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When one thinks of the terms โmassโ and โmassiveโ in music, especially contemporary music, perhaps certain aural images come to mind: generic metal heaviness; dynamics-bereft noise; ear-battering dance floor madness; the multitudinous forms of drone darkness. All of these are massive in their own fashion. However, this new studio album from 7FO (pronounced โnana f oโ), a composer-performer based in northern Osaka, investigates and inhabits a different aspect of the massive. A glorious combination: dense low frequencies; sculpturally condensed blocks of sound, subtly swinging gravitational fields โ and a surprising sense of rolling and rollicking joyfulness and play. โMassiveโ doesnโt have to mean โdarkโ โ consider the sun. This is the third 7FO release on EM Records, following the well-received โRyu no Nukegara (Dragon's Husk)" (2018). On these 2024-25 recordings, 7FO focuses his drum machines, synths and musical vision into eight compact structures which were partially inspired by the intense essence of American pre-war blues and the shining soul of traditional Ethiopian music, especially the works related to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. While not obviously evident, the glowing core of these musics has been captured and condensed here; another inspiration is the massive sculptural 1980s works of Yoshi Wada โ although there are obvious differences, there is a similar material tangibility to the vibration of the air. The final piece, โShirohebiโ, is an update of the b-side of 7FO's 7-inch single "Healing Sword" (2023), featured on Henry Rollinsโ radio program. We invite you to experience and enjoy these eight massive blocks of sound, imbued with 7FOโs heartfelt warmth and humour, dense but not dark; shifting, rolling, appearing and disappearing: 7FO once picked up a roadside stone, which split as it sat in his palm. This experience, referenced in the releaseโs title, hints at the metaphysical magic of music, a realm beyond mere coincidence: even the massive density of stone can split, and reveal the magic within. Available on CD, LP and digital download. Artwork by Hiroaki Hidaka.

When one thinks of the terms โmassโ and โmassiveโ in music, especially contemporary music, perhaps certain aural images come to mind: generic metal heaviness; dynamics-bereft noise; ear-battering dance floor madness; the multitudinous forms of drone darkness. All of these are massive in their own fashion. However, this new studio album from 7FO (pronounced โnana f oโ), a composer-performer based in northern Osaka, investigates and inhabits a different aspect of the massive. A glorious combination: dense low frequencies; sculpturally condensed blocks of sound, subtly swinging gravitational fields โ and a surprising sense of rolling and rollicking joyfulness and play. โMassiveโ doesnโt have to mean โdarkโ โ consider the sun. This is the third 7FO release on EM Records, following the well-received โRyu no Nukegara (Dragon's Husk)" (2018). On these 2024-25 recordings, 7FO focuses his drum machines, synths and musical vision into eight compact structures which were partially inspired by the intense essence of American pre-war blues and the shining soul of traditional Ethiopian music, especially the works related to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. While not obviously evident, the glowing core of these musics has been captured and condensed here; another inspiration is the massive sculptural 1980s works of Yoshi Wada โ although there are obvious differences, there is a similar material tangibility to the vibration of the air. The final piece, โShirohebiโ, is an update of the b-side of 7FO's 7-inch single "Healing Sword" (2023), featured on Henry Rollinsโ radio program. We invite you to experience and enjoy these eight massive blocks of sound, imbued with 7FOโs heartfelt warmth and humour, dense but not dark; shifting, rolling, appearing and disappearing: 7FO once picked up a roadside stone, which split as it sat in his palm. This experience, referenced in the releaseโs title, hints at the metaphysical magic of music, a realm beyond mere coincidence: even the massive density of stone can split, and reveal the magic within. Available on CD, LP and digital download. Artwork by Hiroaki Hidaka.

Rhythms played by The Aggrovators, including Carlton Barret, Sly Dunbar, Carlton 'Santa' Davis, Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barrett and Tony Chin.
Originally released in 1981. Landmark dub record from legendary reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, using a combination of established collaborators and new musicians: The Upsetters, Johnny Lover & The Towerchanters, Lee & The Blue Bell, Val Bennett, Brad Osbourne & The Towerchanters, Devion Iron, The Black Arks, and Ricky And Bunny.

The Story Behind "Rhythm Matterโ The origins of Rhyth Matter trace back to 2011, shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake. While visiting Yony in New York, the artist Marter recorded a series of demos. When Marihito heard these recordings, he immediately saw the potential for a full-length project and envisioned a concept centered on "Live Dub" with a distinct Basic Channel influence. Over several years, the project evolved through a rigorous analog process. The multi-track recordingsโoriginally captured on cassette tape, 4-track, 8-track, and reel-to-reelโwere eventually digitized into Pro Tools to be meticulously shaped into the final album. At the time, Marihito was releasing an album through Bill Laswellโs label. When he shared the works-in-progress with Bill and asked if M.O.D. (Laswell's label) would be interested, the answer was a definitive yes. Initially, the album was set for release via a licensing deal with M.O.D. However, complications during the vinyl production phase at M.O.D. led to the difficult decision to scrap the record release. Refusing to let the vision of a physical LP die, Marihito took the project back to his own label, Personal Affair, finally releasing it on both vinyl and digital formats as it was always meant to be heard.

Chicagoโs excellent, shapeshifting Kino Disk chase 8004โs ace dub abstractions with Eustressโ actions in familiar meadows of overgrown FX, farming post-dub techno landscapes highly tipped FFO Vladislav Delay, Echospace, False Aralia. Peripheral to the Windy Cityโs fecund undergrowth, Indianapolis-based Heath Gillespie aka Eustress practises forms of dub techno at gauzy armโs reach from the OG source. On the six tracks of โExitโ, his 2nd release for the label, he distorts familiar tropes to taste, diffusing a palette of windswept dub chords and unanchored bass in space crackling with an iridescent grayscale filament. His approach broadly swerves dub technoโs club momentum in favour of soothing meditation, letting everything hang out and slosh, loosely suspended in gritty yet lush amniotic plasm with an effect calling to mind the etheric depths of Echospace or even Werkbundโs atmospheric enigmas. A hands-on background as mixing engineer comes to the fore in his workโs sensory tactility, convecting minds from a slow tempest to beatific bliss-out, rumbles of distant dub chord thunder and carpet rolling gouch-out, ultimately stranding up on the 8 min peninsula of โExit 6โ, under a borealis play of smudged, harmonised light, nerves combed into the breeze.
Emotional Rescue returns after a much-needed year hiatus, refreshed and ready, as it moves into its 15th year, to further explore the environs of oft-forgotten musical secrets and present them to new heads and minds. To celebrate, the label looks back to one of its favourite collaborations, the music of French โEthno-Industrialistsโ Vox Populi! in presenting a truly unique EP of 'In Dub', inspired remixes by 4 fellow Paris based artists of today in Full Circle, Froid Dub, Krikor and Shelter. 'In Dub' takes a selection of songs from the series of albums reissued or compiled on Emotional Rescue and sister label, Platform 23, and gives the Master tapes to this talented ensemble to offer their own, unique dub reworks. Coming about after a special meeting of all the protagonists at a Paris warehouse party, the project explores the on-going advances in technology offered, mixed with pure talent and a respectful homage. Formed by Axel Kyrou and including wife Mitra, as well as long-term music and art partners Pierre Jolivet aka Pacific 231 and Francis Lafont aka FR6 Man, they forged a path from obscure, drum and drum-based cassette releases on to fully realized albums and compilations on their now cult Vox Man Records. Alexis Le Tan and Joakimโs Full Circle project starts, with their electronic dub remake of Soleyman Dub from the โAlternatif Rรฉalismeโ compilation (ERC079). With releases on Good Morning Tapes, Offen and their own โReleasedโ label, their plaudits as master diggers and producers of dubby tripped-out inspired electronics โ releasing slowed Trance some 10 years before anyone else โ is inspired. Tuning in and turning on the original dub into a mantra style slow-breaks (Digi)dub is the perfect experimental flavour. Jube Man is next, a twisted, psychedelic dub out by rising stars Froid Dub. The stand-out from the โMagiques Creationsโ release (ERC052), an album that explored Vox Populiโs furtive post-industrial period of 1984 to 1988, Jube Man was the perfect selection by the duo of Franรงois Marchรฉ and Stรฉphane Bodin. Froid Dub have steadily developed their โcoldโ Digidub style to acclaim โ releasing a steady flow of dub inspired electronics on their own label Delodio, as well as recently appearing on sister label Emotional Responseโs 10th year anniversary collection, โAll Tradesโ. Their haunting, shuffling and murky acid / piano dub, with the drifting โSpace Echoingโ of Mitraโs vocals from the live desk mix, creates a ghostly version to effect. Next, master mixer, producer and engineer Krikor serves a steppers remake with his โOverDubโ of Zen-Dub. With a career that spans releases on Tigersushi, LIES and Soul Jazz, his sound has developed from Electro, House and Techno, to Acid, Bleep, Dancehall, Dub and touches of Gabba. Taken from Vox Populi!โs master-opus Aither (ERC030), the first of our reissues dating back to 2016, Zen-Dubโs pacey, lo-fi dub experience is transformed and overdubbed into an incessant sound system throb, a true bass quaking โsteppaโ. To close, Micro Climax is put through Shelterโs increasing avant dub exposition. Appearing on the likes of Growing Bin, Emotional Response and his own Protopost, as well for โ and being in-house designer โ on the much-missed Sรฉance Centre, Alan Briand aka Shelter productions have developed from Balearic, Edits and House to explore Avant, Raga and live Dub productions. Appearing on the recent โEthniques Pyschedeliquesโ compilation on Platform 23 (PLA032), in original form Micro Climax is a sprawling 10-minute ethno-dub of whispered vocals, drone and sub bass. Shelter strips it back, keeping background effects, adding live bass and percussion to create a wonky, slow, shuffling ska-lite excursion to complete a true 'In Dub'.
Heavy, heavy, heavyyyyy rhythmic madness from Shackleton, Scotch Rolex and Omutaba, invoking new rhythmic traditions on an enchanted debut album for Nyege Nyege Tapes, twisting galvanic rhythms from HHY & The Kampala Unit's Omutaba into sozzled, psychedelic peregrinations. Dubby, kinetic and viciously mind-bending, it's peak gear if you're into anything from African Head Charge to Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force.
Leading on from Shackleton and Scotch Rolexโs maiden merger, โDeath by Ticklingโ in 2023, the duo pull in the dextrous limbs of Omutaba - known from his work with STILL, Metal Preyers and HHY & The Kampala Unit - for a dervishing session of dubbed-out and tumbling polyrhythms and psychoactive vibes as Three Hands of Doom. Shackletonโs hand on the tiller is patently apparent but, as with his recent works with Heather Leigh and Wacลaw Zimpel, he proves a mutable collaborator and porous to the shared spirits of fellow electronic music journeymen Scotch Rolex and Ugandaโs Omutaba in four swingeing sections defined by their joint ability to diffract the flow between rolling and irregular grooves.
โRing Dirtโ opens the session with a limber display of monotone strings and suspenseful synth work that calls to mind Can sent economy class to the equator for ritual teachings. Enlightened, they proceed thru the lush, whorling metric calculations of โInsect Vibrationโ, layering shivering incantations and worm-charming subs with a frisson of field recordings. At this point fully attuned to each other, Omutabaโs Ugandan drumming is felt most powerfully meshed into the 10 minute matrix of rug-pulling and thunderous detonations to โBurnt Earthโ, before they all buckle into the outright dread of a standout eponymous title tune that appears to follow rhythms from the Congo thru West Africa, to Haiti, via Japan and Berlin, and back to Uganda.
Both Shackleton and Ishihara have been on blistering form in the last couple of years, and 'Three Hands of Doom' feels like both a continuation and an extension of last year's 'Death By Tickling', weaponizing Omutaba's exhilarating playing into something that feels much, much more than the sum of its parts.
"YARD STYLE showcases legendary vocalist Johnny Clarke and the budding genius of Mad Professor (b. Neil Fraser). The year was 1983, Mad Prof had yet to become the very well known mixer he is today. Later projects with, amongst others, Massive Attack, would see him firmly installed as the UK's premier dub remixer. Characterized by electronic kick drum, digital echo effects and his very own brand of technical wizardry. Sounding like no other, yet drawing heavily on the established rituals of dub music making. A bridge between the older roots of Jamaica and the purely electronic digital dub that took over in the UK and Europe."
Black Steel's "Jungle Warrior" via Ariwa Sounds. "Multi talented, multi instrumentalist Black Steel was born in the early 60s in Brockley south east London. He started playing instruments at the age of five years building the talent that has since aided a string ofhits from the Ariwa stable and other labels - 'You're lying', 'It's you', 'If I gave you my heart to you', 'Didn't I''Black pride' and many others This album features the man in a heavyroots style through the inspiration of THE most high. Special thanks to Mad Professor, Humble I, Jah Shaka, Dennis Brown, Winston Edwards, Steven King and DeMondo for giving I that roots and culture inspiration."

Originally released in 2016 on Constellation Tatsu, Body Trip introduced Japanese ambient composer H. Takahashiโs quietly immersive approach to minimal electronic composition. Built from delicate synth tones, meditative repetition, and understated melodic movement, the album has become a lasting favorite within contemporary ambient circles. Over the past decade, Takahashi has developed an internationally respected body of work spanning releases such as Raum, Low Power, Escapism, Elegy, and Paleozoic. Beyond his solo output, he has collaborated through projects including UNKNOWN ME, ATORIS, and H TO O, contributed music for installations and exhibitions, and performed throughout Japanโs experimental and ambient music communities. Body Trip (Remixed & Remastered) revisits the original 2016 album with a newly remastered edition alongside reinterpretations from a cross-generational group of contemporary electronic artists. The collection connects H. Takahashiโs meditative ambient language with artists working across contemporary experimental electronics, dub-informed minimalism, ambient techno, and modern new age composition, extending the albumโs original aesthetic into a broader contemporary context. Fans and listeners have frequently described Takahashiโs music as calming, minimal, comforting, and deeply transportive, with recent online discussions continuing to highlight Body Trip and Escapism as standout works in modern Japanese ambient music.

Originally released in 2016 on Constellation Tatsu, Body Trip introduced Japanese ambient composer H. Takahashiโs quietly immersive approach to minimal electronic composition. Built from delicate synth tones, meditative repetition, and understated melodic movement, the album has become a lasting favorite within contemporary ambient circles. Over the past decade, Takahashi has developed an internationally respected body of work spanning releases such as Raum, Low Power, Escapism, Elegy, and Paleozoic. Beyond his solo output, he has collaborated through projects including UNKNOWN ME, ATORIS, and H TO O, contributed music for installations and exhibitions, and performed throughout Japanโs experimental and ambient music communities. Body Trip (Remixed & Remastered) revisits the original 2016 album with a newly remastered edition alongside reinterpretations from a cross-generational group of contemporary electronic artists. The collection connects H. Takahashiโs meditative ambient language with artists working across contemporary experimental electronics, dub-informed minimalism, ambient techno, and modern new age composition, extending the albumโs original aesthetic into a broader contemporary context. Fans and listeners have frequently described Takahashiโs music as calming, minimal, comforting, and deeply transportive, with recent online discussions continuing to highlight Body Trip and Escapism as standout works in modern Japanese ambient music.
The fourth and final volume in the African Dub All-Mighty series was originally released in 1979, and like the previous three discs it features rhythm tracks laid down by such famous session men as Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Lloyd Parks, and Franklin "Bubblers" Waul, most of whom were already known as members of the Revolutionaries and the We the People band, but who recorded at Joe Gibbs' studio as the Professionals. Errol Thompson ran the board for all four collections of dub mixes, and offers an interesting and adventurous approach. Some of these mixes are two or three times removed from the vocal tracks that were originally released -- "Iron Gate," for example, is a dub mix of a recut (by Althea & Donna) of the Heptones' proto-slack rocksteady classic "Fattie Fattie"; "Fashion One" is a remix of Dennis Brown's remake of Alton Ellis' 1960s classic "Girl I've Got a Date." Everything here is worth a listen, recommended overall. - Rick Anderson
Joe Gibbs reggae dub series "African Dub Chapter". this chapter 5 was originally released in 1984.
Previously released on Low Company in 2023, Purely Physical Teeny Tapes reissue the full album from Tarquin Manek, one of the most prolific, distinct and perhaps under-recognised producers in our orbit. If bezonked, subaquatic dub-pop zoners are your thing, anything from The Skaters to Swell Maps, YL Hooi to Carla dal Forno, CS + Kreme to Jac Berrocal, this oneโs for you. The 16th and final number from short-lived yet beloved London shop-turned-label Low Company renders a raft of works made by Tarquin Manek (F Ingers, Kallista Kult, Tarcar) 2013-2020, and shafted in the release schedule until now. Nine songs depict Tarquin in his soggiest songwriting mode, floating over rugged, groggy loops in a rare, non-collaborative form. Itโs a captivating self-portrait of an artist who is perhaps best known for his collaborations and work behind the scenes, variously fostering talents from the Naarm (Melbourne) undergrowth such as YL Hooi and Carla dal Forno, the latter of whom was his bandmate in F Ingers alongside Sam Karmel of CS + Kreme, and many of whom would grace Low Company and its cult predecessor Blackest Ever Black. A sense of desiccated bliss riddles the bittersweet fantasy tang of โBreathing Under Honeyโ, where Manek sets a course from the bleached coral underfoot on โStones on the Beachโ, to a lizard-hipped bossa shuffle on โMirage Gameโ, via superb bouts of Count Ossie-meets-Spencer Clark whims on โSubmerging Emergencyโ, thru Hassellian trumpet gargling in the sink on โSea Slug Benderโ, to instrumental cyberpunk sea shanty, โAge Old Squallโ, or coming across Lewis on a jolly with drunken sailors at a late night Berlin bar on โBasic Troubleโ. Of course it all hits that crinkled sweetspot for levels of eyes-half-shut perpendicular pop that weโve come to expect from Low Company and their constellation of affiliates, joining dots between the ahead-of-their-time โ80s post punk tape oddities that surface on Efficient Space, A Colourful Stormโs febrile dream sequences, to rickety DIY bops from the London mulch. Laters, Low Company - a proper bunch of sound cnuts.
Producer Joe Gibbs took the credit for the four discs released in the mid-'70s under the title African Dub All-Mighty, but the musicians were in reality a shifting aggregation of members of the Soul Syndicate, We the People, and Revolutionaries bands, and the man actually working the mixing board was famed sound engineer Errol Thompson. Chapter 1 is a fine listening experience -- note in particular "Campus Rock" (a dub version of Dennis Brown's "Let Me Live") and "Treasure Dub," which is a version of the Jamaicans' rocksteady classic "Ba Ba Boom." Recommended. - Rick Anderson
The second volume in this vintage four-disc series of instrumental dub from Joe Gibbs' studio finds him still working with members of the Soul Syndicate and We the People bands, and utilizing the formidable mixing talents of Errol Thompson. What sets this volume somewhat apart from the other three is the number of rhythms it carries over from the rocksteady era: "Chapter Two" is a remix of the Techniques' late-'60s classic "Queen Majesty"; "Peeping Tom" reworks the Melodians' "You Have Caught Me"; and "My Best Dub" is an instrumental and nicely dubbed-up recut of the early Wailers track "Hypocrites." But it also includes some heavyweight rockers and one-drop material, including "Angola Crisis" (based on a familiar rhythm later used for such roots reggae hits as "Uptown Top Ranking" and "Three Piece Suit") and an absolutely brilliant dub mix of Bob Andy's "Chained," here rendered in dark, minimalist tones with drastic dubwise effects and retitled "Third World." Along with the third volume, this is one of the most impressive of the four discs in the African Dub series. - Rick Anderson
The third (and most impressive) of four volumes of dub mixes from the studio of producer Joe Gibbs, African Dub, Chapter 3 finds engineer Errol Thompson getting a bit more adventurous than he had on the earlier installments. More of these dub versions keep shreds and snatches of the original vocal tracks in the mix, which is almost always a plus in a dub context -- little snippets of disembodied vocals float through the otherworldly musical atmosphere, lending a sometimes spooky human element to the sound and often casting new and refracted light on the meaning of the original lyrics. And on this volume, Thompson seems to be taking a few cues from his competitor Lee "Scratch" Perry, throwing such extramusical elements as water sounds (on "Freedom Call") and ringing telephones (on "Jubilation Dub") into the mix along with the usual gossamer shreds of guitar, horn, and keyboard. Highly recommended. - Rick Anderson
Michael J. Blood executes a stunning volte-face from rugged house and soul to more intuitive, introspective, world-building ambient jazz and electroacoustic dub realms under a new moniker SEES, signifying a newfound psychoactive frisson to his work that lands him somewhere in the spiritual vicinity of Vangelis, Moodymann, Ron Trent, Pendant, Terre Thaemlitz. โAmpersand Curveโ initiates a brilliant new phase of work by North Manchesterโs most elusive artist, best known as Michael J. Blood. His string of ruffkut club bangers as well as jams with Rat Heart & Samizdat over the past seven years, have made his records a true cult property, and now find him signed to one of the UKโs most foundational techno imprints - more of which later this year. But under the SEES aegis, he swims in very different waters, following his instincts to use the studio-as-instrument to produce his most impressive, deep-minded work, made from - and for - the heart. Where MJB was all about off-the-cuff club jams cooked for immediacy, his new stylistic switch reveals myriad worlds of influence swirling under the hood, where interrelated spheres of spiritual jazz, dub, ambient and concrรจte more clearly light up his rich inner world. As the story goes, MJB was burgled a few years back, and lost most of his studio just as the project was hitting its stride. It prompted a personal review of his practice, re-learning new kit, allowing him to bend the rules. Adopting a sort of first thought, best thought approach to composition, the new methodology fuelled a renewed imagination in flux, or what he identifies as SEES: a personalised way of conveying complex emotions. That un-doing of musical and mental conditioning opens the walls of his music to vast new horizons. Opener โIthacaโ fathoms sonorous midnight jazz with 10 mins of a plangent, searching sax solo in HD widescreen, like some alternate version to the Blade Runner Love Theme, while a resonant vocoder soliloquy โUnseemโ reaches into space harmonised between Alvin Lucier and Ron Trent, and โSheerโ chases the devil out of labyrinthine dub dimensions. The floating dream architecture of โCapricesโ caps the LPโs underlying narrative and painterly qualities with a romantic conclusion of blushing pads and shivered, metallic echoes of the subtropical that suggest a coming-to-terms with worries, refreshed and good to go again. A huge, heartfelt tip for a 2026 stunner.
A wealth of DIY dubplates and 45s from Jah Massaganโs East London sound crop up for first time on tape with cherry-picking label Death Is Not The End - heavy roots dub troubles cut at the studios of King Tubby, Lee Perry, Channel One, and Joe Gibbsโฆ Eljay Mass, son of Jah Massaganโs owner-operator, Lloyd Mass, dips into his dadโs enviable archive for an hour of rare, one-away platters that hail a self-organising rhizome of sound systems which sprang up in the UK with arrival of the Windrush generation, and brilliantly altered the course of music on this strange island in the process. The cassette-only session speaks to prevailing links between Caribbean culture and UK inner cities which reverberated from the โ70s into the โ80s, and has endured as a touchstone for some of our islesโ most vital music, setting templates for independent distribution networks and producing waves of innovative hybridisation. Owner-operator Lloyd Mass and his childhood pal and amp builder Tony Mass were a small but steadfast part of preserving these sounds, holding down their Leyton corner of London, where they would pass the torch to Eljay Mass and an extant network of rigs, engineers, Deejays and ravers who really do it for the culture.

Heavyweight Dub album by Alien Trackers, a new project by cosmic trumpet specialist Pablo Volt (STA) and Jahtari space ship mechanic disrupt, landing right in the sweet spot between soulful Black Ark-warmth, digital Firehouse dancehall hitters and Jahtarian Dub psychedelics.
A lazy day at a beach, in a galaxy far, far away... Feel the sand between your tentacles and splash in the emerald acid sea. Snorkel with plasma squids and shock eels. Marvel at the double suns during the magic twilight cycle and bask in their glorious gamma rays. Gaze into the depths of the local Vortex...
Coming on alien-green vinyl, with hand drawn art by David 8000 Farris, additional bass & guitars from Dubsworth, and an all four thumbs up-rating, 'Dubs from Vortex Beach' is landing in your orbit right now!
