Stolen Velour, FLOCO & Aria SL - Holdfast EP
ID010
Released 11th April 2025

https://illegaldata.bandcamp.com/album/stolen-velour-floco-aria-sl-holdfast-ep

1. Long Way Round
2. Estuary
3. I live, I let go 
4. Lilium 


Balancing analogue & acoustic soundworlds with digital and synthetic aesthetics, Stolen Velour, FLOCO & Aria SL first began working on the EP back in 2022. They debuted their lead single ‘Lilium’, a cover of the main theme to anime ‘Elfen Lied’ which is written in Latin, at Loughborough Junction’s Spanners alongside a lineup including Petal Supply, Himera, Iglooghost & Umru. Some months after, they continued to perform iterations of the track amongst other music at varied spots like The White Hotel & Laylow, which informed their approach to music as three collaborators. They eventually completed ‘Long Way Round’ over the summer of 2023 via several sessions across London & Leeds. In a sudden burst of creativity, they completed the final two tracks a year later, forming a fully-fledged EP spanning contemporary classical, folk, pop, experimental electronic and more. Using extended classical and experimental techniques within a pop music context, the EP foregrounds narrative leitmotifs to chronicle a departure from naivety and innocence into a darker, more complex world. With all three artists coming from their own corners of the music world, their EP ‘Holdfast’, named after the anchoring root system of seaweeds, enmeshes their love of synthetic & analogue technologies with the beauty inherent in periods of personal transformation.

DOWNLOAD

Stolen Velour, FLOCO & Aria SL - Estuary

🛒

how you do me

Kat Nzingha - F˚

Shelter presents “Aveen” — the third installation in our genre-agnostic compilation series.

To follow up 2023’s “Feyrûse” and 2024’s “Mizgîn”, we have curated an emotionally charged collection of 17 tracks that press against the debilitating realities of life in the mid-2020s. The title stems from a Persian word meaning “pure” or “transparent” — signaling a search for unfiltered and sincere artistic expression in the midst of a social climate filled with smoke and mirrors.

“Aveen” features Shelter’s most international line-up to date, with music from 18 artists spread across 13 countries and 5 continents displaying their signature sounds shaped by their local scenes and cultures. 

Flowing through mutated shades of ambient, hypnagogic pop, trance, leftfield techno, neo-perreo, and GQOM — the compilation connects the myriad influences and mind-states of electronic musicians from nearly every corner of the world and tethers them together into a cathartic 17-track excursion.


Music For Your Plants – When Landscape Painting Was Protest Art

FLORAS is the new album from katharsis founder jjjacob, releasing on May 21st to mark the five-year anniversary of the label’s first output. A celebration shaped by time, patience, and transformation, FLORAS is an assemblage of seven tracks - each with its history. The oldest dates back to 2018; the newest bloomed only months ago. Initially intended for other projects or collaborations that never fully took root, these compositions have been reworked, reimagined, and refined - transformed by years of quiet attention. Stylistically, the release moves between the physical and the introspective - crushed drumbreaks, poignant basslines, grand synth melodies, and obscure granular vocals.

Each track is like an ancient, fluorescent flower rediscovered in a distant cave, alien in form yet deeply familiar. Cyclical in structure, they mirror the seasonal processes: emerging, flourishing, decaying, returning. There’s a strange botanical logic at play, as patterns and shapes reappear like genetic echoes, and even discarded stems sprout new life. Melodic ideas and textural procedures reverberate across tracks like shared ancestral material, connecting them like a hidden underground network. Some tracks still bear traces of feedback or collaboration that never fully materialized - ghost limbs and branches that helped shape the whole.

Built from ambient textures, hard-hitting percussion, and sonic details that reward deep listening, FLORAS is a meditation on growth, time, and potential. The release reflects not only a shift in jjjacob’s personal process, but also a new chapter for katharsis itself: after five years of near-monthly releases, the label now turns toward a slower rhythm - giving each release more space to breathe, settle, and take root before moving on.

releases May 21, 2025

artworks & mastering by jjjacob

FLORAS

VRETCH

jjjacob - VRETCH

W.ANNA.W - Petals of Nehan [OMB017]

Petals of Nehan unfolds as a sonic journey where powerful and unpredictable movements of sound intertwine with cultural influences and personal sensibilities. Each track shifts in form at times intense, at others restrained yet quietly imbued with an inner strength evoking petals drifting with intention. Through these evolving textures, the EP explores the power of music to bridge the inner and outer worlds.

In the collaborative track “Forsaken Voices” with xato, a flowing current of sound emerges from the merging of sensibilities, leading to a deeper musical exploration.

The EP also features remixes by Sweden-based duo Quit Life, France-based artist Ytem, and Austria-based Kenji Araki. Their contributions bring distinct perspectives shaped by their diverse cultural backgrounds, expanding the sonic landscape of the release.

W.ANNA.W is a Japan based artist, vocalist, and producer who weaves ambient, experimental, and organic sounds into intimate yet expansive sonic landscapes. Her music transcends genre boundaries, evolving freely with quiet, expressive depth. Through her work, she invites listeners into a reflective, introspective dialogue a space to pause, listen, and feel.

NÜ PREMIERE : W.ANNA.W - Veil of Lies (Kenji Araki Remix) (OVER MY BODY)

Taken from SBKT070: estoc - Are We Doomed to Bow to the Stupid and Cruel?
Release date: 26th June 2025
Artwork & Design: Amber Jean
Mixing & Digital Master: Nori Kin
Vinyl Master: Raphael Valensi

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estoc presents the newest manifestation of her artistic practice: an attempt to make sense of a world seemingly hellbent on violence as its chief export. Art written as a direct response to the conditions felt both at home and watched across oceans through a phone. This album exists as an acknowledgement that our fates are inextricably intertwined, yet, our (temporary) comfort is extracted from the third world. Across 10 tracks the question is: Are We Doomed to Bow to the Stupid and Cruel? Answers are posed and then brushed away, like dust from a shelf. By the end, nothing is settled and we are left with more questions than answers.

Collaborators and co-conspirators weave in and out of the compositions, their presence felt as both adornment, and as integral infrastructure. DJ Haram opens the album with ‘Heretic’. Her voice swims through crackling noise, throbbing basslines — a guided meditation as much as a late night conversation. ‘The Weight’ follows directly after. AZADI.mp3’s smoky chants hover in the air above a smouldering fire of trip hop drums and synths, devolving to a miasma of distortion and swirling screams. The next song, ‘Where Do We Go Now’, builds and swells with rumbling synths, arriving fully as breaks crash forward and Military Scientist’s voice cries out over a chaotic sea. The first solo composition of the album comes in the form of ‘The Poison of the Centre’. A solemn yet off-balance meditation of drums, cut over an uneven and shifting beat. This rhythmic fervor is multiplied tenfold on ‘No Glory’, a harsh bath of bass and drums, constantly fighting for space to breathe through the manufactured scarcity of the mix.

‘Scorched Earth’ lends us our first breath of fresh air. Mia Carucci sings a lullaby over growling instrumentation, Exploited Body’s co-production threatening to boil over at any moment. A momentary break in the clouds, a beam of sunlight shines through before being quickly swallowed back up by the storm; gone as quickly as it came. It is here that we plunge even deeper, as the heartbeat of ‘Heaven Defined for Another’ rattles through. Machinery and exasperated breathing become inexorable, both driven to their breaking point by a rolling wave of thunder. This mechanical terror roils forth on ‘Cradling’. Miedo Total sets clattering steam and cogs over crying strings that threaten to throw themselves to pieces. The penultimate entry sees Violence lend voice and production to ‘Bones Broken, Many Things Left Unsaid’ — a deep terror lurches, shuddering and crashing like ocean waves. A gentle chorus of strings ushers in the final piece, ‘Scratch a Liberal’ — a rare, but fleeting moment of tenderness on the album. Heavy towers of bass throw the composition into shadow, tension builds and grows before collapsing in on itself, revealing the fear and violence at the core of this project. At the end of it all, we are left alone to contemplate what is to be done.

Preorder

estoc - Scorched Earth (ft. Mia Carucci & Exploited Body)

Split CD-R with Marcus Whale out now via. Blue Void. Text by Gus McGrath @cbrfreewifi

1. Grasps - You Make It Look So Easy
2. Grasps - YMILSE (Afterimage)
3. Marcus Whale - Eye
4. Marcus Whale - Pit

www.instagram.com/grasps_
instagram.com/marcuswhaleinlandsea
grasps.bandcamp.com
marcus-whale.bandcamp.com

Split

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YMILSE (Afterimage)

"I pick my eyes from the viscous soil and glare into the atmosphere. I see battling cumulonimbus. The mountains fade, and the land becomes sea and fog."

For our second compilation ( following the BR only calmaria.xyz ), we invite a stellar cast of fringe sound artists and visionary music producers from around the globe to bend technique and language in the pursuit of unforgettable music.

After crafting new landscapes in the multidisciplinary compilation Calmaria, Caudal continues Acta’s exploration of the phenomena that forge unknown worlds and bring forth new life. We are drawn deeper into even stranger terrains. All is unseen and all is unheard. The weather is relentless and unpredictable.

Art by Yan Higa
DOP Tize Salati

Caudal

CarnageFantasiaApotheosis

"The Final Chapter" unfolds over 4 minutes and 16 seconds of serene, immersive ambience. Soft, evolving textures drift like mist through a quiet soundscape, building a gentle sense of closure and reflection. Layers of airy pads and subtle drones create a warm yet spacious atmosphere, perfect for moments of meditation, focus, or emotional release. With its delicate dynamics and cinematic undertone, this piece feels like the last page of a long journey, both tranquil and bittersweet.

The final chapter

contact & booking: christian@grasps.club

'Field of Dreams' monthly mix series on @hkcrlive

@agonyintl
@user-662985221

Releases with:
@eternal100000000
@wearetar
@sidechainsclub
@alldayfreeself
@00nekyia
@cvlt_records
@parkingstone

YMILSE (Afterimage)

Grasps_