MUSIC

An album by a little-known guitar duo released in 1999. Their songs—composed solely of guitars and making heavy use of harmonics—are beautiful pieces that evoke an ambient-like tranquility; during their live performances at the time, they even collaborated with 8mm film projections. However, while the album received high praise from a select few, the overall response was very limited. At the time, the indie scene had not yet re-evaluated ambient sounds, and there were virtually no other groups performing such simple instrumental music live. I believe this made the music extremely difficult to categorize and left it in a precarious position. However, once Japanese ambient music began to be re-evaluated globally in the 2010s, this album was rediscovered, and the remaining stock of CDs sold out instantly. Amid calls for a reissue, we’d like to unleash this music anew with this first-ever vinyl release. KENKEN—now known as URBAN VOLCANO SOUNDS—also makes a guest appearance. Whether you want to take your time exploring this little-known hidden gem or use it as everyday background music, this acoustic guitar instrumental album creates beautiful moments that seep into the very air around you.

Homer Steinweiss, the Brooklyn based soul/funk drummer, always had a soft spot for folk music. Paul Spring, a young idealist folk singer traveling the country with his guitar, always had a beautiful falsetto in his back pocket. A family introduction would lead to Homer producing a few solo records of Paul’s, which would eventually lead to the creation of Holy Hive. The two enlisted Joe Harrison on bass and started out recording their first tunes as a group. A tour with soul legend Lee Fields would turn out to have an unexpected effect on their sound as they played their material to crowds of soul fanatics looking to dance. It was this realization that forced the next step in their evolution and gave birth to a sound unique to Holy Hive, a sound that walks a line so perfectly it necessitated a new genre, Folk Soul. Homer has been drumming professionally since 2000 and has provided the back beat to records by Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, The Jonas Brothers, and Lady Gaga to name a few. He has toured the world over with soul acts like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and The Arcs. With all of that under his belt, Holy Hive is the first band that is truly his own and you can hear that it is close to his heart. Paul is from a small town in Minnesota where he spent his formative years studying Ancient Greek mythology and practicing classical guitar. He toured the states for years with only the company of his guitar, playing solo shows to make ends meet and occasional library gigs promoting his self released children’s record, Home Of Song. Listening to their debut album, their different experiences and influences have all shown up. From the heavy downbeat of the lead single “Broom” to their intimate cover of Honeybus’ “Be Thou By My Side,” Float Back To You showcases their songwriting prowess as well as their impeccable musicianship. Spring’s fondness for ancient mythology shows up in a few places on the album as well adding another level to their work. They adapt the Greek poet Sappho’s “Fragment 31” to music on “Embers To Ash” and completely rework the Irish folk tune “Red Is The Rose” into a modern day two stepper. Another standout track is the already classic “Oh I Miss Her So,” which first showed up on their 2018 Harping EP and features accomplished harpist Mary Lattimore and trumpet by Dave Guy of The Roots. The symbiotic relationship of Homer and Paul has been likened to that of an oxpecker and a black rhino. Paul’s delicate falsetto and fluttering guitar rests atop Homer’s brawny drums in perfect harmony. There are many levels to Holy Hive, some of them show up on the surface, but some of them are like the album’s title track; you listen to a gorgeous love song only to find out later it is about coming home to your cat. This is perhaps the most telling of Holy Hive, they are easy to like on first listen but spending time with their music will reveal a much deeper experience.

坂本龍一とのコラボレーション3曲収録。Lee BannonとしてもNinja Tuneなどで活躍する北カルフォルニアのプロデューサー、Fred Welton Warmsley IIIによる真打ちである、インダストリアル・ミュージックをノイズやポスト・アンビエント、モダン・クラシカルといった現代的かつ先鋭的なアプローチで革新する一大プロジェクト、Dedekind Cutの8年振りとなる待望の新作！
Dedekind Cutによる〈DED〉トリロジーの最終章『Dede-K-Tion』。長い時間をかけて構想・制作されてきたシリーズの集大成となる作品で、これまでの〈DED〉シリーズで展開されてきた音響的探究をさらに拡張し、微細でスピチリュアルな電子音響とミニマリズムが交錯する世界を形成。坂本龍一特有の洗練された静謐さも相まって、Dedekind Cutの新たな領域へ到達した重要作。

Asthmatic Kitty Records will release 'Worst Christmas Ever!,' a single-LP collection that distills Sufjan Stevens' expansive holiday catalog—drawn from the box sets 'Songs for Christmas' and 'Silver & Gold'—into one definitive collection. The album pairs fifteen favorites, selected from more than one hundred Christmas recordings, with the newly released original song "On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)," Sufjan's first new Christmas song in nearly fifteen years.

A pairing of two live recordings of one of their signature songs, each featuring a different arrangement. An essential release offering a fresh perspective on the singular appeal of Maher Shalal Hash Baz!

Formed in 1984 and led by Tori Kudo, Japanese experimental music project Maher Shalal Hash Baz have created a uniquely distinctive musical universe, moving freely between folk, jazz, brass, classical music, and improvisation. Their signature song “Unknown Happiness” stands as a perfect embodiment of this singular approach. Its simple, heartfelt melody has continued to resonate with indie and experimental music enthusiasts around the world. Now, one of the most evocative live renditions of this beloved song finally receives a long-awaited 7-inch release! The A-side captures the spontaneous atmosphere of a live performance, along with the beautifully imperfect ensemble playing that is so characteristic of Maher Shalal Hash Baz. The B-side features a special live arrangement centered around piano, revealing another, equally captivating dimension of the song.

Occam Ocean is a series of acoustic compositions made for and with individual instrumentalists by the late French composer Éliane Radigue. Extending the interactive process pioneered in Naldjorlak (2005–2009), Occam Ocean employs a scoreless method of composing in dialogue with each performer. Dating back to 2011, the series has proliferated almost organically, growing out of a musical and social dynamic of combinatoriality and multiplication to a catalog of more than eighty discrete compositions. This body of work stands as one of the most extraordinary late-career outpourings in recent music history. The Occam series was catalyzed in part by a visit to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, where Radigue encountered a depiction of the electromagnetic spectrum—from radio signals to gamma rays—which impressed upon her the minuscule range of human hearing relative to the seemingly unlimited compass of universal wavelength and frequency. The Occam compositions seem to address this vertiginous confrontation with the infinite; each individual composition elaborates a radically reduced technique or sound process, frequently working outward from only a handful of fundamental tones, to expose the flickering, idiosyncratic spectral behavior of the instrument. The reference to William of Ockham indicates a principled commitment to parsimony; paradoxically, the reduction in material content makes possible an incommensurate richness in perceived acoustical detail. Notable in the Occam series is the inextricable identification of the composition with the performer for whom, and with whom, it was made. The particular sounds and techniques of each individual performer are thus indelibly stamped in the composition; the piece composes the playing of that musician, as much as the musician plays the composition. The time-honored division of labor between performer and composer is thus suspended and reconfigured, proposing a model for new music composition that has not yet been fully theorized or understood. Occam XIII, Occam River XI (presented here in two distinct readings, which reveal subtle variations in instrumental response), and Occam V feature two longtime collaborators of Radigue in solo and duo formations. Charles Curtis, the first instrumentalist for whom Radigue wrote an acoustic composition (Naldjorlak), performs on cello, while Dafne Vicente-Sandoval—whose parallel investigations into her instrument’s complex sounding properties led her to collaborate with Radigue—performs on bassoon. The works were recorded at Temple Saint-Théodule, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, during a 2024 residency at La Becque, a setting previously explored by the musicians for its distinctive acoustic properties.

From deep in the hard funk pocket, the Winston Brothers return to Colemine after four years with a second helping of sounds rooted in horn-heavy, 70s-style soul cinema, taking cues from the soundtrack work of Issac Hayes, Willie Hutch, Roy Ayers, and JJ Johnson. Helmed by multi-instrumentalist/producer Sebastian Nagel and longtime collaborator Lucas Kochbeck on drums, Sweets serves as a timely reminder of how Hamburg, Germany’s music scene helps shape and influence today’s soul sound.Ultimately, bringing musicians like Kimo Eiserbeck (sax and flute) and Hans Stephan (trumpet), alongside some additional drum contributions by Max Whitefield (née Weissenfeldt), demonstrates the close-knit nature of these musicians. From influential bands like Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band to Angels of Libra and the Mighty Mocambos, Hamburg’s deep groove scene has sired its share of worthy soul and funk acolytes. These musicians have shared stages and studios over the years, with various configurations finding their way in the aforementioned bands.“We started as a school project… we were just kids,” Sebastian recalls. “It’s a family thing, and we really know each other well.”Sweets is more than just another addition to this scene’s collective musical canon; it is a vibrant dispatch from funk’s leading edge.

Gloorp is the experimental electronic project of Philadelphia percussionist and producer Garrett Burke. Burke previously played drums with art-rock groups Of Montreal and Mothers, before releasing his self-titled debut as Gloorp in 2023. It was his second album, Gloorp 'Em Up, that really broke through. Nina Protocol called it a "Polyrhythmic electronic frenzy," while Pitchfork followed with a glowing review. Sessions on NTS Radio and dublab, plus shows with Ulrika Spacek, Photay, and Xen Model, kept the momentum building. That run of live dates helped shape Gloorp Life. Blending footwork, bass, and club with Burke's standout drumming, it is forward-thinking, textural electronic music with a playful rhythmic edge. The album follows the acclaimed 2025 dance tape Gloorp 'Em Up, which Pitchfork called "a daisy-chained string of mulching beats that's casual, light, and fun as hell."

Amina Hocine and Espen Sommer Eide contribute two extended compositions created for the GRM acousmonium. Hocine’s ‘X3’ combines sine waves, field recordings and her self-built foghorn organ in a slowly evolving piece inspired by Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen. Eide’s ‘Until The Fish Eyes Shine’ draws on his work as Phonophani, bringing elements of late-1990s Tromsø ambient techno into an experimental electronic setting. Both pieces explore the relationship between sound, space and time, moving from delicate electronic details to expansive, otherworldly passages. Artwork by Stephen O’Malley.

electronic music. Jules Négrier's An Iris Crackled Like Eyelids unfolds in two movements, moving from raw emotion and shifting harmonics into tangled rhythms and strange electronic sounds. Maria W Horn's All Solids Melt Into Aether pits computer-generated tones against an organ pushed to its limits, creating a compelling struggle between precision and instability. Both works find beauty in tension, with sounds constantly changing, collapsing and finding unexpected forms. Artwork comes courtesy of Stephen O'Malley.

Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch’s Bocca di Lupo and Mouth of the Wolf were recorded in July 2025 in Bologna, Italy. The recording sessions took place just after several live dates in New York and Chicago, and a week before they began a short European tour which included Paris, London, Ghent, Porto, and a first date in Bologna. Below are notes from Jozef and Jim directly.“With thanks to Gian Luca Farinelli and Rosanna Mordini from the extraordinary Cineteca di Bologna, we were able to secure recording days in the very cool Fonoprint Studios — located on Via Bocca di Lupo in Bologna, hence the titles of these two LPs. (“In bocca al lupo” — in the mouth of the wolf — is the Italian idiom for wishing one good luck; equivalent to “break a leg” in English.)Bocca di Lupo starts with a new version of our own “Only Lovers Left Alive,” and “Apology” is a new version of a pre-existing piece by Jozef. All other tracks are new originals. We were honored to have guest duet vocals from the iconic Courtney Barnett on “Never Like You Said.” The lyrics of the song arrived spontaneously in a single take in the studio. It’s not directed at a specific person, but more an emotional response to several disingenuous, deceitful people — a closing of the door on their toxic behavior. And a casually recorded conversation (concerning the haunted auras of particular pieces of vintage women’s clothing) between Adriana Coppi and Veronica Mayrr (from Deux Femmes) is woven as a background into the track titled “Pour Deux Femmes.” “Black Roses” is an original poem written in Bologna, and recited from within its own musical setting. All other tracks are instrumentals. Mouth of the Wolf, the second LP, consists of two longer, darkly ecstatic instrumental studio tracks — “In A” and “Massa Damnata.” Both were created with two electric guitars, and derived from our live performances. We consider it to be a musically separate album, and is therefore presented in its own sleeve and with its own artwork.Our music has many inspirations — everything from our friends in Sunn O))) and Swans to Terry Riley and Morton Feldman; from Hildegard Von Bingen and WIlliam Lawes to Psychic Ills and Spacemen 3; from Les Rallizes Dénudés and NEU! to Nadja and Glenn Branca; from Ian Svenonius and Dead Skeletons to Son House and Gwenifer Raymond…from sunset to sunrise…full moon to new moon…”

In Cyano, synthesist and composer Emily A. Sprague questions self, other, ecology, and life in a distant realm. Conjured around the idea of an imagined planet whose inhabitants are rebuilding forbidden capacities for expressivity and emotional connection, Cyano is a meditation on visibility, psychic transformation, light transmission, and worlds beyond our knowing materialized through an intuitive use of modular synthesizers and voice.

Private Mexican lounge that still burns long after the cruise ship disembarks. Armed with a single nylon string guitar, a toy chest of rudimentary percussion, and the emotional microtones of the Spanish tongue, Alejandro Bravo's lone LP blends bossanova, samba, and the Brill Building into a horny margarita for the tourist class. Recorded at home in Acapulco in 1971, Bravo's self-released LP slaps and thrills with its taps and trills. Pair with a pregnancy test for best results.

Rizan Said is a musical ambassador from Syria's analog era. For generations, the Jazeera — a culturally rich borderland of Kurdish, Arab, Syriac, and Armenian communities — has been alive with a distinctive sonic tradition: hand drums and reed flutes, weddings that lasted days, dabke rooted in a long musical tradition before electro and disco arrived to name it, and before orientalism arrived to explain it. Rizan was the boy wonder of that scene, a prodigy on percussion and reed instruments who became the region's master synthesist, at the forefront of the shift as electronic keyboards transformed the music. His instrument is the factory preset, bent past recognition. Across three decades — first on the cassette circuit that ran through Hassake, Deir Ez Zor, and Qamishli, then on stages from Le Guess Who to Iceland Airwaves — Said has programmed Korgs to emulate zurna, saz, tanbura, and buzuq, collapsing an entire traditional ensemble into a single pair of hands moving at lightning speed. It is the sound that carried Omar Souleyman's voice out of the Jazeera and around the world, and for nearly two decades Said was the one building it, night after night, wedding after wedding. Ma Waraa Al-Shaabi is his third solo album, following King of Keyboard (Annihaya, 2015) and Saz Û Dilan (Akuphone, 2019) and his most far-reaching, carrying cosmic, electronic dabke toward its next destination. Recorded at Sundlaugin in May 2026 and produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Panos Cosmatos) with co-production by Mark Gergis (Syrian Cassette Archives, Sublime Frequencies) and engineering and additional production by Úlfur Hansson, the record takes the heat and velocity of the cassette circuit and opens it out into something wider, stranger, and more alive than ever. Seven pieces, cut across four sides. The record is also a reunion. In 2011, Dunn and Gergis worked closely with Said and Souleyman on The Crystalline Series — the three Omar Souleyman versions of Björk's "Crystalline," "Tesla," and "Mawal," made around Biophilia and built on Said's keyboards. Fifteen years later the same circle reconvenes at Sundlaugin, this time with Said at the center of it. "This album is not a new beginning for me. It's a continuation of a long musical journey," Said says. "When Randall Dunn, Mark Gergis, Charmaine Lee and I began working on this record together, we weren't attempting to recreate what I'd done before. We simply let the music lead us. Recording in Iceland gave us a unique and immersive space to experiment, to listen closely, and allow each piece to reach its natural form."

Mike Ladd never stopped making music; over the years he's popped up on all sorts of unexpected collaborations, soundtracked a Netflix series, and worked with visual artists in settings like the Pantheon in Paris. Still, Ladd's last solo album was more than ten years ago, and his magnum opus Welcome to the Afterfuture dropped in early 2000. Nonechosen is a granite testament to the fact that the artist has evolved and grown, but maintains the same gravitas that made his name what it is. Nonechosen is a solo album, but Ladd worked with old friends: No Surrender and Tom Degeeter collaborated on respective tracks. Once Mike got the record 95% there with his own production, he passed it on to Preservation, who, with a few well-placed tweaks, elevated the project to new heights. Backwoodz Studioz is honored to be part of Ladd's comet-like return, introducing this seminal artist to a new generation of hip-hop fans.

ロックステディの女王の異名をとるPhyllis Dillonが、名門〈Treasure Isle〉に残した音源を一堂に会したベスト・アルバム『Rocksteady』。

Rare dub reggae emerges from the vaults in the shape of this late-1970s set produced by one of Jamaica's lesser-known talents, Ossie Hibbert. Hibbert, who was primarily an engineer and keyboardist, favors a drum-heavy mix (courtesy of the legendary Sly Dunbar) laced with horns. Seen as the dub companion to Gregory’s classic ‘Mr Isaacs’ album it boasts six mind-expanding Cool Ruler dub treatments plus four further speaker-shakers to showcase the Revolutionaries in full-effect. He incorporates a few of the sonic eccentricities, like wailing babies and train whistles, popular with better-known figures like Lee Perry on a variety of vintage rhythms, notably Gregory Isaacs' "I'm All Right" and Dillinger's "Take a Dip." Casually elegant, Hibbert provides a naturalistic soundstage against which the ace session band the Revolutionaries skank their stuff, smooth and easy.

A dub album of Morwell Unlimited aka The Morwells isn’t exactly the kind of album one expects to be reissued as they never reached the stature of vocal groups like The Mighty Diamonds, The Viceroys, The Itals, and The Abyssinians. However, they managed to make an impact on the musical history of Jamaica that lasted way beyond their early days as a struggling roots group and therefore it’s only fair they get the credits and respect they truly deserve. Morwell Unlimited consisted of Maurice “Blacka” Wellington, Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont, and Louis Davis. Of those three members, the late Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont is probably best known as the guitar player who, together with bass player Errol “Flabba” Holt, formed the Roots Radics in 1978. Dub in the album format really started to make an impact on the reggae market in 1975 and the Morwell Esq.’s set Dub Me was among the first to come out that year.

Copilot said: Released in 1990 as the tenth installment in Mad Professor's acclaimed Dub Me Crazy series, Psychedelic Dub stands as one of the defining works in his celebrated dub catalog.

From a very young age, it was apparent that Delroy Wilson was a special talent. His ability to translate the styles of U.S. soul singers like Bill Withers into a Jamaican context helped usher in the rocksteady and (at times, anyway) lovers rock scenes. And if that weren't enough, his youthful good looks helped propel him to a level of stardom almost unparalleled at the time.

Released in 1975 on Klik, Bag-O-Wire is an instrumental reggae album produced by Sidney Crooks.

This is a rare and lovely gem of an EP by an indie pop/folk artist influenced by jazz and MPB. It is a work that fully demonstrates the soul-cleansing freshness of jazz and the poetic and soft sensibility that is omnipresent in indie music, as well as the cuteness of the Japanese lyrics.

Introducing Unna, an invigorating synthesis of dark, ambient atmospheres and intimate, minimal piano. The album marks the inaugural release on Ojas Music, a new imprint from the NY-based high fidelity audio and design studio from artist and audio engineer Devon Turnbull, known for its devotion to analog sound and deep listening.

The second release from Ojas Music, Elyria Sound is a solo guitar album from Michael A. Muller, recorded to analog tape during a winter storm in Brooklyn in January 2026. Where Muller's previous work operated in darker, atmospheric territories, and 2024's Mirror Music wove together 11 collaborators, Elyria Sound strips everything back to a single voice: one instrument, one room, one take. Each piece was captured live in single passes to a one-inch tape machine, the most direct path from fingertip to magnetic oxide. The album title traces to 2018, when Muller began writing solo music while housesitting for a friend in Elyria Canyon in the East Los Angeles hills. The address became the name of his studio, and when he moved to LA shortly after, it became a way of life for the next six years. Elyria Sound is an intimate homage to his sensorial world of that time: the quality of light through a kitchen window. The lull of helicopters and sirens, the blurred glimmer of city lights stretching to the night horizon. Gravel, dust, lizards, birds. Clacking bamboo, white rose, jade, fig, and lemon. A dwelling. A resting place. The comfort of an exhale, and the looming awareness that nothing stays. To create the record, Muller developed entirely new guitar tunings, forcing himself to relearn the instrument's language from scratch. The result moves between lullaby and lament: spare, cyclical compositions where motifs recur at differing angles and tempos, variations on a central thread. One piece, "Arundel," pays tribute to David Pajo (Papa M, Slint, Tortoise), a nod to the lineage of guitar music that values texture and patience over drama. The cover artwork by Dennis Foster serves as a visual counterbalance to the music's intended simplicity.