Recommended If You Like: Wild Nothing, DIIV, Real Estate, New Order, WAVVES, Mac Demarco, Best Coast, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Craft Spells.

Brooklyn bedroom-pop trailblazers Beach Fossils’ new album 'Bunny,' is a triumphant return for one of the 2010s most influential NYC bands. 'Bunny' is a precise blend of the luscious dream-pop atmospheres they notoriously honed on their earliest projects, the post-punk vigor expressed on 'Clash the Truth,' and the warm, sophisticated songwriting of 'Somersault.' Composer Dustin Payseur peppers the album equally with descriptions of the joy of fatherhood and the existential pleasure of smoking cigarettes out of a car window with friends - 'Bunny' features Beach Fossils' most personal lyrics to-date. This is a collection of new favorite tracks for fans of every era of Beach Fossils. Releasing on Payseur and his partner Katie Garcia’s own label, Bayonet Records, 'Bunny' will prove to be the culmination of a decade's worth of growth and experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Big one for those of us still stuck in the early 2010s (aka me and Ryan), jangly indie legends Beach Fossils are back with another rekkid of reverb-soaked bops! It's dreamy, rich and, most importantly, JANGLY! As Limmy says, the sound of the summer!

TRACK LISTING

1. Sleeping On My Own
2. Run To The Moon
3. Don’t Fade Away
4. (Just Like The) Setting Sun
5. Anything Is Anything
6. Dare Me
7. Feel So High
8. Tough Love
9. Seconds
10. Numb
11. Waterfall

Early Band Of Holy Joy existed somewhere on the cut-up side of proto-industrial music, resting between Marc Stewart & Maffia, Sonic Youth, and Current 93, and proponents of a more romantic musical language - Virginia Astley, Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins among them - all artists whose work BPHJ's music sat comfortably alongside across on a stream of low-budget vinyl and cassette compilations after the start of the eighties. A great leap in polish led to a deal with Rough Trade and several early '90s albums which flirted with the mainstream, with BOHJ almost an odder, less obvious cousin to Dexys Midnight Runners. When these releases failed to take off as hoped, lost years followed on smaller labels and self-released projects, until the renewed urgency of the 2016 Brutalism Begins At Home EP and increasingly majestic albums on which saw leader Johny Brown's lyricism enter a new phase. The common thread through BOHJ's four decades of recordings is the foundational warmth and humanity of Brown's words. The band's earliest recordings seemed garnered from street-level observations of neighbourhood people and sights. By the time of near-hit "Tactless", their songs - whatever the underlying impulses may have been - had become immediate enough to overcome the mystery of a line like "Do you remember the swan that was shot in the park?"

Over each of their last three albums - Funambulist We Love You, Neon Primitives and Dreams Take Flight - BOHJ has bettered itself, and may now have reached their apex, Fated Beautiful Mistakes. We live in a time of generally justifiable gloom and awkward uncertainty. So it may appear cavalier to claim this album sounds revelatory in that context, but Band Of Holy Joy's strengths rest largely in Johny Brown and the band's ability to capture a wider societal feeling. One listen to the escapist fantasy of "Our Flighty Season Under The Flighty Sun" and its slightly-haunted ending speaks volumes beyond most of what passes for music in 2023, and it's just one of many perfect moments on this album.

TRACK LISTING

Lighthouse Keeper
New York Romantic
A Citadel Of Crooked Soul
Mersey Ferry On The River Thames
Our Flighty Season Inn The Dirty Sun
Circus Folk
City People
Instagram Moon
The Curve Of The Bay
The Full Bloom Of Roses
Babylon Farewell

Bulldozer is the second EP by Big Black, originally released in 1983. It was their first release to feature an actual band performing, including Pat Byrne from Urge Overkill playing drums on some of the songs in addition to the Roland TR-606 drum machine that provided rhythm tracks on Big Black's early records. On Bulldozer, Big Black's founder and frontman Steve Albini achieved a signature "clanky" sound with his guitar by using metal guitar picks notched with sheet metal clips, creating the effect of two guitar picks at once. The Bulldozer EP was recorded with engineer Iain Burgess and released in December 1983, with the first two hundred copies packaged in a galvanized sheet metal sleeve in homage to Public Image Ltd.'s Metal Box. Many of the EP's lyrics depicted scenarios drawn from Albini's midwest upbringing, such as "Cables", which described the slaughtering of cows at a Montana abattoir, and "Pigeon Kill", about a rural Indiana town that dealt with an overpopulation of pigeons by feeding them poisoned corn. The EP's final song, "Jump the Climb," was recorded by Albini before the addition of his bandmates. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Cables
A2 Pigeon Kill
A3 I'm A Mess
B1 Texas
B2 Seth
B3 Jump The Climb

Following their debut Glastonbury Festival performance, Broadside Hacks in collaboration with British Underground today announce the UK premiere of The Broadside Hack; a new documentary telling the story of the young vanguard of UK artists sharing radical interpretations, proto-feminist narratives and queer histories through the lens of British traditional folk song.

An accompanying live album of the songs performed in the film will also be released in December on LP and digitally.

Having enjoyed its US premiere at SXSW in March, The Broadside Hack is a short music documentary produced by British Underground, created with the aid of a grant from Arts Council England and PRS Foundation. Directed by Crispin Parry and filmed by The Northern Cowboys, It explores the influence of traditional folk songs on a new generation of musicians, filmed just as the UK was emerging from the dark days of the pandemic. The documentary was made in collaboration with music collective Broadside Hacks and features influential artists and groups from the new folk scene, including Rough Trade signees caroline, former Goat Girl bassist Naima Bock, whose acclaimed album Giant Palm was released on Sub Pop earlier this year, Shovel Dance Collective, Thyrsis, Broadside Hacks and Boss Morris. Discovering a fresh vitality in the tunes and new histories in the stories they tell, the film includes conversations, dances and intimate performances filmed at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire between 17th and 19th August 2021.

The live concert and screening of The Broadside Hack arguably marks the close of the first chapter in the story of the UK’s new folk scene; a story in which Broadside Hacks has been central. Initially formed as a folk night, the pandemic forced it to change its shape, morphing into a collective of young, like-minded musicians who met to play folk music in South London.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
A1 Boss Morris - Up The Hill
A2 [Interview] Shovel Dance Collective - ‘A Collective Authoring Of History’
A3 Shovel Dance Collective - The Bold Fisherman / My Husband Has No Courage In Him
A4 [Interview] Thyrsis - ‘Collaboration Across Space And Time’
A5 Thyrsis - Single Sailor
A6 [Interview] Naima Bock (Broadside Hacks) - ‘Retracing Beginnings’
A7 Broadside Hacks - Gently Johnny
Side 2
B1 Shovel Dance Collective - Merrily Kissed The Quaker
B2 [Interview] Shovel Dance Collective - ‘Queering Folk Songs Of The Past’
B3 Thyrsis - Godstow Bridge
B4 [Interview] Naima Bock (Broadside Hacks) - ‘The Broadside Hacks Folk Club’
B5 Broadside Hacks - Rain And Snow
B6 Boss Morris - Young Collins

Lucky For You is Bully’s most close-to-the-bone album yet. It’s an album that’s searing and unmistakably marked by its creator’s experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on—and it’s all soundtracked by Bognanno’s rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that’s impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored.

These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno’s put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them. Work on Lucky For You began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. “Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it,” she explains while discussing their recording process together. “It was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what’s actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant alot to me.” The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date, but that time allowed inspiration to emerge in new ways.

The result is a kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk’s grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for. Lucky For You’s thematic focus zooms in on grief and loss: The record is largely inspired by Bognanno’s dog and best friend Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis. The oceanic first single “Days Move Slow” was written shortly after Mezzi’s passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno’s incisive wit in the face of adversity. “There was nothing I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good.” And then there’s the passionate opening track “All I Do,” which kicks in the door with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety.

"Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it’s still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I’ve moved on from?” In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. “I’m so overly emotional and sensitive, it’s a blessing and a curse” she says with a laugh, but there’s no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it’s the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

TRACK LISTING

1. All I Do
2. Days Move Slow
3. A Wonderful Life
4. Hard To Love
5. Change Your Mind
6. How Will I Know
7. A Love Profound
8. Lose You (feat. Soccer Mommy)
9. Ms. America
10. All This Noise

Originally released in 1996, Come’s third album ‘Near Life Experience’ was the sound of a band heading into new territory, refining their dense mix of hypnotic noise-rock, blues and rock’n’roll song-writing. Lovingly remastered, this new version features three incredible bonus tracks ‘Prize’, ‘Strike’, ‘Hurricane II’ stemming from the same era, additional liner notes and photographs.

After Come's seminal 1994 release ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell’, bassist Sean O'Brien and drummer Arthur Johnson left the band to pursue other careers. Remaining members Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek recorded Near Life Experience with two different rhythm sections: one half of the album was recorded with drummer Mac McNeilly of the Jesus Lizard and Bundy K. Brown of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, the other half recorded with Kevin Coultas and Tara Jane O'Neil of Rodan and The Sonora Pine. Other contributors to the album included Edward Yazijian from Kustomized and Jeff Goddard from Karate, both rock bands hailing from Boston, MA.

The title of the album resulted from "a slip of the tongue, as Zedek states, she "was telling someone [she had] had a 'near life experience,' but meant to say near death experience. Chris [Brokaw] was cracking up at the imagery of that. Thus, the phrase was chosen as the album's title.
"Near-Life Experience is heavier, and at the same time prettier, than Come has ever sounded." CMJ New Music Monthly.

“Come is a re-energized, even more powerful band than they used to be, and Near Life Experience is their most concise and affecting release yet.” All Music.

Zedek and Brokaw might have compensated the loss of band members by recruiting new blood but the reward was huge, ‘Near Life Experience’ is Come’s most cinematic, diverse and accessible album.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
A1 Hurricane
A2 Weak As The Moon
A3 Secret Number
A4 Bitten
A5 Shoot Me First
Side Two
B1 Walk On's
B2 Half Life
B3 Sloe-Eyed
B4 Prize
B5 Strike
B6 Hurricane II

Since 1992, the collective around David Christian has been stoically producing unique noise pop. Comet Gain are Comet Gain, a band in which the Swell Maps and the Undertones shake hands in the Wigan Casino. Admittedly, a skewed picture. But as with every outstanding band, one fails to describe the sound of Comet Gain. You just have to hear it.

When the Corona shit hit the fan in 2020, David Christian, who now lives in the beautiful south of France, had the leisure to dig through the considerable Comet Gain archive and presented the astonished Comet Gain community with new compilations of outtakes, demos, live recordings and simply forgotten and never released hits every Bandcamp Friday. "The Misfit Jukebox" is now a compilation of these compilations, the toppermost of the poppermost from a hitherto unseen or unheard part of the CG universe. First time on LP and CD.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Weekend Dreams (Doble Vida Version)
2. Pinstriped Rebel
3. Never Die
4. When?!
5. My Time Tunnel
6. Herbert Huncke Part 3
7. Only Happy When I'm Sad
8. Even This Could Be Beautiful
9. This Line Has Been Drawn
10. Like A Sparrow
11. Your Just Lonely
12. Post USA
13. Goodbye Part One
14. The Fists In The Pocket (Demo)
15. No Spotlite On Sometimes
16. Skinny Wolves (Demo)
17. Letting Go

Such Ferocious Beauty is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of, well, family. A tangle of sonic textures, Beauty is a rumination on aging, losing parents, facing mortality and creating space for one’s life in the midst of the ruin that comes from merely living. “Mike has never shied away from the darker, harder and sometimes uglier realities of our human condition,” Margo Timmins explains of the band’s singular focus, “nor has he shied from its beauty. Thankfully, with one comes the other.”

Cowboy Junkies are an alternative country and folk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1985 by Alan Anton (bassist), Michael Timmins (songwriter, guitarist), Peter Timmins (drummer) and Margo Timmins (vocalist). The band gained wide recognition with their second studio album, The Trinity Session (1988), recorded in 1987 at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity. Their sound, again using the ambisonic microphone, and their mix of blues, country, folk, rock and jazz earned them both critical attention and a strong fan base.

TRACK LISTING

1. What I Lost
2. Flood
3. Hard To Build. Easy To Break.
4. Circe And Penelope
5. Hell Is Real
6. Shadows 2
7. Knives
8. Mike Tyson (Here It Comes)
9. Throw A Match
10. Blue Skies

The first in a series of archival releases from Cranes, the band’s John Peel Sessions are collected for the first time.

Formed in mid-1980’s Portsmouth by the brother & sister duo of Jim Shaw (drummer, keyboardist, guitarist, programmer) & Alison Shaw (vocalist, guitarist, bassist), Cranes first appeared in 1986 with Fuse, a self-released & now highly sought-after cassette of demos.

Their debut album ‘Self-Non-Self’ followed in 1989, catching the attention of legendary DJ John Peel, who invited them to record two sessions for his show in 1989 & 1990, the second seeing Mark Francombe (guitarist, keyboardist, bassist) & Matt Cope (guitarist) join ranks to form the line-up who would go on to record multiple albums for Dedicated including the much-loved album, ‘Forever’, which enjoys it’s 30th anniversary this year.

Cranes are releasing John Peel Sessions (1989-1990) on their own Dadaphonic label. The first in a series of archival releases, this compilation features original artwork by fêted 4AD & v23 sleeve designer Chris Bigg (Pixies, Cocteau Twins, The Breeders).

John Peel Sessions (1989-1990) will be available on black vinyl and as a highly-limited Dinked Archive Edition pressed on silver vinyl with an exclusive 12”x12” print of alternate artwork and Obi Strip.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
E.G. Shining
Focus Breathe
Starblood
Til Tomorrow
Side B
Da Da 331
Give
Inescapable

Super cool one-off collector’s pressing in a fold out paper sleeve and specially silk-screened ‘Punk 45’ outer sleeve.

Exact reproduction of this excellent two-sider (double B-side) ‘The Only Sound’ / ‘New Musical Express’, the debut punk single by Dansette Damage from Birmingham, originally released on the tiny Shoestring Records in early 1978.

The tracks were produced incognito by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. “Robert put all needles in the red which is why it sounds so raw! Also, we couldn’t sing and you can hear Robert’s high falsetto at the top end, trying to keep us lot in tune!” said the band.

Original copies of this record sell for over £100, so here is a chance to see and hear what all the fuss is about.

Dansette Damage’s ‘NME’ features on Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess’.

TRACK LISTING

The Only Sound
New Musical Express

The Medway Sound comes to Precious with Kent’s finest, The Dentists. Released here for the first time ever, this is the band's one and only Radio 1 session, recorded in the spring of 1987 for Janice Long. It features their legendary cover of ‘Both Sides Now’, and two tracks that ended up on their Writhing On The Shagpile EP released in the summer. The final song, ‘Heaven’, was unreleased until it was re-recorded for 1993's Powdered Lobster Fiasco. Package includes sleeve notes from Bob Collins and a set of five postcards with rare pics – plus free download codes. Strictly limited to 300 copies.

TRACK LISTING

Both Sides Now
(We Thought We'd Got To) Heaven
Just Like Olver Reed
A Strange Way To Go About Things

McKinley Dixon calls the late Toni Morrison the greatest rapper of all time; and the way he tackles topics like survival, violence, and religion within the expansive landscape of the Black experience, evokes her novels. It is from the title of Morrison‘s Beloved trilogy where he finds the title of his new album with City Slang Records out June 2: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Musically his household was defined by “artists whose first name was Mary,” including Mary J. Blige and gospel duo Mary Mary. Discovering Outkast was formative for Dixon, deepening his love for hip-hop while he also grew curious about the more theatrical rock of groups of the day, bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco that his Maryland friends introduced him to.

“Those groups also helped me with my sense of longing, since their music reflected a sense of longing,” he says. Eventually he channeled these competing influences into a debut EP he released in 2013. With time, his music became his primary means of self-expression, whether discussing Blackness or his own relationship with healing. Across his next releases, his style evolved and his confidence grew, especially when it came to live instrumentation.

His 2021 debut album For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her was a game changer, as Dixon set his sights on heartache and grief. “I was making these really dense and chaotic songs, stuffing whatever thought I had into five and a half minutes,” Dixon says of that project. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?! is an attempt at channeling different impulses. Sometimes rough and other times delicate, this record is a journey into is a journey into the psyche of McKinley Dixon, with all of the of the attendant peaks and valleys.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hanif Reads Toni (Feat. Hanif)
2. Sun, I Rise (feat. Angélica Garcia)
3. Mezzanine Tippin' (Feat. Teller Bank$, Alfred.)
4. Run, Run, Run
5. Live! From The Kitchen Table (Feat. Ghais Guevara)
6. Tyler, Forever
7. Dedicated To Tar Feather (Feat. Anjimile)
8. The Story So Far (Interlude)
9. The Story So Far (Feat. Seline Haze)
10. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? (Feat. Ms. Jaylin Brown)

Musician, writer and Renaissance man Baxter Dury returns with a brand new album, 'I Thought I Was Better Than You,' his seventh studio album.

I Thought I Was Better Than You marks a new era for Baxter, and with this new era comes a new character. “Faux-confrontational,” Baxter calls him. Here, not only is he recounting his childhood, but he’s also reckoning with it. Instead of just swinging at his past blindfolded with a baseball bat, he talks openly about the toxic cocktail of being born into unfortunately fortunate circumstances, with a persuasive surname but no structure or sense of responsibility with which reap the rewards of it. “Really, it’s about being trapped in an awkward place between something you’re actually quite good at, and somebody else’s success.” That ‘somebody else’ being his dad, Ian Dury. As one of the album centrepieces – Shadow – agonisingly puts it: “But no one will get over that you’re someone’s son/Even though you want to be like Frank Ocean/But you don’t sound like him, you sound just like Ian.”

The record also serves as a kind of extension to Baxter’s 2021 book, Chaise Lounge, in which he winningly recounted the story of his unique childhood. Not only does he expand the language of the book, using words to paint disconnected images rather than to string sentences (a kind of cockney hieroglyphics), but he often revisits moments within the book. Characters like ‘Tricksy’ re-appear in ‘Aylesbury Boy’ and ‘Pale White Nissan’, for example, but mainly it’s the abstracted tales of a young Baxter, troubled and in trouble, a victim of circumstance, straddling between a world of ‘Fuck you Leon…/ You stole the sunglasses and I got busted’ and a desire for ‘Porridge in the morning and be normal’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Baxter Dury, and 'I Thought I Was Better Than You' is a perfect illustration of the off-kilter slam poetry vocals / hazy swimming electronica combo that Dury does so well. Brilliantly inventive and constantly moving forwards, Dury is at the peak of his creativity.

TRACK LISTING

1 So Much Money
2 Aylesbury Boy
3 Celebrate Me
4 Leon
5 Crashes
6 Sincere
7 Pale White Nissan
8 Shadow
9 Crowded Rooms
10 Glows

‘Lost in the Sunshine is about a lazy, hazy, hot, romantic, perfectly sunny day with the one you love’ - Sophie Ellis-Bextor

TRACK LISTING

1. A Thousand Orchids
2. Breaking The Circle
3. Until The Wheels Fall Off
4. Everything Is Sweet
5. Lost In The Sunshine
6. Tokyo
7. Beyond The Universe
8. He's A Dreamer
9. Reflections
10. Hearing In Colour
11. Broken Toy
12. We've Been Watching You

Having first joined forces in 2021 for the simultaneously sleazy and sweet ‘Dance Par Amour’ – a typically analogue-rich chunk of electronic disco wonkiness with nods to both dub disco and leftfield early ‘80s synth-pop – The Emperor Machine and Severine Mouletin have returned to Leng with a similarly inspired sequel.

By now, you should all know the work of Andy Meecham as The Emperor Machine; since first utilising the pseudonym two decades ago, Meecham has delivered a swathe of acclaimed albums and singles for D.C Recordings, Southern Fried Records, Internasjonal, Vertical Tones and Skint. Since first appearing on Leng last year, Meecham has focused on collaborating with vocalists – something he often shied away from when it came to Emperor Machine material.

‘Your Own Style’, which does a terrific job in showcasing rising star Mouletin’s intriguing lyrics and tender but confident vocals, is another strong Emperor Machine release. Showcasing many of the stylistic ticks that have long marked out his work (not just as a solo producer, but also as part of Chicken Lips), it once again boasts a suite of alternative versions – as well as additional guitar trickery from legendary A Certain Ratio musician Martin Moscrop.

The EP is led by Meecham’s ‘Alt Mix’, where Mouletin’s distinctive vocals, warming electric piano motifs and wild, proto-house style vintage synth sounds ride a hand-percussion rich groove marked out by a typically addictive, ear-catching electronic bassline. With Meecham reaching for the tape echo and delay (an aural hallmark of his productions and reflective of his love of dubbed-out electronic disco), the track is a sparse, mind-altering chunk of new wave-informed mid-tempo electronic disco.

It comes backed by two distinctive dubs in Meecham’s trademark style. There’s a ‘Dub Vocal’ mix in which selected snippets of Mouletin’s bi-lingual vocal rise and fall around a subtly tougher, spaced-out take on Meecham’s musical arrangement smothered in effects, and a ‘Fun Dub’ that’s altogether sweeter, more playful, informed by electro (one of Meecham’s earliest musical loves) and high on additional percussion, warming Rhodes riffs and Chicken Lips-esque synthesiser flourishes.

Those who buy the digital edition of the EP also get two more mixes: Meecham’s original ‘Extended Vocal’ and ‘Extended Instrumental’ takes. Slightly warmer and hazier than the EP-leading ‘Alt Mix’ and boasting a more obvious electro shuffle, these two takes are every bit as alluring and ear-catching as those showcased on the vinyl version

TRACK LISTING

A1. Your Own Style (alternate Mix)
B1. Your Own Style (dub Vocal)
B2. Your Own Style (Fun Dub) 

But Here We Are is the new album from Foo Fighters, and marks the bands return after a year of staggering losses, personal introspection and bittersweet remembrances. A brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Foo Fighters have endured recently, But Here We Are is a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship and family. Courageous, damaged and unflinchingly authentic, the album opens with “Rescued,” the first of 10 songs that run the emotional gamut from rage and sorrow to serenity and acceptance, and myriad points in between.

But Here We Are is in nearly equal measure the 11th Foo Fighters album and the first chapter of the band’s new life. Sonically channeling the naivete of Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut, informed by decades of maturity and depth, But Here We Are is the sound of brothers finding refuge in the music that brought them together in the first place 28 years ago, a process that was as therapeutic as it was about a continuation of life.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I was a pretty big Foo Fighters fan back in the day, and their first few albums still get a good playing nowadays, but i've not heard anything for a little while that's pulled me back in. With all of the smooth rock groove of 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose' and the quiet / loud snarl of 'The Colour And The Shape', 'But Here We Are' is a clear return for one of the greatest rock acts of the 00's.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rescued
2. Under You
3. Hearing Voices
4. But Here We Are
5. The Glass
6. Nothing At All
7. Show Me How
8. Beyond Me
9. The Teacher
10. Rest

'Council Skies' is the highly anticipated fourth studio album from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. This 10 track album includes the new singles 'Pretty Boy' and 'Easy Now'.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's no arguing that while the Gallagher popularity preference has shifted a little more recently towards Liam, it was older brother Noel's post-Oasis work that was the most refined, with the High Flying Birds hitting the perfect balance of melody and thoughtful songwriting. 'Council Skies' is the perfect illustration of Noel's sound, beautifully produced and nicely presented INCLUDING bonus 7".

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting
Side 1
1. I'm Not Giving Up Tonight
2. Pretty Boy
3. Dead To The World
4. Open The Door, See What You Find
5. Trying To Find A World That's Been And Gone Pt. 1

Side 2
1. Easy Now
2. Council Skies
3. There She Blows!
4. Love Is A Rich Man
5. Think Of A Number

Bonus 7”
1. We're Gonna Get There In The End
2. Pretty Boy (Acoustic)

CD Tracklisting
1. I'm Not Giving Up Tonight
2. Pretty Boy
3. Dead To The World
4. Open The Door, See What You Find
5. Trying To Find A World That's Been And Gone Pt. 1
6. Easy Now
7. Council Skies
8. There She Blows!
9. Love Is A Rich Man
10. Think Of A Number
11. We're Gonna Get There In The End

Deluxe CD + Extra Disc Tracklisting
Disc 1
1. I'm Not Giving Up Tonight
2. Pretty Boy
3. Dead To The World
4. Open The Door, See What You Find
5. Trying To Find A World That's Been And Gone Pt. 1
6. Easy Now
7. Council Skies
8. There She Blows!
9. Love Is A Rich Man
10. Think Of A Number

Disc 2
1. Don't Stop...
2. We're Gonna Get There In The End
3. Mind Games
4. Pretty Boy (Instrumental)
5. Dead To The World (Instrumental)
6. Council Skies (Instrumental)
7. Think Of A Number (Instrumental)
8. I'm Not Giving Up Tonight (David Holmes Remix)
9. Think Of A Number (Pet Shop Boys Magic Eye 12" Remix)
10. Pretty Boy (Robert Smith Remix)
11. Council Skies (The Reflex Revision)
12. Flying On The Ground (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21)
13. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21)
14. Live Forever (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21) 

‘One sick party record bursting with overdriven guitars, triumphant trumpet lines, and battling drum assaults that seem to break through walls with the barrelling force of a thousand Kool-Aid men’ Pitchfork 8.7 BNM

The Go! Team burst onto the scene back in 2004 with their debut album “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” putting the disco in discordant & red limiting all the levels. They scored Pitchfork Best New Music, a Mercury music prize nomination and, from a small bedroom concern in Brighton, UK, emerged to take on the world, lighting up stages on every continent.

Nineteen years later The Go! Team, led by main man Ian Parton and MC Ninja, are still releasing brilliant, ever more eclectic albums (see this year’s Get Up Sequences Part 2).

TRACK LISTING

1. Panther Dash
2. Ladyflash
3. Feelgood By Numbers
4. The Power Is On
5. Get It Together
6. We Just Won't Be Defeated
7. Junior Kickstart
8. Air Raid GTR
9. Bottle Rocket
10. Friendship Update
11. Hold Yr Terror Close
12. Huddle Formation
13. Everyone's A V.I.P. To Someone 

Wide Open Light Is a family of songs I’ve written. I’ve selected them with the care one might put into a personal photo album. To that effect, I’d call it a sonic family photo album, each track a close relative to the next. The story behind this record is simple. I have been writing songs now for over 30 years. It’s what I long to do, love to do, and at times feel I need to do, and hope to continue doing until the ink runs dry and the notes fade. But for now, Wide Open Light. Deliberately minimalist, the songs themselves do as much of the heavy lifting as the production. (produced by myself, and my longtime collaborators Danny Kalb and Jason Mozersky) Featured guests on the album include: Jack Johnson guitar, vocals on ‘Gone For Good’ Shelby Lynne vocals on ‘8 Minutes’ Piers Faccini vocals on ‘Wide Open Light’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart And Crown
2. Giving Ghosts
3. Masterpiece
4. 8 Minutes
5. Yard Sale
6. Trying Not To Fall In Love With You
7. Wide Open Light
8. One More Change
9. Growing Growing Gone
10. Love After Love
11. Thank You Pat Brayer

Thirty years after they started kicking out the jams, indie legends Helen Love make their debut on Precious with a session that has legendary status with fans – and with listeners of Steve Lamacq’s much-loved Evening Session.

Yes indeedy, pop pickers, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of its initial broadcast, this is the session featuring none other than Joey Ramone on the phone and a never-to-be-forgotten (and never-before-released) cover of The Clash’s ‘Tommy Gun’ that morphs into a jingle for Lammo.

Then we get three Helen Love classics, great photos from Alison Wonderland and a set of postcards (and Joey shows up here as well – more than once) Free downloads with the vinyl – and get a move on, because there are only 300 copies.

TRACK LISTING

Tommy Gun
Does Your Heart Go Boom
Shifty Disco Girl
MC5

These days everyone loves The Fall, but rarely has a band's rise to cult status been quite as lengthy, unpredictable and unprecedented as that of those lovable Mancunian misfits who went through more line-up comings and goings than anyone sane would bother to count. Martin Bramah, The Fall's singer until Mark E Smith's lesser guitar skills caused them to swap places, was, per Daryl Easlea, "possibly the last true equal to Smith in the group" and likewise the longest survivor of the original line-up. Yet while The Fall was later famous for their legendary productivity, Bramah often went great spans of time between releases, releasing fewer albums in thirty-five years (under any guise) than he has in the last seven with Blue Orchids - who already have a fantastic new album in the can. What caused HOUSE Of ALL to come together is something of a mystery. Bramah has joined forces with four other mighty Fall alumni: Steve Hanley, The Fall's longest-serving bassist, as well as his brother Paul Hanley, who drummed on what may be the best run of Fall records, from "Grotesque" to "Bend Sinister". The three have also played together as Factory Star, for a brief period. Joining them are two surprise members - drummer Simon Wolstencroft, who joined the Fall around the time Paul left, and more surprisingly, guitarist Pete Greenway, The Fall's longserving and final guitarist who has, to our knowledge, never played with the other four before. And the album? Recorded in a burst of intense creativity, we won't tempt to propagandise you, the album speaks or itself, but it wouldn't be a false boast to say that it stands with much of the best Fall or Blue Orchids music, displaying an energy and psychic impulse all its own, each member playing as sharply and with as much drive as ever, around manic motorik grooves and a shocking lack of 'compromise'. It's an album of depth which demands multiple visits to uncover its many dimensions, yet it still satisfies upon first listen. The album will be supported by a week-long tour in late May, with more surprises to come. "[Bramah]'s lyrics are brilliant - some of his best ever. It stands up against the Fall at their very best. It's unimaginable, A Fall Album Without MES." - Ged Babey, Louder Than War. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: There is certainly some echoes of the jagged groove of The Fall here, but House Of All is more of a modern take on Smith's golden era band. It's both wonderfully reminiscent while being entirely a thing all of it's own. A bunch of very talented musicians showing their best side.

TRACK LISTING

Aynebite 
But Wilful I Am
Dominus Ruinea
Harlequin Duke
Magic Sound
Minerva Disrobed
There's More
Turning Of The Years

Who is Jim?

A kaleidoscope of harmony vocals - as Crosby, Stills and Nash might have sounded with a funky back beat. Delicate acoustic fingerpicking, warmed by a swell of brass before a drama of electric unfolds. Guitar band music, delivered with the sensibilities of someone who knows how to make you dance. Sun-kissed blue-eyed soul, reminiscent of Ned Doheny, but emanating from a beach far from California.

These are the sounds of Jim, as heard on debut album 'Love Makes Magic'.

Debuting in 2021 on the folk-informed 'Falling That You Know' EP, Jim is the latest alias of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and renowned DJ Jim Baron. Famed as co-founder and musical director of festival-stunning favourites Crazy P, his latest Jim project is a musical journey unlike anything he has done before. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Jim! Love this so much!

Andy says: What a brilliant LP. Beautiful melodies and grooves proliferate on a journey through space and time. From the Laurel Canyon to Levenshulme via, of course, Ibiza, the clue is in the title and this is gonna be the sound of the summer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Across The Street
2. A Life Inbetween
3. Where The Leaves Are Falling
4. Oxygen
5. Still River Flows
6. The Ballad Of San Marino
7. Phoenix
8. Sea Of Unbelonging
9. Then We Do It Again
10. Love Make Magic 

In March 2020, Jack reached out to Lee “Scratch" Perry to produce a dub remix album based on Jack’s most loved recordings. On 8/29/21 the project was brought to a halt as Scratch departed this physical world. In ‘22 Jack and Subatomic Sound System, Perry’s band of the last decade, connected directly and discovered they had all the pieces to bring Lee “Scratch” Perry’s 3 creations to completion. The LP also features dubs from Dennis Bovell, Scientist, Mad Professor, Nightmares on Wax & more.

Over the years Sharron Kraus’ musical career has pulled her in many directions and seen her collaborate with artists, poets, writers and researchers, creating soundtracks, podcasts, musical accompaniments and responses. She is an intuitive improviser, a compelling performer and a weaver of musical spells. The spine supporting this body of work is songwriting, though, and it is to this most natural combination of words and music that she always returns. If prose writing is a tool for analysis and working out what we think, because of the emotional dimension music introduces, songwriting is a tool for working out how we feel. KIN, her newest album, is a collection of songs written during and partly in response to the pandemic and the relative isolation it plunged us into. Kraus dives into deep explorations of themes of kinship with other humans as well as the natural world, and of what happens when those kinship bonds are severed or abused. Sonically the album is on a continuum with her previous solo album, Joy’s Reflection is Sorrow, with its layered synths and recorders, and sits somewhere in the space between Jane Weaver’s electronica and the psych/folk of bands like The Left Outsides, Modern Studies.

This self-produced fifth studio album follows 2020’s Mercury nominated Spook the Herd. Its nine songs are existential meditations examining life’s possibilities, facing the hand we’ve been dealt and the question of whether we can change our individual and collective destinies.

Singer and songwriter Hazel Wilde has no doubt that motherhood fundamentally shifted her perspective. “Writing songs requires a certain level of self-indulgence, and songwriters can be prone to dwelling on themselves,” she says. “Motherhood made me aware at having a different stake in the world. I’ve got to believe that there’s a better way and an alternative future to the one we’ve been hurtling towards. I’ve also got to believe that I could be better as a person, too.”

Mixed by the band’s guitarist Paul Gregory, in the bedroom of his home in North Shields, there is a sense of time and place that runs deep throughout this record. Given some of its themes, a biting irony is found in an entire previous version of the record being discarded. Mental health struggles and personal problems in the band had a big impact on how the initial version took shape. “Despite trying everything we could to make it work we reached the point where we just had to stop” Wilde explains. Drummer Ol Ketteringham parted ways with the band, something Wilde says was “heartbreakingly difficult as we were and still are extremely close”.

The band scrapped nearly a year’s worth of work, regressing to song demos with just Wilde performing with a single instrument as they began again with Radiohead’s Philip Selway joining the album sessions on drums. “Philip brought an energy to the songs that reignited our belief in them,” says Wilde. “Within a few weeks we had a whole other version of the album and things felt very different,” Wilde continues. “We had changed the destiny of the record.”

It’s a heartening idea. Despite the difficulties in its genesis, Versions of Us is the most empowering album yet from the band. In exploring whether we can change fate or are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in life, this powerful collection of songs ultimately alights on hope. 

TRACK LISTING

1 The Likes Of Us
2 Real Life
3 Vatican
4 String Theory
5 Thumb Of War
6 The Saboteur
7 Locust
8 Rich Girls
9 Last Transmission

Since we've known him, Robert Lloyd has made quite clear his enormous affection for the songs and sounds of Freakwater, the duo of Janet Beveridge-Bean and Catherine Irwin who've been wrongly denied their place as rightful and willful progenitors of alt-country's 'movement', which (frankly) is to their credit. Their genius in offering absolute authentic to the sound old-time Appalachian folk music with a modern façade that in no way negates tradition (one of their albums is titled Feels Like The Third Time) is unparalleled within the genre, and Freakwater remain under-appreciated.

After the start of Covid, Robert dared approach Janet with the idea of recording together. Over the course of the long pandemic, songs were bandied about for months, and when recording was finally practical, a band was assembled with dates set up for a recording session in Valencia, Spain. Robert and Janet were joined by Robert's long-time ally, Pete Byrchmore, the musical foil for Robert's solo album on Virgin and a former Nightingale, Mark Bedford, the bassist for Madness and Terry Edwards' Near Jazz Experience, and Pablo Roda, Spanish mystery drummer, couldn't have worked out more perfectly. Tracks were selected without regard for collective presentation, just the goal of walking out of the studio with an album of perfect gems. Forget Lee & Nancy or George & Tammy, Rob and Janet have an immediate chemistry that only sounds long-lived - and too uniquely them to merit any comparison.

The title track, Black Cat, Dark Horse is the sole Lloyd / Bean / Byrchmore composition and one of the record 's highlights. Jim Elkington, collaborator with Jeff Tweedy and Richard Thompson, contributes Heavy Reckonings and a song written with Janet, The True Lovers' Knot And The Lie, while Robert adds reworkings from past releases - Sweet Georgia Black and Black Country (with Pete) - not to mention the unreleased Eggs And Bacon. Janet brought One Shot and the unheard Freakwater song Arc Of A Smile. Covers of tunes from Dion and The Monkees and a magnificent Jon Langford song, "Tears Like Stars" round out the album. We daresay the album is among the finest you'll hear in 2023. That it doesn't fit perfectly into any preconceived genre is a testament to its quality. "Songcraft" is a word used infrequently today, yet Black Cat, Dark Horse will show that good songs endure. We're proud that Robert and Janet will find some new admirers through this album's release. The Michael Cumming / Stewart Lee film King Rocker made a case for Robert Lloyd-as-losthero; this album furthers that idea and shows a compelling side of Janet's talent and abilities which will be a surprise to her fans and serve as an entry point to exploring her many other compelling projects. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Cat, Dark Horse
2. Heavy Reckonings
3. Wake Up Baby
4. Sweet Georgia Black
5. Eggs And Bacon
6. Arc Of A Smile
7. Take A Giant Step
8. The True Lovers' Knot And The Lie
9. Tears Like Stars
10. One Shot
11. Black Country

Like a dream foggily remembered, Loopsel’s ‘Öga for Öga’ is tempting in its beauty yet slightly menacing in its depth. These songs, like paths in the forest, are heavily, almost treacherously, reverberated, with fingerplucked guitars acting as your signposts amongst the flora and fauna of field recordings, pads and the cool, calm voice of Elin Engström. The album is the second from Engström as Loopsel. She is a Gothenburg-based musician and one half of both the group Monokultur and the team behind the tiny Mamma’s Mystersika Jukebox label with her partner JJULIUS. During what seemed like the nadir of the pandemic, the blurry, otherworldly sounds emanating from their living room snaked into the office of New York’s DFA Records, where the otherwise dutifully DIY pair found the scale of worldwide release and distribution.

TRACK LISTING

1. Poison Tree
2. Öga For Öga
3. Skammen
4. Sorgen
5. I En Skog
6. Time Machine
7. Det Vi Inte Får
8. Spit Three Times
9. Tiden

Lost Under Heaven is the creative collaboration between Dutch Artist Ebony Hoorn & Ellery James Roberts, a poet songwriter and former front man of the infamous WU LYF. Described as “Fearless, Life-Affirming & without Compromise” the project fuses spirit-stirring songwriting, cinematic production and visceral storytelling to explore the evolutionary journey of soul making.

Across two boldly maximalist albums – the Mute-released Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing and follow-up Love Hates What You Become – Hoorn/Roberts partnership has seen them work with Grammy winning producer’s John Congleton (Angel Olson, St Vincent) and the Haxan Cloak (Bjork, Father John Misty, Midsommar Soundtrack) whilst pushing at the cathartic precipice of their own emotions.

Back with their prescient third album, Something Is Announced By Your Life! , this time on their own independent imprint LUH*international, the couple’s drive is still unrelenting; their sonic world is a phantasmagoria of triumphant crescendos, soaring strings and anthemic vocals that call out to the heavens. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: New one from ex-WU LYF frontman Ellery James Roberts and Ebony Hoorn, 'Something Is Announced By Your Life!' is the spiritual tonic we need right now. Full of anthemic and grand orchestral vistas, Lost Under Heaven's life-affirming and cinematic scope also delves into desert-psych (Dark Days) and rousing post-rock (Get Spooky) - essential listening!!!

TRACK LISTING

1. I Surrender
2. Shadowboxing
3. Dark Days
4. Winters Truth
5. The Return
6. Lullaby For A New Earth
7. Towards The One
8. Keepers Of The Flame
9. Get Spooky

A groundbreaking music history book from BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson, which fundamentally changes the way we think about classical music and the musicians who made it on a global scale.

In a world undergoing rapid transformation, twentieth century classical musicians brought forth a truly paradigm-shifting aural catalogue of human existence. Yet when we reflect on the genre’s history its central figures seem to share three characteristics: they were white, male and western. Sound Within Sound is the impassioned and exhilarating story of the composers who dared to challenge the conventional world of classical music in the twentieth century. Kate Molleson tells the stories of ten figures from across the globe who altered the course of musical history, only to be sidelined during an era that systemically favoured certain sounds – and people – over others.

A celebration of radical creativity rooted in ideas of protest, gender, race, ecology and resistance, Sound Within Sound is an energetic reappraisal of twentieth-century classical music that opens up the world far beyond its established centres, challenges stereotypical portrayals of the genre and shatters its traditional canon.

Opus Kink were formed in Brighton, England in 2018. Their blend of punk, jazz, sickly folk and rough country music is a unique prospect in the current musical landscape; their brass-led, darkly charged repertoire has garnered a growing cult reputation in Britain and overseas, largely due to a penchant for hectic, unpredictable live shows full of experimentation and grim theatre.

A slew of lauded singles and an extended play in their formative period has laid the foundation for their latest EP, ‘My Eyes, Brother!’, which sees the group exploring yet harsher and more multi-faceted ground.

Available to independent retailers on 12” vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Chains
Dust
Children
Tin Of Piss
Malarky
Piping Angels
1 : 18

Featuring over 50 song lyrics alongside never-beforeseen insights from Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold, Wading in Waist-High Water is an intimate look into-and resounding celebration of-musical craftsmanship and care.

“There is something quite moving about seeing the lyrics of these fifty-six songs collected and assembled this way. You can see the evolution of the minds and hearts at work behind the lyrics. . . . It’s a thrill, realizing that it’s a still-evolving and growing body of work.” —Brandon Taylor, from the Introduction

Since the release of their breakout debut in 2008, Fleet Foxes and their frontman, singer-songwriter Robin Pecknold, have enjoyed international critical and commercial acclaim. Drawing comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel; Crosby, Stills & Nash; and the music of Brian Wilson, Grammy-nominated Fleet Foxes have reshaped the American indie-folk sound, crafting songs that are acoustically and melodically driven, steeped in gospel-like harmonies, and propelled by resonant and timeless lyrics.

Wading in Waist-High Water: The Lyrics of Fleet Foxes contains Robin Pecknold’s complete lyrics from 56 songs, capturing the poetic and inventive storytelling that is a hallmark of the band’s music. These richly layered lyrics explore the complexity, darkness, and beauty of physical and emotional landscapes, both pastoral and modern. Alongside the lyrics, Pecknold includes hand-written notes and candid observations on creative processes, inspirations, and motivations.

With an introduction by celebrated author Brandon Taylor, Wading in Waist- High Water: The Lyrics of Fleet Foxes is a moving and intimate look at the art of songwriting, the joy of music-making, and what it means to produce meaningful and memorable sound.

Inspired by the rawness and honesty of artists like Elliott Smith, Julien Baker, Adrianne Lenker & Sufjan Stevens, Callum Pitt imbues his indie-folk with grand, orchestral, chamber pop sensibility plus an alt-rock edge. Despite using music often as a canvas to openly discuss depression & anxiety, as well as political unrest, Callum still manages to imprint feelings of optimism and unity, alongside genuine warmth and honesty, throughout his songs.

This debut album In The Balance pinpoints back to one night in 2019, where Pitt was handed an earth-shaking reminder of how much hangs in the balance with each passing second. Minutes after he waved goodbye to his brother and parents as they left his house, a fire engine hit the back edge of their car. They were all unharmed. But if the car was in the engine’s path a fraction of a second later — if Pitt had said one more word at the doorstep — it would have ploughed directly into the drivers’ side.

28-year-old Pitt has been working on his craft for a decade, beginning in the Newcastle pub scene and gradually refining his thoughtful, poetic songwriting voice. He won the Alan Hull Award for songwriters in 2019, and the Fender Player Plus competition in 2021. Meanwhile, he’s studying a masters in Occupational Therapy, and has worked with children, young people and adults with disabilities through various outlets, including therapeutic music work. These are experiences that shaped In The Balance, his first true body of work, giving him a new perspective on the cathartic and unifying power of music.

In The Balance is an astonishing debut album that marks Pitt as an artist with equal parts vision and talent. As he takes it on stage, he hopes to use his music as a vehicle to create space for other up-and-coming songwriters, including booking shows for fellow artists, and emphasising accessibility and inclusivity. “The North East is a really nice music scene. I’ve got a number of peers who are all really supportive and non-competitive. It doesn’t feel cold, it feels like everyone wants each other to succeed,” he says. This same warmth is key to In The Balance; in a chaotic universe, the instances of connection both big and small can feel like miracles.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Feel A God And Devil In This Room
2. Black Holes In The Sky
3. Crow
4. Fraction Of A Second
5. More Than This
6. Mayfly
7. Moths And Butterflies
8. Uncanny Moon
9. The Will Of The River 

Since their 2012 debut, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. The group’s sixth album was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX with producer Jake Aron. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” singer Joe Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.” The “growth” came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother. But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While 'Formal Growth In The Desert' has all of the angular riffs and jagged edges of 2015's superb 'The Agent Intellect', there's a lot more of a nuanced sound on display here. There are moments of relative calm, echoes of country music and gothic choruses scattered around before launching once again into that familiar, scathing fire. Unafraid as ever to push the boundaries but without sacrificing their core sound, classic Protomartyr.

Over the course of two EPs, two singles and a stripped-back live album, Puma Blue has established himself as one of the UK’s most vital new talents, quietly amassing over 50 million streams in the process and selling out shows from London to LA and Paris to Tokyo. Now he’s set to build upon his growing underground acclaim by releasing his long awaited debut album ‘In Praise of Shadows’ on January 29th via Blue Flowers.

‘In Praise of Shadows’ is a delirious dreamland of soulful vocals, D’Angelo-ish guitars and muted electronic beats. Its fourteen tracks are a contemplation on “the balance of light and dark, the painful things you have to heal from or accept, that bring you through to a better place” says the 25-year-old Puma Blue, real name Jacob Allen “It’s about finding light in darkness - and realising that it’s what got me here today.”

Puma Blue’s nocturnal, soul-searching sound was born from a decade in which the 25-year-old was plagued with insomnia, “for literally a decade, I just couldn’t sleep,” says the cult-acclaimed London songwriter/producer. That certainly helps to explain the hazy, late-night “voicemail ballads” of the early EP releases that propelled him to prominence, 2017’s ‘Swum Baby’ and 2018’s ‘Blood Loss’ earning him a reputation as affecting chronicler of unrequited love and inner turmoil.

It’s an intimacy still present across ‘In Praise With Shadows’ but there’s also a new maturity and lucidity to the way in which Allen deals with his demons and celebrates beauty across his debut album, influenced no doubt by his journey over the last two years in which a blossoming romance has finally helped him to sleep whilst a burgeoning career forced the previously bedroom-bound songwriter out into the open, driving him to find new perspectives on loss, love and everything in-between.

The result is an album astonishing in its openness, from bittersweet reflections on past relationships - “I never learnt to cherish her” Jacob laments on ‘Cherish (furs)’ - to pure love-laden soliloquies such as ‘Already Falling’ or ‘Sheets’, one of the albums most personal moments, which borrows a sample from the score of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and repurposes it as a lilting love-song that Allen describes as “like a really personal note that you’d leave in the house to be found when you’ve got to head out early.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Sweet Dreams
2 Cherish (furs)
3 Velvet Leaves
4 Snowflower
5 Already Falling
6 Sheets
7 Olive / Letter To ATL
8 Oil Slick
9 Silk Print
10 Is It Because
11 Opiate
12 Sleeping
13 Bath House
14 Super Soft

Rancid - the legendary Bay Area punk rockers are back with their 10th studio album, Tomorrow Never Comes on Epitaph Records

Emerging from the blue- collar swamps of Berkeley, California, Rancid has now been a living, breathing punk rock band for over a quarter century.

Back in 1991, after the demise of their much beloved and still influential first band, Operation Ivy, founding members Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar) and Matt Freeman (bass, vocals) decided to do the impossible -- start an even better band. Thus, Rancid. Signing with Epitaph Records, the band released their first album, "Rancid," in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Lars Frederiksen (vocals, guitar) joined the band and they went on to release incredible records from "Let's Go." (1994) to their classic - platinum selling "...And Out Come The Wolves." (1995). Drummer Branden Steineckert joined the band in 2003, cementing the line-up that rocks out till this day.

Seeing Rancid live is a life changing experience and steady touring is in the plan for 2023. The band will tour Europe in June and the rest of the world soon after.

Through it all, Rancid has remained fiercely independent, never losing their loyalty to community or each other. Their music confronts political and social issues, while balancing personal tales of love, loss, and heartbreak with attitude. Rancid gives their listeners a community where everyone can belong. By carrying on the traditions and spirit of the original punk rock bands that came before, Rancid has become a legend and inspiration to punk bands that have come after. They are the living embodiment of East Bay punk. And if you don't know all this by now -- you're not playing their music loud enough!

TRACK LISTING

Tomorrow Never Comes
Mud Blood & Gold
Devil In Disguise
New American
Tomorrow Never Comes 
Don't Make Me Do It
It's A Road To Righteousness
Live Forever
Drop Dead Inn
Prisoners Song
Magnificent Rouge
One Way Ticket
Hellbound Train 
Eddie The Butcher
Hear Us Out
When The Smoke Clears

The Royston Club are the Wrexham band tipped by Gigwise as “the new band from Wales most likely to do a Catfish”.

Despite only being active for two years, the young four-piece have already completed two UK headline tours totalling 30 dates, selling around 8,000 tickets in the process. Their early releases have been supported by BBC 6Music (Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins, Tom Robinson), Radio 1, Radio X (X-Posure playlist) and BBC Wales (BBC Wales A-List, Artist of the Week with Huw Stephens including three days of on-air interviews, and Janice Long live session), among others.

The Royston Club are singer and guitarist Tom Faithfull, guitarist Ben Matthias, bassist Dave Tute and drummer Sam Jones.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Deep End
2. Shallow Tragedy
3. Mrs Narcissistic
4. I’m A Liar
5. Mariana
6. 52
7. Cold Sweats
8. Blisters
9. Missed The Boat (Jumped In The Sea)
10. A Tender Curiosity
11. Believe It Or Not
12. Cherophobe

A pivotal record for contemporary times; bright, free, adamant, optimistic. Brain Worms is RVG’s fullest, most pristine album yet.

All throughout Brain Worms, it’s apparent that this is a band in very fine form. Album opener ‘Common Ground’ sets the tone for what’s to come; a shiny, thrilling, punch of an album, with all the beloved RVG hallmarks. Vager’s voice is unfiltered and commanding as ever when delivering her clever, not-quite-ironic lyrics. Here, though, those lyrics feel so much less resigned to yearning, and so much more defiant and joyous.

‘Tambourine’ is the only Covid song Vager wrote when “trying not to write Covid songs”, and it’s a painfully honest portrait of grieving mid-isolation. ‘Brain Worms’ tells the all-too-familiar story of a person falling down the internet rabbit hole and finding comfort in conspiracies. ‘Nothing Really Changes’ is a keys-heavy new wave-ish thing, while closer ‘Tropic of Cancer’ sparkles with Vager’s self-assured new manifesto: I know what I’m like, and I know how I get. If you think I’m strange, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Bloxham, Nolte, and Wallace are flawlessly adept in bringing Vager’s songwriting to life. Recorded in London at Snap Studios with James Trevascus (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, PJ Harvey), all ten tracks surge with lush sounds and clear intentions and the magic of an acoustic guitar once owned by Kate Bush, given to her by Tears for Fears (who, legend has it, wrote ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ on it).

Between the four bandmates lead singer and guitarist Vager, guitarist Reuben Bloxham, drummer Marc Nolte and bassist Isabele Wallace this is the most confident they’ve ever felt in RVG. They’ve moved past their influences, pushed themselves, and tried new things. And they have made a record they can, by all accounts, call their best.

“Brain Worms feels like the antithesis to what a post-pandemic record could easily be. For a band who were already writing music about being reclusive “we were depressed and not going outside on our first two albums” the enforced isolation and time to think gave Vager space to write about anything she wanted. And, it turned out, she was ready to write about acceptance.

“If we could only make one more album, it would be this one,” says Vager.

"Easily one of the most vital bands on the Aussie scene today" Rolling Stone.

“A calling card for outsiders... dynamic and vital post-punk" The Guardian.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hypnotic goth-influenced vocals and soaring melodic guitar lines weave around each-other in a sonic maelstrom reminiscent of Echo & The Bunnymen sharing a stage with Interpol. It's bold and brash, brilliantly played and undeniably huge.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Common Ground
A2 Midnight Sun
A3 It's Not Easy
A4 Tambourine
A5 Brain Worms
Side B
B1 You're The Reason
B2 Squid
B3 Giant Snake
B4 Nothing Really Changes
B5 Tropic Of Cancer

Returning after three years, the husband and wife duo of Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdiceaka. The Saxophones have announced the arrival of their third album, To Be A Cloud, for 2nd June 2023. Out today is the first single to be taken from it, Desert Flower, featuring a video directed by Rainbow Tunnel. "Alison wants me to try therapy, "says Alexi. “She’s a therapist herself, but I’ve never been to one. The idea of going makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like being vulnerable in front of strangers. So, instead of confronting my discomfort, I look for an easier path. It’s never easier and it’s always unsatisfying or destructive. “Desert Flower” is about avoidance and fear impeding personal growth and the deepening of relationships. The album itself was recorded at Phil Elverum’s (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA last autumn.

A former Catholic church where the pair lived during 24/7 recording sessions, time was no object as they experimented and developed the sound of the record. Its magical setting and ample space provided natural acoustics for Alexi’s arresting vocals which were recorded live to 24-track tape, suspending them in an ambiguous historical and chronological context between analogue and digital. Enhanced by Alison’s percussion alongside the bass and keys of Richard Laws, together they made the most of the studio’s many instruments which fill out and bookend their exploration of the billions of years of evolution that have led to this moment in time. "The title was inspired by a passage of Zen monk Thich Nat Hanh’s writing in No Death, No Fear which both calms my own fear and leaves me with doubts, "explains Alexi, of the album channelling its influence of comforting yet disturbing limbo. "He uses clouds as a metaphor to illustrate the impermanence of all things, suggesting clouds are no different from people in their fleeting nature. Suffering arises when we try to preserve a person, a moment, or an experience and fail to recognize that all things are both fleeting and cyclical. Hanh contends the cloud does not die, it simply changes form, and if we look deeply, we can see the cloud in the rain.

"Now, led by Hanh’s pearls of wisdom, The Saxophones offer a further extension of grappling with mortality and the meaning of existence–this time via the second coming of parenthood. Whilst their melancholic debut Songs of the Saxophones was written amid the incessant rain of a northern Californian winter aboard the boat they lived on, and swells of emotion lapped upon buoyant follow-up Eternity Bay, their nocturnal third’s cyclical nature looks at love (fostering and growing familial and romantic feelings that eventually transform and fade with time), art and passing creativity, and self-reflecting as they consider the lifecycle of raising their two young children.

Written in their family home between calm moments once the kids had gone to bed, To Be A Cloud is attuned to the peaceful bay of Inverness, California where Alison’s family has lived for several generations. "It's where we are most at home and creative,” Alexi says. "There, the ocean and nearby beaches are endlessly inspiring. "So integral to the album, Shell Beach in Tomales Bay is also where the artwork photo was taken. "I love Alison’s expression-direct eye contact from the mysterious beauty... like the cover of a Martin Denny album. "Whether bringing the saxophone back into spotlight through instrumental solos and live performances, or delving deeper as they continue to explore the process of nurturing a new record as mindful as they do their own children, every step taken may be further from the start and yet, To Be A Cloud is another note closer to a reawakening of more good things to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Mist
2. Boy Crazy
3. In My Defense
4. Speak For You
5. Savanna
6. Conversation Soon
7. Goddess In Repose
8. Margarita Mix
9. Hunter
10. Desert Flower 

Jake Shears turns his lifelong love affair with club culture into his most ambitious pop music to date with his brand new album, Last Man Dancing. The new album sees the rollerblade his way unapologetically through pop culture. The album was brought to vivid life by Jake Shears and a close crew of collaborators, including head-turning features from Kylie Minogue, Jane Fonda, Amber Martin, and a pre-Renaissance turn from the iconic Big Freedia.

The album launches with the massive single ‘Too Much Music’, which – from its glam rock overture, dramatic strings and irresistible Nile Rodgers groove – announces itself immediately as a definitive Jake Shears anthem. Last Man Dancing is a life affirming record for anyone who has felt lost – out of love, on a night out, or in the modern world – but kept moving anyway.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Too Much Music
A2 Do The Television
A3 Voices (feat. Kylie Minogue)
A4 I Used To Be In Love
A5 Really Big Deal
A6 Last Man Dancing
B1 8 Ball (feat. Le Chev)
B2 Devil Came Down The Dance Floor (feat. Amber Martin)
B3 Mess Of Me
B4 Doses (feat. Big Freedia)
B5 Radio Eyes
B6 Diamonds Don’t Burn

Teenage melancholy from the original Miami Sound Machine. Backed by the infamous FAMU Marching 100 Band and Frank Williams’ crack shot players The Rocketeers, I Am Controlled By Your Love compiles sides from Helene Smith’s ’60s tenure with the Deep City, Lloyd, Reid, and Blue Star labels. A sweltering album of 12 deeply soulful, alternate universe hits from the First Lady of Miami Soul!

TRACK LISTING

1. I Am Controlled By Your Love
2. Sure Thing
3. True Love Don’t Grow On Trees
4. Pain In My Heart
5. Willing And Able
6. Wrong Or Right He’s My Baby
7. You Got To Do Your Share
8. Thrills And Chills
9. What’s In The Lovin’
10. The Pot Can’t Talk About The Kettle
11. Gossip Don’t Worry Me
12. China Melody

California singer / songwriter returns with brighter tones and a more orchestral sound, featuring a large cast of friends and collaborators
Produced by Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods).

“Born of a thousand nights lost in a surrender to stillness and contemplation, In The Air is Anna St. Louis’ second full length album and her most considered work yet.

“It’s an outlook on the world that was formed when her immediate one was small. The intervening years since her last album found St. Louis in a small one-bedroom cabin in the middle of the woods of upstate New York with a new love and time to think of what she wanted to express with her music. For weeks on end, the only trips she took were to and from her job as the front desk clerk at a nearby hotel. The previous years she had spent on tour and performing constantly in the venues of Los Angeles felt like they had occurred in another lifetime.

“St. Louis describes the writing period as one of a slow harvest; a fertile time but one that required a newfound patience. Instead of documenting her first thoughts, she spent more time with each song, going deeper with the themes and ideas she wanted to express.

“This slower approach also guided the sonic textures of the album. Working with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods) in two extended recording sessions in Los Angeles in 2021, St. Louis used the studio in a previously unexplored way, opening up her songs to more experimentation featuring brighter tones and a more orchestral sound to accompany her new perspective. To that end, she was aided by a cast of friends and collaborators including Jess Williamson, Kacey Johansing, Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Vagabon) on strings, Alex Fischel (Spoon) on piano, Josh Adams on drums (Bedouine, Tim Heidecker) and Keven Lareau (Cut Worms, Hand Habits).” — Justin Sullivan.

TRACK LISTING

1. Trace
2. Morning
3. Better Days
4. Sad Eyes
5. Rest
6. Phone
7. Even
8. Patrollers
9. Soft Cities
10. Into The Deep
11. Sea Glass

Sumos debut album "Surfacing" is the follow up to their home-recorded EP 'Weird Summer' in April 2020. Sumos are a scuzz-pop band from Manchester, UK. They began as a bedroom recording project between Joel Sloan (Guitar, Lead Vocals) and Kyle Tarbuck (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals) after a hiatus from playing together in a previous band. They then became a four-piece, adding Kyle's sister Siobhán Tarbuck on Bass and Andy Kilroy on Drums.

The album contains nine catchy songs with jangly guitars and sweet summer harmonies that tend to stick in your mind.

Manchester's Avant-Jazzy-Funk outfit Swamp Children were enviably eclectic and Taste What's Rhythm is their mini masterpiece. Flitting gracefully through a feast of genres with consummate ease, the band were almost indefinable and, accordingly, nigh-on impossible to market. So whilst this cult EP, originally out in 1982 on Factory Benelux, remains in demand for those in the know, it has also glided under the radar of many otherwise clued-up heads for over 40 years. If you don't know, get to know…

Working directly with James Nice, custodian of Factory Benelux, means that the audio for this re-issue of the classic EP comes from the original tapes. Cut at 45 RPM and released in the house Be With disco sleeve, we’ve made sure this record is well up to the job of having a permanent place in every DJ’s bag. As far as we’re concerned, this is essential stuff.

The Taste What's Rhythm EP was originally released in 1982 on Factory Benelux (an informal partnership between the legendary Manchester-based Factory Records and Belgium-based Les Disques du Crépuscule). With it's kaleidoscopic brightness, silky panache and superb execution, it remains one of the most startling documents of a remarkable time and place.

The EP opens with the oh-so-Balearic title track. "Taste What's Rhythm" gently unfolds with a Spanish guitar, hazy, drifting vocals and sun-bleached Latin percussion. After this most sumptuous of intros, the tempo is raised, the rhythms grow in complexity as horns jostle amidst the restrained chaos quite wonderfully. And then it winds down again. Proper fluctuating rhythms and tempos throughout. I guess that was the point - taste the variety!

“You’ve Got Me Beat” is a *perfect* piece of post-punk pop-jazz. A mysterious, after dark jazz-dancer, the aching vocals serve as a touching, tender resignation to love. A guitar hook which seems to elegantly reference The Blackbyrds' "Rock Creek Park" and a flowing pulse from New York's No Wave scene. It still sounds so fresh all the years later.

Closing out this most perfect of EPs, the twisted synths and nimble rhythms of bass-heavy roller "Softly Saying Goodbye" combine to create a super-slinky gem; Brit-Funk of the highest order.

Swamp Children formed in Manchester in 1980, around core members Ann Quigley (vocals), Tony Quigley (bass, metalaphone, percussion), John Kirkham (electric & acoustic guitars, metalaphone, percussion), Ceri Evans (keyboards, bass, percussion, background vocals), Cliff Saffer (saxaphone, clarine) and Martin Moscrop (drums, percussion, trumpet). They initially practised at a rehearsal space shared with fellow post-punk funkers A Certain Ratio and Joy Division/New Order. Young and relatively inexperienced upon getting together, the ages of Swamp Children's members ranged from just 16 to 19. Talk about the brilliance of youth.

From the outset, Swamp Children shared DNA with A Certain Ratio. Martin Moscrop was a founder member of Ratio, while Ann provided artwork for them. Although the close association with ACR led some to assume that Swamp Children were simply a splinter group, the new band pursued a more overt latin and jazz tinged direction, at the same time adopting a post-punk attitude towards making music, influenced by the records they were listening to at the time: Miles Davis, Brazilian jazz fusion and heavy funk dancefloor sides.

The band made their live debut at Manchester's infamous Beach Club in May 1980. Thanks to a double-booking blunder another support band turned up and were turned away, having travelled all the way from Dublin for a string of British dates. The name of the unlucky band was U2...

With arrangements that emphasised Tony Quigley’s darkly-coloured basslines (and Ann Quigley’s impressionistic vocals as another instrument in the mix) Swamp Children possessed an easygoing grace and a bubbling energy which indicated that the band's true strength was as an ensemble. The band’s musical sophistication (a fusion of funk, jazz, and bossa nova) would prove to be a strong influence on later UK acts like Sade. Indeed, Swamp Children themselves later mutated into the more known and acclaimed latin jazz outfit Kalima. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Taste What's Rhythm
B1 You've Got Me Beat
B2 Softly Saying Goodbye

In 2012, Ipecac released the first three Tomahawk albums as part of a limited edition Record Store Day Box Set. Then in 2013, they released the fourth album, Oddfellows. All have been out of print for the past ten years, until now.

Tomahawk is the rock supergroup featuring Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle), Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard), John Stanier (Battles, Helmet) and various bassists including Kevin Rutmanis (Melvins) on the debut album, and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) on Oddfellows.

This is the first time Mit Gas and Anonymous have been available individually outside of the box set.

TRACK LISTING

1. War Song
2. Mescal Rite 1
3. Ghost Dance
4. Red Fox
5. Cradle Song
6. Antelope Ceremony
7. Song Of Victory
8. Omaha Dance
9. Sun Dance
10. Mescal Rite 2
11. Totem
12. Crow Dance
13. Long, Long Weary Day

In 2012, Ipecac released the first three Tomahawk albums as part of a limited edition Record Store Day Box Set. Then in 2013, they released the fourth album, Oddfellows. All have been out of print for the past ten years, until now.

Tomahawk is the rock supergroup featuring Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle), Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard), John Stanier (Battles, Helmet) and various bassists including Kevin Rutmanis (Melvins) on the debut album, and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) on Oddfellows.

This is the first time Mit Gas and Anonymous have been available individually outside of the box set.

TRACK LISTING

1. Birdsong
2. Rape This Day
3. You Can't Win
4. Mayday
5. Rotgut
6. Capt Midnight
7. Desastre Natural
8. When The Stars Begin To Fall
9. Harelip
10. Harlem Clowns
11. Aktion 13fh

RIYL: Wilderness, Ought, Shame, Protomartyr, Gold Class, Dry Cleaning, Fontaines DC, Unwound, Fugazi, Jawbox.

Colin McCann didn’t pick up a guitar for nearly ten years. The Northern-California-based songwriter, previously performing under Long Dog Bird, had been creating music with longtime friend and collaborator Brian Gossman for much of their adult lives with early-00s Baltimore-based band Wilderness. So what would cause such a stagnant period? And how could McCann find his way back to the joy that music had once so easily conjured? The answer was to go back to the very beginning, where the kinetic forces that urged McCann to make music in the first place could emerge once again. But first, he had to make space in his internal world; a kind of silence where he could hear the exhale of his past, and the blossoming of a new song.

That blossoming would soon become the first songs for McCann’s latest project Vulture Feather. The band’s debut album Liminal Fields exists on an intangible plane: a crack in the concrete, a gauze between worlds. For as long as McCann can recall, he’s been using music as a vehicle to try and connect with an underlying, indescribable nature that only the sonic world seems to be able to reach. “There’s a feeling of ecstasy that comes when one merges with music,” he says. “It’s what calls us all back again and again to listen, to sing, and to play.” McCann had been striving to reach this outlying environment throughout his career, often stretching in ways that eventually came to negatively impact his life, and his health.

The wake up call came when McCann suffered a near-death experience, eerily predicted by a friend through a dream she had had almost a year earlier. Newly awoken to the beauty of being alive, McCann strove to slow down, to listen to the inherent nature in all living things, and to rediscover our mutual connectivity. He stopped playing and listening to music, and instead soaked himself in the cacophony of silence. Then without any epiphany or grand catalyst, something urged McCann to pick up a guitar again. Ideas flowed more naturally than ever, and he soon realized that the liminal space he had been searching for was there all along he only had to listen.

McCann tentatively reached out to Gossman to collaborate and the friends found themselves once again jamming together, in an off-grid quonset hut where they now practice. “It was like no time had passed,” McCann says. “That feeling of ecstatic joy, of forgetting your own name, came flooding back.” They were soon joined by another old friend, Eric Fiscus, who completed Vulture Feather on drums.

TRACK LISTING

01. Inseparable
02. Bad Land
03. Bell Of Renewal
04. Your True Face
05. Monument
06. Be Still
07. Illusion Of Time
08. Ballad Of Pelletreau

Closing Time foreshadows the distinctly lyrical storytelling and original blending of jazz, blues, and folk styles that would come to be associated with Waits. It is on this debut album that Waits performs enduring classics of his career “Ol’ 55” (famously covered by the Eagles), the heartbreaking “Martha” and the gentle acoustic folk of “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You”. Reissued for the first time as a double LP to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark debut with newly half speed mastering at Abbey Road Studios.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Ol’ 55
2. I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You
3. Virginia Avenue
SIDE B
1. Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)
2. Midnight Lullaby
3. Martha
SIDE C
1. Rosie
2. Lonely
3. Ice Cream Man
SIDE D
1. Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)
2. Grapefruit
3. Closing Time

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Formed in 1985, the group rose to prominence as part of the so-called C86 scene (a free NME cassette that showcased new bands of the era), with their fast-paced jangle- pop and intelligent lyrics by founder and only band constant David Gedge.The group built on the critical and commercial success of their debut album, George Best, and, in 1992, made headlines with their cunning ruse of issuing a single a month, all of which made the UK Top 40.

Signing to Island Records, the group – at this point Gedge, guitarist PaulDorrington, bassist Darren Belk and drummer Simon Smith – went to Seattle to record with producer/ engineer Steve Fisk, known then for his work with the fabled Sub- Pop label. As a result, Watusi is both razor sharp and slyly commercial, as typified by its singles Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah and It's A Gas. There is much to enjoy beyond – especially the tender confessional Big Rat and the reflective garden party drama Gazebo. Both underline John Peel's comment that Gedge had written "some of the best love songs of the rock'n'roll era."

For lovers of grunge- based indie with generous dashes of melody, Watusi is a must-have.

It is presented with scrupulous attention to the detail of the original UK first pressing and available in audiophile 180gm vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

So Long, Baby
Click Click
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Let Him Have It
Gazebo
Shake It
Spangle
It's A Gas
Swimming Polls, Movie Stars
Big Rat
Catwoman
Hot Pants