Combing through a family member’s history following their death is a routine, if sombre and difficult task that falls to many a close relative. Committing to publicly honour that person’s life and work in a tangible way is something else entirely. Over seven years, just such a project has occupied Berlin-based producer Joseph Kamaru, who makes leftfield electronic music as KMRU.
His objective was to memorialise and widen awareness outside Africa of his grandfather, also Joseph, a hugely influential figure in Kenya’s music history and a political activist, who died in 2018 aged 79.
Heavy Combination may be a labour of familial love but like the dozens of his grandfather’s recordings that KMRU has remastered and…
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Active as a professional DJ in Japan since the late eighties, DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite is also a renowned remixer, compiler and producer. An avid record collector and an expert of Wamono music, Yoshizawa has published in 2015 the now-classic Wamono A to Z records guide book, which instantly sold-out. The book unveiled a myriad of beautiful and rare records from a highly prolific, but still then unknown, Japanese groove scene. He has also selected a large part of the music in our highly acclaimed Wamono compilations.
For this brand new chapter in the series, Yoshizawa explores King Records’ legendary catalog and unearths exceptional, rare and unknown musical gems. King Records has been releasing music since 1931 and is one of the most prestigious labels…
There are many nighttime scenarios that can prompt a click of the play button: Stumbling through the door and into a recliner after an arduous day at the office; getting behind the wheel for a head-clearing cruise on nearly deserted streets; inviting friends old and new home from the first party to start the second party. To celebrate 15 years of smooth, velvety beats, L.A.-based dance label 100% Silk has honored such moonlit scenes with the new compilation Late Shift Silk.
Any one of the 11 cuts on Late Shift Silk could work for activities best suited to the cover of darkness. “To the Window” by Florida’s El Nalgón channels the feeling of late hours starting to loosen sensory perception, the last few moments before the mind welcomes much-needed slumber.
The Hold Steady is marking the 20th anniversary of their landmark 2005 second studio album, Separation Sunday, with a deluxe new edition arriving on their own Positive Jams label via Thirty Tigers. The expanded release sees the original 11-track album joined by nine newly remastered bonus tracks on vinyl for the first time, including rare demos, outtakes, and four songs previously released as 2005’s internet-only EP, The Virgin Digital Sessions.
“‘Separation Sunday’ changed everything for The Hold Steady,” says frontman Craig Finn. “We found a new lineup, a solidified sound, and through incessant touring started building the THS community that exists today. It was a thrilling time to live through, and to revisit with this new look…
There are few bands like Sand. Borrowing from jazz, industrial, techno and post-punk, somehow everything is mixed up to produce some seriously bowel-shifting grooves. Their 1999 debut Beautiful People Are Evil sees the York band still working on their formula which had been perfected by the time of 2002 follow-up Still Born Alive.
Sand musically walk the line between different worlds. They have played with, on the one hand, dance artists such as Robert Hood, Patrick Pulsinger, Andy Weatherall and Carl Craig and on the other hand with groups such as God Speed You Black Emperor, Squarepusher , Add N to X and ESG. Sand play diverse live events. They have performed on stage with the Karas Dance Company in Tokyo (where they played onstage with…
…includes two new, never released songs.
Okkervil River write dreamy songs with slumber-blurred stories and play them with a drifting, somnambulant gait. The band — named for a river outside St. Petersburg, Russia — filled last year’s eye-opening Down the River of Golden Dreams with gentle ballads about beds and war criminals and forgiveness, but the songs on their follow-up EP, Sleep and Wake Up Songs, are more brittle and fragile, like a light sleeper’s snooze. The EP condenses the album’s best qualities and discards most of its weaknesses, and its brevity makes it all the more emotionally forceful.
“Rapt, in Star Wars sheets/ With my hand across your belly/ We waded through the watercolor,” Will Sheff sings on opener “A Favor”. The song…
Not much is known about the elusive Dove Ellis, but we do have three concrete facts.
One: he’s an Irish singer-songwriter. Two: new-gen rockstars Geese are confirmed fans, with the band inviting him as their sole support act for their North American tour. Three: anyone who listens to Dove Ellis can attest he has one hell of a voice. And with the release of his debut album Blizzard, Dove Ellis delivers on the hype that’s followed on his steady gigging since 2022.
Compared to his larger-than-life live performances, Blizzard is eerily intimate. It’s bedroom pop, if the bedroom was a French catacomb with the tunnels blocked up. You feel every crack in Ellis’ voice, and songs like ‘Little Left Hope’ expand his voice into a ghostly choir that’s…
After lending her versatile skills on stringed instruments (guitar, charango, violin, koto, etc.) to the alternative music scene of Iceland for some time, Ólöf Arnalds released her first solo album, the spare, delicate, and maybe a little magical Við og Við, in 2007. Over the next seven years, the elfin singer/songwriter delivered three more albums that were increasingly expansive, with electronics, electric guitars, and drums contributing to the fanciful, part-acoustic alt-pop of 2014’s Palme. A decade-long break from recording followed during which time, among other endeavors, Arnalds worked as a copywriter, raised her kids, started an artist-led cultural space in Reykjavík (Mengi), and married frequent collaborator Skúli Sverrisson. When she finally returned to…
…includes the original 11 tracks plus two additional songs, “Muck” and “Don’t Swerve”, and a stripped version of “Back In Town” featuring Samia.
When you first get noticed for performing deeply personal songs on your guitar on TikTok during a pandemic, there isn’t a clear next step.
This is what Annie DiRusso has been facing since she broke out at the age of 21 in 2021 with singles like “Coming Soon” and “Nine Months.” Since then, she’s put out an EP and toured extensively — supporting artists like HAIM and beabadoobee — but only now is DiRusso releasing her first full length. Why did it take so long? From the sound of it — both musically and in the album’s title Super Pedestrian — it’s because DiRusso chose to walk, not run.
…includes four additional tracks including two brand-new songs, ‘Love You Like a Rainbow’ and ‘Different Next Time’.
Oh! The Ocean, the sixth LP by The Wombats, was inspired by a shitty morning, a brilliant beach view and an almost drug-like spiritual awakening.
“There was this revelation that I had been living a life caught up in my own head, or in some kind of racing helmet or with blinkers on,” said frontman/guitarist Matthew Murphy reflecting on the album’s genesis. “It was really a potent experience. I felt like I saw everything new for the first time, and was aware that I had been so selfish to not take in how crazy the world and life is.” That epiphany led to what is arguably the band’s most ambitious and melodic record in their two…
Ronnie D’Addario spent years as a professional musician, playing guitar with Tommy Makem for decades among other gigs writing jingles and working in various other bands. Along with all of his other accomplishments, D’Addario consistently wrote and recorded solo material, beginning with a string of three exceptionally good but under-distributed solo albums in the late ’70s and early ’80s which showcased his rich sense of arrangement and gift for Beatles-inspired, motivational power pop.
Somewhere along the way, D’Addario’s sons Brian and Michael also went down a musical path with their band the Lemon Twigs, and with Written By, they’ve curated a selection of their father’s songs to rework, bringing in guest artists…
Aerosmith and YUNGBLUD’s One More Time EP arrives like a classic dare. Old school rock legends teaming up with Gen Z’s most theatrical provocateur basically proves that rock ’n’ roll still means something, especially when you splice decades and attitudes together. With this five-song EP, they’ve managed something messy, earnest and occasionally thrilling.
The EP opens with the moody, echo-laced duet lead single “My Only Angel.” Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and YUNGBLUD trade vocals in a hypnotic call-and-response that builds from intimate whispers to roaring harmonies, before guitarist Joe Perry crashes in with a signature solo. The result is cinematic and grand. This isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, it’s rock with…
Volume 8 in the Cinéola series is the sound track the Odyssey, which was was a critical hit following its World Premiere at SXSW 2025. This film is the latest feature from acclaimed director, Gerard Johnson, known for previous adrenaline-fuelled thrillers Tony, Hyena and Muscle.
Fiery, sharp-tongued, and ambitious real estate agent Natasha Flynn lives every day on the verge of total success – or ruin. Her luxurious lifestyle is an unaffordable mask for the lonely void she’s tried to fill with the hustle for success. Then, when a shady lender forces her complicity in a criminal scheme to settle a debt, Natasha seeks out a dangerous old friend for help. As pressure from colleagues, collectors and criminals escalates, so begins a wild, neon-soaked ride through London’s…
Ultravox’s 1984 best-of compilation The Collection sold over 2 million copies worldwide after its release and went triple platinum in the UK. It includes the band’s first 14 singles released between 1980 and 1984. The best-known tracks include the cult song “Vienna”, the anti-nuclear war anthem “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”, the new wave classic “All Stood Still” as well as “Hymn”, “The Voice” and “Reap The Wild Wind”.
Now “The Collection” is being re-released remastered in various formats with different bonus material. This newly remastered compilation has been expanded into a 4CD/2Blu-ray Deluxe Edition. The set includes a second volume of “The Collection” with a further 14 singles from 1986 to 2024, alternative and unreleased versions.
Singer-songwriter Tommy Womack is at heart a rock ‘n roller. Accordingly, it makes sense that he teams with Eric ‘Roscoe’ Ambel for his latest release, his ninth, Live a Little. Ambel collaborations have worked for Steve Earle, Jerry Joseph, Sarah Borges, Freedy Johnston, and more. Combine Ambel’s rocking edge with Womack’s tunes, which run from the hilarious to the ironic to the provocative, for a winning formula. Ambel took Womack’s solo acoustic demos and rendered them with his core band, including bassist Jeremy Chatzky and drummer Kenny Soule. Womack plays acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, and mandolin, while Ambel fires up his electric guitar, pounds the keyboards, and provides backing vocals. Lisa Oliver-Gray,…
This Christmas, the First Lady of Folk Kate Rusby gifts her fans something truly special – an exclusive and limited run Double-CD titled 20 Christmas Is Merry, a celebration of two decades of magical festive music.
20 Christmas Is Merry features 17 stunning live tracks recorded at several venues over the last five years. The live recordings range from the anthemic soundscape of ‘Glorious’ to the gentle, exquisite beauty of ‘The Frost Is All Over.’ Every performance glows with the spirit of a Kate Rusby Christmas. The recordings capture that unique magic – the feeling of being at home with friends around the fire, a glass of mulled wine in hand, basking in the glow of music that feels both comforting and transcendent.
Alongside the live tracks, there are five…
Motion II is the second batch of tracks from the session that produced last year’s highly acclaimed Motion I. In 2024, Blue Note celebrated its 85th birthday with a touring quintet of its leading contemporary musicians. At some point during the grueling tour, the members found time to enter a Hollywood studio to capture the magic of their collective sound. Remember that most anniversary celebrations suggest the past. Here, that is remotely subtle. The emphasis is instead on fresh music through the collaborative efforts of pianist and musical director Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist and marimba player Joel Ross, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Kendrick Scott.
Those familiar with these artists will not be…
IPY25 unites three trailblazers of experimental music – Ikue Mori (DNA, Downtown NYC scene), Phew (Aunt Sally), and YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO, Saicobab) – for their first trio project.
Ikue Mori has been a key member of the downtown music scene since moving to New York from Tokyo in 1977. She began her career playing drums for the seminal “no wave” group DNA, which she formed with guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Tim Wright.
Phew has explored rock, electronic, and avant-garde sounds on her own terms since the 1970s. After leaving the pioneering Japanese punk band Aunt Sally, she worked with a who’s-who of other innovative artists from around the globe to express the different sides of her artistry.
Available for first time in over 35 years, Clock DVA’s White Souls in Black Suits – originally released in 1980 as a limited-run cassette on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records – now returns in a newly remastered edition, reissued via The Grey Area of Mute and expanded with four bonus tracks from the same era.
Led by the visionary Adi Newton, Clock DVA remains one of the most enigmatic and shape-shifting acts to emerge from Sheffield. Their catalog spans mutant funk, noir jazz, and coldwave electronics, with White Souls in Black Suits, paired with the additionals tracks, offering an insight into the early morphology of their sound. The album features a lineup including Newton (voice, synth, clarinet, bowed electric guitar,…
HTRK have been making their gloomy, sensual brand of music, at the intersection of electronic pop and noise rock, for 22 years.
To mark the milestone comes String of Hearts, a collection of covers and remixes featuring an all-star cast of friends and collaborators, from next-gen underground favourites like Coby Sey to fellow old-school experimentalists Liars. This brilliant, genre-agnostic record allows you to trace the breadth of the Melbourne band’s shapeshifting sound, echoes of which can now be found all over underground and commercial music, without leaning too hard on nostalgia.
The record spans HTRK’s early hits right up to their most recent album Rhinestones, a period in which they’ve shifted from a darker,…