SEALED

TUNIS HOTEL STEREOA compilation of Tunisian rock, funk, disco and reggae, 1977–1984Compiled by Cheb Mimo ·Shakshouka Records In the years after independence, Tunisia made an unlikely bet: tourism. Beach resorts rose along the coast, each one trying to outshine the next, and each one needing a band to entertain their guests. A whole generation of musicians grew up on those hotel stages - sharing bills with James Brown, Claude François and the Mingus Dynasty - and what came out of it was a small revolution. Funk played on Tunisian instruments. Disco with an oud in it. Reggae carried back from the island of Kerkennah. A "Third Language" the press didn't quite know what to do with.Tunis Hotel Stereo gathers nine of those records. Most of them were pressed in tiny quantities, sold to tourists as souvenirs, censored before reaching the radio, or quietly slipped onto a 45 between two hotel sets. Some of these artists filled the Carthage amphitheatre. Some topped the Maghreb hit-parades. Most have been waiting, for forty years, for someone to play their music again.This compilation is the result of years of work - collating memories, hunting down records, sitting with the artists who made them, and with the people who once danced to them. It is the third release on Shakshouka Records, and the first compilation of Tunisian music ever curated by Tunisians, in Tunisia.SIDE A The mysterious Les 4 Dés, who turned the national anthem into psychedelic pop on Ya Tounes - and then nearly vanished. Peace Band, hard rockers turned hotel professionals, recording as Omnya at Hammamet's legendary Topkapi club. Ridha Zalila, the eternal shape-shifter, in a rare instrumental of Tiou Tiou Tiou. And Sadok Gharbi's Noujoum - pulled from his sabotaged, near-lost masterpiece Souar.SIDE B Carthago, the impossible big band that married the elite of Tunisian jazz-rock with the stars of tourist entertainment, with the original Dhikrayet. Khaled Mellef, one of the great UFOs of his generation, with Wait Till the Morning Dew, recorded in the Netherlands. Marhaba Band's Baba Bahri, originally pressed only for hotel guests and now a cult artefact. Corniche Band's Dance, cut in Milan during a technical stop on a cruise ship. And Jomaa Bouzrara, the "Bob Marley of the Maghreb," with Now That, drawn from his landmark 1983 debut Sunset.These weren't rebels without a cause. They were musicians who understood that modernity and heritage are not opposites - that a Tunisian could play funk and still be deeply, irreducibly Tunisian. They drew from every direction at once, and built something that belonged to none of those worlds entirely, and to all of them at the same time.This compilation is one small act of remembering.The music does the rest.Compiled by Cheb Mimo16-page liner notes by Mehdi ben Yahiya and Cheb Mimo

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.

Ecology Division is a new compilation from Bastard Jazz that brings together a network of producers and musicians working across jazz, soul, electronic, and beat-driven styles. Featuring artists from Brooklyn, Chicago, Montreal, London, Lisbon, Melbourne, and Ludhiana, the release highlights a core group of collaborators and peers connected to the label’s extended orbit. The project is presented with cohesive visual direction inspired by vintage field guides and naturalist illustration, with each track paired to a distinct animal. This framing positions Ecology Division as a curated snapshot of an active, evolving creative community rather than a traditional compilation.The release features contributions from Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), Sholto & David Bardon, Danny Scott Lane, Rachel Kitchlew & DOUGH, Lapgan, Korovo, Birocratic, Kartik, Nick Marks, and Pimenta Caseira. Collectively, these artists have released music on respected independent labels including Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, Mr. Bongo, Melting Pot Music, WRWTFWW Records, and Moon Glyph, among others—underscoring the compilation’s reach across established global scenes.

'Everyone' was Recorded in Tokyo, Japan over two days in late September 2025. The album musically chronicles Greg Foat's first tour of Japan. The album was commisioned by Tokyo based clothing Label 'Everyone' and is a fantastic mix of Ambient, Jazz and Electronic music genresEach track celebrates a special memory of the tour, from the opener 'Shirahama Beach' home to the wonderful FFKT festival to the playful 'Lake Haruna Boat Ride'.The album also features Tokyo based jazz musicians Kensuke Miyaki on Baritone Saxophone and Bass Clarinet and Yoshihiro Kaneko on Double Bass. Limited to 700 vinyl copies only with obi strip.

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.

MERIDIO originates from an idea by Gerardo Frisina and a collaboration forged over the years with Francesco Borrelli, a sound engineer, musician and performer who has shaped Gerardo’s recordings for the last ten years and more. It embodies the natural evolution and fulfillment of a shared journey, a dedicated pursuit of sound and vision, and a creative dialogue where concept and execution become one.“Meridio” primarily defines the project’s geographical roots: Francesco, from Naples, and Gerardo, with ties to southern Calabria, carry a Mediterranean sensibility that emerges organically, not as a mere reference but as an attitude: a sense of fluid rhythm, a constant tension between order and improvisation, between elegance and instinct. The titles of the two tracks included on this 7-inch single – ‘Partenope’ and ‘Ligea’, muses and symbols of the Mediterranean Sea – draw on mythological imagery and further reinforce the connection to a profound cultural dimension.The result is a dense yet layered sound that openly embraces the funk and progressive aesthetics of the 70s and 80s, reprocessing them in a contemporary spirit; a language effortlessly moving between arrangement and production, between timbral exploration and rhythmic immediacy.

Limited Edition , first pressing of 200 copies in marble purple.Indonesian electronic producer Wandour presents Echoterrium, an album built from cassette loops, field recordings and fragments of sound collected while travelling around the world.At its heart is a simple idea: our memories are often attached to sounds. A passing train, rainfall, radio static or the sea can unexpectedly return us to a place, person or moment we thought we had forgotten. Across Echoterrium, Wandour attempts to recreate that experience through hazy ambient electronica, breakbeats, orchestral textures and the warmth and instability of analogue tape.The album takes its name from Wandour’s imagined space for these fragments: an aquarium of echoes, where half-lost memories remain suspended beneath the surface until something brings them back.That idea grew naturally from the way Wandour makes music.A self-described wanderer, he travels with a vintage field recorder and camera, documenting sounds and images that catch his attention. Environmental recordings are combined with obscure cassette loops and electronic instrumentation, then repeatedly processed through old tape decks and weathered equipment. Hiss, distortion and other imperfections are retained as part of the finished music rather than cleaned away.In an era when electronic music can increasingly be generated and perfected digitally, Echoterrium makes a case for the opposite: music shaped by physical objects, accidents and traces of the places in which it was made.Its ten tracks move through different forms of memory without becoming overly literal. The floating melodies and hypnotic breakbeats of key track Seaside Moments evoke days spent beside the ocean, while Forest Spirits pairs deep bass and breakbeats with a full string ensemble, drawing on the feeling of encountering vast landscapes while travelling.Elsewhere, Farewell Frequency turns towards separation and the strange permanence of remembered goodbyes. Nocturnal Wind takes the album into darker territory through dub-inflected bass, cello and evolving pads, while forthcoming single Sunshine Waves provides its most immediate and uplifting moment, recalling the uncomplicated happiness of being beside the sea.Those individual scenes ultimately feed into something broader. Wandour is less interested in telling listeners what to remember than creating the conditions in which their own memories might surface. Familiar melodies, environmental sounds and imperfect recordings become prompts, leaving enough space for each listener to attach their own experiences.The album closes with Midnight Flame and Static Connection, moving from the former's heavy bass, haunting piano loops and cinematic atmosphere into the latter's late-night jazz instrumentation and radio static. It leaves Echoterrium where much of the record exists: somewhere between waking experience, memory and dream.For Wandour, Echoterrium is ultimately an attempt to preserve things that cannot quite be preserved. Places change, journeys end and memories become less distinct, but sometimes a sound is enough to bring them briefly back into focus.