Glaswegian musician, producer, DJ and curator Rebecca Vasmant announces her debut LP ‘With Love, From Glasgow’, showcasing the breadth of the incredible jazz talent the city has to offer. Having made a name for herself with a residency at Sub Club, Rebecca took the lead in curating the first live jazz showcases at the venue, also running a popular record fair with the venerable venue and a spot on BBC Radio Scotland and Worldwide FM. Rebecca also airs this facet of her irrepressible musical passion at key events like Worldwide Festival Sete, Glasgow Jazz Festival, EFG London Jazz Festival, Jazz Cafe London, Kasheme Zurich, Brilliant Corners, Casper Montenegro and the Baltic Soul Weekender, and a new residency at Ronnie Scott's as part of the Panro collective.

While promoting and touring in over 22 countries constantly over the last five years, Rebecca has honed her craft on production projects which feature world class musicians from The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and more, her talents are not only in spinning records, but in composing, producing and performing. Though known for its rich musical heritage, Glasgow is not a city perhaps synonymous with jazz. However, on ‘With Love, From Glasgow’ this is all about to change, as Rebecca and her cohort of hand picked musicians set out to change people’s opinions. Rebecca explains: “There is such crazy wealth of talent in this city of Glasgow and I wanted to make an album that helped to demonstrate this and which captures my own love and passion for deep and spiritual music. This album highlights just some of the exciting things that are happening here in Scotland and it's been a real honour and pleasure working with the hugely talented musicians who came together to collaborate in such a free and beautiful way. During the time spent working on this music an amazing family formed, something for which I am so grateful.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Start Of Time
A2. Timing'S End
A3. Freefall (Ft. Nadya Albertsson)
A4. Jewels Of Thought (Ft. Harry Weir)
B1. Autumn Leaves (Ft. Emilie Boyd)
B2. Morning (Mourning)
B3. Pride Of Winter
B4. Internal Dispute (Ft. Paix)
B5. Idealists (Outro)

Venturing off course from his Post-Punk / Dark Wave project, The Soft Moon, Los Angeles born composer and multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez, embarks intonew territory with A Body Of Errors, a bold reimagining of the soundtrack genre.With this album, Vasquez felt the urgency to break away from The Soft Moon realm and deliver an even more intimate, self-reflecting body of work, while further unveiling inner demons & vulnerability. He continues to explore his notorious angst and visceral pain, but places them in the context of his own physical being, creating the deeply personal, yet relatable and compelling oddity that is A Body Of Errors, which Vasquez describes as a collection of themes to living in the human body.

Opening track “Interno” with its crushing synthesizers, is a blast off into the abyss of self. Sinister gasps introduce “Poison Mouth” stomping you with relentless torment before spiraling into oblivion. Halfway, we reach the mechanized rhythms and throbbing cardiac pulse of “Surgery” expressing Vasquez’s phobia with the body itself. “No Longer Human” with its hallucinogenic flutter and distant cries, imagines a fantastic universe beyond, with a nod to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The only lyrical appearance on A Body Of Errorsis “Used To Be” a gut-wrenching wall-of-sound ballad romanticizing the struggle between one's good side & bad side. Pulling you into armageddon, A Body OfErrors closes with “World On Fire” an epic post-apocalyptic battle-storm painted vividly through symphonic devastation.

TRACK LISTING

1 Interno
2 Poison Mouth
3 Under My Teeth
4 Decomposition (Part 1)
5 This Guilt
6 The Wasp
7 Surgery

Side B
8 In A Cage
9 No Longer Human
10 Decomposition (Part 2)
11 Used To Be
12 From The Drain
13 Arms & Legs
14 World On Fire

Heels & Souls Recordings roll into reissue number eight with a double dose of early '90s UK street soul magic, splitting the sides between two sought-after cuts from Elaine Vassell and 3rd Zone.

Step back to 1993, house music has hit, UK Soul is in full flow and its rawer, DIY street soul sibling is making its mark across the UK’s underground. Fuelled by accessible, affordable production gear and ignited through enthusiasm and an influx of ideas and sounds, two acts drew inspiration from a melting pot of genres they were exposed to, providing their take on soul as they saw it.

Up first, Elaine Vassell - ‘Never Give Up’. A rough breakbeat-driven, mid-tempo groover from a North West London production triple threat, made up of Longsy D, Pinky and Murray. Utilising Pinky’s home studio with its DX7, Juno 106, LinnDrum and 808, they masterminded a track that sits at the intersection between soulful house, hip hop and R&B. Its crunching drum loop, chest-rattling low-end and serene synth lines, lay the foundation for Elaine’s powerful yet emotive voice to take centre stage. ‘Never Give Up’ should have been a future classic, but never quite found its feet.

On the flip side another 1993 gem, as Sansel Ali and twin brothers Mark and Stephen Anglin joined forces to form 3rd Zone. Conceived in Mark’s makeshift bedroom studio, the trio laid down their first foray into recorded music, ‘You Stole My Heart’. Originally promoed as a limited whitelabel in 1991, it officially landed on the group's one and only EP ‘No Real Reason' in '93.

Armed with a handful of synth modules, a drum machine and a Korg M1, Mark, Stephen and Sansel hit with a tough but tender, underground triumph. Part dance, part romance, layering synth strings, chunky breaks and M1 stabs underneath Sansel’s heartstrung vocals and Stephen’s hip house rap interlude, it provides another perfect example of house seen through the street soul prism.

Two timeless tracks that fly the flag for the fact that big studios and big budgets aren't necessary to create songs that really resonate. Each side also contains an alternate version, with the A housing a beatless reprise of ‘Never Give Up’ and the B a tougher, bassier remix of ‘You Stole My Heart’.

Licensed from Pinky Music and 3rd Zone respectively and remastered from the original DATs by Justin Drake.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Elaine Vassell - Never Give Up
A2. Elaine Vassell - Never Give Up (Chill Zone Mix)
B1. 3rd Zone - You Stole My Heart (Vinyl Mix)
B2. 3rd Zone - You Stole My Heart (Remix)

Swingin' Easy finds the great Sarah Vaughan backed only by a rhythm section of piano, bass & drums, a format in which she only recorded a few times during this initial period of her career.

This is one of Sarah Vaughan's lesser- known albums for Emarcy, combining two separate trio sessions from 1954 and 1957. The earlier date includes pianist John Malachi, bassist Joe Benjamin and drummer Roy Haynes. The second trio includes the same drummer, plus pianist Jimmy Jones and bassist Richard Davis. The CD is rounded off with four live performance recorded Mister Kelly's in Chicago during August 1957.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shulie A Bop
2. Lover Man
3. I Cried For You
4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
5. All Of Me
6. Words Can't Describe
7. Prelude To A Kiss
8. You Hit The Spot
9. Pennies From Heaven
10. If I Knew Then
11. Body And Soul
12. They Can't Take That Away From Me
13. Linger Awhile
14. I Cover The Waterfront
15. Embraceable You
16. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
17. Dancing In The Dark

Back in 2003, during an incredible period of growth and reinvention for legendary artist MF DOOM, he introduced us to one of his numer- ous alter egos, Viktor Vaughn. As the story goes, Viktor Vaughn was an interdimensional time-traveling MC from an alternate realm where Hip-Hop was banned. He’d been exploring time and space looking for new dimensions to sharpen him to 90s era NYC, where he found himself stranded due to a mechanical mishap with his time machine. He began hitting open mics and small venues, battling other MCs and picking up a few side-hustles in order to raise enough funds to repair his time machine and get back to his travels.

Vaudeville Villain is a concept album like no other, where MF DOOM re-envisions himself as a younger, hungrier, more brazen persona, in order to explore subjects new and old from a different point of view. Of course, developing a second self from a more technologically advanced universe, he wanted to take a new approach to the produc- tion too. Viktor Vaughn fittingly raps over next-school beats that move freely in spaces between Electronica and Hip Hop, all courtesy of Sound-Ink producers King Honey, Heat Sensor and Max Bill, with the exception of one track produced by RJD2. Featuring all original lyrics by DOOM, with a few notable guest appearances from M. Sayyid (Anti-Pop Consortium), Lord Sear, Apani B Fly MC, Louis Logic, and more, Vaudeville Villain is one of the more uniquely creative entries in the MF DOOM universe.

TRACK LISTING

01 - Overture
02 - Vaudeville Villain
03 - Lickupon
04 - The Drop
05 - Lactose And Lecithin
06 - A Dead Mouse
07 - RaeDawn
08 - Let Me Watch Feat. Apani B. As Nikki
09 - Open Mic Nite, Pt. 1 Feat. Brother Sambuca, Lord Sear, Louis Logic, Rodan As Dr. Moreau.
10 - Saliva
11 - Modern Day Mugging
12 - Open Mic Nite, Pt. 2 Feat. AJ Ready Wright, Creature, Lord Sear
13 - Never Dead Feat. M. Sayyid As Curtis Strifer
14 - Popsnot
15 - Mr. Clean
16 - G.M.C.
17 - Change The Beat

This six-piece from Denver have toured with all and sundry including Boysetsfire, Vendetta Red, Static Lullaby and The Used to name but a few. They play loud and frantic post hardcore with a three guitar attack that will blow your speakers. Alternative Press named them one of the '100 bands you need to know in 2003' this CD shows you why.

On their third LP, their first for Narnack, this thunderous three piece showcases it's brand of dark and overcast rock, a melodically chaotic style comparable to early Sonic Youth and maybe hints of Joy Division. Vaz, however, definitely add something quite unique to the genre. "The Lie That Matches The Furniture"'s cold vocals hide shyly behind a sonic wall of sound.

Maroma was there long before the Moors. The Moors were there long before man landed on the moon half a century ago. Drum machines meant you didn’t have to take Ginger Baker our for a drink. Life takes on sublime logic. In retrospect, everything takes on a new meaning from a different perspective. The past is the future. From Glasgow to Edinburgh to Andalucia. This music is about a small journey, an aural triptych of sounds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Since Stroom's suitably poetic sales notes give little away, I'll fill in some blanks. The ace Belgian imprint team up with Forced Nostalgia to treat us to a great retrospective of Glaswegian wave duo Vazz, whose delicate and dreamy music drifted around Durutti Column ambience and Postcard indie to wonderful effect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Breathe
2. Cloud Over Maroma
3. Lost Time
4. Embers
5. Flute Dance
6. Kazimierz
7. Cast Reflections
8. Star Chamber
9. Endless Road
10. Mezquita (part 2)
11. Birdsong For The Birds
12. Want Of Anger
13. Ritual

Vecchio's Afro-Rock is one big horn-heavy, bass-blasting, Latin groove funk-rock party. Only now, you're all invited because this, ladies and gentleman, is officially...a grail no more. With copies currently starting at 400 Euros for an original, this beautifully presented reissue, part of Be With's fresh campaign with Music De Wolfe, is well overdue. A magnificent and somewhat obscure library set that's just a total, cohesive joy from start to finish, this here is the soundtrack to all your smokin' summer BBQs and communal cookouts.

Afro-Rock is the debut album by Argentine keyboardist Luis Vecchio. Recorded for the sound library label De Wolfe, the album is frequently mentioned in hushed reverence among the beat digger DJ collecting crowd. It features fiery brass charts, funky bass lines, fluttering flute, choppy organ and additional hand tribal percussion. The band let loose too and jam hard; yet there's a certain thread of solidity that runs throughout, the tracks just belong together, not disparate sound and rhythm experiments like some library records; this is just straight up, no messin', consistent funk-rock FIRE! Hips will sway, heads will nod to the steady vibes. It's insanely good.

The humid, building funk of the appropriately titled "Megaton" is a dramatic explosion of swirling, dazzling organ lines, ferocious beats and heavy horns throughout. It just don't stop. The tempo slows slightly for the deep and deeply addictive "Renegade". It's all heavy jazz horn refrains, always triumphant, coupled with devastating percussive breakdowns and killer guitar riffing. It's an insistent organ-led juggernaut. The frenetic "Facade", up next, is no less driving, horns high up in the mix over rattling percussion and brilliant organs lines. Just sensational. The bright "Chabati" is another glorious extension of the optimistic Vecchio sound, the organs wilder than ever before. The moody "Green Hell" is a real highlight and closes out the A-Side with some outrageously funky refrains - be it horns, organ or guitars - and is complimented by gorgeous flute work that galvanises the piece, elevating it to downright heavenly status.

Knowing full well that he's on to a surefire thing, Vecchio opens the flipside in much the same vein. Indeed, "Boss" is yet another uptempo highlight, a sensual orgy of proud horns, hand percussion and melodic flute playing over driving organ and guitars. It's followed by "Nsambei", which is rightly adored for its briefly open drum break, fantastically propulsive percussion breakdowns throughout and the jazzy, loose organ and guitar shreds. The bright "Waboco" ups the tempo and the pressure, hanging on one hell of a guitar hook and infectious horn refrain. Perhaps foreseeing how this album would come to be viewed, the aptly-titled "Cult" is possibly the finest song on the record. Which is saying something, because this record is insanely good. Riding a steady, confident organ groove straight out the gate, the kinda melancholic flute line over the top serves as a beautiful counterpoint which the horns often come in and imitate/riff off. Goddamn this is so so good, it needs to be played everywhere. The overwhelmingly mighty 7-minute jam "Ngoma-ku" rounds out this quite staggering record brilliantly in its heavy, mid-tempo blues with countless extended solos.

The audio for Afro Rock has been meticulously remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
Megaton 5:01
Renegade 5:05
Facade 3:18
Chabati 3:11
Green Hell 6:41
SIDE TWO
Boss 3:55
Nsambei 4:00
Waboco 3:29
Cult 4:37
Ngoma-ku 7:04

Vectorvision is Brian Bishop, the man has decided to release his first twelve full of electro vibes. His tete-a-tete with the machines produce four electro tracks that share a unique combo of cold, industrial and robotic soundscapes. At times, the great Carl Finlow or the legendary Kraftwerk pop to mind but there is no pop here and the melody factor is kept to a minimum. This will appeal folk that want it darker, that can see the apocalyptic future around the corner and really need a soundtrack to enhance their visions. Vectorvision is your man.
If you have come across his 12" released last november with Convextion and titled Zy Clone' on the mighty Legwork, you will get a clear idea of what is on the menu here. 
So there you have it, amigos! Raw electro as no other. Always nice to get out of the disco and house dominated scene and see that there are alternatives out there. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: No frills electro for the dark minds out there. Imagine the darker side of Carl Finlow with a slower bpm and you can envision what you will get on this ep. Carefully curated and selected for you, discerning shopper.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Age Of Ruin
B1. City Of Illusion
B2. Vortex Unknown

Following on from the likes of Goat, Josefin Öhrn, Hills, Flowers Must Die, Centrum and GÅS - VED continue to be among the wonderful plethora of Swedish bands to release their exploratory music on Rocket Recordings. With 3 albums, 3 EPs (including one on Rocket), a compilation on labels like Höga Nord and Adrian Recordings already behind them this Malmö 5 piece are famed for creating trance inducing, repetitive, psych. Their ever evolving sound has always taken in many global influences, from Middle Eastern to African to the monotonous explorations of composers like Steve Reich and Terry Riley. Rhythmically driven like the jittered ecstasy of a Post Punk band covering a Oriental Surf a track, “Ett visst fängelse” (translated as ‘A Certain Prison’) establishes a pulsating clink clack shimmer that is as hyper actively addictive as CAN in full animated instrumental groove.

“The Embrace Of The Oarfish” the lead track, advances the propulsive pummeling to a more aggressive sound centred around a repetitive single bass note that masquerades like an menacingly deep percussive outlaw. The looming ribbon like nature of the track slithers like the giant sea serpent the title alludes too - some say the Oarfish can forecast earthquakes themselves, maybe its the resonance of the bomb shelter in Malmö that is the bands rehearsal space that imposes itself tremor like through their oscillating work. The firewood that is VED’s work has reminiscent echoes of the primal work of UK act Snapped Ankles, but VED’s journey is a wholly unique controlled burn where rapid oxidation devours any listener into a blaze of restorative enchantment.T

TRACK LISTING

01. Ett Visst Fängelse (4:37)
02. The Embrace Of The Oarfish (4:34)

This lovely lathe cut 7" sees Blackpool four-piece Vee VV present a blazing mix of post-punk grit, funk percussion and baggy guitar melodies into the hugely danceable and instantly rousing title track. ALSO, have you ever finished listening to a rousing punk record and thought 'Man, that's really just made me want to throw convention out the window and eat the sleeve'? If so, then Vee VV have your back because not only have they made this cathartic anthem in a normal 'probably-shouldn't' eat it sleeve but they've done it in a plant-based edible sleeve too, so even you most timid of sleeve-scranners can get involved, and get involved you should. Lovely stuff. 

“This is the essence of instrumental beauty, and of endless charm, Spiritual poetry set to Music: Qalaam`.”

Featuring Bamboo Flute and Acoustic Guitar, a collection of songs based on the mystic poetry of the subcontinent; spanning seven hundred years from the 12th Century poem Man Kun to Maula written by Amir Kushrao to Saif Ul Malook penned by Mian Mohammad Baksh in the late 19th Century.

These poems have been sung and recited through the ages in musical and aural renditions. Many people in the East and West still follow their transcendental philosophy to this day, which is universal and evergreen. All compositions have been reworked to bring them into the modern time, featuring Ràj veer’s unique style of Bamboo Flute which brings an effortless balance of western feel ornamented with the colour and spirit of the East.

Almost two years on from his last EP offering, Veerus returns for another double shot of groove-inflected techno power.

The Italian artist has been a stellar contributor to Drumcode since his debut in 2019 with the outstanding ‘Hypnosis’ EP. From the ‘System’, to ‘Recovery’ and his most recent EP offering ‘Yard’ in early 2022, we’ve been given a sense of his deft touch for crafting dramatic techno, that’s equal parts exquisite and dynamic.

His latest work ‘Cycle’ reinforces the passion he imbues each production with. “These two tracks perfectly express my vision of techno nowadays,” he shares. “Not fast, groovy, with researched sounds and a crazy impact on the dancefloor.”

The title track balances tension and release on a knife’s edge, as it builds deliciously via a menacing array of synths, before dropping down into an all-out laser-focused march. A powerful cut that’s been a go-to for Adam Beyer at Awakenings, Loveland and Resistance Ultra in Croatia, among others.

‘It’s Funky’ was two months in the making and bring bags of energy and atmosphere as it explores funky terrain, not in the bottom end, but rather Veerus’ colourful approach to writing melodies. A great track for building excitement throughout a set.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cycle
B1. It’s Funky

VeeVV are back! The band born out of the ashes of Tunnelvision and cult Factory signing reformed in 2018 and dropped a fully loaded CD of unreleased track alongside some well known favourites. 

Riding the momentum into 2020, we have a brand new double A side 12" from the group who've also joined forces with Toka to provide the indie-dance smashers, "Ugly Freedom" and "Sure Is Ugly". 

Both tracks ride galloping nu-Italo synthlines with crisp 4/4 drums that will excite fans of electronic indie-dance no end. Think LCD, ACR, Leftfield and The Chemical Brothers and you're halfway there; but these two tracks are undeniable forward gazing, covered in a soundsystem tweakin' patina, charged, and ready to make people dance! Amassing tons of support, with John Robb, Dave Haslam and Tom Ravenscroft all singing their praises, it's possible that a second wave of adoration and spectacle await this most storied Manchester outfit. 

TRACK LISTING

A. Ugly Freedom (Toka Remix)
AA. Sure If Ugly 

Formed in 1982 from the ashes of Factory Records teen hopefuls Tunnelvision, Vee VV built up a strong local following and established themselves as a hard hitting live outfit. This new release collects some of the band's best bits through its various incarnations plus some unreleased and live tracks as a Brucey bonus!

"Love Canal" and "Keep Beat" were first recorded in 1982. "Fish on Friday" was recorded as part of a Piccadilly Radio session in 1987 and "Prick up Your Ears" was recorded in 1988 and produced by Mark Radcliffe. There are six previously unreleased tracks and three live tracks. The remaining tracks have been released previously but on a range of different labels and formats.

The band reformed in June '18 and have played live in Manchester, Blackpool and Liverpool. They are currently writing new material which will be aired live in May /June.

Jangly, wide screen guitar licks accompany a typically anthemic  vocal delivery while the songwriting and arrangements are strong and concise. A brilliantly excavated hidden gem of the Northwest underground! Check it out! 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ready Made Aid To Private Noise
2. Love Canal
3. Keep Beat
4. Hold On
5. Shoot The Moon
6. Bite The Buttet
7. Sinew
8. Bird At The Roost
9. Slapshot
10. Cloak And Dagger
11. Don't Get Down
12. Cinnamon
13. Fish On Friday
14. Better The Devil
15. Prick Up Your Ears
16. Flame On
17. Bird At The Roost (Live)
18. Kindest Cut (Live)
19. Romance Is Over (Live)

Another soaring melodic pop song from Vega 4, for fans of Coldplay, Snowpatrol, Keane etc.

Vega Rally is an incendiary self-taught, bedroom producer hailing from Manchester into big beats, baggy guitar riffs & Fred Perry. Since signing to independent Manchester record label; Spirit Of Spike Island in 2022, Vega Rally has released 3 earworm singles, hitting over 100k streams online, receiving airplay across BBC 6 music & Radio X in the process. He has also remixed tunes for underground indie starlets; Pastel & exciting upcoming folk artist; Ava Carlyle. Interest on the underground scene culminated in tour supports With Afflecks Palace, Pastel, Andrew Cushin and invites to perform at Isle Of Wight Festival, Humber Street Fest, Truck Festival & Why Not? Festival.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Infinity '93
A2. Come Out N Play
B1. This Moment
B2. Back At It Again

In The Red Records is proud to announce a previously unreleased new album by Brooklyn-born master of minimalism Alan Vega, Insurrection. The eleven songs here showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising force from one of the most influential artists of all time. Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He co-founded the legendary New York City punk band Suicide with Martin Rev in 1970. Suicide’s groundbreaking 1977 debut is considered one of the most influential albums of all time. Vega considered his solo records the audio counterpoint to his visual art that reflected the world around him while simultaneously exploring universal themes. It makes his work as relevant today as it was when he created them. It was during his highly experimental period beginning in the late ’80s that he began working with Liz Lamere, who became the most crucial collaborator of his solo career until his death in 2016. Lamere, along with Jared Artaud, resurrected these newly unearthed collection of lost recordings, which they co-produced and mixed. Lamere and Artaud spearhead the Vega Vault project, which aims to bring rare, unreleased and back catalog work spanning Alan Vega and Suicide’s career to the public for the first time. On Insurrection, Lamere says: “Insurrection was created in the time period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and captures the intense energy of NYC in the ’90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism, racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this album. Post-Gulf War angst still enveloped Alan. He was having premonitions about a major terror attack in the US, well before 9/11. The upcoming birth of his son raised further awareness of the state of our world. All these emotions are mirrored in the sounds he magnetized. And true to Vega form, there remains hope and empowerment coursing through the tracks. In the almost three decades of going into the studio with Vega, we recorded significantly more material than the seven albums released. Vega’s intention was to experiment with sound which would become the canvas for the poetry that reflected his vision of the universe. Because the goal wasn’t to make albums, he had no timeline or constraints and would freely follow new paths uncovered along the way.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Sewer
2. Invasion
3. Crash
4. Cyanide Soul
5. Murder One
6. Fireballer Fever
7. Genocide
8. Chains
9. Jet Lord
10. Mercy
11. Fireballer Spirit

One of Alan Vega’s greatest talents was his ability to bring the past and the future together into a suspended place of timelessness. His groundbreaking duo Suicide was often seen as future primitivism and most of his musical output has exemplified this blending of the primordial human condition and visionary thinking. With Invasion b/w Murder One, the next release from the now infamous Vega Vault following 2021’s Mutator, we see this innate power in full effect.

The two tracks “Invasion” and “Murder One” were recorded two decades apart from one another in New York City. “Invasion” was recorded toward the end of the 2012-2015 studio sessions for the posthumous album IT and was one of his last recordings, while “Murder One” was recorded in 1997-1998, (after the Mutator sessions) and is part of a cluster of material that was recorded but never mixed prior to the sessions for his album 2007, released in 1999. Pairing these two songs together as a release illustrates the timelessness of the 30 plus years of unreleased material that he deemed the Vega Vault.

This release continues the collaboration of Mutator’s mixing and producing team, Liz Lamere and Jared Artaud. Liz provides a bridge to the past, having performed throughout the recording process of “Murder One” and “Invasion” while Jared opens a bridge to the future having been chosen by Alan himself to carry the torch and ensure the vision stays intact. Alan trusted no one more than Liz and Jared, and gave his blessing and encouragement to continue releasing material from the Vault. As Alan stated in the song “Vision” from IT, “If you destroy the vision, you will suffer the whirlwind.”

Listening to the various tracks during these mixing sessions brought up vivid recollections of how the sounds (such as the haunting voices in “Murder One”) were created and the constant experimentation that was involved, memories that informed Liz’s approach in the mixing process. Together with Jared’s technical skills, intuition, and deep understanding of the feeling these sounds were intended to evoke, the two were able to preserve the authenticity of the recordings while enhancing the quality of sound so the listener can fully experience the nuances of these unique auditory creations.

TRACK LISTING

1. Invasion
2. Murder One 

Futurismo are proud to present a first time reissue of the killer 1985 album: Just A Million Dreams by the uncompromising Alan Vega.

The remastered version of this LP comes with two unreleased bonus tracks produced by Liz Lamere and Jared Artaud of The Vacant Lots. It is packaged in a gloss laminated sleeve with a huge fold-out poster and contains new liner notes by Henry Rollins.

Presented in a remastered deluxe vinyl package, Just A Million Dreams, produced by Ric Ocasek and Chris Lord-Alge, takes Vega on an expedition into new territory. As an artist Vega had a crucial drive, but having a hit record was never a motive, neither was pandering to expectations, which is why Just aMillion Dreams is perhaps a perfect statement for that moment, bettering the then bastions of MTV rock without even trying, an exercise in subversion that still has Vega’s unique artistry at its core. Would you expect anything less from one half of NYC legends Suicide? Perhaps not, but the hows and whys to Vega landing himself in such a mainstream position are perhaps just as fascinating as the record itself.

Here Alan Vega’s vocals sound better than ever, full of emotion and brooding honesty. Lyrics painting images of dystopian love might be a sideways move away from the intense nihilism of his past, but it’s still the real deal. Alan Vega could not be anything else. Listen to tracks like ‘Creation’ and you still get that raw emotion he spent his career honing. Set against the grandeur of mid 80’s production: big processed drums, runaway guitar solos, we get a rare peak into what Vega would sound like if he was allowed to be a rock star drenched in the sonic excesses of the era. It was a brave and unfairly misunderstood move, but the components come together to form an incredible anti-commercial, commercial album. Just A Million Dreams is the sound of Alan Vega taking on the 1980’s and winning.

With help of the official Vega Vault, two never before heard tracks have been unearthed from the 1985 JAMD recording sessions and brought to life by long time collaborator Liz Lamere and Jared Artaud of The Vacant Lots, adding a new insight to the recordings. Henry Rollins also lends a new written perspective, making this release a vital addition to the collections of Alan Vega and Suicide fans. It has been said that Alan Vega is forever, his unwavering artistic approach can be witnessed throughout his career, whether as part of Suicide or as a solo songwriter, poet or sculptor. Just a Million Dreams is just another example.

TRACK LISTING

1. On The Run
2. Shooting For You
3. Hot Fox
4. Too Late
5. Wild Heart
6. Creation
7. Cry Fire
8. Ra Ra Baby
9. Hey Gorgeous (Unreleased)
10. Did We Say Goodbye? (Unreleased)

Alan Vega’s name is synonymous with unfettered, tireless creativity. Beginning in the late 1950s, when he was a fine art student at Brooklyn College, through his years playing in Suicide, and all the way up until his death in 2016, Vega was constantly creating. That process naturally led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it was recorded, which came to be known as the Vega Vault. Mutator is the first in a series of archival releases from the Vault that will come out on Sacred Bones Records.

Mutator was recorded alongside Vega’s longtime collaborator Liz Lamere at his NYC studio from 1995-1996, and it serves as a document of a particularly fertile time in his creative life. He had 11 full-length solo albums come out during the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s - plus numerous collaborations, and Suicide records A Way of Life and Why Be Blue. Mutator wasn’t shelved intentionally, but Vega’s back-to-thegrindstone M.O. meant that he had moved on to making his next record before this one was finished. Lamere and Vega’s friend and confidante Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots) rediscovered the raw, unmixed recordings from the Mutator sessions in the Vault in 2019. Soon after, they mixed and produced them into the visionary album that was lurking within those tapes.

“Our primary purpose for going into the studio was to experiment with sound, not to ‘make records,’” Lamere recalls. “I was playing the machines with Alan manipulating sounds. I played riffs while Alan morphed the sounds being channeled through the machines.”

At the time of the Mutator sessions, Vega was massively inspired by what was happening in the streets of New York - not only the hip hop scenes that were exploding throughout the outer boroughs, but also the literal sounds of the streets, the traffic noise and industrial ambience of city living. That influence trickled into the sounds he and Lamere captured in those sessions. That sensibility, paired with Vega’s unmistakable voice and force of personality, is what made it the great album it is now. The final piece was the production job, completed by Lamere and Artaud 25 years after the songs were first captured.

- A never-before-heard full-length recorded by legendary NYC musician Alan Vega (Suicide) in the mid ’90s with his frequent collaborator Liz Lamere

- The tapes were uncovered by Lamere and Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots), who mixed and produced them to create the record

- Mutator is the first release in the Alan Vega Vault series on Sacred Bones, collecting rare and unreleased archival recordings

TRACK LISTING

1. Trinity (1:16)
2. Fist (5:12)
3. Muscles (4:45)
4. Samurai (3:44)
5. Filthy (3:30)
6. Nike Soldier (4:18)
7. Psalm 68 (4:37)
8. Breathe (4:22)

Two tracks from Louie Vega's "Expansions In The NYC" LP given the 12" treatment. On “Another Day In My Life” Louie Vega incorporates elements of the classic jam “Never Had A Love So Good” by Charles Johnson (fully cleared and licensed from the legendary Henry Stone Music Company), and creates a driving, hands aloft, soul-infused club anthem that has 'last track at Southport Weekender' written all over it. On the B side, Louie works with his long time collaborator Axel Tosca as well as legendary Chicago DJ / vocalist Mike Dunn to create his own very soulful and New York flavored interpretation of the renowned 1999 "Deep Burnt" song by Pepe Bradock, done of course with Pepe Bradock's blessings and appreciation.

TRACK LISTING

A. Another Day In My Life
AA. Deep Burnt Feat. Axel Tosca 

For BBE Music’s landmark 500th release, the label joins forces with Louie Vega, Leroy Burgess and Patrick Adams to revisit "Barely Breaking Even", the iconic track after which the label is named. Coaxed into the studio together by BBE founder Peter Adarkwah, Grammy winning House music hero Louie Vega, arranger extraordinaire and New York disco royalty Patrick Adams, plus the song’s original writer (and king of boogie) Leroy Burgess soon got to work. Even given the caliber of those involved in this special session, the results are simply exceptional. Featuring live strings by The Apple Hill String Quartet arranged by Adams and Burgess, Vega’s ‘Boogie Mix’ stays faithful to the Universal Robot Band original, with potent vocal performances and a tough new groove for 2019. It was at the string recording session for the boogie version that Louie Vega unveiled his 'NYC House Mix' to the assembled musicians, at which point he and Leroy Burgess quickly arranged a brand new horn section and re-wrote the song’s melody to compliment the track’s accelerated pace. What the team emerged with is so much more than a remix- it’s a unified call-back to two golden eras; that of disco-boogie and that of New York House. And it’s beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Instrumental))
2. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega Boogie Mix)

Disc: 2
1. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega NYC House Remix)
2. Barely Breaking Even (Louie Vega Boogie Mix (Instrumental))

There is a global musical movement happening right now, and an integral part of this rhythmic and cultural evolution is the legendary Grammy award-winning DJ / Producer / Artist Louie Vega.The movement is comprised of the Expansions In The NYC album and the Expansions NYC events, and it represents the very best in music, dance and club culture from New York City to London to Miami to Ibiza and every locale around the world where people appreciate the power of house music.

Up next in the continuing series of product releases and events in connection with the Expansions juggernaut, a limited edition Expansions In The NYC 7” boxset on Nervous Records.

“Releasing vinyl has always been part of my mantra, but this is a unique one,” said Louie Vega. “For the first time having our music released on a (10) piece 7” set along with new original art by Andrew Thiele (who also created the Expansions In the NYC Album cover), it’s a highlight in the history of all my vinyl releases. Not too many artists release 10 pieces of vinyl within a set. And what makes it even more special is the calibre of all the amazing artists who worked on the tracks and songs with me. This is a landmark and essential collector’s item. A veritable “Must Have!” Never before have all these artists graced one album together from Honey Dijon to Lisa Fischer, Moodymann to Bernard Fowler, Robyn to Unlimited Touch, and Karen Harding to Kerri Chandler. It’s a dancer’s and vinyl collector’s paradise.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The hot and highly acclaimed collection from Louie Vega gets a 7" box set release. For lovers of real house music, "Expansions" has been one of the strongest albums in recent years.

TRACK LISTING

A. The Star Of A Story Ft. Lisa Fischer 
B. Deep Burnt Ft. Axel Tosca 
C. Change Your Mind Ft. Bernard Fowler 
D. Another Day In My Life 
E. Seven Mile Ft. Moodymann 
F. Come Away Ft. Kerri Chandler 
G. Music Is My Life Ft. Unlimited Touch 
H. You Got Me Dancing Ft. Audrey Wheeler & Cindy Mizelle 
I. Chimi Ft. Elements Of Life 
J. Love Has No Time Or Place Ft. Elements Of Life (Unreleased Instrumental Dub) 
K. Atmosphere Strut Ft. DJ Spinna 
L. Cosmic Witch Ft. Anané 
M. How He Works Ft. Nico Vega 
N. A Place Where We Can All Be Free Ft. Janine Lyons 
O. Touch The Sky Ft. Tony Momrelle 
P. Dreaming Ft. Cindy Mizelle 
Q. All My Love Ft. Robyn 
R. Feel So Right Ft. Honey Dijon 
S. Free To Love (Louie Vega & Karen Harding) 
T. It's All Good (Louie Vega Remix) (Bebe Winans Ft. Debbie Winans Lowe & Korean Soul) 

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka”, certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy, “Marlene on the Wall”, a surprise hit in the UK and “Tom’s Diner”, a strange little a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies. WHAT IS THIS ALBUM ? Produced by Gerry Leonard (Guitar player with David Bowie, played with Roger Waters, Laurie Anderson) mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner, Bob Ludwig. On An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Vega revisits some of her most New York-centric repertoire in a stunning live recording on which she is backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. Recorded at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early 2019, the album includes both familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and deep cuts from her catalog like “Frank and Ava” and “Ludlow Street”. The mix of repertoire also features “New York Is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, Vega’s one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers, and a cover of her late friend Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Marlene On The Wall
2. Luka
3. 'So How Many People Are Here From Out Of Town?'
4. New York Is A Woman
5. 'This Next Song Takes Place On 59th Street...'
6. Frank And Eva
7. 'So I Myself Came To New York City When I Was 2 ½ Years Old'
8. Gypsy
9. Freeze Tag
10. Pornographer's Dream
11. 'This Next Song Is Called New York Is My Destination'
12. New York Is My Destination
13. 'The First Time I Saw Lou Reed...'
14. Walk On The Wild Side
15. Ludlow Street
16. Cracking
17. 'And Now We've Got A Song About Those Times...'
18. Some Journey
19. 'I'm Gonna Close With This Song...'
20. Tom's Diner
21. 'Would You Like Another One?'
22. Anniversary
23. Tombstone
24. Thin Man

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been called contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world’s best-known venues. Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observes the world with a clinically poetic eye” (The New York Times), Vega’s songs have tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real-world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, her work is immediately recognisable—as utterly distinct and thoughtful as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 30 years ago. Back in 2010, Suzanne began re-recording and releasing songs from her extensive back catalogue as the “Close-Up” Series. She thought that her fans might like to hear the songs of her past stripped of their original productions, to hear them in an intimate setting, something more personal, that felt like she was singing to them alone. During the recording process for these four albums, Suzanne also decided to rearrange the songs by theme, so people could rediscover them out of their original contexts The Close Up Series, originally released over a decade ago, is now available in a beautifully packaged and designed Bookpack and is limited to just 2,000 copies worldwide. It includes the Close-Up albums Volumes 1-4, each as a different colour 180g heavyweight vinyl LP. It also contains a 28-page booklet featuring a foreword by Suzanne Vega, a brand new essay by Lenny Kaye and the full lyrics for each song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Small Blue Thing
2. Caramel
3. (If You Were) In My Movie
4. Gypsy
5. Marlene On The Wall
6. (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May
7. Harbor Song
8. Headshots
9. Songs In Red And Gray
10. Stockings
11. Some Journey
12. Bound

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been called contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world’s best-known venues. Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observes the world with a clinically poetic eye” (The New York Times), Vega’s songs have tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real-world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, her work is immediately recognisable—as utterly distinct and thoughtful as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 30 years ago. Back in 2010, Suzanne began re-recording and releasing songs from her extensive back catalogue as the “Close-Up” Series. She thought that her fans might like to hear the songs of her past stripped of their original productions, to hear them in an intimate setting, something more personal, that felt like she was singing to them alone. During the recording process for these four albums, Suzanne also decided to rearrange the songs by theme, so people could rediscover them out of their original contexts The Close Up Series, originally released over a decade ago, is now available in a beautifully packaged and designed Bookpack and is limited to just 2,000 copies worldwide. It includes the Close-Up albums Volumes 1-4, each as a different colour 180g heavyweight vinyl LP. It also contains a 28-page booklet featuring a foreword by Suzanne Vega, a brand new essay by Lenny Kaye and the full lyrics for each song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Luka
2. Zephyr & I
3. New York Is A Woman
4. In Liverpool
5. Calypso
6. Fat Man And Dancing Girl
7. The Queen And The Soldier
8. Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David)
9. Angel's Doorway
10. Ironbound/Fancy Poultry
11. Neighborhood Girls
12. Tom's Diner
13. Man Who Played God

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been called contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world’s best-known venues. Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observes the world with a clinically poetic eye” (The New York Times), Vega’s songs have tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real-world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, her work is immediately recognisable—as utterly distinct and thoughtful as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 30 years ago. Back in 2010, Suzanne began re-recording and releasing songs from her extensive back catalogue as the “Close-Up” Series. She thought that her fans might like to hear the songs of her past stripped of their original productions, to hear them in an intimate setting, something more personal, that felt like she was singing to them alone. During the recording process for these four albums, Suzanne also decided to rearrange the songs by theme, so people could rediscover them out of their original contexts The Close Up Series, originally released over a decade ago, is now available in a beautifully packaged and designed Bookpack and is limited to just 2,000 copies worldwide. It includes the Close-Up albums Volumes 1-4, each as a different colour 180g heavyweight vinyl LP. It also contains a 28-page booklet featuring a foreword by Suzanne Vega, a brand new essay by Lenny Kaye and the full lyrics for each song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Undertow
2. When Heroes Go Down
3. My Favorite Plum
4. Solitude Standing
5. Cracking
6. Last Years Troubles
7. Solitaire
8. Tombstone
9. Blood Makes Noise
10. 50-50 Chance
11. Penitent
12. Straight Lines
13. Pornographer's Dream
14. Instant Of The Hour After

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been called contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world’s best-known venues. Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observes the world with a clinically poetic eye” (The New York Times), Vega’s songs have tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real-world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, her work is immediately recognisable—as utterly distinct and thoughtful as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 30 years ago. Back in 2010, Suzanne began re-recording and releasing songs from her extensive back catalogue as the “Close-Up” Series. She thought that her fans might like to hear the songs of her past stripped of their original productions, to hear them in an intimate setting, something more personal, that felt like she was singing to them alone. During the recording process for these four albums, Suzanne also decided to rearrange the songs by theme, so people could rediscover them out of their original contexts The Close Up Series, originally released over a decade ago, is now available in a beautifully packaged and designed Bookpack and is limited to just 2,000 copies worldwide. It includes the Close-Up albums Volumes 1-4, each as a different colour 180g heavyweight vinyl LP. It also contains a 28-page booklet featuring a foreword by Suzanne Vega, a brand new essay by Lenny Kaye and the full lyrics for each song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rosemary
2. Honeymoon Suite
3. World Before Columbus
4. As You Are Now
5. Soap And Water
6. Widows Walk
7. Blood Sings
8. Bad Wisdom
9. Ludlow Street
10. Tired Of Sleeping
11. Pilgrimage
12. Brother Mine
13. The Silver Lady
14. Daddy Is White

Carson McCullers was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the U.S.

The album features 10 songs from her upcoming play about the iconic American author Carson McCullers.

The play is a one woman show written and staring Suzanne Vega, with songs written by Suzanne Vega and Tony Winner Duncan Sheik.

TRACK LISTING

1. Carson's Blues
2. New York Is My Destination
3. Instant Of The Hour After
4. We Of Me
5. Annemarie
6. 12 Mortal Men
7. Harper Lee
8. Lover, Beloved
9. The Ballad Of Miss Amelia
10. Carson's Last Supper

Lead singer Al Johnson and Tom Fauntleroy, two US soul & R&B greats who founded their first band at University in Washington D.C. originally wrote and released the song on Johnson’s first solo independent album “Peaceful” in 1978. They’d later go on to rerecord the track for Johnson’s follow up album on major label CBS “Back For More” which introduced the song to a wider audience and is the version featured here on this 12”

Tata Vega, American singer from New York would go on to cover the track that same year. Starting her career in the 60s featuring in musicals and performing with various groups, she got signed to Motown by Berry Gordy on the spot who was in the audience at a concert one of Vega’s groups was performing at. Tata Vega’s version of “I’ve Got My Second Wind”, in duet with soul singer George Curtis Cameron was originally released on her fourth solo album on Motown, “Givin’ All My Love”. Reissued and now available on loud 12” for the first time!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tata Vega – I’ve Got My Second Sind
B1. Al Johnson – I’ve Got My Second Wind

Vegyn releases his emotionally rich sophomore album, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions. Sublimely crafted songs, each allowing for a dose of human imperfection, wobbling on a tightrope between elation and an eerie melancholia. The record includes guest features from John Glacier, Léa Sen, Matt Maltese, Lauren Auder and Ethan P. Flynn, and is released through his own imprint, PLZ Make It Ruins.

The producer's shape-shifting musical output has so far tended towards excess, whether working with some of the world’s biggest rap and R&B artists (Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Kali Uchis), or unleashing 70 track mixtapes, letting light into his creative process by sharing scraps from the cutting room floor. By contrast, this new album emerged from a space of free-flowing experimentation, with a lighter touch to the productions. His trademark flourishes and BPM changes take a backseat to melody and clear structure. As Vegyn himself puts it: “I’m just trying to make interesting songs – feeling was the focus.”

TRACK LISTING

1. A Dream Goes On Forever (feat. John Glacier)
2. Another 9 Days (feat. Ethan P. Flynn)
3. Turn Me Inside (feat. Léa Sen)
4. Halo Flip (feat. Lauren Auder)
5. Everything Is The Same
6. The Path Less Travelled
7. Makeshift Tourniquet
8. Time Well Spent
9. In The Front (feat. John Glacier)
10. Trust (feat. Matt Maltese)
11. Stress Test
12. Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone
13. Unlucky For Some…

It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double album to show for it. …And Out Of The Void Came Love is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life. Following the release of Total Depravity, Andrews released a solo album and began a worldwide tour. One night, while lashing out at a particularly intense moment on piano, he broke his wrist on stage. He played on and finished the rest of the tour, but it wasn’t until he got it examined much later that he realized what a bad move that was. The convalescence that followed meant a lengthy hiatus from touring, so he did what he does best and stayed at home and wrote songs. Just when his hand had healed sufficiently for him to play again, The Veils found themselves in need of a new record label, but Finn set about starting to make a new record regardless. Producer Tom Healy invited Finn to his small studio underneath the old Crystal Palace ballroom in Mount Eden, and they listened through the legions of songs he had amassed throughout the previous year. Following another two years of intermittent recording between lockdowns, Finn’s wife became pregnant, and yet more songs started coming. By the time the songs had been recorded, it was clear that arranging the album into two halves best suited such varied material—but the meaning of the songs as a whole still eluded Andrews. The result of all these years of questioning, confinement and precarious uncertainty is this magnificent new double album. It is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle. Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums), the NZTrio and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals. The Veils have toured consistently throughout their twenty year history and garnered a formidable reputation as one of the world’s greatest live bands. They have also been praised by film directors Paolo Sorrentino, Tim Burton and David Lynch who have all used their music on their soundtracks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Time
2. No Limit Of Stars
3. Undertow
4. Bullfighter (Hand Of God)
5. The World Of Invisible Things
6. Epoch
7. Diamonds And Coal
8. Rings Of Saturn
9. Made From Love With Far To Go
10. The Pearl (Part II)
11. Someday My Love Will Come
12. The Day I Meet My Murderer
13. Between The Ocean And The Storm
14. I've Been Waiting

The rawness of The Veils' Nux Vomica can be enjoyed to a degree never heard before, with Ba Da Bing's limited edition pressing of the records with the original mixes by Nick Rainey left intact. Originally released in 2006, The Veils sophomore album Nux Vomica was praised for its “Herculean intensity” by The Guardian, and called “a heady blast of gothic psychodrama” by The Observer, while Pitchfork praised leader Finn Andrews’ “magnetic, outsize persona.”

Long out of print, the vinyl version was resuscitated by Music on Vinyl in 2017 and quickly sold out. Now, The Veils present the definitive version of their most heralded album to date, which dusts off the original mixes by legendary producer Nick Launay (Public Image Limited, The Birthday Party, INXS and Midnight Oil) and offers them to fans here for the first time. Taken from the original two-inch analog tape reels, each song was carefully remastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios in London. Nux Vomica was the first of many creative reinventions for Andrews, who at 22 had already released an album on Rough Trade, moved from New Zealand to London to form a band, then back to New Zealand where he once again started the band anew. The creative progression is clear in Andrews’ incisive lyricism and knack for hell-fire dramatics.

From the positively mirthful “Advice for Young Mothers to Be” to the simmering ominousness of “Nux Vomica,” from the ornate spectacle of “Calliope!” to the Grand Guignol of “Jesus for the Jugular”, Nux Vomica is a remarkably accomplished album for a musician so young who was facing the pressures of British musical stardom. All intentions to release this dark and raw set of recordings were dashed upon submission to Rough Trade for approval, who didn't like the results. They hired mixing engineer Bill Price to adjust the sound and add additional instrumentation. Launey’s mixes were shelved and forgotten about, while the album nonetheless went on to be a critical highpoint for the band and is much loved to this day.

"Time Stays, We Go" marks the beginning of a captivating new era for a band already hailed as “The best and most unsettling thing I’ve seen in music this year” by The LA Times and “Quite possibly the most underrated band on the planet” by NME.

Fourth album for the renown group mixed by Bill Price (producer legend for The Clash). Previous releases have been out on Rough Trade Records (Beggars Banquet Group), but 'Time Stays, We Go' will be released on the artist own label Pitch Beast Records! - available in three editions: Limited double disc set, standard CD edition (with 16-page booklet), Deluxe 180 gram coloured & numbered vinyl with CD + MP3 coupon inserted!

The album consists of ten songs culled from a batch of literally hundreds of songs that Adam Greenspan and Nick Launay (producer The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah, Yeahs) helped sorting through. Long time collaborators Sophia Burn (bass), Raife Burchell (drums), Daniel Raishbrook (guitar) and new member Uberto Rapisardi (hammond organ) help create a rich musical backdrop for lead singer Finn Andrews’ songs.

"Time Stays, We Go" shows The Veils at the very height of their creative powers so far, deftly combining two distinct sides of their personality, or as Andrews calls it, “The Pop & The Snarl”.

TRACK LISTING

CD1
1. Through The Deep, Dark Wood
2. Train With No Name
3. Candy Apple Red
4. Dancing With The Tornado
5. The Pearl
6. Sign Of Your Love
7. Turn From The Rain
8. Birds
9. Another Night On Earth
10. Out From Valley & Into The Stars

CD2 (The Veils At Abbey Road Studios EP)
1. Out From Valley & Into The Stars (Live)
2. Turn From The Rain (Live)
3. Birds (Live)
4. The Pearl (Live)
5. Summer & Smoke (Acoustic Solo)

Elvis Veira was born on the Carribean island of Nevis and moved to England alongside his pianist and music teacher mother at the age of 2, quickly becoming profficient on piano, guitar & bass by the time he was in his early teens. His love for playing music and singing in choirs propelled him on this musical journey, and his late teens to 20s saw him supporting top acts such Heatwave, Wham, Second Image, Katrina and the Waves, Mezzo Forte, Chris Rea, Shakatak and many others.

In 1983 he started working under the alias VeiraKrew, and a couple of years later in 1985 laid down this 12" at Bedford's Thatch Cottage Studio on a shoe-string budget. Backed up with the title-track's killer instrumental version and the b-side "Welcome to a Dream" it was self-released by Elvis on a x1000 run (since becoming quite the collectors item, with clean copies changing hands for up to £150 a piece).

Following the release of Sexy Lady, Elvis continued playing and working as a session musician and vocalist, going on to release a further 12" in 1988 signing to Stevie V's Beatbox International label for the house-inflected track "Good Stuff". Fast forwarding to present day, Elvis has had some time away from music but is now back actively playing and producing, alongside working with the OMG (Outreach Music Group) - helping to provide support and music therapy within the NHS.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sexy Lady
2. Sexy Lady (Instrumental)
3. Welcome To A Dream

Listening to Laura Veirs is like looking up into the night sky and suddenly witnessing a meteor shower: there's something startling and magical, both intimate and awesome, about her songs. The nature-obsessed images Veirs conjures up and the mesmerising sound she creates are as indelible as the blaze of shooting stars. "Saltbreakers", her third album release in three years, is her most beautifully realised band-oriented disc yet. Produced by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Built To Spill), it is by turns haunting, playful, tender and fierce, embracing everything from machine-driven beats, to angelic gospel choirs, to fuzzed-out guitars and driving alt-rock rhythms. "To The Country", was recorded in the Nashville cabin once occupied by June Carter and Johnny Cash, with Veirs backed by an eight-member Baptist choir, some of whom had previously performed on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? With its gorgeous shape notes singing, it is the stunning centrepiece of an album that is as entrancing as staring at the sea or gazing at the stars, waiting for the next one to fall.

Originally released on CD in 2004, later released on vinyl in 2007 and out of print since 2010 and widely seen as a groundbreaking album in the Laura Veirs canon. “With her landmark fourth album, Veirs evoked the Pacific Northwest in climactic imagery” - Uncut.

“Carbon Glacier is a cold, beautiful and engaging record that translates the bleak, isolated vastness of nature into the bleak, isolated vastness of the modern city-sprawl, leaving one voice to sing in solitude.” - Pitchfork.

“This is an oddly beautiful album - far more engaging than you’d expect of one written in a grey Seattle winter, pondering mortality, Moby Dick and the great sheet of blackened ice after which it’s named.” - The Guardian.

Producer/drummer Tucker Martine (Modest Mouse). Martine allows the experimentation to bloom in all the right places, resulting in a record that never overworks itself, despite being packed to the gills with ghostly glockenspiels, organs, random percussion, and trombone.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ether Sings
A2. Icebound Stream
A3. Rapture
A4. Lonely Angel Dust
A5. The Cloud Room
A6. Wind Is Blowing Stars
A7. Shadow Blues
B1. Anne Bonny Rag
B2. Snow Camping
B3. Chimney Sweeping Man
B4. Salvage A Smile
B5. Blackened Anchor
B6. Riptide

Found Light may be Laura Veirs’ 12th studio LP, but it also, in many ways, feels like her debut. If 2020’s My Echo—written and mixed just prior to her 2019 split from her longtime husband, her longtime producer, and the father of her two sons—was her divorce album, Found Light is about what comes after.

Found Light is a liberating collection of inquisitive and surprisingly assured snapshots of healing and personal growth, and her very first release with co-production credits. Despite the sadness and suffering that prompted these 14 graceful wonders, the result is a testament to the inspiration of independence, to shaping new possibilities for yourself even after great loss. It is a reminder that we are always capable of something more.

TRACK LISTING

Autumn Song
Ring Song
Seaside Haiku
Naked Hymn
My Lantern
Signal
Can't Help But Sing
Eucalyptus
New Arms
Sword Song
Time Will Show You
T & O
Komorebi
Winter Windows

I love these musicians [Sam Amidon, Karl Blau, Charlotte Greve, Shahzad Ismaily] - I've played with some of them for two years and some for over twenty - We met up last spring at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn and rehearsed for one day before recording this album at the nearby Owl Parlor on March 29 and 30, 2023

It fills me with joy to hear my songs reinterpreted through the spirits of these masterful musicians (who are also my dear friends). I hope you enjoy this document, too. Thank you to Oren Bloedow at The Owl Parlor for creating a beautiful space for us to perform and record this music." Pressed on Black- In- Ultra-Clear color vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Autumn Song
2. White Cherry
3. Ring Song
4. Time Will Show You
5. Signal 
6. Seaside Haiku
7. Pink Light
8. New Arms
9. My Lantern
10. I Can See Your Tracks

“My Echo is my 11th solo album. It’s my ‘my songs knew I was getting divorced before I did’ album. My conscious mind was trying as hard as I could to keep my family together but my subconscious mind was working on the difficult struggles in my marital life. I was part of a “Secret Poetry Group” that met and wrote poems monthly for a year during the writing of this record. Many of my poems turned into songs for this album. By the time the album was being mixed last fall, my ex-husband/producer Tucker Martine and I had decided to go our separate ways. We were a great musical team for many years but we struggled to be compatible in our marriage and family life and that struggle is reflected in this album.

In this new batch of songs I imagine escaping from some sort of prison or cage. Advancing age, the confines of domesticity, our oppressive government and the threat of the apocalypse permeate these songs. In these songs my heart craves certainty and permanence but none is to be found. It’s an album about disintegration. It reveals my artist’s intuition at work.

Although these songs were written before quarantine they are strangely relevant to times in which we find ourselves currently. You will find me staring at the walls (Turquoise Walls). You will find me feeling grateful to be alive (Memaloose Island). You will find me accepting the ephemeral nature of life (Vapor Trails and All the Things). You will find me searching for personal freedom while feeling trapped (Freedom Feeling). You will find me trying to accept that sometimes the best thing to do is to sit still and do nothing at all (Another Space and Time).

Produced by Tucker Martine in the summer and fall of 2019 in Portland, OR. Includes appearances from Jim James, Bill Frisell, Karl Blau, Matt Ward.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Laura Veirs proves an essential voice in these times, mixing the brittle folky guitars and soft vocals of her earlier work with a more recent downtempo plaintiveness. It's a heady combination, and one that continues the legacy she's built up so far, but taking the sound into new realms.

TRACK LISTING

1 Freedom Feeling
2 Another Space And Time
3 Turquoise Walls
4 Memaloose Island
5 End Times
6 Burn Too Bright
7 Brick Layer
8 All The Things
9 I Sing To The Tall Man
10 Vapor Trails

They are about my family, my lovers and me. I recorded them alone in my living room into my voice memo app. I like their relaxed feel. These songs were mastered but we made no edits to the recordings. I hope you enjoy this intimate glimpse into my artistic process. All songs by me except "Up is a Nice Place to Be" by Rosalie Sorrels and "The Archers" with lyrics adapted from a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca.

TRACK LISTING

1. Creatures Of A Day 
2. If You Could Hold Someone 
3.Rocks Of Time 
4. Tree
5. Climber 
6. Up Is A Nice Place To Be 
7. The Archers 
8. Tiger Ocean Instrumental 
9. Smoke Song 
10. Valentine 
11. Magnolia Sphere 
12. Swan Dive 
13. Next One, Maybe 
14. Piano Improv 
15. Beautiful Dreams

A prolific songwriter for nearly twenty years, Laura Veirs proves the depth of her musical skill on her tenth solo album, The Lookout, released via Bella Union. Here is a batch of inimitable, churning, exquisite folk-pop songs; a concept album about the fragility of precious things. Produced by Grammy-nominated Tucker Martine, Veirs’ longtime collaborator, The Lookout is a soundtrack for turbulent times, full of allusions to protectors: the camper stoking a watch fire, a mother tending her children, a sailor in a crows nest and a lightning rod channelling energy.

“The Lookout is about the need to pay attention to the fleeting beauty of life and to not be complacent; it’s about the importance of looking out for each other,” says Veirs. “I’m addressing what’s happening around me with the chaos of post-election America, the racial divides in our country, and a personal reckoning with the realities of midlife: I have friends who’ve died; I struggle with how to balance life as an artist with parenting young children.”

Written and produced on the heels of Veirs’ acclaimed album with Neko Case and k.d. Lang (case/lang/veirs), The Lookout integrates the fluency of collaboration with Veirs’ notorious work ethic. The twelve songs on the album are the result of a years’ worth of daily writing in her attic studio in Portland, Oregon.

“Twenty years ago when I was just starting out with my punk band, it never occurred to me to write five versions of a song,” says Veirs. “I’ve learned to see how malleable lyrics and melodies can be. I have more tools as a musician so I write many versions of songs until I find the right fit.” Such range is demonstrated on the operatic vocals of “The Meadow” and the intricate finger picking on “Watch Fire.” “The Lookout,” the album’s title track, is an ecstatic anthem to trusted relationships.

The Lookout draws on the talents of a time-tested crew of musicians: Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Eli Moore, Eyvind Kang and Martine. Says Veirs, “These guys are a good hang, ego-free and wonderful players who just want to serve the songs.” Sufjan Stevens and Jim James provide guest vocals.
For Martine, who fell, almost two decades ago, for Veirs’ unique sound after listening to a tape cassette she’d sent him in the mail, this album reflects a bar that keeps getting raised. Both familiar and strange, The Lookout gets better with repeated listens, warming to the skin like a cherished saddlebag, critical for the journey ahead.

TRACK LISTING

1. Margaret Sands
2. Everybody Needs You
3. Seven Falls
4. Mountains Of The Moon
5. Watch Fire
6. Heavy Petals
7. The Lookout
8. The Meadow
9. The Canyon
10. Lightning Rod
11. When It Grows Darkest
12. Zozobra

"Araca Azul", from 1972, is known as Caetano Veloso's 'experimental' album, with the critics agreeing that it's one of the Tropicalia artist's great creative moments. In Veloso's own words 'I made this album without thinking, without taking time to stop and think...' He refers to the album's 'insolent experimentalism' and calls it a kind of musical 'last stand'. All the differing styles of Veloso's work are here, from the most beautiful traditional acoustic guitar and voice love songs, via bossa-influenced oddities, to psyche-pop swingers.

This album of classic 60s tinged pop, co-produced by Matthew Sweet, is now available in this expanded edition. Remastered and with new liner notes and photos, it also includes a bonus disc of demos.

Brand new limited 7" from VD, blowing the dust out of their Barrett-esque psyched pop, this brings 60s pop to the future - amazing. 'Our previously loved psychedelic friends, Velvet Davenport have just sent over their newest slice of 60’s infused pop. On their recent LA vacay they met up with like minded nostalgists Ariel Pink and Gary War, the resulting “Get Out” is an acid flashback into a more liberal state of mind'. - Weeklytapedeck.com.

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

Created during a particularly tumultuous time in Nutzman’s life that involved drug abuse, bank fraud, and a house fire, it’s unsurprising that Bulli would echo his present state of mind. Bulli feels anticipatory, often frantic and manic but given the period of his life that it emerged from its songs glimmer with a pop sheen, as fragmentary soundscapes meld leftfield electronic sounds with alternative rock, power pop, even tender R&B and deft hip-hop.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting
1.  Pop Song 2
2.  Never Said Peep
3.  Pop Song 1
4.  Sinker
5.  Bell Clapper
6.  Ebony Eggshell
7.  Ballad Smaller
8.  Shiny
9.  Georgia
10.  The Foreigner
11.  Animal
12.  Sub Tieties


LP Tracklisting

Side A
A1.  Beginner**
A2.  Never Said Peep**
A3.  The Foreigner
A4.  Pop Song 2
A5.  Pop Song 1
A6.  Bell Clapper
A7.  Repedo
A8.  Ballad Smaller

Side B
B1.  Shiny
B2.  Legal Tender**
B3.  Sinker
B4.  Ebony Eggshell
B5.  Georgia
B6.  Over**
B7.  Sub Tieties
B8.  Animal

(** Exclusive To Vinyl)

On Neon Brown, Velvet Negroni is a griot relaying the life and times of his own island—it’s a singular place, with the squeak and thrum of guitar strings looped over drum machine beats accented by steely marimbas, all creating a pocket for one of the most authentic and original artistic voices ever committed to tape.

You follow his voice as it rhymes in double time, or hiccups and la-las through a break, or croons from a room down the hall, as it unfolds into another story of lost love, or another joke about lost drugs, as he tries to make sense of a life spent in the (sometimes harrowing) pursuit of communion.

Turns out what sounds like a lonely island is in fact the city of Minneapolis. Velvet Negroni grew up in an outer suburb of the Twin Cities as Jeremy Nutzman, a black kid adopted into a white evangelical Christian family. His fundamentalist missionary of a mother drove him to virtuosity, both as a classically trained concert pianist and a competitive figure skater, but he had to climb out his bedroom window to play guitar in his first band.

In 2016 after years of performing under a schizophrenic rotation of various aliases, Nutzman finally landed on a persona that he felt he could be proud of. It was in a fancy cocktail bar in Austin, Texas that he hatched Velvet Negroni. A tour opening for Bon Iver followed, as well as a writing credit on Kid Cudi and Kanye West’s “Feel the Love” off their 2018 album Kids See Ghosts. That same year, he released his first singles on b4, “First Time” and “Crybaby.”

It was in the summer of 2018, together with his friends, producers Psymun (Future, Young Thug, Dua Saleh) and Tickle Torture, that Velvet Negroni composed the stories on NEON BROWN, stories he’s been waiting a lifetime to tell.

TRACK LISTING

1. One One
2. Wine Green
3. Kurt Cobain
4. Poster Child
5. Confetti
6. U.Dunno
7. Choir Boy
8. Scratchers
9. Nester
10. Feel Let
11. Ectodub

What can you say? Everything a rock and roll record should be? Sexy, dangerous, moody, poignant, poetic, arty. One of the most influential records ever. A music peopled with misfits, dreamers, musicians and magicians. A world created by Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Moss and Mo Tucker for us to step into, for us to believe in. And to think in '67 no-one was listening! 

45th Anniversary Edition includes remastered sound from the original tapes, original gatefold sleeve artwork with peelable banana sticker on front, 180g heavyweight vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Sunday Morning 2:53
I'm Waiting For The Man 4:37
Femme Fatale 2:35
Venus In Furs 5:07
Run, Run, Run 4:18
All Tomorrow's Parties 5:55
Heroin 7:05
There She Goes Again 2:30
I'll Be Your Mirror 2:01
Black Angel's Death Song 3:10
European Son To Delmore Schwartz 7:44

Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records.

2LP Expanded Edition of the legendary final concerts with Lou Reed recorded in 1970. Limited Edition Purple and Magenta Vinyl. Includes “I’m Waiting for the Man”, “Sweet Jane”, “Pale Blue Eyes”, “Femme Fatale” and more.

"After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970; label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result, and with appropriate irony it turned out to be the first VU album that made any noticeable impact on commercial radio -- and also their swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. But while Lou Reed always wrote great rock & roll songs with killer hooks, on Loaded his tunes were at last given a polished but intelligent production that made them sound like the hits they should have been, and there's no arguing that "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" are as joyously anthemic as anything he's ever recorded. And if this release generally maintains a tight focus on the sunny side of the VU's personality (or would that be Reed's personality?), "New Age" and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" prove he had hardly abandoned his contemplative side, and "Train Around the Bend" is a subtle but revealing metaphor for his weariness with the music business. " - All Music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Who Loves The Sun
2. Sweet Jane
3. Rock & Roll
4. Cool It Down
5. New Age
6. Head Held High
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
8. I Found A Reason
9. Train Round The Bend
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

CD Bonus Tracks - Session Outtakes:
11. I'm Sticking With You
12. Ocean
13. I Love You
14. Ride Into The Sun

Lou Reed's last album with the Velvet Underground has remained a reliable fixture on Rolling Stone's 500 best albums of all time, and others. Earning a 10/10 from Pitchfork and top accolades from Q, Spin, Uncut, AllMusic, Christgau's Record Guide, and others, this album is a fan favorite featuring hit singles "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll."

The Velvet Underground’s classic self-titled third album, originally released in March 1969, by MGM, was a departure from the band’s first two albums in more ways than one. Gone was co-founding member John Cale, and in his place was a 21-year-old with Long Island roots named Doug Yule, who stepped right in. The record was also a stylistic leap, as Lou Reed described to Rolling Stone editor David Fricke, “I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us. Fricke calls it “a stunning turnaround… 10 tracks of mostly warm, explicit sympathy and optimism, expressed with melodic clarity, set in gleaming double-guitar jangle and near-whispered balladry. Or as the late rock critic Lester Bangs put it, “How do you define a group like this, who moved from ‘Heroin’ to ‘Jesus’ in two short years?”

How indeed do you describe an album which includes such classics as “Candy Says,” Reed’s ode to Warhol superstar Candy Darling; the aching love song “Pale Blue Eyes,” allegedly inspired by a girlfriend at Syracuse University who got away, with lead vocals by Yule; the inspiring “Beginning to See The Light”; the spoken-word narrative and musique concrete of “The Murder Mystery,” and the beautiful Maureen Tucker-sung “After Hours”?

Celebrating the 45th anniversary and following on from the Super Deluxe CD release in 2014, we will be reissuing The Velvet Underground on 180g vinyl.

Curated by director Todd Haynes, the official soundtrack to his feature documentary (on Apple TV+) about the highly influential, iconic New York band, The Velvet Underground.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: NY legends The Velvet Underground feature on this new documentary from Todd Haynes, and this is the soundtrack to that feature. What we have in essence though, is just a great collection of tunes from VU and associated acts. It's a superb collection on it's own merits, and a superb soundtrack too.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Venus In Furs - The Velvet Underground
The Wind - The Diablos
17 XII 63 NYC The Fire Is A Mirror (excerpt) - The Theatre Of Eternal Music
Heroin [mono] - The Velvet Underground
Side B
Road Runner (Live) - Bo Diddley
The Ostrich - The Primitives
I'm Waiting For The Man - The Velvet Underground
Chelsea Girls - Nico
Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground
Side C
Sister Ray (Live) - The Velvet Underground
Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground
Side D
Foggy Notion - The Velvet Underground
After Hours (Live) Version 1 - The Velvet Underground
Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground
Ocean - The Velvet Underground
All Tomorrow’s Parties - The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat is one of the most confrontational and inspirational second albums ever made by a rock band. Recorded in a matter of days at the end of the summer of 1967, a season in which everything seemed possible in rock and much of it happened at now-mythic speed, White Light/White Heat is an album that reeks of the gritty NY street life and could only have been made in New York, by one band. And that group is the classic-quartet lineup of The Velvet Underground – singer-guitarist Lou Reed; bassist-organist and viola player John Cale; guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison; and drummer Maureen Tucker.

"No one listened to it. But there it is, forever – the quintessence of articulated punk. And no one goes near it." - Lou Reed, August 2013

“Cited by nearly every group in punk's long lineage and by more than a few arty types, the Velvets defined New York rock, poised between street-level grit and literary irony, rock simplicity and minimalistic drones, clarity and noise.”– The New York Times.

It's short, it's fast, it's loud and we bet you'll be humming the chorus for ages. This is the 2nd single from Venetia And The Voltage - and band with more energy than a Hadron Collider. The ethos is simple; great songs combined with club beats and breaks recreated through the medium of a ridiculously talented live band. Club beats have the space to breathe and explode straight out of the speakers, controlling your dancing limbs, guitar licks smack you round the chops while the melodies infect your brain completing a total system takeover.

"Greg Hates Car Culture" was Venetian Snares' first ever vinyl release. Long out of print, it came out in 1999, as the third release on Minneapolis label History Of The Future. Aaron Funk's hallmarks were there from the start. His absurdist sense of humour, the razor sharp edits and his use of odd time-signatures. There is a rawness here, not often captured on later records, where you can imagine Aaron playing live in front of a room full of young breakcore fanatics. Indeed most of the tracks here were recorded live, tweaking his effects and EQ on the fly, to DAT from his Amiga. The album opens with "Personal Discourse", recorded in 1997, which samples Aaron calling into a Dominatrix live on community cable TV, while "Fuck A Stranger In The Ass" samples from the film The Big Lebowski. The track "Aqap" has a different sound to the others having been recorded later, in 1998, on Aaron's first PC. We have also added three hitherto unreleased 1997 tracks to this reissue. Two of them "Eating America.." and "Punk Kids" appeared on Venetian Snares rare self-released 1998 cassette "Spells" and the long sought after "Milk" was only passed around by his friends. "Greg Hates Car Culture" lets you hear the raw energy of a musician at the birth of his sound.

TRACK LISTING

01/ Personal Discourse
02/ Like Tooth Decay
03/ Fuck A Stranger In The Ass
04/ Point Blank
05/ Boiled Angel
06/ Cricket Spine Bin
07/ Aqap
08/ Milk
09/ Eating America With Pointed Dentures
10/ Punk Kids

Newly signed to Full Time Hobby, VENN’s debut album ‘Runes’ was recorded at the Total Refreshment Centre in London, by Kristian Craig Robinson (AKA Capitol K) of The Archie Bronson Outfit and Loose Meat. Lyrically, each song occupies its own territory, while contributing to the wider thematic arc of the record. Themes of the individual existing within a moment we all share, the incredible flux of culture, the search for nodes of meaning and love, and the confrontation of ones’ own vanity and narcissism amid all this crisis. The accompanying video for first single ‘Real Blood’ was directed by photographer, Emma Gibney, and shot by editor, Mark Norgate. It is described by the band as “a visual representation of the song’s deeper meaning – of the struggle to feel real in an increasingly cold, closed culture, to remain human even when you are confronted with inhumanity”, while exploring tangential themes of mutual and reciprocal domination, if indeed such a thing exists.

TRACK LISTING

1. Legacy Project
2. Real Blood
3. Slowly Sinking
4. Esalen 64
5. Supernature
6. A Smaller Part
7. Bigger Fiction
8. Dave Land
9. Waxen Palm

It's the new year and time for a new sound, so give this winner from Whities alumni Venus Ex Machina a go. Assembled out of digital incantations, choral ambience, layered electronics and no input mixer scree, this warped and weird fusion of gnarly EBM, tough techno and out-there electronica is billed as a requiem for an Earth beset by environmental change. 
Upon an initial listen to the squirming acid and rabid drum boxes of "Quaraquara", I was pretty sure I'd missed my meds this morning, and by the middle of the eerie "Paraquat" the paranoia had seriously taken hold. Still, the polyrhythms and 303 of "Nacht" are on hand to help you dance your troubles away before "Mysterium" and "Grace" offer a little EBM and techno respectively. 'Elephant' serves precise percussion and subtle sound design, before 'Bloodmoon' and 'Avril' sign off with otherworldly ambience. Deep and dope folks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Tessellating between techno, industrial, EBM and electronica, the menacing 'Lux' is the perfect soundtrack for life right now. Totally fucked in the most appropriate way.

TRACK LISTING

Quaraquara
Paraquat
Nacht
Mysterium
Grace
Elephant
Bloodmoon
Avril

Ever since they arrived on the Norwegian indie scene at age 17, the Oslo-based four-piece Veps has released a steady stream of jaw droppingly mature, indie pop gems. Now, as they are all in their final teenage year, Veps announces their debut album Oslo Park for July 21st release on Kanine Records. Continuing to dish out indie pop bangers with a carefree, DIY attitude, Oslo Park is Veps at their most dynamic. Produced by fellow Norwegian Matias Tellez (Girl in Red, Sondre Lerche), Oslo Park is an emotional, fun ride through adolescence. Feisty rocker “His Brother” evokes the spirit of the alternative rock scene of the early 1990s, before the minor key gem “Crawl” breaks your heart with its honest depiction of teenage heartbreak. The gorgeous ballads “Ballerina (Norah)” and “To the Bedwetters” are both, in their unique way, an instant emotional time capsule to the melancholy and vulnerable aspects of being young and searching for your identity. If their EP, Open the Door, was described by the band as a “love letter to our teenage years,” this album, raw, emotional, beautiful and melodic, is more of a goodbye, perhaps.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 The Other Side Of The Door
A2 Mooney Tunes
A3 UFO
A4 A Show Of Hands
A5 His Brother

Side B
B1 Crawl
B2 Ballerina (Norah)
B3 To The Bedwetters
B4 The Credits
B5 No. 2

The Veras are four fellas making music inspired by all the great music from the 50s right up to about 5 minutes ago, and now have Something To Say. Drummer Dan Taylor, who put forward an idea of recording a song, explains; "The Action are, quite simply, ineffably ace, and how they never had huge success back in the day is beyond belief. 'Something To Say' is one of a batch of songs which were only really recorded as demos around '67 and '68, for a possible LP which was never released at the time.

After playing shows backing soul legend PP Arnold on numerous occasions and having rock legends Kenney Jones (Small Faces, Faces, Who) and Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) getting up to play with them on numerous occasions ,all sorts of folk were urging them to put out their own material. And so, after a 15 year hiatus, they have! And their second-ever gig playing their brand new material was with the aforementioned Glen Matlock and long-term David Bowie collaborator Earl Slick! The Veras' debut album is here! Rock 'n' roll, folk, freakbeat, psychedelia, glam, punk, new wave, indie - it's all there, fused together to create a unique, identifiable but kaleidoscopic Veras vibe.

Following their much-acclaimed self-titled debut from 2014, Motor City Drum Ensemble’s Danilo Plessow and Innervisions' Marcus Worgull reunite for more synth daydreaming on the suitably titled “II”. The new outing continues where the first full-length left off, strolling further down the luminous and undulating path that the duo turned into, influenced in equal measures by kosmische, krautrock, minimal wave and synth soundtracks. This latest batch of instrumental cuts opens with the strictly balearic vibe of "Norderney", a softly swinging, light-footed recording with a keen sense for structure. Featuring a guest performance from Robbert Van Der Bildt (aka Kaap) on guitar, it’s a telling starting point for the album that - similar to Vermont’s self-titled debut - successfully navigates between economic, careful studio arrangements and playful, incidental exploration further pushing into jam session territory. Van Der Bildt's guitar returns on the plucky, curious "Ufer", where Vermont showcase a renewed sense for jazz-like improvisation - same as on the cuts "Dschuna", "Chanang" and "Wenik", which also include contributions from Dermot O'Mahony and Tadhg Murphy on strings. Still, Vermont's synth contraptions remain the album's main attraction, with the extensive array of gear encompassing an entire panopticon of analog bling - from Arp Oddysey and Moog Prodigy to Fender Rhodes, Juno and Prophet, list-studying gear heads will find lots to drool upon. Consequently, tracks like "Chemtrails", "Unruh" or "Gebirge" err on the machine side of things, expertly interweaving arpeggiated sequences for maximum atmospheric effect. Foreboding, slightly menacing synth motives as on "Skorbut" or "Chemtrails" are perfectly balanced with the casual ambient of "Hallo Von Der Anderen Seite" and the nostalgic warmth of "Demut" - while the gentle push of the masterful "Ki-Bou" even carries a whiff of classic deep house, linking the Vermont project to Plessow and Worgull’s main careers as dance floor movers and shakers.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Danilo Plessow (aka MCDE) and Marcus Worgull return as Vermont with another gorgeous LP of the finest modern kosmische. Turn on, tune in and drop out!

Brighton rock n roll prodigy Theo Verney is set to release a brand new EP in June. The distorted joy that is the five track 'Brain Disease EP' will be released on Mount Olympus Recordings 8th June. The 'Brain Disease' EP, written and recorded entirely by Theo in Brighton earlier this year, is a honed, fuzzy pop progression from the looser psych jams of last year's much acclaimed EP 'Heavy Sunn' released on Hate Hate Hate Records (The Wytches, Fat White Family).

The vinyl is limited to 500 and pressed on red vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Brain Disease
A2 Mountain Rose
B1 Wrong Again
B2 Hate Within
B3 Same Look In My Eye

The Vernon Spring's sophomore album 'What's Going On' is a cathartic, powerful and timely response to Marvin Gaye's seminal 1971 album of the same name. The album is composed of a tapestry of field recordings, samples, and speech excerpts all woven around The Vernon Spring's central highly intimate muted piano performances.

TRACK LISTING

A1 What's Going On
A2 What's Happening Brother
A3 Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky)
A4 To Be Human (Jazz Skit #1)
A5 Save The Children
A6 Somebody (Jazz Skit #2)
A7 Grow Up (Jazz Skit #3)
A8 God Is Love
B1 Mercy Mercy Me
B2 It's What I Could See (Jazz Skit #5)
B3 Right On
B4 Wholy Holy
B5 Dad's Records (Jazz Skit #5)
B6 Shot Down (Jazz Skit #6)
B7 Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Recorded at Studio Somil, Rio De Janeiro in 1972, the album was produced, arranged, directed by the self-taught, Arthur Verocai. Previously he had worked on many records in various capacities, with artists including Jorge Ben, Ivan Lins and Celia, this album gave him the chance to do his thing in it's most pure form. The LP has an orchestral folk-soul, jazz, funk or lo-fi electronic experimentation feel, in a similar vein to Shuggie Otis, Charles Stepney (the LP uses 20 piece string arrangements) or Jorge Ben, with lyrics (sung in Portuguese) that subtly challenge the repressive military dictatorship of the time. Featured musicians include Robertinho Silva, Paulo Moura, Edson Maciel, Oberdan Magalhaes (Banda Black Rio) and Tonhino Horta.  For a very long time, Mr Bongo have been trying to re-issue this record. A true and complete album masterpiece in every sense of the word, considered by many people to be one of the greatest ever made, regardless of genre.  Mastered in 2012 from the original Continental master tapes and supervised by Arthur Verocai, the album comes complete with original replica gatefold artwork.

TRACK LISTING

Caboclo 2:48
Pelas Sombras 2:13
Sylvia 2:59
Presente Grego 2:29
Dedicada A Ela 3:30
Seriado 1:40
Na Boca Do Sol 2:52
Velho Parente 2:17
O Mapa 2:38
Karina (Domingo No Grajaú) 5:14

This excellent young emocore band are based on the East Coast of America and look to be heading for big things, there's a real buzz about them, a vitality and fire that you can't ignore. Veronica (a daft name) will be sitting alongside Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182 and the Ataris in next to no time.

Voam present a new EP from Colombian producer, DJ and TraTraTrax co-founder, Verraco. Taking influences from hardgroove, dembow and UK soundsystem music and blending them with cutting edge sound design, these three tracks present a dramatic and forward thinking vision of the hybrid possibilities of techno.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hybridized technoid stylings from Columbian producer Verraco whose panel beaten modulations ignite a cataclysmic nuclear inferno on planets much vaster than our own.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Escándaloo
B1: Jajaja
B2: How Is This Even Possible?

David Versace is an Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer based in Meanjin, Queensland. Growing up in a very musical household it was always important to express and embrace all types of music and sonics. His sound ranges from Jazz and Samba to ambient works and the odd dance-floor heater. David also plays in Meanjin nu-jazz dance outfit First Beige.

Since late 2019, he has self released around 20 different tracks and with the most recent signing to La Sape Records David is excited to announce his debut solo album 'Okra' a conceptual body of work that flows through a culmination of raw organic concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Something a little bit different for you here, a very relaxing blend of soft instrumental jazz percussion interspersed with more upbeat drops here and there, complete with gorgeous cover. It's been enjoyed a lot in the shop with the sound of September rain.

TRACK LISTING

1. Summer Party
2. KP Cruisin
3. Saguaro
4. Awake For You
5. 45 Minutes
6. The More We Love
7. Heat Rays

This is a licensed release of the very rare and very much in demand Lu-Lu Bell by The Versatiles. It was initially released in Jamaica in 1969 followed by Amalgamated in the U.K. in 1970. It has never been released on a single since. Only one copy is presently on sale at USD 1200. Beside its rarity and monetary value, this cracking song combines suggestive lyrics with a cheerful call-and-response tune delivered on a frantic rhythm with the chorus strongly reminiscent of Ray Charles’ “What I say”. Rock on! The B-side was originally released as the B side of Lu-Lu Bell on the 1969’s 7inch vinyl single on the Amalgamated label. This song has never been repressed on 7” vinyl until now. This lovely gem is another great example of the popular Rocksteady/Reggae hybrids with its sweet harmonies on top of an infectious Reggae beat. A brilliant B-side and a perfect flip for this killer double sider. Long long time indeed!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hens-teeth-rare rocksteady from 1969 Jamaica which shows the early development into reggae. The kinda shit collectors would give their right arm for - never before reissued.

TRACK LISTING

Lu-Lu Bell
Long Long Time

From the depths of an angry, lost generation's heart and soul comes the new album from Verse entitled "From Anger And Rage". Serving as a follow up to the band's "Rebuild" album, the new album is a manifestation of the band's growth, reflection, and their struggle to speak out against a world that is suffocating, silencing, and invalidating an entire mass of resistant voices. The song writing is more cohesive than ever, hitting harder, heavier, and with much more focus. The vocals are angrier, more personal, more desperate than those of the past, venomously lashing out at the status quo, pleading with the silenced and the fearful to rise and embrace the strength in our numbers. For those still burning inside, take heart; from anger and rage comes rebellion.

Like many important bands, Seattle quartet Versing got their start in college radio—Tacoma's KUPS. The group's main songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Daniel Salas served as alternative music director there, where he met guitarist Graham Baker, drummer Max Keyes, and bassist Kirby Lochner. Now Versing are poised to spread their coolly combustible brand of rock on those said airwaves...and beyond if the world knows what's good for it. Baker, Keyes, Lochner, and Salas have risen through Seattle's competitive rock ecosphere with nonchalant élan. They cheekily titled a previous album Nirvana, but never mind the bleach: Versing isn't emulating Sub Pop's most famous artist.

Rather, these four twentysomething aesthetes are forging an exciting sound that finds a golden mean between lustrous noise and ebullient melody. With Versing, songwriting is obviously crucial, but much of the pleasure in 10000 comes from its guitar textures. They're swarming, yet also spiky and agile. Gently chiding the Seattle music scene's self-seriousness while acknowledging Versing's playfulness and irony, Salas says, “There's a 'let's just fuck around and see what comes out,' aspect of what we do, which I think is uncommon for Seattle bands.” Versing's freewheeling attitude has paradoxically resulted in 10000, an engrossing album that's impossible to feel ambivalent about.

TRACK LISTING

Entryism
Offering
Tethered
Violeta
By Design
Vestibule
In Mind
Long Chord
3D
Sated
Survivalist
Loving Myself
Renew

Versus are a band from New York City. Their 4th full length album, recorded by the band in their NYC rehearsal space over the course of a year and a half. Songs that are delicate yet complex, weaving intricate sonic dialogues, flourishes of blissful noise mixed with gentle waves of soothing calm, while always staying true to their infectious pop roots.

Recorded in July 2007 at Warehouse Studios, Oxford while under siege from flood water, this red vinyl 7" by Vertical Montanas (all members of Youthmovies and Jonquil) is limited to 500 copies. The initial idea was to have Jonquil guest on a Youthmovies song and vice versa, but whilst writing, practicing and recording all 10 musicians decided to form a new band, and so Vertical Montanas was born. Both tracks are wonderful slices of leftfield pop-folk mixed by Hugo Manuel of Jonquil.

Vertical Scratchers is John Schmersal (ex-Brainiac/Enon, live Caribou, and Crooks on Tape) and Christian Beaulieu (ex-Triclops!/Anywhere). Their debut album is 'Daughter of Everything'. Simplicity was the inspiration: get in the van, rehearse in the van, tour in the van, stay mobile. “I have played in a lot of bands with complicated set-ups and implemented technologies,” says John. “I also do a lot of recording and editing on computers, so part of the desire for simplicity was about wanting things to be as organic and in real time as possible.” This impulse to keep things moving is reflected in the songs themselves. Most Vertical Scratchers songs clock in under the two-minute mark but often go in twice as many directions as your average-length song. Pop deception. Think the Kinks with a Buzzcocks brevity. Daughter of Everything was recorded live in Los Angeles at The Smell in September of 2012. The special guest appearance lead vocal from Robert Pollard was recorded at Waterloo Sound in Ohio by Todd Tobias.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wait No Longer
2. Turn Me Out
3. Memory Shards
4. Pretend U Are Free
5. Way Out
6. Chambermaids
7. U Dug Us All
8. Kingdom Come
9. Someone
10. Run Around
11. These Plains
12. Get Along Like U
13. My Only Want
14. Rainbows
15. The End

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The original line up of Nina Gordon, Louise Post, Steve Lack and Jim Shapiro return on their original label, Minty Fresh, and recorded by American Thighs producer Brad Wood!

2 brand new songs plus the hit single "Seether" on 10" vinyl for this limited edition Record Store Day release.

A Northern Soul spawned three Top 40 singles – ‘This Is Music’, ‘On Your Own’ and ‘History’.

Absolutely massive album in our shop back in the day. This has deep, heavy grooves, ballads and sky-scraping believer-anthems. It's an incredible record.

3 popular studio albums by The Verve are being made available again as deluxe formats and on vinyl. A Storm In Heaven, the bands debut album from 1993, gets a thorough overhaul with this wonderful 4-disc boxed Super Deluxe Edition.

Remastered by Chris Potter (co-producer of the band’s ‘Urban Hymns’) the original album comes amply augmented by all of the legendary pre-album EP tracks, associated acoustic versions, as well as two previously unreleased BBC radio sessions and two excellent previously unreleased studio albums – ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Shoeshine Girl’.

The album will also be available on vinyl.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There was a lot of excitement around the release of (the)Verve's debut album. This was because they were a completely unique proposition back at the dawn of the nineties. There were elements of Shoegaze, but mainly this was drifting, blissed-out psyche rock. A classic band was born!

'Stranger Still' is an anthem for insomniacs, illuminating the hours when the world exceeds our grasp. 'From Now On' rings out some emotional tinnitus, the moment a night runs away from you, when freedoms turn into responsibilities.

The album builds around dualities, the way people pair at parties. 'Current Carry' percolates with the confidence of love, while 'Confiding' reveals how vulnerable we are chasing love. 'Backwards Slowly' and 'Edgar' are vignettes of transition, more ebb than flow.

As with many of Vetiver's better moments, sunshine is only a chord away from melancholy. An introspective lyric underlies an extroverted chorus. Subtlety tries to be outgoing, loneliness familiar, in an effort to connect the dots of life's ellipsis.

'The Errant Charm' (2011) received praise from Clash “Utterly Lovely” and The Quietus ”masterpieces of simmering, inward-looking passion“

Andy Cabic’s musical being is, like many curious 21st century musicians, shaped and sustained by divergent tangents. If he’s not crafting a melancholy folk rock diamond in his Northern California studio, he’s moving a dance floor with bossa nova and house DJ sets, or helping curate a compilation of Japanese City Pop.

What’s magic about this new Vetiver LP Up On High is the way these tangents colour the ten songs without undermining a distinct move to more elemental, spacious and natural arrangements. At the heart of each of these ten songs is Cabic’s voice: sweet, tender and weathered - a welcome and soothing old friend if ever there was one. There are other familiar friends: the album also features longtime engineer and collaborator Thom Monahan and the same resourceful and versatile band that helped Cabic make the more dense and layered Complete Strangers from 2015.

Up On High was written on acoustic guitar. Having moved twice since Complete Strangers, increasingly accustomed to a life in and out of boxes, it was the easiest instrument to reach for in moments of inspiration. The basic tracking of the album took place over a few Spring days at a friend’s house in the high desert of California. This simple set-up captured the organic immediacy of a roomful of friends playing together on the floor. It’s alive and ever so subtly crackling with the intensity of a band working together, teasing out the melody and rhythms of songs with warmth and intimacy. Cabic and Monahan took the fruits of this session to Los Angeles and finished the album at Monahan’s studio over the summer as other friends popped by to lend their talents.

This album reflects the world that Cabic created and lives in: Jorge Ben phrasings peek out from behind Tom Petty's Wildflowers outtakes, a gentle jangle lifts whispers of REM’s Murmur on a breeze up from Compass Point Studios. But Up On High is most clearly Cabic and his band inhabiting the realm the band was born in—sleek, economical, soulful, and sometimes sadness-tinged melodies riding on the gentle choogle and sway of an ensemble moving in beautiful unison. This is an album that breathes with you in real, lived in, natural time.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Living End
2. To Who Knows Where
3. Swaying
4. All We Could Want
5. Hold Tight
6. Wanted, Never Asked
7. A Door Shuts Quick
8. Filigree
9. Up On High
10. Lost (In Your Eyes)

Upset the Rhythm and M’lady’s Records are very pleased to be teaming up for the first time to release the debut record from one of America’s most exciting groups today. VEXX, living in and playing out of Olympia, Washington, have been devastating the Pacific Northwest music hubs for the last year now. Their self-titled mini-album is explosive, vital, and many leagues deeper than it has any right to be in this wicked epoch.

Recorded by esteemed engineer, Dave Harvey (who also recorded both HYSTERICS 7”s issued on M’lady’s), this record originally came out in a small edition on the Grazer label late last year, which sold out instantly just through word of mouth. The very excellent Jason Ward (of Chicago Mastering Service) has since worked his magic re-mastering the recording, and now it’s even more wild and vibrant than ever.

VEXX hit the ground running like punk hasn’t happened yet! Blazing through the first three songs on side one with a fury rarely seen in the modern underground. ‘Clairvoyant’ is equal parts jagged as inventive, twisting out of reach at all the right moments. The song captures the band perfectly, raging headlong with unmatched momentum.

VEXX also know how to write a powerful slow burner, as evidenced by ‘Strength’ and the first half of ‘Ocean Shores’. Maryjane’s lyrics and vocals are a clarion call of intent; on fire with possibility, whilst wrestling with the power of everything. She’s such a force of nature as a frontwoman that you’re left stunned as much as amazed.

Meanwhile, Mike and Corey’s guitar and drum fireworks have left almost all spectators breathless (note: bass guitar duties on this recording were handled by Aaron, who has since been replaced by the very capable and excellent Ian). Each song is a maelstrom, whipping band and audience alike into a whirlwind. Pushing forward, thinking harder, striking home.

TRACK LISTING

01. Stress
02. Clairvoyant
03. Falling Down
04. Strength
05. Don’t Talk About It
06. Spirit / Constraint
07. Ocean Shores
08. Roky, Take Me Home

Recorded immediately following on from their truly epic European tour last Summer, ‘Wild Hunt’ by VEXX is a deliriously hot-wired mini-LP. Showcasing the band utterly consumed in the moment, these six tracks blaze with giddy abandon, raging mere heartbeats away from oblivion.

Recorded by Hayes & Sam at Dub Narcotic in Olympia, mastered by Golden Mastering. This LP is a one-time pressing (on black vinyl) in collaboration with our good friends at M’Lady’s Records, with incredible artwork drawn by Maryjane herself depicting the supernatural Wild Hunt in hot pursuit.

‘Gift Of Life’, the first proper full length by VHS, follows in the footsteps of their previous EPs, with the band self-recording their amalgam of Lost Sounds’ trashy discontent, early Big Black’s trebly guitar stabs and ‘Only Theatre Of Pain’-era Christian Death’s black reverberations. These are brash and bitter territories to occupy but the band sees no other choice for their musical direction, citing the daily grind as the impetus behind their music.

The harsh reality of frontman Josh Hageman’s day-today existence working on the periphery of the medical field played a direct role in the overall theme of the album. Those fatalistic views and medical themes are on full display on ‘Wheelchair’, where a punk pulse underscores Hageman’s harrowing description of a life lived in chronic pain with drugs serving as the only escape.

The album continues on to ‘Hospital Room’, where wiry guitar leads and ominous chords provide the soundtrack to a scene of misery and tragedy within the sanitized walls of Western medicine.

Elsewhere, the themes of addiction and exposure take on more universal themes, such as on the culturegorging lament of ‘Binge Everything’ or the panopticon-paranoia of ‘Public Act’.

TRACK LISTING

Fully Realized
Wheelchair
Hospital Room
Public Act
Crooked Echo
Binge Everything
Art Decay
Constant Hiss

In this time of strife, insanity and confusion, only one band is depraved enough to offer themselves up as herald. Like sin-eaters if sins had to be ingested from a very small spoon, Viagra Boys have consumed the utterly incomprehensible chaos of our era and distilled it into 12 immaculate tracks of post-truth-cow-funk-kraut-wave-enlightenment.

TRACK LISTING

1. Baby Criminal
2. Cave Hole
3. Troglodyte
4. Punk Rock Loser
5. Creepy Crawlers
6. The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis
7. Globe Earth
8. Ain't No Thief
9. Big Boy
10. ADD
11. Human Error
12. Return To Monke

Some say Viagra Boys is something akin to a looking glass pointed at the absurdity of existence and misconceptions of modern society - a depraved and ferociously bass-driven judgement on western civilization, a distorted 24/7 party on the acid highway whilst the world slowly rots away. Others claim they´re more like a gross joke on masculinity, gleefully serving up escapist narratives lacking any form of self-preservation; like an obfuscated back alley door into the backwaters of the human psyche. Metaphors aside, Viagra Boys is an unapologetically raw sextet comprised of classically trained jazz musicians, karaoke loving tattoo artists and seasoned hardcore scene veterans, churning out pulsating sounds from the sub levels of contemporary rock music - a bellowing, unstoppable force majeure of latter-day punk, PTSD disco and synthetically enhanced kraut.

TRACK LISTING

1. Common Sense
2. Lick The Bag
3. Sentinel Island
4. Blue

Grimey, acid highway full throttle; on V****a Boys’ twisted dark punk album Street Worms, vocalist Sebastian Murphy lets you ride shotgun on a trip that takes you blazing to the top of a mountain before speeding right back down to the basement.

With a bass line that ferociously drives the car and drums that make sure you stay on the road - this is one of those trips where you sporadically wake up and find yourself in strange situations, wondering how the fuck you got there. From the Shrimp shack to the dog show, one minute you’re playing ‘rugby ball’, the next moment you’re being eaten by worms, and between the fading lights and the strange look on your friend’s face, Murphy grabs your ears and asks you what you really want from this life.

This is an album about illusions of realness, the absurdum of existence and the joke of humanity. Street Worms is V****a Boys debut studio album, a debut that instantly let them occupy their absolute own space in music history. “It was all a dream, but it was so nice. I had a nice house and such a lovely wife. We had a little dog, such a little dog, it reminded me of a large dog. Just a miniature size.”.

Produced by Daniel Fagerstrom (Skull Defekts, Chronic Heist) and Pelle Gunnerfeldt (Fireside, The Hives) for YEAR0001, now on CD for the first time in 2019, and limited vinyl, with 5 additional bonus tracks. For fans of Idles, Shame, Fucked Up, Devo and the Birthday Party.

TRACK LISTING

Slow Learner
Sports
Best In Show 
Just Like You
Shrimp Shack 
Frogstrap
Worms 
Amphetanarch
Jungle Man
Beijing Taxi
Up All Night
Special Helmet
I Ain’t Living Long Like This

Since their founding in 2015, Swedish post-punk band Viagra Boys have made a name for themselves burning up stages around the world. There's a little Iggy Pop spit and seethe, a David Yow drunken stumble, and a bite of Nick Cave's haunted bark. Add a dash of motorik groove, a pinch of post-punk grime, and a dose of no wave howl. For every gruff and gritty croak in the outfit's catalog, they come back with a pair of bongos, squared-off synths, and a squonky saxophone, with songs that deftly lay waste to society's normalization of toxic masculinity, racism, misogyny, classism, and self-obsession.

Viagra Boys' Sebastian Murphy dreams about everyone hating his guts. A lot. "I kept having this recurring nightmare where my mom was crying and my friends were all pissed off at me," he recalls, almost reverently.

The band's new album, Welfare Jazz, doesn't bargain with the anxiety in that defeated feeling, but rather a boiling certainty that nothing and no one is absolute. There's plenty of blame to go around, and things are just a lot more interesting when you admit that you're not always going to be nice, you're not always going to pick the right words in a fist-fight. So why not keep moving forward, swaying and strutting into the night.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ain't Nice
2. Cold Play
3. Toad
4. This Old Dog
5. Into The Sun
6. Creatures
7. 6 Shooter
8. Best In Show II
9. Secret Canine Agent
10. I Feel Alive
11. Girls & Boys
12. To The Country
13. In Spite Of Ourselves

“Earth, Our Planet?”: A call for environmental awareness. This time, Pedro Vian - the founder of Modern Obscure Music - presents his fourth solo album (following his 2020release, "Ibillorca"). "Earth, Our Planet?" promises to immerse us in a moving odyssey, crossing the boundaries of musical genres to provoke an urgent meditation on the protection of our planet. On this occasion Vian has composed the album influenced by the myth of the eternal return, the compositions are long and repetitive, generating
states of pure
trance.

Pedro Vian, singular for his fusion of genres and styles, ventures into even more complex territories in "Earth, Our Planet?". From the first listen, it is evident that this work treads the line of convention and breaks the boundaries of electronic and experimental music with artistic dexterity. The album weaves together texture, hypnotic rhythms and melody. Each track reveals his distinctive ability to create immersive landscapes, guiding the listener into deep emotional introspection. This is not just music; it is a transformative experience. The beauty of this album lies not only in the musical vision. The album features high-calibre collaborations that add layers of creativity and elegance. Trumpeter Pierre Bastien, whose early productions left an indelible mark on Aphex Twin's Reflex label, infuses "A Day in Rotterdam" with a unique emotional resonance. Violinist, Asia, renowned for her avant-garde approach and ability to conjure unique landscapes, elevates the album's opening tracks "Urobóros" and "Les Tambours Subterraniens". Their skill and sensitivity intertwine perfectly
with Vian's artistic vision. In addition, Italian producer Daniele Mana, with whom Pedro Vian collaborated closely on his previous album "Cascades", known for his experimental approach and talent for creating extraterrestrial atmospheres also contributes to "Les Tambours Subterraniens". His artistic perspective adds more complexity and texture to the piece, pushing the boundaries of contemporary electronic music. There is also a collaboration with Raül Refree, an artist with whom Vian worked with last year, presenting
“Font De la Vera Pau”, an album that The Guardian defined as 'a wonderful piece of electroacoustic music, a captivating mix of strings and analogue synth drones which sometimes flirts with Alice Coltrane-ish spiritual jazz'.

With "Earth, Our Planet?", Pedro Vian not only offers up some of his best work to date, but it is also a call to reflect on our relationship with the natural world. As a part of a planet where environmental awareness is more crucial than ever, he urges us to protect and preserve our world as an extension of ourselves. This extensive work is a statement, Vian addresses the
notion that too often we prioritise immediate needs over the well-being of the planet. It highlights the fact that we often consider the Earth as a possession when, in reality, we are but a part of it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uróboros
2. Les Tambours Suterraniens Feat. Mana
3. Satan’s Voice
4. Lucid Dreams
5. Un Storia Infinita
6. The Limit Of Nothing feat. Raul Refree
7. A Day In Rotterdam Feat. Pierre Bastien
8. Your Face Shines More Than The Sun
9. Hipódromo
10. Crema Lent

The latest edition of MM Discos comes from top shelf DJ and Modern Obscure boss Pedro Vian, a Barcelona head who wants you to dance differently. On the A-side, "Colours Of Infinity" is a melancholic affair, all emotive pads, sophisticated melodies and introspective textures, twisted wonderfully into a shuffling serving of deep house. In its original form, the synthpop inspired "El Sueno Lucido" employs a hefty 80s snare and heartbreaking sequences to convey the bittersweet beauty of a fading fling, while Massimiliano Pagliara transforms the cut into a poppers anthem via pumping Italo bass and additional synthwork.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Barcelona's Pedro Vian offers something fresh on his MMDiscos debut, offering a textured take on sad house backed with a wave-tinged end of the season affair, which gets a mega Italo flip from Massimiliano Pagliara.

TRACK LISTING

A. Colours Of Infinity
B. El Sueno Lucido
B. El Sueno Lucido (Massimiliano Pagliara Remix)

Originally pressed in 2022, as a vinyl-only release, an edition of 100 fluorescent green 12” and sold exclusively at venues in the USA as part of Luke Vibert & Posthuman’s I Love Acid tour, never made available anywhere else. This second edition repress is in randomly assigned cobalt blue, solid orange vinyl, or split red/black with multiple differently coloured labels.

On the A side - Luke Vibert is “Still In Love” with acid lines & breakbeats here as a sequel to his classic anthem. “Android Webber” strips it back to pure 303, 808, and JX3P analogue action. On the flip, Posthuman opens with the fierce ravey electro of “Grad” before seeing off the 12” with some signature acid slo-mo chug in “Forever Circles”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Likely to fly out quicker than double stacked Mitsubishis at a London warehouse party; these Balkan Vinyl limited runs never let up on pure acid house ecstasy.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Luke Vibert - Still In Love
A2: Luke Vibert - Android Webber
B1: Posthuman - Grad
B2: Posthuman - Forever Circles

The Vichy Government were established on Valentine's Day 2002 with their debut live performance the following May Day. Since then they have been daubed with a reputation for antagonistic, anti-consensus pop and their agit-cabaret live show has become a thing of legend. The spartan musical landscapes crafted by Andrew Chilton, (Keith Richards of the Yamaha Portsaound) vary from ethereal to infantile and come laced with more hooks than an MFI warehouse. They provide a unique setting for Jamie Manners' sneering but heartfelt vignettes about life.

The excellent Minimal Wave serves up a long-awaited LP here that features unreleased treasures from the influential UK duo, Vicious Pink, who first met at The Warehouse night-club in Leeds in the late 1970s and went on to reshape synth-pop. They notoriously lent their backing vocals to friends Soft Cell but went on to have success as a duo with avant-garde singles that defied norms and climbed the UK dance charts between 1982 and 1986. Now, Unexpected offers glimpses into their creative process and is packed with pop experiments recorded on the fly, some of which are with Dave Ball of Soft Vell/Grid fame. A true collector's gem.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: If I had to describe the perfect song it would probably contain the words catchy and weird. This compilation of previously unreleased Vicious Pink tracks is full of songs that match that description - some are more catchy than weird, some more weird than catchy, others find the perfect balance. Can't wait for this to land and annoy everyone by playing it to death.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
So You Want To Love Me
Alien Patience
South Side
Chaos 303
Move Up Closer

Side 2
Undercover
Not Your Kind Of Girl
Slightly Ahead
Perpendicular
Night Drive

New York’s Cleopatra label gets the Numero treatment. Hailing from Tommy Falcones swarm, Beehive lead Vickie & The Van Dykes were the sound of the coming youth revolt - Vickie had rock ‘n’ roll inher bones and rawhide in her voice. ‘I Wanna Be a Winner’ and ‘Outcast’ were songs tailored to her rebellious personality.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Be A Winner
2. Outcast

Brought into the shop by the band themselves, this album could well see this Brooklyn band being chased by many a clued up UK record label. The Victoria Lucas are a rock band consisting of bass, two guitars, drums, trombone, theremin, vocals, and occasionally augmented by a rotating cast of other assorted noisemakers. Best described, succinctly enough, as a rock band, the VL's sound runs a long and proud gamut. From standard-bearers like The Velvet Underground and New Order, to tear-in-your-beer country, classic rock, ala The Band and The Faces, Kraut rock, and free jazz, the Brooklyn combo embrace a wide variety of sounds combining them all seamlessly. Highly recommended!!!

Since the release of their first album, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club toured for too long, then locked themselves away. They wrote 100 songs, disposed of 88 humanely, and have now laid out the remaining dozen on a 3" silver platter, for your dirty soul to revel in. Their previous opus was based on a severe lack of musical understanding. Their eponymous debut saw them groping their instruments like over-anxious teenagers, fast, furious and lots of fun. Their second is full of confidence and somewhat brutally, demands your respect. "Love On An Oil Rig" takes triple distortion, the most obscure of harmonies and refracts them through the prism of pop. Where the first record wore its influences on its sleeve, this one stands alone. The stripped down primal ideas are defined and sharp, retaining their well-developed Art school sensibilities of the absurd, the outrageous and the other. Since the recording, a new drummer and fourth club member has been recruited to enhance the ferocity of their sound, taking the noise to the next level with offset guitars, shouts and wails.

‘Ice Data Centre’ is the second track to be showcased from Victories At Sea's forthcoming second album, ‘Everybody’s Lost And All I Want Is To Leave’, released in January 2020. ‘Ice Data Centre’ continues Victories deserved reputation for elegantly crafted melody and deep dive lyricism, a sound characterised by Gigwise, in their premiere of the video for ‘Quiet House’, as ‘an ambitious, widescreen collage of moods and ideas’. ‘ Everybody’s Lost And All I Want Is To Leave’ has been two years in the making. Having made a name for themselves with debut album ‘Everything Forever’ and a string of releases for renowned independent Static Caravan, the trio elected to step off the promotional and release roundabout to focus on making a definitive album. Early recordings on the shores of Loch Fyne set the widescreen tone, whilst additional sessions and mixing back in the urban sprawl of their Birmingham hone town tempered the freedom felt in the Scottish highlands with the claustrophobia of modern city life.

TRACK LISTING

Ice Data Centre

RIYL: TOPS, Andy Shauf, Tennis, Drugdealer, Jay Som, Real Estate, Faye Webster, Crumb.

Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ine­able, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-song writers of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions.

After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together.

Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it’s also their most honest and personal work yet–Video Age distilled to its purest form.

TRACK LISTING

Ready To Stay
Better Than Ever
Away From The Castle
Adrian
In The Breaks
How Long's Eternity?
Just Think
Anything For You
A Knight Shining With No Armor
Is It Really Over?
Golden Sun

RIYL: David Bowie, Prince, Paul McCartney. Restlessness is the first step towards pleasure. We make comfort out of discomfort, pleasure out of pain. That journey isn’t always a straight line, but at least we’re going somewhere real. “I had to move, Lord I couldn’t be still” is the unsettled way that Video Age’s new album and title track, Pleasure Line, begins. But as the song unfolds, it uplifts us into a romantic space of possibility and love. Just as “love” is both a noun and a verb, Pleasure Line is both a road to be traveled and the act of crossing that road.

Video Age’s first two albums were about loneliness and discovering oneself, but Pleasure Line takes on a whole new attitude, considering songwriting partners Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli are both getting married this year (just a few weeks apart from each other, too). But these songs aren’t expressions of one-dimensional puppy love—this is euphoria with depth, ecstasy with complications. Video Age’s third album, due out from Winspear on August 7, 2020, pairs neon-bright 80s pop melodies with a vast range of influences (including Janet Jackson, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney) to create an optimistic sound all their own. The influences vary song to song, but they’re all tinted with the same rosy hue. These are catchy, memorable songs that radiate big “glass-half full” energy. Pleasure Line is a salve that protects against cynicism—listening to this album, you can’t help but feel the world around you is full of romantic potential. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Pleasure Line
02 Maybe Just Once
03 Blushing
04 Aerostar
05 Comic Relief
06 Sweet Marie
07 Shadow On The Wall
08 That Can't Be
09 Meet Me In My Heart
10 Good To Be Back