Love Record Stores Edition available from 9am on Saturday June 20th.
Limited to one per person.

Sea blue vinyl.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2019 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 13th ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON. IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 12.01AM SATURDAY APRIL 20th.

Knitting Factory Records is proud to reissue Music of Many Colours on limited edition rainbow starburst vinyl, exclusive to Record Store Day. This is the first pressing of the album since the late 80’s. Music of Many Colours is a joint album between Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, recorded after a three week tour of Nigeria’s major cities in 1979, during which Roy Ayers performed as the opening act for Fela’s band. The two artists decided to record the album as a round-up to the tour. Roy Ayers describes the experience saying, “I met Fela Kuti in Nigeria in 1979, and we fell into a great relationship, good personal and music vibes, and we recorded that album together. Fela also came to USA in the eighties and we performed at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Amazingly energetic, Fela Kuti had a very original concept that was called Afro Beat – a genre with a very unique identity and exceptional music. One of Fela Kuti's most impressive qualities was that he was undeniably a brilliant show man, as a musician and as a huge dancer as well. His African concept was truly original… The tour was about two black men together coming together, one from Africa and other from USA, a very exciting collaboration." Knitting Factory Records is proud to reissue Music of Many Colours on limited edition rainbow starburst vinyl, exclusive to Record Store Day. This is the first pressing of the album since the late 80’s. Music of Many Colours is a joint album between Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, recorded after a three week tour of Nigeria’s major cities in 1979, during which Roy Ayers performed as the opening act for Fela’s band. The two artists decided to record the album as a round-up to the tour. Roy Ayers describes the experience saying, “I met Fela Kuti in Nigeria in 1979, and we fell into a great relationship, good personal and music vibes, and we recorded that album together. Fela also came to USA in the eighties and we performed at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Amazingly energetic, Fela Kuti had a very original concept that was called Afro Beat – a genre with a very unique identity and exceptional music. One of Fela Kuti's most impressive qualities was that he was undeniably a brilliant show man, as a musician and as a huge dancer as well. His African concept was truly original… The tour was about two black men together coming together, one from Africa and other from USA, a very exciting collaboration." Knitting Factory Records is proud to reissue Music of Many Colours on limited edition rainbow starburst vinyl, exclusive to Record Store Day. This is the first pressing of the album since the late 80’s. Music of Many Colours is a joint album between Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, recorded after a three week tour of Nigeria’s major cities in 1979, during which Roy Ayers performed as the opening act for Fela’s band. The two artists decided to record the album as a round-up to the tour. Roy Ayers describes the experience saying, “I met Fela Kuti in Nigeria in 1979, and we fell into a great relationship, good personal and music vibes, and we recorded that album together. Fela also came to USA in the eighties and we performed at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Amazingly energetic, Fela Kuti had a very original concept that was called Afro Beat – a genre with a very unique identity and exceptional music. One of Fela Kuti's most impressive qualities was that he was undeniably a brilliant show man, as a musician and as a huge dancer as well. His African concept was truly original… The tour was about two black men together coming together, one from Africa and other from USA, a very exciting collaboration."

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

FIELD MUSIC RECORD STORE DAY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY REISSUE Back on vinyl for the first time since its original pressing in 2010, Field Music's Measure is released on 180g Red and Yellow vinyl.Limited to 500 copies. A landmark in Field Music's long and varied history, it marked their return from a self-imposed hiatus with a gloriously rich LP that entwined the brother's love of the rock music cannon with a rediscovery of some of pop's overlooked adventurers.Themes disappear and reappear.Some songs flow together, others intrude on each other.There are contradictions and ripostes.There appears to be a great deal of defiance and a fair amount of resignation. Can it make sense? Does it matter if there is no sense? What strands can hold together the dissonant funk of 'Let's Write A Book' (a call to arms for the perpetually apologetic), the mutated blues of 'Each Time Is A New Time' (a riposte to misplaced faith in repetition), the chopping and splashing pop driven through 'Them That Do Nothing' (perhaps about a valiant willingness to make mistakes), the multilayered riffery of 'The Rest Is Noise' or the epic found-sound song cycle that starts with 'See You Later'? Perhaps, then, the central strand of this sprawling Tusk meets The English Settlement epic is simply that this is the album when the Brewis brothers truly became Field Music.Even on a record as varied as this their sound and approach can still be identified as their own.As David said at the time: "In the past we might not have had faith that it was sufficient just to be us.But now I think we do." "Field Music's most bounteous harvest yet." ---- Mojo "A work of incredible beauty and complexity." ---- The Sunday Times "The brothers Brewis reconvene to make a modern gem." ----- Uncut "A superbly off kilter record from Sunderland's Sparks" ---- Q

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JULY 17TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JULY 17TH).

Unreleased track(s)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Reissued for the first time since its original release in 2012 and long since out of print, Plumb is one of Field Music's best works, an album that firmly cemented them as one of the UK's most creative and critically acclaimed bands. It was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and received huge praise from the likes of MOJO, Q, UNCUT, The Guardian and more.

Plumb's 10 year anniversary edition is limited to 2,000 copies world wide and comes on clear, plum coloured vinyl for Record Store Day 2022. Plumb digs into the age-old dichotomy between what is reflective or nostalgic and the disorienting immediacy of the outside world. 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
 
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have built a reputation for blistering anthems that owe as much to brooding desert rock as it does hardcore and power-pop. They're redefining punk-rock with a sound that straddles eras and genres, putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all their own, while also challenging tired cliches and setting the world to rights. These two tracks will only be released physcially for RSD with no future plans to release them on other formats. 'The Drugs' features Mercury Award winner and UK chart topper Jamie T. Spec: Transparent red / transparent red 7", CMYK Labels, White Paper inners, Spined Sleeve, Shrinkwrap

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

Fat Freddy's Drop's legendary performance at London's Roundhouse from 2008 is finally available on vinyl for the first time ever to celebrate its 15th anniversary. 3LP with a neon green sleeve, gatefold. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Camel
B1. Raft
C1. Flashback
D1. Pull The Catch
E1. The Nod
F1. Shiverman

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

12" single pressed on Red Vinyl. b/w 'Jigsaw Puzzle Blues'.

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

"ZAM, the Double-Album underground breakout release from Los Angeles Psych heavyweights Frankie and the Witch Fingers, completely out of print since its initial release in 2018. This is the record fans have been asking for. RSD Exclusive 2xLP color vinyl edition of 5000. New Artwork featuring RSD exclusive Mirror/Reflective Jacket Artwork & Bonus Flexi 7"" with an unreleased demo. 24"" x 24"" double sided full color poster. RSD Hype Sticker on Shrink. Proudly reissued by Greenway Records. Mirror Red & Chrome Wide-Spine Jacket Double 12"" - A/B on Black Smoke & C/D on Red Smoke Vinyl Poly-Lined Inner Sleeves Unreleased Demo Flexi 7"" Double Sided 24""x24"" Poster"

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

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

2LP breakout of BBC sessions for RSD 2024

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

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

6 exclusive to vinyl for the first time remixes of some of Fatboy Slim's greatest hits, including Eat Sleep Rave Repeat (Calvin Harris Remix), Eat Sleep Rave Repeat (Bruno Martini Remix)(never on vinyl before), Weapon of Choice (Kink Remix), Ya Mama (Dance System Remix), Everbody Loves A Remix (Harry Romero Remix) & Rockafeller Skank (Jay Robinson Remix) on a special Zoetrope disc.

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

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

Black Vinyl 4 track EP A1. JENGI - BEL MERCY A2. SKIN ON SKIN - BURN DEM BRIDGES B1. BURNS - TALAMANCA B2. OBSKUR- BAYSIDE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Audio currently only available on YouTube in live video series - this would be an exclusive audio release

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

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

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

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

1LP, Picture Disc of the classic Rumours album released for RSD 2024

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

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

This limited edition vinyl celebrates Fools Gardenís 33rd anniversary in 2024 and features their first-ever record store release. The unique lemon-shaped picture disc includes four audio tracks: "Lemon Tree," "Probably," "Suzy," and "Outta Love." These timeless tracks have been beloved by fans worldwide since the band's early days. Experience the nostalgia of vinyl with Fools Garden's worldwide evergreen "Lemon Tree" as you immerse yourself in their captivating melodies and heartfelt lyrics. The meticulous craftsmanship of the lemon-shaped picture disc ensures an authentic visually striking addition to any collection.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Future Sound of London released ISDN in December 1994, originally with a black cover as a limited release. June 1995 saw an alternative white-covered version released, this had a different track listing on the 4th side of the LP set with new tracks. The music on the album is edited together from various live broadcasts that the duo had transmitted to radio stations all over the world using ISDN networking. At the time ISDN was a relatively new technology that had the bandwidth to carry high-quality digital audio. 2024 Marks the 30th anniversary of this fan-favourite album, to celebrate this the audio from both versions has been amalgamated and sequenced by FSOL. Pressed on clear vinyl with a brand-new front cover, this will also be pressed on 2CD as an RSD exclusive.

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

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

Future Sound of London released ISDN in December 1994, originally with a black cover as a limited release. June 1995 saw an alternative white-covered version released, this had a different track listing on the 4th side of the LP set with new tracks. The music on the album is edited together from various live broadcasts that the duo had transmitted to radio stations all over the world using ISDN networking. At the time ISDN was a relatively new technology that had the bandwidth to carry high-quality digital audio. 2024 Marks the 30th anniversary of this fan-favourite album, to celebrate this the audio from both versions has been amalgamated and sequenced by FSOL. Pressed on clear vinyl with a brand-new front cover, this will also be pressed on 2CD as an RSD exclusive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette is a 1969 album by American rock band the Four Seasons. Member Bob Gaudio teamed up with Jake Holmes to create a psychedelic concept album which adjusted the band's stylings to the changing times of the late 1960s. Reissued for RSD 2024

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

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

First ever vinyl release of the 2016 CD compilation to coincide with the 2024 US presidential election ñ red & blue splatter on white vinyl

Deluxe 20th anniversary edition of the defining album from innovative UK trio, Fridge. Restored and remastered by founding member of Fridge, Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet). Formed in 1996 by schoolmates Kieran Hebden, Adem Ilhan, and Sam Jeffers, Fridge were astonishingly prolific in their early years – releasing ten singles and four albums in just their first four years together. After a brief stint with a major label imprint – which saw the trio release their most focused album to date (Eph, 1999) Fridge delivered their fourth album, Happiness.

Originally released in 2001, Happiness was a sprawling, pastoral masterpiece – an innovative mix of acoustic clatter, electronic exploration, hip-hop production techniques, and experimental rock arrangements. Along with Hebden’s blossoming solo project, Four Tet, Happiness dragged the most compelling elements of the typically self-serious electronic, indie, and avant-rock of the 1990s and married them to eclectic folk and spiritual jazz for the new century. More remarkably, they did it without an ounce of pretense, imbued with an earnest and intimate execution that stood in stark contrast to virtually every comparable album of its time.

Happiness – Anniversary Edition is the 20th anniversary reissue of Fridge’s career-defining gem. Meticulously restored, reconstructed, and remastered from the original master tapes by Kieran Hebden, the album’s sound quality honors the original recordings like never before. The vinyl was cut by award-winning archival mastering engineer, Kevin Gray, and pressed onto 125-gram audiophile-quality vinyl by Record Technology Inc. (RTI). The exquisite heavyweight old-style tip-on gatefold jacket was printed and assembled by hand at Stoughton Printing Company, to complete this masterful reissue of this momentous album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Melodica & Trombone (6:02)
2. Drum Machines & Glockenspiel (13:18)
3. Cut Up Piano & Xylophone (2:35)
4. Tone Guitar & Drum Noise (4:46)
5. Five Four Child Voice (9:22)
6. Sample & Clicks (2:56)
7. Drums Bass Sonics & Edits (7:27)
8. Harmonics (4:00)
9. Long Singing (9:13)
10. Five Combs (Bonus Track) (9:45)

Deluxe 20th anniversary edition of the defining album from innovative UK trio, Fridge. Restored and remastered by founding member of Fridge, Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet). Formed in 1996 by schoolmates Kieran Hebden, Adem Ilhan, and Sam Jeffers, Fridge were astonishingly prolific in their early years – releasing ten singles and four albums in just their first four years together. After a brief stint with a major label imprint – which saw the trio release their most focused album to date (Eph, 1999) Fridge delivered their fourth album, Happiness.

Originally released in 2001, Happiness was a sprawling, pastoral masterpiece – an innovative mix of acoustic clatter, electronic exploration, hip-hop production techniques, and experimental rock arrangements. Along with Hebden’s blossoming solo project, Four Tet, Happiness dragged the most compelling elements of the typically self-serious electronic, indie, and avant-rock of the 1990s and married them to eclectic folk and spiritual jazz for the new century. More remarkably, they did it without an ounce of pretense, imbued with an earnest and intimate execution that stood in stark contrast to virtually every comparable album of its time.

Happiness – Anniversary Edition is the 20th anniversary reissue of Fridge’s career-defining gem. Meticulously restored, reconstructed, and remastered from the original master tapes by Kieran Hebden, the album’s sound quality honors the original recordings like never before. The vinyl was cut by award-winning archival mastering engineer, Kevin Gray, and pressed onto 125-gram audiophile-quality vinyl by Record Technology Inc. (RTI). The exquisite heavyweight old-style tip-on gatefold jacket was printed and assembled by hand at Stoughton Printing Company, to complete this masterful reissue of this momentous album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Melodica & Trombone (6:02)
2. Drum Machines & Glockenspiel (13:18)
3. Cut Up Piano & Xylophone (2:35)
4. Tone Guitar & Drum Noise (4:46)
5. Five Four Child Voice (9:22)
6. Sample & Clicks (2:56)
7. Drums Bass Sonics & Edits (7:27)
8. Harmonics (4:00)
9. Long Singing (9:13)
10. Five Combs (Bonus Track) (9:45)

After spending years as a major presence in Brooklyn’s thriving music scene, Frankie Rose relocated to her familial home of Los Angeles for 18 months with the intention of establishing yet another moment in her storied indie rock métier. Gradually, she found herself short on sleep, funds and optimism.

Towards the end of her time spent in Los Angeles, Frankie reached out to Jorge Elbrecht (Tamaryn, Gang Gang Dance, Violens) and began sketching what became the basic outline of what felt like a new album. Then, rather fortuitously, Frankie ended up back in Brooklyn with the realization that "in the end, I’m on my own. I have to do these things on my own." The months that ensued meant basically working with no budget and finding ways to record in-between days. This time enabled Frankie to experiment musically with a variety of people that ultimately changed the way she worked.

The result of this existential odyssey is Cage Tropical, Frankie’s 4th album. It is awash with vintage synths, painterly effects pedals, upside down atmosphere and reverberating vocals. It evokes a new wave paranormality of sorts that drifts beyond the songs themselves. "My references aren’t just music," says Frankie, "I love old sci-fi. They Live is one of my favorite movies ever, same with Suspiria. 80’s sci-fi movies with a John Carpenter soundtrack, with silly synths – that makes it into my file, to the point that I’ll write lyrics incorporating that kind of stuff. It’s in there."

Beginning with the shimmery, cinematic and percussive sparkling of the album’s opening track "Love in Rockets," the song’s refrain of "a wheel, a wheel of wasting my life: a wheel, a wheel of wasting my time" immediately alludes to those darker circumstances that led to the creative origins of Cage Tropical. "It’s all essentially based on what happened to me in Los Angeles and then a return to Brooklyn," says Frankie. "Misery turned into something good. The whole record to me is a redemption record and it is the most positive one I’ve made"

"I feel like I am finally free from worrying about an outcome. I don’t care. I already lost everything. I already had the worst- case scenario. When that happens, you do become free. In the end, it’s about me rescuing myself via having this record."

TRACK LISTING

1. Love In Rockets
2. Dyson Sphere
3. Trouble
4. Art Bell
5. Dancing Down The Hall
6. Cage Tropical
7. Game To Play
8. Red Museum
9. Epic Slack
10. Decontrol

Serious Poke is the debut solo from Fred Abbott the London-based musician, until now, best known as lead guitarist and keyboard player in the recently disbanded Noah And The Whale.

A supremely talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Abbott joined Noah And The Whale in 2009 and went on to huge success, especially notable being his contribution to 2011‘s Platinum-selling and highly acclaimed Last Night On Earth.

Abbott enlisted the help of his Noah And The Whale compadres and other friends for the recording of Serious Poke, with sessions taking place at West London’s British Grove Studios over the past year. The album was co-produced by Fred with Martin Hollis, whose diverse credits include Grinderman, The Rolling Stones and Take That.

TRACK LISTING

1: Adrenaline Shot
2: Funny How Good It Feels
3: Awake
4: Honey
5: Hollywood
6: One Hot Night
7: Learn About Love
8: Don't Look Like Him
9: Still Told A Lie
10: Lucky People 

From pirate radio to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, journalist and rapper Franklyn Addo pens an extraordinary narrative of the history, present and future of Grime music. The influence of Grime on contemporary British culture is difficult to understate. From fashion trends and evolving language to potent political statements, Grime is a musical juggernaut that has reverberated far throughout British society.

Chronicled for the first time in powerful literary prose, Addo intelligently documents the genre's cultural explosion and investigates how it became the voice of a generation. A phenomenal insight into the captivating and electrifying genre that has taken the British music scene by storm, A Quick Ting On: Grime is an essential and long-awaited read for Stormzy aficionados and grime newcomers alike.

‘Medieval Femme’, Fatima Al Qadiri’s new ten track suite inspired by the classical poems of Arab women, invokes a daydream through the metaphor of an Islamic garden, at the border between depression and desire, where the present temporarily dissolves, leaving only past and future. Mixing neon drones and the faint outlines of Arabesque melody, ‘Medieval Femme’ reveals a fully-realised, dreamlike setting, shaded with colour and subtle friction. Conveying a thematic state of melancholic longing, Fatima seeks to transport the listener to a place of reverie and desolation, to question the line between two seemingly opposite states and rejoice in celestial sorrow. ‘Medieval Femme’ takes instrumentation from music of the Middle Ages, recast in a futuristic setting; soft-synth lutes, organs and pipes reverberate in space while gauzy pulses ripple in response. Fatima's vocals of repeated, mantra-like phrases are sometimes pitched and altered, drawing out increasingly intense peaks, angelic choruses and yearning incantations. On ‘Tasakuba’, Kaltham Jassim’s recitation of a couplet from the 7th century poet Al-Khansa', the sorrow of her words are given a turbulent, hallucinatory setting, before the album resolves on the final song, the limpid, airy ‘Zandaq’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I'm loving all these hybrids of neo-classical, bass and ancient music that seem to be coming out right now. File next to: Doon Kanda, Faten Kanaan, Lee Gamble etc. Mega!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Medieval Femme
A2. A Certain Concubine
A3. Sheba
A4. Vanity
A5. Stolen Kiss Of A Succubus
B1. Golden
B2. Qasmuna (Dreaming)
B3. Malaak
B4. Tasakuba
B5. Zandaq

Available on vinyl for the first time since its original CD-only release in 2007.

The closest of relationships gives its members space to expand, change, develop and play. Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and drummer Hamid Drake have just that kind of partnership, one that has seen them periodically move apart and work extensively on other fronts - Anderson tending to the recent relocation of his major jazz venue the Velvet Lounge; Drake in a dizzying array of globetrotting ensembles - but always returning to the fold, digging in together and checking out what’s been learned in the interim.

Over the course of some three decades, the master saxophonist and the prodigy percussionist have continued to reconfirm their commitment to their joint project.

TRACK LISTING

Planet E
Strut Time
For Brother Thompson
Sakti/Shiva
From The River To The Ocean

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a strange and exceptional record, even within the context of an uncommon career. It shakes, rattles and rolls with unorthodox percussion, and on the opening track – I Want You to Love Me – the singer hiccups in ecstasy, facing off against an arpeggiating piano as though competing to climax first.

Although veteran engineer/producer Tchad Blake had some input, and Apple sought the assistance of her drummer’s father, sound engineer John Would, Fetch the Bolt Cutters marks the first time she has entirely overseen production on one of her albums. Knowing her own mind is a major theme. “I would beg to disagree, but begging disagrees with me,” she swaggers on Under the Table, a wickedly funny song about how she is a nightmare date at pompous dinner parties. (“Kick me under the table all you want.”)

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Toeing the line skilfully between mellow jazz, soulful r&b and good old-fashioned indie, Fiona Apple has a sound all of her own. Spoken word sections segue seamlessly into more driven rhythmic material before calming right back down into almost ambient instrumentation. Brilliant, and bonkers.

TRACK LISTING

01. I Want You To Love Me
02. Shameika
03. Fetch The Bolt Cutters
04. Under The Table
05. Relay
06. Rack Of His
07. Newspaper
08. Ladies
09. Heavy Balloon
10. Cosmonauts
11. For Her
12. Drumset
13. On I Go

Known for using her voice in a unique way, this is the first record by Félicia Atkinson to bring the piano as the main character in her music.

One of the universal experiences of life on Earth is staring, neck craned, at the cosmos. The vastness of one’s internal life meets the vastness of space, and in that moment those perspectives fuse in a state of wonder and curiosity. Space As An Instrument, the new album by French artist and musician Félicia Atkinson, invites listeners to explore the phantasmic landscapes created in such transformative encounters, when the mind is open and receptive to its environment. Like being absorbed by the immensity of the night sky, this music dilates the imagination and helps us to sit comfortably in the mystery of the ineffable.

We are guided through Space As An Instrument by the piano, it’s a linear story told through restrained, iterative melodies that become entwined with the sounds at the music’s margins - a wisp of electronics, a pinprick of an enunciated consonant. They were recorded on Atkinson’s phone, which was placed next to the keys, or behind her, with the sound of the room bleeding through to give a sense of the place and time of the encounter. She describes these sessions as meetings where she and the piano commune to co-create these spiraling phrases and vaporous dissonances moment by moment. Complicating this dynamic is the presence of digital pianos, which exist in the surreal space of diodes and LED displays. They act as avatars of their three-dimensional counterparts: nowhere and everywhere simultaneously.

Still, the inhabited world of people, water, and wind can be heard throughout Space As An Instrument. Often these recordings are integrated into the backdrop of electronics, or reduced to the sound of movements whose physical forms are obscured: the microphone straining against a forceful gust on “Sorry,” arhythmic footsteps traversing an invisible terrain on “Pensées Magiques.” These field recordings take us to the brink of synesthetic experience, allowing us to glimpse with our ear the topography of the imagination. But Atkinson’s music resists any kind of singular perspective on the scene, or any distinct conclusion. “It doesn’t explain anything,” she says, “but it translates the way I perceive it, somehow.”

Atkinson is a polymath by nature, engrossed in a variety of daily artistic practices that nourish one another. In her garden, she performs the slow work of cross-species relationship building, cultivating an ideal space for introspection and further creation; many of the album’s vocal and electronic elements were recorded there. Poetry, which she prizes for its capacity to render the everyday tools of meaning-making more enigmatic, becomes folded into the music as well. She paints as often as time allows. One personal limitation Atkinson finds in painting, the rendering of perspective, has become one of her music’s defining characteristics. The vantage point of the listener is slippery and undefined, with sounds at once appearing gigantic and miniscule, distant and immediate.

This phenomena is central to “Thinking Iceberg,” a 13-minute piece that was whittled down from an hour and a half performance, who remain only a ghostly presence on the album’s recording. Atkinson wrote the piece in response to Olivier Remaud’s book Thinking Like An Iceberg, in which the philosopher assigns agency to these massive, endangered objects and imagines how they might perceive their millenia-long relationship to humans. Stoic synthesizer tones percolate while water flows just out of the immediate frame with a disarming clarity and presence. As the piece crests, Atkinson’s whispered voice emerges softly, placed right against the listener’s left ear, contrasting with the billowing mass of sound that otherwise dominates. We emerge with a glimmer of awareness of how immensity and delicacy can coexist as time and humanity extract their toll.

Atkinson says her music exists “on the verge of understanding and not understanding,” which often precludes such literal interpretations. But in that nebulous space there is humility and openness, and perhaps enough empathy to understand the consciousness of a massive, frozen chunk of water. With the listener’s perspective diffused into many different vantage points, how might that, too, become a vehicle for the development of compassion? As we listen, we encounter the wisdom that there is meaning not just in the experience of the sublime, that radical juxtaposition of limitlessness and intimacy, but also in the continuum of countless individuals that have taken the same journey.

TRACK LISTING

01. The Healing
02. This Was Her Reply
03 Thinking Iceberg
04. La Pluie
05. Sorry
06. Shall I Return To You
07. Pensées Magiques

“Don’t tell me this is wrong to enjoy all these feelings”, Freya purrs with a lip-smacking sense of relish. A song all about the conflicting feelings that can shadow a sense of empowerment, “Beast” finds Freya stepping into the shoes of Lady Justice and taking the scales into her own hands. Laden with the typically evocative imagery we have come to expect from the London songwriter, its lyrics toy with our notions of lust and love, guilt and the truth, the milk of human kindness and the poison of power; to create something exhilarating and asphyxiating in equal measures. Produced by Peter Hobbs (The Boy Least Likely To), it’s a track of unrelenting intensity that locks the listener with clenched jaws from the outset. As its spiralling arrangements hypnotise and Owain Hanford’s prowling percussives paralyse, its Freya who delivers the deathly sting in the tail with puncturing guitar barbs that will spare no-one in their path.


The latest in a string of captivating singles, “Beast” follows previous cuts “Siren” and “Calm Before The Storm”; each paving the way for one of 2021’s most anticipated new releases from one of its most defiantly uncompromising new talents. Freya Beer has earned a reputation for music that mixes poetic lyrics inspired by Charles Bukowski or Anne Sexton, with the distinctive gothic stylings of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, or David Lynch. Highly literate in her reference points both musical and written, they shine no greater than on the obsidian sheen of her bewitching debut album: ‘Beast’. Unphased by the isolating impositions of the previous year, Freya used the period’s foreboding limitations as a means to feed her art and blossom as an artist. Using her time away from the live stage to connect with her creative impulses on a deeper level, she began to nurture and raise the debut album she had always wanted to make. Delving into the aspirations of the dreaming to the lucid nightmares of the living, the songs of ‘Beast’ find Freya blurring fiction and reality with a disorienting daze. Scouring the silver screen for nuanced narratives, many of the songs of ‘Beast’ glean initial inspiration from characters seen in classic cinema. Distorting their stories and injecting traits of her own volition, their journeys soon become very different prospects

TRACK LISTING

1. Beast
2. The Calm Before The Storm
3. Forget It
4. Secret Garden
5. Arms Open Wide
6. Dear Sweet Rosie
7. Siren
8. To The Heavens And All Their Work
9. Pure
10. Beauty
11. Put It To The Test

‘True Blue’ is a collection of songs originally intended as technical demos for the Catholics’ acclaimed ‘Black Letter Days’ album Recorded in 2001 live to 1 track tape at the legendary Sound City Studios, the recordings capture raw and captivating performances by Frank Black and the Catholics on songs including ‘California Bound’,‘The End Of Miles’, and ‘Cold Heart Of Stone’

Previously only available as a bonus CD in ‘The Complete Recordings’ boxset,‘True Blue’ is an essential release for Frank Black fans and offers a glimpse into a studio session with the Catholics

Pressed on 140 g vinyl, newly remastered by Phil Kinrade and cut by Cicely Balston at AIR Mastering Presented in a textured reverse board sleeve with new artwork by Mark Reynolds, and exclusive liner notes by producer Ben Mumphrey

Also included is a bonus 7 single featuring three studio outtakes, including a previously unreleased version of ‘The Black Rider’

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist
1. Black Letter Days
2. California Bound
3. Chip Away Boy
4. Cold Heart Of Stone
5. How You Went So Far
6. Jane The Queen Of Love
7. Jet Black River
8. Southbound Bevy
9. The End Of Miles
10. The Farewell Bend
11. Valentine And Garuda
12. Whispering Weeds


7” Tracklist
1. The Black Rider
2. Song Of The Shrimp
3. John The Revelator

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

Available for the very first time is Frank Black's Live 2006, recorded live during the Pixies frontman's 2006 solo North American tour. Limited edition twelve-track live album pressed on Mandarin Orange Vinyl with printed inners and new artwork by Mark Reynolds. Includes 'Six Sixty Six', 'Bullet', 'Burn Today' & a cover of Roxy Music's Remake / Remodel'.

To celebrate Frank Black’s landmark solo album, Teenager Of The Year, turning 30 comes a special vinyl pressing to accompany a tour of North America plus Paris and London where Frank and original band will be performing the album in its entirety.

Recorded amid a rich songwriting vein, just as the Pixies had been placed on hold, Frank Black’s ambitious 22-track album Teenager Of The Year came out in May 1994, just one year after his fantastic self-titled solo debut. Recorded with scene legend Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Pere Ubu, The Residents) and featuring the single ‘Headache’, Teenager Of The Year is seen by many as his greatest solo work, subsequently appearing in both Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1990s poll and the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book.

For its 30th anniversary, Frank Black and original band are heading out in January 2025 on a 14-date tour of North America, Paris and London where they’ll be performing Teenager Of The Year from start to finish each night. To complement, 4AD are releasing a special vinyl tour edition of the album, with Kevin Vanbergen having expertly remastered the album from its original analogue studio tapes. Sounding as essential as ever, the limited 30th Anniversary Tour Edition has been cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and is being pressed on double gold vinyl. It also comes in a gatefold sleeve that includes liner notes by both Frank Black and producer Eric Drew Feldman.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
A1 | Whatever Happened To Pong?
A2 | Thalassocracy
A3 | (I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain
A4 | Calistan
A5 | The Vanishing Spies
A6 | Speedy Marie

Side Two
B1 | Headache
B2 | Sir Rockaby
B3 | Freedom Rock
B4 | Two Reelers
B5 | Fiddle Riddle

Side Three
C1 | Olé Mulholland
C2 | Fazer Eyes
C3 | I Could Stay Here Forever
C4 | The Hostess With The Mostest
C5 | Superabound

Side Four
D1 | Big Red
D2 | Space Is Gonna Do Me Good
D3 | White Noise Maker
D4 | Pure Denizen Of The Citizens Band
D5 | Bad, Wicked World
D6 | Pie In The Sky

Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O'Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours.

Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions (artist residencies in La Becque, Switzerland and Modena, Italy, live performance excerpts, a studio session at INA-GRM Studios in Paris).

The epic opening track "Four Rays (Anti Divide)" welcomes, for the first time, other musicians — in this case a wind quintet — expanding the duo's sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O'Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music's relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core.

For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening.

TRACK LISTING

1. Four Rays (Anti Divide)
2. Rainbows
3. Vulcani Di Fango
4. Ghosts Of Precognition
5. Troisième Noire
6. La Ronde

The British multi-instrumentalist, orchestral arranger and composer Fiona Brice has drawn on her abundant talents to forge her second solo album for Bella Union, And You Know I Care. It's a deep listening experience that raises the post-classical bar, eschewing the genre’s default melancholia for wider and richer dimensions of uplifting and exultant bliss - though the range and contrast ensure this is no new age-style panacea.

Brice has drawn on all the experience gained working with the likes of John Grant, Anna Calvi, Jarvis Cocker, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Katherine Jenkins, Elbow, the BBC Concert and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players. She toured with Placebo for ten years, and more recently Elbow, so to say Brice is in-demand is an understatement. But she still has time for her own work. Her debut album Postcards From, a more minimalist, filmic set of instrumentals, was released in 2016. After two purer classical projects (String Quartet No.1 in 2018 and the lockdown-inspired Piano Preludes in 2022) And You Know I Care is a more wide-ranging, ruminating work, and showcases Brice’s voice, lyrics and choral arrangements.

TRACK LISTING

1 Ascending
2 And You Know I Care
3 We Rise We Fall
4 Through Her Eyes
5 Nocturnal
6 Whose God Are You?
7 Today Will Be Different
8 Retreat

With influences ranging from Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson C. Frank, The Band, Spirit and Family to Funkadelic and Kraut-rock Findlay has a deep vein to mine for musical inspiration. These solo acoustic songs were recorded in the bedroom of his producer, Simon Lord, formerly the singer with psyche rockers Simian. They illustrate Fin's understanding of the craft of song-writing, an understanding he shares with the likes of David Crosby or Jose Gonzalez. Blessed with a voice that will inevitably melt hearts, Findlay drapes "Losing The Will To Survive" in lush vocal harmonies, reminiscent of a long lost classic. "I Will (Ghost Ship)" is a heart breakingly beautiful and intimate ballad. This is the first release on new label All Good Things, whose philosophy is to release accessible records big on personality, right across the musical genres.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes return with their fifth studio album, 'Dark Rainbow' - set for release on 26 January 2024. The Rattlesnakes have built a reputation for blistering anthems that owe as much to brooding desert rock as it does hardcore and power-pop. They’re redefining punk-rock with a sound that straddles eras and genres, putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all their own, while also challenging tired cliches and setting the world to rights.

TRACK LISTING

1. Honey
2. Man Of The Hour
3. Can I Take You Home
4. American Spirit
5. Happier Days
6. Brambles
7. Queen Of Hearts
8. Sun Bright Golden Happening
9. Superstar
10. Self Love
11. A Dark Rainbow

‘Sticky’, the new album from Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, is the sonic eruption of a year-plus of suppressed energy.

While it’s an escapist experience, recent reality is never too far away. It’s there in ‘Go Get A Tattoo’, which was inspired by Carter’s experience of having to shut his first London based tattoo parlour, Rose of Mercy, almost immediately after it opened.

It’s just as present in ‘My Town’, a suburban vignette of society’s collective mental health quickly unravelling.

TRACK LISTING

Sticky
Cupid's Arrow
Bang Bang
Take It To The Brink
My Town
Go Get A Tattoo
Off With His Head
Cobra Queen
Rat Race
Original Sin

Part two of this incredible Francisco Mora Catlett piece sees wife Teresa Mora on vocals and trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave. “Mora I & II” are holy grails of Latin jazz, masterminded by an unsung hero of the genre. Born in Washington DC, 1947, Francisco Mora Jr is the eldest child of two highly prominent Mexican artists, Francisco Mora Sr and Elizabeth Catlett, to whom this project was dedicated. Being born into a mixed heritage bohemian family provided Mora Jr with what he called a ‘creative, progressive, and healthy arts environment’, building the foundations for a fascinating career journey ahead.

Mora grew up in Mexico City where he began working as a session musician for Capitol Records in 1968, before moving to study at Berklee Music College in Boston, MA in 1970. Once he’d completed his studies in 1973, he very briefly returned to Mexico City with the best intentions of cultivating an avant-garde movement in the city, but when the Sun Ra Arkestra came to perform, Mora ended up leaving with the band to tour the world for the next seven years, a decent innings within a group famous for its constantly evolving line up.

Settling in Detroit after his years with the Arkestra, Francisco set to work on his selftitled debut, gathering an ensemble of musicians that included keyboardist Kenny Cox, founder of the legendary Strata Records, esteemed bassist Rodney Whitaker of the Roy Hargrove Quintet and percussionists Jerome Le Duff, Alberto Nacif, and Emile Borde. The album openly embraces and unites the broad spectrum of improvisation, rhythm, and jazz that has thrived throughout the American continents for centuries. In Mora’s own words the album intended to ‘manifest the African heritage presence in the American continent.’

TRACK LISTING

Afra Jum
Amazona
Amazona Prelude
Dawn
Samba Conga Do Amor
Por Que Paro 
Afra Jum 
Old Man Joe 
El Morro

Flavia Coelho hypnotises us right from the start with her song ‘Mama Santa’, a nod to her mother. The Garota do Rio, who took the French music scene by storm in 2011 to prove to her father that she was a true artist.

Flavia Coelho is continuing her exploration of identity and her quest for authenticity, tackling the themes of reconstruction, courage, and resilience, with her loyal producer and arranger Victor Vagh-Weinmann, whom she met in her early days in France. Together, they initiated and designed all the compositional material, electro pads, organs, keyboards, guitars, and percussion. These ingredients, combined with the catchy melodies and sublime voice of the bewitching Flavia, have given life to the ten nuggets of ‘GINGA’.

The writing of this new opus began two years ago, after a key phrase, heard by the artist: "We live our first twenty years, then the next twenty serve to understand the first twenty.” 43-year-old Flavia Coelho has precisely reached this stage in her life.

To create ‘GINGA’, the singer immersed herself in all the music of her youth, particularly South American songs from kitschy telenovelas.Then Flavia recorded her ideas on her Dictaphone, and began writing and producing her songs in the studio between August and December 2023, in a vital urgency, like a personal challenge to be taken up and a typically "Coelhian" saudade, bursting with emotion.

Funk, house, Latin American, samba, reggae and amapiano, in ‘GINGA’, Flavia Coelho fuses genres and heritages, orchestrated with varying degrees of sensuality and vibrancy, the fruit of over a hundred hours of recording. For the first time, Flavia Coelho has entrusted the mixing of her album to renowned collaborators, as if she needed to entrust her work to them and take a step back to give a whole new dimension to the songs that are so close to her. Tom Fire, Prince Fatty, Paul from Synapson and Guts were given the delicate task of mixing the final version of the album.

Flavia takes flight and takes us on a journey, from Brazil to London via Provence, Paris and everywhere in between. ‘GINGA’ is a sharpened set of legs that takes us through the sound system of Flavia Coelho's life, while continuing to accompany our own.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mama Santa
2. Nordestina
3. Mais Amor
4. Lapa
5. Passageiro
6. Nosso Lar
7. Sistema Solar
8. Tamarindo
9. De Vous À Moi
10. Bira

2018 Reissue – Remastered From Original Tapes, Carefully Reproduced Original Art.

Piano Viberations’ “small group jazz featuring piano and vibes with rhythm” makes for a gorgeous Francis Coppieters showcase, surely one of Belgium’s best-kept musical secrets. Released in 1975, and arguably the most low-key of the KPM and Themes records we’re re-issuing, this is easily our current favourite.

“The Open Highway” is the appropriately-named opener, and immediately demonstrates Coppieters’ dexterous interplay between piano and vibes in assured, joyous fashion. The shuffling bossa of “Sales Notes” is a jaw-dropper, well-mined by samplers with impeccable taste. The mellow head-nod drum-break that is “Funky Chimes” brilliantly demonstrates Coppieters’ quiet majestic side with its slow-motion funk rhythm with beautifully reflective notes throughout.

The upbeat and joyful “Cross Talk” closes out side A. Vibes and piano are definitely at the heart of the arrangement here. The quick cut movement of “Piano In Transit” is another gem, driven principally by piano but those vibes along for more than just the ride. On a more gentle, elegiac note, “To Shearing With Love” is a warm, slow, romantic piece in the style of George Shearing. It’s plaintive and sublime.

Piano Viberations is one of those rare library records the original description of which makes as much sense now as it did when it was first released. Piano and vibes with rhythm indeed.
As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Piano Viberations comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.

TRACK LISTING

The Open Highway
Funky Chimes
Bright Blue Note
To Shearing With Love
Cross Talk
Waltz On The Off Beat
Blues In The Basement
Piano In Transit
Sales Talk
Kings Road Chelsea
Samba De Negra

Fabienne Delsol’s new album Four is a culmination of a year or so’s activity at Toerag studios. The big change this time around is the co-production by Fabienne alongside Luke Oldfield, himself a long-time engineer and producer at Toerag. Though swathed in the same toil and tears of her previous three solo albums, Four has a more nuanced and mature sound, rooted in psych whilst retaining some snappy French pop and ‘60s garage styles of auld. There is also a mass of complimentary instruments, in particular the Mellotron is a welcome and worthy addition to many of the tracks. The contemporary and original songs 'I'll Never Be Lonely Again' and 'See How They Run' are masterfully crafted for Fabienne’s distinct delivery, and both feature a strong ‘60s groove in-keeping with her trademark sound, the latter being a contender for the highlight of this classy album.

As is archetypal of a Fabienne Delsol LP, carefully chosen covers are lovingly interpreted via Fabienne’s delicate voice – take Lyme and Cybelle’s ‘Follow Me’, itself a wonderful heavy-handed garage-folk jaunt, or the stunning take on the Human Beinz’ second album opener ‘Face’, a spellbindingly solid piece - praise indeed to the assembled players on both. A lifelong devotee of “the Quo”, it’s no surprise then to hear Fabienne tackling a Spare Parts album track, only here ‘When I Awake’ is pared-back and sparkling, whilst Francoise Hardy’s smouldering French classic ‘J’ai Fait Du Lui Un Reve’ is reimagined with a sumptuous air of the ethereal, with stark emotion in that voice and slowly building up tonal layers as the track progresses - you’ll struggle to hear anything as haunting this year. 

TRACK LISTING

1 – See How They Run
2 – Ladder
3 – Door Knob
4 – So Many Could Not
5 – When I Awake
6 – The Face
7 – No Love To Give
8 – J'ai Fait De Lui Un Reve
9 – Follow Me
10 – I'll Never Be Lonely Again
11 – Hurtin' Kind

Four has a more nuanced and mature sound, rooted in Mellotron-drenched psych whilst retaining some snappy French pop and ‘60s garage styles. The original songs are masterfully crafted for Fabienne’s distinct delivery, and both feature a strong ‘60s groove. Carefully chosen covers are lovingly interpreted – take Lyme and Cybelle’s ‘Follow Me’, a heavy-handed garage-folk jaunt, or the stunning take on the Human Beinz’ second album opener ‘Face’. A lifelong devotee of “the Quo”, Fabienne tackles a Spare Parts album track, whilst Francoise Hardy’s smouldering French classic ‘J’ai Fait Du Lui Un Reve’ is ethereally reimagined. 

Fabienne moved to London in 1996, almost immediately joining the Bristols, a then studio project consisting of Liam Watson and Ed Deegan, two producer-engineers at Toerag Studios. After two albums, a few singles and several tours of Europe, the Bristols came to an end. Eager to carry on singing, Fabienne went solo. With the help of Liam Watson producing, Fabienne recorded her first album No Time For Sorrows concentrating on a more elaborate but similar style she had previously experienced with the Bristols. 

Put together in studio down-time and ably backed by Toe Rag's stable of musicians, On My Mind features Fabienne's customary mixture of both English and French lyrics sung with plenty of coquettish charm. The album marks something of a departure from the jaunty beat-pop and ye-ye of her previous albums however, there's a definite autumnal feel to several of the tracks, putting you in mind of what the much mooted Francoise Hardy/Nick Drake collaboration might have yielded. 

Love Record Stores Edition available instore from 10am on Saturday September 4th, any remaining copies will be available on online from 9pm on the same day.
Limited to one per person.

The classic debut album from Grammy-nominated Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, 'Fatou' was originally released in 2011 to great critical acclaim and features guests Toumani Diabaté on kora, Tony Allen on drums and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass. Since the release, Fatoumata's profile has further grown thanks to her features with Disclosure, Gorillaz and Africa Express.
To celebrate this year's Love Record Stores initiative, the release now sees a special limited edition yellow vinyl pressing.

2023 marks the big comeback of Fatoumata Diawara.

After LAMOMALI (the afro-pop project of -M- awarded a Victoire de la Musique (French Grammy equivalent) and a double platinum album), her solo album FENFO (nominated for the Grammy Awards and the Victoires de la Musique) and successful international collaborations (Gorillaz, Disclosure…), one of Africa's greatest voices presents LONDON KO. Distinguished guests (-M-, Angie Stone, Roberto Fonseca, Yemi Alade, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest) and 6 tracks co-produced with Damon Albarn: a perfect combination between synthetic sounds and traditional Malian rhythms; a dive into an eclectic and an absolut avant-garde universe. Bamako versus London, London Ko, a story to follow and share!

TRACK LISTING

1. Nsera
2. Somaw
3.Sete
4. Seguen
5. Massa Den
6. Mogokan
7. Blues
8. Moussoya
9. Netara
10.Yada
11. Tolon
12. Dambe
13. Dakan
14. Maya

Two killers from the Ebb stable back to back! On side A Floyd Dixon hits us with the brilliant jivin' rock & roller "Ooh Little Girl", while on the flip Tony Harris, JJ Jones And Band deliver hollering slinkie slowie "Try This Li'l Ole Heart".

Recorded for Benin’s Communist revolution, ‘Rhythm Revolution’ is a rare and truly unique Afrobeat record - it’s rumoured only 200 copies of the original release survived.

Ferry Djimmy was a schoolteacher, former boxer, and a personal friend of Muhammad Ali and Fela Kuti. He was later Jacques Chirac’s personal bodyguard.

Recorded at the Satel Studio in Cotonou, the album is one of the toughest, wildest and deepest slices of Afro-Funk cut - with raw African rhythms, distortion, energy and wit.

Alongside nods to Hendrix, Kuti and James Brown, there is something truly unique about Ferry Djimmy’s musical legacy.

A must-have for Afrobeat, Afro Funk and Psych collectors.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hard fuzz and clatter here from a Benin revolutionary.. Ferry wields his guitar like a man possessed, issuing wah-wah bombardments and frenzied solos; whilst a whole array of yet-to-be-sampled breaks thump away in the back. Real deal shit!

TRACK LISTING

Be Free
Atakpa DC9
When I Come In The Road
Brest DC10
Yong Revolution
Carry Me Blak
Antiga
Ichango
A Were We Coco
Egbemi Black
Love Love
Start To Pray
Oluwa Loranmi Nichai
Toba Walemi
Chikri Man
My Dad Has Me To Kanm

The Room is a collection of folkloric pieces from various regions around South America, as interpreted by Fabiano do Nascimento and Sam Gendel, on 7-string nylon guitar and soprano saxophone, respectively. Presented with purity and focus, soaring and lamenting, this album presents a unique journey through lesser-known musical landscapes and traditions stretching from Argentina to the Amazon.

Sam Gendal, the Californian saxophonist – perhaps best-known for his thoughtful collaborations with Moses Sumney and bassist Sam Wilkes – has long been honing slippery improvisations, pitch-bending his harmonies and sliding over rhythms. The ambient-jazz musician offers unpredictable, impressionistic takes on R&B hits from the '90s and early '00s, tackling songs by Beyoncé, Aaliyah, and Erykah Badu. Sam Gendel's ascension to beloved ambient-jazz savant has been fuelled, in part, by the inexhaustibility of his output.

Fabiano is a Rio de Janeiro-born, LA-based multi-string guitarist, composer and producer who has developed his own sound that is ever-expansive, sometimes called retro-futuristic brazilian music, borrowing from the traditions of samba and choro while echoing elements of modern jazz, experimental & electronic.

TRACK LISTING

1. Foi Boto
2. Capricho
3. Astral Flowers
4. Kewere
5. Cores
6. Txera
7. Até De Manhã
8. Poeira
9. Tupi
10. Daiana

Recorded at his home studio in Los Angeles (2020) the album is fundamentally the sound of a man alone with his instruments.
Utilizing a variety of guitars, including 6, 7 and 10 strings, Oktav guitar and electric baritone guitar, alongside a host of pedals and synthesizers, Fabiano tracked imagined landscapes with expressive, expansive improvisations, which tend toward the more ambient and atmospheric reaches of his recent output.

Adopting Hermeto Pascoal's concept of Universal Music, a rejection of nationalistic tendencies in order to express all of one's musical influences all at once, Fabiano avoided leaning too heavily on any particular musical language, without denying his own musical roots.

After studying classical piano as a child, the Rio de Janeiro native discovered the guitar aged 10. Studying under his late uncle, Lucio Nascimento, he eventually left Brazil for LA, where he soon became an in- demand player for his distinct and authentic sound. He has since released seven albums under his own name and collaborated with renowned Brazilian artists including Arthur Verocai and Airto Moreira, as well as experimental US saxophonist Sam Gendel.

Mundo Solo (Do Nascimento's eighth), was recorded in one take per track, with occasional overdubs and a few appearances from collaborators and friends Julien Canthelm (drums on Etude 1), Ajurina Zwarg, (percussion on CPMV) and Gabe Noel (Bass on Curumim).

Fabiano Do Nascimento's consummate mastery of his instrument has afforded him a freedom of expression few can claim. Blending the emotional with the elemental, Mundo Solo is a stunning snapshot of solitude and the beauty which can blossom within it.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Abertura
A2. Curumim 2
A3. Paperstrings
A4. Agua De Estrellas
A5. Bari
A6. Etude 1
A7. Meianoite
A8. Reflections
A9. Coisa
B1. Coisa 2
B2. CPVM
B3. Txaii
B4. Tempo
B5. De Manha
B6. Dormenor

"Ykytu" is Brasilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento’s fourth album for Now-Again Records. Produced by Nascimento’s longtime engineer Jason Hiller, this album is do Nascimento’s first solo guitar album and, like his previous album, Preludio, is reliant on do Nascimento’s own compositions, with a little help from like-minded musical travelers. In keeping with the trajectory of his previous albums, including Dança dos Tempos and Tempo dos Mestres, Ykytu follows folkloric Brasilian music, Brasilian jazz, bossa-nova and samba as experienced through the mind and able fingers of an expansive musician, this time in a minimalist, meditative manner. “Even though this album is a bit experimental and even abstract at times, It is meant to be a calming and easy listening experience,” do Nascimento offers.

“I choose to keep the songs and arrangements intentionally very bare and stripped down. Just adding few layers and colors here and there.” The album came together during the Covid-19 pandemic, but one hears anything but isolation in Ykytu’s grooves. Do Nascimento performed the album almost entirely with a Strimon Timeline pedal, with a few loops and overdubs, and the result is a full-fledged, if quiet and subtle, conversation Do Nascimento has with himself, as he ruminates about this stage in his life, in his musical journey, and his music’s place in the world. Ykytu means "wind" in the indigenous Brazilian Guarani language. In his own way, as he was quarantined in Los Angeles, Do Nascimento has succeded in journeying outwards, in heeding the call of the open world. At the same time, he has remained true to the spirit and calling of his forebears, hearing their whispers, amplifying them, augmenting them, and allowing them to flow outwards. “...Based in Los Angeles, a continent away from his homeland, Nascimento draws from a deep love of Brazilian rhythms and pays homage to his mentors…His music is beautiful and transcendent and… at this time and place – a balm” – KCRW

TRACK LISTING

A1. Curumn
A2. Meditacao
A3. Novo Dia
A4. Noite
A5. Stalgmites
A6. Ykytu

B1. Pelas Ruas
B2. Alta Paz
B3. Corrida
B4. Flower Of Life
B5. Planalto
B6. Rio Tapajos

“No Longer is a suite of six absorbing, patient reveries on conflicted concupiscence and encroaching darkness by Berkeley songwriter Frank Ene, who composed the material in a period of solitude following the demise of his noise-pop group Pure Bliss. Ene abstained from socializing to write the songs, venturing outside mostly to work in the basement of a frame-shop or observe students on the nearby UC Berkeley campus, vintage self-help paperbacks stuffed in his pockets.

When it came time to record, he opted to play nearly every instrument himself. ‘Some songs are affirmations,’ he said. ‘The saddest ones I can’t remember writing, as if someone entered my mind and body in a really brutal way.’ “Suffused with an atmosphere of slow-simmering tension, No Longer traffics in understated grooves reminiscent of latter-era Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, with Ene’s rich voice somehow sounding at once wispy and full-bodied.

‘Flesh In The Womb,’ one of the songs to feature songwriter and Fresh & Onlys guitarist Wymond Miles, channels the lasciviousness of Serge Gainsbourg as well as the beguiling sparseness of Dean Blunt. The lyrics to ‘Housing Alcove,’ a crushing meditation on childhood trauma, reveal competing, interconnected feelings of vulnerability and ambition (a duality captured by the evocative album art). A dynamic, repeat listen, No Longer stands among the most musically arresting and emotionally contoured Bay Area solo debuts in recent memory.” —Sam Lefebvre

The French feel good maestros over at Treasure, dig up another haul of glorious gold for ears to wrap around. F.R dusts off the goods on this find, delivering three functional and fearsome reworks of certifiable classic cuts, that will have the dancefloor in the palm of your hands.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Muddy
B1. Stronger Than Pride
B2. Nothin Can Come

The French feel-good maestros over at Treasure, dig up another pair of gems from the vaults. This time F.R delivers two more killer reworks of certified classic cuts, that will have the dancefloor in the palm of your hands, anytime of year.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Pearls
B1. Makes Me Wonder

The Treasure team keep digging and uncovered another pair of gems. More reworked classic tracks from F.R. for today’s more select dancefloors.

Continuer à danser.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Georgie Porgy
B1. Paradise

Continuing their quest, the Treasure team has unearthed another enchanting bunch of gems. Introducing a new compilation of revamped classic tracks from F.R, meticulously tailored to meet the refined preferences of today's dance connoisseurs.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Canny Hot (Vocal)
A2. Canny Hot (Dub)
B1. Delicated
B2. Daddy’s Face

Mainly instrumental album from these legendary Peel faves. For fans of Kranky / Payola etc.

Fuck-Off Machete are the latest beautiful new animal born from the fertile Glasgow scene. Quick on the draw and a force to be reckoned with, they formed in 2003 after the demise of bassist & vocalist Natasha Noramlys previous band Ganger (Domino), and began recording their debut album a mere three months after inception. Fuck-Off Machete's music is as strong as it is catchy, displaying a stripped-back and raw three-piece dynamic. Fractious guitars flanked by mighty bass and solid rhythms propel the centrepiece of vocals simultaneously both innocent and commanding. Descriptions such as 'noise-pop' do little to describe the pulverising hooks and seductive stage presence, and references such as Sonic Youth, Polvo, and Joy Division will still leave you unprepared.

After many delays, Sorcerer is please as punch to finally reissue the debut LP from 1987 by Milwaukee space-rock gods, F/i: Why Not Now?… Alan! Available for the first time on the format since its initial release, it remains a Holy Grail item for lovers of cosmic rock & roll sounds from Underground Amerika in the 1980s. F/i had been churning out tape upon tape of experimental electronics since the early ‘80s. Influenced by Krautrock (particularly Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel) and the harsh noise of Industrialists Throbbing Gristle and early SPK, by the mid ‘80s they morphed into a fully-fledged “rock” band, albeit one incorporating all of the above. This LP is the perfect synthesis of these sounds: grimy, lo-fi ‘rock’ with elements of industrial clang and extended, Hawkwind-ish space-rock jams; from the two-step cosmic churn of “Electric Waltz” to the ‘Neubauten-style bang & bash of “Zombie Theme”. Remastered by Mikey Young, the sleeve perfectly replicating the original, our edition is a limited edition of 500 copies.

The fertility of the Cuban music scene in the 1970s was rich and blooming.

FA-5's self-titled album from 1976 is a perfect example of the energy and vitality emanating from the country's musicians and marks the next release in Mr Bongo's Cuban Classics series. A unique musical fusion that encompasses Latin rock, funk, soul, disco and Afro- Cuban rhythms to form a diverse and alluring album.

The exquisite, funk- fuelled opener , 'Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon', is maybe the most-known song on the album. It is a super catchy cut powered by a dynamite bassline, joy- filled horn playing and splashes of drum breaks that will ignite any dancefloor.

The record surfs through genres as it progresses. 'Di Tu Que Haras Sin Mi' and 'Paso Sin Mas' lean back with a West Latin rock / AOR flavour to their grooves. Elsewhere, the dreamy, cosmic, Balearic- tinged 'El Blue' and fuzzy funk- rock breaks of 'Pero Lo Cierto Es Que No Quise Mas' further show the breadth of styles at play on the LP. Another big highlight on the album is the Latin, discofunk sounds of 'Casa De Ladrillo', which morphs into a cover version of the Commodores 'Brick House' . The result is a superb alternative take on a muchloved classic.

Released on the state-owned Areito Records, the album was directed by Nestor Caballero , who arranged the songs alongside Aneiro Tano and Osvaldo Caraballoso . The prolific Tony Tano produced the album with the recording courtesy of Tony Lopez who worked with Juan Pablo Torres, Los Reyes 73, Grupo Los Yoyi, Raul Gomez and many other Cuban greats that we have featured in the Cuban Series.

A fabulous, under-the-radar classic, that will enrich any collection.

TRACK LISTING

Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon
Di Tu Que Haras Sin Mi
Paso Sin Mas
El Blue
Casa De Ladrillo
Al Recordar No Dude
Salga Y Baile
Pero Lo Cierto Es Que No Quise Mas

'I'm not here to change your mind about Dusty Springfield or Shostakovich or Tupac Shakur or synthpop. I'm here to change your mind about your mind.' There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what's going on inside us when we listen.

Michel Faber explores two big questions: how we listen to music and why we listen to music. To answer these he considers biology, age, illness, the notion of 'cool', commerce, the dichotomy between 'good' and 'bad' taste and, through extensive interviews with musicians, unlocks some surprising answers. From the award-winning author of The Crimson Petal and the White and Under the Skin, this curious and celebratory book reflects Michel Faber's lifelong obsession with music of all kinds.

Listen will change your relationship with the heard world.

With engineer / producer Alex Newport and Fat Mike on production duties Fabulous Disaster are charged up and ready to steal your underwear with an all-out punk rock "Panty Raid!". 14 songs that are true to the band's gritty live sound, while retaining their knack for melody and hooks. Fabulous Disaster are up there with other women bands like The Donnas and The Distillers.

All girl band on Pink & Black : torn fishnet stockings tattoos and punk-fire. They play tighter than an elephant-sized cork shoved in a gnat's arse! It's all about the devastation and the smeared lipstick! Touring and more tattoos to follow.

"How To Ruin Everything" sees Face To Face reaffirm their status as one of the 1990s new-punk trailblazers who have often been cited by bands like Blink 182 and the Alkaline Trio as major influences. Trever Keith, Scott Shiflett and Pete Parada formed as a trio in 1991 with a passion for old skool punk rock and this direct, no nonsense approach is there to be heard on this 2002 punk epistle.

FEATURING... Chappell Roan! Emma Chamberlain! Madeline Argy! Mustafa! Brigette Lundy-Paine and Jane Schoenbrun see the TV glow! Teenage boys! Glorious fashion! And loads more… Grab yourself a copy, go on. 

Starring... Charli XCX, D-Block Europe, Dominic Sessa, Nia Archives, and Kristen McMenamy. Plus! High art, hard places, raw visions, the biggest small town in America, and a phone call with Goldie while he makes a pizza.

Volume 4. Issue 19

Fresh faces, FACE families, ties that bind, lots of dancing and Willy Chavarria's favourite people.

Launched by Nick Logan in London in 1980, The Face is the original, definitive style magazine.

From the beginning it was a cultural trailblazer, covering music, fashion, film, TV, society, politics and global current affairs. And it covered them with invention, innovation, wit and class – and not to mention with groundbreaking graphic design.

The gallery of cover stars is as eclectic as it is iconic: from Kate Moss to Alexander McQueen, New Order to The Stone Roses, Grace Jones to David Beckham, Beyoncé to Björk. The talent behind the stories was legendary, too, as the magazine worked with the best writers, photographers, stylists and designers in the world. The Face didn’t only report on the culture. It became the culture. For over 25 years, The Face was at the heart of British and international creativity.

Chicago trio’s third album (ex-Disappears). Chicago trio FACS have evolved very quickly in the span of their three year existence. "Void Moments" is their third & latest off¬ering; a dark & claustrophobic album with rivulets of seismic beauty peeking through the din. Formed in the wake of the dissolution of Disappears, guitarist Brian Case & drummer Noah Leger's project is the logical continuation of the trails blazed in their former outfit. Since their 2017 debut "Negative Houses", the band have reworked, retooled & reshaped their sound, and with the addition of bassist Alianna Kalaba on 2018's "Lifelike", their evolution has coalesced into something distinct. Gone is the bone-rattling minimalism of "Negative Houses"; "Void Moments" o¬ffers an abstraction of the melodic elements that crept into "Lifelike" and contorts them toward a new horizon.

Where "Lifelike" rang with a metallic, near-industrial racket, "Void Moments" cloaks the music behind a black velvet curtain of sonance, obfuscating the band's most direct set of songs to date. "Boy" kicks o¬ with a lurch of vocals and Case's sinewy guitar-line guiding a stoic march. By the time Kalaba drops in with the bass, the track morphs into a milky swirl, leading into the chiming swirl of "Teenage Hive’s buzzing churn. "Casual Indiff¬erence" expertly fuses the band's rhythmic pulse with a sombre dissolve of guitars, vocals and backwards-masked drums. "Version" closes out side one with lush surges of Case's shoegaze'd guitar & voice weaving around the rhythm section. Side two careens in with Leger's cavernous drums, with Kalaba and Case riding alongside.

The album's final two tracks "Lifelike" and "Dub Over" cascade into one another, becoming one & act as a perfect analogy to "Void Moments" mutability, both musically & lyrically. Despite its foggy presence, "Void Moments" still careens toward the light. By embracing fluidity, FACS continue to evolve & refuse to be ensnared by genre. "Void Moments" ruminates on humanity's increasing refusal of identity, not only by our increasing reliance on technology, but also within our society's challenging of societal & gender norms. "Void Moments" feels one step closer to oblivion, but its sounds are a welcome salve

TRACK LISTING

1. Boy
2. Teenage Hive
3. Casual Indifference
4. Version
5. Void Walker
6. Lifelike
7. Dub Over

"Chicago trio FACS was founded in 2017 by former Disappears members Brian Case & Noah Leger, along with their bandmate Jonathan van Herik. After van Herik amicably parted ways with the group just before their debut album "Negative Houses"'s release, Case & Leger recruited longtime friend Alianna Kalaba (Cat Power, We Ragazzi) to play bass. "Lifelike" is their sophomore release; six tracks clocking in at half an hour, carrying forward the musical trail blazed by the debut towards a new frontier. "Lifelike" occupies a space in between the band's debut & Case & Leger's work with Disappears, applying minimalism & space in compositions that reside somewhere near the realms of post-punk, art-rock, shoegaze, industrial music & post-rock. "Lifelike" however adds a more melodic sensibility, without sacrificing any of the debut's punishing sonic muscle, with a discernible audial force perceivable thru the speakers (credit due to engineer Jeremy Lemos' recording via Electrical Audio as well as John Congleton's mastering for accurately capturing the punishing heft of the band's live sound)"

Kicking off with the lumbering "Another Country", whose opening drone lulls the listener into a trance before Leger's drums crack the earth below. The band veers close to This Heat territor y here, with Kalaba's minimal bass throb and Case's nearly unrecognizable guitar loops and multi-tracked voice punctuating the spaces between. Album standout "In Time" careens with purpose with cascading sheets of guitar noise over the rhythm sections ever-advancing march, while "XUXA"s melodic washes of monochrome eases the tension ever so slightly. Side two awaits, with the anxiety-ridden opener "Anti-Body" and the claustrophobic "Loom State"s clanging aura of menace. "Lifelike" closes with "Total Histor y", whose syrupy shuffle belies the blunt-force trauma of its closing minutes, with the sheer weight of sonic force seeming to blow out the speakers it emanates from. A phoenix returning to the ashes from whence it came. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's a beguiling beast this, brimming with the spirit of post-punk but rife with interesting fragments of electronica, concrète minimalism and art-rock posturing. Heavy and immersive, but imbued with influence from all over the musical spectrum.

TRACK LISTING

1. Another Country
2. In Time
3. XUXA
4. Anti-Body
5. Loom State
6. Total History

FACS sprung forth in early 2017 , Brian Case, Jonathan van Herik & Noah Leger were formerly of Chicago band Disappears. "Negative Houses" is their debut recording; an abstraction of their former outfit, even more minimal and bare than what came before. "Negative Houses" approaches the stark, gothy post-punk previously perfected more rhythmically and abstract than in Disappears, with Leger's motorik, machine-like drumming taking the forefront (see the tunes 'Skylarking' and 'Others') and van Herik's guitar alternating between slashes of dissonant ambience and percussive accent. Case switches from guitar to bass in FACS, adding an economical throb to the band's drive on songs like 'Just A Mirror' & the album's centerpiece, the near nine-minute, sax-soaked tour-de-force 'Houses Breathing', whose electric heartbeat lumbers forward, sounding like an outtake from Cold Storage Studios circa 1979. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Skylarking
2. Silencing
3. Houses Breathing
4. Just A Mirror
5. Others
6. Primary
7. Exit Like You
8. All Futures

The duality of “man” is a subject that has been explored in art for centuries, from writings of the Bible to Descartes, all the way up to filmmakers like Lynch, Cronenberg, & Carpenter. Who is your “true self” & what do they want? With their sixth studio album 'Wish Defense' (again for longtime home Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, long look in the mirror to face themselves.

The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik - who stepped away from the group just before their debut album 'Negative Houses' was released in 2018 - replacing longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band’s more recent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways - the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhouse drummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group’s guitar player and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This role reversal has helped the band’s dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective than before, now revisiting the trio’s long-going collaboration with some distance and time.

Case notes that the lyrics on 'Wish Defense' revolve around doppelgängers or "doubles”, tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations. Look no further than the album’s title track; “Enter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wish defense / Is it real? / You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / A public / Performance”. Case lays out the entire album’s theme in one stanza; Are your actions & emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that “other” person you put forward? Case says that ultimately the sentiment is “...don’t let the bastards get you down, there’s something beyond this moment, like hope - but not in the naive belief that ultimately people are good”. 'Wish Defense's artwork is also a subtle reference to 'Negative Houses' art, returning to that album’s black & white starkness & minimalism. The album’s checkerboards everywhere are offset reflections of themselves, mirrored with the album’s lyrics printed front & center on the cover. Everything is out in the open.

A final note; 'Wish Defense' is the last album engineered by Steve Albini. Two days were recorded at Electrical Audio in early May of 2024 before Steve’s untimely passing, with renowned engineer & friend Sanford Parker stepping in to finish the session 24 hours later, tracking the last bits of vocals and overdubs. Longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the album as Albini would have; in Electrical Audio’s A room, off the tape, using Albini’s notes about the session.

TRACK LISTING

1. Talking Haunted
2. Ordinary Voices
3. Wish Defense
4. A Room
5. Desire Path
6. Sometimes Only
7. You Future

Chicago trio’s fourth album in four years (ex-Disappears).

Recorded at Electrical Audio by Sanford Parker

Chicago trio FACS never stop pushing forward; they’ve honed and refined their stark, minimal scrape and clatter for four years and counting, having risen out of the ashes of beloved Chicago band Disappears in 2018 with the bone-rattling intensity of Negative Houses. The trio return in 2021 with Present Tense, their fourth album and perhaps their sharpest statement as a band.

Opener “XOUT” barrels forward like a tank, with Case’s guitar chiming like warning bells, until the climax comes crashing down, glitching out near the close. “Strawberry Cough” comes next, its fusion of corporeal playing and stately, electronic heartbeats punctured by random bursts of noise or backwards masked sounds. “Alone Without”, a track originally recorded for Adult Swim’s 2020 singles series appears next in different form; more menacing and serpentine. Side two opens with “General Public”, taking the loud/quiet dynamic as a jumping off point for the song’s unsettling seasick vibe. ‘How To See In the Dark” offers a brief respite, with its persistent, dark quietude that lingers until the song’s end. “Present Tense”, the album’s title track, offers up its first truly weird moment mid-song when the song changes mood distinctly, and the music drops out save for Case’s guitar and vocals. The album’s final track, the densely packed “Mirrored”, begins with a restrained, post-rock shuffle. The mind-scrambling cacophony that comes next takes its time to roll in, but once it does, it comes in waves, flipping back onto itself multiple times until it’s folded into oblivion.

FACS once again shuttered themselves into Electrical Audio with lauded engineer Sanford Parker to lay down the basic tracks and overdubs for Present Tense. This time, the band approached their songwriting from a different angle “Alone Without was the first song we recorded and we really built it in the studio” Case says, “Alianna and I played different instruments, and I think that freedom informed how the other songs developed. All the lyrics were random phrases on a big sheet and were put together as the songs took shape, so I feel like I was collecting these thoughts and trying to figure out how to process them as a big picture vs making complete ideas in individual songs.” Case adds ”...letting the songs go where they wanted, without steering them into what we all think a FACS album should be.” The change is palpable from last year’s claustrophobic and fried Void Moments, but Present Tense is still ALL FACS, albeit draped in a layer of haze. Paranoia in soft focus, perhaps?

TRACK LISTING

1. XOUT
2. Strawberry Cough
3. Alone Without
4. General Public
5. How To See In The Dark
6. Present Tense
7. Mirrored

RIYL: Unwound, MBV, The Jesus Lizard, SUUNS, METZ, The Dead C, Echo & The Bunnymen, Liars, This Heat, PIL. Everything eventually turns to dust. Everyone knows this, but few want to acknowledge that our time on this mortal coil is fleeting, preferring to remain in stasis, in hopes that "the end" will pass them by. Chicago trio FACS (guitarist Brian Case, bassist Alianna Kalaba & drummer Noah Leger) have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic post-punk over the course of four ever-evolving albums, beginning with 2017's "Negative Houses" thru 2021's landmark "Present Tense", which saw the trio dig deep into the gaping maw of a black hole & pulling back whatever debris they could grasp onto.

Their newest "Still Life In Decay" comes as an addendum to the last album - a "post-event review" if you will. "Still Life In Decay" starts with a squall of white noise before collapsing into the band already locked into "Constellation"'s lumbering groove, with Case's guitar a ghostly presence, appearing & disappearing in washes of gauzy feedback throughout the track. FACS have never been more locked in as a unit, and "Still Life In Decay" is a decidedly more focused effort. The apocalyptic chaos that defined their previous album "Present Tense" is waved away in favor of an examination of events with cumbrous clarity. FACS are a heavy band, but they don’t necessarily FEEL like one (see side two's "Still Life", where Case's fluttering, melodic guitar lines are buoyed by the insistent, underlying pulse of the bass & drums). As a rhythm section, Kalaba & Leger dance & twist around each other like a double helix, forming the DNA of what makes FACS special.

Collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove as opposed to inside it, creating a lattice where Case weaves guitar lines like creeping vines, which makes the moments on "Still Life In Decay" where the band DOES lock in even more powerful. When the guitar punctures the lock-step swing of "When You Say", it hits like a hammer. Case utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia; repeating phrases & holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touching on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity & meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload. The album is a decidedly local affair; recorded once again at Chicago's famed Electrical Audio by renowned engineer Sanford Parker & mixed at his Hypercube Studio in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood & mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Constellation
2. When You Say
3. Slogan
4. Class Spectre
5. Still Life
6. New Flag

Following on from 2011’s debut album Enter Castle Perilous and Christmas single Lucybel, Factory Star return with a new 10” mini-LP on Occultation Recordings.

Asked to comment, Factory foreman Martin Bramah merely muttered something about “channelling the Dark Spark...”

Formed from the ashes of Tomorrow's Gone, Faded Grey have been honing their sound for the last two years and these are their strongest recordings so far. Fast driven hardcore with a ton of heart and sincerity that can't fail.

The debut album from legendary Sheffield band Faerground Accidents sees a brilliant collection of late night songs, a missive from bohemia laced with perfect melodies and a bright and thrilling rush of neon melodies and great acidic lyrics from a band that Adam Ant calls the best new band in the UK and are also tipped for success by the likes of Richard Hawley and Jarvis Cocker.

“With witty vignettes comparable with the bedsit psycho-sexual melodrama of the likes of old Moz himself, witty kiss offs (“I went to the supermarket after every one of those/And I spent my last pennies on a value meal for one”) capturing the futility, fumblings and fragility of affairs of the heart, it’s a rather smart tune indeed..” GODISINTHETV

“An eclectic group that merges the fey eroticism of Pulp with the solid chops of a machismo rock band. Faerground Accidents have managed to forge a distinctive style that’s both enigmatic and direct. And, quite frankly, that I can’t get enough of!”
Lee Adcock (Dandelion Radio).

TRACK LISTING

Empty :
1. The Same Things
2. Woeful Small Town
3. My Former Baby
4. She Makes Me Want To Die
5. Please Stay

Full:
6. Gaslighter
7. Into The Wild
8. Sleep In The Woods
9.Claustrophobic
10. The Moralist
11. Ether Girl

Kate Fagan took the Chicago punk scene by storm in the early 80’s with her self-released single “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool,” which became the best-selling single ever by a local artist at the legendary Wax Trax! Records. Today, Captured Tracks is thrilled to present an expanded, re-mastered edition of I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool as a full-length vinyl album. Fagan wrote “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool” after moving to Chicago from New York in the late 70’s. The track is a critique of the emergent “hipster” attitude of the disco crowd and the posturing she was witnessing among her peers in New York. With its surf-inspired drum machine, irresistible melody, and defiant lyrics, “Too Cool” was immediately embraced by club DJs, radio stations, and independent record stores. Its b-side, “Waiting For The Crisis,” also gained notice for its raw musical style and politically charged Reagan-era lyrics, which still resonate today. In the years that followed, Fagan continued to break new ground. In 1980, she co-founded the enormously popular ska band Heavy Manners (whose dance parties are still legendary), and with them opened shows for The Clash, Grace Jones, Peter Tosh, The English Beat, and many more.

The “Too Cool” single became a sought-after rarity among record collectors for decades after its initial release, until Manufactured Recordings gave it a proper reissue in 2016. Captured Tracks’ expanded 2023 follow-up features four unreleased songs, which encapsulate the gutsy, new wave energy that pulses through the original single. The final track, the reggae-tinged “Say It”, features production from the reggae legend Peter Toshand Bob Marley’s guitarist Donald Kinsey, who flew in from Jamaica to record with Heavy Manners after witnessing their impassioned live show. While the 2016 reissue re-established Fagan’s cult-classic status for a new audience, this new expanded release solidifies her place in a tradition of trailblazing, powerhouse frontwomen.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool
2 Waiting For The Crisis
3 Master Of Passion
4 Come Over
5 Cover It Up
6 Take Your Chances
7 Something’s Wrong
8 Say It

The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. ‘South Atlantic Blues’ will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release.

Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. “His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in ’60s New York R&B and ’40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga.” New York Times

Scott Fagan’s story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building’s Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. “Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man,” says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. “Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth.”

‘South Atlantic Blues’ is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan’s dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works – the never-recorded soundtrack to ‘Soon’, the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in – and a documentary ‘Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan’ currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. In My Head
A2. Nickels And Dimes
A3. Crying
A4. The Carnival Is Ended
A5. South Atlantic Blues
B1. Nothing But Love
B2. Tenement Hall
B3. In Your Hands
B4. Crystal Ball
B5. Madam-moiselle

Scott Fagan’s debut album, ‘South Atlantic Blues,’ is a genuine lost classic - a mystical, mythical and deeply soulful masterpiece.

Recorded when Scott was just 21, virtually homeless and with pennies to his name, it was released in 1968 on Atco Records but remained obscure, confounded by a series of frustrating near-misses. From being mentored by Doc Pomus to being discovered by Jasper Johns, Scott’s incredible story and music unfolds on ‘South Atlantic Blues,’ remastered and reissued for the first time ever on CD and vinyl on Saint Cecilia Knows (the label that also released the acclaimed Mickey Newbury box set, ‘An American Trilogy) in association with Scott Fagan’s own lil’fish records.

Steeped in delicate psych, soul and resonant acoustic guitars “that stroke and stone you to the core” (Shindig). It’s an epic song cycle about Fagan’s hard-scrabble life in the Virgin Islands, where he was raised and lived until 19 before returning to his birthplace of New York City. A teenage prodigy, mentored and managed by songwriters Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Scott recorded early material for Columbia and Bert Berns’ BANG label before signing with Atco. In 1969, artist Jasper Johns discovered ‘South Atlantic Blues’ in a cut-out bin, fell in love with the record, and used it as the inspiration for three artworks, known as ‘Scott Fagan Record.’

The pieces are now housed in the permanent collections of MOMA, the Met and the Walker Art Center. Born on 52nd Street, Scott was the son of a sax player and singer who fraternized with jazz greats. That familial connection with music would come full circle when Fagan discovered he was the biological father of songwriter Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. They did not meet until the premiere of a documentary about Doc Pomus in 2013. A conversation between the two is included in the liner notes of this CD release. The initial pressing of the vinyl comes as a limited edition, hand-numbered, 180g vinyl with a reproduction of Jasper Johns’ 1970 lithograph, ‘Scott Fagan Record,’ as cover art, and includes a digital download.

The CD comes with extensive liner notes, rare photos, and a download of five bonus tracks—the original 1965 demo for Doc Pomus as well as a recently-discovered acetate, the only copy in existence of a previously-unknown Doc Pomus song, All For The Sake Of Love, that only Scott Fagan recorded. 

TRACK LISTING

1. In Your Head
2. Nickels And Dimes
3. Crying
4. The Carnival Is Ended
5. South Atlantic Blues
6. Nothing But Love
7. Tenement Hall
8. In Your Hands
9. Crystal Ball
10. Madame-Moiselle.

Bonus Tracks (download With CD Only) :
1. They Think She’s Crying Cause She’s Happy
2. When You’re Lonely And You’re Blue
3. Bonua
4. I’ve Been So Lonely For So Long
5. All For The Sake Of Love

Recorded in 1995 and 1996, mostly in John Fahey’s room at a Salem, Oregon boarding house, the performances on ‘Proofs & Refutations’ prefigure the ornery turn of the page that marked Fahey’s final years, drawing another enigmatic rabbit from his seemingly bottomless musical hat.

Cloaked in the language of dogma - what is he proving? refuting? - this is Fahey dancing a jig in the Duchampian gap, jester cap bells a-jingling. True believers? He’s got something for you: an uncompromising vision that you can sneer at (“guy can’t play anymore and refuses to concede!”) or embrace as evidence of his genius (“the reinventor does it again!”). Skeptics? He’s there with you, too: sending up the fallacy of certitudes altogether. Institutions, systems, accepted wisdoms. Heroes. Alternative facts, indeed.

Right out the gate, Fahey re-materializes before us, somewhere between Oracle of Delphi and Clown Prince at Olympus. Mounting a thundering dialectic from on high, ‘All the Rains’ resembles nothing else in his extensive discography - betraying roots in everything from Dada to Episcopal liturgical chant - and contains nary a plucked guitar note. You can’t fool him! When the lap steel of yore appears on ‘F for Fake’, it serves more as soundbed for an extended sequence of vocal improvisations, running the gamut from wordless Bashoian caterwauling to free-form (but decidedly fake) Tuvan, even revealing a burnished falsetto in the process.

Fahey takes on a different kind of provocation in the two acoustic guitarbased tracks closing Side 1 - ‘Morning’ parts 1 and 2 - the first of four recordings in this session that have him wrestling with the ghost of Skip James, perhaps Fahey’s effort to wrench the “bitter, hateful old creep” (his words) back into the grave.

Anchoring Side 2 is the two-part ‘Evening, Not Night’, the second half of his extended cathexis on James (and the latter’s avowed castration complex - another story for another day, perhaps). Bit of a chill in the air – where’s the impish Fahey from earlier? Unmistakably working through some psychic wounds here, we might think: the unheimlich rendered in glistening viscera. Or is he playing with our notions of authenticity, of his reputation as troubadour of raw emotional states, a pilgrim of the ominous, the simmering unconscious? These cards are kept decidedly close to the vest. The opening and closing pieces again feature Fahey’s guitar as drone soundbed - employing distortion, oscillation, and an altogether absurd quotient of reverb to create texture and harmonics that are - if we want to go there - not dissimilar to the sustained tonic clusters of Tibetan singing bowls, the hurdy gurdy, Hindustani classical music, or La Monte freaking Young.

Portions of this material appeared on obscure late 1990s vinyl in the 7” or double-78 rpm format, but as a ‘session’ it has lain dormant more than a quarter century now. Taken together, we can now see these tracks as secret blueprints to latter-day Fahey provocations, several years prior to records like 1997’s ‘City of Refuge’ and ‘Womblife’.

TRACK LISTING

All The Rains
F For Fake
Morning, Pt 1
Morning, Pt 2
For LMC2
Evening, Not Night, Pt 1
Evening, Not Night, Pt 2
Untitled (w/o Rain)

The Faint has always been perceived as a series of paradoxes: Nebraskans trafficking in electro pop anthems; a five-person outfit who insist on songwriting democracy; punk rockers laying down their guitars for a decidedly untypical kind of punk rock.

After touring tirelessly throughout the world on the heels of 2004’s Wet From Birth, the band returned to their native Omaha; renovating a building and creating a studio where they would write, record, and produce their fifth LP, Fasciinatiion, entirely on their own.

With Fasciinatiion, The Faint gave the world the realest representation of themselves to date. Imbued equally with the musical instincts and perspectives of each band member, “It’s all The Faint,” lead singer Todd Fink explains. “There’s no outside anything. It’s exactly what five people in The Faint could agree on. Or come close.”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Get Seduced
2. The Geeks Were Right
3. Machine In The Ghost
4. Fulcrum & Lever
5. Psycho
6. Mirror Error
7. I Treat You Wrong
8. Forever Growing Centipedes
9. Fish In A Womb
10. A Battle Hymn For Children

The Faint has always been perceived as a series of paradoxes: Nebraskans trafficking in electro pop anthems; a five-person outfit who insist on songwriting democracy; punk rockers laying down their guitars for a decidedly untypical kind of punk rock.

Things that don’t make sense at first often make sense later. In the creation of art, when the process is left up to the subconscious mind, when there is no preconceived concept, patterns still always emerge. Themes and recurring images, blurred in the moment, later become clear.

This is the case with The Faint’s sixth album 'Doom Abuse', an unexpected but also inevitable addition to their compellingly unusual catalog of music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Help In The Head
2. Mental Radio
3. Evil Voices
4. Salt My Doom
5. Animal Needs
6. Loss Of Head
7. Dress Code
8. Scapegoat
9. Your Stranger
10. Lesson From The Darkness
11. Unseen Hand
12. Damage Control

The delightful Fair Ohs release their second full length, Jungle Cats. Inspired by trips to North Africa, the lost music of forgotten tribes, San Francisco psych, James Brown’s unequalled dedication to the Holy Groove and Carlos f**kin’ Santana; Jungle Cats is a record to seduce to.

Fair Ohs formed four years ago in a haze of beer-soaked free love party-vibes. Eddy, Joe and Matt came together like young romantics, vowing to show everyone the meaning of true love. The years that followed the consummation of their musical marriage on that hot summer’s day saw them release a series of 7″ singles and cassettes – some shared with the likes of Women, Male Bonding, and Cold Pumas – that made people like Pitchfork say “hey, these guys are A-OK!”. But no one was prepared for the earth shattering power of debut album Everything Is Dancing. A record so inventive and hip-shakingly awesome that fans and critics alike regularly begged them for locks of hair, sweat-drenched t-shirts and babies. But Fair Ohs gave them nothing, the music was the gift they shared, not their love.

Everything Is Dancing was the sound of East African guitar music colliding with Indian ragas and Cuban rhythms in the hands of three shirtless London punk virtuosos. And it was rad. They toured after that, playing to the braying masses. All furious and drunk and hypnotic, they bewitched Europe and Great Britain, casting their magical musical spell in the tiniest of dives and the most sun soaked of festivals. But then they rested, and waited, and created. Setting the ‘desert vibe’ tone from opener Green Apple Milk – full of crackling, dusty Ethiopian jazz samples and three-part saxophone harmonies that eventually descend into a slow and psychedelic Santana and Earth-inspired desert trip – and featuring 2012’s ‘Salt Flats’ albeit a new far jazzier version of the hit flexi single - this is a record to be naked to…. A record to dance all night with your crush to…. An endless fiesta that Lionel Richie promised, but never delivered.

TRACK LISTING

1. Green Apple Milk
2. Citric Placid
3. Mayan Flex
4. Sleep
5. Panama Red Jets
6. Ya Mustafa
7. Silver Jade Mountain
8. Cayman Brac
9. Salt Flats
10. Mountain Bombs

There are plenty of performers who rock critics describe by using the label "primitive," but few if any can hold a candle to the greatest American rock primitive Jad Fair - With his wildly influential band Half Japanese or as a solo performer, Fair has constructed a prolific and extremely interesting career.

He writes and records songs that display an uncomplicated emotional directness, unselfconscious charm and warmth, and a genial simplicity that is beyond words. From Jad: "I set a goal for myself to release 100 albums in a year's time. I was able to pass that mark. I released over 150 albums. This album is a "best of" compilation of the songs recorded that year. It's 100 songs chosen from 160 albums."

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
Side 1
1. Worm Boy
2. Star
3. We Have To
4. Our Now Is Forever
5. We Made Ourselves A Promise
6. Not The Same No More
7. The Love Club
8. Rising Star
9. Garbage Man
10. Zombies Walk The Earth
11. Too Late
12. Together We Will
13. Witch
14. It Is Them
15. Choose Your Own Future
16. Embrace Love
17. June Or July
18. All Around Us
19. Sunshine Happiness
20. No Secret
21. Day In The Sun
22. Whenever
23. Ghost Of Frankenstein
24. Apple, Pear And Peach
25. Curses

Side 2
1. Love Love
2. So Far So Good
3. The House
4. Wonderful
5. Son Of A Gun
6. Stupid Kicks
7. Perfectly Dreadful
8. Them
9. Coffee
10. Run Away Home
11. Even Smaller
12. You And Me
13. Vicious Circle
14. Hear The Call
15. Our Eyes
16. Time For Love
17. The Laughing Monster
18. Invigorate Your Life
19. Got It Made
20. Stayed At Home
21. The Invasion
22. Honey Bear
23. Open The Door
24. On My Palm
25. Not Too Late

Disc 2
Side 1
1. Night Of The Devil Bat
2. Slime
3. Safety Net
4. Chase Away
5. Only One
6. Afraid Of Nothing
7. Life In The Suburbs
8. It's Wonderful
9. Mission Accomplished
10. True Love Is Here
11. Spinning Around
12. Your Wish
13. The Moth Man
14. Make The Pieces Fit
15. What Else Is New?
16. It's Alive
17. One Thing Only
18. The Welcome Mat
19. Sunshine
20. Out There
21. No One Knows For Sure
22. Our Way
23. Listen To The Birds
24. What Can We Do?
25. Viva Love

Side 2
1. Alright
2. Two Of A Kind
3. Pale Green Pants
4. The Word Yes
5. The Vampires Are Back
6. The Biggest Big
7. In Its Net
8. Over Our Heads
9. Without A Clue
10. Haunted Home
11. He Has His Nerve
12. The Knack
13. The Junk Pile
14. Probably Alright
15. Shrunken Head
16. Haunted Hill
17. How It's Done
18. In The Eyes
19. Invading Our Planet
20. Why?
21. Better Good Times
22. Right From The Start
23. Flashing Lights
24. Magic
25. It's Alright

Capturing the fraught moment in popular music history as reflected in and anticipated by Since I Left You (2000), the debut studio album from electronic music group The Avalanches.

Since I Left You has a reputation amongst its advocates that exceeds those of nearly all of its closest peers. Yet despite the inordinate amount of attention this album has received, it has never been thoroughly examined in context. While repeatedly celebrated for its artistry, technical skill, and emotional resonance - in particular its sample-based material and then-cutting edge technological feats within the electronic music genre - it has never been definitively placed in the world that produced it.

Charles Fairchild studies this album in a way no one else has. Since I Left You is placed in its historical, technological, and cultural contexts and is examined for the social and aesthetic attributes it was said to possess at the time of its release. There is a focus on the clear set of aesthetic aspirations that guided the album's creators and how those creators pasted together the fragments of many sound worlds.

In 1974 Jad and David Fair teamed up to form a band called Half Japanese. The route was simple, at first. If one pounded on drums the other could squeeze sounds from an electric guitar. There were no other band members to stay in tune with, so there was no particular reason for them to worry about tuning the guitar in a traditional manner or learning traditional chords. They were free from the start to express their music in their own way. They traded off the guitar and drumming rolls. Whichever one sang the words also played the guitar and the other one drummed. For a couple of years they wrote, recorded and performed this way, without the convention of more members. When they did decide to expand they went big. They first thought of recruiting an outside drummer, so that both could play guitars at the same time.

In 2014 Jad and David stripped things back to the roots. They went back to recording as a duo. One sang and played guitar, the other one drummed. 40 years had passed, but they slipped right back into the original roles and churned out a number of breath-stealing songs. 40 years later; 40 years better. One pick, two sticks and heart-warming vocals...... That's all they needed; two brothers, still rockin' the same damn deal! 

The words and primary voice are those of Jad Fair, that enduringly idiosyncratic artist revered in discerning pockets of the global indie rock underground for decades. Danielson’s Daniel Smith has long admired Fair, drawing inspiration from Half Japanese (the band Fair formed with his brother in the ‘70s) on through to his prolific career today. Their discussions of collaborating finally came to fruition when Joyful Noise Recordings designated Fair its “Artist In Residence” for 2014 and Danielson was tapped as one of 4 artists (including R. Stevie Moore; Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake; and Strobe Talbot) to record separate respective albums with him for a boxed-set limited release.

“Flattered and honored” is how Smith sums up his feelings about the project -- and grateful to get a game-plan for what always seemed a complementary pairing. Sounds Familyre will be doing their own non-limited release of Solid Gold Heart in June, on CD, digital and gold vinyl. The 11 tracks of sweet collaboration collected under said title sound like what you might expect, given the respective artists: gleaming tunes of sincere sing-speak, resplendent with sparkling back-up vocals and warmly melodic, inventive instrumentation; a sunshine-bright outlook of positive encouragement to keep “rockin’ on the side of gooood” -- because, after all, “We deserve chocolate cake/ We deserve apple pie/ Enjoy your life ...”

The collaborative process commenced with Fair sending Smith his unique vocal demos of recited lyrics with articulated mouthsound musical qualities (some bits remain in the final mixes). Smith then wrote music for each chosen track, eventually getting Fair and drummer Gilles Rieder into his Clarksboro, NJ studio to record their parts during a few hours break from touring. Aside from Smith’s own guitar-playing and singing throughout the album, there were contributions made by his brothers David and Andrew on percussion, and sisters Rachel and Megan along with wife Elin on vocals. Spicing things up at Fair’s behest were members of Texas art-polka band Brave Combo: Carl Finch on accordion and keys; Jeffrey Barnes on sax and woodwinds; and Danny O’Brien on trumpet. Bringing things full-circle was Kramer (Shockabilly, Bongwater, B.A.L.L. et al.) on bass, who also co-mixed and mastered the album.

The result is a beguiling blend that builds off each participant’s strengths, truly a fresh sum that is greater than its parts. “The goal was to make 3-minute pop songs, as accessible and fun and immediate as possible,” notes Smith. And that’s what you’ll hear, each track an uplifting, mutually enhanced concoction. Anyone who ever had a Solid Gold Heart -- wouldn’t they want to turn around and share it? Of course they would. Jad Fair and Danielson are happy to offer up theirs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Go Ahead
2. Rockin On The Good Side
3. Ready Steady
4. Here We Stand
5. Solid Gold Heart
6. With The Knowledge 
7. Apple Apple
8. Not No
9. On And On
10. You Got Me In A Spin
11. Here’s Our Time

12 songs dealing with the uncertainty of life and those troublesome emotional issues that crop up from time to time. Getting older but not necessarily wiser and finding that the American Dream is a bit of a nightmare. For fans of 'quality soft core' such as the Alkaline Trio, NOFX and Lagwagon.

Timothy J Fairplay is back on the label with a 7” single containing two tracks cut from a rock of uranium. “Pathfinder Theme” and “UFO’s Over China” might differ in sound and tempo but are connected by a radiant feeling. The two tracks bathes in a greenish/yellow bright toxic aura.

This plutonium charged music carries with it some quality elements known from his earlier repertoire like for example a primitive yet crisp beat working as foundation to a few but very exquisite synth sounds.

Timothy J. Fairplay stands on the shoulders of past Italian masters and the works of John Carpenter but with an accentuated alien feel. Something otherworldly, maybe good, maybe harmful, is hidden in the vibe on both sides of this 7”. The balance between good and evil is very even - yin/yang from outer space!

TRACK LISTING

A. Pathfinder Theme
B. UFOs Over China

"Recorded mainly at Dungeon Module (1) - my last studio in London, except for ‘Castle Force’ recorded at current studio Dungeon Module 2. To some extent a lost album, the bulk of the album was made for a project which never came to fruition, and like ‘A Snowstorm In The Tropics’ there’s a few tracks which have been my live sets for a few years but have never had a proper release."

Raw emotional synth and rhythm tracks for late nights in the dungeon. Cassette and Digital. Cassette comes in cool 80s video game/90s rave tape pack style case!

TRACK LISTING

1. I Lay Awake At Night Scheming
2. Creeping Anxiety
3. The Next Day
4. Castle Force
5. When's The Call?
6. Hidden Entrance
7. There's No Use
8. Without Warning

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Moat on the Ledge: Live at Broughton Castle, August '81 is a live folk rock album by Fairport Convention. The album was produced by Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg.

DELUXE VINYL EDITION!!!!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Walk Awhile
2. Country Pie
3. Rosie
4. Matty Groves
SIDE B
5. Both Sides Now
6. Poor Will & The Jolly Hangman
7. The Brilliancy Medley The Cheroke
8. Woman Or A Man
9. High School Confidential 

This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1971 Island Records UK release in gatefold sleeve, inner sleeve with lyrics, 8 page booklet, promotional poster and sticker; it is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl

'Babbacombe' Lee was Fairport Convention's foray into the concept album so loved by groups in the 70s. Instead of looking at something fantastical or progressive, the group went back to the tale of John 'Babbacombe' Lee, the man they couldn't hang: The gallows failed three times after he was convicted of the murder of Emma Keyse in Torquay in 1885. Dave Swarbrick found details of the trial in a junk shop, and the band worked up the story into an album. Released at the end of 1971 with ephemera from the day telling the story, 'Babbacombe' Lee had episodes listed rather than tracks. It contained the most original material of a Fairport album to date, and was seen as taking folk-rock a huge step forward. Within weeks of the album's release both Dave Mattacks and Simon Nicol left the group, leaving Swarbrick and bassist Dave Pegg to lead Fairport on through their next chapter. Today, 'Babbacombe' Lee is one of the group's most enduring albums.

TRACK LISTING

The Verdict
Little Did I Think
I Was Sixteen (Part 1)
John My Son
I Was Sixteen (Part 2)
St Ninian's Isle
Trumpet Hornpipe
Sailors Alphabet
John Lee
Newspaper Reading
Breakfast In Mayfair
Trial Song
Cell Song
The Time Is Near
Dream Song
Wake Up John (Hanging Song)