Sign up for our newsletter. Cancel anytime you want.
Spotlight 10
Welcome to the Spot Light. Check out the latest psychedelic, cosmic, prog, freakbeat, folk, kraut, experimental, jazz, drone, mystical, and avant-garde sounds!
Looking for older versions of Spotlight Magazine, check the Spotlight Archive.
Business customers, please visit the Clearspot website here.





PSYCHEDELIC/PROGRESSIVE/FOLK

Gantry, Elmer -'s Velvet Opera-
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera's self-titled 1968 masterpiece returns in a definitive CD edition, featuring their underground classic 'Flames' alongside perfectly crafted psychedelic gems like 'Mother Writes' and 'Mary Jane.' This special reissue comes in a digipak format with an 8-page booklet featuring detailed liner notes by Ugly Things magazine's Mike Stax, chronicling the band's fascinating evolution from R&B stalwarts to psychedelic innovators. Features bonus tracks including the rare 'Talk Of The Devil' and previously unreleased material that completes the story of this remarkable band.

Velvet Opera
Ride A Hustler's Dream
Velvet Opera's 'Ride A Hustler's Dream' returns in a definitive CD edition, featuring the complete 1969 album plus four bonus tracks. This special reissue comes in a digipak format with an 8-page booklet featuring detailed liner notes by Ugly Things magazine's Mike Stax, chronicling the band's fascinating evolution from psychedelic rockers to folk-rock innovators. Featuring the classic lineup of Johnny Joyce, Paul Brett, John Ford, and Richard Hudson, the album captures the band's unique blend of folk, blues, and psychedelia, including their distinctive takes on 'Statesboro Blues' and 'Eleanor Rigby' alongside original compositions.

Motorpsycho
Yay! (turquoise)
After a series of epic, sprawling and headphones-friendly albums, Motorpsycho is back with a short, reasonably pop-formatted and intimate album of mainly acoustically based songs. For once playing the game instead of trying to reinvent it, this 10-song album of tunes is clearly a reaction in some way to too much architecture and too many grand visions, and dials the music down to more comprehensive and digestible sizes than have been the band's métier lately. Motorpsycho have always been about the balance between hard and soft, electric and acoustic, big and small, light and shade - and now the time was right for a lighter touch to balance the scales. Yang to the Yin of earlier, more epic works ('N.O.X.,' 'The Crucible,' and 'Chariot Of The Sun'), this is also an album that is relatively easy on the ears, and that actually works really well with a cup of tea at noon. 'Yay!' was produced by Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn (Dungen, Melody's Echo Chamber, The Amazing et al), and their production work brings a sweet Swedish psych edge to the album, giving it a lysergic tinge and charging what could easily have been a bit too 'backporchy' with an electric vibe that lifts it out of the often staid singer/songwriter genre, but still keeping the intimacy intact. While as ever clearly drawing on inspiration from late '60s/early '70s heroes, 'Yay!' is as indebted to earlier iterations of Motorpsycho as anything else, and will be recognizable to fans of vintage Motorpsychodelia as well as a breath of fresh air to newer Psychonauts that only ever heard the heavy progressive side of the band. Reactions ranging from 'WTF?' to 'Finally!' are expected. Use your ears! Keeping things unpredictable and weird since 1989, there is only one Motorpsycho. Edition on transparant turquoise vinyl.

Various
Brown Acid: The 20th Trip (black)
Here you are in 2025 about to take the Twentieth Trip! The ten vintage early local hard rock eruptions here will swarm around you like fear and loathing bats, zapping you from unexpected angles, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that the inevitable collapse of the American Psychedelic '60s Utopian Dream into hard guitar low ball self absorbed human nature endures. These killer tracks may be a half century in the rear-view mirror now BUT... since we can't work it out... we gotta mess it up! A vibe that resonates timelessly, real life ripped out of the haze by real people, fresh and unfiltered right out of the gate. Getting it while they can. These are no mere historic sound recordings, they are life itself! If you're looking for trouble, you just found it!
GARAGE/BEAT/SURF/ROCK’N’ROLL

Various
Times Of Strange Days Past
Top Sounds' first release of 2025 is something of an almost extinct beast these days, a compilation of late 1960s British psychedelia of which the majority has never previously been released. Spanning 1967 to 1970 the LP features fourteen tracks and opens with a superb version of 'Astronomy Domine' by Graphite, the first of two covers of Pink Floyd numbers on the record. Both sides of the Graded Grains 'Animal Magic'/'Lucifer Sam' acetate are finally released in excellent sound quality thanks to the sourcing of another copy, and two sterling psychedelic rock performances by White Unicorn were only previously pressed onto a very small run of white label 45s in 1969. A couple of the legendary attractions on the London underground scene of 1967 and '68 who never had any music issued at the time - the Crystal Ship and the Philosopher's Stone - have their distinctive brands of hardcore psych on vinyl for the first time whilst underground heroes Tomorrow take pride of place with a raucous pre single version of their anthemic 'My White Bicycle.' With more first division selections from Sound Of London, The Pheonix, Them and an unknown aggregation's amazing 'Strange Day,' 'Times Of Strange Days Past' is sure to satisfy the appetite of enthusiasts of obscure UK psychedelia. The LP features a 16 page booklet. Limited edition of 500 copies.
POP/ROCK/WAVE/NOISE

Truck Violence
Violence
'Violence' is a brazenly poetic homage to small town roots, a mashing of modern Western Canadian hardcore and folk. Extensive in scope, this debut full-length by Truck Violence takes the listener through wide-ranging dynamics, from solemn acoustic ballads to wrathful electric anthems. Deftly fractured rhythms and breakdowns, complex harmonic entanglements, emphatic screams of discontent, are met with hopeful, melodic tracks musing about the steady grip of a tight-knit community. From somber, deceivingly happy banjo sequences to crashing noise and cries, 'Violence' uses expression as a mirror, looking upon oneself with clarity, aiming to attain a sense of unadulterated truth of the matter. There is little modern music taking an honest look at the Western Canadian countryside, tackling themes such as addiction, abuse and dysfunction. Truck Violence's first album does just that, uniquely capturing this involuted setting through a wide lens to both contextualize and emphasize what it means to be overwhelmed, to feel shame, to struggle with self-destructive ways, to thrust oneself into art as an escape. Written and recorded in singer-poet Karsyn Henderson, guitarist-banjoist Paul Lecours and percussionist Ryley Klima's basement alongside bassist Chris Clegg, then mixed and mastered by longtime collaborator Noah Baxter, this self-produced introductory effort from the Montréal four-piece stylishly amalgamates elements from hardcore, punk, shoegaze, sludge, and folk. 'Violence' is highly recommended for fans of earnest heavy music with an experimental edge à la Show Me The Body, Chat Pile or The Chariot.

Veneman En De Groot
Zonder Rafels Geen Ziel
"Neo-smartlappen" from The City of Light: Nick Cave meets Corry Konings! Woody Veneman and Truus de Groot are both bona fide legends of the Eindhoven music scene. Eindhoven, also called Rockcity is known to be a bed of new and challenging sounds dating back to the earliest of electronica murmurings at Philips Electronics NatLab. Both Woody and Truus have been active in a broad variety of genres, never afraid to tread into the unknown. Using their vast backgrounds of experimental and traditional sounds, they come together tapping into the Dutch phenomena of "smartlappen." Comes in luxurious UV gloss cover with silver foil finish and on 140gr purple vinyl. Electronica pioneer Truus de Groot's career started at the beginning of the punk rock craze in 1976 in The Netherlands. She started out as a vocalist and lyric writer as a member of Nasmak. Experimental electronic instruments became part of her passion. She established cult favorite Plus Instruments in 1978 which is an ongoing project to present day. Eventually it led her to design her own instruments. Her path has been a long and winding road around the world, collaborating with all types of people in a variety of genres and cultures. In 2015 she established Blue Beast with her Brazilian collaborator Miguel Barella. During the pandemic she also started an ongoing collaboration with Cosmo Vitelli. She is always looking for a new challenge, as she continues to seek exciting ways to express herself creatively through music, words, photography and film. Eindhoven-based Woody Veneman is a composer and singer-songwriter, creator of analog techno, visual designer and gallery owner. He travelled to New York as a singing chair, played with Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies and was praised by Nick Cave for his version of 'No Pussy Blues.' Veneman is remarkably prolific and driven by an incontrollable urge to create and innovate: "Theres always something you havent made yet."
PUNK/HARDCORE

Rotten Sound
Murderworks
"'Murderworks' is the third full album of Rotten Sound and is also considered as the stepping stone for the band, which also got us finally touring internationally. We had been doing more crusty stuff at first on 'Under Pressure' and earlier releases. Then we added elements of death metal on 'Drain' and finally started blasting more than ever on 'Murderworks.' 'Murderworks' was created mostly during 2001, when Keijo already lived in Tampere while others still were based in Vaasa. Keijo had moved already in 1997, but on 2001 he was rehearsing more than before with others, who were also spending a lot of time together at the rehearsal place. That extensive rehearsing made the release and entire band tighter than before, which probably has a lot to do with how the album ended up being." Comes on deep red marbled vinyl.
INDUSTRIAL/EXPERIMENTAL/NOISE/NEOFOLK/GOTHIC

Various
Drone-mind//mind-drone, Vol. 9
A vinyl only series about the various sides of today's experimental drone-music. This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, now with artwork based on paintings by British artist Pete Greening. Drone music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. 'Drone-Mind' and 'Mind-Drone' build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self. Limited to 400 copies.
METAL/STONER/HARDROCK

Necrodeath
Arimortis
This album is the last recorded testimony before the definitive dissolution of Italian death-merchants Necrodeath. The release will be followed by a farewell tour, which will last throughout 2025. After which the curtain will fall. "'Arimortis' is a term of Latin origin which indicates the end of a war, the moment in which the fallen are honoured and altars are erected in their name ('arae mortis', the altars of death). Even today in some parts of Italy the term 'arimo' is used to declare the end of the games. We wanted to use this allegory to seal a path that lasted forty years, full of satisfactions, disappointments and revenge. The songs that make up the album contain several references to our long career."

Hippie Death Cult
Love At The Star Theater (black)
Live album for the US hard rock power trio. Five tracks full of psychedelic '70s riffs!

Ponte Del Diavolo
Tre - The Ep Collection
Ponte Del Diavolo was born in Turin in the winter of 2020. The band was born from a jam between members of Feralia, Inchiuvatu, Abjura and Askesis. The band proposes a doom/black metal sound with old school roots, adding a modern and outside the box background. The female voice - with strong wave influences - is the lyric corpus of this strongly esoteric project. The solid presence of two basses creates the massive foundation for the rythmic guitar, everything marked by a raw and dynamic drumming. This rare combination builds the atmosphere of Ponte Del Diavolo. The band is currently signed to Season of Mist. 'TRE' encloses in one work the trilogy of EPs composed by the band from its beginnings to its signing for Season of Mist.

Ainsoph
Affection & Vengeance (black)
Highly anticipated second album of Amsterdam based project with members of Dödsrit and Faceless Entity. 'Affection & Vengeance' stands as a thorough experience into the nadirs of the mind, body and soul, a sorrowful, a pleasurable and certainly an unforgettable voyage over and beyond ethereal planes of ecstasy. Mixed, produced and mastered by Pieter Kloos (The Devils Blood).

Uthullun
The Barbed Thread Of Madness
2025 EP from the mysterious USBM entity named Uthullun. Crossing through 'The Barbed Thread of Madness,' the listener is taken through the anguished and solivagant embodiment of dissonance and a psychoactive cathartic journey beyond gehennah and oblivion.

Final Dose
Under The Eternal Shadow (black)
More raw, relentless and fuck-off driven than ever before, This vile and depraved black metal punk madness is the audible equavilent of melting your brain cells and electrify your synapses until your corpse rises up and starts doing the danse macabre! Mastered by Brad Boatright (Audiosiege).

Death Wheelers
Ecstasy Of Mold
Back with their musky, technicolor splatter scuzz, The Death Wheelers don't dare ease the throttle on their drive to create soundtracks to what would be the world's greatest fictional bikesploitation and gore film fest. These Quebec based zombie grease goons manage to evoke the sticky floor and stale popcorn smell of an old rundown Midnight movie theater with every stroke of a barre chord and bludgeoned snare drum. Theirs is a sound that does Herschell Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman and Russ Meyer proud. Whereas their previous albums evoked the buzzsaw surf riffs of Davie Allen, Dick Dale and The Cramps, with the thunderous groove of Motörhead, their fourth album finds these troglodytes veering hard into classic '80s heavy metal while still maintaining the compelling urgency of Italian gore gods Goblin. It's heavier, nastier, more driving and... dosed with pure backwoods möld. In keeping with their B-movie aesthetic, the recording offers in-your-face, loud tones dripping with stench and nastiness. But it's also some of the best produced vintage sounding underground metal you can get your claws on in these dystopian times.

Tons/viscera///
Subsound Split Series #10 (black)
10th edition of the Subsound Split Series. Viscera/// is a psychedelic post-metal four piece based in northern Italy, est. 2000. The band is considered as a unique combination of the darkest sides of many underground genres like grindcore, black/death metal, ambient, drone and of course psychedelic music. Tons formed in 2009 with members of hardcore bands from the '00s Turin scene (The Redrum, Lama Tematica and NoInfo). Slow and heavy sounds take the place of frenetic HC rhythms; the texts speak about weed in an ironic way, but also about a certain tendency to esotericism that characterizes the city of Turin.
JAZZ/AVANTGARDE

Wertmuller, Michael
Shlimazl
In the work 'Shlimazl' by the Swiss composer Michael Wertmüller, symphony orchestra and big band merge into a virtuoso, polymetric organism that not only transcends styles, but also a perceived linearity of time. In doing so, he explicitly takes up the rich tradition of the big band, and revitalises it within the symphonic context under new auspices and allows it to take off. All the soloists act like a picture within a picture within the big band, which oscillates between musical nucleus, place of concentration and utopian space of freedom. Wertmüller illuminates the ambiguity of the Yiddish title 'Shlimazl' (engl.: mess) with the structuring phrases 'Mazely Shlimazl' (engl.: happiness and mess). The stylistic carombole and the chaos of polyphony without uniformity harbour not only the overwhelming effect of apparent incompatibility but also the happiness of new possibilities for cooperation: from the power of contradiction and friction towards something that can neither be planned nor imagined. A model that creates the vision of a constructive way out in times of increasing incompatibility and hardening in the world. 'Shlimazl' by Michael Wertmüller was a commissioned composition by Basel Sinfonietta and Ruhrtriennale.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC/AMBIENT/D’N’B/TRIPHOP

Cosmic Ground
Area 22/23/24 (2cd)
The 3 download-only releases 'Area 22,' 'Area 23' and 'Area 24' (which all were released at the end of each year) now see a release together on a double CD in digipak. Limited to 200 copies.

Dance With The Dead
Out Of Body (10th Anniversary) (2lp)
A redux remaster of 'Out Of Body' on 2LP. One of the leading lights of the ever-burgeoning synthwave movement, Los Angeles' Dance With The Dead made their full-length debut in 2013 with the now-classic 'Out Of Body.' The album featured all the hallmarks of synthwave - percolating melodies, pulsating bass, and deft & dramatic shifts in texture, always with electric energy and piston-precise propulsion - but the unique factor is the duo's metal background, which manifests itself in the haunting horror-movie feel of many/most of the album's tracks. That sensation unfolds as the album pulses onward, indeed making 'Out Of Body' feel like the soundtrack to a movie that never was (or yet is). Further capitalizing on that metal background, Dance With The Dead occasionally pepper their compositions here with guitar-god solos, not so much making the album "metal" per se as driving the point home that their synthwave is authentically '80s-rooted. A decade later, the duo decided to give 'Out Of Body' the remixed and remastered treatment, polishing the soundfield to gleaming chrome whilst punching up the low-end to deeper, dancier levels. Get 'Out Of Body' once again, or for the first time!
VARIOUS: WORLD, CLASSICAL, SPOKEN WORDS ETC

Nusantara Beat
Sifat Manusia/mang Becak
For their third collaboration with Bongo Joe, the Amsterdam-based band Nusantara Beat reinvents two gems of Indonesian music. Through these tracks, Nusantara Beat fuses traditional sounds with modernity, breathing new life into timeless classics. On Side A, 'Sifat Manusia,' inspired by Indonesian folklore, delves into the depth and richness of the human soul, delivered through a vibrant and captivating performance. On the B-side, 'Mang Becak' pays tribute to 1970s Sunda Pop and the iconic track by One Dee Group, reimagined with a modern groove and irresistible energy. By blending psychedelic textures, folkloric rhythms, and boundless creativity, Nusantara Beat transports us into the unique atmosphere of Bandung, balancing respect for musical heritage with contemporary innovation. This 7" is a complete immersion into the singular universe of the band, celebrating the diversity and richness of Indonesian culture.
PRESS: SELECTED REVIEW QUOTES, INTERVIEWS A.S.
CHEMISTRY SET – An Introduction To… (2CD, Fruits De Mer)
“The Chemistry Set’s ‘An Introduction To…’ is chock-full of delightful psychedelic songs…” (Carry Munter for Carry’s New Underground)
MOHAMMAD MOSTAFA HEYDARIAN – Noor - E Vojood (LP, Cardinal Fuzz / Radio Khiyaban / Centripetal Force Records)
“…ranging from delicate free-time solo meanderings to ferocious, hypnotic strumming accompanied by the percussion of Morteza. Elemental and beautiful.” (Tom Pinnock for Uncut)
MIKI YUI – As If (LP, Hallow Ground)
“For fans of the more esoteric corners of electronic music, "As If" will feel like home.” (Vito Camarretta for Chain DLK)
THE OCEAN – Anthropocentric (2LP, Pelagic)
“With "Heliocentric" being probably my top release for 2010, "Anthropocentric" arrives some months later as the perfect fit for it.” (Yiannis Dafopoulos for Metal Temple)
We have also available their ‘Heliocentral’ for those interested.
NARA LEAO – Dez Anos Depois (LP, Music on Vinyl)
“Will you ever hear bossanova the same after hearing Dez Anos Depois? My belief is that it will show you everything you’ve been missing, and it will be an album, that lives with you for the rest of your life. It is that special.” (Diego Olivas for Fondsound)
GNONNAS PEDRO & HIS DADJES BAND – Roi De L'agbadja Moderne 1974-1983 (2LP, Analog Africa)
“He leaves behind a great musical legacy and this thrilling collection reflects the versatility and adventure of his charismatic pioneering, genre-hopping approach.” (Andrew Neal for Silent Radio)
BLURT – My Mother Was A Friend Of An Enemy Of The People (2LP, All City Dublin)
There’s a new interview with Ted Milton discussing his project Blurt.
CANDYMOUSE – The Light Just Bends (LP, Old Bad Habits)
A brand-new interview with the band members discussing their new album and reflecting on their time during the C86 era.
THE DISHRAGS – Four (LP, Supreme Echo)
It’s Psychedelic Baby! Magazine recently did an interview with the first all-girl punk band in Canada.
UPCOMING CONCERTS
LABASHEEDA (PRESTO CHANGO)
11-03-2025: Enschede (NL) – Tankstation
12-03-2025 – Düsseldorf (D) – Graf 39
13-03-2025: Karlsruhe (D) – P8
14-03-2025: Fribourg (F) – La Coutellerie
15-03-2025: Besançon (F) – Hop Hop Hop
15-05-2025: Utrecht (NL) – dB’s
16-05-2025: Dordrecht (NL) – DS17
27-05-2025: Wroclaw (P) – Klub Szalonych
28-05-2025: Liberec (CZ) – Barpapir
29-05-2025: Prague (CZ) – Café V Lese
30-05-2025: Brno (CZ) – Alterna
31-05-2025: Dresdan (D) – Sankt Pieschen Festival
13-09-2025: Wormerveer (NL) – De Groote Weiver
20-09-2025: Gent (B) – Kinky Star
SULA BASSANA - with band (SULATRON)
28-03-2025: Berlin (D) - Neue Zukunft
17-04-2025: Bochum (D) - Planetarium
FORD’S FUZZ INFERNO (SUBUNDERGROUND C.A.)
19-04-2025: Haarlem (NL) - Slachthuis
26-04-2025: Leiden (NL) – Resistor
SOCCER COMMITTEE (MORC)
09-08-2025: Millingen aan de Rijn / Kekerdom (NL) - Millinger Theetuin