Helsinki quartet OK:KO releases their third album "Liesu" with We Jazz Records on 15 April. The band, led by drummer/composer Okko Saastamoinen and including saxophonist Jarno Tikka, pianist Toomas Keski-Säntti and bassist Mikael Saastamoinen (of Superpostion & Linda Fredriksson "Juniper") is a scene favourite in Finland and has recently garnered some international attention with their melodic, dynamic and original approach. The OK:KO sound is adventurous yet accessible, and contemporary yet rooted in the lineage of acoustic small group jazz.

When listening to OK:KO, you can feel that their influences also come from out of the musical realm. After all, isn't this just how it should be? Making music from your own life. Here, you can tell that the landscape of rural Finland, its poetic, at times even melancholy beauty, is ever present. It's folk song country. But don't be fooled, these guys form a real flesh and blood jazz band. That means that the music just starts when the first note hits, and onwards from there, we're in for a wild ride.

Whether punchy like on "Anima", solemn like on "Arvo", or just trekking out there a skiing lane of their own like on "Vanhatie", what you'll get is pure OK:KO. Melodic, interactive, honest and forward-reaching contemporary jazz music. That is something we appreciate – a lot!

Vinyl editions available on opaque white / black vinyl, with inside-out 3mm spine sleeve and a polylined black inner sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anima
2. Rieju
3. Kirkkis
4. Arvo
5. Vanhatie
6. Yösalmi

“Even my subconscious is self-conscious,” Okay Kaya sings on “Inside Of A Plum”, giving us a sense of the mental state she entered while making SAP, an album she wrote, performed, engineered, and produced alone, sometimes spending weeks at a time without social interaction. This is a concept album about consciousness in which Okay Kaya focuses her trademark combination of abstraction and wit on what happens to her mind unaccompanied, on her tendency to feel less like a human and more like the sticky secretion of a tree.

After releasing her Spellemann Award winning album Watch This Liquid Pour Itself in January of 2020, Kaya left her home in New York and moved to Europe to create and show her various interdisciplinary exhibitions. Among others, she made an installation that amplified music made underwater and an interactive sculpture based on Jungian sandplay therapy for children. Between her exhibits, Kaya recorded through lockdowns by herself in the loaned studios of generous friends.

SAP first grew from the first single “Spinal Tap” about Kaya wandering in Berlin, tree-touching. “Sap reminds me of the bodily functions I need to remember to do, like sleep. One might say it ‘resinates.’” The album was further inspired by Ketamine Therapy which is discussed in “The Inside Of A Plum.” Kaya explains, “The doctor said this treatment grows literal physical branches in your brain.” As she experimented with ego death, the subject of her song “Jazzercise”, Kaya found herself writing in the voices of fictional characters she’d encountered in other people’s stories. In ‘Jolene From Her Own Perspective,’ she imagines Dolly Parton’s nemesis responding to her song. In ‘Origin Story,’ Kaya writes as a mythical goddess frustrated with her creation myth. In ‘I’ve Spent Forever Planning A Crisis,’ Kaya responds to Cassavetes’ film A Woman Under The Influence writing from the perspective of the story’s children.

Okay Kaya’s investigations of mind-body come along with sexy dance beats, unpredictable interlocking synths, delicate soft guitars, and close-to-the-mike R&B whispering. But Kaya likes her falsettos cracking and her soul-inspired hooks careening wildly, a beautiful chaos that somehow fits together.

When she returned to New York, Kaya was excited to collaborate again, to get friends to “bless the record.” She invited friends to Gaia Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to sing or play an instrument. Most songs on the album unfold with guest performances from artists as varied as deem spencer, Taja Cheek of L’Rain and Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches.

Just as the recording process began with isolation and ended with friends, SAP starts with the internal and leads outside to romance, to lovers who serve as funhouse mirrors, reflecting Kaya back to herself from different angles. In “Pearl Gurl” Kaya harmonizes with her multi-tracked second self and sings her uncertain conclusion: “If love is not the answer, it’s one hell of a question.”

TRACK LISTING

1) Mood Into Object Personified
2) Jolene From Her Own Perspective
3) Origin Story
4) Jazzercise
5) Pathologically Yours
6) Spinal Tap
7) Inside Of A Plum
8) Rorschach
9) In Regards To Your Tweet
10) Dep. Chamber
11) Pearl Gurl
12) The Lesson
13) I’ve Spent Forever Planning A Crisis
14) Like A Liver
15) Weltschmerz

Fatherland is the first album to be released by Kele Okereke under his full name, following two acclaimed solo records as Kele, The Boxer and Trick, and five albums as the frontman of unparalleled British band Bloc Party.

TRACK LISTING

1. Overture
2. Streets Been Talkin'
3. You Keep On Whispering His Name
4. Capers
5. Grounds For Resentment (feat. Olly Alexander)
6. Yemaya
7. Do U Right
8. Versions Of Us (feat. Corinne Bailey Rae)
9. Portrait
10. Road To Ibadan
11. Savannah
12. The New Year Party
13. Royal Reign

Long-awaited return of ex-Granfaloon Bus frontman Felix Costanza. After releasing eight critically acclaimed albums over more than a decade, San Francisco's Granfaloon Bus 'parked' forever in 2003. The band had built up a good following in Europe, and many press writers wondered openly how much longer the band could possibly remain 'under the radar' before the wider world finally woke up to their considerable talents. Following the split of the band, front man and songwriter Felix Costanza turned his attentions to a new solo project, which he called Okie Rosette. The album "Leap Second" was brought to life with the help of various accomplices. Thee More Shallows' Dee Kesler lent his recording expertise and sonic wizardry to some of the tracks, Carrie Bradley (The Breeders, 100 Watt Smile) contributed violin parts, and ex-Granfaloon Bus members Jeff Stevenson (bass) and Ajax Green (guitar) joined in too, along with various other contributors. The addition of Rachel Stevenson's dulcet, husky voice provided the perfect foil to Costanza's world-weary vocals. A description once used by a journalist to describe the music of Granfaloon Bus – 'slanted folk-pop' – still applies as an apt description of this mixture of folk / melodic pop / Americana stylings, further tweaked with distorted samples, electronic beats, loops and skewed lyrics. It all adds up to a stunning album – the best work yet by Felix Costanza, and hopefully only the beginning of his long-overdue ascent 'above the radar'.

Live at Café Oto is a journey into Ainu music as ancient vocal chants move into intense mouth-harp acapellas as meditative solo tonkori pieces morph into psychedelic dub-heavy work-outs. The album follows the critical acclaim for Tonkori in the Moonlight,Mais Um's 2022 compilation of OKI's early work that was chosen as one of the best folk albums of 2022 by The Guardian. Live at Café Oto features mostly unheard repertoire from OKI and family, recorded in Mais Um's favourite venue in London on a sold out night as part of a captivating European tour - when we heard the recording we knew we had to release it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tukinahan Kamuy (Live At Café Oto)
2. Topattumi (Live At Café Oto)
3. Kay Kay As To (Live At Café Oto)
4. Hem Hoa (Live At Café Oto)
5. Hekuri Sarari (Live At Café Oto)
6. Kento Hakka Tuhse (Live At Café Oto)
7. Yaysama (Live At Café Oto)
8. Kon Kon (Live At Café Oto)
9. Muysoka Hanene (Live At Café Oto)
10. Yaykatekar (Live At Café Oto)
11. Battaki / East Of Kunashiri (Live At Café Oto)

A statement from Okkervil River’s Will Sheff:

The new Okkervil River album is called Away. I didn’t plan to make it and initially wasn’t sure if it was going to be an Okkervil River album or if I’d ever put it out. I wrote the songs during a confusing time of transition in my personal and professional life and recorded them quickly with a brand new group of musicians. I got together the best New York players I could think of, people whose playing and personalities I was fans of and who came more out of a jazz or avant garde background, and we cut the songs live in one or two takes – trying to keep things as natural and immediate as possible – over three days in a studio on Long Island that hosts the Neve 8068 console which recorded Steely Dan’s Aja and John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. I asked Marissa Nadler to sing on it and got the composer Nathan Thatcher to write some beautiful orchestral arrangements, we recorded them with the classical ensemble yMusic and then I mixed the record with Jonathan Wilson out in Los Angeles. 2013-2015 had been a strange time for me. I lost some connections in a music industry that was visibly falling apart. Some members of the Okkervil River backing band left, moving on to family life or to their own projects. I spent a good deal of time sitting in hospice with my grandfather, who was my idol, while he died. I felt like I didn’t know where I belonged. When there was trouble at home, a friend offered me her empty house in the Catskills where I could go and clear my head. New songs were coming fast up there, so I set myself the challenge of trying to write as many as possible as quickly as possible. I wasn’t thinking about any kind of end product; the idea was just to write through what I was feeling, quickly and directly. Eventually, I realized I was writing a death story for a part of my life that had, buried inside of it, a path I could follow that might let me go somewhere new. “Okkervil River R.I.P.” and “Call Yourself Renee” are good emotional transcriptions of that time. I wrote the latter on psylocibin mushrooms on a beautiful afternoon in early fall in the Catskills. I wrote “The Industry” quickly after getting some bad news. “Comes Indiana Through the Smoke” is an anthem for the battleship my grandfather served on during the Pacific Theater of World War II. Before becoming a private school Headmaster, my grandfather was also a jazz musician; he paid his way through college as a bandleader, toured with Les Brown and His Band of Renown, and spent summers playing a residency at a NH lakeside gay dance club called The Jungle Room that kept live monkeys in the basement. (You can hear his actual trumpet on this song, played by C.J. Camarieri from yMusic.) “Judey on a Street” is a love song, sunny but written late at night when the woods are maximum spooky. We cut “She Would Look for Me” pretty shapelessly, with a lot of improvisation, and it’s also a love song. “Mary on a Wave” is about the feminine aspect of God but is in a very masculine tuning: DADDAD. It’s also a love song. I wrote “Frontman in Heaven” in an obsessive three-day streak of writing for 14 hours, going to bed, getting up and writing again. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. I wrote “Days Spent Floating (in the Halfbetween)” by just jotting down the first sentence that popped into my head every morning in October immediately after I opened my eyes. At the end of the month I had a finished song. It was recorded as an afterthought as the last thing we did when they were about to kick us out of the studio. You can hear me flub some lyrics. But one take and we had it.

I think this record was me taking my life back to zero and starting to add it all back up again, one plus one plus one. Any part that didn’t feel like it added up I left out. Weirdly, it was the easiest and most natural record I’ve ever made. More than any time in my life before, I felt guided by intuition – like I was going with the grain, walking in the direction the wind was blowing. The closer it got to being finished, the more the confusion I’d felt at the start went away. It’s not really an Okkervil River album and it’s also my favorite Okkervil River album.

Will Sheff
May 2016

In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of this iconic album, Jagjaguwar are proud to present the ‘Black Sheep Boy: Anniversary Edition’, a 3CD / 3LP set combining Okkervil River’s classic ‘Black Sheep Boy’ album and its counterpart the ‘Black Sheep Boy Appendix’ with an all new unreleased album entitled ‘There Swims a Swan’: fullband recordings made six months prior to the release of ‘Black Sheep Boy’ which illuminate the album’s roots in the traditional American songbook. Featuring beautiful, emotional readings of songs popularized by such artists as Washington Phillips, Lead Belly, the Louvin Brothers and Roscoe Holcomb, ‘There Swims A Swan’ takes the listener on a trip through the songs that inspired the band’s Will Sheff while composing ‘Black Sheep Boy’ and reads like a run-through of that album’s themes.

‘Black Sheep Boy’ is celebrated for its album artwork as well as its music, and the Anniversary Edition collects that artwork in a meticulously reworked package, combining every previous element of William Schaff ’s imagery with a large new piece by Schaff depicting an updated ‘Black Sheep Boy’. The release also includes lengthy liner notes by Sheff walking the listener through the circumstances surrounding the album.

For Okkervil River fans (the most high-profile of whom was recently revealed to be President Barack Obama, who included ‘Down Down The Deep River’ on his 2015 summer playlist), the Anniversary Edition is a loving, comprehensive, richly expanded presentation of a record many consider to be one of the band’s best. For those new to the band, this might be the best place to start, the first step on a long road, the opening to a forest you can get lost in.

"I Am Very Far" is a startling break from anything this band has done before. The band’s Will Sheff emerges not only as a songwriter of the highest caliber, but a producer and arranger of singular vision. "I Am Very Far" is monolithic and darkly ambiguous.

Sheff contributed vocals to The New Pornographers’ album "Together", wrote a song for Norah Jones’ "The Fall", and helmed the Roky Erickson record "True Love Cast Out All Evil", for which his album notes received a Grammy nomination.

The writing process for "I Am Very Far" produced 30 or so songs, which he narrowed down to 18, recorded in a series of short, high-intensity sessions, each in a different location, each employing completely different methods than the one before it.

For songs like "Rider" and "Wake And Be Fine", Sheff gathered together a massive version of Okkervil River – two drummers, two pianists, two bassists, and seven guitarists, all playing live in one room – and led them on a week of live-in-the-studio marathon sessions, performing a single song obsessively over and over for as many as 12 hours to capture just the right take.

In The Rainbow Rain' - produced by Sheff and mixed by Shawn Everett (Perfume Genius, Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs) - serves as showcase for Sheff's writing and the musical interplay of his new band mates, Benjamin Lazar Davis (bass), Will Graefe (guitar), Sarah Pedinotti (keys) and Cully Symington (percussion) - the same iteration of Okkervil River that joined Sheff on the Away tour. Recalls Sheff of that tour: "It was my favorite touring experience in many years... I felt like a kid again. I realized how phenomenally lucky I am that I've been able to play music for this long."

Sheff and the band started work on the new album shortly after the end of that tour - and the presidential election. "If December 2016 was good for anything, it was good for writing songs," he says. Galvanized by the seismic events of that Fall and the following year, Sheff, sometimes co-writing with his new band, channeled his outrage and sadness into music intended to be hopeful, healing and uplifting. Inspired by the Quaker meetings he had been attending, Sheff injected the album with undercurrents of spirituality and gratitude. The result is something akin to a modern secular gospel record, and among the best music of his career.

Highlights include driving, melodic anthems "Love Somebody" and "Pulled Up The Ribbon," and "Famous Tracheotomies," which chronicles notable figures who've endured the titular procedure, including Gary Coleman, Dylan Thomas, Ray Davies, and Sheff himself. "In places, the record deals with heavy things like trauma and betrayal and shame, but, actually, it's supposed to be a good time," says Sheff. "I hope it's something fun, that makes people feel happier

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: With hints of smooth synthpop mixed in with the usual swooning indie anthems, Sheff has managed to sacrifice none of his original appeal whilst bringing in the considerable talents of his new bandmates, somehow simmering into a cohesive and enjoyable whole.

TRACK LISTING

1. Famous Tracheotomies
2. The Dream And The Light
3. Love Somebody
4. Family Song
5. Pulled Up The Ribbon
6. Don't Move Back To LA
7. Shelter Song
8. How It Is
9. External Actor
10. Human Being Song

This exclusive 12” from Okkervil River precedes a brand new album. One for the fans, this superbly showcases the gorgeous sounds of Okkervil River.

Formed 12 years ago and having released five albums, Okkervil River have built a unique position in American independent rock.

The band’s music has been described by Uncut as “a delirious mix of Sheff's myriad influences - the Velvets, Stones, Faces, Dylan, Bowie - that brilliantly examined notions of identity, celebrity, loss, reckless living, and who some people become when being themselves is no longer who they want to be.”

Taken from the new album ‘I Am Very Far’, ‘Rider’ was recorded by a massive version of Okkervil River – two drummers, two pianists, two bassists, and seven guitarists, all playing live in one room.

The band then spent a week of live-in-the-studio marathon sessions, performing a single song obsessively over and over for as many as 12 hours at a time to capture just the right take.

Okkervil River have thrown away all maps and compasses but they continue to chart their way, unblinking, toward destinations unknown.

“The noise they make is thrilling. ‘Rider’ is like Bowie’s ‘Panic In Detroit’ re-tooled in the anthemic manner of Springsteen or Arcade Fire, a bold unfurling, a majestic racket” – Uncut.

TRACK LISTING

Rider
I Guess We Lost

Although he has long been known as a characterdriven songwriter, Okkervill River’s Will Sheff announced that this album is a work of autobiography.

‘The Silver Gymnasium’ is set in a very specific time and place from Sheff's childhood - in 1986 in the small town of Meriden, NH, where Sheff's parents worked as teachers for a boarding school. Sheff conceived the album as a tribute to the spirit of pre-adolescence, meant to evoke the nostalgic feeling of “an action figure you found in the woods.”

This was also the era of video games like ‘Leisure Suit Larry’, ‘Maniac Mansion’, and ‘King’s Quest’. To pay homage to those early games, Sheff created his own online adventure game in partnership with Eyes And Ears' Benjamin Miles.

With "The Stage Names", Okkervil River dynamite the walls of past release, "Black Sheep Boy"'s gothic, moss-walled castle from the inside to let in the glaring sun. Where "Black Sheep Boy" presented a fairytale of dark babbling streams and high distant towers, "The Stage Names" takes place in an unmistakably modern world, where snowy televisions blast into cheap hotels the spectral images of soap stars endlessly betraying each other, where losers in late-night bars languish to the beat of their favourite songs, where broken-down actresses place their final cell calls from lonely mansions high in the hills. Riddled with characters real and fake, with true-life biography and brazenly fabricated autobiography, with the relics of high culture and the crumpled-up trash of low culture, "The Stage Names" is a cinemascopic take on the meaning of entertainment.

"Wake And Be Fine" is the first single from the forthcoming "I Am Very Far" album from Okkervil River.

Work on "I Am Very Far" started after a year spent on other projects. Band member Will Sheff contributed vocals to The New Pornographers’ album "Together", wrote a song for Norah Jones' "The Fall", produced an upcoming album for the Brooklyn-based band Bird Of Youth, and helmed Roky Erickson's acclaimed "True Love Cast Out All Evil" with Okkervil River. (Sheff’s liner notes for said album earned him a 2011 Grammy nomination.)

TRACK LISTING

Wake And Be Fine
Weave Room Blues

‘Your Past Life Is A Blast’ is the third single from ‘I Am Very Far’ from Okkervil River. The release of this single coincides with the band's late festival season appearance at End Of The Road.

“The goal was to push my brain to places it didn't want to go. The idea was to not have any idea – to keep myself confused about what I was doing,” frontman Will Sheff says about Okkervil River's newest album. The resulting record is a startling break from anything this band has done before. By turns terrifying and joyous, violent and serene, grotesque and romantic, it's a celebration of forces beyond our control.

‘Gold Faces’ is an exclusive new non-album song.

Ryo Okumoto is a keyboardist with a rather impressive resume. He has worked with the likes of Phil Collins and Eric Clapton. He is also the keyboardist for Spock's Beard and this work is an extension of his work with the band with added jazz and fusion elements.

Okumu released his first solo record Knopperz in 2021; an instrumental concept album based on pianist Duval Timothy’s 2017 album Sen AmIt was friend and mentor Lexxx who sparked the soul searching that kicked off his next record after he told Okumu that he was trying to explain who Okumu was but struggled to summarise his vast catalogue.

“There are all these ways into these aspects of who I am and I felt like he was saying, it would be so cool if you could find out how to say who you are in a comprehensive way”. Okumu took on that challenge and in response devised his sophomore release I Came From Love, a tapestry of Black experience that explores ancestry, the legacy of slavery, what it means to exist in an unjust society, and Okumu’s own family history.  

The album writing and demoing process began in January 2021 at Lexxx’s East Sussex studio The Barn, while early recordings were completed at Okumu’s studio with Tom Skinner on drums, and Nick Ramm on keys, and Aviram Barath on synths. On I Came From Love, Okumu calls on a star-studded array of guests, including Eska, Kwabs, Wesley Joseph, Robert Stillman, Anthony Joseph, Byron Wallen, Raven Bush, and Grace Jones.

Rather than release solely under his name, Okumu has chosen the moniker ‘Dave Okumu & the 7 Generations’, which Okumu sees as “my actual ancestors, the ancestors of others, my musical ancestors, and my descendants”. Sonically the album hits a kaleidoscopic frenzy of notes, rocketing through bass heavy rhythms, neo soul-tinged cries and frenetic spoken word passages.

The album is a body of work presented in chapters; “You Survived So I Might Live” [tracks 1-4], “The Intolerable Suffering Of (The) Other” [5-8], “Seduced By Babylon” (9-11), and “Cave Of Origins” (12-14).

TRACK LISTING

Two Things
7 Generations
Blood Ah Go Run Streets
My Negritude
The Cost
Prison
Black Firework
Scenes
Amnesia
Get Out
The Struggle
Eyes On Me
Abaka
A Paradise

Debut solo album from Dave Okumu - who you probably don't know from producing and guesting on projects with Arlo Parks, St. Vincent, Tony Allen and Jesse Ware (amongst others). You might recognize him as singer and guitarist from the Mercury nominated band, The Invisible.

However this isn't anything like anything he's made before. An ode to early electronica, downbeat and instrumental hip-hop, it combines elements of glitch, boom-bap, and warped sample heaven to create something with soul, identity and, more important, something that'll sound amazing in your living room as the dark nights draw in.

Playing with a tantalizingly organic palette of sounds, it's jazz-indebted, with lots of dusty piano, upright bass and brushed drums strung up with an elastic, head-bobbing groove which I can't workout is some expert MPC trickery or some other kind of beat-production voodoo. Either way it pulls you in and out, fast and slower as it nods through its movements and is a guaranteed H I T for anyone with penchant for stoner, instrumental hip-hop in the vein of Madlib, J Dilla and Your Old Droog. 

TRACK LISTING

Intro
Son Of Emmerson
Ballpark
Trouble
New Dawn
Brother
Reprise
RTN
Don’t Die

It's safe to say that hip-hop has never seen an album like Ol’ Dirty Bastard's 1995 solo debut 'Return to the 36 Chambers'. The brief glimpses of ODB's unhinged genius provided by Wu-Tang Clan's landmark Enter the Wu-Tang album two years earlier were begging to be expanded on to a larger canvas, and, with RZA guiding production, the album promised to give Dirty the creative license to make one of the most bizarre, entertaining and original LPs in hip-hop history. With his raspy, drunken flow and dark sense of humor, Dirty fearlessly attacks from all angles, throwing himself fearlessly into punchy rhyme attacks (“Damage,” with GZA), drugged-out party jams (the monster singles “Brooklyn Zoo” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”) and bizarre, grimly hilarious fantasies of sex and violence (“Don't U Know” and the R&B-tinged “Sweet Sugar Pie”). Backed by RZA's appropriately gritty, dissonant beats and appearances from the Clan, Return became an instant hit, selling over 1 million copies and earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album in 1996. The album stands as a high water mark in the Wu-Tang Clan's collective creative output and was selected as one of the Best 100 Rap Albums by The Source magazine in 1998.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Shimmy Shimmy Ya
3. Baby C'mon
4. Brooklyn Zoo
5. Hippa To Da Hoppa
6. Raw Hide
7. Damage
8. Don't U Know
9. The Stomp
10. Goin' Down
11. Drunk Game (Sweet Sugar Pie)
12. Snakes
13. Brooklyn Zoo II (Tiger Crane)
14. Proteck Ya Neck II The Zoo
15. Cuttin' Headz

David Wingo is a busy man. In the years since the release of his last record as Ola Podrida, he's written and recorded soundtracks for several movies including Take Shelter (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2011), MUD (starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon), and Prince Avalanche (starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch and co-composed with Explosions In The Sky), both of which are seeing wide release this coming spring/summer. When he had time in between films, Wingo assembled a live band featuring Colin Swietek on guitars, Matt Clark on bass, and David Hobizal on drums and began to bring his new songs in to the band. A first for Ola Podrida, the new album Ghosts Go Blind was recorded to tape in a proper studio, mostly live, with the full band. The resulting songs are energetic and accessible, while Wingo's abstract narratives are more personal and intimate than ever. Throughout the album bittersweet memories of youth are filtered through the nostalgic eyes of a man starting to accept his adult life for the first time. The album opens with last guy at the party pleading for someone to stay with him, and keep the revelry going a little longer. It's an almost cringeworthy desperation, and yet Wingo makes it feel relatable. The final refrain "It's no fun, being alone at the end" takes on a bigger meaning, giving you the feeling his friends have grown up and moved on, leaving him to decide how he'll proceed with his life. By the middle of the album, the character has evolved, now pleading with his partner again, but this time the goal is to stay home and shut out the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Not Ready To Stop, 5:40
2. Fumbling For The Light, 4:03
3. Washing Away, 4:40
4. Blind To The Blues, 4:32
5. Staying In, 4:06
6. Ghosts Go Blind, 5:12
7. Speed Of Light, 4:07
8. Some Sweet Relief, 4:07
9. Notes Remain, 5:14

The music of Old Apparatus carves its own niche, leading you by the hand into unknown territory, exotic and mysterious, but shot through with a sense of magic and wonder that always pulls it out of the horror it hints at. A low key audio-visual group, they’ve deliberately worked out of the limelight, and consequently released some of the most ambitious and beautiful electronic music of the last few years. Old Apparatus started life on Mala’s Deep Medi record label 2 or so years ago, releasing two highly praised singles that were some of the best sellers on the label, however they were an unconventional choice, sitting uncomfortably with the dancefloor aimed dubstep that the label was known for, as their beautifully crafted mix of drones, sculptured soundscapes and dub moved far beyond the rulebook, and their audio-visual live shows became renowned for their quality. In 2012, Old Apparatus launched a bid for independence with their own ‘Sullen Tone’ imprint to release their own projects and others. The first of these releases on the label were EPs that spanned the second half of the year, opening with the Derren EP before releasing a series of EPs from three separate members of the group. Compendium draws together the highlights of those EPs into a sequenced mix that draws the sheer drama out of the music, like contrasting scenes in a film, enabling the listener to pick out details in music and get lost in its generous sound world. Starting with Zimmer’s rising strings and watery hiss, rolling seamlessly into the far away shoegaze of Mernom and then the warm, woodblock and acoustic guitar 2-step of Derren. The mood switches up to the jungle atmosphere of Dourado, with hypnotising drums and a feeling of panic, before the chopped and screwed march of Lingle drops the mood down, the club-footed hip hop and ritualistic astral atmosphere of cauliroot, creates a mysterious ambience, before the album hones down into the bell-like melodies and sliding drums of boxcat. Chicago opens next with a bare piano and heartbeat thud, working out of the rainy atmospheres, the shimmering drones Octofish lead into the vast waves of Realise, ending the album on a powerful note.

TRACK LISTING

01. Zimmer
02. Mernom
03. Derren
04. Dourado
05. Lingle
06. Cauliroot
07. Boxcat
08. Chicago
09. Octofish
10. Realise

The pet project of Texas based programmer John Mark Lapham, - of The Earlies and 4AD band The Late Cord fame - Old Fire joins a world-class roster that includes the likes of Steven Wilson, The Pineapple Thief, Anathema, Nordic Giants and The Anchoress. Taking nearly a decade to make, Songs From The Haunted South has been a labour of love for Lapham.

Born from an album concept for a 4AD project with singer Micah P. Hinson (The Late Cord), the album was originally intended to feature different singers and musicians recording songs that were both covers and originals. After parting ways with Micah, Lapham remained determined to realize his vision for the album and sought voices he considered special or fitted the inspiration.

The first piece of the puzzle fell in to place after meeting the former owner of 4AD, Ivo Watts Russell, who introduced Lapham to singer/songwriter, Tom Rapp - who recorded a string of haunting albums in the late 60s and 70s under the name Pearls Before Swine. The vocals Rapp provided formed the basis of the track Shadows. In the following years, guest vocals were recorded by Sara Lowes (The Earlies), DM Stith, Christopher Barnes (Gem Club), Rebekka Karijord, and Alex Maas (Black Angels).

The project also features a myriad of exceptional musicians including Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive) - Guitar, Thor Harris (Swans) - Drums, Christian Madden - Rhodes piano & Organ and Semay Wu (Cello).

The 13 track album contains a selection of songs that in one way or another are dedications to people, some dead and some still living. Musically, inspirations range from ambient artists such as Brian Eno and Stars of the Lid to Psychedelic Rock, traditional Country and early 4AD.

Sitting alongside the original Old Fire compositions are a selection of intriguing cover versions. Lapham uniquely interprets songs by Psychic TV (The Orchids), Low (Laser Beam), Ian William Craig (A Sight Grip, A Gentle Hold), Jason Molina (It's Easier Now), Camberwell Now (Know How) and Shearwater (Helix).

Songs From The Haunted South' was produced by John Mark Lapham, mixed by JM Lapham and Mark Kuykendall, and was mastered by Ian Hawgood.

The powerful cover art was designed by UK's Grammy Award winning designer Vaughan Oliver, famed for his work with artists such as Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pixies, Throwing Muses in addition to artists such as David Sylvian and Bush. The cover shot taken in 1958 features Lapham's father during bivouac camping basic training in the foothills of the Ozarks, at Fort Chaffee.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says:

TRACK LISTING

Old Fire 3
Along Came A Sadness
Helix
Know How
It's Easier Now
A Stranger In The Family
Bloodchild
Faust
Shadows
A Slight Grip, A Gentle Hold
Laser Beam
The Orchids
Deadhouse Dream

For Fans of: Bill Callahan, Adam Torres, Cross Record, Julia Holter, Low, Damien Jurado.

The album’s Texas-based producer John Mark Lapham was a member of Secretly Canadian band The Earlies. Voids employs the vocal talents of Bill Callahan, Emily Cross, Adam Torres, and Julia Holter across twelve genre-fluid, yet impressively cohesive tracks that span baroque dream-pop, filmic ambient, raga-like drones, avant-country, and even spiritual jazz, all imbued with poetic heft and seared by the West Texas sun. It was beneath this same sun that Lapham lost both of his parents, mourned a withering relationship, and shouldered the fallout of the pandemic, turning his life into the rusted-out scraps he then used to build Voids from the ground up.

There is no better narrator for Lapham’s story than fellow Texas resident Bill Callahan, whose iconic delivery perfectly personifies the core themes of Voids. By the time Callahan appears, he does so over a saw-blade drone that sounds like machinery echoing off the corrugated steel walls of a nearby workshop, which then breaks open into a loose yet pained confluence of violin and upright bass that recalls Joe Henderson’s 1974 spiritual jazz album The Elements. On “Dreamless” the album crystallizes into its most straight-ahead moment as Lapham trains his compositional lens on a brilliant piece of pop songwriting. Featured vocalist Adam Torres soars over John Mark’s punctual arrangement of stomping drums and rapturous string-work to anthemic, and gently psychedelic consequence.

Voids concludes with the pleasant clatter of “Circles” wherein Lapham throws all his ingredients into a pot of celebratory catharsis. Drum sets collide with one another gleefully, and harmonized textures scatter and roll about the floor like a dropped bucket of ornate marbles. Lapham’s collage-work, which up to this point has been smartly restrained, comes unglued as he transmutes grief into relief within a moment-of-death montage of aural imagery. Across Voids, that same awareness of tragedy and loneliness is made palatable by the album’s exciting and varied topography, which stands insubordinately against Lapham’s real-life surroundings. The settlers who established West Texas towns like the one he calls home must have done so with a sense of hope despite the hostility of their surroundings, however inevitable the withering. Similar spirits speak through John Mark Lapham’s work, and he welcomes them as fascinating old friends. “That more than anything inspired a lot of what I try to express through Old Fire, faded memories, former glories, places lost in time,” he discloses. “Whatever I was trying to express with Old Fire wasn't finished with the first album, like a story that was only half-read. It seemed like that was only the beginning, and there was a lot more ground to cover.” If there is ground still uncovered for Old Fire after Voids, it's sure to be lush in spite of or perhaps because of the dusty soil beneath it.

TRACK LISTING

01. All Gone [2:11]
02. Blue Star (ft. Emily Cross) [4:07]
03. When I Was In My Prime (ft. Bill Callahan) [5:05]
04. Corpus (ft. Bill Callahan) [4:15]
05. Love Is Only Dreaming [2:45]
06. Dreamless (ft. Adam Torres) [3:08]
07. Don't You Go (ft. Bill Callahan) [4:38]
08. Window (ft. Julia Holter) [4:24]
09. Uninvited [8:22]
10. Memory [5:51]
11. Father As A Child [4:24]
12. Circles [6:57]

A booze and smoke filled stumble through love and loss taking in rock, blues, folk and swing. .

Observers of a world of people trapped in dreams producing music that wants to find out why this happens. Songs that dismantle the procedure of life and ask how are people oblivious? Rooted deep in the folk culture of story telling and drawing characters, picking up something new from every stop along the way. Their gift is the music that is melded from all that they have seen and experienced and offers the listener a doorway into a different path. .

Old House Playground are a two piece band based in Manchester UK. Their trail of gigs leads a winding path across europe taking in Manchester, London, Ireland, Greece, Germany and Switzerland with airplay in the UK, Ireland, Greece, Germany, Switzerland and even Romania. Their album God Damn That Gold was recorded to analogue tape by label mate Chris Evans, and will be released on 11th June 2012 through The Evening Economies and Fat Bob Records.

In 2016 Dead Meadow’s Jason Simon ventured north to San Francisco to take part in the Family Folk Explosion: a Last Waltz-style concert series hosted by Trans Van Santos and what the SF Weekly has called "his band of Merry Pranksters." Simon picked a handful of songs to perform with the Trans Van Santos band, leaning heavily on unrecorded material and selections from his last solo album. When he arrived in San Francisco for rehearsals he was immediately taken with the band’s much jazzier interpretations of his songs; a particular revelation coming from the loose and idiosyncratic swing of San Francisco drummer and Spirit Jazz elder Dave Mihaly (known for his work with Jolie Holland and his own group; Dave Mihaly & The Shimmering Leaves Ensemble).

Of all the songs that Jason Simon brought to the table that evening, none were more important to the future NorCal/SoCal collaboration between these two sonic tribes than “Past the Western Wall;" a song Simon felt necessitated a Free Jazz approach that had proven difficult to capture. Not so in San Francisco, where the song became the lengthy and searching centerpiece of the set. Behind Dave Mihaly’s inspired work on the trap kit, Jason Simon’s exploration of Indian motifs on lead guitar, and the Bob Weir-like rhythmic accompaniment of Trans Van Santos, the song found its wings, stretching freely in the open landscape of the songs middle section. Clocking in at nearly fifteen minutes, “Past the Western Wall" was the clear highlight of a show that featured more than a few bright moments. The next morning Jason Simon drove back to Los Angeles with a copy of Dave Mihaly’s most recent album and an invitation to join Trans Van Santos at the TVS2 sessions in Joshua Tree, California the next month.

Jason Simon listened to the Dave Mihaly album on the drive back to Los Angeles and then he listened to it again, and again. The next month in Joshua Tree he presented Trans Van Santos with a proposition to record an album featuring material from the three songwriters. They pow-wowed and smoked the peace pipe and formulated a plan: the album was to be recorded in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, in the northern reaches of Old Mexico, and feature contributions from members of their respective solo projects. Songs would be recorded live over a couple of sessions with very few overdubs. “Western Wall" would be the foundation that the album would be built upon. Jason Simon would produce and steer the ship through the process and toward completion. This album is the fruit of that cross genre and multigenerational collaboration out on the edges of West. Welcome to Old Mexico.

The 13th studio album from Old 97’s arose from what vocalist/guitarist Rhett Miller refers to as a “de-evolution.” “As much as I want us to calm down and grow up, the songs that felt right for this record were mostly big and loud and brutal and dirty.” Produced by Tucker Martine and featuring appearances from Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) — American Primitive is gloriously rowdy, revealing a band more attuned than ever to the raw, reckless energy of timeless rock-and-roll.

The debut album from pre-grunge crunch merchants oldboy:

oldboy formed as a past-time - like golf or knitting - between old friends with a love of having a loud good time. created by Max and Chris in an industrial estate rehearsal room back in 2019, get togethers were few and far between but something was popping - it felt like fun.

Since then, practises were again few and far between but after recruiting an old friend - Ryan - on bass (they didn't want to be a two piece - lightning bolt have that covered) they decided to try a little bit harder and as the world went into reverse they somehow wrote what you have here - their debut album 'bloody'.

Recorded at the Total Refreshment Centre in three days with Jonah Falco (fucked up, chubby and the gang, the chisel) and then mixed in three hours in the basement of rough trade west you get exactly where oldboy are at. it's fast and relentless. it swings in places. It's super raw and the sound of three people having a high ol' time.

Mucho influenced by the prime / premiere cuts of the late 80s / early 90s Chicago / US noise, as once released by Touch and Go, Amphetamine Reptile and Sub Pop.. pummelled home with a British post punk thWACK... it’s pop music, it’s just nasty pop music.

For fans of: Tar, Shellac, Precious Wax Droppings, Helmet, Scratch Acid, Tad....

Play loud…
…and often

TRACK LISTING

1. Proper Son
2. Big Balls
3. Soft To The Touch
4. Fux Been Given
5. Wow
6. Slap On The Wrist
7. Pedestal
8. Brace Yerself
9. Underwater Bats

Olden Yolk is a New York-based group whose penchant for dystopian folk, abstract poeticism, and motorik rhythms have enveloped them in a sound uniquely of-the-moment yet simultaneously time-tested. The project is currently led by songwriters, vocalists, and multiinstrumentalists Shane Butler and Caity Shaffer, whose interlaced vocals are found guiding each composition on their enlivening self-titled debut. The project was initially conceived in 2012 by Butler as an outlet for one-off songs and visual art while touring and releasing albums with the band Quilt (Mexican Summer).

Following the release of a split-record with Weyes Blood in 2014, Olden Yolk became a collaborative entity. Olden Yolk’s debut ruminates on questions surrounding love, self-doubt, and locating autonomy amidst burgeoning unrest. Wrought with hazy melancholy and halcyon joy, Butler and Shaffer’s lilting vocals play off one another through a devotional dialogue, taking form in haunting choral melodies and candid rock n' roll. These songs are ecstatic odes to the life of the city; to the subway platforms, kiosks, and monuments which enliven and encompass our collectivity, elevating into an urban-psychedelia.

On the album, Butler and Shaffer are joined by drummer Dan Drohan (Tei Shi, Uni Ika Ai) and guitarist Jesse DeFrancesco who round out the studio sessions and live-band. Drohan’s deep passion for jazz, hip-hop, and experimental percussion come to fore while Defrancesco’s minimal yet powerful guitar ambiences are heard swelling in the peripheries of each song. The album was recorded at Gary’s Electric in NYC by Jarvis Taveniere (Woods) with co-production, electronics, and mixing by Jon Nellen (Ginla, Terrible Records). Other guests, such as multi-instrumentalist John Andrews (Woods, Quilt, The Yawns) and violinist Jake Falby (Mutual Benefit, Julie Byrne), add to the mercurial nature of the record, creating a landscape tinged with beatific songwriting and transgressive underpinnings. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The familia, often-tread middle ground between folk and psychedelia is a dangerous one. On one hand, you have bands which sound like they could have come from any era in the past 30 years, and could slip away a mere month later. On the other hand, you have the undiluted hypnotic beauty and filmic soaring majesty of Olden Yolk, perfectly marrying the mind-melting chemical meltdown of the 70's with the pristine production and thematic purity of todays folk. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Verdant
2. Cut To The Quick
3. Gamblers On A Dime
4. Vital Sign
5. Aria
6. Common Ground
7. Hen’s Teeth
8. Esprit De Corps
9. After Us
10. Takes One To Know One

The musical duo of Shane Butler & Caity Shaffer released their debut album as Olden Yolk last year, an alluring concoction of hypnagogic folk & kosmiche rhythms, expanding & refining Butler's work in his former band Quilt toward a more focused direction. "Living Theatre" is the follow up to that eponymous debut & more than lives up to its promise. The songs on "Living Theatre" were written & recorded during a heavy time of transition & upheaval for the duo, with personal tragedies and a big move from their NYC home to a warmer climate in Los Angeles coloring the album's inception.

Thematically "Living Theatre" tunes seem to be about how humans react to the ways life is colored by both fate and the consequences of the conscious & unconscious decisions we make. Musically, the duo's songwriting has gelled into a unified front, relying more on the subtle shifts of melody & rhythm than a barrage of chord changes; "Living Theatre"s hooks lap at your feet like a babbling brook, rather than bowl you over like violent waves. The refinement in tunes like "Castor & Pollux", "Grand Palais" & first single "Cotton & Cain" points to a new frontier for the group; soaring skyward toward the emotionally textural plateaus of trailblazers like The Go-Betweens or Yo La Tengo. There's a discernible romantic feel to tunes like "Violent Days" or "Distant Episode"'s lush arrangements with Shaffer in particular finding her own voice here; poetic, abstract & expressive. "Living Theatre" showcases a band breaking free from its chrysalis, and embracing its next phase of evolution

TRACK LISTING

1. 240 D
2. Blue Paradigm
3. Cotton & Cain
4. Meadowlands
5. Castor & Pollux
6. Violent Days
7. Every Ark
8. Grand Palais
9. Distant Episode
10. Angelino High

Paul Older is the man behind the Disco Mind Records and after something of a short break, he and it are back with a bang. These two superb cuts are the result of him going on a deep digging record trip and unearthing two marvelous old gems that have been expertly restored for modern dance floors without losing any of the grit and realness that makes old tunes so appealing. 'The Venetian Girl (Marisa)' comes on strong with huge horns and big Philly percussion that reminds immediately of the legendary Studio 54 and then 'Up' is a big-time party pumper with funky elements to get the floor going.

TRACK LISTING

The Venetian Girl (Marisa)
Up

After releasing his seventh - arguably best and most popular album - The Odd Shower, The Bitter Springs' singer / songwriter Simon Rivers reinvented himself as Poor Performer, whose own debut, Like Yer Wounds Too, followed the same winning formula, widened somewhat by the inclusion of songs with a greater fragile beauty and introspection . . . though rarely without a degree of self-effacing humour and a rather stylish wit. Decades of self-releasing compact disc-only albums from the far southwestern suburbs of London, with scant regard for promotion or the normal machinations of showbiz - touring, for instance - did little to spread the word about Rivers' unique and prestigious talents. A conversational singer with a delightfully warm and convivial stone, Rivers' sense of the absurd and willingness to portray aspects of life generally unrecognised by pop music, one supposes it's not entirely unfair to have expect Top of The Pops to come calling. Yet the relative absence of cult of Simon Rivers fans is somewhat perplexing, for his lyrics, ideas and tunes all do merit it. There's little affectation in the sense of stage persona, but heaps of personality and intriguing, occasional perverse idea. It's hard to listen to anything he's down without a degree of sheer enjoyment. It's real, without affectation. The very real bumps heads with the slightly mental, just like in life! So what does this new guise - Oldfield Youth Club - have to offer? It's partially a revival of Rivers' first 'real' band, Last Party, and it displays hallmarks of that band's youthful energy. There's a bit of teen glam in Good News I'm Afraid and (Theme From Oldfield Youth Club, even while lead track We're The OYC and When Bob Grant Ruled The World add a dollop of an energetic ruefulness to the mix. A Kind Of Loving In A Loveless Town is an immediate classic, a song one could hear dozens of times before really reaching the core of its magic and majesty. Lest this sound like the work of a solo artist, it does feel like a band - a rather clever one, in fact. Including members Kim Rivers and Neil Palmer (both from Last Party), as well as trumpeter / vocalist Alison Targett, Oldfield Youth Club is a band with an obvious musical kinship. There's a connection to the literal style of Vic Godard's Subway Sect (and members have been shared between both acts) or early Go-Betweens . . . there's an alchemical sensibility shared by all three acts wherein their words and tunes inform each other in a deceptively casual but arresting manner. It's hard not to love, a rare work that earns immediate affection and just grows better from there.

TRACK LISTING

We're The Oyc
Good News I'm Afraid
Strange Family Dynamic
Lightbulb Moments
When Bob Grant Ruled The World
A Kind Of Loving In A Loveless Town
(theme From) Oldfield Youth Club
Cutbacks
Talk 2 People
Baby Joy
The Glue
Net Curtains

This 50th Anniversary celebration edition of Tubular Bells, overseen by Mike Oldfield, contains a brand new half-speed Abbey Road master of the original album, plus a second album that unites several beguiling versions of Oldfield’s masterwork for the first time.

Receiving its first outing on vinyl is Tubular X, that Mike recorded in 1998 for an X-Files album*; Mike’s remix collaboration with York, the original Mike Oldfield’s Single (Theme From Tubular Bells)* and, for the first time since a very limited run in 2012, Mike’s stunning Tubular Bells/In Dulci Jubilo (Music for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games).Of particular interest brand new eight-minute track Tubular Bells 4 Intro, which may well be the last thing ever recorded by Oldfield.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist

LP1

1. Tubular Bells - Part One (2023 Half Speed Master By Miles Showell)
2. Tubular Bells - Part Two (2023 Half Speed Master By Miles Showell)

LP2 - SIDE A

1. Tubular Bells 4 Intro (previously Unreleased Demo)
2. Tubular Bells/In Dulci Jubilo (Music For The Opening Ceremony Of The London 2012 Olympic Games)

LP2 - SIDE B

1. Tubular X
2. Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield & YORK Remix)
3. Mike Oldfield's Single (Theme From Tubular Bells)


CD Tracklist

1. Tubular Bells - Part One
2. Tubular Bells - Part Two
3. Tubular Bells 4 Intro (previously Unreleased Demo)
4. Tubular Bells/In Dulci Jubilo
5. (Music For The Opening Ceremony Of The London 2012 Olympic Games)
6. Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield & YORK Remix)

‘Shorty’s Ark’ is a book for young readers, a collaborative effort between singer Will Oldham and graphic artist Lori Damiano, based on work by Oldham and musician Matt Sweeney. Drawing inspiration from the story of Noah, ‘Shorty’s Ark’ names and pictures a wild variety of species to inform and engage an equal variety of young minds with the diversity that can be found around this great planet of ours. The flood stands as metaphor for current impending changes in our planet, and the story works as a springboard for understanding concepts of interdependency, diversity and extinction.

Colourfully illustrating as many creatures and their places as possible, ‘Shorty’s Ark’ is an earth-affirmative vision meant to stimulate the curiosity and passion of those who encounter it. Will Oldham makes songs, mostly out of his home in Louisville, KY where he lives with his wife Elsa Hansen Oldham and their daughter, Poppy Jo. Increasingly, Oldham’s lyrics make sense. He loves partnering up in order to make the strongest work; it was partnership that yielded the song ‘Shorty’s Ark’ (it can be heard on Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s ‘Superwolves’ album), and his partnership with Lori Damiano that make this book what it is.

Lori Damiano is an illustrator / animator / textile artist based in Oregon. She loves to tell stories in pictures made out of paint, yarn, or pixels. A lot of the stories she draws are based on observing her fellow earthlings.

The songs of Will Oldham have been written most often for the aliases of Palace or Bonny. Their identities, kept necessarily separate from Will's, the songs were written to create a singular encounter, to be shared among those who choose to listen. Songs of Love and Horror is a rare entry in this ouvre: a Will Oldham album, with the writer taking a turn as singer. As befits the nature of this project, the songs are sung and played by Will alone, in a setting enjoyed by fans of his music - that of one voice and one guitar, the better to savor the spare changes and starkly-cut lyrics, operating in quiet tension and ultimate collaboration. Will brings to the songs all that he has learned from his stage-crafting fellows over the years, singing new versions that quiver like fresh young things in the air of today.

Autumn 2018 sees the release of a celebrated lyrics archive that has been growing for over 25 years in the form of a book- the words to the songs sung by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Palace Music, written by Will Oldham. The book, to be released by W.W. Norton, is titled Songs of Love and Horror, the same as this album and can be seen as a companion piece. Both celebrate not one legacy, but rather a confluence of them, flowing in the stream towards an unknown and often unknowing future, with the hope that these notes in a bottle ever pass on through.

TRACK LISTING

1. I See A Darkness
2. Ohio River Boat Song
3. So Far And Here We Are
4. The Way
5. Wai
6. The Glory Goes
7. Only Someone Running
8. Big Friday
9. Most People
10. Strange Affair
11. New Partner
12. Party With Marty (Abstract Blues)

Bouquet Records features Olive T. for their sixth EP release on vinyl to infuse their 2021 roster with the desired verve and energy that dormant club kids are thirsting for.

Releasing in early summer, the energetic dance tracks herald a return to the dance floor, uplifted by soul-stirring synthesiser orchestral strings.
The native New Yorker and scene fixture was influenced by 90's house, inspired by Raze, Deee-lite, Green Velvet, and smooth disco flows.
The ascension sensation of 'Goin' Up' builds on familiar house grooves with digital synths and a thoughtful utilisation of today's technology.

Known to play a range spanning hip hop to club, jazz to funk, disco to garage, and more, Olive T has DJ'd countless venues and over international airwaves.
An early exposure to house and techno, combined with a wide span of diverse musical taste, shaped her unique style. In 2020 she started her own 2 hour radio show on The Lot Radio.

Olive T worked with Tiro! due to her admiration of his use of traditional sounds of the 90's era, sensing he also listened prolifically to 90's house and techno. Tiro!'s remix of 'This Is A Bop' adds organic flare to the original.
A long-time fan of Matt Karmil, she invited him to remix 'Opaque' - He flips the track upside down to reveal a different, but still vibrant interpretation, with his technical approach to remixing.

Olive T has released singles and remixes on Nervous records, 2MR, and on her own. The four track record 'Goin' Up' marks Olive T's first label-released EP, and first release on San Diego-based Bouquet Records.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Opaque
A2. Opaque (Matt Karmil Remix)
B. This Is A Bop
B. This Is A Bop (Tiro ! Remix)

Composer and pianist Oliver Brouwer releases his third album with Swedish record label 1631 Recordings. This forms the final part in a trilogy of albums shared over the last three years. ‘LP 3’ was recorded on the night of the 22nd of June, at Lancaster Priory Church. 

Much been said about Vincent Oliver in the past eighteen months; his unique approach to songwriting that fuses the quirky lyrical elements of DIY pioneer R. Stevie Moore and Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat while musically leaning on the thin line between the shoegazing electronica of "Pygmalion" era Slowdive and the utter popness of New Order's "Power, Corruption & Lies". His first two EPs on Loaf have been a starting point for a young songwriter with infinite pop potential. "EP3" concludes the series of EPs of Vincent Oliver's bedroom recordings with reinterpretation and remixes from some of his most notable fans. Border community's young star and tour mate, Nathan Fake, lends a hand to re-arrange the blissfully confusing "Cluods In The Haed"; into a psychedelic techno affair that has been getting dancefloor support from James Holden. There's also remixes from Hrdvsion, Andrea's Kit, Isan, Rothko and an extended live version.

Being musical companions and label mates for years, it was just a matter of time until modern contemporaries Peter Broderick and Nils Frahm would start their first standalone project together.

Blog post by Peter Broderick: 'I am super excited to announce the debut release from a project very dear to me! Oliveray consists of me, Peter Ray Broderick, and one of my greatest friends in the world, the incredible musician / producer Nils Oliver Frahm. We've been collaborating in many ways these past couple years and traveling a lot together. Now finally we have arrived with our first truly 50/50 collaboration effort entitled Wonders. It all started when I was asked to create a cover version for my great friends Efterklang. I asked Nils if he'd like to work with me on the project. So one day we got together in his studio and ran through the song (Harmonics) a couple times and then laid it down to tape in the most relaxed way possible - me playing the guitar and singing and him on the piano... We were both really happy and inspired with how easy and fun this process was. We thought you could hear and feel that relaxed atmosphere in the song. So when our Japanese friends Cote Labo asked us to prepare some kind of release for our Japan tour, me and Nils set aside a couple days to record some music in a similar manner. Without much preconception we just set up the mics and started recording, with an aim to create a short album of half instrumentals, half vocal-based songs. We ran through a few fresh musical ideas that each of us had, improvising along with each other, sometimes just improvising entirely. And before we new it we had a nice little collection of eight intimate pieces of music. The first official output of what will hopefully be a lifelong collaboration, Wonders feels really special to me. Here comes Oliveray!'

Next year will mark two decades of existence for the instrument of sonic chaos known as Mondo Generator. The project, formed by then-soon-to-be-Queens of the Stone Age bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri released their first album, Cocaine Rodeo, in 2000 via Southern Lord Recordings and never looked back through a whirlwind of intense punk, speed metal and heavy rock. Across four studio full-lengths and more tours than one could count, Mondo Generator has never been anything less than completely in your face, so that even Oliveri‘s acoustic work arrives dripping with attitude. Topped with artwork by Branca Studio and presented on limited blue and black vinyl and CD, this collection spans the career of the band, with guest appearances throughout from Josh Homme, Dave Catching, Dave Grohl, Alain Johannes, John Garcia, Brant Bjork, Alfredo Hernandez, Mark Lanegan, Chris Goss and many more.. A European tour sometime in the fall to coincide with this release is anticipated.“I’m stoked that somebody wants to put out the best of record and the songs on the album are the best songs over the years, 1997 to the present,” says Oliveri. “I feel that those records slipped through the cracks and now this is a chance for people to get a better presentation of the band. Only the best songs off the records!” 

TRACK LISTING

1. 13th Floor
2. F.Y.I.F
3. Sonicslowmotiontrails
4. Like The Sky; Dog Food
5. Smashed Apart; The Last Train
6. So High
7. Simple Exploding Man 
8. Four Corners 
9. Dead Silence
10. I Never Sleep
11. Shawnette Jackson 
12. Detroit; Lie Detector 
13. Take Me Away 
14. Like You Want
15. Sleep The Lie Away
16. Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed 
17. All The Way Down 
18. Paper Thin

"Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wade" is a mixture of acoustic and electric songs which carry the theme of a commentary on modern life in the same tradition as Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. Lyrically this album talks about failed friendships, the overbearance of mobile phones and technology in our lives, and about how much 'bullshit can be up ahead'! It's a taught and claustrophobic comment on modern life which few songwriters are prepared to make.

This album features 9 songs and is 40 minutes long. Limited to 100 and all signed and numbered, this CD comes in a clear DVD wallet and has an 8 page booklet printed on double weight paper with lyrics.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Rise And Fall And Decline Of Everything
2. Ghosts
3. Suicide Junkie
4. How Does It Feel To Get Just What You Want
5. Teach The Children 2010
6. Rebel In A Bad Suit
7. Living Is Just Too Damn Hard For You
8. Cruising On The Highway Of The Superlost
9. The Black Sheeps

The Knife’s Olof Dreijer continues his new adventure as a solo producer with a three-track EP, also marking a unique sonic chapter in his work.Olof has been pushing the borders of electronic music for two decades, both as a part of The Knife and with the secret pseudonym Oni Ayhun - releasing music that traverses experimental avenues, exploring themes surrounding gender.

"The Coral EP" draws inspiration from the lively steel-drum experiments featured in last year's "Souvenir" EP with Mt. Sim

Vibrant compositions and distinct melodies create an ambient progression where electronic and acoustic sounds delicately dance together, forming friendships and blending seamlessly, reminiscent of white magic.

Olof has recently co-produced several tracks on Fever Ray’s critically acclaimed 2023 album “Radical Romantics”, produced Tunisian multi-instrumentalist and composer Houeida Hedfi’s debut album “Fleuves De L'âme”, as well as helped create music with Planningtorock and Zhala.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A kind of outer world pastoral dreamscape that, aside from the more fierce intentions of "Coral", smooths and cradles in a rich sonic form.

TRACK LISTING

1. Coral
2. Flora
3. Hazel

Many of the superlatives describing Angel Olsen refer to how seemingly little it takes for her to leave an audience speechless, even spellbound. But Olsen has never been as timid as those descriptors imply, and the noisy, fiery hints in her earlier work find a fuller expression on her newest LP, Burn Your Fire for No Witness. Here, Olsen sings with full-throated exultation, admonition, and bold, expressive melody. Also, with the help of producer John Congleton, her music now crackles with a churning, rumbling low end and a brighter energy.

Angel Olsen began singing as a young girl in St. Louis, where she explored the remarkable range of her voice and the places it could take her songwriting. Her self-released debut EP, Strange Cacti, belied both that early period of discovery and her Midwestern roots. Cautious and homespun on the one hand, the EP transported us to a mystical, unrecognizable world on the other, and it garnered extensive praise for its enigmatic beauty. Olsen then went further on Half Way Home, her first full-length album (released on Bathetic Records), which mined essential themes while showcasing a more developed voice. Olsen dared to be more personal.

After extensive touring, Olsen eventually settled for a time in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, where she created "a collection of songs grown in a year of heartbreak, travel, and transformation." The new songs go on to tell us to leave, or to high-five a lover who is lacking, or to dance our way up and out of sorrow. Many of them also remain essentially unchanged from their bare beginnings. In leaving them so intact, a more self-assured Olsen is opening up to us, allowing us to be in the room with her at the very genesis of these songs, when the thread of creation is most vulnerable and least filtered. Our reward for entering this room are many head-turning moments and the powerful, unsettling recognition of ourselves in the weave of her songs.

This act of meaning-making recurs as a theme throughout the album, as the sublimating response to the power of negativity. In the song, "Stars", for example, Olsen wishes to "have the voice of everything" and in a moment of hatefulness and hurt realizes that the strength of fury results in the power she had been seeking all along. Thankfully for us, Olsen has decided to channel a lot of this newfound power into the ethereal, hypnotic performances of her new and revealing songs, sharing with us the full grace and beauty of her transformative moments.

TRACK LISTING

1. Unfucktheworld
2. Forgiven/Forgotten
3. Hi-Five
4. White Fire
5. High & Wild
6. Lights Out
7. Stars
8. Iota
9. Dance Slow Decades
10. Enemy
11. Windows

"Anyone reckless enough to have typecast Angel Olsen according to 2013’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness is in for a rethink with her third album, MY WOMAN. The crunchier, blown-out production of the former is gone, but that fire is now burning wilder. Her disarming, timeless voice is even more front-and-center. Yet, the strange, raw power and slowly unspooling incantations of her previous efforts remain.

Over two previous albums, she gave us reverb-shrouded poetic swoons, shadowy folk, grunge-pop band workouts and haunting, finger-picked epics. MY WOMAN is an exhilarating complement to her past work, and one for which Olsen recalibrated her writing/recording approach and methods to enter a new music-making phase.

As the record evolves, one gets the sense that the “My Woman” of the title is Olsen herself, absolutely in command but also willing to bend with the influence of collaborators and circumstances. An intuitively smart, warmly communicative and fearlessly generous record, MY WOMAN speaks to everyone. That it might confound expectation is just another of its strengths."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Whether she is banging out swooning gothic eyeshadow-pop choruses or walking us through rural America with swinging slide-guitar laden finger-clickers, Angel Olsen constantly manages with aplomb. The Melancholy lilt in some parts only serves exacerbate the impact of her more driven passages. This isn't a cheery listen, but it is touching and masterful. Highly recommended.

TRACK LISTING

1 Intern
2 Never Be Mine
3 Shut Up Kiss Me
4 Give It Up
5 Not Gonna Kill You
6 Heart Shaped Face
7 Sister
8 Those Were The Days
9 Woman
10 Pops

While spending time trying to conquer the audio of live-stream athome performances, I got better acquainted with my friend Adam McDaniel, an engineer and producer in Asheville, NC. Adam and I had known each other for years. When the band was a bit smaller I’d often rent his studio, Drop of Sun, for pre-recording / pre tour rehearsals. Summer 2020 was tough for many reasons. But Adam and his wife Emily opened their home to me and made it a safe space to create and let go. I had an idea to record some covers and bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I wanted to record 80’s songs that I’d overheard walking the aisles at the grocery store, and I needed to laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general. I thought about completely changing some of the songs and turning them inside out.

I’d heard “Gloria” by Laura Branigan for the first time at a family Christmas gathering and I was amazed at all the aunts who got up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song down and try it out in this way. I felt that “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats could be reinterpreted to be about this time of quarantine and the fear of being around anyone or having too much fun. It made me wonder, is it safe to laugh or dance or be free of it all for just a moment?

I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional or just for the hell of it but my connection to these songs is pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I could!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's Angel's turn on the 80's tip this time, with her voice perfectly fitting the melancholic swell of synths and slo-mo takes on these well recognised classics. There's just enough here to recognise the originals, but with Olsen's wonderfully athletic vocals and inventive production they take on a new life entirely.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gloria
2. Eyes Without A Face
3. Safety Dance
4. If You Leave
5. Forever Young

The descent into darkness is a trope we find time again across history, literature and film. But there’s also an abyss above. There’s a winding white staircase that goes ever upward into the great unknown — each step, each turn, requiring a greater boldness and confidence than the one before. This is the journey on which we find Angel Olsen.

Olsen’s artistic beginnings as a collaborator shifted seamlessly to her magnificent, cryptic-to-cosmic solo work, and then she formed bands to play her songs, and her stages and audiences grew exponentially. But all along, Olsen was more concerned with a different kind of path, and on her vulnerable, Big Mood new album, All Mirrors, we can see her taking an introspective deep dive towards internal destinations and revelations. In the process of making this album, she found a new sound and voice, a blast of fury mixed with hard won self-acceptance.

“In every way —from the making of it, to the words, to how I feel moving forward— this record is about owning up to your darkest side,” Olsen said. “Finding the capacity for new love and trusting change, even when you feel like a stranger. This is a record about facing yourself and learning to forgive what you see. It is about losing empathy, trust, love for destructive people. It is about walking away from the noise and realizing that you can have solitude and peace in your own thoughts, that your thoughts alone can be just as valid, if not more.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swooning synth strokes, huge cavernous percussion and snappy mid-heavy bass form a fittingly retrophilic cushion for Olsen's always hypnotic voice, in this instance its commanding presence soars above the backdrop, both haunting and uplifting. 'All Mirrors' is a triumph.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1) Lark
2) All Mirrors

SIDE B
3) Too Easy
4) New Love Cassette
5) Spring

SIDE C
6) What It Is
7) Impasse
8) Tonight

SIDE D
9) Summer
10) Endgame
11) Chance

Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us. Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s Big Time were forged in such a whiplash.

Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. During Olsen’s process of coming to terms with her queerness and confronting the traumas that had been keeping her from fully accepting herself, she felt it was time to come out to her parents, a hurdle she’d been avoiding for some time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me,” she said. Three days later, her father died and shortly after her mother passed away.

The shards of this grief—the shortening of her chance to finally be seen more fully by her parents— are scattered throughout the album. Three weeks after her mother’s funeral she was in the studio, recording this incredibly wise and tender new album. Loss has long been a subject of Olsen’s elegiac songs, but few can write elegies with quite the reckless energy as she.

If that bursting-at-the-seams, running downhill energy has come to seem intractable to her work, this album proves Olsen is now writing from a more rooted place of clarity. She’s working with an elastic, expansive mastery of her voice—both sonically and artistically. These are songs not just about transformational mourning, but of finding freedom and joy in the privations as they come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Angel Olsen has always had a unique skill in writing melodies, but it's here on the heartbreaking 'Big Time' that her command of melody and atmosphere come together into the perfect whole. It's beautiful and sombre in parts, and downright jubilant in others. Beautifully balanced and achingly affectionate and tender.

TRACK LISTING

1. All The Good Times
2. Big Time
3. Dream Thing
4. Ghost On
5. All The Flowers
6. Right Now
7. This Is How It Works
8. Go Home
9. Through The Fires
10. Chasing The Sun

'Big Time' brought Angel Olsen to a deeper, truer sense of self than ever before. Borne from the twin stars of grief and love, the album delivered beautiful sense of certainty, the sure-footed sound of an artist fully, finally at home with herself. But within that wisdom comes the realization that there is no finish line, no destination or static end point to life while you’re living it, and Forever Means collects songs from the Big Time sessions that hold this common theme. They are, in Olsen’s words, “in search of something else.”

“I was somewhere traveling,” says Olsen, “stopped for a few days and wandering the city, and I was thinking ‘what does ‘forever’ really mean? What are the things I’m seeking in friendship or love, and how can ‘forever’ be attainable if we’re always changing?’” Sitting with the reality of that entropy, Olsen realized “maybe the secret to ongoing love is to embrace change as part of love itself, that forever must have something to do with playing, looking, constantly searching things out for yourself, never letting yourself think you’re finished learning or exploring.” ‘Forever’”, says Olsen, “remains curious while trying also to be kind and honest.”

All this packs into the four precious songs that comprise Forever Means, songs from Olsen’s roads traveled and the ones ahead. “Nothing’s free / like breaking free” Olsen sings, comfortable with the costs of her clarity, her heart and voice fixed on the present, the future, the not-yet-known and the beautifully unknowable.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1) Nothing’s Free
2) Forever Means

SIDE B:
3) Time Bandits
4) Holding On

Received an 8.0 rating from Pitchfork!!!! After her highly-acclaimed debut Strange Cacti landed in the hands of listeners, it became very obvious the special presence Angel Olsen offered to listeners. She had a fresh edge to her sound, a warm and wonderful range, and a level of skill and charm out of this world. Obviously, fans ate it up. And now here we are, a mere 2 years since her initial Bathetic release—the original cassette version of Strange Cacti. The release of Half Way Home is something everyone has been excited for. We've always wanted to see and hear what Angel brings out through her music. Half Way Home is a continuation of her elegance brought forth.

TRACK LISTING

Acrobat
The Waiting
Safe In The Womb
Lonely Universe
Can't Wait Until Tomorrow
Always Half Strange
You Are Song
Miranda
The Sky Openend Up
Free
Tiniest Seed

How does one best describe Angel Olsen? From the lo-fi, sparse folk-melancholy of her 2010 EP, ‘Strange Cacti’, to the electrified, polished rock ‘n’ roll bursting from 2016’s beloved and acclaimed ‘MY WOMAN’, Olsen has refused to succumb to a single genre, expectation or vision. Impossible to pin down, Olsen navigates the world with her remarkable, symphonic voice and a propensity for narrative, her music growing into whatever shape best fits to tell the story.

‘Phases is a collection of Olsen’s work culled from the past several years, including a number of never-before-released tracks. ‘Fly On Your Wall’, previously contributed to the online-only, anti-Trump fundraiser ‘Our First 100 Days’, opens ‘Phases’, before seamlessly slipping into ‘Special’, a brand new song from the ‘MY WOMAN’ recording sessions. Both ‘How Many Disasters’ and ‘Sans’ are first-time listens: home-recorded demos that have never been released, leaning heavily on Olsen’s arresting croon and lonesome guitar.

The B-sides compilation is both a testament to Olsen’s enormous musical range and a tidy compilation of tracks that have previously been elusive in one way or another.

Balancing tenacity and tenderness, ‘Phases’ acts as a deep-dive for longtime fans, as well as a fitting introduction to Olsen’s sprawling sonics for the uninitiated.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Phases' provides the linking thread between the varying facets of Olsen's songwriting, with B-sides and unreleased odes, come a further understanding of Olsen's innate songwriting ability and how important even these previously unused pieces can be! Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1 Fly On Your Wall
2 Special
3 Only With You
4 All Right Now
5 Sans
6 Sweet Dreams
7 California
8 Tougher Then The Rest
9 For You
10 How Many Disasters
11 May As Well
12 Endless Road

The time had come, Angel Olsen realized in the fading summer of 2018, to take her new songs out of the house. Olsen's 2016 marvel, My Woman, had been a career breakthrough, but it catalyzed a period of personal tumult, too: a painful breakup, an uneasy recovery, an inadequate reckoning. At home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Olsen penned songs that finally grappled with these troubles, particularly love:"how forever is too much to promise, how relationships can lock us into static versions of ourselves, how you can go through hell just to make someone else happy. These heartsore explorations shape Whole New Mess, Olsen's first solo album since her 2012 debut and an emotional portrait so intimate and vulnerable you can hear her find meaning in these crises in real-time.

At least nine of the eleven songs on Whole New Mess should sound familiar to anyone who has heard All Mirrors, Olsen's grand 2019 masterpiece that earned high honors on prestigious year-end lists and glossy spreads in stylish magazines. "Lark," "Summer," "Chance" - they are all here, at least in some skeletal form and with slightly different titles. But these are not the demos for All Mirrors. Instead, Whole New Mess is its own record with its own immovable mood, with Olsen working through her open wounds and raw nerves with just a few guitars and some microphones, isolated in a century-old church in the Pacific Northwest. If the lavish orchestral arrangements and cinematic scope of All Mirrors are the sound of Olsen preparing her scars for the wider world to see, Whole New Mess is the sound of her first figuring out their shape, making sense for herself of these injuries.

Considered alongside All Mirrors, Whole New Mess is a poignant and pointed reminder that songs are more than mere collections of words, chords, and even melodies. They are webs of moods and moments and ideas, qualities that can change from one month to the next and can say just as much as the perfect progression or an exquisite chord. In that sense, these 11 songs - "solitary, frank, and unflinching examinations of what it's like to love, lose, and survive -" are entirely new. This is the sound of Angel Olsen, sorting through the kind of trouble we've all known, as if just for herself and whoever else needs it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Whole New Mess' isn't as much different versions of the same songs as it is a retelling of the entire context they were given in. Beautifully raw at times, and even more poignant than the already mindblowing 'All Mirrors', if that was the story, this is the equal and opposite other side of the story. An absolutely necessary listen.

TRACK LISTING

Whole New Mess
Too Easy (bigger Than Us)
(new Love) Cassette
(we Are All Mirrors)
(summer Song)
Waiving, Smiling
Tonight (without You)
Lark Song
Impasse (workin’ For The Name)
Chance (forever Love)
What It Is (what It Is)

A two-year journey through the heart of loss and redemption, in words and music. Illustrated photographs. Mark Olson was a founding member of The Jayhawks, the most acclaimed band to emerge out of the alt-country scene. He left the Jayhawks in 1996, after the release of the band's biggest-selling album, "Tomorrow The Green Grass", but continued to record music with his new band, The Creekdippers, at his new home in the California desert. Mark recently finished recording his first true solo album, "The Salvation Blues", with producer Ben Vaughn. On this deeply personal album, Mark's voice and poetic lyrics are complemented by Vaughn's gorgeous musical backdrops, which feature the work of some of LA's best studio musicians. The album also features the long-awaited reunion with his former Jayhawks bandmate Gary Louris on three songs.

This is music that will speak to you about things that have happened! An album that sounds like you are alone in the desert all by yourself. Remembering childhood experiences and musical instruments and all the joy that took place. We have forgotten because of terrible things that have happened. Is it the truthfulness that attracts you to this music? Listen out of time: Mark Olson & Ingunn Ringvold are singing 'Spokeswoman of the Bright Sun', the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Alternative Country/Americana masterpiece 'Good-bye Lizelle' (Glitterhouse Records, 2014).

All original track recordings were made with a Nagra field recorder. These tracks were delivered to John Schreiner for mixing and mastering. This is the moment a rainbow came into town. John has worked in some of the most important historically speaking and result speaking recording studios in Los Angeles. John worked with Hal Blaine in the past and in the present reinforced his studio sounds in San Clemente, CA with room sounds from studio 3 at Western Recorders. John mixes in groupings and the results are a new step forward in post modern folk-rock sound exploration. Enjoy the warmth and spaciousness of these outstanding musical mixes!

Mark Olson was born and raised in Minnesota by a family of mostly farmers and school teachers. He has been involved with musical instruments since the age of twelve and is self taught for the most part and uses alternate tunings and two part unison singing followed then by breaking off into harmony in his writing and live performances. He lives now in the California Desert with his wife Ingunn Ringvold. Mark and Ingunn tour off and on internationally almost every year.

TRACK LISTING

01 Dear Elisabeth
02 Time Of Love
03 Spokeswoman Of The Bright Sun
04 Mary Francis
05 Seminole Valley Tea Sipper Society
06 You Are All
07 Gravity Loss
08 Nicola
09 All My Days
10 Death Valley Soda Pop Cool Down Dream

This is music that will speak to you about things that have happened! An album that sounds like you are alone in the desert all by yourself. Remembering childhood experiences and musical instruments and all the joy that took place. We have forgotten because of terrible things that have happened. Is it the truthfulness that attracts you to this music? Listen out of time: Mark Olson & Ingunn Ringvold are singing 'Spokeswoman of the Bright Sun', the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Alternative Country/Americana masterpiece 'Good-bye Lizelle' (Glitterhouse Records, 2014).

All original track recordings were made with a Nagra field recorder. These tracks were delivered to John Schreiner for mixing and mastering. This is the moment a rainbow came into town. John has worked in some of the most important historically speaking and result speaking recording studios in Los Angeles. John worked with Hal Blaine in the past and in the present reinforced his studio sounds in San Clemente, CA with room sounds from studio 3 at Western Recorders. John mixes in groupings and the results are a new step forward in post modern folk-rock sound exploration. Enjoy the warmth and spaciousness of these outstanding musical mixes!

Mark Olson was born and raised in Minnesota by a family of mostly farmers and school teachers. He has been involved with musical instruments since the age of twelve and is self taught for the most part and uses alternate tunings and two part unison singing followed then by breaking off into harmony in his writing and live performances. He lives now in the California Desert with his wife Ingunn Ringvold. Mark and Ingunn tour off and on internationally almost every year.

TRACK LISTING

01 Dear Elisabeth
02 Time Of Love
03 Spokeswoman Of The Bright Sun
04 Mary Francis
05 Seminole Valley Tea Sipper Society
06 You Are All
07 Gravity Loss
08 Nicola
09 All My Days
10 Death Valley Soda Pop Cool Down Dream

Welcome to the debut album by Richard Olson & The Familiars, A LP full of dreamy harmony laden melancholy and, dare we say it, Singer Songwriter Pop Music – though Pop Music in the sense that each track is a gorgeous ear worm that you can wrap yourself in and within. Richard was a member of the now-legendary Eighteenth Day Of May, before forming The See See who would then evolve into the much loved and revered The Hanging Stars.

On Richard’s debut LP we are treated to a record full of lush harmonies, acoustic guitars and strings as well as Richards most personal and reflective writing, Songs that are full of a hazy warmth and yearning that superbly capture the feel and sound that lies somewhere between The Byrds (think Easy Rider) and The Clientele. The plaintive gorgeousness of opening track ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ reflects the heart-rending, deep feeling that flows throughout the whole of Richard Olsen and The Familiars debut LP.

Richard has a great, expressive voice, capable of switching from harmonious and melodic to world-weary within a single song. Air is especially affecting and effective - gorgeously near-ambient kaleidoscope vibe of whispered vocals with pedal steel and slide guitar. ‘I’m A Butterfly’ blends a sumptuous bouncy riff with harmonica and tambourines into hazy dream of pop perfection. Inside Sunshine is the perfect song to close the LP, lilting into the sunset as Richard creates an wonderous retro hued filter - a filmic paean to love with Luke Barlow’s flute playing adding to the trance created.

The twelve band members of Olumo Soundz are solidly rooted in the great musical tradition hailing from predecessors Fela and Femi Kuti. However, the band puts their own spin on a vibrant genre, and packs a punch at each and every show with their own repertoire.

The four track album (U.N) United Nonsense – presented in a high quality 180 gr vinyl edition – is a joyous musical announcement of awareness, resistance and faith.

TRACK LISTING

1. U.N. (United Nonsense)
2. Chasin
3. Sunday Jump
4. Wahala Dey Come

‘Flamingo’ is a glorious collection of 11 tracks, resonating with complex pop unspooling, vast lyrical scope and the confident animation of a world lit with familiar dreams and desires. A striking follow up to the debut ‘Self Talk’, an album that was nominated for an ARIA award, J Award for Best Video, shortlisted in the Australian Music Prize and selected as triple j feature album.
Olivia Bartley, creative force behind the project, co-produced the upcoming album with long-time collaborator Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, DMAs).

“The record explores how grief and desire are intertwined. It’s referencing a personal tragedy – the addiction and loss of someone very close to me,” says Bartley. “But it’s not a project of catharsis – I chose to submit myself to this experience because I wanted to create from inside it, rather than explaining it. I’ve tried to borrow from my own grief to create its inverse: something joyous. Something beyond myself, something fantastic -something new”.

“It’s the most personal I’ve ever been, but also the most confident. This album is a force.”

Taking the stage as a curtain raiser for ‘Flamingo’ is brand new track ‘Hounds’, a shimmering, kaleidoscopic requiem about calling someone out on their bullshit, or rather, what it means to be human; to feel and to evolve. This song is pure emotional force. A compelling journey from the first beat which drives to ever-escalating releases within the song. Lyrics are immediate, addressing someone driven by dissatisfaction, chasing something they can’t name even to themselves: ’Your reinventions endless, I’ll keep belief suspended’; trying out multiple versions of themselves as though magic tricks: ‘Walking on water, cut in half’; and someone who falls for everything, they could even ‘drown in the sun’.

The listener is rewarded at each lift within the song, as Bartley demonstrates masterful pop sensibility. Sonically we hear a deft balancing act between moments that touch on nostalgia, even facetious sonic hints at religiosity, with elements that are startlingly unique and their own.

TRACK LISTING

1. Star City
2. Come Back
3. Easy Pleasure
4. Nervous Riders
5. Hounds
6. Won’t Say That
7. Two Hands
8. Shoot To Forget
9. First You Leave
10. Flamingo
11. Wrong Number

Debut album from this hip hop vs rock'n'roll crew. Irresistably catchy hooks, cut-up samples and breaks, a dose of attitude and all with a pop twist of their own making.

New 7" from Northern Irish leftfield-indie rockers The Olympic Lifts. A 2 track limited 7" and a cinematic tale of underground crime, violence and dreams lost.

Where ‘God Is Good’ was the first step in a more ornate and sophisticated direction for OM, ‘Advaitic Songs’ achieves a level of composition that would’ve been impossible to foresee. There remains the singularity of purpose that is the core of all OM records, but no single reason can account for this comprehensive nature of their evolution.

On this album the core primary sound of OM remains, yet everything reaches further and becomes more of itself. Whatever drone-doom camp that OM had previously been placed in has been decimated by the sheer imagination and expansive quality of this recording. For a band that has continually followed its own course, and stood alone in its sound and approach, ‘Advaitic Songs’ for certain, is the band’s most focussed, progressive document.

‘Advaitic Songs’ has been mastered for greatest fidelity on 45 rpm double vinyl, achieving fullness, high definition and depth out of every consecutive moment.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Breaking away from the shackles of the doom genre - OM now tread a more varied, progressive and sophisticated path. That's not to say they don't ROCK anymore though, they can still shake the core of the earth at the drop of a hat!

Soundway, presents the four premier cuts for a new self-titled EP, along with Kele Ngele taken from his 2004 album Ajala. Finally given the vinyl treatment, it's a London-centric blend of street-soul-come-highlife 90s RnB, certain to captivate the discerning ear. Staying true to its original colab effort, London based producer Aroop Roy steps in with a modern rework of the four-to-the-floor scorcher Dada, revisited and repurposed for today's dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Dada
2. Tokota
3. Konka

Side 2
1. Osisi
2. Kele Ngele
3. Dada (Aroop Roy Rework)

Omater hails from Bolton, thanks to a multicultural, multimusical upbringing, her range of influences is broad as her accent. Aimed straight at your coffee table, her dulcet tones and easy laid back grooves will be perfect for the summer.

Recorded live at BBC Radio 1, Maida Vale, May 3rd, 2019.

The songs continue to evolve; two each from the classic OM releases Advaitic Songs and God Is Good, encompassingly recorded and mixed with the pristine quality that BBC engineers (and OM) bring to recorded sound.

TRACK LISTING

Gethsemane 11:17
State Of Non-Return 8:22
Cremation Ghat I 3:43
Cremation Ghat II 5:37

Comprised of two songs that build on Om's use of cyclical rhythm, riff and vocal intonation, the duo's new album "Conference Of The Birds" blends metal, doom, chant, drone, dub and psychedelia. The band's lyrics expound upon the structure of the universe, potentiality and freedom from the physical body. Engineered by Billy Anderson and produced by the band, "Conference Of The Birds" progresses beyond their debut, "Variations On A Theme", with more fully realized songwriting and production. Om is Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, rhythm section of legendary sludge and stoner rock pioneers, Sleep.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their 14th studio album Bauhaus Staircase, over six years after the triumph of their Top 4-charting record The Punishment of Luxury. The album was born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when as Andy McCluskey admits: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom.”

The album’s first offering as a single is the title track which serves as a nod both to Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era & the power of protest art. “I am a huge lover of visual arts especially mid 20th century movements” Andy comments. “The song is a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity. When times are hard there is a tendency for Governments to look at cutting funding for creativity just at the moment when the arts are most needed to nourish our souls. It seems appropriate that the song and its eponymous album were created during Covid Lockdown.”

Ranging further from the beautiful film noir ballad of ‘Veruschka’ and the dance stylings of ‘Anthropocene’ - a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution to the sinister ‘Evolution Of Species’ and the hectic ‘Kleptocracy’ - OMD’s greatest straight-up protest song - the new album is a broad electronic sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future. The record closes on ‘Healing’ - a moment of reflective calm.

By rights OMD should be in semi-retirement performing classics like Enola Gay and Maid Of Orleans on the nostalgia festival circuit like so many peers. Instead they’ve created a landmark album worthy of their finest work. Bauhaus Staircase remains unmistakably the work of a duo who are still perfectly in sync 45 years after their first gig at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s.

“I’m very happy with what we’ve done on this record" McCluskey summarises. “I’m comfortable if this is OMD’s last statement.”

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLIST: CD / LP / LPC
1. Bauhaus Staircase
2. Anthropocene
3. Look At You Now
4. G.E.M.
5. Where We Started
6. Veruschka
7. Slow Train
8. Don't Go
9. Kleptocracy
10. Aphrodite's Favourite Child
11. Evolution Of Species
12. Healing

2CD
1. Bauhaus Staircase 2.7 Demo. Andy 30th Aug 2020
2. Anthropocene Demo (A Haven For Lost Souls 1.1 Paul’s Track April 2020)
3. Look At You Now Demo (Zimmer Frame For Andy) Paul 28th Feb 2021
4. G.E.M. Demo (Culture War. Andy 6th March 2021)
5. Where We Started Demo (Stadium 6.0) Andy 26th May 2020
6. Veruschka 2 Demo 2nd December 2020
7. Slow Train Demo 1.3 Dec 2020
8. Don’t Go Demo 14th Nov 2018
9. Kleptocracy Demo (When I Was Young) Andy 14th March 2021
10. Aphrodite’s Favourite Child Demo (B Side Choir) Fotonovela 2011
11. Evolution Of Species 2.5 Ruff
12. Healing Demo (Water April 9th 2020)
13. Bauhaus Staircase Demo. Andy 20th July 2020

Self-titled album from new Transatlantic duo Omega Male, comprised of David Best (Fujiya & Miyagi) and Sammy Rubin (Project Jenny, Project Jan).

Ten rump-shaking electronic tracks which combine Best’s trademark hushed vocals with pulsating funk-led basslines.

As well as exploring notions of masculinity and what it means to be an ‘Omega Male’, evident on such songs as lead single ‘Testosterone’, Best’s darkly witty lyrics also cover subject matter as diverse as the coalition government (‘Blue Narcissus’) and voodoo dolls (‘Wax & Glue’).

TRACK LISTING

Omega Male
Testosterone
Uh-pol-uh-jet-ik
You Bore Me To Tears
Wax & Glue
Blue Narcissus
No
Rotten Fruit
X
Buildings Like Symphonies

‘Angry Songs’ by Omega Tribe is anarchist punk at its finest, with powerful unrelenting lyricism, caustic riffs and an immediacy that came to define the genre.

It was produced by Penny Rimbaud plus Pete Fender and included Hugh Vivian on guitar and vocals, Daryl Hardcastle on bass, Pete Fender on guitar and Pete Shepherd on drums.

The band have recently reinvented themselves, are creating and releasing new music, and they have a new album out.

First released on 7” vinyl, limiting the sound, the new repressing has been remastered for 12” at Abbey Road Studios, allowing the release to be heard as never before.

This, plus enlarged replicas of the original covers, brings new gusto to the already radical sound.

TRACK LISTING

Another Bloody Day
Profiteer
Is This A Future?
Time For Change

Reissue of the 2008 Sub Pop single.

This was the first OM recording to feature Emil Amos on drums.

TRACK LISTING

Gebel Barkal
Version

OM albums are rituals, personal convictions transcripted into verse. Playing the music is visceral, emotional, a catharsis of soul and spirit. As ever, dynamic relationships and the slow building of mood are attenuations that shape the structures of "God Is Good". With careful microscopic increase, the energy grows through the four songs, leading towards moments that one could interpret as… Revelation? Oblivion? Awakening?

Enter Networker, the new album by Omni and first with indie giant Sub Pop Records. Their sound is still defined by sparse drums, locked-in bass, blistering guitar, and nonchalant, yet assured vocals, but from the first notes of "Sincerely Yours" you'll immediately notice that Networker sounds much cleaner and more "HI-FI" than their prior two albums, Deluxe (2016) and Multi-task (2017). The departure in fidelity suits the new record and allows the listener to enjoy the nuances of their meticulous arrangements. Don't worry, the riffs of Gang of Four and Wire are still present, but the production is more lush and the harmony is even more expansive.

Despite nods to the sounds of the ’70s and ’80s what comes through is a record fully rooted in the here and now. Thematically, this is apparent on the title track "Networker" taking a candid snapshot of the “digital you” aspect of life in the age of the internet. The otherwise fun romp “Skeleton Key” also acknowledges the “direct message and obsessive” side of social media with lines like “if you don't like what you see, the pretty face on the screen, scroll on by...”  Networker was written half between tours and half during recording sessions. The band, Philip Frobos on bass/vocals and Frankie Broyles on guitars/drums/keys, returned with longtime collaborator Nathaniel Higgins to the studio in South Georgia where they also recorded Multi-task and most recent single "Delicacy." In this case, the “studio” is a cabin near Vienna, GA (pronounced Vye-anna) that was built by Frankie Broyles’ great-grandparents in the 1940s. The band completed four sessions between November 2018 and April 2019.

Omni hit their stride in the cabin with songs such as "Moat,” which cruises along at a nice mid-tempo clip with sounds that are maybe piano or maybe the “behind the bridge” strings of a Jaguar a la Sonic Youth or This Heat. "Blunt Force" provides a nice contrast to some of the more upbeat cuts, getting jazzy with it’s less traditional arrangement and psychedelic outro. Overall, Networker is simultaneously fun, catchy, and contains some truly impressive musicianship. This combo is especially hard to pull off as bands that are great players often don’t have great or memorable songs. Omni and Nathaniel Higgins have done a stellar job of reigning in their diverse influences into a cohesive record by curating their sounds into a tight package that leaves you just on the cusp of understanding where the band is coming from, while still feeling like you’re hearing something totally fresh. While their earlier records had more of a “post-punk” sound, Networker is an amalgamation of the best sounds of the ’70s and ’80s, all arranged with (mostly) guitars, bass, and drums for our contemporary age, and it really works! There are hooks everywhere, vocal and instrumental, that will leave you humming along, even during the first listen. As Philip Frobos says in “Present Tense,” “guess who’s on my mind right now?” Well, Omni’s on mine and will be on yours soon.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Omni's sound has been gradually gathering momentum since their superb 2016 LP 'Deluxe' (almost definitely since before then, but 2016 was my entry point). What we've ended up with is a brilliantly confident and swaggering combination of technically superb guitar riffage and off-piste rhythmic hooks all coated in those relaxed vox, delievered perfectly but with the minimum of fuss. Effortlessly cool.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sincerely Yours
2. Courtesy Call
3. Moat
4. Underage
5. Skeleton Key
6. Genuine Person
7. Present Tense
8. Blunt Force
9. Flat Earth
10. Networker
11. Sleep Mask

The music of Atlanta trio Omni has always swung fast and hit hard. And Souvenir, their fourth album and second for Sub Pop, packs their biggest punch yet. Inactive during the majority of the pandemic–the longest downtime in their history–they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies.

Why does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That’s why Omni called the album Souvenir: it’s a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems.

Take “Plastic Pyramid,” the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it’s a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener “Exacto,” a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as “Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right”–a line that could well be an Omni mantra.

The precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. Sampson pushed the band to a higher degree of power, with Frobos’s vocals more upfront in his pulsing mix and the rest of the music leaping out of the speakers. You might notice that Frobos’ singing is a bit more emotional and even nostalgic this time around. In crafting his vocals, he was inspired by the early college radio rock of formative favorites like REM, the Cure, and Big Audio Dynamite–the kind of bands whose melodies could have been top 40 hits in an alternative universe. The lyrics on Souvenir are also by turns funny, absurd, and even cryptic. A wry humor has always coursed through Omni’s songs, and this time, it comes in shades of both dark and light. In “Granite Kiss,” an “astronomical” love story concludes with the hope that “we can decay together,” while in “PG,” a romantic walk in the park includes a rose-colored mugging.

Immediacy rushes throughout every moment of Souvenir, making it the band's most powerful album to date. Omni has truly crafted a musical keepsake–a set of songs that you’ll want to keep close, an aural memento you'll cherish for the rest of time.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though Omni's sounds are clearly rooted in the gloomy mire of post-punk, Omni could never be accused of staying in place for long enough for it to stick. Though 'Souvenir' is decidedly more truncated and pop-forward than their previous outings, it's not a huge leap from 2017's brilliant 'Multi-Task' or 2019's 'Networker' in term of sheer inventive momentum.

TRACK LISTING

1. Exacto
2. Plastic Pyramid
3. Common Mistake
4. INTL Waters
5. Double Negative
6. PG
7. Granite Kiss
8. Verdict
9. F1
10. To Be Rude
11. Compliment 

Omo is a new band comprising occasional Chap keyboardist Berit Immig and visual artist David Muth. Together they make pop that delights and surprises, eminently hummable and chewable, it's post pop pop for the now generation. A little like Laurie Anderson jamming with the Tom Tom Club but only a little. This is a sure-fire chart hit in a parallel universe where all TV programmes are made by David Lynch and every household owns a hover car. On the flip we have the kings of school teacher dada pop that never fails to entertain, The Chap. "Well Done You" is as smooth as baby food, spiky as a sea urchin and as fruity as Leslie Nielsen. Their tribute to achievement is a top notch slice of noughties pop that will have you grinning all the way to the Bill Gates motivational speech.

Former Smith Western frontman Cullen Omori releases his debut long player, ‘New Misery’, through Sub Pop Records.

The album, which features the highlights ‘Cinnamon’ and ‘Sour Silk’, was recorded by Shane Stoneback (Sleigh Bells, Fucked Up, Vampire Weekend) at the now defunct Treefort Studios and was mastered by Emily Lazar (Sia, HAIM, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Bjork) at The Lodge.

In early 2014 Omori began working on the solo material that has now fully materialized as ‘New Misery’, a collection of 11 songs building upon his own musical past while reaching towards the future of what guitar rock could be. His songs marry dark yet blissful pop with vocal melodies and hooks that are at once immediate yet demand to be heard again and again.

Along with Omori, ‘New Misery’ features additional bass and keyboards from Ryan Mattos, drums from Loren Humphrey and James Richardson on guitar. Unlike the more distributed roles within the Smith Westerns, Omori wrote, played and oversaw nearly every part of the new album, beginning a true new chapter of his long-term creative growth.

Cullen Omori knows it’s a false cliché to say there are no second acts in American lives but after the 2014 breakup of his acclaimed band the Smith Westerns living that cliché was his greatest fear. His solo debut is a direct challenge to that anxiety: an album that goes beyond the glam punch of the Smith Westerns to new sounds, new sources of inspiration and greater self-awareness.

TRACK LISTING

No Big Deal
Two Kinds
Hey Girl
And Yet The World Still Turns
Cinnamon
Poison Dart
Sour Silk
Synthetic Romance
Be A Man
LOM
New Misery

Cullen Omori’s path to his second album ‘The Diet’ wasn’t an easy one. After the release of his first album, ‘New Misery’, he had to deal with busted vans, crashed cars, mangled relationships and other trials that can leave one feeling like the world is playing a cosmic joke. From the guitar that drops out of the sky on the opening track ‘Four Years’ all the way through the fade-out of kaleidoscopic closer ‘A Real You’, ‘The Diet’ is a powerful modern indie rock album that is buoyed by warped, analogue pedals / transistors and tailor-made guitar tones. Omori’s winsome vocals crisscross 70’s art rock and classic songwriting all within the span of 40 minutes.

Omori crafted ‘The Diet’ as a series of what can loosely be defined as love songs that metaphorically channel the frustrations and ruptures of his turbulent 2016-2017 into unforgettable compositions with abstract yet sharply rendered lyrics. Omori’s version of the love song medium goes far beyond the la-la-love-you template: “Only a few deal with loving or falling out of love with an actual, physical person,” says Omori. “Then there are, like, love songs to my antidepressants or whatever I thought my life would be like at 27.”

After relocating from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2016, Omori re-examined his whole artistic process. “Whereas on ‘New Misery’ I was locked in a room with a producer for a month tinkering away, this time around I wanted the sessions to be a revolving door of musicians: different people, different aesthetics. I pushed against my inner nature by actively pursuing collaborators.”

‘The Diet’ was recorded at Velveteen Laboratory with Taylor Locke, whose talents wound up being well-suited to the intricacies of the songs that would become ‘The Diet’. “He can sing, he is a multi-instrumentalist. On top of that, he is also a producer. Working with him really lent itself to my process of songwriting,” says Omori.

‘The Diet’ represents a new chapter for the former Smith Westerns member, one in which he stretches out his songwriting chops and uses his life experience to craft loose-limbed, hook-filled songs that combine pop appeal with finely sutured lyrics. “I spent my early 20’s saddled with the ill-conceived, romantic notion that the best songs are written through suffering. The process of trying out a completely different persona and approach in ‘New Misery’, and then facing my negative experiences and the shortcomings of that persona, clarified where I wanted my music to go. While making ‘The Diet’, my songs were constantly presenting themselves to me, and when I got a chance to listen back and read my song journals I saw what a truly beneficial and cathartic event had taken place.” ‘The Diet’s collection of 12 songs has Omori well on his way.

TRACK LISTING

Four Years
Borderline Friends
All By Yourself
Happiness Reigns
Master Eyes
Quiet Girl
Black Rainbow
Natural Woman
Millennial Geishas
Last Line
Queen
A Real You

‘stillness, softness…’ explores a new sonic range within Hinako Omori’s world of analogue synths - namely, her Prophet ’08, the Moog Voyager and UDO Super 6, an analogue hybrid synthesizer that creates binaural, 3Dsimulating sound.

‘stillness, softness…’ is “a collage of experiments” which she then pieced together “like a puzzle,” each song representing a memory room.

The end result is seamless, a continuous cycle of 13 vignettes that flow in and out of each other, recorded and written between her bedroom in London and her grandmother’s house in Yokohama, Japan.

The album on the whole is Omori’s most accessible yet, and one that evidences her true range as a composer, artist, arranger, vocalist and synth virtuoso.

‘stillness, softness…’ sees Omori venture more into the singer songwriter sphere, using organic synth sounds whilst still dipping into the electronic world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Both Directions ?
2. Ember
3. Stalactites
4. Cyanotype Memories
5. In Limbo
6. Epigraph…
7. Foundation
8. In Full Bloom
9. A Structure
10.astral
11. An Ode To Your Heart
12. Epilogue…
13. Stillness, Softness

Limited Repress!

The legendary rhythm section of Sleep: Chris Hakius and Al Cisneros deliver a new classic album recorded by Steve Albini!!! "Pilgrimage" is Om's third album (first on Southern Lord). Four songs featuring Om's unique use of riff, cadence and chant. Lyrical themes address the processes of mind, psychic reality, astral and causal planes of being, and the nature of the soul. Motifs that were initiated on the band's previous album are continued here unabated.

This version of Pilgrimage comes packaged in a Stoughton gatefold jacket.

Sometime in the spring of 2012 the musicians that would go on to form the Chicago & Minneapolis based trio ON AN ON found themselves at a tipping point. The three of them—Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing—had played music with one another in various capacities for the better part of a decade. Most recently, they had shared the stage and studio as three fifths of the indie-pop outfit Scattered Trees, which had seen its fair share of success. But with the band’s studio time only a few weeks away and the other members now spread out across the country pursuing other endeavors, they would chart their own course and come out stronger for it. What emerged was ON AN ON.

For ON AN ON, the precariousness of breaking new ground only three weeks before recording with accomplished producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Super Furry Animals, Los Campesinos!) provided a jolt of creative energy. The musicians had become disenchanted with their past approach to songwriting and recording, finding the process of striving for polished pop both tiresome and constrained. Newfeld proved the perfect counterpart to their initial vision for the record, encouraging them to push boundaries and go with their instincts.

According to Eiesland, the sessions were something of an exorcism: “We really wanted to get away from the sterility of our previous approach to recording.” Eieseland, Ricci, and Estwing embraced musical risks that in the past it might have shied away from. In the studio, the band members explored a natural chemistry and honed their sound; synthesizers, scattershot electro beats and ambient ear candy gave guitars, bass and drums a ghostly sheen.

While the melodies might clue one in to the trio's evolved sonic palate, it's through the album's themes that the group member’s respective evolution becomes most apparent. Eiesland wrote the majority of the lyrics, in the process coming to terms with death and the traps that life springs upon us. Whether letting his intuition guide him on "I Wanted To Say More” ("You are a saint and you’re the devil/Every word I spoke to you, I thought that they were wings/ But they were only feathers”) or owning up to life's inevitability on "All The Horses" ("A family tree will split in two halfway through its life"), there's a tempered calm to the thought-provoking imagery he espouses through his words. Estwing offered up his own lyrical séance on his lead vocal track "Cops," although the bassist says his message—that the police can be surprisingly corrupt—is more direct. After smashing everything they knew to pieces, they pulled themselves together around Give In, ON AN ON’s ten-track debut album – a dream-washed textural journey armed with a biting perspective on life, love, and the commonality of loss. It is an affair that sizzles with electricity and calls one in with its unnerved openness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ghosts
2. Every Song In The World
3. American Dream
4. The Hunter
5. All The Horses
6. Bad Mythology
7. War Is Gone
8. Cops
9. Panic
10. I Wanted To Say More

Sometime in the Spring of 2012 the musicians that would go on to form the Chicago & Minneapolis based trio ON AN ON found themselves at a tipping point. The three of them – Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing – had played music with one another in various capacities for the better part of a decade. Most recently, they had shared the stage and studio as three fifths of the indie-pop outfit Scattered Trees, which had seen its fair share of success. But with the band’s studio time only a few weeks away and the other members now spread out across the country pursuing other endeavors, they would chart their own course and come out stronger for it. What emerged was ON AN ON.

For ON AN ON, the precariousness of breaking new ground only three weeks before recording with accomplished producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Super Furry Animals, Los Campesinos!) provided a jolt of creative energy. The musicians had become disenchanted with their past approach to songwriting and recording, finding the process of striving for polished pop both tiresome and constrained. Newfeld proved the perfect counterpart to their initial vision for the record, encouraging them to push boundaries and go with their instincts.

According to Eiesland, the sessions were something of an exorcism: “We really wanted to get away from the sterility of our previous approach to recording.” Eieseland, Ricci, and Estwing embraced musical risks that in the past they might have shied away from. In the studio, the band members explored a natural chemistry and honed their sound; synthesizers, scattershot electro beats and ambient ear candy gave guitars, bass and drums a ghostly sheen.

While the melodies might clue one in to the trio’s evolved sonic palate, it’s through the album’s themes that the group members’ respective evolution becomes most apparent. Eiesland wrote the majority of the lyrics, in the process coming to terms with death and the traps that life springs upon us. Whether letting his intuition guide him on “I Wanted To Say More” (“You are a saint and you’re the devil / Every word I spoke to you, I thought that they were wings / But they were only feathers”) or owning up to life’s inevitability on “All The Horses” (“A family tree will split in two halfway through its life”), there’s a tempered calm to the thought-provoking imagery he espouses through his words. Estwing offered up his own lyrical seance on his lead vocal track “Cops,” although the bassist says his message – that the police can be surprisingly corrupt – is more direct.

After smashing everything they knew to pieces, they pulled themselves together around Give In, ON AN ON’s ten-track debut album – a dream-washed textural journey armed with a biting perspective on life, love, and the commonality of loss. It is an affair that sizzles with electricity and calls one in with its unnerved openness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Behind The Gun
2. Icon Love
3. Alright Alright
4. I Can’t Escape
5. It’s Not Over
6. Drifting
7. Wait For The Kill
8. Stay The Same
9. You Were So Scared
10. Secret Drone
11. Interlude
12. All At Once

Both Glenn Kotche and Darin Gray are highly respected musicians in their own right, having played in countless critically acclaimed groups over the years. This is their third album but first for Dead Oceans, having previously released on Drag City. On Fillmore are the dream rhythm section that played on Jim O'Rourke's much loved "Eureka", "Halfway To A Threeway" and "Insignificance". A beguiling and wily yet beautifully melodic record, painstakingly put together over a number of years - atmospheric and spacious.

On Histories of Rosenberg can swell from a shimmering hush to full cinematic bloom in a matter of seconds, before arcing off on some other fractured, razor-edged tangent. Having recently changed their name from previous incarnation Caesura this new and exciting entity release their debut self-titled EP on Function Records. The record comes laden with cascading guitar lines and enveloping piano, set against an explosive rhythm section and richly harmonic vocal lines, conveying a deep, surreal and sometimes starkly honest lyricism.

On-Ly is the solo and collaborative moniker of pianist and producer Joshua Smeltink. Spanning genres, On-Ly's house and hip-hop history is ever-present and imbued with the hard-hitting post-bop jazz-rock of the 60's / 70's, harking back to bands such as Weather Report and Miles Davis Group (70s).

Reflecting on great leaders and great bands and what makes them essential; there is not too much more that On-Ly has considered for Wonderlust. Distinct in that it inaugurates his first release with a band; Wonderlust simultaneously pulls at the coat-tails of Santana's Moonflower, The Mars Volta and the original Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters all whilst serving you some Bob James on the side. The album takes on a facilitating role in the style of great psychedelic albums as one finds themselves at the whimsy of through-composed pilgrimages to soft, heartfelt song and back to sun-soaked heights woven with engaging arrangement, a one-of-a-kind production style and an incredible pedigree of musicianship.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bosco I
2. Bosco II
3. Fresco
4. B U Kno
5. J. Scofield
6. Icarus

"The space-age songsmiths of Once & Future Band have been ting-tinging away on the truly heavy anvil of hominid perspective and emotion again to bring you this singing scape of songs.
Annealing for over a year now, until it was cool enough to hold in your ears, nested in the pinnae, the time has finally come.
Dew drops pop and hiss as they settle on the gliding guitarmonies.

Once & Future Band have outdone themselves this time around, in my opinion. If songs could stop heated exchanges by mere presence, these are the ones, and more needed than ever.
As I tuned in to each new transmission, each step closer to this perfect platter, I had to stop and do nothing else, and merely absorb how wonderful this album is. Each tune exists in the company it was born to live with. There are haunting chorale escorts here...long trains of room warmth... the belting of the machine heart...lofty guitar and bass melange... and just beautifully laid to magnetic tape with a sure hand by the throbbing brains that are Once & Future Band for fans of Roy Wood, Idle Race, ELO, Roxy Music, Head Hunters, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, The Lord Bowie, The Band, and the soundtrack from every movie that ever pierced your cold, cold heart”
- John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Andromeda
2. Automatic Air
3. Problem Addict
4. Several Bullets In My Head
5. Freaks
6. Mr. G
7. Deleted Scenes
8. Airplane
9. The End And The Beginning

In the vapor trail of “How Does It Make You Feel,” the first track on this self-titled full length, one can smell the burnt ozone of a seventies-full-orchestra-nebula-pop-odyssey, the flakes floating down and landing like snow, giving grave-chills … the ash of a masterpiece pop song. Once And Future Band: this incredibly accomplished cabal of total prog wizards has circled the earth, but then, these are the accomplished gentlemen of many former pursuits (the formidable Drunk Horse among them) and all of them comets themselves.

The very mid-’70s vibe at work here surpasses pastiche, and crests that lovely anachronistic conceptual peak: a fully realized and meticulously arranged psych record, meant to be listened to from top to bottom, with the lights down low and in a comfy chair perhaps, or while gazing out the window of your life pod. The Dark Side of the Moon feel, with shades of early Yes’s technicality, a dash of Steely Dan’s vocal prowess and effortless sheen, and some seriously outsized hooks that call to mind the mighty ELO, Le Orme and, yes, even the unsinkable Queen powered on Brian May’s tape echo jet fuel and sequined power cells. This is a head record in the classic sense but utter fealty to The Dark One insures both being trapped and infected by the pop-parasite. That it is largely self-produced (with tracking / engineering on three of the songs by Phil Manley at El Studio) makes it all the more jaw dropping. Making prog cool again, again, and then slightly more complicatedly, again.

A month after the release of his debut album as Tambores En Benirras, 2021’s fabulous Orbe Dotodo, Graham Newby’s life changed forever. After years living with a visual impairment, his sight had deteriorated so much that he was declared “registered blind”. For a man who had spent decades dividing his time between travelling, DJing, running clubs and lengthy sessions in his own studio, it was a genuinely life-changing moment.

It was against this backdrop, and the need to alter his working methods, that Ondas Horizontales, the second Tambores En Benirras album took shape. Inspired by a mixture of daydreaming, visualisation, immersion in other people’s music (escapism that provided mood enhancement, rather than a specific set of ideas) and long periods spent soaking up the sun in Ibiza, the album is the most vividly detailed, sonically colourful, and sun-soaked collection that Newby has released to date.

Newby’s declining sight forced him to stop spending long spells staring at a screen and undoubtedly slowed down the production process. Yet it also allowed him to reconnect with his emotions, appreciate the storytelling and mood-shifting potential of music, and mine mind’s eye memories of places and spaces that have meant much to him over the years.

The results are undeniably stunning. Designed with horizontal listening in mind, the set distils a range of musical and real-life inspirations –or, as he puts it, “ambient soundtracks, cosmic journeys, Balearic rhythms and poolside sessions” – into ten mesmerising and magical tracks; an undulating, slow-motion journey that’s as breath-taking as it is beguiling.

Newby sets the tone with ‘Mi Sueno Vibe En Reverb’, a swelling, slow-burn ambient masterpiece that tiptoes between hope and melancholia, before flitting between imaginary sunset soundtracks (‘Estrellas En Mastella’, where lilting pedal steel sounds, bubbling electronics and shuffling breakbeats catch the ear), kaleidoscopic sun-up beats (the gorgeous warmth of ‘Generadora De Reyos’), enveloping beatless soundscapes (‘Templos Del Sol’, a drowsy drift in becalmed waters under the heat of the mid-afternoon sun), and dubby, loved-up lusciousness (‘Mokono’).

As the album progresses, bobbing and weaving on an ocean of vibrant chords, pulsing melodies and heart-stopping melodies, there’s no sign of Newby’s inspiration waving. ‘Alma Hablando’ channels the spirit of mid-80s ‘worldbeat’ and douses it in layers of Balearic bliss, while ‘Extrensor Entragado’ recalls the head-nodding haziness of his best Gripper productions of old while combining them with the musical equivalent of a humid summer breeze. Then there’s the mood-enhancing joy of the album’s superb title track –a mission statement of sorts – and the life-affirming post trip-hop/Balearic fusion of ‘Un Placer Celestial (Reprise)’, where the influence of his old friend Aim is clearly evident.

A serious sonic step-up from its predecessor and a future Balearic classic in its’ own right, Ondas Horizontales marks the start of a new musical and personal journey for its creator. It is, in his words, not the end of an era, but the start of a new one.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mi Suenno Vive En Reverb
A2. Estrellas En Mastella
B1. Generadora De Rayos
B2. Templos Del Sol
B3. Dias Mas Brillantes
C1. Molokono
C2. Alma Hablando
C3. Extensor Entregado
D1. Ondas Horizontales
D2. Un Placer Celestial (Re-prise)

Here is the second record from the widely acclaimed Ondatropica project produced by Will ‘Quantic’ Holland and Mario Galeano. In the words of Will and Mario: “The premise of the second album was to record in Bogota and Old Providence Island (Isla de Providencia). Two contrasting locations, but united by their reputation as musically creative hubs - Bogota, with its subversive underground expressing an active, punky, DIY mentality and Providence reinterpreting and updating a Colombian national identity through a proud renaissance of regional folklore coupled with a fervor for dancehall and reggae sounds. Rather than separate the stylistic Anglo-, French- and Spanish-Caribbean influences, our goal was to explore the common ground and the ways in which these different styles synthesise.' Fuelled by bushy rum, the LP sessions, often including up to 35 musicians, captured the dialogues between Calypso and Gaita, Accordion and Lapsteel, Clave and Mandolin, even synthesizer and a horse’s jaw bone. Beautifully presented as a Gatefold LP and CD with extensive liner notes and photos by B+, this Soundway release is a treat for all the senses.

Ondatropica release their debut album through Soundway Records. The project, conceived by Colombian musician Mario Galeano, the force behind the band Frente Cumbiero, and English producer Will Holland AKA Quantic, brings together an iconic group of top Colombian musicians representing both the classic and more modern styles of la musica Colombiana. The album is released on CD and triple vinyl LP.

Ondatropica fuses traditional Colombian styles such as cumbia, gaita and champeta with boogaloo, ska, beat-box, MCs, dub and funk to create a progressive album that re-interprets the tropical musical heritage of Colombia with new approaches in composition, arrangement and production. Artists such as Fruko, Anibal Velasquez, Michi Sarmiento, Alfredito Linares and Wilson Viveros (to name but a few) joined a group of younger Colombian musicians, including members of both Mario’s band Frente Cumbeiro and Quantic’s Combo Barbaro, to (re)generate the excitement that positioned Colombian music as one of the most influential in South America.

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: Ondatropica was put together by Colombian musician Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero), and UK producer Will Holland (Quantic). The pair bring together an iconic group of top Colombian musicians representing both the classic and more modern styles of la musica Colombiana.

One Day, After School… have been working on the periphery of Wakefield music for a number of years. The bedroom based project of writer / musician Dean Freeman, ODAS have released a string of home demos through various labels and institutions (Philophobia Music / Geek Pie Records / Rhubarb Bomb) over the past few years. These recordings ranged from ambient downbeat, to crunchingly lo-fi alt rock but with this new record, their first ‘proper’ one, ODAS has found a more upfront, dynamic sound that more accurately represents the live approach of the band as a whole.

‘The Future Is Not Ours, Comrade’ is a record that mixes a love of Philip K Dick, alternate universe novella’s and ideas of fatalism / solipcism and politics with the very harsh reality of working a shit job in the incredibly boring ‘real’ world.

"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards," Philip K Dick.

Musically it touches many bases; the intense condensed wordplay or early manics, noise squall breakdowns of Sonic Youth, gentle Sparklehorse-esqe intermissions, grumpy Arab Strap borderline ‘rap’ mumbling with sprawling post rock conclusions. But unlike their early work, ODAS have finally managed to tie it all together in a cohesive, complete package.

Due to their ever changing live setup, One Day, After School… have played with a diverse set of bands in the past, including Shrag, Stanley Brinks (Herman Dune), Napoleon IIIrd, Lucas Renney, Miles Davis (Wonder Stuff) Just Handshakes (We’e British) and St Gregory Orange and will be supporting this record with a full 5 piece (2 bass) line up.

One Eleven Heavy on this recording are Nick Mitchell Maiato, James Toth (Wooden Wand), Dan Brown (Royal Trux) and Hans Chew. Naming their band after a short story about a plane crash might have been a mistake. Because, for transatlantic, country-infused rockers One Eleven Heavy, it’s been two years of trials and near-death experiences. One Eleven Heavy is lucky to be alive.

And you only need to listen to the music on this, their brilliant second album “Desire Path” to understand that’s how the band feels. Because it’s a wry, occasionally biting, but always joyful celebration of human endurance and the ability to overcome. The musicianship is a step up from their raggedy, but already accomplished, debut, too.

The album is laced with lush three-part vocal harmonies and two-part harmonized guitar licks, recalling those classic Allman Bros runs at the same time as it brings to mind timeless classics by Hendrix, the Stones and, of course, the Dead. For One Eleven Heavy, being miraculous is a goal worth striving for. And the only route to it is by the “Desire Path.” Take it.

TRACK LISTING

Chickenshit
Wild Hair
Hot Potato Soup
Stir
Fickle Wind
Mardi Gras
House Of Cards
Too Much, Too Much
Three Poisons

One Fathom Down - are Tony Fathom, Jonny One and Dan Down. These psycho surf punk gunslingers are something else and they’ve taken to slaying audience with their finely honed guitar onslaughts. Melding poptastic surf guitars onto a punk rockin’ back beat. In their time they’ve even supported surf legend Dick Dale. You’ll go nuts for One Fathom Down if you’ve ever downed your whisky to Man or Astroman, Link Wray or Guitar Wolf.

The Humms - are a Garage band based in Athens, GA. In 2010 they released their debut record, "Lemonland" (Odd Box, 2010) to much critical praise internationally. Best Album (2010) - Athens Music Junkie, USA, #8 Top album (2010) - SoundsXP, UK. The Humms return with a gentle ballad called 'Jupiter'. It is infact one of their earliest recordings and shows that the band have always a subtle side.

100 Bullets Back are not short of pure pop classics. This new two-piece unit from Oxford are coming on in leaps, tunes, beats and bounds thanks to a classic debut single, some infectiously great shows and a stylish debut album.

Second One Line Drawing release from Jonah Matranga (ex FAR frontman) plangeant chords, yearning voiced. An intimate emocore outing from a new talent.

Kathryn Bint follows her perfectly formed debut 'Until' (2008) with an album that reveals her remarkable range as a musician and songwriter. Her tender vocals still send husky shivers down the spine, but 'Into The Trees' is so much more than beautiful folk songs.

Produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), 'Into The Trees' weaves a fabric of different sounds, united by Bint’s elegiac voice and strong storytelling. Radiohead's Colin Greenwood lends the album his bass powers, and tracks like ‘Paper Planes’ and ‘I Know’ rock with a swagger that surprises and yet fits perfectly with the whole. The musicianship of Scowcroft and Jamieson is on full display as the record moves deftly from the acoustic warmth of ‘Hold You Down’ to the sunshine pop of ‘Simmer Down Simmer’ to the dreamy synth of final track ‘Synthesizer’. Hebden’s touch is a delicate one; there is a modesty and clarity to these songs that speaks to the confidence and judgment of those involved. ‘If You Ask’ is so simple and clean that no extra seasoning is required.

This is an optimistic record in which “hope stretches out like a leaf”. Recorded in 2010 at Bryn Derwen studios in North Wales, while Bint was pregnant with her first child, these songs are imbued with a tangible determination and hope. As she sings on ‘Simmer Down Simmer’: “We’ll ride until we fall and then get back up”.

Bint was born in Australia, grew up in Chicago, and moved to London nine years ago, where she began writing songs in earnest. After the release of Until, she got together with Henry Scowcroft and Lucy Jamieson, with whom she toured Europe and played festival dates.

Hebden’s influence is most apparent on ‘Bloom’—a spare, electronic piece with the precision of his Four Tet work—and yet this track is the heart of the album, encapsulating its central themes of people among nature. Lovers intertwine like vines, asleep beneath a canopy of trees, holding hands in leaves of grass. These songs are Whitman-esque odes to man’s place in the natural world; they remind us to stop and listen, to live in the moment. As we hear on the album opener ‘She Was Out In The Water’: “Honey, I don’t believe in majesty or things that you compare, I just want to be here now tasting the salty sea air.”

And yet, there is majesty in these songs. In ‘It’s Alright’, One Little Plane suggests “we reach for something like stars”. This is pure modesty; Into The Trees most definitely reaches for stars, and it touches them too.

Blank Inside For Your Own Message.

Blank Inside For Your Own Message.

One Man Army's sound can be described as punk rock'n'roll and this, their third full length album just goes to affirm this even more.

One Time Angels feature ex-members of Screw 32,St James Infirmary and Fury 66 and this album captures a rawness and an intensity that will leave you stinging.

The musical touchstones of Tom Fleming, former Wild Beasts songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalis, were Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Tom Petty alongside Depeche Mode and Swans. He wrote and played everything himself and then brought in Ben Hillier (Nadine Shah, Graham Coxon) on mixing and production duties.

One True Pairing is an album shaped by class frustration and self-despair and there is a continuation of the exploration of masculinity that made Wild Beasts so unique. As well as being deeply personal, OTP has a wider political resonance. "This country is going through a terrible moment and if you listen to the art nobody seems to give a shit,” Fleming says emphatically. He believes that class is entirely discounted from the current conversation about inclusivity and privilege. In its 11 songs of discordant guitar and aggressive synth Fleming channels his discontent with Britain in 2019 and a “feeling of directionless rage and cheatedness which hasn't gone away."

TRACK LISTING

Zero Summer
I’m Not Afraid
One True Pairing
Weapons
Dawn At The Factory
Blank Walls
Reaper Of Souls
Elite Companion
Alive In The Resplendent Flames
King Of The Rats
Only God Can Judge Me

The latest offering from experimental noise masters One Unique Signal is a collaboration between the three core band members and 20 of their contemporaries, who each designed a piece of music inspired by a single riff. Much like the process of continuous recreation that its namesake symbolises, the West London groups third LP, Hoopsnake, devours the seemingly eternal riff and constantly reinvents it to form a series of parallel iterations to the original composition. The riff was born from a repetitious loop originating from the sessions for their previous LP, the Sonic Boom mastered Aether. The band then recorded two versions of it (one a loud, guitar-driven take, the second a softer synth passage) and shared it with friends and collaborators, inviting each artist to create a corresponding sonic interpretation, which have all been mixed into four separate 10 minute long tracks.

The result is a seamless meshing of ideas from some of the best minds in the underground music scene - including The Oscillations Demian Castellanos and Steven Lawrie of The Telescopes - whose recordings span the weird and wonderful, ranging from home made noise box to Godin Artisan ST II recorded on solar power in a caravan, to simply lime green guitar. The roster of musicians and their various tools and instruments has been documented on the vinyl editions printed inner sleeve, and reads like a cross between a tech catalogue and a fantasy novel. The album was originally intended to serve as a second disc for Aether, however an extended, separate version was eventually called for to allow the project to fully realize it's 46 minute cycle, which was inspired by the long, warm summer evenings England experienced in 2013. Despite the new process undertaken for Hoopsnake, the methodically exploritive approach is typical to One Unique Signal, as is the feeling of continuity. The groups Nick Keech explains. From the very beginning, the Signal mythos has been repetition. Fellow band member Byron Jackson continues. The LP destroys itself, reflects upon the destruction, and is finally recreated, ready to repeat the process again. Along with fellow member Daniel Davis, the trio also perform as a part of space rock legends The Telescopes. 

TRACK LISTING

1. HS01
2. HS02
3. HS03
4. HS04

Debut album from Manchester's One Window. Recorded over 18 months, the album is a sublime mix of laid back grooves, contemporary beats and simple songwriting, all topped with Zoe Stafford's strong vocals. There's hint's of everything here, from St Etienne, to Morcheeba, to Kings Of Convenience.

Recommended If You Like: Can, Tortoise, OOIOO, Sonic Youth, Ty Segall, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Bitchin Bajas, The Cars, Liars.

Experimental psych-punk institution Onedia returns with Success, the band’s most guitar-centric, rocking album in decades. Long straddling the gray area between the NYC punk/psych/rock community and the art/experimental world, the music of Oneida is celebrated for its mix of abstract, atmo[1]spheric sounds and pulsing, hammering anthems. Success finds the band getting to the core of what makes minimal rock music

so good - songs pared back to beat and melody with a limited number of guitar chords. If a song or two gets ripped in half later by a corrosive guitar solo, well, what did you expect? This is Oneida.



“Oneida are the rare experimentalists who can hammer away at a riff or idea incessantly and somehow make it really last.” Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

1. Beat Me To The Punch
2. Opportunities
3. Low Tide
4. I Wanna Hold Your Electric Hand
5. Paralyzed
6. Rotten
7. Solid

Oneida has been a cornerstone of the Brooklyn underground for nearly two decades. Always evolving, the group has been a beacon of musical exploration and enthralling unpredictability, gaining legendary status among heads that know and expanding the limits of what it means to be a rock band. With a discography spanning over a dozen full-lengths, plus live releases, EPs, singles, and limited one-offs, Oneida has demonstrated a mastery of collective improvisation, off-kilter songwriting, complex composition, and everything in between. In 2011 Oneida lost its home base, its studio dubbed the Ocropolis in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, due to the pervasive gentrification and over-development of the neighbourhood that was once a thriving arts community.

After watching the Monster Island building that housed the Ocropolis transform into a pile of rubble, the band began an intense period of exploration and discovery, retreating from the studio in favor of the stage, and birthing a panoply of limited, uncompromising releases that documented the band’s continuously unfolding journey. Six years after the release of A List of the Burning Mountains, the final emission from the Ocropolis, the band will release their newest studio creation Romance, their first album for Joyful Noise Recordings and a record marked by wild eclecticism, even for a group known for its shape-shifting nature. Recorded over several years in various locales, the 11 songs on Romance are built around deeply developed long-arc rhythm/phase concepts, noise, yearning, blind guitar rage, longing, the lurch of dying electronics, and a multi-modal embrace of human fallibility and artifice. From the crackling synth-led opener “Economy Travel” to the expansive 18-minute epic “Shepherd’s Axe,” Romance is an album in constant flux.

On “Bad Habit” the band employs phasing between organ and guitar to great, disorienting effect, while the primitive riffs of “Cockfight” offer a contrasting vision of rock minimalism. Listen closely on “Lay of the Land” and you will hear constant rhythmic development, with drummer Kid Millions eschewing repetition in favor of morphing patterns of hi-hat and snare. As with all mystery, Romance reveals more through closer attention and multiple listens. Oneida, always formidable in the live environment, will be touring throughout the year.

Kid Millions remains one of the most in-demand drummers in New York, exploring the outer reaches of percussion music with his own Man Forever project, as well as playing with Laurie Anderson, Royal Trux, and People of the North with Oneida compatriot Bobby Matador. Bobby also takes part in the psych-pop duo Nurse & Soldier, and recently formed yet another duo called New Pope. Guitarist Shahin Moita is a co-founder of underground stalwarts Ex Models and Knyfe Hyts. Through it all Oneida remains a powerful collective voice, a propulsive force for wildness and excitement, with Romance heralding the return of the epic, artful ballad version of the journey. 

TRACK LISTING

Economy Travel,
Bad Habit,
All In Due Time,
It Was Me,
Good Lie,
Lay Of The Land,
Cedars,
Reputation,
Cockfight,
Good Cheer,
Shepherd's Axe.