France

Selected by Lea Lisa, Many Shades Of House - Vol 2 is a reflection of time, movement and memory. Built from decades of digging, collecting and playing records, this new chapter captures the many emotional layers of house music.From uplifting, groove-led moments to deeper, more obscure and cerebral territories. Each track has been chosen not only for its musical strength, but for the stories it carries: nights behind the decks, connections on the dancefloor, and the quiet influence these records have had along the way.True to the spirit of the first volume, this selection celebrates diversity and timelessness without compromise. It is a tribute to the artists’ vision, to the culture that surrounds this music, and to the shared experience that continues to unite listeners, dancers and selectors across generations.

Sweet Apricots presents its first vinyl release: Daniel Masson – Baul Dimension EP.In the early 2000s, French composer and producer Daniel Masson travelled to Dhaka to record musicians and singers from Bangladesh’s Baul tradition, a mystical musical culture centred on freedom, inner exploration and universal love.Originally released as a 13-track album, Baul Dimension appears here on vinyl for the first time through a carefully selected four-track EP. The record brings together the original version, Daniel Masson’s hypnotic Anniversary Version, and two remixes by Lucas Desmottes, aka Roy Vision.A regular guest at Sweet Apricots parties, Roy Vision translates the spirit of the dancefloor into two deep, percussive and jazz-informed versions: the uplifting Higher Self Mix and its spacious, powerful dub counterpart.Between organic voices, traditional instrumentation, electronic textures and hypnotic rhythms, Baul Dimension EP is a journey made for attentive listening as much as for adventurous dancefloors.Cut at The Carvery, London and pressed with particular care by Disques Garcia

Pleasurewood return with 'Electric Telepathy', their second full-length LP offering Simla Space Funk, Psych-Library and Vintage-Cinematic Raga-Rock grooves. This new offering from the band embraces more of their vintage Hindi Cinema soundtrack influences — "Chump Change", "The Hoverfly" and "RAMMM" could easily fit into the middle of an R.D. Burman score, each with their incongruous synthesis of different genres, infectious percussion, classical modes and funk chops.There is also a slight sweep across a too-slow-to-disco tempo and feel with the moody Johnny Guitar Watson-esque slow burn of "Good Falcon" up to the nonchalant four-to-the-floor of "Last Dance Saloon" with its lyrical warning of digital over-saturation in our social-media saturated world and a foreboding of the mini-monoliths sat in the palms of our hands that in a Kubrickian way threaten to cosmically absorb us all as a species into their individual jet-black abysses.And then, coming into focus like a sweet slice of disjointed, lo-fi, 8 bit space disco, "Mojave Desert" is a slacker-strut with telephone vocals dub guitars, dry cosmic synths and futurist Farfisa organ driven by an almost Acid-Jazz meets Post-Punk Bass line. The song is autobiographical in its account of an excursion along the 29 Palms Highway reflecting on an escape from the City of Angels not so far away, up into the stark psychedelic desert realm.There is a lot to unpack in this record and yet more to discover so it will be best to allocate 40 minutes in a comfortable dimly-lit room with eyes closed and maybe a cognac in hand, to have a deep-dive into its well-travelled and esoterically funky grooves.

After releasing their first LP on PPU under the name of CEEOFUNK, Spaced Out Knew and Orion Westbrook are releasing a brand new 6-track EP entitled "Friends, Love, Freak."Watch out: an "unidentified sonic object" is heading your way!It’s a funky anomaly that pays tribute to 80's grooves while asserting a fresh style all its own—decidedly "offbeat." The sound blends unique touches of cosmic soul-funk and European 80's synth-pop influences with a "DIY" approach, sitting somewhere between "disco-not-disco" and unconventional grooves.Vocals are performed in Italian, French, and English, featuring the excellent Ghostape, Lydie Gaga, Marius Cyrilou, and Chérie Bibi. Themes include love, desire, and bonds of brotherhood...On the menu: fat slap-bass lines, funky guitars, smooth electric piano, sparkling analog synths / Solina String Machine, and on top, an abundance of Casio SK-1 synth and lo-fi sampling gadgets.The vibe oscillates between boundless energy and laid-back grooves, all served up with a non-conformist freshness and a touch of originality that can be read "between the lines."