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A timeless hip-hop classic, Souls of Mischief's 93 'Til Infinity was released in February 1993 on Jive Records, serving as the second single from their debut album of the same name. A remarkable feat of lyricism, the track stands out from much of the harder hiphop that was prevalent in the era. Subtly jazzy and melodic, the song drags listeners in with its winding rhymes, giving listeners a glimpse into how the west coast brings the heat. Four amazing MCs combine forces to illustrate the power of hip-hop boasting, making this track a timeless hit. To celebrate 30 years of 93 ‘Til Infinity, classic remixes are available on vinyl for the first time ever for Record Store Day.

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Originally featured on Sam’s number 1 album, 'People Watching', 'Rein Me In' receives a re-working with a new verse and vocals written and sung by Olivia Dean. This limited edition 7” single also includes the live version performed by Sam and Olivia at the London Stadium in front of 80,000 fans.

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She & Him is Zooey Deschenal and M. Ward and Christmas Party is their collection of covers of holiday songs from ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ and ‘Let It Snow’ to lesser known festive tracks such as Vashti Bunyan’s ‘The Coldest Night Of The Year’ and Sinatra’s ‘Christmas Memories’. The album features appearances from Jenny Lewis, the Chapin Sisters, and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley.

Previously unavailable on vinyl outside the US, this pressing on Snowflake White vinyl is a welcome addition to the Christmas canon.

TRACK LISTING

1. All I Want For Christmas Is You
2. Let It Snow
3. Must Be Santa
4. Happy Holiday
5. Mele Kalikimaka
6. Christmas Memories
7. Run Run Rudolph
8. Winter Wonderland
9. The Coldest Night Of The Year
10. A Marshmallow World
11. The Man With The Bag
12. Christmas Don't Be Late

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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The 15 Year Anniversary Special Edition of Sleigh Bells' 'Treats', on Blue and White Vinyl. First vinyl pressing since 2012. Includes 16 page booklet and poster insert. This is a 2025 Black Friday Record Store Day release.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tell 'Em
2. Kids
3. Riot Rhythm
4. Infinity Guitars
5. Run The Heart
6. Rachel
7. Rill Rill
8. Crown On The Ground
9. Straight A's
10. A/B Machines
11. Treats

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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"Amusing the Amazing" is a four song EP by American stoner rock band Slo Burn, originally released in 1997 by Malicious Vinyl. The band was fronted by vocalist John Garcia, formerly of Kyuss, and included guitarist Chris Hale, bassist Damon Garrison, and drummer Brady Houghton. The EP was co-produced by Slo Burn and Chris Goss. The EP is being remastered and pressed on 12” vinyl for the first time, with audio on one side and a custom etching on the other.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Prizefighter
2. Muezli
3. Pilot The Dune
4. July

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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'Trace', originally released in 1995, is Son Volt's debut album, following Jay Farrar's departure from alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. Critically acclaimed and commercially successful, it featured the hit single 'Drown'. This 30th anniversary 2LP edition marks the album’s first U.S. pressing since 2015 and includes a second disc of bonus tracks making their vinyl debut. Ranked fourth on Paste’s list of the “50 Best Alt-Country Albums of All Time,” 'Trace' remains a landmark release in the genre.

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

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Focusing on fans, a collectable, alternate way of revisiting Sugar’s iconic 1992 album, 'Copper Blue'. The Singles Collection is presented on 4 x 12” singles exclusively for Record Store Day.

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.

RSD exclusive pressed on transparent green vinyl, with new artwork which calls attention to the UK's immigration process.

Otherland' is a companion piece to Sarathy Korwar’s celebrated 'More Arriving' album, which drew on the words and experience of the Indian diaspora to powerful effect.

The release features two brand new tracks with vocals by London-based poet Zia Ahmed ('Birthright') and Kushal Gaya of Melt Yourself Down ('Juggernaut'), plus remixes by Auntie Flo and Emanative.

RSD exclusive pressed on transparent green vinyl, with new artwork which calls attention to the UK's immigration process.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Birthright (featuring Zia Ahmed, Mirande & Swadesi)
A2. Juggernaut (featuring Kushal Gaya)
B1. Mumbay (featuring MC Mawali) (Auntie Flo Remix)
B2. Birthright (Emanative Remix)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JUNE 12TH 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 JUNE 12TH).

vinyl only release/not released before/splatter vinyl

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Before her critically acclaimed album The Return (Ninja Tune), equal parts songwriter, poet, singer and lyricist Sampa The Great made her mixtape debut on Big Dada with Birds And The BEE9. The mixtape won the Australian equivalent of The Mercury Prize (The Australian Music Prize) and features production from Slowthai producer Kwes Darko and Silentjay (who produced the lionís share of The Return).

5 years on it's been repressed on yellow and orange splatter vinyl and a liner note from Sampa The Great.

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The soundtrack accompaniment to the film of the same title, The Nowhere Inn. Features three original St. Vincent songs: ìNowhere Innî, ìPalm Desertî and ìWaveî. The Bill Benz-directed film features St. Vincent, Carrie Brownstein & was released Friday, 17th September in the US. Website: https://nowhereinn.movie

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

Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank is an official never-before-seen concert recording from one of the greatest female jazz organists of all-time, Shirley Scott

With George Coleman on tenor saxophone and Bobby Durham on drums completing a powerhouse trio, this hand-numbered (to 3,000), double LP set was transferred from the original tape reels and is pressed on 180- gram vinyl. It features 100 minutes of music and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an extensive booklet containing liner notes by acclaimed music writer A. Scott Galloway, rare photos by Don Schlitten and Raymond Ross, and memorabilia from the Left Bank archives.

Jazz heads can also find interviews with jazz organ icon Joey DeFrancesco, Scott’s former bandmate saxophonist Tim Warfield, and pianist Monty reminiscing about drummer Bobby Durham. The set is co- produced by label owner musician Cory Weeds and renowned archival recording producer Zev Feldman.

The show was recorded at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore Maryland on August 20, 1972 and hasn’t ever been previously available. Philadelphia- born Scott rose to fame in the late 1950s playing the Hammond B-3 organ influenced by blues and gospel evolving into '60s soul jazz. She recorded numerous albums for Prestige, Impulse!, Atlantic, Cadet and Candid performing with countless jazz legends including Stanley Turrentine, Oliver Nelson and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.

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Limited double coloured neon vinyl limited to 500 copies for RSD. Side A&B on magenta vinyl and Side C&D on orange vinyl. This is an album of melodic beat driven songs recorded in Chris Olley's home studio just before lockdown. The sonic driven guitars of six by seven now meet the neo-kraut grooves much more than ever before, to create an intense collection of songs which remind you of both of Can and The Cure and have a distinct heartfelt lo-fi Mark E Smith vocal. It's a big, expansive sound wrapped around Olley's trademark melancholic songwriting.

TRACK LISTING

A1. When You Decide A2. I Forgot Who I Am A3. Vitriol A4. Dangerous World B1. Pure 60 B2. What You Waiting For B3. There's A Devil In Need B4. System One B5. Your Disguise Has Worn Thin C1. I Feel It C2. Conceal My Enemy C3. Perfection C4. Ghost Songs D1. Doing What Is Right D2. Rival

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The follow-up to Snapped Ankles' 2018 RSD release, 'Violations' (which included new recordings of songs by Can, The Fugs, Joey Beltram and Comateens), 'Blurtations' sees the woodwose focus their eye on the work of a single artist. Ted Milton's post-punk Dada-jazz stalwarts Blurt blazed a trail for acts like Snapped Ankles, and 'Blurtations' assembles covers of some of their finest works, including 'The Fish Needs A Bike'. Packaged in a full sleeve and pressed on yellow vinyl, 'Blurtations' will be available on vinyl exclusively for RSD 2023. The EP builds on the success of 2021ís 'Forest Of Your Problems' album, which has seen Snapped Ankles grow their reputation as a formidable live force, with dates around the world. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Alouette
A2. Machina Machina
A3. Tube Plane
B1. Some Come
B2. The Fish Needs A Bike
B3. Planet You

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

Formed in Brooklyn in 1981, Stetsasonic was one of the first hip hop bands to perform with a full band and to use live instrumentation in their studio recordings

Stetsasonic's unique sound combines multi genres including R&B, Jazz, Reggae, Dancehall and Rock and is considered one of the first groups to pioneer jazz rap. Their 1988 album, In Full Gear, largely produced by band members Prince Paul, Daddy-O & Wise contains the tracks "Talking All That Jazz" and "Float On" Celebrating its 35th Anniversary, In Full Gear is a remastered double LP.

140 gram black vinyl, in custom printed sleeves in a custom printed jacket w/ shrinkwrap & marketing sticker.

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

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Sleater-Kinney's Little Rope is one of the finest, most delicately layered records in the bandís 30-year career. On the surface, Little Rope veers from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. But beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record. Following the critically acclaimed release of Little Rope, Sleater-Kinney present two special bonus tracks from the original recording session on RSD exclusive 7î.

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An exclusive 45th anniversary double vinyl release of Paste Magazine's #1 synth-pop album of all time 'No 1 In Heaven' by Sparks, and the Sparks-composed-and-produced lost gem 'Is There More To Life Than Dancing?' by Noel.

Released in 1979, the Giorgio Moroder-produced 'No. 1 In Heaven' became the blueprint album for all electronic music to come. The same year, Ron and Russell Mael wrote, produced, and recorded the album 'Is There More To Life Than Dancing?' for LA-based singer Noel. Together these albums showcase the Maels' electronic adventurousness and trailblazing foresight into the next decade. Bands such as Joy Division, Duran Duran, Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure), etc. have cited 'No. 1 In Heaven' as infuential to their own work. 

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

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

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This Record Store Day, Suede release a live version of their critically acclaimed album Autofiction, which debuted at #2 in the UK Album Chart and marked Suede's highest charting LP since 1999ís Head Music, available on limited edition grey vinyl in a fold out envelope sleeve. Following the release of ëAutofiction: Expandedí in December 2023 digitally and on 3CD, the ëAutofiction: Liveí limited edition LP will feature live recordings from the bandís highly anticipated headline tour of the UK in March 2023, for the first time on vinyl and exclusive to Record Store Day.

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The Center Won’t Hold is the tenth studio album by Sleater-Kinney. It addresses transformation as it relates to the corrosion and decomposition of forms. Fractured and frayed by age or by loss, by internecine politics, by trauma or depression, these eleven songs ask what remains of a body, a human spirit, a relationship, a city, a country. The narrators herein sing from the brink of madness, corruption, loss, or grief. And though they speak to us from the narrow, near desperate strands to which they are consigned by others, or upon which they’ve self-exiled—feeling small, fearing obsolescence—they ask to be heard on the most sprawling of canvasses. By couching these personal stories in a sonic palette that unabashedly takes up space, what remains is a tale of survival: a treatise on female friendship, inner strength, resilience, and community.

If The Center Won’t Hold forces a reconsideration of a band people thought they knew, it’s due to the methodologies employed in the writing and making of the album. The tools upon which Sleater-Kinney had relied proved inadequate, both metaphorically and literally, so they sought new ones. They used the geographical distance between them, along with the larger uncertainty and brokenness swirling around them, as a means of inducing and exploring sonic change. Most concretely, they worked with producer Annie Clark (St. Vincent), who treated each song as its own world, letting them find a specific vernacular through careful construction and deliberation.

The most succinct thing to say about The Center Won’t Hold is that Sleater-Kinney continue to challenge the idea of what three women sound like when they create music together over the course of twenty-five years.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sleater-Kinney have been one of the most interesting outfits to have come out of the 90's post-grunge indie boom, and have remained a fierce musical force since then. Through a myriad of splits / reformations and stylistic turns they have returned with their beautifully crafted powerhouse, 'The Centre Won't Hold'. Huge stadium choruses and anthemic turns are infused with snapping percussion and echoing distorted guitar, all topped with those unmistakable vocals.

TRACK LISTING

CD
1. The Center Won’t Hold
2. Hurry On Home
3. Reach Out
4. Can I Go On
5. Restless
6. Ruins
7. LOVE
8. Bad Dance
9. The Future Is Here
10. The Dog / The Body
11. Broken

DELUXE VINYL
Disc 1 (LP)
SIDE A
1. The Center Won’t Hold
2. Hurry On Home
3. Reach Out
4. Can I Go On
5. Restless
SIDE B
1. Ruins
2. LOVE
3. Bad Dance
4. The Future Is Here
5. The Dog / The Body
6. Broken
Disc 2 (7” Vinyl)
1. Hurry On Home

Newly formed archival label Fresh Hold presents one of Australia’s most mysterious jazz long players - Singing Dust, in collaboration with Efficient Space. Almost bound for obscurity from its inception, the eponymous creation of Queensland-based jazz pianist Robert Welsh was originally issued in 1986 on Melbourne independent label Cleopatra Records. Rich in compositional sophistication and expressive performance, Singing Dust resembles a unique fusion of Indian devotional song, the jazz piano styles of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, English folk and Debussey’s tonal impressions, bearing little similarity to the dominant commercial and subcultural music of its time. Representing a culmination of Welsh’s influences in and outside of music, the dynamic collection of seven compositions accompany the Ghazal devotional poems translated by Australian poet Francis Brabazon. While Singing Dust sits loosely within the spheres of exploration that many jazz players took into world fusion in the ’80s, it stands alone in its bright searing light of truth, love and austerity. A true work of dedication and posterity that will appeal to many serious music lovers, the album has finally been transferred and remastered from original tapes by Dan Elleson, superseding the imperfect 1986 pressing and fully realising Welsh’s expansive vision.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Involution
A2. Let Me Take Your Name
A3. Song Of The Reed
A4. Sweet Agony
B1. Love Flower
B2. Love Is Lovely & Lowly
B3. Desert Chant

Working his mellow magic on the Growing Bin, Sorcerer entertains your inner child with eight tracks of instrumental west coast pop suitable for dancing, dreaming and surfing a wave or two.

While Basso sat in a Teutonic treehouse, feeding his head with the sounds of the woodland, Dan Judd danced on the sands of San Francisco’s Baker Beach. Stretching between them, like the world’s longest tin can radio, was the Dream Chimney. This legendary forum, run by Ryan Bishop, better known as The Beat Broker, helped to launch a thousand labels, and the Growing Bin is one of them – all hail the Chimney!

Here, Dan, naturally mystic in his Sorcerer guise, satisfies all our sensory needs with a Kinder Surprise of sweet melodies, coastal cool and playful rhythms inspired by his children’s earliest responses to music. Following his feelings and avoiding overthinking, he creates open, enticing and accessible cuts; each living and breathing that mellow magic you only get on the West Coast.

‘Kids World’ kicks into gear with the spheric bass of ‘2000 Studio’, a bouncy embodiment of that spacious San Francisco sound. There’s a nod to nu disco but the dreamy dubiness takes the track much deeper, especially as those surf guitars start to detune in the summer heat. The breezy fretwork continues on ‘Disco Drums’, topping a wriggling groove tailor made for the terrace. Shades of rave refract through a healing crystal at the midpoint, encouraging al fresco dancing from sunrise to sunset. The A3 sees Sorcerer get into the groove of ‘Bahia Brothers’, rolling that rubberised B-line out of his own Paradise Garage before putting the top down for the carefree Balearic pop of ‘Spray Paint.’

The B-side glides into being via the night dubbing grooves of ‘Fire Feel’, a reverb laden journey though glassy tones, off beat perx and gorgeous chord progressions. Next up, the new wave inspired ‘Crunchy’ translates Sheffield’s daring synth pop into a wide eyed blast of psychedelic house, boosting our mana ahead of the loose limbed and light footed ‘First Wave’. Ringing guitars reference Ghanaian highlife, shimmering in the heat haze as Dan funks up the drum kit ready for the broken beat and blissed out energy of sundowning set closer ‘Escape Route’.

TRACK LISTING

2000 Studio
Disco Drums
Bahia Brothers
Spray Paint
Feel Free
Crunchy
First Wave
Escape Route

Bristol’s loudest band Spectres return with the brand new six-track ‘WTF’ EP.

With recording on their third album almost complete, the band have decided it’s time for one final look back at last year’s album ‘Condition’, which was acclaimed at the time of release, but largely forgotten about by the end of a year which saw some major changes in the band, with frontman Joe Hatt relocating to Berlin and long-time producer Dominic Mitchison joining on bass.

The EP pairs one of the highlights of ‘Condition’ – ‘Welcoming The Flowers’ (the video for which was premiered on The Line Of Best Fit recently) – with remixes of other album tracks by the likes of Metrist, who melts ‘Dissolve’ in an acid bath of broken techno; Elvin Brandhi (aka one half of Yeah You) and Mun Sing (aka one half of Giant Swan) who turn ‘End Waltz’ into, respectively, a glitchy explosion of sound and a tribal industrial monster (which was premiered last week on Mixmag); finally French Margot and Silver Waves place a noose of ethereal beauty and bloody-minded sonic terrorism around ‘Neck’.

It’s not just the music that comes as a shock to the senses: the packaging of the limited-edition 12” (250 copies only) is, quite literally, a car crash in a bag. It’s pressed on what we’re calling “windscreen coloured” vinyl and comes wrapped in a sleeve covered with tyre marks; inside, alongside the familiar digital download card, you will find an air freshener and a lyric sheet in a child’s handwriting, as you might find near the scene of an accident.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dissolve (Metrist Remix) 03:26
2. Welcoming The Flowers (WTF Version) 04:28
3. Neck (French Margot Remix) 05:08
4. End Waltz (Elvin Brandhi Remix) 07:04
5. Neck (Silver Waves Remix) 03:34
6. End Waltz (Mun Sing Remix) 03:41

"Plus or Minus Two" compiles four songs from Kansas City wave pioneers Short-Term Memory’s first cassette album, "Every Head Needs Cleaning", with two previously unreleased tracks recorded in the 90s.
This EP focuses on the group’s prescient dance-floor DIN-sync workouts which share sensibilities with contemporaneous early Detroit experiments by Juan Atkin’s Cybotron, Ron Hardy’s visionary Kikrokos tape edit, Shoc Corridor’s extended 808 exercises, and 90s Techno Pop by Haruomi Hosono. Rounding off the EP is the existential electronic soul ballad "Words".
Kansas City, 1983: a band formed, wires connected and synapses fired. Three friends, tired of guitar/bass/drums rock started jamming with newly acquired synths and Roland TR 808. They called themselves Short-Term Memory. Thanks to the vanguard technology of the time, these electronic instruments spoke to each other, and Jim Skeel, John Paul & Robert Duckworth could program their instruments, riding the DIN-sync wave. Weekly jams became more ambitious, and in 1983 they released their first album "Every Head Needs Cleaning" on their own Silly Poodle Music label. Over the 80s members drifted in and out of the group, and they released two cassettes, an LP and a 7” EP. By the 90s Jim Skeel was at the helm, the only original member, and joined by Tim Higgins he continued to record in MIDI mode for a few years before pulling the plug, leaving recordings and memories that resisted the great fadeout of time, and today sound vibrant and more visionary than ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Around a dozen releases in and Seance Centre are yet to put a foot wrong. Whether it be deep disco-not-disco, experimental, ambient or new age, the reissue label's aim is always true. Here they hit us with four proto-techno, synth wave jams and two unreleased cuts from Kansas City's Short-Term Memory. As well as pre-Detroit hardware heaters like "Twitch & Jerk", "Hysteria" and "The Veldt", check the esoteric flavours of "City In Mind" and lost wave ballad "The Words" for more sombre scenarios. Killer artwork from Alan Briand as standard...

TRACK LISTING

Twitch & Jerk
Yelping Doggies
City In Mind
Hysteria
The Veldt
The Words

Anger seldom sounds as enticing as it does on Virtue Signals. Steven Adams’s first with his new group, The French Drops is an album that rails against the iniquities of the world and meshes the personal with the political, without ever smacking the listener around the head. Adams (former songwriter/singer/guitarist with The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams) can’t help but be witty and empathetic even as he rages, and the fury is wrapped inside his characteristically sweet melodies.

The album’s tone is set from opening track, “Bad Apples”, a song addressing flag-waving, aggressive patriots. The lyrics are alternately playful and oblique, in the spirit of songwriters like John Lennon or Britt Daniel from Spoon. Where Adams aims to remove ambiguity and play with metaphor, as with “Ex Future”, the opacity of his writing means he doesn’t descend into cliche.

Following a few years of performing and recording solo, Adams says he wanted to put together “a band where everyone was following their noses. I’ve been calling the shots for ages now, and now I can lean on these people, make more noise. It’s fair to say we share a lot of the same thoughts and feelings about the state of the world. But mostly we talk about food.” Laurie Earle (Absentee, Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards, Wet Paint) plays guitar with a loose, intuitive touch; Michael Wood - who had played bass with The Singing Adams - switches to keyboards here, while Daniel Fordham (drums) and David Stewart (bass) from The Drink complete the band.

Produced by Ben Nicholls (Nadine Shah, Cara Dillon). Mixed by acclaimed producer and engineer (and Hudson Records supremo) Andy Bell. Adams tours the UK through May and the summer.

For fans of: Field Music, Pavement, Spoon, Grandaddy, Teleman.

“Making this record was a joy,” says Steven Adams of his latest album with his band the French Drops. He even let the positive mood around the making of it influence its title. “I love making records but sometimes time, money, or people - including me - fuck up my enjoyment of the process. So this time I kept saying to myself ‘keep it light’ whenever I was making decisions.” The buoyant and relaxed mood can be heard across the album in its gloriously skipping tones, as it traverses across indie, pop, alt-rock and more tender acoustic and folk-leaning moments. It’s a craft that Adams has been honing for years as the lead figure in outfits such as The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams, so much so that by now it oozes out of him with a seamless grace.

The feelings of serenity and solace he experienced whilst writing the songs themselves carried over into the final product. “I did a big chunk of the writing on holiday in the South of France last year,” he says. “We were staying in this big, rambling house that had a kind of turret room that was cut off from everything, so I’d go up there in the mornings and sit on the floor and feel like a proper artist while everyone else was eating croissants.” Once described by The Guardian as “one of Britain’s smartest, most underrated songwriters”, Adams’ aim was clear with this record. “I wanted to make a super personal, light-hearted and upbeat record,” he says. “I wanted to do the whole write about what you know thing and keep it as light as possible.” The lightness of the album was a guiding principle but it wasn’t a rule set in stone, as Adams soon found out the deeper he plunged into himself. “We had a running joke about how we were making an album called Keep it Light that is full of songs about racists and panic attacks and existential angst,” he says. “But it does you good to get that stuff out. Writing songs and making records keeps me sane.”

The album is one as full of joy and beauty as it is ink black humour and caustic revelation. On the gorgeous shuffle of “Oh Dear” - recalling the kind of stripped back beauty of Yo La Tengo at their finest - Adams sings: “and true love will not find you in the end.” A knowing nod and a wink to Daniel Johnston’s earnest refrain that indeed true love will find you in the end. It’s such moments that fill the album with equal parts weight and lightness, a smart touch delivered with a deft hand. Of the broad range of the album and its wide-spanning lyrical content Adams simply says: “the upbeat stuff is pretty upbeat and the darker stuff is pretty dark, but it’s all still with some humour.” Perhaps the song that best encapsulates this split between the light and the dark and the funny and the personal is “My Brother, the Racist” a self explanatory song that skips along with an infectious groove as Adams sings about, well, his racist brother. It unfurls in an intimate manner that recalls the kind of deeply personal allure of Sun Kill Moon’s Benji. “It’s an awkward thing to sing about, but it was the right thing to do,” he reflects. “I’ve written about British racism before, but never this close to home.”

Recorded at Soup by Simon Trought and with band members Laurie Earle, Daniel Fordham, David Stewart and Michael Wood, this is the first time Adams has worked in such a harmonious and in sync way. “This is the first record I’ve made with the band all playing in one room, getting everything down at once,” he says. “We played live with all of us on the floor, and it came together really quickly. But we still gave ourselves time to experiment and do fun stuff all over it. This combination of allowing things to be light, not overstressing, the harmony of the group, and the seamless knack of Adams’ songwriting has resulted in a truly special record. “I’m usually sick of a record by the time it’s mixed and I don’t get much of a kick out of hearing my own stuff, but this one’s different,” he says. “I know I sound like a wanker saying this but this is the best record I’ve ever made.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1) Soft Landings
A2) Bring On The Naps
A3) Canary
A4) Gracechurch St
A5) Oh Dear

B1) Going To Everglades
B2) Note To Self
B3) My Brother, The Racist
B4) Jonny
B5) Mr Sunshine

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings. Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date. Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS. Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards. Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone. “I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”. The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore. DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”. Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

TRACK LISTING

Out To Sea
Living In The Local Void
Moderation
Heads Keep Rolling
Making Holes
Pas Moi
Holiday Casual
Fascists
I Tried To Keep It Light
Day Trip
Cheap Wine Sad Face

Salar Ansari was born and raised in Tehran and is now based in Detroit. After his "Feelings from the Future" EP, he returns to his Passed Out On A Persian Rug imprint, breathing new life into four Persian pop classics.

This is seriously strong shit folks! Full of intrigue, yet highly danceable and touched up in just the right manner (it's a Motor City thang!). Flecks of acid, electronic drum machines and warm bass merging beautifully with the mystic and haunting Persian vocals. Ansair is obviously a skilled producer, but his Persian background has gifted him unique source material that few can match in the current climate!

Sick of the same old disco tracks, looped up and turned into house music? Me too! This stuff is a welcome breath of fresh air and sure to get you noticed as a DJ.. or will simply blow the roof of your living room disco!

Don't sleep - limited copies - hot stuff!! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: When Tehran-born producers end up living in Detroit these are the breath taking results that ensue! Detroitian, forward thinking mindset, Persian source material - whodathunk it would result in the most arresting musical experience for a good while!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hayedeh - Gol Vajeh (POPR Mix)
A2. Shahyar Ghanbary - Forbidden (POPR Mix)

B1. Shahram Shabparesh - To Mitooni (POPR Mix)

B2. Hassan Shamaeizadeh - Telesm (POPR Mix)

After a 7-year hiatus, funk legend Steve Arrington returns with his uplifting and soulful new album ‘Down To The Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions’, with artists including Mndsgn, Knxwledge and Jerry Paper on production. The album portrays his diversity of influences, which sees Arrington drawing on funk, soul, jazz, electronic and R&B.  

Steve Arrington is known for his innovative vocals on classics including ‘Watching You’ and ‘Just A Touch of Love’, with Slave, as well as his solo work with tracks including ‘Dancin’ in the Key of Life’, ‘Weak at the Knees’ and ‘Nobody Can Be You’. His music has greatly influenced the hip hop generation, having been sampled by Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharrell, 50 Cent, 2Pac, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg and many more.  

‘Down To The Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions’ is Steve Arrington’s first solo album since 2009’s ‘Pure Thang’. 

Arrington’s recent collaboration with Thundercat on the single ‘Black Qualls’, for his album ‘It Is What It Is’, was added to the BBC 6 Music A-List and performed live on Jimmy Kimmel. Arrington’s latest release was the collaboration ‘Higher’ with Dam-Funk in 2013, praised by Pitchfork, Exclaim! and more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Rich in authentic, old school, proper FUNK; this one should appeal to fans of George Clinton's many projects as well as any newer modern funk devotees coming from the PPU, Star Creature angle. TIP!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Joys Of Love
2. Make A Difference
3.Soulful I Need That In My
4. Life
5. Keep Dreamin'
6. Love Knows
7. My Favorite Swing
8. Good Mood
9. Love Is Gone
10. Work On It
11. You’re Not Ready
12. Make Ya Say Yie
13. All I Wanna Do
14. It’s Alright

New Shinchi Atobe 12", the 2nd release for his own Plastic & Sounds label.

TRACK LISTING

A1. SynthScale
A2. Disappear
B1. Between Thoughts

The 1st release for the new Plastic & Sounds label, founded by Shinichi Atobe. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Whispers Into The Void
B1. Fleeting_637

Local lad, first recordings and nine good songs they are too. Inhabiting a 'David Gray' sort of pigeonhole.

The title is about as self-explanatory as could be: ‘Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield sing Elliott Smith.’ 12 songs originally written by the acclaimed and well-loved Smith, performed by 2 artists, currently known for their contributions to the indie folk rock landscape. The recordings are, in many cases, defined by bare instrumentation, driven by a simple yet bold vocal delivery, the depth of feeling complimenting that of the subject matter. This album is an obvious labour of love; a comment based on the genuine reverence which Avett and Mayfield clearly hold for Smith. At times, the songs feel light as a feather, while in others, thematically leaden with heartache, they are given a deep breath, a different dimension, a new colour. In modern fashion, melodies intensely whispered by Elliott Smith are sung in a harmonious way, akin to the folk aesthetic of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

A relationship with, and a love for the songs of Elliott Smith is a feeling shared by many. Avett and Mayfield are among those who view his music as an under-celebrated body of work, reduced by some to a footnote in the canon of 1990's alternative rock. However, for any lover of music who may appraise his work in a dedicated way, the beauty and depth of it is crystal clear. For Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield, the nature of this album distinguishes itself as a labor of love, more pronounced in this respect than anything either has previously recorded. At the heart of a genuine musical interpretation, there must be an emotional connection. In this regard, the care and feeling for the music is apparent, even from the first moments of the opening track.

Aesthetically, the record is defined by simple vocal harmonies, bare instrumentation, and an approach which takes its time. Avett and Mayfield’s voices play against each other in a natural and effortless manner, giving Smith’s darker themes a new and bright dimension. In a commercial landscape, where albums are made for the sake of selling, Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield sing Elliott Smith is an anomaly, a collection of songs recorded for the sole purpose of saying thank you; a gesture of musical gratitude for an original voice, one which so brilliantly whispered such beautiful melodies.

Sami Baha is a Turkish producer based in South East London. His music was introduced to the world via his 2016 EP 'Mavericks'. Sami got into producing through being a rapper himself, working with local rappers in Turkey and producing beats for them, before setting his sights outside the country. 'Free For All' features MCs from all corners of the globe: UK drill squad 67's Dimzy, Stockholm's Yung Lean and Chicago rapper and singer DJ Nate (aka Flexxbabii). The record also features Egyptian MCs Dawsha and Abanob. Sami's production is refined and elegant, familiar tropes are reassembled in original ways, the instrumentation reflecting his background and influences simultaneously. Everything Sami brings to the album sounds relaxed and minimal, but tough, built from thoughtful arrangements and instruments, shot through with emotion and a dreamy night-time feel. 

TRACK LISTING

LP A:

1/Cash Rain
2/Discreet (ft. Dimzy)
3/Aliens
4/Gambit
5/Thugs (ft. DJ Nate)
6/Free For All
7/NAH

B:

1/When The Sun's Gone (ft. Yung Lean)
2/Path Riot
3/Glory (ft. Kufura)
4/Ahl El M8na (ft. Dawsha & Abanob)
5/Limbo
6/Cold Pursuit

Leisure Rodeo is the new album from Scott Ballew, following up 2021’s surprise debut Talking to Mountains. Born in Austin in the early 80’s Ballew eventually drifted out west to California, where he made a name for himself as a film director. At the age of 30 he ended up back in Austin, got sober, picked up the guitar and started writing songs. Most of those songs ended up on Ballew’s debut, but he kept writing and refining his craft, eventually ending up with ten tracks for a follow up album. Picking up where he left off, Leisure Rodeo features world-weary vignettes in the vein of Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker set to rustic country-folk arrangements. Frequent collaborators Jesse Woods, Shane Renfro (RF Shannon), Jesse Siebenberg, and Todd Hannigan are back, joined by special guest appearances from Ryan Bingham on “Border Kid” and Erika Wennerstrom (The Heartless Bastards) on “Convenience Store World”. Highly anticipated new album from Scott Ballew, featuring contributions from Ryan Bingham, Erika Wennerstrom (The Heartless Bastards), Jesse Woods, and Shane Renfro (RF Shannon). 

Our favourite Yorkshire-based 12-string maestro Serious Sam Barrett returns with another self-released future classic on his YaDig? record label. Having wooed us at his Manchester gig last year for Crowfoot we all got very excited here at Piccadilly for Sam's timeless songwriting skills and virtuoso guitar playing. After going through the previous albums and EPs, it's nice to see Sam evolve somewhat on this album - taking in upright bass, accordion and a small drum kit to fully expand the Sam Barrett sound; and loosing none of the authenticity or magic with it. Essential an album inspired and written whilst on tour, it's a collection of songs about being on the road, missing home and missing, of course, the woman of your desires; with the subject matter rarely veering off these classic subject themes. Sam keeps us hooked right till the end though - his heart-on-sleeve lyrics, clear vocal delivery and breathtaking guitar work a sonic Cupid's arrow directly to our hearts. Cupid rears his head quite a lot through Sam's work, and pleasantly returns with earnest on this album (much of the A-side taken up with love lust meanderings about wonderful woman - "Cupid's Song", "She's My Only One", "Better Give It Up"). When Sam talks about being far from home, you know he means it, and learning of his recent US tour the songs speak a thousand pictures of a naive Yorkshire lad in the big, vast country of the American West coast and all that goes with it. From start to finish a breathtaking record, probably my favourite to date. This cat's just starting his musical ascent it seems, improving exponentially and I feel privileged to almost be there from the start of the trip; get on the train and join the journey now - you won't be sorry!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Back with another treasure of an album, Sam is joined by upright bass, accordion and percussion on this timeless future classic from deepest Yorkshire. If you play guitar or enjoy stripped back, heartfelt music, I can't recommend this enough.

TRACK LISTING

1. Back On The Jack
2. Cupid's Song
3. She's My Only One
4. Better Give It Up
5. Any Road

6. Livin On Shoestring
7. Hillbomber's Blues
8. Song For Kid Little
9. Desert Theme
10. Footsteps
11. Say You Do

Towards the end of last year, I was lucky enough to see this guy play in a lovely event organized by the lads at Crowfoot Records. He blew me away with his honest, genuine, old time guitar style coupled with great lyrics touching on all things important to your average young adult (skateboarding, drinking, travelling on shit public transport to see girls etc...). A charismatic performer, with a strong Yorkshire dialect; his 12-string guitar chimed, resonated and strummed away all night, with the crowd reveling in the beautiful music and surroundings. I was further delighted to see that Sam had recorded four full length albums, and promptly snapped them up at the gig, insisting he bring some into the shop in the new year. Well here we are in 2014 and Sam's ferried two titles across the border for your listening pleasure. This, the self titled, comprises of ten original compositions and features his trademark 12-string guitar alongside mandolin and voice. Personal favourites are "Henessey Nights" and "Long Gone". The former is an ode to being young and free and loose on the streets with your best friends while the latter is a heart wrenching break up song with the overpowering smell of whiskey running through it. This private press record is a timeless, succinct slice of reality that every home needs! The new bluegrass explosion starts here! Recommended. Comes with CD.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Solo album by the one and only Sam Barrett. Yorkshire's finest guitarist... he does weddings you know?!

TRACK LISTING

Alf's Song
Hurry Back
Hennessy Nights
Spiderweb Frame
Streetlights
Kerosene
16 Again
Holding Out
Dreams
Long Gone

On ‘Barrett’, Syd's second solo album, he was joined by Pink Floyd members Rick Wright and David Gilmour. Gilmour and Wright also acted as producers. Syd needed this help as things were getting a touch more fractured for him  and obviously you can hear this in the music.  It is still  a great  record though, from a trailblazing, unique talent.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Whimsy, melody and magic. Last outing from a legend.

TRACK LISTING

Side One:
1. "Baby Lemonade"
2. "Love Song"
3. "Dominoes"
4. "It Is Obvious"
5. "Rats"
6. "Maisie"

Side Two:
1. "Gigolo Aunt"
2. "Waving My Arms In The Air"
3. "I Never Lied To You"
4. "Wined And Dined"
5. "Wolfpack"
6. "Effervescing Elephant"

Shirley Bassey's album 'Never, Never, Never' is a mesmerising showcase of her incomparable vocal prowess and emotional depth. Released in 1973, this iconic collection of songs sees Bassey interpreting classics with her signature style and unparalleled flair. From the title track's stirring declaration of resilience to the hauntingly beautiful rendition of 'Killing Me Softly with His Song', Bassey's commanding voice captivates listeners, drawing them into a world of passion and drama. With each track, she effortlessly traverses a spectrum of emotions, leaving an indelible impression that resonates long after the music fades.

TRACK LISTING

1. Never, Never, Never
2. Baby I'm-a Want You
3. Someone Who Cares
4. The Old Fashioned Way
5. I Won't Last A Day Without You
6. Somehow
7. There's No Such Thing As Love
8. Killing Me Softly With His Song
9. Going, Going, Gone
10. No Regrets
11. Together
12. Make The World A Little Younger

RIYL: William Basinski, Wolf Eyes, Gas, Tim Hecker, Emeralds, Yellow Swans, Flying Saucer Attack. Steve Bates is an artist and musician known for his work with post-rock ensemble Black Seas Ensemble, duos with Timothy Herzog and Sophie Trudeau of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, amongst others, as well as a series of digital-only sonic explorations on his own label, The Dim Coast. All The Things That Happen is his first full-length album for Constellation. For this album, Bates pursued a more stripped down exploration of the noisier terrain of the cheap timbre and tonality of the much-loved Casio SK-1 keyboard sampler. These sounds were fed through a variety of electronics, effects, amps, cassettes recorders to shift into their current form heard on these tracks.

Steve notes that all the tracks started off as ambient, "but I always kept reaching for more texture and noise." Getting reacquainted with the Casio SK-1 was the initial focus on developing the music here. Processed and manipulated during the recording and mixing stages, these initial SK-1 sessions became the foundation of this body of music. Working within the rich world of experimental electronics, these tracks have a core melodicism to them and maybe even a melancholy, as distortion and overtones saturate and spray the music in various directions, while feeling whole and integrated as a body of sound. A fixture of Winnipeg's burgeoning anarcho-punk and social justice community in the 80s-90s, Bates played in hardcore and indie rock bands (XOXO, Bulletproof Nothing) while contemporaneously continuing to fiddle obsessively with the shortwave radio his father bought him as a child — sensibilities that continue to meld and inform his sound work to this day. Bates founded the Send + Receive Festival in 1998, a crucial development in putting Winnipeg on the map for avant music and experimental sound art, which he helmed for seven years. Moving to Tiohti:áke/Montréal in 2005 he took on the Sound Coordinator position at Hexagram (Concordia University), released solo and duo work on ORAL_records and two albums with his Black Seas Ensemble on The Dim Coast, while pursuing myriad other ongoing audio research, installation and collaborative projects. His exhibition and site-specific works have been presented throughout North America and Europe, Chile and Senegal. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Groves Of…everything!
A2 These Problems Are Multiplied By The Difficulty I Have In Front Of A Tape Recorder
A3 Glistening
A4 Covered In Silt And Weed
B1 Destroy The Palace
B2 Glimpse An End
B3 Bring On Black Flames
B4 We Do Not, Nor To Hide
B5 September Through September

This collaboration with Baby Ingrid, is the debut solo album from Liverpool based songwriter Shane Beales. His songs are honest, and his voice holds a delicate authority. Influences include Radiohead, Ben Folds and Dave Matthews Band.

This gorgeous collection of never-before-seen artwork, behind-the-scenes photos, handwritten lyrics, exclusive commentary, and personal ephemera from Grammy Award-nominated artist Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) is a must-have collector’s item for every Iron & Wine fan. Accompanied by commentary from Sam himself, Love and Some Verses compiles the lyrics of more than 160 iconic Iron & Wine songs, capturing a distinctive musical legacy. Whether you're a devoted fan or a newcomer to the spellbinding world of Iron & Wine, within these pages you will form an intimate connection to the songs that have touched millions around the world.

'Junun' is the debut collaborative album by composer Shye Ben Tzur, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and the Indian ensemble the Rajasthan Express. Originally released in November 2015, the album was recorded in a makeshift studio within the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India. with Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich.

The album features Ben Tzur's compositions, which incorporate devotional Sufi qawwal musicians singing in Urdu and Hebrew. Greenwood contributed guitar, bass, keyboards, ondes Martenot, and programming, aiming to use chords sparingly and instead focusing on North Indian ragas. The recording process sought to capture the "roughness" of Indian music, avoiding the high fidelity often found in world music recordings.

The making of 'Junun' was also documented by acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, offering an intimate look at the creative process and vibrant daily life during the album’s production. His film, also titled 'Junun', debuted at the New York Film Festival in October 2015.

'Junun' (an alternate spelling of "junoon", meaning "mania" or "the madness of love") received widespread critical acclaim—including Album of the Year honors from The Sunday Times, who called it “one of the most inspired releases of the year” and “intriguing, sinuous, and essential listening”. The group also supported Radiohead's 2018 'Moon Shaped Pool' tour, performing under the name Junun.

TRACK LISTING

1. Junun
2. Roked
3. Hu
4. Chala Vahi Des
5. Kalandar
6. Eloah
7. Julus
8. Allah Elohim
9. Ahuvi
10. Azov
11. Junun Brass
12. There Are Birds In The Echo Chamber
13. Modeh

In 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees declared ‘We don’t see ourselves in the same context as other rock'n'roll bands.’ A decade later, and in the stark aftermath of a devastating storm, the band retreated to a 17th-century mansion house in the deracinated Sussex countryside to write their ninth studio album, Peepshow. Here, the band absorbed the bygone, rural atmosphere and its inspirational mise en scène, thus framing the record cinematically, as Siouxsie Sioux recalled, ‘It was as if we were doing the whole thing on the set of The Wicker Man’. Samantha Bennett looks at how Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Peepshow is better understood in the context of film and film music (as opposed to popular music studies or, indeed, the works of other rock'n'roll bands).

Drawing upon more than one hundred films and film scores, this book focuses on Peepshow’s deeply embedded historical and aesthetic (para)cinematic influences: How is each track a reflection of genre film? Who are the various featured protagonists? And how does Peepshow’s diverse orchestration, complex musical forms, atypical narratives and evocative soundscapes reveal an inherently cinematic record? Ultimately, Peepshow can be read as a soundtrack to all the films Siouxsie and the Banshees ever saw. Or perhaps it was the soundtrack to the greatest film they never made.

Rick Bishop picked up a new guitar in Switzerland, and by the time he got to Tangier, these songs fell out! Of the moment and in and out of time, the Tangier Sessions demonstrate how far a guitar can carry a man who knows how to ride one.

TRACK LISTING

1 Frontier
2 Bound In Morocco
3 Safe House
4 Hadija
5 Mirage
6 International Zone
7 Let It Come Down

Waving his axe of choice, Sir Richard Bishop once again summons forth damnable truth and beauty on an all-new musical kamikaze run through histories both written and - as of yet - not commonly known. Since the dying days of the 20th century, the composer / player of spirited polytheistic guitar recitals including ‘Salvador Kali’, ‘Improvika’, ‘The Freak of Araby’, ‘Tangier Sessions’ and, most recently, ‘Oneiric Formulary’ has worked feverishly to wrench and wrangle all the music that has and can possibly fall out of the guitar from east to west across this great, totally fucked world of ours. With ‘Hillbilly Ragas’, Sir Rick stretches his callused hands across the waters to draw diverse musics back to his shack with the gladiatorial bloodthirst and balance of gravitas and jocosity we expect from him in every hot little moment of play.

“There were a few different approaches I utilized for this release. First and foremost, I wanted to go back to basics, to strip away any excesses and keep it as simple as possible: one man, one acoustic guitar, no overdubs, no effects, no electricity. Taking several cues from the sounds most often associated with the so-called American Primitive guitar style, I wanted to avoid any traditional approaches and instead try something more raw and aggressive, concentrating more on rhythm and movement as opposed to anything predictable or overly melodic, while also keeping my particular interpretive ideas about East Indian Raga in the mix.

“I’ve always felt that the majority of what is considered to be American Primitive music, while certainly based on historical American musical traditions, never really had any sounds that I personally thought of as being primitive - it always seemed too orderly, too developed, and too safe. Way too safe. I found that playing with a sort of reckless abandon was the best way to remain outside of the usual musical language found in this genre of music, while still being able to establish itself within its framework, through determination and force if nothing else. It's a much more savage approach, which I believe is how it should have been all along, in order to at least give proper credence to the semantics of the form.

“During the recording process I was envisioning an undiscovered mountain man or ‘hillbilly’ who had remained hidden in his own private backwoods; one who never learned, or even heard about, any traditional musical canon that he was expected to work within. So what we have here with ‘Hillbilly Ragas’ are nine pieces for solo acoustic guitar, each one representing a different excursion into the dark woods - the untamed explorations of a musical loner, an outsider, maybe even an undesirable, embodying a peculiar folklore and turning it into sound - creating his own folk music in the process. He's still out there, fueled by moonshine, his supernatural surroundings, and a fuck-all attitude!” - Richard Bishop

TRACK LISTING

They Shall Take Up Serpents
Buzzard’s Curse
Rhythm Methodist
Worn Slap Out
Pass The Juggernaut
Raw Eggs And Rooster Juice
Head Bone In The ‘Tater Hole
Cuttin’ The Shine
War Powder

Reissue (originally released 1981 on SKY records).
Cold, concise analogue synthesizer instrumentals — on his second album Serge Blenner remained true to his style, albeit shifting course slightly towards pop territory. The juxtaposition of dark harmonies and pop structures is what makes this album so appealing. In places, it feels like a blueprint for early Depeche Mode.

Having seen his first album La Vogue snapped up by the Sky label and fast tracked for release in 1980, Blenner delivered his second LP (Magazin Frivole) the following year. Mindful of the success of its predecessor, Blenner added the name of his debut in big letters to the front cover of the new sleeve. Better to be safe than sorry.

Blenner remained faithful to his musical style, albeit adding more of a pop flavour. Magazin Frivole would not look out of place filed alongside Depeche Mode on the record shelf, as a certain resemblance is undeniable. Moreover, Blenner was one of the few proponents of electronic music who preferred to keep his songs concise, in contrast to the meandering odysseys of many of his electronic contemporaries. The far better known French artist Jean-Michel Jarre adhered to similar principles, yet although Blenner was often compared to his compatriot, he claims only to have heard his music long after La Vogue had appeared.

Blenner’s creative approach is quite remarkable. He is at pains to point out that he is a composer, not a musician. Improvisation does not play a part in his music. Minor chords dominate his harmonies, the bass performs octave leaps which mirror the zeitgeist. Unexpected key changes abound, adding a restless, almost disquieting quality. Overall, Magazin Frivole is less dark than the preceding album, but a picture of cheerfulness it is not. Nevertheless, a poppy drum computer introduces a lighter note.

From the very first track, chord changes pop up at unexpected junctures — they seem to come in prematurely, before harmonic sequences have run their course. Blenner doesn’t have any explanation for this curiosity, other than to note that “most of the music was played by hand, so of course it wasn’t all perfect.” Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be too catchy. “I did all I could to avoid being successful — on a subconscious level, at least. Unpredictable metrics and irregular beats were definitely part of the process” Blenner admits with an enigmatic smile.

As a matter of fact, Blenner prefers not to listen to his older recordings, dismissive of their adolescent air. Juxtaposed with Blenner’s more recent works, one can see what he means. His latest album Musique de Chambre (2008) comprises modern classical chamber music, built on digitally sampled real instruments. Besides, Blenner points out, handling all of those analogue devices was a convoluted and complex undertaking. Help was at hand. With an impeccable sense of timing, his friend Wolfgang Palm launched the PPG Wave, the first commercially available digital synthesizer. Blenner sings the praises of the PPG (Palm Products GmbH) today as enthusiastically as when he first got his hands on one. “Suddenly I had all the equipment I needed in one box.” He never used analogue equipment again, leaving his first two albums as the only ones of their kind. Which is a real shame.

TRACK LISTING

1. Magazin Frivole (6:46)
2. Envoutement (4:11)
3. Derivatif (3:57)
4. A L’Ouest (3:45)
5. Métropole Agile (4:50)
6. Phonique (5:03)
7. Frivolité (2:44)
8. Polyphase (4:52)

‘Past, Present, Future’ features songs from Simon Bonney’s last two albums, ‘Forever’ (1992) and ‘Everyman’ (1994), as well as six unreleased tracks, including his cover of Scott Walker’s ‘Duchess’.

Speaking to Billboard, he explains “It’s a very dynamic period in the world; a lot of people are feeling that they’re struggling to see how the future will unfold for them and whether or not they’ll have a place in the future. And that’s what a lot of these songs are about.”

At the age of 16, Simon Bonney formed Crime And The City Solution in an abandoned building in Sydney’s business district. The band embodied the post punk ethos of nihilism and alienation and Simon’s lyrics and music were informed in part by life as a 14-year-old runaway in 1970’s Kings Cross, Sydney’s red-light district. In 1984, after a move to London, Simon formed a new incarnation of the band with Bad Seed Mick Harvey, Rowland S Howard (The Birthday Party), Harry Howard (These Immortal Souls) and Epic Soundtracks (Swell Maps). After four beautifully chaotic records, a run of cacophonous live shows in Europe and the US and a standout performance in Wim Wenders’ 1980s masterpiece ‘Wings Of Desire’, the band broke up and Simon and Mick relocated to West Berlin. Here Simon would form the longest lasting line up, the Berlin Crime And The City Solution, which featured Simon, Mick, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), Bronwyn Adams, Thomas Stern and Chrislo Hass (DAF). From the band’s first offering, ‘Shine’, through their final album, ‘The Adversary Live’, the band was championed by influential journalists, with its albums regularly showing up in the Best Of lists.

In 1992, with Crime And The City Solution on hiatus, Simon moved to the US on an impulse, stayed for a decade and released two records; the much loved and very personal ‘Forever’ and the socio-political ‘Everyman’, a record that has grown in relevance as rapid change and social dislocation has increased.

In imagining the perfect soundtrack to these observations, he turned to the melancholy and plaintive sounds of dobro and lap steel of 1970s country music, the sound of longing for the familiar, for security and stability, songs about family and belonging, memories of a childhood farm in Tasmania. The result was two country tinged, compassionate and prescient portraits of life in late 20th Century America through Tasmanian eyes.

His path led him into outback Australia, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh - a life rich in extremes of colour and conflict, of trauma, of humanity and inhumanity, of power and powerlessness. It was not always easy to witness and eventually, as happens with all that walk this road, he had seen too much and it was time to stop. It was time to re-embrace something simple, something personal - his music. He pulled tapes from shoeboxes and listened to the old albums as well as tracks recorded for an unreleased album, ‘Eyes Of Blue’, recorded in Detroit with a band featuring Matt Smith (Outrageous Cherry, the Volbeats), Troy Gregory (the Dirtbombs, Electric Six, Killing Joke) and a guest appearance by Chuck Prophet and found that, far from sounding nostalgic, they sounded fresh and every bit as relevant - if not more relevant - than when he had recorded them.

TRACK LISTING

Ravenswood
Don’t Walk Away From Love
There Can Only Be One
Where Trouble Is Easier To Find
A Sweet Kind Of Pain
Everyman
Duchess
The Great Survivor
Forever
Annabelle Lee
Eyes Of Blue
Can't Believe Anymore

Berlin underground authority Stefan Braatz returns to Nu Groove with a four-track EP showcasing his timeless sound – Outlaw. An established club DJ and producer who has donned many hats in his 30-year career, Stefan Braatz is known for his expansive knowledge that defies genre convention, with his previous Nu Groove collaboration ‘Everyman Jack’ featuring Chicago legends Virgo Four combining his respect for the old school with new school techniques. Opening the EP is the eponymous track ‘Outlaw’, featuring vocals from Chicago house pioneer Harry Dennis – a contemporary of Ron Hardy, the late Frankie Knuckles and a member of Jungle Wonz alongside Marshall Jefferson. As Braatz’s relentless synth energy powers through, Dennis’s unmistakeable free flow guides the composition with ease. What follows are three solo tracks that summarise the Berlin expert’s opposition to the genre restraints; ‘Conversation’ opens a dialogue between synth strings and piano that loops in ecstasy, while ‘Dingy Thoughts’ and ‘One More Dream’ are darker club cuts that bubble with intensity in the lower registers.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Stefan Braatz Featuring Harry Dennis - Outlaw
A2. Conversation
B1. Dingy Thoughts
B2. One More Dream

Founded in 1988 by Frank and Karen Mendez as a vehicle for The Burrell Brother’s prolific creative output, the legendary NYC label Nu Groove was relaunched in 2021, reinstating its cult status and quickly becoming a home for genre pioneers. Today its eclectic catalogue continues to grow with label returnee Stefan Braatz delivering his ‘Planet 2 Planet EP’, a four-track vinyl release showcasing this Berlin underground authority’s deeply synthetic club sound and timeless influences, including a collaboration with Virgo Four on the title track.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Stefan Braatz Featuring Virgo Four ‘Planet 2 Planet’
A2. Futurism
B1. Grand Devotion
B2. Notes Of Chicago

Moom Sound are delighted to present a 3 track EP of timeless Chicago house tinged tracks from the maestro Stefan Braatz; ‘Timeless Altitudes’.

Omnipresent on the Berlin scene, Stefan began DJing and producing in the 90’s, and is passionate about working in the analogue space with physical instruments – drum machines and synths – rather than computers. Alongside friends, he organized underground parties on old demolition sites, as well as playing at legendary Berlin events like Tresor, Globus and Stellwerk.

With breakout releases on Nu Groove, King Street and Poker Flat, there are very few discerning parties that haven’t danced to Stefans beat.

“Timeless Altitudes” on Moom Sound is definitely one for the house heads. Deep textures, kinetic rhythms, elevating mind & body behind the physical constrains of the dancefloor. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Biiig warehouse rattlers from Stefan Braatz. Essential if you been diggin' that Tom Carruthers / Paranoid London / Delroy Edwards axis.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Timeless Altitude
B1. Solid Strings
B2. Deep Poke

For their first new release in twenty years, Toko turn to the talents of their original 'in house' producer Si Brad, who calms and charms with the butter smooth Balearic soul of 'Falling Down'.

Featuring the rich vocals of Azeem, this sublime sundowner takes Curtom horns on a Moon Safari, a nimble bassline chasing crunchy keys across the horizon before the sublime vocoder soul of the final third transports us from Sheffield to Shibuya. Slow burning, deep and meaningful, 'Falling Down' is your new summer soundtrack.

Balearic trailblazers Psychemagik take the controls for the B side, creating an atmospheric extension which is low slung and laid back but still dressed for dancing. Building a haunting riff into the main refrain, they lead us through nearly 12 minutes of floatation tank funk awash with heart-swelling strings and cascading keys. As the breaks and bass intensify, the track swells into a true end of night anthem for the horizontal dancers.

Welcome home.

TRACK LISTING

A. Falling Down (Brass Apes Mix)
B. Falling Down (Psychemagik Remix)

Toko's in-house all-star Si Brad brings forth three fresh jams for the long running UK institution, ensuring record bags are festival fit and nightclub-ready for party season.

Opening with a glitzy, contemporary disco jam, 'Doublestar' provides wide-screen glitterball action with a dazzling instrumental track, busy with key changes and chord progressions that'd make Patrick Adams blush. Sure to have fellow peers like Another Taste and Perpetual Singers checking their wing mirrors, the track is rich with musical decadence - orchestral strings, punchy synth licks and frenetic live bass all shining through this highly dynamic arrangement.

'Compress' moves swiftly into beefy house territory; Si's patented full fat, cushion soft bottom end providing just the low frequency support for a wide array of warehouse-ready bleeps, vocal snips and rave motifs set to cause a whole manner of chaos and confusion come 2AM in the club. A master of functional intricacy, Brad's multi-layered compositions thread together more elements than other producers would care to consider, manifesting almost effortless and involuntary body movement which belies the complexity of the track and is sure to have the dancefloor in a spin.

Concluding with a beautiful piece of Balearic-boogie-beatdown, and with Attaboy muscling in on proceedings; 'Faro Sunset's dreamy and expansive moods cascade over a loose, conga-laden groove glued to the spot with a rugged b-line. Instantly conjuring memories of grilled calamari and poolside play, and sure to garner repeat plays across the familiar party paradises of the Adriatics and beyond; it finds the crew dialling into a deliciously languid vibe that's in contrast to the immediate urgency of the preceding tracks yet retains, assuredly, the sonic trademarks of the producer's hand.

Another unmissable addition to Toko's storied catalogue!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Super tasty triple header from Toko mainstay Si Brad. Contemporary disco, warehouse musica, and deep Balearic beatdown all explored with aplomb. Very nice. Been on my pen drive all summer (look at me with the promo's!) and I have to say, been very well received!

TRACK LISTING

A. Doublestar
B. Compress (analog Mix)
B. Faro Sunset (attaboy Mix)

Following on from the two sold out records together, Freschard and Stanley Brinks come together for 12 brand new tracks. Lion Heart is an irresistibly charming collection of late night tales, woozy ballads and uptempo sing-alongs. Clemence Freschard’s beautiful vocal tones lend this a rich, French indiepop/chanteuse vibe, complemented by Stan’s wistful timbre and characteristic warm instrumentation. Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973.

He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks.

Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures. Freschard grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe.

There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”. On Midnight Tequila, Freschard brings it back to just drums and vocals

TRACK LISTING

A1) Lion Heart
A2) Grapes
A3) Drink With Me
A4) One Smile
A5) Home
A6) Me One Alone

B1) Time To Think
B2) Lazy Way
B3) Night
B4) Find It
B5) Stay Where You Are
B6) I’m Out

Stanley Brinks is joined by The Wave Pictures for their fifth album together; and their first since 2015’s “My Ass”. That’s not to say either have been slacking in that time, both are notoriously prolific: The Wave Pictures have turned out 5 albums and Brinks 7 since they last came together in the studio. Stan arrived at the studio with several CDs worth of unrecorded songs on a balmy North London night and instructed The Wave Pictures to pick out some favourites to jam during the following three nights of recording sessions.

To anyone familiar with Stanley Brinks' huge discography - more than 100 albums - it might sound more raw in a way, less sophisticated than some of his other recordings. It's still rich in jazzy sounds and original structures however, the songs looser and full of playfulness, with the lyrics carrying the essence of the songs. Tequila - the drink - was obviously the inspiration for the album. While writing, and while recording. Stanley Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne.

Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

The Wave Pictures are David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny ‘Huddersfield’ Helm. Formed in 1998 when Franic and David lived in a village called Wymeswold, the band played with several drummers until Jonny became a permanent member in 2003 replacing Hugh J Noble. In the beginning the band learned to play together by covering Jonathan Richman songs but soon David was writing lots of original material. They have since released six studio albums to critical acclaim and played numerous sessions on BBC 6 Music, Radio 1 and Xfm. Interest generated from these recordings has enabled The Wave Pictures to play shows all over the world with artists including Jeffrey Lewis, Darren Hayman, Stanley Brinks, Freschard and Herman Düne. 

TRACK LISTING

A1) Song Of Siggi
A2) Living Without You
A3) Like A Fool
A4) Underwater
A5) Like A Song
A6) Tequila Island
B1) Sober In Barcelona
B2) Vermut
B3) Gin In Me
B4) Four Times We Kissed
B5) Little Irene

The good moon comes after the full moon, when everything comes down and you can finally get some work done - be it building a house, or a boat, or recording an album). It's the most achieved album Stanley Brinks ever made. Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne alongside his brother, David-Ivar. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded well in excess of 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on numerous occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

TRACK LISTING

If I Can Bring It To My Lips
This Is The Day
Always The Same
Take It To The Street
Last Bar
Good Moon
I Didn’t Come Here To Love You
Dead Bug
Cold Noise
No Trouble
Don’t Go
So Easy
Out Of Nowhere

Singer-songwriter and cult anti-folk troubadour Stanley Brinks returns with Happy New Year, a 10-song collection of lo-fi gems recorded in Berlin. Happy New Year is a warm and celebratory record. Over simple rhythms and minimalist arrangements, Brinks delivers lyrics that oscillate between surreal humour, earnest wisdom, and playful melancholy. Happy New Year features contributions from longtime collaborator Clemence Freschard, plus appearances from Jyoti Sekhawat, Monica Kremidi, Rachel Lipson, Irma Ignatavičiūte, and Elisa Aseva, weaving together voices from across Brinks’ musical community. Their harmonies lend the songs a communal intimacy. Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded considerably more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

TRACK LISTING

1. Happy New Year
2. That’s The World To Me
3. Take Heart
4. Humdrum
5. Only With You
6. To Play
7. Everyone You Know Is Asleep
8. Play With My Heart
9. They Are Coming For Me
10. Out Of My Heart

Anam is the first collection of recordings by Selah Broderick (b. 1959, Washington, D.C.). Having grown up in a strict Catholic setting, the alternative movements of the late 60's and 70's could not come soon enough for Selah, who's love for art and music eventually sent her traveling around the country, running from a rather chaotic upbringing, in search of quieter ground. She eventually wound up in the Pacific Northwest, where she picked up a gig playing her guitar and singing at a local bar a few nights a week, and it was there in the audience that she met the man who would soon become the father of her children. First pregnant at the tender age of 19, Selah would have to put her musical dreams on hold while she attended to the demands of motherhood. It's no wonder she was so supportive when her three kids all gravitated towards music. While her devoted husband supported the family as a woodworker, Selah carved out her own path as a yoga instructor, in a time when non-western spiritual practices were not so welcomed in the western world. Her devotion to spiritual development would be the guiding force in her life, leading to a formative trip to Tibet alongside Roshi Joan Halifax in the early 2000's.

Her passion for music entwined itself with her work when she created the soundtrack to her own instructional yoga CD, featuring synthesizers, gentle field recordings, wind chimes, and most notably, her enchanted flute playing. Her interest in more meditative sounds infused itself with her background in folk music, and it is somewhere between these two worlds that Anam exists. Consisting of recordings as old as 1979 and as new as 2018, the wide range in fidelity has been embraced for this collection. The recordings were collected by her son Peter Broderick, who carefully wove them together over the years with occasional contributions from himself and sister Heather Woods Broderick. When asked about a potential title for her first album, Selah referenced the book Anam Cara by John O'Donohue, the modern-day Celtic mystic whose work helped her to reconcile her Catholic upbringing with her love for Eastern spiritual disciplines. The title "Anam Cara", meaning "Soul Friend" in Irish Gaelic, was given to a track originally created for meditation, while the album is simply called Anam, or "Soul." You are invited to explore the soul of this beautiful woman.

Perhaps best known as the frontman of South London indie pop / power pop outfit Bromide or being the worst salesman in Cargo Records…, Simon Bromide (aka Simon Berridge) releases his solo album 'Following The Moon' via Scratchy.

‘Following The Moon’ is essentially a solo album - with a lot of help. It was recorded at Bark Studios in Walthamstow by Brian O’Shaughnessy (Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Beth Orton), who had worked with Berridge on the last two Bromide albums. The album features drummer Fells Guilherme (Children of The Pope), bassist Ed ‘Cosmo’ Wright, multi-instrumentalists Dave Hale, Dimitri Ntontis and Stephen Elwell as well as folk-pop chanteuse Katy Carr on piano and Terry Edwards (Nick Cave, Tom Waits, P.J.Harvey) on trumpet.

Scottish singer Julie Anne McCambridge joins Simon on the closing track, the William Blake penned ‘Earth’s Answer’. This is Berridge's first output since Bromide's 'Ancient Rome' and 'I'll Never Learn' singles, both released in 2020. Their most recent album 'I Woke Up', with singles 'Magic Coins' and 'Two Song Slot', was met with popular acclaim, receiving positive reviews and airplay in dozens of countries. Influenced equally by The Beatles, Neil Young, Mark Eitzel and Bob Mould, Simon Berridge creates ultra-catchy, jangly acoustic pop / electric rock. Album track ‘The Skehans Song’ pays homage to the club and features the ‘Easycome choir’ with Andy Hankdog, Scarlett Woolfe and Vincent Davies. “A febrile soul who can do pop in many voices” ~ Melody Maker "Simon Berridge's voice is as strong as ever, with the songwriter only gaining in sound and fury” ~ Clash Magazine “Romping, indie-pop blast“ ~ The Times "This is catchy, upbeat, well-structured and impeccably delivered – with a winner of a debut release, Simon Bromide has our attention" ~ The Spill Magazine “Memorable slices of acoustic whimsy” ~ Q magazine “Berridge has an ear for a canny tune and a keen lyrical eye for detail... Ray-Davies-meets-Lloyd-Cole crooning”

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. The Waiting Room
2. Chinua Achebe
3. The Skehans Song
4. Not That Type Side

Side B

1. The Argument
2. Slow Release Love
3. Following The Moon
4. Reflections Of Seating
5. Earth’s Answer 

Sarah Brown releases her debut album ‘Sarah Brown Sings Mahalia Jackson’, the record sees Sarah offer her interpretations of some of the classic tracks of arguably the most famous gospel singer of the last century who gave Brown hope and sanctuary through hard times faced over the years. Having recently appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour performing her debut single ‘I’m On My Way’, she is currently on tour with Simple Minds with whom she has been playing with for the last 15 years.

Sarah explains: “For as long as I can remember, Mahalia Jackson with her fever pitched performances have been a soothing note to my tapestry. At 10 years old, I remember hopelessly trying to sing along to her bellowing thunder of a voice. In my bedroom I would become her. I chose these songs because they tell of my story. Growing up in a Caribbean home to parents who were a long way from their home. Anger and fear were the two prominent emotions that I lived with.

The style I was trying to achieve was influenced by early jazz, blues and the spirituals. I am happy with the sound/style of the album. It was always going to be an experiment but I had no idea that it was going to sound as good and as authentic as it does. ‘Didn’t It Rain’ as a jazz feel. ‘Nobody Knows’ as a spiritual feel then it goes into swing jazz. ‘Walk over God’s Heaven’ as a hint of rock & roll with a bit of early swing.”

You may not know Sarah Brown’s name but you’ll definitely have heard her voice. From her collaborations with the likes of George Michael, Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran, Simply Red, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, Simple Minds … Sarah Brown is one of the most prolific and in-demand vocalists in the world. Jim Kerr from Simple Minds comments: “In a sane world Sarah’s colossal talent would ensure that she would be front of stage every night, so I would be in the front row. Every night. I am her biggest fan after all”

Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) is widely considered as a major influence on Mavis Staple, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Donna Summer, Ray Charles, and a civil rights icon (Malcolm X noted that Jackson was "the first Negro that Negroes made famous”, Harry Belafonte stated "there’s not a single field hand, a single black worker, a single black intellectual who did not respond to her”, and it was Mahalia who prompted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to improvise the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nobody Knows
2. I’m On My Way
3 Didn’t It Rain
4. Summertime
5. Walk Over God’s Heaven
6. Just A Closer Walk
7. Trouble Of The World
8. Joshua Fought The Battle
9. Amazing Grace

BBE Music presents two back-to-back, impossibly scarce and NYC Afrodisco by Sidiku Buari & His Jambusters, originally released on short-lived and highly collectible imprint ‘Precious Records’. Accra funk, village-party, anthem-packed LPs from the prolific output of Alaji Sidiku Buari, gold-winning sprint athlete, dancer, singer, arranger, composer, cinema and club founder, award-winning music video producer – and, latterly, president of Ghana’s Musicians’ Union as well as recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pan- African Society. Sharp Club 54 production values "Music", "Feelings", "Karambani" - combine with Accra village-style party vibes "Yayo Papa", "Minsumobo" and Buari’s socially conscious lyrics "Anokwar", "Power To My People" to produce more than two hours’ worth of music that will have you stuttering for superlatives.

TRACK LISTING

1. Yayo Papa (Good Friend)
2. Music
3. Feelings
4. Anokwar (Truth)
5. Let's Go Funky Town
6. Karambani
7. Power To My People
8. Minsumobo
9. Sophisticated Jammer
10. Rhythm Of Africa
11. Let's Go Funky Town
12. Karambani
13. Power To My People
14. Minsumobo
15. Sophisticated Jammer
16. Rhythm Of Africa

Revolution (Live Disco Show In New York City) is the fourth and final BBE reissue of Sidiku Buari’s unique and sought-after body of African Disco albums. Side 1 is (possibly!) ‘live’ throughout, from a 1979 show at the (possibly mythical!) La Cheer Nightclub, NYC, but very well recorded for a ‘live’ album with clean, bright top notes, sharp percussion and heavy bass-lines. Keep The Rhythm Going segues into Ofey Karambani reminiscent of the Kongos’ massive Loft Club floorfiller Anikana-O, whilst This Is Music and Disco Soccer keep up the 120-140bpm pace to complete a side that rocks enough for the lazier DJ to play from start to finish without lifting the needle! Side 2 consists of four very varied tracks all recorded at Aire L.A.Studios, the two openers Revolution and Together We Can Rebuild It (Ghana Motherland) being polemics against government and army corruption, and a battle-cry for Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, who ruled the country for a brief period in 1979 when this recording was made, later serving as Ghana’s President from 1981 to 2001. Then there’s a perennial crowd-pleaser Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Side 2 rounding off with the super-heavy Afrobeat-Disco groover, Happy Birthday. Originally a national athlete, winning silver and gold medals in the Senegal All Africa Games and West African Games in 1963 and a bronze in the All African in Congo Brazzaville in 1965, Sidiku Buari then moved to America on a music scholarship at The York Institute, obtained as a result of his athletic achievements. When one of York’s music teachers, Irvin Mechanic, heard him singing in the Ga language- he suggested putting a rhythm section behind the songs, recording them, and seeing what the American record buying public thought of them. Four classic albums followed in quick succession, after which Buari’s solo output abruptly ceased. But it was an ending that held within it the seeds of greater musical achievements to come. In 1990 he was appointed to the board of the Musicians’ Union of Ghana, later becoming its President from 1999 until 2007. In 2019, he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pan-African Republic Honorary Award Society for ‘meritorious contribution to the development of music and movie industries in Ghana’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep The Rhythm Going
2. Ofey Karambani
3. This Is Music
4. Disco Soccer
5. Revolution
6. Together We Can Rebuild It (Ghana Motherland)
7. Merry Christmas And Happy New Year
8. Happy Birthday

"[Sandy Bull] was no minor player. He influenced, however subtly, an entire generation. His reinvention of classic pieces paved the way for my own experiments.” - Patti Smith.

Sandy Bull was an American folk musician who rose to prominence with a series of albums on the Vanguard label in the 1960's and 70's. Still Valentine's Day 1969 is pulled from two live shows recorded at The Matrix in San Francisco in 1969 with Bull playing shimmering electric guitar and oud, accompanied by tape loops. Previously available on CD, but now out of print in all formats, this is the first ever vinyl pressing and includes the original liner notes from Byron Coley. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Introduction
2. Bouree
3. No Deposit, No Return Blues
4. Manha De Carnival
5. Improvisation For Oud 1
6. Electric Blend 1
7. Improvisation For Oud 2
8. Memphis, TN
9. Electric Blend 2 

Sam Burton’s upcoming second album, Dear Departed, was produced by Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty, Margo Price) at his Topanga Canyon studio with some of the best studio players in LA. Together, Wilson and Burton achieved a sound that doesn’t descend into retro pastiche, but rather becomes an evocative echo, a dream of the past. In scope, it finds Burton using a far bigger canvas than on his acclaimed 2020 debut I Can Go With You, giving the emotions therein a new sense of urgency and intensity. Burton has a knack for mining pure Laurel Canyon AM gold. Pastoral string arrangements bloom in the background of Sam’s striking honeyed vocals - like a modern-day Campbell, Orbison, or Nilsson.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Brittle acoustic guitar and swooning strings, hearty slo-mo country anthems and staggered lounge groove, all brought together with Burton's syrupy smooth vocals. A hugely evocative, expansive work that expands on his debut with aplomb. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pale Blue Night
2. I Don't Blame You
3. Long Way Around
4. Coming Down On Me
5. Empty Handed
6. Maria
7. I Go To Sleep
8. Looking Back Again
9. My Love
10. A Place To Stay

“Fever” and its Dub version “Influenza Dub” were released together around 1974 (exact year unknown but it has been registered for copyrights in 1974 & 1972) on 7” vinyl on the Upsetter label in Jamaica only… This is therefore the very first release on 7” vinyl of these two Reggae masterpieces outside of Jamaica and it is the first reissue of the original Jamaican single on 7”, finally making these two exceptional and popular tracks available again in their original iconic format. The original Jamaican pressings are now quite rare, expensive and highly in demand among collectors and Reggae enthusiasts alike.

TRACK LISTING

Fever
Influenza Dub

‘Hoyas’ by S. Carey is a hospitable statement about love, longing and the celebration of knowing it well.

You will find the familiar S. Carey modern classical repetition pushed into the vernacular of electronic music and beat making. This is the warmest electronic music you'll ever know. The beats swing, stutter and pulse while each instrument retains a heightened awareness of its form and function within the larger family of voices.

Each of Hoyas’ songs has its own personality, each part inseparable from the body, and while the results might be surprising to some, they shouldn't be.

S. Carey has historically illustrated a very rare breadth as an artist, not only as a member of Bon Iver, but on recordings of his own, whether from his debut full-length, ‘All We Grow’, performing cover songs, or in remix work.

With Hoyas, Carey's uncontainable talent is hard at work exhibiting some of the deeper colour palettes that music can offer. But most impressively, Carey's talent can now be seen to be growing by leaps and bounds. His range as a singer is progressing into much bolder territories, as evidenced not only on Hoyas’ albums but on the Bon Iver at AIR Studios recordings, where just his voice, Justin Vernon's voice and two pianos mesh perfectly to create an unforgettable performance for the ages.

At its heart, Hundred Acres -- the third full-length album from Wisconsin singer/songwriter S. Carey -- finds him grounded comfortably in his skin, but still with one foot in the stream. More direct than ever, there is a wellspring of confidence in this new batch of songs that lays bare the intricacies of life while keeping its ideas uncomplicated.

Trained in jazz, Carey’s astute musicianship has never been in question nor taken for granted, and the execution of Hundred Acres’ new ideas is seamless. He intentionally unburdened himself from a more complicated instrumentation palate for these ten songs, and, in effect, this modification to his approach brings the content of the work much closer to a living reality. By giving equal status to the indifference of nature and the concerns of a material world -- while employing more pop-oriented structures instead of the Steve Reich- or Talk Talk-ian repetitions of his past work -- a new balance is struck that creates something unique. This in turn provides equal status for the feeling that created each song, and the feeling each song creates. Almost impossibly, there is more air between the bars; Carey and his contributors sway like treetops in the wind, remaining flexible enough that they never threaten to break.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rose Petals
2. Hideout
3. Yellowstone
4. True North
5. Emery
6. Hundred Acres
7. More I See
8. Fool’s Gold
9. Have You Stopped To Notice
10. Meadow Song

Recorded primarily during the perigee-syzygy (also known as the super moon) of August 2014, the ‘Supermoon’ EP from S. Carey is a study in scale, space, and proximity. These songs are a new and closer look into existing works from both S. Carey’s renowned fulllengths - 2010’s ‘All We Grow’ and 2014’s ‘Range Of Light’.

With ‘Supermoon’, Carey has broken these songs down to their essential, acoustic parts with his forever humming vocals laid over top, lilting yet percussive piano and a subtle swath of harmonic strings. You can hear Carey's breath between words and the pat of his fingers on the keys; you can hear the living room in which his family’s baby grand piano sits. These songs are beautiful, intimate and so potently personal. This collection is a stark presentation of S. Carey laid bare, an open invitation for the listener to climb into his world.

One particularly poignant piece is the re-imagined ‘Range Of Light’ closer, ‘Neverending Fountain’, perhaps an apt metaphor for the life of the songs themselves. Says Carey, “The longer you spend with a song, the more you can see it in its pure form.”

‘Supermoon’ also features a heartrending cover of ‘Bullet Proof.. I Wish I Was’ from Radiohead’s classic album ‘The Bends’ and a new song, the EP’s namesake, ‘Supermoon’, which takes its inspiration, like much of Carey’s work, from the natural world around him.

Another source of inspiration quoted by Carey is the excitement of working out arrangements for pre-existing songs on the spot, for various sessions on tour. He brought that spirit to the recording of ‘Supermoon’, which took place over the course of a single weekend.

Already known as an artist of impeccable craft, S. Carey worked with longtime friends and collaborators (Mike Noyce played viola, Zach Hanson engineered, mixed and mastered) to add a chapter to the still unfolding story of Sean Carey as an artist. We can hear the songwriting, singing and performance for what it truly is; understated, true and pure beauty.

S. Carey is the project of Sean Carey of Bon Iver.

‘Supermoon’ is available exclusively to independent retailers and is limited to 200 copies for the UK and Eire.

All We Grow was and is a convergence of S. Carey’s young lifetime spent immersed in music: his Waltz For Debby-era Bill Evans inflected jazz tendencies; his performance degree in classical percussion from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; his cental role in the galeforce power of the Bon iver live show; his hints of Mark Hollis’ Talk Talk. In his downtime on tour with Bon Iver, Sean would spend time pining for his life at home, dreaming and composing in that headspace. All We Grow also retests the waters of modern classical composition, investigating the moodiness generated by percussive repetition in a manner familiar to fans of Steve Reich. For as spacious as they are, Carey’s compositions are incredibly dynamic, with moments of bombast held right next to moments of subtle depth and texture.

How apropos, then, that this anniversary edition of All We Grow adds a cover of Tom Waits’ “Take it With Me”, a timeless lullaby from another artist whose voice strikes us in bracing, unexpected ways. Ten years ago, S. Carey and All We Grow crept into our world like a seedling — delicate and unassuming, but putting down roots that would deepen and grow whether we saw them or not. Ten years later, S. Carey and All We Grow endure as a part of our soil, an earthen, inextricable part of planet Jagjaguwar. At a time when serenity feels particularly scarce, All We Grow stands as a classic album - born without expectation and met with adoration - a cathartic result of Carey’s extraordinary and vibrant life experiences that resonates loss, dreams and heart in a manner so instantly relatable, you feel as though you can touch it.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A: 
1. Move
2. We Fell
3. In The Dirt
4. Rothko Fields
5. Mothers

SIDE B:
6. Action
7. In The Stream
8. All We Grow
9. Broken
10. Take It With Me

S. Carey is the moniker of Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based multiinstrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Sean Carey. Over the past decade, Carey has fostered his flourishing solo career via themes of nature and sustainability, songwriting built from jazz beginnings, and heartfelt, emotive lyricism. His latest and fourth album, Break Me Open, is best described in his own words:

In Break Me Open, I confronted darkness, I wrote about fear, I looked at love from different angles, I left it all out on the field. These past couple years have been the hardest of my life: full of grief, loss, and change. I feel like I had two choices. I could run from life, turn away, grow cold, resort to drugs, run and keep running. Or, I could give myself a deep look within. I could dig deep where the pain lives, where fear is festering, to try shed a new skin and come back a better person.Everyone is so far from perfect.This is not a “divorce” album. And while going through that has shook me to my core, leaving me at times, wondering who I am, and where to go, this record is bigger. It’s about love - past, present, and future. It’s about fatherhood - the overwhelming feeling of deep love for my kids and the melancholy of watching them grow up right before my eyes. It’s about accepting my faults and wrongdoings, exposing myself, and trying to know myself better than I did the day before. But above the darkness, it’s a message of hope, honesty, and growth. It’s a call to be vulnerable: Break Me Open.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Break Me Open' is rich with Carey's faultless mastery of melody and tender instrumentation, it is both melancholic and hopeful in equal measure. With perfectly pitched vocals reminiscent of Bon Iver and grand instrumentation that wouldn't sound out of place on Sigur Ros' Takk, What's not to love?

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Dark
2. Starless
3. Sunshower
4. Island
5. Waking Up

SIDE B:
6. Desolate
7. Paralyzed
8. Where I Was
9. Break Me Open
10. Crestfallen

There’s a cool, clean strum that introduces ‘Watercress'. An immediately noticeable shift in mood from the last time we checked in with S. Carey. He was heavy-hearted on 2022’s ‘Break Me Open’ — crestfallen and reckoning after a big love lost. And so, ‘Watercress’ sets us off with the ringing of hard-won hope. It is in fact only in the clear, shallow waters that watercress grows. And these are the very places that Sean Carey the human being returns to again and again — to fish, to reflect, and to grow. Seasons have passed over and he’s spent time healing in the water, flowing and still. The pieces have been collected and reassembled. Of course, there’s always gonna be a wistful quality to S. Carey’s music. But here, it’s the bright, crisp October morning kind of wistful. These guitar-forward songs are in many ways an extension of 2018’s beloved ‘Hundred Acres.’ The guitars are driving the bus. The drums are the backbone. And Sean’s voice is telling the tale. Seems like a simple recipe but there’s more nuance here than highwire act. Recorded at Hive in Eau Claire by Zach Hanson and Brian Joseph, there's the usual cast of characters providing instrumentation and co-writes when needed, and guest singers Gia Margaret and Hannah Hebl blending into the fabric beautifully to create a sound that's familiar to S. Carey, almost nostalgic — but also shiny and new. Sean Carey has been a vital organ of Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver project for over fifteen years. Beginning with 2010’s ‘All We Grow,’ his four albums and some epic EPs have all been, in ways both overt and subtle, naturalistic explorations of landscapes of the heart and of the real world, each crafted with the patience of a true fisherman and the acumen of a folk-jazz phenom.

TRACK LISTING

1. Watercress
2. Daylight
3. Honey-eyed
4. Anchorage

The debut album from S. Carey, "All We Grow", is the result of a young lifetime spent immersed in music. As a band member of Bon Iver from the very beginning, Sean Carey witnessed a flip of his formal training to step firmly into a worldwide-touring rock band. His performance degree in classical percussion from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire and his love for jazz drumming prepared him for a central role in the inspiring force of the Bon Iver live show.

"All We Grow" is a convergence of Carey's Waltz For Debby-era Bill Evans inflected jazz tendencies, and traditional rock band experience, taking leads from Mark Hollis' Talk Talk. It also retests the waters of modern classical composition, investigating the moodiness generated by percussive repetition in a manner familiar to fans of Steve Reich. In his downtime on tour with Bon Iver, Sean would spend time pining for his soul-mate's arms, and in that context, dreaming and composing. During infrequent tour breaks at home he would patiently record these pieces, adding layers each time. Two years later, the parts converged to make an album.

For as much room to breathe as Carey allows his compositions, there are incredibly dynamic moments of bombast held right next to moments of subtle depth and texture. Engineered by Jaime Hansen and Brian Joseph, intermittently at home and at April Base (Justin Vernon's studio outside Eau Claire), "All We Grow" is an all-encompassing headphone experience as intimate as chamber music and as ambitious as a symphony. A classic album born without expectation and met with adoration - a cathartic result of Carey's extraordinary and vibrant life experiences that resonates loss, dreams and heart in a manner so instantly relatable, you feel as though you can touch it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Being a band member of Bon Iver has clearly rubbed off on S. Carey. A subtly stunning and beautifully lush debut album, total ear candy for the headphone listener.

Sean Carey is the drummer of Bon Iver and an acclaimed solo musician in his own right. ‘Range Of Light’ is the follow up to his well received ‘All We Grow’. Like its predecessor, ‘Range Of Light’ deals in hugely beatific, restorative panoramas of beauty. An array of musical light and shade, drawn from Carey’s love of jazz, modern classical and Americana.

TRACK LISTING

Glass/Film
Creaking
Crown The Pines
Fire-Scene
Radiant
Alpenglow
Fleeting Light
The Dome
Neverending Fountain

Sean Carey is the drummer of Bon Iver and an acclaimed solo musician in his own right. ‘Range Of Light’ is the follow up to his well received ‘All We Grow’. Like its predecessor, ‘Range Of Light’ deals in hugely beatific, restorative panoramas of beauty. An array of musical light and shade, drawn from Carey’s love of jazz, modern classical and Americana.

TRACK LISTING

Glass/Film
Creaking
Crown The Pines
Fire-Scene
Radiant
Alpenglow
Fleeting Light
The Dome
Neverending Fountain

‘Man's Best Friend’ is the latest album from multi-hyphenate global popstar Sabrina Carpenter. 

It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Sylvain Chauveau's last 'proper' album. Of course there have been re-issues peppering the years since 'Down To The Bone', as well as more than a few collaborations and soundtrack appearances, but Sylvain has purposefully waited to allow his ideas to come to fruition. On mentioning his new album a few years ago, Sylvain commented that he didn't think it would appeal to everyone and that he wanted to take a fresh direction. The Depeche Mode songs he had explored on "Down To The Bone" had given him ideas he felt he needed to explore, and "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is his attempt at an album of 'songs'.

In many ways, "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is constructed the way albums used to be – it is compact and filled with vocal hooks and melodies, yet Sylvain has deconstructed the musical forms he grew up listening to and reduced them to their base level. Vocal snippets fall through the stereo field and his signature piano motifs splutter and cough through processed digital hiccups. As Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto deconstructed classical music, Sylvain attempts here to study and dissolve the roots of popular music. Each piece feels like it could have started as a three-minute pop sing-along before the accompaniments were stripped away and the component parts reduced to merely a backbone.

"Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is a daring and challenging listening experience. The widescreen theatrics of Sylvain's previous work have all but disappeared, leaving an album that is stark and incredibly beautiful. It is an album rooted in a love of art and music, both minimal and mainstream and celebrates Sylvain's influences. One listen might
only reveal surface details, but listen again and you will find much, much more.

Stef Chura’s debut studio album, Messes, is born of her years of experience playing around the Michigan underground, setting up DIY shows in the area, and moving around the state. “Right when it starts to feel like home/It's time to go," she sings on its opening cut, 'Slow Motion', a twisty, dim-lit guitar pop song where she curls and stretches every word. There are worlds of emotion in the ways Chura pronounces phrases with twang and grit, alternatingly full of despair, playfulness, and abandon. Chura calls her music “emotional collage,” eschewing start-to-finish storylines in favour of writing intuitively about feelings, drawing from experiences and references related to a certain sentiment.

Originally from Alpena, Michigan, Chura moved to the Ypsilanti area in 2009, where she began playing shows before ultimately moving to Detroit in 2012. Chura has been home-recording and self-releasing her songs for six years, playing bass in friends’ bands as well. With a trove of demos and 4-track home recordings, some of which she’d released on small runs of cassettes over the years, Chura says she wasn’t sure what to do with her life before heading into the studio. “One of my best friends passed away and I thought, what do I have to do before I die? I have to at least make one record.”

She recorded the entire album with Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me) throughout 2015. Thomas plays bass on most of the record, and a bit of guitar and drums. Drummer Ryan Clancy of Jamaican Queens and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. adds the bulk of the drums. Through intricate guitar work and warm, textured production, Messes finds her trying to make sense of life’s ups and downs. “It’s about emotional mess, not physical mess,” Chura says. “The title track is about knowing that you are going to do something the wrong way, but you’re doing it anyway because you want that experience. I’ve had to do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life.”

TRACK LISTING

01. Slow Motion 2:07
02. You 3:59
03. Thin 2:09
04. Human Being 3:17
05. Faded Heart 2:59
06. Spotted Gold 2:20
07. Time To Go 2:50
08. Messes 3:47
09. On And Off For You 3:39
10. Becoming Shadows 2:31
11. Speeding Ticket 4:25

Miami by way of Fayetteville and Little Rock, Steven A Clark’s raw, confessional singing and personal stories pair with pulsing synthesizers and rhythms that hang in the air like a glowing grid of roadside neon. It’s a means for the soft-spoken artist to process all the drama in his head. 

On songs such as ‘Not You’, he flips a brutally honest breakup tale and draws emotions and empathy from being on the ‘right’ side of the conversation. 

The title track uses a slinky, sensual beat to create a perfect backdrop to tell the story of a weekend-long tryst in Vegas. For a man of few words, his unadorned and uncomplicated lyrics hit home. 

“… a heroic underdog of the specific, delivering diarylike lyrics detailed enough to provide a loaded portrait of a young man in transition.” - SPIN

TRACK LISTING

Lonely Roller
Trouble Baby
Not You
Can’t Have
Bounty Time
Machine
Floral Print
Part Two
She’s In Love
Young, Wild, Free

Sonny Clark was the epitome of cool - he has nearly 300 playing credits to his name The partial list is staggering. Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Criss, Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Billie Holiday, Lee Morgan and many more. On Sonny's Crib, Clark used the sextet format consisting of one of the all-time great jazz line ups. John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. Trane had struggled with addiction earlier in the year but by this session had quit heroin for good and was reclaiming his spot as a major force in Jazz. By any measurement Sonny's Crib is a classic that features remarkable solos. Two weeks later Coltrane would record the epic "Blue Train" with Fuller and Chambers. More than a few critics and fans have compared the two

TRACK LISTING

With A Song In My Heart
Speak Low
Come Rain Or Come Shine
Sonny's Crib
News For Lulu

‘Where Neon Goes To Die’ explores a complex relationship full of highs and lows. From sultry pop to heart aching ballads, the album retells Clark’s travels through the city’s nocturnal fantasyland through hooky, R&B-infused synth pop - file alongside Prince and Frank Ocean - that (maybe ironically) could fill the floors at the same clubs he’s singing about. Of course, when Clark writes about his city he’s really writing about himself.

‘Where Neon Goes To Die’ retells Clark’s travels through the Miami’s nocturnal fantasyland. At its core, it is the story of a musician casting aside the distractions of his youth and discovering not only a new level of maturity but a new level to his talents.

After a string of mixtapes and EPs and his 2015 debut album ‘The Lonely Roller’, Clark is making music more confidently than he ever has before, sliding effortlessly between effervescent future disco on ‘Feel This Way’ to purple-tinged slow-burn soul on ‘Easy Fall’, a duet with Gavin Turek.

TRACK LISTING

Maria, Under The Moon
Feel This Way
Easy Fall
On And On
Found
Did I Hurt U
Evil Woman
Days Like This
War
What Can I Do

Second solo album by La Luz singer/guitarist Shana Cleveland.

RIYL: Robert Wyatt, Opal, Nilsson, Kevin Ayers and his Whole Wide World, Norma Tanega, Jessica Pratt, Julie Driscoll, Michael Nesmith, Sibylle Baier.

Manzanita is the common name for a kind of small evergreen tree endemic to California which has strong medicinal properties. It’s also the name of the brand new full length by visual artist, writer, songwriter, and musician Shana Cleveland. Subtle, powerful, and unafraid. We can’t actually tell you how much we love this record because you’d never believe us, so we’ll just say that it is her strongest and most personal album to date. These songs are as strong as the bricks in the Brill building, and seem destined to be covered by others in years to come. Where her previous record, 2019’s Night of the Worm Moon (Hardly Art) functions as a collection of speculative fictions equally inspired by Afro-futurist pioneers Herman “Sun Ra” Blount and Octavia Butler, Manzanita concerns the love that loves to love. “This is a supernatural love album set in the California wilderness,” Cleveland explains. The combinations of words and song structure are so strong throughout that one hardly notices Cleveland’s nimble fingerpicking on first listen, or how much is packed into the arrangements. The lyrics are satisfyingly direct, with the buoyantly whimsical descriptions typical of the 1960s New York School of poetry. It’s peppered with the kind of unexpected turns that make the words more modern, and in their spookiness they are more West Coast, as in “Mystic Mine,” with its “Mystic Mine Lane, cars rotting away/ I feel so relieved to be/ Back in the country.” So much of the pop music we love is propelled by those first blushes of infatuation and lust, but Manzanita concerns the kind of love that one can only experience with time, work, and devotion. Cleveland says: “The songs were all written while I was pregnant (side A) or shortly after my son's birth in that weird everything-has-quietly-but-monumentally-shifted state (side B),” she says. Moving to the country, starting a family, laughing for real at the same joke the thirteenth time you’ve heard it, surviving heavy shit (this is the first release since Cleveland’s successful treatment for a diagnosis of breast cancer at the start of 2022). This is a love album that’s somehow populated with the insect world, ghosts, and evil spirits. Sonically, Manzanita sits in a meadow similar to her previous solo records, set back and away from the genre-recombinant garage pop of her band La Luz. This is part due to the fact that there’s a different sonic palette in use here. While Cleveland continues to play guitar and vocals; Johnny Goss, who has recorded all of Shana’s solo material and early La Luz recordings, and Abbey Blackwell (Alvvays, La Luz) play the bass; Olie Eshleman is on pedal steel; and Will Sprott plays the keyboards, dulcimer, glockenspiel, and harpsichord—little of which would have been out of place on her previous two solo records—Sprott also adds layers of synthesizer infused with the sounds of the natural world. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another beautiful folk-leaning record this week from the brilliant Shana Cleveland. The La Luz singer / guitarist brings things down a little for her solo project, still swimming in psychedelic waters but with more of an organic, slow-moving drift. At times, the hefty gothic folk instrumentation overtakes her echoic vocals, but it's never less than perfectly manicured and a great listen throughout.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Ghost
2. Bloom
3. Faces In The Firelight
4. Mystic Mine
5. Light On The Water
6. Quick Winter Sun
7. Bonanza Freeze
8. Gold Tower
9. Babe
10. Ten Hour Drive Through West Coast Disaster
11. Evil Eye
12. Mayonnaise
13. Sheriff Of The Salton Sea
14. Walking Through Morning Dew

Shana Cleveland has been beguiling listeners for years in her role as the superlative frontwoman for elastic surf rockers La Luz. Now Cleveland is evolving her sound on the new solo full-length Night of the Worm Moon, a serene album that flows like a warm current while simultaneously wresting open a portal to another dimension. As much a work of California sci-fi as Octavia Butler’s Parable novels, Night of the Worm Moon incorporates everything from alternate realities to divine celestial bodies. Inspired in part by one of her musical idols, the Afro-futurist visionary Sun Ra (the album’s title is a tip of the hat to his 1970 release Night of the Purple Moon), the record blends pastoral folk with cosmic concerns.

Cleveland dreamt up this premise while living in Los Angeles, a city where--as deftly explored on La Luz’s recent Floating Features--reality and fantasy casually co-exist. Abetting Cleveland during the recording process was a familiar gallery of co-conspirators: multi-instrumentalist Will Sprott of Shannon & the Clams, original La Luz bassist Abbey Blackwell, Goss, pedal steel player Olie Eshelman, and Kristian Garrard, who drummed on Cleveland’s previous solo effort (with then-backing band The Sandcastles), 2011’s Oh Man, Cover the Ground.

But whereas that album was internal and contemplative, Night of the Worm Moon occupies a different, vibrant kind of headspace. UFO sightings, insect carcasses, and twilight dimensions are all grist for Cleveland’s restless creativity, and they and other inspirations collide beautifully on the album’s 10 kaleidoscopic tracks--a spacebound transmission from America’s weirdo frontier.

STAFF COMMENTS

Javi says: ‘Night of the Worm Moon’ is as much an album of acoustic lullabies as it is of shifting ethereal nightmares - and it’s this balance between the beautiful and the unnerving which allows Shana Cleveland’s ruminations on sleep, love, and identity to be so beguiling.
“Don’t Let Me Sleep” pulls us gently into this nocturnal world full of harps, zithers, vibraphones and lutes before second track and album highlight “Face of the Sun” trembles in, lilting between Latin guitar rhythms and wailing slide guitar. There are such nods to spaghetti western soundtracks throughout the album, in both the instrumentation and the slow, trundling tempo of tracks like “Solar Creep” and masterful “Invisible When The Sun Leaves”.
That’s not to say the album is a wholly analogue affair, though - the synth bass and eerie affected whistles of “The Fireball” are just as poignant as the more stripped back moments. At times the bass sounds like it’s going to swallow the song whole, lending a sense of intense anxiety to the proceedings, sucking the listener in.
If La Luz are the sound of bright summer days spent surfing and swimming in the sun, then ‘Night of the Worm Moon’ - the debut solo offering by frontwoman Shana Cleveland - shows us a parallel world that only appears once the sun has set and the stars have taken its place in the sky. From the first tender plucks to the final twilit twinkles, Cleveland has crafted an album as warm as it is melancholy, and as intimate as it is intoxicating.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Let Me Sleep
2. Face Of The Sun
3. In Another Realm
4. Castle Milk
5. Night Of The Worm Moon
6. Invisible When The Sun Leaves
7. The Fireball
8. Solar Creep
9. A New Song
10. I’ll Never Know

Numero’s Hottest Sounds Around trio gathers castaway late ’70s grooves from across the Greater Antilles. Stan Chaman’s Trinidadian Semp concern delivered Wilfred Luckie’s wobbly 'My Thing' and the Hamilton Brothers’ calypso-disco smash 'Music Makes The World Go 'Round' in 1978. Across the sea, Frank Penn’s G.B.I studio tracked Stephen Colebrook’s Doobies-inspired 'Stay Away From Music' for the cruise ship curious. All three are housed in a custom Numero sleeve inspired by Edward Seaga’s Caribbean music manufacturing and distribution powerhouse WIRL (West Indies Records Ltd.)

TRACK LISTING

1. Shake Your Chic Behind
2. Stay Away From Music

Heart’s Ease follows 2016’s Lodestar; which on its arrival, seemed like a musical miracle - an enthralling new LP from a woman who is widely acknowledged as England’s greatest female folk singer, but who had not recorded an album for 38 years.

With Heart’s Ease, Shirley delivers a record even stronger than Lodestar having completely regained her confidence, and singing so well that you can’t believe she was away for so long. As Shirley put it, “Lodestar wasn’t too bad, was it? But when I listen to it, it does sometimes sound rather tentative. I had to record it at home because I was just too nervous to sing in front of somebody I didn’t know. This time I was far more relaxed – even though I went into a studio.” Recorded at Metway in Brighton, Heart’s Ease is as compelling and original as Shirley’s great albums from the Sixties and Seventies. There are traditional songs, of course, from England and the USA, but there are also more new songs than in the past (four non-traditional tracks) and there’s even a burst of experimentation that hints at possible new directions to come.

In the years between For As Many As Will (1978) and the release of Lodestar, Shirley suffered from a form of dysphonia, had lost her singing voice, and was never expected to sing again – certainly not in public. Lodestar was a delightful surprise to all her fans and the folk community, and once Shirley had started to sing again, she was not going to stop. “I’m absolutely consumed by this music,” she said. “I have always loved it so much. I’m still learning songs and just want to keep learning them. I thought ‘somebody has got to sing these songs, so it might as well be me!”

Collins followed Lodestar with a remarkable blitz of activity for a lady in her eighties. There was a film, and soundtrack album, The Ballad of Shirley Collins. There was a new autobiography, All in the Downs, which won the Penderyn Music Book Prize (beating the Beastie Boys). And there were high-profile come-back concerts, including a memorable appearance at London’s Barbican, at which she was backed by an exceptional group of friends and musicians, the Lodestar Band. She may have felt nervous being back on stage, “but I feel so supported by that band. And every song I sing I love anyway – it’s not a hardship to sing the songs!”.

All of which is reflected in her second come-back album, Heart’s Ease. Collins’ intriguing choice of songs on Heart’s Ease includes two with lyrics by her first husband Austin John Marshall, a graphic artist and poet who produced several of her albums and had the inspired idea of getting Shirley to work with blues/jazz/world music guitarist Davy Graham on that extraordinary album Folk Roots, New Routes in 1964. There are more family memories with “Locked In Ice”, written by Dolly’s son the late Buz Collins and the most startling new piece is the finale, “Crowlink”, named after a pathway on the South Downs overlooking the English Channel “where I love to be,” in which Shirley sings against a moody, atmospheric fusion of Ossian Brown’s hurdy-gurdy, and electronica and field recordings of waves and sea birds from Matthew Shaw.

Heart’s Ease is a glorious reminder that Shirley Collins is still in a class of her own, both as a folk singer with a distinctive no-nonsense style that is all her own, and as an innovator. And she certainly doesn’t intend this album to be her last. “I have such a huge memory of songs, so many of which I still want to sing. And I wasted all those years not singing, so now I’ve got to catch up a bit!”

TRACK LISTING

The Merry Golden Tree
Rolling In The Dew
The Christmas Song
Locked In Ice
Wondrous Love
Barbara Allen
Canadee-i-o
Sweet Greens And Blues
Tell Me True
Whitsun Dance
Orange In Bloom
Crowlink

During the 1960s and ‘70s Shirley Collins was regarded by many as the first lady of folk music, the subsequent decades have only served to enhance that reputati on. Between 1955 and 1978 she recorded for the Folkways, Argo, Harvest and Topic labels. After the release of ‘For As Many As Will’ in 1978 she withdrew from performing and the music world aft er developing dysphonia. Shirley recently returned to recording after a very long hiatus and is still widely acknowledged as one of the finest singers and ambassadors to have emerged during the Folksong Revival of the 1960s.

Few singers of the English folk revival have attempted as much on record as Collins – an extraordinary combination of fragility and power. “I like music to be fairly straightforward, simply embellished – the performance without histrionics allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think.” Through an impressive series of experimental recordings Shirley established an extraordinarily sympathetic marriage of traditi onal songs handed down through generati ons of rural labouring people with ground breaking contemporary arrangements – recordings that have scarcely been equalled in subsequent decades. This collection draws together some of her most iconic recordings and will serve as an Introducti on to her very special catalogue of music.

“Shirley Collins is without doubt one of England’s greatest cultural treasures.” Billy Bragg

TRACK LISTING

Tracks (CD):
The Foggy Dew
I Drew My Ship
A Blacksmith Courted Me
The False Bride
All Things Are Quite Silent
Polly Vaughan
False True Love

Spencer The Rover
The Sweet Primeroses
Rambleaway
March The Morning Sun
The Cherry Tree Carol
The Moon Shines Bright
One Night
As I Lay In My Bed
Come All You Litt Le Streamers

Tracks (LP):
The Foggy Dew
A Blacksmith Courted Me
The False Bride
All Things Are Quite Silent
Polly Vaughan
False True Love
The Sweet Primeroses
Rambleaway
March The Sun Morning
The Cherry Tree Carol
The Moon Shines Bright
The Rigs Of Time

One of the most important voices in British folk music Shirley Collins returns with Archangel Hill, her third album for Domino. Due for release on May 26th, it showcases another peerless collection of songs chosen by Collins, some from traditional sources but others from favourite writers of hers.

Produced by Ian Kearey - Shirley Collins’ musical director - the arrangements were shared between Collins, Kearey, Pip Barnes, as well as Dave Arthur and Pete Cooper, players from The Lodestar Band.

All of the songs on Archangel Hill were recorded last year except for “Hand And Heart”, which was taken from a live performance at the Sydney Opera House in 1980 and features an arrangement by Shirley’s beloved and talented sister Dolly Collins.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear
2. Lost In A Wood
3. The Captain With The Whiskers
4. June Apple
5. The Golden Glove
6. High And Away
7. Oakham Poachers
8. Hares On The Mountain
9. Hand And Heart
10. The Bonny Labouring Boy
11. Swaggering Boney
12. How Far Is It To Bethlehem?
13. Archangel Hill

The return of Shirley Collins after a 38 year silence. ‘Lodestar’ is a collection of English, American and Cajun songs dating from the 16th Century to the 1950s, recorded at Shirley’s home in Lewes by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown of Cyclobe and produced and musically directed by Ian Kearey.

Though Shirley Collins (MBE) has been absent from the music scene for many years, her impact has not diminished. The likes of Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Stewart Lee and Angel Olsen laud her and a documentary, ‘The Ballad Of Shirley Collins’, is currently in progress. Additionally, she was given the Good Tradition award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2008, elected President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society in the same year and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Sussex University this year. Shirley released her first memoir, ‘America Over The Water’, in 2004 and is currently working on her second book.

“Shirley is a time traveller, a conduit for essential human aches, one of the greatest artists who ever lived, and yet utterly humble” - Stewart Lee.

TRACK LISTING

Awake Awake / The Split Ash Tree / May Carol / Southover
The Banks Of Green Willow
Cruel Lincoln
Washed Ashore
Death And The Lady
Pretty Polly
Old Johnny Buckle
Sur Le Borde De L’Eau
The Rich Irish Lady / Jeff Sturgeon
The Silver Swan

The return of Shirley Collins after a 38 year silence. ‘Lodestar’ is a collection of English, American and Cajun songs dating from the 16th Century to the 1950s, recorded at Shirley’s home in Lewes by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown of Cyclobe and produced and musically directed by Ian Kearey.

Though Shirley Collins (MBE) has been absent from the music scene for many years, her impact has not diminished. The likes of Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Stewart Lee and Angel Olsen laud her and a documentary, ‘The Ballad Of Shirley Collins’, is currently in progress. Additionally, she was given the Good Tradition award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2008, elected President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society in the same year and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Sussex University this year. Shirley released her first memoir, ‘America Over The Water’, in 2004 and is currently working on her second book.

“Shirley is a time traveller, a conduit for essential human aches, one of the greatest artists who ever lived, and yet utterly humble” - Stewart Lee.

TRACK LISTING

Awake Awake / The Split Ash Tree / May Carol / Southover
The Banks Of Green Willow
Cruel Lincoln
Washed Ashore
Death And The Lady
Pretty Polly
Old Johnny Buckle
Sur Le Borde De L’Eau
The Rich Irish Lady / Jeff Sturgeon
The Silver Swan

Recorded 67 years ago,

Reisued in Shirley's 90th year in this universe.

Limited to 800 black vinyl / cd limited to 1000 each packaged in reverse board printed card sleave

Remastered and with restored original artwork, LP with postcard inserts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweet England
2. Hares On The Mountain
3. Hori-Horo
4. The Bonny Irish Boy
5. The Tailor And The Mouse
6. The Lady And The Swine
7. Turpin Hero
8. The Cuckoo
9. The Bonny Labouring Boy
10. The Cherry Tree Carol
11. Sweet William
12. Omie Wise
13. Blackbirds And Thrushes
14. A Keeper Went Hunting
15. Polly Vaughan
16. Pretty Saro
17. Barbara Allen
18. Charlie

Reissue of previously deleted classic Folk album - Back to Black.

Shirley Collins's sweet, self-effacing singing keeps her closer to the core of traditional song than many a more histrionic singer. Yet her work has been extraordinarily diverse - she has collaborated with the guitarist Davy Graham, the Incredible String Band, the Albion Country Band and her sister Dolly. "The Sweet Primeroses" are simple and resonant versions of Southern English songs which established Shirley Collins as a unique and influential voice on the folk scene.

The new album from grammy award winner Shawn Colvin featuring some of her best work yet including quality songs like "Whole New You" and "A Matter of Minutes".

"Seaside Surprise" is the debut release from Manchester based musician Simon Connor. After gigging as an acoustic solo artist for the past year the arrangements on the EP have been fleshed out with a full band, a string section and electronic beats. The well crafted songs are given a much wider scope and the sound sits somewhere in between Radiohead, Elliott Smith and Scott Matthews.