4 October 2026 – Tiger Stripes Return to Rekids and Apparently a Tiger Really Doesn't Lose Its Stripes

Swedish electronic producer Mikael Nordgren, better known as Tiger Stripes, has released the first instalment of A Tiger Never Loses Its Stripes through Rekids, beginning a new EP series that previews his forthcoming second album. The phrase 'forthcoming second album' becomes considerably more interesting when you learn that it will be his first in roughly two decades. Clearly nobody can accuse Nordgren of rushing the difficult sophomore record.

Part One contains three tracks. "Slow" opens with heavy bass and soulful, playful vocals; "Twelve" increases the momentum with low-end pressure and jazz-inflected keyboard riffs; and "Stay Hypnotic" heads somewhere more dreamlike through shimmering synth patterns, fragmented voices and glitched percussion. The release follows several recent outings and a remix for Dino Lenny on Matt Edwards' Rekids imprint, suggesting Tiger Stripes' renewed album activity is gathering deliberately rather than appearing from nowhere.

Although club-focused electronic music sometimes sits outside narrow definitions of indie, independent electronic releases absolutely belong in a genuinely broad independent-music feed — particularly when they arrive through labels such as Rekids rather than the major-pop machinery. Twenty years between albums is perhaps excessive quality-control time, but the first chapter suggests Nordgren remembers perfectly well where he left the controls.