Madalitso Band set to release third album, Ma Gitala

23 April 2025

Madalitso Band, the Malawian duo of Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni, have announced the follow-up to their Musakayike, released in 2022. Entitled Ma Gitala, the new album is described as a “celebration of journey, triumph, and faith”. Rising quickly to fame in recent years, Madalitso Band emerged from years of hardship and unwavering faith. “My life has been a rollercoaster. [It] has been full of ups and downs and unfortunately the downs outweighed the ups”, says Yobu in The Banjo Boys, a music documentary about their story. Marking their third album and recorded in a studio for the first time, Musakayike taps in genres like banjo music, kwela, gospel, and African folk.

Ma Gitala is set for release on June 13th though Bongo Joe and the pair are giving us the first taste from it with the jubilant ‘Anafera Chiboda’, a track about love, wealth and connection. Take a listen below.

Ben LaMar Gay teases new album, Yowzers, with title track

22 April 2025

Photo: Joe Jones

There’s wonderful news from tremendously talented and versatile composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and poet Ben LaMar Gay, who has announced the release of a new album. Entitled Yowzers, the upcoming record follows two critically acclaimed and outstanding albums – 2018’s Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun and 2021’s Open Arms to Open Us.​ Described as a “joyfully irreverent psychedelic fantasia of folklore, free jazz, and avant-garde Blues”, the album remains as daring and inventive as ever.

Yowzers features Gay’s longstanding quartet – Tommaso Moretti (drums, percussion, voice), Matthew Davis (tuba, piano, bells, voice), and Will Faber (guitar, ngoni, bells, voice) – whose chemistry has been honed over years of playing together. “A big part of the language this quartet has developed is spatial,” says Gay. “It’s seeing and hearing it live. You’re dealing with a thing that is older than the industry that sells it, and if you’ve never experienced those bodies in a room, there can be a disconnect.”

The album was recorded live at Palisade Studios in Chicago, capturing the spontaneous energy of the quartet in the moment. Gay also composed and recorded additional pieces at International Anthem HQ, collaborating with engineer Dave Vettraino and enlisting the help of his bandmates, woodwind player Rob Frye, and a mini-choir comprising vocalists Ayanna Woods, Tramaine Parker, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu.​

We’ll have to wait until June 6th for Yowzers to be out through International Anthem but we can already hear the album’s title track, which serves as a powerful and poignant opener. Speaking about it, Gay comments:

“’Yowzers’ was a word and a sound that came to mind while observing the intersection of humor and horror in our present reality. On one side of a coin flip, “yowzers” is a deep sigh that quietly exits the body after facing the absurd. On the other side, it is a cry of amazement at how many secrets were left behind to help us endure and transcend the absurdity.”

Wrap your ears around ‘Yowzers’ now.

Listen to Glass Museum’s new single ‘GATE 1’

22 April 2025

Glass Museum, the Brussels-based duo of keyboardist Antoine Flipo and drummer Martin Grégoire, have unveiled ‘GATE 1’, their first new release since the 2022 album Reflet. The track sprouted from a partnership with producer Arthur Hnatek, who crafted a repetitive electronic loop that became the foundation of the composition. This marks the first time the duo has integrated an external sequence into their creative process, allowing them to explore new sonic territories. Building upon this mechanical base, Glass Museum layered synthesizers, drums, and resonant bass to create a hypnotic atmosphere that mirrors the rhythm of urban life.

‘GATE 1’ is offered with a music video, directed by Brussels-based production company SUPER TCHIP. In line with the track’s theme, the video depicts architectural structures in constant flux that intertwine and merge, reflecting the track’s rhythmic progression. Watch it below.

Joy Guidry set to release new album, Five Prayers, in May

19 April 2025

Gifted and genre-defying bassoonist and composer Joy Guidry has announced the release of Five Prayers, their intimate new album. Marking a shift from the ecstatic energy of free jazz into more meditative terrain, the record finds space in ambient gospel, experimental jazz, and layered electronics, guided throughout by Guidry’s electronically manipulated and emotionally charged bassoon. Exploring themes of vulnerability, healing, and identity, particularly through the lens of living with Bipolar II disorder, Five Prayers reflects a year of mental health challenges and spiritual rediscovery.​ “I began to pray in new ways,” they share. “These prayers came in the form of sonic meditations and poetry. They embraced more silence and solitude.”

Preceding the album release on May 16th through their own Jaid Records, Guidry has shared the first single, ‘Hold and Be Held’, a delicate and moving track inspired by Nikki Giovanni’s poem This World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be. Take a listen now.

GoGo Penguin detail seventh album, Necessary Fictions, and share lead single ‘Fallowfield Loops’

17 April 2025

Photo: Mark Gregson

GoGo Penguin have just announced a brand new album and we couldn’t be more excited. The trio of Chris Illingworth, Nick Blacka and Jon Scott will release Necessary Fictions on June 20th through XXIM/Sony. Marking their seventh long-player, the upcoming record feels like both a return to their essence and a leap into bold, uncharted sonic territory. Over the last decade, they’ve consistently blurred the lines between jazz, classical and electronic music, and Necessary Fictions continues in that spirit, but with new textures and bolder moves. As Blacka puts it, they were trying to get to “our integral, authentic qualities at this moment in time.” One of the major shifts is the embrace of modular synthesizers, not as novelty, but as an extension of their sound. “There had to be a reason,” Illingworth explains. “And for us that was knowing that in places we wanted the character of the music to shift.”

Much of the record was written and recorded in their Manchester studio, which they reshaped into a creative sanctuary, with artwork and photos pinned to the walls for inspiration. Illingworth and Blacka were there nearly every day for a year, with Scott, who lives in London, joining in when the rhythm sections were ready for his input. There’s a real sense of joy in how they talk about the process – “I was very aware of smiling a lot in the studio while we were making it,” says Illingworth. “And I’m smiling now just thinking about it.”

The title, Necessary Fictions, comes from James Hollis’ book The Middle Passage, which explores ideas of the shadow self and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are. Blacka, who was reading the book, says it presents “very Jungian stuff about the shadow self, and hidden personae. You begin to think, ‘Hang on, there’s an authentic me, deep down in there somewhere!’” He continues:

“Musically, it’s been the same journey, the same process of ditching some of the things we’d got used to doing which were holding us back. We’d be writing tracks in the past where we’d be hesitant, like, ‘But what are people going to think? Aren’t we supposed to be this jazz trio who are not really jazz? Who play electronic-type music on acoustic instruments and it’s all very fast and frenetic?’”

Alongside the album announcement, GoGo Penguin shared the mesmerising lead single ‘Fallowfield Loops’, an exhilarating first taste of what’s to come, and we can’t wait to hear the full album in June. Check out the video the accompanies the track below.

Berend Intelmann set to release debut album, Mother Nature; shares first single ‘Life Of Another One’

15 April 2025

A fixture of the German indie underground since the late ’80s, Berend Intelmann has played a quiet but steady role in shaping its sound, through bands like Hallelujah Ding Dong Happy Happy, Guther, and Paula, and more recently as a producer for artists including Jens Friebe, MissinCat, and Fotos. Now, the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and producer is stepping out from behind the scenes with Mother Nature, his first album under his own name. The upcoming album gathers eight tracks that thread together his background in pop songwriting and a growing interest in classical structure. There’s no dramatic shift – synths, drums, and vocals still form the core – but the arrangements stretch and fold in unexpected ways. “The synthesizer melodies are arranged like string quartets,” Intelmann says, “while the songs are presented as musical themes strung together so that they form a coherent story.” He refers to the sound as “slow-kraut—1980s synth sound with 1970s George Duke-style beats”, though the album mostly avoids leaning into any one genre.

Mother Nature features guest contributions from close collaborators, including Marla Hansen who joins him for a vocal duet on one of the tracks, Der Assistent on theremin, and Mieke Miami on flute and saxophone. The album, which Intelmann describes as being “co-produced by friends and family,” also showcases his collaborative spirit.

Ahead of the album’s release on May 30th through Karaoke Kalk, Intelmann has shared the first single ‘Life Of Another One’, an absorbing, gorgeous and tender track inspired by life and death. The track reflects “on memories that have become so distant that they feel like belonging to another person altogether with sombre, intertwined melodies”, as the press release explains. The darker tones gradually give way to “laid- back grooves, Intelmann’s smooth vocalisations and whirling synthesizer sequences”, creating a shifting and immersive atmosphere. ‘Life Of Another One’ is offered along with a video directed by David Jascha Zuschlag and you can watch it below.