2020s 200 Items

Original cover is missing!

Pink vinyl seems unplayed. Original inner sleeve. Seam split. Limited edition. With poster.

Synthwave. Darkwave. Silhouettes is a strong debut album that captures the shifting perspectives of its five-year writing period, and the emergence of Yama Uba’s uniquely crafted sound. With Akiko Sampson's charismatic vocals and rumbling bass combined with Winter Zora's sweeping guitar and saxophone soaring over velvet synthesizers and synthpop beats, Yama Uba makes several nods to their post-punk and darkwave predecessors while creating a sound entirely their own. Throughout each track, Yama Uba emerges as a songwriting unit able to capture the complexities of the human spirit, as fragile as it is powerful, as it experiences its own evolution. States Sampson, ‘‘As a whole, Silhouettes is about personal transformation and self-discovery, and is a reckoning with the power of time.”

"Yama Uba’s modern-yet-nostalgic sound plays beautifully into the emotional cadences of Silhouettes, reflecting on personal growth and transformation with the cutting insight of the hard-won wisdom that can only come with age. The band’s nods to earlier darkwave movements evoke past eras and distant memories, but Sampson’s powerful lyrics and no-holds-barred delivery remind us that some wounds don’t heal with time, even as they make us stronger."

Tokyo based indie pop / psychedelic pop band, xiexie finally releases their long-awaited debut album called “wellwell” on June 12. They have played in Fuji Rock Festival, and opened for many international artists. They also did their first headline show overseas in Taiwan and it was very successful.Their music is a bridge between Asian indie music scene and US indie music scene.

“A Chasm Here And Now” is the critically acclaimed debut album of Justin Stephens’ (ex-Passion Play) current band Wires & Lights, with which the Berlin based indie-pop/post-punk quartet redeemed everything they announced at earlier live shows and on the Pagan Love Songs Vol. 3 compilation (2014) with an early demo version of “Swimming”. After a successful cd release two years ago, the album will now finally be released on vinyl in a limited edition (300 copies) gatefold double LP, complete with four bonus tracks (one unreleased track and three remixes by Ash Code, The Foreign Resort and Traitrs). Right from the off, the brilliant opener “Drive” leaves nothing to be desired in terms of thrilling, hymnic danceability. A grandiosely updated “Swimming” sustains the urgent sense of drive unconventionally, before “Anyone”, one of the most gripping and sweeping mid-tempo ballads of recent years, changes down a gear. And that was just the beginning. Every time you think you’ve grasped the band musically, they immediately prove you wrong with the next track, e.g. with “Dead To Us”, the calmest and most introspective track according to its loss subject, which stands out for a beautiful ending that develops without haste. If you’re still in any doubt, listen to the conclusion of the album: “Going, Going, Gone” – this masterfully polished gem of a song, with its New Model Army-like bubbling structure, its genetic connection with Passion Play’s “Running On Empty” and its epic deliverance will be a classic for all time that everyone always wants to hear.

Rolling through life, an open mind like an ocean, an infinite ride that comes furiously crashing to a halt. This is Whitney K’s ‘Two Years’, a deep dive into the Canadian songwriter’s journey through vulnerability, change and ultimately letting his guard down.

Whitney K is the wandering stalwart Konner Whitney, a Whitehorse Yukon resident who has spent time in Vancouver, Montreal, Burnaby and Los Angeles. We met the character in 2016 through his intoxicating 4-track recorded manifesto ‘Goodnight’, a head on collision into 24 hours of illusioned romance and modern day escapism. Fast forward to 2021, lift those curtains, aptly titled ‘Good Morning’ is the opening track on ‘Two Years’, a different cracker, a deliberate record about transformation, where to put it simply, Whitney K has arrived. Enlisting the aid of main collaborator and bandmate Josh Boguski and drummer Avalon Rossignol-Tassonyi, the focus has been shifted, folklore and realism becoming reckoning and truthfulness, what was outsider folk is now political poetry, life in motion delivered through a freeway ridden baritone voice that transforms the mundane into extraordinary. Written with a completely different mindset and a conscious effort to break with the traditions of a corrupt, hypocritical, and hateful society/lineage, Konner’s pen is precise and daring, uniting the earnestness of Willie Nelson and the comedy relief of Harry Nilsson on the beautiful ‘Me Or The Party #165’, or when painting Canada’s colonial past and heartland image on the primitive rock’n’roll anthem ‘Trans-Canada Oil Boom Blues’. There is no avoidance, no excuses, whether your self portrait in the mirror resembles a five dollar caricature sold on a boardwalk, the John Cale-esque opener ‘Good Morning’, or whether you learn you are worthy of love like on the poignant vignette ‘Maryland’, the beautifully arranged album closer that echoes Tin Pan Alley with Lou Reed’s grit. ‘Two Years’ also presents plenty of fun, the perfectly stumblin’ garage rocker ‘Last Night #2’, the honky tonk blues coming-of-age episode ‘Cowboy City Rocker’ and the cello/violin belter ‘Hit This Pipe’. One of Whitney K’s many gems is ‘The Weekend’ a minimalist spectral ode to hope where the band’s restriction brings out the pure force and vocal command of the ramblin’ troubadour. Time to open your arms, he’s coming out of no fun city and aiming straight for you.

Clear vinyl!

This record invites you on an extraordinary journey, in the form of a spatio-temporal and transgenerational sound collage, into the parallel and singular universe of one of the major counter-culture movements of the 1960s fantastic realism. A cross between thematic compilation and sound creation, it offers a selection of rarities and nuggets with psychedelic and esoteric tonesby groups from the late 60's - early 70's French psychedelic scene, such as Haira, Guy Skornnik and Martin Circus, as well as previously unreleased tracks by major current and emerging bands such as The Limiñanas, Zombie Zombie featuring Pacôme Thiellement, The Penelopes or Terrains vagues, Rubin et le paradoxe featuring Brigitte Fontaine, Tuxedomoon or Exotourisme (Perez and Dominique Gonzalez Foerster). These tracks were created especially for the occasion. All mixed and interspersed with audio archives by Jacques Bergier, Louis Pauwels or Eugène Canseliet and sounds from installations designed by visual artists (Veronique Belland, Alexis Chapelain). At once cutting-edge and accessible to the uninitiated, between fantasy and science fiction, esotericism and occultism, popular culture and contemporary art, avant-garde and pop music, this disc offers a poetic ode to the Strange, to curiosity, to the capacity for wonder and the desire for knowledge, with a view to re-enchanting reality.Conceived by Jean-François Sanz (author, director and curator) and Hermione Volt (visual artist), in collaboration with Laurent Paulré (founder of the Contours label and producer at Radio France), and with the complicity of Céline Du Chéné (author and journalist), this album, an atypical sound object, is the musical extension of the eponymous group exhibition UN AUTRE MONDE ///DANS NOTRE MONDE, which opened at Galerie du Jour in Paris.

Limited Edition.
Single Sided Vinyl.
Cover corners slightly dented.

Bay Area post-punk outfit Topographies deliver their sophomore LP, Interior Spring, via Dark Entries. Formed in 2018 in San Francisco by Justin Oronos, Jeremie Ruest, and Gray Tolhurst, Topographies link the icy riffs and gloomy atmosphere of early coldwave with the textural depth and warmth of classic shoegaze, emerging with a style that’s both contemporary and timeless. On Interior Spring, Topographies explore themes of guilt, inherited trauma, and recovery. The meaning of its title is triplicate: a submerged river carrying hope, an anxiously wound clock, and a season where wildflowers bloom on the graves of the past. While the work of Tolhurst’s father - Laurence Tolhurst from The Cure - provides a clear influence, Topographies expertly channel acts like Asylum Party or The Chameleons on anthemic pearls like “Night Sea” and “Chain of Days”. Tolhurst’s lyrics draw on his own experience in recovery from substance abuse to examine the cycle of use and hopelessness that characterizes addiction. Through these ten songs, the group hopes to present the idea that freedom is not an escape but an embrace of the quotidian beauty of human life.

Sealed copy with a bumped corner!

Gatefold cover with small, beginning seam split! Records with a few scratches!
Original inner sleeves with seam splits!

Clear vinyl version!

‘San Vito’ is the new album from the Ivor Novello award-winning & multi-platinum selling UK indie-pop band The Feeling.

The album was written and recorded in Southern Italy and saw the band decamp there to self-produce the record as a band together. What began as a short writing trip, turned into a full album project with the Italian sun, food and culture seeping through into the sounds on the record. The band brought in local brass, strings and pizzica / tarantella percussion players – the result being very much an album by The Feeling but with a subtle Salento flavour mixed-in.

The title ‘San Vito’ is influenced by the name of the local town San Vito Dei Normanni where the band spent their time off from the studio soaking in the local culture, food and pizzica music. Highlights include lead single ‘The Right Wrong’ – a driving indie-pop anthem about freeing yourself from judgement, a gorgeous duet with US-based country singer Lucie Silvas & plenty of the flamboyant, upbeat 70s-inspired harmonised indie-pop that the band are adored for.

‘San Vito’ is the new album from the Ivor Novello award-winning & multi-platinum selling UK indie-pop band The Feeling.

The album was written and recorded in Southern Italy and saw the band decamp there to self-produce the record as a band together. What began as a short writing trip, turned into a full album project with the Italian sun, food and culture seeping through into the sounds on the record. The band brought in local brass, strings and pizzica / tarantella percussion players – the result being very much an album by The Feeling but with a subtle Salento flavour mixed-in.

The title ‘San Vito’ is influenced by the name of the local town San Vito Dei Normanni where the band spent their time off from the studio soaking in the local culture, food and pizzica music. Highlights include lead single ‘The Right Wrong’ – a driving indie-pop anthem about freeing yourself from judgement, a gorgeous duet with US-based country singer Lucie Silvas & plenty of the flamboyant, upbeat 70s-inspired harmonised indie-pop that the band are adored for.

Multi-platinum indie pop band, The Feeling, return with their latest record, ‘Live in London’, recorded live in concert at the legendary Shepherd’s Bush Empire, in October 2022. This album brings a raw energy to the band's greatest hits, encapsulating the breadth of their widespread appeal and includes live versions of ‘Fill My Little World’, ‘Love It When You Call’, ‘Never Be Lonely’ & ‘Sewn’ from their multi-platinum selling album ‘Twelve Stops and Home’.

‘Live At The Greek’ is the debut live album from global pop sensations The Driver Era.

Fans can now experience the raw energy, passion, and talent that have made the band one of the most exciting and dynamic live acts in the music scene today.

The album was recorded at the Greek Theatre in LA and features live performance versions of hit singles through the ages, including ‘Afterglow’, ‘A Kiss’, ‘Fantasy’ & ‘Preacher Man’. This record is a testament to the power of independent artistry and the unbreakable bond between a band and their devoted fans.

The 6th mini album "uchu Ichi NO ME" was released in September last year. In response to requests for an analog version of "uchu Ichi NO ME", it has finally been remastered for analog and will be released as a 12-inch EP in limited quantities!! It comes with a QR code for a rare treasure of the early Dokuros recordings!

What THE Dokuros will be presenting this time is "the desolating human society and the evolving human race". This is the first 4-song EP from the new Dokuros, who officially welcomed Grace on drums and Moooting on guitar as members in February 2022. This dance album incorporates elements of EDM, and features guest musicians Fanfan (ex. Kururi) and yatchi (Yuta Orisaka and Moozmz). This is the best work in the history of THE Dokuros, with the help of the talented Tanaka OF THE Hamada (from Lainy J Groove / Sawa Angstrom) for track making.

LP in printed innersleeve. Suwi is an instrumental trio emerging from the creative scene of Ghent (Belgium).Music for lovers of instrumental soul and artists such as Tommy Guerrero, Khruangbin, Menahan Street Band, ...

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Clear Vinyl Edition. Looks unplayed.

The sixth album from Still Corners is “Dream Talk”. Beautifully arranged, elegant and wistful, Dream Talks is a set of ten carefully crafted classic songs. From the autumnal opener "Today is the Day" to the hot summer night finale of "Turquoise Moon", Still Corners have created a sound that is focused, stylish and seductive. Tessa Murray says, "The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember. While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on, the repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery."

The sixth album from Still Corners is “Dream Talk”. Beautifully arranged, elegant and wistful, Dream Talks is a set of ten carefully crafted classic songs. From the autumnal opener "Today is the Day" to the hot summer night finale of "Turquoise Moon", Still Corners have created a sound that is focused, stylish and seductive. Tessa Murray says, "The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember. While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on, the repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery."

Too Late To Start Again follows Steve MARINO’s 2019 debut, Fluff, and finds the songwriter more confident than ever before. The album tracks MARINO’s move from Bloomington, IN to Los Angeles and captures the strange combination of excitement and melancholy that can come with a fresh start. Recorded with Ben Lumsdaine and featuring guitar work from Matt Berry (the Berries, BIG Bite) and Kora Puckett (bugg, Narrow Head), Too Late To Start Again conjures up MARINO’s take on a particularly timeless strain of pop rock, providing the kind of instantly lovable earworms that will stick with you long after the record’s brisk, half-hour runtime is over.

One of the best songs on Ad Hoc, the new album by Boise, Idaho pop project Spiritual Warfare and the Greasy Shadows, is "Shook Loose." It's a catchy, up-tempo ditty about the randomness and absurdity of existence. "Wasting time, turn on a dime. / Where did we come from on your mind," sings project creator Joel Marquard. Later in the song, he slips in this sardonic couplet about human evolution: "Out of the water, we crawl / To our food court job at the mall." That might not seem like a cheery sentiment, but Marquard's rippling guitar hook, Bo Diddley-esque beat and ghostly background vocals make the song sound ecstatic rather than despairing. The Arizona transplant pulls off a similar trick on the bubbly "Angel of Death Donut Shop," the swooning "Volcano Girls" and the 11-minute epic "Death Was an Olympic Speedskater." Odd yet beguiling songs like these make Ad Hoc, one of the most fascinating releases of recent years. True to its title, ad hoc's idiosyncratic sound arose partially from resources Marquard had at hand. "In Pro Tools [a music software program], I found this disc in the box that said 'Loops,'" he said. "So I put it in my computer one day, and it just has all these professionally recorded [tracks]. ... They had all these Indian percussion loops—I mean, like, East India." The sinuous rhythms that Marquard created from those loops help distinguish Ad Hoc from his earlier work, which includes albums with the emo band Dear and the Headlights, the indie-rock group Gospel Claws and the ersatz gospel project The Through & Through Gospel Review. The new LP doesn't quite sound like Spiritual Warfare's previous material either.

Includes insert.

2-in-1 compilation of the long out-of-print 'Non-War Duology' the 6th "love ± Zero" and the 7th "shalom! SALAAM!", this 2-lp set is a compilation of the Soul Flower Union's first half of the 2000's. In addition to their best-known songs, the album includes covers of The Clash, Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tulip, and many others. Two additional bonus tracks, (Richard Hell cover) and (Curtis Mayfield cover), which were not included on the original album!

Dancing is the answer to resistance, pride! Soul Flower Union's first original full-length album in two years since "Butterfly Affects", "Habitable Zone" is finally available in analog format! Electro-graffiti that paints the era, all 10 hardcore maximalist R&B songs for survival!! Please enjoy this masterpiece on vinyl.

Compilation commemorating the 25th anniversary of the release of "A Full Moon Evening"! Analog 2LP compilation of Soul Flower Union's classic medium to slow tunes. A super limited edition of the finest songs from the band's formation in 1993 to 2018!!

"Two elevator bangers to get through the gloomy holiday season by Japanese artist, Sonoko, probably made somewhere in the 90's. Merry ye ye"

close to NM

Gold vinyl version!

Cover and vinyl are close to NM.

in cardboardsleeve

Seira Kariya's first album "Always Fresh", released in 2022, is now available on long-awaited LP! This is their first full-length album after 7 years since her debut. The album tells a story of trying to hold on to the future while living through a difficult time with urban and danceable music, and is filled with heartbreaking melancholy and pop brilliance. Also includes a cover of tofubeats' "Suisei", a song with which she has a close relationship.

Vinyl is close to NM.

The fourth album by Sault scored 97/100 at Metacritic and is the most beloved album at HHVs Supreme 100 of 2020 list, chosen by 150 journalists, musicians, label makers and record collectors. Currently repressed and soon back in stock.

The second album of Sault follows their debut "5" which came out just three months prior to this one. Heads all over the world were still in awe of "5", when all of a sudden "7" dropped. Now, by the end of 2020, they are four critically acclaimed albums deep into buiding their own legacy.

The second album of Sault follows their debut "5" which came out just three months prior to this one. Heads all over the world were still in awe of "5", when all of a sudden "7" dropped. Now, by the end of 2020, they are four critically acclaimed albums deep into buiding their own legacy.

The first album by Sault started a series of now four albums in two years that scored big time with critics all over the world.

The first album by Sault started a series of now four albums in two years that scored big time with critics all over the world.

Sebastian Montesi is a prolific artist, probably best known for his endeavors in Mitochondrion and for being one of the founding members of Auroch. With Saturn’s Cross, the Canadian took a very different path, delving into cold wave territories, which little have to share with the bands he is usually associated to. Yet, when we listened to what Sebastian crafted, we had no doubt, and we gladly welcomed this new project to our roster.

Cover close to NM

In the early 2000s, "Panda-san Yochien," a major problematic work by the likeminded circle "Saisei Hyper Beroove" that suddenly appeared, will be reissued in physical form for the first time in analog format after a lapse of about 20 years!!!! bermei.inazawa, who is still in charge of various anime song/game music, TOx2RO, who writes lyrics at a high level, and Wataru Ishibashi, aka "Mirai" who worked on many game music but passed away suddenly in 2014, create a unique world view! The cute vocals of Mahiru Sonoda, Chata, and Haruka Shimotsuki ride on top of it, and once you listen to it, it will never leave your ears! This miraculous and addictive album is now available on double-LP for the first time!

Sacred Skin is back! Their sophomore album Born in Fire hits turntables everywhere September 2024. Pre-order now to reserve your copy! This latest effort builds off the band’s full-length debut (2022’s The Decline of Pleasure) and takes their sound to a completely new level. Painting a blackened, dystopian vision of life in modern-day Los Angeles, Born in Fire is a movie soundtrack inspired by a forgotten era. Anthemic pop music steeped in romanticism and melancholy and drenched in layers upon layers of new wave nostalgia. For fans of ’80s soundtracks, Tangerine Dream, INXS, Depeche Mode, and New Order.

Midnight Mannequin Records is proud to present this deluxe pressing of Born in Fire on 2xLP colored vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket, complete with OBI strip.

Still sealed

Still sealed with hype sticker. Clear vinyl Limited edition.

If 2022’s The Children Of Scorpio was the debut album that turned people onto the world of Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne, Colours & Light is the body of work that will be buried deep into their hearts. It is a majestic album, bringing together the worlds of folk rock, psych soundtracks and hazy cinematic funk. A growing confidence and ease emanate from the writing and production of this sophomore LP, bolstered by the reception to his standout debut. “It’s a more layered and diverse record” Paul mentions, “with a more outward-looking, global sound, born out of the records I was listening to and the musicians I was lucky enough to collaborate with”. It feels relaxed yet self-assured, with a kaleidoscope of sounds that twist together in a mesmerising fashion. The theme of the album developed naturally through the lyrics Paul began writing. A creative process both plagued and fed by insomnia, nourished by relationships, entwined in emotions, nights out, nights in and the after-effects on the human condition. Relatable themes yet seen through the prism of a soundscape that takes in many a different culture and scene. From acid folk to psych-funk, Francophile elements to Anatolian and Eastern inspirations, all interlocking and rotating as one. Drawing inspiration from those he admires, Colours & Light radiates with collaborations. The title track, which tips its hat to a live 1973 TV version of Pentangle’s ‘Wedding Dress’, features the folk rock, guitar brilliance of Jack Sharp from Wolf People/Large Plants. Elsewhere, two tracks are blessed by the sultry, smokey French vocals of Gloria’s Wendy Martinez, ‘Extra Nuit’ and ‘Entre chien et loup’. The former echoes Paul's love of classic French psych-pop from the late ’60s and early ’70s and artists such as Laurance Vanay, Calcium, Leonie, and Serge Gainsbourg. Martinez's sublime vocal work nestles perfectly within Paul's psych-folk-funk productions, as her Gloria partner, Alexis Morel (aka Kid Victrola) sprinkles a dose of entrancing guitar line magic on proceedings. The list of collaborations extends further with Raz and Markey Funk, drummer Tony Coote and percussionist Paul Elliott all featuring. Regular collaborator and underground icon Barrie Cadogan (Little Barrie) returns along with Bert Page from The Cromagnon Band, who between them provide a hit of whacked-out, fuzzed-up country guitar and Moog madness respectively on ‘Lost In The Woods (Bacchanal)’. Rounding off the record Paul’s daughter, Olivia Osborne, supplies the keyboard intro on the penultimate track ‘Twilight’. Dorian Conway from The Soundcarriers (whose bandmate Paul Isherwood returns on mixing duties) then layers echoing heavy flute parts to magically capture the psychedelic sunrise images brought to mind. Balancing light and shade on this record, there is beauty and tension all wrapped up in Paul’s vivid and visceral, storytelling gift.

If 2022’s The Children Of Scorpio was the debut album that turned people onto the world of Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne, Colours & Light is the body of work that will be buried deep into their hearts. It is a majestic album, bringing together the worlds of folk rock, psych soundtracks and hazy cinematic funk. A growing confidence and ease emanate from the writing and production of this sophomore LP, bolstered by the reception to his standout debut. “It’s a more layered and diverse record” Paul mentions, “with a more outward-looking, global sound, born out of the records I was listening to and the musicians I was lucky enough to collaborate with”. It feels relaxed yet self-assured, with a kaleidoscope of sounds that twist together in a mesmerising fashion. The theme of the album developed naturally through the lyrics Paul began writing. A creative process both plagued and fed by insomnia, nourished by relationships, entwined in emotions, nights out, nights in and the after-effects on the human condition. Relatable themes yet seen through the prism of a soundscape that takes in many a different culture and scene. From acid folk to psych-funk, Francophile elements to Anatolian and Eastern inspirations, all interlocking and rotating as one. Drawing inspiration from those he admires, Colours & Light radiates with collaborations. The title track, which tips its hat to a live 1973 TV version of Pentangle’s ‘Wedding Dress’, features the folk rock, guitar brilliance of Jack Sharp from Wolf People/Large Plants. Elsewhere, two tracks are blessed by the sultry, smokey French vocals of Gloria’s Wendy Martinez, ‘Extra Nuit’ and ‘Entre chien et loup’. The former echoes Paul's love of classic French psych-pop from the late ’60s and early ’70s and artists such as Laurance Vanay, Calcium, Leonie, and Serge Gainsbourg. Martinez's sublime vocal work nestles perfectly within Paul's psych-folk-funk productions, as her Gloria partner, Alexis Morel (aka Kid Victrola) sprinkles a dose of entrancing guitar line magic on proceedings. The list of collaborations extends further with Raz and Markey Funk, drummer Tony Coote and percussionist Paul Elliott all featuring. Regular collaborator and underground icon Barrie Cadogan (Little Barrie) returns along with Bert Page from The Cromagnon Band, who between them provide a hit of whacked-out, fuzzed-up country guitar and Moog madness respectively on ‘Lost In The Woods (Bacchanal)’. Rounding off the record Paul’s daughter, Olivia Osborne, supplies the keyboard intro on the penultimate track ‘Twilight’. Dorian Conway from The Soundcarriers (whose bandmate Paul Isherwood returns on mixing duties) then layers echoing heavy flute parts to magically capture the psychedelic sunrise images brought to mind. Balancing light and shade on this record, there is beauty and tension all wrapped up in Paul’s vivid and visceral, storytelling gift.

You just moved to the big city, you end up at a party where you don't know anyone and someone walks up to you and asks: "Hey, are you alone here?". That is exactly the feeling that Porcelain id describes on their debut album Bibi:1, short for the Arabic pet name Habibi. Porcelain id is the pseudonym under which Hubert Tuyishime (they/them/their) has been unleashing unique songs since 2020.

The album - inspired by their move from a quiet provincial town to Antwerp - is the soundtrack to walking into city traffic during rush hour and trusting to get out of the chaos in one piece. It is an ode to exciting encounters with complete strangers and to the friends you can come home to afterwards. A story about being a stranger in a city you've romanticized for so long, the rejection that comes with it, and the false nostalgia with which you look back on it all later on.

At first hearing, the completely English-language Bibi:1 may seem like a brusque farewell to the autobiographical intimacy and lo-fi singer-songwriter music on the previously released EPs Mango and Reprise, and especially on songs like Vlaanderen. But to Porcelain id it feels like an organic evolution. One towards more abstraction, experimentation and electronics, but never detached, and still building on the core of Porcelain id.

The new sound is the result of an intense collaboration with producer and partner in crime Youniss Ahamad, who, despite their different musical backgrounds, immediately felt challenged after Porcelain id's legendary elevator pitch: 'I want to make something that is situated between Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Yeezus by Kanye West'.

Together they drew the blueprint for Bibi:1 in Youniss' home studio. Track by track, without looking back. A sporadic, but rigid process that added to the intensity of the album. In the studio, the songs were taken to a higher level. The two invited a pack of talented friends and young musicians to the studio to add parts, a stark contrast to the solitary approach of previous EPs. Aram Abgaryan (recording engineer/synths/vocals), Nard Houdmeyers (guitar), Tim Caramin (drums), David Idrisov (bass), Alban Sarens (sax) and Emma Hessels (vocals) came by. Aram Santy was at the controls during the mixing sessions.

The result sounds like the ultimate symbiosis of Porcelain id and Youniss. Lofi, but ambitious. Fragile, but rough. Poppy, but disruptive. Sometimes challenging. Then welcoming again. Sometimes even danceable. Each song forms a small vignette that is part of a diverse, but coherent unity. Adam Coming Home and Low Poly are closest to the melancholy of Porcelain id's earlier work, while Lights! strikes a new path. First single Man Down, on the other hand, is inspired by the Antwerp students who drown every year and sounds like a wandering nightly stroll through the city. For Brilliant, David Idrisov was asked to 'play bass as if Chet Baker were not a trumpet player, but a bass player', a bizarre assignment that he accomplished with verve. And Cellophane flirts with emo trap and was sung with raspberries between the teeth, to simulate the effect of grills.

A classic catchy Pogo Pops gem! For more than 30 years, Pogo Pops has inspired us with catchy quality pop. With newfound spark, the three members of the band, Frank Hammersland, Nicolai Hamre and Viggo Krüger, are once again ready for a new chapter. They are back with their 8th album “Daylight”.