This landmark compilation has introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collection has been expanded with 9 additional tracks added chronologically, including “Blackbird”, “Glass Onion” and the new song, “Now And Then”. The last Beatles song, “Now And Then” completes John Lennon’s 1970s vocal and piano demo recording with parts played by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as a new arrangement for strings.

The 3LP collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 9 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.

The 2CD collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.

The biggest band in rock history sees their original catalogue digitally remastered for the first time with improved packaging, including extra rare photographs, expanded and new essays and all enhanced with a video mini-documentary on the making of each album in the Beatles own words.


1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary

TRACK LISTING

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary

London – August 8, 2019 – It was 50 years ago today, on August 8, 1969, that the world’s most famous band stepped out from London’s EMI Recording Studios to stride, single-file, across the black and white stripes of Abbey Road’s nearby zebra crossing. With photographer Iain Macmillan balanced on a stepladder and one policeman stopping the street’s light traffic, The Beatles crossed back and forth three times, led by John Lennon, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Just six photos were taken, with the fifth selected as the cover shot for The Beatles’ penultimate studio album, Abbey Road, named after the tree-lined street in which the studios are located. Released September 26, 1969, Abbey Road was not The Beatles’ final album, as Let It Be followed in 1970, but it was the last one John, Paul, George, and Ringo recorded together as a band. The Beatles will celebrate Abbey Road’s anniversary with a suite of beautifully presented packages to be released worldwide on September 27 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Now available for preorder, the album’s 17 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo, high res stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos, accompanied by 23 session recordings and demos, most of which are previously unreleased.

“The Beatles recording journey had gone through many twists and turns, learning curves and thrilling rides. Here we were – still wondering at the magic of it all,” McCartney recalls in his written foreword for Abbey Road’s anniversary edition packages.

This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.

“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”

Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe box set presents 40 tracks – including “The Long One” Trial Edit & Mix for the album’s epic Side 2 medley – on three CDs (stereo) and one Blu-ray disc (Dolby Atmos, 96kHz/24 bit high resolution stereo, and 96 kHz/24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1). The four discs are housed in a slip-sleeved 12” by 12” 100-page hardbound book with McCartney’s foreword; Martin’s introduction; insightful, in-depth chapters written by Beatles historian, author, and radio producer Kevin Howlett covering the months preceding The Beatles’ Abbey Road sessions, track-by-track details and session notes, the cover art and photo shoot, and the album’s reception upon its release; plus an essay by music journalist and author David Hepworth looking at the album’s influence through 50 years. The gorgeous book is illustrated with rare and previously unpublished photographs, including many taken by Linda McCartney; never before published images of handwritten lyrics, sketches, and a George Martin score; Beatles correspondence, recording sheets, and tape boxes; and reproduced original print ads. The Super Deluxe digital audio collection presents all 40 tracks for download purchase and streaming in standard and MFiT formats, as well as in high resolution audio (96kHz/24 bit) for download.

Abbey Road’s limited edition Deluxe vinyl box set features all 40 tracks from the Super Deluxe collection on three 180-gram vinyl LPs. The album’s new stereo mix LP is packaged in a faithfully replicated sleeve, with the two Sessions LPs paired in their own jacket, presented with a four-page insert in a lift-top box. 

Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe and Deluxe vinyl box sets’ 23 session and demo recordings are presented in chronological order of their first recording dates. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” leads the charge:

For an overnight session on February 22, 1969, The Beatles were joined at London’s Trident Studios by producer George Martin and engineer Glyn Johns to record “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Abbey Road’s new edition combines a take from that session with the concluding part of the Trident master’s eight-track reduction mix made later at the EMI studios, revealing for the first time Billy Preston’s thrilling overdubbed organ solo. With their amps turned up high, The Beatles received a noise complaint from one of the studio’s neighbors in the Soho area of the city. The take starts with Lennon exclaiming, “My boys are ready to go!,” before the band is told about the complaint. Lennon replies, “What are they doing here at this time of night?,” then lays it down: “Well, we’ll try it once more very loud. And then if we don’t get it, we’ll try it quiet, like it might do it the other way. OK. The loud one, last go. Last chance to be loud!”

In the same month that the raucous Trident session took place, McCartney recorded a home demo of “Goodbye” for the Apple-signed singer Mary Hopkin and Harrison recorded a solo demo of “Something” at EMI Recording Studios. Both demos are featured on Abbey Road’s new edition. “Goodbye” makes its release debut. Although previously released on Anthology 3 in a version featuring guitar and vocal, the new anniversary mix of George’s “Something” demo features for the first time vocal, guitar and piano.

The Beatles reconvened at EMI’s studios and Olympic Sound Studios for sessions spanning mid-April to early May. On April 14, Lennon and McCartney recorded the single “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” in EMI’s Studio Three, with Geoff Emerick as the balance engineer. Two days later, the single’s B-side, “Old Brown Shoe” was recorded. Session recordings for these tracks, as well as three more songs started during this period, “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” are featured in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.

The remainder of Abbey Road’s sessions took place in July and in August with George Martin producing, and with principal engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald taking turns at EMI’s groundbreaking new mixing console, the TG12345. On July 2, 3, and 4, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr recorded “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” as a medley (Lennon was hospitalized in Scotland, recuperating after a car accident). A sequence of Takes 1-3 from the first day’s session is featured in the anniversary edition. Take 9 from McCartney, Harrison, and Starr’s backing track session for “Here Comes The Sun” on Starr’s July 7 birthday is also included.

On July 21, 22, and 23, The Beatles were in-studio to record “Come Together,” followed by additional sessions on July 25, 29, and 30. The anniversary edition features Take 5. On July 23, The Beatles began recording “The End,” which, along with McCartney’s timeless couplet – “And in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make” – features Starr’s only drum solo on a Beatles recording. Take 3 is included in Abbey Road’s new edition. The next day, just before the band’s 34-take session for “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard,” McCartney cut a quick studio demo for “Come And Get It” – later a hit for the Apple-signed band Badfinger. The demo’s original 1969 stereo mix, made with McCartney and Lennon present in the control room, is released for the first time in the new edition, as is Take 20 from The Beatles’ “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard” session. On July 25, two more songs, “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” were recorded as one for inclusion in the album’s epic medley. Take 27 from that session is featured on the new edition.

After Harrison had transported his rare and cumbersome Moog synthesizer to the studios, four songs received Beatle-played synthesizer parts: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (Lennon), “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (McCartney), and “Here Comes The Sun” and “Because” (Harrison). This was a very early use of the newly-invented instrument on a pop record. George Martin wrote arrangements for several tracks that were recorded in Studio One toward the end of the sessions in August 1969. The original overdubbed recordings of Martin’s scores for “Something” and “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” are included in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.

August 20, 1969 was the last time The Beatles were together as a band at the EMI studios, for an evening session to compile Abbey Road’s master tapes. The album’s sides were sequenced, with “Come Together” opening Side 1, and with the medley of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” placed on Side 2. “The Long One,” a different trial edit and mix of the medley, including “Her Majesty” (ultimately placed 14 seconds after “The End” as an unlisted, hidden track) is included in Abbey Road’s new edition.

A few weeks before Abbey Road’s release on September 26, 1969, Apple’s press officer Derek Taylor revealed that the album was “recorded at nice, workmanlike sessions which usually began at 2pm and continued until the end of the evening.” Millions of Abbey Road LPs were pressed at manufacturing plants around the world. The album was another blockbuster release for The Beatles, holding the No. 1 spot on the U.K. albums chart for a total of 17 weeks and topping Billboard’s U.S. albums chart for 11 weeks. For their work on Abbey Road, Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald won the year’s GRAMMY Award® for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical. In 1995, Abbey Road was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.” The Beatles’ best-selling studio album, Abbey Road’s universal popularity and influence have continued to grow since its debut.

Since Abbey Road’s release, the street’s zebra crossing has been one of the most celebrated and photographed sites in the world, protected as an historic landmark and visited by thousands of Beatles fans each year. Due to the success of The Beatles’ album, EMI Recording Studios was renamed Abbey Road Studios. Owned and operated by Universal Music Group, Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studio in the world and a global music icon.

TRACK LISTING

SUPER DELUXE [3CD+1Blu-ray Set; Digital Audio Collection]

CD ONE: 2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty

CD TWO: Sessions
1. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session & Reduction Mix)
2. Goodbye (Home Demo)
3. Something (Studio Demo)
4. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (Take 7)
5. Old Brown Shoe (Take 2)
6. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
7. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
8. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
9. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
10. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3 / Medley)
11. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
12. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)

CD THREE: Sessions
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. The End (Take 3)
3. Come And Get It (Studio Demo)
4. Sun King (Take 20)
5. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
6. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
8. Because (Take 1 – Instrumental)
9. The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix – 30 July 1969)
(Medley: You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Her Majesty, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End)
10. Something (Take 39 – Instrumental – Strings Only)
11. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Take 17 – Instrumental – Strings & Brass Only)

BLU-RAY: Abbey Road
Audio Features:
- Dolby Atmos
- 96kHz/24 Bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- 96kHz/24 Bit High Res Stereo (2019 Stereo Mix)

DELUXE 3LP VINYL BOX SET (limited Edition)

LP ONE: Side 1 (2019 Stereo Mix)
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

LP ONE: Side 2 (2019 Stereo Mix)
1. Here Comes The Sun
2. Because
3. You Never Give Me Your Money
4. Sun King
5. Mean Mr Mustard
6. Polythene Pam
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
8. Golden Slumbers
9. Carry That Weight
10. The End
11. Her Majesty

LP TWO: Side 1 (Sessions)
1. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session And Reduction Mix)
2. Goodbye (Home Demo)
3. Something (Studio Demo)
4. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (Take 7)
5. Old Brown Shoe (Take 2)

LP TWO: Side 2 (Sessions)
1. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
2. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
3. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
4. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
5. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3) / Medley)
6. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
7. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)

LP THREE: Side 1 (Sessions)
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. The End (Take 3)
3. Come And Get It (Studio Demo)
4. Sun King (Take 20)
5. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
6. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
8. Because (Take 1 Instrumental)

LP THREE: Side 2 (Sessions)
1. The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix – 30 July 1969)
2. Something (Take 39 – Instrumental – Strings Only)
3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Take 17 – Instrumental – Strings & Brass Only)

London – August 8, 2019 – It was 50 years ago today, on August 8, 1969, that the world’s most famous band stepped out from London’s EMI Recording Studios to stride, single-file, across the black and white stripes of Abbey Road’s nearby zebra crossing. With photographer Iain Macmillan balanced on a stepladder and one policeman stopping the street’s light traffic, The Beatles crossed back and forth three times, led by John Lennon, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Just six photos were taken, with the fifth selected as the cover shot for The Beatles’ penultimate studio album, Abbey Road, named after the tree-lined street in which the studios are located. Released September 26, 1969, Abbey Road was not The Beatles’ final album, as Let It Be followed in 1970, but it was the last one John, Paul, George, and Ringo recorded together as a band. The Beatles will celebrate Abbey Road’s anniversary with a suite of beautifully presented packages to be released worldwide on September 27 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe.

This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.

“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Their final album, and it's a beauty! This is a gorgeous, opulent, warm rock record that set the tone for FM seventies music. And for its 50th Anniversary, ‘Abbey Road’ gets remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos across six different formats.

TRACK LISTING

DELUXE 2CD

CD ONE: 2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty

CD TWO: Sessions
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. Something (Studio Demo)
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)
4. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
5. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session & Reduction Mix)
7. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
8. Because (Take 1 Instrumental)
9. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
10. Sun King (Take 20)
11. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
12. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
14. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3 / Medley)
15. The End (Take 3)
16. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)

STANDARD [1CD; Digital; 1LP Vinyl
2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty

The last of The Beatles be-suited, writing-to-order, perfect pop albums, this was a brilliant collection of songs from the film Help!, and other newies, that includes the superb "Ticket To Ride", "Yesterday" and of course, the title track itself. Albums in this era, up until about 1965, were simply collections of songs that could have been singles; there was no real concept of 'the album as a statement', as a piece of art in its own right. This was just pop music: short, simple, catchy, and in the case of The Beatles, brilliant!

Tracklisting
1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride
8. Act Naturally
9. It's Only Love
10. You Like Me Too Much
11. Tell Me What You See
12. I've Just Seen A Face
13. Yesterday
14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
15. Help! Documentary

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Help! (2009 - Remaster)
2. The Night Before (2009 - Remaster)
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (2009 - Remaster)
4. I Need You (2009 - Remaster)
5. Another Girl (2009 - Remaster)
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl (2009 - Remaster)
7. Ticket To Ride (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. Act Naturally (2009 - Remaster)
2. It's Only Love (2009 - Remaster)
3. You Like Me Too Much (2009 - Remaster)
4. Tell Me What You See (2009 - Remaster)
5. I've Just Seen A Face (2009 - Remaster)
6. Yesterday (2009 - Remaster)
7. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (2009 - Remaster)

Following on from the global success of ‘Abbey Road’, Apple Corps and USM are proud to present the next multi-format Beatles album reissue of ‘Let It Be’.

January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970). During the rehearsal process, they asked Glyn Johns, who had been hired to help with the live sound, to attempt a mix to create an album. This was never released, becoming known as one of the great ‘lost’ albums in rock history and is now included in this Super Deluxe Set. The album was delayed further and in fact became their 12th and final official album release on 8th May 1970 following additional production by American producer Phil Spector.

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Magical Mystery Tour (2009 - Remaster)
2. The Fool On The Hill (2009 - Remaster)
3. Flying (2009 - Remaster)
4. Blue Jay Way (2009 - Remaster)
5. Your Mother Should Know (2009 - Remaster)
6. I Am The Walrus (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. Hello, Goodbye (2009 - Remaster)
2. Strawberry Fields Forever (2009 - Remaster)
3. Penny Lane (2009 - Remaster)
4. Baby, You're A Rich Man (2009 - Remaster)
5. All You Need Is Love (2009 - Remaster)

The Beatles’ double-A-side single for “Now And Then” and “Love Me Do” pairs the last Beatles song with the band’s first UK single. Powerful musical bookends to The Beatles’ recorded canon, both songs are also featured in the expanded Anniversary Editions for 1962-1966 (‘The Red Album’) and 1967-1970 (‘The Blue Album’).

“Now And Then”
“Now And Then” is the last Beatles song, written and demoed by John Lennon in the mid/late 1970s. With John’s voice now pristine in the mix, “Now And Then” features elements from the 1995 sessions including George Harrison’s guitar parts, and vocal and instrumental parts recorded by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in 2022, along with a new arrangement for strings. Produced by Paul and Giles Martin, “Now And Then” is the last song recorded by all four Beatles, a powerful and fitting finale for the band’s timeless recordings.

“Love Me Do”
The song that started it all, “Love Me Do” was The Beatles’ first UK single in 1962. For the first time, the iconic song has been de-mixed using machine aided learning and remixed in true stereo. “Love Me Do” launched The Beatles’ journey to unparalleled worldwide success and acclaim that continues to this day.

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Love Me Do (Original Single Version) (2009 - Remaster)
2. From Me To You (2009 - Remaster)
3. Thank You Girl (2009 - Remaster)
4. She Loves You (2009 - Remaster)
5. I'll Get You (2009 - Remaster)
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand (2009 - Remaster)
7. This Boy (2009 - Remaster)
8. Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (2009 - Remaster)
9. Sie Liebt Dich (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. Long Tall Sally (2009 - Remaster)
2. I Call Your Name (2009 - Remaster)
3. Slow Down (2009 - Remaster)
4. Matchbox (2009 - Remaster)
5. I Feel Fine (2009 - Remaster)
6. She's A Woman (2009 - Remaster)
7. Bad Boy (2009 - Remaster)
8. Yes It Is (2009 - Remaster)
9. I'm Down (2009 - Remaster)

Side 3:
1. Day Tripper (2009 - Remaster)
2. We Can Work It Out (2009 - Remaster)
3. Paperback Writer (2009 - Remaster)
4. Rain (2009 - Remaster)
5. Lady Madonna (2009 - Remaster)
6. The Inner Light (2009 - Remaster)
7. Hey Jude (2009 - Remaster)
8. Revolution (2009 - Remaster)

Side 4:
1. Get Back (2009 - Remaster)
2. Don't Let Me Down (2009 - Remaster)
3. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (2009 - Remaster)
4. Old Brown Shoe (2009 - Remaster)
5. Across The Universe (2009 - Remaster)
6. Let It Be (2009 - Remaster)
7. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (2009 - Remaster)

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. I Saw Her Standing There (2009 - Remaster)
2. Misery (2009 - Remaster)
3. Anna (Go To Him) (2009 - Remaster)
4. Chains (2009 - Remaster)
5. Boys (2009 - Remaster)
6. Ask Me Why (2009 - Remaster)
7. Please Please Me (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. Love Me Do (2009 - Remaster)
2. P.S. I Love You (2009 - Remaster)
3. Baby It's You (2009 - Remaster)
4. Do You Want To Know A Secret (2009 - Remaster)
5. A Taste Of Honey (2009 - Remaster)
6. There's A Place (2009 - Remaster)
7. Twist And Shout (2009 - Remaster)

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…

London - September 7, 2022 – Revolver: The Beatles’ 1966 album that changed everything. Spinning popular music off its axis and ushering in a vibrant new era of experimental, avant-garde sonic psychedelia, Revolver brought about a cultural sea change and marked an important turn in The Beatles’ own creative evolution. With Revolver, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr set sail together across a new musical sea.

The Revolver album’s 14 tracks have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and the album’s original mono mix is sourced from its 1966 mono master tape. Revolver’s sweeping new Special Edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded Special Editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017), The BEATLES (‘White Album’) (2018), Abbey Road (2019), and Let It Be (2021).

All the new Revolver releases feature the album’s new stereo mix, sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes. The audio is brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting edge de-mixing technology developed by the award-winning sound team led by Emile de la Rey at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. The physical and digital Super Deluxe collections also feature the album’s original mono mix, 28 early takes from the sessions and three home demos, and a four-track EP with new stereo mixes and remastered original mono mixes for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”. The album’s new Dolby Atmos mix will be released digitally.

Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 5CD
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. On 5 CDs in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.

Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 4LP + 7” Vinyl EP
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. Half-speed-mastered 180g LPs + 7-inch vinyl EP in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.

Revolver Special Edition Deluxe 2CD
This 2CD Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus a disc of highlights from the album sessions that includes early versions of songs that deepen and expand the story of the album, as well as new stereo mixes of the non-album single, “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” and a 40-page booklet with detailed info and rare photos.

Revolver Special Edition 1CD
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd.

Revolver Special Edition 1LP Vinyl
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. Now available on 180g vinyl.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Revolver is the moment where the Beatles turned their back on the hysteria and announced they weren't going to tour anymore, but instead were going to concentrate solely on The Music. Out went boy-meets-girl and any country or rock'n'roll songs, in came psychedelic pop with deep or abstract words and a dizzying array of styles. The influence of drugs can't be ignored when appreciating these new sounds, and what we have is basically a band actually creating the zeitgeist, up in the crow's nest of what was suddenly the great ship Counter Culture, sailing to who knows where. It's their best album.

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Drive My Car (2009 - Remaster)
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (2009 - Remaster)
3. You Won't See Me (2009 - Remaster)
4. Nowhere Man (2009 - Remaster)
5. Think For Yourself (2009 - Remaster)
6. The Word (2009 - Remaster)
7. Michelle (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. What Goes On (2009 - Remaster)
2. Girl (2009 - Remaster)
3. I'm Looking Through You (2009 - Remaster)
4. In My Life (2009 - Remaster)
5. Wait (2009 - Remaster)
6. If I Needed Someone (2009 - Remaster)
7. Run For Your Life (2009 - Remaster)

Produced by Giles Martin for this year’s universally heralded ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition releases, the album’s new stereo mix was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, Beatles-preferred mono mix produced by Giles’ father, George Martin. Praised by fans and music critics around the world, The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition is 2017’s most celebrated historical music release and an ideal gift for Beatle People here, there, and everywhere.

In November 1968, millions of double LPs were shipped to record stores worldwide ahead of that tumultuous year’s most anticipated music event: the November 22nd release of The BEATLES (soon to be better known as ‘The White Album’). With their ninth studio album, The Beatles took the world on a whole new trip, side one blasting off with the exhilarating rush of a screaming jet escorting Paul McCartney’s punchy, exuberant vocals on “Back In The U.S.S.R.” “Dear Prudence” came next, John Lennon warmly beckoning his friend and all of us to “look around.” George Harrison imparted timeless wisdom in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” singing, “With every mistake we must surely be learning.” Ringo Starr’s “Don’t Pass Me By” marked his first solo songwriting credit on a Beatles album. For 50 years, ‘The White Album’ has invited its listeners to venture forth and explore the breadth and ambition of its music, delighting and inspiring each new generation in turn.

For it’s 50th anniversary, The Beatles release a suite of lavishly presented ‘White Album’ packages. The album’s 30 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, joined by 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, most of which are previously unreleased in any form.

“We had left Sgt. Pepper’s band to play in his sunny Elysian Fields and were now striding out in new directions without a map,” says Paul McCartney in his written introduction for the new ‘White Album’ releases.

This is the first time The BEATLES (‘White Album’) has been remixed and presented with additional demos and session recordings. The album’s sweeping new edition follows 2017’s universally acclaimed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition releases. To create the new stereo and 5.1 surround audio mixes for ‘The White Album,’ Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the new ‘White Album’ releases include Martin’s new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes. Martin’s new mix is guided by the album’s original stereo mix produced by his father, George Martin.

“In remixing ‘The White Album,’ we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to The Beatles in the studio,” explains Giles Martin in his written introduction for the new edition. “We’ve peeled back the layers of the ‘Glass Onion’ with the hope of immersing old and new listeners into one of the most diverse and inspiring albums ever made.”

The minimalist artwork for ‘The White Album’ was created by artist Richard Hamilton, one of Britain’s leading figures in the creation and rise of pop art. The top-loading gatefold sleeve’s stark white exterior had ‘The BEATLES’ embossed on the front and printed on the spine with the album’s catalogue number. Early copies of ‘The White Album’ were also individually numbered on the front, which has also been done for the new edition’s Super Deluxe package. The set’s six CDs and Blu-ray disc are housed in a slipsleeved 164-page hardbound book, with pull-out reproductions of the original album’s four glossy color portrait photographs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as the album’s large fold-out poster with a photo collage on one side and lyrics on the other. The beautiful book is illustrated with rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten and notated lyrics, previously unpublished photos of recording sheets and tape boxes, and reproduced original ‘White Album’ print ads. The book’s comprehensive written pieces include new introductions by Paul McCartney and Giles Martin, and in-depth chapters covering track-by-track details and session notes reflecting The Beatles’ year between the release of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and recording sessions for ‘The White Album,’ the band’s July 28 1968 “Mad Day Out” photo shoot in locations around London, the album artwork, the lead-up and execution of the album’s blockbuster release, and its far-ranging influence, written by Beatles historian, author and radio producer Kevin Howlett; journalist and author John Harris; and Tate Britain’s Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Andrew Wilson.

The Deluxe 3CD is presented in an embossed digipak with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, plus a 24-page booklet abridged from the Super Deluxe book. Presented in a lift-top box with a four-page booklet, the limited edition Deluxe 4LP vinyl set presents the 2LP album in a faithful, embossed reproduction of its original gatefold sleeve with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, paired with the 2LP Esher Demos in an embossed gatefold sleeve.

Much of the initial songwriting for ‘The White Album’ was done in Rishikesh, India between February and April 1968, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr joined a course at the Maharishi’s Academy of Transcendental Meditation. In a postcard to Ringo, who had returned to England before the others, John wrote, “we’ve got about two L.P.s worth of songs now so get your drums out.”

During the last week of May, The Beatles gathered at George’s house in Esher, Surrey, where they recorded acoustic demos for 27 songs. Known as the Esher Demos, all 27 recordings are included in the new edition’s Deluxe and Super Deluxe packages, sourced from the original four-track tapes. Twenty-one of the demoed songs were recorded during the subsequent studio sessions, and 19 were ultimately finished and included on ‘The White Album.’

The Beatles’ studio sessions for The BEATLES (‘White Album’) began on May 30, 1968 at Abbey Road Studios. In the 20 weeks that followed, The Beatles devoted most of their time to sessions there for the new album, with some recording also done at Trident Studios. The final session for the album took place at Abbey Road on October 16, a 24-hour marathon with producer George Martin to sequence the double album’s four sides and to complete edits and cross-fades between its songs. The Beatles’ approach to recording for ‘The White Album’ was quite different from what they had done for ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ Rather than layering individually overdubbed parts on a multi-track tape, many of the ‘White Album’ session takes were recorded to four-track and eight-track tape as group performances with a live lead vocal. The Beatles often recorded take after take for a song, as evidenced by the Super Deluxe set’s Take 102 for “Not Guilty,” a song that was not included on the album. This live-take recording style resulted in a less intricately structured, more unbridled album that would shift the course of rock music and cut a path for punk and indie rock.

The Beatles’ newly adopted method of recording all through the night was time consuming and exhausting for their producer, George Martin. Martin had other duties, including his management of AIR (Associated Independent Recording), and he had also composed the orchestral score for The Beatles’ animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, released in July 1968. After the first three months of ‘White Album’ sessions, Martin took a three-week holiday from the studio, entrusting the control room to his young assistant Chris Thomas and balance engineer Ken Scott. Scott had taken the place of engineer Geoff Emerick, who left the sessions in mid-July. On August 22, Ringo Starr also left the sessions, returning 11 days later to find his drum kit adorned with flowers from his bandmates. While the sessions’ four and a half months of long hours and many takes did spark occasional friction in the studio, the session recordings reveal the closeness, camaraderie, and collaborative strengths within the band, as well as with George Martin.

The BEATLES (‘White Album’) was the first Beatles album to be released on the group’s own Apple Records label. Issued in both stereo and mono for the U.K. and in stereo for the U.S., the double album was an immediate bestseller, entering the British chart at number one and remaining there for eight of the 22 weeks it was listed. ‘The White Album’ also debuted at number one on the U.S. chart, holding the top spot for nine weeks of its initial 65-week chart run. In his glowing ‘White Album’ review for Rolling Stone, the magazine’s co-founder Jann Wenner declared: “It is the best album they have ever released, and only The Beatles are capable of making a better one.” In the U.S., ‘The White Album’ is 19-times platinum-certified by the RIAA and in 2000, it was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY® Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.”

TRACK LISTING

Super Deluxe [6CD+1Blu-ray Set / Digital Audio Collection]
CD 1: The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Wild Honey Pie
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Don’t Pass Me By
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
I Will
Julia

CD 2: The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long, Long, Long
Revolution I
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9
Good Night

CD 3: Esher Demos
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Julia
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Revolution
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry
Sour Milk Sea
Junk
Child Of Nature
Circles
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
Not Guilty
What’s The New Mary Jane

CD 4: Sessions
Revolution I (Take 18)
A Beginning (Take 4) / Don’t Pass Me By (Take 7)
Blackbird (Take 28)
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Good Night (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Good Night (Take 10 With A Guitar Part From Take 5)
Good Night (Take 22)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Take 3)
Revolution (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Revolution (Take 14 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Cry Baby Cry (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Helter Skelter (First Version – Take 2)

CD 5: Sessions
Sexy Sadie (Take 3)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Acoustic Version – Take 2)
Hey Jude (Take 1)
St. Louis Blues (Studio Jam)
Not Guilty (Take 102)
Mother Nature’s Son (Take 15)
Yer Blues (Take 5 With Guide Vocal)
What’s The New Mary Jane (Take 1)
Rocky Raccoon (Take 8)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Take 5 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Dear Prudence (Vocal, Guitar & Drums)
Let It Be (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Third Version – Take 27)
(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care (Studio Jam)
Helter Skelter (Second Version – Take 17)
Glass Onion (Take 10)

CD 6: Sessions
I Will (Take 13)
Blue Moon (Studio Jam)
I Will (Take 29)
Step Inside Love (Studio Jam)
Los Paranoias (Studio Jam)
Can You Take Me Back? (Take 1)
Birthday (Take 2 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Piggies (Take 12 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Take 19)
Honey Pie (Instrumental Backing Track)
Savoy Truffle (Instrumental Backing Track)
Martha My Dear (Without Brass And Strings)
Long, Long, Long (Take 44)
I’m So Tired (Take 7)
I’m So Tired (Take 14)
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (Take 2)
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? (Take 5)
Julia (Two Rehearsals)
The Inner Light (Take 6 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Lady Madonna (Take 2 – Piano And Drums)
Lady Madonna (Backing Vocals From Take 3)
Across The Universe (Take 6)

Blu-ray: The BEATLES (‘White Album’)
Audio Features:
: PCM Stereo (2018 Stereo Mix)
: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (2018)
: Dolby True HD 5.1 (2018)
: Mono (2018 Direct Transfer Of ‘The White Album’ Original Mono Mix)

 Deluxe [3CD Digipak / 180-gram 4LP Vinyl Box Set (limited Edition)
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Esher Demos

Standard 2LP Vinyl [180-gram]
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix

Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.

Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.

In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.

For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”

There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.

The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.

A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.

The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.

Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.

The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.

An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.

Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Yellow Submarine (2009 - Remaster)
2. Only A Northern Song (2009 - Remaster)
3. All Together Now (2009 - Remaster)
4. Hey Bulldog (2009 - Remaster)
5. It's All Too Much (2009 - Remaster)
6. All You Need Is Love (2009 - Remaster)

Side 2:
1. Pepperland (2009 - Remaster)
2. Sea Of Time (2009 - Remaster)
3. Sea Of Holes (2009 - Remaster)
4. Sea Of Monsters (2009 - Remaster)
5. March Of The Meanies (2009 - Remaster)
6. Pepperland Laid Waste (2009 - Remaster)
7. Yellow Submarine In Pepperland (2009 - Remaster)

I Just Can't Stop It is the debut studio album by British ska band the Beat, released on 23 May 1980 by Go-Feet Records in the United Kingdom. It was released the same year in the United States on Sire Records under the band name "The English Beat". In Australia, it was released on Go-Feet under the band name "The British Beat".

Well received from the start, publications such as Rolling Stone raved that the music was "wild and threatening, sexy and sharp." AllMusic later said it "was a stunning achievement", which has not been diminished by time.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Mirror In The Bathroom
Hands Off...She's Mine
Two Swords
Twist And Crawl
Rough Rider
Click Click
Side B
Big Shot
Whine & Grine / Stand Down Margaret
Noise In This World
Can’t Get Used To Losing You
Best Friend
Jackpot

Ragnhild Zeigler is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and saw player. She is now releasing her debut album under the name 'The Bee's Niece'. The album is called "I Don't Speak Cat".

Released originally by Wall of Sound sublabel We Love You in 2002, ‘Sunshine Hit Me’ was recorded and produced by founding members Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher in a home garden studio - aka The Shed - on the Isle of Wight, and went on to receive a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, 2003.

Singles from the album include “No Trophy”, “Punchbag”, and a cover of Os Mutantes’ “A Minha Menina”.

TRACK LISTING

Punchbag
Angryman
No Trophy
Binnel Bay
Sunshine
A Minha Menina
This Town
Sweet Like A Champion
Lying In The Snow
Zia
Sky Holds The Sun

CD Bonus Tracks
Seeds
You Got To Leave
Elain
Whistle Chop
Jackel Head
Out For The Count

Strut presents the definitive reissues of two all-time classic Caribbean soul and funk albums, The Beginning Of The End’s ‘Funky Nassau’ (1971) and ‘Beginning Of The End’ (1976).

Emerging from Nassau in the Bahamas in 1971, the band was formed around the Munnings brothers (Ray, Leroy and Frank) and the first song they recorded, ‘Funky Nassau’, became a No. 1 Billboard R’n’B hit, selling over a million copies. “We wanted to create something new,” remembers Ray Munnings, “something that was truly Bahamian. We loved funk but wanted to include elements of junkanoo, the indigenous music of The Bahamas.” An album was written within a week and recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. “We brought in more Bahamian themes, like ‘Monkey Tamarind’, a wild fruit that grows there.”

By the time of their second album in 1976, the band was managed by Don Taylor, also Bob Marley’s manager. “Don took us to Byron Lee’s studio in Jamaica and used Teddy Randazzo (Little Anthony & The Imperials) to direct the sessions,” recalls Munnings. “He gave us more of an uptempo jazz funk sound with Chicago-style horns.” The album led to a run of incredible bad luck. Booked to support Marvin Gaye’s ’What’s Goin’ On’ tour, the US Musicians Union stepped in and ordered a US group to fill the slot. They were then added onto a major Bob Marley tour in 1976 before he injured his foot, cancelling all dates.

These definitive official reissues of ‘Funky Nassau’ and ‘Beginning Of The End’ are remastered by The Carvery from original tapes and feature full length tracks from the studio sessions. Both albums feature a history of the albums and the band by vocalist Ray

Munnings, alongside rare photos. ‘Beginning Of The End’ appears on loudpress 2LP for the first time. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Superwoman
2. Trip To Nowhere
3. Jamaica
4. I’Ve Got The News
5. Falling Apart At The Seams
6. That’S What I Get
7. Bluestrain
8. Jump In The Water
9. Bahamian Boogie

The Bell Peppers are a UK Surf n' Roll 2 piece who have toured with Allah Las, Hooded Fang and Y Niwl. This Cassette release, the first for Manchester label, Captured Cats, features the 4 songs that make up the latest EP, Saved by the Bell Peppers and the 4 that made up the first EP, Cooking with Bell Peppers.

These recordings were made at home, using a four track, looping samples of themselves performing the percussion, and then layering lush melodic surf guitar and peppered vocal interjections on top of it. the results are sweet, raw and satisfying, each song exploring a different microgenre of the 50's and early 60s. From Haunted Diner Do-Wop to Hoedown Rockabilly and Scuzzy RnB.

TRACK LISTING

Track 1A : Drapes N' Squares
Track 2A : The Hoofstomp
Track 3A : Moonlight Heartache
Track 4A: Golf Shack

Track 1B : Rubber Bullets
Track 2B : Monquito's Diner
Track 3B : Bell Pepper Hop
Track 4B : Cry Baby

The Tiara label gets the Numero treatment. North Miami Beach’s The Belles were remarkably free of any masculine influence - an all-girl, teen rock band who played instruments, wrote songs,and were a good representation of multiculturalismin the 1960s. The Belles’ lone single featured ‘Melvin’, a gender swapped rewrite of Them’s ‘Gloria’, backed with Come Back’ Pure representation of girls in the garage.

TRACK LISTING

1. Melvin
2. Come Back

The Belles are from the same Kansas emo scene that produced the Get Up Kids and features a guest appearance from 'Kids Ed Rose, who also produced and mixed the album. The Belles lean more towards Elliot Smith, Neil Young and Wilco style songs. Drummer Jake Cardwell has previously lent his skills to The New Amsterdams (Get Up Kids side project). Mainman Christopher Tolle toured with Ultimate Fakebook, Superdrag and The Strokes.

Happiness was recorded from late 1988 to summer 1989, influenced by the band's immersion in the nascent UK Acid House scene. Originally a four-piece guitar/synth band, The Beloved MK1 parted ways late 1987 and founder members Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington were newly liberated by their electronic, machine-driven rhythm section. The perfect synchronicity of the Balearic stylings of the underground clubs and exposure to early Chicago House corresponded with a burst in songwriting and sonic adventure. The result: Happiness!

Recorded mostly with producer Martyn Phillips (who subsequently worked with Erasure, Jesus Jones, & Londonbeat) the band created a hybrid of British electronic pop music, US club beats, euphoric mood and consistently optimistic and uplifting lyrics. 

'Happiness' has been remastered from the original analogue studio masters (by John Davis at Metropolis Studios) and has a significantly louder and clearer audio than the original release. The reissue includes new sleeve notes written by the band themselves.

TRACK LISTING

LP / CD (songs 11-25 With * Are CD (special Edition) Only):
Hello
Your Love Takes Me Higher
Time After Time
Don’t You Worry
Scarlet Beautiful
The Sun Rising
I Love You More
Wake Up Soon
Up Up & Away
Found
I Love You More [demo]*
Jackie (Won't You Please Come Home?)*
Sally* / My Heart’s Desire*
Your Love Takes Me Higher [demo]*
Your Love Takes Me Higher [piano/303 Demo]*
Wake Up Soon [demo]*
Acid Love (7" Mix)*
Acid Love (Acid Dream)*
Paradise (My Darling, My Angel)*
Time After Time [demo]*
Time After Time [extended Demo Dub]*
Jennifer Smiles*/ Pablo (7 Inch Mix)*
The Sun Rising (Evening Session Remix)*

Another strong TKO release. This is the Beltones second album and these Florida punk boys are great at combining typical high speed US punk with a gritty mixture of 50s rockabilly and 60s mod. Well worth checking out.

High Flying Man feels like a cautionary phrase - it’s hard to remove the connotations of Icarus, some of the more-unfortunately famous Flying Wallendas or even just a guy in the middle of a heater at the blackjack table. It’s the promise of an adrenaline rush fighting against the eventuality of a comedown on the horizon - a feeling perfectly channeled in The Berries’ third LP High Flying Man due out this summer on Run For Cover Records.

The Berries is the project of vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter Matt Berry, a Washington native who’s spent the past few years living in Los Angeles. In the five years since forming the band they’ve released a number of records, including Start All Over Again (2018) and 2019’s Berryland. During the pandemic touring pause the band also released a series of singles, collected in the Tower of Ivory compilation tape - but all the while, the songs of High Flying Man were coming together in moments of sporadic inspiration, waiting for the right time to come to light.

High Flying Man is riff-first rock music with piercing melodies and desert twang, all tied in with the emotions of living in the modern world. Lead single “Prime” evokes the feeling of hopelessness watching hollow activism fail to remedy the ills of a failing country, while the more mellow “Eagle Eye” confronts the pain of addiction with the haunting chorus refrain, “don’t I remind you of an old horse well past its prime / I’ve been ridden and abandoned, left on the roadside out of sight, out of mind.” Tracks on this record feel a kinship with classic American rock bands of the past in the driving power of songs like the anti-capitalist closer “Give Me Your Money” or the swaggering “Exceptional Fabric.”

While the songs that make up High Flying Man confront difficult truths, the music feels as alive as a man in a brown suit throwing a sword on the beach on an overcast day. Berry describes the 9-day tracking process with close friend/producer Todd Berndt and engineer Jimmy Dixon being one of “unbridled joy,” and this feeling comes across in every take recorded. This cathartic energy makes for a unifying sense of purpose on the record. “I want people to feel good about themselves when they listen to this record,” says Berry. And although there might be a comedown in the future, it’s hard to feel that way when you listen to The Berries on High Flying Man.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Western Township
2. Prime
3. Down That Road Again
4. High Flying Man
5. Eagle Eye
Side B
1. Life’s Blood
2. Exceptional Fabric
3. A Drop Of Rain
4. Choose To Get High
5. Give Me Your Money

Following the triumphant, epic Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings album released in early 2021, The Besnard Lakes have announced the release to an accompanying EP – The Besnard Lakes are the Prayers for the Death of Fame.

The majority of the music found on …Death of Fame were recorded in some form at the same time as their 2021 double album, but have since been either re-recorded, edited, extrapolated, and straight-up psyched out. Going even further into their drone rock influences (think Pure Phase-era Spiritualized and the mellower moments White Hills’ catalogue) the band emerge as a progressive and experimental group not afraid to take things out beyond the 15 minute mark (Silver Shadows).

A band who are getting close to their 20 year mark continue to explore, surprise and excite us – it’s a trip, and we’re all on board.

TRACK LISTING

1. She's An Icicle
2. A Jacket For A Rainy Lady
3. Silver Shadows

The story of The Besnard Lakes begins at Besnard Lake: a spectacular yet secluded water feature in rural Saskatchewan which the Montreal group’s husband and wife core, Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, visit each summer for inspiration and escape. This year the couple’s campsite was surrounded for a worrying few days by forest flames, a literal ring of fire which informed the devil-may-care spirit of their exuberant fifth album.

“Besnard Lake is usually the place where we get the germination of ideas,” explains Jace. “We set up a small recording rig in the trailer we have up there .This time there were also helicopters with giant water tanks flying over us while we were fishing on the lake!”

Armed with demos and memories from their trip, the pair returned to the city and entered Breakglass Studios. Co-founded by Lasek a decade ago, this popular recording facility has long been a hub for Montreal’s fertile, collaborative and proudly DIY music community. Having met and fallen in love in Vancouver, where Jace was a photography-trained art student and Olga a bass-slinging star on the underground rock circuit, the pair relocated at the turn of the millennium. Vancouver had gotten too expensive. By contrast, “Montreal was super cheap because there had been the Quebec referendum in ’95 and a lot of the Anglos had left. There was a political teeter-totter happening, so there were tons of empty places. We moved out here and were able to live, rehearse and record in a loft for next to nothing.”

The predominantly French-speaking province’s economic depression birthed an ever-evolving scene that’s become internationally renowned for such disparate independent avatars as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and The Arcade Fire. Unique among their furrowed brow peers, The Besnard Lakes are unafraid to marry textured, questing headphone sonics to the honeyed pleasure of radio hits past: the rapture of My Bloody Valentine entwined with the romance of Fleetwood Mac. (Echoing prime FM they actually now have two girl/boy couplings in the line-up, keyboard player Sheenah Ko and guitarist Robbie MacArthur joining powerhouse drummer Kevin Laing and non-touring studio axe hero Richard White.) Imagine dreamy Beach House riding Led Zeppelin dynamics, with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies. This melodic yet mountainous soundworld was sculpted at Breakglass, their own modest Paisley Park. As the longterm sporter of a Love Symbol tattoo, Prince’s pop alchemy is especially potent for Jace.

“You look on the back of his early records and it’s produced, arranged, recorded and performed by Prince. When I realised that as a 12-year-old I was like, Oh fuck! So this kid can make a record all by himself. So then why can’t I? He was also the guy who made me realise that it was ok to sing high. Just throw caution to the wind. He’s not concerned about being super macho. Once I started getting into punk rock in high school, Prince was still there. He didn’t lose relevancy for me. Prince was still there when I started getting into prog rock, too. We’re just absorbed in music of all sorts.”

Olga, meanwhile, has been exploring a new creative outlet via her domestic interpretation of the occult, inspired by a Disinformation lecture given by comic book writer Grant Morrison. “He was talking about sigils,” remembers her adoring partner. “It was really personal for Oggy, like a meditation she would do in the morning, and also just a fun thing. She developed these 11 sigils, which you can see on the inside of the record’s jacket. For the deluxe edition she’s hand engraved them onto these little tags. The meanings are very simple: one is love, another is empathy. That leads back to this whole idea of mystery and the myth of the band.”

Channelling their obsessions with the paranormal – Jace was a teenage ghost hunter – as well as the dark arts, A Coliseum Complex Museum is populated by cryptozoological creatures (The Bray Road Beast, Golden Lion) while also luxuriating in natural phenomena and beauty (The Plain Moon, Nightingale). These themes are sincere yet good-humoured. The LP’s title jokily refers to a landmark-heavy road sign spotted on tour in Texas, the varied emotional impulses within reflected by its environmentally warped artwork.

“For a long time we were trying to keep secret that we love being out in nature,” admits Jace. “Because it’s kinda cliché. But with this record we decided to stop fighting what we love so much. So the front cover actually has a lake on it, but it’s also got this giant orb shooting light into the water, which is creating a hole that’s opening a portal to the coliseum complex museum. It’s kinda fucked.”

TRACK LISTING

1. The Bray Road Beast
2. The Golden Lion
3. Pressure Of Our Plans
4. Towers Sent Her To Sheets Of Sound
5. The Plain Moon
6. Necronomicon
7. Nightingale
8. Tungsten 4: The Refugee

There is a war now. The message has been sent through short wave in code. The Besnard Lakes twisting chronicle, or fever dream, of spies, double agents, novelists and aspiring rock gods has turned violent. Loyalty, dishonor, love, hatred all seen through the eyes of two spies, fighting a war that may not be real. One follows the other as they receive coded messages and spread destruction. The city is burning, and it's to the benefit of music obsessives everywhere. Once again, the husband-and-wife duo of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek has crafted a majestic, sprawling vision of guitar bombast and captivating pop experiments.

"The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night" calls upon the influence of ELO and finer parts of the Alan Parsons Project in its orchestration. Still helped by the Ghost of Beach Boys Past, the album is more Dennis Wilson than Brian, and more Peter Green Fleetwood Mac than Lindsay Buckingham. That said, standout track "Albatross" has all the swagger of a Stevie Nicks-led Fleetwood Mac classic or Roy Orbison re-imagined as a rollicking, snakeskin-booted Mazzy Star - dousing it all in gas and throwing the match as we hear its tale of Vancouver's skid row and its inhabitants.

The album is a dark bliss-out that folds the eerie guitar epics of the Montreal band's breakthrough into a wall of affected drones and atmospherics, but with a toughened immediacy and grit that gives the form a much-needed shove over the cliffs, making for a haunting, provocative swan dive into the crushing tide. 

Released to coincide with their forthcoming UK dates and in advance of their highly anticipated new album, ‘A Coliseum Complex Museum’, here is the brand new 12” from The Besnard Lakes.

The single features prime album cut ‘Golden Lion’ alongside two exclusive tracks.

This is the band at their absolute best - desnse, soaring guitars, harmonies to die for and handsdown the best chorus they’ve ever written. This 12” sows the seeds for a stellar 2016 for The Besnard Lakes.

The Besnard Lakes’ ‘Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO’ had its humble beginnings in mid-2011 and was completed over the course of a year. Ever mindful and attentive to the most subtle and nuanced details, founding band members Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas produced, recorded and mixed at the stalwart Breakglass Studios in Montreal with long time bandmates Kevin Laing and Richard White.

Eventually mastered by the renowned Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, this fourth album by The Besnard Lakes features heavyweight additions by Moonface’s Spencer Krug and Mike Bigelow, The Barr Brothers’ Sarah Page, the always enchanting Monica Guenter and the return of The Fifth String Liberation Singers’ Choir.

Each of the eight tracks on the album takes off, coasts, and lands smoothly, with a jubilant slowburn of its own momentum for the benefit of the larger picture.

The Besnard Lakes create a distinct and dreamy headspace, an enigmatic and somehow familiar placelessness. It happens in such a way that both the close and casual listener find themselves immersed in the generous sonic vision, one moment as timeless as the next.

“A magnificently oceanic meld of Beach Boys harmonies, My Bloody Valentine tidal waves and Phil Spector girlgroup siren songs shot through with soaring guitar.” - Rolling Stone

“Right now no one is making music this grand, this big, this moving with so much assurance.” - Chicago Tribune

“Nothing short of beautiful.” - NME

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.

“Heroes to Zeros” is the third and final studio album by The Beta Band released in 2004. It was mixed by famed producer Nigel Godrich and rose to number 18 in the UK charts.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Assessment
A2. Space
A3. Lion Thief
A4. Easy
A5. Wonderful
A6. Troubles
B1. Out-Side
B2. Space Beatle
B3. Rhododendron
B4. Liquid Bird
B5. Simple
B6. Pure For

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.

After a short hiatus the band gradually gravitated back into the studio and recruited noted UK producer Colin Emmanuel, aka C-Swing, to oversee the process of “Hot Shots II” which was released in mid 2001. Notoriously the band had intended to release "Squares", which featured a sample from the Günter Kallmann Choir's 1970 version of Wallace Collection's "Daydream", as the lead single. However after filming the music video and taking the single to radio it suddenly transpired that another single "Daydream in Blue" by I Monster featuring the sample from Günter Kallmann Choir recording was also to be released at the same time causing the band to release "Broke" instead. Touring extensively and supporting Radiohead in August 2002, they made No. 3 on Q magazine's list of "50 Bands to See Before You Die".

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A killer second (full-length) outing from The Beta Band sees Mason & Co. straying away slightly from the longing indie of their debut (and first three EP's) into anthemic minimalist acousticry, dancefloor rhythms and throbbing background electronics, whilst still retaining their melodic thread.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Squares
A2. Al Sharp
B1. Human Being
B2. Gone
B3. Dragon
C1. Broke
C2. Quiet
C3. Alleged
D1. Life
D2. Eclipse

2CD edition in 3-panel digipack with a 16-page poster booklet.

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996.

Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.

After acquiring the Beta Band’s catalogue last year, Because Music will reissue their releases, starting on September 14th with a double CD Best-Of compiling all their best hits and a live show recorded at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (London) in 2004.

Because Music will also celebrate at the same time the 20th anniversary of their 1998 compilation ‘The Three EPs’ by releasing a deluxe vinyl edition gathering in a slipcase the EPs ‘Champion Versions’, ‘The Patty Patty Sound’ and ‘Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos’ with remastered tracks and coloured vinyls. 

TRACK LISTING

CD1
1. Dry The Rain
2. Inner Meet Me
3. She’s The One
4. Dr. Baker
5. It’s Not Too Beautiful
6. Smiling
7. To You Alone
8. Squares
9. Human Being
10. Gone
11. Broke
12. Assessment 
13. Easy
14. Wonderful
15. Troubles
16. Simple

CD2 – Live At The Shepherds Bush Empire
1. It’s Not Too Beautiful 
2. Squares
3. Inner Meet Me 
4. Simple
5. She’s The One
6. Easy 
7. Dr. Baker 
8. Dry The Rain 
9. Quiet
10. Broke
11. Assessment
12. Dog’s Got A Bone 

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.

Released in 1999, the album “The Beta Band” followed the critically acclaimed compilation “The Three E.P.'s” (1998). With high anticipation for The Beta Band, the band originally planned to record the album in four separate continents, but financial constraints slimmed the recording locations down; however, the album was still recorded in a variety of locations and pulling inspiration from sources as diverse as Jamaican reggae, Disney's movie “The Black Hole” and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

The band also originally intended the album to contain a bonus disc of two long form ambient pieces, ‘Happiness and Colour’ and ‘The Hut’, both of which lasted over 20 minutes and represented the band's desire to "make a record of sound as a description for something like happiness, where a distinct first part gives way to a distinct second part”. However, the band and label ultimately decided to remove these tracks from the album prior to release.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Beta Band Rap
A2. It's Not Too Beautiful
A3. Simple Boy
B1. Round The Bend
B2. Dance O'er The Border
B3. Brokenupadingdong
C1. Number 15
C2. Smiling
D1. The Hard One
D2. The Cow's Wrong

Bonus EP/CD: A. Happiness And Colour / B. The Hut

2CD Edition Features The Same Tracks In The Same Order.

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries.

Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation. 

TRACK LISTING

Champion Versions EP
A1. Dry The Rain / A2. I Know / B1. B + A / B2. Dogs Got A Bone

The Patty Patty Sound EP
A. Inner Meet Me / B. The House Song / C. Monolith / D. She’s The One

Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos EP
A1. Push It Out / A2. It’s Over / B1. Dr. Baker / B2. Needles In My Eyes

CD Features The Same Tracklist In The The Same Order.

The anticipation is there in Elizabeth Stokes’ solo guitar riff under the opening lines of “I’m Not Getting Excited”: a frenetic, driving force daring a packed Auckland Town Hall to do exactly the opposite of what the track title suggests.

As the opener of The Beths’ Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 expands to include the full band, the crowd screeches and bellows. It’s a collective exhalation, in one of the few countries where live music is still possible.

The album title, and film of the same name, deliberately include the date and location, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce says. “That’s the sensational part of what we actually did.” In a mid-pandemic world, playing to a heaving, enraptured home crowd feels miraculous.

In March 2020, everything seemed on track for another huge year for The Beths. Home after an 18-month northern hemisphere tour, they had just finished recording sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers and were primed for more extensive touring. But within days, New Zealand’s lockdown split the band between three separate houses. All touring was cancelled.

“It was existentially bad,” Stokes says. As well as worrying about economic survival, they lost something crucial to the band’s identity: live performance. “It's a huge part of how we see ourselves... What does it mean, if we can't play live?”

The band found an outlet through live-streaming, returning to the do-it-yourself mentality of their early days to connect with a global audience. The album and film have their genesis in that urge to share the now-rare experience of a live show, as widely as possible.

The fuzzy-round-the-edges live-streams pointed the way aesthetically. Native birds, wonkily crafted by the band from tissue paper and wire, festoon the venue’s cavernous ceiling while house plants soften and disguise the imposing pipes of an organ. The presence of the film crew isn’t disguised: much of the camerawork is handheld; full of fast zooms and pans.

With much of the material still fresh, the band was less focused on re-invention than playing “a good, fast rock show”, Pearce says. The tempo is up on crowd favourites “Whatever” and “Future Me Hates Me” (released as a live single on its third anniversary) as both band and audience feed off the mutual energy in the room.

Certain songs have taken on special resonance post-Covid. Pearce has found “Out Of Sight”, a tender rumination on long-distance relationships, hits particularly hard with live audiences.

Album closer “River Run” visibly brings Stokes to tears as a mix of achievement and relief kicks in. “You can finally relax at that point … You play the last note, breathe out a sigh and look up - and you’re in a giant room full of people happy and smiling.”

TRACK LISTING

1. I'm Not Getting Excited - LIve
2. Great No One - Live
3. Whatever - Live
4. Mars, The God Of War - Live
5. Future Me Hates Me - Live
6. Introduction
7. Jump Rope Gazers - Live
8. Uptown Girl - Live
9. Bird Talk
10. Happy Unhappy - Live
11. Out Of Sight - Live
12. Thank You
13. Don't Go Away - Live
14. Little Death - Live
15. Dying To Believe - Live
16. River Run - Live

The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun -- to hear, to play -- in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope.

Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) -- and sometimes in the building's cavernous stairwell at 1am -- toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads.

Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”

The rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.

Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Expert In A Dying Field
2. Knees Deep
3. Silence Is Golden
4. Your Side
5. I Want To Listen
6. Head In The Clouds
7. Best Left
8. Change In The Weather
9. When You Know You Know
10. A Passing Rain
11. I Told You That I Was Afraid
12. 2am

The Beths from New Zealand occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard The Breeders/Jale/Veruca Salt..

Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland’s rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. “Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,” says Stokes. “I never thought I had the right voice for it.”

From the irresistible title track to future singles “Happy Unhappy” and “You Wouldn’t Like Me,” Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me’s dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the ‘60s, while inverting the trope of the “sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.”

All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that’s equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.

“There’s a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,” she continues, “that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.” Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. “That’s another New Zealand thing,” Stokes concludes with a laugh. “We’re putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.” The result is nothing less than one of the standout records of 2018.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: The antipodean onslaught continues with New Zealand's The Beths. 'Future Me Hates Me' is the shortest, sharpest most bittersweet collection of three minute pop songs we've heard this year.

TRACK LISTING

1. Great No One
2. Future Me Hates Me
3. Uptown Girl
4. You Wouldn't Like Me
5. Not Running
6. Little Death
7. Happy Unhappy
8. River Run: Lvl
9. Whatever
10. Less Than Thou

Everything changed for The Beths when they released their above mentioned debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. The indie rock band had long been nurtured within Auckland, New Zealand’s tight-knit music scene, working full-time during the day and playing music with friends after hours. Full of uptempo pop rock songs with bright, indelible hooks, the LP garnered them critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and they set out for their first string of shows overseas. They quit their jobs, said goodbye to their home town, and devoted themselves entirely to performing across North America and Europe. They found themselves playing to crowds of devoted fans and opening for acts like Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie. Almost instantly, The Beths turned from a passion project into a full-time career in music.

Songwriter and lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on what would become The Beths’ second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring. Like the group’s earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Stokes’s writing on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasy proposition of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on another continent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones back home.

"If you're at a certain age, all your friends scatter to the four winds,” Stokes says. “We did the same thing. When you're home, you miss everybody, and when you're away, you miss everybody. We were just missing people all the time.”

With songs like the rambunctious “Dying To Believe” and the tender, shoegazey “Out of Sight,” The Beths reckon with the distance that life necessarily drives between people over time. People who love each other inevitably fail each other. “I’m sorry for the way that I can’t hold conversations/They’re such a fragile thing to try to support the weight of,” Stokes sings on “Dying to Believe.” The best way to repair that failure, in The Beths’ view, is with abundant and unconditional love, no matter how far it has to travel. On “Out of Sight,” she pledges devotion to a dearly missed friend: “If your world collapses/I’ll be down in the rubble/I’d build you another,” she sings.

“It was a rough year in general, and I found myself saying the words, 'wish you were here, wish I was there,’ over and over again,” she says of the time period in which the album was written. Touring far from home, The Beths committed themselves to taking care of each other as they were trying at the same time to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. They encouraged each other to communicate whenever things got hard, and to pay forward acts of kindness whenever they could. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Their most emotive and heartfelt work to date, Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it -- a sentiment we need now more than ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've always liked a bit of The Beths to be honest, having heard them innocently enough in the shop some time ago, and their latest outing is even more evidence as to why. Brilliantly melodic swathes of guitar and perfectly produced percussion form a superb backdrop to the undeniably poppy-punk drive of Stokes' voice.

TRACK LISTING

1. I'm Not Getting Excited
2. Dying To Believe
3. Jump Rope Gazers
4. Acrid
5. Do You Want Me Now
6. Out Of Sight
7. Don't Go Away
8. Mars, The God Of War
9. You Are A Beam Of Light
10. Just Shy Of Sure

Focus On Nature is the new studio album from celebrated post-psyche singer songwriter Nick Saloman and his band The Bevis Frond. Seventy-five minutes of glorious melodies that span 60s psych, English folk, Seattle art-punks The Wipers, the buzzsaw pop of Dinosaur Jr and Hendrix-esque explorations. There’s always an element of playful Englishness to their music.

Heavily influencing the likes of The Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub, Elliot Smith, Pavement and Dinosaur Jr, the cult icons have produced another off-kilter mix of melodic piano-led melancholy, acoustic ruminations, scratchy garage rock with a punky edge and full-on guitar histrionics.

Like its much-praised predecessor, ‘Little Eden’, the new record studies the world’s weariness but fills out a bigger canvas; fast food and global warming, broken hearts and long gone nights out, everyday immortality and being God’s gift all share space. It’s like Townshend at his most thematic; Big Star in all their acoustic glory, perfectly balancing the punky garage rock combo who end up running on ‘Empty’ with Gilmour breaks that elevate it all to grandeur.

“Still mixing pop, punk and psych to giddy effect.” The Guardian

“Self-reflection is twinned with a rueful survey of the current state of the nation.” Uncut

TRACK LISTING

1. Heat
2. Focus On Nature
3. God's Gift
4. Vitruvian Man
5. A Mirror
6. Leb Off
7. Here For The Other One
8. Happy Wings
9. Empty
10. Wrong Way Round
11. Mr Freds Disco
12. Jack Immortal
13. Hairstreaks
14. Maybe We Got It Wrong
15. Brocadine
16. Big Black Sky
17. The Hug
18. I Can't Breathe
19. Hung On A Wire

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2017 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The Bevis Frond have successfully traversed the ‘traditional’ side of songwriting to produce a prolific and un-comparable body of genuinely beautiful, yet genre baiting songs that are hard to ignore” Louder Than War. Released on 12” purple coloured vinyl for Record Store Day 2017, ‘The Auntie Winnie Album’ will be reissued for Record Store Day alongside ‘Bevis Through The Looking Glass’ and ‘Triptych’ as part of the band’s 30th Anniversary. Initially released in 1988, the companion piece to ‘Bevis Through The Looking Glass’ comprises of unreleased material from the Woronzow archives. The last of his earlier releases that sees the influential multi-instrumentalist Nick Saloman perform solo throughout. A labour of love and fiercely independent, his prolific output has seen as many releases in as many years and an uncompromising vision under his own label Woronzow. Hailed as “a Hendrix devotee every bit as tough and contemporary as the serrated guitar chorales of Sonic Youth and Pixies” by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, his immense psych-stoner-rock has seen him become a cult figure in his own right. The Bevis Frond’s legion of loyal fans includes Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr and Mary Lou Lord, who have all covered his music. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 A1 Malvolio's Dream Journey To Pikes A2 Foreign Laugh A3 Down Again A4 Will To Lose A5 Repressor A6 Winter's Blues B1 The Miz-Maze B2 Close B3 Without Mind B4 City Of The Sun C1 Traction C2 Long Day C3 Twice Torn, Once Forgotten C4 Spa Hotel D1 Visions Through Dilated Eyes D2 African Violet D3 Hillview D4 Automatic Bomb Virgins D5 Possession

‘The Clocks' was originally issued in 2007 as a CD-only limited edition of 110 for members of 'The Bevis Frond Online Community'. It comprised 19 previously unissued tracks. Most of these were home demos featuring just Frond frontman Nick Saloman on all instruments and vocals. Since then, it has never been re-issued in any format. It is therefore with great pleasure that Blue Matter are re-issuing it for the first time, and now as a vinyl double album and limited CD. Due to certain circumstances, three of the original tracks could not be used, so these have been replaced these with another three previously unheard tracks from Nick Saloman's extensive archives. These songs include the seven minute 'She's Taken It All', originally intended for 2004's 'Hit Squad' album but dropped at the last minute due to timing constraints. The beautiful 'You Better Make Do' and the edgy 'Devil Doll' have also been added. We are delighted to be able to make this 'long lost' album available once again and think it will be a welcome addition to the Bevis Frond canon.

TRACK LISTING

Side One.
1 Worlde Is Older
2 The Clocks
3 Home Is Where The Head Is
4 Cut To The Quick
Side Two.
5 Bless Him
6 Anything You Say
7 Devil Doll
8 God
9 When I’m Gone
10 I Need The Rush.
Side Three.
11 Watch The Sun
12 You Better Make Do
13 Little Ray
14 She’s Taken It All.
Side Four.
15 Things He Said
16 I’ll Save Myself
17 I Wasn’t There
18 I’m Better Now
19 Shades 

The latest from The Big Boss aka Manchester based Kiwi Martin Byrne Inner Space takes hypnotic grooves and deep electronic beats, adding sweeping synth melodies and a splash of chopped up vocals to make this an album for true electronic music lover.

THEMES: Motherhood, parenthood, birth, lockdown, friendships, love.

The last time you heard them it was welcoming the release of their dazzling second album, Walking Like We Do, back in January 2020, when life was very different to how it is now. That was a coming-of-age record, bold songs for Saturday nights and sad songs for Sunday mornings. So much has changed, continues to change, and promises to change some more. And in this world of constant change, we yearn for the familiarity of a constant. Thankfully, one constant remains the unique, jubilant, unassailable bond that sews this brilliant London band together and what that does for their music, too. Another such constant is their collective ear for melody and knack for writing smart, sharp, and infectious indie-pop knockouts.

Like so many records landing in store and on streaming services right now, Here Is Everything was conceived during the weight and worry of lockdown in a pandemic. Worlds were turned upside down and inside out. Lives became seismically different, whilst every day a carbon copy of the last. So, whilst Covid pulled the duvet tightly up over our heads and sat on it whilst we muffle-screamed that we could not breathe, it was also the unlikely backdrop to welcoming new life. Vocalist Juliette Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent (including, to her eternal bemusement, one Courtney Love), she ended it as mother to a super little human being.

Here is Everything documents the arrival of that fragile but mighty baby in real time, and the excitement and fear felt by this fragile but mighty mother. Meanwhile, the rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.

The record is introduced today by Wide Eyes, a pure, uplifting song of collective jubilance. It sounds like a band in the form of their lives, having the time of their lives, and against all the odds. It sounds instantly like The Big Moon whilst sounding unlike any of the music that’s gone before it.

Here Is Everything was mostly self-produced, with the expert guidance and expertise of Adam Cecil Bartlett (Self Esteem, Jehnny Beth, PJ Harvey) and the Grammy Award winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deer Hunter, and the producer of Walking Like We Do).

TRACK LISTING

1. 2 Lines
2. Wide Eyes
3. Daydreaming
4. This Love
5. Sucker Punch
6. My Very Best
7. Ladye Bay
8. Trouble
9. High & Low
10. Magic
11. Satellites

The Big Moon are excited to announce the deluxe edition of their third album Here Is Everything. The album features remixes from Marika Hackman and Art School Girlfriend, brand new tracks ‘Summer Still Comes’ and ‘Round Forever’ (which sees bassist Celia Archer on lead-vocals duty for the first time), as well as some exclusive live versions of album tracks.

Celia Archer on ‘Round Forever’ –
"Round Forever is about all the time and energy we spend trying to understand ourselves and other people so that we can properly communicate and what a gift that can be. It’s also about how sometimes that’s all a total waste of time and you need to stop working and overthinking and let it go!"

Following a storming summer of festivals, including a packed slot at Glastonbury in June, The Big Moon recently announced a run of UK + EU shows for December this year. The tour kicks off in Genk on 5th December, taking in Paris, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Oxford, finishing up at London’s Union Chapel for a very special stripped-back performance on 18th December. Tickets are on sale now.

Here is Everything focuses on motherhood, with lead vocalist Jules Jackson giving birth during its inception. The rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.

Here Is Everything was mostly self-produced, with the expert guidance and expertise of co-producers CECIL (Self Esteem, Jehnny Beth, PJ Harvey) and the Grammy Award winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deer Hunter, and the producer of Walking Like We Do).

TRACK LISTING

1. 2 Lines
2. Wide Eyes
3. Daydreaming
4. This Love
5. Suckerpunch
6. My Very Best
7. Ladye Bay
8. Trouble
9. High And Low
10. Magic
11. Satellites

BONUS TRACKS
1. Summer Still Comes
2. Round Forever
3. 2 Lines (Live At The HAC Bow)
4. This Love (Live At The HAC Bow)
5. Satellites (Live At The HAC Bow)
6. Suckerpunch (Marika Hackman Remix)
7. Trouble (Art School Girlfriend Remix)

Taking inspiration from the original concept behind the founding of Saddle Creek, as an attempt to highlight our home city through music and art, we began the Document Series in 2017. Each release featured in the Document Series is comprised of an exclusive record featuring unreleased music from artists outside of the label's roster, along with a specially curated zine created by the artist. The tenth installment in the series comes from New York based The Big Net.

An exercise in simplicity, The Big Net is the musical project of Kevin Copeland (guitar, vocals) Andrew Emge (drums) and Logan Miley (bass). Attempting to maximize the emotive power of the trio, the band’s style drives down the highway somewhere between drone and country, folk and rock. With Corey Rubin on bass and secondary vocals, their first self-titled record explored more of those rock roots: recorded live in two days with minimal overdubs, trying to capture the freewheeling magnetism that can come alive in a room.

Released as part of Saddle Creek’s Document Series, the band’s two new songs - "Big Moon" and “Rufus" - were recorded that same weekend. The idea of The Big Net is and has always been immediacy, letting that tangible thing in the air be itself and tuning into “song” at its most genuine. Both songs make good on those aspirations. “Big Moon” is quite literal. Written during a particularly lonely period in Copeland’s life, he would sing so that he could fall asleep and from that process the song seemed to “float in all at once.” “Sometimes all you have is yourself, and the moon, or a guitar, or a bed, or the ground under your feet, and that's ok. Those things will always hold you,” Kevin says of the song.

Suitably, "Rufus" was tuned into to the same kind of frequency, pulled from the ether as if it had somehow always existed. “When our friend Corey was playing bass with us, most rehearsals before everyone’s gear was even set up; someone was off and everyone else would catch up,” Copeland says. “Somewhere in that soup, an idea would come through. I remember latching onto what became the verse of “Rufus” and, when Andrew and Corey were out getting some air, I just played it over and over and that melody seemed to float right in.”

The band have just finished recording a new, more exploratory LP, again captured in a single room over two days. With Copeland as the primary songwriter, the group continues to interpret earnest emotion in song through their hypnotic and dynamic sensibilities. For now, though, we have this new 7” single; an exercise in vulnerability, in trusting your impulses, in the magic that can be found within.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Big Moon
B1. Rufus 

A reckless whirl of mutant rockabilly, black-eyed swamp-blues, outlaw imagery and stomach-churning violence, The Birthday Party were one of the definitive post-punk groups, creative and destructive in equal measure. Originally called The Boys Next Door, the band formed at Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia in the early '70s. The initial line-up was singer/lyricist Nick Cave, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, bassist/provocateur Tracy Pew and drummer Phill Calvert. They started out performing covers, but were soon galvanised into writing their own material by the nascent Aussie punk movement (notably The Saints and Radio Birdman). The Boys Next Door's development was accelerated by the addition of visionary guitarist Rowland S Howard in 1978. The following year saw the release of an album, Door Door, on local label Mushroom, but its creators felt the record failed to capture the power of their live show. The group had also grown tired of Melbourne, where they were banned from most venues and routinely hassled by the police.

By the start of the new decade The Boys Next Door had changed their name to The Birthday Party and moved to London. Living in poverty and squalor, they had to borrow equipment and only played ten UK shows in 1980. The second of these, at the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, was attended by 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell. Despite a shambolic set, Ivo saw them again the following month, and by the end of the summer The Birthday Party were signed to 4AD. Their first release for the label was The Friend Catcher 12", comprising three songs recorded back in Melbourne as The Boys Next Door.

They went on to release a couple of albums for 4AD, along with a couple of  EPs before disbanding, with Nick going on to form The Bad Seeds with Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld. This album collects together some of the finest moments from these releases.

4AD reissue ‘Junkyard’ in a special vinyl edition. Apart from the LP, the package also contains a bonus 7” featuring ‘Release The Bats’ and ‘Blast Off’. Additionally, it includes a CD of all 12 tracks, so that fans can also access the music digitally.

The album has been mastered from Henry Rollins’ 2000 re-master, previously unavailable in Europe, while the single is a new, 2012 master taken from the original studio analogue tapes.

“Released in May 1982, ‘Junkyard’s uncompromising contents signalled both the oncoming demise of the band responsible for them and rock & roll’s logical conclusion. Harnessing the power of The Stooges’ ‘Funhouse’ with the limitless possibilities offered by Captain Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’, The Birthday Party were a product of the uncertain times that created them - the unwitting soundtrack to a time of death, darkness and decay.”

“Troubled music for a troubled age, Nick Cave’s world was created in a white-hot blast of visceral energy, gut-wrenching violence and Dadaist stupidity while the work of his band mates fleshed out the vision to devastating effect. Here, blasphemous imagery fraternised with scenes of murder, brutality and sadism as it rolled and revelled in a trash aesthetic that belied the intellect behind it. The noise created by the band was at once familiar - a wild mutation of rock’s primordial slime mixed with a nightmarish interpretation of Elmer Bernstein and a skewed vision of the blues spewed out rather than played - yet startlingly new and all underlined by an inevitable finality.”

“With the passing of 30 years, ‘Junkyard’ still sounds as if it’s waiting for rock music to catch up with it. Throwing down a taunting gauntlet to subsequent generations of musicians, this feral collection of songs simultaneously closes a door on something that can’t be repeated or improved upon. The distance of time has failed to reduce its sonic power and revisiting Junkyard three decades after its birth is to rediscover an album more melodic if no less manic as was initially perceived.” - Julian Marszalek, The Quietus

Though various live releases had emerged over the course of the band’s existence, no full-length capturing of the Party’s particular bacchanalia approved by the group had officially emerged until this release.

“Stitching together tracks from a London date in 1981 and a German show in 1982 (plus a ringer cut from Athens, Greece - a version of The Stooges’ ‘Funhouse’ with Jim Thirwell aka Foetus on sax), ‘Live 81-82’ threatens at all points to leap from the speakers and throttle innocent bystanders. Clear sound on the first ten songs, all from the London date, makes resistance even harder. Given the sometimes (though intentionally) unclear or unexpected mixing of Party songs in studio, hearing everything via in-your-face stun methods brings out the abilities of the band all the more, especially Pew and his vicious bass work.

“Songs like ‘The Dim Locator’ and ‘King Ink’ cut all the more closer to the bone as a result. ‘Nick The Stripper’, amazingly, is even more viciously sleazy than the original, which is saying something and a half; Cave sounds like he’s summoning his voice from his shoes on up. The German date’s sound is only slightly less thorough than the London’s, and the performances no less wired. ‘Big-Jesus-Trash-Can’ thrashes around like there’s no tomorrow, Pew’s bass again shooting through the mix, while ‘The Friend Catcher’ seethes with a creepy, frigid energy. Harvey takes over on drums for the last two German tracks and the ‘Funhouse’ cover, but even down to four people the band still generates more noise and activity than most other acts could hope to achieve.

“Definite bonus points have to go to Cave for his occasional, softly spoken between-song asides - “Thank you, I love your haircuts as well.” - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Originally formed in 2016, around the songwriting of guitarists Dylan Hughes (Sex Hands, Klaus Kinski) and Edwin Stevens (Irma Vep, Web of Lies) The Birthmarks quickly picked up local attention, leading to BBC 6 Music sessions for Marc Riley, a headline UK Tour, and the release of an EP No Slash, on London label Permanent Slump.

Expanding to a five piece, with the addition of bassist Bryony Dawson, drummer Al Robinson (Aldous RH, Egyptian Hip Hop) and guitarist and keyboardist Henry Withers (Lovvers, Human Hair, Sydney), Slowly was recorded by the band over the course of two years with assistance from veteran Manchester DIY producer Patrick Crane. It sees The Birthmarks having emerged with an assured, deftly crafted debut record, which offers ten tracks of skewed post-punk anthems. Moments of lush psychedelia and bouncy pop are thrown in for good measure, delivering a sound and energy truly unique to the band.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The superb Icecapades return for the wonderful Birthmarks LP, 'Slowly'. Swimming with a wealth of influence from the jangling off-kilter melodicism of The Dodos to the more uplifting end of the post-punk spectrum. Wonderfully surprising throughout, groovy and rich. Another smash for one of our favourite MCR labels.

TRACK LISTING

1. Royal Youns 02:29
2. Child Stars 03:37
3. Deep Fake 03:32
4. Portugese Man O' War 03:52
5. I Know You Know 03:50
6. Man Of The Times 03:13
7. The Villain 02:39
8. Waste Of Time 01:56
9. DRTHC 04:54
10. Do They Know 06:26

Hot on the heels of "That Sentimental Slush" the sixth critically acclaimed album in a row from Hampton's finest sons The Bitter Springs comes this brand new four track EP of "Firm Family Favourites".

New EP of seven new tracks, from Austin Texas Psych Rock band.

It follows their album Indigo Meadow (2013) where once again The Black Angels proved themselves the undisputed avatars of contemporary psychedelic rock, simultaneously exalting the genre’s kaleidoscopic past as they thrust it further into the future. the band brought new focus to their wide-ranging songcraft, the righteous riffs and dogmatic drones gaining increased power as they fuel a more expansive emotional terrain. A 21st century trip as transcendent as any in the canon.

“Imagine tossing bands from the pantheon of American psychedelia like The Electric Prunes, Count Five, 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds into your blender, adding a splash of Sabbath and a dollop of early Soundgarden or Mudhoney, and you’ve got Austin’s The Black Angels.” Associated Press.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunday Evening
2. Tired Eyes
3. Diamond Eyes
4. The Flop
5. An Occurrence At 4507 South Third Street
6. The Executioner
7. Linda’s Gone

New EP of seven new tracks, from Austin Texas Psych Rock band.

It follows their album Indigo Meadow (2013) where once again The Black Angels proved themselves the undisputed avatars of contemporary psychedelic rock, simultaneously exalting the genre’s kaleidoscopic past as they thrust it further into the future. the band brought new focus to their wide-ranging songcraft, the righteous riffs and dogmatic drones gaining increased power as they fuel a more expansive emotional terrain. A 21st century trip as transcendent as any in the canon.

“Imagine tossing bands from the pantheon of American psychedelia like The Electric Prunes, Count Five, 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds into your blender, adding a splash of Sabbath and a dollop of early Soundgarden or Mudhoney, and you’ve got Austin’s The Black Angels.” Associated Press.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunday Evening
2. Tired Eyes
3. Diamond Eyes
4. The Flop
5. An Occurrence At 4507 South Third Street
6. The Executioner
7. Linda’s Gone

“The Black Angels bring the aura of mid-1966 the drilling guitars of early Velvet Underground shows, the raga inflections of late-show Fillmore jams, the acid-prayer stomp of Austin avatars the 13th Floor Elevators everywhere they go, including the levitations on their second album, Directions to See a Ghost. Mid-Eighties echoes of Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain also roll through the scoured-guitar sustain and Alex Maas’ rocker-monk incantations. But he knows what time it is. ’You say the Beatles stopped the war,” Maas sings in ‘Never/Ever.’ ‘They might’ve helped to find a cure/But it’s still not over.’ Even so, this medicine works wonders." – David Fricke, Rolling Stone

Last time we met The Black Angels, they were staring into the desert sun somewhere outside of Austin, Texas. Two years later, night has fallen and the spirits have come out. It’s time for The Black Angels to provide Directions On How To See A Ghost.

If you’re familiar with Passover, the band’s 2006 debut, you’ll know that The Black Angels’s music alone is enough to invoke spirits. There’s a name for the band’s sound; they call it ‘hypno-drone ’n roll’. It’s the sound of long nights on peyote, of dreams of a new world order, and of half-invented memories of the seamy side of ’60s psychedelia.

While the Iraq war is still a major influence on the band’s lyrics, there are new forces at work here, including Eugene Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We and in Christian Bland’s words “psychic information from the past and future.” See, The Black Angels really are in contact with ghosts.
“Civil War battlefields are prime spots for seeing ghosts,” says Bland. “One time at Kennesaw mountain in Georgia, I was climbing the mountain in the middle of June and it must have been close to 100 degrees, but in this one particular spot it was very cold. The hairs on my neck stood up and I knew something strange was happening. Then the wind whispered something like ‘retreat,’ and I did. I later learned that the spot where I was on the battlefield was known as ‘the dead angle’, the place where the fiercest fighting took place. The confederates ended up retreating from the mountain towards Peachtree Creek.”

The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas, in 2004, comprising from six people (now five) from very different backgrounds. Singer/vocalist Christian Bland is the son of a Presbyterian Pastor and was raised in a devoutly religious household. Bassist / guitarist Nate Ryan was born on a cult compound and drummer Stephanie Bailey claims she’s a descendent of Davy Crocket. She and Alex Maas (vocals/guitar) believe a little girl in a red linen dress haunts the group’s home.

The band released Passover in 2006 to critical acclaim for both the album and the song “The First Vietnamese War”. Most of all, Passover established The Black Angels as a band with brains, balls and a strong message. And this time around, the message is there to read in a 16-page booklet that comes with the album.

“Our central theme is that people need to open up their minds and let everything come through, and to learn from past mistakes,” says Christian. “Only then will we understand the reality of this world and progress beyond where we are now as humans. We’ve built upon that theme with Directions to See a Ghost. We want people to study the booklet we are providing with the album in hopes that they will be able to relate each song to something in their life.”
_"War is Peace.

Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Keep Music Evil."_

TRACK LISTING

You On The Run
Doves
Science Killer
Mission District
18 Years
Deer-ree-shee
Never/ever
Vikings
You In Color
The Return
Snake In The Grass

The Black Angels’ most revelatory collection thus far, Indigo Meadow marks the Austin, Texas-based band’s fourth full-length release, following 2010’s acclaimed Phosphene Dream. Once again The Black Angels prove themselves the undisputed avatars of contemporary psychedelic rock, simultaneously exalting the genre’s kaleidoscopic past as they thrust it further into the future.

Now a four-piece – ably supported behind the board by producer/mixer John Congleton (David Byrne & St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) – the band have brought new focus to their wide-ranging songcraft, the righteous riffs and dogmatic drones gaining increased power as they fuel a more expansive emotional terrain. A 21st century trip as transcendent as any in the canon, Indigo Meadow masterfully affirms The Black Angels’ full-throttle commitment to the psychedelic ethos of creativity, community and boundless experimentation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Indigo Meadow
2. Evil Things
3. Don't Play With Guns
4. Holland
5. The Day
6. Love Me Forever
7. Always Maybe
8. War On Holiday
9. Broken Soldier
10. I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)
11. Twisted Light
12. You're Mine
13. Black Isn't Black

These are fighting times, people. We are surrounded by grit, spit, and bloody war, but in the distance moving forward is The Black Angels. Passover, The Black Angels debut album, speaks of real-life horrors, death, and destruction with doses of love, sex, and healing. Don’t lose track, these are caring times as well.

Formed in 2004 and hailing from the mescaline-infused outskirts of Austin, Texas, this gang of musical misfits has been on the road non-stop since their birth, performing at such renowned venues as Sin-e, Middle East, and Spaceland. In early 2006, the band’s self-titled debut EP was dubbed highly recommended in Spin Magazine while receiving heavy radio airplay on such influential stations as KEXP and BBC Radio 1 by Zane Lowe.

Growing in spades since their EP, Passover showcases a band on the make. Spiraling upwards to the skies with the enemy straight on their trail, “The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven” sees The Black Angels reaching high and stretching out with trance-inducing guitar lines from Christian Bland, Nate Ryan’s filthy medical dumpster bass, and the grizzly preacher vox of lead shaman Alex Maas. “Black Grease” is a bluesy monster full of swagger propelled by the primitive beat of drummer Stephanie Bailey and the mourning drone of organist Jennifer Raines.

10-songs deep, Passover has come again. Reflecting and questioning the intergenerational psychosis of American social life that surrounds us, The Black Angels put forth their answers in song. It’s a “Call To Arms” for those ready to join the good fight, a rock ‘n’ roll salvation during the times we need it the most. As Maas bellows on “Young Man Dead,” “Fire for the hills, pick up speed, and let’s go…”

TRACK LISTING

Young Men Dead
The First Vietnamese War
The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven
The Prodigal Sun
Black Grease
Manipulation
Empire
Better Off Alone
Bloodhounds On My Trail
Call To Arms

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, Wilderness of Mirrors, feels so aptly named. In the five years since the band’s prior album, Death Song, and the two-plus years spent working on Wilderness of Mirrors, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the Black Angels’ signature sonic approach.

Wilderness of Mirrors expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. There are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars meant to simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind, alongside melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven newfound experiments. Mellotron, strings, and other keyboards also play a more prominent role on Wilderness of Mirrors than ever before.

Even amidst these new experimentations, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on album highlight “The River.” “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Without A Trace
2 History Of The Future
3 Empires Falling
4 El Jardín
5 La Pared (Govt. Wall Blues)
6 Firefly
7 Make It Known
8 The River
9 Wilderness Of Mirrors
10 Here & Now
11 100 Flowers Of Paracusia
12 A Walk On The Outside
13 Vermillion Eyes
14 Icon
15 Suffocation

The Black Crowes are leaving the bullshit in the past. 15 years after their last album of original music, the Robinson Brothers present 'Happiness Bastards'- their 10th studio album. Some may say the project has been several tumultuous years in the making, but we argue it's arriving at just the right time. Call it brotherly love or music destiny that brought them back together, the highly anticipated record consecrating the reunion of this legendary band just may be the thing that saves rock & roll. In a time where the art form is buried beneath the corporate sheen of its successors, The Black Crowes are biting back with the angst of words left unsaid penned on paper and electrified by guitar strings, revealing stripped, bare-boned rock & roll. No gloss, no glitter, just rhythm and blues at it's very best - gritty, loud, and in your face.

Since The Black Crowes reunited in 2019, they've made a triumphant return to form with over 150 shows spanning 20 countries worldwide, celebrating the 30th anniversary of'Shake Your Money Maker', the album that put them on the map. Upon their return from the road, they knew they needed something new to show for their lost time. The Robinson Brothers and longtime bassist Sven Pipien headed to the studio with producer Jay Joyce in early 2023 and the experiences of years past transcribed themself through the music as the band found their way back to their roots.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's a big surprise that the Robinsons have reformed to make another album fifteen years after their last studio outing as Black Crowes, so for it to have retained all of the intensity of their earlier work and to still sing with that unmistakeable Black Crowes energy is indeed something of note. Brimming with fiery Southern rock energy and beautifully produced, it's a delight to see BC back in the saddle.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Bedside Manners
2. Rats And Clowns
3. Cross Your Fingers
4. Wanting And Waiting
5. Wilted Rose F/ Lainey Wilson
Side 2
1. Dirty Cold Sun
2. Bleed It Dry
3. Flesh Wound
4. Follow The Moon
5. Kindred Friend

My Brutal Life delves into the profound aspects of our artistic endeavours encompassing brutalism, the environment, and humanity. Throughout our ongoing creative journey, we consistently gravitate towards these themes, documenting and exploring the human experience within these environments. Our unwavering fixation on Symmetry, Synchronisation, and Repetition are the driving force in our artistic expression. Moreover, we strive to peel away superficial layers to expose the underlying emotional strata of the human aspect, unearthing the often overlooked beauty within the ordinary. Although frequently disregarded, the human aspect resonates with echoes from the past, enlightening and guiding our artistic process. Even the failures encountered serve as poignant reminders of the delicate structures we construct. My Brutal Life constitutes a pivotal component within an enduring exhibition, meticulously crafted to delve into the aesthetic and human facets of brutalism.

TRACK LISTING

A1 It´s Not Enough 00:03:16
A2 My Brutal Life 00:03:36
A3 The Mundane 00:04:45
A4 Beyond The Estate Agents Window 00:03:38
A5 Unité D´HabitaIon 00:02:26
A6 Asymmetrical Living 00:03:01
A7 Postcards For Comfort 00:02:36
B1 Hey Serry 00:02:20
B2 Droppingwell Futures 00:04:40
B3 Concrete Slit 00:03:54
B4 Future Townscapes 00:02:40
B5 Minimal ReconstrucIon 00:02:31
B6 Villa Göth Calling 00:04:11
B7 Béton-Brut 00:03:40
B8 Kahn 00:00:51

We live in dangerous times. We are blinded by control vectors that separate us from reality. And The Black Dog returns with a viral antidote: an album of de-programming material which they’ve called "Nether/Neither".

This record continues the work they started with "Further Vexations" and "Radio Scarecrow". Burroughs was right: we are now living in a world that is nothing short of a total information war. We are neither one thing nor another, endlessly on the fence in the face of an onslaught of disinformation. Non-linear hypermedia systems are openly used to control us, their operation being totally exposed, mocking our impotence, yet complete in their power. We are all proles now; all are expected to maintain a mental state of "Neither/Neither", of uncertainty and inaction. Even in a world where anyone can be an instant expert on any subject in a single click, we find that all our knowledge is a mere replay of someone else’s script.

We are surrounded and occupied by systems of platitude generation that are empty and self-referential. All is surface and all is hollow. From the Tories’ election propaganda to David Icke, they’re all the same, all meaning filtered to nothing by a lack of substance, science and humanity. Falsehood becomes reason, no matter how ridiculous the proposition. They stand for nothing so they can have no questions to answer.

False prophets and the modern day snake oil salesmen parade their viral vampirism, grasping for our time, money and headspace. Even our ridicule becomes fuel for their trade as they turn ignorance and psychopathic exploitation into received wisdom and public opinion. Ask any sideshow psychic; repeat, pure Barnum bunkum enough times and you can seize the psychology of the masses. Rumours become truth then they become action and policy that in the cold light of the day make no-sense at all. No one’s sure where they heard it but they have. The spectral offer of change, which actually sustains the stasis of confusion. They spin us on a ball of confusion we live on continues to turn and as long as they have us in a state of "Neither/Neither" they will always maintain control. Fight Back! 

TRACK LISTING

01. Non Linear Information Life
02. Phil 3 To 5 To 3
03. Neither/Neither
04. Phil 0114
05. Control Needs Time
06. Them (Everyone Is A Liar But)
07. Shut Eye 08. The Frequency Ov Thee Truthers
09. BOOKS
10. Self Organising Sealed Systems
11. Commodification
12. Phil Vs David
13. Platform Lvl 6
14. Hollow Stories, Hollow Head
15. MK Ultrabrite

Originally released in 1995, Spanners is the second album from The Black Dog and their first for Warp Records. In 2017 it was selected by Pitchfork as one of 'The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time'.
This reissue is the first time the vinyl has been available since its original pressing in 1995.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Raxmus
A2. Bolt1
A3. Barbola Work
A4. Bolt2
A5. Psil-cosyin

B1. Chase The Manhattan
B2. Bolt3
B3. Tahr
B4. Bolt4
B5. Further Harm

C1. Nommo
C2. Bolt5
C3. Pot Noddle
C4. Bolt6
C5. End Of Time

D1. Utopian Dream
D2. Bolt7
D3. Frisbee Skip
D4. Chesh

Pazy (real name Joseph Etinagbedia) started playing music in the Fire Flies in the city of Warri in Nigeria in 1973. The area was in the midst of an oil boom, and like most bands on that scene, the Fire Flies played American and European pop hits mixed with Jazz and Highlife for the largely expat audiences in local clubs. Along with an influx of foreigners, the oil boom also gave rise to an emerging Nigerian youth market, and soon Pazy formed the Black Hippies to play the uniquely African style of hard rock that was favored by this new audience.

They quickly found success and were appearing alongside other Warri-based artists such as Tony Grey. In short time, they came to the attention of EMI and their legendary producer Odion Iruoje, who recorded this album. By the time it was released in 1977, though, Disco and Funk were starting to take over and the hard fuzzy rock of The Black Hippies first album was somewhat behind the times. As a result, the album was barely released and is now virtually unfindable, unseen by all but a few of the most hardcore collectors. Pazy would go on to form a new line up of the Black Hippies that played mostly Reggae but this remains by far the best album.

Featuring whiplash funk drumming, searing fuzz guitar, raw vocals and that uniquely West African organ sound, The Black Hippies first album is a definitive classic of the genre.

Beautifully remastered with restored artwork, this release stands alongside our Ofege and Psychedelic Aliens releases as restored gems from a largely unknown but incredibly vital Rock scene in 70's West Africa.

TRACK LISTING

1. Doing It In The Street 5.10
2. I Have The Love On You 5.40
3. Love 4.05
4. The World Is Great 9.05
5. You Are My Witness 8.35

The Black Keys release Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition), an expanded version of their watershed 2010 multi-platinum, Grammy-winning sixth studio album via Nonesuch Records, on which the record is newly available throughout the world. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Brothers will be re-released with three added bonus songs: ‘Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth’, ‘Black Mud Part II’, and ‘Chop and Change’. It will be available in three formats: a 7” box set, a 2-LP set, and a CD. This will be the first in an annual series of archival releases from the band.

Brothers, originally released on May 18, 2010, was largely recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. It was a career breakthrough for The Black Keys, receiving critical praise and earning three Grammy Awards, for Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Recording Packaging for Michael Carney’s design. Upon release, Rolling Stone hailed the album ‘a masterpiece’, and Uncut named them ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’.

TRACK LISTING

Everlasting Light
Next Girl
Tighten Up
Howlin' For You
She's Long Gone
Black Mud
The Only One
Too Afraid To Love You
Ten Cent Pistol
Sinister Kid
The Go Getter
I'm Not The One
Unknown Brother
Never Gonna Give You Up
These Days
Chop And Change*
Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth**
Black Mud Part Ii**

* Previously Released On The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

** Previously Unreleased

The Black Keys release their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Auerbach says of the album, “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural.”

Auerbach says of Delta Kream’s first single ‘Crawling Kingsnake’: “I first heard [John Lee] Hooker’s version in high school. My uncle Tim would have given me that record. But our version is definitely Junior Kimbrough’s take on it. It’s almost a disco riff!” Carney adds, "We fell into this drum intro; it's kind of accidental. The ultimate goal was to highlight the interplay between the guitars. My role with Eric was to create a deeper groove."

The music from northern Mississippi, which came to life in juke joints, has long left an imprint on the band’s music, from their cover of R.L. Burnide’s ‘Busted’ and Junior Kimbrough’s ‘Do The Romp’ on their debut album, The Big Come Up; to their subsequent signing to Fat Possum Records, home to many of their musical heroes; and to their EP of Junior Kimbrough covers, Chulahoma.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crawling Kingsnake
2. Louise
3. Poor Boy A Long Way From Home
4. Stay All Night
5. Going Down South
6. Coal Black Mattie
7. Do The Romp
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights
9. Walk With Me
10. Mellow Peaches
11. Come On And Go With Me

After 10 albums, the last five of which have gone top 10 or better, six Grammy awards, and sold-out tours around the world, The Black Keys are back: the duo, called ‘America’s Most Trusted Band’ by Stephen Colbert, and ‘One of the best rock’n’roll bands on the planet’ by Uncut, releases its eleventh studio album, Dropout Boogie, via Nonesuch Records. Dropout Boogie features collaborations with Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound), and Angelo Petraglia (Kings of Leon).

Dropout Boogie is released one day before the twentieth anniversary of The Black Keys’ first album, The Big Come Up. As they have done their entire career, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrote all of the material in the studio, and the new album captures a number of first takes that hark back to the stripped-down blues rock of their early days making music together in Akron, Ohio basements.

“That’s always been the beauty of the thing Pat and I do. It’s instant,” Auerbach says. “We’ve never really had to work at it. Whenever we’d get together, we’d just make music, you know? We didn’t know what we were going to do, but we’d just do it and it would sound cool. It’s the natural chemistry Pat and I have. Being in a band this long is a testament to that. It was a real gift that we were given. I mean, the odds of being plopped down a block-and-a-half from each other in Akron, Ohio – it just seems crazy.”

After hashing out initial ideas as a duo at Auerbach’s Nashville-based Easy Eye Sound studio, Auerbach and Carney welcomed new collaborators Billy F. Gibbons, Greg Cartwright, and Angelo Petraglia to the Dropout Boogie sessions. Although The Black Keys previously co-wrote songs with frequent producer/collaborator Danger Mouse, this is the first time they have invited multiple new contributors to work simultaneously on one of their own albums. Both Cartwright and Petraglia can be heard on the new album’s first single, ‘Wild Child’.

“Living in Nashville and making records here has opened both of our minds to that experience a little bit more,” said Auerbach. “I knew Pat would love working with both of these guys, so we decided we’d give it a shot. It was the first time we’d ever really done that. It was fun as hell. We just sat around a table with acoustic guitars and worked out a song ahead of time.” “The cool thing with Greg is that he wants to approach stuff with a story in mind – there’s a plot, almost,” added Carney.

The Black Keys had previously jammed with ZZ Top guitar legend Billy F. Gibbons more than a decade ago in Los Angeles, while ZZ Top was working on an album with producer Rick Rubin. “We never even really wrote one song – we just had some ideas we put down,” Carney said. “We really just wanted to hang out with him. We stayed in touch, and Dan invited him to the studio once we started working on this album.”

Between the duo’s albums, Auerbach, through his Easy Eye Sound studio and label, has produced and co-written with artists including Yola, Marcus King, Robert Finley, Ceramic Animal, and the Velveteers.

Carney has also been busy as a producer at his Nashville-by-way-of-Akron studio Audio Eagle, where he has worked with Michelle Branch, Tennis, Jessy Wilson, Calvin Johnson, and The Sheepdogs, among others.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The inimitable Black Keys return for their sleekest and most groove-filled outing yet. Funky af, swimming with the spirit of southern rock and hazy rock and/or roll.

El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys and was recorded in the band’s then-new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. The Black Keys won three awards at the 55th annual GRAMMY Awards for El Camino – Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album – among other worldwide accolades. In the UK, the band was nominated for a BRIT Award (Best International Group) and an NME Award (Best International Band). The week of release, the band performed on Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, and the Late Show with David Letterman, and later that year, went on to perform their first Madison Square Garden show.

Rolling Stone, which featured the band on their cover around the release, hailed El Camino for bringing ‘raw, riffed-out power back to pop’s lexicon,’ and called it ‘the Keys’ grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair.’ The Guardian said, ‘They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock'n'roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done.’

In the newly written liner notes for El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), David Fricke says:
The story of the Black Keys' seventh album, named after an automobile, long out of fashion and featured nowhere in the artwork, begins on a sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard. On the afternoon of January 9, 2011, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney stood on the pavement outside the Bowery Hotel in New York City, saw the weather turning vicious, looked at each other and came to the same decision: They had to get off the road.

The night before, the duo scored another first in a season getting crowded with them: The Black Keys' debut appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing ‘Howlin' for You’ and ‘Tighten Up’, the breakout singles from their latest release, Brothers. Two days earlier, Brothers – the Keys' first Top 5 album, released in May 2010 – became their first Gold record, passing a half-million in sales thanks to heavy FM rotation and a near-year of gigging, now set to run deep into 2011 including a prestige slot at Coachella and victory laps in Europe and Australia.

The Keys "tried to settle down" after cancelling the tour, Carney says. But that didn't last. "I said, 'We should just make another record.' And I asked Dan if we should get Danger Mouse" – the hip-hop and modern-rock producer, real name Brian Burton, who worked on the Keys' 2008 record, Attack & Release, and co-produced ‘Tighten Up’. Auerbach and Carney did not have any new songs, but as the drummer notes, "Most of our records – we don't have material when we start. Brothers was made up in the studio."

In the UK, the record gave the band their first top 10 hit, and in the US it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. The band was also the #1 most played artist at Alternative and AAA radio formats for 2012 in the US. The album’s first single, ‘Lonely Boy’: reached #1 on the Alternative and AAA charts; it also entered the top 10 at Rock radio. The second single, ‘Gold on the Ceiling’, also reached #1 on Alternative radio and the third single, ‘Little Black Submarines’, reached the top 3 at Alternative radio.

El Camino has been certified Double Platinum in the US; Platinum in the UK, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands; Triple Platinum in Australia and New Zealand; Quadruple Platinum in Canada; and Gold in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. Of the album’s singles, ‘Lonely Boy’ was certified Double Platinum in the US, nine-times Platinum in Canada, Triple Platinum in Australia, Platinum in New Zealand, and Gold in Denmark and the UK. ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ was certified Platinum in the United States, Australia, and Canada. ‘Little Black Submarines’ was certified Platinum in the United States. The Black Keys also were nominated for an MTV European Music Award in 2012.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1: EL CAMINO (2021 REMASTER)
Side A
1. Lonely Boy
2. Dead And Gone
3. Gold On The Ceiling
4. Little Black Submarines
5. Money Maker
Side B
1. Run Right Back
2. Sister
3. Hell Of A Season
4. Stop Stop
5. Nova Baby
6. Mind Eraser

DISC 2: LIVE IN PORTLAND, ME.
(PART 1)
Side C
1. Howlin’ For You
2. Next Girl
3. Run Right Back
4. Same Old Thing
5. Dead And Gone
Side D
1. Gold On The Ceiling
2. Thickfreakness
3. Girl Is On My Mind
4. I'll Be Your Man / Your Touch
5. Little Black Submarines

DISC 3: LIVE IN PORTLAND, ME.
(PART 2)
Side E
1. Money Maker
2. Strange Times
3. Chop And Change
4. Nova Baby
5. Ten Cent Pistol
Side F
1. Tighten Up
2. Lonely Boy
3. Everlasting Light
4. She’s Long Gone
5. I Got Mine

DISC 4: BBC SESSION
Side A
1. Howlin’ For You *
2. Next Girl *
3. Gold On The Ceiling *
4. Thickfreakness *
5. I’ll Be Your Man *
6. Your Touch *
Side B
1. Little Black Submarines *
2. Dead And Gone *
3. Tighten Up *
4. Lonely Boy *
5. I Got Mine *

DISC 5: ELECTRO-VOX SESSION
Side A
1. Dead And Gone *
2. Gold On The Ceiling *
3. Howlin’ For You *
4. Lonely Boy *
Side B
1. Money Maker *
2. Next Girl *
3. Run Right Back *
4. Sister *
5. Tighten Up *

* Super Deluxe Editions Only.

The Black Keys’ long-awaited ninth studio album, “Let’s Rock”, their first in five years, is a return to the straightforward rock of the singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s early days as a band. Auerbach says, “When we’re together we are The Black Keys, that’s where that real magic is, and always has been since we were sixteen.” 

“Let’s Rock” was written, tracked live, and produced by Auerbach and Carney at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and features backing vocals from Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. “The record is like a homage to electric guitar,” says Carney. “We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”

Rolling Stone named ‘Lo/Hi’ a “Song You Need to Know” and said, ‘the Keys have officially returned, louder than ever’ and the New York Times calls the song ‘the kind of garage-boogie stomp that the band never left behind.’ In the words of the NME, ‘It’s the soundtrack to the type of party that doesn’t exist anymore, but one you still wish you were cool enough to get the invite to.’

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys have released eight studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), and, most recently, Turn Blue (2014). The band has won six Grammy Awards and headlined festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Governors Ball.

Since their last album together, both Auerbach and Carney have been creative forces behind a number of wide-ranging artists:
Dan Auerbach formed the Easy Eye Sound record label, named after his Nashville studio, in 2017, with the release of his second solo album, Waiting on a Song. Since its launch, Easy Eye Sound has become home to a wide range of artists including Yola, Shannon & The Clams, Dee White, Shannon Shaw, Sonny Smith, Robert Finley, and The Gibson Brothers; it also has released the posthumous album by Leo Bud Welch as well as previously unreleased material by Link Wray.

Patrick Carney has produced and recorded new music with artists such as Calvin Johnson, Michelle Branch, Damns of the West, Tobias Jesso, Jr., Jessy Wilson, Tennis, *repeat repeat, Wild Belle, Sad Planets, Turbo Fruits, and more. He also created the theme music for the Netflix TV show BoJack Horseman with his late uncle, Ralph Carney.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having always epitomised the fuzzy groove-led party vibe, it's no surprise that their latest is the most danceable and head-nodding instalment yet, but here it is. Bluesy, sleazy and heavy but crisp and beautifully presented. Black Keys do it again!

TRACK LISTING

1. Shine A Little Light
2. Eagle Birds
3. Lo/Hi
4. Walk Across The Water
5. Tell Me Lies
6. Every Little Thing
7. Get Yourself Together
8. Sit Around And Miss You
9. Go
10. Breaking Down
11. Under The Gun
12. Fire Walk With Me

In early 2006, The Black Keys returned to their basement to record "Magic Potion", their fourth full-length album. Despite its title, "Magic Potion" is ironically the sound of The Black Keys getting their signature sound down to a science — it's the band at their heaviest, grittiest and most powerfully stripped down. From the nasty, sweaty strut of "Your Touch" to the sublimely narcotic devotional ballad "You're The One" on down to the stomping, house-rocking call to arms "Modern Times" The Black Keys have made another fantastic album.

Written by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with longtime friends Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Beck, the celebratory, joyful ‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’ is one of several songs on the album that feature collaborations between the band and various additional friends and colleagues, including Noel Gallagher, Greg Kurstin, and others. Speaking on the collaborative nature of the album, Carney shares, “We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music.’ It’s funny because we both write songs with other people – Dan all the time [as a solo artist and producer], me when I'm producing a record. That’s what we do.”

Auerbach adds, “No matter who we work with, it never feels like we're sacrificing who we are. It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me. We'd never worked harder to make a record,” he continues. “It's never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”

“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Carney says. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”

While making Ohio Players, a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, OH funk band of the same name, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world that they called “record hangs”, spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. Mojo reports, ‘The spirit of those parties infused the album’s DNA. ‘That’s been the fun of it,’ [says] Auerbach. ‘Letting go a little bit.’”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely new one from Blues-rock troubadours The Black Keys including collaborations with some of the biggest names in music today. There are a selection of classic 'Keys outings alongside some more outsider pieces, all perfectly produced with the help of Beck and Noel Gallagher. It's a beautifully produced, perfectly paced new direction for the band.

Fantastic album from the acclaimed guitar and drum, Delta blues-infused rock duo from Akron, Ohio, The Black Keys. The album takes a few listens to get into - mainly down to the fact that the songs are, in general, quite understated rather than big catchy blues numbers, that grab you on first listen, but you're bored of within a week. You imagine that if Jack White could possibly get himself off the rock 'n' roll treadmill he'd love to kick back and make albums like this!!! A swaggering blues rock masterpiece!!

TRACK LISTING

1. When The Lights Go Out
2. 10 A.M. Automatic
3. Just Couldn't Tie Me Down
4. All Hands Against His Own
5. The Desperate Man
6. Girl Is On My Mind
7. The Lengths
8. Grown So Ugly (Robert Pete Williams)
9. Stack Shot Billy
10. Act Nice And Gentle" (Ray Davies)
11. Aeroplane Blues
12. Keep Me
13. Till I Get My Way

Raw, soulful blues-rock from this duo from Akron, Ohio. This is the awesome second album (their first in the UK) from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. With a stripped back guitar, drums and vocal line up this is top notch blues, set apart by Auerbach's distinctive fuzz guitar. Recommended.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thickfreakness
2. Hard Row" (lyrics By Dan And Chuck Auerbach)
3. Set You Free
4. Midnight In Her Eyes
5. Have Love Will Travel (Richard Berry)
6. Hurt Like Mine
7. Everywhere I Go (Junior Kimbrough)
8. No Trust
9. If You See Me
10. Hold Me In Your Arms
11. I Cry Alone

Formerly one half of Fort Lauderdale, The Black Neon returns as a solo artist mixing pop with experimental to dizzying effect. "Arts & Crafts" brilliantly combines elements of Beatles-esque pop, 60s psyche, electronica, and even Prince, but it's the Kraut-rock style motorik rhythms underpinning the whole album that really set it apart.

Their long awaited follow up ‘The Door Behind The Door’ transforms The Black Ryder’s kaleidoscopic sound and vision into something even more vivid, uncompromising, and sublime, bringing in new textures, emotions & moments of catharsis and transcendence.” (Matt Diehl – Spin/Rolling Stone/Billboard/Pitchfork/Interview)

To date, the band have toured + played with Primal Scream, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Broken Social Scene, The Cult, The Black Angels, The Raveonettes, The Charlatans, Spectrum (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3).

‘ethereal drone, ceremonial percussion, and dead-eyed harmonies carry on together until they build up to something sublime. There’s never really a climax because the whole thing feels like one overwhelming wave of gorgeous noise’
- STEREOGUM

"3345" is a rousing, pounding, foot stomping anthem written in honour of the bar on Liverpool's Parr Street that the band have developed a love / hate relationship with.

“One of music’s most perfect and unheralded rock outfits” – Magnet Magazine John Andrew Fredrick has written and released seventeen the black watch albums of sparkling, literate, jangly-distorted indie rock since the LA band’s inception in 1988 (as well as four works of comedic literary fiction and one book on the early films of Wes Anderson). For this record Fredrick had the idea of letting producer-friends Scott Campbell, Rob Campanella (producer for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow) and Andy Creighton be his band and record the album. “I have had, I think, too much control, musically speaking, in the past.’ Fredrick says, “And the thought of experimenting this way was really thrilling.” The result was far from a failure, in fact this approach may have yielded TBW’s best album in years.

"The Creation band Alan McGee never signed!"--Stereoembers “Should’ve become a household name a long time ago” – USA Today "Bright but with dark undercurrents, brainy but not pretentious, the music here on the new album from The Black Watch is proof that some Americans have a knack for this sort of thing. Full of big and bold music, The Gospel According to John is a record of luminous beauty in spots."--A Pessimist is Never Disappointed “Sounds like the holy union of Guided By Voices, The Wedding Present and any number of New Zealand pop heroes. In other words, it sounds truly indie: immediate, honest and just-enough lovingly rough” – Buzzbands L.A.

TRACK LISTING

1) Julie 2
2) Crying All The Time
3) Brilliant Failures
4) Twisted Thinking
5) Red Dwarf Star
6) The
Personal Statement
7) Mind You Now
8) Hodophobia
9) One Hundred Million Times Around The Sun
10) Anywhere/ Everywhere
11) Julie
12) What I Think
13) Technology

You might remember Tom Blackwell's impeccable "Tyrone The Gun" from 2016. Based in Manchester at the time he sat alongside artists like DBH and Serious Sam Barrett - a new school of guitar wielding, singer-songwriters / finger pickers and dive bar troubadours that tell tales of now in that old time style. Following a relocated to the North-East, Tom's back with another self-released, fully-realized collection of love struck blues, country, bluegrass and folk. There's nods to Townes Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Gunn and of course, John Martyn; but Tom's conscious of adding his own signature to the annals of Working People's music. The harmonica, guitar, voice interplay is sublime and considered throughout; and with a pure recording process you definitely get the impression that you're sat in a bar with a nice bourbon listening to the star deliver these songs in an intimate, direct and truly heartfelt fashion. Another masterpiece!

'I wrote the songs that comprise ‘Regency Cafe’ largely between the late summer of 2014, and the autumn of 2015. It was a period that saw a sizeable shift in circumstance, submitting to settling down after years of far flung questing and dead ends. Whilst on marathon walks across my then home town of London, I would on occasion take a break from the melodies and words in my head and visit a bustling in the morning, derelict by afternoon spot in Pimlico called The Regency Cafe. It was here that this record seemed to live. With one exception, these are simply a collection of love songs that I took off the shelf between Christmas and New Year last December. Some blueish country and folk, an occasional nod to Sun era rock & roll. Primitively recorded at home with one microphone in a single take capturing voice and guitar; I added a few fuzzy headed embellishments the morning following a merry evening in Liverpool, before scrawling out the front cover sometime soon after. Nothing was overthought with this record, other than maybe for it be heard late at night, or before a new day strikes up in full voice.'

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1
1. Theme To Regency Cafe (0.53)
2. Not Pretending (2.50)
3. Tom Trouble (3.04)
4. Rosanna (2.55)
5. The Bee Back To The Hive (2.51)
6. 33 (3.32)
SIDE 2
1. Born & Bred (3.13)
2. Cannon & Ball (3.04)
3. Denim Eyes (4.16)
4. Kill Me With Kindness (3.07
5. Theme Reprise (0.55)
6. Regency Cafe (2.47

Sydney rock outfit The Blamers are a modern band—two modern men, two modern women—with a revolutionary bent. Utilizing the latest cutting-edge stereophonic technology, the group—fueled by an obsession with early garage greats—are at the fore of a sonic campaign to simplify rock back to its basic proto-punk form. With hooky riffs and a healthy dose of tambourine, the group are preparing to release their debut album early-2024 after a string of singles.

The Blamers have shared the stage with Aussie heavy hitters The Chats, Bad Dreems, Pist idiots and blistered clubs around Australia with their no bullshit, beer-soaked sound. It’s a wonder that a band like The Blamers hasn’t come earlier! If you like the hard ass style of 60s punk with the wit of The B52’s and the charm of Devo, here it is.

Announcing the long overdue seventh entry in Castle Face’s Live in San Francisco series, starring The Blind Shake.

Captured to tape at the same shows as the OBN IIIs’ live record, The Blind Shake were tour-greased and fully torqued over three night at The Chapel in San Francisco way back in 2013. For those unfamiliar: the sheer bodily reaction to seeing these guys is a unique pleasure. They are consistently one of the most fun bands doin’ it to it these days—such a direct channel to your inner teenager it’s more often than not you end up in the pit, awash in baritone guitar and that “let’s wig out” beat.

Whether you’re a noob or a vet, all your bludgeoning favorites are here, one song combing into the next with tasty bites of guitar, and man, they swing that hammer all over this thing. A sterling testament to their claim as the heaviest nice guys around. Their chrome domes shined up real nice for the excellent night-of photographs from main man Brian Pritchard, and as usual John Dwyer, Chris Woodhouse, Eric Bauer and Bob Marshall were manning the decks, keepin’ it crisped for the hi-fis at home.

English alternative rock band The Blinders' return with third album, 'Beholder'.

The perfect introduction to their album, 'Brakelights' drips with a dark atmospheric intensity which equally lurks across the albums other 9 tracks. Beholder shares a frenetic energy with their previous albums, but there's a new depth both lyrically and musically to the album.

With a visceral urgency live to more than match the likes of contemporaries IDLES or Fontaines DC, The Blinders live shows are brooding and intense, recalling the dark atmospherics of The Bad Seeds or peak-period Bunnymen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swimming with gothic influence, but kept moving along with propulsive percussion and throbbing post-punk bass, The Blinders' new outing 'Beholder' has all of the moody drive and melodic leaning of their previous two but refined into a finely honed melodic powerhouse. Reminiscent of several bands but with a sound all of their own.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ceremony
2. Brakelights
3. While I’m SVll Young
4. At Any Hand But Hers
5. Always
6. Iggy Got Camaro
7. Waterfalls Of Venice
8. Nocturnal Skies
9. Swallowing Static
10. All I Need

The Blinders have announced their new album, 'Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath' via Modern Sky UK.

The follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut album, Columbia, released in 2018, the album explores existential despair, mental health and society’s ills in a time of planetary crisis, and is both a riposte to, and commentary on, the rise of populist ideology. Delivering a blistering collection of powerful tracks, Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath is imbued with the visceral energy of IDLES, the twisted melodies of solo-era Lennon and the darkness of the Bad Seeds.

In the shadow of Brexit and the climate crisis, The Blinders return with their unique brand of outspoken anthemicism and a sensational album to rouse awareness and inject vital energy into a bleak 2020. Combined with their blistering live energy, get ready for The Blinders to accelerate furiously into the limelight. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Something Wicked This Way Comes
2. Forty Days & Forty Nights
3. Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun)
4. Circle Song
5. I Want Gold
6. Interlude
7. Mule Track
8. Rage At The Dying Of The Light
9. From Nothing To Abundance
10. Black Glass
11. In This Decade

Intense full-on raging hardcore with wild rhythms, demented vocals and a powerful sound.

Phono Erotic is proud to announce its second release by the deliciously Outsiderist Music Hall ensemble that is The Blood Tub Orchestra.

Now let’s clear something up straight away; this is no retro pastiche but a real working group tampering with the remnants of the almost lost and forgotten songbook of the lower classes, The Music Hall. Once considered one of the seven curses of London that detracted those working class types from their duty to make money for Queen, Empire and the intolerant ruling elite, Music Hall was a den of vice, sharps and wanton behavior, a lurid spectacle of unblushing immodesty…well not too much has changed for the binge drinking masses, festival frenzied fornicators and the crack den denizens of the inner cities, other that nowadays, the leopards’ spots are equally placed on the disposable equity burdened middle classes, who are quietly having their purses pinched by the pasty faced sharks of the new unfettered borders in this current great empire of finance.

The rousing rancorous heyday of these ‘palatial shams’, where ‘the modern comic vocalist doled out feeble jingling idiocies of his own composition’ lasted only a few short years in reality before it was sanitized by those with an eye for a fast buck and the state backed rise of the Temperance movements. It then slowly dissolved over 100 years into the tepid light entertainment of 60’s and 70’s Variety Shows and televised ‘spectaculars’ such as The Black & White Minstrel Show and on to the further degenerate televised horrors of shows today like ‘Strictly’ and ‘Britains Got No Talent’ (sic).

So it is with great relief, honour and privilege that we announce The Blood Tub Orchestra’s declaration of intent to strive for the restoration of these glorious days of bitter humour, coarse innuendo, political satire and a damn us all to hell and the trenches of a jolly old knee’s up, come one, come all, to restore the lost voice of the Great British cattle classes.

The great Harry Champion would no doubt raise a laugh at such wry commentry. Our Harry, the voice of the people throughout the 2 World Wars and an endless amount of skirmishes in both battlefield, bar brawl and brothel no doubt, provides us with the ammunition of the lewd entendre laced standard, ‘The End Of My Old Cigar’, given more than a healthy dose of boiled bully and gin tonicised blather, in this rousing interpretation.

The Immobile One and generally uncheeky chappie, Sam Mayo’s performance of ‘I Played My Concertina’ gives us the starting point for our next insight into the Pre-WW1 mentality of ‘ornery people’ and their laughter in the face of misery, with yet another piece of lyrical smut. Please note, no smiles were cracked during the recording of this performance.

While the first side of the EP represents a small sampler of the sort of thing to expect from the forthcoming Blood Tub Orchestra album, the second side was recorded live at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, one of London’s rare thus far unscathed multi-purpose cultural venues, a true anomaly that lives and breathes many of the attributes and attitudes of the heady days of the East End music halls and the stainged glitter hangover that goes with it.

Blood Tub’s belt and braces revamp of Lesley Sarony’s ‘Bloomin’ Well Dead’, an ascerbic prod at the hypocrisy of behavioral misdemeanor at funerals, still rings as true today as it ever did. And finally there’s, ‘Oh Father, Do Come Home’, one of a number of satirical jibes aimed at popular hit of the day, ‘Father, Dear Father, The Brokers Are In’, a
In the Temperance song of warning style that increasingly infiltrated the Music Hall scene, in order to combat the profligacy of the immoral games of ‘fox-and-goose’ distracting our fine young fellows from their devotion to good deed and good stead. Again, nothing changes, with the recent Government Guidelines recommend that alcohol consumption to be limited to 6 pints or 6 glasses of wine per week, ring a bell? Ah well, bah humbug to the lot of ‘em! Who’s for a quick tiddly wink or three?


The Blood Tub Orchestra are a most interesting and innovative outfit. A delightful and enthralling experience with their wholly unique idea of unearthing Victorian and Edwardian music gems from often long-forgotten artists and rattling their bones to breathe new life into them by evolving the pieces into fully-formed 21st century creations whilst retaining the characteristics and soul of the original, historic works. The ghost has firmly spooked the machinery. The rose-tinted veneer is peeled back and injected with the spirit of the age, both ancient and modern.

With the cosy mothball whiff of fancy dress nostalgia removed, a straight bare knuckle fight between the song and the performers ensues, finding its place in creating the most mouthwatering proposition since The Rolling Stones re-introduced Blues to America. Great Britain, this means you!

The Blood Tub Orchestra is comprised of a rag tag assortment of musical waistrels. Tim Whelan (Transglobal Underground, Furniture etc), Ashley Davies (Project Dark, London Dirthole Co etc), Kirsten Reynolds (Project Dark, LDC etc), Rob Lewis (Pulkas, LDC etc), Debbie Smith (Echobelly, Ye Nuns etc) plus various guests.

The Blood Tub Orchestra, set to be 2015’s most interesting and innovative outfit, are delighting and enthralling listeners with their wholly unique idea. Unearthing Victorian and Edwardian music gems from often long-forgotten artists, The Blood Tub Orchestra evolve the pieces into fully-formed 21st century creations that still possess the characteristics and soul of the original historic works. The ghost is firmly spooking the machinery.

When we look into our histories, we often do so with a rose-tinted and fantastical idealism of what entailed in those previous years, belying the actual truth whilst embracing the myths. This music most certanly isnt that! With the cosy mothball whiff of fancy dress nostalgia removed, a straight bare knuckle fight between the song and the performers is left to find its place creating the most mouthwatering proposition since The Rolling Stones re-introduced Blues to America. Great Britain, this means you!

The songs on this EP are selected for their timeless relevance and irreverance, We’re Glad You’ve Got A Gun, of which no known original recordings exist, is a chilling call to arms propaganda song aimed at the popular music markets of it’s day. The Modern Mephistopheles is a damning a bitter whimsical mocking version of a song about poverty and ‘domestic bliss’ that was popular in its day.

The Blood Tub Orchestra is comprised of a ragtag assortment of musical waistrels. Tim Whelan (Transglobal Underground, Furniture etc), Ashley Davies (Project Dark, London Dirthole Company etc), Kirsten Reynolds (Project Dark, LDC etc), Rob Lewis (Pulkas, LDC etc), Debbie Smith (Echobelly, Ye Nuns etc) plus various guests

The Blood Tub Orchestra, set to be 2015’s most interesting and innovative outfit, are delighting and enthralling listeners with their wholly unique idea. Unearthing Victorian and Edwardian music gems from often long-forgotten artists, The Blood Tub Orchestra evolve the pieces into fully-formed 21st century creations that still possess the characteristics and soul of the original historic works. The ghost is firmly spooking the machinery.

When we look into our histories, we often do so with a rose-tinted and fantastical idealism of what entailed in those previous years, belying the actual truth whilst embracing the myths. This music most certanly isnt that! With the cosy mothball whiff of fancy dress nostalgia removed, a straight bare knuckle fight between the song and the performers is left to find its place creating the most mouthwatering proposition since The Rolling Stones re-introduced Blues to America. Great Britain, this means you!

The songs on this EP are selected for their timeless relevance and irreverance, We’re Glad You’ve Got A Gun, of which no known original recordings exist, is a chilling call to arms propaganda song aimed at the popular music markets of it’s day. The Modern Mephistopheles is a damning a bitter whimsical mocking version of a song about poverty and ‘domestic bliss’ that was popular in its day.

The Blood Tub Orchestra is comprised of a ragtag assortment of musical waistrels. Tim Whelan (Transglobal Underground, Furniture etc), Ashley Davies (Project Dark, London Dirthole Company etc), Kirsten Reynolds (Project Dark, LDC etc), Rob Lewis (Pulkas, LDC etc), Debbie Smith (Echobelly, Ye Nuns etc) plus various guests

An atmospheric, arty mix of punk, prog and glam-rock from this three piece featuring Grifters and Those Bastard Souls main man David Shouse.

“Yours Until the Bitter End ” is The Bloody Hollies follow up to the highly praised “Who to Trust, Who to Kill, Who to Love” which was released in 2007 on Alive Naturalsound. Many who are familiar with the band’s sound know them by their trademark murder-themed blues/rock anthems that remind listeners of the 60’s and 70’s golden age of rock & roll. The new album still embraces the dark side of raw garage punk, but comes armed with a more eclectic array of songwriting and musicianship. But don’t let the touches of organ, violin, and xylophone fool you, the band’s hybrid of blues and rock & roll continue to shine more impressively than ever.

The Bloody Hollies recorded in San Diego, but enlisted the expertise of Jim Diamond in Detroit, a familiar friend of the band’s that helped bring the sound of this record to its full potential. “Yours Until the Bitter End” is a work that reflects a lengthy career that fully embraces The Bloody Hollies’ vast influences while at the same time maintaining the band’s unique sound of explosive, over-driven mayhem balanced with intelligently thought-out songwriting. What is most impressive about The Bloody Hollies, however, is the diversity of their strengths, ranging from 70’s classic rock, Americana blues, to an even power-pop songwriting style. Wesley Doyle’s voice is stronger than ever and continues to shine, complimenting Joseph Horgen’s unique slide blues guitar style. The rhythm section of Matthew Bennett (drums) and Erik Noorgard (bass guitar) are as solid as ever and work together perfectly on this record which will go down as The Bloody Hollies’ most impressive to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. So Grey, So Green
2. Dead Letter
3. Dirty Sex
4. Good Night, Sleep Tight
5. I Dream Of Bees
6. Dress To Kill
7. Leave That Woman Alone
8. Sticks And Stones
9. You're So Cold
10. John Wayne Brown

Khaela Maricich is the Blow, also a member of the Dub Narcotic studio gang. Khaela recorded this entire album on the Dub Narcotic 16 track tape deck, producing it herself, with guest appearances by a few friends: Susan Ploetz, Anna Oxygen, Mirah, Nora Danielson, Jason Anderson and Jenn Kliese. Like secret mantras, these are adult versions of children's rhymes adapted for more complicated situations, songs people want to sing for their loved ones, but probably never will.

The Bluebells have dug deep into their archive to give us the earliest recordings of these tracks, which have never been released before and are exclusive to this 7”

‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’ is longer and more vibrant containing an extra verse and guitar solo which are not on previous versions. This is the closest recording to the one that was originally intended to be released on Postcard in 1981. The sleeve, designed by Bobby Bluebell features 2 of the earliest photos of the band.

THE BLUEBELLS were formed by songwriter / guitarist Robert Hodgens aka Bobby Bluebell in 1980. When deciding to form a group to start performing his songs, Hodgens remembered two punk musicians from Bothwell (brothers Ken and David McCluskey) he had interviewed for his fanzine, 10 Commandments. David (drums/ backing vocals) and Ken (vocals / harmonica) joined Robert and The Bluebells started performing live in and around Glasgow.

The Bluebells were soon involved in the burgeoning scene coalescing around Postcard Records in Glasgow (Orange Juice, Josef K, Go Betweens, Aztec Camera, Jazzateers), and it wasn’t long before The Bluebells were sharing stages throughout the UK with some of the Postcard groups. A single (Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool) was scheduled for release on Postcard, however after appearing on the front page on Melody Maker and in NME / Sounds etc, major record companies started making serious offers to sign the group. The Bluebells appeared on BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test, the first unsigned group to do so, and it wasn’t long after this television appearance that the group signed a major record contract with London Records.

The Bluebells were soon in the studio working on songs for their debut album, with Elvis Costello producing. They were invited to open on UK tours for Haircut 100 and Elvis Costello & The Attractions, and started releasing singles to critical acclaim (Forevermore, Cath, Sugar Bridge). However it was their fourth single I’m Falling (co-written by Robert and Ken) that finally resulted in commercial success, chart success, and appearances on Top of the Pops.

The Bluebells released their debut album, Sisters, in 1984 to further commercial chart success, which was continued when their next single, Young At Heart, gave the group their second big hit single. However, when Young At Heart was reissued in 1993, it reached number 1 in the chart for a month, making The Bluebells regular fixtures on Top Of The Pops.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Everybody's Somebody's Fool

Side B
Some Sweet Day

Before signing to London Records and scoring hits such as ‘Young At Heart’ and ‘I’m Falling’, the band recorded an album’s worth of independent recordings and demos, most of which remained unreleased.

Compiled by Robert Hodgens (Bobby Bluebell) with the involvement of the rest of the band, EXILE ON TWEE STREET finally reveals the band’s roots in the indie scene of early 80s Glasgow.

The Bluebells actually demo’d songs for Alan Horne’s Postcard label, recently the subject of a critically acclaimed book by Simon Goddard entitled Simply Thrilled.

Only the track ‘Happy Birthday’ has been issued before – on a rare flexidisc!

The legendary Bluebells return with In The 21st Century, the first album from the trio in over two decades.

The new LP features 12 brand new songs including upcoming singles "Gone Tomorrow", "Blue Train" & "Ballad of the Bells", housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve designed by Robert Hodgens and Jim Lambie, with photography from Brian Sweeney.\r\n

TRACK LISTING

She Rises 
Disneyland And Rock 'N' Roll 
Living Out Loud 
Blue Train 
The Ballad Of The Bells 
Anyone Could Be A Buzzcock 
Beautiful Mess 
The Boy Who Slipped Away 
Stonehouse Violets 
Orienteering 
Gone Tomorrow 
Daddy Was An Engineer

What can you say about Sisters that hasn't been said already? Well what about "Now featuring 2 bonus songs produced by Elvis Costello"? That's not been said before for sure.

The band were never perfectly happy with the version of "Everybody's Somebodys Fool" which opens the album and have thus chosen to replace this with a different (more Bluebells) version and we will be including - for the first time - the Elvis Costello produced "Aim In Life" and "Some Sweet Day"

The album will feature new liner notes and some updated art - whilst remaining your favourite sister of all. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Everybody's Somebody's Fool
2. Young At Heart
3. I'm Falling
4. Will She Always Be Waiting
5. Some Sweet Day
6. Cath
7. Red Guitars
8. Syracuse University
9. Aim In Life
10. Learn To Love
11. South Atlantic Way
12. The Patriot's Game

Impeccable credentials, The Blueprint are made up ex-members of Pitchshifter, Earthtone9 and Consumed. It's a six track mini album that's heavy, heavy, heavy. Probably the most exciting thing to have emerged from Nottingham for quite a while.

“Return To The Last Chance Saloon” is a hit packed, gold selling, Top 10 album that was originally released in March 1998. Featuring the hit singles ‘Solomon Bites The Worm’, ‘If…’, and ‘Sleazy Bed Track’ plus mail-order only single ‘4-Day Weekend’, this re-issue is augmented by the addition of standalone Top 10 single ‘Marblehead Johnson.’

The bonus material included across this 2CD set includes each band member’s favourite B-side, plus a stunning gig recorded at BBC’s Sound City in Newcastle in 1998. A set packed with all their hits; it’s the sound of a band at the top of their game playing to a jubilant and adoring audience. The 2CD, 36 track package is completed by the addition of previously unreleased BBC session tracks from the era and all contained in a tri-fold sleeve with a new booklet containing brand new sleevenotes from Mark Morriss.

"Return To.." is as fresh as your first outdoor breath on a crisp spring day, as adrenalising as a five mile freefall into neat vodka and as heartbreaking as finding an ex's hair on a long forgotten shirt.” Melody Maker, 1998 “At times better than anything they've ever done” NME, 1998

Never before released in any form, this is the second BBC session from The Bodines.

Features What You Want and Slip Slide which later featured on their debut album. Slip Slide was also released as a single with Naming Names and Long Time Dead on the B-side.

Package also features a set of postcards with unseen pics by Kevin Cummins, sleeve notes by Mick Ryan and John Rowland plus free download codes.

Limited to 350 copies.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Glossop four piece The Bodines were one of the most underrated bands of the mid / late 80s. They released some classic jangle-pop singles and a wonderful Ian Broudie produced LP.

TRACK LISTING

What You Want
Slip Slide
Naming Names
Long Time Dead

Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Pressed on Violet vinyl. Includes poster.

Presented in the alternate 12” sleeve that was used for the original Creation release and includes all 3 tracks on 7” for the first time.

Originally released in 1986 and was one of the stand out tracks on the legendary C86 compilation.

In 2023, Mojo magazine ranked the song “Therese” as the 37th greatest UK indie record ever, citing it "a breathless romantic gulp of twin guitar twirl".

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: One the my favourite singles of all time! A glorious blast of romantic indie pop from Glossop's finest.

TRACK LISTING

Therese
Scar Tissue
I Feel

An early signing to Alan McGee’s Creation label, The Bodines were the missing link between Orange Juice and Echo and the Bunnymen. Never before released on vinyl, this is their first BBC session, featuring a fantastic version of C86 classic ‘Therese’ plus three more of their early setlist staples.

All four of these tracks featured on their wonderful Ian Broudie produced debut album which as released a couple of years later.

Package also features a set of postcards with unseen Bleddyn Butcher pics, sleeve notes by Mick Ryan and Paul Brotherton plus free download codes.
Limited to 350 copies.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: One of my favourite bands from the mid / late 80's. Originally signed to Creation Records they were then snapped up by Magnet, releasing their debut album and a handful of singles before gravitating back to Manchester based Play Hard Records run by Dave Haslam and Nathan McGough.

"Therese" which features on this session is a slice of pop genius!

TRACK LISTING

Scar Tissue
Therese
William Shatner
The Back Door

The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequalled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band.

The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk.

Their debut collaborative album, ‘Leaving None But Small Birds’ distils the two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love and odes to vengeance.

Recorded, mixed and produced by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets (Liturgy, Battles, Mdou Moctar) and mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, David Bowie).

“Emotionally coherent but tricky to categorize. BIG|BRAVE are the sound of the raw unconscious, turned up loud.” - Pitchfork

“The Body have become one of the most interesting and difficult to pin down groups in extreme music.” - Rolling Stone

TRACK LISTING

Blackest Crow
Oh Sinner
Hard Times
Once I Had A Sweetheart
Black Is The Colour
Polly Gosford
Babes In The Woods

They all grew up in Salford, Manchester, all went to the same school, and all dig Metallica, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. Beer drenched rifftastic metal action excellently described by themselves as: 'Riffs, beer, headbanging, big f***ing songs you can sing along to, more headbanging!' And like they say: 'If your friends don't own this record, your friends are losers!' How can you resist?