The Undertones formed in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974 and are one of the most successful bands to have emerged from Northern Ireland. Famously championed by John Peel, who’s favourite all-time track was ‘Teenage Kicks’, they released thirteen singles and four studio albums 1978 – 1983, before Sharkey announced his intention to leave in May 1983. The band re-formed in 1999 with singer Paul McLoone, subsequently recorded 2 new albums and have been touring regularly ever since.

They played Glastonbury Festival in June 2005, recently marked their 40th anniversary, and have just completed a 46 date, 2019 world tour.

30 career-spanning tracks, 1978-1983, compiled by The Undertones

Uncompromising, vehement and bestial metallic hardcore characterised by unrelenting bloody throat screaming, searing guitar breaks and a steamhammer rhythm section. As angry a record as I've heard all year. Not for the faint hearted...

"A few months ago it was decided that OGen004 would be a vinyl and digital release of some poems by Jack Underwood. We had no real idea how much interest would be generated by a 7" single of poetry but everyone who had heard Jack's poetry seemed to like it and the idea was we would treat it like any other release of a song by a band - we thought that if we didn't make out we thought it was a little odd that nobody else would."

What is "Drift"?

• It’s precisely one year inside the minds of Underworld.

• It’s a journey that began on 1st November 2018 when Underworld released the track "Another Silent Way" and set off with no map, no fixed destination and a simple mantra ('Drift is the opposite of ‘normal’ or ‘usual’ practice; we’ll do this until we’re dust'). Rick Smith and Karl Hyde’s aim was to create and publish music and film episodically for 52 weeks and see where the journey took them. Within a few weeks, the experiment found its own path, prompting the electronic pioneers to react to previous releases and create new works accordingly. Over time, the duo’s innate curiosity opened up a unique space in which they could experiment, learn and explore new frontiers - together and with others (including Tomato’s Simon Taylor, Australian improv-trance band The Necks, techno producer Ø [Phase], Japanese noise band Melt-Banana, economics writer Aditya Chakrabortty and members of Black Country, New Road). During the 52 weeks, five self-contained episodes were released (respectively in November, January, March, May and August) - collectively, they form "DRIFT Series 1". 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: An impressively on-going, interactive, year-long project from the band culminates in the album's actual release in October. Always keen to push the envelope, the idea behind this is very satisfying.

TRACK LISTING

Appleshine
This Must Be Drum Street
Listen To Their No
Border Country
Mile Bush Pride
Schiphol Test
Brilliant Yes That Would Be
S T A R (Rebel Tech)
Imagine A Box
Custard Speedtalk

"The Oncoming Storm", Unearth's third album and Metal Blade debut is probably their best to date, some achievement following on as it does from the critically acclaimed "Stings Of Conscience" and "Endless" LPs. This release should definitely cement their position as nu-metal/hardcore innovators, a reputation that has earned them tour slots with In Flames, Hatebreed, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Soilwork and Chimera. Vocalist Trevor Phipps gives his most powerful performance, alternating hardcore razored throat rage with a cleaner vocal style; all beautifully set against a burning double seven string guitar assault and bruising double bass, fuelling crushing breakdowns. Gorgeous, apocalyptic and articulate.

A fine emocore release from a band who are compared to Jets to Brazil, Joshua and Chamberlain. Elegant, simple yet with complex undercurrents. Strong songs and a great debut.

Arriving at their fourth album with only eight candles on the cake, unhappybirthday have always tempered youthful energy with an impressive maturity, but this is the moment when they truly come of age. Armed with deeper grooves, tighter arrangements and unconventional hooks, the German trio have found the perfect balance between song and sound on their most irresistible work to date.

The briefest trip through their back catalogue unearths a wealth of artefacts from an unremembered 80s, be it the cassette tape fuzz which saturated early releases or the genuine love of the decade’s underground outcasts. Recall a distant teenage memory of hours lost in an older, cooler friend’s record collection; a blur of bedsit anarchists, jangling romantics and monochrome poets alive in polyphony. The result is a mirage of Post-punk and Postcard, Penthouse and Pavement, inspired by the past but but impossible to pigeonhole. Ever referential but never reverential, unhappybirthday have that rare ability to distill their influences into an innovative expression far more potent than the sum of its parts.

For mondchateau, their second LP on the mighty Tapete Records, unhappybirthday swap Cocteau cool for cocktails by the pool, fusing their sophisticated pop with the louche grooves and ambient beauty of Deutsche Balearic.

Taking a stroll through Miko’s garden, the trio find Sade under the Kalimba Tree, enjoy an I.C. spritz and savour the tristeza of the late afternoon sun. Punctuated by rhythm box exotica and Diana Kim’s limber bass, the nine songs lilt and sway from T.V. Scene to Same Old Scene, the beguiling combination of optimism and melancholy yielding a yearning beauty. Equal parts brooding and ringing, Tobias Rutkowski’s guitar is the embodiment of this tension, while the digital keys, glassy mallets and moonlit chimes of Daniel Jahn’s SQ1 provide a shimmering home for his seductive croon and husky introspection.

Their ongoing collaboration with Berlin producer Jonas Meyer continues to lend a maturity and clarity to the unhappybirthday sound, while guest vocals from the likes of indie pop icon Andreas Dorau and label-mate Sebastian Lee Phillip (Die Wilde Jagd) add nuance and texture to their sonic palette.

A resort collection for SS20, mondchateau offers horizontal dancers, beachfront dreamers and tidal drift; an aspirational statement undercut by the inescapable feeling that the summer ends only too soon.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Hey you! That's right, you with the LNCC subscription - you can put the acoustic guitar down, the Balearic record of 2020 is already here, and it hails from Hamburg. The latest evolution of the Unhappybirthday sound sees the German group in sophisti-pop mode, serving nine swooning, crooning beauties dripping in resort cool. You'll find hints of Blue Nile, Flash & The Pan, Linda Di Franco and Talk Talk in here, but the strength of songwriting and melodic purity ensure 'Mondchateau' stands on its own.

TRACK LISTING

1. Margo
2. Cristal
3. Station
4. Delon
5. Burgund
6. Saiso
7. Mondpalais
8. Plaza
9. Dunster

Unhappybirthday from Hamburg have been releasing dreamy Avant-pop records and touring Europe consistently for over 10 years now. "Stella Loops" circles around the vast cosmos offering refuge from the feeling of confinement that has enveloped us all over the last few years and to help achieve this Unhappybirthday have mixed their trademark elements of Electronica, House and Ambient music and for this release invited a guest list that includes Andreas Dorau, Martha Rose and Jimi Tenor to contribute.

Uniform formed in New York City in 2013 when old friends Ben Greenberg (ex-The Men, Hubble, and the producer/engineer responsible for much of the Sacred Bones catalog) and Michael Berdan (ex-Drunkdriver, York Factory Complaint) reconnected and realized that they had evolved to a similar place musically. Wanting as intimate an experience as possible, they decided to keep the project a two-man show, eschewing a live rhythm section for programmed drums and low-end synths, augmented with Greenberg playing guitar and Berdan handling vocals. The collaboration quickly yielded a raw 12", followed by a full-length, Perfect World. The Ghosthouse12", is the first Uniform release on Sacred Bones Records, and it will be followed by a full-length in early 2017.

Ghosthouse shares a basic configuration with the previous Uniform releases, but the tools have evolved far beyond their initial drum machine and bass synth setup. These songs have grown from a broader palette of sounds — shots, explosions, implosions, impacts, ricochets, collapse; the sounds of conflict, war, and destruction that we witness every day. The result is the most sonically confrontational Uniform material to date, and Berdan’s lyrics, largely inspired by his lifelong battle with insomnia and depression, match them for relentlessness.

The three songs on Ghosthouseshow the incisiveness that Greenberg and Berdan now have at their command. The title track addresses the feeling of lying awake at night and wondering if it’s still possible to make peace with an estranged friend after their death. “Waiting Period,” a riff on the Hubert Selby Jr. novel of the same name, is the internal dialogue of a man waiting for his handgun application to clear so he can kill himself. The “Symptom of the Universe” cover pays mostly faithful homage to Black Sabbath, but trades the original’s “summer skies of love” for something far bleaker. These tracks reveal the incredible range that’s possible within the Uniform musical template, and they provide a fascinating glimpse of what’s to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ghosthouse (7:25)
2. Waiting Period (5:47)
3. Symptom Of The Universe (5:44)

What if the antihero in your favorite film or book had no chance to repent, reconcile, or redeem himself ? There’s no victim to rescue. There’s no evil to thwart. There’s no tyranny to turnover. Instead of saving the day against his bet-ter judgment, he just walks a Sisyphean circle of existential malaise doomed to repeat yesterday’s vices without the promise of a better tomorrow. Rather than tell this story on the screen or on the page, Uniform tell it on their fourth full-length album, Shame. The trio – Michael Berdan (vocals), Ben Greenberg (guitar, production), and Mike Sharp (drums) – strain struggle through an industrialized mill of grating guitars, warped electronics, war-torn percussion, and demonically catchy vocalizations.“Thematically, the album is like a classic hard-boiled paperback novel without a case,” says Berdan. “It focuses on the static state of an antihero as he mulls over his life in the interim between major events, just existing in the world. At the time we were making the record, I was reading books by Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, and Dashiell Hammet and strangely found myself identifying with the internal dialogues of characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.”The lead-up to this moment proved just as intriguing as any of those characters’ exploits. Born in 2013, Uniform bulldozed a path to the forefront of under-ground music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Delco (4:36)
2. The Shadow Of God’s Hand (3:54)
3. Life In Remission (4:26)
4. Shame (4:02)
5. All We’ve Ever Wanted (3:59)
6. Dispatches From The Gutter (1:54)
7. This Won’t End Well (3:41)
8. I Am The Cancer (7:51)

Following the release of critically acclaimed LP Wake in Fright, which had two songs featured in the new season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, it was time for Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan and instrumentalist Ben Greenberg to return to the studio. The duo decided to up the ante and add a third member to help perfect their vicious post-industrial dystopian cyber-punk. After some deliberation, Greenberg called upon drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Zs) to help round out the sound they were looking for. Using a mix of triggered samples and real drums along with layered synths and good old electric guitar, the trio arrived at what would become The Long Walk after only a few short days in the studio.

From the opening whirr of the title track, it’s clear that the band is onto something special. Recorded in Strange Weather studios in the first part of 2018, The Long Walk is eight new tracks by the duo of Greenberg and Berdan, incorporating Fox’s skills behind the drum kit to add an entirely new dimension to the signature Uniform sound. Ditching sequenced tracks, Greenberg opted for single takes to highlight the Frankenstein-like guitar-bass-synth hybrid that oozes throughout the recording. Meanwhile, crushing guitar thunder is punched up by Fox’s masterful drumming while Berdan’s cries from the nether feel more desperate and morose than ever. This is Uniform at its most bleak, emotional, and powerful.

Lyrically, The Long Walk deals with paradoxes in spirituality and organized religion. Berdan went to Catholic school for most of his primary education. Fear of Biblical hell and damnation felt tangible. As Berdan grew and matured emotionally, he began to reject Catholicism bit by bit. In the recent past, Berdan found himself slowly reconnecting with his background, observing how the faith that he found so repressive served as a great source of comfort and strength for so many. Yet therein lay the contradiction that drove him from religion in the first place — many of the human traditions of the church also dealt in repression, intolerance, and bigotry. Could one observe the rituals and practice of a faith while acknowledging and rejecting its ugliest elements?

TRACK LISTING

1. The Walk (5:31)
2. Inhuman Condition (4:16)
3. Found (3:51)
4. Transubstantiation (4:36)
5. Alone In The Dark (3:47)
6. Headless Eyes (3:58)
7. Anointing Of The Sick (4:47)
8. Peaceable Kingdom (6:49)

Ex-Telescopes, Unisex have drawn out their original band's sound into a space rock style mantra.

Eleven songs by the new Gainesville rock n' roll powerhouse! Featuring Todd and Bill from the now defunct Discount and Jason from Hot Water Music and completing the line up is Discount's tour manager Jason. Celebrates the ethics and spirit of the punk scene that raised them.

Debut album "Fault Lines" from the Glasgow four piece marks a step forward in their songwriting skills while maintaining a raw energy reminiscent of early ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and McClusky, balancing melody with mayhem and delivering a payload of pop sensibility within a sonic assault. Said onslaught will be unleashed across the UK in May and France in September.

United Fruit formed in Glasgow in 2008 when the founding members quickly gelled through a mutual love of discordant yet catchy noise and the band have been taking the traditional format of guitars, bass and drums in a thunderous direction ever since. Influences and comparisons range from the edgy rawness of Shellac and Mudhoney to lesser known pioneers of heavier sounds such as Oxes, Daughters, These Arms Are Snakes, That Fucking Tank and Ligament.

To date, United Fruit have also supported numerous contemporary greats on tour including Maps & Atlases, Die! Die! Die!, Future Of The Left, Monotonix and Desalvo.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kamikaze
2. Liar
3. Red Letter
4. Go Away, Don't Leave Me Alone
5. Three
6. Confuse Her Now
7. The Alarm
8. Dust To Light
9. Wrecking Ball

United Sounds Of Joy are a new collaboration between Michael J Sheehy and former Dream City Film Club bandmate Alex Vald. Their self-titled debut album is released on Bronze Rat Records on CD / LP / digital download.

“Don’t call it a reunion,” spits Michael J Sheehy, “we’re not even a band in the traditional fashion.” Dream City Film Club were signed to Beggars Banquet within a year of forming in 1995, releasing an album and recording two Peel sessions before Vald was unceremoniously kicked out. “Alex was dismissed because he was the only decent human being in the band,” says Sheehy. “We were intent on dismantling the band from the off. Everyone was pulling in different directions, each with his own very particular variety of personality disorder, drug abuse or mental illness. And if all that stuff hadn’t got us then I’m sure we would have buckled beneath the weight of our own very lofty pretensions.”

Almost two decades removed from each other’s musical energies, Vald and Sheehy have reunited to craft some heartrending, mind-bending music. Coming on like Joe Meek and Goldfrapp entangled in some ancient machinery, the first-listen track ‘The Sun That Hides A Darker Star’ is a magnificent, shimmering sound. Amongst others, Lauren Laverne picked up on the track, with regular spins, describing it thusly; “if David Cronenberg directed a spaghetti western, we reckon it would feel a little like this.”

Featuring contributions from Fiona Brice and Gemma Ray, the album is full of alluring, devious pop noir, the songs immersed in an eerie, crepuscular pool of fuzzy, warmly welcoming psychedelics. United Sounds Of Joy traverse a road to a new and rewarding gothic chanson.

The beautiful cover is by Russian artist Aleksandra Laika.

TRACK LISTING

Seams Of Sorrow
The Sun That Hides A Darker Star
Dust Veil
Wounded Moon
She Sets The Stars In Motion
I Hear Her Call My Name
Queen Of Seven Dials
Free To Fall

Futurismo have the privilege to be the first label to ever reissue one of the most sort out and revered electronic albums of the early 1980’s: Digital Stimulation by Units.

Inspired by punk in ideology, though not necessarily in sound, San Francisco’s Units were a young breed of dystopic visionaries art space prodigies and trash culture futurists set on reshaping sound for a new age. Leading the charge, along with only a couple of others such as Screamers and Chrome, they lit the touch-paper for a new sound, a new scene. A new approach. Equally as influenced by experimental cinema, performance art and Brechtian street theatre as they were the music of Suicide and Devo, Units offered a glorious glimpse into how and what pop music could be. Their influence has stretching all the way through synth punk and new wave pop into the most contemporary electro musicians.

Originally released in 1980, Digital Stimulation was Units true calling card and masterpiece. Containing the now famous opener ‘High Pressure Days’, this is a time capsule brought up from the dawn of the digi-age; all metronomical rhythms, wry lines and ice-cold delivery…part of a lineage that includes Neu!, Tubeway Army, ‘Being Boiled’-era Human League and Cabaret Voltaire, making this a vital recording for anyone interested in electronic music at all – past or present, with original copies selling at extortionate prices this is a release long overdue.

The remastered version of this out of print 1980 LP is presented here in a choice of ltd edition coloured vinyl, alongside a CD of the album completely remixed in 2020 by Scott Ryser. This deluxe release also contains a 12pg art booklet containing rare imagery and new liner notes.

TRACK LISTING

LP
1. High Pressure Days
2. Digital Stimulation
3. Warm Moving Bodies
4. Go
5. Mission
6. Cannibals
7. Bug Boy
8. Tight Fit
9. Passion Or Patterns
10. Town By The River
11. Cowboy
12. I-Night (bonus)
+ CD Of Remixed 2020 Version

Cassette
1. High Pressure Days
2. Digital Stimulation
3. Warm Moving Bodies
4. Go
5. Mission
6. Cannibals
7. Bug Boy
8. Tight Fit
9. Passion Or Patterns
10. Town By The River
11. Cowboy
12. I-Night (bonus)

The precocious London-based Unitz started DJing from the age of eight and producing from the age of 13! Now a little older he brings us this double header for the Dub Police label. "The Drop" is totally off the hinges! A bit of a teasing atmospheric bell tinkling intro makes way for the mother of all electroid dubstep drops that's had crowds up and down the land shouting for the rewind. Having received massive amounts of airplay both on Rinse FM and Kiss FM as well as the live circuit this is sure to fly off the shelves. "Mornin Blues" offers something a bit more deep and a bit more subtle to mess with your head. Rinsed by Caspa, Rusko, DJ Orien, The Others, Mary Anne Hobbes, Subscape, Oris Jay and N-Type.

"Invisible Starlight" is a ripping tune by an unknown midwestern funk outfit with a driving backbeat and soaring horns. It sounds like Ohio to us, but we can't be sure. What is certain however, is that these gents rocked the local bowling alleys, social clubs and loungespots wherever they went. Label bosses Universal Cave touch down on the A-side with their primo 45 edit, hitting us with a relentless groove of fat bass, bright horns and irrepressible rhythm guitar - so damned phonky y'all. Meanwhile on the flip, The Beat Broker rounds out the original with his signature style and an impeccable ear. The Kind Dub's sun drenched delay and reinforced drums ensure that Invisible Starlight will shine over any dancefloor!

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Here we have a hot 7" of the rawest, roughest disco funk, expertly retweeked for modern jocks. There's looped licks on the A-side from the UC crew, while Beat Broker gets dubby-in-the-disco over on the flip...

TRACK LISTING

A1. Invisible Starlight (Universal Cave Edit)
B1. Invisible Starlight (The Beat Broker Kind Dub)

From the ashes of Moss Icon, Universal Order of Armageddon blasted out of Annapolis, MD in a fiery maelstrom of punishing riffs, syncopated breakbeats, and terrifying shrieks. Compiled here are the complete Gravity, Vermin Scum, and Kill Rock Stars recordings, remixed and remastered from the original session tapes, and housed in a deluxe gatefold jacket with a chunky 24-page book packed with photos, notes, and iconography from their 1993-’94 run. Armageddon IS now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Visible Distance
2. Switch Is Down
3. Stepping Softly Into
4. Clear Set
5. Benedict
6. No Longer Stranger
7. Symptom
8. Flux
9. Desperate Motion
10. Longer, Stranger
11. The Entire Vast Situation
12. Painfully Obvious
13. Four Measure Start
14. City
15. Mud
16. Close To Far Away
17. Fence Song
18. Four Measure Start(Live On WFMU)
19. Mud(Live On WFMU)
20. No Longer Stranger(Live On WFMU)
21. Close To Far Away(Live On WFMU)
22. Symptom(Live On WFMU)
23. Painfully Obvious(Live On WFMU)
24. City (Live On WFMU)

After a rollercoaster twenty-five year career as an artist, curator and tastemaker, James Lavelle returns with UNKLE’s fifth studio album: The Road. In the twenty years since UNKLE’s debut, Lavelle has been prolific. He created three studio albums with UNKLE (Never Never Land, War Stories and Where Did The Night Fall), a host of critically acclaimed film scores, and curated a series of art exhibitions through Daydreaming with... most notably, the hugely successful DayDreaming with Stanley Kubrick exhibition at Somerset house. “I hadn’t made a record in a long time, and the incarnation of UNKLE had changed in that now, it was me on my own. For that reason, I wanted to make a record that I hadn’t been able to before, going back to the roots of where I came from, with a foot in modern London”. After a productive trip to the States, Lavelle returned to London to add the finishing touches to what was shaping up to be another classic UNKLE record. Lavelle then managed to conclude a twenty year conversation with Primal Scream’s Andrew Innes, as the pair finally got together in the studio. Innes plays lead guitar to the album’s title track ‘The Road’. Another first for Lavelle was a collaboration with Planet Funk’s Gigi Canu and Marko Baroni, who along with Duke Spirit starlet Liela Moss, contributed to ‘Sunrise (Always comes around), UNKLE’s reinterpretation of the summer anthem.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The much awaited 'The Road...' finally drops from Unkle, and it is just as you'd expect. A meticulously crafted, and impeccably curated suite of electronic grooves, and acoustic relief, in equal measure. Grooving rock numbers reveal their gothic charms through haunted reverbs and choral vocals before segueing into pulsing dancefloor numbers.

Following on from the critically acclaimed The Road: Part I, James Lavelle's UNKLE returns with the follow up The Road: Part II / Lost Highway, split across two parts with 22 tracks, James described this journey as having "more of a mixtape aesthetic being the ultimate road trip"

TRACK LISTING

LP:

DISC 1
1. Iter VI: Prologue
2. Requiem (When You Talk Of Love)
3. Ar.Mour
4. Iter VII: Lost
5. The Other Side
6. Feel More / With Less
7. Nothing To Give

DISC 2
1. Iter VIII: However Vast The Darkness
2. Long Gone
3. Only You
4. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
5. Iter IX: Epilogue / Tales Of The City
6. Crucifixion / A Prophet
7. Powder Man
8. Kubrick

DISC 3
1. Sun (The)
2. Find An Outsider
3. Iter X: Found
4. Days And Nights
5. Reprise
6. Iter XI: In Your Arms
7. Touch Me

CD:

DISC 1
1. Iter VI: Prologue
2. Requiem (When You Talk Of Love)
3. Ar.Mour
4. Iter VII: Lost
5. The Other Side
6. Feel More / With Less
7. Nothing To Give
8. Iter VIII: However Vast The Darkness
9. Long Gone
10. Only You
11. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

DISC 2
1. Iter IX: Epilogue / Tales Of The City
2. Crucifixion / A Prophet
3. Powder Man
4. Kubrick
5. Sun (The)
6. Find An Outsider
7. Iter X: Found
8. Days And Nights
9. Reprise
10. Iter XI: In Your Arms
11. Touch Me

While recording Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s latest release, Sex & Food, Ruban Nielson, his longtime collaborator Jacob Portrait and his brother Kody Nielson, found themselves in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi playing and recording with local musicians at Phu Sa Studios. The studio, normally used for traditional Vietnamese music, found the band jamming on sessions dubbed IC-01 Hanoi: exploring the outer edges of the band’s influences in Jazz, Fusion and the avant-garde. The musicians, along with Ruban and Kody’s father, a Jazz musician in his own right, helped lay down the unique textures heard throughout Hanoi. At its core Hanoi is a record of exploration, finding its closest antecedent in Miles Davis’ experimental On The Corner – itself a record full of nods toward avant-garde composers and Jazz outsiders alike. Hanoi finds Ruban amplifying and stretching out on lead guitar, with a blown-out and wandering fuzz tone that slinks throughout the sessions. Kody and Jacob match Ruban’s melodic diversions with aplomb, mining their talents to finding as easy a role in the fusion of funk as they do in the more ambient and abstract tangents on Hanoi.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Definitely not typical UMO this, but absolutely brimming with feeling and focused on an entirely different aspect of their sound. Though they are by no means avant-garde, the more meandering ruminations of their melodic forays are exacerbated on this release, breaking into the realms of jazzy ambience, eastern flow and hypnotic woodwind. A completely surprising but thoroughly enjoyable change. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hanoi 1
2. Hanoi 2
3. Hanoi 3
4. Hanoi 4
5. Hanoi 5
6. Hanoi 6
7. Hanoi 7

Emerging from rampant hedonism and isolation is ‘II’, the new album from Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The musical vision of Portlander-via-New Zealand Ruban Nielson started as an anonymous home-recording project that fused psychedelia, soul, choppy percussion and funk.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra came to life in basements and bedrooms after Nielson moved from his native New Zealand to Portland, Oregon with his family. Following the recruitment of bassist Jacob Portrait, new drummer Greg Rogove and a deal with Jagjaguwar, UMO toured the US with Grizzly Bear and Liars.

‘II’ builds on the breakbeat, junk shop charm the 32-year-old multi-instrumentalist and songwriter came to be renowned for following his self-titled 2011 debut, and signals the solidification of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s position as an endlessly intriguing, brave psychedelic band. Unknown Mortal Orchestra is unafraid to dig deeper than the rest, to lock into their intoxicating, opiate groove and bring rock ‘n’ roll’s exaggerated myths to life.

Written during a punishing, debauched touring schedule during which Nielson feared for his sanity and health, ‘II’ illustrates the emotional turmoil of life on the road, painting surrealist, cartoonish portraits of loneliness, love and despair.

These conflicting themes are evident immediately; on the album’s sleeve is an unnerving image of Janet Farrar, the famous British witch Wiccan, author and teacher of witchcraft. The chilling refrain of opener ‘Into The Sun’ sees Nielson deliver the line “Isolation can put a gun in your hand,” softly, his words starkly intelligible above a warm, slow-burning melody that quickly brands itself onto your brain. His playful imagery (“I’m so lonely I’ve gotta eat my popcorn all alone”) mirrors the melody, before a solo that borders on psychotropic ends ‘II’s introduction.

As it unfolds, ‘II’ does find Nielson reenergized. ‘One At A Time’ and ‘Faded In The Morning’ boast dizzying choruses and instrumentals - these crusty hunks could have been excavated from a lost 1960s treasure trove. ‘Monki’ unravels over seven minutes like the yarn from a stoner’s cardigan with an eye-frying pattern. ‘Dawn’ is a minute of disconcerting noise that stands out between the nooks and crannies of the choruses, guitar solos, groove-heavy bass and drums that were recorded live by newly-recruited drummer Greg Rogove and Kody Nielson in a move away from the electronic percussion employed on album one. ‘II’ closes with ‘Secret Xtians’, a tender observational puzzle that fizzes to a satisfied end.

Pulling Pink Floyd, The Family Stone, The Beatles and the Soft Machine through his warped rock ‘n’ roll filter, Nielson has created a collection of expressive psychedelia. Unknown Mortal Orchestra was once Nielson’s closeted concern. With an album that uses his singular musical imagination and extraordinary talent to parade his emotions with unyielding honesty, it is now a fully realized band operating at the peak of its powers.

‘II’ is the follow up and refinement to 2011’s self-titled, critically adored debut (released by Fat Possum and True Panther Sounds).

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: UMO's 2011 debut LP was a one-man, bedroom curio layering sun-kissed psych-pop over chunky break beats. Expanded to a three piece, the live drummer brings an untutored looseness to the band’s sound which perfectly suits the laid-back, mellow vibe of these tunes. Ruban Neilson has made a beautiful night time record; hazy, blurred and luminous. And it still has that home-studio charm: lo-fi, fuzzy and whimsical, but the psych is now the Beatles, the blues a freaked-out Marc Bolan and there's a soulfulness that recalls early ‘70s Curtis Mayfield; a gorgeous blend. Curtis comparisons extend to Ruban's guitar playing too; seemingly meandering, carefree explorations reveal themselves to be intricately worked out, melodic lines that spill into each other, sometimes with a whiff of prog, sometimes even jazz. Mixed with the white-soul and garage, plus (inter)stellar melodies, you have one funky little nugget, a dazed and dreamy gem of an album.

TRACK LISTING

1. From The Sun
2. Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)
3. So Good At Being In Trouble
4. One At A Time
5. The Opposite Of Afternoon
6. No Need For A Leader
7. Monki
8. Dawn
9. Faded In The Morning
10. Secret Xians

Unknown Mortal Orchestra came to life in basements and bedrooms, the musical vision of Portlander-via-New Zealand Ruban Nielson that fused guitar-god riffs, choppy percussion, soul and funk. II, the sophomore album from UMO, emerged in an era rampant hedonism and isolationism and became the blueprint for everything Nielson has become renowned for. It was, and is, the solidification of Unknown Mortal Orchestra as an endlessly intriguing, brave and addictive band. Ten years on, it’s back with an expanded edition.

Written during a punishing, debauched touring schedule during which Nielson feared for both his sanity and health, II illustrates the emotional turmoil of life on the road, painting surrealist, cartoonish portraits of loneliness, love and despair. These conflicting themes are evident immediately; on the album’s sleeve is an unnerving image of Janet Farrar, the famous British witch, Wiccan, author and teacher of witchcraft. The chilling refrain of opener “Into The Sun” sees Nielson deliver the line “Isolation can put a gun in your hand,” softly, his words starkly intelligible above a warm, slow-burning melody that quickly brands itself onto your brain. His playful imagery (“I’m so lonely I’ve gotta eat my popcorn all alone”) mirrors the melody, before a solo that borders on psychotropic ends II‘s introduction. UMO is unafraid to dig deeper than the rest, their intoxicating, opiate groove bringing rock’n’roll’s exaggerated myths to life. And as it unfolds, II does find Nielson reenergized. “One At A Time” and “Faded In The Morning” boast dizzying choruses and instrumentals; these crusty hunks could have been excavated from a lost 1960s treasure trove. “Monki” unravels over seven minutes like the yarn from a stoner’s cardigan with an eye-frying pattern. “Dawn” is a minute of disconcerting noise that stands out between the nooks and crannies of the choruses, guitar solos, groove-heavy bass and drums that were recorded live by newly-recruited drummer Greg Rogove and Kody Nielson in a move away from the electronic percussion employed on album one. II closes with “Secret Xtians,” a tender observational puzzle that fizzes to a satisfied end.

In celebration of the album’s 10th anniversary Nielson’s complete collection from the II era is finally available in one compilation, and features the five acoustic tracks from the Blue EP as well as two additional B-sides. Unknown Mortal Orchestra was once Nielson’s closeted concern. With an album that uses his singular musical imagination and extraordinary talent to parade his emotions with unyielding honesty, it is now a fully realized band operating at the peak of its powers ten years on.

TRACK LISTING

1. From The Sun
2. Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)
3. So Good At Being In Trouble
4. One At A Time
5. The Opposite Of Afternoon
6. No Need For A Leader
7. Monki
8. Dawn
9. Faded In The Morning
10. Secret Xtians
11. Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)
12. Faded In The Morning
13. So Good At Being In Trouble
14. Swing Lo Magellan
15. Puttin’ It Down
16. Two Generations Of Excess
17. Waves Of Confidence

On Multi-Love, Unknown Mortal Orchestra frontman and multi-instrumentalist Ruban Nielson reflects on relationships: airy, humid longing, loss, the geometry of desire that occurs when three people align. Where Nielson addressed the pain of being alone on II, Multi-Love takes on the complications of being together.

Multi-Love adds dimensions to the band’s already kaleidoscopic approach, with Nielson exploring a newfound appreciation for synthesizers. The new songs channel with the spirit of psych innovators without ignoring the last 40 years of music, forming a flowing, cohesive whole that reflects restless creativity. Cosmic escapes and disco rhythms speak to developing new vocabulary, while Nielson’s vocals reach powerful new heights.

“It felt good to be rebelling against the typical view of what an artists is today, a curator,” he says. “It’s more about being someone who makes things happen in concrete ways. Building old synthesizers and bringing them back to life, creating sounds that aren’t quite like anyone else’s. I think that’s much more subversive.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Better bottom-end for the funky psych-groovers. Their last album was well loved here, looks like this is gonna top it!

TRACK LISTING

1. Multi-Love
2. Like Acid Rain
3. Ur Life One Night
4. Can’t Keep Checking My Phone
5. Extreme Wealth And Casual Cruelty
6. The World Is Crowded
7. Stage Or Screen
8. Necessary Evil
9. Puzzles

Where are we headed? What are we consuming, how is it affecting us, and why does everything feel so bad and weird sometimes? These are some of the questions posed on Ruban Nielson's fourth album as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sex & Food-a delightfully shapeshifting album that filters these real-deal serious themes through a vibrant sonic lens that spans battered drum-machine funk, doomy and thrashing rock, and pink-hued psychedelic disco. Recorded in a variety of locales from Seoul and Hanoi to Reykjavik, Mexico City, and Auckland, Sex & Food is a practical musical travelogue, with local musicians from the countries that Nielson and his band visited pitching in throughout.

TRACK LISTING

A God Called Hubris
Major League Chemicals
Ministry Of Alienation
Hunnybee
Chronos Feasts On His Children
American Guilt
The Internet Of Love (That Way)
Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
This Doomsday
How Many Zeros
Not In Love We’re Just High
If You’re Going To Break Yourself

Unknown Mortal Orchestra (U.M.O.) was conceived as a home recording project by Ruban Nielson after spending years playing and touring in an award-winning New Zealand punk band (on the legendary Flying Nun label). The band broke up after re-locating to Portland, OR and Ruban was ready to move away from his nomadic past. His recordings as U.M.O., mainly created for his personal amusement, have now taken on a life of their own. 

Ruban’s vision of creating “junkshop record collector pop” culminated in the creation of sprawling Beatles-esque guitar melodies over hammered out break-beats, spliced with an individual touch of gentle weirdness. The results deliver a surprisingly unified fusion of several influential elements - classic psychedelic rock, Krautrock rhythms and proto-hip hop beats – all interacting to create a cohesive album. 

Though the songs were never intended to be performed live, the last six months has seen the project gather pace behind a wave of critical acclaim. A sold-out limited edition EP lead Ruban to construct a live band consisting of skilled producer Jake Portrait on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julien Ehrlich.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ffrends
2. Bicycle
3. Thought Ballune
4. Jello And Juggernauts
5. How Can You Luv Me
6. Nerve Damage!
7. Little Blu House
8. Strangers Are Strange
9. Boy Witch

Created between Palm Springs, California and Hilo, Hawai’i, V is the first double album from the Hawaiian-New Zealand singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ruban Nielson’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra band. Designed to play as one continuous movement and road-tested on dry California freeways, V is the definitive Unknown Mortal Orchestra car record. It’s also the fifth full-length album Ruban has released in twelve years. Across fourteen sunbleached songs - written solo or with his brother Kody - Ruban draws from the rich traditions of West Coast AOR, yacht rock, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. Over a laidback blend of singalong anthems and cinematic instrumentals, he evokes blue skies, afternoons spent lounging by hotel swimming pools and the alluring darkness that lurks below perfect, pristine surfaces. It’s a duality expressed in the dilapidated sunset blues and the salt-corroded soul Ruban explores through tracks like ‘Layla’ and ‘Nadja. ’

During the pandemic’s early days, Ruban reunited with Kody at a cousin’s wedding in Hawai’i. With assistance from their father, Chris Nielson (saxophone/flute) and longstanding Unknown Mortal Orchestra member Jake Portrait, they brought everything Ruban had been thinking about together. The result was V, due for release on March 3, 2023, through Jagjaguwar. When they talked about records that moved them in that spine-shivering manner, Ruban started thinking about the 70s AM radio rock and 80s pop songs that had lurked on the edge of his subconscious mind for most of his life. He wanted to write his version of records like that, leading to the two glorious uptempo singles Unknown Mortal Orchestra released in 2021, ‘Weekend Run’ and ‘That Life’.

However, the golden good times never last forever. Not long after, health issues began to plague his extended family. Putting his recordings aside, he helped his mother and his uncle move home from New Zealand and Portland to Hawai’i, and began dividing his time between Hawai’i and Palm Springs. During this period he reconnected with his relatives, reassessed his past, and started to look at things with fresh eyes. Hawai’i brought back memories of the darker side of his parents’ lifestyle as entertainers. On those trips, he heard those classic AM radio rock records everywhere. They were inextricably intertwined with the palm trees, swimming pools, and glamorized hedonism he’d internalized from his childhood. There’s a type of music in Hawai’i called Hapa-haole (Half white). You can hear it expressed in signature Unknown Mortal Orchestra style through the humid guitar-led atmosphere of V’s penultimate song, ‘I Killed Captain Cook’. Although the songs are presented in a traditional Hawaiian manner, they’re mostly sung in English. Having been influenced by Hawaiian music since Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s first album, Ruban saw a space for himself within the tradition. When he reflected on his success, he realised he had the responsibility and platform to represent Hapa-haole music on the global stage.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another stunning outing for synth-indie favourites Unknown Mortal Orchestra here in the sprawling, genre-defying behemoth that is 'V'. Full of jagged overdriven riffs and airy funk progressions, it's the UMO we know and love but to the nth degree. A superb collection, confidently summarising the sounds of Ruban Nielson’s singular project.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Garden
2. Guilty Pleasures
3. Meshuggah
4. The Widow
5. In The Rear View
6. That Life
7. Layla
8. Shin Ramyun
9. Weekend Run
10. The Beach
11. Nadja
12. Keaukaha
13. I Killed Captain Cook
14. Drag

Digwah is back with yet another standout release, showcasing two new rollers that expertly fuse timeless late '80s vocals with an infectious tech house rhythm and pulsating synth lines.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The trusty Digwah label returns with more exclusive, vinyl-only white label business. A techy outing this one, laced with the ghosts of Ian Brown and Sade.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Couldn't Hate You
B1. Open Ended

Double trouble from the depths with this audacious edit package taking in two ultimate, belt from the bottom of your heart classics. Reworked, reloved and revamped to provide maximum dancefloor elation. Two big, bold edit beasts to help you break on through to the other side.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Phhwwaooar! Sometimes people get too obsessed with the obscure and unheard. Cuts From The Vaults' unknown producer runs wild with stems from Bob Marley and The Doors and turns out what I'm sure will be two of the biggest edits of 2023! Humongous!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Shot
A2. Shot (Special Dub)
B1. Bossarocker (Bossa Edit)
B2. Bossarocker (Break On Edit)

Gallery is back, and this time they're unleashing a one-sided wonder just in time for the party season! Brace yourself for the ultimate sonic experience as two massive anthems collide, giving birth to a new and priceless piece of musical art.

This masterpiece has been exclusively hammered by the dynamic duo, the keepers of the coveted copies—none other than the legendary DJs, Harvey and Artwork. Get ready to be swept away on a musical journey that's set to elevate your party vibes to a whole new level!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The cat's outta the bag... Artwork mashes up First Choice, Peech Boys and some other old school goodness into an intoxicating extension that's gonna rock the discotheques all thru party season. ooowee-ooowee ... ooowee-ooowee...

TRACK LISTING

A1. Don't Wait For The Doctor

Unauthorized Chez Damier edits by some cheeky chappies admitting to their wrong doings but making no apologies for making us dance! "Classic Piano" kicks things off in pure tribal mode, hypnotic conga rhythms weaving through the track beautifully as rich piano stabs and rumbling subs fill the sonic canvass. Sheer power for your deep house dancefloor and one that should unite house heads the world over. DEEEP! The B2 comes untitled and has more uptempo bounce but is equally as deep with its dub-echo stabs and gliding b-line. Halfway through we're treated to one of Damier classic female vocal parts, full of soul and energy. Flip and we get the epic afro-house jam of "Jabalou", mixing horns, live drums and the occasional spoken word into a melee of house goodness that'd you'd catch all the greats working into an extended trip of house pleasure anytime from 1992 right up to the present day. Mega! Finally, "Mix Masters" see a big number from Chez's vaults represented in all its dilated glory. Reach for the lasers! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Yowzers! It's naughty but its oh so good! Self-proclaimed 'rebellions' actually apologize for their Chez Damier-mining antics but state that it's all in good will - and who are we to argue!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Jabalou
A2. Mix Masters
B1. Classic Piano

EEE are renowned for their slick deep house edit which are always heavy on the thumping funky beats and loose on the details but we can't get enough. Smatterings on bass and vocals etched in throughout, oooft, very nice indeed. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Unknown

The secretive Only Music Matters label rolls out its seventh EP here and it's from an unknown producer or producers who seem to have a love of tech house. Opener 'AAA001A' is a warped cut for freaky 'floors with trippy vocal details and gloopy beats and bass. 'BBB001B' is more airy and light in its silky minimal rhythms but is detailed with some paranoid pads that keep you on edge while 'BBB002B' rides a nice gritty, propulsive beat and has some wonky, detuned keys adding colour. Another great outing from this low-key but high-quality label.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
AAA001A

Side 2
BBB001B
BBB002B

Members of The Chats, EU pressing of their second LP in anticipation of their debut Euro Tour. FFO: Cosmic Psychos, The Saints, Stiff Richards, The Chats. Australia never misses.

European release of The Unknowns second LP, released on Bargain Bin Records in Australia. "There have already been some monster LPs released in 2023, and the sophomore album from The Unknowns just might be the best of the lot. The Brisbane-based then-trio released one of the greatest punk albums of the roaring twenties (so far) with Nothing Will Ever Stop back in late 2020. Now a foursome following the addition of The Chats' Eamon Sandwich on guitar, The Unknowns have returned with an even better follow-up. East Coast Low manages to take most of the musical genres I hold dear and mash them together in the most delightful way. Basically the sound is classic punk rock with a ton of energy and catchy tunes (what else would you expect from Australia?). Yet at the same time, this album aligns beautifully with modern-day garage punk, power pop, and straight-up rock n' roll. East Coast Low packs ten tracks of punchy sing-along punk rock into 23 and a half minutes of pure fun. Songs like "Dianne," "Rid of You," "Thinking About You," and "I Don't Know" prove once again that there's a certain kind of itch that only old school punk rock n' roll can scratch. These guys are doing nothing new. But man, they do it so freaking well! If we're talking about the cream of the contemporary Aussie punk crop, The Unknowns have earned a place in the conversation." - Josh / Faster and Louder blog.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shot Down
2. Dianne
3. Rid Of You
4. Crying
5. Beat Me
6. Thinking About You
7. Know It All
8. I Don’t Know
9. Deleted
10. Supersonic Love

EEE work it with another sample heavy house hitter to get the party started!

Support from, East End Dubs, Rossi

TRACK LISTING

A1. Unknown
B1. Unknown

Never one to disappoint, DSO come correct for their 6th release on the label with a sure-fire summer, double header of East Coast meets West Coast business, amped up, ramped up and turned into club smashers.

A doubled sided twelve that slams on both tracks, Side A ‘Everyday’ is pure nostalgia giving us summer party vibes allllllll day. While the B side takes But A G to a whole new level on its own. Hot stuff. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: A doubled sided twelve that slams on both tracks, Side A ‘Everyday’ is pure nostalgia giving us summer party vibes allllllll day. While the B side takes But A G to a whole new level on its own. Hot stuff.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Everyday
B1. But A G

“Sometimes it’s hard to say how you feel,” says Jade Vincent. “These songs are vulnerable stories for me to tell — they’re things I couldn’t say out loud. But I found that I could sing them. And then I closed my eyes when they would listen.”

Listening to Vincent’s songs were her partner, the producer/composer Keefus Ciancia, and the DJ and producer/composer David Holmes. Together, Vincent, Ciancia and Holmes make up Unloved, the musical project that evolved out of a late-night Hollywood bar in 2015, released a stunning debut album the following spring, and this year crafted the soundtrack to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s acclaimed new series Killing Eve.

Now Unloved bring us their second full length record Heartbreak, a record emboldened by its predecessor to be more emotionally exposed, more musically, lyrically, and vocally audacious. In the words of Holmes: “We just get together, had a load of ideas, and Jade went off and wrote and wrote. She got deep and deep. She has an amazing story. They are amazing songs. She excelled herself.”

To enter the world of Unloved is to surrender oneself to a great musical immersion, one that seems to occupy the space somewhere between past and present, where thoughts soften and ideas mingle with twisted mancini-esque orchestrations, where music binds the dawn and dark.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Killing Eve, and it's tense atmospheres but dark humour flecked throughout wouldn't have been the same without Unloved's perfect soundtrack. Heartbreak may seem mildly chaotic at first, but brilliantly evocative orchestration and swooning, loungey vibes soon make you foret the chaos before flinging you once again into the fire. A beautifully produced and perfectly balanced filmic masterpiece. And who would have expected any less from this talented bunch?

TRACK LISTING

1 Heartbreak
2 Remember
3 Love
4 (Sigh)
5 Bill
6 Devils Angels
7 Lee
8 Danger
9 Fail We May Sail We Must
10 Love Lost
11 Crash Boom Bang
12 Boy And Girl
13 If

Following the release of The Pink Album last Autumn, Unloved return with Polychrome (The Pink Album Postlude). The record starts with a murmur of percussion and a metallic grind, as if the in-house band on a space station were warming up for the last show of the night. As phased vocals zoom through the heart of the track, Polychrome builds and builds to create a swooning hypnosis that’s part Tropicalia, part BBC Radiophonic Workshop and part psilocybin swoosh. Disorientating, strange, compelling, Polychrome is the opener and title track of Unloved’s first album of 2023.

Over the last few years, Unloved have developed their own uniquely cine literate sound that draws a straight line from the moody, doom obsessed girl group records of the early 1960s to the sonic experiments of electronic pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Silver Apples via the darkest corners of David Lynch films and the crisp, mono beauty of the French New Wave. Polychrome sees the band take a deeper dive into their world, with eight new tracks recorded at the same time at the band’s recently released third long player, The Pink Album, along with a welcome reappearance of Far From Here, a glorious widescreen tower of sound originally recorded and released as part of the band’s first EP, 2015’s Guilty of Love. 

TRACK LISTING

Polychrome
Thrill Me.
I Did It.
Thank You For Being That Friend, You Know, The One You Never Want To Say Goodbye To.
I Just Stop
It's Hard To Hold You Close When The World Keeps Turning.
Only For You.
Far From Here
Rain On My Parade 

Unloved release a very special companion piece to their critically acclaimed 2nd LP ‘Heartbreak’ for Record Store Day 2019. These instrumental versions reveal the full depth of the album’s productions and give a fresh perspective on the cinematic beauty of the music, as used in the soundtrack for hit BBC Spy drama ‘Killing Eve’. Perfectly complemented by pulp romance cover inspired artwork by Julian House, director of the band’s ‘Heartbreak’ and ‘Guilty Of Love’ music videos, this limited release is not to be missed. Limited to 500, includes download.

Too Pure present the third instalment of the 2017 edition of the Singles Club with the awesome Unqualified Nurse band.

Derby’s Unqualified Nurse Band follow up 2016’s debut album ‘Debasement Tapes’ with the two headed beast that is ‘Death Surf A52’ / ‘White Dove’.

‘Death Surf A52’ is a one note juggernaut that opens up into Dream Surf bliss, weaving its way through 50 shades of rock and roll with no intention of slowing down for anybody.

Significant other ‘White Dove’ staggers and struts and then before you know it you’re howling at the Harvest Moon.

Both songs recorded by Rich Collins at SNUG Recording CO, Derby and mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton. 

TRACK LISTING

Death Surf A52
White Dove

Imperial f.f.r.r. was Unrest’s breakthrough album in 1992. It has withstood the test of time and is now considered an indie-rock classic and one of the best albums of the 1990s. Formed in 1984, at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, the band started releasing homemade cassettes on their own Teenbeat label. Imperial f.f.r.r. is their sixth album and marked the arrival of original Velocity Girl vocalist Bridget Cross joining drummer Phil Krauth and singer/guitarist Mark Robinson. It was recorded by Wharton Tiers (Sonic Youth) at his home studio in Manhattan. After the release of Imperial f.f.r.r., the band released singles on Sub Pop and K and soon thereafter signed to legendary U.K. indie 4AD, releasing their final studio album Perfect Teeth in 1993.

This limited edition features the original design and layout of the very first pressing from 1992. All the details have been recreated including the lyric sheet, the blue box around the amplifier on the front, the label art, and even the Ajax and No.6 Records logos. The original didn't have a barcode, so we've created a spiffy new removeable OBI card for that featuring a photograph by Mike Galinsky (The Decline of Mall Civilization) of the band playing at New York's Spiral club in 1991.

TRACK LISTING

Volume Reference Tone
Suki
Imperial
I Do Believe You Are Blushing
Champion Nines
Sugarshack
Isabel
Cherry Cream On
June
Loyola

Closing a five-year gap since the 2012 release of their Wreck LP through Alternative Tentacles, UNSANE makes a vicious return with the pummeling Sterilize, a record that recalls the most defining elements of the band's seminal Scattered, Smothered, And Covered and Occupational Hazard albums, surging with the band's unrelenting singular sound created by guitarist/vocalist Chris Spencer, bassist/vocalist Dave Curran, and drummer Vinnie Signorelli.

The band's gnarled blend of punk, metal, noise, and hardcore helping to define the "AmRep sound" alongside other forerunners of the style, Today Is The Day, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet, Tad, Cows, Halo Of Flies, Melvins, and others. Sterilize was produced by UNSANE, recorded by Dave Curran at Gatos Trail Studios in Yucca Valley, California, mixed by Andrew Schneider at Acre in New York City, and mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago.

Since 1988, UNSANE has pounded the planet with their caustic grooves and foundation-crumbling riffs, having released LPs through a wide range of labels including Matador/Atlantic, Amphetamine Reptile, Relapse, Ipecac, Alternative Tentacles, and others, not to mention a wide range of singles, splits, and live albums. Sterilize showcases UNSANE sounding as dense and damaging as ever, and sees them remaining as necessary as ever, nearly three decades since they began.

TRACK LISTING

1. Factory
2. The Grind
3. Aberration
4. No Reprieve
5. Lung
6. Inclusion
7. Distance
8. A Slow Reaction
9.Parasitic
10. Avail

‘New World Artifacts’ is the debut album from Rouen, France-based group Unschooling, arriving following their 2021 ‘Random Acts of Total Control’ EP and 2019’s ‘Defensive Designs’ tape. Out October 6th via Bad Vibrations, it’s a collection of lo-fi post-punk clocking in at 30 minutes, underscored with subtle pop melodies and structures but never far away from bouts of chaotic no-wave dissonance. Here, Unschooling claim loud and clear their desire to return to a sound which is less calibrated, less obvious. As they themselves write, “New World Artifacts is an ode to the unexpected, a tribute to many art rock bands who are always where you least expect them.” Already heralded as one of the most exciting up-and-comers in the new school of post-punk revivalists, having spent the last couple of years playing to busy crowds and festival fields across the continent, ‘New World Artifacts’ might just mark them out as the best in class.

The Unschooling quintet, as referred to on the album’s collage artwork, is made up of Vincent Fevrier (Vocals/Guitar), Damien Tebbal (Bass), Paul Morvant (Guitar), Marc Lebreuilly (Guitar/Synth) and Thomas Fromager (Drums). Although their music might revel in discord, it is a calculated one. The musicianship is complex and meticulous, hardened by their time spent together playing on the road. For ‘New World Artifacts’, additional musicians were also brought in to expand the sound in new ways, including saxophonists Levi Gillis (The Dip, Beat Connection) and Emeline Morisset (Les Agamemnonz), and Kyleen King (Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, My Morning Jacket) on strings.

TRACK LISTING

1) New World Artifacts
2) Public Transit
3) Erase U
4) Brand New Storm
5) Excommunicated
6) Ribbon Road
7) A Hundred Spires
8) Trauma
9) Shopping On The Left Bank
10) Mom's Work Force
11) The Goose

Tripp (Vocals, Bass), Scott (Lead Guitar), Pat Melzard (Drums), Paul Russo (Guitar, Vocals) are The Unseen. One of the top "street punk" bands on the Boston punk scene. "Explode" is the bands fourth full length album and sees the musicianship and songwriting stronger than ever. Visceral power and raw energy, a real dose of pure punk rock.

Reissue of their classic full length debut originally released in 1996. The 13 defining hardcore moments. Anyone who has seen them live knows how the band virtually explode on stage and this release captures that energy and more. This is a release that ranks among the best of the '90s!

New album from this Boston four piece. Continuing the tradition that has made it possible for The Unseen to pack clubs in every town they play. This release is full angerand intensity a must for every kid with a mohawk!

Merely mention The Unseen to any Boston punk and you'll find out how they started the entire Boston punk scene. Their sound is peppered with influences ranging from GBH, Misfits, The Clash, Minor Threat and Conflict. Totally in your face old skool.

The Unsemble is a collaboration of three very notable musical personalities....

You may know of Duane Denison (guitar, keyboards) from his work with Tomahawk and The Jesus Lizard, among others. He's in fine form here. You might know of Alexander Hacke (bass, electronics) from his work with Einsturzende Neubauten, Crime and the City Solution, and his film and production work. He's at the top of his game these days. You probably don't know of Brian Kotzur (drums, keyboards) but you should. He has worked with Silver Jews and Harmony Korine, both quite popular with indie hipsters, slackers, etc. He's got moves, just you wait.

Recorded in the summer of 2012, these 15 instrumental tracks are the result of an intense 2 week period of sonic exploration. Some are carefully composed and arranged, others are freely improvised. The moods range from calm and dreamy to agitated and chaotic.

This supergroup is transcending far beyond their past projects and cultivating a brand new sound. When asked about the project, Denison stated in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone: “We wanted to work on something that was typically not what we do.” He continued, “something that’s not so rock and riff-based and overdriven in that way.”

The Unsemble, a 15-song collection recorded in Denison’s adopted hometown of Nashville, meets the legendary Jesus Lizard guitar player’s hopes of a more organic feel with the band effortlessly volleying between careful compositions and improvisation. The result is an album that is experimental, clever and inclusive of numerous subgenres and cultures.

TRACK LISTING

1. Krishna
2. Circles
3. Improv 1
4. Act 3
5. Chaingang
6. Neon
7. Improv 2
8. Shadows
9. Improv 3
10. Waves
11. Improv 4
12. Circles Revisited
13. Improv 5
14. Cyclone
15. Voices

7" single release from this Leeds based Anticon influenced outfit. The band have previously put out a mini-album CD on the uber hip Unlabel. This release picked up several reviews in the Leeds music scene. Already, the band are starting to create a buzz locally and they're the ones everyone is talking about (well, other than Sky Larkin). This has opened the doors to many collaborations the band have planned over the next few months. Once again, this band has just been together for roughly a year and things are moving quickly. So far, having just undertaken two small UK tours, the Easels have supported Bonobo and Underling. With a promotion tour of France with a couple of radio sessions organised for Easter, the Easels are currently remixing tracks for cool as hell US underground hip hop label Botanica del Jibaro, as well as collaborating with other US artists for a compilation due out in the Summer.

Lee Jeffries Brings Northern Soul Holy Grail 7” to life in live form with the Unsung Wonders playing live and recorded onto 2 inch tape with no editing to give you stunning versions of these northern soul treasures.

The Album was recorded back in 2016 in Leicester with Lee's dad Steve Jeffries, one of the world's leading Northern Soul’s rare record dealers.

Lee's good friend & now pressing manager at Sonic Wax Pressing Manager Adam Bucanan also was involved in the producing and mentoring the young band to deliver these stunning records.

With 50 years of Northern Soul Wigan Casino in 2023 it's great to see new Northern Soul music is being made.

The Rice N Peas is the alternative ego to The Unsung Wonders and give a stunning Lovers Rock / Reggae take on these holy grail tracks.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Unsung Wonders - The Hurting Is Over 
A2. Unsung Wonders - It's All Over Baby 
A3. Unsung Wonders - Cashing In 
A4. Unsung Wonders - He's Gone
A5. Unsung Wonders - Too Late 
A6. Unsung Wonders - Colour One Tear Black 
B1. Rice & Peas - The Hurting Is Over 
B2. Rice & Peas - It's All Over (Baby) 
B3. Rice & Peas - Cashing In 
B4. Rice & Peas - He's Gone 
B5. Rice & Peas - Too Late 
B6. Rice & Peas - Colour One Tear Black 

With Nowhere and Everywhere Unthank and Smith, both from England’s North East, and foremost talents in their respective fields, set out to collect songs and pen originals that claw at the beating heart of the region. Though Rachel Unthank has been immersed in the folk world from childhood, Paul Smith’s route towards folk began in his teens with a love of Martin Carthy, Karen Dalton, Nick Drake and Bert Jansch, especially their fingerstyle guitar-playing. Echoes of that approach can be heard throughout this album, albeit simplified and merged with a more direct sound akin to US avant-rock acolytes of the ‘60s folk revival like Gastr Del Sol and David Pajo.

Two North-Eastern Mercury Prize-nominated artists from different musical worlds find common ground with an exploratory merging of voices and acoustic sounds. After first meeting backstage at an Africa Express show in Middlesbrough Town Hall, Paul approached Rachel to see if she would like to sing together, given his interest in folk music and their regional connections. As one of two lead singers of The Unthanks, Rachel Unthank has dedicated much of her career to celebrating folk songs by writers little known beyond the North East, such as Graeme Miles, whose 'Horumarye' appears on the album. Rachel's knowledge of traditional song allowed them to quickly add material to the original songs Paul was writing, in addition to 'Seven Tears', a rare Unthank original, inspired by Norse mythology. They performed together as part of Lauren Laverne's Great Northern Soundtrack at the 2018 Great Exhibition of the North, as well as recording a live session for Laverne's BBC6 Music show. Co-produced by David Brewis of Field Music, this raw and atmospheric album features Faye MacCalman of emerging avant-jazz group Archipelago on clarinet, and exploratory drums by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Alasdair Roberts collaborator Alex Neilson, of Trembling Bells (cult) fame.

TRACK LISTING

1. Captain Bover
2. The Natural Urge
3. Seven Tears
4. O Mary, Will You Go?
5. What Maks Makems
6. Red Wine Promises
7. Robert Kay
8. Lord Bateman
9. Horumarye

Unwed Sailor’s ninth full length album over a 25 year Career. Founding member, Johnathon Ford, has played bass for Damien Jurado (Sub Pop / Secretly Canadian), Pedro the Lion (Barsuk / Polyvinyl), Rosie Thomas (Sub Pop), and other artists Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Unwed Sailor have been on a tear over the past few years. Following a quiet phase through much of the 2010s, they re-emerged with the aptly titled Heavy Age (2019), and two more full-lengths, Truth Or Consequences (2021) and Mute The Charm (2023), that chart a remarkable evolution of their bass-led, pop-leaning post rock. On Underwater Over There their ninth LP overall – a current of 80s goth and jangle-pop runs beneath a litany of memorable hooks and compositional left turns, creating a propulsive and intricate world of sound.

The band worked collectively on all elements of mixing and production to craft a meticulously layered environment, while maintaining an air of spontaneity and experimentation across the set. Early standout, “ Final Feather ”, drifts through varying landscapes of airiness and haze on a high-neck bass hook, while the hum of voices adds a contrast of angelic comfort.

Bearing influence from New Order and The Cure in particular, its balance of gravitas and shimmer is the result of founding member Johnathon Ford ’s intuitive writing method: the lead bass line comes first, followed by supporting melodies, drums, guitars, keys, and final detailing.

Dusty” is a prime example of this process, as Ford’s powerful, low-end groove anchors a full-spectrum array of guitars, bells, and arpeggiations along with Matt Putman ’s energetic drum section. Its fluid pacing provides a perfect establishing shot, with shifting moods that gather into a coda guided by David Swatzell’s harmonized, glittering guitar riffs – a sunrise after a moonless night. In quick succession, “Blue Tangier” widens the aperture with a pounding percussive refrain, vibrant bass tone and an unforgettable, fuzzed-out melodic motif.

Sprawling center piece, “Junko”, is a loose callback to 2003’s The Marionette and The Music Box, its deliberate stride and interwoven melodies evoking the hands of a mechanical clock, and the anticipation of something long-awaited but nebulous. It drifts effortlessly from innocence to intrigue, expands into a mesmerizing howl, and vanishes abruptly into mist. While honouring their forebears in winks and nods, Unwed Sailor remain totally inimitable in their approach and style, twenty-five years into an acclaimed career. The band’s clear vision for Underwater Over There has yielded some of their most indelible work, and their inventive, passionate approach gives a strong sense of plenty more beyond the horizon.

TRACK LISTING

01. Dusty
02. Blue Tangier
03. Final Feather
04. Junko
05. Peculiar Way
06. Antoinette
07. Skylight
08. Underwater Over There
09. Bend The Ai

The Unwinding Hours follow up their 2010 self-titled debut with the much anticipated album ‘Afterlives’.

Craig B and Iain Cook were formerly one half of the critically acclaimed band Aereogramme, who split up in 2007.

‘Afterlives’ was written, performed and produced by The Unwinding Hours at Alucard Studios in Glasgow.

‘Afterlives’ features The Unwinding Hours’ emotive brand of uplifting rock, influenced by the likes of Flaming Lips, Max Richter, The Cocteau Twins and even Laurie Anderson.

Craig B’s lyrics and heart-rending vocals bring to mind the melancholic grandeur of Mark Eitzel’s American Music Club with the propulsive dynamic recalling Bob Mould’s Sugar.

The album artwork was taken from an etching by an American artist called Jack Baumgartner. The artwork depicts the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel.

TRACK LISTING

Break
I’ve Loved You For So Long
The Right To Know
Saimaa
The Promised Land
Wayward
Say My Name
The Dogs
Skin On Skin
Day By Day

An expanded and remastered 25th anniversary edition of the mythical Olympia, Washington, trio’s out of print singles and compilation tracks, A Single History 1991-2001 gathers odds and ends from across Unwound’s first decade. From their earliest post-hardcore squeals on “Crab Nebula” to the dub-inspired death march of “Behold The Salt,” this 23-track double LP fills in the distorted gaps of their initial seven album run.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

1. You Speak Jealousy
2. Stumbling Block
3. Crab Nebula
4. Caterpillar
5. Miserific Condition
6. Eternalux
7. New Radio Hit

SIDE B

1. Broken E-Strings
2. Totality
3. Mkultra
4. Negated
5. Said Serial
6. Census
7. Plight

SIDE C

1. Seen Not Heard
2. Mile Me Deaf
3. Solo Sonata
4. The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is A Train

SIDE D

1. Corpse Pose
2. Everything Is Weird
3. Torch Song
4. Lazslo
5. Behold The Salt

This sort of band must be ten a penny in the US at present, that's not to say Unwritten Law are bad - they're not, but compare them to another young band like 12 Stones (whose debut album is out this week) and they are just another bunch of also-rans.

One of the longest-serving and most consistently intriguing artists within the fold of Phantasy, U returns to the label with another two-track trip of sonic mystery and erratic magic, ‘Parade / Watchers’.

Presented on limited-pressing 12” vinyl with a sleeve riso printed by U with London's Error Press.

With the texture and earthy promise of a psychedelic mulch, ‘Parade’ presents a glorious timelapse of acid-inflected minimalism. Unfolding defiantly at nearly fifteen minutes, U’s driving but subtle composition transports from guttural, electronic uncertainty to a wide-eyed denouement in one illusionary transition.

With inverse effect but no less power, ‘Watchers’ unexpectedly drops listeners into a rough wash of digital hardcore, spinning it’s initial warehouse chords into a collage of decay and regrowth, a nephilim-scaled journey and arguably U’s most ambitious production to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Haunting techno-bass music which unravels its tension over extended track lengths. Thick, imposing textures, plasma green machine phlegm and ghosts from inside the mainframe are punctuated by niggly glitches and squelches which suggest some primordial soup of a futuristic alien species.

TRACK LISTING

A. Parade
B. Watchers 

RIYL: Amyl & the Sniffers, Black Flag, Thee Oh Sees, Bad Brains, MC5

Channeling the speed of youth and the heaviness of a fleshy, lived life in equal proportion, Upchuck’s second LP, Bite the Hand That Feeds, is a Trojan Horse par excellence, craftily smuggling in waves of sentimental emotion and clever pop songwriting under a veil of pulsing rhythms and scorching riffs. What binds Upchuck together is a purity of intention, an organic loyalty to a thick knot of uncalculated friendships, struggles, and desires. These are songs about the joy of continuing to live, songs that find each other in the rush of a crushing reality, propelling the listener onward towards a collective release, however brief it may last. Themes of surviving through the night, youth-blinded love, cheap champagne soaked back-alley parties, and chaotic street protests are subsumed under a single unifying thread: the needs we have for one another, our shared hunger for connection. In a world saturated with arbitrary rules and paper-thin moralism, Upchuck offer free­dom through sensation, a type of unserious transcendence found through the swirl of bodies melting into one another in the passion of dance. With Bite the Hand That Feeds, Upchuck isn’t trying to tell anyone how to live. Rather, they are simply trying to find a way to make life more worth living for both themselves and their friends—if the music compels you to move, you might as well consider yourself their friend too.

Shortly after the release of their debut album Sense Yourself, Upchuck absconded to Southern California to record Bite the Hand That Feeds, enlisting the production talents of Ty Segall and the airy reprieve of his secluded Topanga Canyon home studio. Upchuck credits Segall, who recorded the entire record live to tape over the span of five days, with helping to elevate the arrangements of their second record to bold new heights—fans of Segall’s extensive catalog will undoubtedly recognize the shadow of his creative touch in Bite the Hand That Feeds’ commanding, layered drum polyrhythms, tasteful use of oddball effects, and fuzzed out, every-guitar-pushed-into-the-red ethos.

All the same, final credit for Upchuck’s evolution from Sense Yourself to Bite the Hand That Feeds must be paid to the band itself. Following the release of their debut LP, Upchuck embarked upon a break-neck string of live shows, touring alongside the likes of Segall’s Fuzz, Amyl and the Sniffers, Negative Approach, OFF!, and Sub­humans. The razor tight focus of Bite the Hand That Feeds was forged in the fire of these live shows, speaking directly to the power of their in-person presence—these are songs meant to be heard pressed up against a barricade, blasted through dimed guitar amps placed so close to your ears that you can practically reach out and touch them.

In its totality, Bite the Hand That Feeds offers a sonic portrait of what it feels like to be young and caught up in the thrill of it all, coursing between ripping dance grooves and thundering dirges, anti-self-serious crowd anthems and charming pop hooks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Freaky
2. Hush Toy
3. Shaken
4. Reaper
5. Crashing
6. Freedoom
7. Toothless
8. Hierba Mala
9. NYAG
10. Scrugg
11. Long Gone
12. Crossfire
13. It Comes

On ‘Jupiter’, Brooklyn trio Upper Wilds voyage deeper into the cosmos, mapping out the overwhelming enormity of the universe in soaring hooks and blistering noise. The third instalment in the trio’s exploration of our solar system looks to its largest planet for a daring exploration of scale and perspective.

New York underground mainstay Dan Friel’s melodic gifts and wry lyricism are magnified and propelled ever outwards by the thundering rhythm section of bassist Jason Binnick and drummer Jeff Ottenbacher, all immersed in rippling fuzz. Just like its namesake, ‘Jupiter’ stands as Upper Wilds’ most colossal offering in their catalogue. The raw power of their music is amplified to titanic proportions, sky-clawing riffs invoking the sheer awe that the heavens inspire. More than any Upper Wilds album before it, Jupiter makes humanity’s endeavours in space exploration an inseparable part of its sonic DNA.

Recorded with Travis Harrison at his studio Serious Business in Brooklyn (Guided By Voices, Dope Body, The Men), the trio’s live recordings are inspired by the Voyager Golden Record - a double LP launched with the 1977 Voyager probe and spanning field recordings to compositions by JS Bach and Laurie Spiegel.

While the Voyager Golden Record’s intended audience may have originally been the extra-terrestrial beings that might encounter the probe, Upper Wilds bring cosmos-seeking sounds back to earth with a record made for and about humanity. Jupiter finds comfort in space’s unending expanse. Far from feeling defeated by the smallness of our existence in the face of an uncaring universe and ever-expanding infinite, Upper Wilds capture the power of creativity to extend our lifespans far beyond our limited time on earth.

“A continuous barrage of bass and drums, knocking [guitarist Dan Friel’s] inimitable fuzz-crusted hooks sideways and to pieces and rampaging on regardless.” - Dusted Magazine

TRACK LISTING

Greetings
Permanent Storm
Drifters
Short Centuries
10’9”
Jupiter
Voyager
Infinity Drama
Books About UFOs
Radio To Forever
Cerberrat

Return Of The Super Ape is the follow-up album to the highly acclaimed dub album Super Ape. Just like its predecessor, the album was produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry. It was the last album by The Upsetters before Perry closed down his Black Ark Studio. The album showcases yet again the prodigious production skills of undisputed dub master Lee “Scratch” Perry's insanely layered textures and technical wizardry. With The Upsetters providing their musical backing.

Now freshly remastered and restored for 2022 with original press artwork complete with inner disco sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dyon Anaswa (2022 Remaster)
2. Return Of The Super Ape (2022 Remaster)
3. Tell Me Something Good (2022 Remaster)
4. Bird In Hand (2022 Remaster)
5. Crab Yars (2022 Remaster)
6. Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread
7. Psyche & Trim (2022 Remaster)
8. The Lion (2022 Remaster)
9. Huzza A Hanna (2022 Remaster)
10. High Rankin Sammy (2022 Remaster)

The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band, along with Static Shock Records are proud to present “Infants Under the Bulb”; The Uranium Club’s fourth album and first full length since 2018’s "The Cosmo Cleaners".

Precisely timed ahead of the band’s debut tour of Australia commencing March 19, Infants Under the Bulb will light up stores across the globe from March 1st. Recorded in Minneapolis over the course of 2023 by long time collaborator Grant Richardson and just as rampant and agitated as ever, The Uranium Club once again win their dear listeners over with eccentrically wild guitar parts, revolving voices, elastic-tight drums and the addition of their very own Saints-styled horn section.

Lyrically, Under the Bulb opens up the history books of unsolved mysteries - unidentified, unsolved, unanswered subjects of suspicious acts or individuals across the last century. Who, what, when and where… but mostly, why? Ignorant humanity of earth orbits the sun once again. The Somerton Man, Bergmann, Bauby, Denton, phone phreakers, and just what is lurking behind the cosmic organ of The Wall?

As always, the artwork was handled in-house by the Club and ambitious as ever. The spectacular cover shot captures a carefully coordinated event orchestrated by the Club to photograph a crowd of the local volunteers wearing ponchos standing together in an open field to make the shape of a giant spiral. The spiral pictured is 120 feet (36.5 meters) wide, photographed by drone, and was plotted out on the ground using a protractor specially fabricated for the occasion by the band with a pivoting centre and 60ft long adjustable arm.

TRACK LISTING

1. Small Grey Man
2. Viewers Like You
3. Game Show
4. The Wall Pts.1&2
5. Tokyo Paris L.A. Milan
6. The Wall Pt.3
7. 2-600-LULLABY
8. Abandoned By The Narrator
9. The Ascent
10. Big Guitar Jack Off In The Sky
11. The Wall Pt.4

Nothing like a carb-load Italian pre-show feast and table wine to grease the gears of some live action in Fidenza, Italy . A land-locked classico right where you would pinch to hike up the boot. A club packed tight with handsome men and women abused by sonic marauders. “Have you seen Uranium Club live? No? Drop everything. They are complete-package slayers.

Watch- works drummer power, shred-haired bass magic (glasses flying), ripped twin guitar flexing on nerd beach, vocals poured through the skylight into your e-holes and over your thought center, sunglasses all around: fucking hypno- wheel. “Tough, smart, and wiry, midwest exploded all over the globe. Minneapolis, a city known for producing the best, has taken no nap on these young men: the driest tone, the snappiest hooks. They are simply great and this recording captures a particularly good night. They Shred ‘til everyone’s dead, including a nine-minute jam, god help us.

“Here’s something to make you feel good about the world, to know that we have extended a strong art-handshake to our brothers and sisters in Italy. Vivia l’italia! Ciao, bella.” - John Dwyer.

On her long-awaited debut album, Showing Up, the former Friends-frontwoman Samantha Urbani goes out to bat for her beliefs, and pours a decade of tumult and personal growth into the sort of irresistibly loose-limbed, retro-leaning alt-pop that has always been her specialty.

It’s Urbani’s innate ability to hit the sweet spot between heady pop melodies and unfettered experimentation that makes Showing Up such a compelling collection, from the celestial disco shimmer of ‘Isolation’ and ‘Guiding Star’ to the Jam & Lewis stylings of ‘c u clear’ and the Santigold-esque funk-pop of ‘Time Keeps Slipping’. With shades of Rapture-era Blondie meets LCD Soundsystem, ‘One Day At A Time’ features louche slap bass and sliding Talking Heads-esque synths whilst ‘Evidence’, powered by gated drums, is 80s new wave/freestyle by way of Miami Sound Machine/Lisa Lisa/Nu Shooz.

Co-produced by Samantha with Nick Weiss (Nightfeelings), the album is in keeping with Urbani’s predilection for spontaneity, with an organic approach to collaboration and contributions from close friends including Eric Cross, John Caroll Kirby, Rostam Batmanglij, Molly Lewis and Sasha Desree, as well as Sade’s right-hand man Stuart Matthewman.

‘Showing Up’ is a deeply uplifting record – created on Urbani’s own terms – and one that’s testament to the spirit of survival. And as overdue as its release might feel for fans, Samantha firmly believes Showing Up couldn’t have arrived a single second sooner.

TRACK LISTING

1. Showing Up
2. One Day At A Time
3. Fine Lines
4. Common Sense (lovebombed)
5. Guiding Star (ft. Sasha Desree)
6. Isolation
7. An Opportunity
8. Time Keeps Slipping (ft. Rexy)
9. Evidence
10. More Than A Feeling
11. C U Clear

“The rumors are true; Providence, Rhode Island is permeated with a mysterious energy”. So says Dave Litifreri, guitarist and vocalist of Urdog. “Some of us focused this energy, learned to live with the ghosts and tell their story.” It’s a story chronicled on Long Shadows, the new Urdog retrospective on Rocket Recordings - the work of a mercurial band whose music may have been summoned from fog and ghosts, yet possesses considerable staying power beyond their brief time on the planet. “We were influenced by the horror of latecapitalism in general every day” says drummer and vocalist Erin Rosenthal, “This glued and glues us together, also love of bicycles, french fries and faerie folk. Big influences for me were Robert Wyatt, Incredible String Band, Dagmar Krause, but especially This Heat, Riot Grrrl and 90’s hardcore.”

From such disparate inspiration came psychically heavy jams and wild improvisational voyages from this triumvirate which chart an instinctive and wild journey, drawing the interplanetary dots between early ‘70s freak-flag-waving transgressions and the folk-tinged frontiers of the early 21st century US underground. Mantric repetition, ceremonial ambience and fuzz/wah tinged blowouts take equal prominence in this dreamlike realm. Drawing the interplanetary dots between the drone ’n’ klang of Amon Düül II and the cultish hallucinations of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and replete with both an earthiness of approach and a powerful celestial intensity. “We used our intuitive connection to let three distinct voices be heard” reflects Dave. “There was no foundation; they supported each other. Once that is achieved, a vibe develops. Getting into the space of a song is something you can’t notate. We had the keys, but getting to the door was the trick. Some nights we got all the way through the roof to the stars.

TRACK LISTING

A:

01. The Open: Intro
02. Ice On Water
03. Ani Nie Ma
04: The Open: Extract

B:

01. Eyelid Of Moon
02. DMZ
03: Zombie Cloud

First new album from Urge Overkill in a decade. The alternative rock pioneers are best known for their cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon", which was popularized in the film "Pulp Fiction".

TRACK LISTING

1. Freedom!
2. A Necessary Evil
3. Follow My Shadow
4. How Sweet The Light
5. I Been Ready
6. A Prisoner’s Dilemma
7. Forgiven
8. Totem Pole
9. Litany
10. I Can’t Stay Glad@U
11. Won’t Let Go
12. Snow

Shhh... these mysterious limited edition hand stamped white labels contain three thumpin' and rollin' tools shaped for the floor by an unidentified producer. "Right Brain" dives straight into the peaktime on the A-side with its winning combination of throat clearing synth, high frequency drone and hypnotic techy groove. Once you're hooked, the dubby fx and percussive intricacies reveal themselves, taking you to a whole new level of heads down body movement. On the B-side, our anonymous producer hits us with the Mr.G-styled majesty of "In To The Shadows", whose rough and organic drums, submerged sequence and occasional vocal snippet come together perfectly to soundtrack a backstreet basement sweatbox. If that wasn't enough, "Out Of The Shadows" reshapes the B1 as a bass heavy, dubbed out stomper with plenty of analogue artifacts and psychedelic swirls whizzing through the background. Strong sounds from the mystery man.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Right Brain
B1. In To The Shadows
B2. Out Of The Shadows

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the founding of Glasgow “Geek Rock” band Urusei Yatsura.

In the days before “landfill” indie, and in rebellion against a developing Britpop orthodoxy, there were some weird but melodic bands coming of age outside London that drew inspiration from the US underground and the sparkly retro-futurism of Japan. Primitive guitar noise with art rock leanings, post punk DIY and fanzine culture. The best known of these bands was maybe Urusei Yatsura; “noisy stars”, named in honour of Rumiko Takahashi, legendary manga creator.

Back in 1996, after several increasingly well-received 7’s, the band travelled to Leamington Spa to record their debut album with John Rivers, producer of Swell Maps and Glasgow scene godparents, The Pastels. The resulting album won the group legions of new fans and gained them their first Independent #1 chart placing, alongside peers Ash and Super Furry Animals.

“These were fertile years in Glasgow, a scene with no name, no single sound, where the magic thread tying everyone together was words and works so personal, they couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. ‘We Are Urusei Yatsura’ is a cascade of ‘why not?’ thinking. The way ‘Phasers on Stun’ spirals into ‘Sola Kola’; the sunburned 23-second improv at the end of ‘Pachinko’; the slack-echoing strings of the outro to ‘Road Song’ sprayed with the shrapnel of toy electronics. Pure pop magic, Ren & Stimpy on upstairs, ray-guns, Ian’s homemade walkie-talkie speaker, a beatbox, all sealed with a “Talking Tina” doll’s emphatic endorsement: “I love it”” – Nick Soulsby.

The vinyl-only double LP set comprises the original 1996 album recorded by John Rivers, accompanied with an extra disk of unreleased demos, rare singles and B-sides which have not been available since the 90’s. It documents the time leading up to the release of the LP and the singles that came from it, capturing the development, lost pop moments and essential experiments from the eccentric and joyful Glasgow band. The cover has been completely remixed using archive photos and artwork from the time, with new interviews and extensive notes. The release marks 30 years since the official birthday of the band, 9/3/93.

“When I drove the transit van that took them down to Leamington Spa to record their first proper LP, there was a sense of quiet, assured anticipation. I couldn’t wait to hear it and when I came back a couple of weeks later to pick them back up, I remember so clearly when they played it from the van’s tape deck. Fergus and Graham were hunched over, focusing intently on what they wanted to change about the mix. The reverb wasn’t right or something. Maybe they didn’t like how high the vocals were in the mix. I said to them, you’re listening to the details, but missing what is most important–this is a fantastic record! It was. It is. It is a fantastic record. They were a brilliant live band and I am so lucky to have been able to have been there to see their formation.” – Alex Kapranos.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1:
1. Siamese
2. First Day On A New Planet
3. Pow R Ball
4. Kewpies Like Watermelon
5. Phasers On Stun/ Sola Kola
6. Black Hole Love
SIDE 2:
1. Velvy Blood
2. Plastic Ashtray
3. Death 2 Everyone
4. Pachinko
5. (-)
6. Kernel
7. Road Song
SIDE 3:
1. It Is
2. On Yr Mind
3. Teen Dream
4. Majesty
5. Burriko Girl
6. Got The Sun
SIDE 4:
1. Silver Krest
2. Sucker/ Kitty Litter
3. Lo-Fi Scary Balloons
4. The Power Of Negative Thinking/ The Love That Brings You Down

So it's coming up for the 20th anniversary of the “We Are Urusei Yatsura” album, so what better time to look back at the broken Woolworths guitars, damaged eardrums and bleeding knuckles of Glasgow's lo-fi, Tokyo dreaming geek rock quartet?

You could say it all began at the Glasgow Sound City event, when legendary BBC DJ John Peel came along to check out Urusei Yatsura at the 13th Note at the invitation of future Franz Ferdinand front-man Alex Kapranos. Liking the chaos that he saw, Peel invited the band to record a session for his show, asking live on air while guitarist and singer Graham Kemp was visiting the studio to talk about his “Kitten Frenzy” fanzine the next day.

“Peel arranged for us to record the session in Glasgow” says Kemp, “We didn't have any amps or any money to get to London.” Producer Stewart Cruickshank told the band that it was the first Peel Session recorded outside of Maida Vale since the Undertones. So no pressure there then.

This began a long association with John Peel and the BBC, which saw the band record 5 Peel Sessions, 3 Evening Sessions for Steve Lamacq, play live to air for Mark Radcliffe, and appear regularly on Radio Scotland for John Cavanagh and Mark Percival. Digging through old C-90's that had been partly taped over with that week's charts, the band have pieced together a compilation of the best tunes for you, the discerning 90's indie rock aficionado.

“..they sounded a bit like the Saints” - Thurston Moore, SELECT

“Some of the recordings we did for the BBC, I think, are better than what eventually made it onto vinyl. We did “Kewpies Like Watermelon” live in the control room for Radio Scotland and we had just learned it so it sounds really fresh and exciting. The version of “Siamese” is the best we ever captured, and I love the “Dice/Nae Dice” tune we wrote especially for Peel”. - Kemp

The challenge of recording and mixing four songs in a single day brought out the best in the band, and suited their impulsive, DIY rock n' roll spirit. The album, available on CD and vinyl, features 11 songs, including session versions of 6 singles, choice album tracks and live favourites from the only band who have been threatened by both the Yakuza and the Mafia (the latter incident generating the hilarious headline “Nerds Threatened With Death” in the Sun “newspaper”). The band have decided to call this hand-picked selection of the highlights of an eight year “career”; You Are My Urusei Yatsura, BBC Radio Sessions.

Other highlights of said career include; a number one indie single with a video shot in a Star Trek themed bar (Phasers On Stun), a Peel Festive Fifty placing (Kewpies Like Watermelon) an actual top 40 hit (Hello Tiger), numerous chaotic tours of Europe, UK and USA ,narrowly surviving a collapsing stage at Benecassim and a tent fire at Phoenix Festival, releasing three studio albums and 13 singles (including splits with Mogwai, the Delgados and the Blisters), taking Mogwai, Eska and Pink Kross on their first UK tours, supporting Super Furry Animals, Pavement and Teenage Fanclub, playing at Roskilde, Reading and T In The Park festivals, The CMJ festival in New York and MIDEM in Cannes.

The band consisted of the writers Fergus Lawrie (guitar and vocals) and Graham Kemp (guitar and vocals), with brother and sister rhythm section Elaine and Ian Graham on bass and drums respectively.

TRACK LISTING

1. Plastic Ashtray (Evening Session 5/8/96)
2. First Day On A New Planet (Peel Session 2/4/96)
3. Kewpies Like Watermelon (Live Radio Scotland 1995)
4. Phasers On Stun (Evening Session 5/8/96)
5. Siamese (Evening Session 5/8/96)
6. No No Girl (Evening Session 21/1/98)
7. Hello Tiger (Peel Session 29/7/97)
8. Exidor (Peel Session 29/7/97)
9. Slain By Elf (Evening Session 21/1/98)
10. Flaming Skull (Peel Session 29/7/97)
11. Dice/Nae Dice (Peel Session 29/7/97)

Christmas is a time to spend with family and to feel a bit nostalgic, and exactly these two aspects of Christmas come together on the single the Swedish acid folk duo Us And Them recorded for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. In 'When The Stars Are Brightly Shining', the fragile vocals of singer Britt Rönnholm recapture the get-together with friends and family on Christmas Eve, the return to the place where you have spend your youth and the memories it all brings back. Multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson uses a wide range of instruments to built an atmospheric soundtrack to Britt's meanderings. Their version of Tori Amos' 1992 single 'Winter' is much in the same vein. In the song, Tori remembers the winters of her childhood and the bond she built up with her father during her youth. Us And Them replace the intensity of the original with the same nostalgic mood that can be found on the A-side, making the songs on this single sound as the family they are.

Us And Them are the Swedish duo of multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson and singer Britt Rönnholm (who also happen to be a married to each other), that came together in 2006 when Anders, who had been playing in bands since being a kid, realized that he wanted to do something different. Influenced by British folk, baroque pop and the softer side of psychedelica, he started recording songs with Britt on vocals, and this developed into Us And Them. Since the start of the group, Us And Them have released singles EP's and albums on labels like Fruits De Mer and Mega Dodo. Most records feature a mixture of covers and originals, all in the distinct dreamy, fragile and otherwordly Us And Them style, an update of the sound of psychedelic acid folk for the 21st Century.

TRACK LISTING

A1. When The Stars Are Brightly Shining
B1. Winter

A hauntingly catchy release by American lone DIY artist Meghan Remy.

In June 2011 FatCat offshoot imprint Palmist Records released a split 12” by U.S. Girls and her production partner Slim Twig, which followed a great split 7” with the much celebrated Dirty Beaches.

U.S. Girls’ last album, ‘U.S. Girls On Kraak’, was critically acclaimed and supported by great blog coverage and a series of promo videos.

U.S. Girls pursue a minimalist aesthetic with a militant by-any-means-necessary attitude, merging experimental compositions with distinctive photocopy-art visuals to deliver a starkly defined statement.

“Don't let the scuzzy surface fool you: At the heart of Megan Remy's one-woman lo-fi project U.S. Girls beats a pop sensibility” - Pitchfork

“Remy’s aesthetics and emotional cues are pulled from the ephemera of decades past” - Refinery29

U.S. Girls is Illinois-born, Toronto-based artist Meghan Remy. A captivating musical force, Meg has evolved from the raw, corrosive 4-track fidelity found on her early records to the more unabashed art-pop of recent works ‘U.S. Girls’ on KRAAK (2011) and ‘Gem’ (2012); the latter managing to “widen and universalise her music without losing a drop of what previously made it so special and personal” - Pitchfork.

‘Half Free’ is the next step in this impressive transformation, an honest and lyrically jarring exploration of emotions, drenched in a bath of raw beats and loops that have become the hallmark of her work with producer and frequent collaborator Onakabazien.

Other album guests include Slim Twig (DFA), Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv), Amanda Crist (Ice Cream) and Tony Price.

Featuring recent singles ‘Damn That Valley’ and ‘Woman’s Work’, ‘Half Free’ is Meg’s first album for 4AD. Again emerging as a vital voice among the noise, ‘Half Free’ is an enchanting document of life at the point when it feels most on its knife-edge.

“She’s the fast-rising exponent of luscious lo-fi DIY pop.” - The Guardian

“With each successive release, you’re never quite sure which Girl you’re going to get: the avant-pop deconstructionist, the 1960s traditionalist, the basement R&B diva.” - Pitchfork

Heavy Light is the highly anticipated seventh album by U.S. Girls, the protean musical enterprise of multi-disciplinary artist Meg Remy. While Remy has been widely acclaimed for a panoply of closely observed character studies, on Heavy Light she turns inward, recounting personal narratives to create a deeply introspective about-face. The songs are an inquest into the melancholy flavour of hindsight, both personal and cultural. Remy makes this notion formally explicit with the inclusion of three re-worked, previously released songs: ‘Statehouse (It’s A Man’s World)’, ‘Red Ford Radio’, and ‘Overtime’, the latter of which is released today as Heavy Light’s lead single. Its companion video, which stars Andrea Nann of the Dreamwalker Dance Company, was created by Remy.

Heavy Light follows 2018’s internationally critically-acclaimed breakout album In A Poem Unlimited. Recently named one of the best albums of the decade by Pitchfork, it was lauded across the pond by the likes of The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Crack and Q magazine for being Remy’s most accessible record in her then decade-long career. Heavy Light is produced by Remy and was recorded live with 20 session musicians - including E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons - in Montreal’s acclaimed Hotel 2 Tango studio. Remy worked with co-writers Basia Bulat and Rich Morel to develop the core of Heavy Light, a set of songs conceived as a balance between orchestral percussion (as richly arranged by percussionist Ed Squires) and the human voice (conducted by Kritty Uranowski). The resulting album finds Remy casting herself as lead voice among a harmonious multitude, the singers of which lend not only their voices, but also share reflections on childhood experiences that are collaged into moving spoken word interludes throughout the album. The album is mixed by long-time collaborators Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull, Steve Chahley and Tony Price.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Grooving, psychedelic riffs clash headfirst with Remy's singular vocal brilliance, soaring wonderfully atop thumping percussion and flickering synths. 'Heavy Light' tackles political matters and worldly experiences in a moving and enthralling way. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. 4 American Dollars
2. Overtime
3. IOU
4. Advice To Teenage Self
5. State House (It’s A Man’s World)
6. Born To Lose
7. And Yet It Moves / Y Se Mueve
8. The Most Hurtful Thing
9. Denise, Don’t Wait
10. Woodstock ‘99
11. The Color Of Your Childhood Bedroom
12. The Quiver To The Bomb
13. Red Ford Radio

2017 marks a decade of U.S. Girls, the protean musical enterprise of multi-disciplinary artist, Meg Remy. Today, Remy announces details of her sixth studio album In a Poem Unlimited, which will be released on 16th February 2018, plus the official video for a new U.S. Girls song, ‘Velvet 4 Sale’.

Remy’s second release for 4AD, which also includes her recently released single, ‘Mad As Hell’ – a clarion call for pacifism – was tracked in collaboration with Toronto-based instrumental collective the Cosmic Range, and features arrangements by long-time contributors Maxmilian Turnball and Louis Percival. The dizzying buffet of live grooves on In a Poem Unlimited represents an inversion of the dusty, sample-based minimal textures of Half Free, Remy’s euphoric 4AD debut. Steered into focus by Remy and mixer/co-producer Steve Chahley, Poem features disco employed as a protest vernacular (‘Mad As Hell’), as well as an unrelenting assault (‘Time’); moody, slow-burning funk (‘Velvet 4 Sale’ & ‘L-Over’) and earnest synth anthems ‘Rosebud’ and ‘Poem’, which form the album’s emotional core.

Poem features dark meditations reflecting charged atmospheres that directly precede and follow acts of violence. Many of the songs are character studies of women grappling with power; how to gain and exert it spiritually, as well as desperate strategies to mitigate its infliction. Remy also rallies against the public lies told by political and religious leaders, and more crucially, questions the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. While U.S. Girls, denoting the plural, is no longer a misnomer, In A Poem Unlimited may be Remy’s most individually distilled protest to date.

Following ‘Mad As Hell’, Poem album opener ‘Velvet 4 Sale’ is released today. The song concerns a female narrator imploring another to buy a gun for protection, impressing that the only way to change men is for women to use violence. Remy says, “Men are lucky women (and children) have yet to take up arms. And although I hope this never happens and I completely disagree that violence is ever effective, this very idea was ripe for a song.”

The accompanying video explores the idea of acknowledgement as a form of retribution, a counterbalance more powerful than violence itself. Remy plays a police officer who discovers that a fellow cop who has beaten his wife will be left off the hook as a “professional courtesy”. By the power of her unrelenting gaze she banishes the abuser in the final images of this powerful and provocative video. This striking tableau representing the power of bearing witness ties back into the album’s underlying theme; that truth and acknowledgement are our most potent and corrosive weapons in the fight against repressive inequality. Remy’s work with this video (which she co-directed with Alex Kingsmill) and the album as a whole, illustrate and seek to inspire the taking up of these moral arms.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This superb new outing from Meg Remy in her U.S Girls moniker sees snappy guitar falling under a landslide of heavy-rock power chords and scattered electronic elements, whilst still retaining all of it's cohesion and grace. More percussive numbers sit happily alongside the more folky, quiet pieces without skipping a beat.

TRACK LISTING

1. Velvet 4 Sale
2. Rage Of Plastics
3. Mad As Hell
4. Why Do I Lose My Voice When I Have Something To Say
5. Rosebud
6. Incidental Boogie
7. L-Over
8. Pearly Gates
9. Poem
10. Traviata
11. Time

Some bands reveal themselves immediately, coming right out and winning the listener over the moment they hit play. And then there are bands that open up with time, rewarding repeat listens with new lyrical and musical thrills on every return. Glaswegian jangle pop extraordinaires U.S. Highball have the rare distinction of being both. The duo specialize in the kind of instantly charming songwriting that makes a great first impression, and an even better second, third, and beyond. Their songs are equal parts wit and heart, full of pop culture nods, inside jokes, and hooks upon hooks. Now U.S. Highball’s third full-length, A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, leans even further into their unique dichotomy, offering another goldmine of discovery set to their finest batch of pop gems to date.

Made up of James Hindle and Calvin Halliday, U.S. Highball is the result of a 17-year friendship. Upon meeting in 2005, the two quickly bonded over their overlapping musical interests, and when their previous group, The Pooches, began to fizzle, they soon found a new creative chemistry working as a duo.

“We have pretty much identical tastes in music, and culture in general, so we were both on the same page as to what we wanted the band to sound like,” Hindle explains. “It’s like having all the fun parts of being in a band, without any of the hassle!” The prolific songwriters released their debut LP as U.S. Highball, Great Record, in 2019, and quickly followed it with 2020’s Up To High Doh.

When crafting A Parkhead Cross of The Mind, U.S. Highball set out to make a louder, punchier version of their sound without sacrificing the idiosyncratic charm of their previous releases. They upgraded their gear and home recording setup and got to work, whittling down 40 potential songs to 12, which were then meticulously honed. “We definitely prefer to record at home,” says Hindle. “It gives us unlimited time to let the songs gestate for longer without the financial and time constraints of being in a studio.” This unhurried process is key, as much of U.S. Highball’s magic lies in the little things. The songs on A Parkhead Cross of The Mind are rooted in the chiming guitars of ‘80s indie pop and college rock, merging the scrappiness of Sarah Records with the catchy quirks of other inspirations like Fountains of Wayne and They Might Be Giants. And like those of their many beloved influences, U.S. Highball’s songs are packed full of undeniable melodies elevated by each precisely constructed sonic detail.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Mental Munchies
2. Double Dare
3. Get In The Van
4. I’ve Stopped Eating
5. By The Clydeside
6. (You’ve Got To) Activate A Carrot

Side B
1. Grease The Wheel
2. Down In Timperley
3. Almost Cut My Hair
4. Bleatings From Yorkshire
5. Jump To The Left
6. Let’s Save Bobby Orlando’s House

No Thievery, Just Cool is the fourth album in as many years from Glaswegian jangle-pop outfit U.S. Highball, comprised of lifelong friends Calvin Halliday and James Hindle. This time around, the boys decided to put the neighbourhood to work, enlisting a host of friends and external collaborators to beef up their characteristically propulsive pop nuggets. Jacob Ewald - frontman of recent tourmates Slaughter Beach, Dog - duets with James on a soaring version of The Mr. T Experience’s Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer, and Manda Rin - one third of Glasgow indie legends Bis - lends her trademark emphatic yelp to the effervescent Tiny Partick. As ever, U.S. Highball have fashioned a densely-populated lyrical world that’s at once surrealistic and chock-full of kitchen sink detail, with songs frantically ushering the listener from Buchanan Street to Boulevard Saint-Michel in the space of a single hook-stuffed chorus. Throughout the half-hour of power that comprises No Thievery, Just Cool, what ultimately stands out is the band’s steadfast and unwavering commitment to melody above all. Whether crafting breezy college rock rippers or 80s-indebted slices of eccentric new wave, in the universe of U.S. Highball, the chorus is king.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. See You In Hell
A2. London Colin
A3. Adjacent Donovan
A4. Tiny Partick
A5. Irresponsible Holiday
A6. Nicola

Side B
B1. Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer
B2. Rochelle
B3. Paris 2019
B4. Picnic At Doughnut Groyne
B5. Marjorie Says
B6. Out Of Time

London noise-rock quartet USA Nails have announced their upcoming album, ‘Feel Worse’.

‘Feel Worse’

TRACK LISTING

Cathartic Entertainment
Feel Worse
The Sun In The Sands
Pack Of Dogs
Networking Opportunity
Holiday Sea
On Computer Screen
Beautiful Eyes!
An Audience Of Love
I Love It When You Succeed

Seth Sutton has been ripping the shit out of terse Telecaster-sharp riffs and Devo-indebted angular rhythms with Useless Eaters since dude was 18 years old. A young protégé of Jay Reatard, Sutton’s home-fried concoctions are sharp, corrosive mini-masterpieces that drive you to flick cigarettes and push strangers. Psycho-sexual, serrated vocals; thin, acidic guitars; rubbery bass and hot-to-tape traps lather the whole disc. Sutton delivers a really ripping crew of tunes this time around, kicking off with the supremely heavy “American Cars” and not letting up ’til the side break—these are glass-crunching gems with just the right amount of crud to cut your lip a little. A great alienated vibe flows throughout, along with some really sticky melodies, too. Going out under the neon tonight? Take this with you.

Announcing a white-hot entry into Castle Face’s Live in San Francisco series: Useless Eaters, recorded in the basement of vintage clothing store Vacation.

“This show was bananas. When we set up to record a live set, we always hope the band will just murder it and the people will go all crazy. I’d say that crosses over onto the tape and makes the record shine… This was one of those magic moments. All the elements in place for a memorable evening—BYOB, a basement, in the tenderloin of San Francisco, a wicked goddamn band slaying their songs, and a perfect essence in the air. Everyone falling over each other, spilling beer, smiling screaming and sweating. A fucking mess. When everybody leaves and you look at the muddy, hot, trashed, and disgusting room you think, ‘yes, something good happened here tonight.’

“Seth Sutton’s lineup is in peak form here, from touring and being general road-dog bad-asses. His guitar is slanted and choking with intermittent echo—just raw-vibes awesome. Miles Luttrell’s drumming is honed to a point and drunk with hi-hat countdowns. Brendan Hagarty’s bass sounds like it smells bad and is the perfect accompaniment to Seth’s treble-burst guitar, and the at-the-time new edition of Jacob Olsen on keyboard pulls even more of the dystopian spirals from the studio recording out into the live world.” - John Dwyer.

Another guaranteed party starter double sider from the Homehitters - these 2 club monsters knock it out of the park!

TRACK LISTING

1. Usher - Yeah
2. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz - Get Low 

The 5th release on Scottish imprint Headset, showcasing unsung Scottish artists making alternative sound system music.

Debut record for Usurp, hailing from Dumfires. Super clean breaks, steps & full-bodied tracks ranging from 110-160bpm; all designed to tickle the subs and fluff the tweeters in all the right places! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Upfront club pressure from Headset who seem intent on delivering the freshest of dancefloor technologies to our receptive sensory organs. Uniting the camps of bass, techno and breaks under one growling subwoofer, it's hard to resist these nocturnal temptations!

TRACK LISTING

A1. There Is Someone Else
A2. Yoshio Sugino (Version)
A3. One To One
B1. Nova Prospekt
B2. Birdsong

- New epic full-length single track album from the Appalachian masters of dark psychedelia.

A true idea must be made real.
When the idea for The Valley Path was imagined, all involved agreed it was true and went forward. Forward in thought, forward in vision, forward in action. We achieved what we wanted to achieve, and whatever is said about The Valley Path, it will stand.

USX has played more gigs than I can remember, from Marion to Prague, Detroit, Austria, Memphis and Switzerland. Dirt floors and Masonic temples, churches and ghettos, wilderness and cities. To dozens and hundreds - occasionally thousands. We have recorded our songs, projected our collective visions. We have realized all that we have imagined. At this point, we have nothing to prove. We've been under the gun many times, and whatever anyone might think about us, we've never flinched. Never compromised. When things are good and they usually are, being in this band is a dream. But we can't entirely escape reality. Fuse boxes blow, power fails, instruments break, people leave. We vomit in parking lots and go play inside. We sleep sitting up and wake up sore. Or we sleep in places most people would not wllfully enter. We are hungry and miss home. We go on, and we are thankful because we have songs. And when we write our songs become a part of us, our center. Our home.

A song does not have to be a part of a collection. It is more important for music to take the path it chooses, and an artist must be willing to let this happen. The Valley Path is one song.
And a song is a thing that changes.

"Comfort For The Traveler", Utah Carol's second full-length release, is an eclectic mix of art pop, folk, indie rock and americana seasoned with bitter sweet, boy / girl vocal harmonies. It is haunting, mysterious and melodic with songs about longing, unrealised dreams and the endless search for something that is forever just out of reach. Fans of Yo La Tengo, Mates Of State and The Carter Family will enjoy their wistful, country-tinged melodies.

A kettle drum roller with enuff lush sweeping synth washes to satisfy. Flip for "Brainwash" and "Northwest".

Next in UT's reissue and remastered back catalogue series, their first studio album "Conviction", originally released in 1986.

The 2019 remastered reissue of CONVICTION will include song lyrics, photos of the band and an introduction by Stewart Lee. The CD will add Ut’s previously unreleased 7” single “Ampheta Speak / While I Wait”, recorded for Charles Ball’s Lust/Unlust label in 1980. A CD booklet will feature the poster for the original 7” release and some of the cover artwork.
First 500 LP will come with Stewart Lee introduction as a printed insert.

Radical rock group UT was founded by Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham and Sally Young in 1978. Originated in the downtown NYC No Wave scene and inheritors of the collision between rock, free jazz and the avant-garde, Ut exploded the rigidity of conventional rock, constructing songs through collective improvisation, swapping instruments and rotating the role of singer/director.
Migrating to London in 1981, Ut played with bands like The Fall and The Birthday Party and released music on its own label Out Records, including Live at The Venue in 1982, the Ut EP in 1984, the Confidential 12” in 1985 and the LP Conviction in 1986. Ut became a favourite of BBC's John Peel and recorded sessions for his show in ‘84, ‘85 and ‘87. Joining forces with Blast First in 1987, they released the live compilation album Early Live Life and then the highly critically acclaimed In Gut's House in 1988, which made the year’s NME ‘Top 50 Albums’. The album Griller followed in 1989, engineered by label mate Steve Albini, who shared Ut's raw aesthetic and captured the band’s vibrant intensity.Ut disbanded in 1990, but began performing again in 2010. Ut are now reissuing their entire remastered catalogue on Out Records.

TRACK LISTING

1. Confidential
2. Sick
3. Phoenix
4. Absent Farmer
5. Stain
6. Prehistory
7. Bedouin
8. Kcahsmahs (Spare Coconut)
9. Mouse Sleep
10. Ampheta Speak
11. While I Wait

Early Live Life is a compilation of some of UT's best live performances from 1979–1985, spanning their origins in New York City to their migration to London in late 1981. The UT reissue campaign began on November 17, 2017 with the release of the UT EP and the Confidential 12", on Vinyl and CD. Upcoming reissues in 2019 include their studio albums Conviction, In Gut’s House and Griller. Remastered at Wolf Studios by Dominique Brethes, vinyl cut by Noel Summerville. The live tracks jump out of the vinyl with some verve, as visceral now as they were Live back in the 80s. This is searing no-wave power in the live setting, originally released in 1987 by BLAST FIRST records.

Radical No Wave pioneers UT reissue their critically acclaimed In Gut's House album Their second studio album originally released in 1988 on Blast First Records now fully remastered with original cover artwork, song lyrics and band photos.

Ut is a radical rock group founded by Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham and Sally Young in Dec ’78. Originating in the downtown NYC No Wave scene and inheritors of the collision between rock, free jazz and the avant-garde, Ut exploded the rigidity of conventional rock, constructing songs through collective improvisation, swapping instruments and rotating the role of singer/director.

Migrating to London in 1981, Ut played with bands like The Fall and The Birthday Partyand released music on its own label Out Records, including Live at The Venue in 1982, the Ut EP in 1984, the Confidential 12” in 1985 and their first studio LP Conviction in 1986. Ut became a favourite of BBC's John Peel and recorded sessions for his show in 1984, 1985 and 1987.

Joining forces with Blast First in 1987, they released a compilation of live performances called Early Live Life that same year and the highly critically acclaimed In Gut's House in 1988, which made the year’s NME ‘Top 50 Albums’. The album Griller followed in 1989, engineered by label mate Steve Albini, who shared Ut's raw aesthetic and captured the band’s intensity.

Ut disbanded in 1990, but began performing again in 2010. The band has been reissuing its entire remastered catalogue, available on vinyl, CD and digital download, on Out Records through Forte Distribution. The reissues have so far included the Ut and Confidential 12” EPs in November 2017, Ut Live at The Venue in April 2018, Early Live Life in November 2018 and Conviction in April 2019.

Call it synchronicity, call it happenstance, call it no more than three friends getting together to give their speakers a workout. Yet The Utopia Strong’s formidable conflagration of psychedelic radiance and beatific harmony has evolved way beyond all or any expectations since the band’s inception.. ‘International Treasure’ chronicles the collaborative collision of Steve Davis, Kavus Torabi and Mike York heading into unchartered psychic territory, seemingly with nothing but their instincts as co-ordinates.What’s resulted is a step beyond anything either band or audience might have expected - a deeply rewarding voyage into inner space which moves into darker and still more evocative sound-worlds whilst remaining fundamentally off the map. Influences know no bounds in this context, and the listener would be forgiven for locating the atmospheres and soundscapes of this album on some sonic promontory above and between the potent abstractions of Tim Hecker, the improvisatory excursions of The Necks, and the gothic allure of Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore.‘International Treasure’’ is the next chapter in a story which only grows more rewarding with every stop along the way - one in which three heads travel together deeper into their own musical journeys, and the resulting alchemical power transmutes its origins into gold. As no less a sage than Andrew Weatherall proclaimed, The Utopia Strong are “gnostic sonics in a nutshell”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The frankly astounding Utopia Strong return for another LP of lysergic synthlines and dreamy psychedelic electronica. It's full of hefty grooves and sonic waves, but never overwhelmingly heavy, opting instead for a perfectly balanced and wonderfully produced audio expedition. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

01 - Trident Of Fire
02 - Persephone Sleeps
03 - Shepherdess
04 - Spirits From The Deep
05 - The Islanders
06 - Disaster 2
07 - Revelations
08 - International Treasure
09 - Castalia 

The history of BBC Maida Vale Sessions is familiar to The Utopia Strong. As musicians, and lifelong music fans, the legacy - the importance - of such recordings is not lost on them. Space and place influence creativity, as is the case here, and the sleeve is a loving homage to those classic BBC releases, affectionately nodding to Strange Fruit Peel Sessions from days of yore.These pieces, originally recorded live at Maida Vale for a Marc Riley session on BBC 6 Music in September 2022, capture The Utopia Strong stretching themselves and continuing to develop their aural explorations.The five-track album opens with the analogue arpeggios of ‘Minature Citadels’, a title perfectly summing up the imagery provoked by the music; evolving, jagged patterns of skylines and castellations, turrets and towers. The closing outro of squarks and drones could be twice as long and not outstay its welcome.

The nagging refrain running through ‘Lamp Of Glory’ is Mike York on the pipes, which he handmakes himself. The overall effect is a sublime, warped concoction of balearic energy and non-Western modes. ‘Disaster 2’ (a piece initially recorded on their second studio album, 2022’s International Treasure) begins with a beautiful synth drone that maintains its position, overpowering the modular patterns pulsating behind it, augmented by yet more glorious, lamenting pipes. The last two tracks both exceed ten minutes and allow the band to extend out further. Release comes as the drums kick in after six minutes of ‘The Tower Is Locked’, emulating the live sets The Utopia Strong have become famed for.The final track, ‘Weather All’, was also honed across several live performances. Having been booked for Andrew Weatherall’s Conveanza festival pre-lockdown, the band finally performed there in September 2022, following his passing. While performing this piece, the heavens opened and the entire festival, band and audience, were drenched. “It felt absolutely biblical”, says the band. Steve Davis has a rich history with the Beeb, but on this occasion he is wrangling his ever-expanding array of analogue synths, dilating his musical imagination. The heritage of the location and overall experience was not lost on the band.‘

When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire… say it to yourself and then say it again. Repeat it like a mantra. It’s what UTO did.

Anyone familiar with the UTO’s lauded 2022 debut Touch The Lock, which Pitchfork praised for its “prismatic synth pop”, will be aware of the variegated nature of what they do. This album is just as colourful, with Neysa’s vocalwork sparking similarities to Kim Gordon’s off-kilter vocals, which they both ceremoniously jets through a post-electronica blender mixing stylized indie sleaze productions with 90s breakbeats.

While they might appear as a singular entity to others, UTO wrote large sections of this album apart, converging by the fireside to discuss the day’s work before coming together to hone and finish the songs. 2023 was, by their own admission, a difficult year, and that’s reflected in the Dantean themes expressed in songs such as the lead single ‘Zombie’, which arrived at the end of November as a taster for the new record; the latter’s dark heart is belied by the skittering beats, glitchy electronics and pummeling sequencers that elevate it from the void.

From fire, early man’s discovery, to AI, humanity’s next great adventure - with all of the wonders and complexities of human relationships in between - When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire really is about life, the universe and everything. Just remember, be the flame, not the moth.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Art&Life
A2. Plumbing
A3. 2MOONS
A4. Unshape
A5. Zombie
B1. Midway
B2. Napkin
B3. Lyrics
B4. Bredouille Feat. HSRS

Formed by Vladislav Parshin (of Motorama), in Rostov-On-Don, in 2010, the band became known in Russia for it’s experimental instrumentation, minimalist approach to the music and existential, spiritual lyrics in Russian language. Utro took the blueprint from Soviet bands, post-punk bands from Germany and UK and pushed it way further, using just drums, percurssion, synth bass, synthesizers, and voice. In 2015 Uto announced "We don’t use guitars anymore, we play live drums, synth bass and different keyboards."

The UT reissue series. The band is reissuing its remastered catalogue on Out Records through Forte Distribution in 2017 and 2018. The UT reissue campaign starts with the Ut EP and the Confidential EP, remastered by Dominique Brethes at Wolf Studios and repackaged as a double 12” (both cut at 45rpm for maximum sound fidelity).

The double 12” has both 12”’s in a PVC outer bag (with DL code), there will be 500 only of the double-pack 12” set. Ut is a radical rock group founded by Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham and Sally Young in NYC in Dec 1978. Originating in the downtown No Wave scene and inheritors of the collision between rock, free jazz and the avant-garde, Ut exploded the rigidity of conventional rock, constructing songs through collective improvisation, swapping instruments and rotating the role of singer/director.

Migrating to London in 1981, Ut played with bands like The Fall and The Birthday Party and released music on their own label, Out Records. Ut became a favorite of BBC's John Peel and recorded sessions for his show. Joining forces in 1987 with the label Blast First, they released the critically acclaimed In Gut's House in 1988 and made the NME ‘Top 50 Albums’ that year. As The Washington Post exclaimed, “With In Gut’s House, Ut has scraped and droned one of the finest underground rock albums of the year... The tightly interwoven, firmly focused sound... is rich, spooky, urgent and quite unexpectedly beautiful.”

The album Griller followed in 1989, engineered by label mate Steve Albini, who shared Ut's raw aesthetic and captured the band’s intensity. Ut disbanded in 1990 and began performing again in 2010. They have since toured the US, UK, Ireland and Europe.

“The raw power and sheer drive of Ut is quite straightforward and unmistakable. This is a true threatening guitar band.” – N.Y. Rocker

“I swear I have never seen a band play harder, I have never seen musicians put so much into their instruments, I have never seen such concentration on stage; in short, I have never seen people make rock ‘n’ roll so much their own, using the normal tools to create a singular, bone-shaking form of expression.” – The Village Voice.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

first time on vinyl . Part of the ongoing UT remaster/reissue series. Originally released in 1982 as a Cassette only release. Features five tracks recorded in November 1981 at the Venue.

Since the early days of electronic music, white label records have been inextricably linked to DJ culture and the ways in which underground music has been disseminated.

unknown - untitled draws on the white label concept, initially withholding details about the producers behind the tracks and leaving listeners to draw their own conclusions about what they’re hearing. The innovative concept record label is back with its eighth release, delivering an expansive six-track vinyl that pushes the limits of techno as we know it, offering a glimpse into the ever-evolving world of sound design and sonic landscapes. With online personas often eclipsing the focus on music itself, here lies a return to form.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The label that plays havoc with our search engine and filing system (!) returns with its 8th untitled instalment! I guess they're too busy conjuring up these high tech slices of dancefloor kinetics to be arsed named their tracks.

TRACK LISTING

A1. A1
A2. A2
A3. A3
B1. B1
B2. B2
B3. B3

Uusi Aika is a fresh new ensemble from Finland. Their self-titled debut album will be released by We Jazz Records on 25 November 2022. The band's music could be described as introspective and meditative, but that's only a part of the story. The instrumentation is acoustic and their sound organic to the bone, but the music's slowly unfolding character brings to mind some deep abstract electronic music or experimental dub explorations at times. That is, there's power just under the surface, just beautifully out of focus.

Otto Eskelinen says: "Lately I have been playing mostly folk music and using traditional instruments, such as ancient flutes. Now I felt that I wanted to play the saxophone again, and to do it in a small group setting, while searching for new compositional approaches and also ways of playing together with others. I wanted to create a band that would play something connected to free jazz, but with a distinctly melodic approach. I wanted the sound of the band to be gentle and peaceful, all acoustic. The main inspirations here stem from the history of Japanese sound aesthetics, new age, early 20th century art music and jazz giants such as Lester Young and Jan Garbarek."

Uusi Aika has already debuted live in Helsinki, where their performance at Odysseus Festival this summer was met with remarkable enthusiasm.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gudrid
2. Kaksi Puuta
3. Ajelehtivat Pilvet
4. Uusi Aika
5. Lumikenkä
6. Distances
7. Henget

UV & Nenor have been on a hot streak of late with great outings on the likes of the Fossils label and now they keep it up with a red hot new drop on the brand new Massa label. This tidy 7" packs a punch with two jams that will work the floor. The first is a slow motion but irresistible dub-disco fusion with squelchy bass and nice colourful, warm, gooey chords with vocals from Ranking Levy. On the flip is 'Tookey', a futuristic electro vocoder jam that comes to life with vivid synths circling round the mix and an unusual sense of swing. From laid back session at home to steamy club use, both of these are useful jams.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: UV & Nenor follow up 'Bahia / Goombay' with another mega cosmic disco double header - the last one went out of stock quicker than you can say yes please. Blink and you'll miss it!

TRACK LISTING

Shmanman (feat Ranking Levy)
Tookey

2007 saw the first recording from Melbourne, Australia’s The UV Race - a self-released tape featuring four songs of primitive thud, minimal assemblage and high-energy expression. Over the next three years the band has continued to show dedication to these themes with a string of cassettes and singles and their 2009 self-titled debut fulllength, and their sophomore album Homo delivers on the promise of these early releases. Working again with Eddy Current Suppression Ring guitarist Mikey Young at the recording and mixing stages, The UV Race developed the songs over several sessions. Their willingness to explore is clear, from the psychotic bedroom confessional of “Girl in My Head” with its confident teenheat swagger, to the seven-minute closer “Homo,” where nods to the Ramones enclose a psychedelic freak-out reminiscent of the closing minutes of The Stooges’ Funhouse. In between, the band explores influences ranging from their Australian proto-punk and garage fascinations to American country, Krautrock and UK post-punk, citing the Velvet Underground and the Saints as influences. Recorded by Eddy Current Suppression Ring guitarist Mikey Young.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girl In My Head
2. Burn That Cat
3. Lost My Way
4. Inner North
5. Nazicistic
6. Down Your Street
7. Slow Mo
8. Low
9. Always Late
10. Homo

melodious pop songs through a devolved, malodorous glam-punk aesthetic. It continues the stylistic jump from their self-titled debut to sophomore full-length Homo, further exploring the possibilities of the first wave of punk, incorporating orchestral arrangements and gutter-glitter psych stomp, like if Vom tried to write their own Forever Changes; like if the Electric Eels backed up Bolan or if The Fall put out a record on Crass Records. There are tuneful lamentations of heartbreak and loss alongside very debased, toilet-humor punk licks; Lovecraftian psych-cult morbidity at one moment and rousing anti-anthems against self denial the next. It has been an especially productive year for the band— they are about to launch their first feature-length film, Autonomy and Deliberation, and the soundtrack LP recorded for the film comes alongside Racism, a split 7-inch with Native Cats (on Ride the Snake), a split live LP with Eddy Current Suppression Ring (on Almost Ready, originally released on a limited run of cassettes back in 2008), and the Gypsy King single (from Racism, on HoZac). All this, plus the output of the numerous other Melbourne bands in which members of UV Race play—Asps, Dick Diver, East Link, Guy & Marcus Blackman Experimentation, Lower Plenty, School of Radiant Living, Soma Coma, Straightjacket Nation and Total Control—reveal a relentless commitment for the sake of the song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Be Your Self
2. I’m A Pig
3. Life Park
4. Unknown Pleasures
5. Sophie Says
6. Raw Balls
7. Bad Egg
8. Gypsy King
9. Nuclear Family
10. Memenonome

Raw, speedy punk songs with the edges softened out by bright melodic sensibilities.

4 SONG EP of female fronted crash-pop. Raw, speedy punk songs with the edges softened out by bright melodic sensibilities and faint hints of jangle hiding just beneath the surface RIYL The Shop Assistants, The Primitives, C86 fuzz pop, etc.

TRACK LISTING

1. Go Away
2. It's Dead
3. Violent Days
4. Really Stupid

The debut EP from Manchester based electronic duo UV (Zandra Klievens and Jonjo Feather). Two singles this year have garnered the duo a Record Store Day Recommendation from God Is In The TV and spins from the likes of Tom Ravenscroft BBC6 and Shell Zenner Amazing Radio.

The 5 track E.P. consolidates the duo’s brooding aesthetic “Effortlessly uniting a fairytale of dark underground disco, minimal techno and ethereal pop” The 405.

TRACK LISTING

Still
Cuts
Receiver
Here
Room