Agitated is more than pleased to announce the long over-due return to wax (and CD) by Carlton Melton, the new album from San Franciscan / Northern Californian space-trippers is here, and its ready to tune you out and turn you on.

Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations.

The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood.

A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii.

Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm.

Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering.

In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics.

One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation?

Well, lower the stylus to find out.
- Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020

TRACK LISTING

1. The Stars Are Dying
2. Butchery
3. Waylay
4. Dezebelle
5. Smoke Drip Revisited
6. Crown Shyness
7. Three Zero Two
8. Porch Dreams
9. Closer

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music has united The Goa Express from the off. Hailing from the industrial town of Burnley and adopted by the Manchester culture carriers, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock and roll- their first gig having been 3 songs blasted out their mates garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in: “when there’s fuck all, you make do with what you got”.

The intensity of this friendship has resulted in the occasional bust up along the way, yet it only adds to the burning chemistry that the band offer on record and on stage. Together, brothers James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals) and Joe Clarke (Keys), along with Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums) all contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sound, becoming harder to pin down with their constantly evolving, psych-umbrella’d, rock and roll. What sets The Goa Express apart from other musicians who sit comfortably within scenes is that their identity as a band has been growing organically long before the 5 of them decided to pick up instruments and teach themselves art of killing time.

Their genuine joy in the everyday; their attitude and antics seem to hark back to the glory days of the NME- if they talk about a night out, you want to be there because these lads ooze charm and wreak havoc. This purist, old school approach to creating music through unified experiences and stimulated good times is married with the plain fact that they are very much young people of this generation, and while they see its flaws its hyperreality, its sheep-like tendencies, they still understand the importance in the immediacy of pop music: of a banging riff, or a glorious chorus and how effective this can truly be, and they want everyone along for the ride.

With influences ranging from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to French existentialism, from Beat Literature to long hours working at the Bookies to the journey into the sunrise on the night bus home, it is their ability to be all these things at once which makes The Goa Express a guitar band for the 21st Century. Nothing is ever a compromise because they are so unapologetically themselves in everything they do- proud Northerners with a DIY foundation that aren’t afraid to look into the often dim future and see themselves shining brightly in it, unforgiving and unpretentious.

So far, the band have released 3 singles with great success. The first: ‘Be My Friend’, produced by Ross Orton right next Sheffield’s famous ‘City Sauna’ brothel, presents itself to us as a cheeky, snarling pop song, holding undertones of raw cynicism laden with psychedelic sunshine. Ross Orton’s studio was also right next door to where the band recorded their last single ‘The Day’ with Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family at ‘Champ Zone.’ Both these producers have been able to give these instant pop classics a grittier feel, capturing the essence of the unfettered lifestyle the band were living at the time that they were able to capture themselves in the music video for ‘Be My Friend’.

After signing with Ra-Ra Rok, (WU-LU/Bingo Fury) the band released anthemic summer hit ‘Second Time’, that went straight to the 6 music B-List before quickly heading up to the A-List 2 for 2 weeks. This was followed by the release of its B-Side ‘Overpass’ that almost immediately caught the eyes and ears of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who had the band on his ‘Next Wave’ Segment. Closing the year that saw them play to thousand-strong crowds at festivals like Latitude and End of the Road, the band headlined their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s Gorilla - its fair to say that this really is only the beginning.

TRACK LISTING

Side A - Everybody In The UK
Side B - Everybody In The UK (Demo)

After years of hard graft, releasing a number of thunderous and catchy songs, and constant touring supporting the likes of Slaves, Wolf Alice and Courtney Barnett, Spring King’s journey has only just begun as they release their debut album Tell Me If You Like To.

The new album was recorded and produced by lead singer, drummer and songwriter, Tarek Musa. It features their breakthrough track City, energetic single Rectifier, and this, their newest release The Summer which showcases the band’s ability to pen huge festival-worthy anthems.

The Lovely Eggs will release their brand new single “I, Moron” featuring Iggy Pop on Friday July 9 on Egg Records. The collaboration will be released on ltd edition yellow 7” vinyl with eye watering art-work by illustrator Casey Raymond. Backed by a B Side cover of Iggy Pop’s “Dum Dum Boys” from his 1977 album ‘The Idiot’ and limited to 1200 copies this is one not to be missed!

“Being in The Lovely Eggs we’re kind of used to surreal experiences but collaborating with Iggy Pop takes the biscuit,” exclaims singer/guitarist Holly Ross. “It’s actually unbelievable. For him just to say nothing but “moron” over and over again fitted in with the sentiment of the song perfectly. He just GOT it. We are all morons. In a world of moronic things. In a world of moronic ideas. You are moron. I am Moron. We are Moron.”

TRACK LISTING

A: I, Moron
B: Dum Dum Boys

The Red EP is the third and final Laundromat (AKA Toby Hayes) EP in the current set, concluding a triology completed with the prebiously released Blue and Green EPs. Laundromat has previously received support from Steve Lamacq, Marc Riley, DIY, Dork among others.

On the EP opener ‘Flat Planet’, Laundromat says "I don’t ever remember setting out to write a tune like this, but here it is anyways. I kinda hear it like a St. Vincent song or something like that. Some tongue in cheek (but not) apocalyptic-pop. An eye-roll pointed right back at us dumb humans. You know how when you’re reading the news, and it’s facepalm after facepalm? This was a response to that feeling. The drop at the end is a Big Muff driving a Harmonic Percolator - a lot of fun through headphones."

Laundromat, the new project from Toby Hayes has been a long time in the making. Hayes admits as much, recalling a process that has taken "years" to bear fruition. The resulting EPs showcase a musician who has earned his stripes in the DIY scene.

Elsewhere on Red, En Bloc is an ode to friendship, Hayes describing how he "grew up a bit awkward, socially. So now I get really romantic about my pals". While Milky is a more sombre affair that recalls Beck at his most tender.

Lyrically the project explores the end of the world, panic attacks, political figures that don’t represent the people that elected them, the preciousness of friendship, binge drinking, mental health and the time Hayes got ‘catfished’ - for nearly 7 years.

Influences are broad, ranging from Broadcast, Jaki Liebezeit, Jason Albertini, Madlib to Gonjasufi. Kim Deal stands out as major inspiration. Film is also a huge source of intrigue for Hayes "I find a lot of inspiration in film. Repo Man (1984), Deep End (1970), Punch-drunk Love (2002), and Alice in the Cities (1974) in particular" he says.

Hayes finds salvation in the intimacy of bedrooms recordings, " I love the sound of them. There’s something special there that I will always love, the sound of someone exploring their imagination, performing to themselves." Lo-fi may be the guiding force, but after an eventful and painful few years Laundromat is ready to embrace positive change and seek catharsis with these new recordings.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flat Planet
2. En Bloc
3. Milky

At the close of a marathon year supporting their breakthrough album, "Con Todo El Mundo", Khruangbin return with an exciting addition - an update on Vince Guaraldi’s timeless “Christmas Time Is Here.”

'Growing up the three of us all had very different Christmases,' says bassist Laura Lee. 'But we recently discovered we all had the exact same favourite Christmas song. When we realized it, we sat down to play it and it came together instantly. In 15 minutes, we had this recorded. It was like the best Christmas present ever.'

With ambling sweetness and a fresh, beat-driven groove, Khruangbin have taken this oft-covered classic and made it wholly their own. It's not in-your-face festivity and cheer, more languid, by-the-fire snugness from our favourite Texan laid-back funk rockers.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Christmas Time Is Here
B1. Christmas Time Is Here (Version Mary)

Andy Votel says: "Working with Halo Maud's song came extremely naturally to me, and I thank Jeff [Barrett, of Heavenly] for recognising this connection. The contrast of her strong melodic songwriting combined with the fragility of her vocals is a real secret weapon and much more than just a breathy pastiche. I think Maud effortlessly captures many unique subtleties in French language music which so many contemporary bands seem to forget, and it's ingredients like these which gave me the confidence to take a more minimal route with this mix, which I appreciate.

"In the past I could only dream of finding a singer that comes close to Léonie Lousseau or Ann Sorel so working with Maud's vocals was an enjoyable experience and I already regard this short track as one of my personal favourite production achievements.... which I can't wait to play on the radio... off 7" vinyl naturally."

Maud says of the track, "I wrote the basis of the song in a few minutes, the day before a show. It was just the guitar and the voice, very simple. The rest of the track is a mix between a band jam, improvisations, ambient sounds, happy studio accidents, and all this material has been re-cut and tinkered with, until I felt it made sense. "It’s an amazing feeling to discover another vision of your own song, and Andy Votel’s version really overwhelmed me, in a good way. This is another song, but it’s still me. Thank you for this huge present.”

The original song features on Halo Maud's debut album, Je Suis Une île (which translates as "I Am An Island"), released on Heavenly Recordings last May.

Limited edition pressing of 300 copies on 7” of “Inspired Again” taken from the Record Store Day album “As I Was Now”. The single comes backed with an exclusive track, a cover of Suicide’s “Cheree” .

TRACK LISTING

Side One: Inspired Again
Side Two: Cheree

Four tracks recorded by Ride guitarist and singer Andy Bell for radio sessions, including a cover of 1990 Mancunian cult classic ‘Perfume’ by Paris Angels.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Comes In Waves (Acoustic Version)
2. Cherry Cola (Acoustic Version)
3. Skywalker (Acoustic Version)
4. Perfume (Acoustic Version)

Deaf Club, the collective identity of Polly Mackey (Vocals/Guitar), Paul Bates (Bass), Jac Roberts (Guitar), Sian Rosier (Keyboards) and Tom Ryan (Drums), first hit the UK scene in 2011 with their self released, four track EP, ‘Lull’. Instantly receiving critical acclaim, the band followed up with a Kissability sponsored two track cassette ‘Sunday’/’Mirrors’ which sold out in a heart beat.

Building on this already remarkable progress, ‘Moving Still’ is yet further evidence of a young, but powerful creative force rapidly gaining momentum as they hone their craft and refine the sound that defines Deaf Club. Bellowing guitars, an urgent, yearning vocal delivery and a driving rhythm section that hammers the point home. ‘Lights’ perfectly compliments ‘Moving Still’ with a catchy chorus and measured mystique.

On November 12, Merge will reissue two crucial releases from The Clean's distinguished discography. The "Tally Ho!" b/w "Platypus" 7-inch and the Boodle Boodle Boodle 12-inch EP, the Dunedin trio's first official recordings as a band, both celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. These reissues have been remastered by Tex Houston with assistance from the Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand, and The Clean's David Kilgour and Robert Scott oversaw the careful re-creation of the original packaging. Merge is thrilled to make these records globally available for the first time since their original release in 1981. Pitchfork described "Tally Ho!" as "a classic of immense proportions, from its Velcro melody, absurdly mixed garage organ and motorik beat, to the crusty, hiss-laden home eight-track recording that embodies it." Recorded in the middle of a New Zealand tour for a humble NZ$60, the song broke into the country's Top 20 singles chart at #19, surprising everyone including the band. Its B-side "Platypus" was recorded live at a show just days prior, capturing the band's buoyant and elastic sound on stage. The 7” reissue will be available on limited-edition silver Peak Vinyl and standard black vinyl, as well as limited clear vinyl exclusively in New Zealand.

A Celebration of the glimpses of gold that characterised WU LYF’s short reign-Featuring New Essays, Original Art, Photography & Lyrics.

Whilst preparing the 10th Anniversary Re-issue of the Singular WU LYF LP- "Go Tell Fire to the Mountain" a long forgotten hard drive was unearthed that held a pristine archive of the golden years of the LYF's creative output.
On it we found many snapshots of early Live Performances, Scans of all the Collaged Art works and Paintings, numerous Beautiful Photos captured by Friends and Lovers.

For those directly involved browsing over it provoked some giddy nostalgia for a well spent youth - a glorification of what was and some starry eyed speculation as to what could have been…

The conversation then arose that it would be a real shame to leave the work of WU LYF entirely overlooked in cultural history, lost to the sands of time, left as mere digital ash decaying in discarded digital urns.

So why not share it all?

Featuring text by and interviews by our very own Liam with Joe, Tom, Ellery and Evans. Plus additional text by Warren (War God) Bramley, JD Beauvalet, Matt Wilkinson, Beatrice Miniconi, Mino Tristovskij & Sean Wood.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: In 2021, I had the privilege of being able to contribute to the LYF ARCHIVES 1998-2012 by interviewing members Ellery, Joe and Tom. Fast forward to July of this year, LYF ARCHIVES saw life. Documenting the short but spirited life of this seminal band, this is a must for anyone who followed the WU in any capacity during their brief existence.

The final U.S. show, a triumphant and blistering bookend to the storied career of one of the most influential bands in rock music, featuring a unique and expansive eighty-five minute set list that spans Sonic Youth’s nearly three decade catalog. Mixed from multitrack by longtime live engineer Aaron Mullan and mastered and cut by Carl Saff.

On August 12, 2011 Sonic Youth played their final US show on an outdoor stage overlooking the East River at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. Fitting that their storied career would bookend with a panoramic view of New York City where it all began 30 years before, having left in their wake one of one of the most powerfully influential careers in rock music.

Following incredible sets from Kurt Vile and Wild Flag, the band took the stage. As the sun went down over the city, Sonic Youth ripped through a 17 song set that spanned from deep cuts off their first studio album and highlighting many other albums all the way through to their last, like a band with everything to prove. Or as Brooklyn Vegan’s Andrew Sacher said at the time: “While most bands who are thirty years into their career are either fading away or living off of the nostalgia of their older material, Sonic Youth continue to sound and perform as fresh as ever.”

Steve Shelley explains the uniquely career spanning set list of Live in Brooklyn 2011 and how it came to be, as well as the importance of outdoor NYC summer shows in Sonic Youth’s legacy:

“This show was a culmination of a run of really special outdoor summertime shows in New York City for us, starting in ’92 with Summerstage in Central Park when we played with Sun Ra. For the Williamsburg Waterfront show I wrote out the set list to present to the band and it was a lot of material we hadn’t played in a while, a lot of deep cuts, so I wasn’t sure if everybody would feel like doing it. After worrying about which songs the band might say yes or no to, I threw those concerns out the window and I just made a list of songs that I thought would be a great set. We practiced the week of the show at our space in Hoboken and put the set together. First we’d try and make sure we had a guitar in the song’s tuning, then we’d try to remember the arrangement and try and put it together, sometimes re-learning bar by bar. In the end I think the whole song list made it through. Even as early as ’86 and ’87 we stopped playing ‘Death Valley 69’ and ‘Brave Men Run’ with any regularity. We’d just get excited about new material coming into the set and songs would get ‘retired’ and wouldn’t get played again for years. So on this particular night in Brooklyn a lot of those retired songs and deep cuts got dusted off and played for this show. It turned out to be a pretty special event with a really special song list.” The band would go on to fulfill a contracted festival run in South America a few months later but, by then, the group’s center was severed beyond repair and the festival appearances didn’t hold the same kind of weight.

“The stage was facing the East River from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn waterfront, and I recall the sun going down in the west during our set. It was a pretty magical, if kinda weird day. Fitting, somehow, that our ‘last show’ should be in New York City, our home and where it all began…” Lee Ranaldo

The Williamsburg Waterfront show would fondly become referred to as ‘The Last Show’ by fans and band alike, equally for its triumphant high energy performance, its unique and expansive set list and locale.

Newly remixed and remastered, Live in Brooklyn 2011 is presented for the first time on 2xLP, 2Xcd, August 18, 2023.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The legendary Sonic Youth played an historic gig on the Williamsburg Waterfront overlooking the East River on August 12th 2011. It would prove to be their final U.S. show, and this double vinyl and double CD on Silver Current Records perfectly captures this raw and expansive 85 minute set.

Heavy on songs from their early years Sonic Youth powered through these tracks like a band full of teenage energy. The fact that this show was their U.S. swansong after around 30 years together makes this blistering set all the more remarkable.

Kicking off with the hypnotic “Brave Men Run (In My Family)”, before exploding into the sensational noise carnage of “Death Valley ‘69”. Sonic Youth continue to rip through the set with 80s classics; “Kotton Krown”, “Kill Yr. Idols”, “Eric’s Trip” and the awesome “Tom Violence” all dispatched with visceral vigour and punky power.

Interspersed with three tracks from their last album ‘The Eternal’ along with a brilliantly brutal “Sugar Kane” they finish off proceedings with an apocalyptic version of “Inhuman” complete with feedback and wailing guitars and then it’s all over with the line “… with the power of love anythin’ is possible”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Brave Men Run (In My Family)
2. Death Valley ’69
3. Kotton Krown
4. Kill Yr Idols
5. Eric’s Trip
6. Sacred Trickster
7. Calming The Snake
8. Starfield Rose
9. I Love Her All The Time
10. Ghost Bitch
11. Tom Violence
12. What We Know
13. Drunken Butterfly
14. Flower
15. Sugar Kane
16. Psychic Hearts
17. Inhuman

END OF YEAR BONUS DISC EDITION - BOTH FORMATS INCLUDE A 13 TRACK BONUS CD DISC 'A LIGHT AND A SCREAM'.

Third album from Allentown/PA three-piece Catatonic Suns: their self-released sophomore LP “Saudade” from early '22 was a feat of sonic guitar haze and grunged out pop.

The new album is a step forward in sound for the band, it sees them blend the underground psychedelia of the late 80s / early 90s Pacific Northwest with the shimmering shoegazery of Britain from the same time. Heavy and soft guitars, songs that soar, these new recordings verge on the epic.

For fans of Screaming Trees, Nirvana, The Verve (early), Loop, Slowdive, and Ride.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Catatonic Suns are a psychedelic three-piece hailing from Pennsylvania, USA. Having released a couple of low-key releases (the mini-album ‘Aphelion’ in 2019 and a full length ‘Suadade’ in 2022) they’ve completely blown our minds with their new self-titled album.

Featuring seven original tracks and a raucous amped-up Original Sins cover, ‘Catatonic Suns’ finds the band honing their sound to perfection. Pitched somewhere between the melodic grunge noise of Nirvana and the blissed-out shoegaze of Ride and Swervedriver, the Catatonic Suns have delivered an astonishing album.

From the psych drenched opener “Deadzone” through to the huge eight minute swirling space-rock of “No Stranger” the band have created an epic wall of sound. Tracks like “Failsafe” and “Be As One” showcase the band's melodic side (either of these wouldn’t be out of place on the Verve’s ‘A Storm In Heaven’) whilst “Fell Off” and the aforementioned Original Sins cover “Inside Out” sees lead singer / guitarist Patrick Shields practically shredding his own vocal chords. Throughout all of this the rhythm section of Caleb Strobl (drums) and Jakob Christman (bass) keep things tight allowing the swirling guitar maelstrom to ride off into the sun.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deadzone
2. Slack
3. Failsafe
4. Inside Out (Original Sins Cover)
5. Sublunary
6. Fell Off
7. Be As One
8. No Stranger

Theo Delaunay aka Panoptique aka Constance Chlore releases his first solo album on Macadam Mambo. Head of the Simple Music Experience label (dedicated to releasing punk experiments on tape), member of Violent Quand On Aime, Succhiamo, Simplists, Ono Omen and United Assholes, he had previously been part of the “Danzas Electricas” volumes 1 and 3, released a little single in 2019 and curated the “Simple Music Experience Vol.2” compilation. Panoptique sticks to what he knows best, to present his stories, singing spoken words, gogolitos deliriums, whispers and rough voices on minimal synth wave ballads or Drexciyanesque electro bangers. It’s scuzzy, DIY, maverick sometimes gritty sometimes groove. Special mention to his guest : Fiesta En El Vacio, for her ‘caliente’ featuring on “Menta Y Regaliz”.

Perfectly suited to the label’s ethos and a treasure for DIY electronix, minimal wave and electro-punk occultists! Check! 

TRACK LISTING

A1. La Colonie Penitentiaire
A2. Slippery
A3. Sable
A4. How Did You Find Me
A5. Menta Y Regaliz (Featuring Fiesta En El Vacio)
B1. Rice & Beans
B2. My Desire
B3. Sulpice
B4. Sub RDV
B5. Look At The Stars (Shoot A Drone, Man) 

Bristol DJ and producer NOTION releases his highly-anticipated project, ‘OUTSIDER’.

The 8-track project is a showcase of 18 months of hard work, self-reflection, doubt, anxiety, excitement and all the other things that go into a project like this.

Marking a new chapter in his creative output, ‘OUTSIDER’ is a reflection of NOTION’s evolution as an artist, spanning across bassline, UK Garage, drum and bass, jungle and more.

One of the most prominent names of the new generation UK club scene, NOTION is setting standards as an outsider in the landscape of bass music. In the last few years he has proved himself to be an independent, boundary-pushing artist of serious intent, not only through his approach to genre-blurring DJ sets and production, but through community spirited collaboration and systemdefying success.

Tapping into a sound he is quickly making his own, ‘OUTSIDER’ finds NOTION at his bold and brilliant best.

Following on from the huge success of four singles taken from the ‘OUTSIDER’ project, amassing five million streams and counting.

Available to independent retailers on 12” vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

FOUND LOVE (feat. Carrie Baxter)
CHERRY
1997
ON IT (feat. Snowy)
LIGHTS (feat. Charlotte X)
JACK & PLAY
CIRCLE (feat. Paige Eliza)
DANGER

“The letter X marks the spot, crosses over, literally with a cross. It’s the former, the ex-. The ex-lover known simply as “an ex”. Ex- is the latin prefix meaning “out”. Exterior, an exit. Extraordinary. Excellent. It’s exciting. Generation X. X-files. X is the unknown. X is Extreme“.

Extreme is Molly Nilsson’s tenth studio album. Recorded in 2019 and throughout the 2020 global pandemic at home in Berlin, Extreme is a departure for Nilsson, an explosion of angry love. It’s an album of anthems for the jilted generation, soaked with joy and offering solace, bristling with distorted, Metal guitars and planet-sized choruses that bring light to the dark centre of the galaxy. It’s an album of the times, by the times and for the people. It’s a record about power. About how to fight it, how to take it and how to share it.

Absolute Power explodes with massive guitars, double kick beats and the instantly iconic line “It’s me versus the black hole at the centre of the galaxy.” Nilsson’s performance itself portrays absolute power in its confidence but the song is a call-to-arms, an entreaty to grasp the here and now, to take the power back. It’s Nilsson pacing the ring and we’re instantly in her corner. Earth Girls takes familiar Molly Nilsson themes - female empowerment and subverting the patriarchy - but casually throws in one of the choruses of her career. “Women have no place in this world” she sings, but it’s the world that isn’t good enough. Stadium-sized but still warmly hazy, Earth Girls has its fists in the air, glorifying in harmony, almost ecstatic in its feeling good. Nilsson’s Springsteen-level conviction and righteousness bleeds through the speaker cones, the cognitive dissonance between the song’s cadences and angry lyrics redolent of Bruce in his prime. Female empowerment isn’t always an angry energy on Extreme, however. On Fearless Like A Child, Nilsson’s anthem to the female body and women’s sovereignty of it, she croons over a mid-80s blue-eyed Soul groove. It sets a nocturnal scene as the narrator surveys her past and her surroundings. Before we’re fully submerged in a dreamlike, Steve McQueen-era Prefab Sprout poem to learning from your mistakes the song erupts into one of those lines only Molly Nilsson can get away with: “I love my womb, come inside I feel so alive” she fervently sings. Against the backdrop of ever-encroaching, conservative rulings on women’s reproductive rights in places like Texas, it’s simultaneously angry and full of love.

Every song on Extreme is a gleaming gem in a pouch of jewels. On Kids Today, Nilsson is the voice of wisdom, archly commenting on the eternal struggle between youth and authority. Wisdom infuses Sweet Smell Of Success with a transcendent love that forgives the narrator’s shortcomings and celebrates the moment, it’s a letter to the author from the author that asks “what is success” and concludes that this is it, this song, this moment. It’s a rare moment of simple reflection that is generous in its insight to Nilsson’s inner life. “Success” is a tool of power and we don’t need it… We need power tools and there are moments on Extreme where it feels like Nilsson is showing us how to find them. It's an open conversation through out Extreme. She’s a warm, comforting presence through out the album and specially on these songs of encouragement, songs perhaps sang to a younger Molly Nilsson or, really, to whomever needs to hear them. “They’ll praise your efforts, they’ll call you slurs a rebel, a master, an amateur / Merely with your own existence, you already offer your resistance.” On Avoid Heaven she’s even more direct, pleading with us to avoid concepts of purity and to embrace the glorious, ebullient, emotional mess we’re often in as a method of upending the power structures who need things to be perfect.

They Will Pay brings back the big, distorted power chords in the form of a agit-punk, pop slammer. Of course, when Molly Nilsson does punk pop we get the catchiest chorus this side of The Bangles or The Nerves. It’s rendered in an off the cuff, throwaway manner that is just perfect in its roughness. However, it’s on Pompeii that Nilsson delivers the album’s epic, emotional heartbreaker. Like 1995 on Nilsson’s album Zenith, or Days Of Dust on Twenty Twenty, the lyrics of Pompeii are heavy with a transcendent sadness, an aching poetry that cuts to the truth of the heart like the best Leonard Cohen lines, though here delivered with an uplifting, life-affirming love. It contains the most personal moments of Extreme, a song lit by the dying embers of romance. Yet it’s here where the alchemy at the base of all Nilsson’s best work is found. Turning small nuggets of personal truth into big, generous universal moments that invite everyone to cry, to love and to fight the power. In an album of jewels, it might be the shining star.

Molly Nilsson’s biggest, boldest and most vital album to date, Extreme is about power. Against the love of power and for the power of love.

TRACK LISTING

1. Absolute Power
2. Earth Girls
3. Fearless Like A Child
4. Kids Today
5. Intermezzo
6. Sweet Smell Of Success
7. Obnoxiously Talented
8. Avoid Heaven
9. Take Me To Your Leader
10. They Will Pay
11. Pompeii

Rickard Jäverlings music can deservedly be described as playful and searching but for that sake not fumbling or too loose around the edges. On Album 4, the second album release from Jäverling on Höga Nord Rekords, he dwells more in dub than on his prior album release, and Jäverlings skillful songwriting is carried smoothly by the soft and fluffy production: the rhythm section sounds as if resting upon a sun warm bed of moss and elements flows in and out of the production like a freshly rippling stream of water deep in the summer forest. Echoes shoots through the pines, the hills and the valleys and makes the album a premium dub experience which dominates large parts of the album.

Aside the obvious references to nature that comes in mind listening to Jäverlings music, this album is more than a romantic view on the Swedish wilderness. It flirts, like all quality dub from the seventies and eighties with science fiction and space with broad synthesizer sweeps and delay drenched clouds like imploding and exploding stars somewhere in the outskirts of the Milky way, spreading dust over the Swedish forest. On the final three tracks, Ganjaman_72 takes the album out of the galaxy with spaced out-remixes on some of the songs.

With his feet steadily grounded in jamaican music tradition whit a non sentimental and curious view on production, Rickard Jäverling have together with Johan Holmegård (Dungen, Goran Kajfes), Andreas Söderström (ASS, Goran Kajfes) och Ganjaman_72 created the natural follow up to Album 3.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Set Piece
A2. Road Across World
A3. Rising Skies
A4. Bruised Banana
A5. I Won’t Get Your Love
B1. From Left To Right
B2. Radiation
B3. I Won’t Get Your Love
B4. From Left To Dub
B5. Radiation Dub

‘Firmamentum’ is the debut album from Gawd Status aka King Kashmere and Joker Starr. Fronted by lead singles “Heavy Metal” - which was premiered on Tom Ravenscroft (BBC 6Music) show - and “The Alchemist ft. Fae Simon”, the LP showcases Gawd Status’ versatility and eclecticism as an unconventional prodder/MC duo, delivering a killer and off-kilter record that lies in between the worlds of hip-hop, psychedelia and soul.

“Heavy Metal” is an experimental hip-hop meets psychedelic trip-hop listen that is boisterous, chaotic and marked by a profound sense of urgency. Exploring disparate but interwoven themes of Roman Catholic priests, Afrika Bambaataa, Braintax, the origins of humanity, Babylon and devilish behaviour - Joker Starr’s intention is to uplift and discomfit the listener; “heavy metal for the devil” he ominousness preaches in sinister and satanic voice. “Heavy Metal” closes with a psychedelic outro, that pays a closer tribute to the experimental pop of early Animal Collective than their UK hip-hop counterparts.

“The Alchemist ft. Fae Simon” pours hypnotic soul and genuine jazz vibes, reminiscent of the hey-day of trip-hop kings Massive Attack. Featuring as a guest vocalist, Fae Simon adds her darkly sensual melodies to track. Introduced initially to King Kashmere through fellow UK rapper Jehst (who Fae Simon collaborated with on “Timeless”), Fae’s smooth, effortless and instantly recognisable voice allures vocal valour. While DJ Jazz T guests showing off him turntablism skills, scratching sparsely with choice vocal clips below hip-hop rhythms. Featuring on the record, fellow UK MCs Micall Parksun and Big Cakes (who has collaborated with the Godfather of grime Wiley) team up on politicallycharged, Thabo Mbeki-inspired “I Am An African”. “Messiah Hybrids” showcases the duo delivering what they do best, a conscious straight-up hip-hop banger.

TRACK LISTING

Heavy Metal
Messiah Hybrid
I Am An African Ft Micall Parknsun & Big Cakes
Amplified Science Ft Anyway Tha God
The Alchemist Ft. Fae Simon / Admiral Byrd
Uranium
From Nibiru With Love

Another soundtrack from the IDIB camp, this time for Fien Troch's 'Home'. The first side features a number of feels-heavy synthy outings, kicking things off with 'Magazine'. Starting subtly enough with gently phasing guitar line, almost instantly augmented with an ethereal vocal, shimmering and echoing over the top, before launching into neon synths and snappy Linn drums, lending an aura of melacholic introspection, but remaining driven enough to keep things upbeat. 

'The Magician' goes a little further down the Italo wormhole with a throbbing single-note synth riff being joined by clattering reverbed percussion and swirling lead lines, keeping true to the upbeat neature of this first half, but expanding things into slightly more dancefloor territory before taking it back into ambient territory with free-roaming LFO'd oscillator swells and delayed melodic stabs. 

It's when we flip over that we see the other side of the record both literally and figuratively, with the Linn Drums being traded out for a twenty bag and a massive stack of oscillators, all working together into a crescentic drone, both beautiful and haunting. 'Home' is heavy on the pads, swirling and swelling into a heart-aching cacophony of tentative hope and brittle euphoria. 

And so it continues, 'Remorse' takes things a little more slowly, with infrequent bass drums and reticent mid-heavy synths taking centre-stage like the 9-minute intro to a Pink-Floyd outtake, brilliantly engrossing, and feeling decidedly more brief than it's four and a half minutes. 'Endless' is not in fact endless at all, but feels like it easily could be with the chilling introduction of some gloriously dusty Rhodes keys, lending melody and a perfect amount of forward motion into an otherwise completely laid-back backdrop. 

‘Tongue Tied’ is the sophomore album from Gemma Cullingford (Sink Ya Teeth). Written and produced from Gemma's humble home studio in Norfolk, ‘Tongue Tied’ blends many styles of electronica from 70's experimental and new wave, early 80's electro, acid house and techno to noughties electro clash, topped with her own vocal style to produce a unique and fresh sound. It explores relationships and the different emotions they can bring, from paranoia, yearning and helplessness to lust, shyness and just downright wanting to dance.

‘Tongue Tied’ is a progressive follow up to her debut ‘Let Me Speak’ which garnered support from the likes of Steve Lamacq, Amy Lame, Nemone, Chris Hawkins, Jamz Supernova, John Kennedy and James Endeacott, plus glowing reviews in Mojo, Uncut and Electronic Sound.

For the cover artwork on ‘Tongue Tied’, Gemma has collaborated with visual artist Kelda Storm who shares Gemma's love for bright, contrasting neon colours and minimal bold designs. She uses the iconography of feminine lips across her work as a symbol of speech and voice.

RIYL: Sink Ya Teeth, Lonelady, A Certain Ratio.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Accessory
2. Tongue Tied
3. Bass Face
4. Holding Dreams
5. Mechanical
Side B
6. New Day
7. No Fail
8. Chronicle Of Sound
9. Red Room
10. Daisy

White label edition, featuring Sampha, Syd Tha Kid and Obongjayar!

If you find the time, please come and stay a while in abracadabra’s beautiful neighbourhood; a magically wonky wonderland where strangers leave as friends to a block party soundtrack as eclectic as it is infectious. The California duo’s album ‘shapes & colors’ is a dazzling collage of psych-fuelled synthscapes and contemporary Baroque-pop of anti-capitalist movements and escapism, precisely pieced around their own working lives in a blue-collar town. In the heart of Oakland’s industrial Jingletown above a former auto-repair shop in what was once a mechanics’ break room where poker rounds ensued, Hannah Skelton (Vocals, Synthesizers) and Chris Niles, (Bass, Synthesizers) constructed the angular 80s-tinged anthems (think John Hughes montages to Talking Heads) of their new album, to positively offset the pandemic’s amplification of dysfunctional society. “It reflects our current reality: a huge mess that is systematically broken but isn’t entirely lost,” Hannah tells. “We’re inviting listeners to conjure up every drop of hope and willpower left inside them, pour that into the giant vat of anger and frustration bubbling inside us all, and with this potion collectively enact the necessary change to bring love and light into this dark space.”

When Covid forced Hannah from her salon in San Francisco to become a backyard mobile hairdresser, what she saw inspired them both and the lyrical foundations for their new record. “I’d drive to mansions and people would complain about how hard the pandemic had been next to their swimming pool and tennis courts.” First meeting after the album’s co-producer Jason Kick (Mild High Club, Sonny and the Sunsets) recruited the pair for a Halloween band covering Eurythmics’ art-rock debut ‘In The Garden,’ the pair hit it off and shapes & colors is a product of the years that followed. It combines Chris’ own rhythmic demos following years on the road touring and opening for Amon Tobin, Matthew Dear and Generationals in Maus Haus with Hannah’s lyrical musings honed from project Cassiopeia, so even when topics are as heavy as the beats, they’re met with luminously positive arrangements of hope and warmth.

The by-product of a psychedelic New Year’s Eve escaping a monotonous 2020 reality, the title track itself captures fireworks over East Oakland as viewed from the pair’s couch whilst listening to Mort Garson’s Plantasia for 6 hours straight. The daydream collage of ‘inyo county’ is “a little souvenir taking me back into the bottled-up essence of a slow lazy morning, waking up in bed far from home,” Hannah tells recalling those enforced stay-at-home days. “It fell out of me because I was craving that blissful flavour.” Meanwhile ‘dawn of the age of aquarius’s new parallel reality evolved from a happy accident when their demos had reset to a drone which Jason reworked into a Laurie Anderson-esque breathy vocoder effect. Even bloops and beeps from a forgotten recording session at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Emeryville can be heard, where the pair used Mini Moog, Fairlight EMI and ARP 2600 to arrange their sound into shapes whilst distortion and dirt from mixing on 1979 Neve 5313 Console added to the recordings’ color.

Casting a brighter rainbow still, in all its pastel-hued glory, Hannah, also illustrated a self-portrait of the band for the album artwork. “It reflects our makeshift recording studio to encapsulate all aspects of that time and space,” she shares of their abode where, over an intense two-week period and fuelled by the aroma of fermenting vino from the winery below, their single chord, bass and drum-heavy, groove-first momentum took them on an unexpected journey whilst the next-door couple would fire pizzas in their yard and a grandfather across the road would sweep the street clean. “We’d drink coffee and start the day, consistently working, without interruption,” Chris tells of finding their flow. “The loft is a cool space with skylights, tall ceilings and no shared walls so we could be as loud as we wanted to be.”

Just as well. Diving into decades of electronica and crunchy sound effects, field recordings and animal sounds, blended with an infectious Latin influence, shapes & colors is bolstered by live percussionists Greg Poneris (drums), K. Dylan Edrich (Vocals, Percussion: congas, bongos, chimes, cow bells and wood blocks, tone drum and tri-tone whistle) and Tom Smith (Guitar, Synthesizers, Vocals). It shimmies with the charismatic energy of ESG, Tom Tom Club, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and the dub hits of King Tubby, the melodic sensibilities of Prince, Stereolab, and idiosyncratic Deerhoof offering an ornate alternative to traditional guitar pop chord progressions as they layer wrecking ball-sized danceable motifs to rumble the dust off the cars on the street from the nearby concrete factory. “We take some big swings to create interesting moments,” Chris explains. NIMBY crews grab those earplugs now. abracadabra is your new noisy neighbour, and there’s no turning this party down.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Talk Talk
2. In A Photo
3. Telling Time
4. Swim
5. Inyo County
Side B
6. Don't Like U
7. Impactor
8. At The Zoo
9. Shapes & Colors
10. Dawn Of The Age Of Aquarius

A stunning cover version of Errol Dunkley’s ‘Movie Star’ originally released on Brooklyn label Witty in 1987. Produced by Paul Beecher, the 707 drums are phat & crisp and the keys shine brightly in the mix to complement the incredibly soulful vocal from Melody Beecher. Backed with Dub Version and an extended 12” mix, housed in a sky blue and red IOJ Island Disco sleeve with sticker designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

STAFF COMMENTS

Paul says: Another cover from Beecher! I've been seriously digging her versions of these 80s hits. "Movie Star" is a true classic - but it works so well as a reggae-rub-down!

TRACK LISTING

Movie Star
Movie Star (Dub)
Movie Star (Extended 12" Mix)

“It was so great to see what came back when I gave these tracks from Flicker to various comrades, friends and heroes to play with,” says Andy. “They’ve given them a new technicolour life.” “David Holmes requested the opening track as he had formed a bit of a connection with it, and what he came up with turns the song into an hallucinogenic beast, taking pride of place here as the opening track but in a whole different way to how Flicker opens. “James Chapman AKA Maps has taken ‘It Gets Easier’ to a bigger, brighter and shinier place, he’s given quite a downbeat track a euphoric and epic sheen. James is an absolute master of electronic production and he’s taken the same care and attention over this remix as he does with his own wonderful music. “I couldn’t put Richard Norris’ lovely widescreen take on ‘Something Like Love’ better than the man himself – in his own words he found the ‘hitherto undiscovered sweet spot between ‘Roscoe’ and ‘Outdoor Miner’’ and he tapped into the melancholy euphoria at the core of the song. “bdrmm’s remix of ‘Way Of The World’ is one for headphones. There are so many great moments to love, all held together by a bassline worthy of Jah Wobble (by way of Andrew Weatherall). Astonishing!”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'I am a Strange Loop' is the first in the trio of Andy Bell recordings this week, seeing the hugely talented Ride legend Andy Bell reworked by a number of today's most renowned musicians. This time we get ambient legend Richard Norris as well as the brilliant bdrmm, Maps and David Holmes. Ace

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Sky Without You (David Holmes Radical Mycology Remix)
A2. It Gets Easier (Maps Remix)
B1. Something Like Love (Richard Norris Remix)
B2. Way Of The World (bdrmm Remix)

The two tracks from Andy Bell’s debut solo single reworked by Pye Corner Audio, with the original tracks remastered by Heba Kadry.

TRACK LISTING

1.The Commune (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
2.Plastic Bag (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
3.The Commune
4.Plastic Bag

Stripped down versions of tracks from Flicker. “On my debut solo album The View From Halfway Down I did all of my promotion via Zoom and pre-recorded interviews and acoustic sessions,” explains Andy of the EP. “I enjoyed making the acoustic versions and decided to do some more for this album.” “‘Something Like Love’ is the most popular song from Flicker and one of the oldest, starting life in the ’90s. It’s probably the only one that dates back to the Ride era.“The riffs for ‘World Of Echo’ were written while I was on tour with Oasis, at the height of my La’s obsession. It went through a few iterations from then onwards, but never had a final melody until last year.“’She Calls The Tune’ was the first song I wrote after I joined Oasis, ending a period of writers’ block which I had started going through some time in 1999. The very first performance of it was to an audience of Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer and Richard Ashcroft in a Milan hotel room. No pressure! I don’t think I ever saw this as an Oasis song, but I have them to thank for the fact that I was able to write songs again at all.” ‘Lifeline’ was another riff I came up with while on tour with Oasis. I remember being on a UK tour with Shack, and sitting around backstage on acoustics with Mick and John Head jamming around the Simon & Garfunkel version of ‘Scarborough Fair’. The riff for ‘Lifeline’ followed soon after. It was always called ‘Lifeline’ but I never found the right lyric for it until recently.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Grounding Process has some of the lesser well known (but equally superb) pieces in the Andy Bell canon, being written while on the road and in various cities around the world. Another lovely addition to the discography.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Something Like Love
A2. World Of Echo
B1. She Calls The Tune
B2. Lifeline

Songs that inspired Flicker by Yoko Ono, Pentangle, The Kinks and Arthur Russell. “The idea was that I would be covering songs which helped in some way to colour in the edges of the picture of the influences that make up Flicker,” explains Andy.“The song ‘Jenny Holzer B. Goode’ on the album refers to a few of the female artists from the music and art worlds who I find inspiring, including Yoko Ono, so it felt right to include a cover of ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling’, my favourite Yoko Ono song. “Pentangle’s ‘Light Flight’ came out in 1970, the year I was born, and I’ve loved it ever since I heard it on the 1997 folk compilation Transatlantic Ticket. “Nat Cramp, the head honcho of Sonic Cathedral, requested that I cover ‘The Way Love Used To Be’. I’d never heard this song despite being a big fan of The Kinks, but it’s lovely and it felt very natural to do a version of. All hail Ray Davies! “Arthur Russell has been a big reference point for all my music away from ‘band world’. There is something impressionistic and open-ended about his records. I guess you could describe the production style I’m trying for on ‘Our Last Night Together’ as ‘World Of Echo meets This Mortal Coil doing Skip Spence’.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely bunch of covers here seeing the light of day from the ever-talented Andy Bell. Yoko Ono gets the cover treatment as well as Pentangle's brilliant 'Light Flight'

TRACK LISTING

A1. Listen, The Snow Is Falling
A2. Light Flight
B1. The Way Love Used To Be
B2. Our Last Night Together

Hailing from Liege in Belgium, David Body has been put on our radar with releases on the fine Endless Music, but this EP for Exploited’s cult collected Black Jukebox series is truly next level house music!

Timed perfectly for that sweet Summer release, "I Bird You" is a seriously charming affair, led by a colourful, sugary-sweet refrain that twinkles and sparkles in cute fashion. A warm deep house groove crafted through swirling Rhodes chords builds the vibe before the flowery melody explodes into life, pushing the track into an altogether more magical direction. Playing this at one of the first festivals of Summer 2022 could be a truly spiritual occassion! There's 'nuff tension from the last two years to warrent a full-on maximum love in; and tracks like this could be the perfect catalyst!

"Jack Me Baby" channels rubbery bass and a galloping house beat, with minor piano chords creating a dramatic feel as a classic vocal sample whoops away in delight. The enormous snare-roll propelled build-up thrusts the track into overdrive, with a delightful, balmy synth line woven in to provide a mystical counterbalance. Another hand-aloft rush of euphoria to sound track the party season. 

"The Talking Mouettes" is a supremely feel-good slab of Balearic-tinged peak time house, with choice piano chords cut up and cascading over a high-energy groove. Big squelchy melodic bass wiggles under the chords and shoulder-popping chime riff, with plenty of power and punch scattered throughout to keep the vibes rolling. Cleverly warped vox the icing on this sweet slice of sonic cake.  

"Endless Love" is an absolute monster to close the EP, a soaring, triumphant electro-disco beauty that overflows with euphoric melody and ecstatic, eyes-closed-and-rolling tingles. It just keeps building and building through layer upon layer of synth mastery to an explosive, epic climax.

Shir Khan's series has always been a big hitter here at Picc HQ but this is one of the biggest 12"s from the firm for some time. Get them orders in quick! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: It's been an eternity since Shir Khan's had us cantering around the shop. It's with huge delight that I can state, with authority, that David Body's launched us into the party season with this collection of open air festival house anthems.

TRACK LISTING

A1. David Body - I Bird You
A2. David Body - Jack Me Baby
B1. David Body - The Talking Mouettes
B2. David Body - Endless Love

Alongside a killer long player from label mainstay Lexx, Phantom Island treat us to a new solo effort by Zurich based Drummer and Multi Instrumentalist Domi Chansorn. He is best known for playing in and producing numerous Swiss bands like Fai Baba or Evelinn Trouble. Everything you hear was written, played, sung, arranged, produced, recorded and mixed by Domi Chansorn. With "Strawberry Moon" he has created a timeless psychedelic Pop-Opus which takes the listener on a trip to another sphere. The aforementioned Lexx pops up on remix duties, dropping a typically Balearic mix combining dub swelter, open hearted melodies and an irresistible day time disco groove.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Strawberry Moon
B1. Strawberry Moon (Instrumental)
B2. Strawberry Moon (Version By Lexx) 

Formed in Reading in 1987, Chapterhouse took the unusual step of rehearsing and gigging for well over a year before recording even a demotape. Initially, the band got lumped in with the British acid rock scene of the time, a mistake hardly rectified by the band's early performances supporting the rather laidback Spacemen 3. Chapterhouse eventually escaped from one genre only to find themselves amongst the infamous shoegaze groups of 1991 such as Lush, Moose and Slowdive.

Freefall was their 1990 debut EP and includes the popular track “Falling Down”, which was also included in their debut full-length album Whirlpool. The other three tracks, “Need (Somebody)”, “Inside Of Me” and “Sixteen Years”, were never included on their albums on vinyl and only appeared on this EP.

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling Down
2. Need (Somebody)
3. Inside Of Me
4. Sixteen Years

New York City four-piece c*mgirl8 (aka cg8) announce their debut 4AD EP 'Phantasea Pharm'. Made up of Lida Fox (bass), Veronika Vilim (guitar), Chase Lombardo (drums) and Avishag Rodrigues (guitar), phantasea pharm was born out of an obsession with Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Old McDonald’ ahead of a show in Charlottesville, Virginia. The band decided to pay homage. Vilim dressed up in a cow leotard with pig accessories, Lombardo in a g-string and apron that read ‘The Grillfather,’ Rodrigues became a lawn mower, and Fox took on the role of a sexy rooster. “We went on stage that night and told everyone we were a ‘Fantasy Farm.’” They knew then that would become the basis of their new EP.

Last month’s single ‘cicciolina’ was a perfect introduction, a tribute to the Hungarian-Italian pornstar turned politician Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina. The new single ‘gothgirl1’ opens another chapter. Written with Nick Launay (Kate Bush, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Slits), during the band’s stay at Barbizon, “a magical artist hotel nestled on the edge of a mushroom forest,” the result is a four-minute cut of hypnotizing eroticism that perfectly captures the dark mysticism of its genesis.

phantasea pharm follows last year’s standalone single ‘dumb bitch’ and EP’s c*mgirl8 (2020) and RIPc*mgirl8 (2021), and arrives in the midst of their headlining EU/UK tour and festival run that has seen them play Primavera, The Great Escape, London Calling, and more. c*mgirl8 will then make their return to UK later this Summer joining the line-up for Greenman and Core Festival after having opened for Le Tigre in North America.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cicciolina
2. Dead Pixels
3. Cursed Angel
4. Picture Party Ft. Christeene
5. Gothgirl1
6. Pritney Llc

Hit-writing anti-icons, Das Koolies emerge to explode three decades of digression as Super Furry Animals with their electronic depth-charge debut EP: The Condemned. Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce restore original Furry vision with techno-inspired, heavy-tech sound inspired by illegal rave roots.

A past fades out for a future to begin as the long-running, secretive DAS KOOLIES ‘dream project’’, emanating from Cardiff’s post-industrial docklands, delivers its first consignment of complex, wired euphoria: The Condemned. Chains of decayed connection and shackles of genre-expectation are audibly broken as Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce re-route their paths as notorious scientists of sound, taking the outside lane to arrive close to where it all began for Super Furry Animals.

Soldering human touch to synths and samplers, Das Koolies come through on their manifesto pledge of incinerating acoustic guitars while unsafely loading as much noise- making machinery onto their studio mains supply as possible. The Condemned, a confrontational, synth-driven outsider anti-anthem comes through as a warm-blood-on-cold- steel rope act of strict automation and humanity, commanding computers and code to find compromise with Ieuan and Bunford’s vocals.

All tracks from the forthcoming EP were produced by Das Koolies and mixed in collaboration with Chris Shaw (Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC). In a brief statement, Das Koolies say: “Everything for a reason and a reason for everything. A beginning catalysed by the past. Of machines and of man. Let the beat now lead the way.”

TRACK LISTING

01. The Condemned
02. Dim Byd Mawr
03. You Killed My Robot
04. Grab A Slice

Some bands struggle to transcend their initial mythos, those stories that introduce them to the public eye. But The Dead C is a notable exception. They appeared in 1986 under a cloud of mystery, their unconventional location (South Island, New Zealand) helping to fuel their erratic sound. Name-dropped through the nineties by groups like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, they gained influence and acclaim but never strayed from their original mainlined performing technique, which can sound like chaos to the casual listener.

What kind of a world greets them and their new album Unknowns in 2020? New Zealand culture is better known throughout the world, not to mention a low-virus paradise. Yes, isolated as in the past, but this time for being a nation of efficacy in tackling a public health crisis. But what about the rest of the world? The music of Mssrs. Robbie Yates, Bruce Russell and Michael Morley endures, partially because their errant sounds, once so alienating, now feel like they’ve been made flesh in a large part of the modern day world.

Continuing to delve inwards for inspiration with tin ears towards trends, styles and technique, The Dead C forge onward. Unpolished, dusty and gritty, these three have again taken two guitars and drums, a combo which has less to say than ever, and leave the listener stunned. Unknowns has Morley slurring over spiraling dissemblance, with tracks ricocheting from intense to assaultive to drained, yet consistently magnificent. As reliable as ever, The Dead C are firmly grounded as an unassailable Truth.

TRACK LISTING

1. Grunt Machine
2. Still
3. The Sky Above
4. Glitterness
5. The Field

Exit North are: Japan co-founder, solo artist Steve Jansen, Swedish singer songwriter Thomas Feiner, pianist Ulf Jansson, and renowned Swedish producer/multi-instrumentalist Charlie Storm. Their 2nd studio album ‘Anyway, Still’ continues the quartet’s appetite for exploring provocative song structures. Weaving classic elements such as piano and strings into the layered threads of the bands material. Where intimacy and atmospherics give way to powerful dynamics, animated rhythms and grooves, driving distortions and crescendos in cinematic scale. Like excavators with uncompromising autonomy, Exit North relish the exploration of every nuance and detail of the recorded performance. Artwork contains full lyrics. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There aren't many composers more qualified to compose dynamic, surprising electronic music than the great Steve Jansen of Japan, and this project sees him team up with Thomas Feiner and Charlie storm for a touching and airy suite of rich modern-classical topped with Feiner's soft but imposing vocal talents. Reminiscent of Michael Gira's vocals atop a more restrained, brittle background hum.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Only Believe In Untold Stories
2. Your Story Mine
3. The Unforeseen
4. Where The Coin Fell
5. Bled Out
6. Us In Half
7. A Battle Cried
8. With All The Indifference
9. In The Game
10. The Signal

There’s something mesmerising about the fingertips of Dana Gavanski. Conducting each note with a light gracefulness, they appear to dance whilst aiding their owner in expressing the stories behind each of her lighter-than-air tones. Stories which, on her new album When It Comes, may never have been heard if not for healing ‘lost’ vocal cords and a lesson in taking the rough with the smooth.

“In many ways this record feels like it is my first,” Dana tells. “When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional trajectory than before… it’s very connected to vocal presence, which extended into an existential questioning of my connection to music. It felt like a battle at times, which I frequently lost.”

Arriving where introversion and extroversion meet, When It Comes is Dana’s most vulnerable record to date. A Canadian-Serbian artist unafraid of extremes, she seamlessly blends her love of music from the 50s-70s with mythology. Led by instinct in its purest form, Dana’s latest chapter is an ode to the voice as an instrument – its power, and how intricately it can deliver words to tug at, and tie knots in, every heartstring. “Words can be taken quite literally, but to me, a lot of the time, they are pivots. They point in a direction but don’t necessarily stay there,” she says.

Just as Dana’s debut Yesterday Is Gone and her covers EP Wind Songs were lauded for their intimacy captured through an innate sense of melody to convey a mood, they traced a timeline of Dana’s teenage years in Vancouver, a move to Montreal and visiting family homes for kitchen talks with her “Baka” (grandma) in Belgrade / Serbia. Her latest was started in Montreal before ending in Belgrade and whilst expressive with French Yé-yé flourishes – offers something altogether more atmospheric and widescreen.

“Yesterday Is Gone consisted of straightforward pop songs, this album is about searching for something to excite me back into songwriting,” Dana reveals. “It’s about finding the origins of my connection to music, that tenuous but stubborn and strong link - why it draws me and what if anything, I can learn from it. The album title has a heaviness to it but also a lightness, depending on your frame of mind. It’s about being open, and letting it come whatever it is, without judgement.”

Recorded in London, the original ideas for the record were played out on Dana’s toy Casiotone. Returning to Capitol K’s Total Refreshment Centre (TRC) with partner James Howard, the pair co-produced the songs together and felt very much at home. “James has an effortless musicality and we work together so well. The TRC is a special place, like a community centre,” she recalls. “It’s very understated but important to the people who come through it. It’s a rehearsal space, a recording studio, and there are a handful of music studios.”

Opening with music box sweetness, ‘I Kiss The Night’s twinkling piano melody paves the way for the baroque Wurlitzer-like nursery rhyme of ‘Bend & Fall’ and mystical lullaby ‘Under The Sky.’ Alongside humour and caricature (‘The Reaper’), mythological romance and spirituality (‘Knowing to Trust’) and idiosyncratic carnival arpeggio grooves (‘Indigo Highway’), the squelchy staccato and subtle jazzy flecks of ‘The Day Unfolds’ and tension release of ‘Letting Go’ dazzle like bokeh in a Nick Drake haze. The autumnal hymnal of ‘Lisa’ meanwhile, was one of the first, more fictional tracks written for the record, from the viewpoint of the sea, watching the protagonist pass by day after day, offering a metaphorical reflection on the natural world around us. “We don’t realize we are surrounded by all this beauty; we’re shut up inside, rushing to get to work, buying books online without ever leaving home. It’s about focus, recognising what’s in front of you.”

Now planning her headline tour with an expanded 5-piece line-up and taking to the stage for the first time since touring with Porridge Radio, Damian Jurado and Chris Cohen, Dana is currently perfecting her live performance by practising a voice ever more elaborate, and perfecting those subtle hand gestures to match. “I’m so inspired by David Bowie’s performances and discovered he practised mime with Lindsay Kemp early on in his career,” she says of seeking inspiration. “I’ve done some mime classes since and it’s become good practice to go deeper into the body and be less controlled by the humility of the mind.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There are echoes here, without a doubt of Cyrk era Cate Le Bon, in Gavanski's swooning vocal style and keen melodic ear. There are moments of brittle, thoughtful vulnerability and unease but the general, overwhelming sense is of a warm and familiar wonder. Evocative and satisfying, 'When It Comes' is a beauty.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kiss The Night
2. Bend Away And Fall
3. Letting Go
4. Under The Sky
5. The Day Unfolds
6. Indigo Highway
7. Lisa
8. The Reaper
9. Knowing To Trust

Experimental North London alt-pop outfit Gengahr return with their anticipated new album, Red Sun Titans, produced and mixed by Matt Glasbey.

Comprising of bassist Hugh Schulte, drummer Danny Ward, lead vocals/guitarist Felix Bushe and guitarist John Victor, Gengahr first arrived in 2015 with their debut album, A Dream Outside, gathering rave reviews for its dark take on dreamy shoegaze and updated approach to British-bred indie rock.

The band promoted the record on a nationwide and European tour before getting to work on their sophomore effort Where Wilderness Grows (2017), praised by the likes of DIY and The Line of Best Fit. They returned in 2020 for their third LP, Sanctuary, capturing the magic from their debut and featuring hits ‘Heavenly Maybe’ and ‘Icarus’.

'Red Sun Titans' is Gengahr at their finest – a bold collection of indie pop that sees the beloved UK outfit continue to push the boundaries. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Well isn't this just lovely? Gengahr are back with another collection a sun-kissed indie alt-pop that channels the likes of Wild Beasts and Bombay Bicycle Club. My 18 year old indie kid self would have LAPPED this up and, to be honest, my haggard 27 year old self can't resist it either - check it!

TRACK LISTING

1. Alkali
2. Red Sun Titans
3. From Beruit (Interlude)
4. A Ladder
5. In The Moment
6. Heels To The Moon
7. Floating In The Undercurrent (Interlude)
8. White Lightning
9. Suburbia
10. In My Way
11. The Interview
12. Haunted Spaces (Interlude)
13. Napoleon
14. Collapse

Rock Action Records are pleased to present Gentle Sinners, a project by James Graham of The Twilight Sad and....ta dah! Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap! "These Actions Cannot Be Undone" is the brilliant album from two pals who wanted to try something different musically. The outcome being an epic explorative set of songs that stands quite apart from their esteemed work with Arab Strap and The Twilight Sad.

TRACK LISTING

1 Waiting For Nothing
2 Killing This Time
3 Let Them Rot Feat. AKG
4 The Cries
5 Date & Sign
1 Rent Free
2 Shores Of Anhedonia
3 Face To Fire (After Nyman)
4 Don't Say Goodnight
5 Landfill

Peter Alexander Jobson: Musician, Composer, Performer. Ex member of Mercury nominated I Am Kloot. On occasion guitar player for Guy Garvey. On occasion bass player for Nadine Shah.

Ahead of the release of his debut album in 2022, adopted Mancunian Peter Alexander Jobson brings us this rather wonderful four track EP.

"I have been writing and recording my debut album for 50 years. It is now complete."

“When men do great things everyone knows it takes them a very long time”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Imagine the plaintive beauty of Bill Fay, but with a wicked sense of humour. Or Richard Hawley's classicist vibes but topped with a barstool storyteller. Then you'll get some idea of the sound of PAJ. There's a real poise and deep sense of bruised beauty on display here. It's magnificent.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Holiday (Live)
2. Just ‘Cause I'm Dead
3. Please Please Please

Side B
1. Kesta

With March 2023's 7" ‘Theme New Bond Junior’/‘Hopper On The Dial’ reaching No.1 in the UK Vinyl Single Chart, and April 2023's BBC/KEXP supported ‘Trauma Mosaic’ single announcing a debut fifteen date US/CA Tour for October 2023. JOHN consolidate their reputation as a truly uncompromising force with the announcement of their fourth full length A Life Diagrammatic.

The album – which features collaborations with award-winning actor Simon Pegg, and Barry Adamson (formerly of The Bad Seeds and seminal post-punk act Magazine) – is released via Brace Yourself Records & Pets Care Records, and is the follow-up to 2021’s Nocturnal Manoeuvres LP which crashed the top 75 of the main UK album chart.

“Limitations are key for us,” says drummer and vocalist John Newton. “I never view being a two-piece as a minus - it’s a key idiosyncratic element of what the project is.”

For the last decade, and now over four albums, the duo of Newton and Johnny Healey have constantly redefined and expanded the role, function and parameters of what a guitar and drum two-piece can be. No more so is this apparent than on their latest A Life Diagrammatic, a record that harnesses the punch and intensity of their blistering live shows with the band’s increasingly textural, cinematic and expressive sensibilities. “We knew the direction we wanted to go in after the last record,” Healey says of Nocturnal Manoeuvres. “We had started moving towards soundscapes rather than straight-up noise and four to the floor structure.”

The level of thought, ambition and scope is what makes JOHN such a captivating and genre-defying band, and A Life Diagrammatic such a rich and evocative listening experience. And the album artwork is perhaps a perfect metaphor for the band itself: a surface level glance may only reveal the basic function of an ostensible two-piece rock band but undertake a full service and you’ll discover a wealth of complexity, technicality, skill and function. Or quite simply, as Healey himself says, “we're not just a rock band. There's more to it than that.”

Seth Manchester (Big Brave, Battles, METZ) was brought in to mix the album, with Frank Arkwright (Mogwai, Arab Strap, Squarepusher, Autechre) mastering it at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. The aim being to merge the powerful live presence of the band whilst also honing in on some of the more varied dynamics at play. “We wanted to further explore the space and ambience of our instrumentation,” says Newton. “To offer an album that deliberately pushes and pulls in a multitude of directions throughout its duration.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: On their fourth album John continue to evolve their sound, adding more experimentation to their driving guitar and drums onslaught. As with previous releases, the taut guitar riffs create a tension throughout the album as it sweeps between brooding atmospherics and explosive outbursts, but there’s a more nuanced, cinematic feel this time around. This is typified on “Media Res” which features a strange, slightly unnerving monologue from Simon Pegg - a distorted conversation that you only hear one side of. Typical of the whole album there’s an ambiguity to the narrative that sucks you in and forces you to listen. There’s no snappy sloganeering here, the lyrical depth is integral to the sound as a whole, it’s an album that demands your attention. Still not convinced? Then surely a nod of approval, in the shape of a collaboration on “Riddley Scott Walker”, from the king of cinematic noir, Barry Adamson, should surely seal the deal.

TRACK LISTING

1. At Peacehaven
2. Media Res
3. Côte D’Adur
4. A Submersible
5. A Whole House
6. Service Stationed
7. Construction Site/Summer_22
8. Trauma Mosaic
9. Riddley Scott Walker
10. The Common Cold

The Gabe Knox side collects a trio of hard-to-find rarities and ‘lost’ gems; kicking off with “Student Disco ‘81”, previously available on a limited Record Store Day 7”, it’s a sickly-sweet Krautrock inflected synthpop confection, with just enough bite to fill the dancefloors of a bygone era. The other two cuts, fan favourite “Carbon Bubble” and the ultra-rare “Cosmic Debris”, which amply showcases Knox’s more expansive, experimental-but-still-melodic side, made available for the first time on vinyl.

On the flip, Mat Handley’s Pulsliebhaber project was an exercise in super-fast recording with as little computer use as possible (for sequencing or processing). Although, as Mat explains : 

“my keyboard playing skills are rudimentary (at best), first takes were used just about every time. Each of my seven tracks were written and recorded in a single session with not one of them taking more than a couple of hours to finish, some of them significantly less than 60 minutes. I think the original intention was to record a bunch of tracks and revisit them later, but after sending them to Dom PY it was agreed to release them as they are with just a little sheen provided by Jez Butler’s mastering.

So yes, some of the timings are shaky with the odd bum note here and there, but the process was very refreshing especially after spending five years each on the first two Pulselovers albums. Drums were all provided by Volca Beats and the Volca Kick (with maybe one appearance of the Drum Brute). Synths used were the MFB Dominion X, the Korg MS20 Mini and my trusty old Bass Station 2. Everything was fed through a variety of noisy guitar pedals and recorded either onto tape or directly into Audition, whilst titles were all selected from a half hour spent down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and mean absolutely nothing. Thanks go to Gabe for agreeing to share this piece of plastic with me, to Jez for making my synth noodles (almost) presentable and especially to Dom for his enthusiasm and for giving us all Polytechnic Youth”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Two of my favourites here, with Gabe Knox filling his side with typically gorgeous motorik synth fare, while the affable and talented Handley modestly describes his side as quickly pieced together, but the result is both brilliantly evocative and entirely at odds with the rushed creation. A talented duo on another beautiful piece of PY wax.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gabe Knox - Student Disco 81 / Carbon Bubble 10:23
2. Gabe Knox - Cosmic Debris 10:04
3. Pulsliebhaber - Catching Buckets 02:27
4. Pulsliebhaber - Synthetic Aperture Radar 02:55
5. Pulsliebhaber - Domestic Fission 02:49
6. Pulsliebhaber - NDT Bomb 02:28
7. Pulsliebhaber - FFWD>> 03:20
8. Pulsliebhaber - Transient Emotion 03:04
9. Pulsliebhaber - Underground Architect

Scottish five-piece band Marouli, led by musician and composer Graham McCusker unveil their debut album "Tall Tales From A Distant Uncle". A determined and heart felt record, it was recorded after McCusker successful beat lukemia and, with a unique and quirky turn, pays homage to Billy Connolly's storytelling tradition. 

It features Alex Hill on keys, saxophonist Josh Poole (Bill Laurance, The Beautiful South), bass player Nick Waldock and former drummer Xavier Winton (G4). The band, which now features Matt Brown on drums, has a sound that is inspired by jazz and pop artists like Steely Dan and Gregory Porter, as well as those from Graham’s classical roots, like J.S. Bach. It has a vintage sound which is hard to date, like a good tweed jacket. McCusker's vocal shines through like beautifully polished oak, rich and syrupy; whilst the muscians involved are deceptively locked into each others groove; natural yet complex arrangements flowing from the backline like luxurious carpet. There's a warmth like a good camp fire or freshly baked bread that's hard to articulate but instantly felt throughout the duration of the LP. Drawing elements from blues, rock and throwback pop "Tall Tales From A Distant Uncle" creates a cinematic sound that is classic yet fresh.

Songwriter Graham and keyboard player Alex Hill met when they were students in 2018 and with the addition of three college friends, the lineup was complete and Marouli was born. The album was recorded at Angelic Studios near Banbury and at Hope Mill Studios in Manchester. Artwork is by Paul Hemmingfield.


*** ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY plus special guests:

Friday 28th October - The Eagle Inn - 7:30pm. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: McCusker's tales sink deep into the psyche; a collection of songs that reflect the overcoming of adversity that the band leader has endured. It's a triumph - unshakingly sincere, with skilled and sophisticated song writing and arrangements that feel warm, friendly and inviting. One of those albums that feels like a long lost friend returning time and time again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Let Her Go
2. Shane
3. Thoughts On A Thursday
4. Where Do They Go
5. I'll Keep On Running
6. When You're Afraid
7. The Boy With The Stone In His Shoe
8. Fumblin'
9. Strange But True
10. Can't I Dream?

Following on from 2020's debut album 'Are You Happy Now?', Manchester's Nile Marr returns with Self Care, the first track off his sophomore LP 'Lonely Hearts Killers'.

"I wanted to this one to feel different to my previous album. Songs came out quickerand I mostly recorded it at night in the Mill, I just tried to go with the late night vibe" says Marr.

"I got back into listening to all the bands that made me want to write songs in the first place, like the Lilys and Neil Finn. I guess the whole album was trying to focus on song writing, and because I couldn’t play live during lockdown, I focussed more on song writing rather than ‘I know this works at our live shows', so I feel like this one differs in every wayfrom my previous album".

For fans of Broken Social Scene, Big Star and Elliott Smith

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Nile Marr is back! This time sees him partially eschew the soaring britpop indebted groove of 2020's 'Are You Happy Now?' in favour of a more distinguished and broad palette of sounds, veering towards west-coast sunshine pop and jangling, grand stadium rock.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Lonely Hearts Killers
A2 The Rush
A3 Self Care
A4 You Pull Me In
A5 Birdsong
B1 Eyes Like Deer
B2 Skin
B3 Late Night Champion
B4 Two Words
B5 The Easiest Game
B6 Run The Last Mile

Growing Bin switches back into reissue mode with an off-kilter obscurity from Austrian eccentrics Molto Brutto. Equal parts amateur funk, indie jangle, art rock and idiot pop, "2" is a real weird bastard with a whole lot of charm. As the Bin continues to grow in all directions, there's plenty of space for new sounds to take root. Alongside patches of Ambient, Balearic, Kosmische and Jazz, Hamburg's audio allotment now stretches to accommodate the strange waves of Molto Brutto.

Basso dug their first LP a decade back in Stuttgart's Second Hand Records, embracing their abrasive style of sandpaper sonics and experimental urges. Interest piqued, he made the journey through their DIY catalogue, capturing excellent collaborations under the Ganslinger alias before bumping into the second of their two LPs. Originally released on their Golfdish imprint in 1988, "2" walks into the pub with an air of accessibility, but quickly unravels into glorious chaos - pissing in the corner and passing out on the bar. Pop structures are suggested then subverted.

Pints of Paisley slosh out of a broken Glass, tape loops spool onto shabby Material, and indie janglers are just a couple of stamps short of a Postcard.

Turning you tipsy, this loveable rogue starts to tell you his life story, but you're going to have to fill in some blanks. They miss 'Blackie', but who is he - a dog? What happened on the 'Deadly Vacation'? Is that song really about a 'Goldfish', or did they find out the name of America's horse? Words repeat until they lose all meaning, awkward poetry masks a lost laureate and a drunken Wurlitzer sends the room into a spin.

The pubs are shut, so get happy drunk with Molto Brutto.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Growing Bin throw a fuzzed out curveball at the Balearic crowd here with a reissue of this Austrian post punk / DIY pop rarity from Molto Brutto. Coming out the gates with cold wave curios, nutso synth-funk, C86 style jangle, this is one weird bastard - and I love it!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Chant
A2. Sadman
A3. Blacky
A4. Deadly Vacation
A5. Smalltalk
B1. Time
B2. Secret Life
B3. No Monkey No Work
B4. Go Ahead Goldfish
B5. Psychobilly

The Orielles on The Goyt Method: Our concept for The Goyt Method was birthed from our interest in cybernetics, improvisation and experimental electronic music. We wanted to zoom out of ‘Tableau’ (the band’s third album released in 2022) and disconnect all the pieces, rearranging them in new ways to create variations of songs, which encapsulate the whole record. We left this part of the process completely down to chance, adopting an online roulette wheel to choose our stems. This way of creating music was familiar to us from spending a lot of time remixing and record collecting, gaining an invested interest in deep listening and avant-garde electronic music.

The name itself comes from the initial location in which we remixed with Joel Patchett, a wintery and freezing cold Goyt Mill. From here, we coined the term ‘Goytism’ or ‘to Goyt’ which was basically our way of describing the process of repurposing and resampling acoustic sounds through digital production, making them unrecognisable from their original source.

The photograph on the sleeve was taken in winter 2020, our first visit to the Mill studio, our first Goyt session. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Tableau 001
2. Tableau 002
3. Improvisation 002
Side B:
1. Tableau 003
2. Tableau 004 

A pop record for tired times. Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap. At long last, verse / chorus. A weathered thesaurus. This is OSEES bookend sound. Early grade garage pop meets protosynth punk suicide-repellant. Have a whack at the grass or listen while flat on your ass. Heaps of electronic whirling accelerants to gum up your cheapskate broadband. Social media toilet scrapers unite! Allow your 24-hour news cycle eyes to squint at this smiling abattoir doorman. You can find your place here at long last. All are welcome from the get go to the finale…a distant crackling transmission of 80s synth last-dance-of-the-night tune for your lost loves. Suffering from Politic amnesia? Bored of AI-generated pop slop? Then this one is for you, our friends. Wasteland wanderer, stick around. Love y’all. For fans of Teutonic synth punk and Thee Oh Sees (who the fuck are they?)” — John Dwyer.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The brilliant OSEES are back with a vitriolic blast of fuzzy guitars, frenetic percussion and wonky synth sweeps. Dwyer and co are without a doubt at the forefront of the garage/indie movement, crafting a sound that's both hugely impactful and undoubtedly their own, with more than a hint of irony peeking through here and there. Brilliantly done, as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stunner
2. Blank Chems
3. Intercepted Message
4. Die Laughing
5. Unusual & Cruel
6. The Fish Needs A Bike
7. Goon
8. Chaos Heart
9. Submerged Building
10. Sleazoid Psycho
11. Always At Night
12. LADWP Hold

TVAM self-released his much-acclaimed debut Psychic Data in the autumn of 2018, something of a cult-classic, the album joined the dots between Suicide’s deconstructed rock ’n’ roll, Boards of Canada’s irresistible nostalgia and My Bloody Valentine’s infinite noise. Psychic Data spawned an ‘Album Of The Day’ at BBC 6Music whilst signature tune ‘Porsche Majeure’ featured in HBO’s smash-hit ‘Succession’.

Fast forward the VCR to 2022, High Art Lite takes a different tilt to its predecessor by emphasising the immediate and the personal.The colours are blown-out and the brightness is cranked up.TVAM’s take on role models, fictional movie character tropes, and fables of good and evil, are all tackled with the same suspicious cynicism but this time with an urgent belief in the human condition.

A heady mix of Black Mirror’s modern fables, JG Ballard’s gated communities of sun-drenched wealth, and Mulholland Drive’s boulevard of broken daydreams, High Art Lite offers an all-inclusive package of redemption.

High Art Lite is the first-ever Dinked Edition collaboration with Invada Records.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Future Flesh
Every Day In Every Way
Club Nautico (Part 1)
Piz Buin
Double Lucifer
Shallow Ends
Side B
Semantics
Say Anything
Host
Club Nautico (Part 2)
High Art Lite

"The Pink Album", is dawn and dusk, the epic and the intimate. This 22-track double album, its title inspired by the artwork of Julian House, features collaborations with Jarvis Cocker, Étienne Daho, Raven Violet and Jon Spencer. It has its modulations: shocking at times but signifying also tenderness, intimacy, the carnal. It knows the shades of love, its nuances, and how it can be delicious - and frightening. Marvellous - and aching. Rather than be the silver lining to the cloud, "The Pink Album" mines deeper, to a precious ore, dark and glittering.

Unloved: Jade Vincent, Keefus Ciancia, David Holmes. In Los Angeles, Ciancia - producer, keyboardist & creator of soundtracks - met David Holmes, the innovative, inquisitive and ingenious Belfast DJ who recast himself as master of song and image for film and television. Ciancia invited Holmes to the Rotary Room in Los Feliz, where the extraordinary Jade Vincent was singing.

Tuesday nights in the Rotary Room in Los Feliz: a place of thrilling sonic alchemy, where musicians could experiment and collaborate at Ciancia and Vincent’s long-running salon. Holmes was asked to DJ and then to curate another night – and then another.

Nights bled into later nights. Conversation spun into collaboration. These three artists, kindred spirits, sonic familiars, spoke the same language, one whose lexicon included Jack Nitzsche, Morricone, Nino Rota, the electronic sounds of Raymond Scott, the vocabulary of vocal instrumentalists and fearless raconteurs, Edda Dell’Orso, Ruth White, Françoise Hardy, Connie Francis, Brigitte Fontaine, Jacques Brel, Elvis and Lee Hazlewood. Finding sound and programmed beats, Keefus and David excavated and innovated, experimented and re-interpreted, creating a landscape for Jade’s melodies and lyrics, for sublime songs of lament and confession. The legendary Hollywood Vox Studios was where the Unloved trio formally came together as a band, in a studio almost original to its 1936 incarnation.

Unloved’s immersive power and playful menace has fitted the slippery thriller series Killing Eve like a velvet glove, the thread to the needle. The music and sound of Unloved plays an integral role as their music is the soundtrack, the score, one of the core characters unseen.

And now, in 2022, it’s the magnificent, metaphysical "The Pink Album". Be seduced by the whispered, languorous, bluesy, not so sweet nothings of “Love Experiment” and the lippy insouciance of “Turn Of The Screw”. Thrill to the infinite variety: “Mother’s Been A Bad Girl” is brazen, and “I Don’t Like You Anymore” gloriously sultry. “Foolin’”, where languid, world-weary jazz sounds are skewed by a phantasmagoric organ from a funfair hallucinated, and there’s the sparkling fury and celestial chorus of “Rainbrose”, as though some flower-festooned goddess is emerging.

Go from the jaunty keyboards and hey! hey! hey! of “WTC” to the melancholic poise of “Ever”, the jittery electropop of “Girl Can’t Help It”, to the spacious Morricone-tinged “Lucky”. Be reminded that the past is a snare, the future doesn’t care. All we have is Now. There is psychedelic world-warping sound, but also times when reality is acutely, achingly, present. “Number In My Phone” is a beautiful, wistful paean to those no longer here. Jade’s remarkable voice - whispering, icy, lush, wounded, smoky - unifies the album with its striking diversity.

Unvarnished, unabashed, unbridled, uncensored: rising from the ashes, this is raw emotion transmogrified. This is experimental free-flow form, from instrumental arrangement to voice. It’s Man, Woman, Human, Love and Death.

TRACK LISTING

01. Rainbrose
02. Waiting For Tomorrow
03. Now
04. Girl Can't Help It
05. I Don’t Like You Anymore
06. Foolin'
07. Mother’s Been A Bad Girl
08. Boowaah
09. Lucky
10. WTC
11. Sorry, Baby
12. Number In My Phone
13. Call Me When You Have A Clue
14. No Substance
15. Love Experiment
16. Turn Of The Screw
17. To The Day I Die
18. Walk On, Yeah
19. Accountable
20. There’s No Way
21. Ever
22. Thinkin' About Her

Celebrate 5 of Tom Waits’ albums from the Island years, all of which have had an incredible impact on music history.

All remastered to HD audio.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Lucky Day Overture
The Black Rider
November
Just The Right Bullets
Black Box Theme
'Tain't No Sin
Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
That's The Way
The Briar And The Rose
Russian Dance
Side B
Gospel Train/Orchestra
I'll Shoot The Moon
Flash Pan Hunter
Crossroads
Gospel Train
Interlude
Oily Night
Lucky Day
The Last Rose Of The Summer
Carnival

Zaya is a nomadic traveler currently residing in the Arab Emirates. ‘No Words’ is a collection of ideas worked on over a three year period with the occasional swapping of ideas with his best friend in rainy Manchester. A sun-kissed collage of hazy bedroom guitar instrumentals and blissed-out passages of psychedelic? rock..

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: If only Whyte Horses, with their beautiful way with melody, were to ever release an instrumental LP......waiiiiit a minute!!!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Lost Souvenir
2. Triangular Dreams
3. Interlude 01
4. We Made It
5. Interlude 02
6. Long Way To Get There
7. Tripoli
SIDE B
1. Lonely Jewel
2. Interlude 03
3. Taste Of Gold
4. Interlude 04
5. Thought I Told You
6. Had To Go