are exclusive to this release (not a compilation of material from the albums on the cover). Tracks: "Ghetto Version," "Ya Man Version," "Tubby's Version," "Pain Dub," "Cowboy Dubbing," "D'Rude Dubber," "Moving Version Dub," "Hardest Dub," "This Ah The Best," "King Edwards Dub," "Maria's Head Dub," "Homing Version," "Bless 'I' Dub" and "Crabbit Version."

Limited 2026 restock; LP version. "Prior to co-founding the Incredible String Band, Clive Palmer had already made a name for himself as a versatile instrumentalist from his teenage years busking around London. Just after the first ISB album was released, he would quit the band and seemingly vanished from the scene, traveling around Europe, India and Afghanistan. He resurfaced with his banjo a few years later under the guise of COB, Clive's Original Band, with instrumentalists and songwriting partners Mick Bennett and John Bidwell. Guitarist Ralph McTell agreed to produce the project as a labor of love, and with the newly coined trio they created what is considered to be one of the most beautiful acid folk albums ever to come out of the British Isles. McTell kept the production organic, with most of the vocals and rhythm tracks recorded live. Experimental in nature, Spirit of Love is a highly original album that embodies the spirit of UK folk amidst reality at the time. Bootlegged several times, this is the first official vinyl reissue of this eternal classic."

"In the mid-to-late '90s, Southern hip-hop was bubbling up in Atlanta with Outkast, Rap-A-Lot out of Houston, Three 6 Mafia out of Memphis, and Master P's No Limit out of New Orleans. By the early 2000s, Southern Hip-Hop was overtaking East Coast and West Coast acts with national radio and video play. The Chopped and Screwed style made popular by Houston's DJ Screw's mixtapes was also spreading nationwide. In 2005, another H-Town indie label, Swishahouse, was blowing up with a deal they had inked with Warner Music Group's resurrected Asylum label. Founded by Michael '5000' Watts and OG Ron C, Swishahouse released the single 'Still Tippin' on The Day Hell Broke Loose 2 compilation. The single, which featured Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and Slim Thug, would be added to Mike Jones' debut album Who is Mike Jones? leading to the first platinum album under Swishahouse and would set the stage for Paul Wall's major label debut. After releasing several albums and mixtapes with fellow H-Town rapper Chamillionaire, Paul Wall signed a deal with Atlantic/Asylum/Swishahouse and released the gold-certified single 'Sittin Sideways' in the summer of 2005. The People's Champ, featuring Paul Wall's famous platinum and diamond grillz on the cover, was released on September 13, 2005, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Charts. The album is an ode to the laid-back Houston culture of hustling, cars, sippin' on purple drank while listening to Chopped and Screwed music. The album had the internet goin' nuts with features from Texas contemporaries Mike Jones, Big Pokey, Bun B, as well as southern rap stars Three 6 Mafia, T.I., and Lil Wayne. The album spawned another gold single from the Kanye West-produced track 'Drive Slow' and would push sales to Platinum status."

"L.A.-based soul singer Leela James started out singing backup vocals on hip-hop albums in the late '90s and early 2000s. In 2004, she recorded the song 'No Tears' on Pete Rock's Soul Survivor 2, shortly after she signed a deal with Warner Bros Records and released her debut album A Change is Gonna Come, named after her cover of the Sam Cooke song. A true soul singer, with a voice comparable to Mavis Staples and Betty Wright, Leela enlisted Commissioner Gordon to oversee production, which included tracks by Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, Wyclef Jean, and Chucky Thompson. The lead single, 'Music,' is an ode to the soul singers of yesterday, with a hip-hop feel. She performs a soulful R&B cover of No Doubt's 'Don't Speak' and alternates between funky uplifting tracks like 'Good Time' and 'Soul Food' with downtempo, soulful ballads like 'When You Love Somebody' and 'My Joy.' Leela James departed from Warner after the release of her debut and went on to release seven more studio albums. It's been twenty years since A Change is Gonna Come was released in June of 2005, and Get On Down now presents this underrated gem for the first time on vinyl. The album is pressed on 'Golden Pearl' colored vinyl and packaged in a gatefold jacket, limited to 1000 copies. It's been a long time coming, but this is a must-have for neo-soul and R&B music lovers."

2025 repress. Lilith present a reissue of Os Mutantes' self-titled debut, originally released in 1968. With the release of their debut LP in 1968, Os Mutantes cracked the already red hot Tropicalia scene wide open. Fusing traditional Brazilian music, psychedelia, rock, and a good dose of pure experimentation, they quickly became giants both in Brazil and in the outer fringes of pop music, where they have managed to reign supreme for the past four decades. Not an easy task in such a crowded arena. Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Tom Zé, and Os Mutantes? What do these people put in their drinking water? The band went on to release several more albums, but this one was their magnum opus. Obi "bookmark" Japanese style; 180 gram vinyl; Includes CD.

Rufige Kru return with Alpha Omega Remixes, featuring four heavyweight re-imaginings of their recent jungle/drum and bass belters. One of the most revered names in breakbeat science, Rufige Kru rewired the dancefloor for the first time back in 1992 with hardcore classics such as "Darkrider," "Beachdrifta," and "Terminator," key moments in the evolution of drum n bass. Alpha Omega Remixes takes the project's tracks to a new-level, with fresh reworks from Metalheadz residents Phase, Seba & Paradox, Special Request, and Rufige Kru's very own Submotive. Each remix twists the raw intensity and deep atmospherics of the originals into something darker, harder, and sharper. Black vinyl, printed 3 mm spine sleeve, black polylined inner sleeve, and marketing sticker.

Romanian avant-garde composer, Nicolae Brînduş (1935-2023), studied piano and composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. From 1969 to 1980 he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and later he also worked at the IRCAM in Paris and GMEB in Bourges. His compositions have been performed worldwide. This album, originally released on Electrecord's RCM (Romanian Contemporary Music) series in 1986, provides a selection of works which belong to his cycle PHTORA (1968-1972). The cycle comprises five pieces which are five degrees of structuring collective improvisation, leaning towards the spectralist tradition. It's probably the most eccentric record in the whole RCM series, offering a mesmerizing collage of organized cacophony, as a massive but subtly layered whirlwind of abstract orchestral improvisations, Romanian picturesque folklore and free jazz with extensive use of tape manipulation and reverberation. This reissue comes with the beautiful original sleeve artwork by Ana Golici who designed many sleeves for Electrecord.

LP version. "As the meteoric rise of reggae began to captivate listeners around the globe in the 1970s, innovative artist Augustus Pablo emerged as vital creative force pushing the genre forward. An important figure in the Jamaican music scene during this remarkable era, Pablo was not only a skilled musician but an influential producer who shaped the sound of countless classic recordings. While his instrumental work and legendary dubs remain essential, Pablo was also responsible for iconic vocal tracks from a wide range of local talent, many of which were released on his own label Rockers. Now, Nature Sounds presents Rockers United!, a collection of classic and rare vocal selections from the Rockers archives, all produced by Augustus Pablo. Deeply rooted in hypnotic, bass-heavy instrumentation, the album features remastered audio transferred from the original master tapes, with vocals by Jacob Miller, Delroy Williams, Hugh Mundell, Tetrak, Junior Delgado, Earl Sixteen, Spliffy Dan and more."

2026 repress; ouble LP version. Initially released in 2006, Revep is the third collaboration album between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and the third installment of V.I.R.U.S.'s five album series. Remastered in 2021 in collaboration with Calyx Studio, the album's recordings are accompanied by three new compositions titled "City Radieuse", "Veru 1", and "Veru 2". "City Radieuse" was composed for the 2012 short cinematic essay titled "Cité Radieuse" and part of Carsten Nicolai's "future past perfect" series. The video shot at le Corbusier's Unité D'Habitation in Nantes (called "cité radieuse") takes the viewer through the modular system and design applied to the residential buildings. The film's narrative unfolds through a sequence of images tracking the apartments' indoor space and details, and points to the different benchmarks of standardized production as they correlate to their environment and its inhabitants. The album's original recordings resulted from musical exchanges that began with Vrioon (NOTON 051CD/LP) and revolved around a collaborative arrangement of Sakamoto's classic Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, the theme music to the 1983 movie starring David Bowie, Takeshi Kitano, and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself. In Revep, the piano takes the lead while the padded bass and pitched electronic frequencies mark sudden change. Deeply evocative and effortlessly colliding worlds of analog beauty and digital mastery, this album is considered another indispensable record from the duo's ongoing collaboration.

Limited repress. The strength of the Akira soundtrack lies in its unique blend of traditional Japanese instruments and futuristic electronic sounds. Shoji Yamashiro weaves together an eclectic mix of influences, creating a sonic landscape that mirrors the dystopian and cyberpunk themes of the movie. The use of traditional chants, taiko drums, and Shakuhachi flutes alongside electronic synthesizers and orchestral elements generates a hauntingly mesmerizing atmosphere that perfectly complements the visuals on screen. The composer also drew from the chants of Noh, traditional Japanese theater. Combined with polyrhythmic drum machine beats and synths tuned to gamelan microtonal scales, these styles give a sense of ritualistic tension to the dystopian world of Akira.

2025 repress; 2006 release. R.I.P. Ace Frehley. Considered the best of the four solo albums that Kiss released simultaneously in 1978, Ace Frehley does not stray far from Kiss's trademark heavy sound. With future David Letterman band members drummer Anton Fig and bassist Will Lee backing him up, Frehley shows that he is more than a songwriting match for bandmates Simmons and Stanley. In fact, the album yielded a Top 20 hit in "New York Groove."

Recorded in concert at the University of Sheffield in March 2025, Reality Is Not A Theory is the first collaboration between Mark Fell and Pat Thomas. Major figures in British experimental music since the 1990s, Fell and Thomas have developed their rigorous practices from radically different backgrounds and perspectives: where Fell's singular take on synthetic abstraction emerged from Sheffield's electronic underground, Thomas is a virtuoso improvising pianist steeped in jazz and modernist art music who has simultaneously worked with sampler-based electronics for decades. As the record's wonderfully academic subtitle explains, listeners are presented here with two sides of "algorithmic and improvised music for computer and piano," exemplifying both players' insatiable search for new (and sometimes uncomfortable) playing situations. The performance begins with Fell's electronics close to the timbres of acoustic percussion, attacks that suggest wood, metal or glass threaded along a rapid pulse while Thomas focuses on the lowest registers of the piano, deadening the strings. As Fell's electronics start to ring out and occupy more harmonic space, Thomas turns to wide, repeated clusters, which slowly expand into patterns of chords. Like in his recent solo recordings and his trio work with Joel Grip and Anton Gerbal, Thomas' playing combines extreme dissonance with a deep lyrical sense. Fell's work gradually shifts its focus toward drum sounds, drawing on the microtemporal processes that have characterized his practice in recent decades. Heard together with Thomas' probing piano, the computer sounds call up unexpected associations with the klangfarben antics of improv drummers like Paul Lovens or Tony Oxley. Throughout its second half, the music grows increasingly frenetic, as Thomas sounds out rapid, irregularly repeated figures and beautifully sour chords in the upper register, while Fell's percussion develops into angular pan-pipe-like feedback and waves of glissandi. With great confidence and patience, Fell and Thomas often let their individual contributions remain rhythmically distinct and unsynchronised, allowing unexpected correspondence and coincidence to guide the music's development. Recorded in a hall named after Sheffield steel manufacturer and Master Cutler Mark Firth, the location might suggest a model for understanding how Fell and Thomas interact here: two workers in the same workshop, each immersed in their own part of the production process. Arriving in a striking sleeve designed by Mark Fell, with liner notes by Francis Plagne, Reality Is Not A Theory is an invigorating document of the meeting of two mavericks of contemporary music.

TED stands as a restless voyage on an electronic ocean of infinite sound: Clarion calls ring out while spectral vocals accompany. Orchestral sections give way to fractured drum beats. Field recordings combine with ambient sounds, blended with whisper incantations. Menacing electronic storms gather, fused with sparse melodic lines. Liquid drippings meld with otherworldly strings, laying the foundation for Yuko Otomo's haunting recitation. TED ranks as seamless ordering of tones and sounds in temporal relationships unlike anything ever heard. Limited to 100 LPs. Art by Janice Sloane. Poetry by Yuko Otomo. Mastered by Steve Silverstein. Silk screened by Alan Sherry at SIWA Prints.

Limited to 100 LPs. Art by Ira Marcks. Silkscreened by Alan Sherry At SIWA prints. "Human Hair is the duo of Pat Murano and Richard Hoffman, both long running fixtures of the NYC scene, Richard with Sightings, Insayngel, and his recent solo project Organs Obsolete; and Pat with NNCK, Malkuth and his solo alter ego Decimus. Pat was also an auxiliary member of Sightings (one of the best bands to ever come out of NYC!) in the later years of the band and is in a duo with Sightings guitarist Mark Morgan called Key of Shame. Human Hair is another lovely and mutant outgrowth from this shared history. It has all the serpentine and liquid pace you would expect but with a new kind of melancholy I haven't heard in the previously mentioned projects. It's great to hear Richard in such stark relief, his taut and coiled punctuations keeping a kind of slithering sense of time while Pat unfurls vistas that don't exactly spread out as they kind of infinitely zoom in on themselves circling back around and magnifying every little snatch of texture. There's a loose almost psych vibe that, right when you think is gonna settle into a side longer, takes a right-hand turn into some kind of Richard Pinhas on jawharp section that spreads out to the horizon. Side B is (I kind of hate when music writers just mention mash ups of references but I'm not a music writer and when I wrote this in my notes while listening it made too much sense to me to not include. Also I was told that 'anything will suffice'!) P.I.L. playing Ry Cooders Paris Texas soundtrack and I think stands as one of the kind of most 'stranded on an alien planet of nothing' these guys have done. The desolation of space and subsequent tension is accumulative not palpable. It rises with time, slowly, because of all the patience and exploration that Pat and Richard allow for. The lifeline has slipped out of yr hands before you even realize that you're floating in open space. Daksina has really been putting out some amazing records of improvised music that don't sound like what has become the GENRE of improvised music sounds like. It's really personally reinvigorated a lot of my love of improvised music and this Human Hair LP really sits at the top of that." --Bill Nace, 2025

Just as the hippie era came to an end in America, a second '60s began. In what is now Zimbabwe, young people created a rock and roll counterculture that drew inspiration from hippie ideals and the sounds of Hendrix and Deep Purple. The kids in the scene called their music "heavy," because they could feel its impact, and it resonated from Zambia to Nigeria. At its peak in the mid-'70s, the heavy rock scene united tens of thousands of young progressives of all racial and social backgrounds. The country was called Rhodesia then, one of the last bastions of white rule in Africa, and heavy rockers defied segregation laws and secret police to make a stand for democratic change. Wells Fargo was at the forefront of the scene, and the title track of this album, "Watch Out," was the anthem of the counterculture. Following previous collaborations with Now-Again Records, Munster are thrilled to reissue now Wells Fargo's Watch Out!, a curated collection of songs intertwining rock and funk with Zimbabwean folkloric melodies, taken from the band 45s discography, never available outside of Zimbabwe at the time the singles were originally released.

Double LP version. Implosion is a crushing split album, appropriately released on The Bug's own PRESSURE label. Mapping out a new form of spectral dub, the sound is deliberately immersive, introverted, and yes, definitely implosive. In pursuit of heavy lids, blurred vision, and merciless bass bin punishment, it's one part meditation, two parts low-end theory, and essentially a confession of devoted sound system addiction. As expected from a tag team featuring British soundlab explorer and "London Zoo" composer Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, and Michael Fiedler, aka Jah Schulz -- a long-time graduate of Germany's new school of sound system reggae culture -- the duo approaches their target differently yet share the goal of keeping their sound "raw" and "brutally minimal". Each track illuminates the emotional impact and atmospheric pressure being explored across this deceptively sparse album -- a mastery of tone and texture. This collection might be as reduced, minimal, and deep as The Bug has ever gone, perhaps echoing the solemnity of his recent Kevin Richard Martin Black release and invoking the futurist steppas self-pioneered on his previous Pressure album. Alternatively, Fiedler's Ghost Dubs project ventures into his most heavyweight direction yet, which is no mean feat considering his previous, the critically acclaimed album Damaged, was a monstrously massive triumph of analogue weight and enviable sound design. Implosion is ice-cool, a stark contrast to the warmth and sociability of traditional Jamaican roots and the current trends in digi-dub. Instead, the mood is soaked in tension and intense dread, finding an unexpected melting point where classic dub's stark rhythm attack, isolationist ambience's eerie drift, dub techno's floatation strategies, and even the relentless riffs of doom metal collide. The super heavyweight pulsations, emotive resonances, and bone-rattling vibrations detonated here effortlessly go far beyond the artists' influences. Shadowy and elusive, there's a mysteriousness at this record's core. A haunting moodiness oscillating between nostalgia and future shock. Implosion is a testament to being enveloped in bass, seduced by bass, submerged in bass, and utterly crushed by bass, as The Bug and Ghost Dubs seek to craft a new form of dub for zonal headz and Babylon seekers. Mastered by Stefan Betke (a.k.a. POLE) at Scape Mastering studio.

Led by guitarist Seiji Hano, the jazz group Om released only one album -- Solar Wind, a landmark work that stands as one of the greatest achievements in Japanese ethnic jazz. Now, this masterpiece is finally being reissued. Their sound, seemingly a response from Japan to ECM artists such as Oregon and Codona, active during the same period, is refined yet imbued with a distinctly Japanese sense of wabi-sabi -- melancholic, nostalgic, and deeply resonant. From "Windmill," featured on Studio Mule's compilation Midnight In Tokyo Vol. 2, to every other track, Solar Wind is a flawless album with not a single weak moment -- a true masterpiece of Japanese jazz.

LP version. Alongside Joy Division, The Durutti Column were amongst the first artists to be released by Factory Records. Their debut album, produced by Martin Hannett, showcased the filigree guitar work of Vini Reilly, awash with reverb and early experiments with synthesizers. It would be a first album of a five-decade career, in which The Durutti Column would quietly emerge as one of the most influential acts from the Manchester scene and beyond. To celebrate the album's 45th anniversary, London Records revisits the album with new editions, with audio sourced and remastered from the original tapes for the first time since 1980, with vinyl cut at half speed. LP version includes restored "second edition" artwork with textured sleeve. Liner notes by The Durutti Column/Factory Records expert James Nice.

"Broadly speaking, shredders are the pro wrestlers of music, trafficking in overwrought drama but devoid of soul, the realm of finger-tappers, fretboard lubricators, and those prone to viewing music as a competitive brawl. As such, the axe-slinger of conscience steers clear of shredding behavior, albeit every-so-often dexterously running the neck to tip listeners off that, you know, they 'really know how to play.' But for the typical avant-string consumer, shredding is beyond the pale. Which brings us to Cyrus Pireh's new Palilalia release Thank You, Guitar, his latest stab at 'transcendental shred electric guitar music.' Pireh, a self-professed anarchist and presumed enemy of music-as-sport, upcycles the 32nd-note neck sprint into a mesmeric boil played and recorded with little intervening electronic trickery other than a Digitech DD5 and mysterious amp modifications. The end result sounds like Pireh's plugged a quarter-inch jack into each of the listener's eardrums, a quick digital delay ping-ponging across the frontal lobes, the wet and dry signal of his 9-string axe all but indistinguishable. Indeed, Pireh views his maximalist double-handed scrabble as a mirror in which the listener might visualize all manner of details in its rapidly self-propagating tonal and rhythmic tapestry. The title track, its hairpin turns echoing Fred Frith's 'Hello Music' -- another startling LP-opener -- establishes this methodology immediately. But far from languishing in razzle dazzle, each song tracks different tangential vectors, some (like 'Free Palestine') employing tape delay to smear the sounds into a muzzy, proto-psychedelic modality, with others stretching longer feedback times into unison lines reminiscent of Eno's all-consuming Revox (albeit less pitchy). But the true mind bender of the record is 'Amen Family', its fret-tapping and string scraping reinventing the venerable amen break as an electrified freak-folk/jungle opus for fingerstyle guitar that has to be heard to be believed. Ultimately, Thank You, Guitar is a giant step forward in Palilalia's redefinition of the solo guitar record, and one of the first truly novel things I've heard a guitar spit out in quite some time, milking the tension between precision and chaos, never quite veering into one or the other, but maintaining maximum engagement and brimming with action til the end." --Tom Carter

LP version. The brilliantly named duo -- formed by Adam Morrow and Jamie Sego -- might be based in "the hit recording capital of the world," Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but somehow, they have made a concept album about the ancient religious outpost off the coast of northeast England. It's a stunning record that mixes fuzzy guitars with folk horror and fantastic melodies -- for fans of Ride, Slowdive, Galaxie 500, Talk Talk, Yo La Tengo and The Clientele. Despite its lyrical inspiration lying thousands of miles away, it comes imbued with the soulfulness of their surroundings -- not least because it was recorded in the old Muscle Shoals Sound studio by the Tennessee River, now Portside Sound, which is run by Jamie. "The story of Lindisfarne gave us a framework for what were otherwise very abstract ideas and emotions," explains Adam. "It became a way to make sense of our own moment in history. We really want our lives and societies to always get better, and to be left alone to make that happen. But we are stuck in these cycles of progress and regression, and I think most people are really driven to make sense of it and assign meaning. Lately, we've lived through a global pandemic, a devaluation of truth and reality, and a resurgence of far-right politics into the mainstream. Not really what I expected out of life in 2025." He is keen to point out that, despite the seriousness of its inspirations, the duo had a lot of fun making the album and really want it to be "a living and breathing thing". "We want people to be able to engage with it regardless of whether they care about it as a concept record," he says. "For me, it's just another reason to expand the pedalboard," concludes Jamie. "We hope you enjoy it. Peace, love and reverb from Alabama."

Footwork pioneer Traxman presents Tekvision Volume 4, the highly-anticipated new album on Teklife. A defining force in Chicago's house, ghetto house, juke, and footwork scenes for over 30 years, Traxman continues to innovate with a cutting-edge release that builds on decades of influence and expertise, featuring tracks that pay homage to Chicago's West Side roots. With Tekvision Volume 4, Traxman reaffirms his legendary status as one of electronic music's most influential figures, delivering an album designed for both footwork veterans and a new generation of listeners ready to experience the genre's next evolution.

LP version. Color vinyl. "Vatican Shadow's 20th Hijacker -- the redacted 'what if' doom electronics loop which dissects the gulf between death as sacrifice vs. reward, anxiety digitalization and universal human commonality -- fear of loud noises and falling for the unspoken lost 9/11 generation. Repeated patterns of low-frequency pulses, coded intervals of silence and insistent machine-like percussive bursts resemble the preliminary stages of coordination. Experts familiar with prior activity of the organization note that these sonic movements align with earlier warnings of revolutionary activity, with networks mobilizing resources for a techno-industrial event of uncertain but potentially catastrophic magnitude and destabilizing influence, felt especially on 'Speed Of Sound' featuring Iggor Cavalera. With an atmosphere of secrecy pervasive, these nebulous communiques have a persistent momentum, consistent with preparations. The density of sound layers indicates reconnaissance -- global photography, encrypted kill webs -- woven into forms that stand to conceal as much as disclose. 20th Hijacker synchronizes post-Desert Storm-era paradoxes between the world's fastest surveillance plane at the time which was unarmed and the guerrilla weaponization of commercial aircraft -- foreshadowing the essence of the ongoing war on terror -- the merger of special operations and espionage within both opposing adversaries. In a climate of inevitability -- never forget war is a force that gives us meaning."

"The long running Brooklyn-based collective Chicha Libre counts members from Mexico, France, Venezuela and the US. Taking inspiration from exotic strains of cumbia, this follow-up to their mostly original tracks on their Canibalismo LP sees the band turning its attention to some well-known classics, applying their psychedelic chicha template to the Clash, Arthur Lee's Love, Los Shapis, and the Danny Eflman theme song to The Simpsons. Originally released on Record Store Day in 2013, it has been remastered and is available once again on vinyl. With this EP, Chicha Libre was closing a loop -- using a sound that was shaped by Peruvian tropical music to pay tribute to its own rockero roots -- and to some of its personal heroes. Jacket designed by Peruvian artist Elliot Tupac, whose posters and murals can be found on the walls of every neighborhood in Lima. Credited with perfecting a Chicha graphic style which has come to represent Peruvian urban culture. His work has been shown all over Latin America."

LP version. Green color vinyl. Underneath The Earth is the debut album from Chimehours; a hauntological music project for the dislocated present day. Taking inspiration from Max Porter's novel Lanny, the album digs into themes of nature, myth and community, with an edge of folk-horror. Drones, drums and gritty guitars are juxtaposed with woodwind, strings and ethereal song. Written and produced between Derbyshire, London and Margate, the album takes musical influence from the likes of Liz Fraser, Broadcast, Beth Gibbons, Bibio, and Jóhann Jóhannsson, and atmospheric cues from The Wickerman, The Fog, and Enys Men. Chimehours is a collaboration between Beck Goldsmith and Jon Dix. The pair have previously performed in bands together and composed music for award-winning film and television. They conjured up this foray into cinematic, horror-flecked contemporary-folk to explore their love of the supernatural and the other-than-human. Here, Chimehours raid the vaults of '70s British cinema and trad folk soundscapes to riff on contemporary anxieties and ecological yearning. They conjured up this foray into cinematic, horror-flecked contemporary-folk to explore their love of the supernatural and the other-than-human. The result is a collection of all things earthy, exquisite and grotesque.

LP version. "Riding in on an eviscerating vocal alarm call and originally released in 1988 as the final installment of her Masque of the Red Death trilogy, Diamanda Galás' You Must Be Certain of the Devil is as unflinching now as it was on release in 1988. It remains a swaggering, furious fuck-you to those who might cast aside the sick and dying in the name of faith and scripture. Often misunderstood as simply dark for its subject matter, You Must Be Certain of the Devil in fact shines a light of such total exposure it leaves nowhere to hide, forensically unmasking the fury and pain of real grief and the vast spectrum of emotions rendered by the AIDS epidemic. It is an album that looks you square in the eye, pins you against a wall and makes you look at and feel the horror the virus visited upon a person, the knowledge of certain death in a hostile environment, and the hypocrisy of those who claim to be Samaritans or protectors. The album twists gospel spirituals into blistering indictments of hypocrisy, using sacred forms to expose the cruelty of churches that damned AIDS sufferers as cursed by God. From the siren-call of 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' through 'Double-Barrel Prayer,' 'Birds of Death,' and the title track, she intones as apostate, reaper, and bar-room brawler, detourning spirituals into prayers to a god invented by despair. Begun in 1984 and haunted by her brother's death in 1986, the trilogy moved from anguish to political knowledge, shaped by Americas mounting AIDS epidemic -- by 1988 over 46,000 dead, antivirals still years away. Dismissed as the AIDS lady and joining Act Up protests, Galás made the trilogy a work begun in 1984 and not completed until the end of the epidemic, refusing closure: for her there is no escape or reprieve. You Must Be Certain of the Devil spears you in the eternal present of trauma, by an artist who calls herself a Greek orthodox atheist: a person certain of the devil with no hope in God. LP is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with euro inner sleeve and poster, with remastered audio by Heba Kadry, vinyl lacquers cut by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering and photography by Emily Andersen."

LP version. Romanian avant-garde composer, Nicolae Brînduş (1935-2023), studied piano and composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. From 1969 to 1980 he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and later he also worked at the IRCAM in Paris and GMEB in Bourges. His compositions have been performed worldwide. This album, originally released on Electrecord's RCM (Romanian Contemporary Music) series in 1986, provides a selection of works which belong to his cycle PHTORA (1968-1972). The cycle comprises five pieces which are five degrees of structuring collective improvisation, leaning towards the spectralist tradition. It's probably the most eccentric record in the whole RCM series, offering a mesmerizing collage of organized cacophony, as a massive but subtly layered whirlwind of abstract orchestral improvisations, Romanian picturesque folklore and free jazz with extensive use of tape manipulation and reverberation. This reissue comes with the beautiful original sleeve artwork by Ana Golici who designed many sleeves for Electrecord.

Peter Beyls (1950) works on the intersection of computer science and the arts. He develops generative systems in music, the visual arts and hybrid formats. Beyls studied music and computer science at EMS, Stockholm, the Royal Music Conservatory, Brussels and the Slade School of Art, UC London. Initially he was active in electronic music, as a composer of tape music. Later on, he developed various analog live electronic music systems. In close partnership with Michel Waisvisz, he designed and built the early prototypes of the crackle box synthesizer at STEIM, Amsterdam (1973-1975). Around the same time, Belgian composers Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals were his mentors at the IPEM Studio. Over the years, Beyls' work has primarily centered on generative systems, including an extensive series of machine drawings, human-machine interactive music systems using machine-learning and interactive audiovisual installations on which he has also given worldwide lectures. His work has been widely performed and exhibited at various universities and art institutions. The four previously unreleased tracks on this LP are amongst his first electronic music compositions using the Crackle Box, the Synthi 100 and the VCS3, a combination of live improvised electronics with precise tape editing and effects.

"On the cover: 2025 Rewind: The Year in Sound and Music: The Wire's essential guide to the highs and lows of the last 12 months in underground music and culture. Our 2025 Rewind double issue will have twice the shelf life of a standard issue and will include our essential Top 50 Releases of the Year and Archive Releases of the Year charts, both compiled from the votes of more than 60 of our critics and contributors. Other features include cultural reflections from our roster of writers, our specialist columnists' charts and analyses from avant rock to dub, and essays on some of 2025's talking points including DIY radio, slow music for fast times, and the current state of skronk. Inside: Makaya McCraven; After a three year hiatus in solo output, the prodigious drummer, producer and bandleader has released one new studio album, Off The Record via Chicago's International Anthem label, and four EPs, all edited and reworked from extensive live recordings dating back as far as 2015 and featuring contributions from Theon Cross, Ben LaMar Gay and Jeff Parker. In this special feature he is interviewed by Black Rock Coalition bassist Melvin Gibbs; Company was the name the British improv guitarist Derek Bailey gave to the festival he ran in London between 1977?1994, for which he would invite diverse casts of musicians to come and improvise together. To mark the 20th anniversary of Bailey's death, Mark Wastell gives the inside story of what happened when the guitarist revived Company for events in New York, London and Marseille; Hilary Woods; The Irish confessional singer, songwriter and filmmaker returns to the Sacred Bones label with her new album Night CRIÚ, a follow up to 2023's acclaimed Acts Of Light. By Leah Kardos."

"C.L.A.W.S. comes to Dark Entries with a new ripping LP, Splat City II. C.L.A.W.S. is the solo project of musical luminary Brian Hock, who has been a key figure in the Bay Area underground for over two decades via his involvement in projects like Bronze and The Vanishing, as well as helming the record labels Squirrels on Film and Immortal Sin. With C.L.A.W.S., Hock takes on the dancefloor, picking up cues from the Hague's Giallo-dipped electro, the skewed minimalism of Chicago acid, and the mind-rending forays of San Francisco post-punk icons like Chrome and Tuxedomoon. Following 2019's inaugural Splat City EP, Splat City II continues to map the psychogeography of a metropolis both alien and immediately recognizable, one where life is cheap, but so are the thrills. Previously released on Squirrels on Film in digital-only format, this expanded vinyl edition of Splat City II features two new cuts. Things kick off with 'Route 505' and 'One Tear,' a duo of rompers that vibe like Tom Ellard and Chip E locked in a room with a vial of liquid. Next up, Bay Area deckmaster Tyrel lends his editing chops to 'Vigilant Slimy Monsters,' sculpting a moody space disco beast. Squirrels on Film co-founder Solar teams up with Hock for 'Black Magic Carpet Ride III,' a cavernous downtempo banger. The slow-mo pace continues with 'Wild Slugs United,' which features the no wave-esque clarinet work of Paul Costuros. Closer 'Don't Flip the Crystal Ship' pays homage to Bayview venue Bay Area 51 with melancholic strings and a quartz-solid electrofunk bassline. Splat City II comes in a sleeve with artwork by Bert Bergen, which features a vampiric cat and sci-fi cityscapes."

LP version. Something is brewing in the state of Norway! Kronstad 23 are the latest trailblazers from northern Scandinavia: a creative force exploring the boundaries of musical genres, including but not limited to: psych rock, jazz, post-rock and Scandinavian folk music. The group of young players follows the footsteps of Motorpsycho, Elephant9 and El Paraiso's own Lotus, Fra Det Onde and Kanaan, carving out their path through the musical landscape in seemingly effortless ways! One minute you're floating on cosmic Pharoah Sanders waters, the next you're ascending on electrified if-Tortoise-played-Allman Brothers-style jamming. The band describes their approach as: "Sommermørket is an escape from inhumane technology and politics in search of something that feels authentic. The music breathes in the little that is left of old air and rises slowly into the hazy summer twilight like brittle thoughts that try to connect and fade away." Kronstad 23 was formed in Kronstad, Bergen, Norway in the Autumn of 2023. As old friends and musical collaborators, they rekindled a creative spark that had been dormant for over 10 years. Rarely rehearsed and often caught on first take, Sommermørket was recorded live on tape in the studio of Keyboardist Øyvind Vie Berg in Bergen, Norway. The record captures three sessions across one year, from spring and late summer in 2024 to winter of 2025.

Written, produced, recorded, and mixed by Buck Curran at Via Paleocapa, Bergamo, Italy between April 2024 and January 2025. Mastered by Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering, Montreal, Canada. Curran's ninth solo album finds an elemental, full-form return to his musical roots: a deep love for the ambient and resonant nature of the acoustic steel-string guitar in alternate tunings. In company and reunited (after an 18-year separation) with a rare "Butterfly" Model 1 acoustic guitar made by Stefan Sobell in Northumberland, England in 1990 (previously used to record the first two albums made by his duo Arborea), Curran creates idiosyncratic and ethereal soundscapes through the use of its sonorous fundamental voice, incredible sustain, shimmering overtones and harmonics, and the additional use of a brass slide and EBow. The compositions and improvisations that are presented in this album are intricate and subtly powerful throughout, yet plaintive and mystical sounding. The notes contained within Far Driven Sun are further defined with plentiful space and tonal colors. Far Driven Sun finds Buck Curran ever-evolving on his musical path -- a joyful and creative exploration of aural color and resonance -- reflections and ruminations on the eternal cosmos and life.

Double LP version. Neoclash is DJ Hell's new work. The electroclash of the early 2000s is reconstructed here, its characteristic codes extracted and reshaped into a modern, reflective form. Neoclash is a cultural experiment -- music as a medium of reflection, a structure for space and time, and a vehicle for exploring the tensions between technology, the body, and perception. Electroclash now -- or a manifesto for the aesthetic relevance of electronic club music, combining strong old-school references with a new understanding. DJ Hell, a.k.a. Helmut Josef Geier, delivers a contemporary reinterpretation of the electroclash genre. International Deejay Gigolo Records was the pulse of the movement 25 years ago -- and Hell, its very namesake. Godfather of Electroclash reloaded. 25 years and many milestones later, DJ Hell returns to his roots with Neoclash, proving that electroclash can sound not nostalgic, but forward-thinking and visionary. Neoclash builds a bridge between past and present within electronic dance culture and club music. Italo disco, new wave, indie dance, disco, pop, Chicago house, acid, Detroit techno, and avantgarde music merge here into a bold new interpretation. Featuring Donna Summer and Joyce Muniz.