NEW ARRIVALS

Orgone, a contemporary funk band based in Los Angeles, has spent years updating the sound of 60s and 70s soul and funk for the modern era. Among their catalog, New You stands out as one of the most beloved releases among fans.

Hiding Places is a collaborative album from Brooklyn-based rapper billy woods and Los Angeles beat scene veteran Kenny Segal, set for release by Backwoodz Studioz on March 29, 2019. On its face, it seems an unlikely pairing; woods—who moonlights as ½ of dissonant rap duo Armand Hammer—is a chaotic force, the warped relic of an NY indie-rap wave that never happened. Meanwhile, Segal has been in L.A. for twenty years; from paying dues with Project Blowed to pushing the culture forward with Busdriver and Milo. All the while, his soulful, dreamlike production precariously tethered to earth by the right drums or rumbling bass. But look closer and it makes more sense. After all, Segal lent his production to a couple of songs on Paraffin, Armand Hammer’s critically-acclaimed opus, and the two veterans have more than a few shared collaborators: Open Mike Eagle, ELUCID, and Hemlock Ernst amongst them. Hiding Places finds both artists deep in the labyrinth. Segal’s lush soundscapes have a new edge, woods’ writing is, paradoxically, at its most direct. Hiding Places is a child’s game: funny and cruel, as brutal as a fairy tale. The album features contributions from both artists’ well of collaborators with ELUCID, Self-Jupiter, and MOTHERMARY making appearances.

Superb, revered version-excursion in the grand tradition of Tempo Explosion. Willie Williams kicks off imperiously, on a classic Rhythm & Sound rhythm adroitly evoking Niney’s way with horns. Sugar and Tikkiman take a turn, besides Berlin faces like Cotton and Rod Of Iron. No one puts a foot wrong. More than twenty years ago now, this LP was cut ‘hot’, for maximum dynamic range, and deadly bass. With all copies since then derived from the same cut, many turntable set-ups may experience slight skipping at moments, especially during side 2. In addition, there are very occasional, scattered pops and crackles; for vinyl lovers nothing out-of-the-ordinary.

True to form, Andrea Borghi works directly with VHS tapes and the apparatus that plays them, manipulating the exposed mechanisms with the care and curiosity of a dedicated scientist. Drawing from these manual manipulations, Borghi's experiments combine mechanical sounds with mangled tape samples to inspire a mechanised nostalgia inseparably hybridised with human trace. Unlike others who work with old film, he resists the eerie to focus on the intricate crunch and buzz, an electro-acoustic soundscape tangentially related to the field recordings. By highlighting the precise moment that recorded media becomes perceived, a restless, shifting mass of both familiar and unrecognisable sounds results in a unique form of otic chiaroscuro. The result is a complication of inside and outside sounds: distant, gesturing snippets of semi-remembered, half-imagined films compete with TV cathode burn, tracking stutters, mechanical interference, and vérité whirrs and clicks that could only come from that original reproducer of dreams, the VHS player. With Palsecam Borghi gives dignity to an often maligned format, in an engaging mélange that represents the recovery of an object discarded as an objet d'art. Composed & recorded by Andrea Borghi. VHS recorder, contact microphones, computer. APO 17 | Published by Aposiopèse. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut By Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin Andrea Borghi (1974 Pietrasanta, Lucca) is a sound artist and electro-acoustic composer. His work focuses on the relationship between sound and matter. His practice is based on oriented and multidisciplinary research processes, and includes sculptural objects, installations, obsolete media and electronics. In the series named “Discomateria” he resorts to the use of glass, resin, metal and, more recently, marble as primary substrate for the production of sounds with a growing body of graphic/sculptural works. Tactility is something he has been exploring in his music over the course of his entire career, creating organic auditory experiences for the listeners.

Mala Fama is a Kichwa sound artist from Ibarra, Ecuador. His work is a testament to inhabiting—and creating—multiple worlds at once, while being rooted in Indigenous pride and power. Jichushka is a Kichwa word translating to “Lonely/Abandoned,” marking grief as a pathway to liberation. The 11-track album features the cultural specificities of northern Ecuador's Indigenous communities while also traversing boundless electronic experimentation, and was mastered by Nicola Cruz. Lead single "Mortaja II" is a retextured adaptation of Kichwa funeral music, accompanied by a music video (release date October 21st) that reflects the track’s sacred circularity through movement and land-based ritual. The video was shot in Ibarra, Ecuador by directors Rony Albuja and Hilda Males. Mala Fama wrote and recorded the album between 2016-2022, through ongoing home studio sessions that facilitated close collaboration with a network of artists of musical lineages from the Andean region such as marimba, vallenato, and cumbia– including Afro-Ecuadorian group Duo Anjoa, vocalist Catalina Ortiz hailing from coastal Esmeraldas, Ibarra-based multi-instrumentalist Luis Lema, and Quixosis, a leader of Quito’s underground vanguard. The majority of Jichushka was composed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting a complete revision of a previously-written album to mirror unexpected shifts, and new beginnings. The album is world-making through peaceful, ambient compositions as much as heavy sequencing, inviting melancholic remembrances of times and spaces that no longer exist, but that make way for creation.

Most of us can agree that music is not a competition. However, the National Championship for Norwegian Folk Music and Dance (Landskappleiken) has been an important annual event since it´s inception in 1896. In 2025, the jury deemed Helga Myhr to be Norway’s finest Hardanger fiddle player, after performing tunes from her native valley Hallingdal. Since she released her solo debut “Natten veller seg ut” in 2019, Myhr has established herself as a flexible musician; at home in contemporary and improvised settings (Dei Kjenslevare, duo with Tanja Orning or in collaboration with Mats Gustafsson), as well as in a myriad of different expressions rooted in various Norwegian traditions. “Slåttespel” offers the first possibility of hearing Myhr exclusively playing traditional tunes from Hallingdal; the music she grew up playing, and that she has been working with for all her musical life.

Egyptian oud player and composer Aly Eissa has become a key figure in Cairo’s experimental music scene, performing solo and as part of The Handover. Mentored by composer Abdo Dagher and oud master Hazem Shahin, Eissa draws on Egyptian classical and folk traditions for ‘Eggshells’. The expansive title piece occupies much of the album and features Eissa alone on oud, before moving into ‘Sukr At-taganni’, where his playing accompanies a recitation of poetry by thirteenth-century Arab poet Baha’ al-Din Zuhayr. Virtuosic, intricate and remarkably intimate.

“Ruins are the style of our future cities, future cities are themselves ruins.” - Izosaki Arata A Note From Lawrence English Nostalgia is not an ideology, though in this moment, we could be mistaken for thinking it might be just that. Over the past years, the idea of nostalgia has been filtered through various political and technological lenses and has become a tool used for forgetting, rather than remembering. Instead of embracing histories’ complexities and inconsistencies, this version of nostalgia seeks only singular recollection. This contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia has become a methodology at best, and a weapon at worst, used to erode the past and project forward a collapsed and unimaginably sanitised version of things, places, and ways of being from former times. It’s this projection that sees it playing a mounting role in a social pathology associated with reducing the imagined possibilities of future. The Rest Is My Ghost is a record that interrogates the manifestations of this reductive futuring and celebrates those that have tried (and failed), and those who continue to push back against decayed and revisionist positions. It’s a record that considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures. In recent times, I’ve proposed a term for this weaponised use of nostalgia, something I have called Acid Nostalgia. I offer it as a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times. It is, in part, a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail. Acid Nostalgia describes an increasingly common political projection of nostalgia that exists without any subjective connection to the memory surrounding and contained within it. Like acid poured onto a surface, this use of nostalgia seeks to erodes and smooth out the complexity and texture of lived connection and longing, which has until recently guided contemplations of nostalgia. Acid Nostalgia instead erases the texture of histories and de-contours the past, and in doing so dematerialises the horizon of possibility, which by its very nature marks the beginning point for any (and all) imaginable futures. Acid Nostalgia is a dreamless screen, where uncertainty, restlessness and aspiration are subjected to corrosion, breaking down and neutralising the wellspring of futures which are birthed from within the ambiguously charged, complex and at times chaotic atmospheres of the present. The Rest Is My Ghost is not however some universal reading of these things and happenings. Rather it draws its breath from a very personal pathway carved through my own fraught experiences of nostalgia and framed through a disparate collage of chance encounters, situations, places and provocations. It takes oblique notes from civic and architectural references such as Japan’s Metabolist movement, Hong Kong’s ‘one line sky’ and Los Angeles’s vanished Sodium Vapour lights. It interpolates texts – factual and fictional – by authors such as Franco Berardi, Kate Crawford, JG Ballard, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mark Fisher and Alexei Yurchak who have each so wonderfully sought to rupture the familiarity of now, and push us towards other ways of imaging ourselves, our surroundings and our very ways of being in this world. I also owe a debt of thanks to Adam Curtis in helping launch what has become this edition. It was his provocation, in a conversation we shared about an overwhelming and profound sense of uncertainty around being able to predict the immediate future and how to respond to that, which sparked the earliest inklings of this edition. The Rest Is My Ghost is ultimately a record about the promise of constructions and connections to come, material, social and political. It's a record that accepts the fragility of failure as a source of ultimate potential, and a position from which the deepest freedom of imagination might be sought and summoned forth to conjure even the most unimaginable, (but) possible futures.

Somewhere in the Wind is the third record that Loren Connors and I have made together. Of the three, it’s the first that consists exclusively of electric guitar duos and it’s the first that was recorded live. To me it feels very much like a live record; this music happened in crowded rooms in Brooklyn on two dates in 2025 and there’s an urgency to connect with others and a pleasure in doing so that can be heard on both of these tracks. On the first of our duo records (Arborvitae, 2003) I primarily play piano, and on the second (Evening Air, 2024) we switch off on piano and guitar. Both of those albums bespeak the privacy of the recording studio, where time is suspended and one can explore the quietest of sounds. By contrast, Somewhere in the Wind is the noisiest, most raucous and most free of our duo records. It’s the sound of us taking it to the stage. I became a fan of Loren’s playing from the moment that I first heard it, after happening upon a beat-up copy of In Pittsburgh circa 1992 in a used bin in the Dr. Wax record store in Chicago where my then-bandmate Bundy K. Brown worked. Everyone has taken a chance on a record because it looked interesting and wouldn’t set you back too much. In that regard In Pittsburgh was the find of a lifetime. I had just switched from playing in a postpunk power trio (Bastro) to making mostly drummerless respect-your-neighbors music (Gastr del Sol), and Loren’s pacing and touch and his lovely, unaffected compositions had me from the first listen. Not long after that, Jim O’Rourke and I reissued In Pittsburgh on our Dexter’s Cigar label, and I fondly remember first meeting Loren in New York’s Grand Central Station—so glamorous for this country mouse—and taking the train upstate with him where he shared a bill with Gastr del Sol. During soundcheck, Jim, Loren, and I played together for a bit and Loren’s approach to the instrument was something that one could instantly sink into, the kind of situation where there are no mistakes. I still feel that when we play together.

*Warehouse find!* In Italy, the genre of documentary film has represented a particularly fertile field for a critical review of the musical contribution to cinema at least since as early as the 1950s. The Italian public television RAI used to broadcast disturbing paranoiac dramas, weird documentaries on the bottom of the sea and indigestible so-called “educational” movies. ESP was a television series produced by Rai in 1973, directed by Daniele D'Anza, and aired from Sunday, May 27 1973 to Sunday, June 17, 1973 on the National Program. It was centered around Extra Sensory perception and paranormal psychic phenomena, and the music was made our beloved Maestro and personal hero Egisto Macchi. Compositions are often spooky and tense, with dark instrumentation and a wonderful ear for an odd tuning or unusual phrasing. There is no doubt that Macchi’s musical contribution is one of the most significant in the panorama of Italian documentary production, in both qualitative and quantita- tive terms. It would nevertheless be arduous to trace a complete picture of his activity in this field, for this would involve discussing several films which no longer exist and, according to records drawn up by Macchi himself, the number of his documentary film scores is well over a thousand. Egisto Macchi, often remembered as a member of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, the historic Italian improvising collective (that also included Franco Evangelisti and Ennio Morricone, among others), was a major figure within the contemporary music field from the fifties to the eighties. The life path of Egisto Macchi seemed to be devoted to the multiplicity of aesthetic choices and musical expressions. While tracing his life and work, one notices an interesting duality based both on a very inclusive approach towards all kind of expressive needs and full control of the level of communication.

Straight to the point: Indian classical music is, and will always be, the most complete music in the world. There is Indian classical music that suits all seasons, all times of day, all moods, and all emotions. Holmlia, on the southern side of Oslo, is honored to host one of the most skilled performers of Indian classical music in Europe: Sudeshna Bhattacharya. Sudeshna began learning the art of playing the sarod from her father, Sri Krishna Mohan Bhattacharya, who himself was a student of Pandit Radhika Mohan Maitra. She grew up in a home where Indian classical music was deeply rooted, and at the age of four, she started playing. Her grandfather had studied with Ustad Ameer Khan Sarodia from the Senia Vinkaar Gharana, a name and lineage that left a strong imprint on her musical heritage. At the age of eight, Sudeshna began formal training under the renowned master Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. In 2003, she was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to France, where she spent a decade giving concerts both domestically and internationally, conducting courses and workshops, recording music, and participating in cultural celebrations and events. In 2013, Sudeshna moved to Norway, where she has lectured master’s students at the Norwegian Academy of Music and continued her life’s work as a performer, composer, teacher, and recording artist. She plays the sarod. The finest instrument there is?! The sarod, which together with the sitar stands as one of the most revered and well-known carriers of sound in Hindustani tonality, has a unique essence. Unlike the sitar, whose frets guide notes with strict discipline, the sarod embodies naked freedom – a fretless form requiring masterful handling with the left hand. When playing the sarod, the strings are struck with a plectrum made of coconut shell, a touch of nature's own design. Notes are created as the player presses their nails against a cold, gleaming steel fingerboard with remarkable precision. In this humble interplay between hand, nail, and string lies a profound breath, a tone reflecting the eternal itself. Joining her on this album is Mosin Kawa. He was born in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on May 3, 1992. At the age of three, he began learning tabla under the guidance of his father, Ustad Shabbir Ahmed. While continuing to learn from his father, Mosin also sought inspiration and new compositions from great masters such as Ustad Munshi Ahmed, Ustad Hidayat Khan, and Ustad Yusuf Khan. At the age of eight, Mosin performed at the Saptak Festival in Ahmedabad with a qawwali group. From then on, he began performing as a tabla soloist across different parts of India. At 18, Mosin travelled to Paris, France, with his older brother Shahid Hussain Kawa, an accomplished santoor player. Together, they performed music across several European countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy, spreading the musical heritage of Rajasthan to wider circles. About the title: As Sudeshna says: Mohini is the feminine version of Krishna and symbolizes feminine strength – not in war, but in peace, love, and harmony. This goddess could definitely step forward a bit more in the times ahead, thank you very much! Or, she is already present; one just needs to read a book or two or watch an informational film to realize that there’s much to learn from her and the various gods worshipped around the world. They are often on to something, and there’s no reason not to emulate them! Isn’t it strange that (at least in the Western world), it’s entirely acceptable to “look up to” athletes, actors, and capitalists, while many feel embarrassed to acknowledge a spiritually sound character or two? But yes, Indian music is and will remain the best. Indian classical music, this ancient source of resonant wisdom and spiritual beauty, has two branches that each, in their own way, embrace the mystical in the human spirit: Hindustani and Carnatic music. Sudeshna, this art’s faithful steward, enters the Hindustani tradition with a spirit so profound and an interpretation so masterful that it feels as if the music itself speaks through her as its vessel. Hindustani music is an art form that aims to reach the heart's roots, a painting of the nine primary emotions – the states of being that shape our lives: the burning fire of erotic love, the radiant joy of undisturbed happiness, the depth of empathy that brings solace to another, the power that rises like a spring flood of energy, heroism breaking through like a star in the night, fear rushing through one’s core, disgust pulling one away from what repels, awe lifting the soul towards the divine, and harmony, the gentle sense of everything in its rightful place. Each of these resonant tones acts as a medicine for the body and mind, reflecting the cosmos itself in every note and interval. In Hindustani music, notes belong to their proper time slots. Each piece, each raga, is tied to a certain time of day or a season. Like the morning light reflecting in the dew or the autumn wind sweeping over leaf-heavy hills, music must follow nature's rhythms to be whole. Before the mighty strikes of percussion enter, each raga opens with a long and exploratory alap, where the notes search outward like roots seeking water – a journey into the soul’s deepest darkness and brightest clarity. And even more beautiful, even deeper, is the play of the 22 microtones – the small, airy rising and falling tones that reveal a world beyond the West’s familiar scales, a wholeness that opens the door to a different, eternal tonal universe. Hindustani music is not just a listening experience; it is a revelation – a humble prayer, a step toward the heavens, and a resonance between earth and eternity. May more open their eyes and ears to this wondrous, deepening art!

Ignatz, the long-running project of Belgian musician Bram Devens, has spent two decades refining a distinctive approach to songcraft—built on repetition, subtle shifts, and an ear for the uncanny. Across a steady stream of releases on labels including (K-RAA-K)³, Ultra Eczema and Fonal, his work remains instantly recognisable while continually evolving. I Don’t Know marks a striking departure. Following earlier recordings centred on guitar, Devens turns to piano, uncovering a new, more skeletal language. The instrument first entered his orbit in the mid-2010s, when he inherited a family piano and began exploring its possibilities as a self-taught player. Recorded at home in Landen, these pieces feel sparse and unsettled, carrying a raw intimacy that sets them apart from his previous work. The result is a haunted, deeply personal album that reframes Ignatz’s sound without losing its core identity.

For Takuro Okada, this marks his first physical release since *Konoma*, which received high praise from media outlets and listeners both in Japan and abroad. This work was created for the campaign promoting the new “MT2” footwear line designed by TOKYO DESIGN STUDIO New Balance. The campaign video is available on New Balance T-HOUSE’s owned media platform. 　Side A, “Still Water,” features Shouei Ikeda (flute) and is composed of a minimalist ensemble that strips the arrangement down to the bare essentials while incorporating elements of folk and Afro-music. Recorded based on improvised performances and captured on analog tape, the track evokes the subtle fluctuations of sound and rich spaces reminiscent of a still water’s surface. 　Side B, “Dohman Sehman,” takes the mood of vintage funk as its starting point while weaving in a melodic sensibility and folkloric resonance reminiscent of Japanese folk songs and kayōkyoku. Featuring up-and-coming musicians such as Kei Matsumaru (alto sax), Mei Katsumaru (tenor sax), Yuma Koda (Wurlitzer / Farfisa), Yuka Konishi (bass), and Hayate Ebihara (drums), this track is marked by a powerful groove created by a spatial mix reminiscent of dub techniques and a robust rhythm section. 　With “Still Water,” which is imbued with serene stillness, and “Dohman Sehman,” which contains a powerful groove, these two contrasting tracks showcase the breadth of Takuro Okada’s creative evolution since *Konoma*.

A masterpiece by Masahiko Togashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Motoki Takagi, and Motoharu Yoshizawa—some of the most important artists in the history of Japanese free jazz. Takayanagi’s guitar, which makes effective use of feedback techniques; Takagi’s dynamic tenor saxophone and corn pipe (a type of vertical flute); Yoshizawa’s string sounds, which are so free they seem almost effortless; and Togashi’s intelligent drumming, which combines precision with power—all come together to create a landmark album that truly heralds the dawn of a new era!

Akira Kosemura’s Polaroid Piano is a record that is very close to my heart. In fact, it is Akira’s work that was one of the drivers for Someone Good, one of the Room40 sibling labels, to be founded. Polaroid Piano marks the beginning of what would later become known as felt piano music, an approach to the piano which was picked up by numerous artists across subsequent years. It captures an essential and intimate rendering of the piano at close proximity, but it does more than that, it allows the piano to breathe within the places around it. Structurally, the record is a collection of piano-led vignettes. Each piece is a microcosm of lived in music, which is porous, and opens themselves outward, inviting a sense of time and ’the present’ to seep into the music. They feel instantly intimate and evocative, melodies imprinted with the world around them. In some of the recordings a siren calls out from beyond the immediate acoustic space of the studio, whilst in others birds seep in and the rustling of Akira’s clothing folds into the music itself. When we first discussed the recording, Akira had invited me to offer some sounds that might act as a leaping off point for the compositions. I collected a series of field recordings which were offered as simple and suggestive prompts, and as a means of imagining ‘other’ environments which might be simultaneously in orbit of the places Akira was recording in. Some of those field recordings are captured in the record, like a memory being recounted at a distance of time. Polaroid Piano is a unique record for many reasons. One is it manages to manifest an acoustic transcription of that ‘momentary' quality of its photographic namesake. The pieces are auditory snapshots and reflect a certain quality of harmonic light and timbral exposure that is unquestionably tethered to the aesthetics of the polaroid format. It is a record that celebrates the body of the instrument as a sound source and invites us to be proximate to the resonation, and the living qualities of sound, that make music so utterly profound, and gratifying.

Sa Pa explores the murkier edges of dub techno and deep house on Rhythm From Ambient, the second release on his Dub Techno For Life label.The title track rolls through heavy dub pressure and gravelly percussion, while ‘Rhythm’ reworks an industrial techno piece originally intended for Sa Pa’s 2015 MDR EP. ‘Last Dance’ stretches into deep house territory with a slow-burning, dubbed-out pulse, before ‘Bo Riddim’ closes things down with deep sub-bass, heavy drums, loose percussion and fragmented melodies. Another experimental outing from Sa Pa, moving between dub techno, house and stranger electronic terrain.

Fog is Marija Rasa’s debut album on Short Span as emer, and her first cut to wax. It follows a single featuring Ugnė Uma for Stroom and a wonderful debut tape for the now cult (I hope!) incubator label Lilerne Tape Club. It’s for dreamers. Very dub. Soul. Ambient too. A bit of Detroit-like post industrial imagining. You can read it is as a new and different version of a very classic dub technique from the producer in many ways - Marija at the mixing console and effects desk, conjuring a new versioned music through radical restructuring and an instinctive reshaping of space + melody + lyric in studio experimentation. Tracks are pinned down by thick and enveloping bass while other elements float in and out, fleeting narcotic or hypnagogic notes of fantasy and song form bob in and out of focus. Scant colours and disorienting voice and melody sit suspended, occasionally coalescing and breaking out into moments of radiant beauty and slowly burning manifestations of warmth and presence shooting through the heart and gut.

Bass Culture is a landmark studio album by Linton Kwesi Johnson and is widely regarded as one of the defining works of British dub poetry. Produced in collaboration with Dennis Bovell, the album seamlessly blends powerful spoken word with deep roots reggae and dub. Featuring contributions from members of Matumbi, it includes standout tracks such as "Bass Culture" and "Reggae Fi Peach," a tribute to anti-racism activist Blair Peach. Addressing themes of social justice, identity, and inequality, Bass Culture remains as relevant today as it was upon its original release.

Enigmatic label/collective life is beautiful fully establishes its lore on a colossal 3LP sprawl: 39 tracks of whimsical outsider biz arcing from lo-fi strums to asymmetric pop, jazz improv, poetry, noise, abstract hip-hop, spoken word and whatever else captures the thing, from artists you'll know and a fair few you won’t, featuring Bianca Scout, aloisius, VOICE ACTOR, James Massiah, Kenichi Iwasa, THE NARRATOR, Isaiah Hull, Pretty V and many, many more. A self-styled gesamtkunstwerk, life is beautiful was established by aloisius in 2022 as a radio show, before turning into a collective, a series of live performances, and then inevitably a record label a year later. Their first comp makes some attempt to pull all their various strands into something cohesive, but like many of the best collectives - Mica Levi’s Curl crew for example - so much of the beauty and joy comes from following the breadcrumb trail deep into wherever they take you. This is a label, after all, that dumped their demos and experiments ("resources and inspiration") on a file exchange portal on their own site, so you get the idea that nothing is quite fixed, and there are no easy answers - just the pleasure of tagging along for the ride. The set opens with tracks from each of the founders, who establish the label's core sound. NWAKKE begins with 'i need you in a positive way', a cloudy hypnagogic R&B marvel that juxtaposes cool-headed vocal runs with tape-fucked field recordings and piano. Then, the mic's handed to Amber Joy, aka THE NARRATOR, who also serves as the label's artistic director; on 'SUDDENLY', she oozes a skittish post-everything collage that chops cheap synths and choral vocals into a dreamy modern hymn. aloisus' 'you are god' runs out of its stuck groove as if it emerges from the very same thought, blurring gospel moans across LinnDrum loops. Bianca Scout hands us a taster of her collaborative work with London's Cajm on the hypnotic 'Welcome to Hello', while poet Isaiah Hull teams up with y+Your for the wonked 'vampire money'. Basically there's a whole record of music from the crew before 'veneration...' even begins in earnest, and it only gets better from here, running through aesthetic experiments from multi-instrumentalist Kenichi Iwasa, self-styled "beat wizard" psychedelic ensemble. (who's one half of Brum's Everything is Psychedelic with Tony Bontana) and Thom Dehli before we reach the compilation's crown jewel, a 21-minute live jam from okk70 ensemble. We can't tell you exactly who's playing, but it's worth the price of entry alone, a squirming slo-mo jazz side that gets to the roots of the life is beautiful sound - like some cross between ’87 era Prince and Oren Ambarchi’s Ghosted Trio, except deep in the basement. Elsewhere, there's a chewably eccentric solo moment from Bianca Scout ('superscribe 24'), a phenomenally moody collaboration between VOICE ACTOR and aloisius ('24'), a spirited, lo-fi transmission from London's josiane pozi and a deeper than deep jam from orchestra379, aloisius' "collective improvisation project" that's featured artists like Ben Vince, Kenichi Iwasa and abi asisa. Label comps are often a slog but this one's stuffed to the gills with genuinely creative experimentation from some of the scene's most interesting outsiders, the sprawl really does come close to harnessing the vibe.

cv313’s Altering Illusions returns with five signature cuts alongside a rare, otherworldly dub from the elusive Radius project. Mixed and recorded in Detroit, the collection distils cv313’s deep, reductionist techno into long-form, analogue meditations. Remastered by Stefan Betke (Pole) at Scape Mastering, the sound is given renewed depth and clarity without losing its raw, submerged character. This edition also introduces an additional piece drawn from the interpolation tapes series, pushing further into cavernous low-end and hypnotic repetition. Across its runtime, Altering Illusions moves with patience and weight, built from sub-bass pressure, minimal structure, and finely tuned atmospherics—hallmarks of cv313’s enduring approach to dub techno.

Rattly, stripped-to-the-bone IDM gear that harks back to simpler times, BOT1500's second proper album is simple and elegant, more concerned with the emotional weight of its melodies than the complexity of its beats. You might remember Shinichi Koboyashi's last BOT1500 album 'Surreal', that appeared back in 2022 on AD93's Lith Dolina sublabel. And since then he's been relentlessly prolific on his Bandcamp, issuing regular single track updates that chart his creative process. But 'The Black Sea' is his first longer set in a while, assembling a handful of tracks that highlight his recent interest in minimalism, emotion and dub production techniques. The familiar monosynth groans and dry, jazzy breaks on 'Abstract Springs' might resemble Squarepusher for a moment, but it's much chillier, sparser gear, with space around each element that softens the impact of the hyperactive edits. And on 'Shadows', that same mood pervades the track even when the beats have been silenced; Koboyashi gives just as much importance to his chiming analog synths, coaxing out fragile melodies that sound as if they've been plucked out of time. And there's a precision to his programming that's immediately impressive. On 'XB 1', his soft focus glitches and woody hits graze the post-dubstep landscape but subtly reframe it, setting the meticulous rhythms against echoing single note sine hits and melancholy pads. And the track's sequel 'XB 2' is an even harder punch to the gut, with exquisite melodies and knife-edge drums that shuttle us right back to 1996 for a moment, an underground dominated by Clear Records, Spymania and Rephlex.

Lee 'Scratch' Perry – Disco Devil Vol. 3 continues this archival run from Studio 16, collecting six extended mixes cut at the legendary Black Ark between 1977 and 1979. Drawing together key voices including Jolly Brothers, Max Romeo, Leroy Sibbles and Devon Irons, the set captures Perry’s studio at full tilt—stretching rhythms into hypnotic, echo-laden excursions. From the meditative pull of ‘Conscious Man’ to the driving force of ‘Dread Lion’, these versions foreground the interplay between vocal and dub, with Perry reshaping each track through space, repetition and raw analogue effects. Later edits of ‘Forward With The Orthodox’ and ‘When Jah Come’ round out the set, linking the original sessions to their continued legacy. A vital snapshot of Black Ark-era invention, where roots reggae meets dub at its most exploratory.

The new opus on Macadam Mambo is a very special double LP by the Italian artist Oltrefuturo. Inspired by the Adriatic Sea where he is coming from, Valerio (Oltrefuturo) composed 8 tracks in between Ambient, Dub and Downtempo full of emotions reflecting his environment. The Music is gorgeous with special vocals and atmospheric lines, and very cool down beats. It’s an album to listen at home but it can easily be played in the club at the right moment (check the tracks “Die Kosmmische Trance” and “Ritmo Tre”). 8 long tracks specially pressed on 2 vinyls for a louder sound. TIP!

The legends of the golden era of Italian soundtracks and library music go by many names, but the backbone of that era’s definitive sonic identity is most often identified as I Marc 4 (also known as Marc 4 or I Marc Quattro). While the moniker might be less familiar to the uninitiated, it is a simple acronym derived from its founding members: Maurizio Majorana (bass), Antonello Vannucchi (organ), Roberto Podio (drums and percussion), and Carlo Pes (guitar). The number "4" serves to highlight the core synergy of these four master musicians. Their journey began in Rome’s vibrant jazz scene of the 1950s and early 1960s, where they honed their craft as members of the RAI national orchestra and collaborated with the most prominent jazz and pop icons of the day. However, it was their pivotal role in defining the Italian cinematic sound of the 1960s and 1970s that secured their legacy. Their unmistakable style was an eclectic fusion of beat, jazz, classical, and Latin influences—textured with early synthesizers, experimental sound effects, and a blend of electronic and baroque instrumentation. Consequently, their initials are etched into the credits of countless landmark recordings by legendary composers such as Nino Rota, Armando Trovajoli, Gianni Ferrio, Alessandro Alessandroni, Piero Umiliani, and Ennio Morricone. Beyond their work as session luminaries, they produced a vast body of library music under their own name at the legendary Telecinesound Studios in Rome. These recordings were released through prestigious library labels like Sermi, Ricordi, and Fonit Cetra, as well as through their own imprints: Nelson Records, Silver Men, and Silver Music, spanning a definitive series of sixteen albums. Ten of these volumes were issued on Nelson Records during the 1970s, featuring the now-iconic military stencil design. Each release was color-coded: red (G.L.P. 1001), dark blue (G.L.P. 1002), gold (G.L.P. 1003), light green (G.L.P. 1004), brown (G.L.P. 1005), black (G.L.P.1006), light blue (G.L.P. 1007), yellow (G.L.P. 1008), orange (G.L.P.1009), and cool green (G.L.P. 1010). The series was completed by two elusive companion releases: S.M. 2001 on Silver Music and S.M. 2002 on Silver Men, both presented in the same distinctive brown sleeve. Rediscovered in the 1990s and 2000s, these Nelson releases have since achieved cult status among collectors, producers, and DJs worldwide. The final two installments, S.M. 2001 and S.M. 2002, remain the rarest and most enigmatic of the set. Often overlooked, they contain some of the most profound "hidden gems" in the group’s catalog. The tracklist traverses a wide stylistic spectrum: from the rare groove and proto-hip hop energy of "Trama Nella Metropoli", "Beat Morbido", and "Candy", to the lush cinematic atmospheres featuring the ethereal vocals of Edda Dell'Orso on "Summer In Love", "On The Rain", and "Arcobaleno". The collection is rounded out by sophisticated jazz pieces like "Flauti Ensemble", "Passeggiata", and "Atmosfere Dolci”. Sonor Music Editions has meticulously curated the finest moments from these two rare albums for this first-ever dedicated reissue. Bringing together the best of Silver Music (S.M. 2001) and Silver Men (S.M. 2002), this release retains the iconic stencil artwork but introduces a striking silver finish. This design choice honors the original ten-album sequence while shedding new light on these outstanding recordings—works that remain, in every sense, golden.