NEW ARRIVALS

Legendary Sun Ra-bassist Ronnie Boykins stepped out on his own for his first and only release as a leader on, "The Will Come, Is Now". He was invited by ESP in 1964 to record his own album, and in February 1974, he told ESP that he was finally ready, and the session took place later that month. This recording not only features Boykins' solid abilities as a bassist, including his marvelous arco work, but also his talents as a composer and arranger. In addition, one is treated to an all-natural bass sound, a rare sound during this particular era of jazz history. In septet format, Boykins' six originals create a variety of moods and textures that not only evokes the music of Sun Ra but also reflects Boykins' own sensibilities as an artist.

2026 restock. "Stunning, heavy requiem for ten electric guitars." Recorded in 1994, with the following guitarists: Steven Antonelli (alto guitar), Eric Hubel (tenor guitar), Brannon Hungness (soprano & octave guitars), Phil Kline (tenor guitar), Carolyn Master (alto guitar), John Myers (soprano guitar), Dave Reid (bass & octave guitars), Ellen Watkins (soprano & octave guitars). Minimal and massive, for fans of Sonic Youth, Black Lips, etc. "Subtitled 'The Mystery' and 'The Mystery Pt. 2,' these two symphonies concern themselves with the two big questions: Life and Death. They are both scored for eight guitars, two basses, keyboard, drums, vocal and two conductors. Symphony No. 8 has two movements: 'The Passion' and 'Spiritual Anarchy' that both build upon sustained tones that create a counterpoint by means of delays in scale and other patterns and micro tunings. There are also two movements in Symphony No. 10: 'The Final Problem' and 'The Horror.' These are built in a similar manner to the techniques in No. 8 but the tuning and scales employed are different, creating another sensation yet still as intense and continuous in rhythm as No. 8." -- "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide

A new LP by JJ Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm, Whitefield Brothers etc) and Gonçalo Mortágua. file under: spiritual jazz

Two side-long improvisations recorded in a spring evening beneath a 1908 shot tower. That is the whole record, and it is enough. Fysiikka ja Kemia - Physics and Chemistry - surfaced in late 2025 with Biologia, a debut LP on Tampere's Ultraääni Records that the label summed up in a single line: rural psych-jazz improvisations by the Finnish bastard sons of Arbete & Fritid. Three hundred copies, each sleeve screen-printed by hand by the band, gone quickly. We Jazz picked a track for their Friends & Neighbors compilation. Beyond that, almost nothing in print. No interviews, no biography, no real trail. The music has had to speak for itself, which is exactly how the group seems to want it. Haulitorni is the second chapter and a different kind of object. Recorded live on 25 April 2026 at Pispala Jazz, the small spring festival held at the Haulitehdas, the old shot factory that sits at the foot of Pispala's steel lattice tower above Tampere, it drops the six-track sequencing of the debut in favour of two long pieces, one per side. Verkkokalastuksen alkeet - the rudiments of net fishing. Kevätmuutto - the spring migration. Titles that read like chapter headings from a school primer, which is very much the point. The group has always named things this way, borrowing the flat vocabulary of Finnish natural science and rural life and letting the music undercut it. The Arbete & Fritid reference is not idle. Like the Swedish collective in the early 1970s, Fysiikka ja Kemia work a seam where free improvisation, folk memory and a loose psychedelic rock pulse run into one another without any one of them taking charge. On Biologia that produced pieces that could open with a fragment of something like a fiddle tune and end somewhere else entirely, ten minutes later, without a visible seam. Here, with the whole of a side to fill and a room full of people, the pacing stretches. Ideas are allowed to sit. The group's patience is its most distinctive quality - a willingness to stay inside a texture until it changes on its own rather than forcing the turn. A live document, then, from a scene that rarely gets documented: the Pispala hillside and its DIY venues, the Tampere orbit that gave Finland Kemialliset Ystävät and a long line of players working at the edge of jazz and folk without asking permission from either. Released on the same night the group shares a Tampere stage with Samla Mammas Manna, which places the lineage about as clearly as it can be placed.

An album consisting of four magically shimmering instrumental works. Moreover, both the album and its sleeve are more or less transparent—in other words, the especially perceptive music lover can truly see the light through the sound. AO is still a well-kept secret from Gothenburg: a new name from the Swedish underground, yet with long tentacles reaching back through the ages. AO creates an intelligently playful and playful music, with many dizzying points of entry, winding rooms, and smiling exits. AO is a rough diamond in the shadows. The album Stiltje began as a pile of collected sounds, intended to drown out the traffic outside the window of the condemned buildings on Fabriksgatan in Gothenburg. Sounds that could create calm while the road outside could be erased—or transformed into gentler waves. AO has created a form of spiritual embalming on vinyl; thus, we will all move toward a brighter, more sonorous future! Regardless of state, color, shape, or planet, AO’s music moves into your room, communicates, bounces around, and spreads its warm, tranquil glow.

Holy Tongue are a trio composed of Valentina Magaletti, Susumu Mukai, and Al Wootton. Accomplished musicians in their own right, they create expansive rhythmic music that moves freely through dub, trance, post-punk, free improvisation and cinematic psychedelia. Such a dynamic energy and force is mapped across a trilogy of critically acclaimed EPs, their debut album Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare and their collaborative album with dub-pioneer Shackleton. The trio recorded a series of improvisations in the Swiss Alps and London. Built on the foundation of vintage drum machines and instinctive interplay they created compositions where no stylistic borders apply. The record melts and the musicians’ instruments synergise, with a rawness added with featured vocals from collaborator and experimental vocalist Dali de Saint Paul on two tracks. The record is out via AD 93 on the 9th October. Dub techniques meet ritual percussion, hypnotic pulse and vast Popol Vuh-esque landscapes. Drawing equally from popular music, experimental traditions and spontaneous interaction, the trio treats playing, recording, editing and transformation as part of the same creative act. Sounds emerge, dissolve and reappear in new forms, creating a music that is both deeply physical and endlessly open. With no fixed boundaries and no allegiance to genre, their work embraces movement, texture and collective energy. The result is immersive, transportive music that shifts between meditation and propulsion, intimacy and scale, always evolving in the moment.

'My Piledriver Heart' from Superfan, the songwriting veil of Kali Priya Flanagan, the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and producer with string arrangements crafted in collaboration with cellist Omeed Almassi​. "MPDH marks the first release outside of the record deal Flanagan signed at age 14. The album finds Flanagan embracing a more expansive, experimental vision of indie rock - melding deeply tuned acoustic guitar, cello, and Eastern musical influences into what he calls his “Acousticello” sound. Recorded largely live with cellist Omeed Almassi and producer Hudson Pollock, the record explores heartbreak, independence, and hopeful melancholia. Kali says “This time around it was about being (myself) versus becoming myself. This album was made to acknowledge the ebbs and flows in chugging along with life and love, from a place of comfort within the self that opens you up to the beauty in everyday life.” He does so through intimate performances that blur the line between folk, chamber music, pop-rock ballads, and alternative rock."

Named after a now-shuttered nightspot that overlooked the beach on Italy's picturesque Tuscan coast, Maxime Denuc's 'Club Imperiale' is a work of speculative historical fiction, a record that imagines a point of creative symbiosis between the Catholic church and the ecstatic dancefloors of the early '90s. Using a MIDI-controlled pipe organ, Denuc creates dense clouds of impossible-to-play notes that ricochet backwards and forwards through history, from Rome's reverberant cathedrals to the white, sandy beaches of the Balearic Islands. Not simply an album of trance and techno music performed on the organ, 'Club Imperiale' is a byzantine mass of references and lived experiences that considers the physical impact of sound, architecture and setting - and Denuc can trace its genesis to a single moment. Two years ago, the Brussels-based French composer was forwarded a surprising video by a Belgian fan. It was shot during a Wedding at a church in Menorca, where the organist was playing 'Infinite End', the lead track from 2022's 'Nachthorn'. Immediately, Denuc knew that this was the thematic backdrop he'd been waiting for; he imagined the aftermath of the event, wandering through small villages and teetering on a cliff's edge, finding a provincial nightclub and retracing his steps back to the beach to witness the sunrise.

This time around, Denuc was gifted the time and the access he needed to fully refine his concept. The technical side of the process had already been solved; after recording 'Nachthorn', he was now very confident with his system, able to control the pipe organ's keyboards, stops and pedals incredibly precisely using Max/MSP and OpenSoundControl, or OSC. And his relationship with the St. Antonius Church in Düsseldorf had deepened significantly. The cantor offered him a three or four days each month for a year to record the project and Denuc jumped at the chance. He moved into a small apartment nearby and spent every available hour behind the organ, working from 9AM until 5PM, stopping for mass and then returning for another long session, heading back to his studio on the off days to listen back to the recordings and plan fresh approaches. This allowed him to sculpt the experience meticulously, thinking about the history of sacred music and considering the real reasons that its compositions have lingered in the secular consciousness for so long. He wanted to concentrate on the visceral acoustic qualities of the church itself, so used a spatial multi-microphone setup to situate listeners between the concrete walls, fabricating an acoustic experience that's multi-dimensional and cinematic.

And the music itself also had to completely validate Denuc's themes. His compositions needed to feel like waves lapping at the shore, humid air rushing through aging pipes and hazy rave memories imprinting themselves on pliant brains. So on opening track 'Hallucinogen', Denuc reaches back to the mid-'90s directly, directly referencing 'LSD', an enduring psychedelic trance anthem penned by Shpongle's Simon Posford. The track interpolates a minuscule section of Posford's original, mapping its brain-tickling squelches to the pipe organ and using the church's natural reverb to capture the vast majesty of the building. "I tried to construct a whole world on top of it," Denuc explains. The album's aquatic themes meanwhile make themselves visible on 'Atlantis', the first example of Denuc's most recent compositional breakthrough, when he realized that using extremely short note repetitions he could create a seemingly continuous drone that shimmered like the surface of water. Imagining a dazzling white church in the Balearics, Denuc pens a revisionist trance anthem on 'Everytime', enhancing the imagery that inspired the record and letting the core motif bounce around the church walls.

These core elements course through 'Club Imperiale', folding in on themselves and melting into each other. Using his own hand-built Max/MSP sequencer, Denuc flutters towards the sun on 'La Paloma', noting the similarities between baroque music and progressive trance. And on the title track, Denuc hits the album's dreamy emotional core, a space where the afterparty begins in earnest, heralding the blurry, mirage-like second half of the record, where natural delays and breathy emotional traces seem to dissolve the very fabric of time. Moving through the dramatic 'Plasters Figures' and the '90s music video atmosphere of 'Impreza', 'Club Imperiale' concludes with 'Pegasus', a long chord sequence that heads steadily downwards into contemplative reminiscence, never quite taking flight. Even the best parties come to an end eventually.

Named after a now-shuttered nightspot that overlooked the beach on Italy's picturesque Tuscan coast, Maxime Denuc's 'Club Imperiale' is a work of speculative historical fiction, a record that imagines a point of creative symbiosis between the Catholic church and the ecstatic dancefloors of the early '90s. Using a MIDI-controlled pipe organ, Denuc creates dense clouds of impossible-to-play notes that ricochet backwards and forwards through history, from Rome's reverberant cathedrals to the white, sandy beaches of the Balearic Islands. Not simply an album of trance and techno music performed on the organ, 'Club Imperiale' is a byzantine mass of references and lived experiences that considers the physical impact of sound, architecture and setting - and Denuc can trace its genesis to a single moment. Two years ago, the Brussels-based French composer was forwarded a surprising video by a Belgian fan. It was shot during a Wedding at a church in Menorca, where the organist was playing 'Infinite End', the lead track from 2022's 'Nachthorn'. Immediately, Denuc knew that this was the thematic backdrop he'd been waiting for; he imagined the aftermath of the event, wandering through small villages and teetering on a cliff's edge, finding a provincial nightclub and retracing his steps back to the beach to witness the sunrise.

This time around, Denuc was gifted the time and the access he needed to fully refine his concept. The technical side of the process had already been solved; after recording 'Nachthorn', he was now very confident with his system, able to control the pipe organ's keyboards, stops and pedals incredibly precisely using Max/MSP and OpenSoundControl, or OSC. And his relationship with the St. Antonius Church in Düsseldorf had deepened significantly. The cantor offered him a three or four days each month for a year to record the project and Denuc jumped at the chance. He moved into a small apartment nearby and spent every available hour behind the organ, working from 9AM until 5PM, stopping for mass and then returning for another long session, heading back to his studio on the off days to listen back to the recordings and plan fresh approaches. This allowed him to sculpt the experience meticulously, thinking about the history of sacred music and considering the real reasons that its compositions have lingered in the secular consciousness for so long. He wanted to concentrate on the visceral acoustic qualities of the church itself, so used a spatial multi-microphone setup to situate listeners between the concrete walls, fabricating an acoustic experience that's multi-dimensional and cinematic.

And the music itself also had to completely validate Denuc's themes. His compositions needed to feel like waves lapping at the shore, humid air rushing through aging pipes and hazy rave memories imprinting themselves on pliant brains. So on opening track 'Hallucinogen', Denuc reaches back to the mid-'90s directly, directly referencing 'LSD', an enduring psychedelic trance anthem penned by Shpongle's Simon Posford. The track interpolates a minuscule section of Posford's original, mapping its brain-tickling squelches to the pipe organ and using the church's natural reverb to capture the vast majesty of the building. "I tried to construct a whole world on top of it," Denuc explains. The album's aquatic themes meanwhile make themselves visible on 'Atlantis', the first example of Denuc's most recent compositional breakthrough, when he realized that using extremely short note repetitions he could create a seemingly continuous drone that shimmered like the surface of water. Imagining a dazzling white church in the Balearics, Denuc pens a revisionist trance anthem on 'Everytime', enhancing the imagery that inspired the record and letting the core motif bounce around the church walls.

These core elements course through 'Club Imperiale', folding in on themselves and melting into each other. Using his own hand-built Max/MSP sequencer, Denuc flutters towards the sun on 'La Paloma', noting the similarities between baroque music and progressive trance. And on the title track, Denuc hits the album's dreamy emotional core, a space where the afterparty begins in earnest, heralding the blurry, mirage-like second half of the record, where natural delays and breathy emotional traces seem to dissolve the very fabric of time. Moving through the dramatic 'Plasters Figures' and the '90s music video atmosphere of 'Impreza', 'Club Imperiale' concludes with 'Pegasus', a long chord sequence that heads steadily downwards into contemplative reminiscence, never quite taking flight. Even the best parties come to an end eventually.

Pugilist percussionists Valentina Magaletti (Moin, Holy Tongue) & João Pais Filipe (HHY & The Macumbas) aka CZN, switching between tumbling flight and collapse on a new EP for Orator. The first release on Orator appears to slice off half an hour of tape from an endless session oscillating between polymetric clatter and tonal pauses for breath, as roughly relating to the title; referencing a rotary electrical motor that periodically reverses the direction of drive. In the first half, ‘That’s Magic!’ they juxtapose a hell-for-leather discipline hinting at Central African and Haitian traditions, with a slower arc of harmonic overtones that temper the flow to a quiet stillness halfway, and at the end. That approach comes on more aggressive, almost like Cut Hands, on the first section of B-side ‘There’s a Clown In My History’, before inverting the pressure to a vaporous, pregnant tension that finally breaks to cantankerous crescendo.

Ricky V runs wild on Mohammad Reza Mortazavi’s Persian tombak hand drum actions, expanding a 4 min kernel of inspiration into 24 minutes of mesmerising polyrhythmic traction. From an original 'Swamp' piece that practically recalls Ricardo’s style of slinky minimal techno sorcery to begin with, the Chilean-German maverick derives a more driving tract of rough hewn rhythmic grit bound to hypnotise dancefloors for the duration. Accentuating the undulating bass and dialling up the volume whilst retaining the frictional grind of the original, Villalobos gets right inside the groove with typically obsessive tekkerz, plucking out additional string motifs and tempering the flow with signature, taut but sinuous, loosey goosey flex that cross-pollinates cultures and gets right under the skin of the thing. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (b. 1979, Iran) is a virtuoso percussionist known for his groundbreaking work with the tombak and daf, traditional Persian drums that he has radically redefined through new playing techniques and extended vocabulary. Mortazavi began playing the tombak at the age of six. By nine, he had already outpaced his teacher and won Iran’s national tombak competition — a distinction he would earn six more times. By his early twenties, he was widely regarded as one of the foremost players of the instruments. Since then, his music has continued to evolve, embracing new forms and vocabularies beyond tradition. Ricardo Villalobos (b. 1970, Chile) is a pioneering figure in minimal techno, celebrated for his hypnotic approach to rhythm. Raised in Germany after his family fled Pinochet’s regime, Villalobos was drawn early to percussion — he began playing congas and bongos at eleven, developing a tactile relationship to rhythm that would later inform his distinctive production style. Immersed in both Latin American folk traditions and the emerging house and techno scenes of late-80s Europe, he began DJing and producing in the early 1990s, quickly achieving cult status within global club culture. Swamp originally appears on the album Nexus, released in 2025 via Latency.

Parisian label Latency presents "Without References / Cindy van Acker (Variations)", a new release by goat (JP) and legendary producer Ricardo Villalobos. For this project, Villalobos reinterprets two tracks – "Orin" and "Factory" – originally composed by goat (JP) for choreographer and performance artist Cindy van Acker’s dance piece "Without References". The release follows Latency’s recent publication of Villalobos’ variation on percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi’s "Swamp" (Latency, 2025), continuing the label’s exploration of reinterpretation and rhythmic dialogue. goat (JP), led by Osaka-based composer Koshiro Hino (YPY, Kakuhan, Boredoms, Mark Fell), is widely regarded as a leading force in contemporary minimalist composition. In “Without References/Cindy Van Acker”, goat (JP) transforms non-tonal rhythmic patterns into intricate, hypnotic structures with remarkable depth. In this new version, the group’s simultaneously tribal and futuristic sound is reshaped by Villalobos’ distinctive production style, which draws from both minimalist techno and Latin American rhythmic traditions. Ricardo Villalobos is a pioneering figure in minimal techno, known for his hypnotic and deeply rhythmic approach to electronic music. Born in Chile and raised in Germany after his family fled Pinochet’s regime, Villalobos developed an early fascination with percussion, beginning to play congas and bongos at the age of eleven. This tactile engagement with rhythm continues to inform his production work today. Influenced by both Latin American folk traditions and the emerging house and techno scenes of late-1980s Europe, he began DJing and producing in the early 1990s and quickly gained cult status within global club culture. Cindy van Acker’s dance piece "Without References" features scenography by visionary choreographer Romeo Castellucci. The stage environment evokes a space that shifts between a waiting room, a train station hall, and a mid-century installation. Eleven dancers interpret Van Acker’s precise yet fluid movements, interacting with goat (JP)’s percussive, stripped-down compositions to create a visceral and immersive performance. The artwork features photographs by Magali Dougados from a staging of "Without References" at the Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis.

Kitto Records presents Gree, the debut album from Belfast artist ffolliott. Written and recorded over 5 years in a home studio, Gree came together slowly, through a near-daily writing process. ffolliott set out to make an album at the start of 2020, working through batches of songs each week until something began to take shape. “Life was to-ing and fro-ing around me at that time and the big long staircase of making an album felt like a comforting bottomless pit I could crawl into and escape.” Early on, the sessions were open-ended, producing what he describes as “wacky, bad ffolliott music”. The turning point came with the track 'cappy', which set the tone for the rest of the record. From there, the album began to draw from a very specific set of memories from his life – pulling in fragments of childhood, family dynamics, and moments spanning from the 90s through to the present day, shaped through a DIY approach to songwriting and sample-led production. The record moves between these timelines without settling into a single narrative. Some songs sit firmly in childhood memory, others jump forward to later years, and some hold more than one thread at once. Across it all, there’s a focus on what happens behind closed doors – the things that are heard through walls, left unsaid, or overheard. Running through the album is a reflection on witnessing someone deteriorate over time, and how experiences of addiction and excess within a family environment are first absorbed as a child, then re-examined later in life. “I generally found that the more I leaned into anything I didn’t like about my music, the more I would end up writing songs that meant a lot to me.” The warm and textured sound of Gree was shaped by both the equipment and the process used to make it. Vocals and guitars were recorded through a single microphone, drums were built from samples taken from ffolliott'S own vinyl collection and sequenced on an MPC, and much of the sound comes from ageing analogue gear – tape delays and instruments collected over time. The result is a record full of life and texture: hiss, crackle and instability left in place rather than cleaned up. The world of Gree is further developed through the extensive artwork archive of the artist's late father - a prolific self-taught artist and microbiologist whose work has never been shared publicly before. The front cover features an etching from The Dream Machine, a series of 32 black-and-white works created in the midsts of 1980s Northern Ireland, while the back cover brings together unfinished doodles, sketches and drawings recovered from his notebooks and diaries, some dating back to his childhood. “A big part of the ffolliott project has always been to get my dad’s artwork seen alongside my music. I’d always admired it – it felt like something that shouldn’t just live in the house.” Throughout the album, these personal elements sit alongside smaller details – including childhood cassette recordings of Jamie and his sister staging their own improvised radio shows, recorded on a boombox in the 90s. ffolliott takes its name from the artist's middle name, passed down through one side of his family and traditionally given to the first-born son. It remains deliberately uncapitalised, retaining a spelling rooted in older family history.

Suntub’ is the second full length album from ML Buch, a double record of 15 pieces by the Danish composer and producer, entering further into the realm of electric guitars and layered vocals along with exploring new instrumental expressions. With an offset in open tunings on a 7-string Stratocaster, slide and fretless tablet guitars and deep-sampled virtual guitars, the album draws up narratives and locations in a distant time. Props like puddles, well buckets, bone barrels and flesh rags live in these scenes, suspended in air, drifting about, climbing stairs and ladders, all given life through guitar sensibilities and visceral vocals.

Two raw minimal cuts from '94 that will piece up any self respecting dance floor; Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen & Sami Salo at the controls - an ESSENTIAL 12" from Sähkö Recordings, TIP!

Discover the world of Swiss artist Dominique Savioz. An anthology of self-released rarities, made between 1984 and 1997, that blend funk, synth-pop, and balearic vibes. Limited pressing, comes with insert - carefully remastered, fully licensed, and including previously unreleased tracks. A1, A3 Originally released on Jambo and Evasion Disques « Jambo » (EB 100 129) A2 - Originally released on Dominique Savioz’s record «Intime» A4 - Originally released on Dominique Savioz’s record «Nous sommes du soleil» B1, B2, B3 - Previously unreleased

Simplicity floods itself in textured imperfection and anointed noise on the debut oracular folk guitar album released under the UK's 5 Gate Temple. A roughly recorded stack of improvisations on a classical-style guitar, God Spill embodies the broken, all while un-doing the expectations around traditional guitar folk. Mingot's fingerpicked tones meld with unsteady pedal loops and hissed drones rotating through flawed circuitry. A slow to becoming repair that is translucent, cryptic and oblique. Mingot's misty glitched landscape paints the polarity of both presence and disappearance, all cyclically mirroring the unseen. Honesty, discordance, impatience, and certainty all find home alongside blurred vocals. Since 2022, the EU-based, Queens NYC native has released music elusively as hardcore high priestess St Agnis and now swims waters of the acoustic - with soft rage and pursuit.

Habibi Funk’s new sister label Audible Beauty Records second release: A landmark collection retelling the untold story of Malaysian jazz featuring 9 songs from the legendary composer, arranger and trumpet player Johari Salleh. Salleh played a crucial role in shaping the sound of modern Malaysian music across radio, television, film and live performance and has composed dozens of popular songs in his decades long career. His personal musical passion always was jazz, reflected in this deep selection of jazz works that were previously unavailable unless you had one of the few dozen copies pressed locally in the 1970s. The album doesn’t only highlight his musical statue as a composer but also as a outstanding trumpet soloists bringing together jazz, spiritual undertones and Malaysian folkloric themes balancing slower pacing deep, modal grooves with more upbeat jazz funk leanings. For fans of Salah Ragab, Ahmed Malek, Mulatu Astatke, Dollar Brand and co.

Habibi Funk’s new sister label Audible Beauty Records debut release: We originally came across Soliao's music after visiting Malaysia and Indonesia as part of some DJ gigs for Habibi Funk and were immediately head over heels with the music. A landmark collection retelling the untold story of Malaysian jazz featuring 11 songs from the legendary composer, arranger and pianist Alfonso Soliano, originally recorded for Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) and only released in a run of a few dozen copies for radio broadcast. Widely regarded as one of the foundational figures of Malaysian music, Soliano blended jazz, Latin influences and traditional Malay musical forms into a uniquely local sound of all original compositions. The recordings also feature contributions from some of Malaysia’s most important musicians and composers of the era, including Johari Salleh and Ahmad Nawab. For fans of Salah Ragab, Ahmed Malek, Mulatu Astatke, Dollar Brand and co. The release includes extensive liner notes and previously unpublished archival photographs documenting Soliano’s life and legacy. Includes a special gatefold LP with a 12-page booklet attached to the sleeve and featuring in-depth essays, archival photography and historical material. Fully licensed from the Soliano family.

Pax Nicholas is one of the last living veterans of Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 — the ensemble that defined Afrobeat as a global force. Born in Accra, Ghana, he joined Africa 70 as conga player and backing vocalist in 1971, appearing on landmark recordings including Lady Shakara. Living through the violent raids on Fela’s Kalakuta Republic and nine months of imprisonment under Nigeria’s military dictatorship, he experienced firsthand the dangerous power of music as resistance. In 1978, he left Africa 70 at the Berlin Jazz Festival alongside drummer Tony Allen, and settled in Germany, where he built a remarkable second chapter — leading the twelve-piece Afrobeat ensemble Ridimtaksi, collaborating with Finnish jazz maverick Jimi Tenor, and reuniting with the African diaspora in Berlin for Ebo Taylor’s celebrated 2012 album Appia Kwa Bridge released on Strut Records, alongside Tony Allen and Africa 70 guitarist Oghene Kologbo, recorded at Berlin’s analogue Lovelite Studios. In 2009, Daptone Records reissued his 1973 cult classic Na Teef Know De Road of Teef, earning him long-overdue global recognition. Now signed to Paris-based Afrobeat imprint Comet Records, Pax Nicholas returns with his new single “Mind Your Business” — a heavyweight dancefloor Afrobeat cut built on thundering brass, interlocking percussion and a razor-sharp guitar riff. The release features an exclusive remix by Gabriel Belabbas, producer, DJ and co-founder of Parisian label Positive Future, who recasts Mind Your Business in deep, minimal territory — a sparse, tension-laced groove that channels the hypnotic darkness of Moodyman and Ricardo Villalobos. Stripping the arrangement back to its percussive skeleton, he lets the Afrobeat elements — brass, rhythm, heat — surface and recede like smoke, leaving just enough space for the tension to build and the dancefloor to fall. Slow-burning and devastating on a proper soundsystem.

Strut presents Nigeria 80, the next essential chapter in the legendary Nigeria 70 series, diving deep into the explosive sound world of 1980s Nigeria. Following the global impact of 2001's Nigeria 70, which helped introduce rare Nigerian recordings to international audiences, Nigeria 80 continues the journey, unearthing a rich, restless, and wildly creative decade of music from Lagos to Enugu. Despite economic instability and restrictive political conditions in the 1980's, Nigeria’s music industry flourished, driven by a growing network of independent labels such as Tabansi and Phonodisk, which championed local artists and expanded creative freedom. The 1980s also marked a significant rise in visibility for female artists, with trailblazers like Onyeka Onwenu helping to reshape the landscape and open doors for a new generation of performers, writers, and producers. Nigeria 80 showcases the extraordinary breadth of this era, with all tracks reissued here for the first time. The compilation brings together essential recordings from across Nigeria’s musical spectrum: highlife greats Victor Uwaifo and Nico Mbarga appear alongside Paulson Kalu, whose personal favourite “Akugbue Nwa Ewu” stands out as a prime example of the style. Prince David Bull’s “Soko Soko” (later reinterpreted in Starboy’s Afrobeats hit “Soco”) features as a key touchpoint between eras. Segun Adewale delivers a driving juju workout, while Lekan Animashaun, longtime bandleader of Africa 70, contributes a late-era Afrobeat classic produced in collaboration with Fela Kuti. The compilation also highlights more experimental and hybrid sounds, from I.C. Rock’s proto–hip hop gem “Advice” to Evi-Edna Ogholi’s self-produced reggae statement “The World”. The set closes with “Apama” by Ibealaoke Chukwukeziri, the “Apama Boy” from Achi in eastern Nigeria, featuring hypnotic vocals and percussion from his Anaedeonu band. Nigeria 80 is available as a Strut Exclusive Edition 2LP including an extra 12" insert, a black vinyl 2LP housed in a gatefold sleeve, or CD digipak, which includes a 16-page booklet with artist photos and liner notes by Francis Gooding. Compiled by Duncan Brooker. Audio restoration by See Why Audio. Mastered by The Carvery.

Strut presents Nigeria 80, the next essential chapter in the legendary Nigeria 70 series, diving deep into the explosive sound world of 1980s Nigeria. Following the global impact of 2001's Nigeria 70, which helped introduce rare Nigerian recordings to international audiences, Nigeria 80 continues the journey, unearthing a rich, restless, and wildly creative decade of music from Lagos to Enugu. Despite economic instability and restrictive political conditions in the 1980's, Nigeria’s music industry flourished, driven by a growing network of independent labels such as Tabansi and Phonodisk, which championed local artists and expanded creative freedom. The 1980s also marked a significant rise in visibility for female artists, with trailblazers like Onyeka Onwenu helping to reshape the landscape and open doors for a new generation of performers, writers, and producers. Nigeria 80 showcases the extraordinary breadth of this era, with all tracks reissued here for the first time. The compilation brings together essential recordings from across Nigeria’s musical spectrum: highlife greats Victor Uwaifo and Nico Mbarga appear alongside Paulson Kalu, whose personal favourite “Akugbue Nwa Ewu” stands out as a prime example of the style. Prince David Bull’s “Soko Soko” (later reinterpreted in Starboy’s Afrobeats hit “Soco”) features as a key touchpoint between eras. Segun Adewale delivers a driving juju workout, while Lekan Animashaun, longtime bandleader of Africa 70, contributes a late-era Afrobeat classic produced in collaboration with Fela Kuti. The compilation also highlights more experimental and hybrid sounds, from I.C. Rock’s proto–hip hop gem “Advice” to Evi-Edna Ogholi’s self-produced reggae statement “The World”. The set closes with “Apama” by Ibealaoke Chukwukeziri, the “Apama Boy” from Achi in eastern Nigeria, featuring hypnotic vocals and percussion from his Anaedeonu band. Nigeria 80 is available as a Strut Exclusive Edition 2LP including an extra 12" insert, a black vinyl 2LP housed in a gatefold sleeve, or CD digipak, which includes a 16-page booklet with artist photos and liner notes by Francis Gooding. Compiled by Duncan Brooker. Audio restoration by See Why Audio. Mastered by The Carvery.

Afro-Latin electronic producer, global-sounds inspired DJ, and bassist for Little Simz, Marla Kether returns with her highly-anticipated second EP Luso, released on Strut Records. Featuring a hand-picked selection of collaborators from across her creative circle, Marla continues to craft genre-bending bangers rooted in African, Brazilian, and UK sounds. The 5-track EP spans Batida with grime rapper Mez, Afrobeat with rapper Reek0, Broken Beat with Sofia Grant and a Samba House anthem with Margaridas. With Luso, Marla brings her musical worlds together into her most fully realised project to date. Written and developed between Lisbon and Brasilia, the EP reflects the movement, collaboration and cultural exchange that shaped its creation. “As a producer that first recorded during lockdown, this project was all about getting musicians into a studio and really celebrating the unbeatable energy of live recording,” says Marla of Luso. “I wanted the music to feel human, warm and alive, rooted in rhythm, connection and joy.” Live percussion, bass, vocals and electronic production move together throughout the EP, creating music built for clubs, headphones and festival stages alike. Marla weaves together Brazilian musical traditions, Broken Beat, Afro-Portuguese Batida, Afrobeat and jazz-inflected club music into a deeply rhythmic and emotionally rich body of work. At its core, Luso is a celebration of community, movement and musical freedom - a release shaped by travel, collaboration and the energy of shared spaces. The result is a bold statement from an artist entering a new creative phase. With Luso, Marla Kether confirms herself as one of the most exciting cross-disciplinary artists emerging from the UK underground today.

As the world sinks deeper into screens and algorithms blur the line between creation and imitation, Nubiyan Twist returns with Chasing Shadows, a record that reclaims the pulse, warmth and spontaneity of human connection. The band’s fifth studio album is a rich and restless blend of jazz, afrobeat, hip hop and electronic textures, exploring the space between the organic and the digital. It’s music that moves, sweats, and breathes, made by real people in real rooms with heavyweight features bringing together varied voices from the music community which they inhabit. Bandleader and producer Tom Excell explains: “We wanted to make something that felt joyous and defiantly human — something that couldn’t exist without that connection between people. You can get an AI to write a fugue in seconds, but it can’t capture the chemistry and chaos that happens when musicians lock in together. Chasing Shadows is our way of holding onto that.” Following 2024’s acclaimed Find Your Flame, praised by Rolling Stone, Jazzwise, NPR and more, Chasing Shadows pushes the band’s sound further into new soulful territory under Excell’s expert guidance, featuring new lead vocalist Eniola - a recent graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London - and a glowing cast of icons and innovators. Malian star Fatoumata Diawara lights up the title track on a powerful slice of Afrobeat, Joe Armon-Jones leads the dub workout ‘Rhythm Of You’, Patrice Rushen steps in on piano in ‘Threads’, and the band take it back to their hip hop roots on great collabs with The Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown, Ghanaian MC M.anifest and London dancehall favourite, Mr Williamz. On Chasing Shadows, Nubiyan Twist continue to look outwards with their music but keep the focus firmly on humanity and positivity. It is an album which crosses continents and which shamelessly celebrates our collective strength.