An album called 'Roses' would be concerned with romantic gestures. Across the ten tracks that make up the seventh and newest Widowspeak record, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, vaseline-coated lens. Candles burn inside red glass as lovers get close in a leather booth. Celebrity headshots gaze down like angels in a restaurant. Elsewhere, carnations are pressed in a black book and dancers pull each other close. Widowspeak is a band that riffs on big emotions without being too self-serious. The sweetness, even silliness, of an extended limerent phase that becomes as all-consuming as a pulpy trade paperback. Cars and their drivers serve as a way to talk about codependency. If music can simultaneously be naturalistic and noir, saturated and lush, that is Widowspeak. They’re a band that knows how to set a scene.

These songs use intimate moments to talk about deeper heartaches: the restlessness inherent in modern existence, waiting around for something to happen. Or, feeling at odds with playing a role in your own life. 'Roses' might be the most romantic Widowspeak record, but it’s also the most deeply realist: the stage is set not with dramatic overtures but the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. Small observations before, during, and after work: the ritual of pouring water for customers, catching a cold on your day off. Daydreaming about winning the lottery, or maybe realizing you already won. Here, love is a way to talk about what drives us, and Widowspeak suggest it can be the whole point. The light that illuminates the dark corners of a day, a life. A reason to keep going despite the pain it can cause.

Widowspeak are one of the most prolific and hardworking bands going, bubbling just under the surface. Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas are the core of the group and its songwriters, and they have honed their sound across sixteen years and an impressively consistent catalog. One of many bands to crop up in a fertile New York City music scene, they started out shuffling gear between venues now-since shuttered and their practice space in Monster Island Basement. Widowspeak is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Robert is a carpenter, Molly a waitress. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Widowspeak return with another collection of gentle, country-tinged pop songs. Molly's understated vocals evoke the dreamy intimacy of Hope Sandoval, while the melodies and guitar work bring to mind artists such as Tom Petty and R.E.M. There's no grand statement or dramatic flourish, just a set of quietly beautiful songs that reveal their charm with effortless grace.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Hook
2. No Driver
3. Roses
4. If You Change
5. Wondering
6. Angel Number
7. Soft Cover
8. Heaven Is Waiting
9. Actor
10. Hourglass 

'The Suicide Handbook' is Ryan Adams’ most elusive and mythic recordings. The album is a raw and intimate collection of songs that captures the songwriter at his most unguarded. Recorded at the beginning of his solo career and long circulating only through bootlegs, the album has earned a legendary status among die-hard fans and fans of the americana genre alike for its stark stripped-back beauty.

Acoustic arrangements and hushed, late-night vocals, these songs feel like private confessions set to tape. Adams leans into themes of heartbreak, isolation, and emotional vulnerability, delivering recordings that are as fragile as they are compelling. There’s an immediacy here that sets 'The Suicide Handbook' apart from his studio releases. These are the original recordings in their rawest and un-touched form.

Released officially for the first time, experience the record as a cohesive piece, bringing warmth and depth to its lo-fi origins. The analogue format enhances every subtle nuance, from the quiet creak of strings to the tremble in Adams’ voice.

For longtime fans and collectors alike, 'The Suicide Handbook' stands as a haunting, deeply personal snapshot of an artist laying everything bare—an essential addition to the Ryan Adams collection.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Finally, the album every Ryan Adams fan has been clamouring for for a couple decades (and the rest). The Suicide Handbook sees Adams eschewing the upbeat country rock and rousing indie of Heartbreaker for a darker and more elusive, late-nite vibe.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wild Flowers
2. Perfect and True
3. Tell It to My Heart
4. She Wants to Play Hearts
5. Pretenders
6. Famous Eyes
7. Touch, Feel & Lose
8. Firecracker
9. La Cienega Just Smiled
10. For No One
11. You Don’t Know Me
12. Bow to The Sad Lady
13. Off Broadway
14. Cracks in the Photograph
15. I’m Waiting
16. Cry On Demand
17. Miss Sunflower
18. Just Saying Hi
19. California Love
20. Idiots Rule the World
21. Chicago

A stunning mix of Northern Soul, machine-like beats, electroclash, slogans and agitpop, Age of Chance were one of the most exciting groups to emerge during the C86 era. They certainly didn’t sound like anybody else, that’s for sure.

An uncompromising live act, Age of Chance were frantic and frenetic – and they even dallied with the mainstream via their version of Prince’s 'Kiss'. Janglepop this is not.

Now, not before time, their three sessions for BBC Radio 1 are collected by Precious Recordings of London as part of the label’s ongoing series. And for good measure, we’ve included both sides of their first two incredible groundbreaking singles – 'Motorcity' and 'Bible Of The Beats', both unavailable in any form for decades.

“That time was so exciting,” recalls frontman Steve Elvidge. “From the moment Peel played 'Motorcity' the day after he received it, to working up 'Kiss' specially for the second session. We all loved it and danced to it, but we wanted it to have our sound – the guitars, the hip-hop beats. I wished we’d recorded 'How The West Was Won' on the first LP. It’s still one of the best things we’ve done.”

Guitarist Neil Howson described the progression of the BBC recordings, saying: “In the first session we’d focussed on a percussive and rhythmic sound, and into the second, we’d developed a broader scope, added open chords, harmonics and dynamic breaks. That informed 'From Now On', 'This Will Be Your God', which we wrote for C86; we wanted to experiment and try something more extreme than just a pop song.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: This collection of Age of Chance's four Peel Sessions spans just a couple of years, and captures the band's rapid evolution: from the punchy, percussion-heavy rumble of their early recordings to their later electro-infused sound. Naturally their legendary cover of Prince's "Kiss" makes an appearance! The early 1980s was a period when musical boundaries were dissolving: indie kids were listening to hip hop, electro, reggae, soul, and dub and like many of their contemporaries (including Manc favourites bIG flAME), Age of Chance drew these diverse influences into their own distinctive sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mob! Hut!!
2. The Going Going Gone Man
3. Morning After The Sixties
4. I Don't Know And I Don't Care
5. Motorcity
6. Everlasting Yeah!
7. Bible Of The Beats
8. Liquid Jungle
9. Kiss
10. How The West Was Won
11. Be Fast Be Clean Be Cheap
12. From Now On This Will Ne Your God
13. Shut Up And Listen
14. Hold On
15. Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Noise? 

Frankie Archer has exploded onto the electro folk scene with music that transcends stereotypes. Frankie has been featured on ‘Later... With Jools Holland’ and championed by tastemakers at BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. Following the release of her debut EP ‘Never So Red’ (November, 2023), she has supported the likes of The Futureheads and The Last Dinner Party on tour. On 'The Dance Of Death', Archer channels these experiences and reconstructs some of the oldest songs in the English canon with fractured, future-facing production. Working from archival ballads of obsession, devotion and loss, she warps fiddle lines, processes her own vocals and drives the material with pulsing drum machines and colourful synth arrangements.

Co-produced with Guy Massey (Kylie Minogue, Spiritualized, Richard Hawley), the record expands English folk into something immersive and modern. Influenced by the work of Little Dragon, Hannah Peel, Rosalía, Björk and Bat for Lashes, Archer approaches folk as a producer first. Inspired by the medieval Danse Macabre, 'The Dance Of Death' is, in Archer’s words, “a collection of nu-ancient trad bangers” - stark narratives of mortality and longing rebuilt through meticulous studio experimentation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A hugely inventive clash of traditional folk and gothic danse macabre flamboyancy, wrapped in beguiling production and off-kilter rhythmic pacing. A brilliantly mad and uncompromisingly hefty electrifying of classic folksong.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Death And The Maiden
2. The Dance Of Death
3. The Outlandish Knight
4. In Brunton Town
Side B
5. The Unquiet Grave
6. The Demon Lover
7. Young Edwin Of The Lowlands Low
8. Oxford City
9. The Lover’s Ghost

Big Special return with 'O'Joy!', a project that is a compendium of “the fallen parts” of their first two albums. Featuring all three of their recent run of singles (‘SLUGLIFE’, ‘PLAINTIVE NATIVE’, and ‘DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side)’), as well as new offering ‘ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING’ - a downcast but quietly determined cut the Black Country duo have described as “a head-down walking song”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's new Big Special time! Companion piece to 'National Average', O'JOY sees the focused fire of the album broken down and stretched, with darker pieces and unused segments formed into an EP that's both reminiscent of the album but also an extension of it's influences.

TRACK LISTING

1. **
2. Plaintive Native
3. Only Free When Sleeping
4. Lazarus
5. The Wake
6. Family Bones
7. Garden Of Fools
8. Sluglife
9. Dragged Up A Hill (And Thrown Down The Other Side)
10. Hotel

Their debut album, England Made Me, was released on Chrysalis Records in 1998. The album was named after the eponymous Graham Greene novel and fuses indie rock and easy-listening pop stylings with lyrics that explore life and the experience of growing up in England. Pitchfork's Michael Sandlin described the sound of the album as "mildly morose but slightly tongue-in-cheek Sylvia Plath-meets-Paul McCartney pop sensibility". England Made Me remains a high point in the band's catalogue with standout tracks including 'Kidnapping An Heiress', 'Girl Singing In The Wreckage', and the single 'Child Psychology' which was recently back in the spotlight with a viral moment on social media after being championed by Billie Eilish.

This new edition has been curated with the assistance of the band and features a newly remaster version of the album on Clear Vinyl, and 1CD with bonus tracks containing b-sides. All audio has been remastered from the original production tapes by Phil Kinrade at AIR Mastering and cut by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girl Singing In The Wreckage
2. England Made Me
3. New Baby Boom
4. It's Only The End Of The World
5. Ideal Home
6. Child Psychology
7. I.C. One Female
8. Uptown Top Ranking
9. Swinging
10. Kidnapping An Heiress
11. Hated Sunday
12. Brutality
13. Seasons In The Sun
14. Watch The Angel Not The Wire
15. Factory Radio
16. Wonderful Life
17. Lord Lucan Is Missing

Andy Blade pays tribute to The Damned’s Brian James with and EP of songs they co-wrote. The lead track is an instant classic.

“Ain’t That A Shame” channels the bittersweet grandeur of classics like “Ain’t It Fun” by the Dead Boys, “Baby Baby” by The Vibrators, and “You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory” by Johnny Thunders, alongside the melodic ache associated with The Only Ones.

Sometimes you play a song, and it feels like you’ve known it your whole life.
Nearly 50 years after it was first written, 'Ain’t That A Shame' finally emerges as the 24-carat earworm it was always destined to be — a lost punk era classic reborn.

In 1978, during a late-night, alcohol-fuelled studio session, Andy Blade (formerly of Eater), Brian James (founding member of The Damned) and Mark Laff of Generation X came together for an all-star collaboration. The trio recorded two tracks of the four Blade/James songs they had written together - "Lying Again” and “Death Awaits” - showcasing a psychedelic new wave edge driven by James’ unmistakable guitar and Blade’s urgent vocal delivery.
Shortly after the session, the short-lived union dissolved. James would later revisit one of the songs they’d worked on together “Ain’t That A Shame” (originally titled "I’m Not Taking All The Blame” with Blade’s lyrics) - reshaping it for his first solo single before going on to form The Lords of the New Church with Stiv Bators.

For decades, that could have been the end of the story but in 2025 Andy Blade decided to re-record the original version with Billy King (John Mckay’s Reactor) playing Brian’s parts. The result is nothing short of a revelation - an irresistibly catchy song, driven by a nagging, poignant guitar coda and Blade’s characteristically emotive vocal. It is a fitting tribute to the late Brian James, complete with a solo that captures James' distinctive, razor-sharp style. "I am sure Brian would approve. It is my tribute to him”, says Blade.
Timeless in its appeal, “Ain’t That A Shame” feels equally at home in a sweaty club or blasting across a festival field — the kind of anthem that has crowds singing back, arms and phones aloft.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ain’t That A Shame
2. Death Awaits
3. Lying Again

Blueboy continue their extraordinary comeback with the haunting
‘Stardust’, the third in a triumvirate of memorable seven-inch singles
for Precious Recordings of London.

Having announced their unlikely return with ‘One’ and ‘Deux’ and a
sell-out anniversary show at the Water Rats in London for their cult
album ‘Unisex’ (subsequently compiled on a breathtaking live LP),
Blueboy last year released the highly acclaimed digital album ‘A Life
in Numbers’.

Now they return with the spectacular ‘Stardust’, which sees a return
to the shimmering guitars and sweeping vocals that have exemplified
this latter-day incarnation of the legendary Sarah Records artistes.
Backed with an exclusive acoustic version of album track ‘Five
Minutes’, ‘Stardust’ is released in a limited edition of 350.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stardust
2. Five Minutes (Acoustic)

Bon Iver’s debut full-length 'For Emma, Forever Ago' made major waves in critics’ circles based on the strength of an early artist-pressed advance CD and a couple awe-inspiring sets at CMJ back in October 2007. The New York Times called it “irresistible” and Pitchfork stamped its early review of the album with a Recommended tag. For those of you hiding away in a cabin of your own, it’s time that you hear the story, and more importantly, the music. Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for “good winter” and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and establishing the groundwork for a lasting career.

'For Emma, Forever Ago' is the debut of this lineage of songs. As a whole, the record is entirely cohesive throughout and remains centered around a particular aesthetic, prompted by the time and place for which it was recorded. Justin Vernon, the primary force behind Bon Iver, seems to have tested his boundaries to the maximum, and in doing so has managed to break free from any pre-cursing or finished forms. It wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate. Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This solitary time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus. The days slowly evolved into nights filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flume
2. Lump Sum
3. Skinny Love
4. The Wolves (Act I and II)
5. Blindsided
6. Creature Fear
7. Team
8. For Emma
9. Re: Stacks

Multi-instrumentalist Broken Keys brings plenty of laidback Los Angeles cool and sun-baked bliss as he returns to Outer Spaceways ahead of his new album Moving With the Current. 'Do I Have To' is the first single from it and is utterly horizontal, with gentle guitar strums and lazy drums infused with a forlorn, drifting vocal. Beat maker extraordinaire Tall Black Guy brings his Detroit flavour to a dusty, downtempo instrumental with a subtle bass swagger and swirling, cosmic sense of melodic infinity. Gorgeous.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Summery jazz-funk & broken beats with a sound that'll have Gilles Peterson getting a hard-on.

TRACK LISTING

Do I Have To (Album Version)
Do I Have To (Tall Black Guy Remix)

With two extraordinary mini-albums – 'In Spring' (2021) and 'On The Turning Ground' (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, 'Somewhere Good' is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic approaches, Clerkin & co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lake Walk
2. Lazy Daisy 
3. Ups & Downs 
4. Silently 
5. There Was A Nice Sunset 
6. Somewhere Good 
7. Slow Island 
8. Movin’ On

Not fake news; it’s true! Cult Figures shall return to your hi-fis with their fourth album, 'Reports Of People'. It’s a melody map of the world’s collective madness transporting the listener from pop to punk and back again; visiting every station en route.

Since forming in Birmingham in 1977, Cult Figures have utilised this thing called music to plumb the depths and scale the peaks of the human condition. Over the years, they have at times walked among us here on earth and, at other times, they’ve been … somewhere else (not prison).

Anyway, here they are and they’ve made a record that’s slightly darker, a bit more eclectic; but still indubitably Cult Figures. Zip Nolan would approve. That bloke out of Pink Floyd once said that a band consists of a drummer, a bassist and a collection of novelty acts. Quite right. Alongside the Wrecked Crew of Stuart and Lee, you’re gonna groove with Jon and Steve on guitars and the dulcet tones of Fraser channelling his inner highland chieftain for dear life.

So, what’s it all about? There are eleven tracks in a cardboard sleeve with an enigmatic photograph. Shakespeare might have summed the thing up as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But it’s so much more. 'Music Of Fear' will tickle anyone who has entertained thoughts of killing their boss. 'The Abductee' is a tale of alien abduction, or perhaps it’s about losing an afternoon in a Wetherspoon’s pub. 'Death Of A Thousand Cuts' is when your partner chooses to leave you but wants to tape your albums first.

Scum charts the diverging paths of childhood friends and features a coda straight outta Mott The Hoople. Legacy Hand is that jarring feeling of being left behind by modern life. And the driving beat, cool harmonies and nutty guitar of Walking Disaster do exactly what it says on the tin.

So, raid that piggy bank and buy a copy to reveal the rest of the story. But let it be known that the penultimate punker is Lunatic Friend. Quite appropriate really; we’ve all got one

TRACK LISTING

1. Music Of Fear
2. The Abductee
3. Death Of A Thousand Cuts
4. Legacy Hand
5. Dangerous Boy
6. Walking Disaster
7. Rose Bucket
8. Space Invader
9. Badly In Love
10. Lunatic Friend
11. Scum

Following an illustrious stint as founding member of Mercury Music Prize nominated The Comet Is Coming, and also Soccer96, the producer and synthesist Danalogue heralds a new chapter, with his debut solo album Teleportations. His music has been supported by Mike D from The Beastie Boys and Thom Yorke, has been A-listed on BBC6 Music, where he has performed sessions for Mary Anne Hobbs, Tom Ravenscroft, Gilles Peterson and Steve Lamacq. His tracks have featured on numerous TV shows such as I May Destroy You, Black Ops and Utopia. He recently wrote his first video game soundtrack for C Smash VRS on Playstation, his work featuring alongside UNKLE and Ken Ishii. As an integral part of the legendary East London studio/venue/community Total Refreshment Centre, Danalogue has produced/mixed records for Snapped Ankles, Joshua Idehen and Rozi Plain, and collaborated on albums with Alabaster DePlume, and Sarathy Korwar.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Awakening On The Planet
Mother Of Mars
Far Beyond The Sun
Moebius Triptych
You Are On The Right Track 

Side B
Theta Wave Convergence
Arrival At Rho Ophiuchi
Fallen Out Of Phase
Onto The Next Dimension
Earth Remembrance Day

Haylie Davis channels the spirit of the early ’70s, when Carole King and Joni Mitchell redefined songwriting. That time-travelling sensibility is celebrated on 'Wandering Star', the album’s title track and new single, out today. A piano-led meditation steeped in longing, the song carries the eerie shadow of Karen Carpenter, buoyed by a luminous, aching sub-melody.

The blissful ballad ‘Horns of Time’ taps into a plaintive cosmic country palette reminiscent of Emmylou Harris. ‘Give Me a Rainbow’ follows, a lo-fi folk reverie recalling Clairo, as if filtered through a back-porch-reclining, wide-eyed Dolly Parton in awe of her own roots. Rolling Stone has hailed Davis’ earlier recordings as “gently hued Laurel Canyon folk-pop songs”, and on Wandering Star her compass swings wider still. Her maturing worldview and distinctive vocal at times evoke Lana Del Rey and Weyes Blood crafting an ode to Gram Parsons - a hybrid on full display in the self-examining passion of ‘I Was Wrong’.

A fresh take on modern pop, 'Wandering Star' is infectious, brimming with hooks, soaring choruses and storylines that tug at the heartstrings.

TRACK LISTING

1. Country Boy
2. Golden Age
3. I Was Wrong
4. Born To Be Blue
5. Lily Of The Valley
6. Give Me A Rainbow
7. Young Man
8. Horns Of Time
9. Lonely Too
10. Wandering Star
11. Mourning Dove

Irish band Dea Matrona return with their second album, 'Hate That I Care'. Darker and more emotionally intense, the record finds Mollie McGinn and Orláith Forsythe coming into their own, embracing alt-rock with a sharpened edge. Written with a deeper awareness of the world around them, 'Hate That I Care' explores desire, rebelling against expectations and the complicated process of self-discovery

TRACK LISTING

1. Hate That I Care
2. My Own Party
3. A Rebel Song
4. Aisling
5. John Doe
6. Wait
7. Magic Spell
8. Summer Rain
9. Siren Song
10. Told U I’m Strange

Death Cab for Cutie is one of the definitive indie-rock bands of the century.

After twenty-odd years in the major label system, the band returned to their indie roots and signed with ANTI- Records and they're back with their brand-new eleventh album. I Built You A Tower is the sound of loss, compartmentalization, and then grief bursting out from the seams. It's also the sound of the growth that comes after falling apart, of acknowledging pain without letting it destroy you. "I see the tower existing on your emotional horizon," Ben Gibbard states. "You don't always have to look at what's inside it, but it's a reminder that it happened. You know it's there. You have to face it."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brand new, vigorously energetic slice of DCFC's trademark poppy indie, wrapped in the freedom of small-label release and unhindered by expectation. The resulting album is gloriously chameleonic and in parts, emotionally taxing. In the end though, if you're a fan of DCFC, you'll love this and if you're not already then this might be time!

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Full Of Stars
2. Punching The Flowers
3. Pep Talk
4. I Built You A Tower (a)
5. Envy The Birds
6. Stone Over Water

Side B
1. How Heavenly A State
2. Trap Door
3. Riptides
4. The Flavor Of Metal
5. I Built You A Tower (b)

Providence-bred Deer Tick returns with their 9th album, 'Coin-O-Matic'. Rooted in their hometown, it draws from the city’s colorful & once-seedy past, telling stories inspired by the characters that shaped its reputation & the hardworking people who call it home. Named after the former Atwells Avenue headquarters of the Patriarca Crime Family, 'Coin-O-Matic' blends nostalgia with universal themes, delivering the kind of hook-filled, lived-in songwriting longtime fans have come to expect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dog Years
2. Mary Singletary
3. Endless Loop
4. Sweetest Things
5. ACI
6. Everything Born
7. Eyelid
8. I Am An Island
9. 507 Smith
10. Exit Door
11. Candy Cigarettes

By now, you know the story: J Mascis, Lou Barlow, & Patrick “Murph” Murphy, meet in Amherst, MA. J, Lou & Murph start a band. Said band goes on to rip through the musical landscape and prove to be the genesis of the “alternative rock” archetype. Over the last 25+ years, Dinosaur Jr have influenced a countless number of bands, both peers and protégés, by wailing their classic union of melodic bass, seething drums, virtuosic guitar shredding and listless vocal delivery through the iconic Marshall stacks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Little Fury Things
2. Kracked
3. Sludgefeast
4. The Lung
5. Raisans
6. Tarpit
7. In a Jar
8. Lose
9. Poledo

"In marked contrast to Singles Vol One, this compilation showcases an altogether more stable line-up - the one that recorded Hex Enduction Hour to be precise, notwithstanding some to-ing and fro-ing on the kit between me and Karl.

"As with previous releases, there are some revelatory versions here, and the mastering is a wonder to behold, or whatever the aural equivalent of 'behold' is. The earliest, Putta Block, from May 1980 was recorded at the Beach Club, a short-lived Manchester venue that also saw New Order's debut gig. The latest, Ludd Gang, comes fom New York's legendary Danceteria in 1983. Apparently Madonna was there, but you can't hear her.

"In between you can judge what 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' sounded like with Marc and what 'Fantastic Life' sounded like without me. They're both remarkable, of course."

Paul Hanley, December 2025

TRACK LISTING

1. Totally Wired (Live)
2. Putta Block (Live)
3. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul (Live)
4. Fantastic Life (Live)
5. Look Know (Live)
6. I'm In To CB (Live)
7. The Man Whose Head Expanded (Live)
8. Ludd Gang (Live)

Fresh off a landmark year, GRAMMY Award–winning singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist Sierra Ferrell brought her 2025 tour to a close in her adopted hometown of Nashville, TN. Recorded live, direct-to-acetate at Third Man Records’ Blue Room, this singular performance bottles the raw energy, firebrand spirit, and spellbinding showmanship that have propelled Ferrell to the forefront of modern bluegrass and country.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Could Drive You Crazy
2. I'll Come Off The Mountain
3. Jeremiah
4. Bells of Every Chapel
5. Chitlin Cookin' Time
6. American Dreaming
7. Rosemary
8. Dollar Bill
9. Fox Hunt
10. In Dreams

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called 'Fully Qualified Survivor'. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together 'The City Is Coming to Erase it All', the follow-up to 2024’s 'Beauty In Your Wake'. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Europe.

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though there is a lot of the traditional in Fink's music, there's also a lot of outside influence pulling at the edges of his skilful acoustic guitar pieces, resulting in an album that effortlessly wanders through ambient into improv-blues and even dub territory. It's a beguiling and hugely charismatic affair, ad one that need sot be heard.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wishing For Blue Sky
2. Does The Shade Choose Who To Comfort
3. Two Magpies
4. Memorise Your Senses
5. Dark Edges
6. Keeping You Awake
7. I Buried All The Answers
8. Spirit Of Place 

The single will be a limited edition release of 500 vinyl copies as part of the Blow Up 45 Series. All sleeves for the Blow Up 45 series are die cut with the record centre dinked.

The distinctive in-house design which has been utilised since the year 2000.

Broadcast embargo until 5/05/26 – Exclusive first play on 4th May on Roman Jugg’s Roman show (Truly Electric Camembert – Phoenix FM). The band were recently featured in Shindig magazine and were described as “bringing a forceful new twist to vintage tinged rock ‘n’ roll.

The Now She’s Gone single are the first tracks to be completed from the recording sessions at the Fish Factory in Willesden London in December 2025. Sixteen tracks were recorded in the sessions with additional overdub recording taking place at Soundbody studios London between January and February 2026. The single was produced by The Forty Fours and former member of The Damned, Roman Jugg. Whilst Paul Tunkin of Blow Up is the executive producer of the sessions. The remainder of the tracks for the debut album are currently being mixed by Nick Terry in Oslo, Norway for release later in 2026. The Forty Fours are a London based three-piece group, who originally formed in Cornwall as teenagers.

The Forty Fours are : Oliver Harriss – Electric Guitar / Vocal, Jason Bazeley – Bass guitar / Vocal, Andrew Stander – Drums / Vocal.

TRACK LISTING

1 Now She’s Gone. (A-Side).
2 Baby, Please Don’t Go (B-Side).

"Year of the Monkey" is the second chapter in the Grass Can Move Stones trilogy, picking up where "Year of the Goat" left off. This is the second chapter of their universe expanding trilogy which picks up where “Year of the Goat” left off, following Monkey and Good Goat on their further adventures through space, consciousness and time. Anchored vocally again by Damian Abraham and Tuka Mohammed, on Year of the Monkey Fucked Up are joined by an incredible chorus of guest voices which bring to life the brilliantly crafted and imaginative supporting characters of Grass Can Move Stones. Among them are John Brannon (Negative Approach, Laughing Hyenas), Carson McHone (The Outfit, Carson McHone), Walter Schreifels (Quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today), Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Off!), Jake Bannon (Converge), Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles), Chris Colohon (Left For Dead, Cursed), Leigh Arthur (Extravision, Sissy) and Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says) reprising her role as Tiger from FU’s 2012 release "Year of the Tiger." The motifs, themes, and structures of the music directly interlace with the story and characters in - even for Fucked Up - unprecedented levels of compositional development and detail.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Looking for Heaven and Not Finding It
2. Before Us Tigers Stood

Disc: 2
1. Monkey Meets the Dragon
2. Empty is the Hand

'Chins For Lefty' is the debut album and first recording by Gichard, a new duo chronicling the absurdities of end-stage capitalism and mouldering social rituals from their vantage point in Glasgow, Scotland. Recorded primarily in the band’s home studio straight to tape, 'Chins For Lefty' combines gorgeous, ramshackle melody, DIY kosmische punk, drum machine + synth and, in vocalist/lyricist Lisa Jones, an absurdist commentator on the human condition as it navigates the anxieties of the modern world. Instrumentalist Chas Lalli’s swirling music accompaniment stitches an evocative mix of musical styles, the ragged wind beneath the lyrics’ wings.

Although the duo first collaborated in their previous group Dragged Up, their disparate musical and artistic backgrounds make for an alluring mix in Gichard. Lalli has spent the last 20 years in the Glasgow underground, most notably in the noise rock group VOM, while Lisa Jones’s practice was in poetry and spoken word. Beginning as co vocalist in her previous band, in Gichard her lyrics are centre stage; the vision concocted alongside Lalli amounts to a total world-build.

'Chins For Lefty' scans almost like a novel, with each track elucidating a skewed universe that bears only some resemblance to the one you and I partake in. Like all works of fiction Gichard’s songs are rooted in reality and the lived experiences of its authors, but here characters are exaggerated, social mores and habits are pulled apart to reveal their inherent alienness. Universal emotions are laid bare, the bright light of anxious examination searching out every hairline fracture in our relationships. Distorted and cracked, the mirror that Gichard hold up to our world is also pretty damn funny.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cholesterol Test
2. Asking The Apes
3. Posthumous Hologram
4. Break Up With Johnny Dogbirth
5. Human Resources
6. Soft Face
7. Hamming It Up
8. Your Private Hell

Hammok were far from home and yet had finally found where they belonged. Somewhere in the middle of Europe, vocalist/guitarist Tobias Osland began writing a new song, reflecting on the international hardcore communities that had embraced the band with open arms. He and his bandmates — drummer Ferdinand Aasheim and bassist Ole Benjamin Thomassen — were overwhelmed, stepping out from Oslo’s small, tight-knit alternative circles and meeting fans across the continent. Osland carried this new song with him on the road, titling it “The Scene” as he sang: “When does a space become a scene, when does this place become our scene.” He immediately knew it would become the title of Hammok’s new album. When Does This Place Become Our Scene, the trio’s sophomore outing and first release for Sargent House, captures three musicians who once felt outside looking in — now stepping fully into their own.

Osland and Aasheim first cut their teeth together as pre-teens playing pop-punk and hanging out at a skatepark in their hometown an hour outside Oslo. They were in and out of other projects, eventually meeting Thomassen in a band that collapsed around the pandemic. Just before lockdown, and now in their 20s, the three moved in together, and spent their time in isolation launching Hammok as we now know it. While live shows are usually paramount for bands in heavy music, Hammok didn’t have the option to perform in public. They learned how to be a band together by writing and recording, yielding a new sense of adventurousness in their music. “You begin to think sonically, in layers and production, instead of in breakdowns that will make people mosh and go crazy,” Osland explains. On When Does This Place Become Our Scene, their idiosyncratic blend of pop production, the vivacious energy of hardcore, and experimental textures fully blossoms, placing them on the vanguard of forward-thinking punk.

Most of the songs arrived fast in an inspired burst, but the recording was laborious, with Osland calling the production efforts “the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.” Armed with a set of impressive demos and tasked with refining and expanding their sound, Hammok tweaked and explored until they arrived at something that held all their impulses at once — volatile, hook-driven, and dense with detail. They pushed their noise-rock, hardcore and metal foundations into broader, more dynamic territory weaving industrial abrasion, hip-hop pulse, synth textures, and progressive turns into classic punk urgency. Lyrically, When Does This Place Become Our Scene grapples with existing in hardcore’s lineage and social politics, but also broader paradigms, like coming of age in an era shaped by hyperconnection and digital life. In balancing the polarities of underground intensity and pop sensibility, they arrived at an album equal parts scream-along cathartic and nod-along infectious.

To Hammok, the twists and turns cohere into a journey, a process of reaching out further for connection. “A central idea was: What does it mean to be alone?” Osland says. “Is it a strength? Do you feel a part of something? A community?” When Does This Place Become Our Scene is an invitation — the sound of a band pouring all of themselves into this new music, promising an audience that this communication, this back and forth, is a worthwhile exchange.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Scene
2. Semi-Automatic Machines
3. Gooning for Free
4. Blast Off (Blast Off) Blast Off
5. BANG
6. Groundbreaker
7. Tap Water
8. CND
9. Thirst
10. When the Kids Are Too Old to Cause a Scene
11. Confidence of a Beaten Horse
12. For My Friends

On their debut 'Hold Your Horse Is' Hella's style started to transform, organically. Zach was pushing the envelope rhythmically, and Spencer began to simultaneously play both rhythm and melody on the same instrument. 2023 marked the 21st anniversary of 'Hold Your Horse Is', the initial repressing sold out and now 5RC are bringing it back on classic black vinyl for your listening pleasure.

TRACK LISTING

1. The D.Elkan
2. Biblical Violence
3. Been A Long Time Cousin
4. Republic Of Rough And Ready
5. 1-800-Ghost-Dance
6. Brown Metal
7. Cafeteria Bananas
8. City Folk Sitting, Sitting
9. Better Get A Broom!

'Vespers' is an album about tragedy. It is the record of a life and death, an act of devotion and reflection. Liz Lawrence wrote these songs in the ashes of disaster. "It is dedicated to my beautiful sister Jessie and her too-short life."

"I wanted someone to be able to say to a friend who is grieving that they should listen to 'Vespers'. I want people to come to this record. I want people to use this record. I want it to have purpose, to give comfort and catharsis "Liz says.

'Vespers' is unvarnished, spare and elegiac, a testament of life and death. "The album is very specifically about my sister and my family's situation, but equally, that is universal".

In wrapping up the harsh demands of life in the plain warmth of love, it is a romantic and frank finale 'Thank God For You', offering some of the comfort and catharsis that she hopes Vespers will offer to others, too.

Liz Lawrence is a British artist, multi- instrumentalist, and producer. Her work has earned praise across radio and press and continues to mark her out as one of the UK's most quietly compelling indie storytellers.

Vespers is the fifth album by Liz Lawrence, following Peanuts, The Avalanche, Pity Party and Bedroom Hero.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mt. Nephin
2. Where Did You Go
3. Black Ulysses
4. Sister
5. Three Legged Dog
6. Yves Blue
7. A Good One
8. Heaven Didn't Need Another Angel
9. May Queen
10. Exploded Into Flowers
11. Birthday Party
12. Thank God For You
13. (coda)

Described by music journalist and author Everett True as “A 30-minute insight into what it’s like to live hard and fast and loose and happy with like-minded buddies, fuelled by a shared love for similar bands and drugs and booze and freedom.”. ‘It's A Shame About Ray’ had a considerable impact back in those heady, carefree days of '92, the record perfectly captures Dando’s ability to effortlessly encapsulate teenage longing and lust over the course of a two-minute pop song. The reissue includes a download card with a slew of extra material, including the ‘My Drug Buddy’ KCRW session track from 1992 featuring Juliana Hatfield, B-sides from singles ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Confetti’, a track from the ‘Mrs. Robinson/Being Round’ EP. Singles such as 'My Drug Buddy' and the breezy perfect pop of the title track might stand out (plus the add-on of 'Mrs. Robinson' which later copies included), but the album's real strength lies in the tracks in-between; the truly fantastic 'Confetti' (written about Evan's parents' divorce), and the eye-wateringly casual acoustic cover of 'Frank Mills' (from the "hippie" musical Hair), a version that seems to resonate with every ounce of pathos and emotion felt for the lost 1960s generation. To hear Evan Dando sing lines like 'I love him/but it embarrasses me/To walk down the street with him/He lives in Brooklyn somewhere/And he wears his white crash helmet' is to truly appreciate how wonderful and tantalising pop music can be. Then, there's the rush of insurgency and brattishness on the wonderfully truncated 'Bit Part'; the topsy-turvy 'Ceiling Fan In My Spoon'... this was male teenage skinny-tie pop music on a level of brilliance with The Kinks, early Undertones, Wipers.

TRACK LISTING

1 Rockin' Stroll
2 Confetti
3 It's A Shame About Ray
4 Rudderless
5 My Drug Buddy
6 The Turnpike Down
7 Bit Part
8 Alison's Starting To Happen
9 Hannah & Gabi
10 Kitchen
11 Ceiling Fan In My Spoon
12 Frank Mills

Essential Extras – Download Only
1 Mrs Robinson
2 Shakey Ground
3 My Drug Buddy (KCRW Session, 1992)
4 Knowing Me, Knowing You (Acoustic)
5 Confetti (Acoustic)
6 Alison's Starting To Happen (Acoustic)
7 Divan
Demo Recordings – Download Only
8 It's A Shame About Ray (Demo)
9 Rockin' Stroll (Demo)
10 My Drug Buddy (Demo)
11 Hannah & Gabi (Demo)
12 Kitchen (Demo)
13 Bit Part (Demo)
14 Rudderless (Demo)
15 Ceiling Fan In My Spoon (Demo)
16 Confetti (Demo)

Lentamente is a shoegaze/dream pop band from San José, Costa Rica. Their third full-length album, 'Bienvenida', was originally released locally in October 2023. It has been issued on vinyl by Burnt Toast Vinyl with an additional single, 'Sacré Coeur'. 'Bienvenida' features Cocteau Twins/Robin Guthrie style guitars with the catchy energy of The Radio Department. After seeing them live, Burnt Toast Vinyl was captivated by their melodic live set and catchy hooks. Burnt Toast Vinyl is proud to release this Spanish language shoegaze album for the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pre
2. Espionaje 
3. Un Gran Silencio 
4. Asfixia
5. Bienvenida
6. Trágico y Cómico
7. Rehabilitaciones
8. Los Días Que Espero
9. Química de Siempre
10. Invisible
11. Llanto Al Oído
12. Sacré Coeur

America’s favorite masked guitar slingers, Los Straitjackets, are back with 'Somos Los Straitjackets', their first album of original material in over a decade. Channeling the eternal spirit of surf rock while riding their own unmistakable wave, 'Somos Los Straitjackets' delivers fifteen tracks of twang-drenched riffs.

From the sun-scorched intensity of 'Polaris' to the funky undertow of 'Two Steps Ahead', 'Somos Los Straitjackets' is a sonic adventure that captures the freedom, danger, and endless horizon of a band at their creative peak. Tracks like 'Spinout' and 'High Wire Act' demonstrate why Los Straitjackets have reigned as the kings of modern instrumental rock for over thirty years with shimmering tremolo, relentless drum grooves, and hooks so catchy they don’t need lyrics to get stuck in your head. Produced with a vintage touch but packed with fresh intensity, 'Somos Los Straitjackets' is both a love letter to surf rock’s golden era and a bold new ride into uncharted waters.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bumper Car
2. Polaris
3. Genesee River Rock
4. High Wire Act
5. Numbskull
6. Two Steps Ahead
7. April Showers
8. Cry for a Beatle
9. Catalina Farewell
10. Copy Cat
11. Sentimental Fool
12. Bad Apple
13. Wicker Park
14. Spinout
15. Virgon

'FEAR' - the joint album from Jared Mattson of The Mattson 2 and Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra - was recorded in June of 2024. All recording and mixing took place in Palm Springs. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios in London.

TRACK LISTING

1. High T
2. River Rafting
3. Testarossa
4. American Eagle
5. Wedgie
6. Touchdown
7. Razor Blade

Indie-rock darlings the Meat Puppets didn’t miss a meat, er, beat with their move from SST to the major London label and their release of 1991’s 'Forbidden Places'. In fact, the album arguably represented a step up from their late-period work at SST, displaying that offhandedly brilliant charm that won the band so many fans in the first place. The album opener 'Sam' is a frenzied rocker that recalls the early days with maniacal, “auctioneer”-style vocals, and the album closing, pickin’ and spinnin’ instrumental 'Six Gallon Pie' is equally breakneck in tempo and dazzling in execution. 'No Longer Gone' offers a hit of that desert mysticism that leavened albums like 'Meat Puppets II' and 'Up on the Sun', and 'Whirlpool' showcases Curt Kirkwood’s underrated guitar chops. In short, an essential piece of the Puppets’ catalog, finally widely available at retail on vinyl for the first time since its release 35 years ago.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sam
2. Nail It Down
3. This Day
4. Open Wide
5. Another Moon
6. That’s How It Goes
7. Whirlpool
8. Pop Skull
9. No Longer Gone
10. Forbidden Places
11. Six Gallon Pie

'Horrorble' is a full-length dub reinterpretation of Mekons’ acclaimed 2025 album 'Horror', created in collaboration with Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu). Songs from 'Horror' are pulled apart and reshaped into a drifting dub landscape. Basslines stretch and dissolve, rhythms echo into open space and tracks are dismantled and reassembled into versions that drift, jar and unravel. Working with Maimone, the album treats dub as subtraction, space and echo rather than simple revision, revealing hidden textures and new emotional weight within the original recordings.

The partnership has deep roots. Mekons first toured with Pere Ubu in 1988 and later worked closely with Maimone in the early 1990s. That shared history informs the exploratory spirit of Horrorble, reframing the urgency of 'Horror' through atmosphere, rhythm and sonic deconstruction.

Featuring a guest appearance from Benji Webbe of Skindred on 'Mudcrawlers', the album transforms familiar material into immersive, echo-laden soundscapes that emphasise tension and depth.

The original 'Horror' confronted climate catastrophe, economic violence and political decay through rock and roll, punk and melody. 'Horrorble' reveals its shadow counterpart. Formed in Leeds in the late 1970s, Mekons have always operated as a collective, working outside trends and expectations. Guided by the belief that the political and personal remain inseparable, they continue to create on their own terms, combining experimentation with a call to organise and resist.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Did you ever wish you could have a former member of Pere Ubu, producer and New York scene mainstay dub out The Mekons' last LP? Me too! Well, now you ruddy well can. Tony Maimone stretches the pieces into simmering dubby heaters, and it works *surprisingly* well.

TRACK LISTING

1. Before The Ice Age (Version)
2. Sad And Sad And Sad (Version)
3. War Economy (Version)
4. A Horse Has Escaped (Version)
5. The Western Design (Version)
6. Glasgow (Version)
7. You're Not Singing Anymore (Version)
8. Private Defense Contractor (Version)
9. Sanctuary (Version)
10. Surrender (Version)
11. Mudcrawlers Ft. Benji Webbe (Version)
12. Fallen Leaves (Version)

LA Punks Memo PST return with another modern punk classic 'Eternal Actors', their new album on In The Red. These 12 tracks capture the fury of late '70s rough and raw punk rock, with Orville Neeley crafting hit after hit of god-tier punk bangers. Vocalist Chris Shaw is also at his most versatile to date, with his lyrical capabilities and patented punk sneers dripping across every song.

Simply put, 'Eternal Actors' finds two lords of the punk genre at their very best. There are classic punk bashers like 'Dog Groomer Stylist', and 'Doomed to Repeat' but also primitive, bare-bones rock rippers like 'Chrome Bubble' and 'Worship Me'. The band also delivers some of their most hardcore songs to date with 'Concrete Club' and 'Blown Away'.

With the San Clemente wrecking crew of Jackson Todd (drums) and Emmanuel Koulouris (bass) back again to round out the four piece band, this is truly a powerhouse presentation of punk music in 2026. If the band proved they were a punk force with their long sold out, self titled album, 'Eternal Actors' may solidify their place at the top of the punk pile.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Smoke It, It Smokes Me
2. Dog Groomer Stylist
3. I Was A Fiend
4. Blown Away
5. Marked For Death
6. Fume With The Shaper
7. Concrete Club
8. Chrome Bubble
9. Nite Patrol
10. Doomed To Repeat
11. Worship Me
12. Invisible Eye

Toluca, Mexico trio Mirror Revelations return with 'Ígnea', a raw blast of heavy motorik drive and industrial psych intensity that's built to dance as it burns. Stripped to the core with the live show in mind, 'Ígnea' finds pedal-processed synthesisers and a relentless bass-and-drums backbone powering songs of resistance and ignition. "The name of the album refers to fire, which for us symbolises transformation and change", the band say: "Just as a spark can ignite a fire, Ígnea represents that ignition point, the beginning of something that burns, expands, and transforms."

Mirror Revelation's second full-length and first on their new label home Fuzz Club arrives following their debut album 'Aura', released in 2023 and supported by heavy gigging in Mexico and a UK and European tour the following year. Entirely written, recorded and produced by the band, the transformation heard on 'Ígnea' is something equally darker and more hedonistic, and all the more cathartic for it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Resistir
2. Incendiar
3. Defender
4. Revelar
5. Desafiar
6. Despertar
7. Liberar

'Lithic' is Laura Misch’s immersive new album, a sonic journey through stone, water, wind, and lightning. Building on the ethereal heights of 'Sample of Sky' and the earthy intimacy of 'Sample of Earth', Misch conjures music from caves, quarries, rock pools, and coastal edges, merging field recordings with saxophone, voice, electronics, strings, and percussion. Struck slate, ancient lithophones, hydrophones, and geophones create rhythms and textures that feel both primordial and contemporary. Across London, Cornwall, Hydra, and Dungeness, Misch captures the dialogue between human and more-than-human, crafting a record that resonates like deep time itself. 'Lithic' is a meditation on nature, aging, and connection, offering listeners a profound, elemental listening experience that is at once visceral, meditative, and electrifying.

The album’s conceptual foundations are inspired by deep listening practices, eco- acoustics and geology. Inspired by artists and thinkers such as Barbara Hepworth, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, eco-psychotherapist and author of Weathering Ruth Allen and David Haskell’s writing on the origins and evolution of sound, 'Lithic' considers sound as an ancient material itself; something that can shape and transform over time. It is a deeply feminine record, tracing the rough and soft edges of aging, the weathered lines etched upon a face, the worn fractures in a rockface.

TRACK LISTING

1. Breathing
2. Kairos
3. Echoes
4. Siren
5. Scrolls
6. Soften
7. Circle
8. Fo[r]est
9. Jealousea (ft. Alfa Mist)
10. Mythic
11. Shell
12. Spiral 

A physics theory says past, present, and future coexist—and that’s the best lens for 'An Eraser and a Maze', which feels like every era of Modest Mouse happening at once. Guided by Isaac Brock’s instinct-first process, the album is both familiar and alien, warm and cold. It stretches across the band’s sonic history, from propulsive classics to stripped, raw moments, while carrying an undercurrent of mortality and loss that refuses easy optimism.

TRACK LISTING

1. Picking Dragons’ Pockets
2. Remember Yourself
3. Life’s a Dream
4. Third Side of the Moon
5. Dogbed In Heaven / Give It a Skeleton
6. Interlude
7. I Can’t Talk Right Now
8. Speak 'N Spell (Or Not)
9. Rotten Fruit (feat. pkpkpkpk)
10. Knocked Down by Waves
11. Absolutely Necessary Never
12. Song About Nothing
13. Stoner Party
14. Look How Far…
15. Impossible Somedays

Following on from the critical and commercial success of In My Mind There's A Room Colin MacIntyre once again looks to the literary world for inspiration. Featuring lyrical contributions from world-leading authors on a single significant photo to them. They are best-sellers, Pulitzer, Booker, Women's Prize & Saltire Award-winners: Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith, Len Pennie, Alexander McCall Smith, Jehan Bseiso, Louise Welsh, Irenosen Okojie, Paul Lynch, Colum McCann, Yiyun Lee, Alan Johnson and Dan Richards. The songs shine a light on hope, empathy and understanding, just what we need in this fractured world. Exploring themes of childhood, place, identity, memory, family, language and more, the album spans the globe. From the horrific impact of Gaza and 9/11, to tales from Inverness to Botswana, from China to Glasgow. Colin, an awardwinning author himself, allows these stories to bloom beautifully, providing a platform for the powerful lyrical content. All songs were written by Colin MacIntyre and the authors. The album was arranged and produced by Colin MacIntyre, and recorded on the Isle of Mull by Gordon Maclean. It features a guest spot from the London African Gospel Choir.

"I'm so excited by this record, and to be working with the progressive LNFG. It's been a privilege to step into the author's photos, making me think about such questions as, why is one person's image of war, another person's image of home? And all starting from the same universal theme: a photograph. The fun part is bringing my two creative worlds together, music & writing, but what I've discovered is they're really the same: it's all storytelling. The author's words started to feel like my own. They've taken me around the world, but this is 'Made on Mull'." - Colin MacIntyre on In My Mind There's A Photograph

In My Mind There's A Photograph is the follow up to 2023's In My Mind There's A Room, a collaboration with a range of authors including Ian rankin, Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Hornby etc.

TRACK LISTING

Where are The Heroes?
Once Upon A Tightrope
Cattle Bells
Charing Cross Canyon
A Wish We'd Taen Mair
Gaza On My Back
We Called It A Lake
Dopamine Eyes
Budapest
Midnight Sun
The Soldier And The Waitress
Hillman Imp

'TRON Ares: Divergence' reimagines the original 'TRON: Ares' soundtrack with 20 songs – a mix of previously unreleased 'TRON: Ares' score material from Nine Inch Nails alongside remixes from ARCA, Mark Pritchard, Boys Noize, Lanark Artefax, Chilly Gonzales, Danny L Harle, Jack Dangers, Pixel Grip, Working Men’s Club, The Dare and Schwefelgelband

TRACK LISTING

1. Converge
2. I Know You Can Feel It (Mark Pritchard Remix)
3. Godmode
4. A Question Of Trust (Boys Noize Remix)
5. Operand
6. Zero State
7. Empathetic Response (Lanark Artefax Remix)
8. 100% Expendable (Chilly Gonzales Remix)
9. Who Wants To Live Forever? (Danny L Harle Remix)
10. Infiltrator (Jack Dangers Remix)
11. A Framework
12. Ghost In The Machine (Boys Noize Remix)
13. What Have You Done? (Boys Noize Remix)
14. As Alive As You Need Me To Be (Pixel Grip Remix)
15. The First Betrayal
16. I Know You Can Feel It (Working Men's Club Remix)
17. Shadow Over Me (The Dare Remix)
18. Terminal
19. Forked Reality (Schwefelgelb Remix)
20. As Alive As You Need Me To Be (Arca Remix)

With the release of 'Faust Demonica', NORMANS present their most refined work to date. The record emphasizes clarity, precision, and atmosphere, pairing polished electronic production with a darker melodic discipline while maintaining the project’s core intensity. Supported by stark visual presentation, NORMANS explore control, latent fear, and psychological pressure, favoring structure and tension over conventional release.

FFO: Depeche Mode, Soft Kill, Killing Joke, Peter Murphy, The KVB

TRACK LISTING

1. Mexico Unlimited
2. Destruction
3. Gold
4. Faust Demonica
5. Broken Moon
6. Riding Horses In Hell
7. Urge To Merge
8. The Magic Touch
9. Ankle Biter

'Aethermead', the newest offering and 20th full-length album from of Montreal, finds the band revisiting sounds from their early years, while still pushing artistic boundaries with their iconic style of pop & indie rock. Celebrated for their unique and prolific output, frontperson and primary songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes recorded the album at Brooklyn’s Honey Jar studios with audio engineer, Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Toro y Moi), with basic tracking done live to a 16-track tape machine with Barnes’ longtime live band. “I wanted to capture a quick moment together and to make on-the-fly, spontaneous creative decisions,” says Barnes. “It felt very liberating and exhilarating to have to start and finish an album in a month’s time.”

The result shimmers with indie pop elements of their 2004 release, 'Satanic Panic in the Attic', as well as the raw, live energy of 2013’s 'Lousy With Sylvianbriar'. Inspired partly from a recent move to Brooklyn, NY and a yearning for community, the album marks a shift in Barnes’ daily routines, with the album’s title referencing a section of Prospect Park called the Nethermead, where Barnes walks their dog every day. “I started a meditation practice soon after moving to help me self-regulate,” says Barnes. “I began to imagine I was sending all my destructive and useless thoughts/energies into the ether.”

Barnes’ beautiful and melodic chord progressions are on full display with tracks like 'Already Dreaming', as well as the straight-up rock & roll banger 'Take The Form'. Other highlights include the loungey 'My Zhe Zhe', as well as the bluntly sexual lead single, 'When'.

From the breakthrough brilliance of 2007’s 'Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?' to a steady run of boundary-pushing releases, of Montreal have remained fearless sonic shapeshifters—equally at home crafting hook-laden anthems as they are exploring surreal, experimental textures. The band's prolific output has led to numerous late-night TV appearances—including The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon—and brilliant collaborations with artists such as Solange, Janelle Monáe, and Jon Brion.

On stage, they transform concerts into immersive spectacles of color, costume, and cathartic energy. The band has performed across the globe, gracing festival stages at Coachella, Primavera, Lollapalooza, Vive Latino and beyond, while also amassing hundreds of millions of streams worldwide. With a new tour on the horizon, of Montreal continue to celebrate their legacy while pushing boldly forward.

TRACK LISTING

1. Already Dreaming
2. Wanting on Air
3. Listen to Music and Cry
4. My Zhe Zhe
5. Take the Form
6. When
7. Hack it Up
8. Lacan in the Family
9. Having a Moment
10. From the Font of You
11. To Nothing’s Reward
12. Now We Cringe at the Thought
13. Dismissal Mosaics

Hotly anticipated debut album from the fast-rising Birmingham four-piece whose heart-on-sleeve, emotional indie rock and powerful live shows have earned them a devoted young following across the UK and Europe.

Produced by Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Rachel Chinouriri) and mixed by Cenzo Townshend, the debut follows large sold-out headline shows across the UK and Europe, support slots including with Wunderhorse and Inhaler, and appearances at Reading & Leeds, Boardmasters and Isle of Wight Festival.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Blazing, emotionally charged punky indie from Birmingham, with hints of pop-punk and alt-rock, and a huge focus on the vocalists particularly powerful performance. A hugely energetic debut that reminds me of the punky blast of Ash's '1977', no bad thing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Union Station
2. Sandman
3. Is This Real?
4. Fall In Love
5. Bonnie & Clyde Pt. 2
6. Forever. You
7. Spinning
8. I Will
9. Get Up!
10. Heaven

Whisper it quietly, but Jasmine Minks frontman Jim Shepherd has created his masterpiece with 'Be Careful What You Wish For', his new album with The Pillars of Creation on the Precious Recordings of London label.

Let’s not call them a ‘supergroup’ – though the ensemble does indeed feature former stalwarts of Alan McGee’s iconic Creation label, headed by The Loft’s Dave Morgan, on drums and synths, and doing the honours on production and mixing). In fact, although this is the first album credited to The Pillars of Creation, it’s really the band’s second after 'The Circle', released in 2022 (on Spinout Nuggets) and credited as a Shepherd solo effort.

However, 'The Circle' featured most core members, who also played on live shows to accompany its release. Now they’re back together for an epic record that represents a radical departure. And one thing’s for sure: the new album is not a record beholden to a typically C86 or early Creation sound.

Layers of sound, beautifully crafted arrangements, strings, spoken word and an 18-minute mini rock opera that takes up almost a whole side. "Ooh, sounds a bit prog!” Yeah yeah, what-evs!

“'Be Careful What You Wish For' was written in a brief period when I took a month off work, because my son was very ill,” says Shepherd.

“I would just sit with him, and my wife Gemma suggested that I write songs while I was sitting around for hours, so out of that came 14 new songs, including an 18-minute suite of songs, based on (and named after) Maurice Maeterlinck’s 'Bluebird', a play about learning to accept reality.

“The songs poured out of me, whether I was being inspired by listening to Prince or watching the news about refugees in boats or reading novels about faraway lands … I wanted to convey optimism but darkness creeps in too. I wouldn’t change a note: everything the guys contributed is perfect.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Be Careful What You Wish For
2. One Way Home
3. Strange Kind Of Lovin'
4. The Eyes That See
5. Aide De Camp
6. The Sea
7. Bluebird
8. I Walk The Path

Hailing from Darlington, Pollyfromthedirt creates raw, rough-edged alternative music steeped in grit, emotion, and unfiltered truth. Blending jagged guitar work with lo-fi textures and stark lyricism, their sound is as uncompromising as it is evocative. At the heart of Pollyfromthedirt’s music lies a deep sense of place and memory – songs that dig into the bones of English nostalgia, suburban unease, and the beauty found in broken things.

Distinctly British in both name and spirit, Pollyfromthedirt – a playful nod to his hometown’s affectionate nickname, The Dirt, and his mum Polly – is an artist who wears his roots on his sleeve.

If folk and lo-fi punk share any kind of resemblance - strained balladry, a DIY ethos and bewildering sparse arrangements - then an act like Pollyfromthedirt, fluent in both mocking dry wit and heavier techniques, is perfectly poised to disrupt them. His playfully defiant name thumbs its nose at the local archetype of a true northerner. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Mucky town
2. Kalm
3. Theres no such thing as england
4. Cherry seeds
5. Darlos cowboys
6. A weekend in majorca

Side B:
1. When england comes
2. Blow my lid
3. Mucky town2
4. Sounds like hell
5. Dont shoot now
6. The dirt

'Vanisher, Horizon Scraper' is the highly anticipated follow-up to Quadeca’s 2024 critically acclaimed mixtape 'Scrapyard', which received a coveted score of 9/10 from Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) and currently sits as the #28 highest-rated mixtape of all time on RateYourMusic.

'Vanisher, Horizon Scraper' is a concept album—a modern apocalyptic folklore about a man who sails into the ocean alone in pursuit of freedom and cosmic understanding, subconsciously driven by his own self-destruction.

With a runtime of nearly 70 minutes, the album takes listeners on a transformative sonic journey, blending genres such as world music, ambient, hip hop, bossa nova, folk, rock, and other experimental styles. 

TRACK LISTING

1. NO QUESTIONS ASKED
2. WAGING WAR (feat. Olēka)
3. RUIN MY LIFE
4. GODSTAINED
5. AT A TIME LIKE THIS
6. MONDAY
7. DANCING WITHOUT MOVING
8. THATS WHY
9. I DREAM ABOUT SINKING
10. NATURAL CAUSES
11. THUNDRRR
12. THE GREAT BAKUNAWA (with Danny Brown)
13. FORGONE
14. CASPER (with Maruja) 

The Real People is the 1991 self-titled album from The Real People. It includes the singles "Open Up Your Mind (Let Me In)", "Window Pane" and "The Truth", which feature the band’s distinctive combination of guitar-driven melodies and layered vocals. Recorded during the early 1990s, the album captures the band at a formative stage, offering a snapshot of the UK indie scene just before the Britpop movement emerged. The tracks move between lively, guitar-driven, baggy songs and more introspective moments, giving a sense of the band’s approach to melody and arrangements. "The Real People" offers a clear picture of the band’s formative style and the musical environment they were part of, highlighting their role in shaping the sound that would influence other British bands in the years to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Ultra-melodic, semi-baggy, Scouse, psychedelic pop that was a big influence on Oasis. Is right!!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Window Pane
2. I Can't Wait
3. For You
4. The Truth
5. Everyday's The Same
6. Wonderful

SIDE B
1. Open Up Your Mind (Let Me In)
2. She
3. In Your Hands
4. Looking At You
5. Words
6. Another Day

Shooting Daggers are a band that never seems to stop. Sal, Bea and Raquel are one of the hardest working outfits out there, constantly playing shows and lending their support to myriad causes all around the U.K. and Europe. So, it’s always an exciting prospect when the band takes some time out from the maelstrom to write and record new material. And 2 years on from the release of their acclaimed debut album ‘Love & Rage’ the band have been in Bear Bites Horse Studio with Wayne Adams (Big Lad, Green Lung) at the controls to come up with the goods once again. ‘The Real Life Thing’ is the latest hardcore sonic missive from one of London’s must-see bands, and it absolutely does not disappoint. Shooting Daggers are the real deal; the best, and most exciting and adventurous hardcore-inspired band in the country.

TRACK LISTING

1. Adrenaline
2. My Oh My!
3. T.R.L.T.
4. We Just Wanna Play
5. Loud Mouths (feat The Menstrual Cramps)
6. Le Soleil
7. GLOW (feat Dennis Lyxzén)

In the technical sense, every previous album by the radiant and heavy French trio SLIFT has been a fantasia—a composite of genres and forms that allowed the band to improvise, to jam on themes until they seemed to spiral together into space. Their acclaimed third album, 2024’s 'Ilion', was a sci-fi story built with 10-to13-minute exploratory escapades, often starting with doom metal or stoner rock before spinning freely into glorious instrumental oblivion. But, in a bit of intentional irony, SLIFT’s fourth album is actually called 'Fantasia'. It’s their leanest and most direct record to date. It is also their most riveting album yet, a pointed saga about overcoming international upheaval delivered by a band bearing down, not wasting a single second in the process.

Though only Jean and bassist Rémi Fossat are related, SLIFT is essentially a band of brothers. They’ve been friends with drummer Canek Flores since high school, and 2026 marks a decade together in this trio. They rehearse with religious regularity in a basement in the countryside near Toulouse, inside the jam room where they’ve long indulged their propensity for longform wonder. But they built the songs of 'Fantasia' differently. Jean started many of the songs by himself, then quickly brought them to basement rehearsals with a clear and concise idea of how he imagined them taking shape. By the time they crossed France’s northern border into Belgium to record in the enormous live room at Daft Studios, they had a tight set of lean, agile, and punchy songs.

The band’s vast influences are evident: the album evokes Clutch getting wild, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, Pink Floyd, and 'Master of Reality'-era Sabbath. And the sonic tapestry is aided by the skillful mixing of Kurt Ballou (Converge, Cave In, High on Fire). The songs aren’t lacking the complexity or intensity that have made SLIFT a rising star in heavy music; they’ve simply found new ways to weave the complexities of their past inside every piece, like a tapestry that reveals a new layer every time you look. In doing so, they offer an affirming and urgent message: Together, we can still change the times in which we live.

It is dreadfully easy these days to feel powerless. SLIFT reckons directly with the modern onslaught of cruelty and absurdity on 'Fantasia', whether that’s not caring about our home planet or one another. But these eight songs are about trusting in some hidden power for fighting back, for believing in a world where something we cannot yet articulate or define offers not just a way to disrupt the status quo but perhaps to destroy it completely. SLIFT is loud, heavy, and aggressive inside these anthems. They’re preparing for a battle they think we can still win.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A roaring wave of pummeling percussion, rolling bass and snappy drums beneath the perfectly pitched roar of vocalist Jean Fossat. Taut, burning leads and psychedelic mathy guitar licks to boot. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fantasia
2. Corrupted Sky
3. The Village
4. A Storm of Wings
5. Orbis Tertius
6. Waiting Man
7. The Day of Execution
8. Secret Mirror

Slippers mastermind Madeline BB’s new record is a masterpiece. Like if you painted The Beatles with a rattle can and wax pencil. Slippers last record was entitled 'Do You Like Slippers?' More aptly it should have been 'Do You Like Pop Music?' Because if the answer is no to either then what are we even doing here? 11 songs. 33RPM

TRACK LISTING

1. Blueberry Peel Reprise
2. Wants for Everyone
3. Wasted Tonight
4. Until You Can’t Give Up on Me
5. Reading Lucy’s Diary
6. ‘Til You Know
7. Who Escapes The Storm
8. Castaways
9. Fool In Your Room
10. Sunday Morning
11. LWH

TRACK LISTING

Gimme my gun (Single Version)
Gimme my gun (Demo)
Gimme my gun (Take 20)

One of the more enigmatic bands of the classic 4AD era, Swallow, have announced the reissue of their first two albums, 'Blow' and 'Blowback', packaged together with an additional two-track single.

A chance for shoegaze fans to discover this forgotten gem from the 4AD catalogue, 'Blown' is an essential but underrated body of work embracing the genre’s signature atmospheric layering of fuzzy guitar textures, accompanied by Louise Trehy’s beautiful and haunting vocals, creating hazy waves and swirls of luscious noise.

TRACK LISTING

Blow (2026 Remaster) Tracklisting:
1. Lovesleep
2. Taste Like Honey
3. Sugar Your Mind
4. Mensurral
5. Peekaboo
6. Lacuna (Instrumental)
7. Oceans & Blue Skies
8. Follow Me Down
9. Halo (Instrumental)
10. Cherry Stars Collide
11. Head in a Cave

Sleepers 12” Tracklisting:
1. Blow
2. Lovesleep (Vocal Version)

Blowback (2026) Remaster Tracklisting:
1. Oceans And Blue Skies (Blowback Version)
2. Head in a Cave (Blowback Version)
3. Taste Like Honey (Instrumental)
4. Peekaboo (Dub)
5. Sugar Your Mind
6. Follow Me Down (Excerpt)
7. Mensurral (Instrumental)
8. Cherry Stars Collide (Instrumental)

'Viola Beach' is the only studio album by English indie rock group Viola Beach. It was released in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2016, by Fuller Beans Records. The album includes the singles 'Swings & Waterslides' and 'Boys That Sing'. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Swings And Waterslides
2. Like A Fool
3. Go Outside
4. Cherry Vimto
5. Drunk
6. Really Wanna Call
7. Call You Up
8. Get To Dancing
9. Boys That Sing 

'Tell Me It's A Dream' is both the title of Rosa Walton's bright, brilliant, skyreaching debut solo album, but also, says the 26-year-old musician best known as one half of Let's Eat Grandma, "kind of like the title of my life."

"It's about being really ambitious, and seeing enhanced beauty in the world, and knowing that seeing things in that way isn't unrealistic," she continues. "It's about striving for that ultimate freedom."

Recorded in a joyful stay at Wales' residential StudiOwz, 'Tell Me It's A Dream' rings with the audible fizz of friends hanging out and having fun. Though many of its lyrics began during a complicated time for Walton, the record itself is a testament to choosing life and pleasure and the people that make it all worthwhile. "A lot of the record is about stretching outwards and acknowledging how far love can take you; about expressing how I feel about the people I love through music in ways that words can't," she says. "It was important to capture that lightness from the recording, because that spirit is in a lot of the songs."

Frequently euphoric and brightly emotional, the songs themselves aim heavenwards. 'Heart To Heartbreak' cracks through the clouds of a break up, taking influence from emotionally-rich bands like The Cure and Prefab Sprout to translate the feeling at its core. "This is a song about feeling like everything in your life has shattered but realising that relationship was holding you back and the world is opening up," she says. "I wanted this song to feel really visual, like things are starting to sparkle and look colourful again."

An album full of light and magic, born from the purist, most uncalculated of intentions, 'Tell Me It's A Dream' is an inspiring clarion call to listen to your own. As Walton says: "I think a lot of the attitude in the songs is about being ambitious in life and following your dreams. And so that's what I intend to do."

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart To Heartbreak
2. Sorry Anyway
3. Taking The Roof Down
4. Wave Machine
5. When Will It All Reveal
6. Halfway Round The World
7. Prettier Things
8. July
9. Romance Is Dead On

Swedish rockers The Wannadies reached international stardom by releasing their third album Be A Girl. The single "You and Me Song" became the group's biggest hit, peaking at number eighteen in the UK. The song featured on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet (starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio), but the magic of the album goes further. “Might Be Stars" became another UK hit, and it sounds exactly like the Britpop from that time. The sound of summer is what makes this record so wonderful from the start to the end.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. You And Me Song
2. Might Be Stars
3. Love In June
4. How Does It Feel?
5. Sweet Nymphet
6. New World Record

SIDE B
1. Dying For More
2. Soon You’re Dead
3. Do It All The Time
4. Dreamy Wednesdays
5. Kid