Kontravoid returns with a new, compelling album, Sound of the Void. Released via Toronto’s renowned Artoffact Records, the album marks his second full-length output for the industrial music label. Delivering a murky blend of haunting coldwave, harsh EBM basslines, and pounding electro rhythms, the release solidifies Kontravoid’s place in modern underground electronic music.
Machedon is one of the most representative figures of the new wave of Romanian post-punk artists. Initially launched as a “one-man band” project – relying on drum machines, reverb, and 1980s goth/new-wave influences – the artist has officially expanded into a full live band. His music is defined as Eastern European post-punk, characterized by melancholic Romanian lyrics and a nostalgic atmosphere. ‘Cinema Oniric’ is his debut studio album.
Detriti Records presents “Hyperreal”, the new album by In Atlas AKA Stine Hansen. Stine is currently entertaining a jesterly strain of electronically driven post-punk with a dark disco sensibility. Synthpunk wave from Copenhagen.
Mastino Surfers is an instrumental music group consisting of two surfers who aren’t surfers but sexy italian interdimensional guard dogs who do it better, or the other way around. Șerban Ursachi is a physicist who isn’t a physicist but a musician, or the other way around, while Sebastian Big is a philosopher who isn’t a philosopher but a painter, or the other way around. Musically speaking, the two are like mute singing Protestant pastors who aren’t Protestant pastors but Gregorian monks, or the other way around. They don’t always make music, but when they do, they don’t. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the blinkenlights!
The “Late Loop” LP by Andy Stott is released on Modern Love and marks the producer’s return after a five-year break from the studio. The album brings Alison Skidmore, Stott’s long-time vocal partner, and for the first time Elaine Howley to the forefront; their voices are used partly as full vocal performances and partly as fragmented, pitch-shifted loops, forming the emotional center of the record. Stott largely avoided established production tricks: no basslines, no reverb, just a delay as the sole effect, giving the arrangements an unusual clarity and fragility. “Late Loop” sits somewhere between downbeat, electronica, and leftfield, and emerged from an experimental process that ranged from drone passages and brass-like concrète moments to song-oriented structures. Rhythm often emerges indirectly here: a drum machine was played back into the room, re-recorded, and pitched down; a pump organ was recorded with a microphone placed on the floor; valves and an aging mixing console audibly contribute to the atmosphere. Lyrically, themes of separation predominate; the voices were layered multiple times, then pared back until only the essentials remained. Mastering was handled by Rashad Becker, and the cover photo is by Myriam Boulos. With “Late Loop,” Modern Love presents an austere, meticulously crafted album whose details gradually reveal themselves with repeated listening.
Vancouver’s glassy after-dark sheen has always suited ACTORS, and on third album Our Love Will Live Forever it comes with considerably more mortal weight. Produced by frontman and songwriter Jason Corbett at Vancouver’s Jacknife Sound, the album finds ACTORS expanding their signature blend of romantic post-punk and cinematic darkwave into a deeply focused record about mortality, memory, love, and the choice to keep moving forward. Jason Corbett suffered a serious cardiac emergency midway through making it, a scare that gives ‘CTRL’ extra charge as its four-to-the-floor drive rubs against lyrics. ‘Left On Read’ is crueller in miniature, turning an unanswered message into full-blown romantic damage over blackened synths and sharply angled guitar. Corbett’s production keeps everything immaculate.
“Marea Neagră” (Romanian for “The Black Sea”) is an underground electronic, electro-punk, and coldwave album by Romanian independent music project and producer Andrei Rublev. Named after the famous medieval Russian painter, Rublev blends raw synth beats, darkwave elements, and goth-techno rhythms, making him a notable figure in Romania’s contemporary alternative and underground nightlife scene.
Continuing its mission to bring classic records to a modern audience, Tresor Records celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Infiniti Collection with a remastered & expanded edition of this classic compilation from Infiniti, an alias of Detroit originator Juan Atkins, available on vinyl for the very first time. First gathered together in the mid-’90s, The Infiniti Collection draws together tracks Atkins cut under the Infiniti name across a number of labels into a single, cohesive listen. Where his Model 500 work pushed toward the electro-funk that built Detroit techno’s foundation, Infiniti was always the deeper, more playful persona concentrated on what was then a nascent yet burgeoning techno sound. The collection stands as a document of Atkins at his most exploratory: futurist, hypnotic, and unmistakably human despite its machine architecture. This collection brings together some of Atkins’ most essential work with tracks like “Sunlight”, “Flash Flood”, fan favourite “Game One” (written with Orlando Voorn), and the deep dub of the Moritz von Oswald remix of “Think Quick”.
Plush shag carpeting, jazz flutes, analogue synths, funk grooves, exotica, and sultry, Italian-style vocalising: Erotica 70 is the new album from Larry Manteca, known for their inventive, tongue-in-cheek reimaginings of classic Italian soundtrack aesthetics. This time around, the Milanese collective sets its sights on the distinct sonic landscape of 1970s commedia sexy—a film genre that, for better or worse, defined an era and fed richly into the cinematic education of Larry Manteca’s members.
Nicolas releases his album “Leben” on Zürich based Subject To Restrictions Discs. While moving between New Wave, Kraut and Electronics, his intuition for ambient oozes from each composition, fast-paced or slow. As Nicolas Balmer lays bare his most intimate sources of inspiration with Leben. He holds nothing back. The album is shaped by a sense of optimistic melancholy: restless and contradictory, yet full of hope. The music is not about arriving, but about the journey: loss and finding oneself; despair, love, guilt and forgiveness. This is an album that does not seek to explain life, but rather embraces it in all its contradictions.
Apron Records founder Steven Julien taps into his alter-ego with his new album, 808 Prince. Written and produced around iconic drum machines, 808 Prince embraces raw drum programming, analogue textures, and bass-heavy compositions. The record moves fluidly between peak-time club energy and experimental rhythm studies, exploring the shared languages of techno, house, acid house, grime, and electro. Rather than looking back, the album reimagines the influence of the 808 through Julien’s distinct production style, creating a body of work that is both timeless and forward-looking. The album features a strong lineup of collaborators, including James Massiah, J. Caesar, Jarren, Touch Sensitive, and KIAH, expanding Julien’s sonic universe while remaining anchored in pure groove and movement. More than an album, 808 PRINCE marks a new chapter in Steven Julien’s artistic practice, bringing together decades of club music influence, hands-on studio craftsmanship, and a lifelong fascination with rhythm into a singular statement designed for dance floors worldwide.
P.U.M.A. is an experimental ambient, noise, electro-industrial project by Monica Calanni Rindina and Luca Valisi. Old school minimal synthwave electronic + industrial ambient dark sounds and grit. Gets darker as the grey streets and structures proceed.
12th Isle return to familiar downtempo, club-adjacent ambient and analogue house stylings with eight tracks from Japan’s sprawling metropolis. Tokyo based producer Igaxx lands on the label with his debut full length album. Influenced by leftfield electronic music from the 1990s such as releases on Elektrolux and Rising High, Igaxx (Shota Ikawa) works with multi-tracked hardware synthesizers manufactured throughout the 1990s and 2000s, embracing subtle variations and unexpected moments that emerge through performance. Allowing chance and unpredictability to become an integral part of the music, Ikawa’s process and sound design also speaks to the lighter side of vintage UK labels such as Irdial and Radioactive Lamb or the psychedelia-infused touch of the West Coast scene in the states. New Lights exists somewhere between the dancefloor and music for focused listening, carrying a sense of weightlessness and a quiet sense of humour, balancing immersive sonic environments and moments of sly unexpected detail and improvisation.
Peacefrog Records celebrate their 35th year by returning to the sounds and spirit of the early ’90s, when the foundations of Peacefrog were first laid, and welcome the talented and enigmatic Michael J. Blood to the fold. Crash landing onto the scene in 2017 with his now legendary NTS broadcast of 2 hours of unheard music, the ultra-mysterious and enigmatic Michael J. Blood has gone on to release a series of sought after, lush and rugged future classics on his own imprints Blood Inc. and BodyTronixxx. Allegedly hailing from Manchester in the North of England, Blood’s sound is hard to pin down but instantly recognisable. Rooted in the twin foundations of modern dance music—Detroit and Chicago—while schooled in the sweaty basements of Manchester’s fêted club scene, his music feels both original and familiar, timeless yet unplaceable. Weaving together a hypnotic narrative that feels both archival and futuristic, Cause & Effect Vol. 1 brings together some of Blood’s rare and hard to find bangers from a variety of his early sold out projects. The collection mixes the pulse of Chicago with the grit and cosmic dreams of Detroit, while never losing sight of the North of England’s sophisticated late-night sleaze. Blood’s dance-floor eclecticism and raw, infectious mutant beats drive a soulful, jazz-louche energy into every track. The result is a collection of atmospheric grooves that weave together hypnotic rhythm and smoky texture, blurring house, techno, broken beat, and jazz-soaked electronics into a heady trip.
Mark Churcher aka A-Eno-Acid returns with his debut LP, “The Last Jack” on Chicago Bee Records. A raw transmission from the underground — deep, hypnotic and unapologetically acid. Rooted in the late-1980s sound of warehouse parties, pirate radio and underground dancefloors, this is an album built for DJs, dancers and heads who know. 808s, squelching 303s and hypnotic grooves — pure acid house energy.
Jeroen Search lands on Voyager under his sci-fi “Echelon” alias with a stunningly deep 8 track album. Jeroen has been at the pinnacle of Techno music for a number of decades and has released on countless major techno labels. As Echelon, he has released on Jeff Mills’ Axis Records and also on Srie Records Argentina. On Voyager, the remit was to go experimental with nothing off limits, and it shows within this stunning album.
The second release in the Inner Tension Extra series, Nocturnal Shadows, is a collection of ambient and experimental works by Blazej Malinowski. Created as a deeply personal exploration of atmosphere, emotion and inner states, the album moves away from the dancefloor into more abstract and immersive territories. Nocturnal Shadows marks another side of Malinowski’s musical language – slower, darker and more introspective, where texture, space and silence become as important as the sound itself.
Originally released as a tape in 2022 with the Comedy of Errors boxset. 11 songs 49 minutes. La Union Metalurgica untitled tape. Hailing from Barcelona, Spain. The new masters of true Spanish industrial. Following the now cult and under the radar L.I.E.S. LP, these new tracks solidify their standing in the world of bizzare machine music. Broken equipment and pig sounds included … this has it all MS-20 chirps, human voices being tortured, and jacked the fuck up rhythms.
‘Bad Eyes’ is a Post-Punk Electronic Noise thirteen-track album from System Disorder, built from 808s, 909s, guitar, noise and a collection of rough electronic sounds. Rhythms shift, guitars cut through the machines, and fragments appear and disappear without always resolving. Recorded over time, assembled without a fixed formula, and left with all the rough edges intact. Now available for pre-order on Gravitational Waves.
The third part of “The Nightstalker” Saga emerges from the depths of dystopia, the last part of a Childhood Intelligence original tale written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich. “Flowers Of Agony” presents yet another shade of the duo’s analogue machine soul. Technoid brain dance electro from alien mysterious worlds. The album travels through various types of electro infused works, the live-arrangement dynamics and “The Nightstalker” Klangbild shines through each of the traxx, taking the listener through psychedelic cybernetic universes with strong techno force, bridging elements of the past works and taking them further into the future. Deep mind Influence intensifies the more listening time spent. This last chapter of a 3-Story Saga, is the essence, yet evolution of an analogue band, a 20 year friendship – the current zeitgeist & the partnership with Childhood Intelligence. For the future listener, we hope you might unravel the keys to this puzzle and find your own means to define and represent your true self in underground culture.
