Bastille – &

Bastille’s fifth studio album ‘&’ is a collection of story songs, including “Intros & Narrators,” and “Blue Sky & The Painter.” Dan Smith says of the release, “I’ve always loved writing story songs and using tales of other people as a way into making music and talking about my experiences in life. Over the last few years, I’ve been working on a whole load of songs about people who I think are fascinating and whose lives really spoke to me.” Gatefold jacket with artwork created by Theo Hersey and Dan Smith.

Tracks
1 Intros & Narrators
2 Eve & Paradise Lost
3 Emily & Her Penthouse in the Sky
4 Blue Sky & the Painter
5 Leonard & Marianne
6 Marie & Polonium
7 Red Wine & Wilde
8 Seasons & Narcissus
9 Drawbridge & the Baroness
10 The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings
11 Essie & Paul
12 Mademoiselle & the Nunnery Blaze
13 Zheng Yi Sao & Questions for Her
14 Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024

Algol – [Vinyl]

ALGOL is a new electroacoustic trio formed by Christian Lillinger (Germany), Elias Stemeseder (Austria), and Camilo ngeles (Peru). The project was born during a collaborative tour and recording sessions in early 2024, between Mexico City and Guadalajara, and has since expanded with performances across various cities in Europe and Latin America. Conceived as an open system of real-time sonic construction, ALGOL operates at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and electroacoustic experimentation. Its music articulates a language that integrates percussion, piano, flute, and synthesizers. Each member contributes a distinct universe: Lillinger, German drummer and producer, is renowned for his highly structured rhythmic approach and his ability to reformulate the tradition of contemporary European jazz. Stemeseder, Austrian composer and performer, explores the intersections between the acoustic and the digital, moving between piano, spinet, and synthesizers. ngeles, Peruvian flutist and composer, redefines his instrument through extended techniques, self-built aerophones, and a microtonal sensibility that expands the boundaries of performance. Recorded at Estudios Noviembre (Mexico City) and finalized between Switzerland and Berlin, ALGOL’s debut album employs electronic processes that extend the timbre of acoustic instruments. Structures emerge and dissolve within a continuum that challenges stylistic categories. Like the stellar system that inspires its name, ALGOL is a constellation in motion. Its music balances density and transparency, writing and indeterminacy, tradition and rupture. In that point of equilibrium, its true nature is revealed. ALGOL’s debut album is released by Buh Records, in digital format and as a limited vinyl edition. Mixed by Michael Brndli at Hard Studios (Winterthur, Switzerland) and mastered by Christian Lillinger at Plaist (Berlin, Germany). Artwork and design by Muriel Holgun. Gatefold sleeve.

Arca – &&&&& [Vinyl]

For anyone who can remember, Arcas &&&&& was a moment. Its 25-minute stretch of coiling, contorted grime and glitch; dub and hip hop dropped with the buzz of an impending co-production credit on Kanye Wests Yeezus in 2013. It included cuts of sound and beats that were too weird for that pop project, while becoming a piece of experimental art that what would come to define what is by now broadly known as a post-club sound. Its music that is as visceral as it is experimental; made as much for the mind, as it is for the body. Released with no warning seven years ago, &&&&& became a bridge between Alejandra Ghersis time partying and collaborating with her queer peers, while still living in New York to the next stage of her career releasing on Mute in London. Shed go from making beats for rapper Mykki Blanco and fashion label Hood By Air, posting lurching bass reworkings of pop hits on YouTube, and producing her first fluid mixtapes with DIS Magazine, to finishing off this seminal mixtape on the synths in Daniel Millers studio. After dropping three impressive EPs the year before, &&&&& marked a transition. Continuations and extrapolations of material from Stretch 1 and Stretch 2 appeared in the mangled RnB sampling of Century and Arcas signature vocal layering in the pitched flow of Waste. Along with the fluttering, muted heartbeat of Obelisk, and the lumbering piano chords of Mother, fourteen sonic sketches were elegantly woven together into a single, downloadable whole. As Alejandras course turned toward moving to Europe from the United States, &&&&& became a remarkable challenge to the form of the mixtape, which was a relatively new trend taking hold of the online-oriented underground at the turn of the 2010s. But where many, if not most mixtapes where treated simply as a showcase of individual tracks presaging a more official release to come, &&&&& was a complete piece in its own right. I wanted to make something that was my best work, Alejandra says about a record that has stood the test of time, I listen to it very fondly today. The release is fully remastered by Enyang Urbiks, with artwork by Jesse Kanda, and etched vinyl

TRACKS
SIDE A:
01. Knot
02. Harness
03. Fossil
04. Feminine
05. Anaesthetic
06. Coin
07. Century
08. Mother
09. Hallucinogen
10. Pinch
11. DM True
12. Waste
13. Pure Anna
14. Obelisk

Arca – @@@@@ [Vinyl]

A limited edition first ever pressing of Arcas iconic @@@@@ mixtape, the scorching of earth that preceded the launch of her KICK series. Delivering 62 minutes of quantum states, this is some of her most delicate and astonishing work to date – hard, soft, emotional, brutal, sincere and playful. Presented on double vinyl with an etched D-side.
A1. Diva A2. Construct A3. Turner A4. Devastation A5. Survivors A6. Recursion A7. Monstrua A8. Beb A9. Amputee A10. Chipilina A11. In the Face A12. Predator A13. Pacifier B1. Psychosexual B2. Mujere B3. Cypher B4. Murcilaga B5. Phantasy B6. No Lo Digas B7. Amantes B8. Membrane B9. Apuro C1. Saintly Pride C2. Avasallada C3. Dysphoria