Evelyne/Masao bring TESTPATTERN to Dark Entries for the label’s first foray into vintage Japanese electronics. Masao Hiruma and Fumio Ichimura’s project Testpattern is known for their release Apres-Midi, a cult slab of synthpop perfection released by Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono’s legendary Yen Records in 1982. While Hiruma and Ichimura parted ways following Apres-Midi, Hiruma’s musical endeavors would continue after meeting French/American model and vocalist Evelyne Bennu in 1984 at a café bar where she would sit and write poetry. Their collaborative efforts as Evelyne/Masao were fruitful, and the duo first performed together in June 1984 on a television program called TOKYO ROCK TV. The album TESTPATTERN comprises seventeen songs recorded in Hiruma’s home studio, which have never been released previously. The Evelyne/Masao duo continues building on the soundworld of Apres-Midi: lush, sophisticated electronics with intricate yet minimalist production. Tracks like “Sakuramochi” and “Bird Island” bear influence from Hosono most clearly, their soaring melodies revealing a subtly ironic redeployment of East Asian musical tropes. But TESTPATTERN is more than homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra. “Tabac” and “Le Soleil Se Leve” display oddball sensibilities closer to Sky Records icons Asmus Tietchens or Cluster. Elsewhere, the project shows affinity for the punkier ethos of continental DIY electronics, like on the quirky “Alien Go Home” and a positively skewed cover of “Singin’ in the Rain.” Bennu’s vocals provide a common thread through these explorations, as she alternates deftly between New Wave deadpan and unhinged chanson singer—check her waxing maximally Francophone on “Au Clair de Lune,” based on an 18th century French song. TESTPATTERN will be available on both double LP as well as CD, and includes a fold-out poster with liner notes with lyrics. This album is dedicated to Masao Hiruma, who passed away in 2011.

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As rRoxymore, Hermione Frank has been exploring the outer edges of the dance floor and producing music that goes beyond traditional genre boundaries for more than a decade. In that time she has covered plenty of ground from caustic and abrasive techno to long-form and immersive grooves, always with a focus on contrasting tempo, texture and tone. On previous albums she intertwined the electronic and the acoustic with elements of psychedelia and jazz. With Juggling Dualities, Frank takes a sideways look at New Age and Wellness culture.

Writing the album came about after many months of being unable to create during a complicated personal time which left her lacking inspiration, feeling creatively stuck yet emotionally uprooted. What helped was distance - taking time and space to disconnect from the struggle. That brought a different rhythm to life and a fresh perspective that allowed exploration without any expectations. A six-week surge of intense creativity followed in which the majority of the album was written. As she explains, "The record represents a journey of reconnection that conveys an underlying message of hope and healing at its core. I think it is my most honest
work to date."

Initially conceived as a New Age project but with a signature personal twist and some subtle humour, there is a familiarity to Juggling Dualities. It is warm and comforting with a sound palette that is refined but familiar - there are soothing signifiers and organic designs that nod to the motifs of New Age but passed through a more contemporary lens.

Juggling Dualities is an invitation to reconnect with yourself. It's music that encourages you to take a pause, be in the moment and reflect on the fact that no matter what challenges come your way, they shall eventually pass.

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SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. Their second album, How You Been, finds the supergroup of prolific composer/producers pushing ever further into the hyperrealist, collectivist approach to music creation nascently explored on their debut Small Medium Large, which was lauded as “awe-inspiring” by Glide, “exuberant” by the Los Angeles Times, and “an exciting milestone” by Pitchfork.

How You Been represents a breakthrough in the musical language of the group. This new work was crafted via extensive post-production of recorded improvisations from a handful of shows in a similar fashion to their debut, but whereas Small Medium Large was constructed from analog tapes of the band’s very first (and very modest) shows at bygone Highland Park LA venue ETA, How You Been was built with a far higher level of self-awareness and a far deeper pool of source material.

As SML has evolved and spread out in space-time, their fluencies, both as an improvising unit in performance and as a production team in the studio, have sharpened. At inception the band inspired disparate but distinctive artist comparisons like Essential Logic, Oval, Herbie Hancock’s Sextant, and electric Miles Davis, as well as assorted genre touchpoints like Afrobeat, kosmiche, proto-techno and new-jazz. With How You Been their work manages to both collapse and explode such derivatives, displaying a new, high resolution version of SML, fully-flowered into a new strain of sound, bound to incite its own copycats in due time.

“SML might signal a new iteration of jazz, or it might not be jazz at all, or it might not matter.” - Pitchfork

It’s important to note that SML’s sound wasn’t created in a vacuum. The band is part of an extensive community of creative musicians who collaborate in a multitude of ways, and that community has proven to be essential to a growing family tree of innovative, genre-expanding music. Los Angeles in the 2020s is a musical Petri dish in the same way that Cologne & Dusseldorf were for the birth of Krautrock; Canterbury for progressive rock in late-60s; NYC for No Wave & the Downtown sound in the late 70s and 80s; Chicago for genreless, Tortoise-adjacent sounds in the 90s. The musicians of SML represent the core of a new school within the Los Angeles jazz and improvised music scene that seems to breed infinitely overlapping combinations, including Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet, the Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes trio, Anna Butterss’s own band (as heard on 2024’s Mighty Vertebrate), and various other solo and ensemble projects encompassing every single member of the SML, respectively. Available Friday November 7th, 2025.

Listen: listen.k7.com/e29444dd-0fd1-4859-91d1-6ff8d0730dd0

Tracklist:
1.1Gutteral Utterance
1.2Chicago Four
1.3Taking out the Trash
1.4Plankton
1.5Chicago Three
1.6Daves
1.7Old Mytth
1.8Stepping In / The Loop
1.9Brood Board SHROOM
1.10Odd Evens
1.11How You Been
1.12Moving Walkway
1.13Mouth Words

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PARKWEST returns with the BACK TO BASICS ep - four cuts that showcase the essence of the PARKWEST sound: solid, emotional music for heads (and feet!)

Quality house on a limited release, don't miss out

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Naya Beat is incredibly excited to announce the release of an astonishing lost “holy grail”, Mohinder Kaur Bhamra’s 1982 masterpiece ‘Punjabi Disco’. Unknown and inaccessible to even the deepest of diggers, it is the first British Asian electronic dance album recorded and a true lost relic. A chance find of the original multitrack masters during the Covid lockdown led to ‘Punjabi Disco’ being rediscovered. Lovingly mixed down and remastered from these very studio recordings, the reissue also includes remixes by Peaking Lights, Baalti, Mystic Jungle, Psychemagik, and Danger Boys, as well as a cover by Say She She’s Piya Malik and Turbotito & Ragz and a previously unreleased track. It is available for pre-order and out on x2LP vinyl and all digital platforms on October 31st, 2025.

Released the same year and into equal obscurity as ‘Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat’, Charanjit Singh’s acid house opus, the reissue of ‘Punjabi Disco’ is set to have similar reverberations in the world of dance music. Produced by Mohinder’s eldest son and legendary bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra using a recently acquired Roland SH-1000 synthesizer and a CR-8000 CompuRhythm drum machine played by his then 11-year-old brother, the album was recorded at Roxy Music bass player Rick Kenton’s studio in London. The concept for a Punjabi disco album was subsequently stolen from the Bhamra’s by the very record label that had agreed to distribute the album. Eventually self-released with no label support, ‘Punjabi Disco’ vanished into complete obscurity.

A pivotal figure in British Asian music, West London-based vocalist and first-generation immigrant Mohinder Kaur Bhamra became the first woman to sing at Punjabi weddings and other community events in the UK. Her son, Kuljit, would accompany her, playing tabla at her events from the age of six. Wedding music was traditionally a tame, segregated affair: men and women seated and separated on opposite sides of the room. ‘Punjabi Disco’ was born out of a desire to create an unsegregated dancefloor and inspired by the sounds of disco from the era. A tapestry of electric drum rhythm, warbling bass, and psychedelic siren-like Roland synth melodies provide a vehicle for Mohinder’s powerful voice. Part disco, part funk, part acid house, and infused with Punjabi folk melodies, the sound of ‘Punjabi Disco’ is as mesmerising as it is undefinable.

Featuring an incredible gatefold package and exhaustive liner notes by the Guardian’s Global Music Critic, Ammar Kalia, the x2LP release has been cut to vinyl for the discerning listener and DJ by Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt from The Carvery, London.

This is Naya Beat’s ninth release in a series of reissues, remixes, and compilations dedicated to uncovering electronic and dance music from the subcontinent and South Asian diaspora.

A1 Disco Wich Aa
A2 Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya
A3 Par Toon Ki Janay
A4 Pyar Mainu Kar
A5 Aye Deewane
B1 Soniya Mukh Tera
B2 Mainu Apne Pyar Wich
B3 Chum Chum Dil Nal
B4 Ve Tu Jaldi Jaldi Aa
B5 Dohai Ni Dohai
C1 Disco Wich Aa (Peaking Lights Remix)
C2 Turbotito & Ragz featuring Piya Malik - Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya
C3 Par Toon Ki Janay (Danger Boys Remix)
D1 Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya (Psychemagik Remix)
D2 Par Toon Ki Janay (Dexter+Franz Remix)
D3 Mainu Apne Pyar Wich (Mystic Jungle Remix)
D4 Disco Wich Aa (Baalti Remix)

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Frederiksberg Records is proud to announce the long-awaited reissue of Ambonisye Lord Shepherd’s 1981 debut album, Evidence For Real — a deeply personal and spiritual fusion of Soul and Jazz that has remained a hidden treasure for more than four decades.

Tracklist
1.124th and Lake Street
1.2Life and Times of Malcolm X
1.3Fight for It
1.4Death Land
1.5I'll Always Love You
1.6The Day the Little Shepherd
1.7Verline
1.8The Teachings of Don Juan
1.925TH

https://listen.k7.com/2d96dfe1-f81a-40a2-9c99-d3566d309f45

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The next instalment from Soulfuric Recordings is the first edition of “The Sound Of Soulfuric Volume 1” taken from the vaults are four unearthed gems spanning two classics, two exclusives, and long-awaited vinyl debuts from house music specialists such as Hardsoul feat Ron Carroll, Urban Blues Project, The Thompson Project & Crackazat and Art Of Tones.

Stepping up first is Hardsoul featuring the legendary Ron Carroll with “Back Together” (Main Classic Mix) a track that should be found in every soulful house DJ’s set, with Ron’s alluring vocals this one is definitely made to keep the dancers moving and in case of dancefloor emergencies reach for this record.

Up next is Urban Blues Project featuring Bobby Pruitt “We Are One” (Art of Tones Extended Remix) which is being brought out for the first time on vinyl, the original mix was first released in 2001 and the now the Art Of Tones Remix has breathed new life into it making it a must have for anyone who is a fan of the original.

Flipping over to the B side, Urban Blues Project return once again with Love Don’t Live (The U.B.P. Classic Club Mix) with Michael Procter. A Soulfuric classic that has been championed time and time again, first released in 1996 and now being revived almost 20 years later on fresh wax.

Rounding off Volume 1 The Thompson Project & Crackazat featuring Gary L with “Messin’ With My Mind” (Crackazat Extended Remix) this has also never been on vinyl before, released earlier this year this soulful house banger got the touch-up from Bristol’s finest Crackazat who adds his touch to the Florida duo’s offering.

House heads can come together once again and seize the opportunity to get their hands on this outstanding EP.

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New Direct-to-Disc album from Night Dreamer.
Today, visionary Amsterdam-based ensemble Stargazers announce the release of their self titled debut album via Night Dreamer on 14th November 2025.
Drawing on the spiritual, freedom-driven sound of 60s/70s Black jazz, Stargazers breathes new life into the introspective, quietly crafted and previously hidden musical diary of the ensemble’s orchestrator, saxophonist, flautist and composer, Finn Peters.

Listen: Stream: https://s.disco.ac/vsgxpjmeyawd /

Tracklist
1.1Loempia
1.291 Ships
1.3The Second Day
1.4Clifford Jordan
1.5Roof
1.6StargazerS

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Flash Atkins has pulled together a crack team of musicians for Sanza Mibale Ya Bo Pemi.
It is a tribute to the golden age of Afro-Disco, when the sounds of 70's New York found their way to the continent and fused with local musical styles and rhythms.
Felix Ngindu sings in his native Lingala language from the DRC over a locked bass, congas, keys, percussion, rhythm guitar and a brass section from Haggis Horn's Atholl Ransome and Malcolm Strachan.
Funk, disco, soul and jazz all blend for a peak time jam.

The Flash Dub strips things back to the rhythm section for heads down, dubby action and a tracky take that still packs a dance floor punch.
The incomparable Bosq steps up for remix duties and knocks it out of the park. Layered drums and percussion give things a more Latin swing before the beats break, piano enters the fray, and it's a tropical-funk party-starter all the way. The dub does the beat thing, rocking a hard groove for the dancers.

Hands in the air? F**ck yeah!

LTD Edition in individually sprayed sleeves !

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Following on from the first KMS Sampler, PDD in conjunction with Armada Music & BEAT Music Fund return for Volume 2 in the series. Once again mining the delights in the expansive catalogue, Volume 2 showcases four more essential cuts. Up first is the classic MK Mix of R-Tyme’s – Use Me. Next up on the A side we have the legendary pairing of Chez Damier and Ron Trent with their remix of Inner City – Share My Life. On the flip, the D’Pac Dub of Dionne opens the B side and then rounding off the EP is the second Inner City track, this time remixed by another Detroit hero, Carl Craig.

Just like Volume 1, the audio has been lovingly remastered by AIR Studios and their team of celebrated engineers, fully utilising their mastering knowledge. Another brilliant volume from KMS!

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