'Kill Them With Kindness' is the 18th album from Beans on Toast, recorded at Greenmount Studios in Leeds with The Beans on Toast Band, a collection of musical friends he handpicked from the UK music scene a few years back.

"We've done a few tours together, but this was our first venture into a studio. Each one of them is amazing, and together... well, I'm proper chuffed with how it sounds. Have a listen for yourself," says Beans.

This album is a bit of a juxtaposition, as is the title. "There are songs that deal with the current state of the world: wars, maniac leaders, the rise of AI and the fall of the establishment. Then there are songs about trees, late nights in music venues, art, love and my new cat. As usual, it's a time stamp of my thoughts and feelings from the past year on planet Earth."

TRACK LISTING

1. The Great North Road
2. Gods, Children And Robots
3. Comfortable In The Counterculture
4. Pelican Crossing
5. The Fall Of The Establishment
6. The Glastonbury Oak
7. A Real Rock ‘n’ Roller
8. Big Night Out In Shrewsbury
9. That’s Why I Don’t Drink Tequila Anymore
10. Taylor Swift For President
11. Our Cat
12. Happy Birthday Baby
13. Magicians And Outlaws

America, the band that gave the world the Classic Rock evergreen “A Horse With No Name” in 1972 released their fifth album Hearts three years later to great public and critical acclaim. Hearts was produced by famed Beatles producer George Martin. The album was a big hit in the US reaching number 4 on the Billboard album charts, certified Gold by the RIAA.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Daisy Jane
2. Half A Man
3. Midnight
4. Bell Tree
5. Old Virginia
6. People In The Valley

Side B
1. Company
2. Woman Tonight
3. The Story Of A Teenager
4. Sister Golden Hair
5. Tomorrow
6. Seasons

Exploring hauntological soundscapes, the UK-based duo of Beck Goldsmith and Jon Dix are happy to present their debut work getting the listeners back to the inner-connection with the natural world.

Chimehours are a collaborative effort of Beck Goldsmith and Jon Dix who had already worked together on several indie folk releases in the past teaming up right now to create a new musical project in which they could express their shared love for folk horror, ghost stories and supernatural. “We wanted to do something that musically spoke to those influences and allowed us to explore the themes they raise – nature, folklore, time, community, and a sense of the uncanny,” recalls Beck.

The album concept took shape after a candlelit reading of Max Porter's ‘Lanny’ one Burns Night. Jon explains, “The themes and setting cemented our ideas and gave us a specific focus, and we imagined ourselves writing a soundtrack to the book, or to an imagined film of the book. From there, the songs came together at their own pace and distance”. Inspired by ethereal minimalism, retro cinema and folk narratives, Chimehours craft a sonic palette reflecting on the pressures of modern life and the desire for reconnection with the natural world. 'The idea of a lost child's connection with a Green Man-style character in the Lanny book also finds itself in the premiered single. Beck clarifies, “With Underneath the Earth, we wanted to capture this complicated relationship with nature and the sense of something calling to us from somewhere else – an 'otherness' that exists just outside of what we know and understand. Something old and eternal and familial, and at the same time unsettling”.

Written and produced between Derbyshire, London and Margate during lockdown and beyond, the album incorporates drones, drums, gritty guitars merging with woodwind, strings and voice textures that resist clear linearity. “We started to get bigger and bolder in our approach, and it was fun and mysterious and compulsive to bring it all together (as though other forces were at work...),” shares the duo.

TRACK LISTING

1. Branches
2. Underneath The Earth
3. Toothwort Took Him
4. Greentree
5. Making A Mountain
6. Dead Papa Toothwort
7. Bowerbird
8. Run
9. Look For Me
10. Can't Find Your Way
11. We Follow
12. Say Your Prayers
13. Dead Papa Toothwort (Decayed)

Following the kaleidoscopic ambition of 'Djesse Vol. 4', Jacob returns with The 'Light For Days' – a stripped-back, emotionally resonant body of work that is reflective of the quiet core of his artistry.

Recorded in just four days in the very room where his career first took flight, 'The Light For Days' trades scale for intimacy, spotlighting Jacob’s unmistakable voice and a deepening relationship with the guitar. The result is a collection of originals and handpicked covers that feel immediate, heartfelt, and timeless.

'The Light For Days' is a powerful reminder of the versatility that has earned Jacob seven GRAMMYs across various genres. For those who’ve seen Jacob live, this record will feel like coming home. For everyone else, it’s an invitation to see and to hear him in a new light.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Can Close Your Eyes
2. Heaven (Butterflies)
3. Thom Thumb
4. Fairytale Lullaby
5. Norwegian Wood
6. Keep An Eye On Summer
7. I Know (A Little)
8. Where Did My Apple Fall?
9. Sweet Melody
10. Icarus
11. Something Heavy

To Cy and Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 is a collection of Mancunian poet, singer, saxophonist and composer Alabaster DePlume’s simple and serenely intimate wordless adventures in melodic ennui. The collection properly introduced the world to a previously under-exposed, undeniably deep dimension of DePlume who, at the time of the its release, was most known to his (majorly British, majorly committed) followers for his music with words, his poetry, and his prowess as an impassioned orator. His performances (especially those that were part of his monthly Peach residency at Total Refreshment Centre in London) were becoming legendary for blurring the boundaries between secular sermon, theatrical monologue and song, as he turned audiences into experimental large ensembles and lead full-throated shout-a-longs to tunes like “Is It Enough” and “Be Nice To People” (both from his 2019 Lost Map album The Corner of a Sphere). The instrumental pieces that quietly buffered the big vocal moments of his recorded catalog, to that point, had mostly lived, quietly, in those buffers.

We’re not really sure what inspired DePlume to gather all of his recorded instrumentals, add a couple new ones, and invite International Anthem to collaborate on the campaign (we had only recently been getting to know him a little deeper, after our second trip to Total Refreshment Centre in the fall of 2018 when we recorded jaimie branch’s FLY or DIE II: bird dogs of paradise). But what we do know is, not long after To Cy & Lee’s February 2020 release and the subsequent arrival of a global pandemic, those recordings went very far, very fast, taking on a new life as stay-at-home hits — the quiet catharsis we didn’t know we needed in the face of rapidly unfolding confusion, fear, and isolation. As the people of the world found themselves inside their small rooms, they began to search for smaller, more intentional sounds to fill them. These instrumentals carried the healing qualities we were after then, and still seek now. As we cite on the obi strip, the music is an antidote with seemingly ancient sonic characteristics, and a unique ability to embrace the core of our very being.

To Cy & Lee was also the first document of an ongoing collaboration between DePlume and International Anthem, which has already yielded the albums GOLD (2022), Come With Fierce Grace (2023), and A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole (2025), in addition to sundry singles and EPs. The depth of partnership between DePlume and our crew that has developed since To Cy & Lee, coupled with the endlessly quenching spiritual comforts the album continues to provide, makes it an absolute essential of the International Anthem catalog and a proud choice for the final three of the IA11 series.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Visit Croatia
A2. What's Missing
A3. Song Of The Foundling
A4. Whisky Story Time
A5. Not Now, Jesus
A6. If You're Sure You Want To
B1. The Lucky Ones (with Danalogue)
B2. Why, Buzzardman, Why
B3. Not My Ask
B4. Turpentine
B5. I Hope

“A good song can survive and shine in different ways in the hands of different musicians,” says Emmylou Harris. “It can have different meanings at different times in your life. A good song can travel with you anywhere.”

That philosophy has guided her fifty-year career in country music, during which she has covered countless songs across countless genres and put her own indelible stamp on each one. More specifically, it’s the philosophy that animates both Spyboy, her touring band in the late 1990s, and Spyboy, the 1998 live album that demonstrates how these musicians made her songs shine.

Sequencing old songs alongside new ones, the album tests the tensile strength of each one, pushing them into wilder and more psychedelic territory while remaining grounded in earthy country music. It’s completely unique in her catalog, a crucial document of an important chapter in her career, and it’s finally getting reissued after years of being unavailable. “It’s such a special record,” she says. “Well, they all are, but this one is really, really special. That was such a fantastic band and such an amazing time.” Spyboy grew out of Wrecking Ball, Harris’ groundbreaking 1995 collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois. In 1996 and 1997 together with Buddy Miller, Brady Blade and Daryl Johnson, The band, also named Spyboy, toured America and Europe together, never playing a song the same way twice.

Buddy Miller brought along his recording gear and recorded nearly every show on the tour. When their time on the road ended, Miller and Harris sat down together and they culled through hundreds of tracks to choose the ones that best represented the Spyboy ethos of endless possibility. They whittled the original release down to 14 tracks and in 1998 Eminent Records released Spyboy on CD.

TRACK LISTING

My Songbird
Where Will I Be
I Ain't Living Long Like This
Love Hurts
Green Pastures
Deeper Well
Prayer In Open D
Calling My Children Home
Tulsa Queen
Wheels
Born To Run
Boulder To Birmingham
All My Tears
The Maker
Thing About You
All I Left Behind
Get Up John
Sweet Old World

The debut single from Tompkins Square’s latest signing, 22 year old Nashville born and based Maisy Owen. Maisy plays all the instruments on this song. Produced by Robin Eaton.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Youth Is All For You (Mono)
2. My Youth Is All For You (Stereo)

John Devecchi is The Owl and is well known to disco and funk heads for several great EPs and his superb Concrete Funk album from 2021. This one opens with 'I Can't Stop', which is a playful number with a deep funk vocal and big horns. 'Bad Bad Feelin' has a country feel with guitar picking and harmonica that infused the low slung beats, and last of all is a deep cut sound that is enriched with jazzy horns and lively funk vocals a la Parliament and Fatback band. All three of these will bring colour and charm to grown-up dance floors.

TRACK LISTING

I Can't Stop
Bad Bad Feelin
Call

'The Pendulum Swing' follows Katherine Priddy's highly acclaimed 2021 debut 'The Eternal Rocks Beneath', which announced Priddy as a singular new talent on the contemporary roots music scene. Speaking about the single, 'First House On The Left', and the wider themes on the album Priddy commented: “Despite its soft and dreamy sound, this song provides the cornerstone around which the album and its themes orbit."

The album title 'The Pendulum Swing' is taken from a line in this song and describes the urge to leave and the even stronger urge to return. It also sums up this second album as a whole nicely - "despite moving forward and feeling the need to do something different with this second release, I still can't help but return to those fundamental, unchanging things at the root of it all: home, family, love." Once again recorded in Birmingham by producer Simon J Weaver, guest musicians comprise John Smith (lead guitar), Harry Fausing Smith (strings), Marcus Hamblett (brass/double bass), George Boomsma (guitar, backing vocals, co-writer on track 'Ready To Go'), Polly Virr (cello) and even a brief appearance from Priddy’s family members right at the end of the album, in keeping with its themes. With 'The Pendulum Swing', Priddy has managed to keep moving forward whilst acknowledging and honouring all that has gone before.

TRACK LISTING

1. Returning
2. Selah
3. First House On The Left
4. These Words Of Mine
5. Does She Hold You Like I Did
6. Northern Sunrise
7. A Boat On The River
8. Father Of Two
9. Anyway, Always
10. Walnut Shell
11. Ready To Go
12. Leaving

Un Own is a freshly minted label founded by, we're told, familiar-but-unfamiliar figures and designed as a home for DJ- and collector-friendly edits and remixes. The debut release comes from seasoned remixer and beatmaker Shimmy Sonic. These jams have already been tested on discerning dancefloors and 'Coolage' kicks off with elastic, low slung grooves that draw from classic soul and hip-hop sensibilities. The vocal is a real doozy that soars high. On the flip, 'Our Time' gets deep into downtempo bliss with psyched out guitars rising out of the mix to set the tone for Un Own's mission of putting out respectful reworks built for selectors and serious listeners alike.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: What a delightful little record. Pasta Paul is on board too, though he did complain that there was an edit of one of the tracks on another 7" we had in not that long ago so he's sitting this one out... oh well, his loss!

TRACK LISTING

Coolage
Our Time

Patrick Watson composes, performs, and records his albums with his long-time bandmates, collaborator and multiinstrumentalist Mishka Stein and Olivier Fairfield. The Canadian artist reached gold and platinum status in multiple countries, and his shows sell out around the world. Over the course of his career, Patrick has retained the uncanny ability to coexist in mainstream pop-culture spaces and on the avant-garde fringes. Patrick’s songs have been featured in primetime crowd-pleasers like Grey’s Anatomy and This Is Us, as well as in multiple arthouse films from Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Wim Wenders (Perfect Days), Philippe Falardeau (C’est pas moi, je le jure!) and more. He’s an artist who’s as comfortable performing impromptu pop-up shows on the train tracks in a Quebec mining town as he is leading the BBC Orchestra at London’s prestigious Barbican. He’s an in-demand composer with over 15 film scores under his belt. He was awarded the prestigious inaugural Impact Award at the 2024 Canadian Sync Awards. He recently collaborated with artists such as MARO, Martha Wainwright, Charlotte Cardin and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Je Te Laisserai Des Mots
2. Ça Va

'A Giant Has Nowhere To Go: Tongue Master Records Presents Selections From Comes With A Smile (2000-2006)' is a celebratory vinyl-only release drawn from the magazine's sixteen cover-mounted compilation CDs. Across some 300 tracks, the magazine presented previously unheard tracks from its eclectic array of interviewees drawn from the worlds of the Singer Songwriter, Americana, Post-Rock, Electronica, and all things Indie.

Comes With A Smile's designer/editor Matt Dornan’s association with Tongue Master Records began with the first TM 7" and has continued to the present day. In some ways the association has come full circle with this curated release. The selections on this album represent the place where the worlds of Tongue Master and Cwas converge. Most remain exclusive to the magazine, and all appear on vinyl for the first time.

Side one features artists who appear in the Tongue Master discography - from established masters Mark Eitzel, Mark Mulcahy and Howe Gelb to the equally idiosyncratic stylings of New York’s The Scene Is Now, Athens’ Sigmatropic (featuring Edith Frost) and London’s cinematic The Real Tuesday Weld. The latter revisits a CWAS favourite, featuring a newly recorded vocal by Sephine Llo, exclusive to this release. Other contributions include intimate demos from Eitzel and Gelb (better known in embellished form by American Music Club and Giant Sand respectively), to standalone gems like Mulcahy’s 'Elephantine' (which gives this collection its title) and the bruised avant-garde blues of The Scene Is Now’s 'The Word'.

The tracks on side two and the accompanying 7” are a diverse selection drawn from the sixteen CDs CWAS issued between 2000 and 2006 that reflect and complement the oeuvre of Tongue Master Records. Here you will find the dense literature-infused art-folk of Lullaby For The Working Class, the sparse acoustic balladry of Nina Nastasia and the curious Matmos-enhanced stylings of veteran polymath and fellow New Yorker David Grubbs. In their wake comes an epic jazz-tinged duel between Douglas McCombs’s Brokeback and sometime labelmates Chicago Underground Duo, and the raw gothic Americana of Blanche. The LP concludes with a haunting lo-fi lament by the sorely missed Jason Molina in his Songs: Ohia guise. The 7" presents two further gems: a concise edit of the lengthy title track from a 2005 12” tour EP from CWAS regulars The American Analog Set, and an acoustic rendition of a track from the album ‘The Great Destroyer’ by shapeshifting veterans Low from the same year.

Together the fourteen tracks hint at the breadth of the CWAS archive, a treasure trove from a not-too-distant musical past. With full lyrics, a special four page insert tracing the history of the magazine, and an Alex Wharton Abbey Road cut, this quality release is a testament to the legacy of Comes With A Smile.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Scene Is Now - Words
2. Howe Gelb - Wolf Pup
3. Mark Mulcahy - Elephantine
4. Sigmatropic Featuring Edith Frost - Haiku 4 (Alt)
5. Mark Eitzel - Bought A Book
6. The Real Tuesday Weld Featuring Sephine Lo - Dreaming Of You
7. Lullaby For The Working Class - In Defense Of Abstractions
8. Nina Nastasia - I Will Never Marry
9. David Grubbs - Aging Young Lovers
10. Brokeback With Chicago Underground Duo - Chomsk, Live!
11. Blanche - Never Again (Demo)
12. Songs: Ohia - Untitled

7”
1. The American Analog Set - Everything Ends In Spring (Edit)
2. Low - Walk Into The Sea (Acoustic Version)

Neon Castle hones in on a fleeting sub-genre of early to mid-’80s folk-rock. For a brief moment, glistening slide guitar, fretless bass, satin floating over drum machines intertwined with ethereal female voices, conjuring a sound at once familiar and otherworldly—pop structures touched by myth. Some songs sway with the warmth of open ranch-land, crystal visions beneath thundering skies; others shimmer with candlelit mysticism, as if born in a pagan stone tower, crafted with the very staff Kate Bush might have wielded. Together, these pieces reveal a singular cloth.

Compiled by Charles Bals—now in his third collaboration with Smiling C—Neon Castle affirms his rare gift for storytelling through sound. Each track unfolds like a scene from an imagined film: castles glowing with noble gas, kingdoms awash in purple haze, white horses roaming free, hair cascading to the waist. The collection sketches a realm both new and upon a time, a world where fantasy takes shape through music. With Neon Castle, attentive listening becomes narrative.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Seductive collection of folk-tinged electro-Balearic-soul (if that makes any sense?) that's already had our Pasta Paul hot under the collar. Smiling C and Charles Bals, already highly regarded curators for the weird, warm and wonderful.

TRACK LISTING

Judie Tsuke - Shoot From The Heart
Sally Townes - Neon Castles
Suse Millemann - Patterns
Tessa Stivar - Thin Air
Skyway - Romeo
Karen Ghee - Get Free
Amy Levin - Good To You
Rainbow Boogie Band - Once In A Lifetime Touch
Susan Smith - Flight
Susan Smith - Right Before My Eyes