Zeds Dead are back to their sampling tricks on their new album, Return to the Return (of the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness).
The powerhouse bass duo’s third studio album and follow-up to their acclaimed 2025 LP, Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness, arrives today on their own Deadbeats label, accompanied by a new full-length album visualizer that premiered live on YouTube last night.
Announced with less than 24 hours’ notice, the surprise drop lands as the next chapter in the cinematic story told by its predecessor, exploring memory and humanity’s sonic history through the sampling of disparate sounds, music, and popular media across multiple eras that have influenced Zeds Dead members Dylan Mamid (DC) and Zachary Rapp-Rovan (Hooks).
From live and studio snippets of recent Zeds Dead recordings to vintage hypnosis tapes composed by 19th-century composer Frédéric Chopin, the Toronto-hailing duo sampled material spanning centuries of recorded history. Even Homer Simpson makes an appearance. While it continues the sampling ethos of last year’s album, Return to the Return distills its source material into an even deeper, more personal, and more genre-spanning audiovisual experience.
Created in studios, cities, and temporary workspaces across North America and Europe on the group’s consistently intense touring calendar, the 14-track collage features original vocal performances from Dutch duo CUT_ on the electro-heavy “In Your Head,” and UK singer-songwriter Jem Cooke on the drum & bass-infused “Out of Time.” After a chance encounter in airport security, the duo reunited with friend and legendary Canadian turntablist Skratch Bastid, whose scratches appear on “Pourin Rain” and “Fallin Down.”
Elsewhere, “Change of the Moon,” chops cult-favorite German folk singer Sibylle Baier’s “Tonight” with broken UK garage beats, while “Heartbeat Interlude” marries RSIH’s “Heartbeat” with a newsreel recording about NASA’s Voyager mission, which famously launched music and sounds from Earth into deep space in 1977, and served as inspiration for Zeds Dead’s own “transmission” with the “Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness” universe across both albums and their accompanying live show, alongside artists like DJ Shadow, RJD2, Peanut Butter Wolf, and Madlib, according to a press release.
Just days before the pair launches their catalog-spanning “Journey of a Lifetime” tour with a return to Red Rocks for their 12th curated Deadrocks takeover, Return to the Return’s release comes amid another landmark year for Zeds Dead, as they celebrate 15 years of the project and 10 years of their influential independent label with their largest-ever headline run before “taking some time off in 2027.”
Watch the full visualizer for Zeds Dead’s new album, Return to the Return (of the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness), below.
Featured image courtesy: Zeds Dead.