Want, both lack and desire, is the sound of two brothers trying to sing sense into a burning world. More

Ghastly and hallucinatory – 'last liasse' is a sign of the times, alternative pop record by helen island. Within this debut album, the artist captures the saccharine gaze of digital escapism through characteristic filtered high notes, cut-up genres, and processed vocals. Providing a comprehensive overview of helen island’s self-distributed initiatives, with the ethos of the Parisian Simple Music Experience collective, the twelve tracks set a solid musical score that resonates with the age to come. More

Trystero comprises Scottish/Luxembourgish producer Thomas Lea Clarke (aka MR TC) and Low Bat, otherwise known as one half of the formidable duo Jean-Luc. Their debut album, Sfumare e Vedere, was conceived over three days aboard Urban Boat, a 1960s barge transformed into an arts and performance space. Moored along the river just outside of Paris, the duo embarked on a joint residency, discovering their complementary creative energies and a mutual passion for all things strange and psychedelic.

As frontman, Low Bat is a fire-powered poet, his unparalleled stage presence resonating through Trystero's music. The French native and fluent German speaker has a natural flair for languages. For this project, he sings in a combination of Italian and English about love, loss, and class struggle, constructing surreal wordplay about pelicans and puttanesca. Meanwhile, Clarke's drone-lead electronic accompaniment takes its cues from sizzling acid, 1990s snap rhythms, post-punk, krautrock and shoegaze. Firmly rooted in these tripped-out genres, Trystero journeys to entirely new cosmic dimensions. More

‘Permanent Rain’ is introspective listening. Lean back and let your ears catch a source that moves, breaths, resonates and rises, until a quiet truth swells upon us.
XII captures truth in all its honesty. Sometimes it feels so physical, it’s as if time and elements of nature are peeled of layer after layer.

This record combines songwriting with sonic hypnosis. A rhythmic, esoteric oasis, containing currents of mysticism, yet accompanied by contemporary electronics. Its elements translate to a brew of mutant raga, neofolk and tripped out celtic fantasies.

Ffo: Rapoon, Breadwoman, O Yuki Conjugate More

Laurène Exposito releases her 3rd album on Knekelhuis. Honolulu / Saigon is a collage of unreleased material, and previously on cassette released work. Some songs go even back to the era of Sabine and ties in wonderfully with Laurène’s previous work. She’s been performing some of these tracks back in the days. For sure a pleasant recognition. More

The Naarm/Melbourne based producer will unveil meticulously crafted tracks that breathe life, deliver crispness, evoke emotions, and pulsate with energy.

KiTA's music defies easy categorization, blending ambient, dub, and breakbeat with real instruments and orchestral elements. The album "Ceramic" takes us on a mesmerizing journey with its title track, a twelve-minute composition that intertwines groove-laden ambience, deep bass throbs, swirling guitars, enchanting strings, and atmospheric vocals.
The B side of the record embraces a club-oriented soundscape with infectious breaks and captivating hooks, offering a refreshing contrast to the prevailing musical landscape. The final track concludes the album with dub-influenced percussion, creating a captivating dance that evokes both melancholy and beauty, leaving room for personal interpretation and discovery.
Mastered by Wouter Brandenburg and artwork by Kae Kitzler and Steele Bonus. More

2023 Repress!

EYE is back. Metamujer marks the third installment on the Knekelhuis label and we’re extremely happy to release this document of another chapter in Laurène Exposito’s life. Recorded on various locations ranging from the Swiss mountains to the chalky coasts of Brittany, Metamujer is an 8-track ode to salty love and closeness to nature, a tribute to a modest lifestyle à la Henry David Thoreau. Far from being praise for self-sufficiency, this new LP is deeply influenced by Laurène’s environment. We can hear Korg MS-10 created synthetic waves (Sanatorium) and birds (Luscinia), but one can also catch her singing in Italian, one of 3 languages spoken in Switzerland. Still minimalist and yet more aesthetically diverse, her new sounds are on the edge of EBM and synth pop, between classic minimal wave tunes and rustic ballads on acid. More

Following up 2021’s compilation 'and felt like...', ' ...it wasn't really me' can be seen as the missing part of a diptych, only separated by the passage of time, yet whole in spirit. Again, a familiar company of singular artists showcase remarkable unity in diversity. Similar to its predecessor, a rustic gloom glues everything together into a seamless whole, enabling the collective to transcend each unique contributors' musical voice elegantly. More

Repress!

"Amsterdam, 1982. Smoke fills the streets, squatters clash violently with the police, uprising is in the air. In this disorderly mess, the worlds of activism, art, fashion, and nightlife converged into an explosion of creativity. Amidst all of this Electric Party, the brainchild of René van Rijn, released the ‘Work’ tape on Amsterdam label Fetisj, now a cult cassette for the few who remember.Forty years ago they created this unique blend of no wave, mutant disco, funk, and experimental music. It was around the time of the rise of the members-only club Mazzo, with all its prominent figures, the anarchy of the squatting movement, and the art academy connection. Everything took place in this inebriated twilight zone of blissful joy.This record consists of 3 of the best tracks from the ‘Work’ tape and 6 unreleased tracks from forgotten cassette tapes, all remastered and restored where necessary. Among them the unreleased anthem ‘Caribe’, which was recorded in Spain as the opening track for a Spanish discotheque in 1987. More

Geier aus Stahl is one of the many artistic guises of Leonard Prochazka. No superfluous elements take away from the core experience of his sound. Somewhere a statement from David Byrne crossed our path, able to highlight something of the essence of Leonard's art: “No matter how alienated the subject or the singer might appear, the groove and its connection to the body would provide solace and grounding. But the edgy, uncomfortable stuff was still on the foreground”. The debut album 'Strapazen und Genesung' takes us to an exciting world that twists, squeaks and creaks, yet is grounded by an unmistakable groove. More

Repress!
Something was brooding in the furthest outskirts of Amsterdam. The isolated concrete suburbs of the western part of the city constituted the ideal dwelling place for the writing of De Ambassade's debut album Duistre Kamers.
Pascal Pinkert, accompanied by bass player Timothy Francis, searched for new horizons and managed to find them on this next chapter in the evolution of De Ambassade. Icy electronics display a love for NDW, ragas and raves. Beneath the surface lies a deeper Dutch language narrative celebrating free speech and thought, starkly in opposition with a world where alienation and solitude create ever more distance between all beings.
After releasing two, by now classic 7" ep's, a long player will shine brightly. The album release will feature a long awaited live performance with additional band member Mian. More

Stacks is the Belgian duo of Jan and Sis Matthé. These Antwerp residents build and undress different timbres and textures into vocal-hooked songs, flouting the rules of pop in the process. We at Knekelhuis appreciate this immensely and are delighted to work with them. ‘Love and Language’ is a romantic, moody pop-not-pop record in which everything falls perfectly into place. More

Across two 7”s, Death Or Glory (1982) and Death Rocks (1983) and one 12”, Anguish (1982) Jimmy Smack carved his own bleak chasm amidst the LA Death Rock scene that he inhabited. After decades dormant in the crypt, Knekelhuis compiles Smack’s full recorded output, providing it a lavish place to rest on the Death Is Certain LP.

While his local punk contemporaries pursued aggressive hardcore and political punk, Jimmy Smack donned corpse paint (before it would later become synonymous with the European black metal movement) and found a home performing in venues like the Anti-Club, amongst other subterranean dwellers Christian Death, Dead Hippie and 45 Grave.

Even within this lurid milieu, Jimmy Smack stood alone. Hating Life (from Death Rocks) easily locates Jimmy within the negative-punk and KBD lexicon. However his recordings, consisting of voice, rhythm box and electrified bagpipe drones, otherwise veer closer to other-worldly avant-garde rituals. Jimmy’s background in theatre and performance art helping inform not only his menacing stage presence, but also spawning the singularity of his sound.

Death Is Certain comes housed in a printed inner sleeve featuring rarely seen archival photos, liner notes by Cooper Bowman and excerpts from an interview with Jimmy Smack conducted by Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) More

Michel Banabila is an indispensable part of the Dutch experimental music scene, where he has acquired a special place with many, in the 40 years that he has been releasing music. Michel is also just as active as a composer for the theater and ballet world, as well as for TV productions, to considerable fame. The threat of drowning in the sea of his oeuvre is real in view of the unprecedented amount of output, but once sailing unmissable monolithic rock formations loom up rapidly. 'Echo Transformations' is one of them. It's a magical album, where everything falls into place in a rich domain inspired by the Fourth World dimension. A world of sound arises from our imagination, stimulating the senses. A concept album where every sigh has its place and where no superfluous tone can be heard. What remains is to embrace the inevitable surrender that accompanies unstoppable change. This is Banabila at his best. More

Oak Corridor is the second full-length album from Newcastle, Australian duo Troth (Amelia Besseny & Cooper Bowman). It follows 2020’s warmly received album, Flaws In The Glass (Altered States Tapes) and 2021’s Small Movements In Radiance mini-album (Not Not Fun). While the same themes and intentions remain, this time Troth channel their ambient experiments into an environ located somewhere closer to minimal-wave and synth-pop.

While Oak Corridor is their most ‘song-based’ album to date, it continues the respectful treatment of natural themes found in their previous releases, further tying in elements of balance, truth, justice, humility, strains of mysticism from varied origins and an opposition to the encroachment of ill-advised development surrounding them in Newcastle (and Australia more broadly). The album is a truly collaborative affair and offers something of a sound-diary of the two’s relationship. More

Summer has arrived and with it our first club release in ages, a high energy burner by KSITO from Tokyo, Japan. We are more than excited to welcome this talented MPC finger drummer Keito Suzuki to fiery post-lockdown dance floors. He draws inspiration from the South African Gqom and percussive music, and in his own stately way he merges big room intensity with an experimental explosion of weirdness. Expect bare bones techno, full of earworm hooks. Tolouse Low Trax and K?r complement this record with a bunch of psychedelic remixes, creating a great balanced journey.

Artwork by Marta Marinotti. More

Compilation of all new productions from a wealth of international talent, put together by Knekelhuis.

Label Text "This is a story of friendship, about how it grows stronger through the years. But it’s just as much about fledgling togetherness and shared art in times of crisis. The result is an introspective document of contemporary music, in spirit of Eno and Hassell. A space where we embrace our differences and speak the language of collectivity together, where we reflect, adapt and value each artist's contribution equally. To witness a multitude of cultural backgrounds that speak one like-minded language. Soothing and illuminating. And felt like...

Mastered by Amir Shoat and artwork by Keziah Phillips and Steele Bonus." More

Tracklisting
A1 Magophon feat. Murray Man - Brake we down
B1 Magophon - Brake we down (Etheral mix)

Sales Note
777Hz teams up with Murray Man this time for another "DubTechno meets Reggae" tune and of course we are going extradeep on the B side, blissful bass as you could expect it on the777Hz label. More

Limited edition 140gram "Red Moon" color vinyl LP in a heavyweight gatefold jacket, with quarterfold A2 poster insert, IARC obi strip, and dome-patterned inner sleeve

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly share musical, communal, and ancestral roots within the Latinx diaspora of Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. Ferragutti - raised in Cochabamba, Bolivia - comes from South American musical royalty on both sides of her family... with maternal uncles from the psychedelic staple of Bolivian music Los Kjarkas, and a Brazilian accordionist who played with Gilberto Gil, among others, as a paternal uncle. Rosaly was born and raised in Arizona, but spent the better part of his prolific career working on the Chicago jazz and improvised music scene where, in many ways, he himself defined the sound of the free jazz scene, for a particular era. The two artists connected in Amsterdam in 2015, where they now live together, and work in many capacities across music, theatre, performance art, dance, and community organizing.

Ferragutti & Rosaly have come together on MESTIZX - their debut full-length record as co-composers, arrangers, and musician - to deeply investigate to their lineage and ancestries without the confines of tradition or genre. They are fascinated by the never-ending beauty of Latin rhythmic patterns, microtonal mountain flutes, and oblong swing from the pre and post-colonial Latin American region. With references to free jazz, electronica, Chicago post-rock, bomba, plena, cumbia, ambient, Andean, minimal, noise, punk and folk, the record illustrates several sides of a decolonization process in a deliberately loose, eclectic, and celebratory story. The music harkens to the richness of ritualistic gatherings, which they recognize as an intrinsic form of resilience and resistance, as well as a deeply necessary practice that most humans seek — in churches, dance clubs, music venues and festivals. An atmosphere of their native ecologies appear throughout the record. Allegoric symbolism and dance traditions from the Caribbean and Andes materialize. Sometimes as a distant memory, often scrupulously. These aspects have shaped the music to represent Latin cultures and it is deeply woven in the fabric of an eccentric, speculative song-story, rhyming with echoes of protest music marked by post-dictator realities and various socio-political instabilities.

Joining them on MESTIZX is a community of international musicians and beloved friends in a collective assembly of celebratory protest music: Matt Lux, Avreeayl Ra, Ben LaMar Gay, Daniel Villarreal, Bill MacKay, Rob Frye, Mikel Patrick Avery, Chris Doyle, Guilherme Granado, Viktor Le Givens & Fredy Velásquez.

RIYL: Juana Molina, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln, Café Tacvba, As Mercenarias, Liquid Liquid, The Ex, Tortoise, Tom Zé, Elza Soares, La Mecanica Popular More

Tracklisting
A1 Hiss is Bliss feat. Kojo Neatness - Rub a Dub Soldier
B1 Hiss is Bliss - Rub a Sub

Sales Note
For the 004 release we teamed up with roots singer 'Kojo Neatness' delivering that true Kingston reggae vibe. Vocals wererecorded in the mythical 'Caveman Studio' in Jamaica with the help of the great late Nazamba. More

All those creatures, standing there, making time. Fury eyes, golden dust on artificial fog. Dancing on glass, repetitive poems, looping long after the last loop looped away. Oriental acid, frenzied samples, low hanging film noir suspense. This is DALO. Or not. She is many. Dry maniac downbeat is her craft. Or dark-ish pop-not-pop. There is dub, trance, techno, too. She is known for releases on labels like ESP Institute, WARNING, or Tresor. She is part of bands like Init. She played them all, those clubs, that matter, and those that matter more. Live. Alone. As an artist. With a band. Here she comes with her first album. On the R.i.O. sphere. Her homebase. A trusted zone for experimentation. She brings “Duster”. Seven tunes twisted in different dreams. Fast, slow, veiled, enchanted, haunting trenchant. She sings. These songs. To dance. For a different, stripped-back trance. DALO. Her record longs for a stage. Exporting grace, face to face. A work like a mirror. Hypnotizing. A psychedelic portrait of a performer. Nuanced industrial veils ceremonial journey music. Claps, Jungle. Desolate vocal snippets. A whirlwind of words. All those chords, hanging there, kick drum time. Fury eyes, golden horns amid acid fog. Dancing on glass, cyclic synth-lines. DALO. Duster. A-round-and-a-around. Circulating the ritual. More

Third chapter of the ‘Inside’ series of various artists eps selected by Neroli’s very own Volcov.
Fred P makes a welcome return on the label with a late night banger with heart warming strings entitled ‘Time Well Spent’. The rest symbol project [by Molinaro, Moreiya and Wendy Lavone] offers the blissful cinematic ‘Etius Motif’. On the flipside Hakim Murphy and G. Marcell team up as Resonating with the raw relentless ‘J707’ and Patrice Scott’s lush opus ‘Untitled’ from The First Circle [Neroli’s 20th anniversary] album appears here in a longer beat version.
As always curated and assembled with Love! More

40gram classic black vinyl LP in a heavyweight gatefold jacket, with quarterfold A2 poster insert, IARC obi strip, and dome-patterned inner sleeve

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly share musical, communal, and ancestral roots within the Latinx diaspora of Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. Ferragutti - raised in Cochabamba, Bolivia - comes from South American musical royalty on both sides of her family... with maternal uncles from the psychedelic staple of Bolivian music Los Kjarkas, and a Brazilian accordionist who played with Gilberto Gil, among others, as a paternal uncle. Rosaly was born and raised in Arizona, but spent the better part of his prolific career working on the Chicago jazz and improvised music scene where, in many ways, he himself defined the sound of the free jazz scene, for a particular era. The two artists connected in Amsterdam in 2015, where they now live together, and work in many capacities across music, theatre, performance art, dance, and community organizing.

Ferragutti & Rosaly have come together on MESTIZX - their debut full-length record as co-composers, arrangers, and musician - to deeply investigate to their lineage and ancestries without the confines of tradition or genre. They are fascinated by the never-ending beauty of Latin rhythmic patterns, microtonal mountain flutes, and oblong swing from the pre and post-colonial Latin American region. With references to free jazz, electronica, Chicago post-rock, bomba, plena, cumbia, ambient, Andean, minimal, noise, punk and folk, the record illustrates several sides of a decolonization process in a deliberately loose, eclectic, and celebratory story. The music harkens to the richness of ritualistic gatherings, which they recognize as an intrinsic form of resilience and resistance, as well as a deeply necessary practice that most humans seek — in churches, dance clubs, music venues and festivals. An atmosphere of their native ecologies appear throughout the record. Allegoric symbolism and dance traditions from the Caribbean and Andes materialize. Sometimes as a distant memory, often scrupulously. These aspects have shaped the music to represent Latin cultures and it is deeply woven in the fabric of an eccentric, speculative song-story, rhyming with echoes of protest music marked by post-dictator realities and various socio-political instabilities.

Joining them on MESTIZX is a community of international musicians and beloved friends in a collective assembly of celebratory protest music: Matt Lux, Avreeayl Ra, Ben LaMar Gay, Daniel Villarreal, Bill MacKay, Rob Frye, Mikel Patrick Avery, Chris Doyle, Guilherme Granado, Viktor Le Givens & Fredy Velásquez.

RIYL: Juana Molina, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln, Café Tacvba, As Mercenarias, Liquid Liquid, The Ex, Tortoise, Tom Zé, Elza Soares, La Mecanica Popular More