*****

Mexican Institute of Sound Official

Prefiero La Muerte (Banda Sonora de la Serie Original de Amazon)

MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND

Released 2 October 2026

Amazon Content Services

*****

A cinematic masterclass of lush instrumentation and nostalgic warmth, positioning Camilo Lara as a modern heir to Ennio Morricone.

Mexican Institute of Sound (Instituto Mexicano del Sonido) is the acclaimed electronic and dub-fusion project of Mexico City musician, producer, and composer Camilo Lara. Renowned for blending traditional folk genres, such as cumbia, mariachi, and son jarocho, with electronic beats, hip-hop, and vintage analog textures, Lara has long been a pioneer of contemporary Latin alternative music. Their recent album Ruido Tovar, with Meridian Brothers has featured prominently in the Transworld Global Music Chart for many months. Beyond his studio albums, his distinctive sonic footprint has made him a sought-after composer and music supervisor across major film, television, and gaming soundtracks, consistently bridging regional Mexican musical heritage with modern cinematic storytelling.

Composed for the Amazon Prime original horror-comedy series, Prefiero La Muerte shines as an outstanding soundtrack that may also be enjoyed as a remarkably cohesive, standalone listening experience. Lara crafts a rich sonic tapestry where dramatic brass fanfares, dusty acoustic guitars, and panoramic orchestral flourishes evoke the grandeur of classic Spaghetti Western scores. What sets the record apart is its organic warmth: rather than relying on historical samples, Lara channels a Danger Mouse-esque production ethos, recording rich analogue instrumentation that radiates nostalgic grit, without needing to reference the pastiche of a Tarantino. Every track is a standalone gem, balancing tension, dark humour, and cinematic romance to deliver a thoroughly entertaining album worth of a modern successor to Ennio Morricone.

There's more...

KANINNA (REMIXES)

MISS KANINNA

Released 2 October 2026

Soul Has No Tempo

****-

Blak energy meets club culture as Miss Kaninna’s breakthrough debut EP undergoes a vibrant, rhythm-heavy reinterpretation.

Hailing from lutruwita/Tasmania, Miss Kaninna is a proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon, and Yirendali woman whose fierce storytelling and anti-establishment anthems have rapidly established her as a vital force in so-called Australian music. Following the critical success of her September 2024 debut EP KANINNA and her uncompromising 2026 follow-up BLACKPRINT, she continues her momentum with KANINNA (REMIXES) on Soul Has No Tempo. Enlisting a diverse roster of producers, the release reframes her ancestral pride and raw live energy for worldwide dancefloors.

While the 2024 original EP KANINNA introduced her razor-sharp lyricism through a fusion of classic hip-hop and soul-tinged production, KANINNA (REMIXES) re-imagines those six original cuts into expansive, club-focused reworks. Producers like Coflo take centerpiece tracks such as "Blak Britney" and "Dawg In Me" into deep house and dancefloor dub territory, replacing the original raw bounce with hypnotic, steady grooves. Elsewhere, reworks from Alexander Flood, Kawel Che (featuring Jamahl Yami), Turbo Chook, and Bharu inject dynamic jazz-percussion, club rhythms, and atmospheric electronics. Far from diluting her punchy missives, these global club textures give Kaninna’s provocative lyricism a fresh, dancefloor-driven longevity.

There's more...

Miss Kaninna Official

Flight

THE SEVEN UPS

Released 2 October 2026

Nice Guys

****-

An propulsive fusion of motorik Krautrock rhythms, searing Afro-funk horn lines, and atmospheric arpeggiated synths from Melbourne’s finest.

The Seven Ups describe their music as "the soundtrack to the dancefloor at the end of the world". Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, and lead by guitarist Trent Sterling, The Seven Ups formed in the early 2010s, the and ensemble has earned a formidable reputation on Australia’s live circuit and abroad through their hypnotic grooves and brass-heavy, high-octane performances.

Across six studio albums, they have continually pushed their signature sound into new territories, fusing heavy brass motifs with hypnotic krautrock repetition and cosmic synth textures. Anchored by a rock-solid rhythm section, The Seven Ups remain leading pioneers of Australia's vibrant instrumental underground.

On Flight, The Seven Ups expand their sonic universe by marrying their trademark Afro-psych-funk foundation with driving Krautrock with a nuanced, downbeat disco finish. Built on groove and atmosphere, the album relies on mesmerising, arpeggiated synthesizer lines and pulsing motorik basslines that pull listeners into its atmospheric slipstream. Searing horn arrangements float effortlessly above tight, hypnotic percussion, balanced with grounded, floor-hugging grooves.

Stripped-back tracks like "New Palace" and "Bottle Brush Tree" reveal a slower, atmospheric side to the band, while the dynamic "Flight or Fight" showcases their seamless ensemble interplay. Elsewhere, "Lossless" and "Player 2" find ways to reference Pink Floyd, before settling into their respective grooves. The result is an enveloping, transcendent record that soars without losing its hypnotic grip.

There's more...

The Seven Ups Official

Va Va Voom

JOHN ROSEBORO

Released 2 October 2026

Public Confesstion Art House

****-

An exquisite, whimsical collection of acoustic post bossa-nova vignettes, elevated by intimately reflective chamber instrumentation and striking cover art.

John Roseboro is a Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter with a refined acoustic, "post-bossa-nova" sound. Drawing inspiration from legacy artists , minimalist folk, and chamber jazz, Roseboro pairs gentle nylon-string guitar picking with soft, melancholic baritone vocals. Releasing music independently through his own boutique label, Public Confession Art House, he has cultivated a dedicated global audience with vulnerable lyricism, serene arrangements, and distinct conceptual vision. Roseboro’s introspective craftsmanship bridges classic cool-jazz sensibilities, evoking Chet Baker, João Gilberto and Jack Johnson, with contemporary indie-folk sensibilities.

Va Va Voom finds John Roseboro perfecting this delicate balance of understated elegance and emotional nuance. Anchored by soft acoustic strums and lush, ambient room dynamics, the record unfolds like a series of private diary entries set to music. Songs like the lead single "Bonanza" highlight his gift for weaving whimsical melodies over undulating bossa rhythms, to which subtle horn flourishes and chamber accents add rich textural depth throughout. Roseboro handles heavy themes of solitude and devotion with a deceptively light touch, resulting in a tranquil, timeless body of work that lingers long after its final note.

Visually, the record is represented by a striking cover painting by artist Alice Barreras, whose expressive, story-board artwork perfectly mirrors the album's warm, organic atmosphere and poetic poise.

There's more...

John Roseboro Official

SÖWT

JD ALLEN

Released 2 October 2026

Savant Records

*****

Ancient heritage paths converge as American jazz and North African Gnawa find warm, hypnotic common ground.

Over his quarter-century career, JD Allen has explored many corners of the world of jazz, from the mainstream to the avant-garde, and blues to electronica. With his new release, we find Allen in Tangier & Rabat, Morocco collaborating with local and like-minded musicians, who together have produced an astounding new hybrid of tenor-led free jazz and gnawa, the North African musical genre that features the guembri, the region's unique 3-stringed lute.

Many artists have travelled this path - Matisse, William S. Burroughs, Alan Ginsberg, Brian Jones and Jim Jarmusch included - but the city, one of the world's great historical crossroads and cultural melting pots, has also attracted its share of jazz icons: Josephine Baker, Ornette Coleman, Dizzy Gillespie, Archie Shepp and Randy Weston among them, with the latter providing inspiration for Allen's adventurousness, as each shares common roots in Detroit, USA. Allen can now stand proud in the illustrious company of these predecessors, for this collection (named for the Rabat studio in which it was recorded), brings forth as sweet, engaging and authentic a musical marriage between genres as you're ever likely to hear.

As correctly noted in Willard Jenkins' excellent album release notes "Throughout this release, one hears that JD Allen chose to go deep...engaging in a true sense of spiritual connection" with music that "brings to mind the musical hypnosis often experienced at the annual Gnawa Festival in the lovely seaside Moroccan town of Essaouira every year." Having shared this experience, we confirm the accuracy of Jenkins' statement.

Allen's combo is stacked with international heritage and experience, and comprises Bolivian Leonardo Montana (piano), French-based Cuban Ruy Adrian Lopez-Nussa (drums) and Moroccans Hamza Souissi (electric bass) and Yazid El Alaoui (guembri and vocals). Together, they have captured the essence of gnawa - it's simultaneous gentleness, chaos, devotional and trance-inducing qualities. The result is timeless music that seems to trace ancient heritage paths across time and space to American blues and Gnawa, and colonial, North African roots.

There's more...

JD Allen Instagram

Meshell Ndegeocello Official

Synonym

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO

Released 2 October 2026

Blue Note

****-

An album full of reinvention: arrangements that are synonyms of the originals, in collaboration with a diversity of guest vocalists, producers and instrumentalists.

Since her emergence in the early 1990s, Meshell Ndegeocello has quietly been one of modern music's most vital polymaths. A virtuosic bassist, composer, and vocalist, she helped spark the neo-soul movement before continuously defying genre parameters across funk, rock, avant-garde jazz, and spoken word. Now within the fourth decade of her recording career, her tenure with Blue Note Records has unlocked a brilliant late-career renaissance. Ndegeocello continues to refine the art of collaborative music-making, blending profound artistic stewardship with an unmistakable sonic thumbprint that bridges generational and stylistic divides.

Synonym arrives as a stunning, two-tiered masterwork of reimagination. Following past tribute projects like Ventriloquism, Ndegeocello steps fully into the role of auteur producer, recasting classic songs through a remarkably diverse lens. The genius of the record lies in its dual dynamic: pairing an elite, cross-generational ensemble with third-party compositions ranging from Bee Gees classics to Bob Dylan and Phil Oakey originals. Highlights are ubiquitous: Chaka Khan shines on a Roxy Music-infused pop revision, ANOHNI lends haunting weight to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” and Robert Glasper elevates late-night soul treatments. Far from a standard covers collection, Synonym functions as an interconnected gallery of genius and, even where it fails to surpass the originals, each song achieves a self-contained victory over mediocrity. Ndegeocello’s subtle bass groove and production direction act as the gravity binding these disparate icons together into something deeply resonant, fresh, and transformative.

There's more...

I Take U Highlife

KAY SLICE

Released 25 September 2026

Agogo Records

****-

An inspired blend of ancestral Ghanaian highlife rhythms and sharp hip-hop storytelling, charting an exhilarating modern course of sound for the African diaspora.

With the release of his sophomore album, Amsterdam-based Ghanaian artist Kay Slice is giving notice as a creative force in the emergence of African sounds on the international stage. Growing up navigating two cultures, he initially connected with his roots through highlife and Afrobeat CDs played at Ghanaian family gatherings. Today, he merges these ancestral rhythms with organic neo-soul, hip-hop, and poetry. Determined to leave a profound impression of Africa's spiritual musical force on his generation, Slice crafts anthems of cultural connection, identity, and empowerment. His dynamic live performances are vibrant celebrations of rhythm, spirit, and liberation.

I Take U Highlife presents a dozen breathtaking songs that balance reverence for heritage with forward-thinking innovation. Co-produced with Anton de Bruin and driven by a robust Ghanaian ensemble, the album pays homage to vintage West African highlife, radically elevated with modern hip-hop energy and poetic lyricism. Two of the album's highlights, opening track "Adwuma" (featuring highlife legend Gyedu-Blay Ambolley) and "Kwame Nkrumah" (with the iconic Pat Thomas) perfectly capture this cross-generational dialogue, blending vibrant Ghanaian drums and balafon chants with Slice’s urgent, thoughtful verses. Elsewhere, "A-Way" , a collaborations with Jembaa Groove, and "Take Time" , with Peter Somuah, reinforce the project’s expansive, diaspora-facing vision.

There's more...

Kay Slice Official

The Gem

JULIA JACKLIN

Released 25 September 2026

4AD

****-

Another superior serving of collaborative musicianship and songwriting, filled with songs of self-examination, observation and resolution.

As she recounts on her home page, when Jacklin first moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2017, she discovered a little bar on a back street in the inner city suburb of Collingwood, where bands pushed dining tables to the side and set up in a corner on the floor. She didn’t know anyone in town but knew she wanted to make the city her home, so she started hanging out there, forcing herself out of her comfort zone. The pub was named The Gem.

She recalls that eight years later, with three celebrated solo records under her belt - Don’t Let The Kids Win (2016), Crushing (2019), and PRE PLEASURE (2022) - she was looking to make a fourth. With time on her hands – she was out of contract with her record label, was searching for a manager – she decided to make the record at home in Melbourne, something she’d never done before.

She called up an old drinking buddy Robert Muinos, owner of Rat Shack studios, which is located above The Gem, and brought in friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass), and Jess Elwood (drums). Recording happened in close quarters, in converted hotel room accommodation upstairs at the pub. The result is another superior serving of collaborative musicianship and songwriting, filled with songs of forgiveness, self-determination, courage, detachment and trust.

“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” says Jacklin. It’s also the theme that underpins The Gem.

There's more...

Julia Jacklin Official

XXX

BABA ZULU

Released 25 September 2026

Glitterbeat Records

****-

Three decades into their extraordinary journey, the legendary Istanbul-based collective BaBa ZuLa return with XXX – a hypnotic, uncompromising and undeniably vital statement of artistic freedom.

There are few groups in contemporary music whose work becomes more unpredictable with time. Fewer still who, after thirty years of existence, sound more adventurous, stranger and more radical than ever before. BaBa ZuLa belong to that rare category.

Often mentioned alongside other internationally acclaimed voices of the Turkish psychedelic resurgence, such as Gaye Su Akyol, Altın Gün and Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, BaBa ZuLa have always ventured furthest into experimentation, improvisation and unconventional song forms. Their music long ago transcended the boundaries of psychedelic rock, evolving into a singular sonic universe where Anatolian traditions collide with dub, electronics, performance art, avant-garde aesthetics and ritualistic trance. It is no coincidence that over the years they have collaborated with visionary artists such as Mad Professor, Jaki Liebezeit of Can, members of Faust and Einstürzende Neubauten and Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Each encounter left its trace, yet none altered the essence of the band. BaBa ZuLa have remained committed to their own path — restless, exploratory and defiantly resistant to fashions and definitions.

XXX is the latest chapter in that story. The album moves through dreamlike narratives, social commentary and contemporary mythologies. Pulsating rhythms, transformed saz textures, analogue electronics and hypnotic grooves create a space where reality and imagination dissolve into one another.

There's more...

Baba Zulu Official

Bandcamp

Mere Mortals

FLOATING POINTS

Released 28 August 2026

Deutsche Grammophon

****-

A jaw-dropping fusion of classical orchestration and electronic pulse, masterfully re-contextualising ancient myth for the artificial intelligence era.

Samuel Thomas Shepherd, performing as Floating Points, is a visionary British electronic music producer, DJ, and composer holding a PhD in neuroscience. Renowned for bridging disparate musical worlds, Shepherd founded Pluto Records, co-founded Eglo Records, and directs the acclaimed 16-piece Floating Points Ensemble. His career spans intricate club tracks, expansive jazz collaborations, and monumental orchestral compositions. Shepherd’s unique technical mastery and emotive depth have cemented his reputation as one of contemporary music’s most adventurous sound sculptors, seamlessly navigating underground dance floors, high-art institutional commissions, and symphonic concert halls worldwide.

Originally commissioned for the San Francisco Ballet’s ground-breaking production choreographed by Aszure Barton, Mere Mortals reimagines the myth of Pandora’s box through the lens of artificial intelligence. Shepherd crafts a breathtaking score where lush acoustic instrumentation collides with raw synthesizer voltage. Collaborating with visual artists Hamill Industries, who shaped the production design and visual campaign through a "responsible integration of AI tools," the project balances human craftsmanship with algorithmic tension. The dynamic range is staggering: delicate strings build into thundering electronic crescendos, mimicking technology’s intoxicating promise and overwhelming chaotic power. It stands as a triumph of modern composition: intimate, cinematic, and profoundly resonant.

There's more...

Floating Points Official