“Longtime fans will be pleased by the sonic variety on offer… for truly hardcore bass concussion addicts.” - The Wire.

“The Bug continues to be one of the best and most interesting producers out there of all time.” - The Needle Drop.

Burials / Mud features new renditions of the Machine LP tracks “Drop (Machine Sex)” & “Buried (Your Life Is Short)” with blistering vocals from LOGAN (on Bury Dem) & the previously released “Deep in a Mud (ft MAGUGU)”. The 12” is rounded out with 2 unique DUB versions of “Bury Dem” & “Deep in a Mud”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deep In A Mud
2. Bury Dem
3. Mud Dub
4. Buried Dub

Maverick UK producer Kevin Richard Martin (Zonal / Techno Animal / King Midas Sound) joins Relapse for the release of his devastating new double album Machine, his first solo instrumental record as THE BUG.

Machine started life as a series of self-released "floor weapons" (to use Martin’s description), landing in installments between 2023 and 2024 on the Bandcamp page of Martin’s own PRESSURE label. And now - always his intention - Martin has collated a single, powerful, unified statement from those EPs. The album detonates apocalyptic dread-tech mutations of crushing intensity, fusing a unique new strain of futuristic dub with deadly deep electronics and killer bass riffs worthy of the heaviest metal. It is, writes Martin, “ice cold and dystopian.” It celebrates “atmospheric pressure, and the joy of full body assaults, via oversized sound systems in undersized club rooms.” Machine also represents the latest metamorphosis of the "Macro Dub Infection" philosophy Martin germinated with the groundbreaking series of compilations he began curating for Virgin Records as early as the mid 90’s.

As THE BUG, Martin’s music is formed from an overwhelmingly explosive sub-bass pressure, as relentlessly in-the-red beat production amplifies mutant industrial sound design, fuzzed, expectant crackle, and bleak greyscale harmonics. Machine is no exception: no speaker exists big enough to withstand its weight.

Machine represents a cohesive and narrative journey through dystopian wildernesses. Throughout, the production shakes with scoured textures, black hole gravity, and deceptively crafted nuance, as Martin’s singular mastery of ferocious and annihilated bass music holds the record together in a visceral and pummelling assault. Indeed, Martin describes the EP sequence from which the album was culled as “separate parts of the overall puzzle that becomes fully realised on this longform album.”

Key moments “Buried” and “Bodied” live up to their names. The former is earthmoving in its sheer weight, opening with a riff-made-machine synthesis of corruscating tectonics over a heavystepping beat destined to destroy dancefloors. “Bodied” begins with an acid-corroded 4/4 kickdrum, around which noxious fumes sputter and billow, spitting pure poison that no human body could survive. It is industrial-strength doom-riff-dub, as slow and low as sonics can possibly go. As such singular music, few comparisons exist, but considering an instrumental SWANS in dub or Aphex Twin covered by Sunn O))) yields something close, though Machine turns up the crushing, pulverising intensity even further still.

Having recently reissued The Brotherhood of the Bomb and Re-Entry by Martin’s Techno Animal project with Mr. J K Flesh (Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick), Relapse represents a perfect home for Machine. Techno Animal reformed as Zonal in 2019, and released their acclaimed album Wrecked in collaboration with Moor Mother, also through Relapse.

THE BUG has previously remixed Thom Yorke, Grace Jones, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, EARTH, and worked alongside countless luminaries of alternative and experimental music. His solo work as Kevin Richard Martin continues to blaze new paths of destructive and doom-laden drones. Notably he curated the now-seminal 1994 drone compilation Ambient 4: Isolationism. He has also created music as Ice, GOD, Black Chow and Curse of the Golden Vampire (with Alec Empire) among others.

FFO: Godflesh, King Tubby, PiL, Adrian Sherwood, Rhythm and Sound, Swans, Porter Ricks, Keith Hudson, Shackleton

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE 1
1. Annihilated(Force Of Gravity)
2. Shafted(Laws Of Attraction/Repulsion)
3. Sickness(Slowly Dying)
SIDE 2
1. Vertical(Never See You Again)
2. Floored(Point Of Impact)
3. Drop(Machine Sex)

DISC 2
SIDE 1
1. Hypnotised(F-cked Up)
2. Inhuman(Let Machines Do The Talking)
3. Departed(Left The Body Behind)
SIDE 2
1. Buried(Your Life Is Short)
2. Bodied(Send For The Hearse)
3. Exit(Wasteman)

Maverick UK producer Kevin Richard Martin (Zonal / Techno Animal / King Midas Sound) joins Relapse for the release of his devastating new double album Machine, his first solo instrumental record as THE BUG.

Machine started life as a series of self-released "floor weapons" (to use Martin’s description), landing in installments between 2023 and 2024 on the Bandcamp page of Martin’s own PRESSURE label. And now - always his intention - Martin has collated a single, powerful, unified statement from those EPs. The album detonates apocalyptic dread-tech mutations of crushing intensity, fusing a unique new strain of futuristic dub with deadly deep electronics and killer bass riffs worthy of the heaviest metal. It is, writes Martin, “ice cold and dystopian.” It celebrates “atmospheric pressure, and the joy of full body assaults, via oversized sound systems in undersized club rooms.” Machine also represents the latest metamorphosis of the "Macro Dub Infection" philosophy Martin germinated with the groundbreaking series of compilations he began curating for Virgin Records as early as the mid 90’s.

As THE BUG, Martin’s music is formed from an overwhelmingly explosive sub-bass pressure, as relentlessly in-the-red beat production amplifies mutant industrial sound design, fuzzed, expectant crackle, and bleak greyscale harmonics. Machine is no exception: no speaker exists big enough to withstand its weight.

Machine represents a cohesive and narrative journey through dystopian wildernesses. Throughout, the production shakes with scoured textures, black hole gravity, and deceptively crafted nuance, as Martin’s singular mastery of ferocious and annihilated bass music holds the record together in a visceral and pummelling assault. Indeed, Martin describes the EP sequence from which the album was culled as “separate parts of the overall puzzle that becomes fully realised on this longform album.”

Key moments “Buried” and “Bodied” live up to their names. The former is earthmoving in its sheer weight, opening with a riff-made-machine synthesis of corruscating tectonics over a heavystepping beat destined to destroy dancefloors. “Bodied” begins with an acid-corroded 4/4 kickdrum, around which noxious fumes sputter and billow, spitting pure poison that no human body could survive. It is industrial-strength doom-riff-dub, as slow and low as sonics can possibly go. As such singular music, few comparisons exist, but considering an instrumental SWANS in dub or Aphex Twin covered by Sunn O))) yields something close, though Machine turns up the crushing, pulverising intensity even further still.

Having recently reissued The Brotherhood of the Bomb and Re-Entry by Martin’s Techno Animal project with Mr. J K Flesh (Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick), Relapse represents a perfect home for Machine. Techno Animal reformed as Zonal in 2019, and released their acclaimed album Wrecked in collaboration with Moor Mother, also through Relapse.

THE BUG has previously remixed Thom Yorke, Grace Jones, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, EARTH, and worked alongside countless luminaries of alternative and experimental music. His solo work as Kevin Richard Martin continues to blaze new paths of destructive and doom-laden drones. Notably he curated the now-seminal 1994 drone compilation Ambient 4: Isolationism. He has also created music as Ice, GOD, Black Chow and Curse of the Golden Vampire (with Alec Empire) among others.

FFO: Godflesh, King Tubby, PiL, Adrian Sherwood, Rhythm and Sound, Swans, Porter Ricks, Keith Hudson, Shackleton

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
1. Annihilated(Force Of Gravity)
2. Shafted(Laws Of Attraction/Repulsion)
3. Released(The Need To Escape)
4. Battered(Curse Of Addiction)
5. Sickness(Slowly Dying)
6. Hunted(On The Run)
7. Vertical(Never See You Again)
8. Brutalized(Headwrecked)
9. Floored(Point Of Impact)
10. Limbo(Lust And Paralysis)
11. Drop(Machine Sex)
12. Hypnotised(F-cked Up)

DISC 2
1. Inhuman(Let Machines Do The Talking)
2. Skullcrusher(Relentless Catastrophic Implosion)
3. Possessed(The Light Of Shaka)
4. Departed(Left The Body Behind)
5. Buried(Your Life Is Short)
6. Gutted(Human Filth)
7. Bodied(Send For The Hearse)
8. Fucka(Tongue As A Weapon)
9. Exit(Wasteman)

Available on LP for the first time outside of Japan, experimental rock pioneers Boris & noise mastermind merzbow present 04092001, a collaborative album featuring live renditions of the original Heavy Rocks LP.

TRACK LISTING

1. It Continues Waiting For A Headrone Fish.
2. Encounter With The Inside Of The Wavemotion Of Great Water Fuzz,
3. Heavy Friends
4. Death Valley
5. Wareruraido
6. Dyna-soar
7. Koei

Available on LP for the first time outside of Japan, experimental rock pioneers Boris & noise mastermind merzbow present Klatter, the third collaboration between the two groups.

TRACK LISTING

1. Klatter 1
2. Introduction
3. Naki Kyoku
4. Akuma No Uta
5. Jane

The legendary BORIS celebrate a 30 year career as one of experimental music's most forward-thinking, heavy, and innovative bands with the new album Heavy Rocks (2022). Continuing their series of Heavy Rocks records, BORIS once again channels the classic proto-metal sounds of the 70s into something all new. The album, 10 pulse-pounding tracks, highlight the very trajectory of BORIS and their storied career - from the driving, fuzzed out Rock N' Roll opener "She is Burning", to the punk, raucous "My Name is Blank", BORIS are heavier than ever before. "Question 1" is just kickass - D-beats give way to a doomed, spaced out and heavier-than-anything guitar wailing and feedback, before diving back into their Metal, sending the listener into a complete frenzy. This is unmistakably BORIS, and this is the band at the height of their powers. Elsewhere on the record, a more daring, "out there" side of the band begins to shine on tracks such as the aptly titled "Blah Blah Blah", the industrial "Ghostly Imagination" and the truly wild "Nosferatou". Noisy passages (not unlike prior collaborations with legendary artists like Merzbow,) collide with visceral vocal howls while a relentless, almost Zornian-saxophone shreds harder than any guitar solo ever could. In 2022, BORIS cement what Heavy Rock means to them, and release one of their most captivating records to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. She Is Burning
2. Cramper
3. My Name Is Blank
4. Blah Blah Blah
5. Question 1
6. Nosferatou
7. Ruins
8. Ghostly Imagination
9. Chained
10. (not) Last Song

The ever-prolific ZOMBI return once again with a brand new classic rock covers album! ZOMBI & Friends, Vol. 1 sees the band faithfully covering tracks ranging from The Doobie Brothers, to The Alan Parsons Project, Dionne Warwick, and Neil Diamond! ZOMBI & Friends, Vol. 1 features guest appearances from members of The Sword, Trans Am, Pinkish Black, Zao and more!

TRACK LISTING

1. Guilty
2. Suspicions
3. I Can't Tell You Why
4. Sirius-Eye In The Sky
5. Take You Back (Street Corner Song From Rocky)
6. Takin It To The Streets
7. The Captain Of Her Heart
8. Deja Vu
9. You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
10. America

Relapse Records presents brand new record ‘2R0I2P0’, the new collaborative album from Boris and Merzbow. The 10-track album showcases every bit of the excitement and pulse-pounding rock and metal heard throughout the inimitable, expansive Boris catalogue, as it meets the signature harsh noise and soundscapes of the equally prolific Merzbow. This is far from their first collaboration – beginning with ‘Megatone’ in 2002 and extending to 2016’s ‘Gensho’, the two artists have worked together on eight album projects. An album that is at once familiar and unique for its time, melodic and harsh in equal parts, 2R0I2P0 aims to find sonic harmony. After all, 2R0I2P0 translates to ‘Twenty Twenty R.I.P’. "This year was a period of trial for everyone in the world," Boris comments. "This work becomes a monument to the requiem of the previous era. From here, a new world begins again."

For fans of artists such as Sunn O))), Melvins, Earth, Fushitsusha, Boredoms, Sleep, Full Of Hell.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having been at the forefront of some of the most punishing and deep collaborative avant output of all time, Boris pair once again with Japanese noise-merchant Merzbow to GREAT effect. Stunningly rich and immersive.

TRACK LISTING

1. Away From You
2. To The Beach
3. Coma
4. Love
5. Absolutego
6. Journey
7. Uzume
8. Evol
9. Boris
10. Shadow Of Skull

Relapse Records proudly presents ZOMBI's new album, 2020. Their first new album in 5 years, 2020 showcases the songwriting prowess that has pushed the duo of Steve Moore (synthesizers, guitars, bass) and A.E. Paterra (drums) to evolve throughout their storied, 20 year career. ZOMBI has strived to build upon and expand their sound with every release. Now more than ever, the band stays true to their ethos. From the pulse-pounding, dramatic opener "Breakthrough & Conquer", to the melodic bass whirls found in "XYZT", 2020 proves to be ZOMBI's most riff-intensive album. At first a soundtrack of driving musical euphoria, 2020 takes a sharp turn into uncharted waters - "Earthscraper" is reminiscent of a space where sounds of sludge and doomlike-riff crushers dominate the soundscapes. Synthwave and neon crescendos are furloughed in favor of Blue Oyster Cult inspired progressive epics. A truly therapeutic loop of immersive instrumental rock, 2020 might just be ZOMBI's most ambitious album yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Breakthrough & Conquer
2. Earthscraper
3. No Damage
4. XYZT
5. Fifth Point Of The Pentangle
6. Family Man
7. Mountain Ranges
8. First Flower
9. Thoughtforms

Ceremony make their Relapse Records debut with their highly ambitious new album, 'In the Spirit World Now'! The album sees Ceremony at the height of their creative output, as the always-evolving Rohnert Park quintet take various influences from post punk and rock to create one of the summer's most compelling and infectious records. "In the Spirit World Now" is full of layered sonic fury and anxiety, each song building up to a point and then descending down through a militant, catchy hook. “Turn Away the Bad Thing” sets the tone, guitars climbing around the driving bass line, as Ross Farrar sings, “It’s getting harder for me to be alright/Eyes adjusting to the dark/The momentum of all these last resorts built inside of me.” Songs like “Presaging the End” and “Calming Water” feel romantic and distressed, while “Further I Was” and “Years of Love” are driven by Farrar’s rebellious energy as he repeats the hook with a deadpan realness. “Years of love can be forgotten/In the hatred of a day.” But the true stand-out is the title track, “In the Spirit World Now”, a haunting pop gem with a sticky chorus and lead synth riff that plants itself in your head as Farrar chants the track’s name over and over like a mantra. “In the Spirit World Now" is a sort of nebulous and ectoplasmic place where things may not be quite what they seem,” he says. “It means sh*t is about to get weird.” The album marks a milestone for this Northern California punk outfit who have stayed true to themselves as songwriters throughout massive sonic growth throughout their storied career.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From the fractured art-punk aesthetic of Wire or even bits of Sonic Youth, through wide-spanning cinematic shoegaze majesty and grungy snarling anthems, Ceremony have crafted a brilliantly varied and thoroughly enthralling collection of snappy punk anthems mixed with a huge variety of influences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Turn Away The Bad Thing
2. In The Spirit World Now
3. Further I Was
4. /
5. Presaging The End
6. Say Goodbye To Them
7. We Can Be Free
8. //
9. Years Of Love
10. Never Gonna Die Now
11. I Want More
12. From Another Age
13. ///
14. Calming Water

Nearly twenty years into a career that has seen Jimmy LaValle exercising his creativity across the realms of film scoring, sound collage, and electronic / rock music, via instrumental and vocal-driven compositions alike, LaValle and The Album Leaf are poised to deliver yet another sonic triumph with 2016’s Between Waves.

Born out of a thorough reinvention of LaValle's creative process and approach, Between Waves is The Album Leaf's first proper full-length record in over six years and the first to be recorded and produced as a complete band, and was written with greater emphasis on the group dynamic. The album displays multifaceted, meticulous sound design, a keen ear for balancing disparate influences, and the strongest senses of dynamics, rhythm, and composition The Album Leaf has displayed to date. From the moody evolution of "Glimmering Lights" to the wistful trip-hop stylings of "New Soul" and beyond, Between Waves is a gorgeous collection of euphoric melodies and emotionally charged, multi-instrumental driven soundscapes from the longstanding innovators. This is intelligent, beautifully composed music at its most inventive, most confident, and most impressive.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Well this is different isn't it? Not like 'It doesn't sound like The Album Leaf' different, it definitely does, but with an urgency previously unheard. I'm a big fan of LaValle's mellow Rhodes-based compositions (the recent reissue of 'In A Safe Place' was one of my record-buying highlights of recent times). The Rhodes is still present here fortunately, but it is backed with thumping drums in places, glitchy snares and giant swells, all topped off with silky vocal refrains. Pristinely produced and exciting from beginning to end. Rich and luxurious. Like a Creme Egg, but better for you.

TRACK LISTING

1. False Dawn
2. Glimmering Lights
3. New Soul
4. Back To The Start
5. Wandering Still
6. Never Far
7. Lost In The Fog
8. Between Waves

Don Caballero twists and turns through fourteen new tracks on its brand new album "Punkgasm". "Punkgasm" explodes with all of the bands legendary trademarks and pushes their sound in a host of surprising new directions! "Punkgasm" is a celebration of Don Caballero at its finest!