Featuring founding members of classic California hardcore bands Outspoken, Insted and Chorus of Disapproval. A18's message is not new, but their commitment is particularly refreshing. No room for compromise in their musical vocabulary. This is powerful, loud and demanding hardcore at its best.

One In A Million is the second studio album by Aaliyah. First released in 1996 by Blackground Records, the album features production from a variety of producers including Timbaland, Missy Elliot, Carl-So-Lowe, J. Dibbs, Jermaine Dupri, Kay Gee, Vincent Herbert, Rodney Jenkins, Craig King, Darren Lighty and Darryl Simmons. With countless accolades, One In A Million remains as one of the most influential albums in Hip-Hop & R&B and proved to be a major breakthrough in Aaliyah's career. Welcome to the new world of funk.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Beats 4 Da Streets (Intro)
A2. Hot Like Fire
A3. One In A Million
A4. A Girl Like You
B1. If Your Girl Only Knew
B2. Choosey Lover (Old School / New School)
B3. Got To Give It Up
B4. 4 Page Letter
C1. Everything's Gonna Be Alright
C2. Giving You More
C3. I Gotcha' Back
C4. Never Givin' Up
D1. Heartbroken
D2. Never Comin' Back
D3. Ladies In Da House
D4. The One I Gave My Heart To
D5. Came To Give Love (Outro)

Compared to Flying Saucer Attack, Azusa Plane, Labradford and Windy & Carl. Beautiful drifting guitars and electronics.

All the bangers on one double vinyl set.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Dancing Queen
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Take A Chance On Me
Mamma Mia
Lay All Your Love On Me
Side B
Super Trouper
I Have A Dream
The Winner Takes It All
Money, Money, Money
S.O.S.
Side C
Chiquitita
Fernando
Voulez Vous
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
Side D
Does Your Mother Know
One Of Us
The Name Of The Game
Thank You For The Music
Waterloo 

Honey Honey (English) 7″ picture disc incorporates classic band imagery from the original era and features a b-side companion track.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Honey, Honey
Side B
King Kong Song

Voyage is ABBA’s first new studio album in 40 years.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Still Have Faith In You
2. When You Danced With Me
3. Little Things
4. Dont Shut Me Down
5. Just A Notion
6. I Can Be That Woman
7. Keep An Eye On Dan
8. Bumble Bee
9. No Doubt About It
10. Ode To Freedom

The 50th anniversary of the band’s 2nd studio album.

The album features the single ‘Waterloo’, the song which brought the band International fame and won the 1974 Eurovision Song Content in Brighton (UK).

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 - Side A
Waterloo - Swedish Version
Sitting In The Palmtree
King Kong Song
Disc 1 - Side B
Hasta Manana
My Mama Said
Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
Disc 2 - Side A
Honey, Honey
Watch Out
What About Livingstone
Disc 2 - Side B
Gonna Sing You My Love Song
Suzy-Hang-Around
Waterloo

Waterloo (Swedish) 7″ picture disc incorporates classic band imagery from the original era and features a b-side companion track.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Waterloo - Swedish Version
Side B
Honey, Honey - Swedish Version

Waterloo 7″ picture disc incorporates classic band imagery from the original era and features a b-side companion track.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Waterloo
Side B
Watch Out

Serious Poke is the debut solo from Fred Abbott the London-based musician, until now, best known as lead guitarist and keyboard player in the recently disbanded Noah And The Whale.

A supremely talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Abbott joined Noah And The Whale in 2009 and went on to huge success, especially notable being his contribution to 2011‘s Platinum-selling and highly acclaimed Last Night On Earth.

Abbott enlisted the help of his Noah And The Whale compadres and other friends for the recording of Serious Poke, with sessions taking place at West London’s British Grove Studios over the past year. The album was co-produced by Fred with Martin Hollis, whose diverse credits include Grinderman, The Rolling Stones and Take That.

TRACK LISTING

1: Adrenaline Shot
2: Funny How Good It Feels
3: Awake
4: Honey
5: Hollywood
6: One Hot Night
7: Learn About Love
8: Don't Look Like Him
9: Still Told A Lie
10: Lucky People 

Four years of slow-burning success on from the rolling primal rhythms and joyous arpeggios of his 2010 debut album 'Holkham Drones', Luke Abbott makes a bold return to the Border Community with his sublime second album offering ‘Wysing Forest’.

Named after the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire who hosted Luke as their first ever musician-in-residence over a six week period during the winter of 2012, the album comprises a series of improvised live recordings, edited and compiled after a period of after-the-act reflection into one rapturous movement. The finished article’s 52-minute duration may have been chopped into nine track-sized chunks for its official album release, but this is most definitely an album which is greater than the sum of its parts, designed to be listened to in one immersive go.

“‘Wysing Forest’ has a very particular arc to it an the tracks only make sense in the context of that arc,” Luke explains. “Structuring the album to work as a whole was quite a challenge, almost more of a challenge than making the music, but I think I’ve ended up with something that has a kind of internal logic.” And though only a pair of tracks - ‘Free Migration’ and ‘Highrise’, together forming the subtle peak that marks the mid-point of the album - approach ‘Holkham Drones” idiosyncratic lumpen danceability, it is thanks to Luke’s perfectly judged elegant transitional dynamics that neither piece - although as dancefloor-directed as anything he has ever done before - feels out of place amongst the album’s more mellow moments.

'Translate' is the first solo artist album in six years from Norfolk synthesizer specialist Luke Abbott: a strikingly direct and assured return to the solo music-making game following a productive diversion into live improvisation with his experimental jazz trio Szun Waves.

At times dark and ominous, others bright and welcoming, these eleven electronic vignettes form a dramatic and undeniably cinematic body of work which functions as a fitting widescreen soundtrack to our new now.

The lumbering rhythms, strident synths and distinctive touchstones of 'Translate' represent a musical reconciliation with the directness of the wave-making rolling synth-kraut of Abbott’s forthright debut 'Holkham Drones'.

Newly-reinvigorated and with a new sense of musical purpose, this is Luke Abbott’s sound fully realised and never so sure of itself.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Holkham Drones' was one of my favourite albums for many a year, and still gets a good playing nowadays but nothing has come close to the mind-melting electronic bliss-blanket of 'Translate'. Perfectly split between hypnotic electronic counterpoints and synthy, IDM levity.

TRACK LISTING

1) Kagen Sound
2) Our Scene
3) Flux
4) Ames Window
5) Roses
6) Earthship
7) Living Dust
8) River Flow
9) Feed Me Shapes
10) Luna
11) August Prism

Few albums define a particular era as does The Lexicon Of Love. It’s embedded deep in the fabric of popular culture. Namechecked, referenced and, now, frequently in “best of all time” polls, the album opened up the 80s wide, in full, glorious Technicolor. In 1982, ABC became the toast of the world with this album. It also launched the production career of Trevor Horn. Like the greatest landmark albums, it has transcended its origins and is simply there, an ever-evolving testament to its marriage of youth, wit, creativity, technology, emotion, masterplan and happy accident.

1LP Half Speed Master
A commemoration of the album that kickstarted the 80s. Half-speed mastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell. In new gatefold sleeve with Abbey Road obi strip and certificate of authenticity

TRACK LISTING

Side A: 
Show Me
Poison Arrow
Many Happy Returns
Tears Are Not Enough
Valentine’s Day
Side B: 
The Look Of Love
Date Stamp
All Of My Heart
4 Ever 2 Gether
The Look Of Love (Part Four)

ABC perform their classic album "Lexicon Of Love" in it's entirety, plus their other greatest hits.

Sheffield's finest, ABC, were back in their hometown for a very special anniversary show which marked exactly 40 years to the day since the album was released on the 21st June 1982.

ABC were joined by the original orchestral team of Southbank Sinfonia and longtime collaborator and arranger Anne Dudley who conducted the evening.

TRACK LISTING

LP TRACKLISTING
Disc 1
Side 1
1. Overture
2. When Smokey Sings
3. Viva Love
Side 2
1. The Night You Murdered Love
2. (How To Be A) Millionaire
3. The Flames Of Desire
4. The Love Inside The Love
Disc 2
Side 1
1. Ten Below Zero
2. One Better World
3. Ocean Blue
4. Be Near Me
Side 2
1. Show Me
2. Poison Arrow
3. Many Happy Returns
4. Tears Are Not Enough
Disc 3
Side 1
1. Valentine's Day
2. The Look Of Love
3. Date Stamp
Side 2
1. 4 Ever 2 Gether
2. All Of My Heart
3. The Look Of Love (Part Four)
4. The Look Of Love (Encore)

2CD TRACKLIST
Disc 1
1. Overture
2. When Smokey Sings
3. Viva Love
4. The Night You Murdered Love
5. (How To Be A) Millionaire
6. The Flames Of Desire
7. The Love Inside The Love
8. Ten Below Zero
9. One Better World
10. Ocean Blue
11. Be Near Me
Disc 2
1. Show Me
2. Poison Arrow
3. Many Happy Returns
4. Tears Are Not Enough
5. Valentine's Day
6. The Look Of Love
7. Date Stamp
8. 4 Ever 2 Gether
9. All Of My Heart
10. The Look Of Love (Part Four)
11. The Look Of Love (Encore)

3CD TRACKLISTING
Disc 1
1. Overture
2. When Smokey Sings
3. Viva Love
4. The Night You Murdered Love
5. (How To Be A) Millionaire
6. The Flames Of Desire
7. The Love Inside The Love
8. Ten Below Zero
9. One Better World
10. Ocean Blue
11. Be Near Me
Disc 2
1. Show Me
2. Poison Arrow
3. Many Happy Returns
4. Tears Are Not Enough
5. Valentine's Day
6. The Look Of Love
7. Date Stamp
8. 4 Ever 2 Gether
9. All Of My Heart
10. The Look Of Love (Part Four)
11. The Look Of Love (Encore)
Disc 3
1. Overture
2. Show Me
3. Poison Arrow
4. Many Happy Returns
5. Tears Are Not Enough
6. Valentine's Day
7. The Look Of Love
8. Date Stamp
9. 4 Ever 2 Gether
10. All Of My Heart
11. The Look Of Love (Part Four)
12. The Look Of Love (Encore)

It's been a while since Aberfeldy's last album but time hasn't blunted their edge - the 12 tracks that make up "Somewhere To Jump From" are as sharp as ever, despite the somewhat depressing conditions that led to their creation. Dropped by their label and bruised by the departure of both female members, it could have been curtains for the Edingburgh outfit, whose debut 2004 album "Young Forever" garnered universal praise upon its release and led to high profile touring support slots, an NME single of the week and the dubious pleasure of having one track ("Summers Gone") feature in adverts around the world for products including online Bingo, Diet Coke and Spanish nappies.

From a lovelorn plea aimed at an ex partner/ keyboard player ("In Denial") followed by a bittersweet reappraisal of the story so far ("Play The Music Loud") to an account of Riley's years living on a commune run by an ex member of the Incredible String Band (California, West Lothian) plus pure pop gems like "Lisa Marie", this is Aberfeldy's slickest work to date.

Introducing your favourite new 3 piece: Abjects, a new London trio who have been winning over fans all over the world with an impressive set of edgy garage tunes, perky bass-lines washed over with lashings of jagged and disjointed guitar work. Hotly tipped by Manchester’s PINS - who released their debut EP ‘Fast Love’ (Haus of Pins) - Abjects have been a prominent garage punk band in the London live circuit since their emergence in 2013. Self-sufficient and capable, they’ve created their own scene, put on their own nights, designed their own merch – fully immersing themselves with the DIY ethos which allowed them to be picked out by the likes of Jon Spencer & the Blues Explosion, Mikal Cronin, Shannon and the Clams, The Coathangers or the larger than life Fat White Family. Their latest offering comes from their ‘Gone’ EP with lead single ‘Gone’.

Recorded by rising starlet producer Syd Kemp - which is to be released on Stolen Body Records (Brown Brogues, Thee MVP’s & more) on May 11th 2015 both digitally and on limited edition 12” vinyl. Influences on the band come in the form of The Shangri-las, The Slits, Lydia Lunch, The Stooges and Sonic Youth. With such potent esteemed artists helping to sculpt their sound it is clear to see where Abjects gather their signature clout.

‘Between The Walls’ is the third album by About Group - Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized), Pat Thomas (has played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

Alexis Taylor: “I think the excitement of making music is what I can hear in this record. John’s guitars on ‘Love Because' make me think of buzzing flies swinging wildly around the musical centre of the situation. That the centre is unstable as no one knows what song I am playing, makes me think of the controlled chaos of ‘Like Flies On Sherbert’ or a Cramps record, but ours sounds like it is playing at half speed.”

In contrast to its ethereal title, Ben Abraham’s ‘Sirens’ is deeply human. Its songs were written over the artist’s developing years as a writer and the album has become a kind of musical documentary of the loss, longing and growth that carried Abraham from his very first lyric to this, his first album.

Abraham first found his voice writing songs whilst working in a hospital. Eight years on, he’s made an album, toured with Emmylou Harris, co-written with Grammy-nominated singer Sarah Barreilles and made ‘Sirens’, his debut album.

Originally self-released in Australia, ‘Sirens’ is now receiving a worldwide release via Secretly Canadian.

Ben recorded ‘Sirens’ with two local friends, Jono Steer (who was his live mixer) and percussionist Leigh Fisher. A number of other Melbourne musicians joined in on sessions, including Gossling, whose angelic voice can be heard in the opening track. Gotye helped produce the haunting vocals on ‘Speak’, while ‘experimental electronic producer’ Tim Shiel assisted on ‘This Is On Me’.

‘This Is On Me’, co-written / sung with platinum-selling artist Sara Bareilles, has its own story. After Abraham posted a song (‘To Sara, From Ben’) on YouTube, Bareilles’ fans began to tweet the video and it grabbed her attention. When she played Melbourne in 2011, she invited Abraham up on stage to co-sing a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ and an original co-write was subsequently born.

TRACK LISTING

Sirens
Time
I Belong To You
She
You And Me
Collide
To Love Someone
Home
This Is On Me
Speak
Somebody’s Mother
Songbird
A Silent Prayer

Unique recording of this unique constellation of musicians. Featuring pianist Chris Abrahams of cult jazz band THE NECKS, guitar and experimental maverick Oren Ambarchi, and percussion experimentalist Robbie Avenaim.

Polymath Oren Ambarchi has a celebrated release career with a devoted new music following, his last solo album “Schebang” on Drag City ended on many 2022 top ten lists including The Wire, along with being listed in Pitchfork 50 Best Albums of the year.

Following nearly 20 years of working together as a trio, and numerous cross-collaborations in different configuration between them, Ideologic Organ presents Placelessness, the debut full-length by Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim, comprising two long-form works at juncture of ambient music, minimalism, rigorous experimentalism and improvisation, and machine music.

Having carved distinct pathways across a diverse number of musical idioms for decades, Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim are each, respectively, among the most noteworthy and groundbreaking figures to have emerged from Australia’s thriving experimental music scene. Ambarchi and Avenaim first encountered Abrahams when seeing the Necks - the project that has served as the primary vehicle for his singular approach to the piano since its founding in 1987 together during the late 1980s, not long after having met in Sydney’s underground music community. The pair’s collaborations date back more than 35 years, criss-crossing Ambarchi’s pioneering solo and ensemble work for guitar and Avenaim’s visionary efforts for SARPS (Semi Automated Robotic Percussion System), robotic and kinetic extensions to his drum kit.

In 2004, fate brought the three together in a trio performance at the What Is Music? Festival, the annual touring showcase of experimental music founded and run by Ambarchi and Avenaim between 1994-2012. For the nearly two decades since, Abrahams, Ambarchi, and Avenaim have intermittently reformed in exclusively live contexts, in Australia and abroad, cultivating and refining the fertile ground first tilled in that early meeting. Placelessness is the first album to present this remarkable trio’s efforts in recorded form.

Placelessness is the joining of three highly individualised streams, working in perfect harmony; the point at which friendship, mutual respect, and decades of creative exploration produce a singular spectrum of sound. Featuring Abrahams on piano, Ambarchi on guitar, and Avenaim on drums, the album’s two sides draw on each artist’s enduring dedication to long-form composition. Its two pieces, Placelessness I and Placelessness II, initially began as a single, 40 minute work, before being divided and reworked into distinct, complimentary gestures for the corresponding sides of the LP.

Beginning with restrained clusters of reverberant piano tones, Placelessness I progresses at an almost glacial pace, with Abrahams’ interventions increasing met by sparse responses, darting within vast ambiences, on guitar and percussion by Ambarchi and Avenaim. Remarkably conversational within its convergences of tonal, rhythmic, and textural abstraction, over the work’s duration a progressive sense of tension unfurls and contracts, refusing release, as each of the ensemble’s members contribute to an increasingly tangled sense of density at its resolve.

While an entirely autonomous work, Placelessness II rapidly realises a distillation of the energy hinted at across the length of its predecessor. Following a luring passage of harmonious calm, Abrahams’ launches into shimmering lines of repeating arpeggios, complimented at each escalation of tempo by Avenaim’s machine gun fire percussion work and Ambarchi’s masterful delivery of tonality and texture, as the trio collectively generate dense sheets of pointillistic ambience within which individual identity is almost lost, before slowly unspooling into unexpected abstractions and dissonances that deftly intervene with the work’s inner logic and calm.

What could easily be termed a maximalist take on Minimalism, Placelessness is a masterstroke of contemporary, real time composition, that blurs the boundaries between ambient music, experimentalism, free improvisation, and machine music. Drawing on Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim’s decades of respective solo and collaborative practice, and the culmination of nearly twenty years of working together as a trio, it’s two durational pieces - Placelessness I and Placelessness II - take form with a startling sense of effortlessness and grace, neither shying away from explicit beauty or rigorously tension within their forms.

TRACK LISTING

01 Placelessness I 18:28
02 Placelessness II 20:42

Rudolf Abramov is taking a step in a different direction from his last release on Höga Nord Rekords. This 7” contains the works of deep mining in an old hard drive during the introversion of the pandemic quarantine. These two gems have been given a bit of tasteful polishing before reaching the point of release and the result is a punk meets stoner rock experience propelled by hard sequencers and drum machines.

This record is as English / Irish as you find em: straight forward instrumentation and lyrical performance presented with a dirty and rough production. The beats are stripped with an edgy punch and the synthesizers are overdriven, giving them guitar like qualities.

The “Paracetamol / Clonex” 7” is a release of covid demons, and the sound of spitting out the bitter taste of isolation, or to use his own words: ‘On this 7" you will find absurd and desperate lyrics accompanied by heavy English and Irish accents, driven robotic drum machines, dirty synths, crunching bass, and as unpolished as your dad's old Angle grinder.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: One of the shining lights of the underground, Höga Nord Rekords, continues to usher in a crucial roster of artists eschewing music trends and Instagram stardom for a dark, nocturnal, gothy inspired sound all of their own. Equally at home in the rock club or warehouse; this is uncompromising music strictly for those who like it strange!

TRACK LISTING

A. Paracetamol Feat. Matthew Johnson
B. Clonex Feat. Brendan Cleary

Carolina Faruolo (ex-Los Bitchos) and Danny Lee Blackwell (Night Beats) had been friends and mutual admirers of each other’s musical projects for years, though with Faruolo residing in the UK and Blackwell residing in Texas, their interactions were limited. Yet as was so often the case for many of us during the shelter-in-place stretches of 2020, geographic proximity wound up being a non-issue as our socializations became almost exclusively online endeavors. In this era of isolation and uncertainty, Faruolo and Blackwell invented their own private escape to Latin rhythms, colorful vistas, and smoky revelries under the project name of Abraxas. Combining their shared love of Wendy Renee, Los Destellos, doo-wop and R&B, they crafted their debut album Monte Carlo by bouncing ideas across the Atlantic.

“Planet Abraxas is a world filled with jungles, mist-covered rivers, panthers lurking in the night, desolate shopping malls, Neolithic citadels and sand-worn walls,” Blackwell says of the muse behind Monte Carlo. “The nights are usually dense with fog and the air is filled with the sounds of cicadas and faraway drumming.” This visual manifestation of their sound stands in stark contrast to the environment in which the songs were written. “I remember the feeling I got the first time Danny added vocals to one of my tracks,” Faruolo recalls. “I was sitting on my sofa in rainy Manchester in the middle of winter. I pressed play and the song just made my heart jump. It instantly felt special and, more importantly, it felt like a perfect portrait of both of us.”

Uruguayan-born Faruolo grew up with the tropical beats of cumbia and the psychedelic flavor of classic chicha artists, and it became her mission to infuse those sunny influences in her work as a UK musician. Blackwell’s work under the Night Beats handle involves the fusion of outlaw soul and R&B with a resourceful DIY spirit. Despite the apparent contrast in their styles, the two musicians bonded over their reverence for Selena and Sade, exemplars of the humid pulse and sultry spirit of their respective approaches. As Abraxas, their distinctive musical perspectives created a sound that encompassed the tropicalia of Os Mutantes, the scrappy songwriting of Cleaners From Venus, and the trippy production of Lee “Scratch” Perry, though the duo is quick to assert that they were finding their own distinctive voices rather than adhering to pre-existing stylistic codes and constraints. And indeed, Monte Carlo feels rooted in tradition but blossoms into its own unique timbres and vibrations.

Monte Carlo opens with “Sunrise State (of Mind),” where a hypnotic cumbia beat serves as the bedrock for cosmic guitar leads, hazy choral melodies, and Blackwell’s seductive vocals. From there, the album continues its steady Latin pulse on “Mañana,” a perfect soundtrack to feverish nights in dancehalls, sipping on caipirinhas and sharing cigarettes with strangers on the dancefloor. Across its twelve tracks, Monte Carlo unfurls a myriad of exotic influences, from the Eastern melodies and guitar trills on “Sultan,” through the dub-inflected stomp and scorching fuzz of “La Estampida,” and on to the Anatolian psych-funk of album closer “Göbekli Tepe.”

Blackwell recorded his contributions with the assistance of engineer Chris Maciel at his studio the 22nd Dimension in Pomona, California and Faruolo recorded her parts in Manchester, England at Brunswick Mill. While Abraxas conceived their material in bedrooms and studios six timezones apart, the music on Monte Carlo sounds like a live band in the throes of an ecstatic performance. And Abraxas plans to make the live incarnation of the band a reality when conditions allow for it. Until then, listeners can bask in the invented world of Abraxas and all its exotic and enticing splendor across the twelve tracks of Monte Carlo. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to present Monte Carlo to the world later in 2022 on digital and vinyl formats.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Sunrise State (Of Mind)
2. Mañana
3. Sultan
4. Monte Carlo
5. La Estampida
6. Hourglass
Side B
1. Prismatic
2. Yes
3. Golden
4. Fuji
5. Shapeshifter
6. Göbekli Tepe

Melancholic, poignant and witty, Absentee's debut mini album offers a peepshow view of their world. Equal parts humorous, tragic, dour and dirty, "Donkey Stock" is a rich, confident debut. While Dan Michealson's distinctive drawl tells tales of love gone sour and awkward sex, the band lilt and lunge with genuine passion. For reference think Smog at their most tuneful or Leonard Cohen on happy pills backed by The Velvet Underground.

Abstract Orchestra's composer, leader, arranger and producer Rob Mitchell has now added remixing to his already notable list of credits, in this case turning his hand to Abstract's MADVILLAIN project. Rob has worked with many artists during his busy career; The Haggis Horns, Rag 'n' Bone Man, Sharon Jones and the Dap–Kings, Brand New Heavies, and Slum Village, alongside many others but it was the orchestra's work he wanted to revisit. Seeing the pandemic as an opportunity to spend more time in the studio, Rob spent several months polishing his production skills before embarking on this remix project, he wanted to make sure he did it justice. Working under the moniker Ghostlife, a nod to the fabled anonymity of rapper MF DOOM, Rob has reworked the big band orchestration of Abstract, creating a beat led affair with greater dance floor appeal.

For Abstract Orchestra MADVILLAIN REMIXES, Ghostlife cherry picked ten tracks from Abstract's two-album project and plays with a higher BPM count within the hip hop aesthetic of the original. The tracks include "Raid", "Fancy Clown", "Curls", and "Figaro" and in this case Ghostlife has forgone the big arrangements Abstract is known for, rather he has coaxed out hooks and samples from their tracks and produced something he hope will appeal to a different crowd. There is dancefloor potential in "Eye","Accordian" and bass heavy "Borrowed Time" while the reworks of 'Fancy Clown" and "Curls" would fit well into any radio show.

TRACK LISTING

1. Raid (Ghostlife Remix)
2. Fancy Clown (Ghostlife Remix)
3. Eye (Ghostlife Remix)
4. Accordion (Ghostlife Remix)
5. Curls (Ghostlife Remix)
6. Bistro (Ghostlife Remix)
7. Borrowed Time (Ghostlife Remix)
8. Fire In The Hole (Ghostlife Remix)
9. Figaro (Ghostlife Remix)
10. Fluid (Ghostlife Remix)

Re-issue of Drexciya's 4th storm! Another seminal work of 6 futuristic deep & Drexciyan electro / techno tracks. Hypothetical questions translated into music by the visionaries of contemporary electronic music. ''Music beamed through Dimensional Waves by Abstract Thought...'.

Rightly deserved of its cult following, the album is the absolute epitome of underwater techno greatness - resplendent with Drexciyan tropes and containing some of the most skilled synthesis you're likely to hear on record.

First released in 2003 on Kombination Research. Remastered from the original session tapes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bermuda Triangle
2. Synchronised Dimensions
3. Me Want Womans Punani
4. Consequences Of Cloning
5. Solar Pulse
6. Galactic Rotation

London based French DJ / producer delivers his third and strongest EP for Different. "Moribayasa" is a techno / house track with a shamanic African twist - bumping kuduro beats with a hint of electro and UK bass. It's sure to appeal to fans of Boys Noize, Brodinski, Turbo.

The EP also has stellar remixes from Argy and DJ Kaos. Argy (Permanent Vacation, Versatile etc) creates a driving techno rework that's much tougher and four-to-the-floor. Coming in with something a bit spookier is DJ Kaos, who comes up with a slower, sci-fi tinted remix that grooves along in a house stylee.

New Drexciya comic from AbuQadim Haqq
20 pages. Please note this is a comic rather a graphic novel.

Author & artist - AbuQadim Haqq
Publisher - The Drexciya Empire.

Composed, produced and arranged by Evangelia VS, the artist behind Abyss X, ‘Freedom Doll’ is the culmination of a year of emotional unloading through songwriting, offering an introspective journey into the ocean of her mind. Produced andorded between an artist residency near the Mayan jungle in Mexico and her Berlin home, the album chronicles transformations the performer tackled mentally during the writing process, tracing the rollercoaster of falling in love during the pandemic, as well as the pleasures and tribulations of womanhood.
‘Freedom Doll’ encapsulates the romantic escapade between her voice and the guitar. The amalgamation of seduction, sexual tension, vulnerability and assertiveness pulses throughout the entirety of the album, spiraling out of the cracks spawned from her vocal chords. From the twirling dance between her lush harmonies and the progressions of the acoustic guitar in tracks such as ‘Ascend’ and ‘From Hot to Cold’, to the explosive confrontation between the metallic and operatic qualities of her voice, the searing sound of the electric guitar in industrial rock / psychedelic anthems such as ‘Torture Grove’ and ‘Banyana’ and the cathartic momentum found in the gospel inclined chants in ‘A CHEW’ - ‘Freedom Doll’ untethers the dramatics and theatricality that defines Abyss X’s vocal performance and music production, while maintaining the sensual vibrations of her creative essence.

‘Freedom Doll’ is the encapsulation of the Minoan woman, the elusive harlequin tiptoeing her way through the circus of terror that is living and loving her way through womanhood. With this visual reference, Abyss X pays tribute to her ancestors and their groundbreaking ancient artistry. The back cover of the vinyl features a reiteration of depictions of bulls leaping found in Minoan frescoes; an inherently male cultural act that in the ancient Minoan times presumably gave expression to a tension that underlies man's somewhat tenuous mastery of nature. ‘Freedom Doll’’s artwork challenges this preconceived notion through an eco-feminist approach, bringing the Minoan woman slash Gaia in the seat of the bull leaper, taming the unhinged and predominantly male earth - threatening human force. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another week another alluring and mystic synth-pop masterpiece from the outlying AD93 label. Abyss X has a yearning, pop sensibility which in my ears at least, has a little bit of Christine & The Queens about it. Not all the way through though - sometimes she dives down the industrial synth wormhole with completely contrasting results.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Ascend
A2 - A Chew
A3 - Torture Grove
A4 - Oceans Of Heat
A5 - Vacuum (feat. Juliana Huxtable)
B1 - From Hot To Cold
B2 - This Strange Asylum
B3 - Banyana
B4 - Feeling A Type Away
B5 - Never Apart (feat. Juliana Huxtable)

The record opens up with the poisonous title-track 'Two Scorpios', where sharp analogue leads lean on a relentless disco-funk groove, thrusting us out straight against the sweaty walls of the Chicago's Muzic Box. The airy and enchanting spirals of 'Solenoid' create a detachment for a sonic trip through circling arpeggios and sparkles. On the flip side, we reconnect Abyssy to the Young Soulomon of early 90's by a warm and robotics 'Dusty House'. The mood turns definitely more freaky with 'Slomo Kid': sampling divertissement with a punkish flavour and emphatic rhythmics, it is the perfect tune to shake down the whole ball of wax. 

TRACK LISTING

A1: Two Scorpios
A2: Solenoid
B1: Young Soulomon
B2: Slomo Kid

This special 12" features two tracks that will not be on the vinyl version of the forthcoming AC Soul Symphony, Disco opus "Metamorphosis" featuring a 20 piece orchestra alongside a whole host top live players. That makes it an even more vital pick up because both are pure disco fire. 'I Want To See You Dance' has the title's classic refrain repeated over big Salsoul style string licks, funky basslines and soloing piano. 'The Talented Mr Adams' is a tribute to the legendary disco producer Patrick Adams and is a super sweet swooner with golden live strings and brass backing up a loose-limbed rhythm and vamping pianos that get you in the mood for love. These two tracks act as a fine teaser for what's to come on the much-anticipated album from a contemporary version of acts like MFSB and Love Unlimited Orchestra.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
I Want To See You Dance

Side B
The Talented Mr Adams

Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with the “Metamorphosis” LP - his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career.

With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK’s most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms – AC Soul Symphony – to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible.

“A few years ago, I produced a remake of David Shire’s orchestral disco masterpiece Manhattan Skyline under the alias of AC Soul Symphony. I really enjoyed reworking that classic track in a way that retained my favourite parts of the original but also writing new musical sections that gave it more my own flavour.”

Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, “Metamorphosis” is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that – it is a labour of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers.

“I do it because I love the process of creating something. My aim is to come up with an end result I genuinely think I’d want to buy, play and listen to if it wasn’t me.”

Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favourite childhood shows, “Metamorphosis” was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra to life.

“I thought making a whole album of this mainly instrumental, string heavy, tv theme like music would be a really enjoyable project and one that would play to my strengths as a producer. It was also slightly new territory musically and a bit of challenge.”

Taking disco back to a physical place, “Metamorphosis” was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it’s this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with “Metamorphosis”.

TRACK LISTING

Record One
A1 Windy City Theme
B1 Tradewinds

Record Two
C1 Six Billion Dollar Man
D1 Seneca Village
D2 Metamorphosis

Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with the “Metamorphosis” LP - his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career.

With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK’s most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms – AC Soul Symphony – to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible.

“A few years ago, I produced a remake of David Shire’s orchestral disco masterpiece Manhattan Skyline under the alias of AC Soul Symphony. I really enjoyed reworking that classic track in a way that retained my favourite parts of the original but also writing new musical sections that gave it more my own flavour.”

Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, “Metamorphosis” is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that – it is a labour of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers.

“I do it because I love the process of creating something. My aim is to come up with an end result I genuinely think I’d want to buy, play and listen to if it wasn’t me.”

Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favourite childhood shows, “Metamorphosis” was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra to life.

“I thought making a whole album of this mainly instrumental, string heavy, tv theme like music would be a really enjoyable project and one that would play to my strengths as a producer. It was also slightly new territory musically and a bit of challenge.”

Taking disco back to a physical place, “Metamorphosis” was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it’s this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with “Metamorphosis”.

TRACK LISTING

Record One
A1 The Philly Avengers
B1 AC Express
B2 The Mystery, The Moment

Record Two
C1 It’s Got To Be Love
C2 Music For Your Pleasure
D1 Losing My Mind At The Disco

Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with the “Metamorphosis” LP - his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career.

With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK’s most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms – AC Soul Symphony – to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible.

“A few years ago, I produced a remake of David Shire’s orchestral disco masterpiece Manhattan Skyline under the alias of AC Soul Symphony. I really enjoyed reworking that classic track in a way that retained my favourite parts of the original but also writing new musical sections that gave it more my own flavour.”

Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, “Metamorphosis” is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that – it is a labour of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers.

“I do it because I love the process of creating something. My aim is to come up with an end result I genuinely think I’d want to buy, play and listen to if it wasn’t me.”

Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favourite childhood shows, “Metamorphosis” was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra to life.

“I thought making a whole album of this mainly instrumental, string heavy, tv theme like music would be a really enjoyable project and one that would play to my strengths as a producer. It was also slightly new territory musically and a bit of challenge.”

Taking disco back to a physical place, “Metamorphosis” was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it’s this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with “Metamorphosis”.

TRACK LISTING

CD One
1. Windy City Theme
2. The Philly Avengers
3. I Want To See You Dance
4. Music For Your Pleasure
5. The Mystery, The Moment
6. It’s Got To Be Love
7. Metamorphosis
8. Tradewinds
9. AC Express

CD Two
1. Losing My Mind At The Disco
2. Six Billion Dollar Man
3. Manhattan Skyline
4. Seneca Village
5. The Talented Mr Adams
6. K-Jee

Dave Lee's "AC Soul Symphony" alias has been releasing delectable and sultry disco since 2005 but reached his magnus opus in 2023 with the release of the "Metamorphosis" LP. Here we find two tracks handpicked from the album and delivered, for the first time, in a 7" format. The single starts much as the album does with the track "Windy City Theme", beautifully scored, recorded, and produced legato strings envelope the track, punctuated with horns and vocals reminiscent of a Love Unlimited Orchestra production. This version of the track has been rearranged, speeding up the pacing of the track and reaching the juicy parts in a really satisfying way. On the flip side we have the title track from the album "Metamorphosis", which is the first time the vocal version has been made available on Vinyl. A bass laden intro gives ways to glistening pianos and those signature strings (have we mentioned how good the strings are?). A more laid back and seductive track than the A side, but no less appealing. Again, due to the limitations of the 7" format, "Metamorphosis" has been expertly rearranged with loving care and attention.

TRACK LISTING

Windy City Theme
Metamorphosis

Back In Black features ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, ‘Shoot To Thrill’ and the iconic title track. It is the ‘best-selling studio album of all time by a band’.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

Dirty Deeds Done Cheap was initially unavailable in the U.S. for five years, the album eventually rose to #3 on the Billboard chart, selling over 6,000,000 copies.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

The iconic cover of For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) features a ‘Twelve-Pound Cannon’ from the 19th Century. The band still incorporate cannons into their live set to deafening effect.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

The band’s international debut album High Voltage included tracks from their first two Australian albums.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

Highway To Hell was originally released in 1980 and was AC/DC’s first hit album in the US.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

1991’s double live album Live was recorded at Donnington Park and Birmingham in the UK, Edmonton in Canada and Moscow.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

The classic 1976 album Powerage contains the single ‘Rock And Roll Damnation’, the band’s first European hit.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

The Razors Edge features the classic single ‘Thunderstruck’, the video for which has been viewed over a billion times on YouTube.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

Who Made Who - AC/DC provided the songs for the soundtrack for Stephen King’s movie ‘Maximum Overdrive’, which included three brand new tracks including the hit title track.

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, the band’s catalogue will be available as gold coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPs comes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring new AC/DC 50 artwork, suitable for framing. 

Irish indie rock band The Academic are very excited to announce details of their new album, “Sitting Pretty” . The album was produced by Nick Hodgson at Snap Studios in London. Sitting Pretty is an album about navigating life in your 20s; the uncertainties and the ever-shifting sense of self. “It’s about the entrance into true adulthood and how that can alienate you from yourself, making you feel like you’re playing a supporting role in your own life,” the band explain. “In one moment feeling 100% certain about everything, only to become overwhelmed with feelings of aimlessness and lack of direction in the next.” 

Perfect for removing dust, grease and fingerprints from your precious vinyl.

Absolute smasher of a two-sider 45 out of Waycross Georgia. The 45 was licenced from original band member Michael George & Tim Gillans with help from DJ MR Big Happy & Daniel Mathes. We flipped the sides for the re-issue, the A side now being the more uptempo. 'What About Love' is a melodic spacey floater (you know I'm a fan already) with a brilliant vocal and top sax break. On the flip, 'Dream of a lady' is an absolute killer downtempo floater, I can't stress enough not to sleep on this side, it's a textural dreamy wonder.

TRACK LISTING

1. What About Love
2. Dream Of A Lady

Counting their early years in the scuzz-rock band Spinout, whose sole self-titled release came out in 1991 on Delicious Vinyl, guitarist Mark Lightcap, bassist Richie Lee, and drummer Steve Hadley played together for a total of 15 years. They disbanded in July 2001, when Lee committed suicide in the garage next to the house where the trio practiced. Afterwards, Rolling Stone ran a short obituary saying Acetone’s albums were “well received” but “failed to make any waves.” It was the first and only time they were featured in the national music press.

Between 1993 and 2001 the trio released two LPs and an EP on Vernon Yard—a Virgin subsidiary—and two LPs on Vapor, the L.A.-based label founded by Neil Young and manager Elliott Roberts. In that span, they were selected to tour with Oasis, Mazzy Star, The Verve, and Spiritualized. Against a rising tide of post-Nirvana grunge and slipshod indie rock, Acetone tapped into a timeless Southern California groove by fusing elements of psychedelia, surf, and country.

They rehearsed endlessly in an empty bedroom in northeast Los Angeles, recording hours of music onto cassettes that were subsequently stuffed into shoeboxes and left in a shed behind the drummer’s house. Those tapes are being released for the first time in this anthology, which also includes highlights from Acetone’s official releases. Taken together, the songs form a companion soundtrack to Sam Sweet’s book, which maps the character of Los Angeles as a place through the lens of these three unique characters bonded by music.

“I think our music is all about moods and feeling but hopefully it will get as weird as it possibly can,” said Richie Lee in 1997. “We want things to get weird in the way that you could hear an Acetone song and know that no one else in the world could make that kind of music but us.”

* First time band anthology.
* Includes 9 unreleased tracks.
* Audio restored and remastered from original tapes.
* Liner notes by Sam Sweet.

“Acetone are one of my all time favorite bands. Their music is still as electrifying and beautiful now as it was back then.” – Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star)

“A lovely mix of what would it be like if Dick Dale and Neil Young played with Isaac Hayes and The Velvet Underground. A seminal American band.” – Richard Ashcroft (The Verve).

TRACK LISTING

1. Shaker
2. All The Time
3. Louise
4. Return From The Ice
5. How Sweet I Roamed
6. Germs
7. Shore Power
8. Always Late
9. Things Are Gonna Be Alright (demo)
10. Midnight Cowboy
11. Chew
12. Too Much Time
13. Vibrato
14. Pico
15. Stray (demo)
16. Smokey

Originally released in 1997 on Vapor Records - Acetone (Full Album) was the bands most identifiable record - New West Records is proud to present this reissue with an expanded audio format pressed across two LPs and packaged in a full color gatefold.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: An absolute gem of a record! Fragile, hushed vocals over brushed drums and delicate finger picked guitars. On this album they had that slowcore, slacker feel, but intertwined with Americana and a warmth that many of their contemporaries lacked and they sounded like no-one else at the time. Everyone from Jason Pierce to Hope Sandoval has since cites them as an influence and 25 years on from it's original release this LP still sounds incredible.

TRACK LISTING

Every Kiss
All The Time
Germs
Might As Well
Shobud
All You Know
Good Life
Dee
Waltz
Another Minute
So Slow
Chew

Originally released on vinyl in 1993 via Hut Recordings (UK), Acetone's debut album is now available in an expanded 2LP format and packaged in a gatefold - The is the first pressing in over 30 years.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Originally released in the UK in 1993 on the long defunct Hut Recordings, everyone at the shop instantly fell in love with this album. Velvets infused slacker rock interspersed with shimmering, Americana tinged melancholy. Amazing!

TRACK LISTING

Come On 
Pinch 
Sundown 
Chills 
Endless Summer
Louise
Don't Cry
No Need Swim 
Barefoot On Sunday

Originally released in 1995 on Vernon Yard Recording - If You Only Knew
is now available for the first time on vinyl - New West Records is proud to
present this record pressed across two LPs and packaged in a full color
gatefold.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Another classic from Acetone and the first time ever on vinyl for this one.

TRACK LISTING

If You Only Knew
I Don't Really Care
In The Light
I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand
The Final Say
When You're Gone
Hound Dog
99 / What I See
Nothing At All
Esque
Always Late

Originally released in 2000 on Vapor Records - York Blvd was Acetones last record that they recorded - New West Records is proud to present this reissue with an expanded audio format pressed across two LPs and packaged in a full color gatefold

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Simply wonderful laid back rock with irresistible guitar lines weaving melodies under cool vocal harmonies. Mark Lightcap, Richie Lee and Steve Hadley have recorded a perfect album - steel pedal guitar and Hammond organ add to the rich mix. Previously only available on import, this is a long-time Piccadilly favourite.

TRACK LISTING

Things Are Gonna Be Alright
Wonderful World
19
Vibrato
Like I Told You
It's A Lie
Bonds
One Drop
Vaccination
Stray

Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018. During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars.

With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society. “Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neopsych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Searchin'
2. BBQ
3. RC Driver
4. She Only Eats Organic
5. Good Time
6. Smile You're On Camera
7. 2 Face
8. Djembe

Hot on the heels of their releases on Nu Groove and Refuge Recordings, Acid Jerks are back once again with another EP of jackin' traxx.

It's their first for Local Talk and sees Oliver Siebert & Stefan Braatz deploy their trademark kinetics and retro-futuristic house grooves with the usual aplomb. First up is "Shades Of Grey" which utilizes a jagged wooden bass sound, tense string stabs and phazing atmospheres to create a slowly building vibe that's certain to warm up any house leaning dancefloor nicely.

"Wheels Of Fortune" is classic raw, Chicago-indebted, warehouse business. With a pokey 4 note b-line, frenetic woodblocks and suspended strings - guaranteed fire for any nightclub space. "Rise Up" continues this theme, sounding like a lost Mr/ Fingers / Alleviated Music number with its emotive pad, string and lead combination - highly musical and slightly melancholic, just what late night dancefloors need!

"Ace Of Spade" concludes with nagging acid and rampant hand claps, a sincere tribute to the late 80s Traxx sound and pulled off with 100% authenticity.  

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Acid Jerks keep the Chi-town formula present and correct for modern 'floors, encompassing jack, acid and deep house flavours as they debut on Local Talk. We love em!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Shades Of Grey
A2. Wheels Of Fortune
B1. Rise Up
B2. Ace Of Spade

When Acid King pressed up their self-titled debut EP on a tape and started handing them out at shows with business cards, it wasn’t an aesthetic choice. It was 1993.

And while the world was still reeling in the aftermath of grunge breaking big on rock radio, this dirty-as-hell trio founded by guitarist/vocalist Lori S. were digging into even heavier vibes. Born out of Lori's shiftless days of wasted youth hanging around Chicago-area public parks, Acid King laughingly adopted the name from the book 'Say You Love Satan' and its subject Ricky Kasso, a local drug dealer who killed a friend over angel dust, thereby becoming the stuff of Satanic Panic local news broadcasts all over the country.

Founded after a move to San Francisco, Acid King were outliers on punker bills in the tradition of West Coast rifflords like Saint Vitus and Sleep, and this four-song outing captures them at their rawest. Long before the career-defining roll of Busse Woods (1999) and the psychedelic mastery of their latest offering, Beyond Vision, this EP set in motion one of American heavy rock’s most landmark careers.

Presented on reissued vinyl through RidingEasy Records – the original 10” was on Sympathy for the Record Industry – Acid King’s Acid King also established one of the most crucial partnerships in underground rock in that between Lori S. and producer/engineer Billy Anderson (see also: Neurosis, Sleep, Om, Amenra, Eight Bells, Cattle Decapitation and too many others to list). As Acid King went on to help define stoner rock in the mid and late ’90s with Zoroaster (1995), their Man’s Ruin Records split with Altamont (‘97) and Busse Woods, that creative relationship would flourish no less than the band’s sound, and here it is distilled to its meanest and most elemental self.

Led as ever by Lori, Acid King at the time featured bassist/vocalist Peter Lucas and drummer Joey Osbourne – legend has it both had to read 'Say You Love Satan' before joining – and Melvins drummer Dale Crover had a hand in producing it as well as singing lead on “The Midway” after Lucas took a turn on “Drop.” A preface to the many majesties to come throughout Acid King’s many-storied career, behold the formative incarnation that started it all. A piece of heavy rock history AND killer riffs? You can’t possibly go wrong. - JJ Koczan, May 2023

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Lead Paint
2. Blasting Cap
SIDE B
1. Drop
2. Midway

Acid Klaus, the new collaborative solo project from songwriter-producer and Northern England cult leg-end, Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop, Eccentronic Research Council & lots more) releases his debut concept album co-produced with his music partner in the ERC, Dean Honer titled Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris via Yard Act's ZEN F.C. label.

The album features contributions from Adrian’s long-time collaborators and friends including actress, Maxine Peake, US musician and video director, Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger), Maria Uzor from Sink Ya Teeth and the Bradford-born pop-noir singer (currently singing in The Specials), Hannah Hu who is joined on lap steel guitar on a track by Richard Hawley. The album is completed by a whole host of fresh and exciting artists (as well as the aforementioned Lieselot Elzinga) – there's the enigmatic Queen Bee of the Calder Valley, solo artist, Bianca Eddleston who goes under the name Soft Focus and finally from South Wales (and the current talk of the South London scene), the incredible welsh language singer-songwriter, Cat Rin.

Flanagan proclaims about the album: “I hereby herald in a masterclass of conceptual brilliance and sonic floor-shaking heroism. A record that is both mocking and hugging in its stance – a solid and weighty brick in the face to the horrid and cod sincere, brat histrionics of the easy-on-the-eye careerist indie minstrel. Where I, an invisible bruised and battered craftsman of high (and low) art for nigh on two decades is finally (and begrudgingly) held aloft like a prize-winning Champion Cock at a village fete whilst a demonically futurist/modernist B-Boy B-Girl group bring the gathered throng, deep, penetrative, body music!”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The superb Adrian Flanagan returns this week for a grooving, gritty dancefloor wonder, featuring bandmate and all-round musical polymath, Dean Hohner, Maria Uzor of Sink Ya Teeth, the wonderful Maxine Peake and MANY more. The perfect odyssey, and no surprise at all given the roster of talent. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. Step On My Travelator
2. Party Sized Away Day (feat Maria Uzor)
3. Bethlehem Or Bust (feat. Cat Rin)
4. Blow Your Speakers (feat. Soft Focus)
5. Crashing Cars In Ibiza (feat Maria Uzor)
6. Bad Club Bad Drugs Bad People
7. Elevate (feat. Charlotte Kemp Muhl)
8. The Three Rooms Of Nightclub Marilyn (feat Lieselot Elzinga)
9. I Used To Be A DJ In A Club (But Now I'm Just A DJ In My Bedroom)
10. My Hats On Fire (feat. Hannah Hu And Richard Hawley)
11. Eulogy To A Quiet Life (feat. Maxine Peake)

Acid Tongue is an American-bred garage band heavily influenced by AM-radio soul, folk and psychedelic rock. The band is composed of Guy Keltner & Ian Cunningham perverted in their youth by adolescent exposure to mind-altering substances and strange, spiritually-driven parenting techniques.

TRACK LISTING

1. Home
2. Ordinary People
3. Take Me To Your Leader
4. Facts Of Life
5. All Out Of Time
6. Rock ‘N’ Roll Revelations
7. Suffering For You
8. Won’t Walk Back
9. The World’s Gonna Fuck You

Inspired by the first wave of French house producers, Acid Washed bring us their own take on the ballroom-influence sound with this synth-heavy, arpeggios-set-to-stun electronic disco-house long player for Record Makers. Recorded after going twice around the world, ‘House of Melancholy’ is the soundtrack to Andrew Claristidge and Richard d’Alpert’s recent lives, and one that brings them right back home to France. ‘House of Melancholy’ gives pride of place to strong emotions and melodies. Without ever getting to the shores of electro-pop, the duo puts a little more of real, heavy pop, of 70s Italian variety, of Morricone or Philip Glass soundtracks, and very pure electronics in their dance music. Andrew and Richard surrounded themselves with friends in the recording of this LP: the exceptionally gifted Joakim at the production board, the stentorian Yan Wagner, the too rare Miss Kittin, the swagest Ahmad Larnes behind the mic, the geek comrades Hypnolove, Turzi or La Mverte playing around with keyboards and compressors… ‘House Of Melancholy’ brings the immediate beauty of synthesizers and pure arpeggios curled up around the organic beats spiraling to infinity. ‘House of Melancholy’ is a party, an ode to music which unites body and soul. Acid Washed welcome you to the party.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heartbeat Maker
2. Fire N’ Rain
3. Golem’s Dance
4. Prince Acid
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. Gasoline
7. Hello Universe
8. Celestial Choirs Of Barbès
9. Nautilus
10. House Of Melancholy

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are back with their first major new studio album in over 3 years, an epic, sprawling new work exploring the future, the past and the urgent reality of the present, ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’.

Recorded between San Francisco and London and brought together by the genius of Malcolm Catto at his analogue Quatermass Studio, the new recording represents another bold step in Ackamoor’s ever-evolving journey in jazz, adding full, intricate scores including string sections and choral elements to the Pyramids’ trademark spiritual Afro-jazz sound; Driven by the core Pyramids members Ackamoor (sax, keytar, organ), Margaux Simmons (flute), Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar), tracks range from hard-hitting commentaries about police brutality (‘Police Dem’) to celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones (‘Requiem For The Ancestors’, ‘Re-Memory’) and hazy cosmic journeys, including the album’s title track and the sparkling, experimental closer, ‘Nice It Up’.

“This album has been many years in the making,” explains Ackamoor. “Back in late 2020, I set out to compose the first in a series of scores to take The Pyramids sound into brave new territory. All of the tracks involve issues that the core band is passionate about and the recording was a complex process involving many musicians and vocalists across two different time zones.”

The recording is the Pyramids’ first new release since the acclaimed ‘Shaman!’ in 2020 and rides a wave of interest in the band around their 50th Anniversary this year. 

‘Afro-Futuristic Dreams’ is mixed by Malcolm Catto and mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works. The superb cover artwork illustration is by David Alabo.

All recordings mixed by Malcolm Catto at Quatermass Sound Lab

TRACK LISTING

1. Afro Futuristic Dreams
2. Thank You God
3. Police Dem
4. First Peoples
5. Truth To Power
6. Re - Memory
7. Garland Rose
8. Requiem For The Ancestors
9. Nice It Up

Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids return with an epic new opus, ‘Shaman!’, released on 7th August featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018’s acclaimed ‘An Angel Fell’ into more introspective themes. “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience,” explains Ackamoor. “The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”

Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shaman!
2. Tango Of Love
3. Eternity
4. When Will I See You Again?
5. Salvation
6. Theme For Cecil
7. Virgin
8. The Last Slave Ship
9. Dogon Mysteries

Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids return with an epic new opus, ‘Shaman!’, featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute Bobby Cobb on guitar, long-term associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018’s acclaimed ‘An Angel Fell’ into more introspective themes. “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience,” explains Ackamoor. “The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”

Evolving around Ackamoor’s intricate compositions, the album takes us effortlessly across moods and emotions through a series of expansive, extended pieces. Starting with ritual, soul-searching, and masculine vulnerability on the title track, the band explores timeless existence on ‘Eternity’ and mourns the sudden loss of loved ones in the prescient ‘When Will I See You Again?’, a track which gains new relevance amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. Ackamoor pays tribute to his mentor Cecil Taylor on the angular ‘Theme For Cecil’ and renders homage to the ancestors on ‘Salvation’ and ‘The Last Slave Ship’, recalling the last ship to bring slaves to the US from Africa, the Clotilda. The superb ‘Virgin’ is an anthem of forgiveness, new beginnings and self-healing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shaman!
2. Tango Of Love
3. Eternity
4. When Will I See You Again?
5. Salvation
6. Theme For Cecil
7. Virgin
8. The Last Slave Ship
9. Dogon Mysteries

'Better Strangers' is the debut album by Manchester based producer Acre, set for release by Tectonic Recordings on 6th November 2015. The album follows EPs on both Tectonic and sister label Cold Recordings and Visionist's PAN collaboration label Codes.

As influenced by rave & jungle, grime and techno as electronica, ambient and drone; his EP releases have been rhythm driven snapshots of other-worldliness spliced with dancefloor sensibilities. Acre has sought to explore a wider variety of textures on 'Better Strangers'; to re-contextualise elements from UK bass music, bring them away from the dancefloor and open up new possibilities.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love
2. Jouska
3. Always Crashing
4. Dek U
5. Spiral
6. Automatic Fire
7. Don’t Talk
8. Holding Hands
9. Ophelia
10. Tarantula
11. Ruby Tiers
12. Better Strangers

“Illegal Rave Tapes” is the first ever wax treatment for Acrelid, courtesy of Dance Data Records. Originally comprised of 134 tracks, this distilled selection by label head Dreams is a snapshot of John Lee Richardson’s archive of music from between 1999-2012.

Since the ripe age of 12, he’s been drawing inspiration from the UK rave scene in the 90’s that he found himself in. That spark was the beginning of a lifelong obsession. He set out to capture the essence of what he felt and saw surrounding him during that time; whether it was via recording loops out of a playstation 1 to cassette / CD or borrowing any other gear he could get his hands on / that people would lend him.

What’s less important than all the gear he used are the sounds he captured with them. Sinister beats that all share a driving quality of rhythm, spanning across smudged influences from jungle to acid and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop transmissions. It’s clear from the tunes that this is someone who’s clocked 1000’s of hours tinkering and refining his sound, and who has squeezed every function out of his machines, just for the fun of it all. Having seldom released music since the 90’s, John’s been waiting for the right moment to share it with the world, and this collection has very much been worth the wait.

Words by Jesse Sappell

***Includes a 16-page colour zine designed by Acrelid, transforming Thatcheraian-era anti-rave news propaganda and 90’s UK culture into incredibly thoughtful lore, providing a never before seen look into the world of the artist behind the Illegal Rave Tapes.**

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: This is the dog's bollox people! Igniting a spark in any raver's belly, past or present; John Lee Richardson arrives out of nowhere as a fully formed package of hardcore delight. Sure to give one DJ Absolutely Shit a run for their money, this is fiery, singular, UNDERGROUND heat - the likes of which we don't see very often. Enormous T I P on this one massive!

TRACK LISTING

A1. What Is This Thing?
A2. Vebus
A3. Scapegoat
A4. Geiger Counter
B1. Pure Knowledge
B2. The Shakes
B3. The Twilight Zone (Music 2000 Mix)
B4. It's Not A Matter Of Belief
C1. Rave Clubs And Things
C2. Imagery Garden
C3. Cantina Scene
C4. Right There
D1. Inertia
D2. Shape Shifter
D3. Pelt

"The spores of TG breaking out all over. An Alternative bloodline of electronic music; as if interbreeding of Chicago and Industrial resulted in sleeper cells entering a long gestation all over the world. Genesis' postal network as the carrier." 20 Jazz Funk Greats

And so Public Information splashes into 2013 with an almighty throb, pulse-tone generators at the ready. This is the debut record of malformed electronic-pop and modular fury from from Chicago two-piece Acteurs. From the chest-rattling kick of the opening track to the radon hailstorm of dub-techno epic "Freezing Fog" it's clear that the pair, Jeremy Lemos and Brian Case know their way around a mixing desk. Both have long, immaculate CVs with the cream of the US alternative scene, and here they stretch the studio to its limit.

Acteurs: proponents of bass to make systems quiver, drums that punch the gloom, electronics to scythe and screech into darkest night - a psychedelic overload. Acteurs: purveyors of pop-not-pop... Itchy Cluster tones... Frazzled Factory keys... LCD oscillations... NEU-motorik thrust... Argabright playgrounds... Repetition, repetition, repetition...

Dream an Acteurs dream. Sodium streetlights, grey smoke. Chromium staircases and black glass buildings. Acid rains. Cyberpunk racers. Dead TV channels. Amped-out brains. Come join their future-primitive world of stark and brutal groove, metallic avant-pop and precise mechanical funk.

An incendiary chemical reaction resulting from the mixing of equal parts synth pop, spiky, burning guitar riffs, walls of feedback and Mark Thomas Kluepfel's spine tingling, bruising imagery exploring the divergence of life, death, love and war. Features Taking Back Sunday's Eddie Reyes and Gary Bennett of Kill Your Idols.

Truth Cult proudly presents another whirlwind recording for the Bletchley boys Action Beat, with the follow up to their debut "The Noise Band From Bletchley". Like its predecessor, "Beatings" was recorded at Southern Studios in just two days and this time with at least seven musicians, which is evident in the sheer verve and potency of the album. It would be an understatement to say the boys have lost none of their energy in the recording process. They have taken their perfected improvised noise formula, driven by magnetic interlocking guitar harmonies, pummeling drums and crashing symbols and ramped it up a notch, or three.

As with their first album, their musical influences such as The Ex and Sonic Youth are still proudly on display, particularly on the songs "Solgunn" and "Bergen to Bletchley". Some of the other album tracks you may recognize if you have caught them at one of their umpteen live shows recently but Action Beat also pull out some original 'never-been-played-before' material, including the track "Daddy Why?"which builds upon the Krautrock-mantra of some of their older material and for the first time ever, utilizes fitting male vocals (provided by House Of John Player). This is the sound of a band maturing. But fear not, for if it was Action Beat's boisterousness that you always admired, that is still very prominent in the artwork.

True to form Action Beat have once again won the title of 'touring machines' as they set out on the road again and play out the new material from September to what seems like forever. Their mammoth touring schedule predominantly takes them to the Continent but not before a whistle-stop tour of the UK.

Like all great competitive warriors, Action Bronson uses every perceived slight as fuel to be even better. The rare rapper to marry critical acclaim with a devoted, rabid following, Action Bronson isn’t anyone’s idea of an underdog. And yet, on his brilliant new album, Cocodrillo Turbo, he sets out to prove that his lingual versatility is stronger than it’s ever been, that age has only made him a better rapper, and that anyone still sleeping on him as one of the best MCs on the planet better wake the hell up.

“I don't feel like I'm given the fucking respect that I deserve,” Bronson explains. Cocodrillo Turbo is Bronson demanding that respect. He’s gotten in the reps, constantly refining his poetic flow and relying on the instincts he’s cultivated with over a decade in the game under his belt. Now, sit back and enjoy the show.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hound Dog
2. Tongpo
3. Estaciones
4. Jaws
5. Subzero
6. Turkish
7. Jaguar
8. Zambezi
9. Ninety One
10. Storm Of The Century

On White Bronco, Action Bronson’s 2018 release, he rapped “my next album’s only for dolphins,” and the principled MC is nothing if not true to his word. A Queens legend, respected for his idiosyncratic pen and vivid raps, Action is a decade into his career and still deepening his skillset. “The dolphin is one of the most intelligent creatures ever created on whatever planet we're on,” Action explains. “They have their own way of communicating. They have nuance and intangibles like we do.” In a perfectly unusual analogy, he likens the aquatic mammal to the storied “five-tool” baseball player—that is, the extraordinary class of player who combines all elements of the game. “The only people who understand me are those five-tool players, those higher beings who are on the same telepathic wave as me.” Thus, Only for Dolphins, out on August TK.

Action keeps Only for Dolphins among family, working with producers and rappers he’s known for years. The Alchemist, Harry Fraud, Budgie, DJ Muggs, Samiyam, Daringer, and Tommy Mas provide crackling psychedelic soundscapes for Bronson’s unique tales.

His close friend Meyhem Lauren and Lauren’s brother Hologram are the only featured MCs. Bronson himself produced two of the songs, including the exuberant “Capoeira,” which kicks off the album with a saxophone solo. As much time as he spends on the wordplay and imagery, he’s dialed into the sonics too.

The first single “Latin Grammys” is a tribute to family. Produced by Tommy Mas, who produced all of Action’s 2011 debut project, Dr. Lecter, the beat for “Latin Grammys” is many years old. The file was originally labeled “Ozersky,” a nod to the beloved food writer Josh Ozersky, who tragically passed away in 2015. Ozersky and Action were close; in fact Ozersky was the first person to put Action on television via his show Ozersky TV. One day Action was going through old beats, saw the file, and knew he had to do something special in honor of his friend. Over a slinky brass and guitar loop, he raps with casual gusto about swim trunks stuffed with cash and black trench coats, Dolph Lundgren and Derek Jeter. “It’s Young Baklava, you know me,” he concludes.

Bronson is a collector—of experiences, of sounds, of culture. He’s especially happy with the Budgie-produced “Golden Eye,” a nod to the classic N64 shooter and to the resort in Jamaica; it samples a beautiful lovers rock track, which is a real point of pride for Action. “It’s a very specific UK subgenre,” he says, referring to the romantic reggae style that rose to prominence in London in the ‘70s. The flip gives “Golden Eye” a lush and sweet bed for Action to lovingly describe acrobatic sex and expensive rugs, wet with spilled wine.

To be a fan of Action is to be a fan of detail. Only for Dolphins is studded with remarkable specificity. On “Vega” he raps, “My alibi for the police is I was naked in Seattle”—a line only Action could come up. Befitting that attention to minutiae, Action hand-painted the album artwork, crafting, a figurative depiction of death and dolphins and gold coins.

“Congratulations” is the first word rapped on the album and it’s fitting to see this as the culmination of every skill Action has carefully honed over the last decade. He’s an insatiable and generous artist who wants to take the listener on a tour of his creativity. Welcome to his world. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Quick-witted with an incredible knack at storytelling, "Only For Dolphines" is perhaps his most fan-centric release to date: chronicling events and tales that his devotees will be familiar with, whilst dealing to the rest of us a hilariously stark social commentary full of phrases you'll be urban dictionary-ing till the middle of next week.

TRACK LISTING

1. Capoeira Ft. Yung Mehico
2. C12H16N2
3. Latin Grammys
4. Golden Eye
5. Mongolia Ft. Hologram & Meyhem Lauren
6. Vega
7. Splash
8. Sergio
9. Shredder
10. Cliff Hanger
11. Marcus Aurelius
12. Hard Target 

From the lable that brought you Larrikin Love, Good Shoes and Vincent Vincent And The Villians, comes this storming debut from Action Plan! "Stendhal" is the perfect combination: melodic, emotive and energetic with a pounding rhythm, chunky guitars and great raw vocals. "Beauty Scars" on the flip is equally as good: a slower, more brooding affair it starts off somewhere between Sonic Youth and indie jangle but then bursts into a frantic chorus before reverting back to mellowness, a pattern that it follows through it's entire four minutes, with each chorus getting more and more abrasive. Great stuff!

Garage-punk-soul, somewhere between Make-up and Huggy Bear.

On their sophomore album Spirit in the Room, Activity is haunted by technology, the loss of loved ones, capitalism, and humanity's relentless death march towards environmental destruction. Produced by Psychic TV's Jeff Berner, the album is an emotional seance held through an unearthly haze of menacing trip hop, ambient electronica, and synth-based noise rock.

A sense of longing and hopelessness in the face of monumental loss comes through almost instantly on opening track "Department of Blood," in which lead vocalist Travis Johnson sardonically indicts both neoliberalism and "whatever the lord is," beneath a grim collage of processed electronics and a sinister drum machine beat. The David Berman-inspired "Heaven Chords, was written shortly after the iconic songwriter's death, and atmospheric track "Where the Art is Hung," is a haunting lament over the omnipresence of technology and surveillance in the modern world.

Spirit in the Room is no lighthearted journey, but the band's playfulness and obvious natural chemistry keeps the collection from being burdened by its own solemnity. "Unlike the first album, where we'd barely played live before we recorded, we got to take some of the less electronic songs out on the road in the fall of 2021," Johnson explains. "Some tracks had been incubating for over a year in our rehearsals. We could feel them change and open up in a live setting, so when we got back home, we went back to the drawing board on a lot of them. Some got scrapped altogether and we haven't played them since. You get an idea in your head of what it is, but it's something else when you're trying to hold other people's attention. Every part needed to feel earned or necessary." On the one hand, Spirit in the Room is a harrowing journey through a Bosch-like landscape of illness, global capital, and human-caused destruction. On the other hand, it's a room full of friends who are simply trying to make it through the day and process this world we've created. When asked why this album needed to be made, Johnson put it best: "None of us can stand to not make music is all, really." 

TRACK LISTING

01 Department Of Blood
02 Heaven Chords
03 Careful Lets Sleepwalk
04 Where The Art Is Hung
05 Cloud Come Here
06 Ect Frag
07 Icing
08 I Like What You Like
09 Sophia
10 I Saw His Eyes
11 Susan Medical City

Everyone's favourite leftfield enigma, Darren Cunningham aka Actress, joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra as they premiere new material as well as expanded arrangements of their dark and brooding back catalogue. Showcased last year at The Barbican Centre London and Strelka Institute Moscow and in conjunction with Boiler Room this 12” release named simply "Audio Track 5" serves as an introduction to a larger body which will be released on Ninja Tune and Boiler Room TV as both a full length album plus live show in August this year. Over a decade of releases Cunningham has built a reputation as a fine creator of cerebral abstract techno, or R&B concrète, crafting pulsing kickdrums, jittering percussion and chopped sample loops into churning, rumbling tracks soaked in static. But he has also been on record saying he wants to make ‘classical stuff for a modern generation’. A truely defining artist, who isn't afraid to push challenging content if it gets his message across clearer, we've been big fans of Actress here at Piccadilly since forever. In this new collaboration, commissioned and curated by Boiler Room and the London Contemporary Orchestra with support from Arts Council England, the London Contemporary Orchestra bring a new dimension to Cunningham’s choice of sounds. With the producer in effect using them as a new instrument, matching his electronic loops with precise manipulation of their acoustic instruments, together they form a heightened kind of chamber music laced with electrostatic interference and DSP nuances. It'll keep existing fans on their toes, which is kinda why we love him! 

Following the release of the ’Audio Track 5’ EP and live performances at the Strelka Institute (Moscow), Barbican Centre and Tate Tanks (London), electronic producer and musician Darren Cunningham AKA Actress and the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) release a full album of their collaboration on Ninja Tune entitled ‘Lageos’.

Originally performed at the Barbican in February 2016, the project was curated by Boiler Room and LCO with support from Arts Council England and Ninja Tune. The music created a synergy between both live electronic and acoustic components, not just in the harmonies but in the way the traditional instruments were spliced into new hybrid instruments. As part of the process, Actress and LCO augmented traditional piano and created sounds from objects as varied as temple bowls and plastic bags. The show, a massive sell-out success, eventually lead to the release of this much anticipated album.

For the album, LCO recorded the individual instrumental parts as stems at Spitfire Studio then sent to Actress to manipulate, in turn delivering some truly unique new pieces. LCO also went on to reinterpret Actress classics ‘Hubble' and ’N.E.W' among others from his catalogue.

"In many ways the collaboration is about exploring an ambiguity of sound that sits between electronic and acoustic spaces; something that we’re aiming to push further as part of the live shows,” says the LCO’s Hugh Brunt of the collaboration. “For much of the set we look to realize as close as possible the timbres and colours of Actress’ electronics through acoustic means (which he in turn responds to); something of a physicalisation of those synthesized or sampled sounds. That has involved utilizing various accessories: plastic bags (for white noise or to emulate an EQ’d hi-hat); keys; Blu-Tack (to dampen the piano’s upper strings); milk frothers on harp strings, etc."

The project’s genesis was very much inspired by, as well as performed at, the mecca of brutalism – the Barbican Centre. Iannis Xenakis, a Greek composer and architect who would create buildings to fit his scores, and scores to fit his buildings was an inspiration, Actress and LCO took architectural layouts of the Barbican and created sounds directly inspired by its shapes.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A less beat-driven adventure for Actress, focusing mainly on the texture and interplay between found sounds and a classical orchestra. Fitting in nicely to his previous dusty electronic workouts, Lageos is a fascinating and impeccably curated suite of brutalist ambience and avant-garde electronica.

TRACK LISTING

LAGEOS
Momentum
Galya Beat
Chasing Numbers
Chaos Rain
Surfer’s Hymn
N.E.W.
Audio Track 5
Voodoo Posse, Chronic
Illusion
Hubble

Actress (Darren Cunningham) — one of the preeminent and most singular voices in UK electronic music — returns with new album LXXXVIII. The conceptual groundwork for the coming album is built on a game of chess, each track named for a particular piece. With each thoughtful move the game grows and develops over time - something we can hear reflected throughout the album’ textured and delicate layers.

The release follows 2022’s mesmerizing Dummy Corporation EP, which placed Actress firmly back in the center of underground club culture. Prior to that his 2020 album Karma & Desire — which saw guest collaborations from Mercury Prize winner Sampha, Zsela and Aura T-09 — received widespread acclaim, with The Guardian commenting the album “cements his place as one of the great poets of club culture”.

First single “Push Power ( a 1 )” premiered this year on the iconic IICON stage at this year’s Glastonbury festival, with Actress playing straight after Four Tet. LXXXVIII arrives off the back of a recent live performance at Field Day in London, one of his largest live shows this year, where he showcased visuals from ‘Grey Interiors’ - an A/V project in collaboration with experimental creative studio Actual Objects, who’ve worked with the likes of ShyGirl, Kali Uchis, LSDXOXO and have presented work at Coachella and 180 The Strand’s Futureshock exhibition.

John Cale recently invited Actress to collaborate on a track from his first album in 7 years, resulting in “MARILYN MONROE’S LEGS (beauty elsewhere)”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Push Power ( A 1 )
2. Hit That Spdiff ( B 8 )
3. Azd Rain ( G 1 )
4. Memory Haze ( C 1 )
5. Game Over ( E 1 )
6. Typewriter World ( C 8 )
7. Its Me ( G 8 )
8. Chill ( H 2 )
9. Green Blue Amnesia Magic Haze ( D 7 )
10. Oway ( F 7 )
11. M2 ( F 8 )
12. Azifiziks ( D 8 )
13. Pluto ( A 2 )

For me, Actress exists in a sparsely populated world of pure muses. Throughout musical history you have people at the very forefront of a generation or culture. Artists who relate to a time and environment rather than appeal to specific genre constraints of an fleeting aspect of club culture. Artists who truly put 'art' before anything else - often challenging the norm and usually way ahead of what the general consensus then later terms as cool. I put Darren Cunningham in this class, alongside Bowie, Kate Bush, Prince, Jamal Moss, AFX, Burial and Madonna. A grand statement I know but as the esteemed producer reaches album number five his artistic focus and future vision is unrivalled. The simplest you could say about "AZD" is that it’s art - the unique creation of a unique mind. There will be few more distinctive, brilliant or visionary suites of music released in 2017. Shimmering through a holographic prism its opening trilogy of tracks shines with new industry and broken societies; mixing dissonance with rhythm unceremoniously. Side B twists and churns through a multitude of audio processes, the very fabric of time space audible as Actress switches our receptors onto maximum sensitivity; offering up two painfully current club cuts in the process ("X22RME" & "Runner"). As side C slide gracefully in with the neo-orchestration of "Falling Rizlas" Actress prepares us for the demonically epic "Dancing In The Smoke" which defies categorization entirely, spinning old school hip-hop vox through an audio spiralizer and swirling metallic washes. Side D opens with the alluring "There's An Angel In The Shower", fluttering electronics gentle serenading us through highly emotive micro-chords. Finally "Visa" sees the Actress depart us in spritely, mischievous form, playful arpeggios rambunctiously motoring away as Cunningham pours hot white noise and electromagnet shards over the recording medium. It's been another awe inspiring, and at time uneasy vision of the future and how it's gonna sound, but Actress welcomes in the new with a wry smile and comforting gaze.

TRACK LISTING

NIMBUS
UNTITLED 7
FANTASYNTH
BLUE WINDOW
CYN
X22RME
RUNNER
FALLING RIZLAS
DANCING IN THE SMOKE
FAURE IN CHROME
THERE’S AN ANGEL IN THE SHOWER
VISA

On 2012's "RIP" Darren J Cunningham took a step away from the 4/4s of his early career to explore the realm of dreamlike soundscapes and intangible melody. His latest record, "Ghettoville" sees the producer wake from the dream to find that it's become his reality. The album begins with a thick grime of machinery, occasionally penetrated by dissonant guitar and eerie pads. On "Corner" Actress brings the world into focus. The gangsta rap bassline and keyboard merge with the raw house rhythm conjuring images of burnt out cars and rundown buildings. The lolloping beat of "Rims" combines with a rubbery bassline as the raw outsider techno sound becomes possessed by the ghost of bass music past. The gorgeous ambient soundscapes of "Our" and "Time" will seduce fans of Four Tet or (late) Radiohead with their fragile beauty, while "Bircage" sees Actress experiment with new sounds, constructing a primitive tropical drum house track which borders on the Balearic. Club kids needn't fear though, "Gaze", "Skyline" and "Frontline" are raw jackers that'll keep you moving throughout the darkness. "Rap" and "Rule" are the offspring of hip hop and R&B after a hefty swig of the 'drank', blurred, slowed down and generally spannered. Indeed the album peaks on the closer "Rule" as Actress fuses the pitched down rap lyric with the keys from "Gypsy Woman" to create a beatdown bomb that any local Detroiter would be proud of. "Ghettoville" is a bold and complex album which sees the different strands of Cunningham's sound pulled together into a dystopic futuristic vision, brimming with ideas and filtered through the producer's unique aesthetic. 

Actress’s debut album ‘Hazyville’ will be remastered and released for the first time on white vinyl (with artwork etching on side F) as part of a beautifully crafted ‘Elephant’-skinned box set edition of ‘Ghettoville’, which comes complete with a 40 page artbook, the vinyl format of ‘Ghettoville’, and CD versions of both releases.

On 2012's "RIP" Darren J Cunningham took a step away from the 4/4s of his early career to explore the realm of dreamlike soundscapes and intangible melody. His latest record, "Ghettoville" sees the producer wake from the dream to find that it's become his reality. The album begins with a thick grime of machinery, occasionally penetrated by dissonant guitar and eerie pads. On "Corner" Actress brings the world into focus. The gangsta rap bassline and keyboard merge with the raw house rhythm conjuring images of burnt out cars and run down buildings. The lolloping beat of "Rims" combines with a rubbery bassline as the raw outsider techno sound becomes possessed by the ghost of bass music past. The gorgeous ambient soundscapes of "Our" and "Time" will seduce fans of Four Tet or (late) Radiohead with their fragile beauty, while "Bircage" sees Actress experiment with new sounds, constructing a primitive tropical drum house track which borders on the Balearic. Club kids needn't fear though, "Gaze", "Skyline" and "Frontline" are raw jackers that'll keep you moving throughout the darkness. "Rap" and "Rule" are the offspring of Hip Hop and RnB after a hefty swig of the 'drank', blurred, slowed down and generally spannered. Indeed the album peaks on the closer "Rule" as Actress fuses the pitched down rap lyric with the keys from "Gypsy Woman" to create a beatdown bomb that any local Detroiter would be proud of. "Ghettoville" is a bold and complex album which sees the different strands of Cunningham's sound pulled together into a dystopic futuristic vision, brimming with ideas and filtered through the producer's unique aesthetic. 

TRACK LISTING

'Ghettoville’
Forgiven
Street Corp.
Corner
Rims
Contagious
Birdcage
Our
Time
Towers
Gaze
Skyline
Image
Dont
Rap
Frontline
Rule

‘Hazyville’
Again The Addiction
Hazylude
Doggin’
Ivy May Gilpin
I Can’t Forgive You
Crushed
Redit 124
Againlude
Hazyville
Mincin
Green Gal

As we all struggle to deal with the sorry state of Earthly affairs, Darren Cunningham answers the Batcall and returns with a brand new Actress LP on usual haunt Ninja Tune. The producer recently resurfaced with his self released mixtape '88', a sparse and stripped back set of low slung house crunch, electro madness and uncompromising techno coated in a thick patina of fuzz and feedback. 'Karma & Desire' then is a comparatively expansive and accessible affair, replete with vocal contributions from the likes of Sampha, Zsela, Aura T-09 and Christel Well.

Billed as “a romantic tragedy set between the heavens and the underworld", the set serves us a string of retro-ist house and techno heaters, balancing a fragile beauty, in the form of soulful vocals or delicate keys, with the grit and growl of hissing drum machines and gnarly basslines. Naturally Darren avoids playing with a straight bat, twisting the traditional styles with the chopped and screwed sound design he excels at. If singles and stompers are your thing, look to "Angels Pharmacy", "Loveless" and the meditative closer "Walking Flames", but really this album works best when enjoyed in its entirety. 

TRACK LISTING

Fire And Light
Angels Pharmacy (feat. Zsela)
Remembrance (feat. Zsela)
Reverend
Leaves Against The Sky
Save
VVY (feat. Sampha)
XRAY
Gliding Squares
Many Seas, Many Rivers (feat. Sampha)
Loveless (feat. Aura T-09)
Public Life (feat. Vanessa Benelli Mosell)
Fret Loose (feat. Christel Well)
Turin (feat. Aura T-09)
Diamond X
Walking Flames (feat. Sampha)

New Wave icons Adam and the Ants formed in 1977 with Adam and a group of friends who had met at Vivienne Westwood’s iconic London fashion boutique, Sex. By 1980, their subversive, ground-breaking sound and iconic fashion had built up a large brigade of loyal fans. Between 1980 to 1982, Adam and The Ants released 3 albums, which all reached the top 10 of the UK Official Albums Chart, including the BRIT Award winning Kings of the Wild Frontier which held the number 1 spot for twelve weeks, and two Number 1 singles in the UK Official Singles Chart, ‘Stand and Deliver’ and ‘Prince Charming’. Nearly 45 years later, on 20th October 2023, Decca Records will re-release a limited edition translucent 7” of the Young Parisians single with its B-side Lady, featuring the original artwork hand drawn by Adam Ant himself. 

Tasty 7" from the Star Creature stable featuring new signing Adam Chini who contributes a veritable slice of modern funk for the esteemed label.

"Boomerang" comes in vocal and instrumental versions and pairs up sloppy synth work, blue-sky synth patches and shuddering slap bass. The infectious and clever vocal yearns for the return of a lover's desire - hence the title: "Boomerang".

Limited copes and high demand as always....

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Deeply personal bedroom boogie from the SC camp which should appeal to fans of PPU and the more lo-fi end of the spectrum.

TRACK LISTING

A. Boomerang
B. Instrumental

We are in 1987 and 2 years have passed since Vinicio Adames debut album “El Comienzo Del Camino” when Venezuelan painter Ernesto Leon asks Vinicio to compose music for his New York Art Exhibition at Lincoln Centre. The result is an exceptional composition and modern sound interpretation of their national heritage the Amazonas. Both Amazonia I + II, each version in its own way, honor the majesty and mystery of one of worlds greatest nature reservoirs. Both compositions were never intended for commercial release, and were only given out by hand in Flexidisc format during the exhibition. We at TrueClass Record felt, that the time has come to present this gem to all musiclovers worldwide. Short Info: Venezuelan Electronic Music Pioneer Vinicio Adames Synth-Pop Masterpiece from 1987. Vital Sales Points: 1st Official release. Quality Restoration and Re-Mastering by Calyx Mastering.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Collectors of ambient, Balearic and 80s synth-scapes know you have to scour the exhibition catalogues, fashion collection promos and weird commercial tie-ins to find the deepest nuggets. This shamanistic masterpiece is no exception, created for an Ernesto Leon exhibition in NYC '87. Perfect fourth world tackle for play alongside Crelier, Hassell and Finis Africae.

TRACK LISTING

Amazonia I
Amazonia II

Eve Adams offers solace within life's shadows. Un-numbing senses with anthems of surrender and tender-hearted tales that tingle with Californian folk-noir, her album Metal Bird takes flight with the turbulence and romance of Hollywood’s golden age, and meditates on the mysteries of love, death, insecurity and loneliness.

Like a match struck in a cobwebbed attic, Adams voice is a fiery detective, unafraid to explore the unseen; the liminal spaces between mourning and rapture, between the coldness of a corpse and the heat of cremation. Imagery of flight and the denial of gravity floats slyly through the ten songs on Metal Bird by the California-born musician and hints at the experience of being caught in purgatory, like a passenger on a plane ride from Hell to Heaven.

Combining airy folk with haunting soundscapes the album takes listeners on an auditory voyage from sonorous lullabies, to dreamy ambience, skeletal jazz, 1930s torch songs and 1940s film noir. Metal Bird has a distinct, genuine tone, with orchestral arrangements, ambient hallucinations and high fidelity vocals that are unafraid to be heard loud and clear.

For those who are hopelessly enamoured with a by-gone time, there is solace in these songs and sounds. Flickering back and forth between dread and hope, the unrelenting march towards a spiritual transformation and the realization that each of us are driven by our own dreams and as much as we want to hold it in our hands, often it is intangible. The sublime remains elusive, existing somewhere in the heart, and it sounds like Eve Adams knows this best.

Metal Bird gets a release on Basin Rock, the Todmorden based record label who gave lift off to Julie Byrne, Aoife Nessa Frances, Nadia Reid and Johanna Samuels. 

"Metal Bird feels blissfully unmoored from any sense of time and space, its astral Americana hymns hovering somewhere between the dirt and the stars, between a bygone golden age and our tense present, between raw intimacy and dreamlike splendour." Pitchfork.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: What an absolutely enthralling selection this is, landing somewhere between gothic country music, 40's lounge and wistful folk, deftly flowing between influences without batting an eyelid. Wonderfully written, mournful pop songs that defy all expectation.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Blues Look The Same
2. You're Not Wrong
3. Butterflies
4. A Walk In The Park
5. Metal Bird
Side B
6. The Dying Light
7. Woman On Your Mind
8. La Ronde
9. Prisoner
10. My Only Dream

Recommended If You Like: Pedro The Lion, The Sea and Cake, David Bazan, Major Murphy, Kurt Vonnegut & Guided by Voices. For ten years now, I’ve understood “Oscillate Wisely” as a play on the Smiths’ instrumental “Oscillate Wildly”--itself, of course, a pun on Morrissey’s muse, Oscar Wilde. This is not to say that anything about Mike Adams and his band reminds me of the Smiths (especially­Morrissey), as much as the idea that rock bands like Mike Adams At His Honest Weight take shape more or less as a thesaurus of past ideas--winking at them, borrowing them like a library book, checking them out from across the room, cloning them.

But the best stuff is more ineffable, far more than just cut-and-paste. There’s a weird grandeur to Adams' music, starting with that fully formed, geekily majestic 2011 debut LP Oscillate Wisely, that I don’t hear in anything else, before or since. A sense that Adams is guiding his listeners toward a cosmic joke so personal, so inscrutable, so funny (“funny”), if you give him your attention. It's in his blood, I think. He's not Oscar Wilde, but a uniquely Midwestern type of deeply sincere romantic and dyed-in-the-wool goofball cast from the mold of Hoosier icons like Letterman and Vonnegut.

He doesn’t want to believe in anything, he didn’t create this body, he­loves­a parade.­ It’s all in fun, but it gets so personal. Onstage, Adams is gregarious and playfully self-effacing, a college town denizen telescoping backwards to the brief early 90s moment when “college rock” entered the corporate suite, and performers forced to become showmen retreated to the comfort of their native tongue: irony.­And­Oscillate Wisely­has demonstrated for a decade that earnestness and sarcasm are as intricately bound in rock and roll's­lingua franca­as hang-ups and chill hangs. I’ve never heard any musician summon everything I love about being from Indiana so perfectly. And I’m­fucking­old. Eric Harvey.

TRACK LISTING

1 Bad Weather
2 Skeletons In The Cloner
3 I Don’t Want To Believe In Anything
4 I’m Not Worried
5 Sunrise
6 Don’t You Blanket When That Happens
7 I Did Not Create This Body
8 IIIIIIIII Love A Parade
9 It’s All Been Done You Said
10 You’ll Have Me As Long… 

Anger seldom sounds as enticing as it does on Virtue Signals. Steven Adams’s first with his new group, The French Drops is an album that rails against the iniquities of the world and meshes the personal with the political, without ever smacking the listener around the head. Adams (former songwriter/singer/guitarist with The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams) can’t help but be witty and empathetic even as he rages, and the fury is wrapped inside his characteristically sweet melodies.

The album’s tone is set from opening track, “Bad Apples”, a song addressing flag-waving, aggressive patriots. The lyrics are alternately playful and oblique, in the spirit of songwriters like John Lennon or Britt Daniel from Spoon. Where Adams aims to remove ambiguity and play with metaphor, as with “Ex Future”, the opacity of his writing means he doesn’t descend into cliche.

Following a few years of performing and recording solo, Adams says he wanted to put together “a band where everyone was following their noses. I’ve been calling the shots for ages now, and now I can lean on these people, make more noise. It’s fair to say we share a lot of the same thoughts and feelings about the state of the world. But mostly we talk about food.” Laurie Earle (Absentee, Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards, Wet Paint) plays guitar with a loose, intuitive touch; Michael Wood - who had played bass with The Singing Adams - switches to keyboards here, while Daniel Fordham (drums) and David Stewart (bass) from The Drink complete the band.

Produced by Ben Nicholls (Nadine Shah, Cara Dillon). Mixed by acclaimed producer and engineer (and Hudson Records supremo) Andy Bell. Adams tours the UK through May and the summer.

For fans of: Field Music, Pavement, Spoon, Grandaddy, Teleman.

“Making this record was a joy,” says Steven Adams of his latest album with his band the French Drops. He even let the positive mood around the making of it influence its title. “I love making records but sometimes time, money, or people - including me - fuck up my enjoyment of the process. So this time I kept saying to myself ‘keep it light’ whenever I was making decisions.” The buoyant and relaxed mood can be heard across the album in its gloriously skipping tones, as it traverses across indie, pop, alt-rock and more tender acoustic and folk-leaning moments. It’s a craft that Adams has been honing for years as the lead figure in outfits such as The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams, so much so that by now it oozes out of him with a seamless grace.

The feelings of serenity and solace he experienced whilst writing the songs themselves carried over into the final product. “I did a big chunk of the writing on holiday in the South of France last year,” he says. “We were staying in this big, rambling house that had a kind of turret room that was cut off from everything, so I’d go up there in the mornings and sit on the floor and feel like a proper artist while everyone else was eating croissants.” Once described by The Guardian as “one of Britain’s smartest, most underrated songwriters”, Adams’ aim was clear with this record. “I wanted to make a super personal, light-hearted and upbeat record,” he says. “I wanted to do the whole write about what you know thing and keep it as light as possible.” The lightness of the album was a guiding principle but it wasn’t a rule set in stone, as Adams soon found out the deeper he plunged into himself. “We had a running joke about how we were making an album called Keep it Light that is full of songs about racists and panic attacks and existential angst,” he says. “But it does you good to get that stuff out. Writing songs and making records keeps me sane.”

The album is one as full of joy and beauty as it is ink black humour and caustic revelation. On the gorgeous shuffle of “Oh Dear” - recalling the kind of stripped back beauty of Yo La Tengo at their finest - Adams sings: “and true love will not find you in the end.” A knowing nod and a wink to Daniel Johnston’s earnest refrain that indeed true love will find you in the end. It’s such moments that fill the album with equal parts weight and lightness, a smart touch delivered with a deft hand. Of the broad range of the album and its wide-spanning lyrical content Adams simply says: “the upbeat stuff is pretty upbeat and the darker stuff is pretty dark, but it’s all still with some humour.” Perhaps the song that best encapsulates this split between the light and the dark and the funny and the personal is “My Brother, the Racist” a self explanatory song that skips along with an infectious groove as Adams sings about, well, his racist brother. It unfurls in an intimate manner that recalls the kind of deeply personal allure of Sun Kill Moon’s Benji. “It’s an awkward thing to sing about, but it was the right thing to do,” he reflects. “I’ve written about British racism before, but never this close to home.”

Recorded at Soup by Simon Trought and with band members Laurie Earle, Daniel Fordham, David Stewart and Michael Wood, this is the first time Adams has worked in such a harmonious and in sync way. “This is the first record I’ve made with the band all playing in one room, getting everything down at once,” he says. “We played live with all of us on the floor, and it came together really quickly. But we still gave ourselves time to experiment and do fun stuff all over it. This combination of allowing things to be light, not overstressing, the harmony of the group, and the seamless knack of Adams’ songwriting has resulted in a truly special record. “I’m usually sick of a record by the time it’s mixed and I don’t get much of a kick out of hearing my own stuff, but this one’s different,” he says. “I know I sound like a wanker saying this but this is the best record I’ve ever made.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1) Soft Landings
A2) Bring On The Naps
A3) Canary
A4) Gracechurch St
A5) Oh Dear

B1) Going To Everglades
B2) Note To Self
B3) My Brother, The Racist
B4) Jonny
B5) Mr Sunshine

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings. Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date. Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS. Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards. Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone. “I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”. The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore. DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”. Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

TRACK LISTING

Out To Sea
Living In The Local Void
Moderation
Heads Keep Rolling
Making Holes
Pas Moi
Holiday Casual
Fascists
I Tried To Keep It Light
Day Trip
Cheap Wine Sad Face

Originally released in 2008, Back To The Cat, was in keeping with the artist who developed the concept of the imaginary soundtrack, with every song building a compelling narrative around Barry’s lifelong investigation of identity, sexuality, race, spirituality and society. The record picked up the threads of his previous work and continued to showcase his musical ambidexterity covering noir jazz, sun-drenched pop ballads, fractious funk, heavenly blues and subversive soul.

TRACK LISTING

A1 The Beaten Side Of Town
A2 Straight 'Til Sunrise
A3 Spend A Little Time
A4 Shadow Of Death Hotel
A5 I Could Love You
B1 Walk On Fire
B2 Flight
B3 Civilization
B4 People
B5 Psycho_Sexual

2024 ushers in a brand new Barry Adamson album entitled, ‘Cut To Black’ The album swaggeringly embraces Adamson’s trademark genre hopping compositions, covering Pop, Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop and Gospel.

A must for fans of all things Cinematic Soul, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Post Punk, Massive Attack, Unloved and much more

TRACK LISTING

1. The Last Words Of Sam Cooke
2. Demon Lover
3. Cut To Black
4. Manhattan Satin
5. These Would Be Blues
6. Please Don’t Call On Me
7. Amen White Jesus
8. One Last Midnight
9. Was It A Dream?
10. Waiting For The End Of Time

Initially released in 2012, I Will Set You Free amalgamated elements of Barry’s previous work, resulting in an album that is unmistakably Barry Adamson. Like many of Adamson’s records, the album is a genre odyssey that jumps from garage rock rock, to blues, to new-wave pop, with the adventurous brass section injecting an acid jazz touch. His overwhelming desire to examine cultural shifts and embrace them within the quest to improve oneself that often centres in Adamson’s art is clearly present in I Will Set You Free. This subsequently makes it a quintessential Barry Adamson record that fits right in with the back catalogue. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Get Your Mind Right
A2 Black Holes In My Brain
A3 Turnaround
A4 The Power Of Suggestion
A5 Destination
B1 The Trigger City Blues
B2 Looking To Love Somebody
B3 The Sun And The Sea
B4 If You Love Her
B5 Stand In

Barry’s 2016 album, Know Where To Run, was produced by Barry himself and recorded in Brighton with Paul Pascoe, whilst WTNSS mixed and provided additional production at the legendary Dean Street Studios. The concept behind the album emerged when Barry started taking photos during a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds North American tour, playing with the idea of traversing different states of the human condition and different states across America. The result was an audio/visual project inspired by these pictures, with the record being presented alongside a curated photobook. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 In Other Worlds
A2 Cine City
A3 Come Away
A4 Death Takes A Holiday
A5 Claw And Wing
B1 Texas Crash
B2 Mr Greed
B3 Up In The Air
B4 Evil Kind

Memento Mori charts Adamson’s career from 1978’s Magazine track, ‘Parade’ (co-written by Adamson, from their debut album Real Life), to his work as founding member, alongside Nick Cave, of the Bad Seeds (‘From Her To Eternity’, co-written by Adamson); through his nine solo albums, from 1988’s Moss Side Story to the latest Love Sick Dick EPs, bringing everything up to date with a brand new unreleased track, ‘The Hummingbird’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: When people talk about Manchester music legends, Barry Adamson barely gets a mention, but as this compilation demonstrates, he's been responsible for some of the most incredible, genre-bending music to come out of Manchester in the last 30 years, blending post-punk, jazz, blues, soundtracks, and everything in between in his own inimitable way. Stand out tracks include "The Man With The Golden Arm" from the briliantly noir-ish "Moss Side Story" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis" from 1996's "Oedipus Schmoedipus" featuring Jarvis Cocker on vocals, along with "Parade" by Magazine and "From Her To Eternity" from his days as a Bad Seed.

TRACK LISTING

The Man With The Golden Arm (Moss Side Story,1988)
Jazz Devil (As Above, So Below, 1998)
Civilization (Back To The Cat, 2008)
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis (Oedipus Schmoedipus, 1996)*
The Snowball Effect (The Negro Inside Me, 1993)
The Sun And The Sea (I Will Set You Free, 2012)
The Big Bamboozle (Oedipus Schmoedipus, 1996)
I Got Clothes – ACR:MCR Rework (Love Sick Dick Remix EP, 2017)
Come Hell Or High Water (As Above, So Below, 1998)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Oedipus Schmoedipus, 1996)
The Long Way Back Again (Single Version, 2006)
Up In The Air (Single Version, 2016)
007, A Fantasy Bond Theme (Soul Murder, 1992)
Sweet Misery (Love Sick Dick, 2017)
The Hummingbird (Memento Mori, 2018)
Parade – Magazine (Real Life, 1978)
From Her To Eternity – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (From Her To Eternity, 1984)
*with Jarvis Cocker

Barry Adamson’s Steal Away EP released for the first time on vinyl via Mute. The EP was written and recorded at the time Adamson was writing his memoir ‘Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars’. The record ended up becoming an intrinsic part of the book writing process with Barry explaining, “The book is the past, the record is the past present. I needed to write it to get through the book, to stay present.” Sitting amongst Barry’s diverse catalogue, Steal Away EP presents a refreshing vibrancy and western-like feel that further demonstrates Adamson’s multifaceted ability in songwriting. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Let’s Steal Away
A2 Broken Moments
B1 The Climber
B2 Sundown County Ft. Big Walt Daniels

Barry Adamson takes us Back to the Catalogue with a series of reissues on coloured vinyl and CD.

Originally released in the mid-2000s, Stranger On The Sofa is an album tied together by its mysterious cinematic composure. Each track is used to demonstrate the breadth of musicianship and re-presentation of countless timeless genres, moving in between electronica and jazz with shadowy ambience scattered throughout. Nick Plytas and Adrian Owusu provided their expertise on the organ and slide guitar, with Barry playing almost every other instrument. Composing, performing, recording and producing Stranger On The Sofa undoubtedly makes it an album that represents Adamson fully embracing the DIY aesthetic from where he began.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Here In The Hole
A2 The Long Way Back Again
A3 Officer Bentley's Fairly Serious Dilemma
B1 Who Killed Big Bird?
B2 Theresa Green
B3 The Sorrow And The Pity
B4 My Friend The Fly
C1 Inside Of Your Head
C2 You Sold Your Dreams
C3 Déjà Morte
D1 Dissemble
D2 Free Love

New album from Barry Adamson, and his most accessible to date. Still with his usual cool, dark vibes and filmic layered moods, but with an added dimension of lush, funky, soul-jazz. Add to that great musicianship and deep production and you've got yet another absolutely superb Barry Adamson album. Totally essential.

Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah's album came to us as quite a mystery. Our friends from Radio Martiko got access to the studio archive of the Boussiphone label and a reel labeled "Faradjallah" was among the items they had found there. After listening to the selection of reels they borrowed, Radio Martiko felt it was not a fit for their label and helped us licensing it from Mr. Boussiphone instead. We knew nothing about the band. We just had the reel with the music but very little information. What we knew was that the music was incredible and very unique. Gnawa sounds were combined with funky electronic guitars, very dense layers of percussions and female backing vocals more reminiscent of musical styles further south than Morocco. We started asking around whether anyone knew the band with no immediate success until we asked Tony Day, a musician from Morocco who helped us during our search for Fadoul's family. His sharp memory came through once again, remembering all the names of the Attarazat Addahabia band members and even how to contact the bands singer and leader Abdelakabir Faradjallah. After visiting him at his home in Casablanca with our Moroccan colleague Sabrina multiple times, he shared his personal story. His father arrived in Casablanca from Aqqa at the age of six and his mother came from Essaouira. Abdelakabir was born in the neighbourhood of Benjdia in 1942. Abdelakabir Faradjallah studied fine arts in Casablanca, graduating in 1962. He also played soccer in the second team of "Jeunesse Societe One". His brother-in-law Ibrahim Sadr worked for one of the biggest football teams of the time in Morocco called "Moroco Sportive Union", which allowed him to travel to France occasionally. While Ibrahim was never part of the band he brought along a few instruments from trips. Yet the majority of the instruments they could not afford to buy were build by Faradjallah and Abderrazak, Faradjallah's brother who passed away early. For instance they had built a Spanish guitar and a drum made of wood barrel and sheepskin by themselves.During the 1950s Faradjallah was booked as a singer for surprise parties with friends. He started to write his first songs including "L'gnawi" in 1967 and wanted to make people discover Gnawa culture, or maybe rather his take on the culture to be more exact. Faradjallah recalls his first interaction with the genre in the streets of the Dern neighbourhood, where he used to go to elementary school. Gnawa is one of the essential musical genres of Morocco. It combines ritual poetry with traditional dances and music linked with a spiritual foundation. Musically a lot of influences originated from West Africa as well as Sudan. Gnawa is usually played by a selection of specific instruments such as the qaraqab (large iron castanets centrally associated with the music), the hajhouj (a three string lute), guembri loudaâ (a three stringed bass instrument) and the tbel (large drums). People would put shells on their clothes and instruments and use incense at their parties. "Sidi darbo lalla - lala derbo khadem..." came from Gnawa verses Faradjallah used to sing when he was 14. The lyrics tackle a global (im)balance of power and the question of social status in this course. The band Attarazat Addahabia was formed in 1968. The original line-up included 14 members, all from the same family. They played their first small concerts here and there starting in 1969. Later in 1973 they performed bigger shows for instance at the Municipal Theatre followed by the "Al Massira Show" at Velodrome Stadium in downtown Casablanca. Their first album "Al Hadaoui" (the one you are listening to) was recorded at Boussiphone studios in 1972 and was never released before. Nobody seems to remember the exact reason why Boussiphone ended up deciding not to put the album out. The album's title track also served as the basis for Fadoul's "Maktoub Lah", who frequented the same circles as the band for some time. Their shows sometimes could go as long as 12 hours, starting at 5pm in the afternoon, with an occasional break here and there. In the 1980s the band took a brief break. Faradjallah recalled the reason for that break like this: "Zaki, the bands drummer, had fallen in love with a young girl from Mohammedia. Soon after, he fell very ill. The group members were convinced that the girl had given him 's'hor' (a kind of local Moroccan version of "black magic"). For four years, the whole group stopped playing. It was unthinkable to find another drummer to replace Zaki, even temporarily." So they waited four years for Zaki to "get back on his feet" before going back on stage. Apart from very few gigs here and there Faradjallah stopped playing music in the mid 1990s. Some members from the younger generations formed a new band and still play frequently to this day. Faradjallah runs a television repair shop coupled offerings beverages and snacks in the Belevedere /Ains Sbaa district of Casablanca. While Faradjallah was primarily a musician, he would work for the local cinema and paint their posters for new movies by hand and he designed all artworks and cover posters of the band. And this eventually led to him participating actively in our first exhibition dealing with Habibi Funk's work in Dubai 2018. He helped us by creating calligraphic complementations on large photo prints for that show.

TRACK LISTING

1. Al Hadaoui
2. Albaki
3. Moulate Salef
4.:Taali
5. Aflana
6. Chama'a
7. Kaddaba

‘Paint It Black’ performed by Nevermore Academy star pupil, Wednesday Adams. Her debut release. Expect more from this talented young musician.

“The version of ‘Paint It Black’ played by Wednesday on her cello has a unique dark energy that fascinated fans.” - auralcrave.com

TRACK LISTING

Paint It Black - Wednesday Addams
Wednesday Main Titles - Danny Elfman

Kalita are delighted to announce the first ever re-release of Los Angeles-based outfit Addmoro’s three sought-after recordings from their privately released invisible 1985 boogie grail ‘Keep On Trying’. With original copies of the album out of reach for all but a select few since its initial release over thirty-five years ago, this is a much overdue retrospective of the group’s musical output.

Originally privately released on the group’s eponymous label Addmoro Records, Kalita’s 12” reissue single features both the vocal and instrumental versions of ‘Keep On Tryin’, plus the saxophone-featuring boogie monster ‘Rock & Roll Skate (Sax Version)’, arguably one of the heaviest boogie recordings of the genre.

With original copies of Addmoro’s album selling for over £600 on the rare occasion that they come up for sale, Kalita now deliver a loud and remastered 12” single for all.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Rock & Roll Skate (Sax Version)
B1. Keep On Tryin’ (Vocal Version)
B2. Keep On Tryin’ (Instrumental Version)

From pirate radio to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, journalist and rapper Franklyn Addo pens an extraordinary narrative of the history, present and future of Grime music. The influence of Grime on contemporary British culture is difficult to understate. From fashion trends and evolving language to potent political statements, Grime is a musical juggernaut that has reverberated far throughout British society.

Chronicled for the first time in powerful literary prose, Addo intelligently documents the genre's cultural explosion and investigates how it became the voice of a generation. A phenomenal insight into the captivating and electrifying genre that has taken the British music scene by storm, A Quick Ting On: Grime is an essential and long-awaited read for Stormzy aficionados and grime newcomers alike.

Already the winner of a Brit Award (Adele was voted the 'Critics Choice' - the most exciting new British artist expected to 'make it big' in 2008) (and didn't she just!), "19" is Adele's debut album. She combines the full range of her influences: Etta James, Jill Scott, Bjork, Dusty Springfield, Billy Bragg, Billie Holiday, Jeff Buckley, The Cure and Peggy Lee with her stunning voice on this great debut. Includes her classic debut single "Chasing Pavements"

TRACK LISTING

1. Daydreamer
2. Best For Last
3. Chasing Pavements
4. Cold Shoulder
5. Crazy For You
6. Melt My Heart To Stone
7. First Love
8. Right As Rain
9. Make You Feel My Love
10. My Same
11. Tired
12. Hometown Glory

About its release Adele says 'I'm very excited, nervous, eager, anxious but chuffed to announce my new album! It's taken a while and it knocked me for six when writing it. It's different from "19", it's about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I'm more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly this record is called "21". The whole reason I called my first album "19" was about cataloging what happened to me then and who I was then, like a photo album you see the progression and changes in a person throughout the years.'

Most of the album was made in Malibu with the legendary Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Jay Z, Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and back in Kensal Rise in London with Paul Epworth (Plan B, Bloc Party, Florence). Adele cites Wanda Jackson, Yvonne Fair, Andrew Bird, Mary J Blige, Mos Def, Elbow, Tom Waits and Kanye West amongst others as key influences on "21".

Critically acclaimed by many of her musical contemporaries, Adele well and truly made her mark with "19". Chapter two begins here.

“My last record was a break up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make up record. I’m making up with myself. making up for lost time. making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

So says Adele about her new long player '25'. "Highly anticipated" doesn't quite cut it, with the video for lead single 'Hello' clocking in at 404,293,556 views the last time I looked (and undoubtedly more by the time you read this). '25' might be the event record of 2015, but really it's a continuation of the sound that brought '21' 9 x platinum global sales. The intimate piano ballads, epic swelling choruses, R&B pop hints and BIG production are all present and correct on '25', along with the emotional catch in Adele's voice - the thing that lifts her head and shoulders above all the melisma-ing X-Factor wannabes. The album features co-production from Greg Kurstin, Tobias Jesso Jr ('When We Were Young'), Danger Mouse ('River Lea') and Swedish pop svengalis Max Martin & Shellback ('Send My Love (To Your New Lover)') 

TRACK LISTING

1. Hello
2. Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young
5. Remedy
6. Water Under The Bridge
7. River Lea
8. Love In The Dark
9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask
11. Sweetest Devotion

Paraphrasing William Blake in their album title is just one aspect of Adequate Seven's unusual penchant for strange bedfellows. Who else could blend skacore brass, bouncing grooves and hardcore vocals into such a distinctive groove-laden hardcore sound. They make it work and use influences as wide as Funkadelic, AFI and Sick Of It All to make a whole new sound. Live they've toured with Capdown, Lightyear, and Hundred Reasons. Now, fresh from touring with Fishbone, the band release their debut full length album on Household Name, a label that rarely lets you down.