Another soaring melodic pop song from Vega 4, for fans of Coldplay, Snowpatrol, Keane etc.

Inspired by the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains north-west of Madrid, his home since August 2022, Milo Fitzpatrick presents 'Sierra Tracks' the new album from his expansive, cinematic, chamber-jazz project Vega Trails.

Having cut 2022’s beautifully resonant debut album ‘Tremors in the Static’ as a duo, alongside saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands and Sunda Arc), Milo now substantially expands upon that blueprint with his follow-up, ‘Sierra Tracks’, which, as the title suggests,was conceived at his new home in central Spain and adds piano, vibraphone and strings to the mix. The beautiful Spanish countryside offered inspiration too.

However while 'Sierra Tracks' features an expanded line-up including pianist Taz Modi (a colleague alongside Milo in Portico Quartet’s live band) providing “some rhythmic movement behind us, to free up the bass and sax from being so busy” and vibraphone specialist Harriet Riley, multi-reedist Jordan Smart remains a key voice in Vega Trails. “Jordan has a really direct and exciting way that he connects with his instrument, and the audience,” Milo reflects. “He's into jazz, but also folk of many traditions, and he can play different wind instruments – soprano and tenor sax, bass clarinet, the dadouk, and the Ney flute from Turkey and Armenia. Knowing his phrasing, Iwrote very much with him in mind.”

Milo also re-engaged with the cello, an instrument he hadn’t played since school days, adding an extra dimension to his own sound,but it was a conversation with Gondwana Records label mate, Hania Rania, about recording orchestral arrangements that helped bring 'Sierra Tracks' fully into focus.

A shaping influence on Milo’s vision for the record was David Toop’s seminal book, ‘Oceans of Sound’, and he perceived each track asan aural story. “I wanted to make sounds that felt equal to where I’ve been roaming in the mountains and forests out here, that reflect the incredible scale of the place. You get these huge views and skylines, which it’s hard to find words for.” The curious sounds thatopen the album, at the beginning of ‘Largo’, are an approximation, by Milo on cello, of a harmonic series that is often heard in the Sierra region: when the local knife-sharpeners travel around the neighbouring villages, plying their trade, they play a similar riff on panpipes to proclaim their arrival. “You get all these announcements, from people collecting scrap iron and steel, or delivering fruit and bread, and I thought that kind of thing would make a good opening for the record.” With that colourful reference as an overture, ‘Sierra Tracks’ shapes up as a love letter to the rocky landscape within which its creator now resides. It is also, he says, about his mental-health journey out of the pandemic years, which have been so testing for us all.

“I had been thinking about Time, and how history repeats itself, but also how one can become trapped in thoughts, especially on difficult personal subjects, and how these become cyclical in our minds. But I also wanted to talk about how walking or running canhelp release oneself from these cycles and find clarity and order from tangled emotional thinking patterns. It’s like discovering a newpath from your usual running route, and how that can change your perspective and help find a type of peace and acceptance.”

Through the album there are motifs and melodies that repeat from one tune to another, which of course resemble cyclical thoughts and memories.

“So, to me,” Milo concludes, “this record is an exploration of the relationship between the complex, tangled world of one’s mentalprocesses and how moving through the tangible world, especially through nature, can help find definition and clarity.”

As such, ‘Sierra Tracks’ really is medicine for the mind, body and soul.

TRACK LISTING

1. Largo
2. Els
3. Murmuration
4. Dream House
5. Clarifantasia
6. Reverie
7. Murmur
8. Old Friend; The Sea
9. When This Is Over
10. Sleepwalk Toky

Alan Vega’s self-titled debut solo album was released in 1980 during the same period Suicide released their second album, 'Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev'. While Suicide’s label ZE Records, was interested in pushing the duo toward a synthetic disco sound inspired by Moroder’s production on Donna Summer’s 'I Feel Love', Vega felt a pull in a different direction. He wanted to dig deeper into the roots of his own sonic identity, fueled by blues, rockabilly, early rock n roll, and his enduring love for Elvis Presley. Filling the gaps between recording with Suicide, and fleshing out the songs he was writing on his own, Vega started creating his first record and performing live to develop this sound.

As with his visual art, Vega layered sound in a minimalist, dynamic and intentional way. The result was a fiercely singular album built from raw materials and deeply rooted in Vega’s artistic vision. Tracks like the classic anthem 'Jukebox Babe' with its jiving rhythm and minimalist swagger, captured that approach completely and went on to become a hit in France. 'Kung Foo Cowboy' takes on a southern twist, strongly leaning into the blues, while the golden pop shine of 'Ice Drummer' rings in melodic yet plaintive vocals, marching drums and a tasteful harmonica solo. 'Bye Bye Bayou' is a haunted slice of mutant rockabilly that fuses 50s rock with Vega’s eccentric performance style and was later reimagined in the 2009 cover by LCD Soundsystem, introducing Vega’s solo work to a new generation. Similarly, The Flaming Lips’ cover of 'Ice Drummer' paid homage to Vega’s outsider spirit.

Now remastered by Josh Bonati from the original tapes and available on streaming services for the first time, Alan Vega has been faithfully reissued by Sacred Bones Records, preserving the raw intensity of Vega’s original recordings while making them newly accessible to listeners around the world. Alan Vega is more than a solo debut, it’s a declaration of artistic independence and freedom from one of New York’s most influential and uncompromising artists. Stripped of Suicide’s intense electronics yet retaining Vega’s outsider energy and edge, the album translates early rock ‘n roll through an art-punk filter that stands the test of time as a cult masterpiece in its own right. 

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. Jukebox Babe
2. Kung Foo Cowboy
3. Fireball
4. Love Cry
5. Speedway
6. Ice Drummer
7. Bye Bye Bayou
8. Lonely 

Deluxe CD & Deluxe LP Tracklisting:
1. Jukebox Babe
2. Kung Foo Cowboy
3. Fireball
4. Love Cry
5. Speedway
6. Ice Drummer
7. Bye Bye Bayou 
8. Lonely
9. Ice Drummer (Demo)
10. Fireball (Demo)
11. Speedway (Demo)
12. Love Cry (Demo)
13. Kung Foo Cowboy (Demo)
14. Lonely (Demo)
15. Bye Bye Bayou (Demo)

'Collision Drive' is Alan Vega’s second solo studio album, originally released in 1981. If his debut laid the groundwork for a raw, minimalist take on rockabilly and blues, 'Collision Drive' expands the palette with a grittier, more layered, and unfiltered energy. Here Vega’s lyrics channel universal themes rooted in his fascination with street life, science fiction, politics, comics, love and the mysteries of the universe. It’s a record that pulses with feeling and rebellion, displaying the full spectrum of human experience and Vega’s evolving vision

Alan was always reinventing himself, creating and refining his mastery of variation while maintaining his own unparalleled and identifiable aesthetic. Sonically, this album is more dynamic than his first. Ditching drum machines for a live drummer, and enlisting a hard rock band to back him, 'Collision Drive' offered a different view of Vega’s artistic vision. The aching punk rockabilly of 'Magdalena 82' unfolds with a hypnotic blend of guitar slides and frenetic energy, while Vega’s cover of 'Be Bop A Lula' transforms Gene Vincent’s classic into an aggressively charged, manic howl. Elsewhere, tracks like the hard-driving cosmic rock n roll 'Raver' push into psychobilly territory. Vega was relentlessly innovative, continuously paving new ground.

TRACK LISTING

1. Magdalena 82
2. Be Bop A Lula
3. Outlaw
4. Raver
5. Ghost Rider
6. I Believe
7. Magdalena 83
8. Rebel
9. Viet Vet 

One of Alan Vega’s greatest talents was his ability to bring the past and the future together into a suspended place of timelessness. His groundbreaking duo Suicide was often seen as future primitivism and most of his musical output has exemplified this blending of the primordial human condition and visionary thinking. With Invasion b/w Murder One, the next release from the now infamous Vega Vault following 2021’s Mutator, we see this innate power in full effect.

The two tracks “Invasion” and “Murder One” were recorded two decades apart from one another in New York City. “Invasion” was recorded toward the end of the 2012-2015 studio sessions for the posthumous album IT and was one of his last recordings, while “Murder One” was recorded in 1997-1998, (after the Mutator sessions) and is part of a cluster of material that was recorded but never mixed prior to the sessions for his album 2007, released in 1999. Pairing these two songs together as a release illustrates the timelessness of the 30 plus years of unreleased material that he deemed the Vega Vault.

This release continues the collaboration of Mutator’s mixing and producing team, Liz Lamere and Jared Artaud. Liz provides a bridge to the past, having performed throughout the recording process of “Murder One” and “Invasion” while Jared opens a bridge to the future having been chosen by Alan himself to carry the torch and ensure the vision stays intact. Alan trusted no one more than Liz and Jared, and gave his blessing and encouragement to continue releasing material from the Vault. As Alan stated in the song “Vision” from IT, “If you destroy the vision, you will suffer the whirlwind.”

Listening to the various tracks during these mixing sessions brought up vivid recollections of how the sounds (such as the haunting voices in “Murder One”) were created and the constant experimentation that was involved, memories that informed Liz’s approach in the mixing process. Together with Jared’s technical skills, intuition, and deep understanding of the feeling these sounds were intended to evoke, the two were able to preserve the authenticity of the recordings while enhancing the quality of sound so the listener can fully experience the nuances of these unique auditory creations.

TRACK LISTING

1. Invasion
2. Murder One 

For BBE Music’s landmark 500th release, the label joins forces with Louie Vega, Leroy Burgess and Patrick Adams to revisit "Barely Breaking Even", the iconic track after which the label is named. Coaxed into the studio together by BBE founder Peter Adarkwah, Grammy winning House music hero Louie Vega, arranger extraordinaire and New York disco royalty Patrick Adams, plus the song’s original writer (and king of boogie) Leroy Burgess soon got to work. Even given the caliber of those involved in this special session, the results are simply exceptional. Featuring live strings by The Apple Hill String Quartet arranged by Adams and Burgess, Vega’s ‘Boogie Mix’ stays faithful to the Universal Robot Band original, with potent vocal performances and a tough new groove for 2019. It was at the string recording session for the boogie version that Louie Vega unveiled his 'NYC House Mix' to the assembled musicians, at which point he and Leroy Burgess quickly arranged a brand new horn section and re-wrote the song’s melody to compliment the track’s accelerated pace. What the team emerged with is so much more than a remix- it’s a unified call-back to two golden eras; that of disco-boogie and that of New York House. And it’s beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Instrumental))
2. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega Boogie Mix)

Disc: 2
1. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega NYC House Remix)
2. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega Boogie Mix (Instrumental))

There is a global musical movement happening right now, and an integral part of this rhythmic and cultural evolution is the legendary Grammy award-winning DJ / Producer / Artist Louie Vega.The movement is comprised of the Expansions In The NYC album and the Expansions NYC events, and it represents the very best in music, dance and club culture from New York City to London to Miami to Ibiza and every locale around the world where people appreciate the power of house music.

Up next in the continuing series of product releases and events in connection with the Expansions juggernaut, a limited edition Expansions In The NYC 7” boxset on Nervous Records.

“Releasing vinyl has always been part of my mantra, but this is a unique one,” said Louie Vega. “For the first time having our music released on a (10) piece 7” set along with new original art by Andrew Thiele (who also created the Expansions In the NYC Album cover), it’s a highlight in the history of all my vinyl releases. Not too many artists release 10 pieces of vinyl within a set. And what makes it even more special is the calibre of all the amazing artists who worked on the tracks and songs with me. This is a landmark and essential collector’s item. A veritable “Must Have!” Never before have all these artists graced one album together from Honey Dijon to Lisa Fischer, Moodymann to Bernard Fowler, Robyn to Unlimited Touch, and Karen Harding to Kerri Chandler. It’s a dancer’s and vinyl collector’s paradise.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The hot and highly acclaimed collection from Louie Vega gets a 7" box set release. For lovers of real house music, "Expansions" has been one of the strongest albums in recent years.

TRACK LISTING

A. The Star Of A Story Ft. Lisa Fischer 
B. Deep Burnt Ft. Axel Tosca 
C. Change Your Mind Ft. Bernard Fowler 
D. Another Day In My Life 
E. Seven Mile Ft. Moodymann 
F. Come Away Ft. Kerri Chandler 
G. Music Is My Life Ft. Unlimited Touch 
H. You Got Me Dancing Ft. Audrey Wheeler & Cindy Mizelle 
I. Chimi Ft. Elements Of Life 
J. Love Has No Time Or Place Ft. Elements Of Life (Unreleased Instrumental Dub) 
K. Atmosphere Strut Ft. DJ Spinna 
L. Cosmic Witch Ft. Anané 
M. How He Works Ft. Nico Vega 
N. A Place Where We Can All Be Free Ft. Janine Lyons 
O. Touch The Sky Ft. Tony Momrelle 
P. Dreaming Ft. Cindy Mizelle 
Q. All My Love Ft. Robyn 
R. Feel So Right Ft. Honey Dijon 
S. Free To Love (Louie Vega & Karen Harding) 
T. It's All Good (Louie Vega Remix) (Bebe Winans Ft. Debbie Winans Lowe & Korean Soul) 

'Touch The Sky' feat Tony Momrelle is the latest track from 'Expansions In The NYC' to get the full remix treatment, following on from 'All My Love' late last year.

First to offer his own perspective is Japan's Masaki Morii, a regular on the likes of King Street and Shelter, as well as the founder of his own M2SOUL MUSIC & NU ONE. He bridges soul, deep and Afro house, always with plenty of emotion. His first remix is a lush layering of feathery drums and skyward melodies with the original vocal bringing plenty of heart-aching soul. It's a life-giving work for a moment of pure celebration and release, and shows how musical and artful house can be in the right hands. Extended dub and instrumental remixes all bring out subtly different facets of the original without losing its uplifting essence.

Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield are Musclecars, a duo with a community-first approach to music. From high-profile magazine front covers to gigs at Panoramabar and their residency at Nowadays in New York, they have a fresh and authentic sound that pulls from soul, jazz and disco on labels like BBE, Rhythm Section and their own Coloring Lessons. Their majestic, 10-minute remix is a soulful deep house odyssey designed to nourish and enrich. The soaring vocals come from a place of love, and there is freedom to the jazzy melodies and lavish percussion that warms the heart while pianos and synths are locked in a joyous tussle. The dub shifts things back to chunkier, more bouncy drums, with slightly pared-back, more late-night melodies, while the instrumental is all about giving everything room to breathe.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A bit like The Fast And Furious franchise, "Expansions In The NYC" seemingly refuses to end. Here we get four remixes of "Touch The Sky" by two hot-to-trot producers who more than do business. Personal favourite? The Masaki Morii dub... oophh! :)

TRACK LISTING

1 .Louie Vega featuring Tony Momrelle - Touch The Sky (Masaki Morii Remix)
2 .Louie Vega featuring Tony Momrelle - Touch The Sky (MUSCLECARS Brooklyn Dub)

Side B
1 .Louie Vega featuring Tony Momrelle - Touch The Sky (MUSCLECARS Remix)
2 .Louie Vega featuring Tony Momrelle - Touch The Sky (Masaki Morii Dub Remix)

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka”, certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy, “Marlene on the Wall”, a surprise hit in the UK and “Tom’s Diner”, a strange little a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies. WHAT IS THIS ALBUM ? Produced by Gerry Leonard (Guitar player with David Bowie, played with Roger Waters, Laurie Anderson) mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner, Bob Ludwig. On An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Vega revisits some of her most New York-centric repertoire in a stunning live recording on which she is backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. Recorded at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early 2019, the album includes both familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and deep cuts from her catalog like “Frank and Ava” and “Ludlow Street”. The mix of repertoire also features “New York Is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, Vega’s one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers, and a cover of her late friend Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Marlene On The Wall
2. Luka
3. 'So How Many People Are Here From Out Of Town?'
4. New York Is A Woman
5. 'This Next Song Takes Place On 59th Street...'
6. Frank And Eva
7. 'So I Myself Came To New York City When I Was 2 ½ Years Old'
8. Gypsy
9. Freeze Tag
10. Pornographer's Dream
11. 'This Next Song Is Called New York Is My Destination'
12. New York Is My Destination
13. 'The First Time I Saw Lou Reed...'
14. Walk On The Wild Side
15. Ludlow Street
16. Cracking
17. 'And Now We've Got A Song About Those Times...'
18. Some Journey
19. 'I'm Gonna Close With This Song...'
20. Tom's Diner
21. 'Would You Like Another One?'
22. Anniversary
23. Tombstone
24. Thin Man

After leading the cult performance art collective Lazarus Kane, Ben Hambro took a more introspective, lyrically driven approach with vegas water taxi. Their debut album, 'Things Are Gonna Be Alright', was self-released in November 2023—a beautiful yet jarring collection of songs capturing the chaos and contradictions of your twenties.

The album is getting reissued with its first-ever vinyl release via PNKSLM Recordings on June 13, 2025. The reissue includes four exclusive bonus tracks recorded live at The Windmill. Hambro, who's also collaborated with artists such as Katy J Pearson, continues to craft music that resonates and surprises.

TRACK LISTING

1. Creative Director Blues
2. Dog Race
3. Jukebox
4. Six Music Dads
5. Twenty Year Cycle
6. Shout
7. Get Clean
8. Modern Love
9. Get Clean (Live)
10. Birkenstocks (Live)
11. Six Music Dads (Live)
12. Creative Director Blues (Live)
13. Modern Love (Live)

Following the success of his most recent sophomore album, 'The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions', Vegyn's groundbreaking debut will once again be available for fans to purchase on 12" vinyl, offering a renewed opportunity to experience his innovative blend of electronic music. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Blue Verb
2. Nauseous / Devilish
3. That Ain't No Dang Cat!
4. Aspenz
5. Cowboy ALLSTAR
6. Thoughts Of Offing One
7. Debold
8. Fake Life
9. I Owe You NYthing
10. Fire Like Tyndall
11. Unknown, Forever Unknown
12. Retro OTW
13. When I Strike...
14. You Owe Me
15. It's Nice To Be Alive
16. Blue Verb Reprise

It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double album to show for it. …And Out Of The Void Came Love is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life. Following the release of Total Depravity, Andrews released a solo album and began a worldwide tour. One night, while lashing out at a particularly intense moment on piano, he broke his wrist on stage. He played on and finished the rest of the tour, but it wasn’t until he got it examined much later that he realized what a bad move that was. The convalescence that followed meant a lengthy hiatus from touring, so he did what he does best and stayed at home and wrote songs. Just when his hand had healed sufficiently for him to play again, The Veils found themselves in need of a new record label, but Finn set about starting to make a new record regardless. Producer Tom Healy invited Finn to his small studio underneath the old Crystal Palace ballroom in Mount Eden, and they listened through the legions of songs he had amassed throughout the previous year. Following another two years of intermittent recording between lockdowns, Finn’s wife became pregnant, and yet more songs started coming. By the time the songs had been recorded, it was clear that arranging the album into two halves best suited such varied material—but the meaning of the songs as a whole still eluded Andrews. The result of all these years of questioning, confinement and precarious uncertainty is this magnificent new double album. It is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle. Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums), the NZTrio and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals. The Veils have toured consistently throughout their twenty year history and garnered a formidable reputation as one of the world’s greatest live bands. They have also been praised by film directors Paolo Sorrentino, Tim Burton and David Lynch who have all used their music on their soundtracks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Time
2. No Limit Of Stars
3. Undertow
4. Bullfighter (Hand Of God)
5. The World Of Invisible Things
6. Epoch
7. Diamonds And Coal
8. Rings Of Saturn
9. Made From Love With Far To Go
10. The Pearl (Part II)
11. Someday My Love Will Come
12. The Day I Meet My Murderer
13. Between The Ocean And The Storm
14. I've Been Waiting

Following the critically acclaimed release of 'Asphodels' in 2025, The Veils return with a bold and invigorated new album, 'Fragile World'.

Arriving just over a year after their last release, 'Fragile World' marks a striking shift in tone and energy for the band.

Recorded live to tape in New Zealand by Paddy Hill, with production by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, The Chills, Folk Bitch Trio), Fragile World captures The Veils in an urgent and instinctive mode.

The album's title is both a reflection of the present moment - a time in which many institutions appear to be crumbling before our eyes - and a metaphor for the act of creation itself. The process of making music, Andrews notes, is a delicate and fragile undertaking where thousands of small decisions gradually coalesce into a finished whole.

"We went into the studio with a lot of songs, but very little idea of the arrangements or instrumentation. It was truly exciting having no idea what this record would sound like and only a few weeks to figure it out. It's mostly Tom and I playing everything, with Joseph McCallum coming in at times. It was all very instinctual, quite full-on, and scary at times - but a good kind of scary, not scary like the real world out there."

With its immediacy, intensity, and emotional clarity, 'Fragile World' stands as one of The Veils' most compelling releases to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. Aurora 
2. High Hopes 
3. Lungs 
4. Are You Awake Tonight? 
5. New Day 
6. Little White Bird (Fragile World)
7. The Widening Dark
8. My Foolish Heart
9. These Are The Days
10. In This Heart

The Veils' first three albums are return to vinyl thanks to Rough Trade Records.

'The Runaway Found' (2004), 'Nux Vomica' (2006) and 2009's 'Sun Gangs' established the New Zealand band as purveyors of lush, romantic indie, able to sweep through cinematic vistas into intimate emotional corners, via gothic orchestration and atmospheric driving rhythms.

Founded and fronted by singer-songwriter Finn Andrews while still a teenager, over their first three albums, The Veils carved out a musical landscape of their own that was in turn deep and enveloping yet emotionally raw and direct.

Having only enjoyed a limited vinyl run on their releases, due to the format's neglected commercial status during the 2000s, the repressing of 'The Runaway Found', 'Nux Vomica' and 'Sun Gangs', offers audiences a fresh opportunity to enjoy these records with the full depth, fidelity and artwork they deserve, and reminding listeners of the musical secrets The Veils revealed to the world.

“It is a sincere joy to see these records that are so important to us and to so many others reissued on vinyl by the label that nurtured us right from the start. I remain hugely grateful to them and to all the songs on these searching, impassioned, and magnificently youthful first attempts.” - Finn Andrews, The Veils

TRACK LISTING

1. Not Yet
2. Calliope!
3. Advice For Young Mothers To Be
4. Jesus For The Jugular
5. Pan
6. A Birthday Present
7. Under The Folding Branches
8. Nux Vomica
9. One Night On Earth

The Veils' first three albums are return to vinyl thanks to Rough Trade Records.

'The Runaway Found' (2004), 'Nux Vomica' (2006) and 2009's 'Sun Gangs' established the New Zealand band as purveyors of lush, romantic indie, able to sweep through cinematic vistas into intimate emotional corners, via gothic orchestration and atmospheric driving rhythms.

Founded and fronted by singer-songwriter Finn Andrews while still a teenager, over their first three albums, The Veils carved out a musical landscape of their own that was in turn deep and enveloping yet emotionally raw and direct.

Having only enjoyed a limited vinyl run on their releases, due to the format's neglected commercial status during the 2000s, the repressing of 'The Runaway Found', 'Nux Vomica' and 'Sun Gangs', offers audiences a fresh opportunity to enjoy these records with the full depth, fidelity and artwork they deserve, and reminding listeners of the musical secrets The Veils revealed to the world.

“It is a sincere joy to see these records that are so important to us and to so many others reissued on vinyl by the label that nurtured us right from the start. I remain hugely grateful to them and to all the songs on these searching, impassioned, and magnificently youthful first attempts.” - Finn Andrews, The Veils

TRACK LISTING

1. Sit Down By The Fire
2. Sun Gangs
3. The Letter
4. Killed By The Boom
5. It Hits Deep
6. Three Sisters
7. The House She Lived In
8. Scarecrow
9. Larkspur
10. Begin Again

The Veils' first three albums are return to vinyl thanks to Rough Trade Records.

'The Runaway Found' (2004), 'Nux Vomica' (2006) and 2009's 'Sun Gangs' established the New Zealand band as purveyors of lush, romantic indie, able to sweep through cinematic vistas into intimate emotional corners, via gothic orchestration and atmospheric driving rhythms.

Founded and fronted by singer-songwriter Finn Andrews while still a teenager, over their first three albums, The Veils carved out a musical landscape of their own that was in turn deep and enveloping yet emotionally raw and direct.

Having only enjoyed a limited vinyl run on their releases, due to the format's neglected commercial status during the 2000s, the repressing of 'The Runaway Found', 'Nux Vomica' and 'Sun Gangs', offers audiences a fresh opportunity to enjoy these records with the full depth, fidelity and artwork they deserve, and reminding listeners of the musical secrets The Veils revealed to the world.

“It is a sincere joy to see these records that are so important to us and to so many others reissued on vinyl by the label that nurtured us right from the start. I remain hugely grateful to them and to all the songs on these searching, impassioned, and magnificently youthful first attempts.” - Finn Andrews, The Veils

TRACK LISTING

1. The Wild Son
2. Guiding Light
3. Lavinia
4. More Heat Than Light
5. The Tide That Left and Never Came Back
6. The Leavers Dance
7. Talk Down the Girl
8. The Valleys of New Orleans
9. Vicious Traditions
10. The Nowhere Man

Elvis Veira was born on the Carribean island of Nevis and moved to England alongside his pianist and music teacher mother at the age of 2, quickly becoming profficient on piano, guitar & bass by the time he was in his early teens. His love for playing music and singing in choirs propelled him on this musical journey, and his late teens to 20s saw him supporting top acts such Heatwave, Wham, Second Image, Katrina and the Waves, Mezzo Forte, Chris Rea, Shakatak and many others.

In 1983 he started working under the alias VeiraKrew, and a couple of years later in 1985 laid down this 12" at Bedford's Thatch Cottage Studio on a shoe-string budget. Backed up with the title-track's killer instrumental version and the b-side "Welcome to a Dream" it was self-released by Elvis on a x1000 run (since becoming quite the collectors item, with clean copies changing hands for up to £150 a piece).

Following the release of Sexy Lady, Elvis continued playing and working as a session musician and vocalist, going on to release a further 12" in 1988 signing to Stevie V's Beatbox International label for the house-inflected track "Good Stuff". Fast forwarding to present day, Elvis has had some time away from music but is now back actively playing and producing, alongside working with the OMG (Outreach Music Group) - helping to provide support and music therapy within the NHS.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sexy Lady
2. Sexy Lady (Instrumental)
3. Welcome To A Dream

Listening to Laura Veirs is like looking up into the night sky and suddenly witnessing a meteor shower: there's something startling and magical, both intimate and awesome, about her songs. The nature-obsessed images Veirs conjures up and the mesmerising sound she creates are as indelible as the blaze of shooting stars. "Saltbreakers", her third album release in three years, is her most beautifully realised band-oriented disc yet. Produced by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Built To Spill), it is by turns haunting, playful, tender and fierce, embracing everything from machine-driven beats, to angelic gospel choirs, to fuzzed-out guitars and driving alt-rock rhythms. "To The Country", was recorded in the Nashville cabin once occupied by June Carter and Johnny Cash, with Veirs backed by an eight-member Baptist choir, some of whom had previously performed on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? With its gorgeous shape notes singing, it is the stunning centrepiece of an album that is as entrancing as staring at the sea or gazing at the stars, waiting for the next one to fall.

This release sees Laura Veirs capturing a live performance of her collaboration with a 32 teenagers from a school choir in Angouleme, France. Veirs and the choir performed together on May 24, 2025.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Shining Lamp Interlude 1
3. Freedom Feeling
4. Wide-Eyed, Legless
5. Shining Lamp Interlude 2
6. Little Deschutes
7. Lonely Angel Dust
8. Shape Shifter
9. Shining Lamp Interlude 3
10. Black Butterfly
11. Snow Camping
12. Make Something Good
13. Riptide
14. I Can See Your Tracks

Laura Veirs returns with 'Temple Songs', her first album in four years—and the first she has written, recorded, arranged, produced, and performed entirely on her own. “I didn’t know if I would write songs again,” says Veirs, who spent the intervening years building a backyard studio, getting married, blending a family with four teenagers, deepening her visual art practice (painting), and expanding her music teaching. “Turns out that period was a gathering phase. When I made the commitment to recording the album myself, the muse caught me again and it came together very quickly.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Arc Still Bends
2. Golden Seams
3. Pulse
4. Feeling Returns
5. Flying Into Darkness
6. Colors Sing
7. Out From Undercover
8. New Life Over There
9. No Masters
10. River's Song
11. Sunlight and Doom

The UK-based recording artist best known for cult 2005 debut album 'We Have Sound' is back. After the avant-garde mix of sounds of 4th album 'New Symbols', the 'Confirm Yourself' EP sees a return to a raw guitar-based live sound.

Always fiercely independent, Tom has played every instrument, produced and mixed every track. The EP is a collection of self-assured personal mantras, indeed encouraging the listener to 'Confirm Yourself' too.

'Say' is a joyous yet vulnerable ode to communication. 'Nothing Bad' is an honest request of the universe to live a simple life in an ever more chaotic world. 'Think About It' continues the theme of the narrator’s ignorance-is-bliss attitude to the trials and tribulations of the over-thinker while 'All I See Is You' proposes that the protagonist may have been blinded by love all along.

TRACK LISTING

1. Say
2. Nothing Bad
3. Think About It
4. All I See Is You

The Veldt, the pioneering American alternative shoegaze group formed in 1986 by identical twins Daniel and Danny Chavis in Raleigh, North Carolina, has long stood as one of the most visionary and genre‑defying bands of their era. Joined by David Burris and Marvin Levi, the group quickly developed a sound that blended ethereal guitar textures with deep R&B roots, creating a style that would influence generations of artists to come. After signing with Capitol Records in 1989, The Veldt toured extensively across the United States, sharing stages with The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cocteau Twins. Ray Shulman, known for his work with Björk, The Sugarcubes, The Sundays produced their landmark 1994 album Afrodisiac, a record now recognized as a bold fusion of shoegaze, soul, and Afro‑alternative rock, an album so ahead of its time that it continues to resonate with new listeners decades later. This deluxe edition brings renewed depth and warmth to the album’s swirling guitars, velvet‑rich vocals, and hypnotic rhythms, presenting the music with a clarity that highlights just how innovative The Veldt’s sound truly was. The set includes two essential remixes of “Soul In The Jar”, one by The Jesus and Mary Chain, who drench the track in their signature haze of distortion, and another by hip‑hop pioneer Diamond D, whose rugged Guitar Remix adds a head‑nodding edge that reframes the song’s emotional core. The album’s legacy has only grown over time. Pitchfork named Afrodisiac one of the top 50 shoegaze albums ever released, while Stereogum included the single “Until You’re Forever” among the 31 essential tracks of the genre, further cementing The Veldt’s status as foundational innovators.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Intro (I'll Say Anything)
2. It's Over
3. Soul In A Jar
4. You Take The World
5. Revolutionary Sister

Side B
1. Interlude (Station ID)
2. Juicy Sandwich
3. Heather
4. Until You're Forever

Side C
1. Interlude (V.E.L.D.T.)
2. Wanna Be Where You Are
3. Daisy Chain
4. Dusty Blood
5. Last Call

Side D
1. I Couldn't Care Less
2. Outro (Shaved)
3. Soul In A Jar (The Drugstore Mix) (The Jesus And The Mary Chain Remix)
4. Soul In A Jar (Guitar Mix) (Diamond D Remix)

Long out-of-print 1993 debut album by beloved indie-rock band Velocity Girl back in print with a new, band-approved mix, and a full album of bonus tracks compiling singles, outtakes, and the band’s 1993 Peel Session.

Formed in 1989, Velocity Girl were one of the leading lights of 1990s indie-pop, fusing the hooks of Britpop with the fuzzy guitars of shoegaze. They released three albums on Sub Pop between 1993 and 1996, and reached the mainstream with a song on the platinum-selling soundtrack to the classic teen film Clueless.

In 1992 the band began work on their debut album, Copacetic, at Easley Studios - once home base to the Bar-Kays and other classic soul bands - in Memphis with Bob Weston (Volcano Suns, Shellac) at the helm, and then mixed the album with Weston in Chicago. While the album had strong songs - pop tunes like “Audrey’s Eyes,” “Pop Loser,” and “Living Well” alongside ambitious explorations like “Pretty Sister” and “Here Comes” - the band had little experience with production and lacked the skills to “drive the boat” in the studio. As a result, the album turned out to be a rather stripped-down affair, lacking the lushness of their prior recordings. To the band’s ear it was jarring, and they soon realized this wasn’t the record they hoped to make. Bob Weston had done exactly what was asked of him and captured the sounds, but the band didn’t do its part to articulate a clear vision. But the band’s slot in the studio was over, and Polvo had just showed up to work on their album, so off Velocity Girl went to shoot the video for “Audrey’s Eyes.”

Copacetic came out in 1993 and people seemed to like it just fine, but within the band there was a sense of disappointment to the point where most members couldn’t stand to hear the record. Between then and now, the band learned a lot about recording, and Archie Moore developed a career in audio work, and the band finally decided to revisit Copacetic. After extensive digging, the 2” tape reels appeared in Jim’s ex-wife’s mother’s house, and in the spring of 2023 Archie began working on a remix. Song by song the new mixes emerged just as the band envisioned them. Soaring vocals from Sarah (who studied opera in college), chiming lead guitar, juicy fuzzed out rhythm guitars and clear pounding drums. The pop songs are much poppier. The sonic blasts are more powerful, and the record hangs together as a cohesive document that flows from song to song. The approach was not to make a 2024 sounding record but rather to go back to the 1992 mindset and create the record the band should have made then.

The result, UltraCopacetic (Copacetic Remixed and Expanded), is an exciting alternate history of Copacetic. And, while they were at it, the band dug up and refreshed the rest of their studio material from the era: Ultracopacetic includes “Warm/Crawl” from the Velocity Girl/Tsunami split 7”, “Creepy” from the Crazy Town 7”, “Stupid Thing” from the Audrey’s Eyes 7”, and the unreleased album outtake “Even Die.” Topping it all off is the band’s complete five-song 1993 John Peel session, including two tracks that haven’t been heard since the original broadcast. UltraCopacetic is truly the definitive version of Velocity Girl’s first record. 

TRACK LISTING

Pretty Sister
Crazy Town
Copacetic
Here Comes
Pop Loser
Living Well
A Chang
Audrey’s Eyes
Lisa Librarian
57 Waltz
Candy Apples
Catching Squirrels
Warm/Crawl
Creepy
Stupid Thing
Even Die
Here Comes (Peel Session Version)
Always (Peel Session Version)
Crazy Town (Peel Session Version)
57 Waltz (Peel Session Version)
Copacetic (Peel Session Version)

'¡Simpatico! (Remastered and Expanded)' gives Velocity Girl’s long out-of-print 1994 sophomore album, '¡Simpatico!', an overdue refresh with a sparkling-fresh mastering job and a treasure trove of bonus tracks from the '¡Simpatico!' era. The original album sounds better than ever, and it’s complemented by a full album of B-sides and rarities.

Velocity Girl formed in 1989 or so at the University of Maryland outside Washington DC with guitarist Archie Moore (Black Tambourine), guitarist Brian Nelson (Black Tambourine), drummer Jim Spellman (Starry Eyes, Foxhall Stacks, High Back Chairs, Julie Ocean, Piper Club), bassist Kelly Riles (Starry Eyes), and singer Sarah Shannon (Starry Eyes, The Not Its). The band combined English-inspired noisy shoegaze fuzz with scrappy US indie rock and classic ‘60s-style pop songwriting. A killer single on Slumberland and non-stop touring grabbed the attention of the indie-rock cognoscenti, and soon after Velocity Girl signed a contract with Sub Pop on a car hood in Hoboken, New Jersey. After touring in support of their debut, Copacetic, the band spent the better part of a year coming up with a batch of songs for a second album. They had never worked that way before – having focused time, and a budget (from a label!), to make an album that wasn’t a self-produced, punk-rock studio thing was a fresh experience. Having played their new material for months in the noisy style of Copacetic, the band found themselves excited about the tunes, but trying to move away from the scrappy, amateur vibe of their previous records. And their influences were a bit different this time around: less My Bloody Valentine and Wedding Present, more New Order.

Somebody at Sub Pop connected the band with John Porter, the one-time Roxy Music member who had produced The Smiths, Billy Bragg, The Alarm, and a bunch of other 80’s stuff. They met up on a tour stop in Los Angeles, at a Hamburger Hamlet. He agreed to produce the album, in a three-week session at Cue Studios in Falls Church, VA. He was exactly what the band needed: an editor, arranger, and taskmaster. As he mercilessly excised every unnecessarily repeated bar, the band realized they’d gravitated to a sound with cleaner lines, and almost entirely ditched the noisy guitar, no doubt influenced by Porter’s presence. Velocity Girl was extremely happy with the results, and '¡Simpatico!' came out in June of 1994. This expanded reissue adds a number of songs recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA, a few months after the album sessions. These sessions provided playfully experimental B sides to the album’s singles, two cover songs (the New Order cover 'Your Silent Face', and a Beach Boys cover) for a single on Merge Records, and a compilation track.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sorry Again
2. There's Only One Thing Left To Say
3. Tripping Wires
4. I Can't Stop Smiling
5. The All-Consumer
6. Drug Girls
7. Rubble
8. Labrador
9. Hey You, Get Off My Moon
10. Medio Core
11. What You Left Behind
12. Wake Up, I'm Leaving
13. Marzipan - Sorry Again EP
14. Labrador (drum Machine Version) - Sorry Again EP
15. Diamond Jubilee - Sorry Again EP
16. What You Left Behind (reprise) - Echoes Of The Nation's Capitol #2 Compilation
17. Your Silent Face - Your Silent Face Single
18. You're So Good To Me - Your Silent Face Single
19. Seven Seas - Seven Seas Single
20. Breaking Lines - Seven Seas Single

Getting their start as the 1980s bled into the 90s, Velocity Girl arose from a new pop underground that had been percolating in Washington, DC and its suburbs, a group of bands clustered around our then-nascent Slumberland Records who broadened DC's punk paradigm with an ear for pop songs and feedback-driven racket. Velocity Girl, blessed with multiple gifted songwriters, particularly knew how to merge euphoric pop hooks with waves of noisy bliss and lovelorn melancholy.

This new compilation '1989-1992' covers the band's pre-Sub Pop years and shows that their skill with a tune was there from the beginning, across several line-up changes and numerous early releases. The all-time classic 'Forgotten Favorite' is included, as is their debut single 'I Don't Care If You Go', featuring original vocalist Bridget Cross (later of Unrest). There are also crucial split single and compilation contributions, a few choice covers (Beat Happening, The Jam) and even a pair of unreleased tunes. Newly remastered and featuring extensive liner notes by DC scene scholar John R. Davis, '1989-1992' is the comprehensive view of their early years that Velocity Girl has long deserved and their fans have long wanted.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clock
2. I Don't Care If You Go
3. Always
4. Not At All
5. I Don't Care If You Go (Acoustic)
6. I Know Exactly What You Mean
7. That's Entertainment
8. What You Say
9. Tales of Brave Aphrodite
10. Forgotten Favorite
11. Why Should I Be Nice To You?
12. Warm/Crawl

This album of classic 60s tinged pop, co-produced by Matthew Sweet, is now available in this expanded edition. Remastered and with new liner notes and photos, it also includes a bonus disc of demos.

Cardinal Fuzz are proud to introduce the debut LP from Wollongong’s Heavy Psychedelia outfit Velvet Elevator. With guitars set to Open C and amps, cabs and fuzz pedals set to 11 Velvet Elevator build a wall of sound so dense that at first it may overload your temporal lobes. Covering themes of Anthropomorphism, Religion and Armageddon and focused roughly on the Revelation chapter of the bible the two closing tracks of Principium tell the story of the Blood Moon which is traditionally a series of apocalyptic beliefs appearing in the bible - ITS HEAVY. Velvet Elevator bring the dirge but they show their garage chops with a sound that shares comparisons to The Heads (the melding of Heavy Bottom Ends and Garage), Sabbath and of course The Wiz as tracks delve into Drone,Psychedelia and Doom. Heavy isn’t about volume, it’s about attitude and these Wollongong boys have it. A 300 Pressing on blood red and black swirl vinyl. Presented in a 320gsm gloss laminated wide spine sleeve with download code. “Flies like The Heads and Hawkwind with a huge dollop of Sabbath and Electric Wizard. Heavy psych dirges that will tear your nugget in half” Optical Sounds

Created during a particularly tumultuous time in Nutzman’s life that involved drug abuse, bank fraud, and a house fire, it’s unsurprising that Bulli would echo his present state of mind. Bulli feels anticipatory, often frantic and manic but given the period of his life that it emerged from its songs glimmer with a pop sheen, as fragmentary soundscapes meld leftfield electronic sounds with alternative rock, power pop, even tender R&B and deft hip-hop.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting
1.  Pop Song 2
2.  Never Said Peep
3.  Pop Song 1
4.  Sinker
5.  Bell Clapper
6.  Ebony Eggshell
7.  Ballad Smaller
8.  Shiny
9.  Georgia
10.  The Foreigner
11.  Animal
12.  Sub Tieties


LP Tracklisting

Side A
A1.  Beginner**
A2.  Never Said Peep**
A3.  The Foreigner
A4.  Pop Song 2
A5.  Pop Song 1
A6.  Bell Clapper
A7.  Repedo
A8.  Ballad Smaller

Side B
B1.  Shiny
B2.  Legal Tender**
B3.  Sinker
B4.  Ebony Eggshell
B5.  Georgia
B6.  Over**
B7.  Sub Tieties
B8.  Animal

(** Exclusive To Vinyl)

On Neon Brown, Velvet Negroni is a griot relaying the life and times of his own island—it’s a singular place, with the squeak and thrum of guitar strings looped over drum machine beats accented by steely marimbas, all creating a pocket for one of the most authentic and original artistic voices ever committed to tape.

You follow his voice as it rhymes in double time, or hiccups and la-las through a break, or croons from a room down the hall, as it unfolds into another story of lost love, or another joke about lost drugs, as he tries to make sense of a life spent in the (sometimes harrowing) pursuit of communion.

Turns out what sounds like a lonely island is in fact the city of Minneapolis. Velvet Negroni grew up in an outer suburb of the Twin Cities as Jeremy Nutzman, a black kid adopted into a white evangelical Christian family. His fundamentalist missionary of a mother drove him to virtuosity, both as a classically trained concert pianist and a competitive figure skater, but he had to climb out his bedroom window to play guitar in his first band.

In 2016 after years of performing under a schizophrenic rotation of various aliases, Nutzman finally landed on a persona that he felt he could be proud of. It was in a fancy cocktail bar in Austin, Texas that he hatched Velvet Negroni. A tour opening for Bon Iver followed, as well as a writing credit on Kid Cudi and Kanye West’s “Feel the Love” off their 2018 album Kids See Ghosts. That same year, he released his first singles on b4, “First Time” and “Crybaby.”

It was in the summer of 2018, together with his friends, producers Psymun (Future, Young Thug, Dua Saleh) and Tickle Torture, that Velvet Negroni composed the stories on NEON BROWN, stories he’s been waiting a lifetime to tell.

TRACK LISTING

1. One One
2. Wine Green
3. Kurt Cobain
4. Poster Child
5. Confetti
6. U.Dunno
7. Choir Boy
8. Scratchers
9. Nester
10. Feel Let
11. Ectodub

What can you say? Everything a rock and roll record should be? Sexy, dangerous, moody, poignant, poetic, arty. One of the most influential records ever. A music peopled with misfits, dreamers, musicians and magicians. A world created by Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Moss and Mo Tucker for us to step into, for us to believe in. And to think in '67 no-one was listening! 

45th Anniversary Edition includes remastered sound from the original tapes, original gatefold sleeve artwork with peelable banana sticker on front, 180g heavyweight vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Sunday Morning 2:53
I'm Waiting For The Man 4:37
Femme Fatale 2:35
Venus In Furs 5:07
Run, Run, Run 4:18
All Tomorrow's Parties 5:55
Heroin 7:05
There She Goes Again 2:30
I'll Be Your Mirror 2:01
Black Angel's Death Song 3:10
European Son To Delmore Schwartz 7:44

Dive deeper into the studio with the Alternate Version of The Velvet Underground's "Loaded" album. A track list that features early versions, demos, and alternate mixes of their iconic tracks like "Sweet Jane," "Rock & Roll," and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'." These versions offer a glimpse into their creative process and the iconic sound of Velvet Underground.

The Velvet Underground Collected brings together the groundbreaking work of one of the most influential and visionary bands in the history of rock music. Spanning their formative beginnings in New York’s underground art scene to their most iconic studio recordings, this 2LP set captures the full scope of a group whose impact continues to echo across decades of rock, alternative, punk, noise, and experimental music. Despite internal tensions, lineup changes, and limited commercial success during their active years, The Velvet Underground’s influence grew exponentially over time. The band are now regarded as among the most influential bands in rock history and are inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. I'm Waiting For The Man
2. Venus In Furs
3. All Tomorrow's Parties
4. There She Goes Again
5. Heroin
6. Femme Fatale

SIDE B
1. I Heard Her Call My Name
2. White Light / White Heat
3. Here She Comes Now
4. Sister Ray

SIDE C
1. Hey Mr. Rain
2. Stephanie Says
3. She's My Best Friend
4. Andy's Chest
5. Candy Says
6. What Goes On
7. Some Kinda Love
8. Lisa Says

SIDE D
1. Pale Blue Eyes
2. The Murder Mystery
3. We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together
4. Foggy Notion
5. One Of These Days

Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records.

2LP Expanded Edition of the legendary final concerts with Lou Reed recorded in 1970. Limited Edition Purple and Magenta Vinyl. Includes “I’m Waiting for the Man”, “Sweet Jane”, “Pale Blue Eyes”, “Femme Fatale” and more.

"After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970; label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result, and with appropriate irony it turned out to be the first VU album that made any noticeable impact on commercial radio -- and also their swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. But while Lou Reed always wrote great rock & roll songs with killer hooks, on Loaded his tunes were at last given a polished but intelligent production that made them sound like the hits they should have been, and there's no arguing that "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" are as joyously anthemic as anything he's ever recorded. And if this release generally maintains a tight focus on the sunny side of the VU's personality (or would that be Reed's personality?), "New Age" and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" prove he had hardly abandoned his contemplative side, and "Train Around the Bend" is a subtle but revealing metaphor for his weariness with the music business. " - All Music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Who Loves The Sun
2. Sweet Jane
3. Rock & Roll
4. Cool It Down
5. New Age
6. Head Held High
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
8. I Found A Reason
9. Train Round The Bend
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

CD Bonus Tracks - Session Outtakes:
11. I'm Sticking With You
12. Ocean
13. I Love You
14. Ride Into The Sun

The Velvet Underground’s classic self-titled third album, originally released in March 1969, by MGM, was a departure from the band’s first two albums in more ways than one. Gone was co-founding member John Cale, and in his place was a 21-year-old with Long Island roots named Doug Yule, who stepped right in. The record was also a stylistic leap, as Lou Reed described to Rolling Stone editor David Fricke, “I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us. Fricke calls it “a stunning turnaround… 10 tracks of mostly warm, explicit sympathy and optimism, expressed with melodic clarity, set in gleaming double-guitar jangle and near-whispered balladry. Or as the late rock critic Lester Bangs put it, “How do you define a group like this, who moved from ‘Heroin’ to ‘Jesus’ in two short years?”

How indeed do you describe an album which includes such classics as “Candy Says,” Reed’s ode to Warhol superstar Candy Darling; the aching love song “Pale Blue Eyes,” allegedly inspired by a girlfriend at Syracuse University who got away, with lead vocals by Yule; the inspiring “Beginning to See The Light”; the spoken-word narrative and musique concrete of “The Murder Mystery,” and the beautiful Maureen Tucker-sung “After Hours”?

Celebrating the 45th anniversary and following on from the Super Deluxe CD release in 2014, we will be reissuing The Velvet Underground on 180g vinyl.

6-track shoegaze and noise EP from London-based 4-piece, Velveteen. Velveteen blend shoegaze and noise with elements of post- punk, dream pop and noise rock. Following the releases of ' Bluest Sunshine ' (2020) and ' Empty
Crush' (2022), Noon Records release 'My Dreams Are Changing' on limited edition 12".

TRACK LISTING

1. My Dreams Are Changing
2. Shoot Me Down
3. Another Somewhere
4. A Fool's Paradise
5. Unanswered
6. Untitled 103

It's short, it's fast, it's loud and we bet you'll be humming the chorus for ages. This is the 2nd single from Venetia And The Voltage - and band with more energy than a Hadron Collider. The ethos is simple; great songs combined with club beats and breaks recreated through the medium of a ridiculously talented live band. Club beats have the space to breathe and explode straight out of the speakers, controlling your dancing limbs, guitar licks smack you round the chops while the melodies infect your brain completing a total system takeover.

"Greg Hates Car Culture" was Venetian Snares' first ever vinyl release. Long out of print, it came out in 1999, as the third release on Minneapolis label History Of The Future. Aaron Funk's hallmarks were there from the start. His absurdist sense of humour, the razor sharp edits and his use of odd time-signatures. There is a rawness here, not often captured on later records, where you can imagine Aaron playing live in front of a room full of young breakcore fanatics. Indeed most of the tracks here were recorded live, tweaking his effects and EQ on the fly, to DAT from his Amiga. The album opens with "Personal Discourse", recorded in 1997, which samples Aaron calling into a Dominatrix live on community cable TV, while "Fuck A Stranger In The Ass" samples from the film The Big Lebowski. The track "Aqap" has a different sound to the others having been recorded later, in 1998, on Aaron's first PC. We have also added three hitherto unreleased 1997 tracks to this reissue. Two of them "Eating America.." and "Punk Kids" appeared on Venetian Snares rare self-released 1998 cassette "Spells" and the long sought after "Milk" was only passed around by his friends. "Greg Hates Car Culture" lets you hear the raw energy of a musician at the birth of his sound.

TRACK LISTING

01/ Personal Discourse
02/ Like Tooth Decay
03/ Fuck A Stranger In The Ass
04/ Point Blank
05/ Boiled Angel
06/ Cricket Spine Bin
07/ Aqap
08/ Milk
09/ Eating America With Pointed Dentures
10/ Punk Kids

Venetian Snares’ classic orchestral breakcore album, 2005’s 'Rossz Csillag Allat Született' is reissued on black vinyl for it’s 20th anniversary. What if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Sometimes one moment in time can take on such an important significance that it becomes an endless world unto itself and everything outside of that moment, past and future spots in time, become the folklore of that world. What if we could both fly over the Királyi Palota and see it just as these pigeons do? A beautiful culture of dissimilar angles as donkey angels above this city. But even in the world of the infinite moment, we cannot choose the feather of our bird and the pigeon may long to be the goose, the donkey the pigeon and so on. Furthermore as our world blossoms out of this single tick in time, it is for one pigeon a swirling romantic flood of euphoric possibility and fascination, for the other an inferior life of shitting on everyone from the sky, awkward and ashamed, resigning themselves to be the wretched nuisance they are painted as by those they shit on. Ultimately, as quickly as our world blooms, our world is discordant, and our pigeons are wounded, and as our world dies, we die, and we are extinct. If only we could kill ourselves over and over until we get it right. So just as an entire genre of music can be born out of one sped up ten second breakbeat, a full symphony orchestra can come together in harmonic unison to create that perfect moment in time, thus every moment can give birth to an entirely new world, and every world can house the perfect moment, and just as that breakbeat may be broken beyond any recognition, that orchestra may combine to bring forth a dissonant barrage of colossal sorrow, and so the moment disintegrates it's world and that world suffocates the moment under it's collapse.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sikertelenség
2. Szerencsétlen
3. Öngyilkos Vasárnap
4. Felbomlasztott Mentökocsi
5. Hajnal
6. Galamb Egyedúl
7. Második Galamb
8. Szamár Madár
9. Hiszékeny
10. Kétsarkú Mozgalom
11. Senki Dala

The tenth anniversary edition of Venetian Snares' 'Traditional Synthesizer Music' adds ten more tracks and alternative versions previously available only on a limited edition compact disc from the artist's Bandcamp. 'Traditional Synthesizer Music' is a collection of songs created and performed live exclusively on the modular synthesizer by Aaron Funk. Each sound contained within was created purely with the modular synthesizer. No overdubbing or editing techniques were utilized in the recordings on 'Traditional Synthesizer Music'. Each song was approached from the ground up and dismantled upon the completion of its recording. The goal was to develop songs with interchangeable structures and substructures, yet musically pleasing motifs. Many techniques were incorporated to "humanize" or vary the rhythmic results within these sub structures. An exercise in constructing surprises, patches interrupting each other to create unforeseen progressions. Multiple takes were recorded for each song resulting in vastly different versions of each piece, a number of which are released for the first time on vinyl and digital for this updated version of the album. BIO Aaron Funk, mainly known artistically as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba who’s been working since the mid nineties. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre being something of its breakout star. His signature style features complex drums and unusual time signatures and a knack for making ultra-vivid music that takes listeners into unusual places, from the aggressive and extreme, to the surreal, comic and sometimes plain beautiful. His musical explorations extend out in many different ways, from the complex 'Hungarian', classical-inspired 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Született', to acid explorations as 'Last Step', to innovations with modular synths on 'Traditional Synthesiser Music'. As a collaborator, he’s made music using intimate recordings as musical elements with the artist Hecate as Nymphomatriarch, as Poemss with Joanne Pollock, where they both sing over strange delicate pop. He’s recorded an album of rich, edited improvisations with producer and guitarist Daniel Lanois and he’s also part of the sometime duo Speed Dealer Moms with John Frusciante. Most recently he features on Rosalia’s album 'Lux' on the song 'Reliquia', providing drum programming and production input.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dreamt Person V3
2. Everything About You Is Special
3. Slightly Bent Fork Tong V2
4. Magnificent Stumble V2
5. Decembers
6. Can't Vote For Yourself V1
7. You And Shayna V1
8. Goose And Gary V2
9. Anxattack Boss Level19 V3
10. She Married A Chess Computer In The End
11. Health Card10
12. Paganism Ratchets
13. Everything About You Is Ambient
14. You And Shayna Slow Funk V2
15. Your Bounce V1
16. Magnificent Stumble V1
17. Can’t Vote For Yourself Video Version
18. Goose And Gary V1
19. Slightly Bent Fork Tong V1
20. You And Shayna Video Version
21. Terrazen 1012nc
22. Resting Tongue

Newly signed to Full Time Hobby, VENN’s debut album ‘Runes’ was recorded at the Total Refreshment Centre in London, by Kristian Craig Robinson (AKA Capitol K) of The Archie Bronson Outfit and Loose Meat. Lyrically, each song occupies its own territory, while contributing to the wider thematic arc of the record. Themes of the individual existing within a moment we all share, the incredible flux of culture, the search for nodes of meaning and love, and the confrontation of ones’ own vanity and narcissism amid all this crisis. The accompanying video for first single ‘Real Blood’ was directed by photographer, Emma Gibney, and shot by editor, Mark Norgate. It is described by the band as “a visual representation of the song’s deeper meaning – of the struggle to feel real in an increasingly cold, closed culture, to remain human even when you are confronted with inhumanity”, while exploring tangential themes of mutual and reciprocal domination, if indeed such a thing exists.

TRACK LISTING

1. Legacy Project
2. Real Blood
3. Slowly Sinking
4. Esalen 64
5. Supernature
6. A Smaller Part
7. Bigger Fiction
8. Dave Land
9. Waxen Palm

Venturing is the side project of acclaimed artist Jane Remover whose 2023 album 'Census Designated', and 2025 album 'Revengeseekerz' and new EP '<3' has received immense critical acclaim and "best of year" lists. This is a brand new EP, surprise released on July 31, 2026. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Songs About Leaving
2. Drunk Lullaby
3. Downtown
4. Freeloading (Demo) 

Oslo indie pop quartet Veps returns with their upcoming third full-length 'ChurchyardStreet 8B', their first with Swedish indie label PNKSLM Recordings (ShitKid, Clutter, vegas water taxi etc). Having established themselves as one of the Nordics' most interesting indie acts, the band's already been praised by ex Notion, Paste, CLASH and BBC 6 Music while playingfestivals such as The Great Escape, Reeperbahn and Øya.

Having known each other ever since elementary school, Helena, Laura, June and Maja started the band at 14. Their brilliant debut EP 'Open The Door' (released in 2021 via Kanine Records) paved the way for their equally great debut album 'Oslo Park' and the follow-up 'Dedicated To'. Still only in their 22nd year on planet Earth, Veps are only getting going whilst already having a wealth of experiences behind them as they continue to woo with new album 'ChurchyardStreet 8B' their finest work yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. What We Mean When We Say "Hello?"
2. Walking (My Black Dog)
3. Didgeridoo
4. Payday
5. My Champagne Socialist
6. If I Was A Mother
7. At The Point
8. Nice Guy
9. Week 18

Brighton rock n roll prodigy Theo Verney is set to release a brand new EP in June. The distorted joy that is the five track 'Brain Disease EP' will be released on Mount Olympus Recordings 8th June. The 'Brain Disease' EP, written and recorded entirely by Theo in Brighton earlier this year, is a honed, fuzzy pop progression from the looser psych jams of last year's much acclaimed EP 'Heavy Sunn' released on Hate Hate Hate Records (The Wytches, Fat White Family).

The vinyl is limited to 500 and pressed on red vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Brain Disease
A2 Mountain Rose
B1 Wrong Again
B2 Hate Within
B3 Same Look In My Eye

'Under a Familiar Sun' is the new album from The Vernon Spring, the solo project of British composer and producer Sam Beste. Over twelve elegant, empathetic songs, Beste wades into parallel yet opposing dimensions of family devotion and global responsibility in an age of moral uncertainty. Beste’s stunning compositions illuminate a graceful and deliberate approach to piano, accented by brave vocal collaborations, spoken word, and a holistic fusion of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. 'Under a Familiar Sun' represents an evolutionary leap for The Vernon Spring, rippling into an ethereal unknown.

TRACK LISTING

1. Norton
2. The Breadline (feat. Max Porter)
3. Mustafa (feat. Iko Niche)
4. Other Tongues
5. Under A Familiar Sun
6. Fume
7. In The Middle
8. Fitz
9. Esrever Ni Rehtaf (feat. Aden)
10. Counted Strings (feat. Aden)
11. Requiem For Reem
12. Known

Stockholm trio Vero is back with their second full-length, a record that thrives on urgency: no re-takes, no second-guessing—just pedal-to-the-floor intensity.

Following the acclaimed debut LP 'Unsoothing Interior' from 2022, 'Razor Tongue' drive into rougher, rawer territory. The result is wiry alt-rock with punk edges, choruses that detonate, and lyrics about obsession, loneliness, and fragile declarations of love.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dead Train
2. Kick
3. Calico
4. Habit
5. The Hand
6. Taste The Ten
7. Dumb It
8. Requiem
9. Silver Lakes
10. 100 Calls

This excellent young emocore band are based on the East Coast of America and look to be heading for big things, there's a real buzz about them, a vitality and fire that you can't ignore. Veronica (a daft name) will be sitting alongside Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182 and the Ataris in next to no time.

One year on from the release of the critically acclaimed 'Breathe... Godspeed' for Bristol's Timedance, Verraco - aka JP López - returns to announce 'Basic Maneuvers', his debut for XL Recordings.

Sonically, the project reflects this physical and emotional shift from the more introspective beauty of Medellín to the vibrant energy of Colombia's capital, Bogotá. 'Basic Maneuvers' reflects movement — between scenes, sounds, and cities — pushing forward Verraco's cross-culture sound; one that collides South American dembow rhythms with maximalist synths, UK soundsystem bass culture, meticulous IDM sound design, with the intensity and precision of techno.

Across the EP, he expands his range with the main single, a powerful 4x4 club-ready edgy banger, a dubbed-out stepper 'Total' and 'Sobe Sobe', a grime-infused collaboration with legendary Kenyan-Ugandan rapper affiliated to Nyege Nyege, MC Yallah, that celebrates the deep-rooted connection between the underground dancefloors of Africa and South America. 'Basic Maneuvers' is a bold statement of intent from one of electronic music's most vital and exciting producers.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Along with fellow XL signing Blawan, Verraco is one of the current stars of the bass-techno scene; consistently pushing the envelop in terms of synthesis and dynamics. A distinctly Bogotán flavoured EP, signalling his move from Medellín and all the more tougher and rampant for it. Check!

TRACK LISTING

Basic Maneuvers
Total
Sobe Sobe (feat. MC Yallah)

David Versace is an Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer based in Meanjin, Queensland. Growing up in a very musical household it was always important to express and embrace all types of music and sonics. His sound ranges from Jazz and Samba to ambient works and the odd dance-floor heater. David also plays in Meanjin nu-jazz dance outfit First Beige.

Since late 2019, he has self released around 20 different tracks and with the most recent signing to La Sape Records David is excited to announce his debut solo album 'Okra' a conceptual body of work that flows through a culmination of raw organic concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Something a little bit different for you here, a very relaxing blend of soft instrumental jazz percussion interspersed with more upbeat drops here and there, complete with gorgeous cover. It's been enjoyed a lot in the shop with the sound of September rain.

TRACK LISTING

1. Summer Party
2. KP Cruisin
3. Saguaro
4. Awake For You
5. 45 Minutes
6. The More We Love
7. Heat Rays

Three decades deep and as essential as ever, Ralph Lawson's 20/20 Vision Recordings continues to mine its rich back catalogue with care. To that end, 'Full Circle Vol.3' feels both respectful and forward-facing with new mixes of enduring classics. Roman Flugel reworks 'Machine Life' into a driving club sound with fresh vocals and elastic acid lines, while Madvilla sharpens 'Rhythm Freq' into a sleek hybrid of house, UKG and electro. Simon Baker's updated 'The Liptrick' retains its raw punch, and Formidable Force close with a warm, late-night dub of 'Reactivate'. It is a tidy reminder of the breadth and depth of sound this label has always dealt in.

TRACK LISTING

Versalife - Machine Life (Roman Fluegel Remix)
B.Love - Rhythm Freq (Madvilla Dub)
Simon Baker - The Liptrict (Remastered)
Wolf N Flow - Reactivate (Formidable Force Loose Control Dub)

From the depths of an angry, lost generation's heart and soul comes the new album from Verse entitled "From Anger And Rage". Serving as a follow up to the band's "Rebuild" album, the new album is a manifestation of the band's growth, reflection, and their struggle to speak out against a world that is suffocating, silencing, and invalidating an entire mass of resistant voices. The song writing is more cohesive than ever, hitting harder, heavier, and with much more focus. The vocals are angrier, more personal, more desperate than those of the past, venomously lashing out at the status quo, pleading with the silenced and the fearful to rise and embrace the strength in our numbers. For those still burning inside, take heart; from anger and rage comes rebellion.

Electronic mainstays Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing join forces as Verses GT, a new artist project and debut album. With decades of experience between them - including vast solo back catalogues and collaborations with the likes of Tinashe, Radiohead, Bonobo, Toro y Moi and Eartheater - the long-time friends come together to create a heavyweight and tangible record that feels just as at home in an art gallery as it does in a club.

With features from George Riley, KUČKA and TYSON, Verses GT showcases the dreamlike, driving soundscapes that both producers are so well known for, whilst leaning into a liminal sonic space; making it unclear where one artist ends and the other begins. It is an album that attempts to strip things back and cause a slow down in our everyday lives, centering genuine collaboration and a feeling of being locked in. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Fragment
2. Unknown
3. Your Light Ft George Riley
4. Left
5. Wan
6. Forever Ft KUČKA
7. Found
8. Intention
9. Angels Ft TYSON
10. Vision + Television

Like many important bands, Seattle quartet Versing got their start in college radio—Tacoma's KUPS. The group's main songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Daniel Salas served as alternative music director there, where he met guitarist Graham Baker, drummer Max Keyes, and bassist Kirby Lochner. Now Versing are poised to spread their coolly combustible brand of rock on those said airwaves...and beyond if the world knows what's good for it. Baker, Keyes, Lochner, and Salas have risen through Seattle's competitive rock ecosphere with nonchalant élan. They cheekily titled a previous album Nirvana, but never mind the bleach: Versing isn't emulating Sub Pop's most famous artist.

Rather, these four twentysomething aesthetes are forging an exciting sound that finds a golden mean between lustrous noise and ebullient melody. With Versing, songwriting is obviously crucial, but much of the pleasure in 10000 comes from its guitar textures. They're swarming, yet also spiky and agile. Gently chiding the Seattle music scene's self-seriousness while acknowledging Versing's playfulness and irony, Salas says, “There's a 'let's just fuck around and see what comes out,' aspect of what we do, which I think is uncommon for Seattle bands.” Versing's freewheeling attitude has paradoxically resulted in 10000, an engrossing album that's impossible to feel ambivalent about.

TRACK LISTING

Entryism
Offering
Tethered
Violeta
By Design
Vestibule
In Mind
Long Chord
3D
Sated
Survivalist
Loving Myself
Renew

Versus are a band from New York City. Their 4th full length album, recorded by the band in their NYC rehearsal space over the course of a year and a half. Songs that are delicate yet complex, weaving intricate sonic dialogues, flourishes of blissful noise mixed with gentle waves of soothing calm, while always staying true to their infectious pop roots.

Considered by many the template for 1990s indie rock. Versus’ first full-length album became an instant cult classic. Recorded by Adam Lasus (Yo La Tengo, Helium, Lilys) at his Studio Red in March of 1994 and released just six weeks later in early May of that same year on the Teenbeat label. Finally back on vinyl LP with all new art on the outside (designed by Unrest’s Mark Robinson) and the original art on a full-color innersleeve, plus an OBI strip holding the package together. While the first pressing didn’t include the track 'Fallow', this edition has all 12 songs from the CD. Each of them remastered by Scott Anthony.

Formed in New York City in 1990 by guitarist Richard Baluyut and bassist Fontaine Toups, Versus became one of the most important, influential and underrated bands in the then budding indie-rock genre.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thera
2. Circle
3. Fallow
4. River
5. Mirror Mirror
6. Be-9
7. Deseret
8. Blade Of Grass
9. Janet
10. Solar Democrat
11. Wind Me Up
12. I'll Be You

Recorded in July 2007 at Warehouse Studios, Oxford while under siege from flood water, this red vinyl 7" by Vertical Montanas (all members of Youthmovies and Jonquil) is limited to 500 copies. The initial idea was to have Jonquil guest on a Youthmovies song and vice versa, but whilst writing, practicing and recording all 10 musicians decided to form a new band, and so Vertical Montanas was born. Both tracks are wonderful slices of leftfield pop-folk mixed by Hugo Manuel of Jonquil.

Vertical Scratchers is John Schmersal (ex-Brainiac/Enon, live Caribou, and Crooks on Tape) and Christian Beaulieu (ex-Triclops!/Anywhere). Their debut album is 'Daughter of Everything'. Simplicity was the inspiration: get in the van, rehearse in the van, tour in the van, stay mobile. “I have played in a lot of bands with complicated set-ups and implemented technologies,” says John. “I also do a lot of recording and editing on computers, so part of the desire for simplicity was about wanting things to be as organic and in real time as possible.” This impulse to keep things moving is reflected in the songs themselves. Most Vertical Scratchers songs clock in under the two-minute mark but often go in twice as many directions as your average-length song. Pop deception. Think the Kinks with a Buzzcocks brevity. Daughter of Everything was recorded live in Los Angeles at The Smell in September of 2012. The special guest appearance lead vocal from Robert Pollard was recorded at Waterloo Sound in Ohio by Todd Tobias.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wait No Longer
2. Turn Me Out
3. Memory Shards
4. Pretend U Are Free
5. Way Out
6. Chambermaids
7. U Dug Us All
8. Kingdom Come
9. Someone
10. Run Around
11. These Plains
12. Get Along Like U
13. My Only Want
14. Rainbows
15. The End

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

The original line up of Nina Gordon, Louise Post, Steve Lack and Jim Shapiro return on their original label, Minty Fresh, and recorded by American Thighs producer Brad Wood!

2 brand new songs plus the hit single "Seether" on 10" vinyl for this limited edition Record Store Day release.

Originally released in November 2004 it featured two non-singles, tracks pulled from the sessions for their third album Urban Hymns, ‘This Could Be My Moment’ and ‘Monte Carlo’.

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of an album that has never been pressed on vinyl and, under the group’s direction, this long overdue reissue replaces the bonus tracks with the powerful singles from the band’s 2008 reunion album, Forth – ‘Love is Noise’ and ‘Rather Be’ – as well as including their second single ‘She’s A Superstar’ (1992) in its original, full-length, eight-and-a-half-minute form (rather than the five-minute edit). As such, the album now represents the complete story of The Verve’s singles.

Named after the band’s sixth single, the first issued from their second album, A Northern Soul, it brilliantly documents the potency of The Verve’s relatively short but epoch-making journey through the musical cosmos.

On their emergence (when they were known simply as Verve), they were frequently referred to as purveyors of the shoegaze sound, although their output was more expansive, cinematic and genuinely psychedelic than that description implies, as evidenced by their first three non-album singles/EPs, all of which reached the summit of the UK indie charts.

After splitting up for the first time in 1995, they reconvened (with the addition of guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong) to reach their commercial peak in 1997 with the hugely successful Urban Hymns, which was centred around a brilliantly accomplished suite of songs written by Ashcroft, including the worldwide smash ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, the UK number one ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ and the beautiful and evocative ‘Lucky Man’.

Combustible, intense and highly influential, this stellar journey is finally available on wax, where, in its definitive form, it easily stands comparison with any other singles collection from the last three decades.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Three non album early singles make this an extra special collection, for me. Absolutely no one was making the hugely scoped out, psychedelic, shoegaze, groove-laden, wonder- sound that The Verve were coming up with in the early 90s. They were a band right out (there) on their own. Then Richard must've got himself an acoustic guitar (and famously toured with Oasis, in support, no less!) and bingo: enter the land of classic single after classic single. They're all collected on this imperious compilation, and the rest is as they say, history.

Barry says: I mean, you know the singles from Urban Hymns already obviously because they're all stunning and they were on the radio constantly, but do you know the other singles from Northern Soul or Storm In Heaven? I didn't until early last year, and I wish this had been about at the time. A superb greatest hits of a brilliant, genre-spanning act.

TRACK LISTING

LP1 Side A
This Is Music
Slide Away
Lucky Man
History

LP1 Side B
She's A Superstar
On Your Own
Blue
Sonnet

LP2 Side C
All In The Mind
The Drugs Don't Work
Gravity Grave

LP2 Side D
Bitter Sweet Symphony
Love Is Noise
Rather Be

A Northern Soul spawned three Top 40 singles – ‘This Is Music’, ‘On Your Own’ and ‘History’.

Absolutely massive album in our shop back in the day. This has deep, heavy grooves, ballads and sky-scraping believer-anthems. It's an incredible record.

Subsumed in myth and hearsay, the backdrop to the making of The Verve’s second album, issued in July 1995, has been thoroughly documented. It is a matter of record that the turbulent chemistry within the band – Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury - during its making forced the first fracturing of their union shortly after its release, but listening now it is also clear that it is one of the finest rock albums of the era.

As such it is a worthy addition to the UK National Album Day 2025 celebration of the genre; a record of towering musicianship on which four lads from Wigan delivered more than an hour of frequently heavy, brooding and confessional grooves, with their trademark psychedelic blooms and affecting melodies in full effect. And it’s worth noting that producer Owen Morris, who was central to the excesses that fuelled the album sessions, made a significant creative contribution. According to guitarist McCabe, he managed to capture the power of the band’s live performances on record better than anyone they have ever worked with.

Though it was largely disregarded by mainstream press and radio outlets when it first appeared, A Northern Soul has deservedly picked up a ‘cult’ following on both sides of the Atlantic, with many of those that missed it first time around becoming converts following the monster success of Urban Hymns.

As lead singer Richard Ashcroft put it at the time: "[The] doors have opened for me personally with my writing. We've been liberated. Touring, you get lost on a rock and roll adventure. You're on the Stardust trip…. But then you come home and it's time to get twenty Regal and a pastie and assess who you are. That's why the new album's got more soul to it. It's modern Northern blues."

The bone-crunching riff of ‘This Is Music’ was unleashed as the lead single in May 1995, followed by the reflective acoustic gem ‘On Your Own’ a month later. The group then went on the road in the UK - including appearances at the Glastonbury and Phoenix Festivals - and the US before returning to the UK to play at Glasgow’s T in the Park.

At its conclusion, Ashcroft announced his departure from the band and the third single, ‘History’, was released after they parted ways. In retrospect it offered a foretaste of Ashcroft’s songwriting direction on Urban Hymns but on its release the idea that another album by The Verve might ever exist appeared fanciful and A Northern Soul was regarded as a worthy full stop to short but incandescent career.

This 30th anniversary pressing, using the acclaimed 2016 remaster, is on ‘red opaque’ vinyl, chosen for its proximity to the colour of the corduroy trousers worn by bassist Jones on the reverse of the sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
A New Decade
This Is Music
On Your Own
So It Goes

Side 2
A Northern Soul
Brainstorm Interlude
Drive You Home

Side 3
History
No Knock On My Door
Life’s An Ocean

Side 4
Stormy Clouds
(Reprise)

3 popular studio albums by The Verve are being made available again as deluxe formats and on vinyl. A Storm In Heaven, the bands debut album from 1993, gets a thorough overhaul with this wonderful 4-disc boxed Super Deluxe Edition.

Remastered by Chris Potter (co-producer of the band’s ‘Urban Hymns’) the original album comes amply augmented by all of the legendary pre-album EP tracks, associated acoustic versions, as well as two previously unreleased BBC radio sessions and two excellent previously unreleased studio albums – ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Shoeshine Girl’.

The album will also be available on vinyl.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There was a lot of excitement around the release of (the)Verve's debut album. This was because they were a completely unique proposition back at the dawn of the nineties. There were elements of Shoegaze, but mainly this was drifting, blissed-out psyche rock. A classic band was born!

Every now and again, the world of music throws up a record that is out of the ordinary, something in its timing, quality and spirit that just feels right. The Verve’s 1997 album Urban Hymns, released on September 29th 1997, was one such record. The album spawned three highly successful singles. The first was the epoch-making worldwide smash Bitter Sweet Symphony, which trailered the album and became the sound of the summer. It was followed in the UK by The Drugs Don’t Work (No. 1) and Lucky Man (No. 7).

Andy Cabic’s musical being is, like many curious 21st century musicians, shaped and sustained by divergent tangents. If he’s not crafting a melancholy folk rock diamond in his Northern California studio, he’s moving a dance floor with bossa nova and house DJ sets, or helping curate a compilation of Japanese City Pop.

What’s magic about this new Vetiver LP Up On High is the way these tangents colour the ten songs without undermining a distinct move to more elemental, spacious and natural arrangements. At the heart of each of these ten songs is Cabic’s voice: sweet, tender and weathered - a welcome and soothing old friend if ever there was one. There are other familiar friends: the album also features longtime engineer and collaborator Thom Monahan and the same resourceful and versatile band that helped Cabic make the more dense and layered Complete Strangers from 2015.

Up On High was written on acoustic guitar. Having moved twice since Complete Strangers, increasingly accustomed to a life in and out of boxes, it was the easiest instrument to reach for in moments of inspiration. The basic tracking of the album took place over a few Spring days at a friend’s house in the high desert of California. This simple set-up captured the organic immediacy of a roomful of friends playing together on the floor. It’s alive and ever so subtly crackling with the intensity of a band working together, teasing out the melody and rhythms of songs with warmth and intimacy. Cabic and Monahan took the fruits of this session to Los Angeles and finished the album at Monahan’s studio over the summer as other friends popped by to lend their talents.

This album reflects the world that Cabic created and lives in: Jorge Ben phrasings peek out from behind Tom Petty's Wildflowers outtakes, a gentle jangle lifts whispers of REM’s Murmur on a breeze up from Compass Point Studios. But Up On High is most clearly Cabic and his band inhabiting the realm the band was born in—sleek, economical, soulful, and sometimes sadness-tinged melodies riding on the gentle choogle and sway of an ensemble moving in beautiful unison. This is an album that breathes with you in real, lived in, natural time.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Living End
2. To Who Knows Where
3. Swaying
4. All We Could Want
5. Hold Tight
6. Wanted, Never Asked
7. A Door Shuts Quick
8. Filigree
9. Up On High
10. Lost (In Your Eyes)

Upset the Rhythm and M’lady’s Records are very pleased to be teaming up for the first time to release the debut record from one of America’s most exciting groups today. VEXX, living in and playing out of Olympia, Washington, have been devastating the Pacific Northwest music hubs for the last year now. Their self-titled mini-album is explosive, vital, and many leagues deeper than it has any right to be in this wicked epoch.

Recorded by esteemed engineer, Dave Harvey (who also recorded both HYSTERICS 7”s issued on M’lady’s), this record originally came out in a small edition on the Grazer label late last year, which sold out instantly just through word of mouth. The very excellent Jason Ward (of Chicago Mastering Service) has since worked his magic re-mastering the recording, and now it’s even more wild and vibrant than ever.

VEXX hit the ground running like punk hasn’t happened yet! Blazing through the first three songs on side one with a fury rarely seen in the modern underground. ‘Clairvoyant’ is equal parts jagged as inventive, twisting out of reach at all the right moments. The song captures the band perfectly, raging headlong with unmatched momentum.

VEXX also know how to write a powerful slow burner, as evidenced by ‘Strength’ and the first half of ‘Ocean Shores’. Maryjane’s lyrics and vocals are a clarion call of intent; on fire with possibility, whilst wrestling with the power of everything. She’s such a force of nature as a frontwoman that you’re left stunned as much as amazed.

Meanwhile, Mike and Corey’s guitar and drum fireworks have left almost all spectators breathless (note: bass guitar duties on this recording were handled by Aaron, who has since been replaced by the very capable and excellent Ian). Each song is a maelstrom, whipping band and audience alike into a whirlwind. Pushing forward, thinking harder, striking home.

TRACK LISTING

01. Stress
02. Clairvoyant
03. Falling Down
04. Strength
05. Don’t Talk About It
06. Spirit / Constraint
07. Ocean Shores
08. Roky, Take Me Home

Recorded immediately following on from their truly epic European tour last Summer, ‘Wild Hunt’ by VEXX is a deliriously hot-wired mini-LP. Showcasing the band utterly consumed in the moment, these six tracks blaze with giddy abandon, raging mere heartbeats away from oblivion.

Recorded by Hayes & Sam at Dub Narcotic in Olympia, mastered by Golden Mastering. This LP is a one-time pressing (on black vinyl) in collaboration with our good friends at M’Lady’s Records, with incredible artwork drawn by Maryjane herself depicting the supernatural Wild Hunt in hot pursuit.

‘Gift Of Life’, the first proper full length by VHS, follows in the footsteps of their previous EPs, with the band self-recording their amalgam of Lost Sounds’ trashy discontent, early Big Black’s trebly guitar stabs and ‘Only Theatre Of Pain’-era Christian Death’s black reverberations. These are brash and bitter territories to occupy but the band sees no other choice for their musical direction, citing the daily grind as the impetus behind their music.

The harsh reality of frontman Josh Hageman’s day-today existence working on the periphery of the medical field played a direct role in the overall theme of the album. Those fatalistic views and medical themes are on full display on ‘Wheelchair’, where a punk pulse underscores Hageman’s harrowing description of a life lived in chronic pain with drugs serving as the only escape.

The album continues on to ‘Hospital Room’, where wiry guitar leads and ominous chords provide the soundtrack to a scene of misery and tragedy within the sanitized walls of Western medicine.

Elsewhere, the themes of addiction and exposure take on more universal themes, such as on the culturegorging lament of ‘Binge Everything’ or the panopticon-paranoia of ‘Public Act’.

TRACK LISTING

Fully Realized
Wheelchair
Hospital Room
Public Act
Crooked Echo
Binge Everything
Art Decay
Constant Hiss

Viragezero was born on a cold Sunday evening in December, on the way home from a Chris Cohen concert at Geneva’s Face Z festival. In the winter night emerged the desire to create a new collective space, nourished by the long drifting journeys of kosmische musik.

Initially conceived as a parallel playground bringing together the duo Citron Citron, former members of L’Éclair and musicians from Magic & Naked, the project quickly developed its own gravity. This self-titled debut album sketches a world both familiar and distorted, where everyday landscapes slowly slip into stranger territories.

Driven by nervous synths, hazy guitars, shifting electronic textures and rhythms drawing from 1990s trip hop and abstract hip hop, Viragezero builds a suspended and immersive music. A music guided as much by sensation as by structure, where repetition becomes a moving force and tensions evolve without ever fully resolving.

At the centre of the album are Zoé Sjollema’s lyrics, drawn from fragments of dreams collected over several years. Her instinctive writing blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination, tracing recurring themes of solitude, wandering, exhaustion. and disconnection. Rather than telling stories, the songs unfold as emotional states, inhabited by shifting landscapes, distorted memories and fleeting impressions.

Somewhere between dream pop, electronica, IDM and spectral songwriting, Viragezero delivers a dense and instinctive debut album. A nocturnal and hypnotic record that transforms fragments of reality into constantly shifting sonic matter.

TRACK LISTING

1. Balcon 
2. Rien Ne Vient 
3. Ticket Fantôme 
4. Ex Elf
5. Labyrinthe
6. Larmes De Feu
7. Tracasse 
8. Dans Les Ruines 

'Viagr Aboys' is the fourth studio album from Viagra Boys.

Featuring single 'Man Made of Meat', the LP sees Viagra Boys turn inwards, leaving the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled societal commentary of previous LP 'Cave World' behind to journey into the acid-laced, conspiracy-addled landscape within. Absurd, intense and surprisingly tender, 'Viagr Aboys' shuts out the noise to find that the important part of being alive in the big, stupid world is figuring out that the world inside of you that is equally big and stupid.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Scathing, soaring garage riffs and distorted vocal swathes, as is the order of the day for Viagra Boys. This time the psychedelic quotient is amped up to 11, with woozy riffs and weird scuzzy stoner grooves coated with a veneer of heady, lysergic oddity.

TRACK LISTING

1. Man Made Of Meat
2. The Bog Body
3. Uno II
4. Pyramid Of Health
5. Dirty Boyz
6. Medicine For Horses
7. Waterboy
8. Store Policy
9. You N33d Me
10. Best In Show Pt. IV
11. River King

In this time of strife, insanity and confusion, only one band is depraved enough to offer themselves up as herald. Like sin-eaters if sins had to be ingested from a very small spoon, Viagra Boys have consumed the utterly incomprehensible chaos of our era and distilled it into 12 immaculate tracks of post-truth-cow-funk-kraut-wave-enlightenment.

TRACK LISTING

1. Baby Criminal
2. Cave Hole
3. Troglodyte
4. Punk Rock Loser
5. Creepy Crawlers
6. The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis
7. Globe Earth
8. Ain't No Thief
9. Big Boy
10. ADD
11. Human Error
12. Return To Monke

Grimey, acid highway full throttle; on V****a Boys’ twisted dark punk album Street Worms, vocalist Sebastian Murphy lets you ride shotgun on a trip that takes you blazing to the top of a mountain before speeding right back down to the basement.

With a bass line that ferociously drives the car and drums that make sure you stay on the road - this is one of those trips where you sporadically wake up and find yourself in strange situations, wondering how the fuck you got there. From the Shrimp shack to the dog show, one minute you’re playing ‘rugby ball’, the next moment you’re being eaten by worms, and between the fading lights and the strange look on your friend’s face, Murphy grabs your ears and asks you what you really want from this life.

This is an album about illusions of realness, the absurdum of existence and the joke of humanity. Street Worms is V****a Boys debut studio album, a debut that instantly let them occupy their absolute own space in music history. “It was all a dream, but it was so nice. I had a nice house and such a lovely wife. We had a little dog, such a little dog, it reminded me of a large dog. Just a miniature size.”.

Produced by Daniel Fagerstrom (Skull Defekts, Chronic Heist) and Pelle Gunnerfeldt (Fireside, The Hives) for YEAR0001, now on CD for the first time in 2019, and limited vinyl, with 5 additional bonus tracks. For fans of Idles, Shame, Fucked Up, Devo and the Birthday Party.

TRACK LISTING

Slow Learner
Sports
Best In Show 
Just Like You
Shrimp Shack 
Frogstrap
Worms 
Amphetanarch
Jungle Man
Beijing Taxi
Up All Night
Special Helmet
I Ain’t Living Long Like This

Available for the first time in general retail, this 12" combines Viagra Boys explosive debut EP 'Consistency Of Energy' (2016) with the enigmatic 'Call Of The Wild' EP.

Featuring stand- out tracks like 'Research Chemicals' and 'Call Of The Wild', this edition comes in a embossed + foiled jacket with both original covers (designed by singer Sebastian Murphy) printed on the inner sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Research Chemicals
2. I Don't Remember That
3. Can't Get It Up
4. Liquids
5. Baby Teeth
6. Upside Backwards
7. Call Of The Wild

VIAL is a powerhouse trio, red-hot in DIY scenes after breaking out during unconventional times in 2020. Their sound is a pressure cooker: Indie rock meets punk in soaring melodic hooks ready to sink teeth into all listeners alike. Bite marks burn hotter on the live stage, where they’ve supported acts such as FIDLAR, HUNNY, and Mal Blum. The jury’s in: The insatiable hunger for VIAL’s fresh genre blend will be plentifully satisfied with a repress of steaming-hot sophomore record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ego Death
2. Violet
3. Planet Drool
4. Mr. Fuck You
5. Something More
6. Thumb
7. Piss Punk
8. Therapy Pt II
9. Roadkill
10. Vodka Lemonade
11. Addict
12. 21

“Earth, Our Planet?”: A call for environmental awareness. This time, Pedro Vian - the founder of Modern Obscure Music - presents his fourth solo album (following his 2020release, "Ibillorca"). "Earth, Our Planet?" promises to immerse us in a moving odyssey, crossing the boundaries of musical genres to provoke an urgent meditation on the protection of our planet. On this occasion Vian has composed the album influenced by the myth of the eternal return, the compositions are long and repetitive, generating
states of pure
trance.

Pedro Vian, singular for his fusion of genres and styles, ventures into even more complex territories in "Earth, Our Planet?". From the first listen, it is evident that this work treads the line of convention and breaks the boundaries of electronic and experimental music with artistic dexterity. The album weaves together texture, hypnotic rhythms and melody. Each track reveals his distinctive ability to create immersive landscapes, guiding the listener into deep emotional introspection. This is not just music; it is a transformative experience. The beauty of this album lies not only in the musical vision. The album features high-calibre collaborations that add layers of creativity and elegance. Trumpeter Pierre Bastien, whose early productions left an indelible mark on Aphex Twin's Reflex label, infuses "A Day in Rotterdam" with a unique emotional resonance. Violinist, Asia, renowned for her avant-garde approach and ability to conjure unique landscapes, elevates the album's opening tracks "Urobóros" and "Les Tambours Subterraniens". Their skill and sensitivity intertwine perfectly
with Vian's artistic vision. In addition, Italian producer Daniele Mana, with whom Pedro Vian collaborated closely on his previous album "Cascades", known for his experimental approach and talent for creating extraterrestrial atmospheres also contributes to "Les Tambours Subterraniens". His artistic perspective adds more complexity and texture to the piece, pushing the boundaries of contemporary electronic music. There is also a collaboration with Raül Refree, an artist with whom Vian worked with last year, presenting
“Font De la Vera Pau”, an album that The Guardian defined as 'a wonderful piece of electroacoustic music, a captivating mix of strings and analogue synth drones which sometimes flirts with Alice Coltrane-ish spiritual jazz'.

With "Earth, Our Planet?", Pedro Vian not only offers up some of his best work to date, but it is also a call to reflect on our relationship with the natural world. As a part of a planet where environmental awareness is more crucial than ever, he urges us to protect and preserve our world as an extension of ourselves. This extensive work is a statement, Vian addresses the
notion that too often we prioritise immediate needs over the well-being of the planet. It highlights the fact that we often consider the Earth as a possession when, in reality, we are but a part of it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uróboros
2. Les Tambours Suterraniens Feat. Mana
3. Satan’s Voice
4. Lucid Dreams
5. Un Storia Infinita
6. The Limit Of Nothing feat. Raul Refree
7. A Day In Rotterdam Feat. Pierre Bastien
8. Your Face Shines More Than The Sun
9. Hipódromo
10. Crema Lent

After releasing their early punk classic Pure Mania and touring with Iggy Pop, The Vibrators continued with the follow-up album V2 ten months later. V2 was a commercial success, landing in the UK album top 40. The single “Automatic Lover” even led to a Top of the Pops appearance. The album also contains the punk classic “Troops Of Tomorrow”, which became a highly acclaimed cover by Scottish punk band The Exploited.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Pure Mania
2. Automatic Lover
3. Flying Duck Theory
4. Public Enemy No. 1
5. Destroy
6. Nazi Baby

Side B
1. Wake Up
2. Sulphate
3. 24 Hour People
4. Fall In Love
5. Feel Alright
6. War Zone
7. Troops Of Tomorrow

The Viceroys were a Jamaican reggae vocal group formed in the late 1960s Their lineup consisted of Wesley Tinglin, Neville Ingram, and Daniel Bernard plus Musicians: Bass: Robert 'Robbie' Shakespeare, Drums: Carlton 'Carlie' Barrett & Noel Donlan, Keyboards: Ansel 'Pinkie' Collins, Lead Guitar: Radcliffe 'Dougie' Bryan & Bertram "Ranchie" McLean' Rhythm Guitar: Radcliffe "Dougie" Bryan & Eric 'Bingy Bunny' Lamont, Percussion: Noel 'Zoot'/ 'Scully' Simms, Recorded at: Channel One. Produced by: Phil Pratt. They gained popularity with their harmonious vocal style and catchy melodies. One of their most famous songs is "Heart Made of Stone," which became a hit in Jamaica and internationally. They recorded songs that reflected the social and political issues of the time. Their music continues to be celebrated among reggae enthusiasts for its soulful harmonies and uplifting messages.

TRACK LISTING

Send Us
Consider Yourself
Detour
Jah Ho Jah
My Mission Is Impossible
Get To Know
Do We Have To Fight
Ya Ho
Sing A Good Song

This heavy roots reggae cut comes courtesy of The Viceroys, legendary harmony group from the stables of the world renowned studio 1. First recording for the venerable Mr Dodd in 1967 The Viceroys were instrumental in moving the sound from rocksteady to reggae with early hits like "Ya Ho" and "Love & Unity" .

The A side of this weighty 45 is a revisited vocal from the early days of the group, a haunting, smokey rendition of Maga Down. Drawing musical influence from Ethiopian and Cuban music as well as its obvious early reggae basis this record sounds fresh whilst simultaneously transporting you back to the golden era with its warm nostalgic themes.

The flip side is an ethereal dub mix from the Bristol based Yakka, an almost psychedelic journey into the mixing board bringing out the best of the vintage sound pellet.

This is the third release from Bristol label Poor Man's Friend Records, produced in the Poor Man's Friend studio and voiced in Jamaica only 300 copies of this smoked out ode to the golden era are available for purchase.

TRACK LISTING

1. Maga Down
2. Maga Dub (feat. Yakka)

This tasteful Spanish label always does a fine line in traditionally inclined deep house. Their latest drop brings together the talents of Andrew Lozano and Trevor Vichas. 'Don't U Feel It' kicks off with a playful skip in the drums and one of those spoken word vocals that add plenty of atmosphere. It's Demuir who remixes this one with even more light-hearted groove and jazzy Rhodes chords. Lozano and Vichas then offer 'With You' which keeps the dubby, smoky, frayed-edge house sounds rolling and 'Feel The Heat' then brings a more upright groove with driving hits and swirling pads that speak to the soul.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Terrace tickling tackle from two house playboys. Sure to get sweaty boys in vests and midriff displaying ladies cantering suggestively as the day draws into night.

TRACK LISTING

Don´t U Feel It
Don´t U Feel It (Demuir's Playboi Edit)
With You
Feel The Heat

DJ Trevor Vichas teams up with Andrew Lonazo on this new 12" from Housetown Records. A solid dose of deep, jacking house with a smoking hot disco remix from Hotmood to complete this 5 track EP. RIYL: Hudd Trax, Shadow Pressings, Local Talk etc. 

Support from Demuir, Lars Behrenroth and more. Don't sleep on this bad boy... Limited pressing of just 200. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Burning Up (6:19)
A2 Best In Chicago (6:13)
B1 D For Disco (7:12)
B2 Soul Of The Underground (5:45)
B3 D For Disco (Hotmood Remix) (4:54)

The Vichy Government were established on Valentine's Day 2002 with their debut live performance the following May Day. Since then they have been daubed with a reputation for antagonistic, anti-consensus pop and their agit-cabaret live show has become a thing of legend. The spartan musical landscapes crafted by Andrew Chilton, (Keith Richards of the Yamaha Portsaound) vary from ethereal to infantile and come laced with more hooks than an MFI warehouse. They provide a unique setting for Jamie Manners' sneering but heartfelt vignettes about life.

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE.

DOUBLE-LP of Sid’s last ever four shows! 39 tracks - mostly unavailable elsewhere. Gatefold sleeve with detailed 8,000-word Sid timeline and Steve Dior eyewitness story.

Features New York Dolls’ rhythm section: - the late Arthur Kane & Jerry Nolan.

SEX PISTOL’s Sid Vicious has come to symbolise the band since his untimely death. Always courting controversy, he out-did his old college mate Johnny Rowen in the attitude stakes. With only 3 memorable solo singles to his name, this 2xLP bloodsplattered vinyl in gatefold sleeve shows where his music may have gone, had Nancy not died 12 days later.

Detailed 8,000-word articles tell the life-story of Sid, firstly in an eyewitness account by guitarist Steve Dior, and secondly in a Sid, Nancy & Sex Pistols day-by-day timeline from Sid’s early days to his demise. Following media furore over Sid’s death and numerous films documenting his life and death, this is the definitive Sid Vicious release for all fans and students of Sex Pistols and the punk-rock scene

TRACK LISTING

LP1/CD1 - Sept. 28th 1978 First & Second Set:
1. Search & Destroy
2. Chatterbox
3. I Wanna Be Your Dog
4. Something Else
5. Stepping Stone
6. Don’t Gimme No Lip Child
7. Belsen Was A Gas
8. Take A Chance
9. Chinese Rocks
10. Search & Destroy
11. Chatterbox
12. I Wanna Be Your Dog
13. Something Else
14. Belsen Was A Gas
15. Stepping Stone
16. Chinese Rocks
17. Take A Chance
18. Don’t Gimme No Lip Child
19. Something Else.

LP2/CD2 - Sept 30th 1978 First & Second Set:
1. Search And Destroy
2. Chatterbox
3. Something Else
4. Belsen Was A Gas
5. I Wanna Be Your Dog
6. Stepping Stone
7. Take A Chance
8. Don’t Gimme No Lip Child
9. Chinese Rocks
10. My Way
11. Search And Destroy
12. Chatterbox
13. Something Else
14. I Wanna Be Your Dog
15. Belsen Was A Gas
16. Stepping Stone
17. Take A Chance
18. Don’t Gimme No Lip Child
19. Chinese Rocks
20. My Way.

New York’s Cleopatra label gets the Numero treatment. Hailing from Tommy Falcones swarm, Beehive lead Vickie & The Van Dykes were the sound of the coming youth revolt - Vickie had rock ‘n’ roll inher bones and rawhide in her voice. ‘I Wanna Be a Winner’ and ‘Outcast’ were songs tailored to her rebellious personality.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Be A Winner
2. Outcast

Brought into the shop by the band themselves, this album could well see this Brooklyn band being chased by many a clued up UK record label. The Victoria Lucas are a rock band consisting of bass, two guitars, drums, trombone, theremin, vocals, and occasionally augmented by a rotating cast of other assorted noisemakers. Best described, succinctly enough, as a rock band, the VL's sound runs a long and proud gamut. From standard-bearers like The Velvet Underground and New Order, to tear-in-your-beer country, classic rock, ala The Band and The Faces, Kraut rock, and free jazz, the Brooklyn combo embrace a wide variety of sounds combining them all seamlessly. Highly recommended!!!

Since the release of their first album, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club toured for too long, then locked themselves away. They wrote 100 songs, disposed of 88 humanely, and have now laid out the remaining dozen on a 3" silver platter, for your dirty soul to revel in. Their previous opus was based on a severe lack of musical understanding. Their eponymous debut saw them groping their instruments like over-anxious teenagers, fast, furious and lots of fun. Their second is full of confidence and somewhat brutally, demands your respect. "Love On An Oil Rig" takes triple distortion, the most obscure of harmonies and refracts them through the prism of pop. Where the first record wore its influences on its sleeve, this one stands alone. The stripped down primal ideas are defined and sharp, retaining their well-developed Art school sensibilities of the absurd, the outrageous and the other. Since the recording, a new drummer and fourth club member has been recruited to enhance the ferocity of their sound, taking the noise to the next level with offset guitars, shouts and wails.

To be an attentive listener to the world as it stands is to be saturated with language. Speech resounds through nearly every space that features human beings, whether unwanted or desired, mundane or profound. Words sit on the page and in the ear, proliferating endlessly. This superabundance has long been a point of fascination for composer and musician Ben Vida, but over the past several years it has led to a new method of music making that simultaneously exalts and interrogates the primacy of language in our sonic and cultural envi- ronments. Gently, playfully, Vida breaks down language’s hierarchy of meaning and sound until they exist in egalitarian harmony.

'Oblivion Seekers' is Vida’s newest album in this mode of composition, following 2023’s collaboration with new music ensemble Yarn/Wire The Beat My Head Hit. Like its predecessor, the music’s focus is on coordinated duets of spoken word in a neutral tone, the variable cadences of the words in motion creating complex internal rhythmic structures. He is joined by the voices of Nina Dante, Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett, and Félicia Atkinson, creating a singular tone that is neither theirs nor his, fluid in its gender presentation, accent, and diction. The instrumental compositions that form the album’s understory have the casual flow of dialogue, conversational but subdued, rarely the agent of change. Here, Vida likewise called upon an accomplished community of players to accompany him: Dante on harp, Bennett on bass flute, Matt Bauder and Will Epstein on saxophones, Henry Fraser on bass, Cleek Schrey on violin, and Booker Stardrum on percussion.

There are many predecessors to these types of novel confluences of music and speech. Vida’s love of Robert Ashley is well documented, but perhaps even more significant are Mark E. Smith and The Fall, Neil Tennant and the Pet Shop Boys’ spoken verses, the entire history of hip hop, Meredith Monk. The way the words are delivered matters just as much as the words themselves, revealing an inten- tionality and directness that Vida highlights and subverts with the text’s abstract construction patterns. On 'Oblivion Seekers', the omnidirectional din is the marble Vida chips away at to illuminate the way we process the vast strangeness of the world. Its triumph is that we lose none of the beautiful mystery of how these signs bridge our external and internal worlds.

TRACK LISTING

1. Be Yr Own Abyss
2. New Distortion Properties
3. Oblivion Seekers
4. Unmake A World

Introducing the first single by modern soul ensemble, Leo Vidal & The Rayvelles with their answer to the west coast oldies sound, 'Haunted By Your Love'.

Leo Vidal, 70s soul singer hailing from rural Virginia debuts his flavour of east coast harmonies, crooning about lost love. The Rayvelles a.k.a. Fergal McBride & Tuck Nelson are the inspiration behind Echo Ray Studios, a London based recording studio channeling the soul of Motown to current day. Backing vocals by Los Angeles based singer Cassandra Dali & Londons own, Marietta Smith.

The B-Side features a remix by Call Sender, an international multi-instrumentalist duo who shone their distinct light onto this classic take, inviting another entrance to this haunting sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Haunted By Your Love
2. Haunted By Your Love (Call Sender Dub Version)

RIYL: TOPS, Andy Shauf, Tennis, Drugdealer, Jay Som, Real Estate, Faye Webster, Crumb.

Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ine­able, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-song writers of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions.

After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together.

Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it’s also their most honest and personal work yet–Video Age distilled to its purest form.

TRACK LISTING

Ready To Stay
Better Than Ever
Away From The Castle
Adrian
In The Breaks
How Long's Eternity?
Just Think
Anything For You
A Knight Shining With No Armor
Is It Really Over?
Golden Sun

There’s no band that can lay claim to being the true best in the business, except VIDEO. Crawling from the musical wasteland that is Texas, their intentions are simple: they want to own the world. While the band features members of Bad Sports, Wiccans, Radioactivity, and the Wax Museums (just to name a few), VIDEO stands on its own as one of the most powerful and visceral bands active today. Combining equal parts snotty punk, hard rock, and melodic dissonance, VIDEO are pioneers of their own subgenre, Hate Wave. Going well beyond the confines of paint by numbers punk, and generic, flaccid garage rock, VIDEO forges a new cult like movement. So pay attention, consumers, and don’t miss out on the best thing going today. Long Live The New Faith, Long Live VIDEO.

TRACK LISTING

1. Opening
2. The Entertainers
3. New Immortals
4. Drink It In
5. Nothing Lasts Forever
6. Shackles
7. No Art
8. Never Enough
9. Out Of My Hands
10. I Will Wait
11. The End Of It All

After 3 albums based purely on synthesizers, the danish duo take a leap by adding live drums & guitars to their latest album. A natural step, considering that Jakob Skøtt, one half of the duo, spends his time drumming in Causa Sui, as well as a slew of jazz-infused projects on El Paraiso. All basic tracks were recorded in an improv session at Jonas Munk’s studio in Odense, capturing both synths and drums live.

The expansion of drums adds a natural 70’s groove, maintaining a spontaneous vibe that also soaks into the analogue synths of modular wizard Kristoffer Ovesen. The improvised sessions were later honed, edited & layered, bringing forth the best of both spontaneous ideas, as well a multi-dimensional approach bringing a new depth to Videodrones extensive cinematic undercurrent of sounds. With the addition of echo & reverb drenched guitars, the duo is tapping into sounds in new realms yet strangely familiar. After The Fall may conceptually nod it’s head towards a gloomy state of affairs, but akin to the italian post-apocalyptic movies of the 80’s, doomsday never felt this heady and funky before

TRACK LISTING

1. Void Facer
2. Scorpio
3. Frygtens Time
4. Irgendwo - Irgendwann
5. Inferno Verde
6. After The Fall
7. Wasteland Interceptors
8. AR Amarelo 9. Blaster
10. Finale

Recorded in a barn-turned-studio in rural Ontario, the seven songs that make up ‘Viet Cong’ were born largely on the road, when Matt Flegel and bandmates Mike Wallace (both ex members of the much loved band Women), Scott Munro and Daniel Christiansen embarked on a 50-date tour that stretched virtually every limit imaginable.

The repetition throughout ‘Viet Cong’ hypnotizes but also softens, leaving a space that is deceptively personal.

‘Continental Shelf’ orbits a thousand watt hook with a thick crackle and a battering-ram drum line.

‘Silhouettes’ is a tripwire of a song, opening with an almost Joy Division-esque exposition and moving at breakneck speed - frantic and pitch-black at a thousand miles an hour - until, before you know it, they are howling. Actually howling. Maybe you are too.

TRACK LISTING

1 Newspaper Spoons
2 Pointless Experience
3 March Of Progress
4 Bunker Buster
5 Continental Shelf
6 Silhouettes
7 Death

When The View reconvened last year after five years apart, the three old-friends realised just how much they have missed… well, everything about being in a band: the rush of seeing an audience react to their performances, the camaraderie of being together, a simple jam idea evolving into a fully-fledged song. A run of comeback gigs at Glasgow’s O2 Academy saw all 10,000 tickets sold in advance, the fan reaction was overwhelming and they were even joined on-stage by an old friend in the shape of ‘Line of Duty’ actor Martin Compston. After all that, how could you resist wanting more? Especially as their rehearsals for the shows saw the band conjure up a wealth of new song ideas just like they did back when they first started out. 

Frontman Kyle Falconer says, “Working with Youth on our third album 'Bread and Circuses' was one of the best experiences of my career so we jumped at the chance to revisit the opportunity with him in Spain. To be able to go into the studio again as a band with added experience was just magical."

Kyle and bandmates Kieran Webster (bass/vocals) and Pete Reilly (guitar) departed their homes in Scotland to record the record in the inspiring surroundings of Granada, Spain, with the assistance of a top tier producer in the shape of the Grammy Award winner Youth (The Verve, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Charlatans). They returned with ‘Exorcism of Youth’ in the bag, a record which combines the raucous energy of The View’s early work with some poignant slowburners drawn from personal experience, and Kyle’s gift for lyricism which is equal parts observational, witty and insightful.

The View launch the album by sharing its lead single ‘Feels Like’. The band’s fiery energy ignites the song in a blaze of melody before hitting the kind of instantly irresistible hook with which they’ve made their name. It’s a track perfectly built for upcoming shows too, with its breakdown sure to be an immensely atmospheric moment when they hit summer festivals.

Kyle adds, “This one felt anthemic from the get go. Even though under the surface it’s about somewhere everyone’s been in their life before: regret of losing someone amazing due to your inner demons and seeing them moving on with their life, when you’re stuck in a ‘nightmare not a dream.’ When I first sat down to write it I had Holden Caulfield from ‘Catcher in the Rye’ in mind. It’s playing out in his mind and it’s his own paranoia destroying him from the inside out when in reality she’s the perfect woman."

Elsewhere, the album darts from highlight-to-highlight, taking in a cocktail of ‘60s pop and punky punch on ‘The Wonder Of It All’, strutting and swaggering on ‘Neon Nights’, and channelling driving, anthemic rock like a trio of Scottish Springsteens on ‘Woman of the Year’. At times, though, it represents an evolution for the band too, with the sweeping strings of ‘Black Mirror’ and the darker alt-pop production of ‘Footprints In The Sand’. Ultimately ‘Exorcism of Youth’ is where The View should be at this stage in their lives: still burning with the passion of youth, but with the confidence and control that comes from having been around the block and, in the process, learned from the experience.

TRACK LISTING

1. ‘Exorcism Of Youth’
2. ‘Feels Like’
3. ‘The Wonder Of It All’
4. ‘Arctic Sun’
5. ‘Shovel In His Hands’
6. ‘Allergic To Mornings’
7. ‘Black Mirror’
8. ‘Neon Nights’
9. ‘Dixie’
10. ‘Woman Of The Year’
11. ‘Footprints In The Sand’
12. ‘Tangled’

Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited is a stunning reimagining of Kraftwerk’s seminal album, created to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The perfect (post) Christmas gift for discerning fans of cutting edge analogue electronica. And Kraftwerk!

Radioland was initially devised as a breathtaking audio-visual live experience by the Anglo-French trio of Matthew Bourne (synthesisers, voice), Franck Vigroux (electronics) and visual artist Antoine Schmitt.

The original music has been transformed with hurricanes of modulated electronics, earth-shattering bass frequencies, vocoders ebbing and throbbing and the occasional drop into periods of eerie near-silence.

Using a variety of vintage analogue synthesisers and electronics, they have recreated the futuristic, industrial world of ominous darkness and dazzling light imagined by Kraftwerk in 1975 and reconstructed in this bold new manifestation for 2015.

The album is mastered by Denis Blackham, who mastered Kraftwerk’s classic 1974 album Autobahn.

“A darkly intriguing contemporary spin on the seminal Teutonic band Kraftwerk’s electronic concept… a mix of hard-edged industrial grooves and ethereal, moog-infused soundscapes” - Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise.

“Bourne, a staggeringly talented pianist, also has an ability to explore the synthesiser’s most Kraftwerkian properties” - John Lewis, The Guardian.

Referencing the easy, sleazy sounds of the 90s, Viji – real name Vanilla Jenner – has been cementing herself as one of the most exciting alternative artists to watch in the UK right now.

Having previously released music on Dirty Hit, she recently signed to Speedy Wunderground and has rapidly built a loyal fanbase whilst receiving widespread plaudits from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, CLASH, Dork, DIY, Wonderland, So Young, and many more.

So Vanilla was recorded predominantly in London, in partnership with four-time Mercury Prize nominated producer and Speedy Wunderground label head, Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tempest, Wet Leg). Having finished So Vanilla in November 2022, Viji relays that every song had a different writing process – some saw her and Carey playing guitar chords together for hours, until the sounds fused into one, and others came from late night ramblings at home.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From snarling vocals and fuzzy, grungy guitars to hushed acoustic breeze, 'So Vanilla' is a captivating and brilliantly off-piste debut from a hugely talented artist. A hefty, 90's tinged treat.

TRACK LISTING

1 Anything
2 Down
3 Sedative
4 Sundress In Pink
5 Karaoke
6 Blanket
7 Sharks
8 Slip Out Quiet
9 1850
10 Say Hi
11 White Lighter
12 Ambien

Kurt Vile has a way of tying time in knots. You can hear it on his new album "Smoke Ring For My Halo" from the get-go – the pinwheeling guitars and reaching atmospheres of "Baby’s Arms" are as strange as they are familiar: a demonstration of how Kurt can put worn methods and sounds through himself and end up with something that isn’t emotionally or sonically obvious. Instead we’re left with a record that contains traces of the past but doesn’t waste precious time in the now being reverent.

Once compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Psychic TV and Animal Collective in the same review, Kurt can bring to mind anything from Suicide to Leo Kottke to My Bloody Valentine, Bob Seger, Nick Drake and Eastern ragas. Still, he pieces together these disparate elements so seamlessly and unpretentiously that such reference points are rendered pointless by the singularity of his sound. Kurt Vile might belong to a long lineage of classic American songwriters, but he’s the only one who’s alive and in his prime today.

This is the fourth time Kurt Vile has put an album’s worth of songs together and stuck a name on it, but in a sense "Smoke Ring For My Halo" is his first real album - every flinching guitar arpeggio and vocal wander was made to be here, made with this record in mind, to sit alongside another in situ and in sequence. It’s a record that is perfect for any given day during whatever season, to satisfy all moods in every possible scenario, be that first thing in the morning or last thing at night; today, tomorrow or five years from now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Baby’s Arms
2. Jesus Fever
3. Puppet To The Man
4. On Tour
5. Society Is My Friend
6. Runner Ups
7. In My Time
8. Peeping Tomboy
9. Smoke Ring For My Halo
10. Ghost Town

Philly’s constant hitmaker, critical darling, and songwriter/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Kurt Vile, returns with his upcoming collaborative EP with Nashville songsmith Luke Roberts, “Classic Love”.

Kurt and Luke were admirers of one another after meeting on MySpace years ago, and this release highlights both of their distinctive musical styles. “classic love” was written by Luke, “hit of the highlife” by Kurt, “slow talkers ‘22” is a re-work from Kurt’s 2008 debut album and “wildflower” is a Beach House cover.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely little collab record that pits Vile's unmistakeable laid-back vocals and slacker rock leanings with arty avant country aficionado Luke Roberts. It's very laid back, as you'd expect but swimming with beautifully penned melodies and clever instrumental interludes.

Back to Moon Beach (Verve Records) is an EP by no one’s definition but Kurt Vile’s. For Kurt, this collection is an expression of just how deep his well of non-album material runs.

The vinyl edition includes six tracks culled from various sessions over the last four years, representing a wide swath of the inspirational musical community Kurt surrounds himself with.

“[Kurt Vile is] the beloved and reliable purveyor of a hazy, zoned-out, weirdo brand of classicist rock.” - Stereogum.

“Vile remains our era’s great inheritor of the Neil Young/Meat Puppets/Dinosaur Jr. tradition of bending chords, spooling out hypnotic solos, and chilling with your demons until they start feeling like drinking buddies.” - Rolling Stone.

“Loose, sprawling, and filled with spacey but intimate jams that couple drum machines, smoke-curled guitars, and off the cuff vocals, [(watch my moves)] feels like being invited into Vile’s head to sit down and hang out a spell.” - Aquarium Drunkard.

“Vile’s sprawling new album captures the magic, loss and wonderment of being alive.” - AV Club

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Is it an EP? Is it'nt? It really doesn't matter, it's classic Vile, lagging instrumental groove and slow guitar twangs below KV's stoned drawl. Rich, melodic and heartfelt.

TRACK LISTING

CD (9 Tracks)
1. Another Good Year For The Roses (5:34)
2. Touched Somethin (caught A Virus) (6:31)
3. Back To Moon Beach (8:15)
4. Like A Wounded Bird Trying To Fly (5:29)
5. Blues Come For Some (5:09)
6. Tom Petty’s Gone (but Tell Him I Asked For Him) (8:15)
7. Must Be Santa (5:12)
8. Passenger Side (3:10)
9. Cool Water (Single Mix) (4:29)

VINYL (6 Tracks)
Side A:
1. Another Good Year For The Roses (5:34)
2. Touched Somethin (caught A Virus) (6:31)
3. Back To Moon Beach (8:15)
Side B:
1. Like A Wounded Bird Trying To Fly (5:29)
2. Blues Come For Some (5:09)
3. Tom Petty’s Gone (but Tell Him I Asked For Him) (8:15)

Travel can inspire in surprising ways: Kurt Vile discovered as much making his first record in three years, the eclectic and electrifying Bottle It In, which he recorded at various studios around the country over two very busy years, during sessions that usually punctuated the ends of long tours or family road trips.

Every song, whether it’s a concise and catchy pop composition or a sprawling guitar epic, becomes a journey unto itself, taking unexpected detours, circuitous melodic avenues, or open-highway solos. If Vile has become something of a rock guitar god—a mantle he would dismiss out of humility but also out of a desire to keep getting better, to continue absorbing new music, new sounds, new ideas—it’s due to his precise, witty playing style, which turns every riff and rhythm into points on a map and takes the scenic route from one to the next.

Using past albums as points of departure, Bottle It In heads off in new directions, pushing at the edges of the map into unexplored territory: Here be monster jams. These songs show an artist who is still evolving and growing: a songwriter who, like his hero John Prine, can make you laugh and break your heart, often in the same line, as well as a vocalist who essentially rewrites those songs whenever he sings them in his wise, laconic jive-talkin’ drawl. He revels in the minutiae of the music— not simply incorporating new instruments but emphasizing how they interact with his guitar and voice, how the glockenspiel evokes cirrocumulus clouds on “Hysteria,” how Kim Gordon’s “acoustic guitar distortion” (her term) engulfs everything at the end of “Mutinies,” how the banjo curls around his guitar lines and backing vocals from Lucius to lend a high-lonesome aura to “Come Again.”

These journeys took Vile more than two years to navigate, during which time he toured behind his breakout 2015 album b’lieve I’m goin’ down, recorded a duets album with Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist Courtney Barnett, opened for Neil Young in front of 90,000 people in Quebec, famously became a clue on Jeopardy, hung out with friends, took vacations with his wife and daughters. “I’ve been bouncing around a lot and recording all over. My family would meet me in the middle of America, and we’d go on a road trip somewhere. I would record in between all that stuff.”

As Vile prepares for another round of lengthy tours and countless shows, these songs should prove good company, reminders of the love and responsibility he has toward those he leaves at home and those
he meets along the way. That makes the sentiments resonate more strongly and lends Bottle It In an emotional weight. “It’s like that moment on the airplane,” Vile says, “when you’re on your way somewhere and you have that burst of panic. When you’re terrified of dying, that’s when you want people to know you love them.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Everything we love about KV in one superb LP. More dynamic than his last outing and the most beautifully produced of all his albums, Bottle It In also features a cover of Charlie Rich's Rollin With The Flow: a massive, classic, country-pop beaut, which is possibly the prettiest thing he's ever committed to tape.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loading Zones
2. Hysteria
3. Yeah Bones
4. Bassackwards
5. One Trick Ponies
6. Rollin With The Flow
7. Check Baby
8. Bottle It In
9. Mutinies
10. Come Again
11. Cold Was The Wind
12. Skinny Mini
13. (bottle Back)

Kurt Vile returns with third release on Verve Records. The album title, 'Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me', illustrates his love for his home city, where he still resides and records most of his music.

Musically, the album includes everything fans have come to love about KV: jangly guitars, soaring instrumental passages, and lyrics that are both cheeky and sentimental at the same time.

This album depicts a musician who, in spite of having a majorly successful career, has stayed true to his roots and continues to represent artistic integrity.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brand new suite of laid-back slacker grooves and slo-mo rock from the king of laid-back, Kurt Vile. For a start, the superb video for standout single 'Chance To Bleed' (inc. appearance from Barry & Liam's favourite 19yo alcoholic poet) is brilliant, and it highlights a deep sense of fun and anti-serious tomfoolery. All wrapped in Vile's consistently brilliant musicianship.

Willow says: For his whole career, Kurt Vile has been strongly poised in the Neil Young lineage of cutting-edge country-infused rock guitarists. He has as much right as anyone going, then, to take something of a victory lap ten solo albums deep with Philadelphia's Been Good To Me, which sees Vile showing off all his tricks with some style. From some of the most rocking moments of his solo career to the warm blanket of his familiar, winding woodland drawl, Philadelphia... is one of the strongest statements Vile has made with a record, an endearing boast of his undeniable skill as a songwriter and guitar player. Skronk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Zoom 97
2. 99 BPM
3. Rock ‘o Stone
4. You Don’t Know Cuz It’s My Life
5. Chance to Bleed
6. Philly’s Been Good to Me
7. 99th Song
8. Red Room Dub
9 .Holiday OKV
10. Every Time I Look at You
11. Piano for Sarah
12. Avalanches of Snow

Kurt Vile’s Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep) was recorded and mixed in sporadic sessions that spanned four years at The Butcher Shoppe studio in Nashville, TN. It includes five songs —covers of John Prine and “Cowboy” Jack Clement as well as two originals —and was recorded alongside a cast of local heavies like Bobby Wood, Dave Roe, and Kenny Malone with Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf) tossed into the mix as well.

Most importantly, it features what KV has called "Probably the single most special musical moment in my life” –a duet with the late John Prine on the songwriter’s well-loved tune, “How Lucky.” “The truth is John was my hero for a long time when he came into The Butcher Shoppe to recut one of his deepest classics with me. And, man, I was floating and flying and I couldn't hear anything he told me while he was there till after he was gone for the night,” notes Vile in a personal statement that accompanies the record. “A couple nights later we were playing ‘How Lucky’ together again; this time onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on New Year's Eve at the turn of 2020. Nothing like seeing John and his band of musical brothers and family and friends playing into the new decade in front of an adoring audience on that stage in Nashville, TN... and, yup, that's just how lucky we all got that night."

TRACK LISTING

Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
Gone Girl
Dandelions
How Lucky (with John Prine)
Pearls

10th anniversary of his fifth full-length and first 2xLP, ‘Wakin on a Pretty Daze’ (2013).

To celebrate this milestone, it has been brought back as a yellow vinyl version of the record.

Where previous albums alternated between gorgeous fingerpicking and heavy guitar workouts, ‘Wakin’ blended the two into dreamy and expansive songs that frequently stretched well out beyond the five-minute mark.

Back then we said: “It’s a record that would have sounded great 30 years ago, sounds great today, and will still sound great 30 years from now.” Ten years down the line, we’re still confident that ‘Wakin’ will deliver the goods – yesterday, today, and in 2043.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Wakin On A Pretty Day
A2. KV Crimes
A3. Was All Talk
B1. Girl Called Alex
B2. Never Run Away
B3. Pure Pain
C1. Too Hard
C2. Shame Chamber
C3. Snowflakes Are Dancing
D1. Air Bud
D2. Goldtone