For their new recording, North East England electronic duo Warm Digits have sharpened up the elements of their sound for a set of crisp, propulsive and melodically rich songs, and for the first time on selected songs have collaborated with some of their favourite vocalists: Peter Brewis of Field Music, Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne, Devon Sproule, and Mia La Metta of Beards.

Wireless World is loosely themed around a present-day that teeters between progress and collapse. The band explain, “Our experience of the world and our states of mind are shaped and thrilled by unimaginably exciting leaps in technology, and yet that world will only last for a few moments as we fail to find a way to act collectively on rising temperatures, the failures of democracy and the unstoppable hunger for exploitation of the ground under our feet. This record is our attempt to make music from our experience of this present that teeters between celebration and devastation.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Dynamic Karutrock-inspired breakdowns, soaring synths and dreamlike, hazy shoegazing vocals mix into a euphoric and satisfying melting pot. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Two To Four Degrees
End Times (feat. Field Music)
Wireless World
Always On
Better Friction (feat. Mia La Metta)
Victims Of Geology
Growth Of Raindrops (feat. Sarah Cracknell)
Deluge And Delusion
Fracking Blackpool
The Rumble And The Tremor (feat. Devon Sproule)
Mute Ocean
Swallow The City

For their new recording, North East England electronic duo Warm Digits have sharpened up the elements of their sound for a set of crisp, propulsive and melodically rich songs, and for the first time on selected songs have collaborated with some of their favourite vocalists: Peter Brewis of Field Music, Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne, Devon Sproule, and Mia La Metta of Beards.

Wireless World is loosely themed around a present-day that teeters between progress and collapse. The band explain, “Our experience of the world and our states of mind are shaped and thrilled by unimaginably exciting leaps in technology, and yet that world will only last for a few moments as we fail to find a way to act collectively on rising temperatures, the failures of democracy and the unstoppable hunger for exploitation of the ground under our feet. This record is our attempt to make music from our experience of this present that teeters between celebration and devastation.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Dynamic Karutrock-inspired breakdowns, soaring synths and dreamlike, hazy shoegazing vocals mix into a euphoric and satisfying melting pot. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Two To Four Degrees
End Times (feat. Field Music)
Wireless World
Always On
Better Friction (feat. Mia La Metta)
Victims Of Geology
Growth Of Raindrops (feat. Sarah Cracknell)
Deluge And Delusion
Fracking Blackpool
The Rumble And The Tremor (feat. Devon Sproule)
Mute Ocean
Swallow The City

Arriving seven years on from their 2014 debut album ‘Ships Will Come’, Warm Graves (the moniker of Leipzig-based composer Jonas Wehner) return with their second studio album, ‘Ease’, on Fuzz Club Records. This seven-year gestation between the two albums brings with it a transformation in the creative process of Warm Graves, much like the human body exchanges its cells every seven years – our human bodies being both the same and wholly other. “For me, ‘Ease’ always comes back to the idea of transformation”, Wehner says: “In this case, from struggle to ease, choirs to whispers, rush to patience, light to dark. Those 7 years didn’t pass lightly. Life took a lot of turns and I had a lot to learn. It’s all in there compressed in 9 tracks.”

Where 2014’s ‘Ships Will Come’ dealt in ethereal, dream-like atmospherics guided by an operatic choir, ‘Ease’ offers a collection of harsher, more experimental electronic works touching on dark ambient drone, austere coldwave and synthesised kosmische musik. The transitions in this new album are more violent than before, expressing the difficult personal and social upheavals of its composition period. The choir is now absent and Wehner’s own voice assumes a more central, hypnotic stance. The soundscapes of the first album make way for something darker and a concentration of melody into a single voice – a voice no longer collective, but embodying both isolation and intimacy. "I've lit my own fate", Wehner sings in ‘Sun Escape’. A fate which he firmly places under the microscope across this album.

Warm Graves was brought to life by Jonas Marc Anton Wehner in 2012. In the years following the release of their epic 2014 debut ‘Ships Will Come’, Warm Graves soon found themselves touring with the likes of Exploded View and Moon Duo and sharing stages with The Soft Moon, Crystal Stilts, Efterklang and Moonface, among many others. As well as headline tours around Europe of their own, they’ve also appeared at such international festivals as The Great Escape, ATP, Iceland Airwaves, Roskilde and Eindhoven Psych Lab. Having spent the last few years quietly working on ‘Ease’ in the shadows, Warm Graves is now emerging once again as both a live and recording force – and doing so with a new live band, new album and reissue of ‘Ships Will Come’ (also released via their new label Fuzz Club Records) in tow.

TRACK LISTING

1) Atoria
2) Black Wine
3) Neon
4) Sun Escape
5) Cara
6) Deliria
7) Nightfall/Daylight
8) Ease
9) Sound Sleeper

'Ships Will Come' is the highly acclaimed debut album from Leipzig, Germany-based outfit Warm Graves. On the LP, Warm Graves deliver surreal, dream-like atmospherics that are underpinned by repetitive, organic rhythms and echoing vocals, performed by a self-taught choir composed of a collective of friends. Across the seven perfectly structured and interwoven tracks, Warm Graves create a sci-fi soundtrack that manages to be as gorgeously mesmerising and ethereal as it is anthemic and empowering. Originally released in 2014, the album is now being reissued by their new label home, the London-based Fuzz Club Records. Having spent the last few years out of sight and quietly working on new music, Jonas Wehner’s Warm Graves have now completed their long-awaited second album which is set to be released via Fuzz Club in 2022. Until then, their fantastic debut, ‘Ships Will Come’, is now available to stream/download on all digital platforms once again and will have a vinyl reissue arriving on December 3rd. Warm Graves have previously toured with Exploded View and Moon Duo and also supported The Soft Moon, Crystal Stilts, Efterklang and Moonface.

TRACK LISTING

1) Ravachol
2) Penumbra
3) Cold Women
4) Ships Will Come
5) Best Ezra
6) Headlines
7) Rouleaux 

Within seconds of dropping the needle on I Don’t Wanna Grow Up one gets the feeling of being in good hands: an AP course in power-pop, delivered by Matthew Melton, with the confidence and consistency of your favorite late night diner. Familiarity works as a curious device — this is directly in Melton’s wheelhouse, no sonic surprises whatsoever, yet somehow these odes to teenage love and heartache are brand new, catchy and vital.

His twists and turns utilizing the same tools are astounding in their continued freshness. That this is the final Warm Soda record (in anticipation of his new band Dream Machine’s debut, also forthcoming on Castle Face Records) seems logical when you consider the way he’s re-written the same vibe into four excellent records of catchy pop. A lesser talent would have given up after two records, tops — Melton’s commitment to the platonic ideal of power pop again bears fruit, and perhaps this one is the best yet? Mix tape makers of the world, take note: if you leave this album out of your next amorous transmission, you’re fucking up.

TRACK LISTING

1. Young In Your Heart
2. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
3. Tell Me In A Whisper
4. To Be With Ramona
5. Don't Stop Now
6. Game Of Undefined Love
7. Don't Leave Me For Another Guy
8. Run Away With Me
9. Gumdrop
10. Tell Me Your Story
11. This Changes Everything
12. Angel Of Love

Warmduscher have never taken to the term “supergroup”, but it’s safe to say that their unique, potent blend of raw musicianship, down ‘n’ dirty rock riffs and devil-may-care party attitude was birth from the union of Clams Baker and The Witherer of Paranoid London; Lightnin’ Jack Everett and Quicksand, formerly of Fat White Family; and Mr. Salt Fingers Lovecraft, haiking from Insecure Men. After a tumultuous writing and recording process during the height of COVID lockdowns and a triumphant return to the stage at this year’s End of the Road festival, Warmduscher are on the brink of releasing the salaciously groovy and expertly grimey At the Hotspot. Produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle of Hot Chip, At the Hotspot takes the raucous energy Warmduscher solidified on their critically acclaimed 2019 release Tainted Lunch, and injects it with a slightly more polished, ‘80s funk sound, kind of like stumbling home to your squatted loft after a drunken night at the local disco. It’s crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside, and might be the most immediately enjoyable music Warmduscher have ever graced us with.

TRACK LISTING

1 Live At The Hotspot
2 Hot Shot
3 Eight Minute Machine
4 Wild Flowers
5 Fatso
6 Twitchin' In The Kitchen
7 Five Star Rated
8 Baby Toe Joe
9 Double Vision
10 Super Cool
11 Greasin' Up Jesus

Warmduscher return.

Heavy metals.

Disco Peanuts.

CCTV in the break room.

A little something to get you through the week. There’s enough to go around. Revenge is a dish best served bold. Melt in the mouth disco basslines on a fragrant bed of feedback. Try it with the boom bap tapenade. Here for a good time, not a long time.

If you made your way out of Whale City with your faculties intact, this one’s for you. Clams Baker, Lightnin’ Jack Everett, Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft and The Witherer have been joined by Quicksand on cutting board and cheese wire and commis chef Cheeks on vibes. They’ve been cooking. Michelin stars. The finest ingredients money can buy: Kool Keith and Iggy Pop. Funk, punk, hip-hop and lounge rock. Love is real.

Band biographer and revered botanist Dr Alan Goldfarb describes the album as “a sample hole through which to taste another universe. A dramatic warning. A gilded aroma. It is a tale of wanton desire and limitless treachery. A tale of disillusionment – the refusal of exploitation.”

Tainted Lunch was recorded in just four days, with soupe du jour Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, black midi, Fontaines DC). Warmduscher continue to live on their razor-sharp wits. Or as Clams Baker puts it “there’s no way to stop now”. Delivering the goods you never knew you needed.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Massive, throbby basslines and snappy disco percussion take the lead before giving way into sweaty club grooves and distorted post-punk. Warmduscher succeed just as easily at hypnotic indie-rock as they do anthemic dancefloor tackle. Never a dull moment, and every one as brilliantly done as the last.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Rules Of The Game (feat. Iggy Pop)
A2. Tainted Lunch
A3. Midnight Dipper
A4. Disco Peanuts
A5. Fill It, Don’t Spill It
A6. Burner (feat. Kool Keith)
B1. The Chimp
B2. Precious Things
B3. Grape Face
B4. Dream Lotion
B5. Blood Load
B6. Tiny Letters

Bonus 7”
A. Nelson’s Threads
B. The Pressure

Let Warmduscher be your guide. Clams Baker: the man with the golden tongue. Fast-talking, no nonsense networker. The ‘legitimate’ front to the great rock ‘n’ roll swindle. No time for fact checking. No need for building regulations. Heading straight to the top. Consequence be damned. Lightnin’ Jack Everett is his man on point. The rhythm. The brains. The brawn. Let’s make lots of money. The Saulcano, Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft and The Witherer operate in the shadows. The cogs. The machine. The bootleggers.

South London recidivists Warmduscher include members of Paranoid London, Fat White Family and Childhood.

Longtime Warmduscher biographer Dr Alan Goldfarb describes Whale City as “a rock opera so vast in magnitude that - were in not for my being strapped naked to a chair in a garage - could send a man hurtling towards the outer perimeters of uncharted space”.

TRACK LISTING

CD: LP:

1. A1. Bright Lights
2. A2. Standing On The Corner
3. A3. Big Wilma
4. A4. 1000 Whispers
5. A5. The Sweet Smell Of Florida
6. A6. No Way Out
7. B1. I Got Friends

When Jeremy Warmsley released his critically acclaimed debut album in 2006, he soon became the unofficial troubadour of the underground. Heralded in equal measure for his literary lyrical excursions, his sonic inventiveness and his captivating live performances he became an undoubted cult figure. Fast-forward to Autumn 2008 and Warmsley's second album "How We Became" is ready for release: rather than abandoning the qualities that made him stand out from the Brit indie pack, Warmsley has instead married them with finely crafted pop-songwriting and created a body of work that allows his cult status to infiltrate the consciousness of the mainstream, whilst maintaining his commitment to making music that challenges convention.

Compiled from his long sold-out collectors-item EP's from the past twelve months, comes the debut album from Jeremy Warmsley – "The Art Of Fiction".

There’s something particularly pleasing about a privately pressed record. The artist or musicians involved have wanted these recordings to exist with such conviction that they’ve been willing to fund it themselves; the result is either a vanity project or something rather special. Steve Warner’s eponymous 1979 debit falls firmly into the latter. Funded by the combination of a bank loan and a council grant from his native Australia, Steve manage to record, produce, mix and manufacture what would be come to be his only recorded output (Steve went onto teach music afterwards - imagine being in that class!). Nick Armstrong at the legendary Spectangle Studios - also where Howard Eynon recorded ‘Jam’ - was there to assist and the album was eventually managed by Tasmanian label, Candle.

Running to 13 tracks, 11 of which original compositions, this album of delicate folk songs, madcap ditties and more psychedelic orchestrated pieces feels incredibly accomplished for what was basically a one man show. For fans of Dennis Wilson, Roedelius, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Elliott Smith (yes, as far reaching as that). "At the time I would have long dreams about music, but strangely never did I actually hear music in them. I would dream of music in a very abstract sense - it's tension and release, it's inner harmonies, often in a visual or graphic way like an architect might. Lines of stress and of release, tension and slackness, angles between elements, heavy and light, strength and fragility. I used to be fascinated by the grey zone between sleeping and waking, and of finding that place in music.” - Steve Warner, 2015

TRACK LISTING

01 Summer
02 Hey, Hosanna
03 Lightning Over The Meadow
04 A Boogie
05 Rainfall
06 Charlton
07 We’ll Go On
08 Poems In Your Eyes
09 Fireflies
10 Momento
11 Untitled
12 Crisp Morning
13 Cement River

Creepy Crawl is proud to unleash the second release from Tampere, Finland’s heavy psych over-lords – Warp Transmission.

The previous release – the amazing Tamám Shud, was a reissue of a demo/rehearsal/whatever cassette – this is their first album proper – recorded and produced by the band themselves and then expertly mastered by the legend that is John McBain, former member of Monster Magnet / Hater / ETC

From the arctic circle comes the freshest and least revivalist take on stratospherically exhilarating psychedelic rock since “Spine Of God” was released in 1991, or “Relaxing With” in 1995… turned up, turned on and blasting out of your speakers, this throbbing over-blown riff monster could be the blast of guitar spuzz we need… a furious slab of unrelenting and unforgiving psychedelia.

This debut album proper from Finland’s Warp Transmission will stand up along side the afore mentioned debuts by Monster Magnet and The Heads, as well as the Stooges / Hawkwind / Blue Cheer / On Trial / early Nebula / Union Carbide Productions.. ,, it really is an almost untouchable single LP of speaker gashing, amp blowing, phaser shredding scree… you get to the end?? You simply put it back on again....

Label disclaimer: this is not Stoner Rock, or, indeed Shoegaze…. This is Warp Transmission, primitive-heavy..primordial ooze rock!

TRACK LISTING

1: Ultra Thrust
2: Cast Into The Process
3: Wipeout
4: The Insect
5: Crash Like Waves
6: The Stranded
7: Quicksilver Mindstream

Straight out of Tampere Rock City - these Finnish fiends are the bastard children of Blue Cheer and Monster Magnet (McBain era natch!) - but do not panic, this is no retro show, they are not throwbacks or wimpy psych wannabe shoegazers - this record ROCKS and it ROCKS HARD!

Originally released on cassette, Creepy Crawl was totally blown away by it and we knew this had to come out on LP/CD - Tamam Shud is part live rehearsal recordings and the rest created at their own Kemian Laboratorio - 8 face melting freakouts with layers of effect laden guitars, spaced out organ and synth and thunderous bass and drums. Remastered for CD/LP reissue and cut loud…. This is unrelenting psyche-rock at its finest… 500 LP / 1000 CD… setting up for a full length later in 2017.

Warp Transmission is a freak accident, the weirdo process ultra, a travel void of reason. It's spaced out, stoner,psychedelic, wastoid, heavy 'n' heady ROCK. It's about riding blind the primal urge, living the archetype, and always rocking out with an excess of noise, burning some bridges and crossing a couple abysses along the way.

TRACK LISTING

Black Dots
Hash Time I
Cast Into The Process
Hash Time II
Confusion
Great Oceans In The Sky
Hash Time III
Archetype: Brainfry

Warpaint return with two new tracks, 'Common Blue' and 'Underneath', to mark their 20th anniversary.

Emerging from the creative chrysalis, Warpaint release single 'Common Blue' on 14 February. Their first new material in two years, the four-piece mark 20 years as a band by reuniting with Rough Trade, the label behind their debut and creative home for most of their existence. Emotionally taking flight through Warpaint's innate sense of wonderment, 'Common Blue' marries an earthy groove with a fluttering melody that beguilingly evokes the ornate yet tender butterflies that enchant Warpaint's single.

The 7-inch is backed by 'Underneath', which floats around an intoxicating acoustic riff with illusive emotions and fleeting feelings.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Stunning new 7" from our favs Warpaint. Common Blue on the A-side is up there with some of the bands best ever material and the delicate Underneath on the flip is lovely - limited, so don't sleep on this gem!!!

TRACK LISTING

1. Common Blue
2. Underneath

This is their debut mini-album originally released on Manimal Records, now reissued in the UK on Rough Trade.

Los Angeles' mystical Warpaint weave majestic, haiku-like guitars, hypnotic vocals, and driving post-punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between the soundscapes of psychedelia / shoegaze, the haunting intimacy of folk, and rock's primal heaviness. At the core of the band are childhood friends Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman who both met bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg at a commercial casting audition in LA. The trio quickly traded in their headshots for guitars and the fertile, diverse LA music scene has been much better for it since. Expertly mixed by John Frusciante, the album successfully captures the band's sonic textures and playful dynamism Warpaint is notorious for creating live. Onstage, Warpaint's disarmingly authentic package can shake a room into a dance frenzy—while simultaneously holding it in a trance-like dreamworld.

This is their debut mini-album originally released on Manimal Records, now reissued in the UK on Rough Trade.

Los Angeles' mystical Warpaint weave majestic, haiku-like guitars, hypnotic vocals, and driving post-punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between the soundscapes of psychedelia / shoegaze, the haunting intimacy of folk, and rock's primal heaviness. At the core of the band are childhood friends Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman who both met bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg at a commercial casting audition in LA. The trio quickly traded in their headshots for guitars and the fertile, diverse LA music scene has been much better for it since. Expertly mixed by John Frusciante, the album successfully captures the band's sonic textures and playful dynamism Warpaint is notorious for creating live. Onstage, Warpaint's disarmingly authentic package can shake a room into a dance frenzy—while simultaneously holding it in a trance-like dreamworld.

‘Heads Up’ was recorded after the band spent 2015 apart working on solo projects. Reuniting in January this year, the band started to work with producer Jacob Bercovici, whom they had worked on their debut EP ‘Exquisite Corpse’ – into the studio to begin work on the new LP.

The album was recorded in House on The Hill studio in downtown LA, their home studios and Papap’s Palace and for the first time ever, recorded in pairs and alone rather than as a full band.

‘The doors were a little more open in terms of what was accepted and what wasn’t, because we were sharing ideas so rapidly between us” says the band drummer Stella Mozgawa of the recording process. “

“Everybody was allowed to have their space, time and creative freedom with songs and figure out, ‘I wonder what the best notes would be? I wonder what the best would be to play?” says bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg “Everybody got to sit and go, “What do I want to do to this? What’s my part? What’s My Role? How can I make it the best?”

“I Feel really proud of what we made – almost surprised,” says Linberg “When we were making it, I was like “I wonder what this is going to sound like? How’s this going to come together so nicely? I feel so proud of it, and like its an evolution of our band, It sounds like a mature version of Warpaint”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Warpaint have obviously matured a bit. Their last album was a rawkous and forceful cacophony of sound, visceral and triumphant. This is somewhat more nuanced, confident and collected. Electronic drums are heard in certain sections, rippling and swaying instrumental breakdowns and smooth vocal melodies. This has much more of a swagger about it, like they have made their point and now they're just out to prove their worth. It's definitely working. Fantastic.

TRACK LISTING

01 Whiteout
02 By Your Side
03 New Song
04 The Stall
05 So Good
06 Don't Wanna
07 Don't Let Go
08 Dre
09 Heads Up
10 Above Control
11 Today Dear

'Radiate Like This' - Warpaint’s much anticipated new record, not to mention their first in almost 6 years - arrives with its own very modern mythology intact, continuing the strange, brilliant, beautiful story of the band and quite neatly picking up where 'Heads Up' left off. If the previous album was the coming of age, 'Radiate Like This' presents Warpaint mk II in all their glory, a luminous coalescence of sound and vision which stubbornly belies its genesis, with the quartet of Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Stella Mozgawa and Jenny Lee Lindberg all recording their parts separately in various cities.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever made an album like that, but in a weird way, it made us take our time with everything”, muses Kokal. “The process felt more meditative, less rushed”. This new sense of quiet confidence can be heard all through the album, in the hushed, slow build of first single “Champion” the beguiling push pull of “Proof”, the delicate intricacy and complexity of tracks like “Melting” and the winking “Send Nudes”. It’s an album that pulsates with ideas, energy and- most crucially – gorgeous melodies. Listen on in wonder.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As is the way at the moment, Warpaint recorded their new LP in several parts, from different cities and although it sounds like a recipe for a disconnected, diparate work, in Warpaint's case it couldn't be any less true. Incendiary groove, huge percussion and their impeccable sense of melody comes shining through, it's a triumph. A great return.

TRACK LISTING

1. Champion
2. Hips
3. Hard To Tell You
4. Stevie
5. Like Sweetness
6. Trouble
7. Proof
8. Altar
9. Melting
10. Send Nudes

Los Angeles all-girl four-piece Warpaint release their debut album proper, "The Fool" on Rough Trade, following last year's "Exquisite Corpse" mini-album.

Warpaint weave intricate guitar lines, hypnotic vocals and driving post punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between psychedelia and intimacy. Both live and on record, Warpaint sound like they're channelling something truly otherworldly, mystical.

Recorded in a gym in LA, "The Fool" was produced and mixed by Tom Biller (Karen O – "Where The Wild Things Are" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" soundtracks), with further mixes from Andrew Weatherall (New Order, Primal Scream, Bjork) and Adam Samuels (Pearl Jam, Willie Nelson).

‘Warpaint’ was co-produced by Warpaint and Flood (PJ Harvey, Sigur Ros, New Order, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Foals), and mixed by Flood and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead). The album was conceived after some writing and recording sessions that took place in The Joshua Tree late last year. Here the band was joined by visionary director Chris Cunningham who has partnered with them for many of the album visuals including the cover. He has spent the past two years filming and photographing the band as they made ‘Warpaint’.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: The Californian sunshine bores the daylights out of Warpaint. Surf dudes to the left, Hollywood desperados to the right: their second album proper finds the band diving down deeper and darker than ever before in a valiant, but ultimately doomed attempt to escape LA's shiny, happy people. Hypnotic and bleakly claustrophobic; 'Warpaint' is an album that won't return your calls and will pretend it hasn't seen you on a night out but, like a doomed love affair, will keep you coming back for more, hoping for reciprocity, ignoring the truth, that this a record that will never love you back. Don't let that stop you falling in love though, having your heart broken is one of life's cruel constants. So, if it's inevitable, you could do worse than to have it broken by 'Warpaint'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Keep It Healthy
3. Love Is To Die
4. Hi
5. Biggy
6. Teese
7. Disco//Very
8. Go In
9. Feeling Alright
10. CC
11. Drive
12. Son

THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERA GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, IRISH TIMES, ROUGH TRADE, MOJO, CLASH, ROLLING STONE, UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEARFrom award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK CAVE'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.'NICK CAVE'Such a mad, happy book about art and music and obsession. I'm so glad I got to read it.

It made the world feel lighter.'NEIL GAIMAN'In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project.'MAX PORTER'A unique study of a fan's devotion, of transcendence and of the artistic vocation - it's got depth and great warmth. It's a beautiful piece of work.'KEVIN BARRYI hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013.

The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish.

In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag.

The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality.

It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. 'This is such a beautiful f*@king book. Thank you, Warren.

I highly recommend this motherf*@ker.'FLEA'A beautifully written book about the power of music and objects. I powered through it in two days.'COURTNEY BARNETT'A moving, inspiration insight into a beautiful mind.'JIM JARMUSCH'The year's most eccentric and joyful musical memoir.'DAILY TELEGRAPH (Books of the year)'[Nina Simone's Gum] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.' OBSERVER'[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . .

. [Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not.'MOJO'A glorious piece of object fetishism . .

. Marvel as Ellis' collection of eccentric personal mementos morphs into a celebration of the intangible wonder of music.'UNCUT'Wonderful.' THE TIMES'The most peculiar book I've ever read.' CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY'Delightful . .

. A joy from start to finish.' BIG ISSUE'A joyous work full of love, connection, creativity and gratitude.' THE SPECTATOR'Completely charming and joyful . .

. glorious.' LA REVIEW OF BOOKS'Beautiful . .

. remarkable.' NEW EUROPEAN

This book is about the kind of ordinary dancing you and I might do in our kitchens when a favourite tune comes on. It's more than a social history: it's a set of interconnected histories of the overlooked places where dancing happens . .

. Why do we dance together? What does dancing tells us about ourselves, individually and collectively? And what can it do for us? Whether it be at home, '80s club nights, Irish dancehalls or reggae dances, jungle raves or volunteer-run spaces and youth centres, Emma Warren has sought the answers to these questions her entire life. Dancing doesn't just refract the music and culture within which it evolves; it also generates new music and culture.

When we speak only of the music, we lose part of the story - the part that finds us dancing as children on the toes of adults; the half that triggers communication across borders and languages; the part that finds us worried that we'll never be able to dance again, and the part that finds us wondering why we were ever nervous in the first place. At the intersection of memoir, social and cultural history, Dance Your Way Home is an intimate foray onto the dancefloor - wherever and whenever it may be - that speaks to the heart of what it is that makes us move.

With the Building A New Town EP, Gordon Chapman-Fox takes the Warrington-New Town Development Plan back to the early 1970s. Across these four tracks, Gordon adds guitars - played and sampled - to his usual epic sonic landscapes.

The new towns claimed the perfect suburban life in a green paradise with spacious parks and tree-lined boulevards. This chimed with post-hippy ideals of returning to nature and living The Good Life. The music filters through inspirations such as Pentangle, Mike Oldfield and early Tangerine Dream.

The fourth Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan album, The Nation's Most Central Location is released via Castles in Space and it's another absolute gem. This album sees Gordon Chapman-Fox (the man behind Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan) explore the north-south divide and reflect on 40 years of broken 'levelling up' promises.

With eight tracks across 40 minutes, the album offers Gordon's usual mix of mournful remorse and upbeat optimism. Gordon has now added an underlying anger that burns through on tracks such as London's Moving Our Way and A Brighter And More Prosperous Future.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A much needed repress of the great Warrington Runcorn's 'The Nation's Most Central Location', a benchmark release in the Castles in Space catalogue and a beautifully enchanting LP throughout. You need this in the collection.

ALSO, Gordon's come and signed a load of records for us! When they're gone..

TRACK LISTING

1. Just Off The M56 (J12) 03:06
2. Rocksavage 05:36
3. Daresbury Laboratory 04:51
4. London's Moving Our Way 07:13
5. Thelwall Viaduct 04:37
6. Europa Boulevard 07:05
7. Busway 03:14 
8. A Brighter And More Prosperous Future 04:12

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan's new album, Your Community Hub, compellingly continues his sonic exploration of the New Towns movement. The issues the councillors, planners, and architects set out to solve still resound and echo throughout society.

For the latest instalment in this unique project, Gordon Chapman-Fox turns his laser eye to focus on Community and the Community Centres that populated Warrington and Runcorn in order to provide all the facilities people needed within a five minute walk from their home. These planning ideas predated the current discussions of fifteen minute cities by fifty years.

Those 50 years have seen a decline in our community centres and services: handy access to a GP or dentist, Post Offices, youth clubs, local shops, banking and much more. Successive governments have undermined and eroded those basic services. The decline in community services has also been matched with a decline in community and shared experiences with a knock-on effect on the population's health and well-being. The disastrous austerity policies imposed over the last 15 years have exacerbated this long, slow reduction in available spaces for people to meet and communicate, with seemingly no recognition of the societal impact that causes. Short-termism at the expense of the community and how we live our lives.

Margaret Thatcher's statement that "there is no such thing as society" has been taken as a mission statement by successive Conservative governments who have aimed to remove as much support and communality from the citizens as possible. It continues now, the wrong-headed idea that everyone can be left to fend for themselves.

Chapman-Fox's latest album decries the cruelty of where we find ourselves in 2024 and his quiet incandescence about the loss of optimism for what communities should be and could be. It's his most powerful work, and as always, it will deeply resonate with those who tune in to his unique vision and unparalleled productions.

As ever, beautifully packaged and designed by Gordon, the album artwork features photographs from the archive of the architect Peter Garvin, which was kindly provided by his son Richard Garvin. The photographs show Peter's work on the Castlefield Community Centre, a sleek modernist structure clad in white ceramic tiles.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Shared Sense Of Purpose 
2. Rapid Transport Links 
3. Cul-de-Sac 
4. Summer All Year Round 
5. Facilities For All Ages 
6. Pedestrian Shopping Deck 
7. A New Town With An Old Sense Of Community

"Behind The Mask” was originally to be the second Incognito album. Still floating on the high of the success of their debut album “Jazz Funk”, Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick started work on new material recruiting friends and strangers from London’s buzzing music scene. Where “Jazz Funk” in 1981 had by name and nature been achieved from the influence of Jazz Funk and Soul music that we had been listening to in the 70’s, “Behind The Mask” from has a strong leaning towards the harder Fusion trend of that time. Innocence and earthy tones were replaced by a bright and bold flurry of cascading arpeggios and screaming solos. Brass arrangements that had been created by singing a man a line were now leaping out of reams of paper scored by the wizard that is Richard Niles. However, still present and leading the charge was the unmistakable, funky, pulsating and irresistible bass lines of the late Paul “Tubbs” Williams.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hot Apple
2. Destination
3. The Warrior
4. Je Ne Sais Quoi
5. Midnight Oil
6. Drive
7. Unsung Heroes
8. Bustin' Loose
9. Warrior's Dream

The highly acclaimed U.K. post-punk band Joy Division was originally called Warsaw. Formed in Manchester, England in the late 1970s, the group consisted of Ian Curtis on vocals, Bernard Albrecht (aka Sumner, aka Dicken) on guitar, Peter Hook on bass and Stephen Morris on drums. Hook, Albrecht and Curtis hooked up at a local concert and later formed the group Warsaw. The band’s name was taken from a David Bowie-Brian Eno composition, “Warszawa”. The 5 bonus tracks on this album are demos cut by the group at Pennine Studios in Manchester on July 18, 1977 with Steve Brotherdale on drums. The first eleven tracks presented here were the result of a recording session for that album that took place in early May of 1978. Rehearsals leading up to the session resulted in two new songs being added to the group’s existing repertoire: “Interzone” and “Transmission.” “Interzone” was based on the backing track of the song “Keep On Keepin’ On,” to which the band added their own lyrics.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Joy Division were born The Stiff Kittens before changing their name to Warsaw, only finally becoming Joy Division to avoid a name clash with long forgotten London punk outfit Warsaw Pakt. Inspired by the legendary Sex Pistols gig that pretty much single handedly launched the Manchester music scene, they had always wanted a punkier sound and "Warsaw" was the 1978 debut intended to showcase that; a raw, aggressive salvo that really should have seen the light of day. It was Martin Hannett - somewhat against the band's wishes - who introduced the bleak beauty we associate with Joy Division, but there are still some pretty broad hints here of what was to come.

“Take it from me, orbitin’ the Earth over ’n’ over ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. When I was asked to hop on board a Soyuz headed to the International Space Station (Assignment: Critical Observation), I reckoned this’d be the trip of a lifetime. Space, the final frontier. And how ’bout that view? But now I feel like I’ve been here that long—a lifetime, that is. You know, the food ain’t much to speak of, plus I gotta constantly make sure I don’t make no crumbs, else they might fuck up our air breathin’ filters. Crumbs! The things one learns. Drinkin’ ain’t no fun neither, ’less you get your jollies sippin’ daquiris from a straw out a plastic bag, like some swishy, doe-eyed Deadhead. And don’t even get me started on hygiene issues! I believe I could take a life for a proper bubble bath right about now (I miss my ducky, too). Which is all just a lumberin’ yet apropos segue to the matter at hand: this debut LP by Watery Love.

“Now, any right-minded corncob south of the Van Allen Belt knows them three precedin’ 7-inches via Richie, Siltbreeze and Negative Guestlist smacked kernels hard, and that smolderin’ ferocity has naturally been carried over here. The glow ’n’ throb what’s got got is as much the byproduct of the eternal bioluminescence of Iron Cross or Third World War as an appreciation for the corroded, fractoluminescence exuded once upon a time by Chain Gang, Slow Death EP-era Leather Nun ’n’ The Gordons. Sure, their environment might seem cold and uncarin’—even downright sociopathic— but behind that facade of David Goodis-like grimness are four sodbusters chompin’ to have a good time. When singer Richie Charles hollers “I’m a skull!” who among the masses would not rush headlong to get a lick off thatboney pate? It ain’t about Rofinol, people, it’s about the roof, and how far can Watery Love raise the fucker. Unlike you dickheads, I’m sittin’ pretty in the catbird seat (what part of me bein’ out to space did you miss?) so let me say, keep it comin’! Higher ’n’ higher, nose to the grindstone and all that. Don’t worry, I’ll stop ya when ya get here. And one more thing—don’t forget to bring a six pack. We’ll need it.” — Roland Seward Woodbe International Space Station, Outer Space Call Sign: Alphar

TRACK LISTING

1. Dose The Host
2. Pump The Bimbo
3. Competing Odors
4. Skulls In Zen
5. Only Love
6. I'm A Skull
7. Empty Walls
8. Piece Of Piss
9. Face The Door

Washed Out is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene. Over three enchanting, critically-lauded albums and an EP, his music has proved both transportive and visual, each release inviting listeners into immersive, self-contained universes. With Purple Noon, his fourth album, and his return to Sub Pop, he delivers the most accessible Washed Out creation to date.

Life of Leisure, Washed Out’s 2009 debut EP, set the bar for the Chillwave era, shimmering in a warm haze of off-the-cuff Polaroids and pre-IG filters. Within and Without, his 2011 full-length debut on Sub Pop, morphed into nocturnal, icy synth-pop and embraced provocative imagery. 2013’s Paracosm was Greene’s take on psychedelia, with a full live band and kaleidoscopic light show, and saw him playing to the largest audiences of his career. The sample-heavy Mister Mellow (2017, Stone’s Throw) delivered a 360 audio/visual experience, with cut-n-paste and hand-drawn animation to match the hip-hop influences throughout the album. With each release, Greene has approached his evolving project with meticulous detail and a steadfast vision.

For Purple Noon, Greene again wrote, recorded, and produced the entirety of the album, with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen (Paracosm, Within and Without). Production of the album followed a brief stint of writing for other artists (most notably Sudan Archives) which enabled Greene to explore genres like R&B and modern pop. These brighter, more robust sounds made their way into the songs of Purple Noon and mark a new chapter for Greene as a producer and songwriter. The vocals are front and center, tempos are slower, beats bolder, and there’s a more comprehensive depth of dynamics. One can hear the luxuriousness of Sade, the sonic bombast of Phil Collins, and the lush atmosphere of the great Balearic beat classics. Mediterranean coastlines inspired Purple Noon, and Greene pays tribute to the region’s distinct island culture - all rugged elegance and old-world charm - and uses it as a backdrop to tell stories of passion, love, and loss (Purple Noon’s title comes from the 1960 film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel The Talented Mister Ripley by Patricia Highsmith). Much like romantic Hollywood epics, the melodrama throughout is strong: a serendipitous first meeting in “Too Late”; a passionate love affair in “Paralyzed”; disintegration of a relationship in “Time to Walk Away”; a reunion with a lost love in “Game of Chance.” Purple Noon adds a layer of emotional intensity to the escapism of Washed Out’s oeuvre, taking the music to dazzling new heights.

TRACK LISTING

Too Late
Face Up
Time To Walk Away
Paralyzed
Reckless Desires
Game Of Chance
Leave You Behind
Don't Go
Hide
Haunt

The music of Washed Out has always levitated over a timeless frontier. You can sense it in his immersive, amorphous vocals, the expansive soundscapes, the wistful storytelling. It’s a sweet spot where, says its creative force, Ernest Greene, “any sort of association or memory from the past can transport you instantly. I love that.”

Greene’s transcendent output has earned him the moniker of “Godfather of Chillwave” by Pitchfork and a co-sign from Portlandia, which borrowed his track, “Feel It All Around,” for its utopian theme song. His latest, 'Notes From a Quiet' Life arrives after delivering more than a decade of distinct and disparate creative re-imaginations at a remarkably high level (five albums, two EPs). Notes is bold in its intuitiveness: Greene has left the treadmill of music-as-a-business, instead letting his artistic interests lead the way. “Each album,” says Green, who also paints and sculpts, “is a world-building exercise.”

The Georgia native left Atlanta in 2021 to move back to the countryside he knew growing up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today he is preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him. He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd — its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”), and it has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large scale visual-art experiments.

“I’ve read that every five, maybe 10, years, you’re practically a different person — like literally, on a cellular level,” Greene explains. “The things that you’re going through will end up changing you, and you’re kind of a different person. This album is a reflection of that. Experimenting with painting and sculpture helps my music. They influence each other. That was a kind of realization for me. I don’t want to look back on my life one day, and be like, ’Oh, it was all about maximizing productivity,’” he says. “I want to enjoy this.”

That purity of vision is what makes 'Notes From a Quiet Life' so potent. It’s the first album Greene wholly self-produced, with some mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + the Machine). “Early in my career, I had a lack of technical skill, and there were some things I wasn’t 100% enthusiastic about,” he says, noting Jean-Michel Basquiat’s distinct, self-driven method as an inspiration. “Something that I was looking for was...I didn’t want any illusion of anyone else’s influences. I wanted to see this through to the end. And honestly, that was a big challenge.

Illustrating that, Greene’s list of influences for 'Notes From a Quiet Life' are mostly sculpture icons: minimalist legend Donald Judd, abstract expressionist Cy Twombly, and modernists Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Of the latter, he observes, “The majority of his working life was spent on his country estate, and he wasn’t living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. He was focused on just making good work, you know?”

TRACK LISTING

1. Waking Up
2. Say Goodbye
3. Got Your Back
4. Hardest Part
5. A Sign
6. Second Sight
7. Running Away
8. Wait On You
9. Wondrous Life
10. Letting Go 

The story begins with a man on high. He is an old man, a warrior, and the guardian to the gates of a city. Two miles below his mountainous perch, he observes a dojo, where a group of young men train night and day. Eventually, the old man expects a challenger to emerge. He hopes for the day of his destruction, for this is the cycle of life.

Finally the doors fly open and three young men burst forth to challenge the old master. The first man is quick, but not strong enough. The second is quick, and strong, but not wise enough. The third stands tall, and overtakes the master. The Changing of the Guard has at long last been achieved.

But then the old man wakes up. He looks down at the dojo and realizes he’s been daydreaming. The dojo below exists, but everyone in training is yet a child. By the time they grow old enough to challenge the old man, he has disappeared.

This is, in essence, both a true story and a carefully constructed musical daydream, one that will further unfold in a brazen release from young Los Angeles jazz giant, composer, and bandleader Kamasi Washington. 'The Epic' is unlike anything jazz has seen, and not just because it emanates from the boundary-defying Brainfeeder, which isn’t so much a label in the traditional sense as it is an unfurling experiment conducted by the underground producer Flying Lotus who has featured Washington on his albums 'Cosmogramma' and 'You’re Dead!'.

'The Epic' is a 172-minute, three-volume set that includes a 32-piece orchestra, a 20-person choir, and 17 songs overlaid with a compositional score written by Washington. Pulsing underneath is an otherworldly 10-piece band, each member of which is individually regarded as among the best young musicians on the planet - including bassist Thundercat and his brother, drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., bassist (yes, there are two) Miles Mosley, drummer Tony Austin (of course there are two), keyboard player Brandon Coleman, pianist Cameron Graves, and trombonist Ryan Porter. Patrice Quinn’s ethereal vocals round out the ensemble.

The band are all from Los Angeles, mostly South Central, and its members - who call themselves variously “The Next Step” and the “The West Coast Get Down” - have been congregating since they were barely teenagers in a backyard shack in Inglewood. Washington, 32, has known Bruner since he was two. The rest met, at various stages, by the time they were in high school. The hours they have put into the music, playing together and practicing alone, total cumulatively in the tens of thousands.

“Nothing compares to these guys,” says Barbara Sealy, the former West Coast director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, who has championed Kamasi and his compatriots from the beginning. “I challenge any group to go out on stage with them and see if they can keep up with it… Kamasi is at the top of his game, and only getting better.” “These young guys,” the rapper Common says, “remind me of why I love music.”

And the story 'The Epic' tells, without words but rather through some combination of magic, mastery, and sheer force of imagination, is the story of Kamasi Washington and the Next Step and their collective mission: to remove jazz from the shelf of relics and make it new, unexpected, and dangerous again. They seek to both honour and alter tradition: as 'The Epic'’s opening track announces, they are the “Changing of the Guard”. The sound can be felt like flames, sometimes waving in the coziness of a fireplace, in other moments sweeping everything around like a backdraft. But Kamasi is always in control of the burning.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 ‘Vol.1: The Plan’
Change Of The Guard
Askim
Isabelle
Final Thought
The Next Step
The Rhythm
Changes

CD2 ‘Vol.2: The Glorious Tale’
Miss Understanding
Leroy And Lanisha
Re Run
Seven Prayers
Henrietta Our Hero
The Magnificent 7

CD3 ‘Vol.3: The Historic
Repetition’
Re Run Home
Cherokee
Clair De Lune
Malcolm’s Theme
The Message

Ella Washington was born and raised in Miami, FL where she still makes her home as a pastor. Her family background wasn't a particularly musical one, although one of her sisters was Audrey Royal who recorded briefly for Spector International in the 70s. Like so many singers of her generation Ella started her career singing in local clubs and it was at one of those, the Birdland, that she encountered two of Miami's greatest soulmen, Clarence Reid and Paul Kelly. Under their helpful guidance Ella began her path as a recording artist.

After several successful singles, Ella's only Sound Stage 7 release was recorded at Music City Recorders in Nashville, Tennessee. The self-titled LP is all classic, no filler and surely ranks among the deepest soul in her catalog. Full of strong ballads that showcase her raw and emotive style each song is perfectly arranged to showcase Ella's powerful vocals. Standout tracks include 'Sit Down and Cry', 'All The Time', and ' Stop Giving Your Man Away'. The LP also features Ella's 1969 hit 'He Called Me Baby' which entered the top 40 R&B charts and garnered a Grammy nomination.

Newly remastered and pressed on audiophile virgin vinyl. Limited to only 500 copies.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stop Giving Your Man Away
2. Sit Down And Cry
3. Sweeter And Sweeter (Ray, Ray, Ray)
4. Starving For Love
5. Fragile (Handle With Care)
6. He Called Me Baby
7. I Want To Walk Through This Life With You
8. Doing The Best I Can
9. The Affair
10. All The Time
11. This Bitter Earth

Kamasi Washington composed and produced the original score for Becoming, the four time Emmy-nominated film that provided an intimate glimpse into the life of Michelle Obama. Produced by Netflix Originals, Becoming documented a moment of profound change for the former First Lady, not only for her personally but for the country she and her husband served over eight impactful years in the White House. Washington, who joined the project in its embryonic stages, provides the powerful musical backdrop.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Shot Out Of A Cannon
2. Becoming
3. Take In The Story
4. Southside V.1
5. Dandy
6. The Rhythm Changes
7. Song For Fraser
8. Announcement

Side B
1. Detail
2. Fashion Then And Now
3. Provocation
4. Connections
5. Looking Forward
6. I Am Becoming
7. Southside V.2

Washington calls 'Fearless Movement' his dance album. “It’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music - expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”

Dance as an embodied form of expression signals a shift in focus for Washington. Where previous albums dealt with cosmic ideas and existential concepts, 'Fearless Movement' focuses in on the everyday, an exploration of life on earth. This change in scope is due in large part to the birth of Washington’s first child a few years ago.

“Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up,” says Washington. “My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality - realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”

The album features Washington’s daughter - who wrote the melody to 'Asha The First' during some of her first experimentations on the piano - as well as a host of collaborators new and old. André 3000 appears on flute, George Clinton lends his voice, as do BJ The Chicago Kid, Inglewood rapper D-Smoke and Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, the twin sons of West Coast legend Ras Kass. Washington further enlisted lifelong friends and collaborators Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat and more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The inimitable Kamasi Washington returns for another suite of impeccably crafted jazz missives and includes a host of huge names to boot. If you've heard anything Kamasi's done, you'll know that this is an essential purchase. Epic, beautifully crafted and impeccably presented as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lesanu
2. Asha The First Featuring Thundercat, Taj Austin, Ras Austin
3. Computer Love Featuring Patrice Quinn, DJ Battlecat, Brandon Coleman
4. The Visionary Featuring Terrace Martin
5. Get Lit Featuring George Clinton
6. Dream State Featuring André 3000
7. Together Featuring BJ The Chicago Kid
8. The Garden Path
9. Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)
10. Road To Self (KO)
11. Lines In The Sand
12. Prologue

Harmony of Difference premiered as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art 2017 Biennial alongside a film by A.G. Rojas and also featuring artwork by Kamasi Washington’s sister, Amani Washington. The new music is an original six part suite that explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as “counterpoint,” which Washington defines as “the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.” Beyond the artistic impulse to expand the possibilities within counterpoint, Washington wanted to create something that opened people’s minds to the gift of diversity.

Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition. “Truth,” the sixth movement, fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Echoing this fusion, Amani created five paintings focused on raw shapes and colors, each inspired by one of the first five movements of the suite. Amani then combined these paintings to create a sixth: an abstract depiction of a human face.

The film, directed by A.G. Rojas, brings the metaphoric ideas found in both the music and paintings to life. While still quite abstract, it focuses on the harmony found in people from South Central and East Los Angeles and shows the beauty in their differences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Desire
2. Humility
3. Knowledge
4. Perspective
5. Integrity
6. Truth

The long-awaited follow up to Washington’s debut "The Epic", "Heaven & Earth" is comprised of two halves, which find Washington confronting quotidian realities with cosmic themes. A further investigation of Washington’s world building ideas, the new album explores his reckoning with current global chaos and his vision for the future.

Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard’s “Hubtones” and iconic kung fu film theme “Fists of Fury,” as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.

Clocking in at two and a half colossal hours of music, "Heaven & Earth" is available on double deluxe CD and a four piece vinyl housed in bespoke double gatefold sleeve

“The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind.” This idea inspired me to make this album Heaven & Earth. The reality we experience is a mere creation of our consciousness, but our consciousness creates this reality based on those very same experiences. We are simultaneously the creators of our personal universe and creations of our personal universe. The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of. The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between.”
Kamasi Washington

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The man responsible for turning a younger generation of music lovers onto the passion and power of jazz returns with the bombastic brilliance of his sophomore LP. Seriously spiritual and surprisingly groovy, "Heaven & Earth" incorporates Marvin-esque soul, Old Testament intensity and soaring, searing solos into a breathtaking vision of jazz's next incarnation.

TRACK LISTING

Earth
1. Fists Of Fury
2. Can You Hear Him
3. Hub -Tones
4. Connections
5. Tiffakonkae
6. The Invincible Youth
7. Testify
8. One Of One

Heaven
1. The Space Travelers Lullaby
2. Vi Lua Vi Sol
3. Street Fighter Mas
4. Song For The Fallen
5. Journey
6. The Psalmnist
7. Show Us The Way
8. Will You Sing

Now this 45 release is a real treat, featuring both the original and Kenny Dope remix of Tyrone Washington’s timeless gem, ‘Submission’.

A mysterious artist who seemingly disappeared from the scene after his last release in the mid 70’s, Washington created forward-thinking jazz magic which has been loved ever since its original release - and sampled multiple times by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest and Pete Rock.

On the Kenny Dope remix, we are served some heavy hip-hop breaks which pump underneath the inimitable brass of the original, chopped up to add some extra spice and groove. A master of beats, Kenny does the business on this remix and the results are truly special.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: One from the recent slew of Kay-Dee Records and its hard bopping ghetto funk from Tyrone Washington. KD takes it even further down the asphalt with added hip-hop heft.

TRACK LISTING

A. Submission (Original) 
B. Submission (Kenny Dope Remix) 

The epitome of late night FM jazz this 1980 release from saxman Grover Washington produced the huge million selling hit "Just the Two of Us" featuring Bill Withers.

Ty Segall and Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt) are Wasted Shirt. Their debut, collaborative album, Fungus II, is out February 28th on Famous Class Records.

Read below for Henry Rollins’ words on the project.

“Ty's 2019 album, First Taste, and the new Lighting Bolt album, Sonic Citadel, are easily some of the best material either entity has ever released so if these two happened to find themselves in the same recording studio, a fan just might entertain elevated expectation levels. In fact, some might actually show signs of enthusiasm, even excitement at the fact that from July 5 -13, 2018, in the air-conditioning free environs of Ty's home studio, the duo, eventually calling themselves Wasted Shirt, wrecked the joint as thoroughly as you hoped they would.

The album is exploding euphoria from start to finish. The more you play it, the better it kabongs you upside your head. Hectic doesn't even begin to describe it. Brian and Ty, two mere particles in the grand scheme, collide at high speed, the technicians dive for cover, the reaction is recorded. Mutation is achieved. This is Freedom Rock. Turn up the volume. Hasten your emancipation. Sonic joy awaits.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: We all know what Ty Segall sound like, and i'm pretty sure we know what Lightning Bolt sound like but this, 'Wasted Shirt' is the perfect example of the outcome sometimes being more than the sum of it's already considerable parts. Heavy af, brilliantly produced and absolutely ram-packed with groove, 'Fungus II' will be blowing minds for some time to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. All Is Lost
2. Zeppelin 5
3. Fist Is My Ward
4. Harsho
5. Double The Dream
6. The Purple One
7. Fungus 2
8. Eagle Slaughters Graduation
9. Four Strangers Enter The Cement At Dusk

With 'Parallel Light', AndrewWasylyk offers an alternative mix album to 2020's spiritual-jazz and neo-classical masterclass in melody, 'Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation'. This new LP, his third with Athens Of North Records, is as much a different perspective as a companion piece.

The ten songs still circle landscapes for meaning, channelling half-heard melodies and misremembered memories; caught somewhere between settling down and setting out towards the shining levels of the estuary and beyond. Each magnifying the bold, expansive arrangements of FL&TOC with layers are lifted and peeled away.

The soft-focus glow of gently pressed piano keys, the well and wash of strings and brass remain, but the deduction of instrumentation serves to highlight the ornate and offers comfort with this new found space. In the warmth reshaped, a romanticism illuminated.

At the essence of these reframed compositions Wasylyk's blue and gold, mellifluous refrains prevail. It's a seamless, sublime flow from a restless artists and an album quietly reawakened.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Love a bit of Wasylyk, me. For those of you that loved Parallel Light, this is MORE of that stunning loveliness, brimming with moments of tension and release and the same tender melodies. Reworked versions still swim with the soul of the original LP but with the background and textures pulling into view a whole world of harmonic variation.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Further Look At Loss (Alternate Mix)
2. Last Sunbeans Of Childhood (Alternate Mix)
3. Fugitive Light Restless Water
4. The Violet Hour (Alternate Mix)
5. Everywhere Something Sublime (Alternate Mix)
6. In Balgay Silhouettes (Alternate Mix)
7. Awoke In The Early Days Of A Better World (Alternate Mix)
8. (Half Light Of) The Cadmium Moon
9. Black Bay Dream Minor (Alternate Mix)
10. Lost, Aglow

The cultishly adored and highly acclaimed Watch Repair return with one of their biggest hits to date. "Sea Shanty Town Ship" sees the act expand on their now trademark work method of tuned grandfather clocks and other found sounds and now includes flurries of guitar, pocket cello, dulcimer, reed organ, accordion and bowl (!!!). Those familiar with the sound know what to expect - the warmest, almost cerebral enveloping ambience, drones and tones, collaged together in sophisticated, sleight-of-hand excellence. Suspense and tension are given new meaning alongside reconceptualizing the natural ambience of the traditional grandfather clock. Now garnering support from the cyberworld, Factmag are counted amongst their fans; and rightfully so. This is gloriously sedate but instantly resonating musique which can instantly transport any listener from the current location to an altered mindstate. Most recommended. 

After numerous tours and press adulation for their party-starting debut "To The Rooftops", Chicago's Watchers return with more short, sharp shots of groove-fuelled power and inspiration. The "Dunes Phase" finds the band expanding upon their unique brand of tightly wound avant-rock and infectious dance-funk. Throwing down snatches of early XTC, Pop Group, no wave, soul, dub, and psychedelia with an endless sense of experimentation, Watchers chart a nimble course through the secret history of pop music.

Reissue of Chilean group's debut LP, previously available only on CD and a uber-limited lathe-cut import LP; WatchOut! is the lovechild proof that Os Mutantes and Popol Vuh had an elicit rendezvous in mid-­70's Santiago. This Chilean rock group blends krauty synth textures with a Tropicalian style not so successfully crafted since the 70's.

Latin rhythms, fuzzy, wah-­wah guitar leads, and melodic organ patterns are sewn sweetly together to create a quilt of psychedelic pop that would comfort even the coldest Brazilian psych aficionado. This LP was one of the best unheard and under-­released records of 2011. “Flashbacker” includes seven tracks of 60's Brazilian psych, 70's German hypnotism, 80s UK fuzz pop, and Indian raga influenced jams all seamlessly and brilliantly woven together

Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny.

That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s Crushed’. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, ‘Structure’, Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ is shot through with unresolved tension, its nine tracks skittishly refusing to seek out resolute endings or stick to traditional structures. Many songs were written using serialism and microtonalism, and at times evoke the futurist-pop moves of Japanese composer Haruomi Hosono and the brutalism of Glenn Branca. “Barley” is a dance-rock track sequenced in alien tonality, with Brown speaking garbled transmissions (“One two three/Counter/You’re a cool thing count mountains”) over a bed of hallucinatory guitars. “14” leans into contemporary classical, with curtains of overlapping de-tuned strings underscoring lyrics that Nate describes as something out of a “gross-out horror movie”: “I’m ready to throw you up.”

Water From Your Eyes still possess an off kilter, shitposty quality. ‘Everyone’s Crushed’ manages to reference classic rock twice – first, on “Barley,” when Brown accidentally invokes Sting with the lyric “walk in fields of gold,” and again on “True Life”, when they sing: “Neil let me sing your song/It’s been this way for so long/Give me another chance.” Those weren’t the song’s original lyrics – Brown and Amos initially wanted to interpolate the bridge to “Cinnamon Girl” – but this is a typically meta compromise for the pair, a way to turn “True Life” into a song about writing the song “True Life”.

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ maps the liminal space between humor and darkness, between cracking up and freaking out. In the album’s closing moments Brown speaks in direct terms, “Clap those hands/Buy my product/There are no happy endings/I’m spending/I’m spending.” It’s playful and totally serious, punky bordering on anarchic, and a resolution to the record’s opening sentiment - “I just wanted to pray for the rain/Wishful thinking for sunny days.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Ashley says: A wonderfully bold, jagged juxtaposition of gritty electronics and swooning guitar riffs, all topped with perfectly measured vocals and soaring harmonies. It's steeped in post-punk and electronic history, but lightened with a melodic sensibility that could only have bloomed from the past 20 years of pop history.

TRACK LISTING

1. Structure
2. Barley
3. Out There
4. Open
5. Everyone’s Crushed
6. True Life
7. Remember Not My Name
8. 14
9. Buy My Product

Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their “confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica” in their review of 2019’s Somebody Else’s Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure – with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like “My Love’s,” to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like “”Quotations”” – may just seem like a further refinement of the duo’s idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE’s prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker.

Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener “When You’re Around,” which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there’s an underlying eeriness that’s not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos’ advice for navigating Structure’s sonic terrain is to “remember that this is weed music,” while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like “solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers.” Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. When You’re Around
2. My Love’s
3. You’re The Embers
4. Quotations
5. Monday
6. Track Five
7. You’re The Watching Fly
8. “Quotations”

Water Machine is an office romance between Hando Morice (they/them), Flore de Hoog (she/her), Jimmy Gage (he/him) and Goda Ilgauskaitė (she/her). An unassuming supergroup formed out of Glasgow institutions including Goth GF, Passion Pusher, Brenda and Soursob, their sound careens between punk, country and alt-rock underpinned by the unique quality they call “Raw Liquid Power”.

Following last year’s self-titled demo tape on Gold Mold Records, and fresh off of shows with the likes of Holiday Ghosts, The Cool Greenhouse and The Orielles, as well as a rollicking Viagra Boys afterparty, the four-piece  release their highly-anticipated first studio effort ‘Raw Liquid Power’ on Upset The Rhythm.

The EP opens with a menacing, modulating synth melody. Gage’s guitar enters with a mighty bend before breaking into the chugging rhythm of ‘Water Machine Pt. 2’. This timely reminder to refill your water bottle - “don’t be late, hydrate!” less a wellness mantra than a threat - builds to a spacey outro with flashes of the art-punk weirdness of Suburban Lawns. ‘Stilettos’ marches on indignantly with a spiky riff punctuated by Ilgauskaitė’s cowbells. Staccato talk-singing tells a playful tale of stray cats following you home, but belies a darker subtext as the breakdown gives way to paranoid duelling guitars evoking The Fire Engines.

The anti-anthem ‘At the Drive In’ skewers joyless DIY crowds, reminiscent of much-missed Glasgow punks Breakfast Muff. Water Machine’s irrepressible sincerity can’t help but shine through in the final moments though, as jibes about “late night trade potential” give way to plaintive vocal harmonies. Morice tears public transport a new one on closer ‘Bussy’, a First Bus diss track bemoaning precarious employment amidst crumbling infrastructure. “That’s why I’m not on time!” they roar over de Hoog’s frantic, pounding bass, bringing the record to a skidding, screeching halt. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
01. Water Machine Pt. II
02. Stilettos
SIDE B
03. At The Drive In
04. Bussy

The Waterboys, one of the most creative, loved and literate bands of the last four decades, return this summer with their 14th studio album Good Luck, Seeker.

Comprising dramatic spoken-word over wild, relentless genre-busting music (is it psychedelic soul? Is it trance? punk?), My Wanderings In The Weary Land might just be the greatest rock’n’roll record ever made – and one that is darkly appropriate to our weird, wired times. 

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
1. The Soul Singer
2. (You've Got To) Kiss A Frog Or Two
3. Low Down In The Broom
4. Dennis Hopper
5. Freak Street
6. Sticky Fingers
7. Why Should I Love You?
8. The Golden Work
9. My Wanderings In The Weary Land
10. Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime
11. Good Luck, Seeker
12. Beauty In Repetition
13. Everchanging
14. The Land Of Sunset

DISC 2 (COOKCD768X Version Only)
1. The Soul Singer (inst)
2. (You’ve Got To) Kiss A Frog Or Two (inst)
3. Low Down In The Broom (gtr/vocal)
4. Dennis Hopper (Demo)
5. Why Should I Love You? (inst)
6. My Wanderings In The Weary Land (vocal)
7. Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime (inst)
8. Beauty In Repetition (inst)
9. The Soul Singer (demo)
10. The Land Of Sunset (inst)

'1985' is a newly curated box set byThe Waterboys' leader Mike Scott telling the story of the making of their landmark albumThis Is The Sea and the timeless single,The Whole of The Moon

The music is chronologically sequenced, taking the listener through 95tracks over Six CDs, including 64 previously unreleased recordings of home recordings, early demos, alternate versions, outtakes, live recordings, and tv/ radio sessions covering the recording process of the album along with the remastered version of the This Is The Sea album. The 56 page booklet contains recording details annotated by Mike Scott along with previously unseen photos.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. Trumpets
2. Be My Enemy
3. The Ways Of Men
4. The Waves #1
5. Old England
6. Towers Open Fire
7. Down Through The Town
8. Ribbon Of Steel
9. Bury My Heart
10. The Three Day Man
11. Medicine Bow
12. This Is The Sea
13. A Door For My Soul
14. Don't Bang The Drum
15. Son Of Rags
16. In My Bed
17. The Pan Within
18. Even The Trees Are Dancing
19. Theme
20. Fuzz Guitar Vamp
21. Death Is Not The End

Disc 2:
1. Beverly Penn
2. Don't Bang The Drum
3. Be My Enemy
4. The Day I Ran Out Of People
5. Winter Blows
6. The Mercenary And The Samaritan
7. Looking For Dickon
8. Spirit
9. All The Bright Horses
10. Custer's Blues
11. The Woman In Me
12. Paris In The Rain
13. The Song Of Sitting Bull
14. Talk About Wings
15. The Whole Of The Moon
16. The Pan Within
17. No Sun In The Sky
18. Winter In The Blood
19. We Belong To The World
20. The Whole Of The Moon

Disc 3:
1. Medicine Jack
2. Medicine Jack Boogie Woogie
3. The Sound Of Snow
4. The Pan Within
5. It Should Have Been You / Guitar Play
6. Old England
7. Old Macmichael Had A Band
8. Sweet Thing
9. Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town
10. Spirit
11. Then You Hold Me
12. Trumpets
13. Rain Come Down
14. Son Of Dirt
15. This Is The Sea

Disc 4:
1. Medicine Bow
2. Trumpets
3. Be My Enemy
4. Sleek White Schooner
5. Sweetheart Like You
6. This Is The Sea
7. Adrian And The Piano Storm
8. Beverly Penn
9. This Is The Sea
10. The Waves
11. The Ladder
12. Beverly Penn
13. Don't Bang The Drum
14. Ribbon Of Steel
15. Paisley Park

Disc 5:
1. The Whole Of The Moon
2. High Far Soon
3. This Is The Sea
4. Medicine Bow
5. The Pan Within
6. Miracle
7. World Party
8. I Am Not Here
9. Born To Be Together
10. Higher In Time
11. The Whole Of The Moon
12. Meridian West
13. Don't Bang The Drum
14. Medicine Bow
15. Behold The Sea
16. Beverly Penn 2023

Disc 6:
1. Don't Bang The Drum
2. The Whole Of The Moon
3. Spirit
4. The Pan Withiin
5. Medicine Bow
6. Old England
7. Be My Enemy
8. Trumpets
9. This Is The Sea

All Souls Hill is nine tracks of Waterboys brilliance, all mixed by Scott himself. Announced off the back of the band’s recent sold out UK tour and latest box set ‘The Magnificent Seven: The Waterboys' Fisherman’s Blues/Room To Roam Band, 1989-1990 ’, All Souls Hill is current, on the money social commentary, but with an air of hope.

"All Souls Hill is mysterious, otherworldly, tune-banging and emotional.” comments Mike. “I made it with Waterboys old and new and my co-producer, brilliant sonic guru Simon Dine. Its nine songs tell stories, explore dreamscapes, and cast a cold but hopeful eye on the human drama."

TRACK LISTING

1. All Souls Hill
2. The Liar
3. The Southern Moon
4. Blackberry Girl
5. Hollywood Blues
6. In My Dreams
7. Once Were Brothers
8. Here We Go Again
9. Passing Through

The Waterboys will release their brand-new studio double album Out Of All This Blue on September 8 2017; their first for BMG Records, with whom they recently signed.

Produced by Mike Scott and recorded in Dublin and Tokyo , Out Of All This Blue will be available on Double CD and Double Vinyl, plus Deluxe Triple CD (including Bonus Tracks) and Deluxe Triple Vinyl (including Bonus Tracks) and Digital.

Out Of All This Blue is The Waterboys most exploratory recording yet, comprising 23 songs with Mike Scott's trademark sharp lyrics set to pop music with echoes of classic R&B, country, soul and funk and underpinned by modern hiphop production values and rhythms. String & brass sections were arranged and conducted by Trey Pollard of The Spacebomb Collective. Mike Scott says of the record: "Out Of All This Blue is 2/3 love and romance, 1/3 stories and observations. I knew from the beginning I wanted to make a double album, and lucky for me - and I hope the listener - the songs just kept coming, and in pop colours."

Released in September 1985 and includes the classic single,T'he Whole of The Moon', along with other tracks, 'Don't Bang The Drum', 'The Pan Within' and 'Old England', 'This Is The Sea' is the third album by The Waterboys. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Don't Bang The Drum
2. The Whole Of The Moon
3. Spirit
4. The Pan Within
5. Medicine Bow
6. Old England
7. Be My Enemy
8. Trumpets
9. This Is The Sea

Waterdown's "The Files You Have On Me", provides warm, singy vocals fused with heavy screaming. Heavy bass and drums backed with tight lead guitar lines and harmonic hooks. This record is a must-have for fans of bands like The Used and Finch.

Waterdown play a fusion of emotional, driving and explosive rock with a hint of hardcore. Strong songs and dynamic live performances, they fill the gap between the Deftones, Boy Sets Fire and Face To Face.

Nick Waterhouse’s art springs from a simple idea: everybody wants to be somebody else. One of his heroes, Van Morrison, got his start covering Bobby Bland, whose own musical idol was Nat “King” Cole. In Waterhouse’s view, emulation is a journey; you never truly succeed, but as the singer, guitarist and songwriter puts it, “You become something on the way there.”

Nick was born in 1986 and grew up in Huntington Beach, known predominantly for UFC, commercial surf culture, and tanning salons. He established his musical sensibilities in the middle of the burgeoning southern California Psych-Garage scene (Burger Records, Ty Segall, McHugh’s Distillery studio). Waterhouse explored the idea of potential on his breakthrough single, “Some Place,” a beautifully lean, propulsive track recorded at all-analog studio the Distillery and self-released in 2010 on his own Pres label.

It’s clear from this material that Waterhouse is in the midst of his own becoming. He isn’t the type to let ecstasy take over, like Van Morrison, or to drawl away in a consummately laid-back register, like Mose Allison. In the tension between his wry lyrics and crisp arrangements, you hear the expression of a worldly skeptic who’s also—when it comes to his art—a sanctified believer. Whoever it was that Nick Waterhouse wanted to be matters less now; these days, he just sounds like himself.

“Think music ain’t what it used to be? Then you haven’t heard Nick Waterhouse. His jumped-up take on 1950’s rhythm ‘n’ blues is the real deal.” GQ

"A timeless talent for spirited rock and rhythms that anyone can appreciate. He draws from the classic sound of ‘50’s American pop with a distinctive voice of his own, shouting and growling with infectious vigor.” NPR

"Waterhouse is definitely a star.” LA TIMES

"The music sounds like a party in full swing, each instrument playing exactly what is needed.” CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Between the chattering keys, bomping saxes, gorgeous guitar tones and the bandleader’s voice—which slides effortlessly from cool quaver to feral howl - the end result is undeniable.” SPIN

TRACK LISTING

I Feel An Urge Coming On
I'm Due (For A Heartache)

As Mother Jones recently put it: "Nick Waterhouse embodies effortless hipster cool. On this vibrant third album, the California soul shouter does his usual thing with grand flair, drawing heavily from early-'60s R&B, among other groovy sources, yet never sounding like a nostalgia act. Swinging from first note to last, Waterhouse combines swaggering but good-natured vocals, tough beats, often with a Latin tinge, soul-jazz embellishments such as Hammond organ, and rousing, gospel-influenced tunes that would make Ray Charles smile." LA Turnaround is the third single from the third album and pressed on wax with the previously unreleased duet called I Cry.

45 release only - Includes previously unreleased 'I Cry' - Limited to 500 copies worldwide.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Another classy soul infused single from Nick. If you knew nothing about him, you'd swear this was recorded in a garage somewhere in the mid 60s rather than in 2017!

A decade ago, journalists, fans, critics, and audiophiles alike were wont to compare Nick Waterhouse to his predecessors. And it was a convenient way to categorize an artist that has since proved uncategorizable—he had a voice that balanced somewhere between Van Morrison and Ray Charles, an aesthetic that caught the attention of style reporters at GQ, an ambitious production vision that stood out among the lo-fi rock and alternative bands of the zeitgeist. He was also disarmingly earnest in his own influences—citing artists like Mose Allison and Them as early inspiration. But now, coming off of his searching, intimate, self-titled album of 2019 and bringing us “Nick Waterhouse Live at Pappy & Harriet’s; In Person from the High Desert” it’s clear that comparisons, of any kind, no longer suffice in 2020.

TRACK LISTING

1. Some Place
2. Straight Love Affair
3. It's Time
4. LA Turnaround
5. Black Glass
6. Don't You Forget It
7. Raina
8. El Viv
9. Say I Wanna Know
10. Wreck The Rod
11. Katchi
12. I Feel An Urge Coming On
13. Dead Room
14. Pushin' Too Hard
15. Sleeping Pills
16. (If You Want) Trouble
17. This Is A Game
18. Some Place (Reprise)

Nick Waterhouse, the rhythm & blues fanatic who combines an uncanny old-school sensibility with a charged, contemporary style, is set to release his third album ‘Never Twice’ on Innovative Leisure. As ever he is inspired by the over-modulated sound of vintage R&B, invoking the back-alley thrills of New Orleans, Detroit, and Memphis in their heyday, using old school values to hone a new sound.

Having earned his stripes producing garage-rocker Ty Segall and the Allah-Las as well as releasing the critically acclaimed albums ‘Time’s All Gone’ and ‘Holly’, Nick Waterhouse’s latest album ‘Never Twice’ is a culmination, intensification, and realization of everything he’s been developing throughout his career. Catchier and loaded with more hits than its predecessors,

 Nick’s new LP is at the same time harder hitting, more rhythmic, more harmonic, more diverse, and more adventurous than both those albums. A cool and elegant post-post-modern cocktail of 1950s r&b and club jazz, mixed with 1960s soul and boogaloo, and shaken with a minimal contemporary sensibility, ‘Never Twice’ finds the artist taking his time, refining his vision, and speaking with new authority.

Nick Waterhouse has come a long way and it looks like he may have just painted his masterpiece.

Nick Waterhouse returns with a new self-titled album: a true powerhouse of a record filled with his distinct California surf-rock infused swaggering soul. The songs are personal, intimate, and direct. Brisk, self-contained and catchy as hell, producer Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, Devendra Banhart) has helped to distill the ‘Waterhouse Sound’ to deliver a rich, raw, brawny, muscular album that’s heavier and more confrontational than anything Nick has made before, yet malleable enough for listeners to suffuse their own life stories into the mix.

TRACK LISTING

1. By Heart
2. Song For Winners
3. I Feel An Urge Coming On
4. Undedicated
5. Black Glass
6. Wreck The Rod
7. Which Was Writ
8. Man Leaves Town
9. Thought & Act
10. El Viv
11. Wherever She Goes (She Is Wanted)

Nick Waterhouse takes the colour blue as his hue of choice on Promenade Blue. In Nick’s musical and lyrical world, blue is a refraction of his life and memories — evoking the endless tours, marathon recording sessions, and highs and lows of success he’s experienced in his decade-long career; conjuring romances that were doomed, loves that lingered, and hope for future days of parity and partnership; summoning spirits of people who have gone but permeate his mind forever. That’s the world of Promenade Blue — one that is vivid and magnetic, buoyed by both light and density due to Nick’s newfound collaboration with producer Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, The Bees, St. Paul and the Broken Bones). It’s not Gatsby’s New York in the 1920s, it’s Waterhouse’s California in the 2020s... but as anyone who’s ever listened to a Waterhouse record knows: time, though clearly pegged to the dawn of this new decade, is a more malleable concept. In no uncertain terms, Promenade Blue represents Waterhouse’s finest hour as a writer and bandleader — leveraging the musical partnerships he has built over many years to put something forth that is so fully realized and felt that it sparkles beatifically, reverberating with energy, heart, creativity, and vibe from start to finish.

For fans of: Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Leon Bridges, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jon Batiste, Charles Bradley, Lee Fields, JD McPherson, Van Morrison, Ty Segall, Allah-Las, Michael Kiwanuka, St. Paul and the Broken Bones

TRACK LISTING

1. Place Names
2. The Spanish Look
3. Vincentine
4. Medicine
5. Very Blue
6. Silver Bracelet
7. Proméne Bleu
8. Fugitive Lover
9. Minor Time
10. B. Santa Ana, 1986
11. To Tell

The Fooler is both a clue and a red herring. The Fooler is the observed and the observer, narrator and subject, truth and lie. The Fooler is the shadow and reflection of a city the artist knows sufficiently well to wander with his eyes closed, and a place which very possibly never even existed. The Fooler is not so much an unreliable narrator as a constantly shifting perspective. The Fooler is the new album by Nick Waterhouse, and it's a lot. Recorded by Mark Neill (Black Keys; Los Straightjackets; Dave Cobb) in Valdosta, Georgia, it's a song-cycle of sorts, the arc of the album telling a tale of a city and its denizens.

The result is a record that offers up new riches and fresh perspectives with every spin. From the hidden corners of 'Hide & Seek' and the roadhouse soul of 'Play To Win' to the primitive, attitudinal, chugging two-chord thrill of 'Late In The Garden', it builds inexorably to the drama of the title track and pulsing roll-and-rock of the final pay off, 'Unreal, Immaterial'. Play it once and it sounds immediately like a collection of great songs. Play it again - and you will - and it feels like a novel or film slowly unveiling its secrets, kaleidoscopic in its narrative complexity. "Especially during this record, I started just becoming what Allen Ginsberg called a pure breath,\" says the artist. "I was becoming pure breath with my ideas."

TRACK LISTING

1. Looking For A Place 
2. Hide And Seek 
3. (No) Commitment 
4. Play To Win 
5. Was It You 
6. Late In The Garden 
7. The Problem With A Street 
8. Plan For Leaving 
9. Are You Hurting 
10. Was The Style 
11. The Fooler 
12. Unreal, Immaterial

Nowadays, voice memos, videos, and pictures chronicle our lives in real-time. We trace where we’ve been and reveal where we’re going. However, Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as singer, songwriter, actress but you’ll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Memories of unrequited love, fits of longing, instances of anxiety, and unfiltered snapshots interlock like puzzle pieces into a mosaic of well-worn country, ‘90s-style alternative, and unassuming pop.

She writes the kind of tunes meant to be grafted onto dusty old vinyl from your favorite vintage record store, yet perfect for a sun-soaked festival stage. Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can’t Let Go, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter. In Suki’s words: “The album is called I Can’t Let Go because for years it felt like I was wearing heavy moments on my sleeve and it just didn’t make sense to do so anymore. There’s so much that I’ve never spoken about. Writing music has always been where it felt safe to do so. Every song for the record was a necessity. In many ways, I’ve been observing my life as an outsider, even when I’ve been on the inside. It’s like I was a visitor watching things happen.”

Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music’s magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple, and Oasis held a special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently.

Nylon hailed her debut track, “Brutally,” as “what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides, Now’ would sound like.” In addition to raves from Garage, Vice and Lemonade Magazine, DUJOR put it best: “Suki Waterhouse’s music has swagger.”

Suki is constantly consuming artists of all stripes, and, in the lead-up to making I Can’t Let Go, she was particularly drawn to the work of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. After falling in love with Hiss Golden Messenger’s Terms of Surrender, she reached out to its producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) to help define the sound of I Can’t Let Go.

On I Can’t Let Go, Suki not only catalogs her life up to this point, but she also fulfills a lifelong ambition. “When I’ve been stuck or feel out of touch with a sense of inner meaning and outer purpose, I’ve found both through searching my memories and finding those events buried in the shadowy areas of the psyche where they were ignored,” she says. “So many times of change in my life have required return visits—especially at the transitions through to the next stages. The album is an exploration of those moments when there is nothing left to lose. What is left and can’t be thrown away is the self.”

TRACK LISTING

Moves
The Devil I Know
Melrose Meltdown
Put Me Through It
My Mind
Bullshit On The Internet
Wild Side
On Your Thumb
Slip
Blessed

The Milk Teeth EP compiles singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse’s various non-album singles onto a physical release for the first time. It includes the song “Good Looking,” which, in mid-2022, exploded on Tik Tok and hit #1 on the global viral chart.

Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as an actress and model, but you’ll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music’s magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and caught Missy Elliott live as her first concert. Meanwhile, Oasis held a particularly special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently. Nylon hailed her debut “Brutally” as “what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides, Now’ would sound like.” In addition to raves from Garage by Vice and Lemonade Magazine, DUJOR put it best, “Suki Waterhouse’s music has swagger.” Constantly consuming artists of all stripes, she listened to the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. In late 2020, she finally dove into making what would become her full-length debut album, I Can’t Let Go [Sub Pop Records] with producer Brad Cook [Snail Mail, Waxahatchee]. Now, she introduces this chapter with “Moves” and “My Mind.”

Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can’t Let Go, produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) and released in May of 2022, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter. The Milk Teeth EP rightly shines a spotlight on her pre-album material, giving these six songs their first physical release.

TRACK LISTING

1. Neon Signs
2. Valentine
3. Good Looking
4. Johanna
5. Coolest Place In The World
6. Brutally

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary year of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, Roger Waters releases his homage to the original, ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux’

Waters says ‘when we recorded the stripped down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, the 50th anniversary of the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon was looming on the horizon. It occurred to to me that The Dark Side Of The Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar re-working, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album. I discussed it with Gus and Sean, and when we’d stopped giggling and shouting ‘You must be ****ing mad’ at one another we decided to take it on. It’s turned out really great and I’m excited for everyone to hear it. It’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable. But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, “We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us”. And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.’

As founding member, lyricist, and principal composer of Pink Floyd during the band’s most influential and creative period, Roger Waters has achieved global success and global renown.

Waters co-founded Pink Floyd in the mid-1960s. Under Waters’ guidance, Pink Floyd made a series of best-selling albums during the 1970s, of which the most successful and iconic were The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and is now one of the most successful solo artists in the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Great Gig In The Sky
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

The Lockdown Sessions was recorded at home during the Covid lockdown between 2020 and 2021. Also included is “Comfortably Numb 2022” which was recorded during Waters’ This Is Not A Drill North American tour. The collection includes five seminal tracks from across Roger Waters’ time with Pink Floyd and his solo career; “Mother” and “Vera” from Pink Floyd The Wall; “Two Suns In The Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” from Waters’ final Pink Floyd album, The Final Cut; and “The Bravery of Being Out Of Range” from his highly acclaimed solo album, Amused To Death. Waters’ new version of the classic Pink Floyd song “Comfortably Numb” features as the final track.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Some beautiful reworkings by good old Rog. Nice to see the totally under-rated Final Cut LP get two songs on here. The Gunner's Dream is just magic.

TRACK LISTING

SideA
1. Mother
2. Two Suns In The Sunset
3. Vera
Side B
1. The Gunner's Dream
2. The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range
3. Comfortably Numb 2022

Miles Away Records are proud to introduce our latest single to land on the label: the cosmic soul gem "Super Star" by Ruth Waters and the State of Mind Show Band.

A Texas native, Ruth "Silky" Waters was best known for her two disco-infused album's "Never Gonna Be The Same" and "Out In The Open"- produced by the late, great John Davis (John Davis Orchestra). It was however some of Ruth's early material that caught our interest when we started the label as far back as 2018. "Super Star", released on the tiny independent KMBA Recordings label in the late 1970s, draws from the wells of modern soul and gospel with a touch of cosmic synthy goodness. An proper ear turner, it was like nothing we'd heard before. Flip it and "Super Star Pt.2" goes deeper into the cosmic essence of the track with extended guitar and synth solos making this a crackin' little 45.

The track has been lovingly remastered by Phil Kinrade at the legendary AIR Studios and the lacquer was cut deep by Jukka at Timmion Records. It's now presented in our custom teal green labels and house bag.

TRACK LISTING

1. Super Star, Pt.1 (feat. State Of Mind Show Band)
2. Super Star, Pt.2 (feat. State Of Mind Show Band)

This first family of folk have done more than any other to popularise and keep the folk traditon alive, particularly in England. It is the English folk canon that provides all the songs and tunes on this definitive and immense recording from 1997. In their element on these tracks, Martin Carthy his wife Norma Waterson and their daughter Eliza Carthy produce performances now regarded as classics.

As two of the UK’s finest exponents of traditional song, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy’s rich, distinctive and authentic voices have engaged new audiences and admirers across two generations. Between them, they have three prestigious Mercury Prize nominations, an MBE each for services to English music and have both been presented with BBC Folk Singer of the Year awards, as well as innumerable other accolades. Eliza recently embarked on her most ambitious project yet by recording and touring with the 12 piece Wayward Band, a 12-piece. The resulting album, ‘Big Machine,’ garnered both acclaim and more Radio 2 Folk Awards nominatiions in 2018 (‘Best Group’ and ‘Best Album’).

Although they have recorded independently and together on many occasions over the years, ‘Gift’ (2010) was Norma and Eliza’s first duo release, produced by Eliza. The album went on to pick up Best Album and Best Traditional Track at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

The remarkable new album, ‘Anchor,’ produced by Neill MacColl and Kate St. John, was recorded in their English home town of Robin Hood’s Bay and features an eclectic and beguiling collection of both traditional and contemporary songs. Amongst the 11 tracks we find Norma leading on Tom Waits’ ‘Strange Weather’ and ‘The Beast in Me’ by Nick Lowe. Trad Arr. ‘The Elfin Knight’ sees Eliza supported by Norma, Martin and extended family, ‘Lost in the Stars’ is a wonderful take on the Kurt Weill classic, while ‘Shanty of the Whale’, also featuring guest vocals of Martin Carthy, is a track written by KT Tunstall inspired by the singing of the Watersons, now come full circle in mutual respect and admiration.

This fifth instalment of Ashley Beedle's Back To The World label sees the esteemed selector rally the troops and present four killer remixes of the enigmatic and bohemian Waterson. On the A1 KDA provides his trademark pulsing bass – a sound that recently propelled him to No. 1 with Tinie Tempah & Katy B - delivering a rolling dub remix with nods to early-90s house. Hitting the dancefloor hot on his heels, label head Ashley Beedle works his house magic with a King Street inspired remix which pays tribute to the classic sound of Levan and Knuckles. On the flip, Horse Meat Disco's Severino teams up with regular partner in crime Nico De Ceglia to give "Tell Me" the proto-house treatement with a mix which is both raw and full of the uplifting and urgent energy of disco. Fast emerging as one of Europe's most in-demand deep-house producers and a leading light in Moscow's underground house scene, Lay-Far re-works the track with mesmerising depth and soul, closing the EP with a version perfect for fans of Motor City Drum Ensemble and Max Graef alike.

Jazz bassist Doug Watkins died in a car accident in 1962 at the age of 27. However, prior to his early demise, he recorded dozens of wonderful sessions with some of the greatest jazzmen of his time, among them Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and the Horace Silver Quintet. 'Soulnik' marked his second and final album as a leader, and features Watkins on cello instead of bass, and in the company of the great Yusef Lateef.

Doug Watkins: cello
Yusef Lateef: flute & oboe
Hugh Lawson: piano
Herman Wright: bass
Lex Humphries: drums
"Bassist Doug Watkins only led two recording sessions before his death in 1962, and this set has sometimes appeared under Yusef Lateef's name. Watkins doubles on cello (an instrument he had reportedly only begun playing three days earlier) during the set with Lateef (who triples on tenor, flute, and oboe), pianist Hugh Lawson, bassist Herman Wright, and drummer Lex Humphries. The use of oboe and cello on some numbers makes the date stand out a bit from the usual hard bop sessions of the period and straight-ahead jazz fans will want to get this album." - Scott Yanow, AllMusic

TRACK LISTING

One Guy
Confessin'(That I Love You)
Soulnik
The Beginning
Andre's Bag
I Remember You
Imagination
Space

‘Love Songs For Robots’ is the fifth record from Patrick Watson and the follow up to his 2012 release ‘Adventures In Your Own Backyard’, which received widespread critical acclaim.

Consequence Of Sound calls ‘Love Songs For Robots’ “Larger than life,” while Q Magazine describes the album as “Sublime,” and Uncut adds “Confidently ambitious.”

Not all new starts offer a fresh beginning.

While it might seem branching out with a solo album after a decade in a band would provide that clean start, in reality, more time must pass before the real change, movement and progress can occur. “With the last record (Now That I’m a River, 2018), I didn’t really know what I was doing - I just wanted to make something that felt like me,” reflects Charles, as he prepares to release his second solo album YES.

Out went major keys, swampy reverb, gloomy imagery and the kind of layered production which characterised Now That I’m a River. In their stead - lyrics of joy, minor keys, and a direct, stripped back approach Watson had always shied away from. “I think it’s about having the confidence to be myself,” he says. “The confidence to simplify things, to strip back where I would have added more, to be more direct.”

In addition, Watson was buoyed by the positivity directed at certain songs from Now That I’m a River - the title track, particularly. “I felt like I had been hiding for so long, behind reverb, behind certain effects and tricks, and that was a hang-up from when I was in Slow Club,” he explains. “And now, I’ve arrived at a place of not wanting to carry my insecurities on to a record. I want to project the purest form of what I want to say. I feel like I’ve come so far in the space of two albums and can already see I’m not the person I was when I was writing this album, just as I’m no longer the person I was when I made the first album. This record is the start of untangling all of those feelings and stepping forward.”

Alongside his solo career, Charles is known for his work as one half of the band Slow Club and as a member of the garage-rock super group The Surfing Magazines. In recent years Charles has worked as a composer, writing the music for acclaimed Netflix & Channel 4 production 'Feel Good' which led to the show's creator, Canadian comedian Mae Martin, becoming a fan. Charles has also recently composed the score for 'Youngstown', the forthcoming indie feature film from director Pete Ohs (Everything Beautiful is Far Away) due for release in late 2021.

TRACK LISTING

1. Figure Skater
2. All My Mountains
3. Reared In The West
4. I Was Sent Here To Love You
5. Afghan Hound
6. Spectator Sports
7. Beauty Contest
8. Going Places
9. It Must Be Night
10. People Run Towards People

As told by Patrick Watson. 

This album is about negotiating a world where you don’t know what’s real anymore. 

I really spent a lot of time reading to improve my lyrics for this record. I was very inspired by Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, The Waves by Virginia Woolf and Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. The lyrics are a collection of little thoughts that were pacing in my head. We worked hard on rebuilding the tones of our arrangements and we brought a bigger electronic component to the music. With the addition of modular synths, we were able to find a warmer and more touching approach to the electronics, that feel as acoustic as the rest of the instruments and move like liquid. Basically, I went back to school for the last two years to be able to bring something new ha-ha. Andrew Barr from the Barr Brothers joined us on drums for this record, it’s a pleasure to play music with such a great musician.  

TRACK LISTING

1.Better In The Shade
2.Height Of The Feeling
3.Ode To Vivian
4.Little Moments
5.Blue
6.La La La La La
7.Stay

The definitive biography of guitar icon and Grammy Award-winning artist Bill Frisell. FEATURING EXCLUSIVE LISTENING SESSIONS WITH: Paul Simon; Justin Vernon of Bon Iver; Gus Van Sant; Rhiannon Giddens; The Bad Plus; Gavin Bryars; Van Dyke Parks; Sam Amidon; Hal Willner; Jim Woodring; Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill'A beautiful and long overdue portrait of one of America's true living cultural treasures.'JOHN ZORN'The perfect companion-piece to the music of its subject.'MOJO'Outlines the subject's life in a series of scrupulous strokes and intimate interviews that are rare in such undertakings . .

. a cool, casual victory.'IRISH TIMESOver a period of forty-five years, Bill Frisell has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential musicians at work today. A quietly revolutionary guitar hero for our genre-blurring times, he connects to a diverse range of artists and admirers, including Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Gus Van Sant and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, all of whom feature in this book.

A vital addition to any music lover's book collection, Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer tells the legendary guitarist's story for the first time. 'Stuffed with musical encounters, so many that every couple of pages there's an unheard Frisell recording for the reader to chase down.'NEW YORKER'Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer is the definitive biography.'BILL MILKOWSKI, DOWNBEAT'Superb . .

. the book races along like Sonny Rollins in full sail. Like subject, like writer: this is super-articulate, adventurous prose.'PERSPECTIVE'[Watson's] writing balances unbridled passion and dispassionate research nearly as deftly as Mr.

Frisell's playing does sound and silence . . .

compelling.'WALL STREET JOURNAL

Completing a compelling trilogy of albums since his late-flowering return to solo songwriting and singing six years ago, Ben Watt releases his fourth LP, "Storm Damage" on 31 January 2020, and with it a new sound and fervency.
"I needed a fresh approach," says Watt, 56. "The album came out of an intense period of personal anguish and political anger. Sometimes repeating yourself musically feels disrespectful to the sharpness of your feelings. You have to search for a new way to capture the energy."

Across four decades Watt has maintained a committed forward-looking course, from the ardent echo-drenched folk of his early solo work with Robert Wyatt, through seventeen years as musical mainspring and co-lyricist in the best-selling Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn - and ten at the helm of his smart electronic label Buzzin' Fly - to his recent moving non-fiction and mid-life solo albums, the award-winning "Hendra" (2014) and "Fever Dream" (2016). New album "Storm Damage" is no exception. Sonically adventurous, lyrically detailed and engaged, the album - written and produced by Watt - is a personal journey through anxiety and change cut through with an insistent defiance. 

AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 8AM.

LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Happy to announce my 2021 mini-album 'Storm Shelter' is out on limited vinyl and for Record Store Day Black Friday, Nov 26, #RSDBF. Originally released earlier this year as stream and download, it is a stripped-back companion piece to Storm Damage; a 6-song piano-vocal set that features covers of Ten City’s That’s The Way Love Is and Sharon Van Etten’s Comeback Kid plus new versions of three songs from Storm Damage, and one from my 2016 album, Fever Dream. All the songs were recorded in one day at RAK Studios in London a couple of months before the pandemic and are engineered and mixed by Bruno Ellingham. 

'An exciting and vulnarable compilation of the world according to W.A.T., a dutch pop / wave band who was active in the early to mid 80's. For fans of VAZZ & Ruins.'

What’s good comes fast. Two years after Ad van Meurs met Frank van den Nieuwenhof in the famous Happy End in Eindhoven, the first album of the World According To (W.A.T) was released.

The foundation for "Defreeze", a six-track mini album, was laid in the living room of Ad and Ankie Keultjes, where Ad’s guitar riffs and screaming lap steel guitar formed a wonderful amalgam with the delayed Boss Dr. Rhythm and the arpeggios of the analogue Pro One synthesizer that was programmed by Ankie, who took care of most of the vocal parts. Frank’s melodic, bouncy bass lines bound it all together. Ad’s lyrics varied from abstract language puzzles like Ivanhoe and Vive la Vie to personal musings like Wax and Sangatte, which is actually a waltz. There were intense rehearsals where the band often lost track of time, creating a whole new repertoire somewhere between dance music and anarchistic punk wave. The more the groove repeated, the more you felt it. But in that groove melodies sometimes three-part choruses remained. The band was figuring out a style that didn’t exist at the time. "Defreeze", released in 1983, got great reviews because of its original and innovating sound. The band ended up playing the bigger venues and festivals like Music des Traverses at Reims and the first edition of the legendary Pandora’s Music Festival in 1983. A W.A.T concert was always exciting, with steaming energy, sturdy beats and synths, screaming guitars and outspoken lyrics, but vulnerable at the same time. And of course, there was the dancing. A W.A.T. concert was a rave avant la lettre.

TRACK LISTING

Love Suspect
Famous
Wax
Defreeze
Thin Blue Notes
The Captain
Thx
Art Lovers
Ivanhoo
Hossa
Sangatte
Conspiracy In The Dark

La Onda de Juan Pablo was a travelogue of sorts, with its anthropological efforts, its parade of Latin American musicians and its choice to only feature Wauters native tongue. Introducing Juan Pablo, on the other hand, goes back and forth between Spanish and English. It is, in short, more faithful to the interculturalism that Wauters experiences daily. "In my house, among my family, we speak in Spanish. But outside in the neighborhood, we speak in English with my friends. Several of them speak in Spanish with their parents, but not all. It doesn't cause me any trouble to go from one language to another. I can express myself in the same way: everything is music." In a nod to both his home country and his adopted home, he includes an English version of "El Hombre de la Calle" ("The Man on the Street") by Jaime Roos, one of the most popular Uruguayan songwriters. The references to the land where he was born are her on the surface. Between the first track ("Super Talking") and the last ("Greetings"), songs run in both languages, culminating with "Lora", which opens like a pop kaleidoscope and ends in a kind of cosmic brotherhood between Eduardo Mateo and Syd Barrett.

His immigrant's side. His sense of belonging. His social life and his use of language. His need to work. And the even stronger need that his work doesn't become monotonous. His dream of another possible world: a world where all worlds fit. Juan Wauters went through all this to introduce us to Juan Pablo. They are the same person: one among the whole crowd.

TRACK LISTING

1. Super Talking
2. Doing Alright
3. Rubia
4. Letter
5. Bolero (Maurice Ravel)
6. Mystery
7. Lonely
8. Mountain
9. Jaime Tortuga
10. El Hombre De La Calle
11. Dos
12. What You Gonna Do
13. Letter (feat. Maxine)
14. Crazy Funny (feat. Maxine)
15. Lora
16. Straighten Up And Lose
17. Saludos

There’s freedom to be found in consistency. Until recently, Juan Wauters may not have agreed with this statement. As a touring musician and multinational citizen, transience had always come naturally to him. Circumstance, however, recently prompted him to reconsider the benefits of staying in one place. His most introspective work to date, Wauters’ sixth solo album Wandering Rebel finds the artist taking stock of how he’s changed, how the world sees him, and what he wants out of life.

Written mostly during an extended break from touring, the songs on Wandering Rebel are candid reflections on subjects like career (“Wandering Rebel”),romantic commitment (“Amor Amor”), mental health (“Nube Negra”) and the personal toll of touring (“Let Loose”). On “Modus Operandi,” he voices his frustration with New York’s fair-weather residents, who fled the city at theonset of the COVID-19 lockdown. Vocal contributions from fellow New Yorker Greta Kline (Frankie Cosmos) add to the chorus of playful disapproval. On the singalong-worthy “Millionaire,” he turns his eye to the west coast: “It’s hard to get around Los Angeles / If you don’t have a car / I’m staying in a privileged part of town / It’s suspicious for me to be walking.”

The clarity with which Wauters approaches these subjects lyrically is reflected in the music as well. His trademark eclecticism is still present (fans of Real Life Situations’ spirited hip-hop should look to track 6, “Bolero”), but it’s more refined this time, anchored in his signature Latin-influenced indie folk. Wandering Rebel is peppered with delicate additions that add depth throughout: rain sounds and hand drums on “Nube Negra,” a strings section on “Modus Operandi,” a gentle vibraphone on “Amor, Amor.” Some of these are classic Wauters touches, but others are owed to outside influences, like production from Brooklyn-based Carlos Hernandez (Ava Luna, Carlos Truly) and Brazilian indie artist Sessa, as well as vocal contributions from Kline, Luz Elena Mendoza (Y La Bamba), Zoe Gotusso, and Super Willy K.

Throughout Wandering Rebel, Wauters attempts to reconcile the stability he’s come to enjoy with the nomadic restlessness that’s characterized his life thus far. In the end, though, it’s the interplay of both of these elements that makes the album so strong.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eloping
2. Milanesa Al Pan
3. Nube Negra
4. Amor, Amor
5. Modus Operandi
6. Bolero
7. Mensaje Codificado
8. Millionaire
9. Wandering Rebel
10. Carriage
11. Let Loose
12. En Un Barrio De Montevideo

A tightly wound Prince-esque workout from Wave Machines, lead signer Tim Bruzon describes ‘Ill Fit’ as “the fuzzy moment right before you make a decision to do something right or wrong, justifiable or unjustifiable… your last moment at the point of return”.

With a glitchy art-disco vibe and lyrics of self-doubt and commitment, ‘Ill Fit’ is typical of the band’s idiosyncratic look at the human condition.

On the flip side is exclusive track ‘Easy’, plus an alternative, extended version of future album track ‘Sitting In A Chair Blinking’. ‘Ill Fit’ is released as a translucent blue 10” vinyl (includes a download code within which features a bonus remix by Three Trapped Tigers), which is limited to only 300 copies for the UK and Ireland.

Wave Machines release their second album ‘Pollen’. Working with producer Lexxx (Wild Beasts, Bjork, Arcade Fire, Goldfrapp), who produced and mixed the album alongside the band, this long awaited follow-up to debut offering 'Wave If You’re Really There' reveals a darker, more nuanced vision.

'Counting Birds' sets the scene with its epic synth strings, crunching beats and uplifting harmonic vocals. Recent single 'Ill Fit' tips its hat to the current wave of white-boy soft-pop / electro-funk outfits, adding liquid syndrums, choppy machine rhythms, and a killer falsetto vocal to the mix.

Elsewhere, 'I Hold Loneliness' alloys further kinetic beats with a thoroughly blissed-out pop chorus, while 'Home'’s scrubbed guitars, rhapsodic chorus and busy drums suggest a Merseyside Arcade Fire. The old-school drum box and lullaby vocals of 'Unwound', meanwhile, recall the solo work of The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop.

The beats recede for the title track, a eulogy to the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in the tides of Morecombe Bay in 2004. Its gentle, waltz-time electric guitar arpeggios and mournful harmonium tones are instantly arresting and prove a poignant foil for Bruzon’s careful, non-sententious lyrics. These touchingly contrast the “hard bodies” of Antony Gormley’s iron figure Another Place sculptures (located in nearby Crosby Sands) with the “soft bodies” of the dead Chinese workers.

Simultaneously intimate and epic, haunting and direct, ‘Pollen’ takes the sonic palette the band developed on their debut and simultaneously expands it and makes it denser.

In 1998 The Wave Pictures started carving out their own path in search of the lost essence of British Indie, since their acclaimed “Instant Coffee Baby” -nominated for The Guardian New Album Award and present in many lists of the best albums of the last 15 years– , until the most recent “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings”, always giving their best in countless electrifying performances. Now The Wave Pictures are once again allied with Acuarela to release an exclusive double 7” with five songs (one, “French Cricket” included on their new album and the other four totally exclusive) and show that they are still an indie rock band without indie rock influences, a trio with its own style that doesn't want to be a blues group, but with blues –and soul, and country, and folk-, as the invisible core of everything they do.

The Wave Pictures began their career in 1998. Since then the British trio hasn't stopped: at the frenetic pace of their concert schedule, they add a stakhanovist record production, which advances at the rate of almost one album per year. Example: “Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon”, which came out in February 2015, was already their thirteenth official LP (without forgetting that they have also released a large number of singles, EPs, rarities and unofficial material). But it is that in February 2016 the fourteenth album, “A Season In Hull” was released -which they recorded with a single microphone and only released on vinyl-, and in November of that same year its successor, “Bamboo Diner In The Rain” came out. In June 2018 they returned to the fray with another LP, “Brushes With Happiness”, and that November also dropped “Look Inside Your Heart”. The pandemic has made them slow down a little bit until May 2022 when they finally returned with "When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings". “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings” is a double album dedicated to the cycle of life and in which each of its four sides (in the old fashioned way) is focused on one of the seasons of the year. The title refers to spring and its splendor. The result is pop in the style of The Wave Pictures, with all the essence of the band: those intense guitar solos by Dave, his acoustic plucking, the solid writing… in addition to the mandolin, the bluesy harmonica...you name it! All the band members, David Tattersall (vocals, guitar), Franic Rozycki (bass) and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm (drums), are avid fans of rock'n'roll, classic country, 70s rock, soul and folk, and this album celebrates with joy all those musical loves of them, some rediscovered in recent times. Moreover, they have pointed out that Guided By Voices have also been a great source of inspiration on this recording, as well as re-listening to Sun Records’ rockabilly, African guitar records, the more country side of Neil Young, the crazy fun of The Who and some moments from The Yardbirds. The Wave Pictures are still playing what Modern Lovers did back in the day -and then Herman Dune or Hefner-, only they play it as if Rory Gallagher was their lead guitar. With the lo-fi pop-rock label as an amicable stigma, they never deny the maxim that places attitude before technique and they are always vaccinated against fashion. Years go by and they are still the same sly alley-cats, only sounding more and more classic.

TRACK LISTING

1. French Cricket
2. From A Buick 6
3. Porcupines
4. Rufus Thomas
5. Cincinatti Flow Rag

The Wave Pictures, industrious and prolific as ever, return on Thursday 18 November with ‘This Heart Of Mine’. Following two albums in 2018, ‘Brushes With Happiness’ and ‘Look Inside Your Heart’, this is the first track to be made available from their new double album ‘When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings’, due for 2022 release.

Formed over twenty years ago by Franic Rozycki and David Tattersall in Wymeswold, Leicestershire, and joined by Jonny ‘Hudderfield’ Helm since 2005, The Wave Pictures have released over twenty albums of their own, along with exciting side projects such as garage rock supergroup The Surfing Magazines, several albums with Stanley Brinks, and Dave’s recent guitar contributions to Billy Childish albums, with whom they also collaborated on their 2014 album ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’. Across these varied releases, accommodating Dave’s free flowing fountain of songwriting, The Wave Pictures have shown their deep affection for rock and roll, blues, jazz, classic rock, and of course Dave’s legendary love of good guitar solo.

With a nuance of autumn, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ references time and space travel & memory all rolled into one. Musically inspired by classic Neil Young, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ witnesses The Wave Pictures going full-on country and features cowboy harmonica from Dominic ‘Hotdog’ Brider, Franic Rozycki on mandolin, alongside Dave Tattersall’s gentle acoustic guitar strum.

TRACK LISTING

A1. River Of Gold
A2. Back In The City
A3. French Cricket
A4. Never Better
A5. Blink The Sun
B1. Samsun
B2This Heart Of Mine
B3. Douglas
B4. Jennifer
B5. Smell The Ocean
C1. I'd Be Doing Anything
C2. Hazel Irvine
C3. Don't Forget Me
C4. Winter Baby
C5. Flight From Destruction
D1. When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings
D2. Never Let You Down
D3. Dale It's A Damn Shame
D4. Walking To Wymeswold
D5. Secret Messages

NEW UR !! Wavejumpers spotted off the coast of Scotland. Can you decode the sound that lurks in the fog?

Complimenting the hi-tech jazz flavoured Manu De Fuego (UR-095), also released this week, we have a Drexciyan flavoured release from Wavejumper, another new UR jam to blast away all other competition!

Underwater, squiggly, scuba diving techno and electro that's deliciously textured. You can almost feel the propeller's drag through the aqua-tunnel! Don't need to tell you how quickly these are gonna get snapped up.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hard to pick a favourite out of the TWO, NEW (!) Underground Resistance records this week. Mana De Fuego sorts out the much needed main room money shot but here Wavejumpers (who?) go on a Drexciyan scuba dive, exploring the sub layers with a street-wise and fierce attitude. It's killer!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Sound
A2. Aquatic Justice
B1. Cetacaen Nation
B2. Decoding The Maps
B3. Sunken Treasure

Once upon a time there was a beautiful land just south of Manchester, a land called Wavertonia. The King and Queen of Wavertonia looked out upon the greater world and noticed it was in want of Wavertonian music. And they did call their finest music makers from the four corners of their kingdom and commanded them "Take our music to the world, or a least to the North of England". And thus was borne the Collective. Each member brought with them a different sound, a different song, a different tradition... This is their debut EP.

No Life For Me is the highly anticipated collaborative album between Nathan Williams of Wavves and Dylan Baldi of Cloud Nothings via Williams’s own imprint, Ghost Ramp. The album was recorded at Williams’s home during sessions in March and June of 2014, with production from Sweet Valley.

“For all their differences, a Wavves / Cloud Nothings collaboration makes a good deal of sense, and fans have been eagerly anticipating an album since it was officially announced back in March…. [The album] is a summery slice of punk that’s more SoCal than Ohio, even if Baldi can’t help but smear his unique brand of melancholy all over standout tracks like ‘Nervous’ and ‘Nothing Hurts’…. “No Life For Me is deeply indebted to early 1980s Southern California punk, a scene that’s probably buried deep in the soil of Williams’ mind by this point…. This is pop music executed with the no-frills precision of hardcore….” - Consequence of Sound.

Wavves and Culture Abuse have joined forces for a new single - ’Big Cloud’. The song follows the two bands hitting the road with Joyce Manor for a US tour last year, which has already resulted in a track called ’Up and Down’. Hailing from the Bay Area, Culture Abuse signed to Epitaph Records earlier this year. The band formed in 2013, releasing their debut album Peach in late 2016. Infusing its distortion-heavy garage punk with keyboard melodies and the occasional string arrangement, Peach fully embodies the Culture Abuse mission of “being free, enjoying life, and sharing love.” Culture Abuse is planning to release new music this year and will tour this spring with Turnstile and Touche Amore. WAVVES’ sixth album You’re Welcome arrived in 2017 on Ghost Ramp. It was praised by the AV Club as “Wavves’ finest moment to date.” Throughout the album, WAVVES singer/songwriter Nathan Williams explores his obsessions with everything from doo-wop to Cambodian pop to South American psychedelia.

A little over a year ago, Nathan Williams found himself back in San Diego, writing what would eventually become Hideaway, his seventh album as Wavves, in a little shed behind his parents’ house. It was also the place where he made some of his earliest albums, before he became known for his uncanny ability to write songs that sneered at the world while evoking pathos, sympathy, and a deep understanding of how sometimes we’re our own worst enemies, and that can be okay. Williams’ return to his childhood home was not just a symbolic attempt at jumpstarting creativity. It came as a result of a series of major life changes. A decade ago, Williams released King of the Beach on the maverick indie label Fat Possum. The album was a cocky collection of pop punk gems that catapulted him into the public consciousness, eventually prompting a jump from Fat Possum into the major label system, where he released two albums before becoming disillusioned by the lack of creative agency available to him.

In 2017, Williams self-released You’re Welcome on his label, Ghost Ramp. Now, Williams has returned to Fat Possum with a barbed collection of anxious anthems that grapple with the looming sense of doom and despair that comes with getting older in an increasingly chaotic world. “He’ll always skew toward the Bart Simpson [character],” says Matthew Johnson, founder of Fat Possum. “But that does not mean that he doesn’t have some commentary, and once in awhile, it’s totally spot on.” Across its brief but impactful nine tracks, Hideaway is about what happens when you get old enough to take stock of the world around you and realize that no one is going to save you but yourself, and even that might be a tall order. The album features Williams’ most universal and urgent songs yet. “Honeycomb” lopes along sunnily, as Williams sings affecting lines like “I feel like I’m dying, it’s cool, it’s great, just pretend I’m okay.”

His directness is shocking, and proof that Williams is the kind of songwriter who can capture pain and uncertainty with resonant brutal force. “It’s real peaks and valleys with me,” Williams says. “I can be super optimistic and I can feel really good, and then I can hit a skid and it’s like an earthquake hits my life, and everything just falls apart. Some of it is my own doing, of course.” It’s this self awareness that permeates each of Hideaway’s songs, marking them each as mature reckonings with who he is. After realizing the material he’d been working on in the hideaway was starting to take shape, Williams, along with bandmates Stephen Pope and Alex Gates workshopped the songs in a series of now-abandoned studio sessions, before linking up with musician and producer Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio to help fully realize their new songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thru Hell
2. Hideaway
3. Help Is On The Way
4. Sinking Feeling
5. Honeycomb
6. The Blame
7. Marine Life
8. Planting A Garden
9. Caviar

Wavves enters the new decade by announcing a ten year anniversary tour of their iconic 2010 album King of the Beach. Kicking off April 10th in Phoenix, they'll play 27 shows across North America, including stops in Austin, New Orleans, Miami, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Seattle, before closing out the run May 28th in Los Angeles.

Wavves is also announcing a vinyl reissue of the album. The King of the Beach reissue features a purple kush vinyl with alternate art that was originally slated to be the cover but eventually scrapped. It also includes a bonus 7" with "Mutant" and "Stained Glass (Won't You Let Me Into Yr Heart)." In stores everywhere via Fat Possum Records on the tour's inaugural date, April 10th. The tour and reissue follows the band's explosive two-night, sold-out shows in New York City earlier this month and will follow their Australian tour later this March.

It is universally agreed that New Zealand’s Wax Chattels are a must- see live act; their hypnotically sinister debut captured this perfectly. Released in 2018 and supported by relentless touring, the eponymous album reached #7 on the New Zealand Album Charts, and release week saw the title feature as #1 in Rough Trade’s Top 20 New Releases. Tastemakers like NPR and A.V. Club came on as early champions. The album’s success at home and abroad led to the well-deserved nomina- tion of Best Alternative Artist at the 2018 New Zealand Music Awards, as well as the band’s inclusion in the coveted shortlist of finalists for the Taite Music Prize and Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award. After a knock-out entrée, the anticipation that surrounds their sophomore album, Clot, is immense.

Much like their debut, the writing process for Clot took the best part of a year. While some songs were written on the road, the bulk of the album was workshopped throughout 2019 across bedrooms and storage containers. Demos were fine-tuned before recording engi- neer James Goldsmith (Aldous Harding, Mermaidens) stepped in. The band maintained the use of only the barest of ingredients — bass guitar, keyboard, and a two-piece drum kit — but spent more time ex- perimenting with and finding new sounds. They wanted to maintain the same live element, but, this time, heavier — for which they enlisted the help of mixing engineer, and fellow noise-maker, Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Destruction Unit, The Men). The keyboards are thicker, the bass more intense. A marked step-up, this new record keeps the visceral energy of the debut, only this time they dig deeper into ca- thartic noise.

At Clot’s center is confrontation. “Mindfulness” asks do you accept the status quo over forcing tangible change? The vitriolic choruses of “Cede” are in Cheng’s native language — Taiwanese Hokkien — and are an indignant confrontation about Cross-Strait relations and self- determination. The experience of being a first generation immigrant is expressed in the melodic single “No Ties”. The song touches on cul- tural differences and the parental sacrifice of careers and support sys- tems to provide a “better” future for their children. The explosive arc of “Efficiency” describes knowing when to bide your time, and when to push, in which the band treads a line between the explicit and in- tuitive. This is carried through “An Eye”, in which the band stresses the physical harm and psychological breakdown emanating from the escalating racial and political uproar throughout the world. Though the band seethes and boils throughout, Clot concludes with a message of hope. Perhaps it’s this capacity for self-awareness that makes Wax Chattels one of New Zealand’s most treasured independent exports.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glue
2. Efficiency
3. Cede
4. Mindfulness
5. No Ties
6. Less Is More
7. Spanners & Implements
8. An Eye
9. Forever Marred
10. Yokohama
11. You Were Right

Guitarless Guitar Music. This is the self-imposed one-line description chosen by Auckland, New Zealand’s Wax Chattels. The keyboard, bass and drums trio don’t have a guitar player, but their overwhelming sound and energy create an atmosphere akin to a traditional power trio though their music is anything but traditional. They create darkly hypnotic and frenetic music that’s rhythmically complex and sinister; there’s heavily treated keyboards, unrestrained basslines and punishingly simple drums. And, it’s loud.

Peter (keyboards/vocals), Amanda (bass/vocals) and Tom (drums) met while studying Jazz Performance at the University of Auckland. After living abroad, completing Law School and/or performing in a myriad of other music-related projects, they started Wax Chattels, working up their material for a year prior to recording. “We tracked the songs as a live band to capture the energy of the live show, restricting ourselves to instruments which we play live and keeping all production to a minimum to focus on the band’s sound itself.”

Live, they are not to be missed. While they do come across as a “rock” band, it’s coming from so many places so quickly that you’re kind of left wondering where you’re going. The opening of the one-chord tour de force “Concrete” begins in a downright frightening and jarring place and ends up in a Krautrock-via-Suicide crescendo. It was after a particularly insane live performance that they were signed by both Captured Tracks and Flying Nun Records on the spot.

Wax Chattels recall the other side of Kiwi underground rock history that’s a bit less sunny and a bit less jangly. The small, yet constantly groundbreaking nation has put forth a new act and album that demands your attention.

TRACK LISTING

1. Concrete
2. Stay Disappointed
3. It
4. Gillian
5. In My Mouth
6. Shrinkage
7. Career
8. NRG
9. Parallel Lines
10. Facebook

What do we hold on to from our past? What must we let go of to truly move forward? Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield spent much of 2018 reckoning with these questions and revisiting her roots for answers. The result is Saint Cloud, an intimate journey through the places she’s been, filled with the people she’s loved.

Written immediately in the period following her decision to get sober, the album is an unflinching self-examination. This raw, exposed narrative terrain is aided by a shift in sonic arrangements as well. While her last two records featured the kind of big guitars, well-honed noise, and battering sounds that characterized her Philadelphia scene and strongly influenced a burgeoning new class of singer-songwriters, Saint Cloud strips back those layers to create space for Crutchfield’s voice and lyrics. The result is a classic Americana sound with modern touches befitting an artist who has emerged as one of the signature storytellers of her time. Many of the narratives on Saint Cloud concern addiction and the havoc it wreaks on ourselves and our loved ones, as Crutchfield comes to a deeper understanding of love not only for those around her but for herself. This coalesces most clearly on “Fire,” which she says was literally written in transit, during a drive over the Mississippi River into West Memphis, and serves as a love song to herself, a paean to moving past shame into a place of unconditional self-acceptance.

Over the course of Saint Cloud, which was recorded the summer of 2019 and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver), Crutchfield peels back the distortion of electric guitars to create a wider sonic palette than on any previous Waxahatchee album. It is a record filled with nods to classic country, folk-inspired tones, and distinctly modern touches. To bolster her vision, Crutchfield enlisted Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox, both of the Detroit band Bonny Doon, to serve as backing band on the record, along with Josh Kaufman (Hiss Golden Messenger, Bon Iver) on guitar and keyboards and Nick Kinsey (Kevin Morby) on drums and percussion. Saint Cloud marks the beginning of a journey for Crutchfield, one that sees her leaving behind past vices and the comfortable environs of her Philadelphia scene to head south in search of something new. If on her previous work Crutchfield was out in the storm, she’s now firmly in the eye of it, taking stock of her past with a clear perspective and gathering the strength to carry onward.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Oxbow
Can’t Do Much
Fire
Lilacs
The Eye
Hell

SIDE B
Witches
War
Arkadelphia
Ruby Falls
St. Cloud

Debut album from Waxahatchee aka Katie Crutchfield. The Brooklyn via Alabama artist brings ‘just guitar, her voice, and a piano to tell stories.’ 

The 11 songs were recorded in a span of seven days on an 8-track recorder.

TRACK LISTING

Catfish
Grass Stain
Rose, 1956
American Weekend
Michel
Be Good
Luminary Blake
Magic City Wholesale
Bathtub
I Think I Love You
Noccalula

Reissue of the second Waxahatchee album.

On her second full-length record as Waxahatchee, former P.S. Eliot singer Katie Crutchfield’s compelling hyper-personal poetry is continuously crushing.

On this new record, Crutchfield’s songs continue to be marked by her sharp, hooky songwriting; her striking voice and lyrics that simultaneously seem hyper-personal yet relentlessly relatable, teetering between endearingly nostaglic and depressingly dark. But whereas before the thematic focus of her songcraft was on break ups and passive-aggressive crushing, this record reflects on her family and Alabama upbringing. And whereas American Weekend was mostly just Crutchfield and her guitar, Cerulean Salt is occasionally amped up, with a full band and higher-fi production. At times, Cerulean Salt creeps closer to the sound of PS Eliot: moody, 90s-inspired rock backed by Keith Spencer and Swearin’ guitarist Kyle Gilbride on drums and bass. The full band means fleshed-out fuzzy lead guitars on “Coast to Coast”, its poppy hook almost masking its dark lyrics. Big distorted guitars and deep steady drums mark songs like “Misery over Dispute” and “Waiting”. There’s plenty of American Weekend’s instrospection and minimalism to be found, though. “Blue Pt. II” is stripped down, Crutchfield and her sister Alison (of Swearin’) singing in harmony with deadpan vox. She’s still an open booking, musing on self-doubt versus self-reliance, transience versus permanence. “Peace and Quiet” ebbs and flows from moody, minimal verses to a sing-song chorus. “Swan Dive” tackles nostalgia, transience, indifference, regret over the a minimal strum of an electric-guitar, the picking at a chirpy riff and the double-time tapping of a muted drum. The album closes with a haunting acoustic-guitar reflection on “You’re Damaged,” possibly the best Waxahatchee song to date.

TRACK LISTING

Hollow Bedroom
Dixie Cups And Jars
Lips And Limbs
Blue, Pt. 2 
Brother Bryan
Coast To Coast
Tangled Envisioning
Misery Over Dispute 
Lively
Waiting
Swan Dive
Peace And Quiet
You’re Damaged

Cerulean Salt follows American Weekend -- a collection of minimal acoustic guitar pop written and recorded in a week at her family's Birmingham home. On this new record, Crutchfield's songs continue to be marked by her sharp, hooky songwriting; her striking voice and lyrics that simultaneously seem hyperpersonal yet relentlessly relatable, teetering between endearingly nostalgic and depressingly dark. But whereas before the thematic focus of her songcraft was on break ups and passive-aggressive crushing, this record reflects on her family and Alabama upbringing. Whereas American Weekend was mostly just Crutchfield and her guitar, Cerulean Salt is occasionally amped up, with a full band and higher-fi production. At times, Cerulean Salt creeps closer to the sound of PS Eliot: moody, 90s- inspired rock backed by Keith Spencer and Swearin' guitarist Kyle Gilbride on drums and bass. The full band means fleshed-out fuzzy lead guitars on "Coast to Coast", its poppy hook almost masking its dark lyrics. Big distorted guitars and deep steady drums mark songs like "Misery over Dispute" and "Waiting". There's plenty of American Weekend's introspection and minimalism to be found, though. "Blue Pt. II" is stripped down, Crutchfield and her sister Alison singing in harmony with deadpan vox. She's still an open booking, musing on self-doubt versus self-reliance, transience versus permanence. "Peace and Quiet" ebbs and flows from moody, minimal verses to a sing- song chorus. "Swan Dive" tackles nostalgia, transience, indifference, regret -- over the a minimal strum of an electric-guitar, the picking at a chirpy riff and the double-time tapping of a muted drum. The album closes with a haunting acoustic-guitar reflection on "You're Damaged," possibly the best Waxahatchee song to date.

TRACK LISTING

Hollow Bedroom
Dixie Cups And Jars
Lips And Limbs
Blue Part II
Brother Bryan
Coast To Coast
Tangled Envisioning
Misery Over Dispute
Lively
Waiting
Swan Dive
Peace And Quiet
You're Damaged

Out in the Storm is the blazing result of a woman reawakened. Her most autobiographical and honest album to date, Out in the Storm is a self-reflective anchor in the story of both Katie Crutchfield’s songwriting and her life. The album tells the story of taking control of a volatile situation, embracing flaws, and exploring a new sonic freedom. The album was tracked at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia with John Agnello, known for working with some of the most iconic musicians of the last 25 years, including Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth.

For Agnello, it was Crutchfield’s voice that drew him in. “The first demo song I heard was ‘Fade’. The melodies, the way she sings it, the way she turns the melody, and the way she goes note to note is literally beautiful. Singers—you either have it or you don’t. She has it.” Agnello and Crutchfield worked together for most of December 2016, along with the band: sister Allison Crutchfield on keyboards and percussion, Katherine Simonetti on bass, and Ashley Arnwine on drums; Katie Harkin, touring guitarist with Sleater-Kinney, also contributed lead guitar. At Agnello’s suggestion, the group recorded most of the music live to enhance their unity in a way that gives the album a fuller sound compared to past releases, resulting in one of Waxahatchee’s most guitar-driven releases to date. “My experience working with John was genuinely life-changing,” says Crutchfield. “We had such a great connection right off the bat, and I really feel like he was always looking out for me.

He pushed me when I needed it, and gave me space when I needed it.” Crutchfield’s voice oscillates between effortless grace and commanding righteousness, taking the listener with her on an explicitly personal journey. Songs like “Hear You” and “No Question” are lyrically unapologetic and musically resolute, while the softer acoustic songs like “A Little More” and “Fade” let fear and melancholy seep through. But it is on the atmospheric “Sparks Fly” where we feel an essential redemption. “Sparks Fly” acts as an inner dialogue and marks the first time since the inception of Waxahatchee that any semblance of self-love has shone through. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Never Been Wrong
2. 8 Ball
3. Silver
4. Recite Remorse
5. Sparks Fly
6. Brass Beam
7. Hear You
8. A Little More
9. No Question
10. Fade

She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she's never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo- fi folk to lush alt- tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers's Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen.

And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City-after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road- Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse-an ethnologist of the self-forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she's arriving at revelations and she ain't holding them back.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's something timeless about a simple-yet-effective country ballad, and while that's not quite what Waxahatchee does, there's something about Cruthfield's writing that triggers the instant recognition and innate warmth of those tried and tested campfire classics. Beautifully bucolic melodies and warmly presented instrumentation, all wrapped in Waxahatchee's unmistakeable style. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

1. 3 Sisters
2. Evil Spawn
3. Ice Cold
4. Right Back To It
5. Burns
6. Out At Midnight
7. Bored
8. Lone Star Lake
9. Crimes Of The Heart
10. Crowbar
11. 365 
12. The Wolves
13. Tigers Blood

Formed in Columbus, Ohio in early 2010, Way Yes is the musical collaboration of Glenn Davis & Travis Hall. With the addition of multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer Max Lewis, the band set out to make music about good times, or at least making it through the bad ones.

Their latest EP, Walkability (being released via Lefse Records 26/03/12) hides heavy lyrical content under positive tropical vibes. The album addresses everything from death of loved ones to the daily grind. They make masterful use of sonic space, keeping the instrumentation sparse and the reverb heavy to provide a deceivingly introspective experience. With layered Afro-Latin rhythms, whimsical guitar lines and dreamy electronic touches, Way Yes makes sure you’ll never think of Ohio the same way again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Walkability
2. Important
3. Singing
4. Gino
5. Ties
6. Walkability, (Rimar Remix)
7. Important (First Person Shootr Rework)
8. Singing (RUMTUM Remix)
9. Gino (Larry Gus Remix)
10. Ties (Monster Rally Remix)

Weaving strands of bluegrass, roots, jazz, old-time country, folk and klezmer into a powerful fusion, the Wayfaring Strangers are an exceptionally varied set of musicians. The vocals of Jennifer Kimball and Lucy Kaplansky are another highlight on this super Rounder Records release.