dal:um is a duo based in Seoul, who challenge the sonic possibilities of Korea’s most well-known traditional string instruments: the Gayageum and the Geomungo. Ethereal and otherworldly this is music that treasures the space between the notes.

›› read more

BLK JKS are a seminal force in the South African underground. Monster grooves meet guitar and brass driven afro-rock. Echoes of spiritual jazz, post-apocalyptic funk, renegade dub and kwaito. Features Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and Beastie Boys accomplice Money Mark on the track “Maiga.”

›› read more

 

Sun-baked instrumental meditations played on local string and percussion instruments. Yearning vocals and songs that evoke the mystifying realities of everyday life. Recorded live and outdoors on Grande Comore island by acclaimed producer, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami, Zomba Prison Project).

›› read more

 

The legendary Malian singer/guitarist returns with his most personal and immersive album to date. Intimately recorded with a small band, “Binga” dives deep into Samba’s Songhoy roots. Moody Sahelian atmospheres. Cautionary tales. Hopes for better days.

›› read more

 

Coming out of the fertile London jazz and experimental scenes, Krononaut is a richly textured new ensemble helmed by guitarist/producer Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France. Their self-titled debut album released by Glitterbeat label imprint tak:til in the autumn of 2020 was widely acclaimed for its deep dive into uncharted sonic territory. Krononaut have now returned with an equally engaging 3-song digital EP entitled “Scratch Test.”

›› read more

 

Altın Gün return with a masterful album that widens their critically acclaimed exploration of Anatolian rock and Turkish psychedelic stylings to include dreamy 80’s synth-pop and dancefloor excursions. Yol (Road) brings together all vectors of the Altın Gün experience and delivers their most compelling and individual album to date.

›› read more

 

The follow up to Johnson’s acclaimed Balsams album, The Cinder Grove delves further into the compositional possibilities of the pedal steel guitar. This halcyon collection of tracks draws on a wider palette of sounds, adding strings and piano, to dive deeper into the sound bath of Johnson’s meditative music. The Cinder Grove is a profound, affecting statement on the nature of loss and irreplaceability as well as a major addition to the canon of Johnson’s work.

›› read more

 

London-based sonic explorer Seb Rochford lets fly an immersive EP follow up to Pulled by Magnets’ lauded debut album “Rose Golden Doorways” (released earlier this year). A dark frontier where doom rhythms rub against haunted saxophone atmospherics, 4-time Mercury Prize nominee Rochford (Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet, Basquiat Strings), has created with this new trio, his most adventurous soundworld yet.

›› read more

 

Adhelm’s compositions investigate the spaces where insistent nature and bleak urbanity meet. The result is a compelling admixture of resonant percussion, processed field recordings and spectral electronics. His adventurous compositional processes and experiments echo musique concrète, Cageian indeterminacy and the deep listening ethos of Pauline Oliveros.

›› read more

 

The Amsterdam band Altin Gün, return with a masterful single – and upcoming album – that widens their critically acclaimed exploration of Anatolian rock and Turkish psychedelic folk to include dreamy 80’s synth-pop and dancefloor excursions. The band are a renowned live act with strings of sold-out shows on three continents, who have always brought muscular grooves and vibrant melodies to their recordings.

›› read more

 

Liraz, the highly touted Israeli-Persian singer, returns with a buoyant and border-busting new album. Shimmering electro-pop meets pulsing dance rhythms and retro Persian sonics. Includes clandestine collaborations with Iran-based musicians and composers. The result is her private revolution, songs with a true message, music to make people dance and smile – and above all, think.

›› read more

 

Growing up in cosmopolitan Istanbul and listening to Anatolian music icon Selda Bağcan and Kurt Cobain in equal measure, singer/songwriter/producer Gaye Su Akyol’s thrilling combination of Turkish psych and universal rock and roll has in a short span of time made her a force to reckon with on the global music scene.

›› read more

 

Firmly established as an influential voice in the burgeoning Russian DIY rock scene, Lucidvox’s incendiary mixture of atmospheric psych-rock, heavy riffs and Russian folk mystery has already gained them both critical attention and audience loyalty outside of their hometown of Moscow. We Are (мы есть) is their first international album release and the next element in their rapid rise. An influential voice in the burgeoning Russian DIY rock scene. Incendiary mix of atmospheric psych-rock, heavy riffs and Russian folk mystery.

›› read more

 

Following his 2019, critically acclaimed debut, God Is Not a Terrorist, 49-note scale microtonal vocal master Ustad Saami returns with an epic part two. Pakistan is for the Peaceful presents an even more immersive work, comprised of just three extended tracks and again produced 100% live at the master’s rooftop home in Karachi by Grammy-winner, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project, The Good Ones) with musical accompaniment provided by Ustad’s four sons.

›› read more

 

Ranging from trance temple sounds to rap-like street theatre performance and ending with the mathematical richness of Carnatic music, Ben Youssef’s in situ recordings form the foundation of his potent new album: Global Control / Invisible Invasion. Futurist syncopations meet hypnotic, timeless narratives. Expansive electronics fused with on location recordings. Kaleidoscopic and exhilarating.

›› read more

 

Coming out of the fertile London jazz and experimental scenes, Krononaut is a richly textured new ensemble helmed by guitarist /producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Imogen Heap, Jon Hopkins) and drummer Martin France. The album features an esteemed group of collaborators and a sonic footprint that channels spectral ambiance, ‘fourth world’ expansions and a gorgeous slow-boiling pointillism.

›› read more

 

This inventive duo of brothers from the Golan Heights – Hasan and Rami Nakhleh – return with an infectious re-imagining of their sound. Jammed full of pop hooks and quarter-tone melodic lines, “Migrant Birds” unleashes a disco whirlwind that pays homage to the Middle Eastern dancefloor scenes of the 80’s. Retro funky meets hi-sheen contemporary.

›› read more

 

The first-ever reissue of the classic 1981 debut album from this much revered Ghanaian band. Vibrantly produced by British sound explorer Brian Eno in Accra, Ghana. Highlife meets afro-funk. Spirited and horn driven. Yet another inspired morphing of soundworlds and processes and a significant touchstone for both artists.

›› read more

 

Raw and celebratory funeral music from northern Ghana. Hypnotic kologo excursions. Pulsing percussion. Enraptured voices. Recorded 100% live and outdoors by Grammy winner Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami). Sixth release from Glitterbeat’s acclaimed Hidden Musics series.

›› read more

 

Border music without borders. Sergio Mendoza (a longtime member of Calexico) grew up on both sides of the US/Mexican frontier. On the band’s 3rd album, “Curandero,” his musical melding of that experience explodes from the speakers. Boogaloo, cumbia, ranchera & rock’n’roll. Curandero has a close, intimate feel, but this wasn’t a band playing together in a room; all the musicians came in separately to track their parts. 

›› read more

 

Tamikrest return with a vivid, irrepressible rock and roll statement. Their most powerful album since 2013’s wildly acclaimed Chatma, Tamotaït finds the band not only turning up the volume, but also sharpening their meditative atmospherics and ruminations on the state of the Sahara and the world beyond. Features acclaimed Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra and a track cut with Japanese traditional musicians.

›› read more

 

Acclaimed London-based sonic explorer Seb Rochford unleashes a startling new band and debut album. The frontier where doom rhythms rub against haunted saxophone atmospherics. A 4-time Mercury Prize nominee (Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet, Basquiat Strings) Pulled by Magnets is Seb’s most sublime and provocative musical statement to date. Forget type, genre or influence: this is the start of a brand-new trip by one of the most questing musicians at work anywhere.

›› read more

 

Composer and trumpeter Jon Hassell has been an elusive, iconic musical figure for more than half a century. The first ever reissue and remastering of Jon Hassell & Farafina’s prescient, “Fourth World” masterwork. Propulsive Burkinese rhythms meet revelatory, ambient soundscapes. Co-produced with the legendary studio team of Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois.

›› read more

 

Fado rewired and recast. Raül Refree – one of Europe’s most innovative producers (Rosalía, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo) – meets Lina, a Portuguese singer renowned for her haunting interpretations of Amalia’s classic repertoire. Analog synths and hushed sonics. Making history by breaking the rules. Lina_Raül Refree is fado for today, a sound that goes beyond geography. It sheds the old skin for the new yet still leaves it as Portugal’s soul, it’s great, beautiful cry of emotion.

›› read more

 

Aziza Brahim returns with her 3rd Glitterbeat album. On the front cover of Aziza Brahim’s new album, Sahari, a young girl poses in ballet shoes and a glistening white tutu. It’s a common childhood scene, but it’s tipped upside down. She’s not privileged and the backdrop isn’t a comfortable suburban home. She’s an exile, living nowhere near her homeland, and behind her stand the tents and buildings of a refugee camp. There’s a desert on the ground and a burning sky above. Yet even in this bleakness, she has optimism. She believes in a better future. Aziza’s most adventuresome and sublime work to date.

›› read more

 

A dark, thundering Kinshasa meets Paris soundworld. Ecstatic vocals, broken beats, subterranean bass and full-throttle energy. This four-piece group of sonic groundbreakers have delivered a scintillating debut album. The fulfillment of their long-held dream to create an African band with the weight and sensory attack of knife-edged rock and hot-wired club beats. Features ex-members of Konono No.1, Mbongwana Star & Staff Benda Bilili. Produced by Doctor L (Tony Allen, Mbongwana Star).

›› read more

 

A celebrated instrumental supergroup featuring three of Bogotá’s most visionary musicians: Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers, Chúpame el dedo), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo, Chúpame el dedo). Fusing the experimental possibilities of South American rhythms and sonics (cumbia, champeta, tropicalia, salsa & more) with avant psych rock, dub minimalism and spiked jazz, Los Pirañas are retro-futurism at its finest.

›› read more

 

A thrilling new album from this legendary Istanbul band. BaBa ZuLa are the missing link between Turkish Psych, Krautrock & deep dub. More experimental & expansive than ever. From the 19th century to the ‘60s through to today, art is a continuum and BaBa ZuLa understand that. Derin Derin is its latest incarnation. It’s fearless music. It’s the truth. And there is hope. 

›› read more

 

Poland’s hotly tipped psych/experimental rock quartet delivers a potent, galvanizing album. Trupa Trupa has grown inordinately in both confidence and execution during the last half-decade. Almost every song on Of The Sun—the magnetic fifth album from the Polish quartet — lands like an anthem, with barbed hooks driven by an italicized rhythm section and a chimera of crisscrossing harmonies.

›› read more

 

Slovenian ‘imaginary folk’ instrumental trio return with a kaleidoscopic third album ‘A Universe that Roasts Blossoms for a Horse / Svet, ki speče konju cvet’. Širom are all about the head and the hand, and the dark that always pushes against the light. Handmade and global instrumentation meets fearless sound exploration.

›› read more

 

The NYC based duo of Rick Brown and Che Chen, creates hypnotic, pulsing music that weaves an ecstatic line from raw electric blues, Arabic modes and entrancing folk minimalism back to the streets of New York. The third album from these acclaimed NYC mainstays adds concise rockers, fuller orchestrations and mysterious textures to the band’s long, odd/deep grooves and microtonal tunings. 

›› read more

 

Park Jiha’s debut album “Communion” – released internationally by tak:til last year – drew well deserved attention to the young Korean instrumentalist/composer’s vivid soundworld. The widely acclaimed album graced 2018 critics lists at The WIRE, Pop Matters and The Guardian. Her new album “Philos”– which she calls an evocation of her “love for time, space and sound” –is every bit as inventive, elegant and transcendent as her debut.

›› read more