The growing Aadam Jacobs Collection is an internet treasure trove for music lovers, especially for fans of indie and punk rock during the 1980s through the early 2000s.
The AT-LP120XUSB features basically everything you could want from a modern, upgraded turntable. The built-in phono preamp lets you easily swap the turntable from your headphones to your speakers without any extra steps or hardware.
I love reading about bands. I've read the AllMusic reviews of my favorite albums multiple times over. If my Apple Music selection has a writeup to go with, I'll read it. And I can read a good band book in a matter of hours. I'm not a professional nostalgia whore, but reading about these bands really does put me back in that time, and in that headspace. Like the music itself! I can't get enough of that particular high.
The allure of the project is that the magnetic tape doesn't reproduce audio cleanly because the oxide coating introduces a slight instability in playback speed. But these are the 'flaws' that Iulius Curt is after, allowing the resulting sound to have that lo-fi warmth that's ideal for ambient listening.
The TTT-W magnetic modular wall rack is flushed against the wall, featuring four circular magnetic pads that create a vertical design piece, unifying the audio devices.
Fifteen years ago, when the Lisbon imprint was reckoning with near-empty dancefloors at the recently shuttered Musicbox venue, it would have been inconceivable for Principe to host a party at Lux widely considered to be among Europe's best nightclubs let alone pack out the roughly 1,500 capacity venue with the likes of minimal techno legend Richie Hawtin in attendance.
R&B in the 21st century has been in a constant state of flux, tugged between safe traditionalism and blurry attempts at progression. For the last decade-plus that "progression" has seen R&B music become more indebted to trap records and the moody atmospherics of alternative bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, or My Bloody Valentine.
Detroit techno, austere and futuristic, grew out of Black/queer culture, sci-fi escapism, and the repetitive language of automobile factories. San Francisco's techno, on the other hand, fused an outdoor hippie aesthetic with ecstatic, UK-derived beats that had crowds mass-hallucinating UFOs on Ocean Beach at dawn. Both shared a deep funkiness, however—remember when people of all shapes and colors once danced wildly?
Captured during a live recording session deep in the Corsican wilderness, the 11 track project presents a raw, hardware driven performance forged through real time improvisation. The album embraces the unpredictability of live electronic music, where instinct, physical interaction and spontaneous decision making shape the sound as it unfolds.
When Braid broke up, guitarist/secondary vocalist Chris Broach formed The Firebird Band, and the remaining three members - frontman Bob Nanna, bassist Todd Bell, and drummer Damon Atkinson - recruited guitarist Mark Dawursk of Alligator Gun and continued on as Hey Mercedes. They recorded it with Jawbox's J. Robbins, who had also produced Braid's classic 1998 swan song Frame & Canvas, and in many ways, it picked up where Frame & Canvas left off.
Last year saw the highest vinyl record sales since 1984, signaling a strong desire among music enthusiasts to return to a simpler time of physical media. Even cassette tapes are making a comeback, with major artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift releasing their material on the iconic plastic, four-inch audio reels. Now, self-described "party slam" metal band Party Cannon is taking the nostalgia play - often framed as an act of defiance against greedy and AI-slop-infested streaming platforms - to a new level.
Escapism, the debut album by They Call Me Steve (Jordi van Achthoven of Tinlicker), explores his creative world through rediscovered tracks and everyday-life samples. Deeply personal and rooted in his past, it also features the singles "Whatever You Call It," "Body Move," and "Lara," shaping a record suited for both club nights and quiet escape. The first album Escapism by They Call Me Steve is an album to be obsessed with.
