THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH).

KEITH’s guitar parts for “Heavy Voodoo” and its dubplate companion “Who Dares Dub’ were recorded in New York City sessions for the 2008 LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY album, Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered. Shortly after Keith’s contribution were laid down, Scratch set to work at his home in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, jamming live on mic alongside Keith’s new guitar parts. Lee’s Swiss-mountain lair was not strictly for recording, but the combination art studio, shrine and junk yard with its view of a valley and up into the snow-capped Alpine peaks, added its own influence to the recordings. Captured on portable recording gear with Lee using his special sacred jewel-encrusted Shure microphone, the Voodoo was indeed Heavy that day.

A year later, Keith was back in the same New York studio to record parts for “Books Of Moses,” for what would become Scratch’s Grammy-nominated 2010 album, Revelation. This time Keith stripped out the original track and replaced everything except the drums and organ with multiple instrumental takes of his own: bass guitar, Wurlitzer organ, acoustic piano, big drum boom and his inimitable RnB guitar riffs. Once again, vocals wizardry was added in Switzerland, in another Transcontinental collaboration.

Scratch and Keith finally got together in person in 2013 when Keith invited Scratch to New York to mix Keith’s cover of the Gregory Isaacs gem”Love Overdue.” It would be the final pairing of these two musical minds, but their small body of work was infused with magic, history, mystery, and prophecy all at once. SCRATCH’D, the Record Story Day Exclusive vinyl EP, includes the original vocal versions, “Books Of Moses” and “Heavy Voodoo,” plus new instrumental cuts, “Moses Books” (Dub Mix) and ‘Who Dares” (Dub Mix), which feature Keith’s guitar on the frontline.

TRACK LISTING

1. Book Of Moses
2. Heavy Voodoo
3. Moses Books (Dub Mix)
4. Who Dares (Dub Mix)

Two years after Leonardo Martelli made his debut with the retro-futurist four tracker 'Menti Signole', he returns to Antinote with Volume 2, an update of that initial electronic vision. Sparse, clear-cut and slightly nerve-racking, "Micaella" opens the record with the precision of a neurosurgeon. The song can be seen in many ways as a good introduction to the music of the Italian musician – past and probably future. Ethereal string machines balance the nagging acid leitmotiv, dancing cheek to cheek above a restless drum pattern. "Alice" is another triumph of opposition, pairing joyous melodies and exuberant electo rhythms over a melancholic vocal sample and bittersweet pads. On "Laura" - just like with "Alice" - Martelli keeps on playing with the potential of abstraction of rap samples, lending the glassy melodies and snapping beat a freestyle feel. "Sofia" gives a particularly striking example of this weird game he likes to play with language as Biggie Smalls’ words get progressively eviscerated from their meaning. Backed by bare percussive samples (a numerical metronome, copyright-free digital ersatz of percussions, strange string pluck) "Sofia" depicts despair in a post-industrial world, where everything has lost any sense of materiality. Disarmingly simple, Menti Singole Vol.2 offers electronic mourning music at its most elegant.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Antinote continue to push the boundaries of the current electronic scene with another genre blurring release from Leonardo Martelli. Avant garde instrumentation, abstract composition and a decidedly melancholic tone twist the electro, techno and freestyle in strange new directions.

TRACK LISTING

1. Micaela
2. Alice
3. Laura
4. Sofia 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

First time this ground-breaking release has been available on 12" for four decades. 180g

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2019 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

https://soundcloud.com/wiaiwya/lee-scratch-perry-big-ben-rock-woodie-taylor-remix/s-oum1j Limited to 700 copies on green vinyl 7” with download code. Lee Scratch Perry releases new single. London indie label wiaiwya is equaly baffled and thrilled to be putting out the new single from LEE SCRATCH PERRY. From the opening chimes of the famous bell (silent now until 2021) to the closing gongs and bongos, this is a rockabilly big beat glam ragga rock headrush, with a nod to Sergio Leone... exactly what you would expect when Woodie Taylor remixes Lee Scratch Perry, fronting Morrissey’s sometime band... "Give me a rock beat, like Meatloaf..." Not a request that you get every day but then it's not every day you're taking orders from the legend that is Lee Scratch Perry! I lived near the Mad Professor's studio in South London and had sold him a few bits of recording equipment. He knew that I had played drums with Morrissey, that I was a reggae fan and asked if I'd be interested in playing on a session. I'd started doing a bit of production and when the track didn't get round to getting finished they agreed I could remix it. This is the fruit of my labours, with contributions from Boz Boorer (Morrissey/ Polecats), Jonny Bridgwood (Morrissey/Marianne Faithful) and Anthony Miller (Data/Friday Club). There's simply not enough Big Ben rocking these days and remember: "If you don't rock you're gonna get a big shock!" Woodie Taylor, 2019. Lee Scratch Perry founded Upsetter Records in 1968.He pioneered Dub, produced Bob Marley, allegedly burnt down a studio, and worked with the Mad Professor, the Clash, Adrian Sherwood and the Beastie Boys. Woodie Taylor has been rockin' on record since the early 80's. He first appeared on 45 as a member of the Daleks, then drummed for psychobilly legends the Meteors. In the '90's he was in Drive (with, the soon-to-be All Saint, Melanie Blatt). He played on Morrissey's Vauxhall & I LP and has provided the rhythmic backbone of cult Indie heroes Comet Gain for two decades. He has produced albums by Love Is All, Comet Gain, Proper Ornaments and Shrag. Boz Boorer has been Morrissey's co-writer, guitarist and musical director for the best part of three decades. He is also a founding member of rockabilly legends, The Polecats. Jonny Bridgwood played bass on three Morrissey albums and double bass on five Kathryn Williams albums. He has worked with Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant and toured with Marianne Faithful. Anthony Miller - Played trumpet with the Friday Club and appears on their very collectable 2 Tone single, Window Shopping. Was a member of the 90s Sirkus Records artists Data, along with Woodie Taylor and recording industry supremo Nick Huggett. The record was mastered by Graeme Durham, who has also worked on discs by Grace Jones, Bob Marley, U2, Fourtet, King Tubby and Frankie Goes to Hollywood… Track listing A Big Ben Rock (Woodie Taylor Remix)’ B1 Steady B2 J'ai Tout Lu

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2019 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Heavyweight Double LP reissue of Lou Reed’s 18th and final (non-collaborative) solo rock album “Ecstasy”, released in 2000.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Released on limited vinyl in 2012 but sold out for years, Svart Records brings out an offiicial reissue wrapped in a gatefold jacket and pressed on red vinyl, limited to 1500 copies in Europe only.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Released on limited vinyl in 2009 but sold out for years, Svart Records brings out an offiicial reissue wrapped in a gatefold jacket and pressed on clear vinyl, limited to 1500 copies in Europe only.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Celebrate 15 years of Lily Allen's chart-topping album, "It's Not Me, It's You," with a mesmerizing Zoetrope pressing. Relive the magic of hit singles like "The Fear," "Not Fair," and "22" with a captivating twist. As the Zoetrope comes to life, witness the visual narrative unfold in sync with the infectious beats and razor-sharp lyrics that made these tracks timeless classics.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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For Record Store Day 2024, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of La Rouxís second album ëTrouble in Paradiseí will be a limited-edition remaster of the album on splatter colour 140g vinyl. The album was remastered at Abbey Road studios and features the singles ìUptight Downtownî and ìKiss and Not Tellî. ëTrouble in Paradiseí debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart and at number 20 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, where it also became La Rouxís first album to top the Dance / Electronic Albums chart.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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A collectors Dream vinyl, long out of stock, splatter/colour for the first time

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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35th anniversary x4 trk EP on Yellow Vinyl.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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Newly restored and remastered, the updated artwork contains new liner notes from Bill Dahl With this reissue, Right Now! can belatedly assume its proper place in the seminal recorded legacy of Little Richard. ñBill Dahl (from his liner notes) After his incredible run on Specialty Records in the late 1950s, Little Richard released records sporadically throughout the 1960s for a number of established, and not so established, labels. His signing to Warner Bros. in 1970 proved a comeback with three stellar releases for the label: The Rill Thing (1970), The King Of Rock And Roll (1971), and The Second Coming (1972). Those three releases, along with 1986ís Lifetime Friend were expanded and reissued by Omnivore Recordings in 2021. in 1973, he returned with a new single,î In The Name,î on Kent Records. Then, an album appeared on a Kent subsidiary, United Records: Right Now! Right Now!, its genesis, and recording are relatively mysterious. Per Richardís autobiography, the set was cut in one night with Robert ìBumpsî Blackwell in order to secure funds for an upcoming tour. Other than ìIn The Nameî carrying a recording date of January, 1973, thatís all of the information we have. No songwriters are listed on the artwork, and while ìDock Of The Bayî and ìChains Of Loveî looked (and are) familiar, the track ìChain Chain Chainî was in fact the Aretha Franklin classic ìChain Of Fools.î While Richard calls out musiciansí names in the recordings, who they actually are is speculation. What is known is that the album is a scorcher. Richardís barrelhouse keyboards set the tracks jumpingórunning in length from under three to over eight minutes. There are soul ballads (ìDonít You Know Iî), stompers (ìGeraldine Jonesî), and slow blues. Had Richard and Blackwell known that the release would come out as unadorned and poorly distributed as it did, they might have had reservations. But, out it came on a budget label, and was relegated to the cutout bins and never reissued until now. Restored and Remastered, Right Now! returns after 50 yearsófor the first time on CD and Digi

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THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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Double Green LP Vinyl, x16 trk remix album.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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12 of the late, great Lee 'Scratch' Perry's hugely influential early dub tracks, most officially unavailable on vinyl for decades

In its original form 'Bij Annie Op Bezoek' was a pretty avant affair involving dubby desk experiments spilling into snippets of folk and spoken word. Here South Of North enlist a trio of full time experimentalists to turn everyone's brains upside down. First up, Robert Bergman, whose released on LIES and BAKK were previous Piccadilly faves recasts TV Orangje as a twisted industrial chugger - slow, low and dripping with high grade narcotics. Next up, Planet Rescue alum Peter Graf York goes IN on his "Voor etc" remix, turning out a leftfield techno wonk machine, which he reprises on the B2 in utterly spangled techno fashion. The B1 belongs to Monty DJ who hooks us up with a rattling, polyrhythmic excursion into woodland house - it's up there with the best early Sueds!

TRACK LISTING

A1. TV Oranje (Robert Bergman Mix)
A2. Voor Een Flat In De Merenwijk (Peter Graf York Mix)
B1. Trappenhuis (Monty DJ Mix)
B2. Voor Een Flat In De Merenwijk (Peter Graf York Pakje Sap Mix)

The band’s much-loved debut has been meticulously remastered at Abbey Road studios and will be released on double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with gold foil print. Additionally, the album comes with five previously unreleased tracks recorded during the original sessions, details of which can be found in the track-list below.

Fusing the most fragile and graceful end of the folk music spectrum to the most luminous properties of cinemascope rock, Gracious Tide, Take Me Home used a smorgasbord of instruments (guitars, violin, mandolin, piano, synths, glockenspiels, even a kalimba) to paint a variety of beautiful vistas, from the ambient ‘Ships In The Rain’ to the galloping ‘A Kingdom’, from the six-minute layers of ‘The Places We Call Home’ to the skeletal 73-second finale ‘Not Going Back To The Harbour’. There’s always been a compelling drama to Lanterns On The Lake; the way the opening track ‘Lungs Quicken’ shifts from dreamy restraint to a full-blown crescendo indicated the true power at their fingertips.

Lanterns On The Lake formed in 2008 combining a group of friends who had all played in various bands on the local music scene. Hazel Wilde (vocals, guitar), Paul Gregory (guitars, electronics) and Ol Ketteringham (drums, piano) still comprise the core of the band whilst previous members Adam Sykes (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Sykes (bass) departed prior to the second album.

Hazel commented at the time that. “A lot of lyrics were inspired by me and Paul moving back to the coast [between Tynemouth and North Shields], where I grew up, after we’d been living near the city centre. They’re also memories of growing up here, the feeling of homesickness, and stories of people around us and of the sea. The title Gracious Tide, Take Me Home seemed to sum up all the themes.”

There might be a vein of sadness through this music - ‘Ships In The Rain’ was inspired by a local fisherman who went missing at sea, and ‘A Kingdom’ was inspired by the book letters sent home by WW2 soldiers – but there is just as much hope in ‘Keep on Trying’ and ‘You’re Almost There’, where fear and insecurities are banished by self-belief; “the feeling that you’re going places,” as Hazel says. Mirroring the sentiment of the album title, ‘I Love You, Sleepyhead’ and ‘Places We Call Home’ draw on the comfort and security of home, friendship and memory.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lungs Quicken
2. If I've Been Unkind
3. Keep On Trying
4. Ships In The Rain
5. A Kingdom
6. The Places We Call Home
7. Blanket Of Leaves
8. Tricks
9. You're Almost There
10. I Love You, Sleepyhead
11. Not Going Back To The Harbour
12. The Watchhouse And The Daughter
13. Sapsorrow
14. You Need Better
15. My Shield
16. Not Going Back To The Harbour (High Tide Version)

Music From Memory are excited to introduce another new group for 2021, this time presenting the self-titled debut album from Loveshadow.

Currently based in San Francisco, the duo of Anya and Izaak initially met whilst working in an Oakland cafe in 2016. The two Californians quickly bonded over a track by the ’80s disco band Aurra which was playing over the radio and almost immediately their separate journeys in music became interwoven. They soon began to write music and creating their own work would become a way for the pair to get closer to the sound they were searching for, as well as enabling them to discover the healing power of making and listening to music.

‘Loveshadow’ was recorded predominantly in the Bay Area between 2017-2020 as well as whilst traveling to NYC, Chicago and around Portland. Having released previously as the outfit ‘S Transporter’ alongside Detroit friend Ryan Spencer, Loveshadow is formed of Anya as singer and song writer alongside Izaak on synthesizers, bass and percussion. This eight track album is the duo’s first release; exploring emotive Pop and DIY Funk leanings it stands as a joyful homage to the music they bond over, as well as an ode to their own love and friendship.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 7
A2. No Control
A3. Passthru
A4. Severance
B1. More
B2. Pleasure Idler
B3. Tableaux Vivant
B4. Wildflowers

Four years of slow-burning success on from the rolling primal rhythms and joyous arpeggios of his 2010 debut album 'Holkham Drones', Luke Abbott makes a bold return to the Border Community with his sublime second album offering ‘Wysing Forest’.

Named after the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire who hosted Luke as their first ever musician-in-residence over a six week period during the winter of 2012, the album comprises a series of improvised live recordings, edited and compiled after a period of after-the-act reflection into one rapturous movement. The finished article’s 52-minute duration may have been chopped into nine track-sized chunks for its official album release, but this is most definitely an album which is greater than the sum of its parts, designed to be listened to in one immersive go.

“‘Wysing Forest’ has a very particular arc to it an the tracks only make sense in the context of that arc,” Luke explains. “Structuring the album to work as a whole was quite a challenge, almost more of a challenge than making the music, but I think I’ve ended up with something that has a kind of internal logic.” And though only a pair of tracks - ‘Free Migration’ and ‘Highrise’, together forming the subtle peak that marks the mid-point of the album - approach ‘Holkham Drones” idiosyncratic lumpen danceability, it is thanks to Luke’s perfectly judged elegant transitional dynamics that neither piece - although as dancefloor-directed as anything he has ever done before - feels out of place amongst the album’s more mellow moments.

'Translate' is the first solo artist album in six years from Norfolk synthesizer specialist Luke Abbott: a strikingly direct and assured return to the solo music-making game following a productive diversion into live improvisation with his experimental jazz trio Szun Waves.

At times dark and ominous, others bright and welcoming, these eleven electronic vignettes form a dramatic and undeniably cinematic body of work which functions as a fitting widescreen soundtrack to our new now.

The lumbering rhythms, strident synths and distinctive touchstones of 'Translate' represent a musical reconciliation with the directness of the wave-making rolling synth-kraut of Abbott’s forthright debut 'Holkham Drones'.

Newly-reinvigorated and with a new sense of musical purpose, this is Luke Abbott’s sound fully realised and never so sure of itself.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Holkham Drones' was one of my favourite albums for many a year, and still gets a good playing nowadays but nothing has come close to the mind-melting electronic bliss-blanket of 'Translate'. Perfectly split between hypnotic electronic counterpoints and synthy, IDM levity.

TRACK LISTING

1) Kagen Sound
2) Our Scene
3) Flux
4) Ames Window
5) Roses
6) Earthship
7) Living Dust
8) River Flow
9) Feed Me Shapes
10) Luna
11) August Prism

Lydia Ainsworth’s 3rd album, Phantom Forest, introduces a lush, complex dream world that the singer, composer, and producer created and inhabited largely on her own. She produced all the songs, and wrote and performed everything on the self-released collection outside of a re-imagined cover of Pink Floyd’s “Green is the Color” and 2 other tracks (“The Time,” “Give It Back To You”), which started as instrumentals written by Survive’s Kyle Dixon (who composed the Stranger Things soundtrack with his bandmate Michael Stein), to which Ainsworth wrote melodies and added lyrics. Ainsworth, who’s relocated to Los Angeles from Toronto since 2017’s Darling of the Afterglow, explains that the collection revealed itself to her “as a play taking place in Mother Nature’s vanishing home,” aka Phantom Forest, and that she’s singing from 3 perspectives: herself, Mother Nature, and Greek Chorus.

For instance, of the album’s opener, “Diamonds Cutting Diamonds,” she explains: “The Greek Chorus sets the scene, narrating and offering direction on how to enter Phantom Forest. It’s my hope that the listener will imagine the narration to be directed to them as well, as they begin the journey of the album.” You’ll get a sense of this from the collection’s edenic cover art and the playful, pastoral video for the album’s first single, “Can You Find Her Place.” Its inspiration came from Ainsworth’s love for Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s 15-century masterpiece “Primavera,” an allegorical representation of the burgeoning fertility of the earth in spring. She notes: “The video features the Greek gods of the painting in a choreographed Baroque style dance.”

Keeping with the personal feel of the collection, her sister Abby Ainsworth directed the clip. In line with the classical and historical depths of Phantom Forest, Ainsworth, who holds a Masters Degree in film scoring composition from NYU and studied composition as an undergrad at McGill, notes that although the album might be considered pop, she approached it as an orchestrator. “Even if I’m dealing purely with synths,” she says, “The songs are like a score, each one an evolving journey. I love to use strings so I’ve included my string arrangements on ‘Tell Me I Exist’ and ‘Can You Find Her Place.’ I recorded live musicians on drums, bass, and guitar on ‘Edge of the Throne,’ ‘The Time,’ and ‘Floating Dream,’ and wove those live elements into my programmed elements.” Phantom Forest is a beautiful, vast collection that mixes the historical and the hands on, with hooks about the apocalypse and people obsessively using face-recognition software to see what paintings their face match with, in search of some kind of connection. It’s a journey that holds up to close listening (and lyric reading) and to dance floors, but that can also exist on a purely emotional plane. In all cases, it asks that you listen, and take some kind of action. 

TRACK LISTING

1.Diamonds Cutting Diamonds
2 Tell Me I Exist
3 Can You Find Her Place
4 Edge Of The Throne
5 Kiss The Future
6 The Time
7 Give It Back To You
8 Floating Dream
9 Green Is The Color

Five years after the release of 1989’s pop-oriented album Strange Angels, Laurie Anderson followed up with the avant-garde concept album Bright Red, a Brian Eno production exploring much darker territory. Eno also co-wrote four tracks; “The Puppet Motel”, “Muddy River”, “Poison” and “Tightrope”. For the recordings, Anderson was supported by Adrian Belew, who provided guitars on several tracks. Belew is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of King Crimson. During the time of the recording of Bright Red, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed just started dating. They collaborated on a number of recordings together, including the duet “In Our Sleep”, that is featured on Bright Red.

Rare exotica album from 1958 on Columbia's 'Adventures In Sound' label by this monster abstract vocalist Leda Annest! Backed by orchestral and kitsch tiki music composed by Phil Moore, Annest uses her voice as an instrument in a strange and somewhat scary way. If you like Diamanda Galas or Yma Sumak, check this out!

Singer-songwriter Lail Arad releases her second album, ‘The Onion’, through The Vinyl Factory.

‘The Onion’ is the follow-up to London-born Lail’s 2011 debut ‘Someone New’ and was co-produced between a snowy winter in Geneva and a summer heat wave in NYC. The album came together patiently, with Lail writing, erasing, demoing and dallying; the result is a striking marriage of assured maturity and childlike spirit.

An acute sense of perspective permeates the album, from its subtle themes to its classic production and from each lyrical twist to its unassuming delivery.

Lead track ‘Lay Down’ quickly escalates through a resolute guitar hook and captivating signature vocal into a vast upbeat chorus that is incongruous with its troubled lyrical meaning. Lail says: “This track is as about as angsty as I get. Oh heartache! Oh vulnerability! Turn it up loud and drown out the warning bells!”

“A cool-as-hell depiction of youthful insecurity matched to infinite possibility” - Clash

L'AMICA (1969) is an intriguing Alberto Lattuada film starring Lisa Gastoni  Gabriele Ferzetti, Elsa Martinelli, Ray Lovelock, Jean Sorel and Frank Wolff.  
This stunning soundtrack highlights the excellent piano technique and the jazz stylings of Bacalov mixed with exotic and erotic atmospheres characterized by extraordinary orchestration, harp, congas and the typical persuasive vocalism of those years (all by the great Nora Orlandi). It’s followed by "Rio, Zona Sul", refined samba-jazz on a massive percussive tapestry. "'Round Nassau” offers an elegant and dreamy atmosphere in Les Baxter’s style adding flute and female wordless vocals. "Swingin' easy in Tanganyika" is another extraordinary jazzy piece, primarily piano and drums with flourishes of resplendent fute. The side is closed by a previously unpublished version of the theme that was not included on the original Fonit Cetra LP.
The B-side rearranges the themes in a more melancholy and symphonic style without renouncing jazz as in the gem “Episodio in 3/4". The ballad "The Bitter Truth" is sung by Fiorenza Mormile in English.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
L'Amica (Titoli) - Rio, Zona Sul - 'Round Nassau - Swingin' Easy In Tanganika - Bonus Track: L’Amica (Ripresa)

Side B: 
Si Finisce Così - Autunno A Milano, Ore 6 - Elsinore - The Bitter Truth (Vocal) - Episodio In 3/4 - Taxi Cab 67 - Bonus Track: The Bitter Truth (Strumentale)

"White Light," an instant-classic, dancefloor filler. The rough and tough drum break intro catches you from the first beat before the track gives way to an infectious and uplifting reggae-dis- co number. Liam's instantly recognizable voice showers his muse with praise over deep round bass lines and a four on the floor beat. The combination of Leon Michels' crushing production and Bailey's lyrics like "You love yourself, you're so exciting, like no one else"... is sure to make this a staple in dj sets around the globe. The B side "Cold & Clear" is a proper lighters in the air, slap the wall, top ranking tune. The track struts in the door with a natural and undeniable confidence. Liam weaves a heavy metacognitive story over the one drop drums, perfect basslines, and organ stabs that will have people stepping in rhythm. The lo-fi production weaves elements from the finest early rocksteady era with touches from the late 70s / early 80s digital era and takes the entire vibe into the present with unorthodox arrangements and vocal treatments. Bailey has a tune here that will hold up next to the classics in the dancehalls from the yards of Jamaica to the discotheques in his homeland of England. 

TRACK LISTING

A. White Light
B. Cold & Clear

Big Crown Records is proud to present Zero Grace, Liam Bailey’s sophomore album on the label. Following the success of 2020’s Ekundayo album, the tried and true chemistry of Bailey and producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) is on full display again as they take the sound they established and push it further. On Zero Grace they lean more into the bleeding heart singer-songwriter side of Liam. The result, much like Bailey himself, is impulsively honest without reserve.

Born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and 2nd generation Jamaican English father, Liam will admit his early childhood was fairly chaotic and fi­lled with "all the cliche racism that happens when people started mixing up in the '80s in England." Liam got his early influences from his mom’s record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today. Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London performing at every open mic and acoustic night he could, hustling with hopes of landing a record deal. It was through this time that Liam fi­rst teamed up with Michels, musician/producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records.

Liam flew out to New York and those fi­rst sessions together produced the now classic tunes “When Will They Learn” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” which still gets spins at Reggae spots around the globe and were co-signed by heavy hitters like David Rodigan & Don Letts.That first trip to NYC brought a lot of industry attention to Liam, including being noticed by a just-famous Amy Winehouse who heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo-­ recordings, and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through—all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul.

Eventually Liam signed to Polydor and wound up bumping against the typical major label industry obstacles. They already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push. With the typical large advance enticement, Liam did his best to trust that path. "Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly fi­nd out that you can't."

Zero Grace is full of freedom and love, in fact, working with Leon Michels and Big Crown Records has encouraged Liam to be himself. On album opener “Holding On '' Bailey speaks to his observations & fears when looking out at the world in front of him and also to the dedication it has taken to get on the other side of his personal trials & tribulations. “Dance With Me" is an instantly infectious two-stepper that nods to those incredible soul records that were coming out of Jamaica during the early Reggae days.

Bailey steps into the dance with hopes of finding a new love and pulls us all out on the dance floor with him. “Disorder Starts At Home” is another close to the chest tune that addresses the dif­culties he struggles with from his early chaotic childhood and his progress in getting past them. "Mercy Tree" is a powerhouse of Reggae Rebel Music. Bailey addresses the racial tensions that plague humanity and encourages everyone to step up and do their part to help foster equality. What starts out as a declaration of injustice turns into a call for action and an inspiration for hope.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 Holding On
2 Dumb
3 Sekkle Down
4 Boy
5 Dance With Me
6 Disorder Starts At Home
SIDE B
7 Mercy Tree
8 Sour Wine
9 Canary In The Coal Mine
10 Winter Is Within Thee
11 I Got No Answers
12 Light Up The Darkness

With a musical timeline dating back to her early childhood, Laura Baird is an exceptionally talented multiinstrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known for her projects with her sister, Meg, as The Baird Sisters, and guitarist Glenn Jones. Baird’s own sound stems from the Appalachian folk tradition, and she connects to it via family lineage—her great-great uncle I.G. Greer’s folk recordings for the Library of Congress are a large influence. Also woven in are classical composers like Bach and Satie, and modern day musicians such as Opal and Yo La Tengo.

With this debut solo album, I Wish I Were A Sparrow, Baird plays odes to the traditions from which she learned, combining Appalachian balladry and the roughness of old field recordings, but there is also a dose of dreaminess and solitude that captures sleepy central New Jersey. This is where she departs from tradition, leaving the communal origins of folk music to capture the singular self. The lyrics also present an amalgam of old and new, with half of the songs, including “Dreadful Wind and Rain” and “Pretty Polly,” being passed down from the folk tradition, and the other half, including “Wind Wind “and “Love Song From The Earth To The Moon,” coming from Baird’s own hand. While the most salient part of her previous Baird Sisters project was the melding of familial voices and various instruments, Baird’s solo effort is centered around the combination of her virtuosic banjo playing and prominent but airy vocals. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It seems now that winter is drawing in, the record labels think we all like to put a blanket on, have the fire blazing and listen to some lovely folk music. Now that I mention it, it sounds lovely, and even moreso if Laura Baird can be the music in question. Not too frantic, but driven and melodic plucking banjoes flicker over pulled strings and Baird's haunting vocals.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wind, Wind
2. Dreadful Wind And Rain
3. Cuckoo
4. Love Song From The Earth To The Moon
5. Pretty Saro
6. Bats
7. Did You Come Here Alone?
8. Pretty Polly
9. Hay In The Wagon
10. Home Is Were You Are
11. Poor Orphan Child
12. Twin Sisters

“Driving up the coast highway from LA, once you hit Santa Barbara you are struck with a noticeable change in landscape. It is the gateway to the Central Coast, where the contours of the land begin to take on more dramatic inclines and feelings burn like wildfires. This was the childhood home of Lauren Barth, ranch-living and horseriding amongst the golden and dusty open ranges that still expand through parts of California. It is at these gates of change that Lauren Barth explores on Stormwaiting, her second solo effort and first on the Spiritual Pajamas label.

“Behind the musical landscape of Stormwaiting, Lauren drew from a backstory she created as inspiration. A young woman and spiritual leader of a commune, blind yet finds her way by a heightened sense of awareness, is caught between the physical world of ‘Rialto’ and the spiritual—‘Morian.’ ‘Stormwaiting’ is slang for living in Rialto and the storm is the tempest within Morian. The cult’s most important message is one of Awareness. Like her protagonist, Lauren steps through these contemplations of change coming, treading one step at a time between the physical and spiritual realms, in a bittersweet anticipation of something upon us. Each song is like a deep breath in, an exhale, a pondering of the past and a wonder about the future with an acute awareness of each passing moment.

“Barth is a true seasoned folk music player, evoking the California folk movement of the late 1960s like David Crosby (who also hailed from the Santa Barbara area), while also calling upon British influences such as Bert Jansch, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Pentangle, and the later American progressive folk music of Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, and early Bonnie Raitt. In the time since her last solo record in 2017, she picked up the bass with Farmer Dave and the Wizards Of The West, and with her own music gained experience with the process of composing, recording, arranging, and ultimately the confidence to allow her creative instincts to flourish. She found the perfect partner with producer Lewis Pesacof, recording in his Echo Park home studio and has worked with artists such as Pearl Charles, Best Coast, Fidlar, and also works in the world of classical and world music. Tellingly, Stormwaiting has an expansive spirit, a document of a woman and creative spirit finding and embracing her voice beyond folk music and into her own spiritual universe.” —Scary Flowers

TRACK LISTING

1. Casita
2. Durango
3. Stormwaiting
4. Family Chant II
5. Paisley
6. Leave Behind
7. Highway Sleeping
8. Lord Of The Lake
9. Family Chant I

N u m e r o G r o u p Leon Bridges/Pastor TL Barrett Like A Ship Numero’s second bundle of cover 45s is all things soulful. The Rotterdam-based Another Taste electrifies Maxx Traxx’s 1984 Chicago boogie grail “Don’t Touch It,” which makes its debut on the 7” format here. Colemine Records’ Say She She delivers a glamorous rendition of Jim Spencer’s yacht-disco hit “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love.” Columbia Recording artist Leon Bridges effortlessly transforms Pastor T.L. Barrett’s “Like A Ship,” updating the 50 year old gospel soul classic for the 21st century. All three are housed in a newly imagined Numero custom sleeve, reflecting the many shades of our ongoing Eccentric Soul 45 imprint

TRACK LISTING

A. Leon Bridges W/ Keite Young - Like A Ship

B. Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship

The third album from Grammy award winner Leon Bridges and it's a suitably sunny, soulful and sumptious affiar. With beautifully flowing, organic song writing, complimented by lush and live instrumental tracks; it's got green gardens, sizzling BBQs and long hot sexy nights eminating off practically every single track! The production is sublime - balancing the traditional instrumentation with just a flurry of electronic umph; adding a brand new sheen and energy to what could easily, otherwise, be mistaken for a classic late 70s soul album. 

Opening with a juicy collaboration with Robert Glasper, the album drips effortlessly through its opening quarter, a delicate mix of jazz-informed drumming, picked guitar lines and a liquid gold, syrupy deliver from Bridges. "Steam" arrives, three tracks in with a resplendent chorus and subtle, anthemic qualities.

Opening side B with the title track, garnished with fluffy horns and a slo-mo MPC beat it's an instrumental side akin to some of Madlib's more laid back beats. Thankfully the LP shows little willing to get carried away; sitting beauitfully nestled on a nearly-horizontal plane; sun lounge angle let's say. With soulful droplets woozing languidly off the record, there's little to worry about other than the temperature of your margarita in the sunshine... It's rather something special indeed; intimate, unhurried, as fragile as a flower and simply perfect for timeless and serene afternoon in the garden. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully bridging the gap between traditional soul and more modern beat-heavy electronic music, 'Gold-Diggers Sound' brilliantly illustrates Bridges' unparalleled ability as a songwriter and mastery of his wonderfully understated and horizontally cool output. An exciting and fitting follow-up to his excellend collaborative LP with Khruangbin and 2018's wonderful 'Good Thing'.

TRACK LISTING

1.Born Again (feat. Robert Glasper)
2.Motorbike
3.Steam
4.Why Don’t You Touch Me
5.Magnolias
6.Gold-Diggers (Junior’s Fanfare)
7.Details
8.Sho Nuff
9.Sweeter (feat. Terrace Martin)
10.Don’t Worry (feat. Ink)
11.Blue Mesas

Leon Bridges brings us a brand-new album after the success of his debut ‘Coming Home’ in 2015 which hooked fans on his deep soulful vocals and unique style. Released by Columbia Records, this record was produced by Ricky Reed, Niles City Sound & Bridges himself, with the album having more of an R&B feel. Bridges has mastered his own personal style and its ace! Powerful funk-jazz vibes mixed with R&B charm, his smooth vocals are an absolute dream to listen to. This album is sure to be a standout release in 2018 so keep an eye on this one. Beautiful!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bet Ain't Worth The Hand
A2. Bad Bad News
A3. Shy
A4. Beyond
A5. Forgive You
B1. Lions
B2. If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be)
B3. You Don't Know
B4. Mrs
B5. Georgia To Texas

Celebrate the 5th anniversary of Leon Bridges Grammy-winning album Good Thing. The limited-edition title features a custard colour variant, the original track list and a bonus track “Naomi” originally released on the 2018 Japan Edition. Good Thing was nominated for Best R&B Album, and the track “Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand” won Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 2019 Grammy Awards. 

TRACK LISTING

01) Bet Ain't Worth The Hand
02) Bad Bad News
03) Shy
04) Beyond
05) Forgive You
06) Lions
07) If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be)
08) You Don't Know
09) Mrs.
10) Georgia To Texas
11) Naomi (bonus Track)

Classic Rock N' Roll mixed with elements of Chilli Peppers-esque subtle spoken word and neon funk. 'Confusion' fuses rapid trap drums and distorted guitar sweeps topped with repeated hip-hop vocal stylings musing on life and identity. 'Baby Grow' kicks off with a sliding surf-rock guitar and segues into a regionally recognisable British indie vocal (think Jamie-T or Jake Bugg) over Jangly guitar work, danceable and frenetic. 'Ragdoll Mama' is more on the blues-rock end of the spectrum, deep southern sweeps, and scorching fuzzed-out solos, While 'Kundalini Express' plays out like a swooning college indie-rock anthem, heartfelt but driven, with beautifully realised instrumentation before breaking into the imitable vocal breakdown. A varied and well accomplished outing throughout, always changing enough to keep things interesting and fresh. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Inside 1:25
2. Confused (feat. Rowetta)
3. Hitchin 5:18
4. Baby Grow 3:05
5. Without Love 3:27
6. Ragdoll Mamma 4:13
7. Magnetz (feat. Rowetta) 
8. Unconditional 4:24
9. Kundalini Express 4:07
10. Juice Girl 3:35
11. Move Luv 3:08
12. John & Yoko 2:28


Ό

It was 50 years ago that a talented local musician named Lamont Butler started to create an album that would combine love, happiness and joy. Lamont’s only official album release, ‘It’s Time For A Change’ has been very popular for record collectors around the world but it never saw the wider success it truly deserved.

Born 1949 in Louisville, Kentucky, Lamont Butler was drawn to music and dance from the very beginning. He was the son of well-known gospel, blues and R&B singer and pianist Clifford Butler Sr, receiving an early education in what was required to be a touring musician. It quickly became apparent that Lamont had a wonderful voice and was pushed to the front, despite no being fully confident yet of his singing ability. Lamont performed on the gospel circuit for a number of years, cutting his teeth with groups such as The Enterprise, The Dynamics and The New Beginnings, eventually going solo with Lamont Butler and The Spirit of Truth.

It was whilst he was singing and performing during this period that he started to write his own songs and think about putting together an album bringing together his influences from R&B, jazz, soul and of course gospel. The result is the very raw, almost low-fi sound of ‘It’s Time For A Change’, released nearly 10 years after Lamont started to pen the first tracks and gaining relative success. He toured the album around churches in Louisville, with tracks such as ‘Love One Another’,’ Time For A Change’ and ‘Ungodly War’ quickly becoming firm favourites.

Remastered with care by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering and complete with in-depth sleevenotes.

TRACK LISTING

Get Up And Praise The
Lord
Brighter World
Thank You Lord
Love One Another
Time For A Change
Come Into God’s World
Smile
Ungodly War

Lucien Caine is a singer, songwriter and composer based in Manchester. His songs are dark, lustful, haunting and cinematic and his music is already being compared to artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, John Barry and Elliott Smith. EP1 is the first of four EPs to be released over the next 12 months. It begins with "The Only Man That Matters" mixed by Andy Green who has produced albums for Keane and KT Tunstall. Then the intricate string arrangements and haunting vocals of "Advice From Strangers" a downtempo gem. "Black Widow", track three, is a pounding, noirish elegy of seduction and murder, and the EP closes with the "Those Days Are Gone". 'I wanted to create and develop a sound and a mood... I like it to sound dark and romantic. I want the songs to flirt with the listener, and then deliver!' Lucien Caine

Lucien Caine is a singer, songwriter and composer based in Manchester. NOW STOP, have no preconceptions do not picture Badly Drawn Boy do not imagine another Stephen Fretwell, get acoustic troubadour out of your head. Lucien Caine is none of the above! His sound is more John Barry than Nick Drake. His songs of love, obsession and excess are more Leonard Cohen than Bob Dylan. The attitude is all Scott Walker and Serge Gainsbourg transported from the sixties to now. In the summer of 2008 a plan was hatched to release four EP's; EP1, EP2, EP3, EP4 in 12 months to showcase Luciens songs. EP2 continues where the first left off. The first track (again mixed by Andy Green producer of Keane, KT Tunstall, to name but a few) is the lushly romantic "The Beat That My Heart Skipped", imagine driving along the winding coastal roads of the French Riviera in a vintage Italian sports car with the top down, this is the soundtrack that would be playing in your head. The second track is the very dark and lustful "Internal Affairs". "Let Us Be The Rumour" is a beautifully crafted and intense lament on a private relationship that becomes public. And finally "She Loves To Lose" a gorgeous seductive and intense duet sang with the Icelandic chanteuse Heidrun Bjornsdottir (formerly of GusGus and Gloss).

‘Under This Hunger Moon We Fell’ is the new album from the uniquely talented, multi-instrumental artificer Lomond Campbell, the third and final instalment of his experiments using tape loops at the heart of his music making process.

The album ranges from soft, delicate atmospheric musings such as ‘Bastard Wing’ and ‘Leave Only Love Behind’ to the dark electronics of ‘And They Are Afraid Of Her’ and ‘Phonon For No One’, which Campbell describes as “akin to a massive machine starting up, like a huge sinister power mobilising”. During its gloomier moments, ‘Under This Hunger Moon We Fell’ buries tonally ambiguous ambience underneath hazy, distorted textures created via the gradual degradation of the tape. It creates a dream-like backdrop with a moody undertone created by deep basslines and hulking percussive elements, blended with orchestral sounds that add an air of humanity.

“Visual beauty, tactility and mesmeric kinetics are just as important to his creations as the sounds their movements facilitate” Electronic Sound

“He’s a bit of a genius I think. Based up in the highlands, maker of machines, music and art” Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC 6Music)

TRACK LISTING

Bastard Wing
Phonon For No One
Sister Rena
The Mountain And The Pendulum
Under This Hunger Moon We Fell
Leave Only Love Behind
And They Are Afraid Of Her
For The Uncarved
Even Songbirds Suffer
Alters

The 111 Series comprises 15 tracks, each created by Louis Carnell alongside a diverse selection of artists from across the globe. Each track is released digitally, and titled in numerical order, with the aim of creating an environment for the listener to explore the series without hierarchy.

The tracks vary between lyric-led and instrumental compositions, travelling through experimental electronic and immersive soundscapes.

The list of collaborators includes prolific new-age artist Laraaji, Mute founder Daniel Miller, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, leading punk-rapper Wu-Lu, Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist KMRU, noise-inspired cellist and composer Okkyung Lee, post-genre multi-instrumentalist Coby Sey, Iranian-born electronica songwriter, producer and DJ Leila, mystical folk and ambient-inspired composer Naliah Hunter, artist and actor Keeley Forsyth, rising experimental sound and visual artist Damsel Elysium, LA-based ambient duo Green-House, experimental saxophonist and composer Ben Vince, Beirut-based multi-instrumentalist Yara Asmar, and Italian musician and sound designer Marta De Pascalis.

TRACK LISTING

1. Four - Louis Carnell & Yara Asmar
2. Seven - Louis Carnell & Okkyung Lee
3. Ten - Louis Carnell & Daniel Miller
4. Thirteen - Louis Carnell & Leila
5. Two - Louis Carnell & Lee Ranaldo
6. Five - Louis Carnell & Coby Sey
7. Eleven - Louis Carnell & Laraaji
8. Fourteen - Louis Carnell & Nailah Hunter
9. Three - Louis Carnell & Ben Vince
10. Six - Louis Carnell & KMRU
11. Nine - Louis Carnell & Green-House
12. Twelve - Louis Carnell & Marta De Pascalis
13. One - Louis Carnell & Keeley Forsyth
14. Eight - Louis Carnell & Wu-Lu
15. Fifteen - Louis Carnell & Damsel Elysium

In hugo, there’s a central question that Loyle Carner keeps coming back to: “I’m young, Black, successful and have a platform - but where do I go next?” The answer is explored in this epic scream of a third album. With urgent delivery and gloriously widescreen production, Carner confronts both the deeply personal (“You can’t hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree. So how can I hate my father without hating me?) and the highly political (“I told the black man he didn’t understand I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand”).

Cinematic in scale and scope, hugo is both a rallying war cry for a generation forged in fire and a study of the personal internal conflict that drives the rest of the album - as a mixed-race Black man, as an artist, as a father and as a son. With Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards and appearances in global brand campaigns (Nike, YSL, Timberland), Carner has undoubtedly had a meteoric rise to the top, culminating with his second album Not Waving, But Drowning charting at number 3 in the UK albums chart in 2019. However, hugo sees Carner taking a sharp detour from his previous work, putting it down to lockdown and the “hedonistic side of career being stripped away. There were no shows, no backstage, no festivals, no photoshoots”. By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before. The result is his most cathartic and ambitious record yet, a coruscating journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times, and one which looks set to neatly cement his position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. Working alongside renowned producer kwes. (Solange, Kelela, Nao), Carner leaves no stone unturned on this album, in both its sound and its stories.

In a 10-track album that moves from gorgeous neo-soul moments to thundering hip hop, with immediate, infectious bangers and sampled interludes from non musicians (mixed-race Guyanese poet John Agard and youth activist and politician Athian Akec) Carner shifts seamlessly from micro to macro, confronting everything from strained relationships with family to the societal tears caused by class stratification. It also lays bare bruises in his personal life that he has never revealed before – often in painful, deeply uncomfortable ways, focusing on Carner's experience of becoming a father in the context of growing up without contact with his biological father. With the song “Polyfilla”, against the backdrop of a warm melodic beat, Carner explores his desire to “break the chains in the cycle” of dysfunctional Black fatherhood, commenting on the narrative of fatherhood in the genre, and saying a key part of the process was realising that his father “grew up in a world where nobody showed him how to love or nurture”. The follow up track “A Lasting Place” is an exploration of the MC’s failure and inability to be perfect in this mission. The album closer is a powerful statement of love and forgiveness; with his signature lyrical dexterity, Carner declares his relentless commitment to his son and sees forgiving his father as a key part of this. The song closes with an emotional ending of Carner telling his dad “still I’m lucky yo that we talk”. There’s a striking duality of hugo’s bold, multilayered tracks and its often starkly intimate and tender lyricism, and that dichotomy is deliberate - it is a message for young Black men, but really, anyone, who is listening. Cognizant of the immense pain and fear and confusion that we are faced with everyday, Carner has thrown down the gauntlet, defying us not to rise above the fray, wake up each day and be ambitious. Ambitious in building strong personal relationships. Ambitious in our pursuit of our goals. Ambitious in never refusing to back down against injustice. Rejecting the title of leader, Loyle Carner sees himself “as holding up a mirror”, and that clearly translates into the album's universal messages.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: It’s been three long years since his last album, ‘Hugo’ takes a moment for self reflection for Loyle Carner. There’s some incredible tracks and I’ve only dipped in briefly (so it’s only going to get better) ‘Nobody Knows’ has a killer beat while paired with personal subject matter alongside a gospel choir sample which sets it alive. Another highlight is ‘Hate’ doing what Carner does best, within every bar is just fierce. Cue listening on repeat.

TRACK LISTING

Hate
Nobody Knows
Georgetown
Speed Of Plight
Homerton
Blood On My Nikes
Plastic
A Lasting Place
Polyfilla
HGU 

Not Waving, But Drowning’ follows Loyle’s BRIT (Best Male, Best Newcomer) and Mercury Prize nominated, top 20 debut ‘Yesterday’s Gone’. The bedrock of honest and raw sentimentality that you heard on ‘Yesterday’s Gone’ left an inextinguishable mark on music in general and UK Hip Hop in particular, standing out as an ageless, bulletproof debut.

‘Not Waving, But Drowning’, Loyle’s new album, gives yet more evidence - as if it were needed - of his razor-sharp flow and his unique storytelling ability. Yes, he can rap, but he allies that with the sensitivity of a poet, the observational skills of a novelist, and warmth of your best friend. The album opens with ‘Dear Jean’, a letter to his mother in which he’s telling her that he has found the love of his life, “a woman from the skies”, and he’s moving out.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Loyle Carner’s poetic and distinctive rap makes him stand out from the crowd by miles, consistently making innovative music. His ability to weave in touching narratives and heartfelt open letters are captured perfectly on ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’, a truly beautiful and awe inspiring listen from start to finish.

TRACK LISTING

Dear John
Angel Artist Ft. Tom Misch
Ice Water
Ottolenghi Ft. Jordan Rakei
You Don’t Know Ft. Rebel Kleff & Kiko Bun
Still
It’s Coming Home
Desoleil (Brilliant Corners) Ft. Sampha
Loose Ends Ft. Jorja Smith
Not Waving, But Drowning
Krispy
Sail Away Freestyle
Looking Back
Carluccio
Dear Ben

A gradual crescendo of spirit-lifting gospel introduces "Yesterday's Gone", perfectly fitting for the debut longplayer from the young master of 'confessional hip hop'. Indeed as Ben Coyle-Larner spits sombre bars over "The Isle Of Arran"s soulful grooves, the South Londoner touches on family, bereavement and religion, all with the same intricate flow and honest delivery. It's a sound that's at odds with the current slew of mumbling, stumbling, gangtas who dominate the charts and mixtapes, celebrating gold, diamonds and designer footwear as they breeze through meme-references and barely decipherable hooks. Rather, Loyle Carner takes his cues from Mos Def, Talib Kweli and London's own Roots Manuva, delivering conscious rhymes over gentle, jazzy grooves. Intimate, intricate and tough to imitate, Loyle Carner is entirely relatable as he treats us to everyday tales of family, food, romance and regret, laying his growing pains bare across a dozen tracks and a couple of well placed skits. If the recent ATCQ LP's put you in the mood for some proper hip hop, then this is your new jam.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Isle Of Arran
2. Mean It In The Morning
3. +44
4. Damselfly (Ft. Tom Misch)
5. Ain't Nothing Changed
6. Swear
7. Florence (Ft. Kwes)
8. The Seamstress (Tooting Masala)
9. Stars & Shards
10. No Worries (Ft. Rebel Kleff And Jehst)
11. Rebel 101
12. No CD (Ft. Rebel Kleff)
13. Mrs C
14. Sun Of Jean (Ft. Mum And Dad)

Long out of print 1979 roots reggae classic - limited 7" repress / in-demand roots dub cut, backed with Prince Jammy's black belt dub cut.

Recorded at Channel One and mixed at King Tubby's.

Produced by Prince Jammy.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: lassic Jammy's from just before he went digital! Mixed at Tubby's it's full of that authentic original dub flavour and shows he was just as skilled and mixing these styles as he would later, dancehall.

TRACK LISTING

Lacksley Castell - What A Great Day
Prince Jammy - Throne Of Blood

Though most of the world may not know the songs of Lynn Castle, she is an artist whose work stretches across seven decades. Light In The Attic Records is very excited to continue its Lee Hazlewood Archive Series with Rose Colored Corner, a collection of intimate recordings Lynn Castle made with Jack Nitzsche in 1966 and her complete recorded output with Lee Hazlewood on LHI Records. For the first time ever Lynn is sharing recordings from her personal archive and telling her story.

In the 1960s Lynn became the first lady barber in LA just as long hair on men became hip. By day she was styling The Monkees, Boyce and Hart, Del Shannon, Sonny & Cher, the Byrds and countless others…by night she was writing songs. Despite lacking the desire to self promote and a crippling insecurity that made it hard to sing in front of anyone, her songs managed to bend the ears of such industry heavyweights as Phil Spector, Jack Nitzsche and Lee Hazlewood. “It was so hard to get me to sing,” explained Castle. “I had buried it so low, I didn’t think I was good at all. Lee heard my songs and thought I was fabulous. He said, ‘Oh my god, you’re really good! Let’s cut a record.’

Her sole 1967 45 “The Lady Barber" b/w "Rose Colored Corner,” released on Lee Hazlewood Industries is a slice of psychedelic pop heaven. A full length album was never completed, but her sparse demos with Jack Nitzsche give the listener a peek of what one might have sounded like. If you are familiar with Nitzsche’s mid-60s work with Tim Buckley, Bob Lind, and Buffalo Springfield…you can squint your ears and imagine her songs bejeweled with lush strings, finger cymbals, and delicate harpsichord. Instead, the songs remained unheard until now.

Just because her songs weren’t recognized at the time doesn’t diminish their magic. This music is meant to be found and heard. Though commercial success may remain elusive, sometimes strange premonitions are realized… “When I was young, making music in the ‘60s, I had this strange thought that one day I would be this old woman, and young people would come find me and tell me that my music meant something to them.” - Lynn Castle

TRACK LISTING

1. The Forest
2. I’m Getting Tired
3. New York
4. What In The World Would I Do
5. She Thinks She Feels
6. Rose Colored Corner
7. Lonesome Look-Out
8. The Stranger
9. The Puppet
10. Who Knows
11. The Lady Barber With Last Friday’s Fire
12. Rose Colored Corner With Last Friday’s Fire

Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in South London. Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric, and totally enchanting.

Whilst studying photography at university in Nottingham, Chua took an elective course in music production and the resulting experimental tracks she created and uploaded online caught the attention of US label kranky. Before long she was touring with Stars of the Lid as a cellist and string arranger and went on to release two albums with her first band Felix – all while barely into her 20s. After Felix broke up, Chua spent a few years in London exploring the city’s creative scene and began experimenting with the cello. Those explorations became her 2019 debut EP Antidotes 1 which flitted between hushed songwriting and expansive textural soundscapes and was released shortly before she joined FKA twigs’ live band for her Magdalene tour. Earning praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Dazed and gal-dem, Antidotes 1 led to Chua participating in NTS Radio’s Work In Progress scheme as well as performing one-person shows across the UK and Europe including Red Bull Music Festival London, MUTEK Barcelona, Tate Modern and Somerset House.

A sister release to Antidotes 1, Antidotes 2 expands Chua’s unique sonic vocabulary, with subliminal textures that bleed into each other before fading away. If Antidotes 1 was Chua building the landscape and scenery for her music, then Antidotes 2 is her living within it. Some of the songs were written during the same period whilst others, like EP opener ‘Until I Fall’, are brand new.

The vinyl edition of Antidotes will include both EPs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having played with ambient luminaries Stars Of The Lid as a cellist, it's no surprise that Chua's work is very much in the slow-moving ambient vein, but on 'Antidotes' we see her wonderful ear for production and singularly unique ambient talent come shining through. It's beguiling and emotive avant-classical with subtle elements of slow-moving synth, and is a sound all of her own.

TRACK LISTING

Feel Something
Whatever It Takes
Semitones
Somebody Who
Until I Fall
An Avalanche
Torch Song
Before

If Chua’s 2022 release "Golden," written from the perspective of her younger self, was the meditative prelude to the world of YIAN, then her new single “Echo” places us firmly in its first chapter. A pop song about ancestral trauma, “Echo” is the antihero’s journey, walking the line between respect for the past and the freedom to carve out a new future. (“I won’t carry your shame / Won’t be your echo again… I couldn’t be anyone else / I look to you, I see myself”). Chua delivers with her uniquely intimate, yet otherworldly sound in this self-produced and engineered song, capturing sensuous echoing harmonies and delicate soul-infused piano.

Following intensive studies in Chinese dance forms, Chua joined forces with film director Jade Ang Jackman and movement director Chantel Foo to create the visual for “Echo”; Chua’s take on a choreographed pop MV. The short film is a moving and innovative homage to Chinese fan dance and martial arts; an internal journey through the shifting seasons of emotional weather. Grounded by a stone circle, Chua dances with her handmade Chinese silk fans as the mood shifts from thorny rose garden to blizzard. “Sometimes I think we are all just footprints in the snow,” Chua says.

“YIAN” (燕), means swallow in Chinese, and is part of “Siew Yian,” the name given to Chua by her parents to preserve her connection with her Chinese heritage. Just as the migratory songbird lives between places, so did Chua, the artist living in the in-between of the English, Malaysian and Chinese cultures that make up her heritage. In the absence of Mandarin as a mother tongue, music became a way to express the parts of herself that couldn’t be described in words; “YIAN” emerged as a way to heal.

A deeply introspective and fully realized vessel of creative expression (Chua self-produced and engineered eight of the ten tracks), “YIAN” emerges as less an album than a worldview, a commitment to learning and uncovering one’s own selfhood honed over Chua’s lifelong reconciliation with her own personal history and identity.

Through this process she found new language through which to express her experiences, language which lay in the practices she developed and the creative community with whom she built solidarity along the process: co-authoring visual identities with main collaborators Tash Tung, Jade Ang Jackman and Nhu Xuan Hua and set designers Lydia Chan, Jonquil Lawrence and Erin Tse. Chua also constructed the album’s physical language through dance with movement directors Chantel Foo and Duane Nasis, this expression shown most vividly through the short film made for “Echo,” out today.

TRACK LISTING

1. Golden
2. Meditations On A Place
3. I Promise
4. You
5. An Ocean
6. Autumn Leaves Don't Come
7. Echo
8. Do You Know You Know
9. Grief Piece
10. Something Other Than Years

Lou Clarke and the All-Scars Band

Lou Clarke spent most of the 70's not of this Earth, a greatly formative time for him and those around him. The intervening period was spent retrospectively constructing a back catalogue of music to rival even the most seasoned of 'straight to charity shop' vinyl ghosts.

The All-Scars are a collection of well-trodden troubadours from a variety of Mancunian haunts who've generously come together to present these songs in something close to their original form as once might have been heard.

The 'Greatest Hits' album is a preventative measure precluding necessary high standards for a second work. All of the tracks have been taken from the future back catalogue including the upcoming demand avoidant '4th Album'.

Informed by New Orleans, built in Manchester, songs to drink dance or drown to.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Encompassing all the best gloomy moments of Nick Cave and the sozzled pub-rock of the Pogues, but drawing in perfectly measured elements of jazz, lounge and classic rock, Clarke et. al. perfectly soundtrack our austere political climate with wry, tipsy tongue-in-cheek commentary and damn good music to boot. Great stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Configure Your Life 02:59
2. Anyman 04:39
3. Blue Eyes 03:13
4. Down Again 04:05
5. My Beautiful Girl 03:17
6. Intoxicated Man 02:53
7. Run Deep 03:36
8. Co-Dependency Suicide Blues 03:25
9. Walking 02:55
10. I Got Nothing 02:43
11. Wrung Out 02:43

'A breathtaking and perfect debut, "Songs of Leonard Cohen" marked the emergence of one of the most enduring, unique, and brilliant voices in popular music. Led off by the gorgeous "Suzanne," previously a hit for both Judy Collins and Noel Harrison, the album is an exposed nerve, a Fellini-esque parade of losers, victims, and fallen angels. Brittle and unforgiving, tracks like "So Long, Marianne," "Winter Lady," and "Sisters of Mercy" are unflinchingly honest and desolate; the subdued beauty of the songs' spartan backdrop only adds to their force — Cohen takes acoustic folk, for so long a musical expression of empowerment and hope, and bleeds it dry of all its redemptive qualities. A masterpiece of perversity and pain.'

By the time Leonard Cohen began his recording career in 1967, the iconoclastic Canadian troubadour was already well established as a poet and author. He quickly emerged as one of the era's most original and influential singer-songwriters, building a large and legendary body of work that continues to inspire artists and listeners alike. Much of Cohen's reputation and mystique was established by his early work for Columbia Records, particularly the five albums he recorded between 1967 and 1974. Now, these five classic albums, unavailable on vinyl for two decades, have been lovingly restored to their original LP format. For their new Sundazed editions, all five albums have been meticulously remastered and have been sourced from the original Columbia Records stereo masters in order to preserve the sound of the original albums. In keeping with the exacting standards for which Sundazed has become known, each album is pressed on high-definition vinyl, with complete original cover art.

1967's "Songs of Leonard Cohen" is one of the decade's most audacious debut albums, with producer John Simon's artful arrangements animating such haunting Cohen standards as "Suzanne", "Sisters Of Mercy" and "So Long, Marianne".

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The word classic springs to mind!!! A haunting masterpiece - "Suzanne", "Sisters Of Mercy", "So Long, Marianne" what more needs to be said - shut the door to the rain, get your PJ's on and croon along..

TRACK LISTING

1 Suzanne
2 Master Song
3 Winter Lady
4 The Stranger Song
5 Sisters Of Mercy
6 So Long, Marianne
7 Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
8 Stories Of The Street
9 Teachers
10 One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah & Songs from His Albums is the first-ever official, career spanning album from songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and visual artist Leonard Cohen. Comprised of 17 classic tracks from Cohen’s expansive career, this anthology features an unreleased and unforgettable live performance of “Hallelujah” from the 2008 Glastonbury Festival. The album is inspired by the new documentary, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen a Journey, a Song.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A 
1 Hallelujah (Live At Glastonbury)
2 Suzanne 
3 Bird On The Wire 
4 Famous Blue Raincoat
SIDE B
1 Chelsea Hotel #2 
2 Who By Fire 
3 Dance Me To The End Of Love
4 I'm Your Man  
SIDE C
1 Anthem
2 The Future
3 In My Secret Life
4 Recitation W/ N.L. (Live In London)
SIDE D
1 Show Me The Place
2 Come Healing
3 You Got Me Singing
4 You Want It Darker
5 Thanks For The Dance

180g vinyl repress of Leonard Cohen’s 1998 album which Includes “First We Take Manhattan” and “Everybody Knows”. His eighth LP, and one that marked the move to a more modern sound, encompassing synthesizer in many of the compositions. It reached no. 1 in many European countries, catapulting Cohen into a best-selling artist. A highly acclaimed album, right across the board, it was voted 495 in the third edition of Colin Larkin’s ‘All Time Top 1000 Albums’ in 2000.

On the 'We Are Vinyl' label' - This is the 50th anniversary edition of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen's third studio album. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was originally released in March 1971 through Columbia Records. An x8 song album, pressed on 180gm heavyweight, Black LP Vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Avalanche
Last Year's Man
Dress Rehearsal Rag
Diamonds In The Mine
Love Calls You By Your Name
Famous Blue Raincoat
Sing Another Song, Boys
Joan Of Arc

It was a strange twist of fate which saw Leonard Cohen die so shortly after the release of his 14th, and ultimately final studio album. Unlike Bowie though, earlier in the year, "You Want it Darker" wasn't composed with his own death in mind. Naturally, mortality gets mentioned, but on which Leonard Cohen album didn't it!?

In his second interview to promote the record, Cohen had backtracked on a previous recent statement that he was "ready to die" and when distant muse and lover Marianne passed away earlier this year, Cohen's email to her in her final days had been made public, saying "I think I will follow you very soon". But his backtracking was funny and flippant saying he'd always had a gift for drama and intended to "live forever". Two further records were also suggested. As we now know, this wasn't to be.

"You Want It Darker" is definitely more sombre in tone; minimal and stately, he uses a co-writer for the instrumentation, and tastefully takes in soul, doo-wop and ofcourse folk traditions. But lyrically, whilst he mentions putting his "house in order", he's far from singing his own last rites. He does say in the title track that he's "ready Lord", but then treats us to such beautiful poetry and subtly varied sounds that the listener can't help but respond, " fair enough, but not YET!?"

An excellent album then, made instantly more dramatic by his sudden demise, but whilst the record comprises "lullabies for suffering" and yes it's soothing (and funny) as ever, he also notes that he "struggled with demons, they were middle class and tame." Acceptance, humour, just as you'd expect. A noble and fitting ending for one of the counter-culture's (remember that!?) true greats.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Stunning final album from the master poet.

TRACK LISTING

1 You Want It Darker
2 Treaty
3 On The Level
4 Leaving The Table
5 If I Didn't Have Your Love
6 Traveling Light
7 It Seemed The Better Way
8 Steer Your Way
9 String Reprise / Treaty

How curious it is that this collaboration should come about so late in the day and how marvellous that it transpired at all. Lloyd Cole, this most ingenious of British singer-songwriters, and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, a patriarch of German electronic music, did not actually meet in the studio, choosing instead a mode of material exchange more in keeping with the age, sending files across the ether for the other to complement.

How did they come to work together? Lloyd Cole released "Plastic Wood" in 2001, an instrumental, electronic album, most unusual by his standards. Listening to "Plastic Wood", one can clearly hear that Cluster's "Sowieso" album (1976) is one of Cole's all-time favourites. A friend of Cole's who also knew Roedelius, sent the latter a copy of the Englishman's album. Roedelius liked it so much that he immediately set about remixing the whole LP, or rather he added overdubs to the existing tracks - without asking and without having been asked! On receiving the results, Cole was not only flattered, he was also very impressed with the Roedelius remixes.
"Plastic Wood" had already been released and Cole felt that the project had run its course, so the Roedelius reworks were consigned to the archives. Nevertheless, the idea of collaborating appealed to the pair of them, and they did write to one another from time to time.

A good ten years later, the two finally met in person, when Lloyd-Cole passed through Vienna on tour. Now things could begin in earnest. The first results of their endeavours, now released, are modestly entitled "Selected Studies Vol. 1". Studies, strictly speaking, represent incomplete explorations of compositional and tonal possibilities. And yet this album reveals mature, carefully composed music, as if Cole and Roedelius had been working together for years already. Both artists focus on electronic sounds in a selection of succinct, direct pieces, free of musical garrulousness. Cole neither sings nor plays guitar and Roedelius rarely touches the keys of his grand piano. Instead, both musicians have developed a subtle soundscape which only drifts towards pure noise on one track, "Wandelbar". All of the other "studies" on the album move within a vast spectrum of harmonic wonder and rhythmic stepping stones.

However paradoxical it may sound, "Selected Studies Vol. 1" is reminiscent of the music of Claude Debussy, if electronic instrumentation had been available to him 120 years earlier. Highly impressionistic images flicker around the listener, airy, transparent, lost in time, each its own window on a bright, yet mysterious world. Far removed from kitsch, ambient and feel-good music, "Selected Studies Vol. 1" demands to be listened to attentively if the serious artistic expression of these two musicians / composers is to be appreciated fully. This opens up the album's beauty and depth. Cole and Roedelius seek to present fantastic, aural topographies in opposition to the dullness of the real world, inviting us to enter a friendly labyrinth of constant surprise, a place one can still leave at any time, without fear of getting hopelessly lost.

Lloyd Cole is mostly know for his outstanding pop music, but he certainly has a taste for electronic music. In 2013 he released an highly acclaimed album together with electronic music legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius (BB124 "Selected Studies Vol. 1") for whom he also curated a compilation of his electronic music recordings (BB187 "Kollektion 2. Roedelius - Electronic Music. Compiled by Lloyd Cole"). Finally we are happy to announce the release of a solo album with lloyd's electronic music on September 4th: "1D Electronics 2012-2014". Some pieces were originally created with overdubs by another in mind. Some were simply experiments. One or two may have had loftier ambitions…. None of the pieces involves the use of a piano keyboard or a computer, except to record it. Some modulations were executed by hand. Most were generated by programmed sequencers and logic. Each piece is a self contained electronic circuit.

Lloyd Cole's new album 'Standards' on Tapete Records was recorded in late 2012 /early 2013 in Los Angeles, New York and at his home in Easthampton, Massachusetts, 'Standards' is produced by Lloyd and mixed by maverick German producer Olaf Opal. All songs are by Lloyd Cole apart from 'California Earthquake', which was written by American folk artist John Hartford.

Inspired in part by the vitality he found in septuagenarian Dylan's acclaimed 2012 album 'Tempest' - says Cole, 52: "I took it as a kick up the backside" - 'Standards' is a gloriously electric rock'n'roll record and arguably the best thing he has made since his groundbreaking debut with the Commotions, 1984's 'Rattlesnakes'.

The band Lloyd assembled for 'Standards' comprises Fred Maher (Material, Scritti Politti, Lou Reed) on drums and Matthew Sweet on bass reforming the rhythm section from Lloyd's debut solo album 1990's 'Lloyd Cole' and its follow up '91's 'Don't Get Weird On Me Babe'. With Joan (As Police Woman) Wasser on piano/backing vocals, and Lloyd not only singing but playing synths amidst some of the crispest, stormiest, most stinging electric guitar, it's a tight ship with a tight sound which tautens and relaxes according to the temper of the song. Augmenting the basic band are Mark Schwaber, Matt Cullen and Lloyd's son Will on guitars, Commotions keyboardist Blair Cowan, percussionist Michael Wyzik and backing vocalist and Negative Dave Derby.

Says Lloyd: "I wanted to make an album with a small fixed palette of sounds, like a Van Gogh, like 'Highway 61'. The format is supposedly dead, but I still want to make albums. Not bunches of songs - albums. For the last 10 years I've been primarily an acoustic musician but this is an album for electric guitars, electric bass and loud drums, with piano and a synthesizer for measure. Not quite monochrome, then, but not ever-changing either: it has a sound."

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

Given just how loved debut album Rattlesnakes was, it would have been hard for whatever followed to be received as warmly – yet Easy Pieces made a good first of it. It was to sell twice as many copies in its first two weeks as Rattlesnakes had to date, giving the group a Top 5 chart placing on its release in November 1985. Recorded with 80s super- producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, its first two singles, the brooding, gospel influenced Brand New Friend and the forever-jaunty Lost Weekend reached the UK Top 20.

TRACK LISTING

Rich
Why I Love Country Music
Pretty Gone
Grace
Cut Me Down
Brand New Friend
Lost Weekend
James
Minor Character
Perfect Blue

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

By the time of Mainstream in October 1987, the group had taken a break and had spent time trying to find the right producer for their new material. Working with Ian Stanley, then fresh from the success of Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair, the album allegedly cost ten times the budget of Rattlesnakes. Despite its 80s opulence – for example, guest appearances from Jon Hassell on trumpet, Tracey Thorn on vocals – it sounds untouched by the decade's excess. Its singles, My Bag, Jennifer She Said and From The Hip were all well received.

TRACK LISTING

My Bag
From The Hip
29
Mainstream
Jennifer She Said
Mister Malcontent
Sean Penn Blues
Big Snake
Hey Rusty
These Days

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

Signing to Polydor Records, the group's debut single, Perfect Skin, was released in early 1984 followed in October of that year by their debut album, Rattlesnakes. Produced by Paul Hardiman with strings arranged by Anne Dudley, it became one of the most cherished albums of the 80s. Including further singles Forest Fire and the title track, the group found themselves as the darlings of the music press, at a time when a university education was still a relative rarity. Cole wasted little time in cramming cultural allusions in his material – listeners were introduced to a world of Norman Mailer, Eva Marie Saint and Truman Capote, all wrapped in delightfully written pop music.

TRACK LISTING

Perfect Skin
Speedboat
Rattlesnakes
Down On Mission Street
Forest Fire
Charlotte Street
2CV
Four Flights Up
Patience
Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

“Guesswork”, as the title suggests, is a record about the uncertainty of the world as one enters their third act. In terms of song count, it is Lloyd Cole's shortest, however, it is the longest in terms of minutes but the shortest in terms of word count. This is symbolistic for the authorial confidence that comes with the passing of time.

Going beyond Cole's latest “songs” album, the critically acclaimed “Standards” in 2013, “Guesswork's” musical style is mostly comprised of electronic sounds. Once Lloyd Cole had formulated a sonic picture of the record he wanted to make, the arrival of each new song gradually brought that picture into focus. His distinguishable voice and sophisticated lyricism invite the listener into the mindset of someone who has reached old age and is coming to terms with this.

As Cole puts it: “Because really what have we got to lose?”. At times, the experience of listening to Guesswork is akin to sitting in a sleek, state-of-the-art departure lounge, unsure of quite where you're waiting to go.

Louis Cole is a singer-songwriter and sickeningly talented multi-instrumentalist with a strong DIY aesthetic from Los Angeles, California. He is on a mission to create deep feelings through music and is the figurehead of an LA jazz-adjacent scene that includes Genevieve Artadi (with whom Cole co-founded the alt pop / electrofunk band Knower in 2009), Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Jacob Mann, Dennis Hamm, Pedro Martins and more.

His new album “Quality Over Opinion” is 20 tracks deep, it was written, performed and produced on his own in his modest home studio, but Louis did invite a handful of close friends to contribute, namely Genevieve Artadi (“my no.1 music collaborator”); saxophonist Sam Gendel – Cole’s friend for 17 years; pianist Chris Fishman; Nate Wood from the band Kneebody; Marlon Mackey (“a pillar of the Bakersfield music scene”); and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. “This album is a representation of me trying to make the best, most powerful and listenable music I can. For myself and also others,” he says.

Louis’s main instrument is the drums and he has a background in jazz although the music he writes bears little resemblance to jazz in any pure or classical sense. His connection to the movement is more conceptual: “The root of jazz is pure freedom… no limits… just what you’re thinking right at that moment… a pure blast of limitlessness”. Accordingly Cole’s touchstones for “Quality Over Opinion” include boundary-pushing composers such as Gustav Mahler and György Ligeti alongside jazz icons like Miles Davis, the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah, Morten Lauridsen (distinguished professor of music and American Choral Master) and Super Mario Kart. “There is no continuous thread of a story on this album, each song expresses its own moment in my life and time,” explains Louis. “I was inspired by joy, pain and the constant mission to pull something out of life around me”.

New single ‘I’m Tight’ arrives hot on the heels of ‘Let it Happen’ – “a timeless modern power ballad classic” released earlier this month. In contrast, ‘I’m Tight’ is a sleek, laser-focused Funk rocket, based on an utterly irresistible bassline. “It comes from me recording about 100 different cells of funk, choosing my favorite ones and quilting them together into a song,” says Louis. “I had to practice the bass part a lot for this one,” he adds, smiling.

Cole’s insane musicianship is no secret – he’s been sharing performance videos on YouTube for a decade – growing a dedicated fanbase who appreciate both his craft and off-the-wall style. Drums, bass, keys… he has a monk-like attitude to practice and perfecting his art. Thundercat describes him as “one of Los Angeles's greatest musicians” and earlier this year invited him to play drums on his recent tour of Japan. The pair have frequently written together including on the aptly titled ‘I Love Louis Cole’ from Thundercat’s Grammy-winning album “It Is What It Is”, ‘Bus in the Streets’ and ‘Jameel’s Space Ride’ (from Thundercat’s 2017 opus “Drunk”) and ‘Tunnels in the Air’ for Louis’ 2018 album “Time”. Flying Lotus has also expressed admiration for Louis, calling him “super inspirational” during the writing of his 2019 album “Flamagra”.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Quality Over Opinion
A2. Dead Inside Shuffle
A3. Not Needed Anymore
A4. Shallow Laughter
A5. Bitches (feat. Sam Gendel)
A6. Message (feat. Chris Fishman & Nate Wood)
B1. Failing In A Cool Way
B2. Disappear
B3. I’m Tight
B4. True Love
C1. Planet X
C2. Let Me Snack (feat. Marlon Mackey)
C3. Forgetting
C4. Park Your Car On My Face
C5. Don’t Care (feat. Genevieve Artadi)
D1. Laughing In Her Sleep
D2. Outer Moat Behavior
D3. When (feat. Kurt Rosenwinkel)
D4. Let It Happen
D5. Little Piano Thing

"Arborvitae" opens and closes with the pairing of David on piano and Loren on an electric guitar played so quietly that at times his pedal-stomping is wondrously distinct. "Blossom Time" and the title track positively float, with Loren alternating between soaring single-note lines and playing the rough, barnacled anchor to David's relentless tide.

Two more floor-friendly 45s from the Deptford Northern Soul Club’s record box.

Featuring fifty quid’s worth of excellent brasspowered psyche soul that originally turned up on Buddah Records in 1969. An absolutely huge Blackpool Mecca 45 with a backflip moment at around 40 seconds that repeats for all stomping excessives.

Backed with the legendary Lee Dorsey’s mighty ‘Give It Up’ from the same year. A swampy soul stew with a funky feel by the hugely underrated singer. An Allen Toussaint

TRACK LISTING

Lou Courtney ‘Trying To Find My Woman’
Lee Dorsey ‘Give It Up’

Lou’s Epic 1974 album “I’m In Need of Love” is regarded by some as the best modern soul album ever made. Best known for the rare groove tracks “I Don’t Need Nobody Else” and “What Do You Want Me To Do”, this is New York soul at its best. Great strings, horns and sympathetic production back Lou’s emotive and soulful vocals expressing his lyrics to the full. Soul Brother first reissued this album in 1999, and nearly two decades later it’s back in demand again. Lou was a Detroit artist who established himself in the 60s where he first worked as a writer and producer with Barbara Lewis. In the 70s he was signed as an artist to legendary producer Jerry Ragovoy’s Rags label through Epic. Hereafter he was briefly a member of The Fifth Dimension.

Lee F Cullen is predominantly a multi- instrumentalist/ bedroom-based producer who has written in excess of 500 songs. For live work Lee has the help of an ever changing group of musicians collectively named 'The Corvidae Family' who radically alter the songs on stage to keep them breathing and organic. After the break up of his last band, the funk orientated Big Wow he returned to his first love of psychedelia and 'song' orientated material. Drawing inspiration from The Nice, Procol Harum, July, Bill Fay, Barclay James Harvest, Baroque Music, Ray Manzerek, John Carpenter and the D.I.Y ethic of home taping artists – Lee strives to create swirling technicolour music. Working with a P.C. and Reel-to-Reel Tape Machines lee writes, records, and produces songs at an alarming rate, "Wild Honey Arabesques" is the first work of a series of albums. "Wild Honey Arabesques" was written during the fallout of Lee's last band Big Wow. Using instrumentation such as Mellotron, Organ, Harpsichord and Piano as the main voices Lee concedes that he doesn't remember writing any of these songs! Being, as they were, little more than fragments amassed from hours of tapes written while experiencing writers block. The album is about the 'Dispossession Of The Self' and what happens when one is led astray from their own path. This is not nostalgic psychedelia; psychedelia is used here, as it is the chosen medium for artistic expression with clichés subverted to produce introspective psych closer in spirit to singer songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Bill Fay than Tintern Abbey. Actually think Tintern Abbey covering a Bill Fay Song and you're not so far off!

“Cinematic feasts of dramatic strings and cascading pianos that will satisfy fans of Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds” The Ransom Note.

That certainly seems the case as the crushing emptiness of "Her Dreams" slowly emerges into the sonic space. Old school veterans Richard Dorfmeister and Stefan Obermaier are on hand to remix the track - transforming it into a epically mournful piano piece, galvanized with droning electronics and rumbling sub oscillators. "Screaming Silence" is touched up by Howie B who does a sterling job of organizing all the elements into a dreamy, crisp, high definition soundscape. Drifting synth parts meeting frenetic percussion and detailed low end perfectly, a blissed-out electro-disco missiv for the up-all-weekend dreamers. Check! 

TRACK LISTING

A - Her Dreams (Richard Dorfmeister & Stefan Obermaier Remix)
B - Screaming Silence (Howie B Retouch)

Richmond, VA-based songwriter Lucy Dacus is the latest addition to the renowned Matador Records roster.
Lucy Dacus's No Burden is full of surprises—sharp lyrical observations, playful turns of musical phrase, hooks that'll embed themselves in your frontal lobe for days. But the most surprising thing about this album might be the fact that it's a debut; it has a keen sense of self about it, and it nearly glows from the self-possession held by the woman at its core.

The 21-year-old Dacus grew up in Richmond; she was adopted at a young age, an experience that informed her curious, openhearted songwriting. "When my parents were explaining what adoption was—which was very early on in my childhood—they always said that my birthmother thought I was worthwhile even though she couldn't be my mom," she says. "And so from essentially infancy, I was taught that life was innately worthwhile because a bunch of people had worked together to set me up with one.”

Dacus started playing around Richmond while in college, opening for local acts and eventually meeting Jacob Blizard, a guitarist who invited her to make a record for a college project of his. No Burden, which originally came out in February on the Richmond label EggHunt Records, opens with the forthright, almost brutally honest "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore," the last song Dacus wrote before the album's day-long recording session at Starstruck Studios in Nashville. Dacus delivers scalpel-sharp observations about resisting pigeonholing over chunky guitars, ticking off ideals of femininity and youth until the track's not-quite-resolution.

These themes extend to the lyrics of songs like "Strange Torpedo," a whirling portrait of a friend whose "bunch of bad habits" who, Dacus sings, has "been falling for so long… [and hasn't] hit anything solid yet." "I've been that friend watching a loved one do what they know is bad for them and not understanding why," says Dacus. The song offers a simple message: "I love you, why don't you love you? You're the one in your body so you get to choose what to do with it, but if I were you I'd treat me differently.”

The rest of No Burden, which was produced by Collin Pastore, puts Dacus's voice center stage, allowing the glinting poetry of her lyrics to shine even more brightly. "Trust," which Dacus wrote in late 2013, showcases her alone with her guitar, her faint vibrato floating over strummed chords as she sings of self-redemption. And the diptych "Dream State…" and "…Familiar Place," which revolve around Dacus repeating "Without you, I am surely the last of our kind/ Without you, I am surely the last of my kind," capture disappointment and loss in a jaw-dropping way; the music trembles around her while her voice stays steady, anticipating whatever might come next.

No Burden is a forthright, disarmingly catchy statement. And while it's a sterling debut, it only hints at the potential possessed by this passionate, thoughtful young woman.

Lucrecia Dalt channels innate sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia on her new album ¡Ay!, where traditional instrumentation encounters adventurous impulse and sci-fi meditations on atemporality in an exclamation of liminal delight.

Dalt’s introspective approach to composition, last surfaced on her entrancing 2020 album No era sólida, refracts across ¡Ay! in a subconscious spectrum of the music genres she absorbed as a child. Treasured sounds and syncopations of bolero, mambo, salsa, and merengue rooted in Dalt’s early surroundings awaken on ¡Ay! and give glow to the album’s contours. The intuitive melodic structures of this music, processed by memory and modular synths, led Dalt to a mirage of her creative origins and the album she has always wanted to make.

¡Ay! is a tincture of rich acoustic textures filtered through the warmth of Dalt’s signature machinic distortion, diffused of easily-defined edges as previously explored on No era sólida and her 2018 album Anticlines. Here, vivid incantations of upright bass, wind ensembles and brass form shimmers of harmonic motif, distilled across radiant rhythms. Dalt worked closely with friend and collaborator Alex Lázaro to cultivate new shapes and colors for slowed down tumbaos and bolero percussion patterns. Together they deconstructed the traditional drum kit into serpentine expansions of congas, bongos, temple blocks and timbales, all of which they tuned to dance among Lucrecia’s lucid vocal processions.

Into this hallucinatory crossing of time and space, Dalt projects a sci-fi mythology rendered through theoretical exchanges with philosopher Miguel Prado. Their mutual interest in consciousness and atemporality summoned the tale of a metaphysical odyssey, cast by Dalt through silken lyrics in her native Spanish tongue. The lush musical world of ¡Ay! offers a soft but obscure landing for an alien entity called Preta, who has gathered a body in the hydrosphere from evaporated dead skin. We follow her first experiences of containment and composure as she navigates our geology and earthly markers of love and time, in contrast with her state as a timeless entity.

Through Dalt’s soaring vocals, the intimate monologues of this ethereal being oscillate with the album’s vibrant instrumental arrangements. ¡Ay! stages a rare encounter between tropical rhythms and sci-fi storytelling, where Dalt devises her amorphous character to explore love without the expected cliches of romantic genres. Dalt brings lightness and humor to the arc of this melodramatic tale, once again shedding the restraints of convention to break boundaries into abstract, fragmentary relics.

¡Ay! is an interjection through which Dalt enters a new dimension in her work – one which connects her legacy of electronic revelations with the moment she reaches a panoramic view of her musical source. In sound and spirit, ¡Ay! is a heliacal exploration of native place and environmental tuning, where Dalt reverses the spell of temporal containment. Through the spiraling tendencies of time and topography, Dalt has arrived where she began.

On behalf of Lucrecia Dalt and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Fundación Mareia, an interethnic, Chocó, Colombia-based organization led by women promoting Afro-centered emancipatory education around black feminism, decolonialism, and community, and encouraging activism, protection of nature, an ancestral care.

TRACK LISTING

A1. No Tiempo
A2. El Galatzó
A3. Atemporal
A4. Dicen
A5. Contenida
B1. La Desmesura
B2. Gena
B3. Bochinche
B4. Enviada
B5. Epílogo

"This very first release on "Oonops Drops" has its very own story behind it. I planned to found my own label for more than half a year when my wife Lisa worked on her songs and when the idea came to me how this would sound if Japanese Jazz trio Nautilus would arrange some of them. I have known Toshi for six years now, met him personally here in Hanover and he's such a magnificent musician, so the idea became reality and they started working on the first two tracks until a total amount of nine songs was created. I'm so proud to share this very personal project with you (which was finally produced and mastery simultaneous to the foundation of my label by accident) and I hope you like it as much as we do. For the first single release of the album I directly had the uplifting track "Everytime" in my mind and a remix which should transport the good vibes in a different direction. Pat Van Dyke, a longtime known producer and multi-instrumentalist from New Jersey took his hands on it and created a horns-loaden feel good version of it including a little guest appearance by Brooklyn based lyricist John Robinson.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Everytime
2. Shooting Star
3. Let Me Be
4. Rain
5. Words
6. Dandelion
7. Doing Nothing
8. Everything
9. Home

After her debut album "Serendipity" in 2021 with Japanese Jazz trio Nautilus from Tokyo and a superb single remix of "Everytime" by Pat Van Dyke featuring rapper John Robinson this will be another step forward in her career and conceptually a bit different.

It gets the "Oonops Drops" FLIP SERIES treatment which means: Side A of Lisas songs are arranged by Nautilus and Side B by producer SaturnVybz (Jazzanova/Slick Walk/The Ruffcats).

To get a first impression please have a listen to this upfront single-release and get one of these limited 45s.

Lisa is careful about the artwork and after working together with renowned artist Lindsey Kustusch from San Francisco on her first album she collaborates with local artist Sebastian Maria Otto now who is known for his signature art style and exhibitions from Germany to Japan.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love And Hope (feat. SaturnVybz & Nautilus)
2. Summer Child (feat. SaturnVybz & Nautilus)

Lana Del Rey’s highly anticipated eighth studio album, Blue Banisters, features the previously released songs 'Blue Banisters,' 'Wildflower Wildfire' and 'Text Book.'

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's always a welcome arrival when Lana Del Rey brings out a new LP, and Blue Banisters has everything you'd expect. Gorgeous downplayed melodies and minimalistic instrumentation, topped with her instantly recognisable athletic country-tinged vocal style. It's hard to imagine anyone else pulling off this sound, classic Lana.

TRACK LISTING

1. Text Book
2. Blue Banisters
3. Arcadia
4. Interlude - The Trio
5. Black Bathing Suit
6. If You Lie Down With Me
7. Beautiful
8. Violets For Roses
9. Dealer
10. Thunder
11. Wildflower Wildfire
12. Nectar Of The Gods
13. Living Legend
14. Cherry Blossom
15. Sweet Carolina

"Born To Die" the album is a collection of tracks about which Lana says "The songs I've written are an homage to true love and a tribute to living life on the wild side." Album tracks include "Video Games", "Million Dollar Man", "Off To The Races", "Blue Jeans" and "Carmen".

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: For sure this is a slick 'pop' album, but with her sultry vocal delivery (ALA Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval) and stunning dark cinematic songs such as "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans", there's more than enough here to keep an indie kid happy.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
01 Born To Die Album Version 04:46
02 Off To The Races 05:01
03 Blue Jeans Album Version Remastered 03:29
04 Video Games Album Version Remastered 04:42

Side 2:
01 Diet Mountain Dew 03:43
02 National Anthem 03:49
03 Dark Paradise 04:04
04 Radio 03:35

Side 3:
01 Carmen 04:09
02 Million Dollar Man 03:50
03 Summertime Sadness 04:25
04 This Is What Makes Us Girls 04:00

Side 4:
01 Without You 03:51
02 Lolita 03:41
03 Lucky Ones 03:45

Today Lana Del Rey releases her new song and visual ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’. The song is co-written by Lana Del Rey and Jack Antonoff, with the visual being directed by BRTHR.

Following the success of her 2019 GRAMMY®-nominated album Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana has announced that March 19th, 2021 is the official release date for her highly anticipated seventh studio album Chemtrails Over The Country Club.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Lana's 7th album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club brings all of the latent melodicism and swooning pop of her previous outings but with a more melancholic leaning, resulting in a hugely enjoyable distillation of pop with more esoteric production elements.

TRACK LISTING

1. White Dress
2. Chemtrails Over The Country Club
3. Tulsa Jesus Freak
4. Let Me Love You Like A Woman
5. Wild At Heart
6. Dark But Just A Game
7. Not All Who Wander Are Lost
8. Yosemite
9. Breaking Up Slowly
10. Dance Till We Die
11. For Free

Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is the ninth studio album from acclaimed singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, comprising 16 tracks and interludes with features including Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, Jon Batiste, Bleachers and more. It follows the prolific artist's 2021 albums Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: I've only semi-recently become, as you kids say, a Lana stan after her one-two punch releases of 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' and 'Chemtrails over the Country Club'. I can safely say, this is another banger in her catalogue. Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, 'Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd' is a sprawling opus full of rich storytelling and absolutely spellbinding vocals and instrumentation - perfection!

The album was recorded between Los Angeles and New York.

This is the 3rd studio album from Lana Del Rey, her last record ‘Ultraviolence’ when to #1 in 74 countries and she has worldwide album sales in excess of 9 million. Following the global first play and interview on Zane Lowe's Beats1 show, Annie Mac had 'High By The Beach' as her Hottest Record on Radio 1which included two spins of the track back to back and an interview with Lana. 

Global superstar Lana Del Rey releases her 4th album ‘Lust For Life’ which features collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Sean Ono Lennon, The Weeknd and Stevie Nicks.

The highly anticipated album was mainly produced and co-written with Jack Antonoff and will include ‘Venice Bitch,’ ‘Mariners Apartment Complex,’ ‘hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it,’ and the current release, a cover of Sublime’s ‘Doin’ Time’.

TRACK LISTING

Norman Fucking Rockwell
Mariners Apartment Complex
Venice Bitch
Fuck It I Love You
Doin’ Time
Love Song
Cinnamon Girl
How To Disappear
California
The Next Best American Record
The Greatest
Bartender
Happiness Is A Butterfly
Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It

'Paradise' single LP in oversized slipcase to also hold 'Born To Die' LP.

(please note that this does not contain 'Born To Die' 2lp, sold seperately).

"Even after selling nearly three million copies of her debut album worldwide, Lana Del Rey still faced a challenge during 2012: namely, proving to critics and fans that Born to Die wasn't a fluke. In that spirit, she released Paradise, a mini-album close to Christmas, one that finds her copying nearly wholesale the look and feel of her vampish Born to Die personality. The sound is also very familiar. Strings move at a glacial pace, drums crash like waves in slow motion, and most of the additional textures in these songs (usually electric guitar or piano) are cinematic in their sound and references."

TRACK LISTING

1. Ride
2. American
3. Cola
4. Body Electric
5. Blue Velvet
6. Gods & Monsters
7. Yayo
8. Bel Air

Brand new album from platinum, Grammy nominated recording artist Lana Del Rey! The album features the hit songs 'West Coast' and 'Shades of Cool' along with typically Del Rey-ish songs: 'Fucked My Way To The Top' and 'Pretty When You Cry'. She's not veered to far away from the script of her first album: 50s noir meets Blue Velvet atmospherics meets modern day pop nouse, and if you're a fan then you won't be disappointed.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Wow! Incredibly, this record is much stronger than Lana's smash debut!? There's no "Video Games", obviously but you don't need it when every track is deeper, darker, grander and sadder than before. A brilliant surprise.

TRACK LISTING

1.Cruel World
2.Ultraviolence
3.Shades Of Cool
4.Brooklyn Baby
5.West Coast
6.Sad Girl
7.Pretty When You Cry
8.Money Power Glory
9.Fmwuttt
10.Old Money
11.The Other Woman

Lana Del Rey reads fourteen select poems from her upcoming debut poetry book Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass accompanied by music from frequent collaborator, Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff.

"Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic."- Lana

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl
Side A
LA Who Am I To Love You
The Land Of 1,000 Fires
Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass
Past The Bushes Cypress Thriving
Salamander
Never To Heaven

Side B
SportCruiser
Tessa DiPietro
Quiet Waiter Blue Forever
What Happened When I Left You
Happy
My Bedroom Is A Sacred Place Now – There Are Children At The Foot Of My Bed
Paradise Is Very Fragile
Bare Feet On Linoleum

CD TRACKLISTING:
LA Who Am I To Love You
The Land Of 1,000 Fires
Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass
Past The Bushes Cypress Thriving
Salamander
Never To Heaven
SportCruiser
Tessa DiPietro
Quiet Waiter Blue Forever
What Happened When I Left You
Happy
My Bedroom Is A Sacred Place Now – There Are Children At The Foot Of My Bed
Paradise Is Very Fragile
Bare Feet On Linoleum

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by “Punk Professor” Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* LP Includes download card for full album + 6 bonus tracks
* CD includes full album plus 6 bonus tracks

By the time bohemian singer/poet/artist Lizzy Mercier Descloux recorded her fifth album, 1988's 'Suspense', she'd enjoyed a recording career that was as far from the clichés of music lore as is possible, flitting between genres, continents and collaborators, enjoying great success and equally great failure and even stealing the final breaths of master trumpeter Chet Baker for 1986's One For The Soul. When she came to make 'Suspense' she was, for the first time, working without her longtime muse, partner and manager Michel Esteban, with whom she'd first moved from their native France to New York, where it all began.

The pressure was on to repeat the success of “Mais Où Sont Passées Les Gazelles”, a smash hit in France, and Descloux's label were keen to make a conventional artist of her, pairing her with John Brand, an in-vogue producer with a style geared to a big, shiny 1980s chart sound - an approach Lizzy had never experienced before, nor intended to.

In Vivien Goldman's new liner notes, Esteban notes that Suspense sounds "less Lizzy than the other records, less open," but in splitting herself into two – English and Francophone – the album has two personalities too; oddly, it shines a light on the real Descloux that her cultural experiments never did.

Though the initial aim was to make a folky, acoustic album, the pop sound suited the singer, and “A Room In New York” is as fine and sparky as AOR gets. But when early single “Gueule D’Amour/Cry of Love” stiffed, EMI lost confidence and buried the LP. Bound by her contract to the label, Descloux moved away from music and focused on painting. She eventually settled in Corsica, the French island, where she died, aged 48, of cancer. Descloux's musical career ended, therefore, with the aptly titled Suspense. It was only a matter of time before this furiously creative artist's work was re-evaluated, and with these deluxe reissues, that time is now.

TRACK LISTING

01 Gueule D’amour
02 Cape Desire
03 Salomé
04 Vroom, C’est La Voie Lacée
05 The Long Goodbye
06 2 Femmes À La Mer
07 L’heure Bleue
08 Once Upon A Time Out
09 Echec Et Mat
10 A Room In New York
11 Gypsy Flame (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
12 Lucky Strike Drive (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
13 Playtime 4:13 (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
14 Hurricane 4:26 (English Version) (Bonus Track)*
15 Calypso Moguls (7” Version) (Bonus Track)*
16 Calypso Moguls (Tender Dub) (Bonus Track)*
* Bonus Tracks Available On CD And LP Download Card

Making his first vinyl appearance on the label, Luuk van Dijk is back releasing his long awaited 'Take Me For A Ride'. Remixing the title track is Berlin house talent Running Hot. The record is completed with 2 of Luuk’s originals on the B side with the garage influenced 'Doin' It’'and groovy 'Sexy M*therfucker'

TRACK LISTING

A1. Take Me For A Ride
A2. Take Me For A Ride - Running Hot Remix
B1. Doin' It
B2. Sexy Motherf*cker

Leon Dinero returns with more rocksteady magic from producer Victor Axelrod.

Originally written and recorded by James Hunter, "Heartbreak" gets the Axelrod treatment, turning this mid-tempo R&B gem on its head. The laid back vocal and tasteful organ give "Heartbreak" a wholly fresh vibe whilst staying respectfully true to the original.

On the flip is "Cut Both Ways" an instrumental version courtesy of The Inversions. One listen and you'll find that these are some of the baddest musicians in the game.

TRACK LISTING

Side A – Heartbreak
Side B – Cut Both Ways

For the past four decades, a growing cult of soul music collectors have sought two obscure LPs and a handful of extremely rare 45s released on the vanity record label LAD Productions, Inc. between the late seventies and the mid eighties by the mysterious South Side Chicago singer/song writer Larry Dixon. Larry's raw songs capture the transition from R&B to boogie-down as disco was rapidly becoming extinct. They also perfectly illustrate Larry’s ability to overcome his environment and discrimination, transcended by his determination to write and produce music. With the support of his faithful musicians, Larry's success was only hindered by lack of airplay and promotion, but his talent shines through. This is the story of Larry Dixon, his label LAD Productions, Inc., and his friends and family throughout four decades of music in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods. Jerome Derradji is proud to reactivate Past Due Records - the boogie funk division of Still Music to release this fantastic archive – what many consider to be the Holy Grail - of Chicago Funk, Boogie and Soul. Each format includes a unique booklet with the story of Larry Dixon and his friends, written by Jacob Arnold, along with numerous pictures and documents previously never published. Artwork is by Al Kent from Million Dollar Disco.

TRACK LISTING

CD:
CD1 - Larry Dixon - I’am So In Love + Can’t Price Love
1 - I'm So In Love
2 - Together
3 - Hey Girl
4 - Free Me
5 - What I Am
6 - Body
7 - Show Me The Way
8 - Star Time
9 - Can't Price Love
10 - Make Up Your Mind
11 - Dance To The Beat
12 - Can't Price Love - Instrumental
13 - Wait For Me
14 - The Only One
15 - Doing What Comes Naturally
16 - Wait For Me (Instrumental)

CD2 - Larry Dixon & Friends - Rare Singles, Instrumentals And Lost Tapes. Chicago 1971-85.
1 - Larry Dixon Group Soulful Spades - Next Time (Part 1) *
2 - Larry Dixon - The Only One
3 - Larry Dixon - Don’t It Make You Dance
4 - Larry Dixon - Star Time 7” Version
5 - Larry Dixon - You’re On Your Own
6 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Space Caravan *
7 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Groove It All Night *
8 - Larry Dixon - Feelings (Feel So Fine) *
9 - Larry Dixon - Being With You *
10 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Love We Had Demo Instru. *
11 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch *
12 - Larry Dixon - Love In Your Heart
13 - Chuck-A-Luck - That Kind Of Love *
14 - Larry Dixon - Love Has Come Back
15 - Larry Dixon - Saturday Night
16 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch (Jerome’s Dub) *
17 - Larry Dixon - Feelings (Feel So Fine) (Instrumental) *
18 - Larry Dixon Group Soulful Spades - Next Time (Part 2)
19 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Space Caravan Instrumental *
18 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch (Instrumental) *
* Previously Unreleased

4 X 12” LP Boxset:
LP1 - Larry Dixon - I’am So In Love
A1 I'm So In Love
A2 Together
A3 Hey Girl
A4 Free Me
B1 What I Am
B2 Body
B3 Show Me The Way
B4 Star Time
Originally Released In 1980 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD – 8002

LP2 - Larry Dixon - Can’t Price Love

A1 Can't Price Love
A2 Make Up Your Mind
A3 Dance To The Beat
A4 Can't Price Love - Instrumental
B1 Wait For Me
B2 The Only One
B3 Doing What Comes Naturally
B4 Wait For Me (Instrumental)
Originally Released In 1984 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD - 8404

DLP 3/4 - Larry Dixon & Friends - Rare Singles, Instrumentals And Lost Tapes. Chicago 1971-85.

A Side
1 - Larry Dixon Group Soulful Spades - Next Time (Part 1) *
2 - Larry Dixon - The Only One
3 - Larry Dixon - Don’t It Make You Dance
4 - Larry Dixon - Star Time 7” Version
5 - Larry Dixon - You’re On Your Own

B Side
1 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Space Caravan *
2 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Groove It All Night *
3 - Larry Dixon - Feelings (Feel So Fine) *
4 - Larry Dixon - Being With You *
5 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Love We Had Demo Instru. *

C Side
1 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch *
2 - Larry Dixon - Love In Your Heart
3 - Chuck-A-Luck - That Kind Of Love *
4 - Larry Dixon - Love Has Come Back
5 - Larry Dixon - Saturday Night

D Side
1 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch (Jerome’s Dub) *
2 - Larry Dixon - Feelings (Feel So Fine) (Instrumental) *
3 - Larry Dixon Group Soulful Spades - Next Time (Part 2) *
4 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Space Caravan Instrumental *
5 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch (Instrumental) *
* Previously Unreleased

10 X 7” LP Boxset:

1 - Larry Dixon Group Soulful Spades - Next Time
A - Next Time (Part 1) (Unreleased Version)
B - Next Time (Part 2)
Originally Released In 1971 By Square Deal, MRDA Inc. Cat# 8313.

2 - Larry Dixon - Star Time
A - Star Time
B - You’re On Your Own
Originally Released In 1979 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD 7901.

3 - Larry Dixon - The Only One
A - The Only One
B - Don’t It Make You Dance
Originally Released In 1982 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD-8203.

4 - Larry Dixon - Dance To The Beat
A - Dance To The Beat
B - Wait For Me
Originally Released In 1984 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD-8405.

5 - Larry Dixon - Love In Your Heart
A - Love In Your Heart
B - Love Has Come Back
Originally Released In 1985 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD-8506.

6 - Larry Dixon - Saturday Night
A - Saturday Night
B - Saturday Night Instrumental
Originally Released In 1985 By LAD Productions Inc. Cat# LD-8707.

7 - Larry Dixon - Being With You
A - Being With You
B - Feelings (Feel So Fine)
Previously Unreleased. Cat# LD-1508

8 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Space Caravan
A - Space Caravan
B - Space Caravan Instrumental
Previously Unreleased. Cat# LD-1509

9 - Charles Parks III & The High Society Players - Groove It All Night
A - Groove It All Night
B - The Love We Had (Demo)
Previously Unreleased. Cat# LD-1510

10 - Chuck-A-Luck - Ready For Your Touch
A - Ready For Your Touch
B - That Kind Of Love
Previously Unreleased. Cat# LD-1511

Brussels based soundtrack mastermind Lawrence Le Doux returns to Nous'klaer Audio with a 5-tracks EP: "Insula Dulcamara". Crafting visions of otherworldly bliss through his soothing soundscapes and undulating rhythms.

Pairing heart-wrenching beauty with staggeringly sophisticated production has yielded an EP which connects directly to our emotions without having to revisit past tropes or pre-existing successful archetypes. It's new, fresh, arresting; but possesses that warmth and depth which we associate with electronica classics of a by-gone era. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Beautifully ethereal and otherworldly electronix bolstered with dub sensibilities and finesse. A mind expanding 5-dimensional listen.

TRACK LISTING

Villa Di Anna
Notation
Nord Zimmer
May Picture
Insula Dulcamara

Following his role establishing the Motown sound as part of Holland/Dozier/Holland, Lamont went solo and these two tracks come from his 1981 album “Working On You”. Originally released by Columbia in the smooth, lush sounding style of the day, complete with Lamont’s signature vocal, neither of the two tracks here were released as single despite finding huge favour with modern soul audiences. “You Made Me A Believer” is one of his most enduring soul night floorfillers. Expansion also released the full “Working On You” album on remastered CD.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Made Me A Believer
2. Starting Over 

12th Isle quickly follow on from the double LP "Athenian Primitivism" by Christos Chondropoulos with two recordings from performance, voice and sound artist Lucy Duncombe. Cut to 10" vinyl and mastered by Morgan Buckley (Wah Wah Wino), "Brace / Mend" are collaborative works exploring an early musical fascination with theatrical vocal transposition and its duality with machinic interference and technologies. Lucy recently expanded upon this practice with a joint tape release with DJ Crud (Al White) entitled "THE RAPTURE OF CELLULAR ACCRETION". This limited run single continues 12th Isle's on-going relationship with musicians in their city of Glasgow.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says:

TRACK LISTING

A. Brace
B. Mend

Do you remember the last time you were breathing consciously? Either way, you are likely doing it now. On his new album Observation of Breath« for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English worked exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in »maximal minimalism,« as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term. While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains.

Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument,
»Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians. His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane.

After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude.« 

TRACK LISTING

1) A Torso (10:01)
2) A Binding (06:05)
3) And A Twist (02:42)
4) Observation Of Breath (20:44) 

For Fans Of: J. Tillman, Phosphorescent, Low, Damien Jurado, Bill Callhan.

“It’s going to be hard to talk about this when it’s done.” So begins A Mold For The Bell, the new album from Colorado singer-songwriter and producer Logan Farmer. What follows that enigmatic lyric is a collection of stark and ambient folk songs, tethered solely by Farmer’s unadorned vocals, acoustic guitar, and moving embellishments from contributors, including saxophonist Joseph Shabason (who also mixed the album) and renowned harpist Mary Lattimore. With the help of Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Berlin (Gregory Alan Isakov), Farmer tracked all of the vocal and guitar parts over two days in the early months of 2021. The tracks were recorded quickly, live in the studio to capture the raw intimacy and immediacy of Farmer’s live performances. The rest of the album’s creation occurred remotely, over texts, phone calls, and emails with Shabason and a handful of other musicians, as wildfires, insurrections and the pandemic raged around them.

“I was working at a bookstore that winter,” Farmer explains, “and I’d walk to my shift every day, obsessing over lyrics and early mixes in a cheap pair of earbuds.” These daily walks would take him past a church, where he’d often stop on the sidewalk and listen to the bells at the top of the hour. “I’ve always loved the sound of church bells, but as the situation worsened, what began as a comfort began to feel ominous, almost threatening.” This experience, along[1]side influences as disparate as Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev and the novels of Olga Tokarczuk, led to a collection of songs that are similarly foreboding, expanding upon the stark and spacious universe of Farmer’s last album (2020’s Still No Mother) to reveal an atmosphere that’s even more oppressively still, like an abandoned Victorian home.

TRACK LISTING

01 Silence Or Swell
02 Cue Sunday Bells
03 Horsehair (feat. Mary Lattimore)
04 Crooked Lines
05 William
06 The Moment
07 Renegade
08 South Vienna

British singer / songwriter Lizzy Farrall releases her debut mini album, ‘All I Said Was Never Heard’, which will drop just in time for her scheduled UK tour supporting Seaway.

Lyrically the release is about situations she went through in her teenage years and forms a diary of that time.

For fans of Julien Baker, Now Now, Dashboard Confessional, Neck Deep, This Wild Life.

TRACK LISTING

Broken Toy
Pack Of Wolves
Better With
Better Off
Hollow Friends

Soul legend Lee Fields has re-teamed with The Expressions for new album 'Emma Jean', out on Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records. The successful formula seems to be two-fold: sticking to the raucous-yet-tender voiced soul music Lee Fields has always made, yet updating it - pushing the boundaries of what it can be. The result is an unmistakeable sound, something that, as 'Faithful Man' was reviewed in Pitchfork, “isn’t indebted specifically to Atlantic or Stax or Philadelphia International or Chess or Fame or Motown so much as it’s indebted to all of them at once.”

This is why no one can call a Lee Fields record on Truth & Soul a “throwback.” It has hints, sounds, feelings that may be familiar but then there are textures, themes, and approaches that challenge the genre and stretch the sound into something else, something decidedly Lee Fields.

To be sure, a good part of this Lee Fields sound can be chalked up to Truth & Soul producers and co-owners Jeff Silverman and Leon Michels, as well as the team of top-notch musicians involved. The artists you hear behind Lee Fields are some of the same that have backed the likes of Aloe Blacc, Sharon Jones, El Michels Affair, Adele, Liam Bailey, Ghostface Killah, and Jay-Z to name a few.

This distinctive sound and style, a long time in the making, is again on point with 'Emma Jean'. Here, once more, the rules of the soul genre are tested, changed, and updated, showing that Fields and company have a very real command of this sound. To be sure, there are those that may be content with identifying and following the formulas of soul music’s past. But this new record–and the ones before it–show that Lee Fields, The Expressions, and Truth & Soul are more interested in where it can go next.

Unreleased recordings from the Special Night & It Rains Love sessions. Produced by Leon Michels. We are always sitting on a handful of unreleased songs that didn’t make their way to albums. Listening back to these gems we decided to launch a new series entitled Big Crown Vaults and the first volume features the music of Lee Fields & the Expressions. These tunes were cut during the Special Night & It Rains Love sessions. Listening to these tracks you can imagine how difficult some of these decisions were in the first place to leave them off the albums. An absolute standout is “Regenerate,” a song that finds Lee in the country soul realm, a style that Mr Fields, a North Carolina native, flourishes in. A drum break starts the song and then drops into a chorus where El Michels, Paul & Big Bill Schalda belt out the earworm chorus. Lee sings an encouraging tune about finding your way out of a low point in a relationship while The Expressions lay down an airtight groove. “Thinking About You” takes it back to the dance floors with what will surely be a hit at Soul parties around the globe. An uptempo drum break opens the song and Lee launches into a tale about the unbreakable bond with his significant other and how they keep each strong through moments of hardship and pain.

People who have seen Lee perform live in the last decade might have been lucky enough to hear his rendition of Little Carl Carlton’s “Two Timer”. For those of you who haven’t heard it, Big Crown Vaults has got you covered. A faithful version of the song showcases Lee’s gorgeous voice and the Expression's unwavering groove. Another treat on here is the fuzzed out funk banger “Do You Know” where Fields uses his platform to address some of our societal woes in a “Make The World” style. A deeper from the vaults number is “Out To Get You”, an instrumental that Lee never laid down vocals to. Even as just a rhythm track it stands as a testament to The Expressions musical prowess, the band that created 5 studio albums with Lee Fields which will go down in history as stone classics. Oil Painting of Lee Fields on the cover... 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:

1. Two Timer
2. Regenerate
3. Do You Know ?
4. Time
5. Thinking About You
6. Don’t Give Up

SIDE B:

1. Out To Get You
2. Two Timer (Instrumental)
3. Regenerate (Instrumental)
4. Do You Know ? (Instrumental)
5. Thinking About You (Instrumental)
6. Don’t Give Up (Instrumental)

At the corner of Living Legend St. and OG Ave. you will find Lee Fields’ house. A home that was built with blood, sweat, and tears, and stands on the unshakable foundation of his god given talent. Lee has been singing for 50 plus years and is undeniably, yet amazingly, at the top of his game. Those who have paid attention know that Lee is part of the class that is directly responsible for the revival of old school funk and soul. He has inspired many of today’s younger artists who are doing their best to carry the torch. As long as the road has been, and heavy as the crown may be, Fields is proving yet again that he’s “still got it”. His latest offering is sure to be a warmly received instant classic.

It Rains Love is the 2nd album by Lee Fields & The Expressions on Brooklyn’s Big Crown Records and gives us yet another masterclass in soul. Teaming up again with frequent collaborator and producer Leon Michels and his devoted band, The Expressions, they have managed again to take a classic approach and update it. Traditional soul sensibilities are mixed with a hip-hop tinged, sample ready sound that is as much an homage to the old as to the new. Some of the songs sound like they could belong to any of the last 4 decades without it feeling like a throwback, while others are 60’s soul through and through. Lyrically, Lee runs the gamut from gushing admonishments of love to politically charged calls to action, from proclamations of God’s existence to love letters written to his wife. This record marks the fifth studio album from Lee Fields & the Expressions and we are very proud to add it to the already impeccable catalog they have created together. Another strong offering by a man many people consider to be a national treasure, the professor of love himself, Mr Lee Fields. It’s all love baby! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Lee Field’s is on top form and dominating the soul genre with his distinctive and bold vocals. It Rains Love is a monumental album which sets him apart as a pure talent, taking all things soul and putting his own stamp on it.

TRACK LISTING

1. It Rains Love
2. Blessed With The Best
3. Two Faces
4. You’re What’s Needed In My Life
5. Wake Up
6. Will I Get Off Easy
7. Prisoner Of Love
8. A Promise Is A Promise
9. God Is Real
10. Love Is The Answer
11. Don’t Give Up (Cd Bonus Track)

The instrumental version of the instant classic "Special Night" by Lee Fields & The Expressions. There are a few terms that get thrown around loosely, two of which are legend and retro-soul. One of these fits Lee Fields hand and glove, one of these doesn’t fit at all. Very few people in music have both earned the status of legendary and continue to solidify it. 50 years in the game and only getting better, gaining more fans, and evolving his sound on each album, Lee is in fact a Living Legend. This brings us to the misuse of the term "retro-soul" when talking about Mr. Fields. You don’t have to look far to find a younger generation emulating the essence and styles of an era the’ve only experienced through music and movies. It seems unfair to tag Lee with a term that implies imitation when he is part of the generation that actually defined the genre. Plain and simple, this is not that. "Special Night" is a masterclass in soul music past and present. “I feel that every human being’s purpose is to do what their inner voice says to do,” says Lee Fields. “And my inner voice, my driving force, wants me to put out music and keeping making better records.” Special Night is also the first record in the Expressions catalogue in which every song was written jointly by Lee Fields and The Expressions.

“When I record, I make every song like I actually mean it. I mean every word I say. On Special Night I’m talking to my lady — literally, expressing the way I feel.” says Lee Fields. “You can tell if a song is real or not, and every moment I’m recording, those moments are real, this is a record about what people do in real life”. For one example, he cites the song “Work to Do,” which tells the story of “a guy going to counseling, drinking too much, apologizing to the old lady and trying to keep family together, doing the manly thing.” On “Make This World”, Lee makes a nod back to his early funk roots with a cautionary tale about the health of the planet. The world was designed to last indefinitely,” says Fields. “We’re the only living species on Earth who can alter that process. I’m hoping that song has a chain reaction, helps somebody put into action whatever contribution they can to change what the world is going through.” As always, sticking to the formula but pushing the boundaries “Never Be Another You” from the first note doesn’t sound like something you would hear on a Lee record, that is until he starts singing anyhow. A low tempo ballad with a head nodding drum track, sparse piano lines, and all the space Lee needs to lay down what is sure to be one of the flyest love songs of 2017.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Special Night
A2. I’m Coming Home
A3. Work To Do
A4. Never Be Another You
A5. Lover Man
B1. Make The World
B2. Let Him In
B3. How I Like It
B4. Where Is The Love?
B5. Precious Love 

Soul great Lee Fields signs to Daptone and announces a new album.
Lee Fields is arguably the greatest soul singer alive today. In an age when the shelf life of an artist largely depends on posturing and trends, he has proven to be an unassailable force of nature. His prolific, decade-spanning career continues to reign supreme on the modern soul scene.

In early 2022, Lee reunited with Daptone Records and producer Gabriel Roth to record Sentimental Fool, a deep, blues-tinged, wholly-conceived soul album. From his first line to his final plaintive lyric, the beauty, power, and raw humanity of Leeʼs voice is on full display here; the culmination of an astounding career that has seemed to defy gravity, rising to only greater and greater heights.

Soul music pours out of Lee Fields, as free and unstinting as God's love.
It was ever since the 1960's, when he was a teenager in North Carolina sweating it out on juke joint stages, crumpled dollars hailing at his feet. It continues now that the living legend is in his late sixties, ushering in the most successful and fruitful period of his career.

Like any living legend worth their salt, Fields has suffered despair, obscurity, defeat. Although he now tours stages around the world, and although he helped fellow soul legends like Sharon Jones (who was once Fields' backup singer) and Charles Bradley (whom Fields took on his first tour) get their first break, he did not always have this position. There were years—they were known as "the 1980's"—when Fields nearly gave up. His success these days, then has a bittersweet tinge: His dear friends Bradley and Jones have both passed, leaving Fields to outlive them and carry their legacy forth.

With all these years, and all this life, comes a sort of divine wisdom, and Fields has it in spades. "I am a sinner, just like everybody else," he says gravely. He is no "holier—than—thou guy," he adds. He just believes in people's ability to love and be loved, and he understands that music is the divine bridge to these places.

TRACK LISTING

1. Forever
2. I Should Have Let You Be
3. Sentimental Fool
4. Two Jobs
5. Just Give Me Your Time
6. Save Your Tears For Someone New
7. The Door
8. What Did I Do?
9. Without A Heart
10. Ordinary Lives
11. Your Face Before My Eyes
12. Extraordinary Man