Twenty four years into their existence, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. have circled the globe at least a few dozen times, released over 100 albums in their various guises and played thousands of shows.

In recent years, they’ve experienced seismic line up changes which has given them yet another new lease of life ... or a rebirth if you will. Original members Kawabata Makoto (guitar, speed guru) and Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer, noodle god) are now joined by Jyonson Tsu (vocal, midnight whistler), Satoshima Nani (drums, another dimension) and Wolf (bass, space & time) and as anyone that has seen the new line up live will testify, things have gone even more cosmic ...

‘Reverse Of Rebirth In Universe’ sees the band return to their old label Riot Season for the first time since 2012’s 'IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out' (CD still available). Both label and band have gone on some wonderful journeys during that time apart but both felt the stars were finally correctly realigned to renew their partnership in all things weird.

Long time AMT fans will immediately recognise some of the song titles listed on the album sleeve here. But the songs themselves have been reworked and transformed far away from their original versions. New boy Jyonson Tsu's quiet, almost whispered vocals bring a whole new aura to proceedings, despite the familiar riffs hidden in the depths below them. It's so laid back in places it's practically horizontal, with only occasional trademark piercing guitar squeals threatening to destroy the peace and calm. The whole of side two is taken up with the twenty minute epic 'Black Summer Song' .. and if this is an indicator to where the AMT mothership is heading going forwards we're all in for another fucked up and magical ride.

If you stepped off the AMT ride over the years, possibly overwhelmed by the amount of releases they were once firing out ... it could be time to step back on it and check out where they're currently at. In a world that's more messed up than ever, we could all use a little break away from the norm, and nobody takes you as far away from the norm as possible as Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I can feel the lysergamides oozing out of this one. Slow, hypnotic crescendos are broken by double time psychedelic freakouts before segueing into a simmering stoner dirge. A sprawling, transportative affair, and one to be taken in heroic abundance dried, and with the lights off. AMT do it once again.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition mint green vinyl version.

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition 300 copies on black vinyl housed in a gloss finished 350gsm sleeve with download code.

CD Info: The CD version comes with a sixteen minute bonus song, a cover of Gong's 'Flying Teapot' which has never previously appeared on CD.

People Must Jam return to their Collector's Cuts series after a lengthy delay (two years since this one first hit the presales!), taking us on a trip to Hamburg to visit Growing Bin gentleman Basso. If you've paid any attention to our staff recommendations over the last few years you'll be well acquainted with Growing Bin Records, a home to the esoteric, ecstatic and frankly mind blowing. Whether he's ahead of the reissue pack, introducing us to German jazz-funk rarities, woodland kosmische and Iranian fusion, or bossing the end of year charts with Aussie ambient, French library sounds and textural house, Basso's constantly looking for something new, different and essential.

This should come as no surprise, since the Hamburg native started Growing Bin as a blog and online shop dedicated to his first love - digging! As my personal first port of call for rare record information or wine recommendations, Basso is a generous man with a sophisticated palate - and an insane record collection. Here he dives deep into the bin to splice together four exquisite selections for late nights, early mornings or afternoons on the yacht. 

We're in tropical territories on the A1, enjoying a breakfast mimosa on the cape while the steel pans, lilting groove and toasty bass of "Bumba" roll on and on. As jazzy as my trademark shirts, smoother than Silvestre's latin charms and madder than Matt on the staff party, this dreamboat docks at headband bay for a glorious guitar solo before erupting into an echo-drenched climax of lunatic laughter. Before you ask, the "Ol Dirty Vinyl" style skip-out before the solo is supposed to be there, embrace the oddness and imagine Basso winking behind the decks. Onto the A2 and the floor-filling, club killing sound of "Jane's Addiction", a top notch Kwaito groover which demands shoulder rolling, side stepping and fist pumping from the off. Plastic synth sounds, bubbling bass, BIG vocals and a hot hook - need I say more?

Bump to the B-side and take a deep breath for some BOOOOOGGGGGIIIIIEEEEE (Randy Brunson TM)! Slipping into some freshly pressed chinos and winding its body like a snake is "Novo Espectaculo", a Portugeuse / Brazillian heater for warm ups, rub downs and Balearic party sets. Blessed with the kind of tight, pocket dwelling groove you could loop giddily for at least four hours, this Portuguese tart takes us through melodic MPB vocals, fusion guitar licks and crazed drunk-at-the-carnival breakdowns before leaving our heart lighter and our limbs significantly looser. Last but not least, Basso treats us to an expert edit of a German synth funk rarity, appearing here as "Gioco Sporco In Palazzo". Now, the keen eared among you may have heard this new waver recut for Il Bosco and The Bat's Red Laser release, and our close friend Bosco actually bought a copy of this cut from the Growing Bin. Well, while this one languished in the pressing plant queue, Mancunia's finest editors beat old Basso to the punch, but now you have another ace option for B2B DJ extension, drag backs or other technical jocking. Emotive vocals, percolating sequences and ace FX make this a fitting end to a fine EP. Basso ftw!

A 90 minute blast of grown up angst that engages the best classic rock touchstones from Young and Stills guitar battles to Love’s tender melodies, Dinosaur Jr’s buzzsaw guitars and Hendrix at his most expressive. “Harking back to the liberating songcraft of The Beatles but with a jagged edge, intense swathes and swerving changes that give it a transatlantic propulsion, a kinship with the likes of Husker Du.” Record Collector. Featuring a selection of poignant pop songs impregnated with mature riffs and memorable one liners from the pen of the much covered (Lemonheads, Mary Lou Lord, Teenage Fanclub, Walkingseeds) Nick Saloman. Embracing Saloman’s tongue in cheek one liners and clever use of prose, ‘We’re Your Friends, Man’ bristles with incisive wit and poignant observations. Press Quotes : “Arguably Britrock’s most prolific one man cottage industry.” Uncut // “Saloman is an accomplished songwriter and guitarist influenced by a slew of guitar heroes.” Big Takeover // “For the past 30 years, one man has kept the psych freak flag flying.” 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLP includes MP3 Download Code.

"You Know What It’s Like" is an album for inbetween days, and occupies inbetween states: plain-speaking pop, disorientated by dub. Psychedelic folk delivered with (post-)punk economy. Drifting in space while still tethered to the ground. Astral tones blurred with earth sounds: wood, bone, breath, skin, dirt. Ending and beginning, dying and becoming. Longing for adventure and an unquiet life. Struggling to get out of bed. This is Carla dal Forno’s debut solo album, following time in cult Melbourne group Mole House and an earlier association with Blackest Ever Black as a member of F ingers and Tarcar. Her voice is an extraordinary instrument: both disarmingly conversational and glacially detached. It has something of the bedsit urbanity of Anna Domino, Marine Girls, Antena, or Helen Johnstone - stoned and deadpan - but it can also summon a gothic intensity that Nico or Kendra Smith would approve of. This voice is the perfect embodiment of dal Forno's emotionally ambiguous songs: their lyrics rooted in the everyday, observing and exposing a series of uncomfortable truths. This voice asks difficult questions of singer, subject, and sung-to. And of course there are no simple answers. Singles "Fast Moving Cars" and "What You Gonna Do Now?" weigh up claustrophobia against loneliness, inertia against acceleration, doubling down versus taking off; the title track acknowledges the provisional nature of love and 'real' intimacy, then decides to brave it anyway. By the time we arrive at the startlingly sparse "The Same Reply", the impermanence of all things is something that can no longer be tolerated, and the sense of dejection is absolute. The vocal-led pieces are interspersed with richly evocative instrumentals, like Eno’s "Another Green World" reimagined in shades of brown and blue. Smothered in tape-hiss and reverb, the seasick synthesizer miniatures "Italian Cinema" and "Dragon Breath" channel the twilit DIY whimsy of Flaming Tunes and Call Back The Giants. "DB Rip"'s drum machine and bassline are pure Chicago house, but then its dark choral drones nod to Dalis Car's dreams of blood-spattered Cornwall stone. "Dry The Rain" drinks from a stream of eldritch, home-brewed moon musick that runs through Coil, In Gowan Ring, Third Ear Band, even the Raincoats’ Odyshape, and into the woods.

Unknown Truths is the debut album from Tony Beardsley (aka Dark Strands). What can be said about this album…for one, it is a body of work that has been crafted as a labour of love with sources of inspiration taken from the late 80’s underground warehouse parties and clubs where no one speed or style of music was played…curve balls as they say, was a good thing. Ambitious maybe…but the only aim of the album was to actually not to have one. No one genre or concept can be applied, but this is not by design, purely accidental as the music weaves between various electronic strands and rhythm forms. It’s fair to say that his music has not been compromised to follow latest trends or fashion. It is for everyone, but no one. Its only true purpose is to liberate senses and provide a lasting sonic soundtrack to the modern age.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly evocative collision of VHS saturated retro-futurism, throbbing basement electronics and pulsing, cosmic scree. Hoga Nord have never been one to be scared of diversifying their sound (so much so i'd struggle to define their 'Sound' except that it's always good, and this is no exception. Completely brilliant and thoroughly essential.

After 2018’s critically acclaimed Space Gun LP and a string of jaw-dropping, sold-out shows, GUIDED BY VOICES has announced a sprawling double-album, Zeppelin Over China. to be released on February 1. But before this one has even made it to the warehouse, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. It’s Warp and Woof (April 2019), exuberantly barreling through 24 songs in just 37 minutes with a brevity similar to mid-90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus. GBV kicked this one out in a flash, recorded in studios, club soundchecks, hotel rooms and even in the tour van. 

And because you can never have too much GBV, the album is being teased on four vinyl-only (1000 copies) limited edition 7-inch EPs: Winecork Stonehenge and 100 Dougs will be released in November. Umlaut Over The Özone and 1901 Acid Rock in March.

FORMAT INFORMATION

7" includes MP3 Download Code.

After 2018’s critically acclaimed Space Gun LP and a string of jaw-dropping, sold-out shows, GUIDED BY VOICES has announced a sprawling double-album, Zeppelin Over China. to be released on February 1. But before this one has even made it to the warehouse, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. It’s Warp and Woof (April 2019), exuberantly barreling through 24 songs in just 37 minutes with a brevity similar to mid-90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus. GBV kicked this one out in a flash, recorded in studios, club soundchecks, hotel rooms and even in the tour van.

And because you can never have too much GBV, the album is being teased on four vinyl-only (1000 copies) limited edition 7-inch EPs: Winecork Stonehenge and 100 Dougs will be released in November. Umlaut Over The Özone and 1901 Acid Rock in March.

JOHNNY MAFIA have long been high rollers in the burgeoning post-garage punk rackets gripping the country of France over the last few years. High-energy explosive acts like JM, The Scaners, Escobar, Les Grys Grys, Les Lullies and The Arrogants have been burning up stages across Europe and USA with a vengeance, adding their craft to the long list of fine French exports suited to the more cultivated of music connoisseur.

The group hail from Sens, Burgundy (which is known more for it’s wheat and cereal production than rock ‘n’ roll) and bring a young, snotty, explosive and ferociously fun energy that drives audiences into a near-frenzy. Inspired by classics like The Ramones, T-Rex, and The Clash, they also draw heavily on contemporary acts like Ty Segall, Jay Reatard, and the Wavves. With their signature reverb-soaked slap-backed fuzzed out sonic attack, Johnny Mafia embodies punk attitudes and spirit of past and present with a firm foothold into their bright future as a young band ready to conquer the wider world of rock ‘n’ roll. 

Well renowned bass player extraordinaire, Osynlige Mann (URAN GBG, The Exorcist) from Gothenburg releases long awaited new solo material on cult electro-goth label Höga Nord Rekords. This 7” contains high voltage material; “Airports” and “Exodus” brings tense seventies synth and early eighties electro to the table. The A-side “Airports” is a Kraftwerk inspired elegy over the lumpenproletariat of the machines – aeroplanes. 'No sleep for the big machines, no rest for the sad machines'. The B-side, “Exodus” carries more obvious characteristics from Osynlige Manns other projects and sounds like a more electronic version of URAN GBG! Man and machine can live in peace. But a machine never forgets…

*LTD COPIES AVAILABLE*Cardinal Fuzz are proud to introduce Melbourne's The Sand Pebbles and a long awaited vinyl pressing of their psychedelic flower punk classic - “Ghost Transmissions”. Formed on Bastille Day on the set of Neighbours by three of the show's screenwriters Christopher Hollow (bass), Ben Michael (guitar)and Piet Collins (drums) their debut LP Eastern Terrace was a minor classic and the this follow up release - Ghost Transmission was lauded by The New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Wire and Ptolemaic Terracope. Like a classic pop album of old where every track feels like ear candy for the brain, The Sand Pebbles take you on a trip from Summer Blissed out Pop to head nodding wig-outs. Not once does the quality ever dip as Ghost Transmissions explodes from the eye of the universe with sun-kissed explosions of melody.

Ghost Transmissions is presented in a beautiful 320gsm gloss laminated sleeve with 2 inserts and is pressed on Heavy weight Black Vinyl (poly lined inners) and includes a 20 track download which features the original 11 album tracks plus 9 additional tracks (outtakes and live material from the time).

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

On ‘Vonal-Axis’, their fifth album in a career spanning two decades, Steeple Remove have signed to Fuzz Club and carved out an album that warps their Moog-devotion into a whole new beast. One that journeys from shoegaze-drones that weigh heavy on your chest (“Oval Strii”, “Monochrome Continuum”), to kosmische psychedelic pop (“Waters”) and dub-inflected post-punk (“Ferris Noir”) that falls somewhere between Metal Box-era PiL and the shimmering, textural guitars of The Durutti Column. Vonal-Axis is the bands finest work yet - their latest in a very lengthy career that’s seen them remain a mysterious presence on the fringes of the experimental French underground since forming the project back in 1997. Emerging out of Rouen, a small city in the Normandy region of France, the four-piece arrived with their now impossible-to-find debut album, The Importance Of Being Steeple Remove (1998) - released on the cult label Sordide Sentimental who put out earlier works from the likes of Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV.

After that they all but disappeared, not returning until eight years later with Radio Silence (2006) and Electric Suite (2008), both marking a departure from their early experimental electronica into a wider pool of kraut, psychedelic rock and atmospheric pop. Save for the odd single and live show, it took another six years to hear a full record from the band – that being the 2014 LP Position Normal which left them to pick up glowing, long-overdue praise across Europe.

Choosing not to leave it quite so long this time, enter Vonal-Axis: a nine-track LP that sees them attempt to hone in on their near quarter-century of experimentation to produce a collection of tracks that are sometimes poppy, sometimes heavy, but always exploratory. The album was recorded by the band themselves on an old 8-track recorder, taking half-written songs into the studio and then improvising on top of them to maintain the energy the songs had when played live. Lending his production prowess on the mixing duties was Demian Castellanos, the mastermind behind The Oscillation, whom Steeple Remove became good friends with after both bands played together several years ago. Among the long list of other bands Steeple Remove have shared the stage with is krautrock leviathans Faust and Damo Suzuki, London punk-rockers Wire and D.C. stoner rock troupe Dead Meadow - offering a pretty clear insight into the many sonic worlds Steeple Remove have journeyed into and found a home through the years. Steeple Remove is Arno Van Colen (Vocals/Synths), Walter Thomas (Percussion), Mana Audisio (Guitars) and David B (Bass). 

Cardinal Fuzz are proud to introduce Trimdon Grange Explosion and their debut Self Titled Long Player. Trimdon Grange Explosion are an psych folk ensemble from North-East London. Comprising Alison Cotton (viola/vocals), Ben Phillipson (guitar/vocals), Mark Nicholas (bass) and Karl Sabino (drums), the quartet formed in the aftermath of the split of acclaimed folk-rock outfit THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF MAY of whom all four were members.

In 2010 a 7” emerged on The Great Pop Supplement – a cover of Judy Henske & Jerry Yester's 'Raider' b/w 'The Trimdon Grange Explosion' - and then after a further seven year gap, their debut album release saw the light of day, initially as a limited-edition CD-R box package on the Borley Rectory label in Spring of 2017. We are delighted to finally release this acid psych shindig on vinyl, Remastered by Chris Hardman and with hallucinatory artwork by Peckham-based illustrator LUKE DROZD. The self-produced recordings of TRIMDON GRANGE EXPLOSION's eponymous set took place during 2015-2016 in various North London locations.

The 9 eclectic tracks (plus one bonus track on the download too) range from original compositions to acid-tinged group instrumentals to songs from the folk tradition, arranged for electric instruments. TRIMDON GRANGE EXPLOSION is a grand continuation of its previous incarnation's psychedelic fusion of the modal rock of The Velvet Underground – among others – with their own English traditional music roots. Evidently, there was unfinished business. a 500 Pressing presented in a 350gsm Card Sleeve with download code.

Elefant's 25th anniversary collection - # 20 of 25.

First time on vinyl for Giorgio Tuma's debut album. Giorgio Tuma has a psychedelic, melancholic, elegant pop spirit. A musical goldsmith. And "My Vocalese Fun Fair" is a delicious album, exquisitely arranged, where the psychedelia, the lounge music and the Brazilian samba all join hands to make up a banquet of an album; the soul on "Coney Island Memories", the funk-pop on "Marsico", the baroque folk of "Musical Express" or the northern soul of "Saltamontes". 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Numbered limited edition (300 copies) on electric blue vinyl.

Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

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

Fresh on the heels of the band’s latest spectacular psych rock masterpiece, Stickman Records is happy to present a reissue of the long out-of-print second album by Weedpecker. Weedpecker formed in Warsaw, Poland in the early 2000s as a stoner rock band with serious melodic tendencies. Much in the same vein as now-labelmates Elder, the band has gradually traded riffs for atmosphere and progressive song structures, stepping further away from others’ footsteps with each release. On II, their aptly-titled second full-length, the band broadened their sound on all levels, and as a result dropped jaws across the stoner rock community in 2015.

Weedpecker makes huge riffs that are majestic and beautiful, suspending them in oceans of reverb and psychedelic atmosphere. II takes less influence from the lighter side of psych rock than the record that followed it, opting instead for a grunge-tinged approach to their stoner epics. Brother guitarists Piotr and Bartek Dobry play off each other with an ease perhaps expected from family - offering twin guitar leads and chunky stoner grooves that melt into hazy, ethereal atmosphere in the next moment. On top of it all, sublime vocal harmonies complete the picture of a superb rock album that is both heavy and beautiful.

Brand new volumes in the successful Stag-O-Lee series titled Exotic Blues & Rhythm - Enjoy amazing and danceable tunes from the late 50s and early 60s - a handful of Popcorn dancefloor smashes, a few grinding Tittyshakers, awesome Rhythm & Blues - most of them with an exotic twist! 12 songs each on nice 10" vinyl (only)! 

We love a good celebration at Piccadilly, but you might have noticed we're less keen on organisation. We're the kind of relative who leaves you hanging without even a text on your birthday, only to remember the following week and sweep you off your feet in a whirlwind of ponies, princess outfits and/or tickets to the football. We're so disorganised, we almost forgot our 40th Anniversary - but not quite.

So to commemorate these forty harmonious years in your company, and to put a big tick on our bucket list, we give you our very own EXCLUSIVE VINYL ONLY compilation with tracks handpicked from our various End Of Year charts of 2018. Limited to 500 copies, lovingly adorned in a regal Mark Brown sleeve, and packed with cross genre gems from the last twelve months.

Local hero, ambient master and thoroughly nice chap Phil France extends a warm welcome with the cinematic shuffle and evocative melody of "Mr Jackal" before the silken vocals, sloppy funk and inspired arrangements of "Wings" explain exactly why Kadhja Bonet topped our Piccadilly playlist this year. Keeping it consecutive we turn our attention to Mike Lindsay and Laura Marling's LUMP, whose drifting, dreamy and slightly disorienting "May I Be The Light" marries pointed lyricism, infectious hooks and all sorts of electro-acoustic goodness, segueing perfectly into Tim Burgess's sublime cover of Suicide ballad "Cheree", an opiated lullaby for androids, sheep and humans alike. SFA-related GULP stick to the stoned tempo with the West Coast via Wales psych pop of "Spend Time Right Here With You", while Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever close out the A-side with a little of the chiming guitars, propulsive rhythm and all round indie excellence we've come to expect from them.

Our B-side begins with the kraut-funk exuberance of Christiane F's "Wunderbar", lifted from JD Twitch's compilation of the year "Kreaturen Der Nacht", before veering left of centre and down of beat thanks to Prins Emanuel's Durutti-styled acoustic vignette "Jordkällaren". Next you get "Brockley" a bass heavy, brassy blast of explosive jazz from London newcomer Theon Cross, as heard on Brownswood's fantastic "We Out Here" collection. Closing in on the finish line, Khruangbin come through with a red hot shot of Tarantino-pleasing desert funk in the form of "Maria Tambien", Jon Brooks goes New Age with his Advisory Circle synthscape "Flight Capture" and VHS obsessed, electro-psych renegade TVAM plays us out with the epic and ecstatic "Psychic Data".

Not only have we nailed it with our first ever vinyl comp, but at the bargain price of £9.99 we've given you the perfect stocking filler. Happy anniversary!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Oh Yes! It's finally here, the day has come. Featuring some of our favourite tracks from our favourite albums of the year, this little purple beaut reads like a what's what of the best music around today. Completely essential and superbly priced fun for all the family.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited to 500 copies.