PRE-ORDERS

Townies, homecoming queens, and big men on campus manifest a homegrown and revolutionary sound in Civil Rights-era Greensboro. Among presidential hopefuls and future astronauts, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, located in Greensboro, was a hotbed of black excellence, activism, and raw talent. At the helm of a half-dozen labels, local yokel Walter Grady assembled a rotating cast of townies, homecoming queens, and big men on campus to manifest a scintillating sound that was both homegrown and revolutionary. Eccentric Soul: The Linco Label compiles melodic milestones from the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

A dazzling 11-track journey through the rich, handpicked gems of Numero’s finest. Blending the timeless warmth of classic soul with a fresh, modern twist, Eccentric Modern Soul delivers an expansive soundscape that feels both nostalgic and new.

The dreamy debut album from Texas's new wave of American krautrock. Recorded at home in 1996, The Fun Of Watching Fireworks straddles the aerodynamic drag between lo-fi and Living Stereo, huffing hypnotic chem trails, Ampex 456 polyfibre dust, and subtropical ozone while the Farfisa warms up. Remastered from the original analog tapes as a reminder of what life was like in the before times. Trespassers encouraged.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany made significant noise in 2024 when French film Anatomy of a Fall won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. Bacao’s cover of 50 Cent’s “PIMP” was featured so heavily in the film and plays such a huge role in the storyline that it became synonymous with its success. Subsequently, they ushered in the first appearance of steel pans in the orchestra pit at the Academy Awards so they could play the tune as director Justine Triet walked on stage to accept the award. All of this brought a lot of new fans to Bacao and pushed the streaming numbers of “PIMP” well past 40 million. For those in the know, this tune made its way into underground fame back in 2008 when it was first pressed on band leader Bjorn Wagner’s own Mocambo imprint and was often mistaken for the original sample source from which 50 made his hit. All accolades and international fame aside, “PIMP” is literally just the tip of the Bacao iceberg. With four full length albums and a tall stack of 7” singles that have become staples to DJs around the world, they have been prolific since signing with Big Crown in 2014. Despite the constant releases and elaborate catalog, every recording session has borne more fruit than could fit on an album, leaving a handful of tunes in the recording vault. Here on Big Crown Vaults Vol. 4 we open up that vault and give all (well, most of) those tunes a proper pressing and release. The album opens up with their cover of the Bob James uber-classic breakbeat “Nautilus” and they put a spin on the original that puts it directly in the must have category for all hip hop and breakbeat enthusiasts. Keeping their foot on the gas, they give the BRSB treatment to the Khruangbin classic “Maria También” with their signature bottom heavy drums taking the energy of the tune to a whole new place. Infamous for digging deep in the crates when picking material to reinterpret, they next take on Royce the 5’9”'s J Dilla produced “Let’s Grow”. Originally the B side to the first pressing of “PIMP” (and making an appearance on the very limited first 2LP pressing of their debut album 55) we put the “PIMP (Version)” on here where they give their original recording the proper dub treatment with melodica and tape echo galore. They turn up the tempo and the funk covering the Jackson 5’s “Great To Be Here” and again dive deep into obscurity with the Billy Jones dancefloor burner “Lookout Baby (Here I Come)”. While part of the allure of a new Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band album is finding out what covers they are going to take on, it is equally intriguing to see what original tunes they’ve cooked up. While BCR Vaults Vol. 4 only has one original, “Kaiso Noir”, it’s an uptempo crowd-pleaser that sounds like a mix between a b-boy break and a James Bond score. This collection of songs spans from 2008 to 2023 and runs a variety of genres from hip hop to jazz to soul and pop through the Bacao lens. The band is already at work on their 5th full length studio album and this compilation should be the perfect thing to hold fans over until it arrives.

In dark and difficult times, the music of Barney Lister and Kojo Degraft-Johnson lifts us up. As MRCY, across the eight tracks of VOLUME 2, they deliver on their premise of emotive music that surprises as much as it comforts, referencing timeless sounds as much as a sense of the cutting edge. If their debut release, 2024’s VOLUME 1, which blended Kojo’s ecstatic vocals and Barney’s masterful analogue production, showcased MRCY’s lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry, VOLUME 2 builds from there to a collection that is more sophisticated, thematic, and definitely more modern, exploring love, self-discovery, and healing. “We’re trying to extinguish fear with optimism and worry with love,” Barney says, on confronting the many crises of modern life in their new release. “VOLUME 2 breaks the mould to present a bigger picture of who we are – something with angst, surprises and more guts.” Opening numbers “Angels” and “Wanna Know (Ontario)” draw on a classic MRCY feel with their infectious grooves, soaring group harmonies and warm uplifting horns, harnessing Kojo’s flawless falsetto in an emotive introspection that yearns for a better future or for the affection of another. Yet, as the record progresses, MRCY launches into unexpected sounds and new themes. On “Man”, Kojo sings about the challenges of modern masculinity and questions the ways that men can change for the better over an energetic afrobeat polyrhythms and a jazz-inflected flute solo. “Being a man in this world is complicated and it can feel like a battle to stay open and kind," Kojo explains. “That’s why the track has that driving battle groove and the lines ‘Move out the dark and lead with light/Fight for the love a thousand times’ because we need to come together to make ourselves change for the better." Standout number “Flicker” sees Kojo sing about the temptation to give yourself emotionally to people who don’t deserve it over a Ghanaian highlife riff and a dancefloor-filling bassline. First meeting in 2021 after Barney discovered a clip of Kojo singing on Instagram and was taken by his soaring, Stevie Wonder-referencing vocals, the pair linked up at Barney’s Brixton studio and discovered an immediate connection. “It’s the most natural music I’ve ever made,” Kojo says. “Being with Barney in the studio, the ideas just come pouring out and we always lead with our initial feelings, since that produces the most authentic and heartfelt music.” The duo’s innate confidence in each other stems from their impressive musical pedigree. Barney grew up in Huddersfield and was introduced to the Yorkshire town’s soundsystem culture from an early age before going on to produce and collaborate with everyone from vocalist Obongjayar to popstar Rina Sawayama, Mercury Prize-nominees Joy Crookes, Olivia Dean and Celeste and Glaswegian soul singer Joesef. Kojo, meanwhile, draws on his South London Church-going background to deliver a mighty vocal power that references gospel emotion, choral harmony and the catalogue of soul greats like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin. Earning his stripes on London’s jam circuit, he has since provided vocals for Cleo Sol, Little Simz, Jungle and Liam Gallagher. Following the release of VOLUME 1 on tastemaking label Dead Oceans, MRCY earned a nomination for Rising Star at the Rolling Stone Awards and were named one of DIY’s Class of 2025 and Rolling Stone’s Ones to Watch. The duo also embarked on a UK and EU tour with US soul group Black Pumas and sold out their headline show at London’s Jazz Café, honing an assertive stage presence that channels tight-knit classic soul ensembles in the process. “The whole of 2024 felt like a dream, from getting signed to touring and playing our first shows to thousands of people,” says Barney. “It was a process that brought the two of us closer together, since we’ve been through so much now. Seeing the music take on a life of its own has also driven us to make even more of a statement with VOLUME 2.” The duo have certainly made huge strides since their debut release last year, and with live dates planned for later in 2025, as well as writing set to commence on their debut album, it seems there is no slowing down MRCY – a group making vital music that speaks to the complexities of being alive today. “The main feeling of the project is that the world is fucked but let’s dance through it,” Barney says. “We can’t wait for people to hear it and to feel energised by the message.” It’s a sound and a signal that has never felt more necessary.

In his 1954 book The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley theorized that every person lives and experiences life on their own island universe. We can try to explain our experience to others using language, symbols, and art, but we’ll never be sure that we’re feeling something precisely the same as anyone else. This line of thinking has become a source of inspiration for many prolific artists. Now, Cincinnati-based producer Jason Grimez is inviting us to hear what it sounds like on an island of his own creation.   The Island of Dr. Bionic is the third installment in Dr. Bionic’s Terrestrial Radio series. Due out 5/2/2025 on Chiefdom Records, it’s a collection of instrumental fusion for fans of hip-hop, jazz, funk, and beyond. Grimez is the producer, mixer, and mastermind behind Dr. Bionic. He’s a Cincinnati-based creator with a deep understanding of 90s hip-hop and DJ culture, and he draws inspiration from music of all kinds.  Grimez’ ever-growing catalog is best described as organic groove. He calls on a rotating cast of veteran musicians to join him at his home studio to write, record, and try out new ideas. Long-time listeners will find some familiar names in the liner notes, for good reason. “Life Span” (track 14) features a head-bobbing beat from Marvin Hawkins. Nick Brown is responsible for the dreamy Rhodes performance on “Shell Of The Soul” (track 11). If Charlie Suit’s unforgettable sax performance on “The Path Of Stars” (track 16) is stuck in your head for more than 3 days, please consult Dr. Bionic. Once the recording sessions are complete, the real production work begins. “We get together and record a ton of stuff, and then I’ll go back and cut it and mix it together,” Grimez explained. “It all finds a home over time.”  As a chapter of the Terrestrial Radio series, The Island of Dr. Bionic is a fresh mixtape of musical loops and ideas, curated to flow naturally from one song into the next. Listen in the car, on a turntable, or on your own little island for a glimpse inside the Dr. Bionic universe.

There’s no mistaking the sultry lilt of Eliana Glass—alternating between an offbeat, searching quality and her poignant, awe-inspiring range. Her piano playing also possesses this stirring push and pull between the otherworldly and painfully human—each melody its own unique, aching realm. Glass’ sparse, meditative music often captures, in her words, the “condensation of everyday life,” an image that suits the bittersweet, ephemeral, and abstract nature of her work. Glass’ debut album, E, arrives via Shelter Press, and not only is it a tender portrait of her lifelong relationship with the piano, it’s also a distillation of entire lifetimes into song.

The Australia-born, Seattle-bred, and New York-based singer-songwriter and pianist learned to sing and play piano by ear as a child. Glass took an immediate liking to her parents’ piano, frequently hiding underneath it and letting her imagination run wild. “I felt protected under the wooden beams, and I remember looking up at the legs, wires, and foot pedals and seeing the instrument in a new way—everything suddenly everted,” Glass recalls. “I like to think about E as recalling this memory in sound.”

Glass spent years learning jazz standards, and she also learned to sing in Portuguese after falling in love with Brazilian music. Glass studied jazz voice at The New School under teachers Andrew Cyrille, Ben Street, Jay Clayton, and Kris Davis, and she began singing in piano/bass/drums quartets around New York City. In the latter half of her studies, she started writing her own songs inspired by boundary-pushing artists like Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli, and Jeanne Lee. During the height of the pandemic, she lived with her brother Costa (who now records as ifiwereme) and felt drawn to the piano again, and they wrote songs together for the first time. Then, over a four-year span, Glass teamed up with Public Records co-founder and producer Francis Harris (Frank & Tony, Adultnapper) and engineer Bill Skibbe (Shellac, Jack White) to record what became E in various studios in Nashville, Brooklyn, Memphis, and Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Glass’ experimental, improvisational works evoke the sensual minimalism of Annette Peacock, the joyful mysteriousness of Carla Bley, and the wistful intimacy of Sibylle Baier. Her reverence for leftfield jazz and free improv greats is evident, but it’s always filtered through her signature nascent, naturalistic sound. “Dreams” is a majestic take on Peacock’s spine-tingling 1971 track of the same name, “Sing Me Softly the Blues” is a minimal, arresting reimagination of Bley’s jazz standard with lyrics adapted by Norwegian vocalist Karin Krog, and “Emahoy” is a languorous tribute to Ethiopian pianist, composer, and nun Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou and her 2006 compilation Éthiopiques. Glass’ music rests on a tactile, mercurial sound and her vocal brawn and versatility. E’s slippery stabs of double bass and drums tickle the ear canal and accentuate the percussiveness of her distinctive low voice, which blends sonorous, androgynous poise with fluttering delicacy.

E also has an enigmatic electronic bent that heightens the blurry emotions of Glass’ songwriting. From background hiss and windy vocals to kaleidoscopic synths, these subtle, tasteful adornments often came from specialized analog equipment: a 1960s underground echo chamber, a Cooper Time Cube (essentially, the hardware equivalent of processing audio through a garden hose), and a 1940s AEA ribbon microphone. But that doesn’t mean E sounds dated—Glass’ songs bloom with a forward-thinking spirit and ultimately function as vehicles for her heady emotions and fragmented memories and dreams.

For E, Glass challenged herself to channel full lifetimes within each track. Astonishingly, the seductive opening song “All My Life” manages this feat with just its three-word title. Songs like this one, the breathy ballad “Shrine,” and the spare, folky “On the Way Down” brood over past lives and reflect on memories as if disembodied and viewed from above. From missed connections to retired nicknames (“Good Friends Call Me E”), there’s a pervasive sense of disintegration and a fear of lost time. Other tracks like solo piano-and-voice numbers “Flood” and “Solid Stone” engage in more elusive storytelling, marked by brutal imagery and timeless characters. Then there’s “Human Dust,” a tranquil, rhythm-driven rendition of conceptual artist Agnes Denes’ 1969 text—a quite literal summary of a life.

Eliana Glass has come a long way since daydreaming beneath a towering keyboard. Glass’ peculiar vocal alchemy and vivid piano saunters are masterful and wholly her own, and her forthcoming debut full-length is a gift of resonant beauty and rewarding ambiguity. She now performs around New York City with bandmates Walter Stinson (bass) and Mike Gebhart (drums), in addition to solo shows perched in front of a 1979 Moog Opus organ. Also an accomplished visual artist in her own right, Glass is firmly in control of her inspired visions, even if E is spiritually adrift—though that’s kind of the point. As a musician and an improviser, Glass is enamored by and an adept wielder of the search—for meaning, for sounds, for newness, for connection. And just like Krog crooned on “Sing Me Softly the Blues” in 1975: “Life’s so thrilling / if you search.” 

Cult Japanese outsider composer K. Yoshimatsu’s key 1980’s works are collected and reissued for the first time on new career retrospective Fossil Cocoon, binding ambient, abstract punk, music concréte and purist songwriting into a single unified artform. Over a furiously prolific period from 1980 to 1985, K. [Koshiro] Yoshimatsu composed, recorded and released some forty albums in the span of a few years. These records primarily appeared under his own name, some required aliases, and others saw him compose, arrange, and produce for friends and peers in his creative circle. All of them, however, surfaced on Japan’s cult and inimitably fertile DD. Records, an astonishingly exhaustive catalogue once described as “the most amazing DIY effort ever undertaken to document an alternative music scene”. Led by close Yoshimatsu associate T. [Tadashi] Kamada, DD. Records released exactly 222 cassettes of brazenly, addictively weird Japanese outsider music over a period of five years, each with typewritten liner notes and enigmatically constructed Xerox artwork of found materials. The cassettes remain the stuff of collectors’ dreams, fetching astronomic prices on the rare occasions they surface in record stores or private sales. However, a keen archivist, Koshiro Yoshimatsu’s master recordings remained in his possession (a not unreasonable outcome given that his work was all self-recorded in his home) and meticulously filed, ready for rediscovery. Conversely, label boss Tadashi Kamada is no longer in the public eye, and not even known to have any personal online presence. He is, writes one observer, “unlikely even aware of his cult following”. Only extensive retroactive cataloguing (ardently fuelled by the cratedigging detective work of German collector Jörg Optiz) can offer any remaining memorial to his extraordinary achievements with DD. Records. Koshiro Yoshimatsu was born in 1960 in Yamaguchi City in the Chugoku region of southern Japan. In 1978, then a student of Yamaguchi University and already deeply engaged in the local arts scene, Yoshimatsu was introduced to the Japanese communications magazine PUMP by his classmate and future bandmate F. [Fumie] Yasumura. In the classified ads he chanced upon the creative work and curatorial interests of the aforementioned Tadashi Kamada, at the time a medical student in a nearby town. From their correspondence bloomed an intensely symbiotic new friendship, initially trading homespun cassettes by mail and eventually co-forming a cassette-sharing postal society named The Recycle Circle. The Recycle Circle also included the idiosyncratic saxophonist T. [Takafumi] Isotani, a member of the university’s Light Music Club, with whom Yoshimatsu (now singing, and playing guitar, bass guitar, and synthesisers, as well as programming drum machines) went on to form the unique experimental band Juma. With fluctuating line-ups, Juma managed to compose, record, and release six albums (all via DD. Records) in a single year - 1981 - before disbanding. Yoshimatsu then graduated from Yamaguchi University and relocated to Hiroshima to pursue his passion for filmmaking, all the while continuing to release his own solo music on Kamada’s now-burgeoning label. Yoshimatsu’s first solo record was the mysteriously titled pʌls, released in 1981 while still a member of Juma, and receiving the distinction of being the third entry to DD. Records’ cassette catalogue numbers. It was not until the seventeenth that we see Yoshimatsu credited again as a solo artist, this time with the strange and delicate collage album Mirror Inside. Over the breadth of Yoshimatsu’s work - solo, ensemble, and in composition for labelmates - we see a remarkable generosity of musical talent. Some records (such as those produced for Fumie Yasamura, represented here in “Violet” and “Escape”) are formed of hazy, gliding 4-track pop songs coursing with hallucinogenic electricity. Others, such as 1982’s Poplar (and its namesake track on this collection), combine bucolic nylon-string guitar rambles, vibrantly coloured with sequenced MIDI arpeggiation and the dulcet bloops of early computer programming. Deeper still, “Pastel Nostalgia”, from the 1983 album of the same name, marries childlike piano with a wailing siren tone and dripping tap percussion. It is significantly creepier, more acerbic and disembodying than the ambient or New Age music of the era, despite a similarity in raw materials. Elsewhere, Yoshimatsu floats between ambient, rock guitar, new wave, industrial, musique concréte, abstract punk, vocal music, instrumental music and pure songwriting, all bound into a single, unified experience by his distinctive compositional voice. Compiling Fossil Cocoon was a task. Not only to pare down Yoshimatsu’s substantial catalogue into a neat collection, but also to compress these enormous abilities into single moments. Koshiro himself was an invaluable lighthouse throughout the curation process, guiding us through the depths and annals of his recording career, now forty years hence, shining light onto forgotten music rescued from home-recorded tapes. The result may be an expressly varied album, but it is held magically together by Yoshimatsu’s profoundly singular creative alchemy. Koshiro continues to reside in Hiroshima, and continues to work in film. James Vella Phantom Limb February 2024, Brighton, UK

Disiniblud, the thrilling new collaborative album project from the composers/producers/multi-instrumentalists Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith. Rachika and Nina meet on complementary but seemingly disparate musical grounds. On her 2022 breakout LP Heaven Come Crashing, Rachika departed from her usual ambient guitar in favor of maximalist synths, sub-bass, and flickers of Amen breaks. Her distinct fusion of post-rock and electronica earned her accolades as Pitchfork's Best New Music, on several best of the year lists (The New York Times, Stereogum, Fader, GQ, Bandcamp, etc), and as the opening act on tour with M83. Nina, meanwhile, is best known for her self-trained approach to composition, as evident on her 2019 debut MARANASATI 19111 and its delicate medley of cello, piano, clarinet, and flute, used to explore a personal history marked by community tragedy and paranormal incidents. On Disiniblud, the two’s self-described “wordless conversation,” orbits such themes as mortality, reinvention through destruction, and sublimating fractured histories into music—all resulting in a work that suggests sweeping transformation can come from embracing old wounds with childlike wonder. Nina envisions this as she and Rachika's younger selves packing a satchel, holding hands, and daring one another to run away into a place of "wounds and wonder," only to discover an unforeseeable magic in an amalgam of post-rock, glitchy indie electronica, ambient, and pop genres in this co-created realm. Disiniblud features guest appearances from Julianna Barwick, Tujiko Noriko, Cassandra Croft, ASPIDISTRAFLY, Katie Dey, June McDoom and Ponytail's Willy Siegel.

Marking what will inevitably be a holy grail moment for fans of Italian library music, and an inevitale revelation for anyone approaching it for the first time, the venerable Dialogo returns to their broader initiative dedicated to the Italian arm of RCA’s legendary “Original Cast” series with the first ever vinyl reissue of “Industria 2000”, an astounding 1974 LP created by the legendary Italian pianist and composer, Amedeo Tommasi, under the moniker Jarrell. Regarded by many as one of the greatest experimental library records ever made - at times missable for the contemporaneous byproducts of studios like GRM or EMS, while doubly foreshadowing the synth infused soundtracks of John Carpenter and the idioms of Industrial music and Noise - it’s an immersive marvel that was years ahead of its time.
** Ltd. 300 copies, remastered edition, audiophile pressing. Perfect replica of the original packaging, newly remastered for optimal sound. ** Italy is a treasure trove of obscure and archival sounds. For decades, the products of its free-wheeling sonic cultures - spanning numerous musical genres - remained as sinfully overlooked, before being uncovered by devoted diggers and illuminated by numerous reissued initiatives. Recently, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, has led the charge into the shadows of Italy’s past, releasing a steady stream of holy grails, from the astounding Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai “Dimensioni Sonore” box set, issued in 2020, and a dedicated initiative to the work of Piero Umiliani, to a slew of coveted albums from the legendary Cramps catalog, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Their latest, the first ever reissue of “Industria 2000”, an astounding 1974 LP created by the legendary Italian pianist and composer, Amedeo Tommasi, under the moniker Jarrell, joins their recent reissues of “Equinox” and “Solstitium”, to launch Dialogo’s broader initiative dedicated to the Italian arm of RCA’s legendary “Original Cast” series, one of the most coveted and rare bodies of library music ever laid to tape. Regarded by many to be among the best and most forward-thinking experimental efforts in the entire field, and among the only library records to have ever been offered the Creel Pone treatment, “Industria 2000” is an absolute marvel of wild, avant-garde electronics and synthesis, pushing toward glorious states of pure abstraction, threaded by unexpected anchors in pop. Issued in a beautiful, perfect replica highly limited vinyl edition, if ever there was a perfect introduction to the wonders of Italian library music, this is it!

Resting within the vast expanse of visionary albums produced in Italy during the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, is the territory loosely categorised as Library music; recordings that were commissioned and owned by record labels, to be licensed for use within television programs, radio, and film, as stock. While Library music was produced in numerous countries during this period, nowhere was it more unique and groundbreaking than in Italy. Many of the country’s most noteworthy composers - Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani, Egisto Macchi, Bruno Nicolai, Sandro Brugnolini, etc. - used the context as an aggregator of radical experimentation and creative freedom, as well as a means to deliver forward-thinking music to broad audiences. Long coveted by diggers, samplers, and beat makers, these albums collectively represent one of the great treasure troves of 20th Century recorded sound: vast in its breath and endlessly adventurous and unpredictable in realisations of creative ambition.

Library music is notoriously mysterious. Its creators often worked in the shadows, with their music becoming far more familiar than the names of those who created it, something made that much more complex by the fact that composers often worked under numerous monikers and aliases, making it often impossible to know who truly made these astounding works. Among the most noteworthy of these figures was the pianist and composer, Amedeo Tommasi, who in addition to leading numerous, highly regarded jazz bands during the 1960s, and recording with artists like Chet Baker, Bobby Jaspar, René Thomas, Buddy Collette, Conte Candoli, and Jacques Pelzer, produced a large body of library music across the 1970s and '80s under the names Amedeo Forte, Atmo, Konnell, Mantissa, Silva Savigni, and Jarrell. It was under the latter alias that he created the 1974 LP, “Industria 2000” for RCA’s now legendary “Original Cast” series. Over the years, this single gesture has become one of the most highly regarded experimental library records ever laid to tape, commanding eye watering prices on the secondary market.

Comprising twelve tracks centred around the process of synthesises, “Industria 2000” is thematically rooted around the environments and work in a mechanised and industrial world. Rather than the here and now, it seems to project itself into some imagined future, and in so doing embodies this notion by presenting a totality of music that is often years ahead of time and stands almost entirely on its own within the field of 1970s creativity. Ranging from hypnotic, minimal pieces like “Mondo Industriale” that foreshadow the work of John Carpenter by a handful of years; to wild, complex electroacoustic gestures like “Industria 2000”, “Meccanizzazione” and “Sala Macchine” that could easily be mistaken for the contemporaneous byproducts of experimental electronic studios like Groupe de Recherches Musicales GRM or Elektronmusikstudion EMS, the proto-industrial rhythmical textural assaults of “Energia Pesante” that prefigure numerous idioms of noise and underground electronic music by a decade or more, and wrenches thrown by pastoral, melodic pieces like “Lavoro Sereno”, and off-kilter, completely uncategorizable works like “Lavoro a Catena”. Once encountered in both its discrete moments and totality, there’s little question why it made the cut and passed the rigorous criteria for inclusion in Creel Pone’s incredible catalog of CDr reissues back in 2012.

An absolute marvel that’s remained almost entirely inaccessible on vinyl for decades, Jarrell’s “Industria 2000” is a true visionary release, transcending the perceived bounds of Italian library music as one of the greatest experimental works in the entire canon, as well as one of the most definitive artefacts of Amedeo Tommasi’s celebrated career. Joining Dialogo’s broader initiative dedicated to the Italian arm of RCA’s legendary “Original Cast” series, this beautifully produced, limited edition LP immaculately reproduces the original Italian press and marks it’s first appearance on vinyl in roughly 50 years. An engrossing listen from the first sounding to the last, this is a holy grail moment for fans of Italian library music, and an inevitable revelation for anyone approaching it for the first time.

The latest by iconic slowburn Australian duo HTRK is an elegant nine song suite of windswept emotion and heartbreak noir, crafted in skeletal arrangements of guitar, voice, metronomes, and FX. Inspired by a recent infatuation with “eerie and gothic country music,” Rhinestones moves from whispered lament to acoustic eulogy to downtempo vignettes, tracing muted embers of loss and lust through haunted city streets. Taking cues from the economy and brevity of western folk but skewed through a narcotic, nocturnal lens, the album maps enigmatic badlands of strung out beauty and lengthening shadows.

Nigel Yang cites friendship as a central muse, “particularly the forging of it, and its potential for new feelings of telepathy and trust.” Jonnine Standish’s wounded, alluring vocals echo similar mysteries of connection and unknown crossroads, poetic but direct, dream diaries faded with age and rain. The rhinestones of the title evoke the glittering plastic of cowboy glamor, yet “made precious somehow;” Standish cites as an example a baby blue star brooch from Texas, gifted to her “from a stoned friend on New Year’s Eve 10 years ago in Brighton – cheap keepsakes can be more valuable than diamonds.”

Even for a group as enduringly versatile as HTRK, Rhinestones is a revelation, condensing their lyrical alchemy to its simmering, magnetic essence. “Sunlight Feels Like Bee Stings,” “Reverse Déjà vu,” and “Gilbert and George” in particular are masterpieces of drama, delivery, and distillation, dried flowers clouded by smoke, the candle’s flame flickering but unforgotten: “Some things are not like the others / Some friends are not like the others / did I ever say / did I ever say / did I ever say thank you?” 

We have the attached ACTRESS TRANZKRIPT 1 release on Modern Obscure Music available in a CRYSTAL CLEAR vinyl edition, exclusively for Japan, limited to 100.

Nazar’s second album, Demilitarize follows his remarkable 2020 debut Guerrilla, which was released just as Covid started to lock down the world. That first album reprocessed kuduro music from Angola with rough textures, field recordings and media clips, re-telling Nazar's personal story of the civil war that exiled his family in Europe, while his father, a rebel General, fought a losing battle in the jungle back home.

After Guerrilla, and in the early throes of a new and important romance, Nazar was hit by Covid and with a weakened immune system, the latent tuberculosis he'd incubated while living in Angola, took over his body and left him seriously ill for a year. Reckoning with mortality and the flowering of new love are the two things that motivated this album, turning the ‘rough kuduro’ of Guerrilla inside out.

Like his debut, this is a deep sound world, but in contrast to its grit and realness, Demilitarize is genuinely dreamy. The arc of the album describes shedding the armour of trauma and surrendering to this new situation. A constant and unexpected aspect of Demilitarize is Nazar's gentle, submerged vocal. Insistent and mantra-like, it’s like a cross between Elisabeth Frazer, Arthur Russell and Frank Ocean, and the music is fragile and opaque in response.

Nazar says - 'With the album being introspective, I didn't seek to capture sounds from real places to enhance it’s universe like on Guerilla. I wanted to make it almost metaphysical like creating sci-fi, with classic cyberpunk anime ‘Ghost In The Shell’ being a core inspiration.' The rhythms of kuduro are still here, but move around his voice like fish around a swimmer. The precise sound design on Demilitarize illuminates from different angles. Chords spiral, ripple and shoot through the beats giving tracks the loosest of settings. Songs disassemble and vocals float off-centre.

Demilitarize insists you zoom in, listen closely, tune into Nazar's rare vibration. Let it overwhelm you, while paying close attention. 

Madteo is one of the great eccentric visionaries of Electronic Music and his new album Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta on Unsure once more happens to be a mind-bending piece of art. Misto Atmosferico E Ad Azione Diretta shifts between focused gritty grooves and the long freeform associative adventures that you haven’t heard before, never static, sometimes overwhelming, always on edge.
The opener Cans People is an archaic rave monster, To Know Those Who is non-linear dub techno, Nocturnal Palates expands the Filter House universe and Rave Nite Itz All Right hits you hard and strange (yet subtle, in a way). The last two tracks then let loose; Madteo manipulates time, space and sounds to create the psychedelic secrets of Luglio Ottantotto. And Emo G (Sticky Wicket) explores the outskirts not only of House or Techno or whatever but music in general, a 15-min-trip through the low frequencies, the rumble, the dark hearts and the enchantment. Breathtaking. Bring The Voodoo Down.

Funded by Capitol, tracked in 14 studios, issued by Tiger Style, and lost in the Y2K shuffle, Ida’s fourth album captures a band caught between Brooklyn and Woodstock, temping and adulting, burying a parent and birthing a child. A tireless compendium and ode to sleep, sex, all-night talking, and other bed-ridden activities, Will You Find Me‘s 14-songs are pillowed with 34 outtakes, alternate mixes, 4-track demos, and covers from the band’s extensive vault, unfolding thematically across four LPs. The accompanying 24-page booklet documents Ida’s major label album that never was in both stunning photographs and Douglas Wolk’s blow-by-blow essay. Who were you then?

[Enji’s] return is spellbinding, her dreamy voice searching over tender piano and weighty double bass. - The Guardian on 'Ulbar'

For a few fleeting moments during a sunset, the sky is cast a vivid shade of amber. A dramatic flare of colour, a moment belonging to both the day and the night. It is within this vibrant, ephemeral world, that Mongolian-born, Munich-based Enji has written her new album Sonor.

Sonor is a record full of life and optimism, from an artist finding the beauty of existing between two worlds, much as a sunset does. Between the cultures of Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, nostalgia and excitement for the future. Sonor is a musical journey marked by personal growth, introspection and acknowledgment of the bittersweet feeling of change.
Enji's life has been a tapestry woven with threads from diverse cultures. Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, she was immersed in the rich traditions of Mongolian folk music from a young age. Her early exposure to urtiin duu, or "long song", a traditional Mongolian singing style characterized by extended syllables and free-form melodies, instilled in her a deep appreciation for her cultural roots.
In 2014, Enji's musical journey took a transformative turn when she participated in a program at the Goethe-Institut in Ulaanbaatar. Here, under the guidance of German bassist Martin Zenker, she was introduced to the world of jazz. The improvisational nature and emotional depth of jazz resonated with her, leading her to pursue a master's degree in jazz singing at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. This move marked the beginning of her life between cultures, as she navigated the landscapes of both her native Mongolia and her new home in Germany.
Sonor is a reflection of Enji's personal evolution and the complex emotions that accompany living between two worlds. The album's themes revolve around the unplaceable feeling of being between cultures, not as a source of conflict, but as a space for growth and self-discovery. Enji explores how distance from her traditional Mongolian roots has shaped her identity, and how returning home brings a heightened awareness of these changes.

With Sonor, Enji continues to evolve as an artist, expanding her sound into something more fluid and accessible. Whilst Enji’s musical foundations remain sturdy, with a band of world renowned jazz artists and all tracks on the record sung in Mongolian, save the obligatory standard ‘Old Folks’, Sonor leans into melody and storytelling with a newfound clarity, opening her music to a wider audience. It reflects not just a shift in style, but a deepening of her artistic voice, one that embraces accessibility without losing depth, allowing her songs to resonate on an even more universal level.
Despite being colourful and optimistic, the album is tinged with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia. This duality is perhaps best illustrated by track “Ulbar”, the Mongolian word for the colour the sky is cast during sunset. A phenomenon that is vibrant and beautiful, yet signifies the end of daylight and the transition into nighttime. Similarly, Enji's music captures the joy of new experiences and growth, while acknowledging that, as you go through life, previous experiences may no longer feel familiar.
On Sonor, Enji breathes new life into the traditional Mongolian song “Eejiinhee Hairaar” ("With My Mother’s Love"), a piece woven with nostalgia and quiet joy. She recalls how her father would hum the tune while fixing his bicycle back home in Mongolia, a simple, unremarkable moment that, in hindsight, radiates warmth and meaning. This image of music interlaced with everyday life, of melodies passed down through generations, encapsulates the spirit of Sonor. Enji isn’t just revisiting tradition, she’s distilling the feeling of home, of small joys that reveal their significance only when viewed from afar. Like a familiar song hummed by a parent, her music captures the essence of belonging, not tied to a single place, but to the emotions and memories that shape us.
Elsewhere on the record, tracks such as “Much” truly capture the melancholy of fleeting moments, still hopeful in tone, Enji’s vocals implore the listener to slow down and appreciate the passing seconds. On track “Ergelt”, Enji focuses the theme of the album through her own lens, a meditation on nostalgia and shifting familiarity, with translated lyrics capturing this duality: “A gaze full of happiness saddens me / When I try to speak my sorrow, no words come to me / Unfamiliar, yet somehow known”
Sonor is enriched by the contributions of Enji's collaborators. Elias Stemeseder is an Austrian pianist and composer known for his work in contemporary jazz and avant-garde music. Stemeseder has previously collaborated with musicians such as John Zorn and Christian Lillinger. Robert Landfermann is a German double bassist widely recognized in European jazz and improvised music circles. His playing is characterized by technical virtuosity and a deep sense of rhythm. Julian Sartorius is a Swiss drummer and percussionist with a highly textural and rhythmic approach to his instrument. His work spans jazz, electronic, and experimental music. Whilst long time collaborator Paul Brändle is a German jazz guitarist with a warm, fluid style that blends classic jazz influences with modern sensibilities.
Enji's previous work has garnered international attention and critical acclaim. Her 2023 album, Ulaan, was praised by The Guardian as "An elegant and powerful twist on traditional Mongolian music," highlighting her ability to innovate within her cultural framework.
Her unique blend of jazz and Mongolian folk has also been recognized by The Washington Post, which noted that her songs "sound so inventive, so free, yet so grounded." This balance has become a hallmark of Enji's music, earning her a place among the most intriguing voices in contemporary jazz.
With Sonor, Enji invites listeners to join her on a journey through the landscapes of her experiences, bridging cultures, embracing change and finding beauty in the transitions that define our lives. Her music serves as a reminder that, like the sunset, moments of change can be both beautiful and poignant.
As she continues to navigate her path between Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, Enji's Sonor stands as a testament to the enriching experience of living between worlds and the art that emerges from embracing one's multifaceted identity. 

[Enji’s] return is spellbinding, her dreamy voice searching over tender piano and weighty double bass. - The Guardian on 'Ulbar'

For a few fleeting moments during a sunset, the sky is cast a vivid shade of amber. A dramatic flare of colour, a moment belonging to both the day and the night. It is within this vibrant, ephemeral world, that Mongolian-born, Munich-based Enji has written her new album Sonor.

Sonor is a record full of life and optimism, from an artist finding the beauty of existing between two worlds, much as a sunset does. Between the cultures of Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, nostalgia and excitement for the future. Sonor is a musical journey marked by personal growth, introspection and acknowledgment of the bittersweet feeling of change.
Enji's life has been a tapestry woven with threads from diverse cultures. Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, she was immersed in the rich traditions of Mongolian folk music from a young age. Her early exposure to urtiin duu, or "long song", a traditional Mongolian singing style characterized by extended syllables and free-form melodies, instilled in her a deep appreciation for her cultural roots.
In 2014, Enji's musical journey took a transformative turn when she participated in a program at the Goethe-Institut in Ulaanbaatar. Here, under the guidance of German bassist Martin Zenker, she was introduced to the world of jazz. The improvisational nature and emotional depth of jazz resonated with her, leading her to pursue a master's degree in jazz singing at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. This move marked the beginning of her life between cultures, as she navigated the landscapes of both her native Mongolia and her new home in Germany.
Sonor is a reflection of Enji's personal evolution and the complex emotions that accompany living between two worlds. The album's themes revolve around the unplaceable feeling of being between cultures, not as a source of conflict, but as a space for growth and self-discovery. Enji explores how distance from her traditional Mongolian roots has shaped her identity, and how returning home brings a heightened awareness of these changes.

With Sonor, Enji continues to evolve as an artist, expanding her sound into something more fluid and accessible. Whilst Enji’s musical foundations remain sturdy, with a band of world renowned jazz artists and all tracks on the record sung in Mongolian, save the obligatory standard ‘Old Folks’, Sonor leans into melody and storytelling with a newfound clarity, opening her music to a wider audience. It reflects not just a shift in style, but a deepening of her artistic voice, one that embraces accessibility without losing depth, allowing her songs to resonate on an even more universal level.
Despite being colourful and optimistic, the album is tinged with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia. This duality is perhaps best illustrated by track “Ulbar”, the Mongolian word for the colour the sky is cast during sunset. A phenomenon that is vibrant and beautiful, yet signifies the end of daylight and the transition into nighttime. Similarly, Enji's music captures the joy of new experiences and growth, while acknowledging that, as you go through life, previous experiences may no longer feel familiar.
On Sonor, Enji breathes new life into the traditional Mongolian song “Eejiinhee Hairaar” ("With My Mother’s Love"), a piece woven with nostalgia and quiet joy. She recalls how her father would hum the tune while fixing his bicycle back home in Mongolia, a simple, unremarkable moment that, in hindsight, radiates warmth and meaning. This image of music interlaced with everyday life, of melodies passed down through generations, encapsulates the spirit of Sonor. Enji isn’t just revisiting tradition, she’s distilling the feeling of home, of small joys that reveal their significance only when viewed from afar. Like a familiar song hummed by a parent, her music captures the essence of belonging, not tied to a single place, but to the emotions and memories that shape us.
Elsewhere on the record, tracks such as “Much” truly capture the melancholy of fleeting moments, still hopeful in tone, Enji’s vocals implore the listener to slow down and appreciate the passing seconds. On track “Ergelt”, Enji focuses the theme of the album through her own lens, a meditation on nostalgia and shifting familiarity, with translated lyrics capturing this duality: “A gaze full of happiness saddens me / When I try to speak my sorrow, no words come to me / Unfamiliar, yet somehow known”
Sonor is enriched by the contributions of Enji's collaborators. Elias Stemeseder is an Austrian pianist and composer known for his work in contemporary jazz and avant-garde music. Stemeseder has previously collaborated with musicians such as John Zorn and Christian Lillinger. Robert Landfermann is a German double bassist widely recognized in European jazz and improvised music circles. His playing is characterized by technical virtuosity and a deep sense of rhythm. Julian Sartorius is a Swiss drummer and percussionist with a highly textural and rhythmic approach to his instrument. His work spans jazz, electronic, and experimental music. Whilst long time collaborator Paul Brändle is a German jazz guitarist with a warm, fluid style that blends classic jazz influences with modern sensibilities.
Enji's previous work has garnered international attention and critical acclaim. Her 2023 album, Ulaan, was praised by The Guardian as "An elegant and powerful twist on traditional Mongolian music," highlighting her ability to innovate within her cultural framework.
Her unique blend of jazz and Mongolian folk has also been recognized by The Washington Post, which noted that her songs "sound so inventive, so free, yet so grounded." This balance has become a hallmark of Enji's music, earning her a place among the most intriguing voices in contemporary jazz.
With Sonor, Enji invites listeners to join her on a journey through the landscapes of her experiences, bridging cultures, embracing change and finding beauty in the transitions that define our lives. Her music serves as a reminder that, like the sunset, moments of change can be both beautiful and poignant.
As she continues to navigate her path between Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, Enji's Sonor stands as a testament to the enriching experience of living between worlds and the art that emerges from embracing one's multifaceted identity. 

New York-based composer and percussionist Eli Keszler will release his self-titled album via LUCKYME on 2nd May. Having garnered critical acclaim for his past solo records, the Grammy® Nominated artist’s latest is a freewheeling, Lynchian song-cycle in which his virtuosic performances traverse a living landscape of abstract electronic sound. The album breathes, creaks and sighs through its twelve tracks, with noirish jazz torch songs giving way to skittering drums and cinematic, dubbed-out textures, the lyrics whispered and cried by near-inaudible, distant voices. Featuring guest appearances from singer Sofie Royer and saxophonist Sam Gendel, Keszler realised he could take an erratic, granular language of percussion and apply it to something entirely distant in association. “The result is a reverent, almost religious feeling,” he explains, “a music of stasis built from tiny fragments.” Setting out to make an album of songs, he wanted to pursue a similar approach: recontextualization and recombination, exploring what happens when all the colours and moods that resonate collide. “I aimed to take a feeling and let the music move freely across mediums, materials, and genres—allowing it to go wherever it wanted while staying out of its way, gently guiding the process.” For Keszler, this fluidity often emerges from a place of personal turmoil, or a moment of transformation, and he knew he wanted to capture it. “A genderless character started to take shape —contemporary and familiar, appearing in various forms across culture” he explains. Out of this came nocturnal music, a blend of internal voices, coalescing into something nameless. Echoes of words
stretching into string clusters, guitar slides, melodic textures, whispered voices, walking basslines, underground chords, fast granular drums, and multi-directional rhythms. Everything coated in a sheen of despair and grandeur. 

A prolific and limitless musician, performer, composer, and sound artist, Lucrecia Dalt challenges both genre and form, pulling apart familiar elements of pop and experimental music and reassembling them in unexpected ways.

Breaking through to a wider audience with her acclaimed 2022 album ¡Ay!, Dalt has also made a name as a composer for film and TV, including her original, acclaimed scores for HBO’s series The Baby, Cannes 2024 feature film winner On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, and the forthcoming psychological horror The Rabbit Trap.

With “cosa rara,” her new single featuring mixing, production, and a rare appearance by cult music legend David Sylvian, the subject of one's self becomes an unlikely infatuation. Distilling the highs of love, and sonically translating with production precision and hyper focused clarity, “cosa rara” is a bold return for Dalt, inviting listeners on a thrilling escapade of sound and psychology.

Artwork by Nicola Tirabasso and Alison Fielding
Thanks to Jack Colleran, Henry Earnest, Finn Carraher Mc Donald, Margie Jean Lewis, Róisin Berkley, Luka Seifert, Diego Herrera, and Olan Monk
Recorded in Conamara and Dublin between 2021 and 2023.

Originally released in 1993, Quique (pronounced “keek”) was the first album by UK band Seefeel. A landmark album, it’s unique blend of shoegaze fuzz, abstract electronic sounds and sparse minimalism made it a must have for any collector of ambient techno. Released by too pure, the album was reissued in expanded form as Quique Redux on cd in 2007. About it, Pitchfork wrote that “Quique showed how the oceanic end of shoegaze could be found in a purely electronic world” and called the album “timeless”.

"Quique was very much a product of its time in terms of who we were as people, the social world we inhabited and the technology available to us. I think the album was very much restricted by the relatively primitive technology we were using by today's standards, but that very restriction is I think partly what gives it its flavour."– MARK CLIFFORD

We are excited to make Quique and Quique Redux available again, newly remastered by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road.

QUIQUE REDUX will be available on vinyl for the first time via a limited edition 4XLP set through the Beggars Arkive webstore and bandcamp only. The release is housed in a slipcase with new artwork. The cd version is not limited and will be available everywhere. Quique Redux is comprised of Quique plus 9 bonus tracks of alternate versions and material that wasn’t included on the original album.

QUIQUE will be available everywhere on double LP, remastered.

Lindsay Olsen aka Salami Rose Joe Louis is a genre traveller multi-instrumentalist female producer and a signee to Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. She returns with her most personal album to date on April 25th, 2025.

Delightfully raw and heartfelt, ‘Lorings’ is a collection of songs that find SRJL displaying her vulnerability through a playful and sonically explorative lens. “I was hoping to bypass the distillation process of overthinking outside perception,” she says. “Each song feels like a significant section of my personality has been carved out and put on a platter for public consumption, which is a devastating thought [haha].”

This record she made almost entirely autonomously on her trusty Roland MV8800 workstation. For a couple of songs, SRJL invited a handful of exceptionally talented friends to collaborate: guitarist/producer Flanafi (with whom Olsen partnered for the collaborative album ‘Sarah’ in 2024); Omari Jazz (Black Decelerant); Luke Titus and Sergio Machado Plim.

Lead single “Inside” was born of a tumultuous chapter in Olsen’s life – one that she hopes never to repeat. Floating atop gently revolving Polybrute arpeggios, it’s a sombre but incredibly beautiful and powerful song. “My hope, by putting this song first on the record – and making it the first single – is that some of the songs that follow have more levity and hope, leaving this heaviness behind,” she surmises.

Elsewhere on ‘Lorings’, Olsen addresses themes of imposter syndrome, falling in love, heartbreak, the idea of family and parenthood, superficiality, her frustrations with the music industry (“I dunno the way… For I cannot play… The game”). She does revisit more familiar tropes too as exemplified by “Motorway (feat. Flanafi)”. “I feel like the world is being confronted with an enormous lack of humanity at the moment and it feels impossible to comprehend how people can be so cruel,” she declares. 

Eight years removed from his celebrated self-titled debut album, Motion Graphics (a.k.a. NYC electronic artist Joe Williams) has returned with a brand-new release, Glossolalia. A transcontinental collaboration with Japanese artist Utena Kobayashi, the record—which also features remixes from Portland ambient/new age duo Visible Cloaks and Japanese electronic music veteran Kuniyuki Takahashi—explores a delicate strain of ambient pop, its nuanced contours reflecting Williams’ unique ability to wield production technology in a way that feels not just poignant, but deeply human.

*2025 reissue* Ralf and Florian (original German title: Ralf und Florian) is the third studio album by the German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in October 1973 and it saw the group moving toward their signature electronic sound. This work introduces greater cleanliness in the sounds and intensifies the use of electronic instrumentation, namely synths (Mini Moog, the EMS AKS and Farfisa), drum machines and, for the first time, a prototype vocoder. The formation thus approaches the stylistic code of the best-known works, starting from Autobahn, the latter considered to be the true debut of Kraftwerk. In 2008, Fact named it among the 20 greatest ambient albums ever made.