Shake Stew celebrate 10 years with new double album, TEN ONE TWO

14 November 2025

Photo: Victoria Nazarova

Austrian seven-piece Shake Stew are celebrating a decade together with a new double album, TEN ONE TWO, arriving on February 13th through Traumton Records. Known for their unusual lineup — two drummers, two bassists, three horns — and often associated with the “Krautjazz” label, the band uses this milestone moment to continue pushing forward with brand new music. Bandleader and bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder describes the project as both a culmination and a reset. After years of weaving between tight studio recordings and wide-open live improvisations, the band wanted to capture the full stretch of their musical world. “I feel like we’ve only just started,” Kranzelbinder says. “This year and the process of TEN has given us a creative boost that feels like we are beginning a completely new chapter.”

The release is split into two parts, TEN ONE, which focuses on Kranzelbinder’s composed material, and TEN TWO, reflecting their live instincts. With TEN TWO, Shake Stew lean into long-form improvisation, electric textures, and even field recordings, drawing on the intuition they have built after years of playing together. Kranzelbinder sums up the process:

“When you play so many concerts and record so many albums, you develop an intuitive sense of what defines the band’s sound — there’s often no need for me to give compositional directions anymore.”

Alongside the album announcement, Shake Stew are sharing the first single from TEN ONE, ‘Ascendance’, a fearless and fiery track. “Nearly all of the music that triggers something physically within me is music that goes upwards…”, says Kranzelbinder of the track. Take a listen now.

Max Jaffe’s new album, You Want That Too!, out next week

12 November 2025

Photo: Alex De La Hidalga

Drummer, composer and producer Max Jaffe has a new album on the way and we are a little late picking it up, but clearly, we’ve been missing out. Entitled You Want That Too!, it arrives on November 21st through Colorfield Records. Now based in the west coast, Jaffe’s move to LA, after years immersed in the NYC music scene, flows through the new album.

You Want That Too! was recorded at Pete Min’s Lucy’s Meat Market Studio, and features a stellar lineup of collaborators, including Jeff Parker, Meg Duffy, Gavin Gamboa, Daniel Rotem, Shelley Burgon, Spencer Zahn, and Logan Kane. A record about exploration and connection, it embraces a wide range of influences and sounds, including space jazz, glitch-funk, and experimental textures. For Jaffe, the album is both a fresh start and a continuation of his musical journey. He comments:

“My previous record, Reduction of Man, was like an elegy to my twenties in pre-pandemic NYC. I didn’t realize as I was making it, but once it was done, it felt like a capstone on something I’d started building years prior. And then in the three years of figuring out how to get it to listeners, it felt like it got covered in ash. Now, I’m building a fresh foundation on top of that Reduction ash with You Want That, Too!. It’s not a complete fresh start — I am still, for better or worse, me — but it’s a new story.”

Jaffe’s second single from the album, ‘S-NARE’, is a perfect teaser for what’s to come. A wild, dynamic, infectious and drum-heavy track, it draws on the energy of early Warp Records and Jaffe’s work with Sensory Percussion. Jaffe expands:

“Early Warp Records and my work with electronic drum sensors (ie.. Sensory Percussion) inform this drum freakout of a track. At Pete’s urging, I leaned hard into the kind of drumming that hooked me on to the instrument: immediate, hard, and driving.
The drums are an instrument of crowd control, and the snare has a loaded history of leading militaries into bloodshed. “S-NARE” leads with love but it can draw blood too.”

Listen to ‘S-NARE’ below and check out the previous single, ‘In Green’, straight after. You’re in for quite a treat.


Mischa Blanos shares new single, ‘Busted’, off forthcoming Take Control LP

10 November 2025

Take Control, the upcoming new release from Romanian pianist, composer and producer Mischa Blanos is out later this month and last week we were given another striking glimpse into the stunning album. Following the sublime and exhilarating ‘Basilica’, Blanos has shared ‘Busted’, a contemporary classical piece for prepared piano that shows yet again Blanos’ extraordinary talent, transcending the limits of his instrument.  Now part of a release for the first time, ‘Busted’, originally composed a decade ago, sees Blanos embracing his roots, drawing from Romanian folklore and musical tradition. Blanos recalls being caught without a bus ticket, as a catalyst for the piece:

“I was young, broke, stubborn. Wouldn’t play weddings, wouldn’t sell out for a quick gig. The ticket inspector stared: ‘Aren’t you that piano kid from TV?’ He let me go. No fine, no speech, just a shrug, like he’d seen enough of this city to recognize a broken young artist when he met one. I walked home and played what hurt. The notes had Romanian folk bones. Art doesn’t always pay the bills, but it still saves you.”

‘Busted’ is offered with an accompanying live video, filmed in Bucharest, and you can watch it below.

Take Control is out on November 21st through Longcut Records

Watch Ciao Kennedy’s video for Foire du Midi’

06 November 2025

Earlier this year, Brussels-based quintet Ciao Kennedy released their debut album, Solarium, marking the fruition of two years’ worth of musical experimentation. Now the outfit of childhood friends Samuel du Fontbaré (guitar), Léopold de San (guitar), Louis Gaillard (keyboards), Gaspard de Bellefroid (bass) and Simon Boonen (drums) have unleashed a video to accompany ‘Foire du Midi’, lifted from the album. As the press release describes, ‘Foire du Midi’ “captures that hazy, late-summer nostalgia of Brussels’ iconic funfair — somewhere between bright lights, cotton candy melancholy and soft synth warmth”. Ciao Kennedy made the video and you can watch it below.

Solarium is out now through Sdban Ultra

Erik Hall announces new album, Solo Three; shares first single ‘Music for a Large Ensemble’

05 November 2025

Photo: Nolis Anderson

We’re over the moon to hear that Chicago-born and Michigan-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Erik Hall has a brand new album on the way, following his 2023 Canto Ostinato, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year and remains an absolute favourite. The eagerly awaited follow-up has been announced, Solo Three, marking the third and final release in his groundbreaking trilogy of reinterpretations of contemporary classical works. Like in previous releases, 2020’s Music for 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) and 2023’s Canto Ostinato (Simeon ten Holt), the upcoming Solo Three finds Hall reimagining iconic pieces from visionary composers, this time expanding to several composers: Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Laurie Spiegel, and a return to Steve Reich.

As we’ve come to expect from Hall, his process is inspiring and incredible. He performs and records every part himself, with focus and feeling, layering keyboards, guitars, and synths, with no loops, programming or sequencers. “It’s just so much more compelling to actually play every note,” Hall explains, “Those micro-differences between takes create a sort of living, breathing magic.” And that’s exactly what we hear throughout Solo Three, an utterly rich and evolving sound that feels deeply human, even as it explores complex minimalist structures.

Solo Three will see the light of day on January 23rd through Western Vinyl, and ahead of it Hall has shared the first single, a majestic, dazzling and exuberant reimagining of Reich’s ‘Music for a Large Ensemble’, clocking in at over fifteen minutes. Speaking about it, Hall comments:

“‘Music for a Large Ensemble’ is another treasured composition by Steve Reich and the closing piece on this record. I wanted to conclude this series of albums the way it began, as a sort of bookend and an ode to the process of making them. Beyond the interest of his concept or experiment, Reich’s music also simply imbues a gratifying emotional arc that’s accessible to any ears; something akin to a pop sensibility. The CD of his 1980 recording has lived in my car for years, and it was a total joy to transport this work into the sonic world of my studio.”

January can’t come soon enough. Now lend your ears to ‘Music for a Large Ensemble’.

 

Ocenpsiea release brand new single ‘Noite Acústica’

31 October 2025

Formed in 2014 whilst studying at the Conservatory of Music in Braga, Ocenpsiea are a Portuguese band comprising João Nuno Teixeira Vilaça on drums, Gonçalo Cravinho Lopes on bass, Francisco Carneiro on violin, and Tomás Alvarenga on keyboards and production. Weaving elements of jazz, funk, Portuguese folk, rock, hip-hop, electronic music, and a good dose of humour, the quartet explores different sonic territories while remaining remarkably cogent. With three albums under their belt, including Cónega 103 (2017), Sabão Rosa (2018), and Oceano-Mar (2021), Ocenpsiea have carved out a space as one of Portugal’s most forward-thinking and exciting acts in contemporary music.

Today sees them releasing, ‘Noite Acústica’, a brand new single straddling that perfect line between blissful and exhilarating. The track captures Ocenpsiea’s unique blend of acoustic and electronic textures that build in intensity, and is a testament to their ability to fuse intricate rhythms with melodious grace. Listen to ‘Noite Acústica’ below.