Label Description: “Nostalgic…dreamy. The sweet sound of teenage dreams made real.” Electronic Sound
“Stunning, oneiric, and otherworldly.” Bandcamp Daily
British-Maltese musician James Vella – founder of Phantom Limb – reissues his 2006 debut solo album of gentle, autumnal ambient-electronica wake:sleep for a special 20th anniversary edition featuring three previously unreleased tracks from the same period.
“I was overjoyed to sign my first ever record deal, back in 2006,” Vella reminisces. “I was a dorky teenager, writing songs in my bedroom and, later, university halls when this record came to be. I had published a few tracks on early music platforms like MySpace and mp3 dot com but when Dynamophone Records (a label! with a website!) told me they were listening, I was ecstatic.”
Created on a laptop part-purchased with his small salary as a clerk in a local record store (and with help from his parents, on the promise of using it for school and university work), wake:sleep is a surprisingly developed body of work. Over a gently diminishing palette, the record expresses the passage of falling asleep, opening with organic and flickering textures and ending with amniotic washes of ambient bliss. It was dedicated in full to Vella’s girlfriend at the time: “these songs are love songs” reads the inscription on the (long sold out) original CD. Catching the ear of nascent but momentarily prosperous San Francisco label Dynamophone Records, the album was released in June 2006, Vella still then a teenager, and garnered some recognition in music press at the time. A year later, Vella’s band yndi halda released their debut album and both projects became significantly more visible.
Opening “I Am To You” is made from dulcet synthesis, recordings of real-life moments, clicky IDM-inspired beat programming, and sweetly melodic acoustic instrumentation and voice. It sits alongside early electronica in its delicate micro-beats and blurring of organic with digital. Spotify hit “Leanna is a Quiet Meow” centres on a repeated harmonium motif and a voice pedal. Its combination of serenity and unexpected timbral playfulness has earned over a million plays on everyone’s favourite DSP.
Later in the record, “The Sleepers” acts as a pivot. Beginning with acoustic guitar, angelic pads, and home-recorded drumkit, it eventually gives way to a fizzing deconstruction of the same raw materials, now made hypnagogic and transportive where it was rhythmic before. After this, the album changes dynamic. It lulls, softly, into near silence with the gargantuan 34-minute closer “The Shipwreck” and newly added companion piece “The Lighthouse”.
Three tracks are added to this special anniversary edition of the album: “On Writing”, “Rosalie Sings”, and the aforementioned “The Lighthouse”. These works were composed at the same time as the remainder of the album, but not included in its original track sequence. They have remained unreleased until now.
Vella’s A Lily project was most recently seen with early 2024’s acclaimed Phantom Limb debut Saru l-Qamar, in which he married archival recordings from his native Malta with dulcet new arrangements for hardware synthesis. Twin releases Sleep Through the Storm and Nocturne Thunder were released on The Ransom Note’s Bytes label in 2020 and 2022 respectively. These two releases – and Saru l-Qamar – see Vella return to synthesis and electronic instrumentation following his band-orientated previous album of 2018. Vella is also a founding member of the highly recognised six-piece yndi halda, and has run the Phantom Limb label since its inception in 2017.
Label Description: The Jaffa Kid returns to Waxing Crescent, with a follow up to 2025’s Interactive Composition. Wear Out Digital brings a similar vibe, intensity, and quality, but this time there’s more to enjoy, plus a physical release. If you need a perfect blend of electro, techno, breakbeat and ambient, you can count on The Jaffa Kid.
All tracks composed by Daniel Pringle Artwork by Megmayo
Label Description: ‘Undercurrents’ is an interconnected body of work that drifts into moods and mind travel through the slower side that distances from prior dance/club-intended tracks, a new yet familiar exploration in search of emotional resonance, resemblance and tonal identity following the downbeat, hazy granular synthesis and low lit atmospheres developed on recent and not so recent releases.
For enjoyers of the sound palette from previous albums like Motion Pictures Regime, Screening Plexus, Land Of Hidden Variables and Diffractions but also for new listeners discovering Filmmaker’s catalog.
Music & artwork by Faunes Efe Recorded in Envigado, Colombia in early 2026.
Built for an industrial expansion that never came, Kielder Dam in Northumberland is a monument to a forgotten future. Kielder Water Music explores this engineered landscape through field recordings, electronics, and string quartet.
The four pieces draw on sounds from the valve tower, reservoir, and surrounding forest, alongside interviews with those who live and work at the site. These recordings are woven together with strings, samplers, and analogue and digital synthesizers to create a dream-like sonic portrait of this unique post-industrial space.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Jo Silverston – Cello Drew Morgan – Cello and Bowed Electric Guitar Laura Wilson – Viola Caelia Lunniss – Violin Hugh Blogg – Violin
Mike Roberts – Words
Dan Moore – Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, Field Recordings, Samples and Synthesizers
Strings recorded and engineered by Luke Cawthra
Mixed by TJ Allen
Mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering
Cover Design by Oliver Batho
Thanks to Dan Jones, Andy Sheppard, Jonty Hall, Mike Roberts, Northumbrian Water, Alison Freeman, Hilary Ashton and the estate of Ernest Tomlinson, Riaan Vosloo, Jennifer Bell, Seb Reynolds, James Hester, Ned Rush, Jaqueline Ewers and Jenny Lindfors.
It has been twenty-five years since the seismic events of 2001—when twin towers collapsed under terrorist attack and Coventry’s sonic insurgent Russell Haswell launched his inaugural salvo on the original Mego label with Live Salvage 1997–2000. The intervening era has delivered unrelenting turbulence: protracted wars, institutional corruption, a global pandemic, the resurgence of fascist currents, rampant media distortion, and omnipresent surveillance. For Haswell, a lifelong admirer of 1970s and 1980s dystopian cinema, the verdict is unequivocal: “Science Fiction is now!”
In the face of this darkening reality, LET IT GO arrives as both acknowledgment and antidote. This new full length on Editions Mego extends an olive branch through defiant sonic diversity—an unpredictable mosaic that embraces everything from propulsive rhythms to radical abstraction and enveloping ambience. True to Haswell’s core practice, the material draws from the same tactile, free-improvised electroacoustic framework that powers his live sets: immediate, powerful and unscripted.
The album weaves reverent echoes of 1990s Detroit techno’s hypnotic pulse and the abrasive, metallic edge of the Birmingham sound into fractured generative territories. Haswell returns to his computer-generated origins while integrating his recent modular-synthesis experiments. During a residency at the Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK) in Norway, he harnessed the latest GRM Tools suite to conjure the volatile, “rapidly fluctuating pitched sounds” that characterized Iannis Xenakis’ late electronic works—resulting in pieces such as Fall 3 and Fall 2, where instability becomes a form of vitality. The tracks Exit Downwards and The Anxieties Of Our Time whilst reflecting the currents of the release also offer surprisingly melodic patterns over jagged rhythms. The wryly titled Thu 25 Dec 2025, (recorded in Glasgow after a solitary post-Christmas-lunch walk home) is a vast drone which evolves according to the random walk model—known more evocatively as the drunken walk—each sonic step veering unpredictably, mirroring the disoriented lens of contemporary existence.
LET IT GO is liberation. Amid the cacophony of crumbling certainties, Haswell deploys a full arsenal of resistance: kinetic drive, disorienting rupture, quiet refuge, raw aggression, and tentative hope. In an age where dystopia has shifted from fiction to lived fact, this music asserts that possibility endures.
Label Description: Current catalogue number is : MF349
Mean Flow is a solo project of Theofil Tsiolakakis from Thessaloniki, Greece.
All 17 tracks of this album have written and recorded between 13th February to 5th of March 2026. Total duration is 01:33:21 (10 main tracks plus 7 bonus (collaboration) track(s), so totally 17 tracks).
Many thanx to the following musician for his collaboration with me to the bonus tracks of this album :
– {AN} Eel (Neal D. Retke) (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) for my rerwork to his track : no 11 “Monks Lick Lips”.
There are also 3 previous remixes/reworks by me to his music and 3 by him to mine on my previous albums : “Enclosed Sky”, “Imaginary 10” #4 Remixed (By Various Artists)”,”Vauge Emotions”, “Unsolved Labyrinth Remixed (By Various Artists)” & “Forgotten Crimes”. Also many Mean Flow tracks included in various artists compilations released by {AN} Eel netlabel called and I hope there are more in the future.
– Sabila Orbe (Rancagua, Chile) and his projects Filmy Ghost, Insectoid Girl, Yaka-anima and Miss Spectra (Rancagua, Chile – Born: Cali, Colombia) (along with Sabila Orbe) and their project Humanfobia for our collaboration track (me adding music to their voice track) : no 12 “Fire Walk With Me”.
There are more collaborations with the projects above with 32 tracks inluded on my previous albums “Enclosed Sky”, “Eternal Call”, “Imaginary 10” #4 Remixed (By Various Artists)”, “Greatest Failure”, ”This Feeling”, ”Darkness Versus Light”, “Humanfobia’s Letargo Sumergido E.P. Reworks”, “Subduction Zone”, “A Monument To The Ruined Age”, “Humanfobia’s Realidades Paralelas Reworks”, “Reductio Ad Absurdum”, the compilation “Mean Flow x Humanfobia – ▼👻░░░ (2022)”,”Unequal Equality”, “Suffocating Pressure”, “Ambient Landscapes”, “Liquid Material”, “Demolition Of Ideals” & “Exhausted”. Also many Mean Flow tracks included in various artists compilations released by Mist Spectra/Humanfobia netlabels called “Cian Orbe”, “Gothic Spectra Compilation”, “Internet Daemon Netlabel” & “Dawn Of Darkness”.
– Marco Lucchi (Modena, Italy) for my rework in his 4 tracks : no 11 “The Scarecrow [Naviar Haiku # 629]”, no 12 “Arpeggios Are Very Selfish N*5”, no 13 “Poetry Makes Nothing Happen” & no 14 “Slowly Gliding [Naviar Haiku # 632]”.
Other 289 Marco Lucchi’s tracks, remixed/reworked by Mean Flow are also included in my previous albums “Viridis Achates”, “Inmost Silence”, “Floating Thoughts”, “Blurred Imagination”, “Eternal Question”, “Black Veils Over Sad Tales”, “Enclosed Sky”, “Eternal Call”, “Dark View”, “Noise Elegance”, “Distant View”, “Obscure Details”, “Greatest Failure”, “This Feeling”, “Marco Lucchi’s 100 First Reworked Tracks”, ”Darkness Versus Light”, “Subduction Zone”, “Winter Tales”, “Anchored Dreams”, “Vauge Emotions”, “Directed Public Awareness”, “A Monument To The Ruined Age”, “Reductio Ad Absurdum”, “Tunnel Vision”, “Ιnsufficient Εnergy”, “Low Profile”, Secret Place”, “Unknown Aspects”, “Endless Destination”, “Timeless Experiences”, ”Elegant Plan”, “Under Epidermis”, “Temporary Respite”, Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 2″, Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 3″, “Τhe Τruth Οf Εach”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 4”, “Dead End”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 5”, “Unequal Equality”, “Suffocating Pressure”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 6”, “Ambient Landscapes”, “Liquid Material”, “Social Castration”, “Creative Destruction”, “Forgotten Crimes”, “Rights Vs Prejudices”, “Marco Lucchi’s Mello_w_tron Reworked”, “Hollow Impressiveness”, “Profit Sacrifices”, “Under Destruction”, “Preset Sensitivity”, “Unhealed Scars”, “Traceless”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 7”, “Pointless”, “Decriminalized Pleasures”, “Hidden Items”, “Marginalized Snapshots”, “Self Destruct”, “Law Of Action And Reaction”, “Pensive Mood”, “40 Years”, “Demystification”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 8”, “Tired”, “Outside”, “New Member”, “Sad But True”, “Demolition Of Ideals”, “Soft Razors”, “Guilty Silence”, “Fundamental Elements”, “Imagination Release”, “Marco Lucchi’s Reworked Tracks Volume 9”, “Truth Or Dare”, “Short Journey, Infinite Distance”, “No Fair”, “Cornucopia Of Pleasures”, “Green”, “Unpleasant Expectations”, “Sky Limit”, “Destruction Signature”, “Mortgaged Life”, “Life Will Never Stop Being Unfair, Very Unfair”, “Crushed Life”, “Haunted Figurehead”, “Truth Relativism”, “Abnormal Regularity”, “Attribution Of Blame”, “Convalescence”, “Abuse Of Power “, “Unjust Guilt”, “Democratic Dictatorship”, “Clarity Over Compulsion”, “Fight The Sickness”, “Online Decay”, “Negotiated Portrayal”, “Meaningless Purpose”, “Mental Reset”, ”Allegorical Interpretation’ & “High Mental Load”‘.
– Scott Lawlor (Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.) for my remix to his track : no 14 “Glittering Lights Above The Clouds”.
There are also 7 tracks made by Scott Lawlor and reworked/remixed by Mean Flow for a collaboration album called “Nocturnes, Volume 8”. It’s a part of project where many people rework/remix all of some of these tracks for collaboration albums. First 2 parts of these reworks are included also on my previous album “40 Years”.
– Finally ArtKlang, a collaboration project between Gildas Brugaro and his solo project “SRVTR” (Rennes, Bretagne, France – born: Saint-Malo, Bretagne, France) for my rework to his track : no 13 “Nuit Blanche”. ArtKlang is a collaboration project between Gildas Brugaro (solo project “SRVTR”) (Rennes, Bretagne, France – born: Saint-Malo, Bretagne, France) and Bruno Green (Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada)
There are other 13 SRVTR reworked tracks by me included on my previous albums : “Black Veils Over Sad Tales”, “Dark View”, “Obscure Details”, “Dead End”, “Unequal Equality”, “Suffocating Pressure” & “Ambient Landscapes”. There was also a collbaration track of ours called “Bug Sound” and there were 16 remixes by many various artists to this collaboration track, including also 2 remixes by each of us (Mean Flow & SRVTR), that released as an album called “SRVTR/ Mean Flow : Bug Sound Remixed” in SRVTR’s bandcamp link : srvtr.bandcamp.com/album/srvtr-mean-flow-bug-sound-remixed. This collaboration track “Bug Sound” and my Mean Flow remix of it were included on my previous album “Eternal Question”. Also he remixed Mean Flow’s track “Frozen Lake (SRVTR Remix)” included on my previous album “Imaginary 10” #4 Remixed (By Various Artists)”.
All other music, keyboards, any kind instruments, sounds-noises, sound effects to rest of the songs made by Mean Flow (Theofil Tsiolakakis), Thessaloniki, Greece.
Many thanx to all people who like and support my music.
Music For The Rest Of Us 