Shredding up definitions of electro-acoustic opera, spectralist chamber musique and concrète rave, Demdike hit square between the eyes/ears of film music vernaculars on a startlingly strong addition to their unique oeuvre, now in its 16th year of elusive psychoacoustic strafes and jump-cuts across putative borders. The 13-part, hour-long album dislodges source material made for the experimental film To Cut and Shoot, by Kristen Pilon, an NYC-based musician and filmmaker, to farther refract the film's themes of serendipity and the nature of ghosts and dreams with a flickering flux of sound-imagery and aleatoric weirdness appropriate to her original meditations, but also freely messing with their forms. Situated just a few miles north of Houston, Cut and Shoot is a relatively insignificant Texas town with an unforgettably bizarre name. Pilon grew up not far from Cut and Shoot, and it's there where she ran into 65-year-old machinist and motorcyclist Robert Lewis Stevenson, better known as Bobbo, who's pictured on the album's cover. Responding to Kristen's initial piano and operatic vocal recordings, Demdike return a volley of discrete parts tilting from typically cantankerous mayhem to quieter, more clandestine buzzes sliced with crazed interstices of the imagination, all marbled with the plasmic contrails of the paranormal which have long been peculiar to their work. With a poetic flair reflecting Pilon's own phrasing and melding of mediums, Demdike unfold and expand her melodic fragments into temporal mazes. The storyline wickedly frays and loops into itself with a non-linearity that recalls the mid-to-latter stages of Lynch's Mulholland Drive or waking from a sweaty fever dream only to pitch back into its thorny bush of ghosts, often within the space of one track. It's testament to the ever-tighter binds of Demdike's symbiotic vision that the results nevertheless hold a thread of logic that weaves in everything from their Jon Collin jams to reams of mixes and Gruppo edits with an unresolved, open-ended quality. RIYL: The Caretaker, Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Nate Young. Mastered by Rashad Becker, art by Andrew Lyster.

LP version. Mute is an album that explores distance, speech -- and the lack of it. It's a series of musings on people, places -- and leaving. The record began life with the core of El Khat -- multi-instrumentalist el Wahab, percussionist Lotan Yaish, and organist Yefet Hasan -- recording in an isolated village underground shelter. "My state of mind at the time affected the compositions even before I wrote the music," el Wahab notes, "and the isolated location gave us a chance to make sense of that." Following those sessions, in the summer of 2023 the group emigrated to Berlin; a far cry from Jaffa, where they'd largely grown up. The move was an expression of the nomadic urge that has been a constant in el Wahab's life, one that flows directly into his work. "These songs are about emigrating, leaving someone or somewhere. I don't think I've stayed in any one place for more than a year. For us Arab Jews whose families were forced to leave Yemen, it really began with that big move and our families' arrival in Israel, a land with a constant muting of the 'other'." Mute, he feels, is "a big and meaningful record." It's a story of endings and new beginnings. "But that's true of all our albums" el Wahab insists. "They're about relationships and the struggle to see two sides as a whole and not something that ends with muting and conflict. The songs here are about old loves, country, family. They are about feelings and identity." And all of that inevitably brings up many questions. El Wahab keeps reinventing himself: even his career has been an act of self-invention. Unable to read music, he still managed to talk his way into the Andalusian Orchestra, playing cello by ear until he learned music theory. And instruments he uses on his albums, like the blue gallon (actually a jug) or the kubana (named after a type of Yemeni bread) are also self-invented. These handmade, one-of-a-kind instruments sit at the heart of Mute. He's always made music from the items others discard. Everything recycled and reused, nothing wasted.

LP version. This album title translates as "One more chance to succeed in life." Not that they need it. The trio of guitarist Eblis Alvarez, bassist Mario Galeano, and drummer Pedro Ojeda has been successfully carving out a wildly idiosyncratic musical world since the release of their debut album in 2010, pushing the boundaries of instrumental Latin tropical music with bold infusions of psychedelia, dub, minimalism and more. But their journey started a long time before that. All three attended the same high school and have been playing together for three decades, since they were around 15 years old. "We started with punk and heavy metal," Ojeda recalls. "Then we were very interested in Colombian tropical music and traditional music from Colombia and Latin America, and that led us to focus on African music. It's been a long road." Along the way, the unfettered, spontaneous improvisation of jazz has been a crucial touchstone. "When we started playing in an improvised setting, we were very influenced by free jazz from the '60s," says Ojeda. "But now we are more into making music for the dance floor and music that has a beat and a strong feeling to dance to -- especially in this latest album." The music on Una Oportunidad stems from the venerable tradition of the groove-based jam session. "All of the tunes 100% come from improvisation sessions," says Galeano. "With this album," Ojeda elaborates, "we went to the studio in the morning every day for a week. Each of us would bring one or two ideas and we would start jamming, experimenting with those ideas. By lunchtime, we had one or two pieces based on those ideas and then, after lunch, we would record them. By the end of the week, we had the eight tracks that are on the record." Recording for the first time in the relaxed surroundings of Galeano's studio, with Alvarez once again mixing and producing, Una Oportunidad luxuriates in a relaxed intimacy. And, more than any other album they've released so far, it captures the immediacy of a live performance, with no overdubs or studio magic, just raw, in-the-moment invention.

Grey Interiors was made in collaboration with Actual Objects and is an absorbing animation and navigation of those post-human ideals that have prompted Darren J. Cunningham to his best work across the preceding two decades. In its hypnagogic symphony of the elements, he short-circuits distinctions of classical music's metric freedoms and the hyperspatial sensuality of concrète/electro-acoustic and ambient music with an artistic license that has come to distinguish his work in the contemporary field, and arguably identified him as this generation's most vital electronic abstractionist. The first half of the album is bewitchingly airless, materialized in a twinkling vacuum. Naturalistic environmental recordings and a half-heard piano swirl around nauseous airlock whooshes and eerie bass drones. It's all pulverized to a powdery, shimmering residue; if Actress's music is defined by its character and texture -- that sweet spot between the bedroom and the soundsystem -- then this one advances the narrative without losing its backbone. And like a lot of his best work, it comes into its own on the back of zonked eyelids, conjuring a play of shifting geometric patterns within its imaginary physics and nuanced narration of ephemeral melodic phrasing and vaporous textures. At about the halfway point, that dissociated piano finds its groove, coalescing into a jerky drum machine rhythm popping like bubbles in the stifling atmosphere. Listeners can draw some intersecting lines here thru electronic music lore -- traces of vintage AE, Push Button Objects, UR -- but Actress always leaves an indelible fingerprint on anything he touches. Even when he's rubbing against the gallery-industrial complex, he manages to fill a stagnant space with electricity and wit. A post-industrial symphony landing somewhere between nutopian ambient, kankyō ongaku and sawn-off bass science. White vinyl pressing -- one-sided vinyl, edition of 500 copies. Mastered by Noel Summerville. Art by Actual Objects.

Recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris and one and a half a year after releasing his magnum opus Music For Animals -- described by PopMatters as "a musical waterfall of monumental proportions" -- Nils Frahm shares a new live album on his Leiter label. In what's becoming a tradition, it follows 2013's Spaces, a Pitchfork Album of the Year taped at shows over the preceding 18 months, and 2020's Tripping With Nils Frahm, also released as a film. Paris is Frahm's first live album from a single night, March 21, 2024, and contains ten tracks over a running time of 84 minutes. Frahm's performances have always been known for expanding upon his studio recordings, and Paris is no exception. Drawing on his substantial catalogue, the German composer and producer reworks tracks from Music For Animals ("Right Right Right" and "Briefly") before less recent material from 2009's The Bells ("Some"), and 2012's Screws ("Re," originally recorded with just nine fingers after Frahm broke a thumb). There's also "Spells" from All Encores and "You Name It" from Day, while the brand new, luxurious and strangely gripping "Opera" sets the stage for "On The Roof" from his heart-rending, award-winning score for 2015's widely acclaimed, one-camera, one-take German thriller, Victoria. Frahm's instrumental range has expanded to include a mountain of vintage synths and keyboard instruments. These include a custom-made organ as well as the final glass harmonica constructed by Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glassblower who, in the 1980s, resurrected the instrument -- first invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 -- and then died in 1999 in mysterious, still unresolved circumstances. Frahm's grasp of dynamics and tension has likewise expanded, and not only does he reinvigorate his work during concerts for this wider range of possibilities, but he also keeps developing it as he tours. If he leaves the stage to the same uproarious jubilation with which he was initially greeted, Paris makes it clear why he's been so in demand. Paris is a vital document of this ingenious, gifted musician's endless pursuit of fresh perspectives.

Anoushka Shankar, the acclaimed sitar player, producer and composer, has confirmed details of the third and final instalment of the trilogy of mini-albums she began with Chapter I: Forever, For Now in October 2023, and followed by the Grammy-nominated Chapter II: How Dark it Is Before Dawn in April 2024. Chapter III: We Return To Light comes via Leiter. "Three chapters, three geographies," Shankar scribbled in a diary at a café in Goa on New Year's Day in 2023, manifesting an ambitious trilogy that she hoped would span multiple geographies with nods to her roots, across continents and collaborators. Looking back now, it's safe to say that the 11-time Grammy Award nominee has outdone herself. Chapter I was recorded in Berlin acknowledging Shankar's European heritage (she was born and lives in London), while Chapter II was captured in California, where she moved aged 11 and lived for over 15 years. Central to Chapter III is the mindfulness of India at the root of all her music.

"Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come in And Out and Sketches For World of Echo (AU 1029CD) offer two intimate unedited Arthur Russell solo live performances recorded at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation in Downtown NYC on 12/20/85 and 06/25/84. Phill curated and produced with Arthur both concerts at EI that would become part of the foundation for the World of Echo album. These extraordinary performances were recorded 18 months apart between 1984/85 by Steve Cellum and overseen by Phill and Arthur. Arthur would later edit sections from both concerts merging it with studio material recorded at Battery Sound to finalize the World of Echo album released in 1986. The double vinyl LP for Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come in And Out includes the complete nineteen-minute-plus version of 'Tower of Meaning/Rabbit's Ear/Home Away' along with the previously unreleased songs 'That's The Very Reason,' and 'Too Early to Tell.' Side four includes two instrumental performances from the 06/25/84 Sketches for World of Echo performance, 'Changing Forest' and 'Sunlit Water' along with a full color insert and liner notes from Audika Records and Arthur Russell archivist Steve Knutson."

LP version. Şatellites' self-titled debut album received international acclaim. The record earned support from outlets such BBC Radio 6 Music and FIP in France, and they were invited to record live sets for both Gilles Peterson's Worldwide FM, and KEXP in Seattle. Since their debut, Şatellites have evolved from a studio project into a full-fledged touring band. Over time, the lineup has shifted, enabling the group to recreate their studio sound live. Their expanded lineup now includes Tsuf Mishali on keys and synths, known for his work in proggy psych bands, and the animated Tal Eyal on percussion. Şatellites blast back into orbit on Aylar, delivering a bold evolution on the psychedelic folk-meets-groove sound they established on their acclaimed debut album. Rotem Bahar has also stepped up as the band's full-time vocalist and frontwoman, adding a fuller, grittier edge to the group's sound. Behind the drumkit, Lotan Yaish brings dynamic energy to the rhythm section. After two years of touring, this cohesive and reinvigorated lineup entered the studio with renewed purpose and closer musical bonds. Aylar (Turkish for "moons" or "months") showcases more ambitious arrangements, extended compositions, intricate harmonies, and unexpected twists, reflecting the band's commitment to innovation and their passion for the original wave of Turkish psychedelic music. Kluger's saz and Mishali's synths intertwine seamlessly, underpinned by Ariel Harrosh's infectious basslines and Yaish's dramatic drumming, all culminating in Rotem's husky, emotive vocals. The album's most ambitious cover is their cosmic folk-funk rendition of Hakki Bullut's ballad "Ikmiz Bir Fideniz," followed by the original instrumental "Beş Kardeş" ("Five Brothers"). If Şatellites' self-titled debut laid the blueprint for their sound, Aylar marks their transformation into a fully realized musical force. With this album, Şatellites step confidently out of the shadows of their Anatolian psych heroes to craft a modern yet timeless record, expanding their influences while deepening their connection to their roots.

"Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come in And Out and Sketches For World of Echo (AU 1029CD) offer two intimate unedited Arthur Russell solo live performances recorded at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation in Downtown NYC on 12/20/85 and 06/25/84. Phill curated and produced with Arthur both concerts at EI that would become part of the foundation for the World of Echo album. These extraordinary performances were recorded 18 months apart between 1984/85 by Steve Cellum and overseen by Phill and Arthur. Arthur would later edit sections from both concerts merging it with studio material recorded at Battery Sound to finalize the World of Echo album released in 1986. Double CD digipack with full color insert and liner notes. 2CD contains the complete Sketches performance."

Thought Leadership's III Of Pentacles is an instant classic and glides into the pantheon of timeless guitar-soul totems. Originally out on cassette only, Be With presents the first ever vinyl issue. It's a hideously limited pressing of 300 for the world, so don't sleep on this. Thought Leadership has already garnered big support from such tastemakers as Ruf Dug, Jason Boardman, Nathan Gregory Wilkins, J Walk, Evan Woodward, Justin Robertson and Heavenly's Jeff Barrett. They reside in Stockport and are obsessed with ethereal guitar records. Captured on a multitrack recorder in a terraced house in Stockport, this is as DIY as it gets. Glaringly obvious is a love for classic Factory and early 4AD. Perhaps it is the proximity to the River Mersey where the ideas arrived, and there being but three miles between where this and the Durutti Column's classic LC was recorded, as the two operate across a familiar aural plain. Be it geographic or otherwise, limited by a true economy of means, namely guitar, pedals and drum machine, the fruit borne from these humble tools has been indelibly shaped by the perma-gloom that hangs low over the Manchester and Stockport environs. Think Sensations Fix or Göttsching at his most peeled out. Drones, ambient drifts of broken chords and distorted lead lines all swirl round the mix. Carefully remastered by Be With's engineer Simon Francisco to ensure it sounds better than ever after its initial tape release. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry, in Holland. The original tape cover artwork, so crucial to Thought Leadership's striking visual aesthetic, has been rejigged for vinyl issue here at Be With. Its stark presentation befits the music contained within. RIYL: Durutti Coulmn, Cocteau Twins, Dif Juz, Sensations Fix, Spike.

1999 DJ Tool: "Cassius 1999," "La Mouche," "Feeling For You" and other classics tracks as never heard before. Unreleased double vinyl album featuring eight exclusive extended versions of the most iconic tracks from the album 1999, and a short story-liner notes by Boombass. 1999 DJ Tool has never been released before ? it was only sent to some VIPs years ago as a promo vinyl boxset while the 1999 album was released. "Daft Punk's groundbreaking album Homework had just opened the door for French electronic music to reach global audiences. For artists rooted in DJ culture, this was a turning point. French acts were finally being invited to play at burgeoning festivals and iconic clubs. The British audience was the first to embrace us, and weekend after weekend, we toured the UK. Inspired by those nights behind the decks, we suggested releasing a vinyl featuring extended versions of tracks from 1999. Designed as a promotional DJ Tool, it celebrated expansive, long-form tracks reminiscent of the ones we loved to play, an homage to our early experiments with endless loops, like Dinapoly from 1996. The vinyl was pressed in an extremely promo limited series, echoing our early maxi-singles and the rare records we used to hunt for as collectors. For fans, it was a chance to own something truly unique; for us, it was a final opportunity to re-explore the album's music. Produced in the style of La Funk Mob's EP, with the two of us in a recording booth surrounded by floppy-disk machines and two or three synths, the album's songs were structured and mixed directly in stereo on a DAT (digital audio tape). "Most tracks, originally very long, were edited into a coherent, hour-long listening experience. The DJ Tool was assembled from those original mixes, as a final, free-wheeling variation of our three weeks of fun in the studio. Holding that vinyl today brings back vivid memories of those early travels, the nightclubs at the cusp of transformation, the crowds getting younger at new parties, and the vinyl records that were just starting to fade from DJ booths."

LP version. "This album has been a long time coming. We were lucky enough to do a tape in 2022 with Jeremy Hurewitz (aka Rootless) called what the truth leaves out. But this is the first time we've been able to work with long-time fave, Matt Lajoie, who appears with Ash Brooks as half of the no-longer-active duo, Starbirthed. The idea for this pairing was presented to us by Jeremy, who recorded the album at his cabin in southern Vermont in 2019. Jeremy's Rootless project generally features at least a soupçon of acoustic guitar (often combined with electronics or other things) and Starbirthed was initially canted towards producing music for meditation, although their instrumentation -- voice, bass, guitar, synth, bells, etc. -- also meant that some of the recordings possessed more of a gentle free rock heft than anything overtly new agey. Anyway, soon after the session, the Plague hit, the members of Starbirthed decided to go their own ways, and everything got sorta dragged down in the torpor of the times. But Jeremy persisted in wanting to get the session finished and together, and he succeeded quite admirably. The music on Rootless & Starbirthed is a glorious celebration of what I'd describe as a rural utopian vision of possible futures in which the world does not go straight into the shitter. This is music that glows with kind of positive energy that might be galling if it didn't sound so great. Both Rootless and Starbirthed (as well as Matt's many other projects -- Herbcraft, ML Wah, etc.) are about creating an atmosphere in which beauty thrives as much as anything else. And this great collab LP flows like a newly discovered river, carrying us away from the anxiety and insect paranoia of our quotidian reality. Positing something better, just around the corner. Something we are not yet able to see, but which might. just. save the day. This might sound like old man hippie thinking, but that's cool. I've been called worse. And so have you." --Byron Coley

Thirty-two artists honor the extraordinary legacy of Suzanne Langille through interpretations of her vast songbook. Langille is best known as an acclaimed avant-garde singer-songwriter and collaborator of guitarist Loren Connors. They ventured into electrified blues and abstracted artsongs across more than a dozen albums since the mid-1980s. Langille's songs, with Connors, solo, or other collaborators, are marked by distinct and captivating depth. Her evocative lyrics, layered with themes of loss, longing, and the natural world, defy conventional boundaries, blending poetry with potent melodies. Her work embraces the uncertainty of life and the delicate spaces between joy and sorrow. The double CD includes a 20-page booklet with artist bios, rare photos, and liner notes tracing Langille's roots from a cappella harmonies to 1980s protests through today. This Connors-produced collection is a joint release by Family Vineyard and Feeding Tube Records. The Suzanne Langille Songbook features a diverse array of artists who reinterpret her music, showcasing its timeless and transformative power. Contributors include Kim Gordon & Bill Nace, Jim O'Rourke, Heather Leigh, Lee Ranaldo, Zoh Amba, Sarah Davachi & Sean McCann, William Hooker, Daniel Carter, Alan Licht & Angela Jaeger, David Grubbs, Alison Farrell, Byron Coley, Ras Moshe Burnett, Loren Connors, Tom Carter, Ronnie Yates & Gabriel Martinez, Neel Murgai, Novaga, John Kolodij & Jane Hesser, Kim Gordon & Bill Nace, Andrew Burnes, Dean Roberts, Boris Hauf & Andrea Belfi, Laura Ortman, and Adam Casey & the Liminal Choir with Katherine Walsh.

In 1996, Dakar-based group Pee Froiss released Wala Wala Bok?, a groundbreaking album that helped define Senegalese hip hop. Alongside groups like Positive Black Soul and Daara J, Pee Froiss became champions of Senegalese hip hop, inspiring an entire generation by linking hip hop with political struggle. Dubbed "an African Public Enemy" by the BBC, Pee Froiss channeled the fundaments of hip hop and reggae into a sound deeply rooted in the realities of Dakar. Originally exclusively released on cassette, Wala Wala Bok? fell out of circulation despite being a touchstone of Senegalese hip hop history. This remastered reissue of Wala Wala Bok? restores the album's legacy nearly 30 years after its original release, presenting it for the first time in high-quality formats. Accompanied by a 48-page booklet with rare artist photos and new liner notes, the release celebrates the singularity of Senegalese hip hop and its contribution to the larger history of African hip hop. RIYL: Positive Black Soul, Daara J, Black Noise.

I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea is the first collaboration of Lea Bertucci and Olivia Block. This collaboration was set into slow motion some years ago, in 2017, when Lea and Olivia connected through an interview facilitated by writer Steve Smith. In 2022, the artists finally had a chance to collaborate, performing an improvised set at Pioneer Works in New York City. Since then, the New York based Bertucci and Chicago based Block remotely built out ideas stemming from their live performance, passing sounds back and forth, until I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea was forged into existence. The title is a famous utterance of the Oracle of Delphi, a cult of female priestesses who would inhale the poisonous vapors of nearby volcanic vents to induce mystical visions for their seekers, often changing the course of civilization. Getting high from the earth. That is what this album hopes to achieve for our listeners. This collaboration sees Block playing synthesizer and tape, and Bertucci using her own voice processed through reel-to-reel tape, as well as microcassette collage of field recordings. Recorded and mixed by Olivia Block and Lea Bertucci. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space Special.

For Dancers Only is the legendary club night organized by Bill Kealey, the hard-drinking and bustling collector and hunter from Dublin. Virtually every weekend he is on the road with his 7" vinyl case, delighting the masses. As he has been doing this for a few decades now, he belongs to the absolute champions league of those who deal with rhythm & blues of the '50s and all its varieties. This is his first compilation and we claim that it is one of the best that Stag-O-Lee has ever released. Featuring Mercy Baby, Willie Nix, Schoolboy Cleve, Willie Egans, Lightnin' Hopkins And Ruth (Blues) Ames, Otis Spann, John Lee, Little Hudson, Donnie Williams, Ervin Rucker, Lonesome Lee, Willie J. Charles, Eddie King, Jimmie Raney & Slim Slaughter, Gladys Tyler, and Harmonica 'Blues King' Garris.

2025 price reduction, last copies... LP version. Blackest Ever Black presents Sleep Heavy, the debut album of broken-hearted, downtempo R&B/street-soul and supremely atmospheric, introspective electronics from Jabu: a trio comprised of vocalist/lyricists Alex Rendall and Jasmine Butt, and producer Amos Childs. The group was born out of Bristol's Young Echo collective: an ecosystem unto itself which has birthed and nurtured a number of other notable soundsystem-rooted projects and artists to date, including Kahn & Neek, Sam Kidel, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Asda, Chester Giles, and Killing Sound (Childs with Kidel and Vessel). Jabu's previous 7" singles, though arresting, barely hinted at the level of accomplishment and emotional heft that Sleep Heavy delivers. It's a future Bristol classic with a universal resonance, with songs that are highly personal but deeply relatable, and a tripped-out, time-dissolving sound design that both haunts and consoles. It is, first and foremost, a meditation on grief, loss, making sense of separation, and death; but it also looks forward to what might come after the aftermath: healing, acceptance, the chance to begin again. Childs is one of the most gifted producers of his generation and his work here, grounded in hip-hop but floating free, is a thing of sustained wonder: crepuscular, melancholic, subtly psychedelic, and heavily dubwise, but always concise and purposeful. Stitched together from deep-dug and beautifully repurposed samples, it draws on influences from US R&B to Japanese art-pop minimalism -- Mariah to Mariah Carey, if you will -- and a rich seam of underground UK soul, boogie, DIY/post-punk, library music, and lovers rock. There is also of course a distant connection to the Bristol blues of Smith & Mighty and the sultry urban gothic of Protection-era Massive Attack (1994), but Jabu's orchestration of womb-like ambiences, cold synth tones, and brittle beats feel entirely sui generis. They provide the perfect setting for Rendall's wounded, imploring and carefully weighted vocals, which are no less extraordinary: nodding to giants like Teddy Pendergrass and The Temptations in terms of phrasing and front-and-center vulnerability, with something of The Associates' Billy MacKenzie in there too; defeated but defiant. Meanwhile, Jas's heavenly interventions, sometimes leading but more often parsed and layered into tremulous, gossamer abstraction, draw a line between the Catholic choral harmonies of her childhood and the ethereal, oceanic sweep of Cocteau Twins. By its end, Sleep Heavy's world-weariness is intact and scarcely diminished, but some light has been admitted, and is visible from the sea-floor.

2025 repress. Hydroplane reinstate their formidable 1997 debut of sublime guitar atmospherics, fragile lyricism, and droning incidentals with an overdue vinyl reissue. An offshoot of the now-fêted The Cat's Miaow, the trio formed after drummer Cameron Smith decamped to London, charting new territory with tape loops, manipulated samples, and a borrowed Jupiter 4 in the wake of Endtroducing. Adopting a handle that Dean Wareham once considered calling Luna, Hydroplane intended to only ever release Excerpts From Forthcoming LP (1996), a single-sided 7" sonic collage, before imploding in mystery. Their label however insisted they deliver their taunted album. From the comfort of a Brunswick flat, they continued to record soaring melodies and restrained song structures to 4-track, sculpting dramatic Radiophonic Workshop cues weighted in reverb and near-perfect dream pop lead by Kerrie Bolton's empyrean vocals. Bored of industry expectation and largely ignored by local audiences, the reluctant performers followed the way of The Cannanes and formed meaningful overseas alliances by mail and phone, securing releases on Michigan outpost Drive-In and Broadcast launching pad Wurlitzer Jukebox. Championed by John Peel with twenty spins on his converted Radio One slot and even polling in Festive Fifty of 1997, the humble three-piece still walked to their neighborhood shops undetected. Previously only available as a US-issued CD, this reminiscent late-night suite establishes Hydroplane as an everlasting ember in Australia's beloved indie nexus.

2025 repress; LP version. Kingston Sounds present a reissue of Tapper Zukie's Black Man, originally released in 1978 as a Jamaican-only release on Tapper's Stars imprint. Long deleted, it has become a classic in Mr. Zukie's vast canon of musical biscuits and is well overdue this worldwide release for the first time. Tapper Zukie (b 1956. David Sinclair, Kingston, Jamaica) was raised in the rough and tough West Kingston area of Jamaica, between the districts of Trench Town and Greenwich Farm. Living pretty much on the streets from an early age, the youths including the young Tapper had no choice but to fall into the hands of the political parties that controlled various ghetto areas of the town. Music seemed like the only way out of a life of crime and gang culture. A path that Tapper Zukie found by the mid-1970s was establishing himself as a named star on the DJ Roots circuit. Back home in Jamaica he was also getting a name for his production work for other local singers such as Prince Allah and the group Knowledge. To release these productions and his own material in Jamaica, Tapper started up his own label called Stars. It's this label that saw the initial release of this album Black Man. A great collection of Tapper tunes such as his biblical cut "My God Is Real", "Revolution", the title track, and some work overs of some of his fellow Jamaican artists like "Poor Man Problem", a work over of Johnny Clarke's "Blood Dunza" and also Mr Clarke's "Leggo Violence". "Yaga Yaga" is a re-working Horace Andy and Tapper's big hit "Natty Dread Ah She Want", and "Gather Them" is a reworking of Knowledge's tune of the same name with the help from bands like Jah Wisdom and Delroy Fielding. A great collection of tunes and reworkings that will hopefully find a wider audience with this reissue.

Classic roots reggae is the definitive influence on the music of Vibronics, so it has been a true labor of love to bring together the powerful voice of Jospeh Lalibela, the intricate playing of the Mafia & Fluxy Band, and the deep production skills of Vibronics to make this homage to classic Jamaican roots dub reggae music. The LP is a fine body of work with full production featuring live bass, drums, horns, guitars and flutes as well as up to the minute studio trickery to produce an album that is rooted in reggae history but sounds relevant right now. Five vocals and five dubs -- this album is original showcase style!

Donato Basile AKA DJ Plant Texture always wants his music to tell a story, and with his debut EP on Tresor Records, entitled Life, he's now trying to tell the biggest story there is. According to the artist, "Life is about the fear of growing up; both the anxiety itself and acknowledging and moving past it." This narrative seems to have struck a chord with those who have heard the track. Having used an MPC since the early 2000s, Basile feels an intuitive connection to the hardware he uses, and so the creative process is very spontaneous. This immediacy, and familiarity with his equipment is apparent on the A-side, where Basile's previous life as a drummer comes to the fore and tracks like "Cycles" and "Ripetivo" display his native understanding of groove but also how to stir things up -- the three A-side tracks find classic techno rhythms seemingly falling apart only to snap back into place even stronger. The B-side finds Donato exploring more of his melodic side with "WTT" and the aforementioned title track showing Plant Texture's love of breakbeat and classic techno.

2025 repress; LP version. 180 gram vinyl, half speed mastered; heavy sleeve with obi and gold ink. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki's Cat, a glorious jazz-fusion-funk holy grail originally released in 1976. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two-day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, Cat, is a smooth masterpiece, a deep and soulful affair where stunning trombone solos by Hiroshi Suzuki flirt with Takeru Muraoka's heavenly saxophone and the sensual rhythm section of Hiromasa Suzuki (keyboards), Kunimitsu Inaba (bass), and Akira Ishikawa (drums). Celebrated in jazz collectors circles, in the lo-fi beat scene, and among music diggers around the world, Cat has become one of the most sought-after Japanese jazz albums of all time and, much like Ryo Fukui's Scenery, has fascinated old and young generations alike. Sourced from the original masters. Liner notes by Teruo Isono.

"Over two days in July 2022, Michael Vallera and Lee Ranaldo improvised at 411 Kent in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a cozy place that felt more like a living room than a concert hall or recording studio. The sweltering July heat cloaked the place in a layer of sweat and humidity. Nevertheless, they took it over to record material and to perform one evening, their fuzzy guitars slicing through the thick air with both the precision of a razor blade and the gentleness of a cloud. Early New York Silver recaptures the renegade spirit and excitement of those days. The album presents material culled from those improvisation sessions, which were made possible by New York-based musician David Watson, who at the time was curating the Shift series at 411 Kent. 'Shift was dedicated to pushing boundaries and blessed with a miraculous empty space. A large open space, not made for music but with one of those great serendipitous room sounds,' Watson said over email. To record the music, Ranaldo and Vallera spread out throughout the area, taking over its every crevice. 'I was able to give Lee and Michael day and night access, and they hunkered down using different rooms as chambers, cords and mics running to the far end of the building, taking advantage of the relaxed vibe Their contrasting, yet similar, approaches to music offered ample space for exploration.' 'I really appreciate the way Lee approaches improvising because he really dives in immediately,' Vallera said. 'I tend to be very measured when composing solo or in collaborations, so I enjoy following and reacting to the vocabulary Lee is exploring in real time.' Early New York Silver highlights that effortless flow. At 411 Kent, the two guitarists were in sync, lost in the world they had created together out of shared curiosity on their instruments. Their melodies tumbled and intertwined into masses that seemed to shapeshift and morph with every strum. There was no inertia -- only motion, forward. That was the beauty of the Shift series, and that is ultimately the beauty of Ranaldo and Vallera's practice: It is always traveling, always open, always changing. 140gm black vinyl LP in matte black printing on silver board."

"Mess Esque is an Australian duo who sound like they literally dreamed themselves into being, and might even still be in the dream that made them! Helen Franzmann (McKisko) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Tren Brothers) initially partnered on Mess Esque's shared inner plane circa 2020. Since then, they've taken their preferred path -- the one less traveled -- at an unhurried pace. Yet Jay Marie, Comfort Me is their third album in less than five years, and the new music feels a hemisphere away from their first efforts: a whole new atmospheric level above, with greater depths to descend into as well. Mess Esque first launched as a correspondence course. The two swapped tracks between Melbourne and Brisbane, experimentally pairing Mick's guitar, keys and loops with Helen's ruminative vocals. They released Dream #12 through Australian label Bedroom Suck in April 2021, with a self-titled album on Drag City following six months later. Then it was time to actualize in the same spaces for some touring: Australia, the US, UK, Europe, and New Zealand. Jay Marie, Comfort Me has an edge to it: that savage grace that comes from actually drawing breath and stepping up in the witness of others. The process of becoming, in all its aspects, has made Mess Esque's efforts ever more visceral and incisive, their music billowing up to the skies while drawing close to the bone in the same moment. Jay Marie, Comfort Me is co-produced by Helen and Mick themselves, along with Nick Huggins, who recorded the Dirty Three's acclaimed Love Changes Everything, Mick's Don't Tell the Driver, and McKisko's Southerly album. Along with Keeley Young and Kishore Ryan from the live band, the album features cellist Stephanie Arnold and a couple of Australia's living legends of percussion: Bree van Reyk and Mick's ol' Dirty Three partner in crime, Jim White. The title -- Jay Marie, Comfort Me -- is from a line in the song, 'That Chair.' That's Helen's sister in there, who died in her sleep unexpectedly. It feels right to have her name on the jacket. Jay Marie, Comfort Me reaches exciting new heights in the Mess Esque journey, propelling their uniquely twisted aural circus to a new level of dance-ability, exaltation and effect. Fitting the immediacy at their core with new dimensions, Mess Esque push themselves into more vivid states of being."

"For Translucence is the debut album from Whitney Johnson and Lia Kohl. Their dialogue, found initially in free improvisation on viola and cello, has evolved over time into (for the moment) this: a neophonic orchestral expression. A living, breathing meditation in which layers of acoustic strings, synthesizers, field recordings, radio and sine waves illuminate and change each other as they twine and grow. Lia and Whitney began playing together in 2018, exploring the space between Lia's cello and Whitney's viola, with their shared tuning one octave apart. There was an ease in weaving their instruments and voices, whether playing outside, with extended technique; or inside, playing melodic lines with rich tones. Several years passed before they considered recording, as the shared parts of their identities -- string players, composers, and sound artists based in Chicago; both interested in solo composition as well as improvisation and collaboration -- soaked the fertile ground. Then their individual concerns -- Lia, exploring the possibilities and dualities of mundane and profound sounds; Whitney (as Matchess and herself) presenting the listener with the effects of sound on bodies and minds -- were able to be more finely articulated and integrated in this finished work. Recording at Experimental Sound Studio, Whitney filled out the low end of her sound with sine waves, making binaural beats through function generators and her ARP Odyssey synthesizer. Lia added an AM/FM radio and her Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer. Using the open strings on both viola and cello to create the drones and establish a baseline of gravity, they improvised, building up phases of spontaneity before giving careful consideration to what they'd assembled, editing it to arrive at a final mix. The resulting sound isn't electro-acoustic, exactly; more like electronics and acoustics together, with each layer transforming the one next to it. Within the double layers of their four strings and added instruments, a symmetry emerges that is the key to For Translucence. The songs are two improvisations superimposed over each other, the titles derived from the two fundamental frequencies in which they improvise. The binaural beats form a sculptural structure of drone over which further improvisations are made. This is where surprise and laughter come into the focus; like all of time put together, both inside and outside history, their past and future selves unfolding with a flowing energy of fresh discovery breathing through it."

"Includes Wire Tapper 67 CD. Raven Chacon: The Diné/Navajo composer foregrounds unheard and silenced voices in his radical works for ensembles, electronics and noise. By Esi Eshun; Ingrid Laubrock: The New York based reedist creates settings for koans and poems as part of a unique new compositional practice. By Stewart Smith; Bastard Assignments: The radical new music ensemble get lost in the woods with their satire of the English countryside. By Robert Barry; Infinity Knives: From Tom And Jerry to sociopolitics, rapper Tariq Ravelomanana keeps it unreal. By Lucy Thraves; Cleaners From Venus: Martin Newell's songcraft and wordplay across many DIY albums evidence a uniquely wired mind. By Mike Barnes; Lukas De Clerck: Brussels musician extends ancient pipe instruments into the present moment. By Antonio Poscic; Penelope Trappes: Australian artist voices griefs past and present. By Spenser Tomson; Ciaran Mackle: Sample manipulator twists folk song into cubist forms. By Daryl Worthington; Invisible Jukebox: Jeff Mills: Will Detroit techno's great conceptualist be a wizard IDing The Wire's mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens; Unlimited Editions: Robert Ridley-Shackleton's Cardboard Club cutouts; The Inner Sleeve: Loraine James on Circa Survive's On Letting Go; Global Ear: Osaka's proto-industrialists revitalise the city's experimental music scene. By Jere Kilpinen; Epiphanies: Golem Mecanique rewinds to a treasured VHS tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Accattone; Against The Grain: Mosi Reeves takes on underground hiphop's gender imbalance."

It took a village to create Le Motel's Odd Numbers/Số Lẻ. Beneath its pulsing, shimmering tones, the record is alive with the sounds of everyday life -- purring mopeds, idle whistling, the din of kitchens and whisper of rain, voices joyful and contemplative, scenes of bustling cities and domestic intimacy. Le Motel -- who runs the Brussels-based record label Maloca -- gathered sounds, photographs, and videos while traveling in Vietnam in 2023. From Hanoi he ventured to Hmong communities in the mountains near the border with China, building out a network of contacts gathered from friends and friends of friends. But Odd Numbers/Số Lẻ -- which takes its title from traditional Vietnamese numerological beliefs and customs -- is wholly unlike the extractive product typical of exploitative modes of Western tourism; the album's final shape was deeply dependent upon the participation of the people the artist met in Vietnam. Back in Brussels after his travels, as Le Motel began working with his materials, he sent early drafts to his contacts, inviting their input. This back-and-forth eventually yielded a dynamic collective effort in which nine of the album's 15 tracks feature multiple composer credits. Among the album's diverse collaborators are Yvonne Quỳnh-Lan Dươn, an educator and ethnomusicologist; Chi Chi, the daughter of a Hmong shaman; and Phapxa Chan, who contributes three poems inspired by landscape and Le Motel's own music (and, in one case, psychedelics). The result is an album that is not about making sound, broadcasting it as a one-way communication, but instead about the empathic practice of listening -- about listening as an integral and even ethical part of musical creation, even (especially!) when that music is created on a computer, rather than conjured by a group of players sharing space in real time. It's an album that adopts many of the traditional trappings of ambient music while reminding us of the importance of intentional modes of creation. Brian Eno famously said that ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting, but Le Motel's Odd Numbers/Số Lẻ suggests, to the contrary, the richness of experience available to us should we make the effort to open our ears.

Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis's Seven Deadly Sins is a hugely influential, synth-powered, atmospheric space-disco masterpiece. It's arguably the best American disco LP ever made. It's certainly one of the most important albums in the history of dance music. And, like its innovative producers, it's absolute genius. During the mid to late seventies the production team of Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis helped to define the disco sound that was coming out of Los Angeles with studio projects such as El Coco, Saint Tropez, Le Pamplemousse (with vocals from The Jones Girls), In Search Of Orchestra and many others. Like all of their work, Seven Deadly Sins comprises beautifully arranged and incredibly well produced deep disco that is revered by aficionados. A seven track, largely instrumental concept album covering each of the sins, it was recorded for AVI in 1977. It's a brilliantly conceived, groove-fueled album that layers moogy keys and druggy synths over club-ready rhythms. The idea that this record is celebrating rather than condemning the sins is said to be another factor that made the record a big one in the underground clubs. As Laurin Rinder recalled in an interview with Dream Chimney, the duo essentially lived in the studio: "we really had cots, beds and the whole thing, we were just pumpin' them out. 7 days a week, 3 different projects at the same time. I played drums on everything but had to play a little differently. I had to ask the engineer 'What's the name of this group?'." Evidently, their prolific output was the result of a crazy cocaine-fueled production schedule: "The amount of coke we did, to do all this, you can't even imagine. $300 a day. I had to have plastic inserts in my nose so I could do more." Looking at the frankly terrifying cover, you'd have never known! Be With is beyond delighted to present the first ever legit vinyl reissue of Seven Deadly Sins, carefully remastered by Be With's engineer Simon Francisco to ensure it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland.

Born Bangalter in 1947, Daniel Vangarde is a French songwriter and producer. In 1975, Vangarde founded his label, Zagora Records, who Be With have worked closely with on this lovingly curated reissue. For years, Vangarde wrote and produced songs that remained underground, under several pseudonyms and for various artists. Dubbed "the secret father of French disco" this here groove-filled firecracker -- using his Who's Who moniker -- is for disco-funk, library music and cosmic beat lovers. The intense, evocative opener "Palace Palace" positively throbs with raw energy and sounds, honestly, like something off Daft Punk's Discovery. The title refers to the fashionable Parisian club Le Palace, essentially the Parisian Studio 54. The louche, slo-mo heater "Hypno Dance" is, in Be With's opinion, the deadly dancefloor track. A svelte slice of ace space disco again geared towards the roller skating dance mania of the day. The B-Side opens with the frankly enormous "Roll Jacky Roll" is another thrilling, high class roller-rink jam with beautiful melodies that's adored the world over. The wonky, abstract "Ad Libitum 80" is a super dope, swirling, staccato electro-funk bounce which sounds light years ahead of its time. This might be the real lowkey sleeper gem on this record. Who's Who really is a fantastic late-'70s-early '80s roller disco-funk essential. The audio has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland.

In July 1983, the Hebrew Israelite vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Margeeah Aharon recorded her debut album Looking For Love with the Kingdom Sounds community band at P.C. Studios in Tel Aviv, Israel. Fittingly -- given the meaning of her Hebrew name, soothing, calm and tranquil -- it's a questing melange of devotional jazz, soul, funk and reggae. More than just that, Looking For Love is an album full of yearning and reflective songs of spirit, heart and inner solace. Margeeah was born and raised in the American capital of Washington D.C. She grew up in a Baptist family with Hebrew cultural underpinnings. She was accepted into the Howard University School of Fine Arts as a music major in classical voice and a minor in English. During her Howard years, Margeeah's musical and spiritual horizons began to evolve, by way of a love of Doug and Jean Carn, Keith Jarrett, Roberta Flack, and Donny Hathaway and stretch out towards the infinite. "Throughout my upbringing and training in classical music, my soul and spirit were on a journey," she explains. "I began to become aware of social dynamics, racism, injustice, homelessness, poverty and disparity. I started to study the isms -- Socialism, Communism, Buddhism. I was searching." Forty years after it was released as a private press LP, Looking For Love's central themes and music remain timeless and eternal.

Color vinyl. Originally released in 1982 on New Underground Records. Featuring Descendents, Minutemen, Anti, Saccharine Trust, Redd Cross, Civil Dismay, Ill Will, or Zurich 1916, China White, Mood Of Defiance, 100 Flowers, Urinals, and Plebs.

As a common ligature to the OG free jazz scene of '60s NYC, with formative binds to its European offshoots and the experimental avant garde, Joe McPhee is a true force of nature who has represented jazz at its freest over a remarkable lifetime. In duo with Swedish free jazz and noise standard bearer Mats Gustafson, he upends expectations with an astonishingly vivid and upfront example of his enduring contribution to freely improvised music. In 11 parts he variously reflects on everything from the neon sleaze and scuzz of NYC to contemporary US politicians and laugh out loud imitations of his previous sparring partners such as Peter Brötzmann, with a head-slapping immediacy that leaves you reeling, spellbound. McPhee's flow of rare, organic cadence, ranging from urgent to contemplative and dreamlike, is blessed with a unique turn-of-phrase that surely mirrors his decades of instrumental work. Gustafsson, meanwhile, dexterously takes up the mantle with a multi-instrumental spectrum of sounds, leaving McPhee unbound and able to float and sting on the mic. There's obvious wisdom in his perceptively penetrative observations, as derived from a rich cultural life well spent, but also a playful naivety and levity in his ability to veer from almost melodic speech to explosive aggression and a knowing, bathetic wit. It's perhaps hard to believe that McPhee only started incorporating and performing spoken word in his work in the past ten years, a half century since his declaration of "What Time Is It?" announced his arrival on a legendary debut Nation Time (1971), ushering in one of free jazz's most singular characters in the process. Oscillating between discordant reflections on life as a touring musician, set to Gustafsson's skronk and culminating in a snort-worthy imitation of Peter Brötzmann's gruff German accent, on "Short Pieces" or the glowering growl and noise exhortations of "Guitar," he evokes a more sweetly consonant calm in "When I Grow Up" and eerie threat of "The Dreams Book," and viscerality of "Disco Death," where Gustafson's tonal versatility comes into hugely mutable play, whilst McPhee's extraordinary, unaffected voice is a constant. It's perhaps McPhee's balance of cool measuredness and wellspring of barbed energies that allows listeners, at least, to get the most out of this one; not stifling with mannered or manicured enunciation that can trigger certain icks; keeping close to the nature of spoken word in a way that avoids cliche and becomes inherently critical of it within his purposeful, non-hesitant clarity and unflinching approach.

Red color vinyl version. "More Eaze and Claire Rousay's collaborations are effortlessly joyful; their music evoking the warmth and respect they have for each other. Their bond goes back to their youthful hometown of San Antonio, Texas where they played in country outfits and noise rock bands respectively. More Eaze (the moniker of violinist/multi-instrumentalist Mari Maurice) and Rousay have spent the past decade pushing boundaries, standing together at the vanguard of genre-shattering music that thrills and surprises with its vulnerability and creativity. no floor weds their prowess as sound designers and masterful skills as composers with their skills as acoustic instrumentalists. Eschewing the auto-tune inflected pop-psychedelia and found sounds of their previous collaborations, no floor is collage music as pastoral melancholia, a lush tour into their own version of Americana. On no floor the pair created their own elaborate sound world. 'It was a conscious choice to spend a lot of time making fucked up sounds and then figuring out how they could be beautiful in another context,' notes Maurice, 'With this record I had no idea what Claire would do on each track, and we were both trying to match each other's 'freak' in terms of sound design.' Rousay's ostinato guitar patterns and acoustic strums swim through tides of Maurice's pedal steel. Glitching electronics burble in dynamic fits as dramatic strings add waves of tension and release. No Floor's pieces are atmospheric, living biomes that breathe and grow with each passage, rewarding close listens with the revelation of its emotional core. The five tracks that make up No Floor were named for seminal bars in the pair's shared history, or as the duo humorously refer to them, 'Pillars of our debauchery.' No Floor is an introspective reflection on the emotional turmoil of youth as much as it is a celebration of a camaraderie forged in that turmoil. The album exemplifies the duo's shared skills in unearthing new and exciting sound arrangements, evoking the warmth and affection of their friendship and musical fearlessness."

"Pop at its most fragile, attenuated and surreal." -New York Times, Best of 2024

"The whole album flows like Brian Eno's Another Green World through the ears of a big Pedro the Lion fan." -Rolling Stone, Best of 2024

Pierre Bujeau is an expert at creating temporary escape zones -- musical structures to evade the everyday. Sometimes he works collectively as part of the mysterious French groups Omertà and Tanz Mein Herz. But it's when he's on his own, performing as Megabasse, that he offers the most complete break from reality. His kit is simple: a few bottles of cheap lager, twin Fender amps, and his double-necked guitar. An instrument like this normally signals maximum rockist excess -- think Jimmy Page, Geddy Lee, or that dude from the Eagles. In Pierre's hands, it becomes more like a zither or a dulcimer, producing soft chiming patterns that build against themselves until the sound of the room, passed back and forth between his two amps, starts to blur everything, and we are away in another world. Wait, though -- let down your yoga bun and don't light the palo santo yet. The new space he creates has nothing to do with smug wellness. It's a rough, do-it-yourself psychedelia, scuffed but hopeful. Not a perfect blank space to be your best self in, but instead a communal dreaming, an uncanny place where all are welcome. Until now, without catching him live, the Megabasse experience has been difficult to find: CD-Rs, short-run tapes, and one blink-and-you-missed-it LP. Thankfully, this record on Efficient Space, a reissue of some pieces that were previously only available on a small cassette edition, will put that right. Here are two long, intricate pieces, and something new -- a shorter track that hints at a move toward beautiful, burnt-out guitar soli. Unless you are very lucky, wise, or rich, life imposes its structures on you. Maybe a record of shimmering, tranced guitar is all you need to get out from underneath?

Glossy Mistakes presents Ecstasy Boys Selections, a carefully curated collection of three mesmerizing tracks from the pioneering Japanese electronic trio Ecstasy Boys. These tracks released originally between 1990 and 1994, curated by Glossy Mario, revisits the innovative sounds of the group that shaped underground Japanese club culture during the '90s. While their influence remained largely within Japan, their music resonates far beyond borders, standing as a testament to the creativity and innovation that defined an era of Japanese club culture. The Ecstasy Boys -- formed by Mitsuru Kotaki, Shiro Amamiya, and Tatsuro Amamiya -- were a driving force in the Japanese electronic music scene. Known for their eclectic productions and boundary-pushing performances, the trio captivated audiences and influenced a generation of local DJs, producers, and club-goers. Ecstasy Boys Selections pays homage to this vital chapter in Japanese dance music history, highlighting the trio's creativity. The compilation includes three tracks that exemplify their unique blend of Balearic, leftfield house, and progressive sounds. Remastered by Wouter Brandenburg in Amsterdam, Selections breathes new life into these timeless tracks while preserving their original character and depth. Licensed courtesy of Shiro Amamiya and Avex Inc. this release is an essential addition to the libraries of Balearic, house, and experimental music enthusiasts.