PRE-ORDERS

'Edge Conditions' is the new album by Chicago born and raised, longtime Los Angeles based composer, synthesist, and multi-media artist Jeremiah Chiu.

Following three electro-acoustic duo albums with violist Marta Sofia Honer (one in collaboration with late legend of minimalist music Ariel Kalma) and three heavily-fused trance-jazz LPs with his co-led quintet SML, 'Edge Conditions' settles Chiu into a world of densely layered, tightly composed electronic music deviations in the vein of the YMO spinoffs, Arthur Russell 12-inch mixes, Yasuaki Shimizu, classic Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, or Art of Noise. Outsider deconstructions spun through the dance/chill cycle and lovingly rebuilt on California land. There’s an emotional, energetic arc here — a shining display of Chiu’s range and depth as both a composer and producer, in which every facet of his collaborative work and sonic personality feels represented without force.

Chiu’s previous solo album, 2023’s 'In Electric Time', was a first-thought-best-thought album recorded at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in LA, and offered a narrower glimpse into his solo process and sound, essentially acting as a collection of studies & experiments à la Raymond Scott's essential 'Manhattan Research Inc'. The goal was for the work to be immediate, improvisational, and born of quick decision making. The operation was ultimately simple: Jeremiah Chiu, synth practitioner, finding his way around a very impressive collection of analog synthesizers, recording said findings to 8-track tape.

'Edge Conditions' expanded the aim of that approach to make room for a larger scope of vision, developing under a more nuanced series of self-imposed boundaries, limitations, and clarifying frameworks meant to help connect the threads of the disparate artistic worlds Chiu inhabits in a more patiently-considered way. The music was mostly written and recorded during February and March of 2026, with the composer operating both in isolation and with a select team of musical comrades, while also incorporating live collaborations, field recordings, and audio sketches going back years.

About the album’s title and binding concept, Chiu says: “In architecture, “edge conditions” are the boundaries, interfaces, or transition zones between two different areas, materials, or states, often acting as a unique, occupiable, or functional space. They describe the interaction between systems — such as public vs. private land, or contrasting building materials — and are critical in architectural design, urban planning, and ecology for their "active" or "passive" nature. Thematically, the idea of an architectural edge condition came to mind during the process of making this record as it, too, feels like a practice bound by (environmental) restrictions, or boundaries.”

“Way In” is the album’s bite-sized call to action. A classic key-turner, this introductory wind-up promptly kicks into a wave of bleeping electronics atop a melancholic synth motif while chaotic, ultra-processed drum samples build at warp speed in wide stereo. By the time we know what is happening the mid-tempo techno-jazz of “A.M. Fuses” is in full swing, echoing the sonic upheaval of turn of the century Chicago — Tortoise, Prekop, Chicago Underground, et al — and the magnetic pull it had for formative groups like Stereolab. It’s more than just a reference, though. These sounds are from a community that Chiu grew up listening to and is now, fittingly, enmeshed in as a forward-marching composer in his own right.

“In Visibility” eases in with soulfully abstract drip-drop melodies, quickly and smoothly enveloped by a laid back west coast rhythm. “It was written with Art of Noise in mind, whom I love,” says Chiu. “I always get the sense that they’re having fun. Their music is all incredibly dialed in, but there’s a lightness to it — serious play.” It’s a spaced-out cruiser of a tune and a perfect example of Chiu’s use of industrial sounding texture to create an almost humanlike sense of pulse and breath. Somewhere in the multiverse an alternate Laurie Spiegel came home from the club, recorded the perfect makeout track, and it sounded exactly like this.

The title track follows with a wide-swinging pendulum, boasting both the most sensuous groove and the noisiest chaos on the album: ramping up the tension with truly anarchic processing of Marquis Hill (trumpet), Will Miller (EVI), and Patrick Shiroishi (saxophone) before a cool down coda of synthetic ambient waves and cut-up distant human chatter, segueing again, suddenly tuff, into the muscle drums of “Interfaces.”

That wide swing is something that covers the entirety of 'Edge Conditions', and it’s the sheer breadth of the spectrum which really makes the record shine as a whole. As listeners, we’re never in the same place for long. The pastiche of recording styles and fidelities, the quick cut employment of field recorded moments, the building and dissolving textural focuses — it’s all done within tracks, as well as over the album in macro. It’s clear that Chiu is not solely focused on one thing, and that he is insisting, correctly, that all of his points of focus work together.

It’s on the most radical departures that Chiu proves himself right. “Sentimental Object,” which features luscious strings from Marta Sofia Honer, delivers an almost academic turn away from pulsing drone and cool modality, instead favoring a tonal concern with drama, tension, and tonic resolution. Chord changes, essentially, and more of them than you think, all nestled in a dense collection of expertly synthesized sonic layers. “The day I first sketched it out, I re-listened to a Handel figured bass exercise as well as Ryuichi Sakamoto’s async,” says Chiu. “It felt like what I was doing subconsciously had these reference points. There’s this incredible melancholic feeling that overtakes you when listening to Sakamoto’s song “andata.” It’s impossible not to be moved by it. Similarly, Albinoni’s Adagio shares this melancholy, but feels more uplifting and hopeful, almost stately.”

“Sentimental Object” certainly embodies that stately melancholy while maintaining the boundaries and limitations of the larger project, showing us that anything goes as long as the internal logic is followed. The entire album maintains an effortless, almost tidal ebb-and-flow. Each new moment arrives and dissolves just when it should, not a moment before and never outstaying its welcome. Chiu is, here, making a very difficult thing look very easy. A mathematical equation that is somehow ecstatic. Rarely has something so masterful sounded so hip: total rhythmic transformations accompanied by harmonic and melodic modulation drawing clear, functional lines between distinct, fully developed and interconnected moments. Edge conditions.

By contrast, “Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines” returns us to the body: dense but soft train whistle puffs beg the attention behind a steady shaker before the beat drops courtesy of SML bandmate Booker Stardrum. Chiu’s modular chatter sits on top of Stardrum’s deeply saturated low-end percussive bump, augmented by only occasional, expertly placed phrases of tonality amongst the satisfying chaos of pings, clangs, and shimmers. The train has left the station, no doubt, and in the final movement the rider joins the pastoral world: the chatter becomes tonal and melodic; the percussion becomes gentle and deliberate; a long and simple melody hovers delicately on top. It’s in this second movement that we hear what might be the most Chicago vibe on the record, with Chiu reflecting back the essence of his heroes as a peer from the next generation.

'Edge Conditions' is that full reflection and most definitely the first full-frame look at Jeremiah Chiu as a composer. Here, one of the most exciting artists in Los Angeles, a subtly ground-breaking new voice in contemporary music across the globe, finally flashes his badge and steps fully into the spotlight.

'Edge Conditions' is the new album by Chicago born and raised, longtime Los Angeles based composer, synthesist, and multi-media artist Jeremiah Chiu.

Following three electro-acoustic duo albums with violist Marta Sofia Honer (one in collaboration with late legend of minimalist music Ariel Kalma) and three heavily-fused trance-jazz LPs with his co-led quintet SML, 'Edge Conditions' settles Chiu into a world of densely layered, tightly composed electronic music deviations in the vein of the YMO spinoffs, Arthur Russell 12-inch mixes, Yasuaki Shimizu, classic Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, or Art of Noise. Outsider deconstructions spun through the dance/chill cycle and lovingly rebuilt on California land. There’s an emotional, energetic arc here — a shining display of Chiu’s range and depth as both a composer and producer, in which every facet of his collaborative work and sonic personality feels represented without force.

Chiu’s previous solo album, 2023’s 'In Electric Time', was a first-thought-best-thought album recorded at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in LA, and offered a narrower glimpse into his solo process and sound, essentially acting as a collection of studies & experiments à la Raymond Scott's essential 'Manhattan Research Inc'. The goal was for the work to be immediate, improvisational, and born of quick decision making. The operation was ultimately simple: Jeremiah Chiu, synth practitioner, finding his way around a very impressive collection of analog synthesizers, recording said findings to 8-track tape.

'Edge Conditions' expanded the aim of that approach to make room for a larger scope of vision, developing under a more nuanced series of self-imposed boundaries, limitations, and clarifying frameworks meant to help connect the threads of the disparate artistic worlds Chiu inhabits in a more patiently-considered way. The music was mostly written and recorded during February and March of 2026, with the composer operating both in isolation and with a select team of musical comrades, while also incorporating live collaborations, field recordings, and audio sketches going back years.

About the album’s title and binding concept, Chiu says: “In architecture, “edge conditions” are the boundaries, interfaces, or transition zones between two different areas, materials, or states, often acting as a unique, occupiable, or functional space. They describe the interaction between systems — such as public vs. private land, or contrasting building materials — and are critical in architectural design, urban planning, and ecology for their "active" or "passive" nature. Thematically, the idea of an architectural edge condition came to mind during the process of making this record as it, too, feels like a practice bound by (environmental) restrictions, or boundaries.”

“Way In” is the album’s bite-sized call to action. A classic key-turner, this introductory wind-up promptly kicks into a wave of bleeping electronics atop a melancholic synth motif while chaotic, ultra-processed drum samples build at warp speed in wide stereo. By the time we know what is happening the mid-tempo techno-jazz of “A.M. Fuses” is in full swing, echoing the sonic upheaval of turn of the century Chicago — Tortoise, Prekop, Chicago Underground, et al — and the magnetic pull it had for formative groups like Stereolab. It’s more than just a reference, though. These sounds are from a community that Chiu grew up listening to and is now, fittingly, enmeshed in as a forward-marching composer in his own right.

“In Visibility” eases in with soulfully abstract drip-drop melodies, quickly and smoothly enveloped by a laid back west coast rhythm. “It was written with Art of Noise in mind, whom I love,” says Chiu. “I always get the sense that they’re having fun. Their music is all incredibly dialed in, but there’s a lightness to it — serious play.” It’s a spaced-out cruiser of a tune and a perfect example of Chiu’s use of industrial sounding texture to create an almost humanlike sense of pulse and breath. Somewhere in the multiverse an alternate Laurie Spiegel came home from the club, recorded the perfect makeout track, and it sounded exactly like this.

The title track follows with a wide-swinging pendulum, boasting both the most sensuous groove and the noisiest chaos on the album: ramping up the tension with truly anarchic processing of Marquis Hill (trumpet), Will Miller (EVI), and Patrick Shiroishi (saxophone) before a cool down coda of synthetic ambient waves and cut-up distant human chatter, segueing again, suddenly tuff, into the muscle drums of “Interfaces.”

That wide swing is something that covers the entirety of 'Edge Conditions', and it’s the sheer breadth of the spectrum which really makes the record shine as a whole. As listeners, we’re never in the same place for long. The pastiche of recording styles and fidelities, the quick cut employment of field recorded moments, the building and dissolving textural focuses — it’s all done within tracks, as well as over the album in macro. It’s clear that Chiu is not solely focused on one thing, and that he is insisting, correctly, that all of his points of focus work together.

It’s on the most radical departures that Chiu proves himself right. “Sentimental Object,” which features luscious strings from Marta Sofia Honer, delivers an almost academic turn away from pulsing drone and cool modality, instead favoring a tonal concern with drama, tension, and tonic resolution. Chord changes, essentially, and more of them than you think, all nestled in a dense collection of expertly synthesized sonic layers. “The day I first sketched it out, I re-listened to a Handel figured bass exercise as well as Ryuichi Sakamoto’s async,” says Chiu. “It felt like what I was doing subconsciously had these reference points. There’s this incredible melancholic feeling that overtakes you when listening to Sakamoto’s song “andata.” It’s impossible not to be moved by it. Similarly, Albinoni’s Adagio shares this melancholy, but feels more uplifting and hopeful, almost stately.”

“Sentimental Object” certainly embodies that stately melancholy while maintaining the boundaries and limitations of the larger project, showing us that anything goes as long as the internal logic is followed. The entire album maintains an effortless, almost tidal ebb-and-flow. Each new moment arrives and dissolves just when it should, not a moment before and never outstaying its welcome. Chiu is, here, making a very difficult thing look very easy. A mathematical equation that is somehow ecstatic. Rarely has something so masterful sounded so hip: total rhythmic transformations accompanied by harmonic and melodic modulation drawing clear, functional lines between distinct, fully developed and interconnected moments. Edge conditions.

By contrast, “Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines” returns us to the body: dense but soft train whistle puffs beg the attention behind a steady shaker before the beat drops courtesy of SML bandmate Booker Stardrum. Chiu’s modular chatter sits on top of Stardrum’s deeply saturated low-end percussive bump, augmented by only occasional, expertly placed phrases of tonality amongst the satisfying chaos of pings, clangs, and shimmers. The train has left the station, no doubt, and in the final movement the rider joins the pastoral world: the chatter becomes tonal and melodic; the percussion becomes gentle and deliberate; a long and simple melody hovers delicately on top. It’s in this second movement that we hear what might be the most Chicago vibe on the record, with Chiu reflecting back the essence of his heroes as a peer from the next generation.

'Edge Conditions' is that full reflection and most definitely the first full-frame look at Jeremiah Chiu as a composer. Here, one of the most exciting artists in Los Angeles, a subtly ground-breaking new voice in contemporary music across the globe, finally flashes his badge and steps fully into the spotlight.

“dm studies 000 - 004” is the first official music release by Daito Manabe, a visual artist, programmer, and composer who has continued to push the boundaries of music, technology, and visual expression. Originally released exclusively at the venue of the new festival “Future Frequencies Festival,” which Manabe co-organized in 2026, the CD is now available to the general public. Comprising five tracks, *dm studies 000 - 004* is an avant-garde electronic music work created around themes of contrasting concepts such as “chaos and order” and “humanity and process.” It explores the intersection of classical mathematical principles, beautifully and intricately constructed kinetic sound design, and club music, presenting Daito Manabe’s unique and cutting-edge musical universe.

Lamin Fofana takes inspiration from Aimé Césaire’s 1950 poetry collection Corps Perdu, translating its ideas into exploratory electronic music built from processed melodies, fragmented rhythms and sound. Developed through reading and listening sessions in Paris, Barcelona, Tunis and New York, the album forms part of Fofana’s wider engagement with Black Studies and writers including W.E.B. Du Bois, Sylvia Wynter, Édouard Glissant and Suzanne Césaire. Its ten pieces follow Césaire’s imagery of scattering, upheaval and metamorphosis, connecting literature, sound and performance.

Topu Lyo’s debut solo album quiet scenes from tokyo collects sixteen miniatures recorded in his Tokyo apartment using little more than cello and a Roland Space Echo. Extended techniques mimic electronic effects, moving between bowed drones, rhythmic pizzicato and strange, granular-sounding passages. The nearby freeway also became part of the music: traffic seeps naturally into the recordings alongside passing announcements and the city’s daily sunset melody. Sparse and exploratory, the album finds unexpected connections between acoustic cello, environmental sound and electronic production.

Brainstory pay tribute to their now-defunct Long Beach studio, Shoebox, with an EP drawn from recordings made in the tiny, gear-packed space. ‘The Watchers’ opens with horns, crunchy drums and G-funk bass, while ‘Blend’ brings sun-soaked psych-soul and ‘Twin Kitchen’ rides Eric Hagstrom’s tight drumming. Kevin Martin celebrates solitude on ‘Home Alone’, before ‘Lone Traveler’ pushes the trio’s jazz instincts forward. ‘Gravity Hill’ heads into stranger territory, with ‘Necessary Loss’ bringing the Shoebox era to a fitting close.

Brainstory pay tribute to their now-defunct Long Beach studio, Shoebox, with an EP drawn from recordings made in the tiny, gear-packed space. ‘The Watchers’ opens with horns, crunchy drums and G-funk bass, while ‘Blend’ brings sun-soaked psych-soul and ‘Twin Kitchen’ rides Eric Hagstrom’s tight drumming. Kevin Martin celebrates solitude on ‘Home Alone’, before ‘Lone Traveler’ pushes the trio’s jazz instincts forward. ‘Gravity Hill’ heads into stranger territory, with ‘Necessary Loss’ bringing the Shoebox era to a fitting close.

Ernest Langlin, one of Jamaica’s leading guitarists who helped spread ska and reggae around the world, has had his wildly popular and extremely rare 1976 album Ranglypso—recorded with Monty Alexander for the German label MPS— reissued on vinyl for the first time ever!

"Crashing on American shores in a gothic fit of FauxAD melancholy, ethereal wave was the scene that celebrated its own stillbirth. Among the genre’s pinnacle works is Elysium’s lone album Glisten, which arrived on compact disc under the Dewdrops Records banner in 1995. Come for the lush and atmospheric cooings of Jenny Adams, stay for the clean-tone precision of Rodney Rodriguez. Is this heaven or Los Angeles?"

Editions Mego presents GETGETGET by Thomas Brinkmann, which serves as an inquiry into silence, code, and the limits of perception. "The title GETGETGET references the trilogy of ‘Get’ lp’s made by Rehberg under his PITA moniker; Get Out, Get In and Get On. The music is based on material by Rehberg and Brinkmann morphing these two identities into a third colour, a disappearing colour. Emerging from a live performance at the label’s 30th anniversary in Berlin, the work unfolds as both sonic artifact and conceptual system: a study in what remains when sound is reduced, extracted, and reconstituted. Taking inspiration from Günther Anders’ notion of “negative music”—composition through absence—Brinkmann’s approach aligns with Heinrich Böll’s idea of “collected silence”: silence not as void, but as a material framed against the constant pressure of noise. In GETGETGET, pauses are not gaps but structural elements, cut from a continuum and reinserted as signals. The two side long tracks weave a dark abstract and ‘twisted’ presence where the ghosts of the machines and their operators fuse into a fantastical whole. One can hear traces of both Brinkmann and Rehberg logic which seems to fuse in a hallucinatory manner. Brinkmann’s work reflects a broader condition: the translation of material processes into informational ones. As images detach from bodies and code separates from matter, sound too loses its fixed resonance. What remains is circulation—of signals, of data, of meaning—within systems that increasingly define perception itself. GETGETGET is an album where absence is equal to presence, a metaphor with suggestive tones of the influence Rehberg had and continues to have in the world of the radical experimental electronic avant garde. The “zero” is not empty; it is what makes everything else work."

Markus Guentner’s 2001 debut In Moll emerged from the early years of Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series and has since become a cult favourite of 21st-century ambient music. Across its patient, spacious compositions, delicate melodic fragments, soft synth washes, distant bells and deep bass tones create an enveloping, dreamlike sound. Warm yet melancholy, In Moll helped establish Guentner as a distinctive voice in electronic music, earning admirers including Kompakt founders Michael Mayer and Wolfgang Voigt. This 25th anniversary edition also includes a reworked interpretation of the album by Guentner himself.

The fifth LP in the long history of the label comes from another Belgian producer who is ready to fly high. After San Soda, Metrobox, Uni Son and label boss Red D it is now time for Tom Smeyers to step up and take us into his universe of warm grooves and sweet house music…with a twist.Taking in influences from around the full spectrum of electronic music these six tracks represent what Tom is about at the moment. From deepest old school inspired house to more broken beat action right into drum’n’bass territory, with an attention to detail and experienced sound design.As if that wasn’t enough Tom also took care of the artwork to match his music. We here at WPH call that a 360 artist. Welcome to the family Tom Smeyers!DTM Funk: Super Dope!DJ Bone: Really great release. I love every track!Owain K: Classy grooves for dancefloor moves.Séa: Lovely!Simon Caldwell: Beautiful machine house music. Takes me back and takes me forward.Satoshi Fumi: Really love all!Severino Panzetta: Great sound.Ame: Thanks for these.DJ Merci: Top release!Red D: So good I just had to release these J

Holy Tongue are a trio composed of Valentina Magaletti, Al Wootton and Susumu Mukai. Accomplished musicians in their own right, they combined to create psychedelic, free-form, high energy, spiritual dub-dance music across a trilogy of critically acclaimed EPs and their debut album Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare. Their high energy live performances invoke the experimental dub of On-U-Sound, the frenetic rhythms of 23 Skidoo, Liquid Liquid and ESG, and the spiritual energy of free jazz. The trio’s dynamic collaboration extends in their meeting with Shackleton, one of the most original and critically lauded voices in electronic music. Shackleton has moved from the depths of the early 2000s dubstep underground to a diverse range of international collaborations and commissions over the last two decades. After honing his hypnotic beats on the cult UK record label Skull Disco, his unique rhythmic touch is now heard on some of the most adventurous and progressive projects that have emerged from the European dance scene in recent years. Shackleton’s work explores conceptual and spiritual themes with an emotional depth beyond most artists working in European dance music today, and his visions of inner space, apocalypse and dread are more timely than ever before. This record was conceived after Holy Tongue and Shackleton shared a festival line up in Sweden. Holy Tongue were initially keen to get Shackleton to remix one of their existing tracks but they soon decided to have a project together and work on some fresh new music, allowing Shackleton to do something more creative with it in the studio. Thus Holy Tongue recorded a collection of raw material in the studio and sent it to Shackleton. The result is far more than the sum of its parts. A psychedelic, ritualistic, dub trip, oscillating between the maximal and the minimal, the internal and the external, the micro and the macro, ecstasy and agony, all the tumbling psychic joy of now.

Japan’s electroacoustic vanguard reconvene for their second album proper, once again shining light on previously unoccupied space somewhere between Arthur Russell and Autechre. It’s supremely moody, impossibly innovative business, folding Yuki Nakagawa's no-wave'd cello vamps into Koshiro Hino (aka YPY)'s brittle electroid syncopations, absolutely essential listening if you’re into SND, Pan Sonic, DNA, Suicide.'KAK' - what a title - is the next stage of KAKUHAN’s evolution, seemingly self-titled but hiding plenty of clues if you understand Japanese. "KAK" can evoke a number of different characteristics: edge or angularity, core, expansion, agitation or absence. The duo meditate and refract these guiding principles over nine tracks (and a bonus digital addendum) with their usual focus on the interplay between man and machine - something Hino's been exploring for many years with both his solo work as YPY, and with his pioneering band, goat (JP). Working with electronics (drum machines, samplers, oscillators) Hino infuses weightless rhythms with rare fluidity, as if tracing an algorithm trained on Milford Graves. His rubbery, bio-mechanical outbursts are formed into jagged, continuum-confusing trajectories - prismatic spaces where grime intersects footwork and jersey club, and drill corkscrews thru gagaku and Americana.Yuki Nakagawa's emphatic improvisations are just as mind-altering. While he holds back at first, accenting Hino's rapid-fire sequences with hollow, resonant scrapes and junked Downtown distortions, he eventually edges further towards centre stage. Featherlight cello squeals are elongated, imagining a decelerated hoedown, angling folk-y, ecstatic shapes while Hino responds with drum machine prangs. Soon, the duo skewer nervy baroque ornamentation with clockwork whirrs that trip over themselves, the insectoid rhythmic fractals gradually scuttling around a droning cello. By the end of the album, the duo have somehow completely switched roles; Hino's grey boxes now sounding as if they've been excavated from ancient ground, while Nakagawa's strings throb with cybernetic energy, beamed in from a far dimension.

When one thinks of the terms “mass” and “massive” in music, especially contemporary music, perhaps certain aural images come to mind: generic metal heaviness; dynamics-bereft noise; ear-battering dance floor madness; the multitudinous forms of drone darkness. All of these are massive in their own fashion. However, this new studio album from 7FO (pronounced “nana f o”), a composer-performer based in northern Osaka, investigates and inhabits a different aspect of the massive. A glorious combination: dense low frequencies; sculpturally condensed blocks of sound, subtly swinging gravitational fields ― and a surprising sense of rolling and rollicking joyfulness and play. “Massive” doesn’t have to mean “dark” ― consider the sun. This is the third 7FO release on EM Records, following the well-received “Ryu no Nukegara (Dragon's Husk)" (2018). On these 2024-25 recordings, 7FO focuses his drum machines, synths and musical vision into eight compact structures which were partially inspired by the intense essence of American pre-war blues and the shining soul of traditional Ethiopian music, especially the works related to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. While not obviously evident, the glowing core of these musics has been captured and condensed here; another inspiration is the massive sculptural 1980s works of Yoshi Wada ― although there are obvious differences, there is a similar material tangibility to the vibration of the air. The final piece, “Shirohebi”, is an update of the b-side of 7FO's 7-inch single "Healing Sword" (2023), featured on Henry Rollins’ radio program. We invite you to experience and enjoy these eight massive blocks of sound, imbued with 7FO’s heartfelt warmth and humour, dense but not dark; shifting, rolling, appearing and disappearing: 7FO once picked up a roadside stone, which split as it sat in his palm. This experience, referenced in the release’s title, hints at the metaphysical magic of music, a realm beyond mere coincidence: even the massive density of stone can split, and reveal the magic within. Available on CD, LP and digital download. Artwork by Hiroaki Hidaka.

The two have built a creative relationship over the last 15 years, connecting through an ongoing exchange of music and ideas. ‘Answers’ sees this dialogue develop into a fully collaborative body of work both sonically and visually, rooted in the idea of looking back as a means to move forward.

Electronic musician nthng presents his fifth album, Last Light of the Sun, his debut release on topo2. Renowned for his meticulous productions and quietly distinctive artistic voice, nthng continues to move effortlessly between ambient, IDM, dub techno, and drum & bass without ever feeling bound by genre. Last Light of the Sun shows that the album format is a natural home for nthng's expansive musical vision. Throughout its ten compositions, the album moves gracefully between dreamlike melodic passages, restrained, fragile 4/4 structures, melancholic drum & bass punctuated by vintage house vocal fragments, and spacious ambient compositions that feel unmistakably his own. The double LP is released by adventurous electronic music label topo2 on October 2, 2026. The record is pressed on two 180-gram discs of ICCS-certified bio-vinyl and housed in a heavyweight full-colour gatefold sleeve. Mastered by Isabel Schröer at OLO Mastering, with artwork by Alyssa Warren and Raen Coplin. Additional contributions include bamboo flute on "Flutter" by Temple Rat and typewriting by Karina Rovira.

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

The rare live recording *Sunrise*, featuring Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Leon Thomas, recorded in March 1977 at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, is being officially released for the first time. Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, and Glen Moore of OREGON also joined the band for part of the performance. Previously known only to a select group of Don Cherry fans, this long-lost recording has been newly remastered and is now available as a highly anticipated release. The cover features a tapestry created by Moki Cherry in 1975, and the release includes new liner notes by Jason Weiss, featuring an interview with James Quinlan, the producer of this concert.

„Öd“ marks the long-awaited return of Institut für Feinmotorik - the Black Forest collective known for using eight prepared turntables to investigate acoustic micro-phenomena generated by everyday objects - with a new album and their first full-length release on Faitiche. It is also the return of their almost comical understatement as personal artistic principle: „making almost nothing out of almost nothing,“ compressed into the dots on an umlaut. The Öd-nis, the wasteland, is a field that the collective has been ploughing in sound since their first release in 1997. Eight prepared turntables, four mixers, no records, six hands (give or take) merge into what they call the „Octogrammoticum“. A rotating organism of surfaces in friction, fed with the clutter from a drawer: rubber bands or tin foil, CDs, a discarded socket board. Under IFF's scrutinizing stylus, mundane almost-nothings get scratched open to reveal the acoustic density of negative space itself. Last year’s „Adhesive Tape“ drew IFF closer together after an almost ten-year hiatus. An eponymous event series at Berlin's silent green set in motion what would become their most twistedly funky release since „Penetrans“ on Staubgold in 2002. The only thing öd about „Öd" (meaning „barren" or „boring“ in German) may well be its title: layers of improvised play and randomized loops convolve around porous, dubby groove locks, tugging at each other in a call-and-response with howling static that cuts through bulbous ambient techno into a scrap-metal Dixieland phantasm. Stratified yet spacious, these sonic double exposures always hover on the verge of collapsing. What you think you hear might not be what you actually hear. The album’s track titles resemble Conceptual Poetry, extending this psycho-phenomenological gesture into the realm of spoken language. Conceived by renowned poet Dagmara Kraus, they become word molecules - „stern,” „dies,” „lose“ - tilting delicately between German and English, constantly changing depending on the ear’s perspective and pointing back to the deeply unstable fabric connecting meaning and sound. Which also makes „Öd“ an unusual cross-disciplinary collaboration - at least in the field of electronic music. PS: Since its beginnings in Bad Säckingen, IFF has always been more than the sum of its rotating parts, moving tirelessly between multimedia art, theory, solo projects and collaborations. With IFF Expanded, the collective now opens its eight-doored apparatus, inviting artists working with CDJs or samplers to join - an ambitious live format that loosens its former purity law while carrying forward a long-standing curatorial practice. The same thread also runs into the related event series Acephalic Headspace. (Text: Sonja Matuszczyk)

Rough Trade Records release Volume 2 of seven-inch singles boxset.

Nine disc set includes repressings of handpicked 1980s and 1990s releases from The Fall, Scritti Politti, Robert Wyatt, Aztec Camera, The Go-Betweens, Jonathan Richman, The Sundays and Mazzy Star

Additionally The Smiths’ The Headmaster Ritual becomes a Rough Trade single especially for this release at Morrissey and Marr’s request, with unique b-side plus new artwork from Morrissey

Sleeve notes feature new interviews with Rough Trade co-MDs Jeannette Lee and Geoff Travis, plus contributions from Elvis Costello, Harriet Wheeler, Anton Corbijn, Stewart Lee and more.

Rough Trade Records release a second volume of their acclaimed boxset series tracing some of the key seven-inch singles in the independent label’s history.

Following the first set which came out last year and focused on the indie’s first few years of existence, Volume 2 will feature nine seven-inch singles from the 1980s to the early 1990s, marking the period when Rough Trade came of age as a label.

Handpicked by Rough Trade’s co-MDs, Jeannette Lee and Geoff Travis, the tracks represent a mix of key releases and personal favourites.

Starting with The Fall’s 1980 Totally Wired, Scritti Politti's The Sweetest Girl, Robert Wyatt's Shipbuilding, Aztec Camera’s Oblivious, The Go Betweens' Cattle and Cane, Jonathan Richman's That Summer Feeling and The Sundays' Can’t Be Sure have all been repressed on seven-inch, including b-sides, as they were released by the label at the time.

Mazzy Star’s cover of Love’s Five String Serenade, which appeared on Rough Trade’s single’s club in 1993, appears as the original release, but its b-side has been switched at Lee and Travis’ request for David Roback and Hope Sandoval’s version of Slap Happy’s Blue Flower to create a unique “covers release”.

In addition to these original releases, Volume 2 also boasts a ninth, ‘new’ single which has been created at the request of members of The Smiths, and will only be available in this edition. Although it was released in Netherlands, The Headmaster Ritual had never been an official Rough Trade single until now.

At Morrissey and Marr’s request the track from Meat Is Murder is backed by I Want The One I Can’t Have as its b-side, while Morrissey has overseen the creation of brand new artwork for the seven-inch. In keeping with his use of found art for The Smiths’ singles, he sourced an image of the American actor Billy Halop from 1939 especially for this single.

Both band members have contributed to the sleeve notes that accompany Volume 2, which also includes contributions from Elvis Costello, Stewart Lee, Roddy Frame, Green Gartside, Jonathan Richman, The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler, David Gavurin and The Go-Betweens’ Lindy Morrison and Robert Forster. Plus, there is a brand new, extensive interview with Travis and Lee, who discuss the label during the 80s and 90s, the music and their collaborations with the artists featured.

The sleeve notes also contain memorabilia and imagery from the Rough Trade archive, along with contributions from Anton Corbijn, Laura Levine, Paul Slattery, David Corio and more, who photographed the artists at the time.

Like its predecessor Volume 1 – which included singes from Augustus Pablo, Young Marble Giants, Cabaret Voltaire, The Raincoats and more – this second Rough Trade seven-inch boxset is strictly limited to 1000 copies worldwide.

Tracklisting:

7" - RT056 - 1980

The Fall - "Totally Wired"

B-Side: "Putta Block"

7" - RT091 - 1981

Scritti Politti - "The Sweetest Girl"

B-side: "Lions After Slumber"

7" RT115 - 1982

Robert Wyatt - "Shipbuilding"

B-Side "Memories of You"

7" - RT122 - 1983

Aztec Camera - "Oblivious"

B-Side "Orchid Girl"

7" - RT124 - 1983

The Go Betweens - "Cattle and Cane"

B-Side: "Heaven Says"

7" - RT152 - 1984

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - "That Summer Feeling"

B-Side: "This Kind of Music"

7" - RT0507S - 2026

The Smiths - "The Headmaster Ritual"

B-Side "I Want the One I Can't Have"

(Originally released in the Netherlands 1985 with B-side Oscillate Wildly - new B-side for this release selected by the band)

7" - RT218 - 1989

The Sundays - "Can't Be Sure"

B-Side: "I Kicked a Boy"

7" - 45rev19x – 1983

Mazzy Star "Blue Flower"

B-Side: Mazzy Star  Five String Serenade

(the single was originally released with B-side Under My Car, but has been changed at Rough Trade’s request for this edition)

Before Robert Johnson, before Lead Belly, even before Bessie Smith, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey defined what it meant to sing the blues, belting out lusty, downhome songs with a charismatic force that comes through loud and clear today. A century after her landmark music, Mother of the Blues, The Complete Paramount Recordings 1923-1928 captures this powerhouse artist in all her glory with a five-CD, 118-track set that blows away the cobwebs, bringing these electrifying works into the present in irresistible fashion. Born in 1882, Rainey was a touring performer who starred in tent shows and theaters, singing in a variety of styles, including minstrel songs and vaudeville material. For underdog Paramount Records, she was a blues artist whose sensual presence infused every note of her songs. While Paramount discs have a reputation for substandard sound quality, Mother of the Blues does a remarkable job of cleaning up the music without losing any of its earthy immediacy. Among the highlights are songs that would inspire a diverse array of performers in decades to come, such as “See See Rider,” “Walking Blues” and “Stack O’ Lee Blues,” as well as a handful of previously unreleased takes. Numerous players who would emerge as major jazz and blues artists in their own right provide backing, including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Tampa Red and Coleman Hawkins. There’s also a large-format, hundred-page book with a slew of information and photos. Mother of the Blues is a remarkable document, but you don’t need to know any history to get the picture. Just listen and feel the heat.

Originally released in June 2009, The Ecstatic stands as a defining artistic statement from Mos Def (now known as yasiin bey) — a richly textured return to form that reaffirmed his status as one of hip-hop’s most adventurous and intellectually engaged voices. Arriving a decade after his celebrated debut Black on Both Sides, the album was widely regarded as his strongest work in years, earning near-universal praise for its lyrical breadth, eclectic production, and thematic ambition.Musically, The Ecstatic weaves a global sonic tapestry shaped by an array of forward-thinking producers including Madlib, J Dilla, Oh No, Preservation, Mr. Flash, Chad Hugo (of The Neptunes), and Georgia Anne Muldrow. The resulting soundscape is both rooted in hip-hop tradition and unbound by genre, integrating elements of jazz, soul, Middle-Eastern inflection, and experimental sample work. Tracks like “Supermagic” and “Twilite Speedball” establish a vibrant, restless energy that mirrors the album’s expansive creative scope.Lyrically, yasiin bey traverses personal, political, and philosophical terrain with characteristic incisiveness, confronting social inequality, Western imperialism, and questions of cultural identity with poetic urgency. Embracing risk and complexity rather than nostalgia, The Ecstatic remains a mature, deeply felt body of work whose ambition, depth, and enduring resonance have solidified its place as a standout entry in Mos Def’s catalog and in modern hip-hop history.

A quiet show of strength from Chicago’s budding Dub Techno specialists, Kino Disk, hustling 11 permutations of dub-suffixed ambient, techno, and elemental abstraction by label regulars and new figures, warmly advised FFO Huerco S., Echospace, Short Span, Vialan... In the space of 20 odd releases since ’24, Kino Disk has emerged as a key point of interest for off-grid dub aficionados. ‘American Dub Electronics’ now opens an ideal entry portal to their microcosm for the curious and early followers alike, rendering 11 exclusive bits that speak to the label’s fine grasp of variation within a theme. Trust it’s not just 11 slice of M-Series worship, as a webbed spectra of interrelated, American POV’s on the same gauzy spirit emerges from their collected vapours. Building on the smouldering embers of over 30 years of precedents in this field, the set sways from the moonlit tidal movement of Psalm Star Electric’s ‘001’ to the unmoored slosh of 8006 (whose ‘8004’ was a sleeper gem of ’25) with a particularly nocturnal appeal. Eustress practices the most Catholic form of dub house in the darkly luminous ‘mm’, and Eden Aurelius’ Ring impress with the ASMR-like sensitivities of ‘Changeling’, and another label regular Point Survey with the phasing dub noise of ‘Print-Through’. Keener observers may recognise those names already, but perhaps not the new ones here, notably Corbin Cary & Taylor White’s Permutia duo, secreting the fine lather chords and sandman bassline of ‘p1.2’, or HPIN with the early SND-style puckered glitch of ‘Remote’, Uos’ washed-out textures on Uos in ‘Uos Jelly’, and dreamily poised dub waltz of ‘Speedwalker’ by a.m.p & b.p.p.