NEW ARRIVALS

''Love is lovely and war is kinda ugly. This mix tape will take you through the duality of mankind. Raggamuffin style. A style that's large and in charge.'' Mixtape by DJ Vera Righteous.

New esclusive recordings by the one and only master of Japanoise!

All Music by Masami Akita

Recorded at Munemihouse, Tokyo 2024-2025

Mixed at Munemihouse, January 2026

Artwork by AI Generated ©️MA 2026

SML is a Los Angeles based quintet featuring Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, and Gregory Uhlmann.

'Spontaneous Music Live' contains two side-length pieces of unedited improvisation, recorded live at Los Angeles venue Zebulon during SML's December 2025 three-night residency, just weeks after the release of the band's second album HOW YOU BEEN. It was recorded and mixed live to analog tape by Bryce Gonzales (the same engineer/wizard known for his gorgeous live captures/mixes of Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet).

Between HOW YOU BEEN and their 2024 debut SMALL MEDIUM LARGE (both of which were heavily edited, shaped and post-produced) the band has developed a reputation for records that are heavily fused, polished, and punchy. The medium is on full post-modern display on those LPs, and the band’s post-production knife can be responsible for much of the perspective — the tastiest morsels collected, arranged, and rearranged just so.

But the source material from both those albums were live recordings. Long-form, unwieldy, ebbing and flowing. On top of that, every performance the band has ever done has been fully improvised in that spirit. So in the sphere of live performance the band’s esteem has grown down a different path — one of linear, hypnotic, expansion. It’s a perceived split persona shared by some of SML’s most inspiring conceptual bedfellows: compare the extended madness of Can’s 'Live in Paris 1973' to the relative tight form of 'Future Days' from the same year; the speed-funk chaos of Miles Davis’ 'Dark Magus' to the heavily deconstructed 'On The Corner' or 'Big Fun'.

'Spontaneous Music Live' removes the curatorial perspective and pulls the curtain back on that search-pluck-reconstruct editing process. What we’re left with is the psychedelic realism of the band in situ, in their home town, collectively improvising, fully in-the-moment, mining for that moment of discovery. We hear, in macro, each nugget of sound which could be the basis for a future SML album track, spattered amongst the collective chaos-and-control like stars in the night sky.

It’s five years in a blender. It’s every troublesome misunderstanding of a half-decade relationship distorted and stretched into an absurdist black comedy mini-series on wax. It’s the sound of every fight we ever had, playing simultaneously. It’s several consecutive voice notes that you did not listen to, and instead read the transcription. It’s fifteen songs from iconoclastic rapper Mike Eagle and innovative producer Kenny Segal. It’s the world’s first half-whimsical break-up album. It’s DOOMED! It’s also LA. Maybe not first and foremost, but Los Angeles runs deep in this record’s present, and its lineage. The story of any big city is also one of transplants. DJ Premier in New York, Tupac in California. If you build it, they will come. Mike and Kenny both arrived in LA as young, aspiring artists who were drawn to the scene around groundbreaking rap crew Project Blowed. They have been friends— and occasional collaborators—for almost twenty years. Despite that, DOOMED! is the first time the two have put together a full body of work. But everything happens in its time, and fate worked to bring them together at the exact moment that would allow the duo to create something extraordinary. Mike, fresh off a string of multi-producer records and processing the end of a tumultuous relationship, was in need of creative catharsis. Meanwhile, Kenny had locked in on his next challenge after a recent string of critically acclaimed collaborations not only with rappers like billy woods, and K-the-I???, but also jazz trio Human Error Club and bluesy indie rocker Benjamin Booker. “In recent years, Kenny made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to keep having one or two beats on my projects; he wanted to build something,” Open Mike Eagle explains. “I was able to convince him to let me use a couple beats for Neighborhood Gods Unlimited with the caveat that we would focus on our thing next. Then my relationship fell apart right when we started working, and it was like, ‘Perfect, I have a lot to say about this.’” Here are some more particularly interesting insights from the man himself: “If DOOMED! is prestige TV, then think of “Out To Lunch” as the pilot where we meet a man who’s not all there because his head is still in yesterday, and the following as a brief synopsis. There’s a song that starts at an argument about the color of a rental car. There’s a song about trying to write a pair of lovers’ initials in wet concrete and the. stick breaking. There’s a song that’s a prayer about finding the strength not to look at my ex’s social media. There’s a song about a character from Adventure Time who’s a piece of shit that I identify with. ach vision is a crashed airplane halfway on the border of dream and nightmare, bitter and sweet, sadness and freedom. Every one of Kenny’s beats is a chunk of ore from a different comet. I used each one as a canvas to paint my impression of a dead world.

Colombian artist Nicolás Vallejo aka Ezmeralda lands lands a cassette on Swedish label blundar. "Known for his deconstruction of traditional cumbias, Ezmeralda has become a defining voice in the Latin American ambient scene. His arrival at blundar marks an exciting cross-continental fusion, bringing his signature "post-impressionistic" soundscapes—a blend of fluid textures, synthesizers, and loops—to the Swedish imprint's curated electronic catalog."

A mix of tracks from the Jahtari catalogue that have been inspired by video game soundtracks – many of them unreleased demos, gameboy re-works or dubby-fied interludes originally made for Jahtari live performances. Mixed with absolute classics and a few hidden gems from across all the video game eras and added live Dub effects, this neon pink tape by disrupt is a 61 min pixelated love letter to the unsung heroes of electronic music. — Originally made for the “Secret Level” radio show on particle.fm by CBDiabla in May 2026. ->>> cbdiabla.world/secret-level

Big Crown Records is proud to present Glera, Marco Benevento’s debut album on the label. Marco Benevento has always moved like someone who understands the studio as its own instrument, not just a room where the toys are. Long before he began appearing on stages with Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, and in the liner notes of albums by Clairo and Leon Bridges, Benevento was already thinking like a producer - listening for texture, tension, and negative space, and for the strange emotional alchemy that occurs when groove and curiosity collide. His new album Glera sharpens that instinct into focus, presenting Benevento not only as a virtuosic keyboardist and bandleader, but as a composer building worlds from rhythm, tone, and feeling. Glera is a genre-bending jazz record that folds in soul and reggae’s elastic low end with an open-door sense of possibility. The project began three years ago as a kind of private exercise, with Benevento writing intuitively, inspired by Italian film scores and melody. Over time, those sketches evolved into something broader and more muscular, culminating in the grand majesty heard here. What emerges is music that moves cinematically without becoming precious. Tracks can feel like chase scenes or slow dissolves, sometimes within the same song, with jazz improvisation sharing space alongside reggae pocket, orchestral elements, and psych-pop atmosphere. It’s exploratory but grounded, complex yet unmistakably groove-forward. Album opener “Frizzante” is pure musical celebration captured on tape - a high-energy, feel-good banger that finds Marco trading melodies with himself over a relentless groove. On “Turandot,” Benevento is joined by Italy’s own Marianne Mirage on vocals; the haunting, cinematic track sits comfortably between the worlds of Portishead and Serge Gainsbourg. Then comes “Big Top,” stretching the album’s palette even further; equipped with voice memos and peacock calls, it’s most aptly summed up as “circus funk.” Blow the whistle and the game begins with the jazz-fusion–esque dancefloor filler “Houdini,” a kick-in-the-door burner from the very first drumbeat. Blending dream pop into the mix on “I Can’t Control This Bliss,” Marco invites Dream Crease to the microphone for a dose of lo-fi gorgeousness. Elizabeth Steiner brings her storied harp work to “Miss Neptune” over a deeply vibey, reggae-influenced backing track. Putting the pedal to the metal, “Sprezzatura” plays like a high-speed pursuit through narrow streets, while “Quattro Passi” brings the pace down to a saunter, featuring jazz vocalist Chiara Civello. Marco Benevento is operating at the highest level, shaping sound with purpose and curiosity. This album announces itself loudly—both outward-facing and deeply intimate. It’s music that moves—across genres, tempos, and registers—while remaining anchored to the joy of discovery. It’s a record that embodies motion, carrying the past forward without ever standing still.

‘Yarrow’ is a bouquet of new music by Portland, Oregon-based musician and field recordist Patricia Wolf, marking the label’s ninth release and the third of Season Two. These works are her reflections on the life cycle of plants and their dynamic ecological relationships. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium, Asteraceae) is a flowering plant with a broad geographic range that includes North America and Eurasia. Yarrow connects Portland and London, where these songs were created and produced. Wolf wrote and recorded the music in Portland, Oregon, and it was pressed in the UK. Wolf created the album in response to her artist residency at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, as part of the Art-Science Exchange Project in the summer of 2024. She worked closely with ecologists Dr Paul CaraDonna, Dr Amy Iler, Dr Jane Ogilvie, Dr Nickolas Waser, Dr Mary Price, and Dr Will Petry, spending weeks engaged in long-term research on plants, pollinators, and their interactions as the climate changes. Each track on Yarrow looks at a different part of a plant’s life. The songs touch on the conditions that plants need to grow, the quiet life of roots, how flowers attract pollinators, and the strength of seeds. The first single, 'Inflorescence', the scientific name for the floral display that a plant makes in an effort to reproduce, captures this event in song. The music slowly builds layers, reflecting the album’s overall feel. The album ends with the majestic Boards of Canada-esque 'Adapted for Extreme Conditions', and the entire b-side features Patricia’s field recordings from around Gothic, Colorado, and a guided meditation by Dr Paul CaraDonna, whose research inspired the project, inviting listeners to tune into the sounds and activities of the ecosystem.

RGL is a Tokyo-based producer known for his lo-fi house productions and analog-textured dance music, with releases on labels such as Diskotopia and Breaker Breaker. His new work, Untitled, showcases a wide-ranging sonic palette: alongside rhythm-driven tracks, the release also features abstract drone pieces with little or no discernible beat. The result is a work that crystallizes RGL’s distinctive sensitivity to sound and texture. ---------------- Bio: RGL is a Tokyo-based producer and DJ. He is a member of the producer collective COSMOPOLYPHONIC and co-hosts the radio program COOL RADIO with fellow member RLP. In 2025, he released his debut album, Touzan, on the London-based label BREAKER BREAKER.

"Magic Hour" is the second album by Tokyo-based artist FeLid. He is known as a member of the post-hardcore band the north end and as a co-organizer of the festival platform MIMINOIMI. On this work, he combines improvisational and accidental guitar sounds, lyrical ambient drones, and high-definition sound editing. The result is an album that is both accessible and deeply experimental in its approach. ------------------------------------------- Bio: FeLid is the solo project of Kazutoshi Eguchi. Drawing on all available sonic materials—including instrumental sounds, electronics, fragments of recorded audio, and environmental sounds—he creates tracks and improvisational live performances through continuous processes of deconstruction and reconstruction. His practice is designed as a shared exploration of the relationship between sound and space, inviting audiences to experience and discover these connections together in real time. He is also a member of MIMINOIMI, an organizing collective dedicated to exploring ambient and experimental music from multiple perspectives, and is involved in the planning and production of the urban festival Ambient / Week.

The latest mixtape LP, “Even The Devil Smiles,” comes from rapper and producer IDK (Jason Mills).

Backwoodz Studioz is excited to announce the release of Crayola Circles, a collaboration between rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Child Actor. While both artists have long standing connections to Backwoodz, this album marks their first collaboration of any kind and breaks new artistic ground for all parties. Sharif’s previous album, Decay, released on Backwoodz in 2023, was a haunting experimental rap masterpiece, an acid trip in a mental hospital. On Crayola Circles Sharif trades menacing psychedelia for a simmering stew of blacklight expressionism, his verses slipping effortlessly through the swells and tides of Child Actor’s masterful production. No matter how uneasy the waves grow, Sharif is at ease, a truth teller whispering anti-riddles in your ear.This album feels like a new chamber for Child Actor, as well. The producer has been on an impressive run since dropping CINE- a collaboration with rapper Cavalier- on Backwoodz in late 2024. Child Actor has shown up in the liner notes of everyone from Navy Blue (The Sword & The Soaring) to Earl Sweatshirt (Live, Laugh, Love) to ELUCID (Revelator) to Open Mike Eagle (Neighborhood Gods Unlimited), to Ghais Guevara (A Quest to Self-Mythologize), amongst others. On Crayola Circles Child Actor’s production is dynamic, shifting and sliding into new phases and movements in an instant. The beats are full and knotty, leaning into jazz and folk, while remaining tethered to the tender minimalism that is his signature. It’s a difficult balance for any producer, and here it is executed perfectly, placing us in a world of wood and brass, cowhide and undersea piano. On any other record, this soundscape would steal the show — and it very nearly does — but Sharif’s command never wavers, ever in control; a lucid dreamer in an induced coma.There are no guests, no skits, and no interludes. There might not even be songs, instead Crayola Circles seems akin to a great river; singular, traversing forest and jungle, mountain and valley, running from mouth to endless sea.

Two turntables and a microphone. There is a truth in the clarity of that simple coda, a truth that also belies the breadth of what is possible within its confines. Sometimes you gotta get reminded. I Guess U Had To Be There, the new album from NYC rapper ELUCID and veteran producer Sebb Bash, is one of those ones. So fresh it sounds like it was made tomorrow, but bet money you could put this on in '89 and get heads bopping.

There are moments in music when masters of their craft cross paths at the height of their respective powers - records like Madvillainy, Liquid Swords, Dr. Octagonecologyst, and Hell Hath No Fury - where the result is more than the sum of its parts. ELUCID and Sebb Bash find themselves in this heady, seemingly effortless ephemera on I Guess U Had To Be There. Everything is both familiar and groundbreaking. The beats shift and flip under ELUCID's feet but he tightropes it all, delivery nimble as a mountain goat, producer and rapper moving in perfect synchronization. Some shining stars make memorable appearances: billy woods, Breezly Brewin, Estee Nack, Shabaka Hutchings. But this is a two-man show, and the duo keep the spotlight where it belongs. I Guess U Had To Be There is a captivating, convention-defying listen and a high-water mark for two of the best artists in the genre.

Volume Two of The Spiritual-Sonic Research series features three live concerts by Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group, recorded between 2023 and 2025 in Portland, Oregon. These performances are connected through themes of reverence, ancestral veneration, and African American spiritual technologies. This compilation is meant to uplift, educate, and deepen engagement with these traditions. Many figures mentioned throughout this series deserve further study. This music is intended to support that study and can be used in educational and spiritual settings, such as presentations, sermons, sacred services, ceremonies, intentional listening sessions, book clubs, lectures, educational videos, and more. The first tape, Live at the Hollywood Theatre, was recorded at the Hollywood Theatre on May 25th, 2023. The concert celebrated the release of the self-titled LP Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group, released through Mississippi Records. The evening opened with performances by Angel Bat Dawid and Oui Ennui as DAOUI, with Angel Bat Dawid later joining Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group for a powerful rendition of her song “Black Family.” Songs like “A New World Awaits,” “Future Ancestors / Awaken (Redux),” and “Black Family” explore ideas of Afrofuturism and Afromultidimensionalism. Here Afrofuturism is understood not only through science fiction, cosmic imagery, and futuristic aesthetics, but also through everyday survival and the work of building a future for Black life. It is about preparing for ancestorhood, communicating with ancestors, self-determination, self-governance, and preserving Black family and community. Afrofuturism explored here is both cosmic and practical; it is also spiritual and grounded at the same time. It reaches toward the metaphysical while remaining deeply connected to everyday life, collective survival, and future-building. It asks how we sustain ourselves not only tomorrow, but generations from now. Afromultidimensionalism, a term coined by Roman Norfleet, is explored here as a spiritual system and ancestral technology that allows one to exist in the past, present, and future simultaneously. Through ancestral memory, sound, ritual, and collective consciousness, it becomes possible to be present across worlds and dimensions while remaining rooted in the physical world. Ultimately, it is a practice of seeking communion with the Divine, which in this work is called The Love Supreme. This idea reaches its culmination in the final piece: a chanting rendition of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, offered here as prayer and spiritual invocation. The second tape, Universal Love Revival Service at the IFCC, was recorded on June 1st, 2024, at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, a longstanding cultural and creative hub for Portland’s Black community. Rooted in the tradition of the Black church, this gathering took the form of a revival-style service, honoring African American spiritual traditions developed by enslaved Black people in the American South. While deeply grounded in these traditions, the service also served as an invitation to commune with the Universal Divine Spirit through collective prayer, sound, movement, and remembrance. The service featured a heartfelt welcome offered by Vaughn Kimmons, and included the construction of an altar and a ring shout held in reverence to ancestors and the enduring spiritual practices of the Afro-diaspora. Songs such as “Wade in the Water,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and other traditional spirituals were sung collectively alongside devotional music and improvisation. Through collective participation, testimony, chant, and sacred sound, the service honored the ways these traditions have carried Black people through generations of survival, resistance, remembrance, and communal healing. The third tape, Recalling the Mystics: Black Mystery Month at The Old Church, was recorded on February 8th, 2025, at The Old Church Concert Hall. “Black Mystery Month” is a term coined by Roman Norfleet that reimagines Black History Month as a space in an alternate dimension devoted to connecting with the Divine Mystery and honoring the spiritual, sacred, and esoteric dimensions of the Black American experience, while maintaining the lineage of Black History Month. This work is dedicated to Black American ancestors who devoted their lives to spiritual, mystical, and esoteric paths. Songs and compositions were created in honor of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Aunt Caroline Dye, Howard Thurman, and Sun Ra, functioning as a form of live ancestral veneration. The evening featured an altar where the ensemble paid homage to ancestors, alongside mystical Southern incantations, storytelling, and poetry from Midnite Abioto. Performing as part of the ensemble, her presence helped weave the spiritual fabric of the night. A slideshow presentation accompanied the service, depicting ancestors such as Nat Turner, Sandy Jenkins (drawing), El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), Bishop C.H. Mason, Zora Neale Hurston, and A. C. Swamini Turiyasangitananda, among others — extending the vision of ancestry across the diaspora and visually deepening their presence throughout the space. The service concluded in sacred prayer led by DJ Ashé.

AFTER DARK is the latest project from French producer Onra, conceived as the soundtrack to an imagined late-night film. Entirely self-produced, the album continues the sophisticated R&B and Modern Soul direction explored since his 2010 classic Long Distance and 2018's accomplished Nobody Has To Know, focusing on late 80's / early 90's inspirations. Structured like a film unfolding between dusk and dawn, After Dark moves through themes of intimacy, urban solitude, distance, and quiet indulgence. Analog synthesizers, tight drum programming, understated basslines, and selective live saxophone textures shape a cohesive body of work that favors mood and narrative over excess. The sequencing reinforces its cinematic intent, opening and closing with intro and outro pieces that frame the record as a cohesive night-time narrative album. Over 20 years since emerging in the mid-2000s from the beat scene, Onra has steadily evolved from sample-based Hip-Hop production toward polished, song-oriented projects rooted in contemporary R&B and Funk. With After Dark, he delivers one of his most focused and refined statements to date: a mature, immersive album built for late hours, and attentive listening. The first taster of the album to drop is the slick nostalgic ’Lap of Luxury’, sets the tone for the project, a blend between Instrumental Hip-Hop, late 80s R&B and 90''s Smooth Jazz.

The classic album now returns with new analogue mastering and stunning smoky blue vinyl pressing Originally released in 1970, Soul Rebels marked the first full-length album credited to Bob Marley and The Wailers, establishing it as a cornerstone of the roots reggae movement and a musical monument in the early stages of their career. This album is a powerful blend of love songs and defiant rebel anthems that captures the essence of the era's burgeoning reggae scene. With its catchy rhythms, revolutionary spirit, and thought-provoking lyrics, this recording stands as a testament to the band's ability to seamlessly merge the themes of love, liberation, and self-awareness. The title track, ‘Soul Rebel’, has become an anthem for those seeking freedom from societal norms and restrictions, encapsulating the themes of resistance and self-determination that Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer wove into their music. The album also highlights their collaboration with visionary producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, recorded at the renowned Randy’s Studio in Kingston, which became the birthplace of some of the most influential sounds in reggae history.

Brazil’s premiere guess-again specialists Lugar Alto have been threatening to unleash this one for a while and here it finally is; compiled by the goat GG Albuquerque and mixed by label enigma Akira Umeda, “My Life is a Movie and In It I Am the Villain” is a compendium of signature DJ drops and idents used in soundsystems from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo going back to the 1980's and right up to the present day - a genuinely synapse-popping madness that maps the constant evolution of the most vibrant and forward-facing soundsystem cultures of our time... If you've spent any time with Brazilian funk, you'll know the sonorous intros - always larger-than-life, tongue-in-cheek, fluoro-flavoured - almost as important as the songs themselves. You don't have to understand Portuguese to get the message, either; the cacophony of pitch-wonked vocal stims, familiar samples, pop culture references and cheapo effects is borderless in its appeal, a core component of contemporary funk that's just as important as the syncopated tamborzão beat itself. We've copped tracks that are entirely reliant on the "carimbos" (literally "stamps") and "vinhetas" (intros) so we were hoping someone would put together something like this. And Lugar Alto - the Brazilian imprint responsible for releasing those essential DJ Ramon Successo LPs and that shocking Djalma Corrêa anthology - have taken the most impressive approach imaginable, tasking fount of all knowledge and journalist GG Albuquerque (last seen putting together that sick MÉDIO GRAVE tape for Nyege Nyege Tapes) with compiling something from a genuine street's-eye perspective. The mix tells a non-linear, multi-dimensional story of Brazilian sound system culture, using DJ drops, stage calls, adverts, cheeky samples and explosive intros made between the 1980s and 2025. It takes us from the point where local sounds collided with funk, freestyle, electro and Miami bass in the wake of 'Planet Rock’ to the moment the scene eventually evolved into the splintered landscape of bruxaria, ritmado, brega and other sounds that we can interface with today via TikTok and Insta. It's a dense, fittingly psychedelic and suitably impertinent mosaic of references, in-jokes and mind-tickling sonics that's seemingly without beginning or end, a time-fluxing braindump of laugh tracks and aborted rhythmic snaps that's best compared to being airlifted into a Rio street party after being shot with medical-grade ketamine. Within a matter of seconds we get John Williams' 'Star Wars' intro followed by a Portuguese Darth Vader voice and a barrage of buzzing "tuin" effects - and it just gets madder and more frenetic from there. A sort of heatsick parallel narrative to decades of British pirate radio culture, 'Minha Vida...' Is an incredible artefact of a movement that defies easy categorisation, a multi-coloured collage of sounds, humour and idiosyncratic energy that's driven the sound since the very beginning. You can take the boom-cha-cha boom-cha-cha beat, but you can't even begin to mimic the sheer gusto.

Big Crown is proud to present Thee Marloes’ sophomore album, Di Hotel Malibu. It arrives as a widening of the frame — a confident step away from the lines that once neatly held their sound, and toward something more porous, conversational, and deeply Indonesian. It’s been two years since Perak, the Surabaya trio’s debut for Big Crown Records, introduced their unique sound. This new record doesn’t abandon that lineage so much as stretch it, showing how much they have grown as a band since the release of their debut and all the experiences that came with it. Composed of vocalist and keyboardist Natassya Sianturi, guitarist and producer Sinatrya Dharaka and drummer Tommy Satwick, Thee Marloes have always worked as a unit, their songs shaped by shared reference points and a lived-in sense of groove. On this album, that collective language expands. The arrangements move across a broader spectrum, with new instrumental colors, unexpected rhythmic turns, and a looser approach to structure. The band describes it as a response to the last two years of living: social realities, love lives in flux, and all that success has brought into their lives. The album opener “Under the Silver Moon” is a stone cold two-stepper that addresses the bitter and the sweet of long-distance love affairs over a breezy musical backdrop. “Six Years” is a page from singer Natassya Sianturi’s life and her struggle to take the step of leaving a comfortable and stable daytime job to follow her dreams of a full-time career in music. “Harap Dan Ragu” explores life, death, and the emotions that orbit them, opening with an earworm guitar riff that ushers in Sianturi’s honeyed vocals, this time in her native language of Indonesian. The album continues to switch vibes and tones track to track with the darker, more introspective “The More”. The gorgeous musicianship and pulsing drums are met with the deeply poetic lyrics that walk the line between futility and unbreakable resilience. Thee Marloes dip into their drop dead gorgeous ballad bag with “Through the Changes” with a powerful yet delicate song about how we imagine and deal with what comes after death. “Boru” sung entirely in Batak, a traditional language from North Sumatera, goes further into asserting heritage as a foundation and mission statement for the group while “I’d Be Lost” takes us back to the dancefloor with a light and lovely profession of love. In the end, Di Hotel Malibu is the result of the best type of inspiration: the global attention Thee Marloes have earned, and the chance to play their homegrown music for fans around the world has put wind in their sails. Enjoy the record, then catch them as they tour the globe. Soul Music from Surabaya, another Big Crown Sureshot.

Future Development is Del the Funky Homosapien’s third album and, following his departure from major label Elektra, it was his first album on his independent label, Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings. Originally released on cassette in 1997, and later reissued on CD and vinyl in 2002, the album largely relied on in-house production from Del along with contributions from Hiero crew members A-Plus, Opio, and Toure. The only guest feature on the album is from crew member Casual, who joins Del on the energetic “Checking Out The Rivalry.”Sonically, Future Development bridges the funk-heavy stylings of Del’s debut with the darker, more futuristic textures he explored on No Need for Alarm. Lyrically, Del refines his rapid-fire wordplay with sharper thematic focus, tackling life in Oakland, societal observations and hip-hop culture, all with a blend of humor, streetwise insight, and multi-syllabic dexterity. Ultimately, the album captures a snapshot of his progression from raw talent to a more conceptually matured songwriter. It remains a significant and under-appreciated chapter in Del’s evolution, showcasing early seeds of the creativity and independence that would come to define much of his career thereafter.

L.A. composer and Leaving Records label founder Matthew David McQueen is largely known for his experimental production including releases on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label. After nearly a decade of evolution, Trust the Guide and Glide is at once a powerful statement of identity and a new door into cosmic consciousness."It’s Now! Eternally! Easy, Tender, Loving Sound.The Guide is You. The Glide is Life. Be Yourself, Live Fully –That’s what the Vibrations are Encouraging, Echoing,Waving, Glowing, Singing, Rippling, Radiating.Matthewdavid’s Mindflight is Heart Music. It’s a recordof beauty that has evolved from explorations into hisdeepest emotions, visions and imagination. The Flightswere most directly inspired by his profound connectionwith Michael Stearns’ Planetary Unfolding (ContinuumMontage 1981). You can feel that Trust is it’s Brother.Stearns speaks of Dreams, Resonance, Unity, and Ecstasy.Matthew adds that this journey has been one of Healing,Discovery, Finding, and Transformation. The two andtheir kindred are wondrous Sonic-Energetic-Midwiveshelping to usher in this age of Expanded Consciousness.The process and source are Extra and Terrestrial,Synthesized, Improvised (Live on Dublab Radio) Meditations.Sourced from the well of spiritual expression, theserecordings were further realized in Ableton. You’re flyingthrough the mystical world of Gilbert William’s cover,the software technology is dancing with circuitry, Flute,Harp, Hulusi, Water, Sonar, Quasar, and microtonallanguage are Tied and Dyed in the moment.The Mind is programmed by the Heart. With an openHeart the Mind can apply our gifts. I asked Matthewwhat he’s seen on / in his Mindflights: “Unconditional Love!Stillness – Centeredness,” he replied. “I’ve seen and feltmy ancestors, I’ve heard the songs of humanity . . .”Welcome, Listen, Hear, Here, Now, Celebrate!Joyously Written with Trust the Guide and Glide on repeat,Tuesday, December 8, 2015, in Woodland Hills, California– Carlos Niño

Lena Willikens X Elena Colombi live at Lux Fragil, Lisbon 2026 Cover art + design by Alicia Carrera Mastered by Lottie Lou Poulet at Wysyng Arts Centre Manufactured at Tapeline, UK Limited edition cassette tape NO repress 💚 Once they're gone they're gone...

Greg Mendez has always been an economical songwriter – he wields restraint and simplicity as tools, the core of his songs sharpened into simple, cutting truths. On Beauty Land, his new album and debut LP for Dead Oceans, we’re guided by a wry but forgiving narrator, an underdog who has learned to balance cynicism and faith. These songs are self-effacing without self-pity, carefully constructed altars of imperfection channeled through pop melodies, shimmering but urgent guitars, and a voice that reaches for choir boy innocence. The bulk of Beauty Land was recorded directly to tape, almost entirely alone in Mendez’s makeshift home studio in Philadelphia – a small room with no natural light. It’s his first full length since his unexpected self-titled breakthrough in 2023, which was a slow burn success following 15 years of writing and recording music in relative obscurity between Philly and New York. Beauty Land picks up where we left off three years ago – plumbing the depths of grief, love, and addiction – but its intense, quiet clarity shows Mendez at his songwriting best. Parts of Beauty Land feel like a lucid dream, dented characters carve their way through a world that’s cartoonish and warped – the broken-clock march of “I Wanna Feel Pretty,” the chiming toy piano on “Gentle Love.” “Mary / Dreaming” begins as a sparse, finger-picked lament before cutting abruptly to a deflated, Beach-Boys-but-make-it-fucked-up resolution that brings both melancholy and joy; a sense that all things can be true at once. None of the 14 tracks here break three minutes, but they tell stories that span lifetimes. Death floats through the record, whether it appears as a memory or a threat. Everything feels precarious. There’s a fragility to how these songs are built: the way the funeral organ hits alongside the morphine on “Looking Out Your Window,” the devastating simplicity of “Frog,” with its slowed-down keyboard and bare refrain: “Please forgive me for my faults.” Beauty Land feels, at times, impossibly lonely. Which makes it really count when it doesn’t – like when Mendez sings in harmony with his wife and bandmate, Veronica near the end of “So Mean” and it feels like a cherished reunion, a fleeting moment of redemption, a temporary parting of the seas.

Rabit takes his DJ Screw worship to heavily absorbing trip hop levels on a magnum opus of codeine-soaked tape loops and creeping vapours, including a guest spot from Lolina. By any measure it’s his strongest solo LP - huge RIYL Tricky, BoC, Croww, The Caretaker, Andy Stott, Basinski, Lynch & Badalamenti. In the decade since a debut album on influential witch-house label Tri Angle, Rabit has become a singular figure at the intersection of US rap, weightless grime and experimental electronic music, defining his sound on a string of crooked albums, DJ Screw-indebted mixtapes, and jams with everyone from Chino Amobi to Croww, besides production work for Björk and Boy Harsher. Perhaps notable by his absence in recent years, the Texan producer has clearly spent his time well in the studio, refining and adapting his process and distilling thoughts to analog tape loops for ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’; a heavily immersive half hour of sublimated, super groggy pressure that we’ve spent months wrapped up in and can 100% confirm its sandman potency. Logically, he derives from a formula of DJ Screw x Basinski x ‘Old Tapes’-era BoC something that transcends the sum of its parts, yielding a real go-to album primed for wake ’n bake times or, conversely, the far ends of the night - basically liminal music for heavy lids, carefully sequenced in a way that quietly displays all his stripes and unfolds its function with uncanny efficacy. Feels like a spoiler to say, but the closing ‘Ghost’ piece of chopped ’n screwed Badalamenti vibes, slowing and dusting a snippet of ‘Twin Peaks’-type intrigue & stuff, is arguably his finest moment in 14 years of releases, and the perfectly memorable kiss-off or denouement to an album that remains lodged in mind long after it’s finished. No doubt, it’s one of the year’s great albums so far.

Treasured slow motion trance rustlers Full Circle rack up a decade of remixes for the likes of Vox Populi!, 10LEC6, Tapan, and Die Orangen, plus a trove of unreleased goodies, on this limited edition mixtape, further to their much-adored albums and mixes for Good Morning Tapes and Offen Music. The eternal sunrise of late ’80s / early ’90s Goa dance & European proto-trance guides Alexis Le Tan & Joakim’s cult duo on their by-now trademarked style of chopped & screwed x Mediterranean drug chug hypno-bullets, pulling a broad range of source material into their own world of hazed offbeat grooves and arps with a rare je ne sais quoi that’s made their catalogue a proper cult property, fulfilling a need for this type of aerobic mysticism on modern dancefloors. As with their slew of Good Morning Tapes mixes and LPs it’s all arranged with a slick, sick, effortless aerodynamic, glyding between the likes of their subcontinental-slanted rework of fellow French psych-o-nauts Vox Populi!, and the remix for Die Orangen that really placed them on the map back in 2019. It’s never hurried, always zoned-in, flowing with a careful attention to the good of your trip and heavy as you like. The frisson is real!